Hong Kong: HK sees over 2.7k COVID-19 cases

(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating 2,791 additional locally acquired COVID-19 cases, of which 1,104 were directly identified through nucleic acid tests and 1,687 via rapid antigen tests that were verified.

Separately, 204 imported cases were recorded.

At this afternoons press briefing, Hospital Authority Chief Manager (Integrated Clinical Services) Dr Larry Lee announced that public hospitals will implement a new testing arrangement when discharging patients from care homes for the elderly and care homes for people with disabilities.

For the patients who received two or more than two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, on top of the rapid antigen test, we want a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test.

When they have achieved either a negative test result or a Ct (cycle threshold) value more or equal to 30, we can let them go back to their hostels.

However, for some cases that have received less than two vaccine doses, such cases need to be isolated in either a hospital, CIF (community isolation facility) or holding centre up to day 14.

We aim to increase the protection to others in the hostels because they are more prone to a severe illness.

Meanwhile, the Government made a restriction-testing declaration to cover Shing Tai House of On Tai Estate in Kwun Tong, requiring people in the restricted area to undergo compulsory testing before the specified deadline.

As there were positive sewage test results with relatively high viral loads in several estates in Islands, Wong Tai Sin and Sham Shui Po districts, the Housing Department will distribute COVID-19 rapid test kits to relevant residents as well as cleaning workers and property management staff working there.

For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Governments dedicated webpage.

This story has been published on: 2022-07-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
HKSAR gov't condemns European Parliament resolution for defaming rule of law in Hong Kong

Xinhua) 10:39, July 09, 2022

HONG KONG, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Friday condemned the European Parliament resolution for making malicious allegations and defaming the rule of law in Hong Kong and the national security law in Hong Kong.

The national security law in Hong Kong has stopped chaos and restored order in Hong Kong, ensuring the smooth and continuous implementation of the "one country, two systems" principle and the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, said a spokesman for the HKSAR government.

"We will continue to guard against any acts endangering national security, and will bring any person or entity violating the law to justice regardless of background," the spokesman said.

The spokesman pointed out that the improved electoral system in the HKSAR has expanded the Election Committee membership from 1,200 to 1,500, and the Legislative Council (LegCo) of the HKSAR from 70 seats to 90.

The two bodies have become more representative of Hong Kong society, allowing broader public participation in political processes, the spokesman said, adding that the improved electoral system has also boosted the representativeness of the LegCo of the HKSAR by optimizing the composition of its members.

After the HKSAR's electoral system was improved, the HKSAR's sixth-term chief executive election was successfully held, in strict accordance with the election laws of the HKSAR in an open, fair and honest manner, which is of great significance for Hong Kong to implement the principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong," the spokesman said.

Noting that keeping political power in the hands of patriots is a political rule commonly practised in the world, the spokesman said no one in any country or region in the world will ever allow political power to fall into the hands of forces or individuals who do not love, or even sell out or betray, their own country.

The development of democracy in the HKSAR must be consistent with its constitutional order as defined under the Constitution and the HKSAR Basic Law and the "one country, two systems" principle, as well as with the political, economic, social, cultural and historical circumstances of the HKSAR, the spokesman said.

Improving the HKSAR's electoral system, ensuring "patriots administering Hong Kong" and safeguarding the overall interests of society are conducive to the stable development of Hong Kong's democracy, the spokesman added.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Dutch Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers' meeting in Bali, Indonesia, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Xu Qin)

BALI, Indonesia, July 9 (Xinhua) -- China and the Netherlands pledged here on Friday to deepen pragmatic cooperation between the two countries.

While meeting with Dutch Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers' meeting in Indonesia's resort island of Bali, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries 50 years ago, they have promoted cooperation in various fields in an open manner and with the spirit of pragmatism, and pushed for new achievements in the development of bilateral ties.

China is willing to work with the Netherlands to elevate bilateral relations to a new high, Wang said.

He said globalization enables countries to connect markets, share resources and integrate industries, which not only benefits all parties but also becomes an inevitable trend of the development and progress of human society.

Politicizing economic and trade cooperation, and engaging in closed and exclusive small circles are not only contrary to economic laws, but also detrimental to post-pandemic economic recovery, Wang said, adding that China will open up to the outside world in a wider scope, broader areas and at a deeper level, and is willing to work with the Netherlands to dispel disruptions and jointly maintain stable industrial and supply chains.

Hoekstra said the Netherlands attaches great importance to the friendship with China, and hopes to maintain high-level contacts and deepen practical cooperation between the two countries based on the principles of equality, reciprocity and mutual respect, so as to better benefit the two peoples.

On the Ukraine issue, Wang said all participants at the G20 foreign ministers' meeting called for a ceasefire as soon as possible, and China will continue to promote peace talks and facilitate dialogues, and support Europe in playing a constructive role in finding a practical solution to the crisis. 
YEREVAN, JULY 9, ARMENPRESS. Nagorno-Karabakh conflict still needs a final settlement through negotiations under the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmanship; a settlement, which should provide guarantees of security and protection of all rights of the Armenians of Artsakh and accordingly the deriving final status of Nagorno-Karabakh, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan said in an interview to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, within the framework of his June 27 working visit to Greece.

ARMENPRESS presents the full text of the FMs interview:

Question: Greek-Armenian relations have been traditionally amicable. Is there space for further development? What are the main topics of your contacts here in Athens?

Answer: Greece is one of Armenia's most important partners in Europe and in the world. The relations between Armenia and Greece are underpinned by millennia-old shared history and values, friendship, and solidarity between our two peoples. Throughout the centuries, Armenians and Greeks peacefully lived next to each other, collaborated to create value and prosperity, and fought together against external oppressors. In this context, I want to stress that we will never forget the wholehearted support the Greek people and the government provided during very tough times in our nation's history, the most recent example being the war of 2020.

This year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our republics. Over these three decades, more than 40 documents have been signed between the two countries and weve developed robust interstate relations and a solid bilateral agenda ranging from active political dialogue to partnership in different areas, including defense, economy, education, culture, and many other fields, as well as mutually beneficial collaboration on multilateral platforms. During my recent working visit to Greece, I held very productive talks with President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as well as in-depth discussions with my colleague and good friend Minister Nikos Dendias. Weve made progress and reached a common understanding on a number of important issues and will continue to work to deepen our relations further.

Also, I believe that we should mull over raising Armenia-Greece cooperation to a significantly higher level, which could be proper for strategic partners. I am confident we should work in this direction in the near future.

Question: Armenia, Greece, and Cyprus have held some rounds of trilateral talks. How can this relationship further evolve?

Answer: Armenia attaches great importance to the trilateral format of cooperation. By now we have successfully conducted several Trilateral Ministerial meetings. We are looking forward to hosting the Summit of the format on the level of the leaders of our three countries.

Our nations have rich experience of collaboration and mutual support and we believe that our states have huge potential to promote stability, security, and peace in the region, through enhanced political dialogue and cooperation of Armenia, Greece, and Cyprus. We also acknowledge the importance and efficiency of trilateral cooperation in defense, diaspora, parliamentary ties, emergency situations, IT, healthcare, investments, tourism, education, and culture. I am confident that the format is destined to succeed.

Question: In 2020, there was a war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Is Armenia willing to accept the current status quo around Nagorno-Karabakh? And if not what could be an alternative?

Answer: Despite the claims of the Azerbaijani authorities that after the 44-day war of 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh does not exist as an entity anymore and that the conflict is over, the reality and the position of the international community prove the contrary: Nagorno-Karabakh does exist with its Armenian population, who continue to live in their ancestral land and whose security is now ensured by the Russian peacekeepers, in accordance with the November 9, 2020, trilateral statement, which stopped the devastating war.

The conflict doesnt stop existing just because one of the sides is declaring that it does not exist. This is self-delusion. Moreover, the official statements by our numerous international partners and organizations, including mediating countries, also clearly show that the NK conflict still needs a final settlement through negotiations under the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmanship; a settlement, which should provide guarantees of security and protection of all rights of the Armenians of Artsakh and accordingly the deriving final status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Question: You have several tracks of negotiations with Azerbaijan. Can the war in Ukraine influence diplomatic developments in the South Caucasus?

Answer: The situation in the South Caucasus remains fragile. While Armenia through its actions aspires to relaunch comprehensive peace negotiations, including on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and thus bring stability and peace to the region, Azerbaijan continues its policy of provocative actions and threats of use of force. After the situation unfolded in Ukraine, the Azerbaijani armed forces invaded the village of Parukh in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was preceded by constant shelling of villages and civilian infrastructure, urging the peaceful Armenian population of neighbouring villages to leave their homes under the threat of use of force, disruption of the operation of the gas pipeline for several weeks amid the unprecedented cold weather, etc.

Currently, when the world focuses its attention on Ukraine, Azerbaijan may be tempted to launch a large-scale provocation at any moment. Hence, it is extremely important for the international community to undertake effective steps to prevent the attempts of destabilizing the situation in the South Caucasus

Question: Are you optimistic about Armenia- Azerbaijan normalization?

Answer: In line with the Trilateral Statements adopted by the Russian mediation on January 11, 2021, and November 26, 2021, and the agreements reached in Brussels, Armenia has constructively engaged in dialogue with Azerbaijan on general normalization of the relations, delimitation, and border security between the two countries and the unblocking of regional economic links and transport communications.

We reiterate our commitment to work constructively in all directions, and I want to emphasize that the process would have been much smoother and much more effective if Azerbaijan would refrain from its dangerous maximalism and armenophobic rhetoric, holding numerous Armenian prisoners of war and other detained persons in captivity, destroying Armenian cultural and religious heritage, hindering the access of international humanitarian organizations to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, etc.

Overall, we believe that despite all the blood and hatred the region witnessed, there is a real opportunity for peace in the South Caucasus. Armenia has repeatedly reaffirmed its readiness to establish long-term stability and open an era of peaceful development in the region. At the same time, it is obvious that these efforts cannot be one-sided, and we are expecting a similarly constructive approach and sincere practical steps from the Azerbaijani side towards this end.

Question: Recently Armenia started a process of normalizing its ties with Turkey. Are you optimistic about tangible steps in this direction? What could these steps be?

Answer: The leadership of Armenia stated many times and it is also mentioned in our Government program that Armenia is ready for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Turkey and opening of the border between our countries that Turkey unilaterally closed back in 1993.

The Special Representatives have been appointed for the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey and four meetings have already been held where the sides reiterated their commitment to continue the process without any preconditions with the goal of opening the borders and establishing diplomatic relations. To give a positive dynamic to that process I accepted the invitation of the Foreign Minister of Turkey to participate in the Antalya Diplomatic Forum and met with my counterpart on the margins of the Forum.

Today, a political will and readiness to undertake concrete steps towards normalizing relations are necessary for the success of the process. The Armenian side has repeatedly demonstrated both and we expect the same from the Turkish side.

Question: What is Armenia's position regarding the most sensitive issues for Greece at the moment, such as the regularly increasing tension on the Greek-Turkish borders, and the Cyprus issue?

Answer: Armenia fully supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Armenia considers unacceptable any actions and steps that can grossly violate the norms of International law, the Law of the Sea, as well as the UN Charter.

As for the Cyprus issue, as in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, in this case, too, any attempt to present the consequences of the use of force as a solution is unacceptable to us. Armenia and Cyprus always mutually supported each other on bilateral and multilateral platforms.
YEREVAN, JULY 9, ARMENPRESS. Flyone Armenia airlines Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan flight was cancelled on July 8 by the decision of the aircrafts commander, Flyone Armenia Chairman of the Board Aram Ananyan said in a video statement on social media.

Our aircraft commander, seeing certain differences in the data sensors of the aircraft, decided to suspend the flight. We think it is a right and substantiated decision. The aviation authorities of Armenia have been notified about what had happened, and the flight will take place after a few hours, he said.

Aram Ananyan assured that the aviation safety of passengers is the airlines non-negotiable priority, adding that they will do everything for it to remain so. He also apologized on behalf of the airline for this inconvenience.

The Armenian airline Flyone Armenia is operating Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan flights since February 2, 2022.
In response, the Indian Air Force activated its assets as per standard operating procedures

The aircraft, which flew near the Indian position early morning at 4 am, was detected by the men on ground and Indian radars. (Representational Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) flew its aircraft close to the Indian positions at one of the friction points at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh in the last week of June, it has been learnt. In response, the Indian Air Force activated its assets as per standard operating procedures.

The aircraft, which flew near the Indian position early morning at 4 am, was detected by the men on ground and Indian radars. This led to the Indian Air Force activating its assets for any eventuality. This incident happened as the Chinese military is carrying out exercises involving its fighter jets and other assets, including the Russian S-400 air defence system near the Ladakh sector.

The Indian forces have taken up the issue with the PLA, with whom the Army has been conducting prolonged negotiations for the past two years in a bid to resolve the ongoing standoff between the two armies in eastern Ladakh.

It should be noted the IAFs Western Air Command, which is in charge of the sector, also has French Rafale fighter jets to take on any challenge. India has also deployed the Aakash air defence system in this sector.

The Indian troops in the region are also equipped with Russian-origin Igla shoulder-fired air defence missiles on the crucial heights.

China has upgraded its airbases near Ladakh and has deployed a number of aircraft and UAVs in the region.

The Indian Air Force, however, has a geographical advantage over the PLAAF in Ladakh as the Chinese jets must fly and take off from very high-altitude bases while the Indian jets can take off from the plains and reach the mountainous region swiftly. Since the air is thin at those heights, the Chinese jets have to carry a lower load, which affects their operational capabilities.

Last year the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal V.R. Chaudhari, had said the Chinese Air Forces capability to launch multi-mission sorties from such high-altitude airfields will remain its weak point.
Airlifted to hospital, was too late, home-made weapon used

In this image from a video, Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes a campaign speech in Nara, western Japan shortly before he was shot Friday, July 8, 2022. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a divisive arch-conservative and one of his nation's most powerful and influential figures, has died after being shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, hospital officials said.(AP)

Nara: Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated Friday on a street in western Japan by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech  an attack that stunned the nation with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.

The 67-year-old Abe, who was Japan's longest-serving leader when he resigned in 2020, collapsed bleeding and was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Nara, although he was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was later pronounced dead after receiving massive blood transfusions, officials said.

Nara Medical University emergency department chief Hidetada Fukushima said Abe suffered major damage to his heart, along with two neck wounds that damaged an artery. He never regained his vital signs, Fukushima said.

Police at the shooting scene in Nara arrested Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, a former member of Japan's navy, on suspicion of murder. Police said he used a gun that was obviously homemade  about 15 inches (40 centimeters) long  and they confiscated similar weapons and his personal computer when they raided his nearby one-room apartment.

Police said Yamagami was responding calmly to questions and had admitted to attacking Abe, telling investigators he had plotted to kill him because he believed rumours about the former leader's connection to a certain organisation that police did not identify.

Dramatic video from NHK showed Abe standing and giving a speech outside a train station in Nara ahead of Sunday's parliamentary election. As he raised his fist to make a point, two gunshots rang out, and he collapsed holding his chest, his shirt smeared with blood as security guards run toward him. Guards then leapt onto the gunman, who was face down on the pavement.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events around the country after the shooting, which he called dastardly and barbaric." He pledged that the election, which chooses members for Japan's less-powerful upper house of parliament, would go on as planned.

I use the harshest words to condemn (the act), Kishida said, struggling to control his emotions. He said the government planned to review the security situation, but added that Abe had the highest protection.

Even though he was out of office, Abe was still highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, Seiwakai.

Opposition leaders condemned the attack as a challenge to Japan's democracy. In Tokyo, people stopped on the street to grab extra editions of newspapers or watch TV coverage of the shooting. Bouquets to Abe were placed near the scene of the killing.

When he resigned as prime minister, Abe said he had a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis he'd had since he was a teenager.

He told reporters at the time it was difficult to leave many of his goals unfinished, especially his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia, and a revision of Japan's war-renouncing constitution.

That last goal made him a divisive figure. His ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas and China, and his push to create what he saw as a more normal defense posture angered many Japanese. Abe failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support.

Loyalists said that his legacy was a stronger U.S.-Japan relationship that was meant to bolster Japan's defense capability. But Abe made enemies by forcing his defense goals and other contentious issues through parliament, despite strong public opposition.

Abe was groomed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a normal and beautiful nation with a stronger military and bigger role in international affairs.

Tributes to Abe poured in from world leaders, with many expressing shock and sorrow. U.S. President Joe Biden praised him for "his vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific will endure. Above all, he cared deeply about the Japanese people and dedicated his life to their service.

Biden, who is dealing with summer of mass shootings in the U.S., said gun violence always leaves a deep scar on the communities that are affected by it.

Japan is particularly known for its strict gun laws. With a population of 125 million, it had only 10 gun-related criminal cases last year, resulting in one death and four injuries, according to police. Eight of those cases were gang-related. Tokyo had no gun incidents, injuries or deaths in the same year, although 61 guns were seized.

Abe was proud of his work to strengthen Japan's security alliance with the U.S. and shepherding the first visit by a serving U.S. president to the atom-bombed city of Hiroshima. He also helped Tokyo gain the right to host the 2020 Olympics by pledging that a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant was under control when it was not.

Abe became Japan's youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52, but his overly nationalistic first stint abruptly ended a year later, also because of his health.

The end of Abe's scandal-laden first stint as prime minister was the beginning of six years of annual leadership change, remembered as an era of revolving door politics that lacked stability and long-term policies.

When he returned to office in 2012, Abe vowed to revitalize the nation and get its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his Abenomics formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms.

He won six national elections and built a rock-solid grip on power, bolstering Japan's defense role and capability and its security alliance with the U.S. He also stepped up patriotic education at schools and raised Japan's international profile.
The president fled the palace after a crowd stormed the grounds, after protesting the economic crisis for months. Yesterday the police had imposed a curfew. At least 21 people were injured.

Colombo (AsiaNews) - Thousands of protesters in the capital Colombo broke through police barricades and stormed the president's official residence in one of the largest anti-government protests the country has experienced since the start of the economic crisis. According to defence sources, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled after protesters stormed the presidential residence.

At least 21 people, including two policemen, were injured in the clashes and taken to hospital. Yesterday the police, in anticipation of the weekend demonstrations, had imposed a curfew in the capital.

For months, the population has been protesting against the high cost of living and the unsustainable economic situation. In April, the island had declared bankruptcy. Due to the shortage of foreign currency, Sri Lanka is unable to import fuel and basic necessities. Many blame President Rajapaksa for the country's decline.
by Stefano Caprio

The great ideal of peace is anchored to unquestionable values such as the absolute dignity of human beings, the superiority of international law, and even mutual economic dependence. Yet we find ourselves once again discussing the principles that have always incited the powerful to war: the affirmation of one's national and cultural identity, the defence of one's territorial and political interests, and the rejection of economic dependence on international potentates.

Of all the rulers in Russia's thousand-year history, including princes of Kiev, tsars and emperors of Moscow and St Petersburg, party secretaries and federation presidents, the only ones not to have waged war, held power for less than twenty years. For all of the others, the approach of a possible deadline must have awakened deep-rooted instincts in the Russian soul, those linked to the imminent Apocalypse: if my power ends, all history must end.

Even the most worldly and frivolous of Russia's long-time greats, Empress Elisabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, after more than 15 years of courtly balls and lavish luxuries (she ascended the throne in 1741), when she realised her incipient illness, threw herself into the anti-Prussian adventure, having signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1757, joining the Franco-Austrian league against Frederick II the Great (who, moreover, remained in power for more than 40 years). The empress, who was often prey to mystical crises and desires for redemption, understood the war as a defence of Russia's borders against the invasive aims of the Prussians, which in her opinion had to be de-militarised for the security of Europe and the entire world. In reality, the conflict expanded to become the 'seven-year war' that has also been called the real 'First World War', extending not only to Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals, but even to the Indies and North America.

To put things right for Russia, another empress had to intervene, Catherine II the Great, a German who had discovered Russia's universal vocation, and therefore invaded and subdued the Crimea of the Tatars. It cannot therefore be argued that the presence of female figures at the top increases the chances of a peaceful reign: today's Putin faithfully follows in the footsteps of the two most important empresses of the Russian 18th century.

Russia's warlike propensity has re-emerged in our days in an unexpected, but certainly not unforeseeable way. The underlying question remains one of geographical size, rather than the ferocity of character of what the 9th century Byzantines called 'the Rhos', shiny-haired barbarians, one of the possible explanations for the eponymy of the Eastern Slavs of the northern lands. Russia is too large not to constantly fear being invaded, and it mobilises itself in every way to define its borders, its u-kraine, Eurasian zones of control, land and sea, social and political, cultural and religious.

Approaching the halfway point of the year-long war in Ukraine, as we wonder if there is a way to end a conflict that is psychologically exhausting Europe and beyond (the suggested solution is only one: the surrender of the Ukrainians), we need to realise that there is actually one factor that we can no longer exclude from our lives, and that is precisely war.

Speaking in the Moscow Duma on 7 July, Putin warned that 'we have not even begun to get serious in Ukraine', and it is not just the aggressive and depressive manias of an out-of-control leader. On the contrary, so far the Russian president has appeared to be the only one who is somehow able to curb the anxiety of the Kremlin hawks who would like to pounce again on Kiev and Lviv, take Odessa and perhaps Moldova, starting with the baleful advisor Nikolai Patrusev (who would take over were Putin to fail), or the ex-president and eternal dauphin Dmitry Medvedev, who out of despair of the failed conquest even took a gun to his head, but fortunately his hand was shaking from too much vodka.

The Russians and Ukrainians have been waging war against each other since the origins of Kievan Rus', and will continue to fight until doomsday afternoon, like Arabs and Israelis, Armenians and Azeris, Libyans and Georgians against each other, as happens in the rift zones of history. The point is that the Europeans, the Americans, the 'westerners' (among whom must be counted the Japanese and Australians, i.e. the most 'oriental' peoples), all of us 'civilised' men and veterans of the world wars of the twentieth century, in short, had convinced ourselves that there would never be war again, that we had found the formula for eternal and universal peace.

This was not the case and we knew it very well; we ourselves have accumulated an impressive number of wars at all latitudes and on all continents, including the lands bordering the Mediterranean, from the Balkans to the Middle East and North Africa. Illusion and hypocrisy prevented us from believing in the 'third world war in pieces' that Pope Francis has been warning us about for almost a decade; what do you want someone from Tierra del Fuego to understand, we are calm, we have money and democracy, nothing bad will ever happen to us. If anything, we have to deal with environmental and ecological threats, with ethnic and moral discrimination, with refined and sacrosanct issues. Instead, the words of Russia's greatest commentator on War and Peace, Lev Tolstoy, resonate terribly today:

"War is not a kind thing, but the most abominable thing in life; one must understand this, and not play at war. One must accept this terrible necessity austerely and seriously. Everything lies in this: get rid of the lie; and let war be war and not a joke. Otherwise, war is the favourite pastime of the idle and foolish... The condition of the soldier is the most honourable. But what is war, what is needed to be successful in military affairs, what are the customs of the military environment? The purpose of war is murder; the instruments of war are espionage, treachery and incitement to treachery, ruining the inhabitants, plundering and stealing at their expense to supply the army; deceit and lying, defined as military cunning; the customs of the military class are the absence of freedom, i.e. discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, corruption, drunkenness. And, despite this, it is the superior class, respected by all. All the kings, except the emperor of China, wear military uniforms and the greatest reward is given to the one who has killed the most people... They meet, as they will do tomorrow, to kill each other, slaughter each other, mutilate tens of thousands of men, and then hold thanksgiving services for having killed many people (the number of which is also exaggerated) and proclaim victory, believing that the more people they have killed, the greater the merit. How is God up there watching and listening to them!" he cried in a shrill, high-pitched voice. "Ah, my soul, in these recent times living has become painful for me. I see that I begin to understand too many things. And man is not fit to taste the fruits of the tree of good and evil... Well, but it will not be for long!" he added hopefully.

Before our very eyes, the Kremlin holds the whole world in check. Where did we go wrong? Asks the editor of the Russian column 'Ideas', Maksim Trudoljubov. Were our convictions wrong, on the basis of which we thought we could build a world of peace? In 1945, representatives of capitalist countries joined forces with communist ones, of the East and the West, of Jewish organisations and Christian churches, and together they created the United Nations Organisation, an elephantine circle of solemn proclamations, which today appears so forgotten that very few people know the exact spelling of its secretary's surname. The UN was supposed to prevent, limit and suppress every war in the world, and we must conclude, at least at this stage, that it has resoundingly failed in its task.

Underlying the great idea of peace are unquestionable values such as the absolute dignity of human beings, the superiority of international law, and even mutual economic dependence. Now we are back to discussing the principles that have always incited the powerful to war: the affirmation of one's national and cultural identity, the defence of one's territorial and political interests, and the rejection of economic dependence on international potentates. Those enlightened principles that the philosopher Kant, in the days of the Russian empresses, sought to describe in his treatise 'For Everlasting Peace', says Trudoljubov, 'seem today to be elements of political satire at eternal rest', in the cemeteries where the Buriatian or Chechen dead of the invasion of Ukraine are venerated, or in the ruins of Mariupol and other cities razed to the ground by the Russian army.

The war will not end soon, and to build peace we must learn to confront it in earnest. As Tolstoy wrote, 'war is the very body of man, a feeling of loneliness that merges with the feeling of pain'. We cannot 'be both idle and quiet', the great writer warned, because 'a secret voice tells us that if we are idle, we are also guilty'. Idleness was the condition of Paradise, on earth we must act to build an ever new world, to be built anew each time, after each failure and all destruction. With the help of God, who does not incite us to war, but who knows that we are not capable of living in peace.

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The Highway 6 business corridor in Glenwood Springs is shown on Friday. A new ordinance aims to ease the process of converting the citys older hotels and motels into extended-stay properties and multifamily residential units as a way of addressing the affordable housing crunch.
Workers pave a street in the old city of Mosul, in Iraq, on July 4, 2022. Five years after liberation from the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants, life has returned to normal in Iraq's second-largest city Mosul. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

BAGHDAD, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Five years after liberation from the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants, life has returned to normal in Iraq's second-largest city Mosul.

The old painful picture of Mosul has changed: the rubbles and ruins left by the fierce battles with the IS militants are gradually replaced by the booming commercial activity in many areas of the city, where many of its famous traditional markets are now brimming with various products and shoppers could go around freely without fear.

Mosul, about 400 km north of the capital Baghdad, was seized by the IS militant group in June 2014 and was liberated on July 10, 2017 after nine months of fierce fighting. The battles left massive destruction to the city, especially in the old city center.

Sitting in his butcher shop in the ancient al-Attareen market in Mosul's old city center, Ali Saadi Alwan told Xinhua that "our business now has doubled from the previous year, and many customers are coming to us. In general, the market is very good thanks to the security and reconstruction."

Alwan said the restored peace enabled him to rebuild his destroyed house in the al-Shahwan neighborhood in the old city center.

Also sharing his optimism is Dalshad Ismail, a 32-year-old man coming from eastern Mosul to shop in the al-Saray market in the old city center. He told Xinhua that the better situation in Mosul "is the result of the better security and stability in the city by the efforts of the security forces."

Meanwhile, reconstruction work is underway at the Grand al-Nuri Mosque, which was blown up by the IS militants on June 21, 2017.

The mosque holds symbolic value to the people of Mosul as it gave the city its nickname "al-Hadbaa" or "the hunchback" with its famous leaning minaret.

Omer Taqa, an Iraqi engineer at the reconstruction site, told Xinhua that "we started the reconstruction work of al-Nuri Mosque and its al-Hadbaa minaret in 2019, and we removed approximately 5,600 tons of rubble, in addition to 11 explosive devices planted inside the walls of the mosque."

The reconstruction of Mosul needs 12 to 15 billion dollars, said Mosul Mayor Amin al-Fanash, citing reports of international organizations.

"Mosul, especially the old city center, was badly devastated by the military and terrorist operations, as more than 12,000 housing units were destroyed in the old city, and the devastation ranged from 80 to 100 percent."

He said that during the past three years, 1,200 out of the 1,700 planned reconstruction projects have been fully completed, and the rest will be completed before the end of this year.

The reconstruction plan covers projects in the health sector, municipal construction and government buildings, among others, said the mayor. 

Workers operate on reconstruction of destroyed houses surrounding the al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, Iraq, on July 3, 2022. Five years after liberation from the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants, life has returned to normal in Iraq's second-largest city Mosul. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

Photo taken on July 3, 2022 shows the reconstruction site of the Grand al-Nuri Mosque in the old city of Mosul, Iraq. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

Builders work at the reconstruction site of the al-Hadbaa minaret in the old city of Mosul, Iraq, July 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)
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JOHANNESBURG, July 8 (Xinhua) -- South African Minister of Police Bheki Cele said Friday that 19 people are being tried and prosecuted for their roles in last July's unrest, which left more than 300 dead.

They are regarded as "instigators" and the police are investigating another 86 people, Cele told a media briefing in Pretoria, providing update on the unrest with other ministers in the cluster of security.

Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Thandi Modise said the country is doing everything to prevent the recurrence of the unrest. "We are keeping our ears and eyes on the ground, we are monitoring what's happening in the country," she said.

The civil unrest, which occurred mainly in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces from July 8 to 17, 2021, was sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma for contempt of court. Protests against the incarceration then turned into wider rioting and looting, which have caused an economic loss of over 3 billion U.S. dollars nationwide. 
The Mitsubishi Motors Corporation received the first report on June 2nd last year, indicating a blank screen with the vehicle in reverse. From June 2021 through September 2021, the automaker received three more reports. The A-IVI units were returned to Mitsubishi for analysis, but rather than putting effort into this analysis, the safety boffins continued monitoring the field.Mitsubishi continued assessing the conformity of this condition with federal motor vehicle safety standard 111 from April 2021 through May 2022. Come June 2022, the company determined that a noncompliance can't be ruled out, prompting a field action. No fewer than 10 field reports, of which eight were also filed as warranty claims, have been identified in the U.S.The Mitsubishi Motor Corporation and Mitsubishis North American division are not aware of any reports of accident or injury. The A-IVI units, identified under part numbers 8740A049 for the 8.0 screen and 8740A050 for the 9.0 screen, will be reprogrammed with modified software designed to better manage external electrical noise or voltage fluctuations.Owners of the affected vehicles, produced between February 8th last year and April 8th this year, will be notified with instructions beginning on August 1st. Owners seeking reimbursement for expenses associated with this recall are advised to contact the customer relations department.Twinned with the Nissan Rogue, a.k.a. X-Trail in other markets, the 2022 model year Outlander is exclusively offered with a Nissan-sourced engine. Codenamed PR25DD, the 2.5-liter mill is exclusively connected to a continuously variable transmission with simulated eight-speed manual mode.Pricing for the 2022 model year starts at $29,545, excluding the $1,295 destination freight charge. All-wheel drive adds $1,800 to the tally.
F1 accident at the British Grand Prix today



Zhou Guanyu gave an update after the crash that he is OK ????



(via @Taaaanxo) pic.twitter.com/RSXXPys9RY  Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 3, 2022

We are talking about the protesters incident that had invaded the track after the start. Luckily, these protestants were not encountered by the F1 cars when they were going full speed. After those situations that played out without being injured, the race was full of exciting and dramatic moments. Now, let's dig deeper into analyzing the two major incidents from the 2022 British Grand Prix.We took our breath away when we saw Zhou crash, but in the end, everyone was highly relieved when confirmation came that the Alfa Romeo driver was alright."It was a big crash and I'm glad I'm ok. The marshals and the medical team at the track were fantastic with their quick response, and I also owe my thanks to the FIA and Formula One for all the work they have done, and they keep doing, to improve the safety of our cars," declared Zhou Guanyu after his colossal crash. "The Halo saved me today, and it goes to show that every step we take in improving our cars has real, valuable results."Basically, we had this chain reaction: Pierre Gasly hit the Mercedes of George Russell, who crashed in Zhou's rear, flipping over his Alfa Romeo. After that, the car slid across the asphalt runoff at high-speed upside down and into the gravel trap. The Alfa Romeo then flipped over into the air over a tire barrier, stopping into a fence at an angle that fortunately protected his head. However, the extraction process of the Chinese driver was challenging, so it took a long time.Once it was established that Zhou did not suffer serious injuries, he was kept in the medical center for investigations. Williams driver Alexander Albon was sent to the hospital as well for monitoring after being involved in another pretty hard incident.However, there was another unexpected incident that was fortunately avoided. The red flag at the start of the race appears to have coincidentally prevented a hazardous situation following an attempted track invasion. The police had released a declaration on social media about a possible incident before the race: "We have received credible intelligence that a group of protestors are planning to disrupt the 2022 Formula 1 British Grand Prix and possibly invade the track on race day."While the first lap crash was being dealt with under the red flag, it quickly emerged that several people had got onto the circuit. More precisely, five protesters invaded the course as the leading cars were going past. Luckily, they were going at a low speed due to the red flag condition.It is the latest in a range of protests from a group of supporters of Just Stop Oildemanding, which calls for an immediate stop to new oil and gas projects.Fortunately, with the red flag out, the cars had to go to the pits without going for a second time through that part of the track while the protesters were out there. However, Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon (two of the drivers involved in an accident at the start of the race) got a whole glance at the invaders. After the race, the problem was dealt with by the local authorities.Even though we understand the importance of some of these protests, putting yourself and others in danger is not the way to do it.
On their three-month-old YouTube channel, a freshly intriguing video cathes the eye (it's also at the bottom of this story). cinematics aside, the car is very much ordinary, judging strictly from a motoring standpoint. With 0-100 KPH (0-62 MPH) in 3.8 seconds, the HiPhi Z is no match for the competition. However, in the powertrain department, things are promising: 120kWh high-performance liquid-cooled battery should provide autonomy above 700 km (440 miles). The ride also sounds enjoyable with all-aluminum double-wishbone front suspension, five-link rear suspension, air suspension, and Continuous Damping Control (CDC). Top with rear-wheel steering and an IVC vehicle dynamic control system that allows for a "turning circle similar to that of a MINI Cooper." Not too bad for a 5-meter long car.According to the company, HiPhi Z is the first car in the world with a wrap-around Star-Ring ISD light curtain. Translated, that means 4,066 individual LEDs with human- and surroundings-interaction capability. The doors, for example, feature many hi-techs that automatically detect people, keys, and other vehicles. Algorithmically, door opening speeds and angles are adjusted to suit the various real-life scenarios of daily traffic.The self-proclaimed "ultra-futuristic spaceship-like digital setup" in the car includes the AI companion Hi Phi Bot. The computer butler can adjust every aspect of the driving and passenger experience. Racing bucket seats with soft-touch Ultrasuede Bio Galaxy fabric, a 23-speaker audio system, and flowing ambient panel lights join forces with a fragrance-providing system to provide an immersive and comforting environment. Let's look at this again: lights, sound, feel, and smell should create a luxurious ambiance for the occupants. Well, that should be a bar raiser for the luxury car standards The company is very elusive in providing specific details about its upcoming flagship. Still, it does brag about "the world's only vehicle-grade, 4-degrees of freedom (DOF), 8-direction infinitely adjustable, high-speed motion robotic arm which can move back and forth in place in less than a second and features control accuracy of up to 0.001mm, being able to perform a variety of delicate movements with barely a noise". We'll have to wait until this August to see what's what, as that's when the Chinese car will be available for drive tests. By the way, anyone can book via the company's smartphone app (or so the claim goes).With prices ranging between $89k and $129k, Human Horizon has high hopes for its future tech-packed car. "Through rigorous testing and development, the HiPhi Z has retained more than 95% of its production intents revealed previously" (Ding Lei, founder, CEO, and chairman of HiPhi). Oddly enough, though, at the time of this article, the company's official YouTube channel had 64 subscribers and only hosted seven videos (all of them with under 4k combined views). All in all, if the car matches the cinematography, the Chinese might just be more than a pleasant surprise.
It's not the first time we get to see a motorcycle going up against a car. While the results might vary from time to time, betting on the two-wheeler is still probably the smartest thing you can do. There are a few hypercars out there that can boast about having a power-to-weight ratio that's similar to a road-going bike.But can you think of any street-legal car that even comes close to a MotoGP bike? Let's just look at the stats for a minute. Today's machine is the 2021 Red Bull Racing KTM RC16.It's packing a 1,000 cc V4 engine that churns out a whopping 270 horsepower. While the bike weighs about 330 lbs (150 kg), the rider will add 121 lbs (55) kg to that figure. Speaking of which, Red Bull Racing has brought out an amazing rider for this challenge.Introducing Dani Pedrosa - one of the most popular and successful MotoGP riders of all time! He took part in 218 races in the series, winning 31 of them and podiuming 112 times! The 36-year-old rider from Sabadell, Spain has unfortunately never been crowned champion but he did come close!He finished in second place overall in 2007, 2010, and 2013. He also secured third overall in 2008, 2009, and 2013. And there were an additional four fourth-place results under his name before he retired in 2018.He did get to experience the RC16 last year when he competed in the Styrian Grand Prix for the KTM Factory Racing team. Meanwhile, Mat Watson is going to be riding inside the Porsche 918 Spyder. Granted, this is a fairly quick car, but it doesn't feel like it can take on the MotoGP bike.The 4.6-liter V8 does get an extra boost from the two electric motors, bringing performance figures up to 875 horsepower and 944 lb-ft (1,280 Nm) of torque. But you should remember that this thing weighs 3,690 lbs (1,674 kg). Both of these machines are quite expensive, although you can't just go out and buy an RC16 if you wanted to.On the other hand, getting your hands on a 918 Spyder isn't necessarily easy either, and it might set you back as much as $2 million. But that's enough stats for today, let's have a look at the race.Right off the bat, Dani Pedrosa is probably going to struggle with the track surface as it doesn't even come close to a MotoGP grade layout. Even so, he takes the lead from the start of the race and it's all downhill for the 918 Spyder from there. Having to deal with excessive wheelspin, the bike still wins every single run.According to telemetry data, it needs 9.5 seconds to run the quarter-mile . Mat Watson was just 0.6 seconds slower to the finish line. Given these numbers, it's obvious that a Tesla Model S Plaid or a Rimac Nevera could be faster than the RC16 in this particular test.The rolling race is up next, and there is only one possible outcome: victory for Dani Pedrosa. It's still exciting to watch, and the last run of the day almost ends up with a photo finish.Sure, having the RC16 engage sixth gear at such a low speed is a good way to even the odds, but it was still not enough to put the Porsche in first. But you just know that the braking test will favor the car, especially given the poor grip levels on this section of the airfield.
HVAC

Flipping off aside, the small 4x4, which may or may not get some sort of a suffix to differentiate itself from the three-door model, is more practical. The space between the axles has significantly grown, and this means that rear-seat passengers will enjoy improved legroom. At the same time, it is very likely that the cargo area will be bigger.Suzuki has gone all-in on the camouflage, making it harder to spot other potential cosmetic updates. By the looks of it, though, it appears that the Jimny five-door has an identical face to its shorter sibling . The grille has as many slats, will still host the corporate logo in the middle, and it will have the same cutouts on the outer edges for the round headlights, and turn signals. With its large central air intake, and incorporated fog lamps on each side, the bumper looks the same too.It is very likely that the latter part, together with the grille, fender flares, side skirts, and rear bumper will have a black plastic-y finish, thus making the off-roader look a bit meaner . The taillights havent been changed at all, and this includes both the shape, and graphics. The rear license plate holder still sits in the middle of the bumper, which also soldiers on, and the spare wheel and tire will be added to the tailgate once the model debuts.The engineers were kind enough to leave the door open for a brief moment, and it was enough for our man with the cam to snap a couple of pictures of the interior . So, what is new here? Well, it appears that that would be the infotainment screen, which seems to be a bit more generous in size. The gauges, steering wheel, air vents,controls, and pretty much everything else carries over.We can see that this prototype has an automatic gearbox, which might be the four-speed one, otherwise offered next to the five-speed stick shift. However, instead of being hooked up to the naturally aspirated 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine, it might actually work in concert with a turbocharged unit. The mill is unconfirmed at the moment, yet our spy photographers believe that it is what will power the longer model, perhaps with mild-hybrid assistance, which will be an important upgrade over the three-door Suzuki Jimny , often deemed as being underpowered.Elsewhere, the pictured tester had some sensors on the alloys, and on other parts of the exterior, which indirectly suggests that it will be a while until it launches. If we were to guess, then wed probably say that it wont show its uncamouflaged skin anytime soon. In all likelihood, the unveiling will take place sometime next year, maybe in the first half, and by then, we should also find out in what markets the Japanese automaker will offer it. Still, you should not hold your breath for a U.S. launch , as that is off the table. Neither the three-door made its way to the left side of the Atlantic Ocean, so the five-door wont apply for a visa either.Not long after it starts arriving at dealers, several tuning companies will already have a few aftermarket parts on their shelves, and we cannot wait to see how the five-door Jimny looks like dressed in Mercedes G-Wagen attire
Automotive-related or car-centric hospitality solutions are not new, but this is definitely a first. A new hotel room that is now open for booking is located right outside a gas station, smushed between it and a motorway, in Saillon, Valais. Its called the Null Stern Hotel , which translates to Zero Star Hotel, and its an enterprise by Zero Real Estates. Oh, and its absolutely a real thing!The Null Stern Hotel isnt technically a hotel: its a single room, but one without walls or a roof, so technically not a room either. Its a concrete or wooden platform, on which sits a queen-size bed, two night tables and reading lights, and some hotel amenities, including slippers and a butler service. For a nights fee, you get to sleep in the bed (if you can), enjoy dinner and breakfast in bed, have a few drinks, and take in the surroundings.This probably goes without saying at this point, but the Null Stern Hotel is an art installation, one that has some applicability in hospitality in the sense that people actually do book stays here. Its the brainchild of artists and twin brothers Frank and Patrik Riklin, who later welcomed Switzerland-based Minds in Motion founder Daniel Charbonnier to create Zero Real Estates, following the success of their 2016 debut. That first suite was set inside an '80s bunker.The idea behind the project is that these rooms are set up in the most picturesque settings, with incredible views of the Swiss Alps, because theyre set up high on the mountain. This way, the Riklin brothers often say, the room puts a new spin on the idea of luxury by turning nature into a focal point. The luxurious experience becomes valuable not because its packed with material things, but because of the unique perspective and almost complete immersion in nature.The definition of luxury has evolved over the years from tangible to intangible, Charpentier told Forbes in an interview last month. Marble in the bathroom is now much less important than a guests emotional experience.But there is nothing luxurious about the latest offering, what with unexpected location. The artists call this the Anti-idyllic Suite because it wont invite guests to relaxation, but quite the opposite. Guests are expected to spend their worst night here, jolted by the sounds of nearby traffic and, presumably, gas prices sightings. They wont breathe in the cool, pure Swiss Alps air, but exhaust fumes and dust.And thats the point. The latest installation is meant to encourage guests to spend their time awake, meditating on the worlds crises, starting from the looming recession to climate change, social inequalities , and security. It aims to serve as a positive disruption.Individuals, companies, schools or associations are all welcome to use this space to exchange, brainstorm or create ideas, the listing reads. We offer you the opportunity to invest time in yourself and for yourself, so it gives sense and purpose to this moment of introspection.With the noise, exhaust fumes and the dust, and the curious looks from passers-by, youll still get premium service with the room. Zero Real Estate hired Modern Butlers in advance just for this new opening, and there will be drinks and finger food (organic, of course!) offered throughout the stay. Modern Butler is what the company calls their own butler, and the requirements for the job include only having to wear gloves, a white shirt and a bow tie. The rest of the outfit is entirely up to the butler, as is his or her interaction with the guests.A nights stay in this room that discourages sleep and is located outside a gas station is CHF 325, or $338 at the current exchange rate. While youre losing sleep pondering over the worlds crises, worry not about bad weather: the price includes a nights stay for two at the local hotel, in case it rains. These artists may be disruptive, but theyre not heartless.
In a statement released on July 8, Volvo said this: After much consideration, we have concluded that Volvo Cars sustainability strategy and ambitions are not fully aligned with ACEAs positioning and way of working at this stage. We therefore believe it is better to take a different path for now. What we do as a sector will play a major role in deciding whether the world has a fighting chance to curb climate change. We have one of the most ambitious plans in the industry, but we cant realize zero-emission transport by ourselves. Volvo is not the first carmaker to abandon ACEAs ship. Stellantis announced the same decision on June 14. The automotive titan said it would only remain as an ACEA member until the end of 2022, something that Volvo will also follow. Stellantis said it would not be part of ACEA anymore because it would focus on the Freedom of Mobility Forum, an annual event to debate the options for clean yet accessible vehicles. Volvo did not disclose if it will join this forum or if it intends to create a new organization  with companies more aligned with its own goals.Carlos Tavares seems to oppose the direction Volvo is taking. He said multiple times that the electric car might kill affordable vehicles because of the cost of the battery packs. The Stellantis CEO also noted that electric cars were not something customers demanded but rather a choice politicians made on their behalf.
NAIROBI, July 9 (Xinhua) -- As Kenya inches toward its general election slated for August 9, Calvin Kiandu, a student at a college based in the capital Nairobi, has failed to conceal his excitement to vote from his older friends who have voted in the previous election cycles.

"I am starting to annoy them because I keep bringing up the elections every so often. But I am very excited to finally elect the leaders that I desire," Kiandu remarked during a recent interview with Xinhua. Having attained the age of voting some three years ago, this will be the first time Kiandu will be voting in a general election.

Kiandu forms part of the newly registered 8.8 million youthful voters set to decide on the choice of president, members of national and county assemblies during the upcoming polls. Their excitement is palpable.

Kenya is considered a youthful country with those less than 35 years constituting 75 percent of the total population of 48 million people according to official data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

Consequently, the youth are regarded as a significant voting bloc.

"My voting will be guided by the candidate who has outlined ideas that serve my interests such as employment and reasonable taxes for youth-owned start-ups," said Kiandu.

While on their campaign trails, the four presidential candidates including William Ruto, the sitting deputy president, Raila Odinga, once a prime minister and veteran opposition leader, David Mwaure, and George Wajackoya, have laid irresistible promises at the feet of the youth. Among them include sustainable employment opportunities, the establishment of standalone youth ministries and the reservation of youth positions in the two houses of parliament.

"The sheer number of the youth makes them a force to reckon with in any election and they are largely the target of any manifestos and vote mobilization and in fact, some parties are exclusively focused on youth," said Peter Kagwanja, a former government adviser and scholar.

He added that in the past, leaders mobilized for votes along tribal lines sometimes even stoking up ethnic tension but this year's campaigns have been issue-based with the foremost candidates basing their bids on economic liberation.

Terryane Mwende, a 28-year-old Nairobi resident admits to initial apathy towards the elections. However, the disinterest petered out thanks to developments in her child's education. " I have to vote for a better Member of Parliament because the current one nearly cost my child's education last year because of late issuance of bursary, " said Mwende.

Mwangi Gibson Waichari, a candidate running for member of the county assembly (MCA) for Nairobi's Harambee ward said that his first task after making his intention known was to sensitize the masses, especially the youth on the roles of the various electoral seats to inform their voting.

Kagwanja concurs with the 42-year-old politician on voter education stressing the need for robust sustainable civic education.

The Kenyan government has rolled out a national voter education drive for the youth to help them make informed decisions during the August 9 general election. Targeting youth leaders from 10 regions across the country, the exercise aims at creating awareness on the voting processes to build their capacity since majority of them will be voting for the first time. 
Palmdale, CA (93550)

Today

Windy with mainly clear skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 74F. SW winds at 20 to 30 mph, decreasing to 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Windy with mainly clear skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 74F. SW winds at 20 to 30 mph, decreasing to 10 to 15 mph.
Los Angeles police have shot and killed a man who was allegedly armed with a knife, marking the third fatal police shooting in a week for the department
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter.
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YANGON, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Export price of broken rice from Myanmar's Muse gate to China has risen about 9 percent after the driver substitution rule was eased on May 16, Min Thein, Vice Chair of Muse Rice Wholesale Centre, said.

"The current price of a 50-kg broken rice bag in Muse was 120 yuan, up from 110 yuan in May," Min Thein told Xinhua on Saturday.

Export volume of rice and broken rice from Myanmar to China through the Muse gate has also risen by about 250 metric tons per day after allowing the Myanmar trucks and drivers enter China's side in May, he added.

According to the Myanmar Rice Federation, the Southeast Asian country exported 19,746 metric tons of broken rice to China in June.

During the first quarter of the 2022-2023 fiscal year, Myanmar's border trade with China was mainly done through the Muse gate, official data showed. 
Official Oregon Coast / Washington Coast Lewis and Clark Guide - Corps of Discovery, Sacegawea

Updated 12/24/2012

Seaside and Tillamook Head

SAUVIE ISLAND. Just north of Portland's grand St. John's Bridge, along Highway 30, you'll find this enormous park. The Corps of Discovery explored this island a little as they came down the Columbia. It holds the distinction of being the only L&C site that has a nude beach.

COLUMBIA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM. Learn about the Corps' campsite and activities along the Columbia. 511 E Bridge Street, Vernonia. 503-429-3713.

PRESCOTT BEACH COUNTY PARK. The Corps spent the night near here on Nov. 5, 1805, just upstream from present-day Rainier - and about a mile from St. Helens. Their campsite of November 6, 1805, was near Cape Horn in Wahkiakum County, Washington.

JULIA BULTER HANSEN NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE. On the Washington side, Lewis & Clark notated scientific descriptions of various wildlife here. On Highway 4, in Cathlamet, Washington.

ASTORIA AND ASTORIA COLUMN. There are no actual Lewis & Clark sites in this charming and ultra-atmospheric town, but it's full of numerous other time-traveling opportunities. The Astoria Column has a mural that talks about the Corps' time here, and the hill it resides on is also the birthplace of cable TV. There are several historical museums that delve into Lewis & Clark history and loads of Victorian mansions. www.oldoregon.com.





MEGLER REST AREA. The Corps was trapped here by a winter storm for five miserable days in late November of 1805, nicknamed Clark's Dismal Nitch. Highway 401, Washington Coast.

STATION CAMP. This park, near Chinook, Washington, was where they settled down to camp and spotted the ocean for the first time - or so they thought - with Clark writing "Ocian in view! O! the joy" on November 7. In fact, what they were seeing was the limitless horizon, unbounded by any more bends in the river. The ocean was still 20 miles away. This was also where the famous vote was taken later in November - the first to include votes by a woman and a black man.





FORT COLUMBIA STATE PARK and CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT. Lewis was the first to romp around and up this headland and spot the ocean. Later, on November 18, Clark and a handful of men come here and actually spotted the ocean for the first time. Clark carves his name next to Lewis' on a tree. Highway 101, Chinook, Washington.

ILWACO HERITAGE MUSEUM. An interpretive center with loads of L&C information. Ilwaco, Washington.





FORT CLATSOP NATIONAL MEMORIAL. Just south of Astoria, this is where the Corps established winter camp from December 1805 to March 1806. The replica of the fort burned down in the mid-2000's, but has since been rebuilt. The visitor center is still growing and providing a wealth of information - not to mention the living history programs during the summer. Of the 112 days they stayed here, only 12 were without rain. Off Highway 101, east of Warrenton.





SEASIDE SALT WORKS. From January to February 1806, one group from the Corps went to the beaches of Seaside and boiled sea water for salt. The site is considered to be the exact spot by historians. Look for Lewis & Clark Way to find the replica of the boiling structure. Seaside. Take the Virtual Tour of Seaside, Oregon.





TILLAMOOK HEAD. Clark and a party of 13 meandered over the headland to check out a beached whale in Cannon Beach. Clark flowered over one viewpoint here in his journals, blessed with clear, sunny weather. There is a monument to him along this six-mile trail to Cannon Beach. Take the Virtual Tour of Seaside, Oregon.





ECOLA STATE PARK. Wander the same trail as Clark, his men and Sacagawea on their way to the creek and the beached whale. Incredible views are to be had here. Cannon Beach. Take the Virtual Tour of Cannon Beach.

LES SHIRLEY PARK. At the northern end of Cannon Beach, just north of downtown and the bridge, you'll find this park commemorating the spot with the beached whale - which was on the north side of Ecola Creek. It's considered to be the southernmost point the Corps traveled. Take the Virtual Tour of Cannon Beach.





WHALE PARK. A gazebo-like structure at the entrance to downtown Cannon Beach, close to the beach, features a whale sculpture, commemorating the whale on the other side of the creek. Take the Virtual Tour of Cannon Beach.





NEHALEM BAY. Or did the Corps of Discovery stop at Cannon Beach? There is a rogue (and convincing) theory Clark and the 13 came to 45 miles south of Fort Clatsop and not 25 miles, which would've brought them to the mouth of the Nehalem Bay. Come explore this stunning area and check out the insistence of the natives they were the Corps' last stop. This is only one theory, and the vast majority of historians do not buy into it. Still, even if you don't believe - it's a stunning place to light the fires of imagination. Take the Virtual Tour of Nehalem Bay, Manzanita.

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Warnings Issued for Oregon Coast About Sick Sea Lions Officials warn to keep humans and pets away from all sea lions

A Different Side of Common Oregon Coast Landmarks Familiar places on the Oregon can take on a whole new look if you move around

Secret Beach Near Arch Cape Tunnel, North Oregon Coast It's nicknamed "Magic Rocks Beach" because of layers of large cobblestones that make interesting noises

Oregon Coast Cleanup Finds Plenty of Wacky and Disturbing Oddities and plenty of plastics were picked up from the beaches

Oregon Coast Restaurant Moment: Stunning Views at Tidal Raves, Depoe Bay You may see whales cavorting with their young

Oregon Coast Virtual Tour, Cannon Beach - Mushroom-like Blob at Hug Point Tour Hug Point and its myriad of details

Surreal Science of the Oregon Coast: a Look Back at Spring's Strange News Mother Nature can be a real crazy person on the beach

Glowing Sand, Extreme Low Tides Hit Oregon Coast; Ethereal Shot of Astoria More to come on these wild conditions later today

Mystical Spot Along Yachats Bay - Oregon Coast Virtual Tour A bit of Lord of the Rings in Yachats, Oregon coast

Viewpoints of Ecola State Park: Tillamook Head Lighthouse New photo added to Cannon Beach, Oregon Coast Virtual Tour

UFO Spotted in Seaside, Oregon Coast Some visitors come farther than others to the Oregon coast

Oregon Coast Right Now: Depoe Bay at Dusk Dusk can make the town look a bit like a bunch of Christmas lights

Oregon Coast Summer Fun - Oregon Coast Summer Preview Much awaits on the Oregon coast for the summer months, with events, fun and nature at her most interesting

180 Miles of Oregon Coast in Four Minutes Video: Zip up the coast, south to north (from Florence to the very tip of NW Oregon), in just over four minutes.

Video: Newport Glimpses, Oregon Coast A brief guided tour of Nye Beach, mysterious Jump-Off Joe rock structure, Newport's beaches, the bayfront

Video Tour of Manzanita, North Oregon Coast - from BeachConnection.net A video tour of Manzanita, on the north Oregon coast

Sneaky Oregon Coast Restaurant Reviews: Pelican Pub & Brewery Three stars out of five: Perhaps stick with simpler dishes and keep the expectations down a bit, or be prepared to have an excellent meal with some disappointing aspects.

Oregon Coast Safety Tips: Spotting Dangerous Waves They are sneaker waves of the Oregon coast - the biggest possible curse to tourism officials in the state

Sneaky Oregon Coast Restaurant Reviews An ongoing series of clandestine visitations by two writers on the Oregon coast (who will remain anonymous) to various beachy places to munch.

Restaurants, Dining in Manzanita, Rockaway Beach, Wheeler, Nehalem It's here where youll find long-standing gems that seem timeless and classic, yet often cutting-edge in the culinary fireworks.

Oregon Coast Tour: Florence, Oregon's Gazebo Park, Old Town This cozy little park is perfect for a romantic interlude along Florence's Bayfront, after dark, as the lights of Old Town glitter softly on the river

Neskowin's Mysteries: Oregon Coast Virtual Tour, Lincoln City / Inland 101. Secret spots of Neskowin, more mysteries and prolliferation of shells on this atmospheric beach.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse and its Lore - Newport, Oregon Coast Virtual Tour Ghost tales of the Newport, Oregon landmark busted, but other scary tales remain

Neskowin and Ghost Forest Stump on Oregon Coast Another highlight here is the freaky 2,000-year-old stumps - nicknamed the "ghost forest."

Bob Creek Wayside - the secret cave, on the Oregon coast, between Yachats and Florence

Forbidden Cliffs Virtual Tour - Oregon Coast, near Nehalem Bay It is one of the stranger and more startlingly beautiful places on all of Oregon's Coast.

Waldport & Seal Rock Virtual Tour - On the Oregon Coast Photos and details around Waldport, Alsea Bay, Seal Rock and surrounding beaches

Oregon Coast Virtual Tour: Mystical Spot Along Yachats Bay With a touch of Tolkiens Middle Earth, this little Oregon Coast spot classifies as a bonafide nook or cranny with an ethereal slant.

Neptune State Park, between Florence and Yachats - Oregon Coast Virtual Tour. It's lodged in the middle of forestland and rather easy to drive past if youre not looking carefully.

Odd Objects on Smelt Sands Beach: Yachats, Oregon Coast This oddly shaped structure resembles either a sea faring vessel or a space faring one - its hard to distinguish at times.

Rocky Delights - Secret Views: Newport, Oregon Virtual Tour, Oregon Coast HIdden delights of Yaquina Head in Newport, on the Oregon Coast

Oregon Coast Lodging Reviews, Lodging Listings Oregon Coast Lodging in Yachats, Waldport, Newport, Nye Beach, Otter Rock, Depoe Bay, Gleneden Beach, Lincoln Beach, Lincoln City, Neskowin, Pacific City, Tierra Del Mar, Garibaldi, Rockaway Beach, Manzanita, Cannon Beach, Seaside, Florence and Astoria

Seaside, Oregon Complete Guide Every single beach access, attraction and detail of Seaside, on the Oregon Coast

Oregon Coast Travel: Legendary Lodgings of Waldport and Seal Rock South Beach, Waldport and Seal Rock cloister dozens of mesmerizing places to stay

Oregon Coast Summer Fun - Oregon Coast Summer Preview

Oregon Coast Science Has Its Creepy, Gooey Side Some outlandish creatures inhabit the beach environment around you, as well as some freaky facts

Southern End of Cannon Beach - Two Views, Oregon Coast Virtual Tour Explore the hidden southern end of this north Oregon coast hotspot

Yaquina Head, Newport - Looking down on the Oregon coast headland A look at hidden spots on the massive headland in Newport, Oregon

Oregon Coast Travel Tips: Hotels, Motels of Cannon Beach The hotels and motels of Cannon Beach - and the hotels and motels of towns nearby - reflect that atmospheric vibe, with intoxicating architecture and style.

A Different Look At Lincoln City, Oregon Lodging - Oregon Coast There are more lodgings in this town than any other along the entire Oregon coast, boasting something like 400.

Seaside, Oregon Unusual - Northern Beaches at Night Oregon Coast virtual tour, surreal night scene of the northern beaches of Seaside

Secret Beach Spot Near Neskowin - Oregon Coast, Lincoln City Virtual Tour This hidden Oregon coast wonder sits between Neskowin and Pacific City, just north of Lincoln City

USFinanceNews.com Economic, Wall Street, personal finance news, udpated constantly

Lincoln City's Road's End Oregon Coast Tours, Pictures Near a hidden cove in Lincoln City, Oregon coast

Oregon Coast Valentines and Romance - Romantic Winter on the Oregon Coast A guide to all things romantic for that cuddly holiday of Valentine's Day on the Oregon Coast

Oregon Coast Winery is Haunted, say Ghost Researchers A group of ghost hunters visited in the fall and believe the Oregon coast legend has more than wine spirits floating about

North Oregon Coast Town Recovers from Storm Drama Jenny Maxwell describes the palpable relief of people heading to their first Monday morning workday since the end of the north Oregon coast blackout

Memorable Novembers on the Oregon Coast When November rolls around, it always bring me back to some of the more eventful times I've had goofing around the coast

Another Crazed Romp Through a Myriad of Oregon Coast Bars More odd tales from up and down the coastline, a place where David Lynch had to have been inspired by - part 2 of the Bizarre Bar Tales of the Coast story

Bizarre Bar Tales of the Oregon Coast, Part 1 After the sun slides down below the horizon, it's when this region shows its true colors

VIDEO: Manic Tour Guide: Oregon Coast Zombies, Wacky Weather, Ghosts and Glowing Sand In search of zombie whales, ghosts on the coast, glowing sand, the green flash at sunset, and strange, alien bar life

Quaint Motel Gives Glimpse Into Oregon Coast Treasures, Past Whistling Winds in Lincoln City has quite a hilarious, even seedy history

Oregon Coast Weekend of Weird Weather, the Muse and Meanderings Late July meant some unusual conditions, finds and wacky fun

Three Days, 130 Miles of Oregon Coast Fourth of July Shindigs From Newport to Seaside, various kinds of celebrations lit up the area - in plenty of pictures

Beating the Breakup Blues with the Oregon Coast A small guide for the broken-hearted, or whatever loss may ail your soul

Oregon Coast Travel Blog: Walking a Ghost Town Bayocean was once a thriving resort that eventually tumbled into the sea

An Oregon Adventure On 100 Miles of Wild Coast From TV crews, crazed drunks and big festivals to more discoveries

It's Balmy on the Oregon Coast, So Where the Hell Are All the Tourists A journey through the mistakes of weatherforecasters, geologic time, half the central coast and some serious drunken sojourns as well

Into the Mists and Mysteries of the Oregon Coast February means all kinds of weather, conditions and surprises on over 100 miles of coastline

Word Spreads About N. Oregon Coast Mystical Legend The slightly paranormal Wheeler Moment is getting around

Weird and Wild on the Oregon Coast: My Own Personal X-Files How does a person get started on chasing paranormal stories about the coast? Here's how.

Rare Oregon Coast Snow Dazzles Tourists, Locals Many enjoyed a day off from school, at least as many complained about the cold  but mostly people were amazed

Oregon Attractions: Up and Away on a Coastal Copter Ride Seaside Helicopters is an upward rush of fun

A Research Expedition on Oregon Beaches One research trip turned into an intensive journey of discovery

Second Summer Rears Its Pretty Head on Oregon Coast The legend has arrived, bringing warm weather and some natural oddities

Oregon Coast Travel Blog: Beginnings of the Other Summer 2nd Summer is off to a slow start, but stunning surprises remain

Cushy Nights, Stunning Days at Oregon Coast Resort Newport's Embarcadero is pure eye candy and bundles of fun

Stranded on the Oregon Coast: Another Snow Storm Tale There's few pleasures like getting stuck on the coast when ice won't let you go home

A Stunning Oregon Coast Hotel, Ghosts and Talk Show Hosts Newport's Starfish Point is exquisite, romantic and the kind of place where tales come from

Digging Into Oregon Coast Sentinels Brings More Ghosts to Light Researching the ghost tales can conjure even more spirits

Baby Seal Lounging on North Oregon Coast The baby seal pup wandered up onto a Seaside beach on a Sunday - by far the cutest thing you'll ever see on BeachConnection.net

Quirky and Fun Discoveries on the Oregon Coast The San Dune Inn, in Manzanita, is a delightful find

Rampant Surrealism on a Nocturnal Oregon Beach Oregon's coast is an entirely different creature at night



Chasing Glowing Sands and Forest Fires on Oregons Coast Wild moments and sights abound on the coast in July

Oregon Coast Shopping - by Peg Miller

Oregon Coast Shopping and Antiques: Reelin' in The Big Ones The ultimate alternative to the mall: the factory outlets

Antiquing on the North Oregon Coast The tri-city of Wheeler - Nehalem - Manzanita is home to dozens of treasures

Oregon Coast Beach Whimsy - by Guy DiTorrice

Guy DiTorrice is the former head of the Oregon Coast Visitors Association and formerly gave fossil tours of central coast beaches as "Oregon Fossil Guy"

Ocean Takes Out Chunk of Central Oregon Coast Cliff Waves damaged pavement in Newport, tossed up logs in Gearhart and have caused some erosion

Shoreline Secrets, and Other Tidbits of Oregon's Coast Guy DiTorrice gives away the BIG secret every tourist wants to get his hands on

Post-Winter Wonders of Oregon Coast: More Agates Weather and surf push stuff onshore while they take off sand, revealing treasures in rock

Oregon Coast Real Estate Advice - by David Timme

Oregon Coast Real Estate Watch: Finding Oceanfront Property A number of spots meeting the beachfront criteria are still available
Oregon Coast Lighthouses at a Glance

Published 09/30/2011

(Oregon Coast)  A list of Oregon coast lighthouses and some supplemental information. Search here for latest news on these lighthouses or further information. (From the upper half of the coastline only - more do exist south). See the virtual tour links provided for deeper details on the lighthouses.

Heceta Head Lighthouse, near Florence (above).

It stands 56 feet high on a 200-foot-high cliff, and is considered among the world's most photographed lighthouses. Construction on the Heceta Head Lighthouse started in 1892, firing up about two years later. It's visible some 21 miles out to sea.

The first-order Fresnel lens was made by Chance Brothers of the Birmingham area, who only manufactured two other lights in the U.S. That original lens still remains, with eight prisms and a total of 392 pieces that are two inches thick. A total of 12 lighthouse lenses were made in England and brought here, but apparently the Heceta Head Lightouse is the only one of them left that is first-order. You can visit year round, but it is dependent on weather and staffing.





Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Newport. On the tip of three-mile-long Yaquina Head sits the big one, standing at 93 feet tall. It is Oregon's oldest and tallest, first fired up in 1873, sometime after the name of the headland was finally switched from Cape Foulweather to Yaquina Head (and the cape ten miles up the road received that name).

The keeper's quarters here were built in 1873 but demolished in 1984. There are 114 steps up to the very top, which guides let you briefly peek into.

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse in Newport. The second light in town is actually now simply a big home open to the public. It only existed as a lighthouse in the 1880's for three years, then shut down when the larger light to the north was built on the headland. After its shut down, and sat abandoned, sinking into greater and greater disrepair until some locals began rescuing it in the mid 20th century.

Now, you can tour the quarters and see how people lived (and dressed) back then as volunteers give you tours of the stately residence. (541) 265-3100.

Cape Meares Lighthouse. Just around the corner from Oceanside, it's the shortest on the Oregon coast, standing at a stumpy 38 feet high. The cliff is a few hundred feet high, however, making it the highest standing Oregon lighthouse in the end.

Back in 1890, it was constructed of bricks that were made right on the spot, along with iron plates that had to be hauled by wagon from Portland over the bumpy terrain of the coast range. The first order Fresnel lens was imported from Paris, France, shipped around Cape Horn, up the west coast to Cape Meares and then brought up 217 feet from a boat below the cliff by a wooden crane.

It's open to the public April through October.

Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, between Cannon Beach and Seaside. It's the only lighthouse in Oregon completely not accessible because it sits about a mile offshore.

It's been nicknamed Terrible Tilly because of the adverse conditions crews had to endure on this remote rock.

The lighthouse went into service in 1881, manned by four people at a time, stuck there for months. A giant winch was used to bring supplies and personnel from visiting ships to the rock, which was a dangerous and unwieldy endeavor under even the best conditions.

Living on the rock meant being regularly attacked by enormous storms. Having boulders and logs tossed through glass was not an irregular occurrence. One tale has a giant bird slamming into the glass around the holidays - when the men aboard were running low on supplies. So, they turned the ill-fated winged beast into a holiday feast.

The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1957.

On the southern Oregon coast, you'll find other lighthouses. The list includes: Umpqua River Light in Winchester Bay, Cape Arago Lighthouse in Coos Bay, the Coquille River Lighthouse in Bandon, and the Cape Blanco Lighthouse in Port Orford. Oregon Coast Lodging in these areas - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours

More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging.....

More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining.....

Coastal Spotlight



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Lincoln City Events Calendar 2022, Central Oregon Coast

STATUS OF LINCOLN CITY EVENTS. There is good news in that many are beginning to pop up again, but it can be intermittent.

Live Music Lincoln City Cultural Center. Live concerts have resumed. See the updates

Finders Keepers Glass Floats. Every day glass floats are dropped on the beaches of Lincoln City  returning to the town after more than a year's hiatus. There are also special glass float drops scheduled throughout the year. See Lincoln City page

Through April 9. Outside Mullingar. A play by John Patrick Shanley. 2014 Tony-nominated play set in the Midlands of Ireland. Involves two farmers, Anthony and Rosemary, who live next to each other. Rosemary has been romantically interested in Anthony her entire life. Anthony, who is shy and unaware of Rosemary's feelings, dislikes farming, so his father intends to leave the farm to a nephew. Directed by Debby Rhein. 7:30 p.m. with matinees at 2 p.m. Reservations recommended. Masks, proof of vaccination required. Theatre West. Highway 101. Lincoln City. TheatreWest.com or call 541-994-5663.

March 20  April 3. Finders Keepers Spring Break Special Drop. 200 glass floats will be dropped around Lincoln City for spring break. Floats can be found above the high tide line and below the beach embankment. They are placed on the beach during daylight hours only. Lincoln City, Oregon. See Lincoln City page



March 24. Beachcombing Exploriences. Unearth treasures from the Pacific as you hunt for gemstones, agates, jasper, petrified wood and other coastal jewels with a local expert. Meet at the SW 33rd Street Beach Access in Lincoln City, Oregon. 10 a.m. 541-996-1274 or visit See Lincoln City page

March 26. Beachcombing Exploriences. Unearth treasures from the Pacific as you hunt for gemstones, agates, jasper, petrified wood and other coastal jewels with a local expert. Meet at the SW 33rd Street Beach Access in Lincoln City, Oregon. 11 a.m. 541-996-1274 or visit See Lincoln City page

March 26. Spring Break Party. Major dance party featuring music by DJ Metal. 21+. 10 p.m. Chinook Winds Casino. 1501 NW 40th Place. Lincoln City, Oregon. ChinookWindsCasino.com.

March 29. Beachcombing Exploriences. Unearth treasures from the Pacific as you hunt for gemstones, agates, jasper, petrified wood and other coastal jewels with a local expert. Meet at the SW 33rd Street Beach Access in Lincoln City, Oregon. 2 p.m. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

April 2. Tide Pool Explorience. Explore Lincoln City beaches and learn about the colorful creatures that inhabit rocky intertidal pools from a local expert. Meet at the NW 15th Street Beach Access at 8 a.m. The clinics are free and no registration is required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

April 7. Sitka Resident Talk. Enjoy brief presentations from Sitka Center for Art and Ecology 2022 residents Michelle Bardino Vella, Altea Narici, Gabriele Halas, Carol Ann McChrystal and Kim Kei. 4 p.m. Free online Zoom event. For registration, visit SitkaCenter.org. Near Lincoln City, Oregon.

April 8. Bird Walk: Spring Lake Open Space. A 2.5-mile moderate trail a short distance from Regatta Grounds on NE 14th Street, Spring Lake Trail takes you wandering through the wooded area surrounding Spring Lake. The walks are led by experienced birders and will provide the free use of binoculars and field guides. Dress for the weather, bird-walks happen come rain or come shine. Free. Meet in the Spring Lake Open Space parking lot on Port Ave. 9 - 11 AM. Lincoln City, Oregon.

April 8. SW 51st Beach Cleanup. Bags, gloves, grabbers and vests will be provided. Everyone welcome to help keep these beaches clean. 11 a.m. Happy hour event afterwards at The Pines Diner. Meet at Taft Waterfront Park. Lincoln City, Oregon. SolveOregon.org.

April 9. Band of the Golden West, chamber ensemble. 2 p.m. Lincoln City Cultural Center. 540 NE Hwy 101. Lincoln City, Oregon. LincolnCity-CulturalCenter.org or call 541-994-9994.

April 9. Beachcombing Exploriences. Unearth treasures from the Pacific as you hunt for gemstones, agates, jasper, petrified wood and other coastal jewels with a local expert. Meet at the SW 33rd Street Beach Access in Lincoln City, Oregon. 10 a.m. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

April 17. Crabbing Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by crabbing on Siletz Bay. Meet the guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft Distric. 1 PM. Free, no registration required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 . Lincoln City page

April 19. Tide Pool Explorience. Explore Lincoln City beaches and learn about the colorful creatures that inhabit rocky intertidal pools from a local expert. Meet at the NW 15th Street Beach Access at 9 a.m. The clinics are free and no registration is required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

April 21. Tide Pool Explorience. Explore Lincoln City beaches and learn about the colorful creatures that inhabit rocky intertidal pools from a local expert. Meet at the NW 15th Street Beach Access at 10:30 a.m. The clinics are free and no registration is required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

April 21. Ben Rosenblum Trio. Internationally-touring jazz pianist and accordionist Ben Rosenblum returns to the Lincoln City Cultural Center to perform an intimate and exciting concert of improvised instrumental music. 7 p.m. Lincoln City Cultural Center. 540 NE Hwy 101. Lincoln City, Oregon. LincolnCity-CulturalCenter.org or call 541-994-9994.

April 22. Beachcombing Exploriences. Unearth treasures from the Pacific as you hunt for gemstones, agates, jasper, petrified wood and other coastal jewels with a local expert. Meet at the SW 33rd Street Beach Access in Lincoln City, Oregon. 9 a.m. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

April 22-24. Earth Day: 50 Earth Day floats. Throughout Lincoln City, Oregon. Floats can be found above the high tide line and below the beach embankment. They are placed on the beach during daylight hours only. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 See Lincoln City site.

April 23. Clamming Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by clamming on Siletz Bay. Meet our Clamming Explorience guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft District of Lincoln City. 12 PM. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City page



April 24. Surf & Earth. Surf brands, shapers, photographers, artists, live music, surf videos playing on the big screen, surfboards being raffled off, more. 1 - 6 PM. Hosted by ZuhG Life Surf Shop at Lincoln City Cultural Center. 540 NE Hwy 101. Lincoln City, Oregon. LincolnCity-CulturalCenter.org.

Every Friday and Saturday from May 6  Nov. 26. Artisan Faire. Experience local Oregonian vendors featuring unique gift ideas and one-of-a-kind crafts and handmade goods. Fri 11 AM - 5 PM . On Sat 10 AM - 4 PM. Salishan Marketplace. 7755 N Hwy 101. Gleneden Beach, Oregon. 541- 272-9687



Every Saturday and Sunday, May 8  October 2. 2022 Lincoln City Farmers & Crafters Outdoor Market. All items are handmade or homegrown by the seller. Masks are required to enter the market and other health and safety procedures are in practice. 9 a.m. At the Lincoln City Outlets. 1500 SE East Devils Lake Rd. Lincoln City, Oregon. LincolnCityFarmersMarket.org

May 7-9. Mothers Day, 50 Extra Glass Floats. Throughout Lincoln City, Oregon. Floats can be found above the high tide line and below the beach embankment. They are placed on the beach during daylight hours only. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 See Lincoln City page

May 7. Clamming Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by clamming on Siletz Bay. Meet our Clamming Explorience guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft District of Lincoln City. 11 AM. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City page

May 13. Bird Walk: Culter City Open Space and Josephine Young Park. A unique habitat with wooded wetlands. Large trees host species such as Pileated Woodpecker while the marshy brush is home to Common Yellowthroat, Wrentits, and other songbirds. You'll look for recent spring arrivals, then move on to Josephine Young Memorial Park where you will watch for migrating shorebirds. All of the Audubon bird-walks are free and open to the public. 9 - 11 AM. Meet at the Cutler City Wetlands Trailhead, SW 63rd west off Hwy 101. Lincoln City, Oregon. See LincolnCityParksandRecreation on Facebook. 541-994-2131.

May 13. Bird Walk: Spring Lake Open Space. A 2.5-mile moderate trail a short distance from Regatta Grounds on NE 14th Street, Spring Lake Trail takes you wandering through the wooded area surrounding Spring Lake. The walks are led by experienced birders and will provide the free use of binoculars and field guides. Dress for the weather, bird-walks happen come rain or come shine. Free. Meet in the Spring Lake Open Space parking lot on Port Ave. 9 - 11 AM. Lincoln City, Oregon.

May 14. Crabbing Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by crabbing on Siletz Bay. Meet the guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft Distric. 11 AM. Free, no registration required. Lincoln City, Oregon. Lincoln City page

May 17. Virtual: Ian Van Coller on Paleoclimatology. Join the Sitka Center for an artist talk by Ian van Coller as he discusses his award-winning project Naturalists of the Long Now that includes his collaborations with paleoclimatologists. Ian will also share some of his artist books related to climate change and deep time. 4 p.m. This is a free Zoom event with the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. Registration required, visit SitkaCenter.org.

May 20. Tide Pool Explorience. Explore Lincoln City beaches and learn about the colorful creatures that inhabit rocky intertidal pools from a local expert. Meet at the NW 15th Street Beach Access at 10 a.m. The clinics are free and no registration is required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

May 20  22. Art Studio Tour. A self-guided tour of the studio spaces of well known, coastal visual artists from Neskowin to Newport. Artists will show off their exclusive locations, demonstrate their creative processes and sell their work. ArtStudioTourLCCC.com.

May 22. Tide Pool Explorience. Explore Lincoln City beaches and learn about the colorful creatures that inhabit rocky intertidal pools from a local expert. Meet at the NW 15th Street Beach Access at 12 p.m. The clinics are free and no registration is required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

May 22. Clamming Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by clamming on Siletz Bay. Meet our Clamming Explorience guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft District of Lincoln City. 12 PM. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City page

May 28. Crabbing Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by crabbing on Siletz Bay. Meet the guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft Distric. 11 AM. Free, no registration required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City page

May 28-30. Memorial Day: 50 Red/white/blue floats. Throughout Lincoln City, Oregon. Floats can be found above the high tide line and below the beach embankment. They are placed on the beach during daylight hours only. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 See Lincoln City page



June 4. Clamming Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by clamming on Siletz Bay. Meet our Clamming Explorience guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft District of Lincoln City. 10 AM. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City Site.

June 4. Tide Pool Explorience. Explore Lincoln City beaches and learn about the colorful creatures that inhabit rocky intertidal pools from a local expert. Meet at the NW 15th Street Beach Access at 9:30 a.m. The clinics are free and no registration is required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

June 10. Bird Walk: Spring Lake Open Space. A 2.5-mile moderate trail a short distance from Regatta Grounds on NE 14th Street, Spring Lake Trail takes you wandering through the wooded area surrounding Spring Lake. The walks are led by experienced birders and will provide the free use of binoculars and field guides. Dress for the weather, bird-walks happen come rain or come shine. Free. Meet in the Spring Lake Open Space parking lot on Port Ave. 9 - 11 AM. Lincoln City, Oregon. Lincoln City page

June 10. Bird Walk: The Villages Open Space with Roads End State Recreational Area. All of the Audubon bird-walks are free and open to the public. No prior experience is needed and you do not need to pre-register. The walks are led by experienced birders and will provide the free use of binoculars and field guides. Dress for the weather, bird-walks happen come rain or come shine. 9 a.m. Lincoln City, Oregon. See LincolnCityParksandRecreation on Facebook. 541-994-2131.

June 11. Crabbing Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by crabbing on Siletz Bay. Meet the guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft Distric. 10 AM. Free, no registration required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City page

June 16. Tide Pool Explorience. Explore Lincoln City beaches and learn about the colorful creatures that inhabit rocky intertidal pools from a local expert. Meet at the NW 15th Street Beach Access at 8:30 a.m. The clinics are free and no registration is required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

June 17 and 18. Comedy on the Coast. Headliner Vargus Mason is joined by Susan Rice with Erik Escobar hosting. 8 p.m. Ages 21+. $15. Live at Chinook Winds Casino. Lincoln City, Oregon. 888-624-6228 or visit ChinookWindsCasino.com.

June 18. Clamming Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by clamming on Siletz Bay. Meet our Clamming Explorience guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft District of Lincoln City. 10 AM. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City page

June 18. Tide Pool Explorience. Explore Lincoln City beaches and learn about the colorful creatures that inhabit rocky intertidal pools from a local expert. Meet at the NW 15th Street Beach Access at 10 a.m. The clinics are free and no registration is required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

June 19. Tide Pool Explorience. Explore Lincoln City beaches and learn about the colorful creatures that inhabit rocky intertidal pools from a local expert. Meet at the NW 15th Street Beach Access at 11 a.m. The clinics are free and no registration is required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

June 25 & 26. Summer Kite Festival. Held on the beach at the D River State Recreation Site, the annual Fall Kite Festival is a longstanding family vacation tradition. Experience two days of kite-flying activities. 10 a.m. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

June 26. Crabbing Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by crabbing on Siletz Bay. Meet the guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft Distric. 11 AM. Free, no registration required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 or visit Lincoln City page

July 2. Clamming Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by clamming on Siletz Bay. Meet our Clamming Explorience guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft District of Lincoln City. 9 AM. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City page

July 4. Independence Day Fireworks, Lincoln City. No firm word yet on the event see Lincoln City page

July 17. Tide Pool Explorience. Explore Lincoln City beaches and learn about the colorful creatures that inhabit rocky intertidal pools from a local expert. Meet at the NW 15th Street Beach Access at 9 a.m. The clinics are free and no registration is required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 or or visit Lincoln City page

July 17. Clamming Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by clamming on Siletz Bay. Meet our Clamming Explorience guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft District of Lincoln City. 9 AM. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City page

July 31. Crabbing Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by crabbing on Siletz Bay. Meet the guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft Distric. 2 PM. Free, no registration required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274



August 2. Clamming Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by clamming on Siletz Bay. Meet our Clamming Explorience guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft District of Lincoln City. 9 AM. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City page

August 13. Crabbing Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by crabbing on Siletz Bay. Meet the guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft Distric. 1 PM. Free, no registration required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City page

August 15. Clamming Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by clamming on Siletz Bay. Meet our Clamming Explorience guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft District of Lincoln City. 9 AM. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City page

August 27. Crabbing Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by crabbing on Siletz Bay. Meet the guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft Distric. 1 PM. Free, no registration required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274 Lincoln City page

August 29. Clamming Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by clamming on Siletz Bay. Meet our Clamming Explorience guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft District of Lincoln City. 9 AM. 541-996-1274. See Lincoln City page

September 11. Crabbing Explorience. Enjoy a brief orientation followed by crabbing on Siletz Bay. Meet the guide at the pavilion at the end of SW 51st Street in the Historic Taft Distric. 1 PM. Free, no registration required. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-1274. Lincoln City page



Events at Chinook Winds Casino. Some events / concerts have resumed. See https://www.chinookwindscasino.com/ for updates.

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Oregon Coast Frequently Asked Questions - Oregon Coast FAQ's

Updated Weekly





(Oregon Coast)  Nature, beaches, wildlife, creatures, places to eat, places to stay, things to see and do and lots more. These are the oft-asked questions about the region, and you will get a hefty overview of everything you ever wanted to know about this shoreline. More questions and answers will be added periodically. (or Ask an Oregon Coast Question here)

Also, keep in mind many of your questions may be answered in the column just to the right, with all the lodging, dining, weather and events links.

You'll find answers regarding:

Lodging

Dining

Beaches, Maps

Beach Safety

Swimming

Driving on Beaches

Bonfires

Pets - Pet safety

Tides

Kids

Traffic alerts

Mileage, Directions

Attractions



Where can I find lodging on the Oregon coast? Vacation rentals on the Oregon coast? It all depends on where you're heading. You can find Oregon coast lodging listings here, including a format for smartphones. Oregon coast vacation rentals are listed. Links to larger, more detailed listings for each of the areas are found there. There are categories for pet friendly lodgings and oceanfront lodgings as well. Or you can search for what amenities you want here.

Where can I find a large, comprehensive list of lodging? The Oregon Coast Lodging Comprensive Guide does just that.

Where can find places to to eat on the coast? The Oregon coast restaurant dining guide will help you narrow that down, including some links to the latest restaurant news and reviews.

What are the best beaches on the Oregon coast? Now that's a tricky question, and it all depends on what you prefer. Do you like sandy, soft beaches? Ones that go on for miles and miles? Or do you like some rocky spots of interest in between? Do you perhaps prefer purely rocky spots with lots of tide pools and wild wave drama? See the virutal tours at right for further information.

Heading north to south, really sandy beaches include Warrenton and Gearhart, most of Seaside, and most of Cannon Beach, the towns of Manzanita, Rockaway Beach, Pacific City, parts of Oceanside, Lincoln City, Gleneden Beach, Waldport, most of Newport, and some areas just north of Yachats.

Those with mixed sand and rocky attractions include just south of Cannon Beach, Oceanside, parts of Pacific City, parts of Newport, and the 20-mile stretch between Yachats and Florence. Purely rocky areas include Yachats, Depoe Bay and some spots just north of Manzanita.

It's best to follow those links to the virtual tours of each area to get a better overview.

Oregon Coast Beach Safety - what is dangerous on the Oregon coast? See the Oregon Coast Beach Safety Articles, Updates section for a vast array of tips, including swimming on the coast, pet safety, driving on the beaches or even any beach closures and health alerts, if any. Or the Oregon State Parks Beach Safety Guide

Can You Swim on the Oregon Coast?

Can I Drive on Oregon Coast Beaches? Rules, Regulations for Cars, Vehicles

What is there to do? You're kidding, right? The question should be what ISN'T there to do? Beaches and all the obvious means of fun (like walking, sandcastles, kites, wading, etc) abound, and rocky areas provide crazy wave action. But if you love fine dining, attractions for kids, live music, wine tasting and shopping  it's all there. You may find the Atypical Things To Do on the Oregon Coast particularly illuminating, however.

What is there to do for kids on the Oregon coast? Every area is different. See Oregon Coast for Kids, Children: Family Attractions, Beaches Guide

Where can I find updated weather? Constantly updated weather forecasts, conditions and alerts are at Oregon Coast Weather. From there, follow links to individual cities for even more information, including tide tables and any weather alerts from National Weather Service.

How do I know if there's a traffic problem in the coast range or on Highway 101? Oregon Coast Traffic Conditions has all this up-to-the-minute info and even more.

Where can we see whales on the Oregon coast? Probably the best place year-round is the Whale Watch Center in Depoe Bay, as they have people there to help you see them. But they can be spotted from anywhere, though it depends on weather and sea conditions. They are more easily seen from high vantage points.

Also, Depoe Bay does tend to have a better vantage point to the year-round whales that tend to linger, and there does seem to be a bit more of them there and just south of Depoe Bay. See the Tips for Spotting Whales and the Oregon Coast Whales page, which features lots of general guides and news about local whales.

When can I see whales on the Oregon coast? More tend to be spotted on the great migration months of December into January, and then March through June. More importantly, however, are general conditions. Whales get hidden by large waves and rain with fog, so calm seas are a big plus. State officials say head to a high spot, bring binoculars and plenty of patience.

Again, much more is at the Tips for Spotting Whales and the Oregon Coast Whales page.

Maps of Oregon Coast? If you're looking for a general map of the area, see Oregon coast map and mileage page. Maps for individual areas  with tons of details about them, including milepost information  are at the virtual tours. For Clatsop County there are the Astoria, Warrenton, Gearhart Virtual Tour, Map; the Seaside Virtual Tour, Map; the Cannon Beach/Arch Cape Virtual Tour, Map. In Tillamook County, it's the Rockaway Beach, Manzanita, Nehalem Bay Virtual Tour Map; the Tillamook Bay virtual tour and map; the Three Capes Virtual Tour and Map for Oceanside, Netarts and Pacific City. On the central coast and for Lincoln County, there's the Lincoln City and Neskowin Virtual Tour, Map; the Depoe Bay and Gleneden Beach Virtual Tour and Map; the Newport Virtual Tour and Map; the Waldport, Seal Rock Tour and Map; and the Yachats Virtual Tour and Map. Also see the Upper Lane County virtual tour and map for those hidden beaches south of there.

What about beach bonfires on the Oregon coast? Camping on beaches of the Oregon coast? What are the rules for dogs? What if I run out of gas? See the Surprising Unknown Rules of the Oregon coast for these answers, including some rules about a few lodgings that aren't always talked about.

Where can I find a guide to Oregon coast beaches? Again, your best bets for a serious overview are the virtual tours listed above, which provide you a quick glance what these beaches and towns look like, and then you can click on the individual tour stops to see more. There are literally hundreds of photos between all the tours.

Beyond the virtual tours, there are complete guides to some beach areas which list every beach access. See the Seaside Complete Guide, Cannon Beach Complete Guide, Lincoln City Complete Guide and the Waldport, Seal Rock Complete Guide.

What is Sea Foam on the Coast? The short answer is a form of phytoplankton, more or less.And no, it's not pollution. It's a good thing. More at Oregon Coast Science Experts: What is Sea Foam?

Oregon Coast Tsunami Debris Questions: What are the Red Bulbs?

What are these Creatures I Found on Oregon Coast? See the Oregon coast science section to answer questions about creatures found on beaches.

Where Can i Find a List of Attractions on the Oregon coast? Oregon Coast Attractions, Spas lists the manmade attractions and the natural attractions.

How Do We Report Tsunami Debris on the Oregon coast? Tsunami Debris News from Oregon Coast - How to Report Debris

When is the Next Glass Float Ball Drop in Lincoln City?

Search over 7,000 Pages for Oregon coast subjects, articles or lodging... Web www.beachconnection.net

More Oregon Coast Frequently Asked Questions
Oregon Coast Outdoor Guide - At a Glance

Published 05/01/2011

Wreck of the Peter Iredale, Warrenton

(Oregon Coast) - Long walks on the beach, playing in the sand or bouncing around the many rocky slabs that comprise chunks of this area are the big attraction to the Oregon coast. But theres also crabbing, clamming, hiking, boating, kayaking, whale watching and other activities that make for a complete visit.

If you've ever needed a quick reference guide to the outdoors for the Oregon coast  this would be it. Follow the links to further information and details.

Astoria/Warrenton Area: see the Astoria Virtual Tour and do a search on Astoria/Warrenton articles. Astoria itself has no beaches as its on the mouth of the Columbia. But there are numerous lakes and outdoor attractions here, as well as many riverside beaches.

The beach starts at Warrenton, where youll find more enormous lakes, the Wreck of the Peter Iredale and a bundle of civil war-era fortress attractions. The south jetty is a spectacular beach spot and viewpoint. Soft, sandy beaches continue down for 15 miles or so.

Seaside, Oregon and its upscale little brother Gearhart are comprised of mostly soft, sandy beach spots. Take the Seaside, Oregon Virtual Tour or the Complete Guide to Seaside for a complete list of all beach accesses there.

Cannon Beach comes up next, where Haystack Rock and miles of pristine beaches lay.

The northern end features landmarks like Ecola State Park, a heap of hiking trails and the surfing hotspot of Indian Beach. South of town, the beaches meander beneath high cliffs, the rocks-meets-sand beaches of Arch Cape, and major hiking drama around Cape Falcon. Theres more at the Cannon Beach Virtual Tour and the Cannon Beach, Oregon Complete Guide, which lists all beach access.

The Manzanita area begins with Neahkahnie Mountain, its stunning overlooks and miles of trails to the top of the mountain. The sandy stretch of Manzanita gives way to the Nehalem Bay and all its outdoor activities, such as clamming, fishing, boating and more. Then Rockaway Beach continues southward with seven more miles of strand. Theres more at the Nehalem Bay Virtual tour.

Barview begins the next stretch, the northern part of Tillamook Bay. There, Garibaldi, Bay City, Tillamook and Bay Ocean provide all sorts of boat ramps, fishing guide tours and more. See the Tillamook Bay Virtual Tour.

The Three Capes Loop is 25 miles of amazing, often clandestine beaches and cliff viewpoints. There, Cape Meares, Oceanside, Netarts, Cape Lookout, Tierra Del Mar, Pacific City and Cape Kiwanda create a great variety of things to do. Miles and miles of hiking trails snake throughout the area. There is the Three Capes Virtual Tour that tells more, as well as the Three Capes Complete Guide, which outlines every beach access.

Just south of there, you get to the stunning and secretive beaches of Neskowin, and 15-minute drive from there will get you into Lincoln City. The town is about ten miles of meandering, beachy fun, which includes a glorious bay and a huge array of beachcombing possibilities. See the Lincoln City Virtual Tour or the Lincoln City, Oregon Complete Guide.

Depoe Bay is the next little town, although theres plenty to do along the stretches of sand at Gleneden Beach and Lincoln Beach, where it suddenly turns into the rocky cliff areas that the little town is known for. The bay here is chock full of fishing and whale watch guide boats. Just south of town are many high vantage points, like Cape Foulweather, with a mix of rocky platforms and low beaches. See the Depoe Bay Virtual Tour.

Newport features miles and miles of beaches again, many of them surfing hotspots. Yaquina Head is huge for hiking. Fishing, clamming and other activities are big at Yaquina Bay, and then the area becomes the sandy stretch known as South Beach. See the Newport Virtual Tour.

Waldport and Seal Rock are just south of town, with more of a mix of stunning rock climbing possibilities and long walks on the beach. This is where the Oregon coast starts to get filled with secret spots. The Waldport  Seal Rock Virtual Tour and the Waldport  Seal Rock Complete Guide will show you more, including all beach access.

At Yachats, the landscape turns from sand to surfaces made of rocky basalt, and these massive, craggy structures dominate. Theres the 804 Trail here  which is handicap accessible  and other hidden beaches, towering viewpoints and long walk possibilities like Cape Perpetua, the Devils Churn and a stellar chunk of the Oregon Coast Trail. See the Yachats Virtual Tour for details.

Between here and Florence sits 25 miles of unforgettable beaches, hiking trails and natural wonders. See the Upper Lane County Virtual Tour for details and photographs.

Then to Florence, where the river that heads to the sea is the center of life, and surfing, sandboarding, boating and hiking happen along miles and miles of trails, lakes and huge sand dunes. See the Florence, Oregon Virtual Tour.

Below: a cave near Florence, just beneath the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

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Oregon Coast Science Experts: What is Sea Foam?

Published 10/06/2013





(Oregon Coast)  It's been the talk of the town lately  or talk of the towns - along the Oregon coast. Huge amounts of sea foam have made quite the splash around the region, especially during and just after the recent storms. (Above: foamy Lincoln City).

But just what is sea foam?

What it isn't is a form of pollution  it's exactly the opposite, in fact. It does create a kind of shocked reaction in people that haven't seen sea foam before, and this in turn causes them to ask locals about something the locals don't understand is even being questioned in the first place. Oregonians are very used to it.

Dr. Bill Hanshumaker, with the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, said that essentially foam in the ocean is created by tiny little phytoplankton that have died and how their skeletons change the surface tension of the water. The more phytoplankton, the more dead ones you have. The more skeletons of phytoplankton you have out there, the more surface tension and the more bubbles you have in the form of sea foam.

Phytoplankton are tiny one-celled organisms that are essentially the bottom of the food chain, kind of like microscopic plants. Whales eat gobs of them, and they also in turn create all that sea foam the Oregon coast is known for. (Above: photo of diatoms under a microscope courtesy Seaside Aquarium).

It's a lot like soap bubbles, Hanshumaker explains. In fact, just like it  except the materials are different, and almost as clean.

It's very much the way that soap bubbles are created by changing surface tension and allowing air to be trapped between layers of fluid, Hanshumaker said.

The critical ingredient in foam  on an even tinier level - is the cytoplasm of phytoplankton, a kind of fatty material that holds them together.This is inside the phytoplankton cell. These cytoplasm bits wind up gluing the skeletons together, forming layers that trap the air inside the fluid known as the ocean, and thus creating the bubbles. (Photo: Really thick foam near Yachats - so heavy it started to float upwards, looking like snow going the wrong direction.)

This is the cause of all the foam you see on the Oregon coast  and other beaches around the world  whether it's a lot of foam or just a little bit. Almost all the time, except for unusually calm days, you'll see sea foam.

In stormy weather, however, that's when it can get really spectacular, showing up in huge masses of sudsy stuff that can look like snow.

The more wind, however, the more foam you're apt to see. But a few other elements can send these big phytoplankton events into overdrive, like a phytoplankton bloom  which is sort of a mass birth of the little critters.

First you have upwelling, which is cold water causing a lot of nutrients coming up, Hanshumaker said. When there's a lot nutrients in the water, you have a phytoplankton bloom, diatoms, dinoflagellates  a huge population. Then you have the wind and storms which breaks apart cells, the cell fat tends to glue the skeletons together and trap the air, causing them to pile up in suds-like masses.

Upwellings in the ocean can change their habits from year to year, causing foam to be a bit different each year. Last year, for instance, winds shifted back and forth from southwest to northwest. This causes foam clumps and spectacular foam events to be rather episodic  meaning on and off. If you have winds more continually from the northwest, this keeps the upwellings around and thus the sea foam sightings as well, Hanshumaker said.

Diatoms tend to be more prevalent in this part of the Pacific Ocean than dinoflagellates. Dinoflagellates are actually the form of phytoplankton that cause glowing sand to happen on the beaches at night (more about glowing sand here). So if you see a lot of sea foam happening, and there hasn't been any rain in the last 24 hours to kill off the dinoflagellates, you're chances of seeing glowing sand is increased some.

Diatoms tend to really let you know when there's a lot of them. All of a sudden, especially in winter and spring, you start to see brown foam in the surf, often on the beaches too. This is caused by huge amounts of diatoms.

This tends to happen up around Seaside, Gearhart and Warrenton in such a heavy-handed way it alarms tourists. Because of the Columbia River, nutrient levels can be so good for diatoms they appear in such large, dark clumps of brown foam that it looks like oil on the beaches, or some brown sludge even. The waves in Seaside can be quite brown at times.

But it's a good thing. In fact, it's the sign of a healthy ocean. The Seaside Aquarium and local tourism officials are forced to field lots of questions about it from tourists and post many signs on the subject as it really freaks people out.

In fact, on many occasions on beaches you'll see dark, brown streaks or spots, or even black spots. That usually is not oil  except maybe on some of the few beaches where driving is allowed, like Pacific City, Gearhart or Warrenton.

Another interesting factoid about these forms of sea foam: what they look like under a microscope.

Dinoflagellates look like a soap bubble with a tail, or a hook, Hanshumaker said. Diatoms have a more symmetrical structure.

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Brown waves at Seaside.





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ISLAMABAD, July 9 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed and over 10 others injured when a passenger bus collided with a car in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, officials said on Saturday.

The accident took place on Shakargarh Road in the Narowal district of the province when the bus driver lost control over the vehicle while overtaking and hit the car, district police officer Narowal Rizwan Omer Gondal told Xinhua.

All the killed were passengers of the car while 10 people aboard the bus were injured, the official said, adding that the accident occurred due to the over-speeding and slippery road owing to a recent heavy downpour in the district.

Following the incident, rescue teams and police reached the scene and shifted the injured people to a nearby hospital. Several among them are said to be in critical condition.

Road accidents are quite frequent in Pakistan mainly due to poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and unprofessional driving. 
Striking Even Startling Moments Along the Oregon Coast Caught on Camera

Published 07/08/22 at 5:35 AM PST

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Oregon Coast)  It's known as the one of the most dynamic environments in the world, where everything changes constantly. Oregon's coastline can yield some truly startling finds  if you're lucky to be there at the right time. Indeed, it's one of the few places on the planet that has sneaker waves: that's something a lot of beachgoers from others parts of the U.S. and elsewhere have not even heard of. No two days will resemble the other out here, especially if you're looking down. (Above: a detail from the pink rainbow. All photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection)

If you're truly lucky, you'll have your camera in your hand when this occurs. Then again, it's amazing how many wild and wacky sights the average visitor doesn't pick up on. Knowledge really is power: and if you know the science of what you're seeing, then you can actually understand its significance.





Rainbow Struggles for Survival in a Raging Pink Sky. This coastline can create the strangest weather systems, probably because this is where the inland and the oceanic air systems collide. Sometime in spring 2002, this scene presented itself just east of Pacific City. A crazed, angry bank of clouds was moving in from the east, while the coastal sunset hit it with wild colors and tinted it in pinks and reds. Rain was beginning to fall, and lightning could be seen in the distance. For a brief time, this collection of conditions created a rainbow in the midst of this almost sepia-toned moment.

Its blues and greens were largely cut out by the fierce cast of the reds from behind, but it was still visible: a strange and surreal reminder of how dynamic and unique the coastal environment is.

Down the road, in Neskowin, the lightning was directly overhead, and created the most thunderous, cataclysmic noise imaginable.





Strangely Shaped Sunset Near Manzanita. Sunsets are nothing new on the coast; theyre really such a staple of travel photography that this can sometimes exist on a whole new level of kitsch. Periodically, however, they erupt in wild shapes and there are moments that  if were lucky  are startling for one reason or another and are caught in-camera.

One extraordinary spring, while cruising past the overlooks above Manzanita, thick layers of clouds broke open in just the right way to allow shafts of pale sunlight through in stark shafts. It all resembled some alien mothership that was hovering above, in the distance, and maybe teleporting things up or down.

This, combined with the other cloud breaks and shadowy shapes of fir trees from Neahkahnie Mountain, made for a memorable sight.

Lighthouse In a Bubble. Way back in the early 2000s, Cape Meares Lighthouse went under the knife for a few months of renovations and refurbishing. Few things were more jolting than to walk up to this beauty and find it all covered up in a white bubble  reminiscent of those scenes in the movie E.T when the government covered up the familys house in a kind of quarantine.

There were some years in the '70s and '80s when the Cape Meares Lighthouse was not open to the public and not really run by anyone. During those years, it was hit by a sizable amount of vandalism, including all four of the prism lenses being stolen. They were eventually recovered over a span of several years in the mid-80s, including one being recovered in a drug raid in Portland. One was anonymously left on the doorstep of a park official as well.

Early in 2010, the park was again hit by vandals who fired several rounds into the structure, breaking 15 panes and chunks of the Fresnel lens. Eventually two suspects were arrested in the crime. Damage was estimated at around half a million dollars.



Photo Tiffany Boothe, Seaside Aquarium

Double Rainbow Amid Storm Ravaged Beach. In 2009, Seaside Aquariums Tiffany Boothe explored a winter beach after a storm and found a host of wonders, including this rather surreal moment where a double rainbow appeared and framed some interesting  and very touchable - beach finds. She noted the large surf along the coast had distributed a hefty amount of marine grasses and kelp along the sands. Entangled among the grass and the holdfasts (a root-like structure that attaches kelp to hard surfaces) were decorator crabs, cancer crabs, juvenile red rock crabs, porcelain crabs, and small hermit crabs.

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Coastal Spotlight



Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees nearly 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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Surprising Unknown Rules of the Oregon Coast

Updated Weekly

Camping is banned on the beaches of Manzanita

(Oregon Coast)  Secrets are aplenty along this shoreline, and not just in the form of hidden spots. Bundles of factoids exist just under the surface that could really avoid all sorts of problems on your coastal visit.

Many of them are rules or tidbits of common sense you should probably heed, yet coastal visitor agencies haven't imparted these bits of necessary wisdom.

Can You Pitch a Tent Just About Anywhere? Sleep on the Beach?

This is not allowed, especially on most beaches. Towns and villages like Manzanita, Tierra del Mar and all of Clatsop County between Cannon Beach and Astoria completely ban camping on the beach, as do some state parks. It may not be outright stated that it's prohibited to pitch a tent on some beaches, but don't be surprised if authorities come and boot you. Read the signs at the beach access.

Unfortunately, it is not clearly makred in all coastal towns. Most, if not all, have banned sleeping on the beaches or in parking lots, but they have not yet put up signs declaring it illegal.

As tempting as it may seem, any expert on the beaches will tell you not to sleep on any beach for a number of safety reasons.

You cannot park and sleep within city limits of just about all towns. You cannot sleep in your vehicle in the parking lots of waysides and beaches within city limits. In fact, most parking areas have signs designating no parking within certain times at night.

You can sometimes park and sleep in gravel pullouts or viewpoints along Highway 101 that are outside of towns, but make sure you look at the signage as sometimes other civic authorities have declared it as illegal.

Some beaches will let your pooch run unihibited.

Dogs on the Beach

Numerous beaches do require Fido to be on a leash, especially state parks. Make sure you check the regulations at the access. More obscure beaches and many strands in front of cities don't seem to regulate leashes - but again, you must check the signage, if any. Oregon State Parks strongly urges you to "be a responsible pet owner regarding cleaning up after your pet so our beautiful Oregon coast beaches can be enjoyed by all."

Most beaches now have doggie doo-doo bag dispensers so you can clean up after your pet.

Florence: don't use beach logs for fires.

Beach Fire Rules: Simple but Strict

Oregon State Parks oversees this states beaches and these rules, but they often differ from access to access. These are posted on most trails or accesses. While most allow fires  some dont. Be sure to check.

The rules are strict, but theyre also basic common sense.

Dont use large logs  only small pieces of wood. Obviously, build them AWAY from the vegetation line, quite a ways away. The same with piles of driftwood: stay from them as you could start another, larger fire.

When youre done with your beach fire  do NOT bury it. Put it out with water, but leave the remnants visible so any still-hot embers that may be left arent lurking beneath the surface, waiting to burn someone walking barefoot over what looks like regular sand. These fires can smolder for hours.



The Nightmare of Running Out of Gas

This warning sign is almost halfway between Tillamook and Portland.

Luckily, almost every beach town now has a gas station open late or all night, so running out of gas isnt as big a problem as it used to be a decade or two ago.

The off-seasons see shorter hours for gas stations.

Even in the summer, most stations shut down before 9 p.m., and there are several stretches where there are no gas stations - and the distances between stations are often 20 to 30 miles in lots of places.

Highway 6, between Portland and Tillamook, has a 40-miles stretch where there are no gas stations. The last one until Tillamook is at about the 41-mile marker. Road signs on both directions of the highway warn where this gasless tract begins. Get fueled up in Tillamook, or along Highway 26 before the Highway 6 junction, just to make sure.

Rockaway Beach has no gas station.

Towns like Yachats, Rockaway or Manzanita could find you stranded after the early evening, or stuck in one of the long stretches near there, between major towns. There are no stations in Rockaway, and those in Garibaldi or Manzanita close in the evening  more than ten miles away in either direction. There is no longer a gas station in Cannon Beach, either.

If youre traveling in the middle of the night, the only all night gas stations are in Tillamook and Seaside, about fifty miles of no gas.

Watch your fuel gauge closely if you're making long trips late at night on the central coast as well. In Florence, Newport and Lincoln City there are usually 24-hour gas stations, but not in other towns. Those stations in Depoe Bay, Yachats and Pacific City close down rather early.

There are no gas stations in that 20-mile stretch between Lincoln City and Pacific City, or that 25-mile frontier between Yachats and Florence. Update/Note: at this time (April 2016) htere is no gas station in Yachats, leaving the only stations nearby in Waldport, 7 miles north of Yachats. This could change in the next year, however.

The beaches between Florence and Yachats are stunning, but there are no gas stations in that 25-mile stretch.

An interesting tip that may come in handy: If you are in danger of running out of gas, make it to a city with cab service. Sometimes, you can call on a cab to bring you gas in a can from their own supply. This isn't guaranteed, however, and they dont advertise this at all, because theyre technically not allowed to do this. Besides, towns large enough to have cab services usually have a late-night gas station or two.

Are You 25 Years or Younger in Seaside?

You may have a problem. Many lodgings in the north coast town don't allow young folks under the age of (approximately) 25 to rent a room without a parent or guardian. It's a popular hotspot for early twentysomethings, and young partiers have apparently ruined it for the rest in the eyes of many business owners. The age limit differs between lodgings, but it's generally around 23 - 25. It's best to call ahead to your favorite lodging to double-check.

Even More: Oregon Coast Frequently Asked Questions

Find out about Oregon coast whales, find lodging lists for the Oregon coast, places to eat, about swimming on the coast, about crab shells, strange creatures on the beaches, maps for the coast, what is the best of the Oregon coast, and more about nature, beaches, things to do and attractions. Oregon Coast Frequently Asked Questions.

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Updated Weekly

A Guide to Oregon Coast Seafood Restaurants, Dining

(Oregon Coast) - For many, it's half the reason to head to the Oregon coast. For others, it's simply a requirement of being an Oregonian: indulging in the seafood, the fish 'n' chips, and of course, the chowder.

Some of the best of Oregon coast seafood restaurants are represented here  the places to chow down on chowder and other former ocean dwellers, often while staring at the waves and the place your dish came from. From family friendly to upper crust upscale, this is where to start when you get those hunger pangs after bounding around the beach.

For a full list of Oregon coast restaurants, menus, and items other than seafood....

Cannon Beach. The very family-oriented Cannon Beach Fultano's Pizza feeds your need for fishies with pizzas. Shrimp pizzas feature mushrooms and olives, a shrimp margherita with garlic and herb infused olive oil topped with a three-cheese blend, roma tomatoes, fresh garlic, red onions and fresh basil. The Seafood pesto pizza has a pesto sauce with shrimp and baby clams. You can also put anchovies or smoked oysters on your pizzas. 200 N. Hemlock and Second Street. www.CBfultanos.com (503) 436-9717.

Pelican Brewing Company Cannon Beach. Appetizers include Smoked Oyster Bruschetta features brined, smoked oysters served with spent-grain bread crostini, aioli, oven-roasted tomato and arugula; Smoked Chicken Lettuce Wraps in a spicy Asian BBQ sauce and rice noodles; salmon cured in one of their beers; or a towering plate of onion rings and other unique specialties. An interesting variety of flatbreads with seafoods or sausage are around $15. Heartier full plate dishes are $13 to $25 and include fish and chips, a smoked half chicken, mac n' cheese, a malt crusted salmon, Pacific NW Cioppino (a spicy broth with prawns, clams, Dungeness crab, fresh fish), a Sweet Potato Quinoa Cake, or fish tacos marinated and served with a spicy Baja sauce. There's even a 14-Hour Slow Smoked Tri-Tip. Many sandwiches and burgers round out the main courses, often including a cured salmon and BLT wrap, a burger with cajun sauce and poblano chili, and other incarnations. Salads, soups and chowder - along with many desserts - round out the offerings. 1371 S. Hemlock Street. Cannon Beach, Oregon. 503-908-3377. http://pelicanbrewing.com/pubs/cannon-beach/

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Manzanita. At the San Dune Pub in Manzanita, everything is around $10 for their seafood menu. Their fish tacos are rather legendary, and come in sets of two. There are also shrimp tacos. There is the clam strips platter, a phat fish 'n' chips the famed fish burger, oyster burger or an oyster Po' boy sandwich. Don't forget prawn cocktails or the calamari that comes with a chipotle mayo. 127 Laneda Ave., Manzanita, Oregon. 503-368-5080. www.sandunepub.com

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Pelican Tillamook Tap Room. Inside a soaring family-friendly facility, you are dining with a view of the tap room, where much of the Pelican Brewery action happens. Deep in the heart of inland Highway 101 and the area's green, rolling hills, about 12 miles from the beaches. Indulge in a more downhome version of the Pelican's favorite cuisine, with specialties for kids as well. Start with appetizers like fries, a hummus based on their beer that comes veggies and chips, oyster shooters or fried cheese curds. Big sandwiches and burgers on tap such as various burgers, including one very spicy one with chipotle and fried jalapenos. Take to the ocean with the oyster basket (local Netarts oysters) or their famed fish and chips. A scrumptious Reuben is literally piled high with corned beef, while the elk burger will intrigue you. 1708 First Street. Tillamook, Oregon. 503-842-7007. Website here

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Meridian Restaurant & Bar, Pacific City. A soaring ceiling with hardwood exposed native wooden beams gives way to tall windows that provide a stunning ocean view. The centerpiece to this dreamy atmosphere is a towering fireplace that doubles the cozy yet shimmering, seamless ambiance. The other centerpiece is the catch of the day and seafood thats already become famous. All dishes sourced from Northwest farms, most entrees are $20 to $30, some up around $45. The menu changes periodically, but a sampling of approaches includes: A smoked, black cod with pickled mustard seed, grilled cauliflower steak in a burnt carrot mole, abalone with mushrooms, or a rockfish rapini that graced with wasabi, Cara Cara orange and hot honey. Innovative breakfasts take on delights like hash pork confit or eggs benedict. Brunch and lunch menu features burgers, crab cakes, plenty of seafood and salad options. 33000 Cape Kiwanda Dr. Pacific City, Oregon. 503.483.3000. Meridian Restaurant website.

Pelican Brewing Pacific City. At the scenic and family-friendly Pelican Pub and Brewery, you get a free show with your meal. The waves are startling, and you can watch the action of Pacific City boaters and surfers.

For dinner, starters include crab cakes, calamari and a bay shrimp martini (around $10 or less). Seafood pastas include smoky linguine with clams that has garlic, fennel and proscuitto ham with manila clams; a seafood mac 'n' cheese with sauteed bay scallops shrimp, pepper bacon and fresh spinach; an oyster Po' Boy with oysters dipped in their famed beer batter; steak and seafood with shrimp and scallops; a grilled yellowfin tuna, pan fried oysters; or a pan-seared Pacific Rockfish with Kiwanda Cream Ale tomato and caper sauce. Check out the malt encrusted salmon and a massive bouillabaisse that hosts two kinds of shrimp, local Dungeness crab, calamari and other klinds of fish in a saffron-fennel broth. The crab crusted Mahi-Mahi is draped in local crab and a citrus beer blanc.

Pizzas can have seafood as well, like the smoky scallop. Their dinner menu ranges from $12 to $25.

That's just dinner. There's plenty for lunch that's less expensive, and some of their breakfast items boast seafood. 33180 Cape Kiwanda Drive. Pacific City, Oregon. 503-965-7007. www.pelicanbrewery.com.

More Pacific City, Oceanside Dining, Restaurants Seafood

Lincoln City. The Inn at Spanish Head's Fathoms Restaurant provides one awe-inspiring ocean view along with a huge menu of seafood. Appetizers (around $10) include Seafood Cocktails Jumbo Prawn, Dungeness Crab, Cumin and Coriander Fried Calamari, or crab cakes with Asian mustard.

The steamed clams comes with one pound of Manila Clams simmered in garlic, herbs and white wine, or the surf and turf dish includes one massive steak and an Australian lobster tail ($43).

In the $15 - $25 range is salmon (grilled, poached or blackened) in an orange chipotle glaze, crab stuffed halibut in a Bearnaise sauce, blackened ahi tuna, battered halibut served with mango pineapple salsa or tartar sauce, a Coconut and Macadamia Nut Crusted Halibut with a Thai peanut sauce, and a seared ahi tuna with a mango pineapple salsa. 4009 SW Highway 101. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-994-1601 or 800-452-8127. www.spanishhead.com /site/restaurant.html

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Depoe Bay. In Depoe Bay, a splendid view of the ocean gives way to stunning seafood at the famous Tidal Raves. Start off with a Crisp Calamari quick fried in cornmeal and rice flour, served with cilantro-lime dip, maybe Manila clams in a dry white wine sauce, Dungeness crab, various seafood cocktails, or a Pacific Oyster Basket that's either pan fried or panko fried (all between $6 - $13).

Salads come with shrimp or a massive Pacific Oyster stew.

Dinner entrees (from $17 to $20) boast a green curry halibut with steamed peanut rice, lots of fish 'n' chips. Seared Sea Scallops on potato hash studded with sun dried tomato, bacon. and smoked tomato glaze, a Char Grilled Wild Salmon with crab risotto and vodka sauce, Dungeness Crab Casserole or that massive and famous Cioppino that's stuffed with clams, shrimp, crab and fish in a tomato-herb broth.

There's a Thai Barbequed Shrimp with an exotic curry, a linguine tossed with clams, crab, shrimp and fin fish in a choise of sauces, an herb crusted Pacific snapper with shrimp-caper sauce and smoked salmon potato cake or the coconut shrimp with a Saigon slaw and ginger-orange sauce. 279 NW Hwy 101. Depoe Bay, Oregon. 541-765-2995. www.tidalraves.com

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Yachats. The Adobe Restaurant boasts an impressive view of the consistently crazed waves of Yachats. You could almost imagine those yummy critters hopping straight out of the surf and onto your plate. Appetizers include oysters in a red sauce, breaded calamari rings, steamed clams with garlic bread or shrimp or crabmeat cocktail. Salads are famous for their seafood nirvana. There's New England clam chowder. Entrees ($17 - $20) have Yaquina Bay oyster rolled in bread crumbs in various forms; seafood fettuccine with sauteed bay shrimp, baby scallops and Dungeness crab in a garlic cream sauce; a smoked salmon fettuccine; scampi al ferri; beer battered jumbo prawns; a shrimp stir fry in fresh veggies and butter; a corn tortilla filled with Oregon shrimp; scallops sauteed and breaded in a white Tarragon sauce; a pot of baked crab in a shallot cream sauce or a Captain's Platter with numerous former ocean dwellers, including the catch of the day. 1555 Hwy 101. Yachats, Oregon. 800-522-3623. (541) 547-3141. www.adoberesort.com/dining.htm

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More from Nehalem Bay, Manzanita, Rockaway Beach, Wheeler - Blog, Articles

Manzanita Freaky Facts, Weird Science on N. Oregon Coast How is Manzanita related to a doomsday volcano? What about its wild history of ancient shipwrecks, treasure hunting? What famous person died there? Why do local waters sometimes glow?

Oregon Coast Question Answered: Best Beaches of Manzanita? The area runs the gamut of landscape geography, from towering cliffs, soft sand beaches, rocky places to amble around a variety of waterways

Rockaway Beach, Oregon Tourism, Sites and Sights What was once called Garibaldi Beach, according to the history books, became named Rockaway Beach early in the last century and has been a tourism hotspot ever since

Latest in Manzanita, Oregon Coast: Beach Dangers, Lodging, Rentals, Spring, Sunsets, Debris, Oswald Gas canisters, spectualar sunsets, spotting whales, i-phone lodging listings, Manzanita maps, rentals in Manzanita, more news

Manzanita - Rockaway Blog: Latest Out of Manzanita, Rockaway Beach, Wheeler and Nehalem Bay

Manzanita at the Distance: Amazing Objects, Secrets Come to Light (Photo Essay) Not everything about an Oregon coast beach is at its best when walking on the beach. Not everything that's awe-inspiring about the area happens when you're close to it.

Manzanita, Oregon Explorations: Photos of Stunning Sunsets at Manzanita Between Cannon Beach and the Nehalem Bay sits the somewhat secretive village of Manzanita

N. Coast Time Lapse: Manzanita, Wheeler, Cannon Beach, Seaside The latest video experiment from Oregon Coast Beach Connection shows some fascinating things happening with the scenery that we see everyday

Wandering Rockaway Beach: the Sandy Wonder at a Second Glance A longtime Oregon coast vacation spot, one with a history literally going back to the beginning of the last century, Rockaway Beach is seven miles of gorgeous sand and a myriad of wowing wonders

Stunning Sights of Manzanita, a N. Oregon Coast Oasis (Photo Tour) This little north Oregon coast village is a kind of forested wonder and oasis of breathtaking sights and attractions tucked away a bit from the masses of traffic zipping along Highway 101

More Reasons to Meander Around Manzanita You could literally spend days just bouncing around the beaches and the nooks and crannies of Manzanita and never get bored. It's the viewpoints that often amaze the most, and for good reason. Neahkahnie Mountain is one of the most spectacular and photogenic spots on the entire Oregon coast

Astounding Sights and Sounds Between Cannon Beach and Manzanita For those intrepid explorers of the Oregon coast it's a goldmine of fantastic sights and discoveries. This thoroughly clandestine beach goes by the name of Falcon Cove, situated on the north Oregon coast between Arch Cape and Manzanita

Rockaway Beach Briefly - A Small Photographic Tour Rockaway Beach has been a favorite Oregon coast destination for over 100 years now, albeit a bit clandestinely

Details and Delights of an Oregon Landmark: Exploring Rockaway Beach This is the calm and cozy sandy wonder from the Oregon coast, boasting seven miles of soft granules and a kind of 1800's Old West look against an ocean backdrop

Shooting Stars, Other Galactic Fun Above N. Oregon Coast This weekend has proven to be filled with a variety of surprises in nature along the Oregon coast, including a few at night in Manzanita

That Beachy, Forested Wilderness Between Manzanita and Cannon Beach An intricate Oregon coast oasis of the untamed and rugged in between two very civilized worlds, near Manzanita, Wheeler and Nehalem.

Oregon Coast Oddities at Manzanita: Curiosities of Rock Manzanita is a cozy north Oregon coast hamlet that sits equal distance between the more bustling Cannon Beach and Rockaway Beach

Oregon Coast in 2011: Most Memorable Photos of Manzanita, Wheeler, Rockaway About 15 minutes south of Cannon Beach, you'll find the Nehalem Bay area, with its viewpoints and the towns of Manzanita, Rockaway, Nehalem and Wheeler

Oregon Coast Landmark: the South Jetty at Rockaway Beach At the southern side of the Nehalem Bay mouth, at Rockaway Beach, the south jetty juts out into the sea

Nocturnal North Oregon Coast: Rockaway Beach After the Sun Goes Down By night, however, Rockaway Beach reveals an esoteric, even alien-looking side

New Public Fishing Dock for North Oregon Coast Town This Saturday marks the gran opening celebration for a brand new fishing dock on Lake Lytle, in the north Oregon coast town of Rockaway Beach

Video Tour: Moving Around Manzanita, Nehalem Bay Move slowly throughout the north Oregon coast town and witness dozens of details - TimeLapse Video of Wheeler, Manzanita, Oswald West State Park
An attorney for Elon Musk sent a letter to Twitter on Friday informing the San Francisco-based company the Tesla CEO will not continue his bid to purchase the social media platform.

According to an NBC News report published by Lauren Feiner, the letter was disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in which Mike Ringler, an attorney with Houston-based firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, alleged "Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations."

Ringler posited that the social media platform had not provided Musk or his associates with "relevant business information" that had been requested, according to Feiner. The billionaire tech magnate has repeatedly and publicly shared his concerns about the prevalence of "spam bots" and fake accounts on the platform. In early June, Twitter offered Musk access to its full "firehouse" of data that includes the 500 million tweets typically published on the platform each day, according to a June Washington Post report.

Musk had previously stated that the deal was on hold until his team could secure such information and parse it for their own consideration. In his initial signed agreement to buy the company, Musk waived a right allowing him a deeper look into the company's finances. His attempt to pull out of the $44 billion deal follows a stark downturn in the price of Tesla's common shares, of which many had been leveraged by the billionaire to secure funding for his acquisition of Twitter.

A report by CNN's Alex Sherman published in May noted that Musk has a $1 billion buyout clause in his arrangement with Twitter that would allow him to walk away from the deal prior to its completion. That clause, however, may still leave the billionaire open to a lawsuit from Twitter under certain conditions.

"Musk and Twitter agreed to a so-called reverse termination fee of $1 billion when the two sides reached a deal last month. Still, the breakup fee isnt an option payment that allows Musk to bail without consequence," Sherman wrote.

"A reverse breakup fee paid from a buyer to a target applies when there is an outside reason a deal cant close, such as regulatory intermediation or third-party financing concerns," Sherman explained. "A buyer can also walk if theres fraud, assuming the discovery of incorrect information has a so-called 'material adverse effect.'"

Without the proper grounds for termination of the deal, Musk could stand to be sued for billions, according to a lawyer who spoke to Sherman. "If Musk were to abandon a bid simply because he felt he overpaid," the lawyer argued, "Twitter could sue him for billions in damages in addition to collecting the $1 billion fee."

Shortly after news broke of Musk's decision to pull out of the deal, Twitter board of directors member Bret Taylor tweeted that the social media platform will seek legal action against the billionaire in order to close the deal along its previously agreed-upon terms.

"The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement," Taylor wrote. "We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery."

This is a developing story.
Amy Harris/Amy Harris/Invision/AP

DETROIT (AP)  Carlos Santana has postponed his next six shows after collapsing on stage during a concert on Tuesday, temporarily stepping away from the stage out of an abundance of caution for the artists health.

July concerts in Noblesville, Indiana; Cincinnati, Ohio; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Rogers, Arkansas; Dallas, Texas; and Woodlands, Texas, have been pushed back, Michael Vrionis, Santana's manager said in a statement.
Seven artists representing more than four decades of Lamar University art students are bringing their varied styles to the Dishman Art Museum for After School Special, through July 30.

Juror Lynn Castle, Art Museum of Southeast Texas executive director, selected this years artists from more than 30 submissions. During the opening reception on June 24, she joked that the process was torture as the bar was high.

Using her knowledge of the Dishman, Castle chose pieces that would work together in the space, as well as a particular part of the gallery.

Castle also said that she looked for pieces that had an element of mystery  that were haunting. She said she chose works that had really challenged the viewer to think about what they are looking at.

Artists submitted up to seven works to form a series. The works were submitted digitally, which added to Castles challenge, she said, as it is hard to really see the subtlety in the work that way. Castle said she encourages viewers to visit the exhibition to see the works in person.

A good example of Castles decision-making process is Justin LeBlancs three large black panels that fill the far wall of the gallery. Not only do they work in the space, but they certainly challenge the viewer to look hard. A photograph fails to adequately capture the brushstrokes. The center panel, Millions of Dollars Paid But Ignored, features series of brush strokes in variations of black on a black ground. Each mark represents a million dollars that undocumented workers pay into the economy. Black on black is a hard trick to pull off, but like Mark Rothkos meditative panels at the Rothko Chapel, the painting requires the viewer to contemplate the surface and absorb the message.

Sunni Forciers installation piece, Anatomy of a Shadow, is another work which invites the viewer to interact with it. The site-specific installation features multiple photographs suspended from filaments. The images, a collection of random objects Forcier finds abandoned, seem to rain down on the viewer and throw shadows on the wall that add to the visual experience.

Like Forcier, Audra LaCours photographs capture abandoned objects, but shows them in the environment, a commentary on the disposable nature of society. The abandoned objects both pollute and become part of the landscape.

Elizabeth Fontenots work is different from the prints and paintings one expects from the artists normal work. The multimedia series features photographic images and screen prints mounted on found window frames and explores the relationship between the refineries and community in Mid-Jefferson County. The pieces are a non-sentimental view of Fontenots home. Night Lights incorporates an image of the TPC explosion.

Justin Varner is represented by a series of abstract wood block panels that are 3-dimensional paintings. The vibrant colors of Rough Recess intermingle with the shadows created by the blocks. The works are sophisticated and rustic at the same time. They are certainly modern but also seem to draw on American folk-art traditions.

Amy Richards subtle works on paper combine her interests in Asian papermaking traditions and coastal waters. The works, such as Night Life, evoke a feeling of microscopic sea organisms floating serenely with the current. The works are probably the most meditative works in the show.

Among Greg Buscemes ceramic sculptures is Yellow Shrine, which carries the air of an ancient place of spiritual rest. The bright colors are uplifting and playful. The piece is clearly influenced by Buscemes visit to Japan, both in form and brightness.

Castle has done an excellent job assembly a collection of disparate styles and media that creates a wonderful push and pull of ideas. Each artist deserves consideration on their own, but together are an excellent showcase of the work produced by Lamar students over the years.
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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP)  The Louvre, The Museum of Modern Art and ... the Hard Rock?

Hoping to expand their appeal beyond the slot machine and buffet crowd, some casinos are turning to fine art galleries or exhibitions to bring in new business from customers who might not otherwise visit a gambling hall.

In the process, they are helping not only broaden their own customer bases, but are also putting new eyeballs in front of some of the world's great works of art.

One such effort began Friday at Atlantic City's Hard Rock casino, where the highly acclaimed Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience exhibit opened. The 30,000-square-foot display uses over 300 of Van Gogh's works, reproducing them digitally and projecting them onto screens, walls and floors.

The whole point of an experience like this is to bring people in, said Fanny Curtat, the exhibit's art historian. For a lot of people, museums are intimidating. It's all about exploring and having more ways of experiencing art.

Joe Lupo, the casino's president, said casinos need to appeal to as broad a range of potential customers as possible.

You need to try different experiential things to help the city acquire new visitation, whether it's art or some other experience to acquire that person who doesn't look at Atlantic City as just a gaming destination, he said. The Van Gogh exhibit has been successful in every major market in the country, and Atlantic City needs to be looked at as one of those major markets. I think it elevates the city and the property with such a high-profile exhibit.

The walk-through exhibit projects Van Gogh's artwork onto the walls and floor of a viewing room, with images growing and flowing into one another: cherry trees, for example, sprout and grow blossoms, that then blow away in the breeze. Shimmering walls of color dissolve and flow into other shapes and images all around the viewer.

Other casinos are doing likewise. The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art in Las Vegas has displayed works by Picasso, Monet, Warhol, Titian and Van Gogh.

The Palms Casino Resort features modern art pieces from Jean-Michel Basquiat, Richard Prince and Andy Warhol, and numerous street artists.

MGM's Aria Resort features public art including sculptures by artists including Antony Gormley, Richard Long and Henry Moore.

The Hippodrome Casino in London in 2013 appointed a digital artist in residence, Thomas D Gray, and offers a competition for U.K. artists to have their works displayed there.

Maryland's Live! Casino & Hotel has an art collection curated by Suzi Cordish, whose husband owns the casino. The collection includes more than 40 works by artists including Warhol, Jennifer Steinkamp, Charlie Ahn, Robert Indiana and Not Vital.

Many guests are intrigued once they realize the breath of the collection, said Renee Mutchnik, a spokesperson for the casino. We believe that any appreciator of the arts would be impressed by our art pieces, and we are always looking for opportunities to promote the collection.

Placing fine art in casinos benefits not only the gambling halls by appealing to new customers, according to Curtat, the Van Gogh exhibit historian. She said it also helps create new art lovers.

It might seem like an unlikely pairing, but if anybody gets out of this a feeling that they have this connection with Van Gogh, maybe the next time they are in New York they'll want to go to (The Museum of Modern Art) and see the actual Starry Night on the museum wall, Curtat said. That will be a win.

___

Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif speaks in an interview in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, on June 14, 2022. Pakistan expects to further lift its friendship and cooperation with China to a new level, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

ISLAMABAD, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan expects to further lift its friendship and cooperation with China to a new level, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said.

During a recent interview at the Prime Minister's Office in Islamabad, Sharif said that despite a shifting international landscape, Pakistan and China firmly support each other. The people-to-people exchanges between the two countries have witnessed new progress and the Pakistani people benefit from bilateral cooperation.

The prime minister noted that the Belt and Road Initiative has offered great help to Pakistan's economic and social development, adding that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a vital pilot project under the initiative. He said Pakistan looks forward to cooperating closely with China to promote the CPEC's development.

Sharif noted that the CPEC's first construction phase has met Pakistan's energy needs, saying Pakistan seeks to attract Chinese advanced technology and investment, and bolster Pakistan's industrialization.

Sharif also spoke highly of the Global Development Initiative (GDI) and the Global Security Initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping. He believes that the GDI provides important opportunities to help achieve prosperity and development for all countries.

"China's GDI is a very noble cause, and it is going to contribute to world peace and prosperity," he said, adding that there can be no development without security.

Pakistan is very supportive of both initiatives and looks forward to actively participating in future related meetings, said the prime minister.

Sharif said President Xi Jinping is a visionary leader with a strong will and broad vision. He looks forward to working closely with Xi and hopes to continue to learn from his experience and philosophy of state governance.

Sharif said that the Communist Party of China has been developing for more than 100 years, leading China to become the second-largest economy in the world and eradicate absolute poverty, which are remarkable achievements worth learning for Pakistan.

He said China's dynamic zero-COVID policy prioritizes people and life.

China has provided substantial support to Pakistan during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering vaccines and other epidemic prevention materials, as well as sending experts to assist in the country's anti-pandemic fight, he added.

The prime minister also said his government attaches great importance to the security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan, adding that the Pakistani Interior Ministry is in contact with all provinces to ensure their safety.

Sharif said any attempt to undermine the Pakistan-China friendship would not succeed. 
Demonstrators march and gather near the state capitol in Austin, Texas, last month following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. On Friday, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming herbs including pennyroyal, mugwort and parsley are viable alternatives to abortion. Experts strongly warn against trying to self-manage an abortion using any herbs, as many of these alleged remedies not only do not work but are dangerous or even deadly.
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Locals buy dried fruits and nuts for the upcoming Eid al-Adha in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 6, 2022. As Muslims everywhere get ready to mark Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, in Afghanistan people are still struggling to survive. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

KABUL, July 9 (Xinhua) -- As Muslims everywhere get ready to mark Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, in Afghanistan people are still struggling to survive.

"The Eid al-Adha is nearing but the prices are very high -- beyond the reach of ordinary people. If the United States were to release the 9.5 billion dollars of Afghanistan's assets they have frozen, prices definitely would go down," Shafiqullah, a dry fruit seller, told Xinhua.

Shafiqullah, 45, said that 1 kg of pistachios that was 800 afghanis (9 U.S. dollars) last year now cost around 1,000 afghanis. According to United Nations agency data, more than 22 million of the country's 35 million population were facing acute food shortages.

"The price of one packet of chocolate was 150 afghanis last year but this year its price increased to 250 afghanis," Shafiqullah said.

Blaming U.S. sanctions, the shopkeeper said, "If Washington releases Afghanistan's assets the prices of basic needs would drop by 30 percent."

U.S. President Joe Biden has signed the decree to allocate 3.5 billion dollars of Afghan assets to the families of the 9/11 victims, with a similar amount earmarked for humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. The decision has been widely condemned by the international community as unjust.

"I came with 600 afghanis today to buy dry fruit for the festival but it's not enough to buy anything," said a Kabul resident Mumtaz.

Mumtaz also blames the United States for poverty in Afghanistan, saying, "I want Washington to unfreeze our money so as to improve our economy."

Like other Muslim countries, Eid al-Adha will be celebrated in Afghanistan with sacrifices of animals, and visiting relatives and friends.

"Blocking Afghanistan's assets has destroyed our economy and that is why the prices have gone up and we can't buy even dry fruit today for the holiday," businesswoman Freshta Safari lamented. 

Locals buy dried fruits and nuts for the upcoming Eid al-Adha in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 6, 2022. As Muslims everywhere get ready to mark Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, in Afghanistan people are still struggling to survive.(Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

Locals buy nuts for the upcoming Eid al-Adha in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 6, 2022. As Muslims everywhere get ready to mark Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, in Afghanistan people are still struggling to survive.(Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

Photo taken on July 6, 2022 shows a local vendor selling nuts in Kabul, Afghanistan. As Muslims everywhere get ready to mark Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, in Afghanistan people are still struggling to survive.(Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

A local vendor selling dried fruits and nuts for the upcoming Eid al-Adha is seen in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 6, 2022. As Muslims everywhere get ready to mark Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, in Afghanistan people are still struggling to survive.(Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to supporters and members of the media after a bill signing last November in Brandon, Fla. On Friday, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming DeSantis has signed a bill requiring college students and professors to register their political views with the state.
Musk abandons deal to buy Twitter; company says it will sue

Elon Musk announced Friday that he will abandon his tumultuous $44 billion offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts
Mickey Mouse welcomes children to the opening of a month long Walt Disney 50th anniversary film retrospective being held on July 9, 1973 in New York at Lincoln Center in Alice Tully Hall. The first film presented was Alice in Wonderland which has not been shown in New York in 20 years. Each child attending the show received Mickey Mouse ears.
PITTSFIELD  The first trip on the Berkshire Flyer ferried more than 60 people from New York City to the streets of Pittsfield, letting travelers off right near North Street.

And when they got here after a more than four-hour trip, many had already arranged transportation to their ultimate destinations.

Not so for two travelers, for whom an unexpected hiccup during the trip led to their last minute transportation plans falling into place.

Eva Jacobs, 26, and Rachel Sobelsohn, 27, both of New York City, said they were among the eight or so Berkshire Flyer passengers who missed the train out of Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station.

Sobelsohn and Jacobs had made the weekend trip to see the play ABCD at Barrington Stage Company, which was written by their friend, May Treuhaft-Ali.

But the arrival-departure board at Penn Station failed to display the platform from which the train would be departing, so they and the other handful of passengers missed it, and had to take the next train to Albany. There, they linked up with the train en route to Pittsfield.

In the process, they met Eoin Keigher, 23, who hails from Ireland and was traveling to the Berkshires to visit family in Lenox, not far from Sobelsohn and Jacobs weekend accommodations. The friends had planned to try to hail a ride-sharing car, until Keigher offered to give them a ride.

We were going to get a Lyft, now were getting a lift, Jacobs said.

Many people who rode the train in met up with people who gave them rides back to their final destination, said state Sen. Adam Hinds at a news conference following the inaugural Berkshire Flyer journey to the countys largest community.

Hinds himself was the first off the train, and was greeted by a clapping crowd that included state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, D-Pittsfield, Transportation Secretary Jamey Tesler, and state Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, who is running for lieutenant governor.

Shuttles from Transport the People parked on Columbus Avenue waiting for passengers, with vehicles running to north and south county.

Rebecca Brien, the managing director of Downtown Pittsfield Inc., and a few downtown ambassadors from DPI, greeted passengers, handed out literature listing events in the county this weekend and offered directions.

By the time people gathered in the Joseph Scelsi Intermodal Transportation Center for the press conference, dozens of passengers who took the train in had moved on to their next destination.

I see no Berkshire Flyer travelers stranded, Hinds said.

The train represents the latest component of the historical linkage of New York City and the Berkshires, where the tourism industry generated $870 million a year before the pandemic, said Tom Matuszko, the executive director of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.

Tesler said the outgoing Baker-Polito administration is focused on building passenger rail service, and looks at the Flyer as a learning opportunity that came together thanks to federal and state partnerships, and the leadership of Hinds.

I have faith that if we can do this, well be doing a lot more, Tesler said. This is the beginning.

The night was five years in the making, said Hinds, who evoked a round of applause when he voiced his hope the train wont be just seasonal and run on weekends, but will one day stop at the Pittsfields Intermodal Center every day.

Its my view that this should be daily, year-round service, Hinds said. This is the beginning of the expansion of rail in Western Massachusetts.

Farley-Bouvier thanked Hinds and said she is a little freaked out to be losing him as a colleague in the Legislature. Hinds had put his hat in the ring for the lieutenant governor seat, but failed to secure enough votes from delegates at the Democratic Party convention to qualify for the Sept. 6 primary ballot.

Farley-Bouvier said Western Massachusetts taxpayers deserve passenger rail. She pointed out that one penny of the state sales tax, not including meal taxes, goes to fund the MBTA in the eastern part of the state.

Every single person in Berkshire County pays the same amount of taxes as the people in the eastern part of the state, she said. And we deserve the same kind of service.
WILLIAMSTOWN  Slightly less than two years ago, in August 2020, Robert Menicocci and his wife were quickly packing clothes and personal items into a couple of backpacks, jumping into the car and fleeing their Bolder Creek, Calif., home, after watching a wildfire move down the mountainside towards their neighborhood.

When they returned a month later, everything they and their neighbors had left behind was reduced to ashes.

Now, having started his new job as Williamstown town manager on July 1, the panic and trauma are past, and hes focused on getting up to speed on the towns various challenges.

Menicocci, a native of Massachusetts, and his wife had been thinking about moving back east, and after the wildfire, they felt more motivated to do so. After looking for a while, they bought a place in Bennington, Vt., as a second home, a place to vacation near family and friends.

Menicocci noted that they had looked at homes all around New England, but the house in Bennington checked all the right boxes. So they bought the place.

A few weeks later he noticed the towns ads for a new town manager in a spot close to their Bennington home. He applied and after an intensive interview process, was hired.

We were already in that mindset with the pandemic driving our focus on returning (to New England), he said. He already had 15 years of experience working in Massachusetts government at the Department of Transitional Assistance in Boston in three different positions, the last one being director of the Office of Budget, Cost Control and Procurement. After that, from 2012 to 2014, Menicocci worked for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health in Boston as deputy commissioner of management and budget.

Williamstown voters pick Jane Patton, Randal Fippinger for Select Board seats Williamstown voters returned Jane Patton to the Select Board, awarding her a fourth, three-year term, and elected Randal Fippinger to a first term on that top board, in a three-way contest Tuesday.

His employment contract was approved unanimously by the Williamstown Select Board for a term of one year with a yearly salary of $155,000. The contract can be renewed by agreement for an additional two years.

Menicocci left his job as agency director of the Santa Clara County Social Services Agency in San Jose, Calif., which employed 3,000 people and had a budget of roughly $1 billion  a position he had held since 2015  to work in Williamstown.

Having started about a week ago, he is working hard on getting up to speed with the challenges facing the town.

Folks are very gracious about sharing the issues we have here, Menicocci said. At this stage its all about moving forward, and how we do that in a positive way.

He said the key will be to move forward, but in a transparent, methodical way, and to let the difficult conversations continue until consensus can be reached and everyone has had their say.

That has to happen, but its not a quick process, Menicocci said. The key word is patience  what we come up with will be a result of that conversation we have with the community.

Regarding issues with the police department and the hiring of a full-time police chief, Menicocci said that is another difficult conversation that has to happen.

Williamstown residents still not ready to revamp zoning to increase density and diversity of housing Voters again turned away an attempt to reduce housing lot sizes and increase housing density, both in the center and in the more rural sections in the south end of town.

I respect the urgency, but we must take the time to listen to all the voices, he said. Its a painful lesson here that needs to be learned. But we need to get it right going forward.

At the time of his hiring in April, Select Board Chairman Andrew Hogeland said he was very happy with the result of the search process. We are very pleased that we have come to an agreement with Bob Menicocci, and feel fortunate that we have been able to attract a manager with his depth of public sector experience, Hogeland said. He has a strong background in budgeting, public sector management and social services, which will serve Williamstown well.
Last summer in Kyiv, I wrote an editorial note titled: Would NATO go to war over Snake Island?

With Ukraines flag raising on Thursday over this strategic Black Sea island near the mouth of the Danube, the answer is: sort of.

Ukraines Constitution states that joining NATO is a national goal. But there is no unanimity among NATOs member countries, soon to be 32 with the upcoming addition of Finland and Sweden. NATOs rules require candidate countries settle their border disputes with their neighbors. Ukraine is unlikely to achieve this as long as Vladimir Putin remains in the Kremlin.

In face of Russias war against Ukraine, NATO leaders agreed last week at a summit in Madrid to sharply increase the number of forces NATO keeps at a high readiness level  to 300,000. But no NATO boots are expected on the ground in Ukraine.

Nevertheless, an amazing amount of NATO weaponry, largely from the U.S., is coming to Ukraines troops in southeastern Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon posted a comprehensive list of the U.S. military aid. Highlights include: 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft systems; 6,500 Javelin anti-armor systems; 700 Switchblade Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems; 26 155 mm Howitzers and up to 410,000 155 mm artillery rounds; 36,000 105 mm artillery rounds; 126 tactical vehicles to tow 155 mm Howitzers; hundreds of armored high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles; 200 M113 armored personnel carriers; more than 10,000 grenade launchers and small arms; more than 59,000,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition; and eight HIMARS, or high mobility artillery rocket systems and ammunition.

After weeks of setbacks for Ukraine, this cornucopia of modern U.S. arms may well turn tide of war.

The head of the snake

A sign of the future may have come last week with Russias hasty abandonment of Snake Island.

For 2,000 years, this 46-acre rocky island has held a strategic position in the Black Sea.

The ancient Greeks raised a temple there to Achilles, the Trojan War hero celebrated in Homers Iliad. In more modern times, it was bombed by the Turks in World War I and bombed by the Soviets in World War II. Then, it was transferred from Romania to the Soviet Union and, finally, to Ukraine.

Last August, I wrote: By seizing by Snake Island, Russia could create a 125-mile east-west line, controlling shipping in and out of all of Ukraines Black Sea ports.

Seven months later, that is exactly what the Russians did. On Feb. 24, the first day of the war, two Russian warships approached the island and ordered the small Ukrainian detachment of border guards to surrender. A Ukrainian soldier gave a profane and now epic response to the Russian warship that ordered then to stand down. Ultimately, the Ukrainians surrendered.

James Brooke: For Russia, as with Argentina, political fortunes sink with warships My journalism career has been bracketed by two large naval disasters: The May 2, 1982, sinking of the Argentine Navy cruiser the Belgrano and,

The soldiers response went viral, prompting Ukraines Postal Service to issue a stamp depicting him raising a middle finger salute to the Moskva, the Black Sea flagship of Russias Navy. Coincidentally, two days after the stamp came out, Ukrainian missiles sank the Moskva.

For four months, the Russians heavily reinforced their detachment on the island. Installations included S-300 anti-air and anti-cruise missiles, the kind featured in Red Square parades in Moscow.

But Ukrainian war jet and cruise missile attacks did not stop. Finally, during the night of June 30, the Russians evacuated the island in two speed boats. Russias Defense Ministry called it a good will gesture to restore grain exports from Ukraine.

On Thursday, Ukraines military released drone photos of Ukraines blue and gold flag waving again over the island. Andriy Yermak, Ukraines presidential chief of staff, crowed on Telegram: The flag of Ukraine is on Snake Island. Ahead of us are many more such videos from Ukrainian cities that are currently under temporary occupation. Within hours, a Russian war jet bombed the island once again.

NATO supplies play a big part

Rob Lee of the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, told Reuters last week that abandonment of the island was likely a tangible result of NATO arms deliveries to Ukraine.

He said that new NATO supplied weapons made the Russian garrison even more vulnerable, especially HIMARS, which Ukraine began fielding in late June.

While Ukraines benefits from an influx of U.S., United Kingdom and European Union weaponry, Russia is running low on guns and ammo. In recent days, Russian missiles hit a Black Sea resort apartment building and a shopping center in central Ukraine. In both cases, the missiles were Kh class, a kind of anti-ship rocket that the Soviet Union first deployed 50 years ago. Similarly, the Russian Army is pulling out of storage T-62 tanks  a battle tank first introduced in 1961.

Estimates of deaths of Russian military personnel range from 25,000 by Britains Defense Ministry to 36,500 by Ukraines Defense Ministry. By contrast, during the decade-long occupation of Afghanistan, the Soviet Union lost 14,453 soldiers. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union had double the population of todays Russia. During the 20 years of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the U.S. lost 50,441 soldiers.

To reduce political pressure, the Kremlin is fighting the war with non-ethnic Russians  Bashkirs, Chechens, Dagestanis and Tuvans. Mediazona, an independent Russian news site, tallies only eight dead soldiers from Moscow and 26 from St. Petersburg.

More reliable are Ukraines tally of Russias losses of war materiel. During four and a half months of war against Ukraine, Russia has lost: 3,789 armored personnel carriers, almost triple the number during the Afghan decade; 1,600 tanks, almost 11 times the Afghan level; 1,059 mortars and artillery cannons, more than double the Afghan level; and 217 fighter bombers, almost double the Afghan level. Since Putin believed his attack on Ukraine would be short and decisive, it is believed that he did not crank up his armaments industry in advance.

The war is expected to grind into the winter. But in coming weeks, Ukraines counter-offensives may start to turn the tide. Russians have a superstition that August brings bad news. Think August 1914.
For many it is not surprising to hear that the Chinese government is improving its intel and disinformation tactics within the US. After all, the US contains perhaps the highest concentration of anti-communist and anti-socialist people in the world (living side by side with extreme leftists, of course). The US has also been a relatively safe place for Chinese dissidents to voice their criticisms of the CCP, until recently.

An active DHS agent and a Department of Human Services agent along with at least three other suspects now face official indictments for acting as Chinese agents while spying on dissidents and vocal critics of the CCP while living in the US. Agents divulged personal information on activists including passport information on one man's daughter.

Though the case was first revealed by the Department Of Justice in May, the greater details have only been recently revealed.

The news arrives on the heels of a renewed push by the US government to have Tik Tok removed from Big Tech app stores because of data on American citizens being consistently accessed by the CCP. The sophistication of China's 4th Generation warfare measures is growing and their interest has been specifically in manipulating public opinion in the west.

The Chinese disinformation campaign to blame the US and Fort Detrick for the Covid-19 virus and the pandemic comes to mind. Many Americans (and likely paid disinfo agents) were spreading the propaganda despite the fact that there was zero evidence of Fort Detrick as the source and extensive evidence that the area near the Wuhan Virology Lab was ground zero. While gain of function research on covid viruses was indeed paid for by US backers including the NIH, the Wuhan lab continues to remain a place of interest in investigations on the cause of the outbreak.

The increase in Chinese information warfare suggests the CCP is seeking a global reach rather than merely remaining isolated from the western world, and one has to question if these actions are a precursor to some other agenda. China's interest in subsuming Taiwan has only grown stronger the past two years, and Joe Biden has suggested that if Taiwan is invaded the US would respond militarily. Furthermore, an economic war is seething under the surface between China and the US, as China shows full trade support of Russia during their invasion of Ukraine.

The Chinese have been experimenting extensively with social credit systems and the use of social media as a weapon to monitor and control its own citizenry. This idea is obviously being tested in the US as well, but there appears to be a growing overlap between US government surveillance and the surveillance of foreign entities on American citizens.

Silencing dissent is the goal, and using American citizens as well as American government officials as a means to suppress activists makes perfect strategic sense. The message is: You are not safe from us, even in the land of the free.

The disturbing trend may herald an era of digital hitmen who stalk critics of various governments and who seek to make their lives miserable. It is not so much the reality of the threat as the idea of the threat  Maybe they will try to harm you, maybe they won't, but the fear is always in the mind of the target.

In the meantime, Americans need to take far more interest in the quality of the people being allowed into bureaucratic positions within our government. Or, maybe we need to question the need for the bureaucracy to exist at all. This latest story reminds us that Americans not only have to worry about corruption from within, but also corruption from without.
CANBERRA, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The reinfection period of COVID-19 for Australians has been advised to be reduced significantly to 28 days, according to a statement from a medical expert committee.

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), which is made up of federal, state and territory chief health officers, made the recommendation in a recent press release.

"Given reinfections may occur as early as 28 days after recovery from a previous COVID-19 infection, the AHPPC advises that the reinfection period be reduced from 12 weeks to 28 days," it said.

That means people who test positive for COVID-19 more than 28 days after ending isolation due to previous infection should be reported and managed as new cases.

It warned that Australia was at the beginning of a new wave of infections driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants.

"This winter, we are experiencing significant community transmission of both COVID-19 and influenza, which is placing real stress on our community and health system," the AHPPC said.

"We expect that this wave will lead to a substantial increase in infections, hospitalizations and sadly, deaths, at a time when our communities and health systems are already under strain."

On Saturday, Australia reported more than 35,000 new COVID-19 cases and more than 70 deaths.

As of Friday afternoon, a total of 8,413,831 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Australia, including 10,225 deaths, and approximately 298,912 active cases, according to the latest figures from the Department of Health.

There were 3,977 cases being treated in hospitals on Friday, including 141 in intensive care units. 
Infos citoyennes

08/07/22

Covid 19 : quelles solutions face aux nouvelles vagues ?

Dans lHexagone, la septieme vague de Covid-19 marque le debut de ces grandes vacances, avec plus de 200 000 contaminations enregistrees chaque jour. En Guyane, lepidemie est stable, a un niveau eleve. Tout cela alors que les hopitaux connaissent des tensions sur leurs ressources humaines et que la faible couverture vaccinale de la Guyane fait craindre un impact sur les etablissements de sante, comme cest le cas en Martinique. Plusieurs solutions existent pour se proteger, notamment des formes graves : lantiviral Paxlovid pour les personnes positives depuis moins de 5 jours et a risque de forme grave de Covid-19 ; le deuxieme rappel vaccinal pour les personnes de plus de 60 ans ayant recu leur premier rappel depuis plus de six mois ; le masque, les gestes barrieres et la distanciation sociale pour tout le monde. En revanche, beaucoup danticorps monoclonaux ont perdu de leur efficacite face aux nouveaux variants. Quant aux anticorps conferes par une contamination, ils protegent tres peu contre les nouvelles souches ; les cas de reinfection a court delai se multiplient.



Le Paxlovid : pour les cas confirmes a risque de forme grave



Depuis cette semaine, les pharmacies et les laboratoires de biologie medicale recoivent les flyers et affiches pour que les personnes qui se font tester aient le reflexe du traitement precoce contre le Covid-19. Bilingue francais-portugais, ils expliquent :  Vous venez de faire un test Covid. Si vous etes positif et que vous etes a risque, le Covid peut-etre grave. Mais il existe un medicament efficace a prendre des le debut de la maladie (dans les 5 jours apres le debut des symptomes). Si vous etes a risque de forme grave : contactez vite votre medecin ! 



Cet antiviral, cest le Paxlovid. Depuis mai,  il est disponible en prescription directe par les medecins de ville, sans contrainte , rappelle le Dr Stanley Carroll dans un courrier adresse a ses confreres fin juin. Tous les grossistes en disposent donc toutes les pharmacies peuvent en delivrer. Il presente un interet tres particulier dans nos regions de population sous-vaccinee et a fortes comorbidites. 



 Ce traitement doit etre instaure dans les 5 premiers jours suivant lapparition des symptomes chez les sujets (majeurs) a risque testes positifs Covid , rappelle le Dr Carroll (lire egalement la Lettre pro du 4 fevrier et le message DGS-Urgent suivant). Dans un essai clinique, il sest revele efficace a 88 % contre les hospitalisations et les deces, dans cette population. En revanche, il na montre aucun benefice pour les patients  standard . Pfizer a arrete son essai sur ce sujet le mois dernier, faute de resultats probants. Un autre essai dutilisation de Paxlovid en prophylaxie, chez des personnes ayant un cas confirme dans leur foyer, na pas non plus montre defficacite.



Sil est simple a utiliser (3 comprimes a prendre par voie orale, 2 fois par jour pendant 5 jours), le Paxlovid souffre de nombreuses contre-indications en raison de ses interactions avec dautres medicaments. Sur son site internet, la Societe francaise de pharmacologie et therapeutique rappelle cette liste mais fournit egalement des recommandations en insistant :  Le risque d'interactions medicamenteuses ne doit pas constituer un frein a l'utilisation du Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir chez le patient pouvant beneficier de ce traitement antiviral. A l'exception de quelques situations particulieres ou la co-prescription est impossible, il est possible soit : de maintenir le traitement du patient, de l'interrompre pendant la duree du traitement antiviral, ou d'adapter les posologies des medicaments co-prescrits avec le Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir. 



La 4e dose de vaccin : pour les plus de 60 ans



Depuis avril, le deuxieme rappel (4e dose) de vaccin est accessible a toutes les personnes de plus de 60 ans qui ont recu leur troisieme dose depuis plus de six mois, precise ce message DGS-Urgent. Pour les personnes agees de 80 ans et plus, pour les residents en etablissement dhebergement pour personnes agees dependantes (Ehpad) et en unite de soins de longue duree (USLD), et pour les personnes immunodeprimees, lecart entre le premier rappel et le deuxieme reste de 3 mois. Les personnes ayant attrape le Covid-19 au moins 3 mois apres leur 1er rappel nont pas besoin de 2e rappel. Les personnes ayant attrape le Covid-19 moins de 3 mois apres leur 1er rappel sont invitees a faire un 2e rappel. Il est a realiser 6 mois apres la maladie.



En Guyane, 950 personnes ont recu leur quatrieme dose, dont 167 la semaine derniere. Pres de 40 000 personnes ont recu leur troisieme dose, dont un peu plus de 5 000 personnes agees de 60 ans et plus. Meme en soustrayant celles qui lont recu ou ont ete infectees depuis moins de six mois, il reste donc de nombreuses personnes eligibles au deuxieme rappel. Dans Amelipro, les medecins traitants peuvent obtenir la liste de leurs patients eligibles au rappel et la date de celui-ci, rappelle lAssurance maladie. De son cote, lAgence regionale de sante a ecrit cette semaine aux responsables dEhpad et dUSLD pour les sensibiliser au 2e rappel.



Les etudes recentes suggerent une baisse progressive dans le temps de lefficacite des vaccins, quels quils soient, contre le Covid-19. Cette baisse de lefficacite est constatee vis-a-vis de linfection et des formes symptomatiques de Covid-19, mais egalement des formes graves ainsi que des hospitalisations et du risque de deces. A linverse, une nouvelle stimulation immunitaire par une injection de vaccin, meme si elle confere une protection limitee contre linfection, presente une efficacite reelle contre les risques dhospitalisation et de formes graves, y compris avec le variant omicron.



Dans une etude dont les resultats ont ete publies hier, le groupement dinteret scientifique Epi-Phare (Cnam-ANSM) constate une efficacite de 85 % de la premiere dose de rappel contre les hospitalisations pendant lavague delta et de 81 % pendant la premiere vague omicron, a partir des donnees de 37 millions de Francais qui avaient recu au moins deux doses de vaccin au 31 janvier. Lefficacite etait maximale entre un et deux mois apres linjection, avant de baisser a partir de trois mois. Des donnees des Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) americains montrent que les personnes ayant recu une dose de rappel (ligne bleu fonce) avaient dix fois moins de risque de deceder du Covid-19 que les non-vaccines (ligne noire), et les personnes ayant recu deux doses de rappel (ligne violette) 42 fois moins de risque que les non-vaccines.





Anticorps monoclonaux : a la peine face a omicron



La plupart des anticorps monoclonaux ont perdu toute efficacite face au variant omicron. Cest le cas notamment de Ronapreve, qui ne doit pas etre utilise. Reste principalement Evusheld. Selon des essais in vitro, il conserve une activite neutralisante contre omicron. Celle-ci se revele dailleurs meilleure contre BA.5 (majoritaire en Guyane) et BA.2 (minoritaire) que contre BA.1, qui circulait en janvier.



Dans un avis, la Haute Autorite de sante (HAS) rappelle quEvusheld est  indique en prophylaxie pre-exposition du Covid-19 chez les patients adultes et les adolescents (ages de 12 ans et plus pesant au moins 40 kg) :

Ayant un deficit de limmunite lie a une pathologie ou a des traitements et faiblement ou non repondeurs apres un schema vaccinal complet conformement aux recommandations en vigueur ;

Ou non eligibles a la vaccination et qui sont a haut risque de forme severe de Covid-19.

Evusheld n'est pas destinee a etre utilisee comme substitut de la vaccination contre le Sars-CoV-2.

Une precedente contamination : ca ne protege plus guere contre une reinfection



Les  Covid Party , c'est fini ! Les sous-variants domicron ne protegent plus guere les uns des autres. Tomber malade nempeche donc plus detre reinfecte parfois seulement un mois apres par un nouveau sous-variant (outre le risque de developper une forme grave). En etudiant les anticorps de 30 patients infectes durant la vague omicron, hospitalises mais non admis en reanimation, les chercheurs americains indiquent que  les titres en anticorps neutralisants contre BA.4/BA.5 et BA.2.12.1 etaient respectivement environ 37 % et 10 % inferieurs a ceux contre BA.2, ecrivent-ils dans le New England Journal of Medicine. Parmi ces 30 patients infectes par BA.1, deux netaient pas vaccines. Ils avaient des anticorps neutralisants contre tous les variants, a lexception de BA.4/BA.5. En revanche, les patients qui avaient recu un rappel avaient des anticorps neutralisants contre lensemble des variants testes. Dans l'ensemble, ces resultats montrent que l'infection pendant la vague BA.1 ne semble pas offrir une protection efficace contre les sous-lignees nouvellement apparues () La vaccination de rappel a permis d'obtenir des titres d'anticorps neutralisants suffisants contre les sous-variants BA.4/5 et BA.2.12.1, bien que dans une moindre mesure que contre BA.1 et BA.2.4,5 Ces resultats soulignent l'importance de la vaccination de rappel pour la protection contre les variants emergents. 



Dans une autre etude, presentee sur le blog Realites biomedicales,  il savere que les personnes anterieurement infectees par la souche ancestrale durant la premiere vague, puis ayant ete infectes pendant la vague omicron, nont pas eu de stimulation de leur immunite cellulaire T contre omicron ! () Les resultats montrent quomicron passe, plus encore quon ne le pensait, sous les radars du systeme immunitaire. Celui-ci aurait ainsi un mal fou a se souvenir de ce variant. Linfection par omicron ninduit donc pas sur le plan immunologique lequivalent dune dose vaccinale.  Ce qui explique la frequence des infections et reinfections.



Masque, gestes barrieres et distanciation sociale : des reflexes a retrouver







Sil existe desormais un traitement pour les patients a risque de forme grave et si les rappels se revelent efficaces dans les premiers mois, il ne faut pas oublier quelques reflexes, au moment ou les contaminations repartent a la hausse dans lHexagone. Le masque se revele efficace contre les infections. Si le gouvernement nenvisage pas de le rendre a nouveau obligatoire, des municipalites envisagent de le faire. Cest le cas de la ville de Nice, ou il sera a nouveau obligatoire dans les transports en commun a partir de lundi. Eviter les embrassades, notamment avec les personnes les plus a risque, se laver regulierement les mains, aerer les pieces et respecter la distanciation sociale sont des reflexes qui peuvent etre utiles en ce moment. Par exemple, au moment de passer huit heures dans l'avion avec 300 autres personnes !



Cet article est issu de la Lettre pro de lAgence regionale de sante. Vous pouvez vous y abonner en remplissant le formulaire suivant : https://forms.sbc28.com/5a8bed50b85b5350ef1cd117/t13M7zUZQi2XMq5E3DdnhQ/0WQoeDwjRXqJblCpKbLDzA/form.html

In France, the seventh wave of Covid-19 marks the start of these great holidays, with more than 200,000 contaminations recorded each day. In French Guiana, the epidemic is stable, at a high level. All this while hospitals are experiencing pressure on their human resources and the low vaccination coverage of French Guiana raises fears of an impact on health establishments, as is the case in Martinique. Several solutions exist to protect yourself, in particular from severe forms: the antiviral Paxlovid for people who have been positive for less than 5 days and at risk of a severe form of Covid-19; the second booster shot for people over 60 who received their first booster over six months ago; the mask, barrier gestures and social distancing for everyone. On the other hand, many monoclonal antibodies have lost their effectiveness in the face of new variants. As for the antibodies conferred by a contamination, they protect very little against the new strains; cases of reinfection at short notice are increasing.

Paxlovid: for confirmed cases at risk of severe form

Since this week, pharmacies and medical biology laboratories have been receiving flyers and posters so that people who get tested have the reflex of early treatment against Covid-19. Bilingual French-Portuguese, they explain: You have just taken a Covid test. If you are positive and you are at risk, the Covid can be serious. But there is an effective drug to take from the very beginning of the disease (within 5 days after the onset of symptoms). If you are at risk of a serious form: contact your doctor quickly! 

This antiviral is Paxlovid. Since May, it has been available for direct prescription by city doctors, without constraint, recalls Dr. Stanley Carroll in a letter sent to his colleagues at the end of June. All wholesalers have it, so all pharmacies can deliver it. It is of very particular interest in our regions with an under-vaccinated population and high comorbidities. 

"This treatment must be initiated within the first 5 days following the onset of symptoms in (adult) subjects at risk who test positive for Covid", recalls Dr Carroll (also read the Professional letter of February 4 and the following DGS-Urgent message ). In a clinical trial, it was found to be 88% effective against hospitalizations and deaths in this population. On the other hand, it showed no benefit for standard patients. Pfizer stopped its trial on this subject last month, for lack of convincing results. Another trial using Paxlovid for prophylaxis, in people with a confirmed case in their household, also failed to show efficacy.

Although it is simple to use (3 tablets to be taken orally, twice a day for 5 days), Paxlovid suffers from numerous contraindications due to its interactions with other drugs. On its website, the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics recalls this list but also provides recommendations, insisting: "The risk of drug interactions should not constitute an obstacle to the use of Nirmatrelvir / Ritonavir in patients who can benefit from this antiviral treatment. With the exception of a few specific situations where co-prescription is impossible, it is possible either: to maintain the patient's treatment, to interrupt it for the duration of the antiviral treatment, or to adapt the dosages of the co-prescribed drugs with Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir. 

The 4th dose of vaccine: for people over 60

Since April, the second booster (4th dose) of vaccine has been accessible to all people over 60 who have received their third dose for more than six months, specifies this DGS-Urgent message. For people aged 80 and over, for residents in a residential facility for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) and in a long-term care unit (USLD), and for immunocompromised people, the difference between the first reminder and the second rest for 3 months. People who caught Covid-19 at least 3 months after their 1st booster do not need a 2nd booster. People who caught Covid-19 less than 3 months after their 1st reminder are invited to do a 2nd reminder. It is to be carried out 6 months after the illness.

In French Guiana, 950 people received their fourth dose, including 167 last week. Nearly 40,000 people received their third dose, including just over 5,000 people aged 60 and over. Even subtracting those who have received it or have been infected for less than six months, there are still many people eligible for the second booster. In Amelipro, treating physicians can obtain the list of their patients eligible for the recall and the date of the recall, recalls Health Insurance. For its part, the Regional Health Agency wrote this week to the managers of Ehpad and USLD to make them aware of the 2nd reminder.

Recent studies suggest a gradual decline over time in the effectiveness of vaccines, whatever they are, against Covid-19. This drop in effectiveness is observed with regard to infection and symptomatic forms of Covid-19, but also severe forms as well as hospitalizations and the risk of death. Conversely, a new immune stimulation by a vaccine injection, even if it confers limited protection against the infection, presents a real effectiveness against the risks of hospitalization and serious forms, including with the omicron variant.

In a study whose results were published yesterday, the Epi-Phare scientific interest group (Cnam-ANSM) noted an 85% effectiveness of the first booster dose against hospitalizations during the delta wave and 81% during the first omicron wave, based on data from 37 million French people who had received at least two doses of vaccine as of January 31. Efficacy peaked between one and two months after the injection, before declining after three months. Data from the US Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) shows that people who received a booster dose (dark blue line) had ten times less risk of dying from Covid-19 than the non-vaccinated (black line), and the people who received two booster doses (purple line) 42 times less risk than the non-vaccinated.







Monoclonal antibodies: struggling with omicron

Most monoclonal antibodies have lost all efficacy against the omicron variant. This is particularly the case with Ronapreve, which should not be used. Remain mainly Evusheld. According to in vitro tests, it retains neutralizing activity against omicron. This is also better against BA.5 (majority in French Guiana) and BA.2 (minority) than against BA.1, which circulated in January.

In an opinion, the High Authority for Health (HAS) recalls that Evusheld is indicated for pre-exposure prophylaxis of Covid-19 in adult patients and adolescents (aged 12 and over weighing at least 40 kg):

Having an immunity deficiency linked to a pathology or treatments and weak or non-responsive after a complete vaccination schedule in accordance with the recommendations in force;

Or not eligible for vaccination and who are at high risk of severe form of Covid-19.

Evusheld is not intended for use as a substitute for vaccination against Sars-CoV-2.

A previous contamination: it no longer protects against reinfection

The Covid Parties are over! The omicron subvariants no longer provide much protection from each other. Falling ill therefore no longer prevents being reinfected sometimes only a month later by a new sub-variant (in addition to the risk of developing a serious form). By studying the antibodies of 30 patients infected during the omicron wave, hospitalized but not admitted to intensive care, the American researchers indicate that the titers of neutralizing antibodies against BA.4/BA.5 and BA.2.12.1 were respectively approximately 37% and 10% lower than those against BA.2, they write in the New England Journal of Medicine. Among these 30 patients infected with BA.1, two were not vaccinated. They had neutralizing antibodies against all variants except BA.4/BA.5. On the other hand, the patients who had received a booster had neutralizing antibodies against all the variants tested. Taken together, these results show that infection during the BA.1 wave does not appear to provide effective protection against the newly emerged sublines () Booster vaccination achieved neutralizing antibody titers sufficient against the BA.4/5 and BA.2.12.1 subvariants, although to a lesser extent than against BA.1 and BA.2.4.5 These results underline the importance of booster vaccination for protection against emerging variants. 

In another study, presented on the blog Realites biomedicales, it turns out that people who were previously infected with the ancestral strain during the first wave, and who were then infected during the omicron wave, did not have their immunity boosted. T cell against omicron! () The results show that omicron passes, even more than we thought, under the radar of the immune system. He would therefore have a hard time remembering this variant. Infection with omicron therefore does not immunologically induce the equivalent of a vaccine dose. This explains the frequency of infections and reinfections.

Mask, barrier gestures and social distancing: reflexes to find







If there is now a treatment for patients at risk of a serious form and if the reminders prove to be effective in the first months, we must not forget a few reflexes, when contaminations are on the rise again in France. The mask is effective against infections. If the government does not plan to make it mandatory again, municipalities are considering doing so. This is the case of the city of Nice, where it will again be compulsory in public transport from Monday. Avoiding hugs, especially with people most at risk, washing your hands regularly, airing the rooms and respecting social distancing are reflexes that can be useful at this time. For example, when spending eight hours on the plane with 300 other people!



This article is from the Regional Health Agency's Newsletter. You can subscribe by filling out the following form: https://forms.sbc28.com/5a8bed50b85b5350ef1cd117/t13M7zUZQi2XMq5E3DdnhQ/0WQoeDwjRXqJblCpKbLDzA/form.html


ISLAMABAD, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Six terrorists were arrested in separate operations in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Pakistani police told local media on Saturday.

According to the CTD in Punjab, the CTD personnel conducted operations in Lahore, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi cities of the province.

The CTD said that two terrorists were arrested from each of the three cities.

Arms, ammunition and improvised explosive devices were seized from the terrorists, the CTD added. 
BA.5 becoming dominant Omicron subvariant across the world: health official

Xinhua) 10:49, July 09, 2022

BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The Omicron subvariant BA.5 is becoming the dominant strain of COVID-19 across the world and is causing cluster infections in China, a Chinese health official told a press conference on Friday.

Pointing out the seriousness and complexity of the epidemic prevention and control situation, Mi Feng, spokesperson for the National Health Commission, urged adherence to the dynamic zero-COVID policy and called for efforts to guard against both inbound cases and domestic resurgence.

In areas affected by new outbreaks, transmission should be contained in a decisive manner with early detection and swift and science-based response measures, Mi said.

The tendency of either letting the guard down or imposing unnecessary restrictions should be avoided in epidemic prevention, he added.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
BATTAMBANG, Cambodia, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni said here on Saturday that the government's successful COVID-19 control has enabled the country to resume all socio-economic activities with confidence.

In his speech delivered on the Arbor Day, or tree planting day, the monarch praised the country's Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen for his wise and skillful leadership, which has successfully dealt with the spread of COVID-19.

"Building on this success, all social activities have been revived and all sectors have been recovering. For instance, today, we have resumed the celebration of the tree planting day after it was skipped for two years," Sihamoni said.

Health ministry's secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine attributed the kingdom's success in controlling the pandemic to the government's right leadership and the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

"Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen has made the right and timely decision to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to all eligible Cambodians and foreigners living in the country," she told reporters recently.

Vaccines are the most powerful tool to protect lives against COVID-19, reducing infections and deaths, Vandine said.

So far, 94.3 percent of Cambodia's 16 million population have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines and 90 percent have been fully inoculated with two required shots, the health ministry said.

Also, 59 percent of the population have got the third dose, 19 percent have had a fourth shot and two percent have taken the fifth jab, the ministry added.

Most of the COVID-19 vaccines used in the country's immunization program are China's Sinovac and Sinopharm.

Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said vaccines have protected lives, stabilized the health system and helped restore the economy.

"The royal government of Cambodia has made the correct decision to choose China as a strategic supplier of COVID-19 vaccines so that's why Cambodia has enough vaccines for its people," he told Xinhua.

The Southeast Asian country registered 17 new COVID-19 cases and zero new deaths on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases to 136,343, with 133,206 recoveries and 3,056 deaths, the health ministry said. 
A group of local musicians has raised more than $12,400 in support of the family of Jordan Ross.

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A group of local musicians has raised more than $12,400 in support of the family of Jordan Ross.

The Jam 4 Jordan concert fundraiser featured local bands Misty Street, Vertigo, Daisy Chain, Gear Machine, 18 Rabbit and Cows on a Bus performing at The 40 Thursday evening. Erin McLennan of the band Daisy Chain spearheaded the organization of the event.

McLennan and her fellow organizers were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support Jam 4 Jordan received.

"It became almost a full-time job," McLennan said. "It just took on a life of its own, it just became so huge. Its something I wasnt expecting. I dont think any of us were."

The event raised more than $12,400 with all funds going to Ross family.

Ross, the owner of Grand Valley Campground, was last seen leaving his home on the morning of June 17. The Brandon Sun reported Ross body was found June 30 in the Assiniboine River near Dinsdale Park.

CHELSEA KEMP/THE BRANDON SUN Daisy Chain performs at the Jam 4 Jordan fundraiser at The 40 Thursday. The fundraiser was in support of the family of Jordan Ross and raised more than $12,400.

The tragic conclusion to the story did not affect the planning of the event, McLennan said, because organizers were driven to offer whatever support was possible to the family.

"It was not the outcome we have hoped for, of course, but we wanted to go ahead with the original plan and raise money for this family," McLennan said. "I cant imagine how this has impacted them and the financial burden that this has caused for them."

It was humbling to be part of the grassroots event because she saw firsthand Brandonites commitment to helping a family in need, she said. Sponsors and Brandonites rallied together on behalf of the family, donating thousands of dollars in items for the fundraiser raffle, she said.

"Its pretty amazing and it tells me that Jordan was very well-loved in this community and very respected," McLennan said.

While, she did not know Ross personally, McLennan has played on stage with his brother, Mark Ross, who briefly appeared on stage with Daisy Chain during Jam 4 Jordan.

She appreciates how the fundraiser was able to showcase how important Jordan Ross was to the community.

"Music is something that means a lot to a lot of people, and its something that we are able to do for the family  the mood is very upbeat, theres people laughing and sharing stories," McLennan said. "I think the overall message is that in times of tragedy, people come together and hold each other up. We support one another."

CHELSEA KEMP/THE BRANDON SUN Gear Machine performs at the Jam 4 Jordan fundraiser at The 40 Thursday.

Planning Jam 4 Jordan was a mixture of emotions, said co-organizer Mariah Phillips, of Misty Streets.

Organizers were stunned at the generosity shown by the community, but also heartbroken after Ross body was found.

"Its very devastating that it was not a happy ending, but it was really encouraging to see Brandon come together for this family," Phillips said.

"Its a combination of people really celebrating Jordans life and theres the sadness that goes with that."

Mark Ross played in Misty Streets for many years and remains a close friend from a wonderful family, she said. She was compelled to do something to help alleviate the burden and loss they are experiencing with music.

She was happy they were able to host the fundraiser that the community rallied behind. Jam 4 Jordan served as an opportunity to come together over music while sharing stories and memories of Jordan Ross.

"Sometimes its easy to get really cynical in the world, theres been lots of stress with the pandemic and you see so many people not being kind to each other. Seeing how much people cared about Jordan, really it shows what kind of a person Jordan was," Phillips said.

CHELSEA KEMP/THE BRANDON SUN Gear Machine performs at the Jam 4 Jordan fundraiser at The 40 Thursday.

"We all need to be there for each other  love really brings everyone together and its really nice  everybody came together."

Musician Anastasia Jane appeared on stage with Misty Streets and helped co-organize the event.

The support and kindness from the community often left her in tears in the leadup to Jam 4 Jordan. Jane wanted to help with the fundraiser because she has been friends with Mark Ross for many years and had met Jordan Ross a handful of times.

She was often blown away by the outpouring of support from Brandonites and their desire and commitment to help the Ross family in whatever way possible.

"I feel like Ive gotten to know Jordan more from the gift collection," Jane said.

"When I would show up at the door, folks were telling me their personal stories of Jordan and what he and the Ross family did for the community. I had to leave a few times in tears just with how many lives he had touched and really how the community banded together."

It was incredibly humbling to be a part of Jam 4 Jordan, Jane said, because she felt almost like an archivist collecting incredible stories that capture the generosity and compassion of the Ross family and the Brandon community as a whole.

"Were celebrating his life and people are coming together and doing whatever they can. That embodies Brandon to me," Jane said.

"I think its sending him off in the most amazing way they can . This is in honour of Jordan, but also is a reflection of what Brandon is as a community."

 ckemp@brandonsun.com, with files from The Brandon Sun

 Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp
Boston Pizza owner Jim Treliving is scheduled to drop by Virden Monday evening, where he will get the chance to celebrate his entry into Canadas Walk of Fame much closer to home.

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Boston Pizza owner Jim Treliving is scheduled to drop by Virden Monday evening, where he will get the chance to celebrate his entry into Canadas Walk of Fame much closer to home.

While the famous entrepreneur officially received his Walk of Fame induction in 2019 at a Toronto awards gala, Treliving is using Mondays ceremony to unveil a special "Hometown Star" plaque in the community where he was born and raised.

SUBMITTED Boston Pizza owner Jim Treliving addresses the crowd during his induction into Canadas Walk of Fame in November 2019. The former Dragons Den host is scheduled to visit Virden on Monday to unveil his Hometown Star and donate $10,000 to the towns Auditorium Theatre.

Talking to the Sun on Thursday, Treliving said this opportunity is very "humbling," especially since the site of the upcoming ceremony, Virdens Auditorium Theatre, holds a special place in his heart.

Not only was his fathers barbershop located a block away from this spot, but Treliving revealed that the Aud Theatre hosted some of his first movie-going experiences in town.

"It brings back a lot of memories," he said. "When I was going to the movies in those days, it was 15 cents for the movie and 10 cents for the popcorn. So it was a great time to go there."

And because this building is more than 100 years old, being first opened to the public in February 1912, Treliving decided to use the $10,000 he received through his Walk of Fame induction to help the Aud Theatre endure for future generations.

"I think the biggest thing is that it should be around for a long time and it needs a little bit of a renovation," he said. "And hopefully, more people put something into it, because its a great theatre."

But beyond this donation, Treliving said he is just happy for the chance to revisit his humble roots on Monday, given how far hes come since leaving Virden at the age of 18 to join the RCMP.

After serving on the police force for eight years, Treliving found his true calling in 1966 when he stumbled across the Boston Pizza and Spaghetti House in Edmonton.

Recognizing the restaurants potential for growth, Treliving acquired the rights and opened his first Boston Pizza in Penticton, B.C., two years later, laying the groundwork for a franchise that now includes more than 350 locations across Canada.

Within those intervening decades, Treliving didnt shy away from diversifying his portfolio, whether that meant getting involved in manufacturing, real estate development or becoming a host of CBCs "Dragons Den" for 15 seasons.

Philanthropy has also been a major focus for Treliving since the creation of the Boston Pizza Foundation in 1990, with him and his wife Sandi currently being involved with organizations like the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

The 81-year-old businessman said this humanitarian impulse originates from his time growing up in Virden, where his father would regularly give out free haircuts to senior citizens and engage in other good-will initiatives.

"He used to say to me, All the money in the world isnt going to do anything for anything unless you give something back," Treliving recalls. "That was his whole philosophy and my mothers philosophy  and I think the values we had as kids back in Manitoba were along those lines."

In that respect, Treliving is excited to witness this journey come full circle on Monday, where he will be able to directly give back to one of his hometowns most famous institutions through a $10,000 donation.

But on a personal level, the entrepreneur is also eager to simply reconnect with friends and family in the region, since he hasnt visited Virden since the grand opening of the communitys Boston Pizza restaurant in 2016.

"I think the great thing with this event is that it is going to be in person, its going to be in my hometown and Im really looking forward to it," he said. "I think its a great honour."

Trelivings Walk of Fame ceremony is scheduled to begin around 5:30 p.m. Monday and will feature a variety of special guests, including Virden Mayor Murray Wright, Auditorium Theatre vice-chair Brad Hayward, Canadas Walk of Fame chief executive officer Jeffrey Latimer and Olympic speed skater Cindy Klassen.

Oak Lake native Tara Mathew is also slated to provide a musical performance.

 kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @KyleDarbyson
Manitoba could have a new statutory holiday to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation by September, Premier Heather Stefanson has said.

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Manitoba could have a new statutory holiday to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation by September, Premier Heather Stefanson has said.

"Certainly, I would like to move on it and I just want to make sure we go through a respectful consultation process," Stefanson said in an interview this week. "I dont want to see it as [just] a holiday. This is about a remembrance of truth and reconciliation."

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day, is on Sept. 30. It was established in honour of the experience of Phyllis Webstad, whose gift of clothing from her grandmother was taken away on Webstads first day at a residential school.

The federal government recently made the day a statutory holiday for its workers and federally regulated workplaces. Manitoba currently marks the day by closing schools and many non-essential government offices.

Stefanson said last December the province would consult Indigenous groups, the business community and others about making the day a statutory holiday for workers regulated provincially.

Getting the holiday in place for this Sept. 30 would require a bill to be rushed through the legislature, which is not scheduled to sit again until Sept. 28.

Debbie Huntinghawk, citizen representative for the Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples Council (BUAPC), hopes to see National Day for Truth and Reconciliation become a statutory holiday in Manitoba.

"Its about time," Huntinghawk said. "This is just a day to reflect on what is Canada doing and moving forward."

She described it as a time to celebrate, commemorate and educate.

The importance of the day lies in recognizing historical wrongs perpetuated against First Nation, Metis and Inuit communities, she said, while providing educational opportunities and healing.

She added the burden cannot lie solely on Indigenous people to educate non-Indigenous people on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. She hopes to see Canadians actively engage in uncovering more about the darker sides of the countrys history to better understand the traumatic legacy of colonialism in Indigenous communities.

Indigenous communities have faced generations of trauma under colonialism and are still healing from systemic practices, including residential schools and the 60s Scoop, along with contemporary issues such as the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG).

It is estimated between 20,000 and 40,000 First Nation, Metis and Inuit children were removed from their families and communities and adopted out into non-Indigenous households during the period known as the 60s Scoop.

The Canadian government estimates that at least 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children attended residential schools during the 19th and 20th centuries. The system was imposed on Indigenous people as part of a broad set of assimilation efforts to destroy their rich cultures and identities and to suppress their histories.

The number of MMIWG in the country is around 4,000, according to the Native Womens Association of Canada. But incomplete data makes the true number difficult to determine. The RCMP reported in 2014 that more than 1,000 Indigenous women and girls were killed or went missing between 1980 and 2012.

The country is now seeing a greater acknowledgment of these experiences in Canadian society, Huntinghawk said, but there is still a need to present non-Indigenous community members with opportunities to learn more.

"I just find were always, always put on the back  we cry too much, we complain too much and were told to get over it. Were not going to get over it."

Huntinghawk works with 60s Scoop survivors through the Brandon Friendship Centre program Healing the Family Within. The initiative serves as an opportunity for Indigenous people to reclaim and strengthen their culture and their power as individuals. In many cases, some of their activities would not have been possible in the past.

Truth and reconciliation are not for one day of the year, she added. A statutory holiday could serve as a launchpad to encourage people to be thinking and taking action every day of the year.

"Lets work together. Lets find the true history of colonization," she said. "We are all equal. We are all human beings. We are all spiritual beings living this human life, but to put certain people in a lower class and getting them out of the way so they can use our lands, our resources and everything  its enough already."

Brandons 2022 Truth and Reconciliation Week, set to take place at the Riverbank Discovery Centre, will begin on Sept. 27 and the Orange Shirt Day walk is scheduled for Sept. 30. The main event, Healing by the River, will take place the evening of Oct. 1 at the Fusion Credit Union Stage. Festivities will wrap up on Oct. 2.

The idea of a provincial holiday to honour the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was pushed by the NDP last year.

"Manitobans want a government that makes reconciliation a priority, not one who does it when its convenient to them," NDP Indigenous affairs critic Ian Bushie said in a written statement Friday.

 ckemp@brandonsun.com, with files from The Canadian Press

 Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp
Allen says secularism is on the rise internationally, at least in wealthy countries similar to Australia. However, she says this does not mean an embrace of hedonism, and points to increased community engagement and volunteering, and concern over climate change as ways in which secular society remains rooted in values about what it means to live a good life. Michael Dove, spokesperson for the No Religion campaign, says he and his fellow secularists are pleased with the progress but believe the no religion category is still understated because, they argue, the wording of the question  what is the persons religion?  presumes that people have a religion. The number of Christians in Sydney is declining. Credit:Flavio Brancaleone The percentage of Sydneysiders who nominated a form of Christianity, such as Anglican or Catholic, was 48.8 per cent, down from 51.7 per cent in 2016, while 17 per cent followed other religions, particularly Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Dr Michael Jensen, the Anglican rector of St Marks Darling Point, believes the rise of no religion is mostly an Anglo-Celtic phenomenon.

We dont identify with the old tribal groupings any more, Jensen says. I think for Anglo-Celtic Australians, the Baby Boomers identified but didnt attend, Gen X really just forgot about it, and now the Millennials have said well, it doesnt mean anything to me at all. His hunch seems to be backed by the census figures. Nationally, anyone aged under 45 is more likely than the national average to choose no religion, and this is highest for those aged 25 to 34, at 48.4 per cent. Similarly, 30.4 per cent of residents born overseas selected no religion, compared with 45.2 per cent of those born in Australia. But Jensen also argues that people answering no religion may not be a statement of outright atheism so much as a rejection of organised religion.

He backs up this opinion with the results of the National Church Life Survey, a five-yearly research project backed by Uniting Church, Anglicare Sydney and BaptistCare. This found in 2019 that 61 per cent of Australians believe in God or a higher power. Loading This was true for mystery writer Pamela Hart, 62, who lives in the inner west  one of the most secular parts of Sydney. Hart says she selected no religion for the first time in 2021, having previously always selected Catholic in line with her upbringing. The main reason was the increasing politicisation of religion, especially by the Morrison government, and their apparent belief that most Australians approved of policy based on conservative Christianity, for example, chaplains in schools, Hart says.

I wanted to send a message that Australia did not want political decisions made on the basis of Christian doctrine, but on evidence-based policy. She says the US Supreme Court overturning the constitutional right to abortion is a dramatic example of what happens to healthcare policy when it is overshadowed by religion. Hart wants Australia to maintain separation of church and state, and says religious institutions that offer medical services, aged care, schooling or any other type of care should adhere to the same standards as other institutions. Pamela Hart grew up Catholic and still believes in God but answered no religion in the census. Credit:Steven Siewert Hart maintains a personal belief in God, but is happy with her choice to select no religion to signify her rejection of organised religion.

(Even if Hart had selected other and wrote in I believe in God but reject organised religion, it would make no statistical difference since the other spiritual beliefs category still gets counted in the no religion total). Loading Allen says people selecting no religion purely as a political statement would be a minority, and there would be more people who skew the data the other way by answering based on upbringing rather than current beliefs. She says the religious affiliation question has never measured religiosity  how strongly someone feels about their religion  and the same is true for no religion. Or as Jensen puts it: It doesnt tell you how many are decided intellectual atheists. Anecdotally, I would say many people are agnostic, or they sense theres something higher.

(Of course, people who really want to make their disbelief crystal clear could write atheist in the other box, but few people did, partly because the No Religion campaign encouraged pushed the catch-all no religion category). A cut of the 2021 census figures by local government area, prepared for The Sun-Herald, show the response of no religion rose in every local government area of Sydney, from 2011 to 2016 and again to 2021. The least religious parts of Sydney are the inner city and inner west, closely followed by a swath of established areas clustered around the harbour and beaches. A narrow majority of residents in the City of Sydney and Inner West Council areas selected no religion for the first time. The LGAs of the Blue Mountains, North Sydney, Northern Beaches, Willoughby, Waverley, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Mosman and the Central Coast also clocked no religion responses higher than the national average.

Meanwhile, south-west and pockets of western Sydney are the most religious, closely mirroring the areas with the lowest yes vote in the 2017 same-sex marriage survey. Liverpool is the most religious LGA, with only 14 per cent selecting no religion, followed by Fairfield, Cumberland, Canterbury-Bankstown, Blacktown and Campbelltown. In these suburbs, Christianity is in the mix along with other religions. Nearly one in four people in both Canterbury-Bankstown and Cumberland are Muslim, while nearly one in five people in Strathfield are Hindu and nearly one in five people in Fairfield are Buddhist. Loading Christianity in this part of the world is also characterised by multiculturalism, such as South Sudanese Anglicans, Fijian and Tongan Protestants, and Vietnamese and Lebanese Catholics. Jensen points out the Anglican Archbishop is Sri Lankan and the Sydney church has two South-east Asian bishops. Semi-rural Wollondilly south-west of Campbelltown was the most Christian LGA with 60 per cent of the population selecting a Christian denomination on the census form, followed by nearby Camden.

The Sutherland Shire and Hunters Hill were the next most Christian LGAs. The Hills District, famous for Hillsong Church and often referred to as Sydneys bible belt, is only the eighth most Christian LGA, at 51 per cent Christian, 18 per cent other religions, and 27 per cent no religion. Pentecostalism  an umbrella grouping of evangelical churches including Hillsong and former prime minister Scott Morrisons Horizon church  proportionally declined from 1.1 per cent of the Greater Sydney population in 2016, to just 0.9 per cent, as it shed nearly 5000 followers across the city over the five years. Dove says religion still holds a privileged place in society  from religious chaplains in schools, hospitals and prisons to prayers in parliament and faith-based programs on the ABC  and the no religion results show this should change. Despite having a high-profile member of the denomination, the number of Pentacostal Christians in Sydney declined. Credit:AAP Associate Professor David Smith at the University of Sydney says the declining Christian identification is already reflected in politics.

Even as devout Christians have recently risen to become prime ministers, Australias laws around marriage, abortion and euthanasia have moved away from the positions of the countrys largest churches, Smith says. Christian activists are increasingly focused on their rights as a minority rather than asserting moral leadership over the country. Loading Certainly the first press release from the Australian Christian Lobby after the census results came out was to renew its calls for religious discrimination laws. Allen does not agree with the No Religion campaign that the wording of the religious affiliation question is biased.
Shadow minister for foreign affairs issues stark warning about assassination attempts

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Queensland health authorities are reviewing abortion access across the state in a bid to fix issues still plaguing the patchwork scheme four years on from the procedures decriminalisation.

Confirmation of the move comes amid heightened public focus on the reforms and a refusal from the states LNP Opposition to rule out future attempts to unpick them.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli did not rule out a review of the states abortion laws if the Liberal National Party won government at the 2024 Queensland election. Credit:Matt Dennien

After the overturning of Roe v Wade in the United States, advocates have warned about the decision energising opponents in Australia. Thousands of advocates have since rallied across Brisbane and other cities this month to demand free and more accessible services for all.

In Queensland, which decriminalised the procedure via a conscience vote only in 2018, the LNP went to the 2020 state election pledging a review of the laws and pointing to changes sought through parliament for lower gestation limits and mandatory counselling.
The gunman who assassinated Shinzo Abe targeted him because he believed the former Japanese prime minister had an association with a particular organisation, not because of his politics.

Japanese police said Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old arrested at the scene, held a grudge against this particular, perhaps religious organisation but have yet to confirm if it actually exists. Yamagami was undergoing mental health assessments police said.

Its not a grudge against the political beliefs of former Prime Minister Abe, Nara police told reporters.

Flowers, bottles of water and a framed photograph of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe rest in a makeshift shrine near the crime scene in Nara on Saturday. Credit:Bloomberg

Police found other homemade weapons and explosives at Yamagamis apartment on Friday along with a computer and books. Yamagami told police that he had taken sick leave from his job at a manufacturing company in April and had been unemployed since May.
WELLINGTON, July 9 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand reported its first monkeypox case on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The person is in their 30s, lives in Auckland and has recently returned from overseas travel in a country with reported cases of monkeypox, said the ministry.

Given the increase in cases internationally, the arrival in New Zealand was not unexpected. Yet, there is no evidence of community transmission in New Zealand, said the ministry.

Last month, monkeypox was officially listed as a notifiable disease in New Zealand. According to the ministry, a monkeypox PCR test is available in New Zealand labs and has been used to detect this first case.

The ministry advised anyone who has been overseas and attended events connected with the spread of monkeypox to be aware of any symptoms and seek advice from health professionals.

The ministry is currently exploring options for access to smallpox vaccines in New Zealand that can be used as part of the targeted prevention of the spread of monkeypox in certain situations. 
The is believed to be one of the four that on Friday showed interest in the governments upcoming telecom spectrum auction. The move would expand the conglomerates presence to a sector dominated by established players like Reliance Jio, which is part of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance group, Sunil Mittal-controlled Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea Ltd.

The telecom departments upcoming auction includes the coveted 5G band needed for high-speed internet connectivity.

Four independent sources told Business Standard that the was interested in getting into telecom. A group spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The four players would first have to provide ownership details by July 12 and later a bidder-ownership compliance certificate. After that, there will be a pre-qualification of bidders. will have the right to withdraw auction applications by July 19 and bidders will be announced the next day. The auction is expected to begin on July 27.

Experts are divided about the possible strategy of the Gautam Adani-led . Some say it is investing heavily in data centres, with a view to making it an enterprise business. It has tied up with international company EdgeConnex for a 50-50 joint venture to build and operate large data centres in Chennai, Navi Mumbai, Noida, Vizag, and Hyderabad.

Adanis enterprise data business will compete with Indian telecom and international tech giants like Amazon and Google. It would be a smart move to buy a limited quantity of millimetre band spectrum  it offers high speed and is relatively cheap  and support it by a small amount of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band.

Other experts believe the Adani group might be planning to enter into 5G services and compete with established companies before likely acquiring or collaborating with an existing player.

agency PTI, while quoting unnamed sources, reported that Adani was the fourth applicant in the telecom auction and had obtained National Long Distance (NLD) and International Long Distance (ILD) licences.
Amid the controversy over sharing transaction data of fact-checking website with the Delhi Police, fintech platform Co-founder and CEO Harshil Mathur said on Saturday that it was necessary for them to comply with the legal request.

Earlier this week, received a written notice for transaction data of a specific business (Alt News) for a specific time period under Section 91 of CrPC for the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 investigation.

"We immediately reached out to the authorities to understand the scope and reasons for the request. A senior leader went from Bengaluru to Delhi to speak to the authorities," Mathur said in a statement.

The platform temporarily disabled the business account awaiting clarity on the purpose of investigation.

"As soon as we got that clarity, we immediately re-enabled payments for them," he added.

"We would like to reassure our customers that the specific data we shared was only restricted to what was within the scope of investigation," said Mathur.

In this case, the specific scope was to determine whether there were any foreign donations or not and, therefore, "donors' PAN, address, pin code etc were not shared, which we believed were outside the scope of investigation".

had claimed that Razorpay shared its donor data with the without informing the portal, saying there was no preliminary investigation of any violation on its part.

The Supreme Court on Friday granted five days' interim bail to co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a Uttar Pradesh case but he will remain in custody in the Delhi case in keeping with a Delhi court's orders.

According to the FIR registered by the Delhi Police, he deliberately tweeted the objectionable content in 2018 to provoke breach of peace in the society.

"While I am not allowed to share the specifics owing to the ongoing investigation, I want to state that the concerned business was only enabled to receive domestic payments in-line with our policy to not allow International transactions without FCRA approval for donation pages," Mathur explained.

--IANS

na/ksk/

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CEO who has already invested over $4-5 billion in over 15 deals in India through the groups second Vision Fund, will be looking for smaller ticket sizes. Shinzo Abes second run as Japanese prime minister saw investments account for more than ten per cent of Indias overall foreign direct investments (FDI) on more than one occasion. The is believed to be one of the four that on Friday showed interest in the governments upcoming auction.



Adani may join race, compete with Reliance Jio, Airtel, Vi

The is believed to be one of the four that on Friday showed interest in the governments upcoming auction. The move would expand the conglomerates presence to a sector dominated by established players like Reliance Jio, which is part of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance group, Sunil Mittal-controlled Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea Ltd. The telecom departments upcoming auction includes the coveted 5G band needed for high-speed internet connectivity. Read more



vows legal fight after pulls out of $44 bn deal

Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla and the world's richest person, said on Friday he was terminating his $44 billion deal to buy because the social media company had breached multiple provisions of the merger agreement. Twitter's chairman, Bret Taylor, said on the micro-blogging platform that the board planned to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. Read more

accounted for more than a tenth of India's FDI under Abe's tenure

Shinzo Abes second run as Japanese prime minister saw investments account for more than ten per cent of Indias overall foreign direct investments (FDI) on more than one occasion. (Abe was prime minister from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020.) Japans $1.8-billion investments accounted for 11.2 per cent of Indias FDI flows in 2013-14. FDI inflows from the island nation had a 11.7 per cent share in 2016-17 when investments rose to $4.2 billion. Read more

to bet on smaller ticket size for the second Vision Fund

CEO who has already invested over $4-5 billion in over 15 deals in India through the groups second Vision Fund, will be looking for smaller ticket sizes, lower equity holding, and more numbers than what it bet on through its previous fund (the first Vision Fund), say sources in the know. Read more

Rajeev Misra may raise $8-10 bn for his new fund, in talks with gulf royals

Masayoshi Sons powerful lieutenant Rajeev Misra is looking to raise $8-10 billion for his proposed new fund and has had fruitful talks with funds in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia whose members are from the royal families and who were key backers of the first Vision Fund in which Softbank raised $100 billion. Sources say it is also possible that Son may invest some money in the fund through Softbank or other vehicles, although this could not be confirmed. Read more
Cloudburst is the reason that has been attributed as a cause of death of at least 13 Yatris in a flash flood near the Amarnath cave shrine in on Friday.

But was it indeed a cloudburst?

J&K DGP Dilbag Singh said 13 pilgrims were killed in the cloudburst that hit the area at around 5.30 pm. However, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that it was not a cloudburst.

Every year, releases a special weather advisory for . The general, daily forecast for the district on Friday was of yellow alert (means, keep watch). Even the evening forecast, up on the forecast website at 4.07 pm, said, "Partly cloudy sky with possibility of very light rain" for all along the route from both Pahalgam side and Baltal side. There was no accompanying warning.

As per the data from the automatic weather station (AWS) at the holy cave, there was no from 8:30 am till 4:30 pm.

"Then there was just 3 mm between 4:30 pm and 5:30 pm. However, between 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm there was 28 mm rainfall," said an scientist.

As per criterion, only if there is 100 mm in one hour then it is termed as cloudburst.

Then what exactly happened? According to eyewitness accounts and the multiple videos going viral on social media, a stream between two mountain faces -- barely 200-300 metres away from the cave entry -- brought down heavy rubble along with large quantity of water. Clearly, it was the result of rainfall behind the holy cave.

"It was a highly localised cloud only over the holy cave. Such rain happened earlier this year as well. It was not a flash flood," said Sonam Lotus, who heads the Regional Meteorological Centre at Srinagar that looks after the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

Lotus also confirmed that it was likely that there was severe rainfall at a higher altitude than the cave.

Anand Kumar Sharma, retired meteorologist and former north India head of IMD, explained: "Rainfall is a highly variable parameter, and it is especially true for mountains with peculiar orography. Plus, the Yatra happens in peak monsoon season. Rainfall may not happen in front of the cave but somewhere upstream, which will have an impact downstream."

He also said that for any given mountain, there are so many faces and each of them can have different rainfall. Likewise, there are ranges after ranges of mountains. How many automatic weather stations can you install," he asked.

However, given the number of pilgrims increasing every year and the logistics involved, Sharma said there is a scope for increasing the AWS in the catchment areas and also raise the number along the route for better forecast.

Meanwhile, the weather outlook for the next two days warned of "intermittent scattered light to moderate rain thunder".

--IANS

niv/arm

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At least 16 people have been killed while 15,000 pilgrims, who were stranded near the Amarnath holy cave in Jammu and Kashmir due to a flash flood triggered by a cloudburst, have been shifted to the lower base camp of Panjtarni, officials said Saturday.

A Border Security Force spokesperson in Delhi said "16 bodies have been shifted to Baltal."



The ITBP has expanded its route opening and protection parties from the lower part of the holy cave up to Panjtarni, a spokesperson of the force said.

The pilgrimage that began on June 30 has been suspended following the tragedy and a decision on its resumption will be taken after rescue operations get over, a senior administration official had said.

"Most of the pilgrims, who were stranded near the holy cave shrine area due to the flash flood that occurred Friday evening, have been shifted to Panjtarni. The evacuation continued till 3.38 am.

"No pilgrim is left on the track. About 15,000 people have been safely shifted till now," the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) spokesperson said.

The BSF spokesperson said doctors and medical staff of the force treated nine patients who were critically injured in the floods. "They have been shifted to lower altitude Neelgrath base camp," he said.

A small BSF team is also deployed at the Neelgrath helipad to assist the pilgrims coming from the cave shrine.

About 150 pilgrims stayed at the BSF camp set up in Panjtarni on Friday night and 15 patients have been airlifted to Baltal on Saturday morning, he said.

A Mi-17 chopper of the BSF's air wing has been pressed into service apart from similar assets of the Army.

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Union Home Minister will chair the 'North Zonal Council'meeting here on Saturday.

Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors of eight states, including Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, are scheduled to participate in the meeting at Hotel Rambagh Palace.

States participating in the event are: Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The meeting, which is scheduled to get underway at 10 a.m., is expected to deliberate on state's internal security, border security, cyber crime, formation of collective work force, cross-border drug trade and water issue due to differences between state and central government on ERCP.

Shah is the chairman of the Northern Zonal Council. The Chief Ministers will discuss challenges faced by their states with the Home Minister and attempt to find a solution.

Each state will present a report on status of internal security, cyber security and border security among others.

The meeting also gains significance against the backdrop of the brutal murder of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur.

The killers of Kanhaiya Lal have also threatened Prime Minister Narendra Modi by making the video viral. Agencies like SIT, ATS and SOG of Police are probing the terrorist connections of the attackers.

The Central Government has also handed over the investigation to the NIA (National Investigation Agency). Both the killers Riyaz Attari and Ghaus Mohammad are being interrogated by taking them on remand.

Later, three more accused have been arrested and investigation is under progress.

Incidents of violence and communal tension were also reported in Karauli, Jodhpur, Bhilwara and Bharatpur in the past.

Meanwhile, Shah's visit to Jaipur stands significant as is a poll-bound state where elections will be held in December 2023.

This is Shah's second visit in the last eight months.

--IANS

arc/shb/

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The has registered a case of corruption against officials of and for allegedly favouring an ineligible private company in a contract worth Rs 38 crore for supply, installation, testing and commissioning (SITC) of electromagnetic flow meters, officials said Saturday.

The had conducted searches in connection with the case at 10 locations in Delhi/NCR on the premises of accused which led to recovery of Rs.1.5 crore(approx) in cash, jewellery worth about Rs 1.2 crore, fixed deposits worth Rs 69 lakh, they said.

Various property documents were also found from the residence of then General Manager, they said.

The agency has booked former (DJB) officials Chief Engineer Jagdish Kumar Arora, Superintendent Engineer P K Gupta, Executive Engineer Sushil Kumar Goel, Assistant Engineer Ashok Sharma, AAO Ranjit Kumar, then General Manager DK Mittal and Project Executive Sadhan Kumar besides private company NKG Infrastructure Limited.

"It was alleged that the accused had entered into conspiracy to provide undue favour to said private company and had made it technically eligible (which was otherwise not allegedly eligible)," a spokesperson said in a statement.

It was further alleged that a tender was issued in December, 2017 for SITC of electromagnetic flow meters and corresponding O and M operations for five years of Delhi Jal Board, it said.

"It was also alleged that due to conspiracy of the accused with said private company and false certificates & fabricated deviation statement issued by NBCC, the said private company qualified and bagged tender worth Rs 38.02 crore," the statement said.

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In a latest development in the Chinese case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday conducted searches at the residence of Congress MP in and recovered some incriminating documents from there.

A source said that when the probe agency conducted searches at the residence of in May, a portion of the house had to be sealed as the keys were with the Congress MP's wife, who was reportedly out of the country then.

"Today, Karti Chidambaram's wife joined the probe and we opened this portion of the house. We have recovered some incriminating evidences and documents," said the source.

According to the FIR, in 2011, a Mansa (Punjab) based private firm, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, took help of a middleman and allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to get visas issued to Chinse nationals to help get a project completed before deadline.

"The private firm was in the process of establishing a 1,980 MW thermal power plant which was outsourced to a Chinese company. The project was running behind its schedule. In order to avoid penal actions for the delay, the said private company was trying to bring more and more Chinese professionals to its site in Mansa district. For this it needed project visas over and above the ceiling imposed by Ministry of Home Affairs," said a official.

The official said that for the said purpose, the representative of the private firm approached a person in through his close associate and thereafter they devised a back-door ploy to get permission to re-use 263 project visas allotted to the said Chinese company's officials.

In pursuance of the same, the said representative of the Mansa-based company submitted a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking approval to re-use the project visas allotted to the company, which was approved within a month and permission was issued to the firm.

"A bribe of Rs 50 lakh was allegedly demanded by the said private person based in through his close associate which was paid by the Mansa-based company. The payment of the said bribe was routed from Mansa to the person in Chennai and his close associate through a Mumbai-based company, reportedly controlled by Karti Chidambaram, as payment of false invoice raised for consultancy and out of pocket expenses for Chinese related works," said the CBI official.

Karti Chidambaram's father P. Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister then.

--IANS

atk/arm

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Chief Minister on Saturday once again raised the demand of grant of project status to the state's ambitious East Canal Project (ERCP).

The chief minister raised the issue in the meeting of northern zonal council chaired by Union Home Minister on Saturday.

He also demanded Centre to create posts for member from in Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB).

Talking about the ERCP, the chief minister said that it is an ambitious project of Rs 37,247 crore which will benefit 13 districts of the state, namely Jhalawar, Baran, Kota, Bundi, Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Tonk, Jaipur, Dausa, Karauli, Alwar, Bharatpur and Dholpur.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his rallies held in Jaipur and Ajmer in 2018 had promised to declare ERCP as a project.

"This issue has been raised continuously by the state at the central level. I request that the should declare the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project as a project at the earliest," Gehlot said.

He said that more rights should be given to state governments to control cooperative societies.

In the interest of investors, the provisions of Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 should be made more stringent, the chief minister said.

Gehlot said that the registration of multi-state co-operative societies by the Centre should be banned, a portal should be developed for the grievances of the investors and payment to the investors should be made by auctioning confiscated assets of these societies as soon as possible.

He also urged the to revise the funding pattern to 90:10 (centre-state share) for the execution of schemes under Jal Jeevan Mission in view of the geographical challenges in Rajasthan.

Other demands raised by him included extending the period of GST (Goods and Services Tax) compensation by five years from June 2022 to June 2027, release of the pending GST compensation of about Rs 5,000 crore to Rajasthan, increase in the number of beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the state from 4.46 crore to 5.24 crore.

Apart from Rajasthan Chief Minister, the northern zonal council was also attended by Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur, Ladakh Lt Governor Radha Krishna Mathur, Delhi Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, Punjab governor and administrator of Chandigarh Banwarilal Purohit and senior officers from their states were present in the meeting.

Issues on internal security, road, transport, industries, water, power and other issues of common interests were discussed in the meeting, official sources said.

The Northern Zonal Council comprises Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Chandigarh.

The council helps in developing a coordinated approach through discussions and exchange of views between states on important issues of social and economic development.

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Sealdah, a major station of the East West Metro corridor, will be inaugurated on July 11 for which Union minister has been invited, an official said here on Saturday.

The commercial services between Sector V in Salt Lake and Sealdah will start from July 14, Metro Railway spokesperson Ekalabya Chakraborty said.

The Metro authorities are pinning hopes that the extension of services up to Sealdah will significantly increase the number of passengers in the partially operational East West Metro corridor, which is suffering from low patronage.

"Sealdah station of East West Metro will be inaugurated on Monday and Union minister has been invited to inaugurate it," he said.

Even if the Union minister of women & child development and minority affairs is unable to make time, the inauguration will still be held on that day, Chakraborty said.

The Metro station will link suburban train services to and from Sealdah, one of the busiest terminal railway stations in the country, thus providing connectivity to the passengers travelling to Salt Lake and Information Technology hub at Sector V there.

The East West Metro section connecting Howrah Maidan and Salt Lake is partially operational at present with services being operated between Sector V station and Phoolbagan.

Out of the 16.6 km length of East West Metro, underground corridor constitutes 10.8 km between Howrah and Phoolbagan with the tunnel passing below the Hooghly river. For the rest of the route, trains will travel on elevated tracks, according to KMRC, the executing agency of the project.

Several houses developed cracks during the underground work for the East West Metro line at Bowbazar in central Kolkata in May, nearly three years after a similar incident there.

On August 31, 2019, a tunnel boring machine hit an aquifer leading to severe ground subsidence and collapse of several buildings at Bowbazar. It caused a delay in completion of the project, which was earlier scheduled for December 2021.

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on Saturday reported 668 COVID-19 cases, which took the tally to 12,37,375, while the remained unchanged at 10,948, a state health department official said.

The recovery count rose by 515 to touch 12,22,381, leaving the state with an active caseload of 4,046, up from 3,893 a day earlier, he said.

Ahmedabad reported 258 new cases, Surat 99, Vadodara 61, Bhavnagar 35 and Gandhinagar 46, among other districts, he added.

A government release said 44,053 persons received COVID-19 vaccine jabs during the day, taking the total number of doses administered so far in to 11.18 crore.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli district in the adjoining Union Territory of DNH, Daman and Diu has five active cases, local officials said.

Gujarat's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 12,37,375, new cases 668, 10,948, discharged 12,22,381, active cases 4,046, people tested so far - figures not released.

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on Friday joined the Interpol's international child sexual exploitation (ICSE) database which will allow it to draw links between victims, abusers and crime scene using audio-visual data.

The CBI, which is India's nodal agency for matters, joined the database making the 68th country to connect to it, according to a statement from the .

"The ICSE database uses video & image comparison to analyse material and make connections between victims, abusers and places," it said.

An intelligence and investigative tool, the database allows specialized investigators to share information on cases of .

Through the image and video comparison software, the investigators can nail down the criminals by identifying victims and places of crime.

"The database avoids duplication of effort and saves precious time by letting investigators know whether a series of images has already been discovered or identified in another country, or whether it has similar features to other images," according to the .

Detectives in all 68 countries can exchange information and notes with their colleagues across the world.

"By analysing the digital, visual and audio content of photographs and videos, victim identification experts can retrieve clues, identify any overlap in cases and combine their efforts to locate victims of child sexual abuse," the Interpol website said.

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Lieutenant Governor on Saturday chaired a high level meeting to review the ongoing and relief operation at Amarnath holy cave.

Lt Gen A.S. Aujla, GoC 15 Corps and Dilbag Singh, DGP briefed the Lt Governor about the ongoing efforts at the holy cave.

GoC said all the agencies involved in the and relief operations are working in excellent coordination and they are well equipped to clear the debris.

The Lt Governor said the effort should be made to clear the debris within shortest period of time. The DGP while briefing the Lt Governor about the injured devotees said, majority of the injured have already been discharged and few others being treated at base hospital and Srinagar are likely to be discharged within 24 hours.

The Lt Governor said, teams from Army, CAPFs, NDRF and SDRF are on the ground and doing commendable job.

"I request Yatris to stay put in camps. Administration is providing all facilities for their comfortable stay. We are trying our best to restore the Yatra at the earliest," Lt Governor said.

He also directed senior officials, Deputy Commissioners and Camp directors to ensure best possible facilities are provided to the pilgrims staying at camps.

Earlier, Lt Governor had visited SKIMS in Srinagar to enquire about the health of injured pilgrims and subsequently went to PCR Srinagar where he was briefed about the status of sending the mortal remains of deceased pilgrims to their respective hometowns.

--IANS

zi/skp/

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With planning to redevelop Gandhi Nagar on the lines of international markets in USA and Spain, Chief Minister on Saturday appealed to the traders to participate in the dispensation's efforts to redevelop it.

"It is for the first time that any government is going to undertake development work for its traders on such a large scale. But it won't be possible with only the government's efforts. I appeal to all the traders to actively participate in these efforts along with the government," Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

He said this in response to his deputy Manish Sisodia's tweet and also tagged it.

" is going to transform Asia's biggest readymade garment market Gandhi Nagar into a global brand. With the increase in business, 40,000 employment opportunities will also be generated," Sisodia has tweeted in Hindi.

Kejriwal also shared a video in which traders of Gandhi Nagar were hailing the move., while a voice-over said that the beautification of the market will be done.

"It will be developed just like New York's biggest fashion market where clothes are manufactured as well as sold. It will become cleaner and more beautiful so that every customer feels that the market is ready to welcome them," the voice-over in the video said.

The examples of popular markets in Spain, Dublin, Tokyo were also cited in the video to highlight the fact that the market will be developed on the lines of the international markets.

There will be resting spots, signboards leading to the shops, information booths on the important roads, toilets and green belts adorned with plants and trees.

The government's think tank Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi also tweeted saying the beautification of the market will be done according to international standards.

"Gandhi Nagar to become like international markets like Fashion Centre, Harajuku, Ibarra, La Rambla #GreatGarmetHub #GandhiNagar," it 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.)
Live news updates: Union minister Nitin Gadkari has expressed confidence that green fuel will end the need for the use of petrol in vehicles in the country after five years. He made the statement in Maharashtra's Akola on Thursday, where he was conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Science by Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth.



Rescue operation was resumed at the Amarnath cave shrine on Saturday where 16 people were killed and over 40 injured in a cloudburst Friday evening. Authorities have temporarily suspended the Yatra from both Baltal and Pahalgam base camps. Teams of NDRF, SDRF, BSF, CRPF, Army, police and ITBP resumed rescue operation with the first light on Saturday morning, officials said.



Moscow has taken a page out of Washington's playbook to troll both the US and the UK by renaming the streets in front of their embassies in the Russian capital. The streets are now officially named for the two separatist regions of eastern where fighting is now the fiercest. The US and Britain have not recognised the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics, but Moscow officials said they will at least have to recognise the new addresses if they want to receive their mail.
The Union (MHA) has set up a three-member commission for carrying out a fresh delimitation exercise of the municipal wards in Delhi, according to a statement issued by the on Saturday.

The exercise will pave the way for the civic polls in Delhi, which would be the first since the recent reunification of the city's three corporations.

"Taking a step forward in the direction of holding municipal elections, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, by exercising its powers under sections 3, 3A and 5 of the DMC Act, 1957, has constituted a delimitation commission to assist central government in delimitation of wards and carrying out other functions related to it," the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) said in a statement.

It said the panel will have three members -- Vijay Dev, State Election Commissioner, Delhi, who will be its chairman, Pankaj Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and Randhir Sahay, Additional Commissioner, .

The commission will present its report within four months of its formation, the civic body said.

The reunified formally came into existence on May 22 with IAS officers Ashwani Kumar and Gyanesh Bharti assuming charge as its special officer and commissioner respectively.

The erstwhile MCD, established in 1958, was trifurcated in 2012 during Sheila Dikshit's tenure as the chief minister. It was recently reunified by merging the three civic bodies -- North, South and East Delhi municipal corporations or NDMC, SDMC and EDMC.

Parliament passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 on April 5 to unify the three civic bodies in the capital, with the Rajya Sabha giving its nod through a voice vote after negating all the amendments sought by the opposition.

According to the bill, the unification of the municipal corporations will ensure synergised and strategic planning and optimal utilisation of resources.

Sources at the State Election Commission here had earlier said after the passage of the bill to reunify the three municipal corporations, the civic polls were likely to be delayed by about a year.

The polls were earlier slated to be held in April.

Since the bill talks about capping the number of wards at 250, the Centre will form a delimitation commission after it is passed by both houses of Parliament, the sources had said.

The delimitation commission will then start the exercise to reorganise the municipal wards in accordance with the population of the respective Assembly segments.

"The delimitation exercise alone will take around six-seven months. After it is completed, the commission's report has to be notified by the Centre and then the process of rotation of wards and other poll exercises will start. It is likely to take about a year to conduct the municipal election in Delhi," a source had said soon after the passage of the bill.

Delhi presently has 70 Assembly segments.

The three erstwhile corporations comprised 272 wards -- 104 each in the North and South corporations and 64 in the East corporation.

Dismissing the opposition's charge that the ruling dispensation at the Centre had brought the bill out of fear of losing the civic polls, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during a discussion in Parliament in April, had said the BJP had no such phobia and was ready to contest the election soon after delimitation.

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For the first time, has started exporting to India.

The official process began on Friday with Palpa Industries Limited exporting its Tansen brand to India.

The company located at Sunwal Municipality-7 in West Nawalparasi district hosted a special function to mark the launch.

The government in its annual budget had introduced a subsidy of 8 per cent in cash to companies exporting using Nepali raw materials.

"Today, we exported some three thousand sacks of cement to India. Now onwards, we will be exporting it as per the demand on a daily basis," said Jeevan Niruala, the public relations office of the Palpa Cement.

Industrialists have welcomed the development as has become self-reliant on this construction material.

Over 50 cement companies operate in . Of them, 15, including Palpa Cement Industries Limited, produce both cement and clinker.

Various reports show that the total cement production capacity of the companies is 22 million tonnes.

Industrialists say that Nepali cement products face stiff price competition in the Indian market.

Shekhar Agrawal, executive director of Palpa Cement Industries Limited, said that cement export could slash Nepal's trade deficit with India by 15 per cent.

He said the demand for PPC cement was high compared to OPC in the Indian market, and that his company has its own limestone ore to use for producing the cement.

Palpa Cement Industries has been producing 1,800 tonnes of cement and 800 tonnes of clinker daily while it has an installed capacity to produce 3,000 tonnes of cement.

--IANS

ag/ksk/

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The government will implement a weekly action plan under which city roads will be regularly repaired, maintained and cleaned by the Public Works Department (PWD) and civic bodies.

The initiative, however, brought to the surface the simmering tussle between Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena and the AAP dispensation -- this time over who get the credit.

Announcing the action plan in the morning, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said every Saturday, every agency will ensure that one road in each of its zones is repaired and spotlessly clean.

Kejriwal's announcement of the campaign was followed by a statement from the lieutenant governor's office that Saxena has hoped an order for repair, maintenance and cleaning of "one road per zone/division every week" issued on Thursday on his instruction will bring much-needed and long-pending relief to the residents and commuters of .

"It is strange that LG is fighting for credits on issues which fall directly under government but has miserably failed to improve law and order situation, improve cleanliness of Delhi or control corruption in MCD," a source in the AAP dispensation said.

"Delhi government's weekly action plan to make city roads excellent. Every Saturday, every agency (PWD, MCD) will work towards making each road under their jurisdiction excellent," Kejriwal tweeted.

The LG office statement said that the order by the Chief Secretary for the road maintenance campaign came following the LG's meeting with officials concerned earlier this week.

"The LG has also applauded the seamless coordination put in place between various road-owning agencies by keeping the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister on board," the statement said.

The repair and maintenance campaign will take care of potholes, damaged blacktops footpaths and central verge, green cover, paint, street-lights, road reflectors as well as upkeep of public utilities like toilets and water ATMs, the statement read.

Regular and continued upkeep and cleanliness of these roads by removal of garbage, C&D (construction and demolition) waste and silt from drains shall be done while involving the Market Welfare Associations (MWAs) and RWAs.

The action plan of the exercise will be put before the LG by July 12 and will be reviewed at regular interval, it said.

Government sources, however, said the issue of road repair was discussed between the chief secretary and PWD Minister Manish sisodia two days ago. "It looks cheap for LG to fight for credit like this," a source said.

According to an official notification, roads in the city need the attention of agencies concerned such as the Public Works Department (PWD), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).

The progress of the work shall be uploaded on a portal by the organisation concerned, the notification, issued by Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, said.

Once the roads are repaired, maintained or improvised, the organisation concerned shall ensure their regular cleaning and maintenance, it said.

The Delhi government in a statement said that the civic agencies, including the PWD, have been asked to ensure complete maintenance and repair of one road every week in their jurisdiction.

"The Kejriwal government is determined to provide a smooth commuting experience to residents of Delhi. For this, it is important to have well-maintained and clean roads which do not become the reason for inconvenience to the residents," said Deputy CM Manish Sisodia.

This initiative will be helpful in making the city roads better, safer and beautiful, he said.

It will be an ongoing process which will continue according to the requirements of roads. The agencies will submit weekly completion report to the government, Sisodia added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Opposition's joint candidate for the on Saturday expressed anguish over the lives lost due to a cloudburst near the Amarnath cave shrine and urged the government to place facts about the incident before the country.

Sinha, who arrived here this morning to seek support for his candidature, was speaking at a meeting with opposition parties of Kashmir.

"I express deep anguish over the loss of life in the Amarnath tragedy. We don't know exactly how many people have been killed but it seems that many lives have been lost," the former Union minister said.

"It is our duty that we try to bring out the truth. The government should place facts about the tragedy before the nation and not hide anything," Sinha said.

At least 16 people have died and 25 have been injured in a flash flood triggered by the cloudburst near the Amarnath cave shrine. Many are feared trapped under the debris, according to officials.

Searches for the missing people continued without a break after tents and community kitchens were swept away by the flash flood and landslides.

The annual Amarnath Yatra, which began on June 30, has been suspended following the tragedy and a decision on its resumption will be taken after rescue operations get over, a senior administration official said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a rare gesture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President and Australian PM Anthony Albanese issued a joint statement on Saturday paying rich tributes to Japanese leader and recalled his key role in setting up of the Quad and pushing for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Abe, the 67-year-old former Japanese prime minister, died after being shot while giving a campaign speech in the southern Japanese city of Nara on Friday morning.

Modi, Biden and Albanese said Abe was a "transformative leader" for Japan and worked tirelessly to advance a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific. The Quad comprised India, the US, Japan and Australia.

"We, the leaders of Australia, India, and the United States, are shocked at the tragic assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe," the joint statement of the leaders released here by the Ministry of External Affairs said.

"Prime Minister Abe was a transformative leader for Japan and for Japanese relations with each one of our countries. He also played a formative role in the founding of the Quad partnership, and worked tirelessly to advance a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific," they said.

Modi, Biden and Albanese said they will honour Abe's memory by "redoubling our work" towards a peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.

"Our hearts are with the people of Japan -- and Prime Minister Kishida --in this moment of grief. We will honour Prime Minister Abe's memory by redoubling our work towards a peaceful and prosperous region," they said.

Abe, the grandson of former prime minister Nobusuke Kishi, played a pivotal role in shaping the broad contours of the Quad or Quadrilateral coalition.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister will address a "Natural Farming Conclave" on Sunday via video-conference.

The conclave is being organised in Surat, and will witness participation of thousands of farmers and all other stakeholders who have made adoption of natural farming in Surat a success story, the PMO said in a statement.

It noted that Modi in his address at a panchayat congregation in March had exhorted at least 75 farmers in each village to adopt natural farming.

Surat district undertook a concerted effort to sensitise and motivate different stakeholders and institutions like farmer groups, elected representatives, agriculture produce marketing committees, cooperatives and banks to help farmers.

Consequently, at least 75 farmers were identified in each gram panchayat and were motivated and trained to undertake natural farming. The farmers were trained in 90 different clusters resulting in training of more than 41,000 farmers across the district, the PMO said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The RTI (Right to Information) Act, enacted in 2005 is part of the fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India. Subject to the provisions of the RTI Act, all Indian citizens have the right to information. RTI Act allows citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority.

The RTI Act mandates timely response within 30 days to citizen requests for government information. An Indian citizen can file an RTI to seek information from government offices, departments, ministries, and all the organisations run by the or any other state government.

A person, who wants to receive any information under the RTI Act, can make a request in writing in English or Hindi or in the official language of the area where the application is being made and the applicant is not required to provide reasons for seeking information.

The text of the RTI application is confined to 3,000 characters only that can be uploaded on the RTI website.

The RTI application can be uploaded as an attachment if it contains more than 3,000 characters. An applicant can also receive alerts on the registered mobile number about the status of the RTI application.

How to file an RTI online?

To file an online RTI request form, visit the official website of the RTI -- rtionline.gov.in

Click on 'Submit Request' tab on the homepage

A new page will appear stating 'guidelines for use of RTI online portal'

Tick mark 'I have read and understood the above guidelines' option and click on 'submit'

Select the 'public authority' you want to seek information from

Enter the required personal details of the RTI applicant like -- name, gender, e-mail id, phone number, home address, citizenship, educational status, etc

Don't upload Aadhar Card or PAN Card or any other personal Identification (except BPL card)

Enter security code

Click on 'make payment'

An 'online request payment form' page will appear

Select 'Internet Banking, Credit or Debit Card / RuPay Card, UPI' and then 'Payment Gateway' option to proceed

Click on 'pay" button, you will be directed to SBI payment gateway

After completing payment process, you will be redirected back to RTI Online Portal to view the details of your RTI application

RTI applicant will receive an email of 'RTI online request filed successfully' stating details of registration number, date of filing, transaction status, etc

What is the fee required under RTI Act?

The fee for submitting an RTI application is as prescribed in the RTI Rules, 2012. Under rule 3 and rule 4 of the RTI Act, an information seeker needs to submit a fee of Rs 10 through Internet banking via SBI and its associated banks using the website. Credit/debit cards, UPI payment method or RuPay card can also be used to process the transaction.

If an applicant belongs to the below poverty line (BPL) category, then he or she is not required to pay any fee. However, proof (such as a certificate) needs to be submitted in support of the claim for belonging to the BPL section.

What type of information can be asked under RTI Act?

Indian citizens can seek any information that the government can disclose to the Parliament of India.

What are the exemptions under RTI Act?

Sub-section (1) of section 8 and section 9 of the RTI Act explains the types of information exempted from disclosure:
Several in central will be closed temporarily on Saturday due to a ''shanti march'' by the Vishva Hindu Parishad, the Traffic Police said.

A senior police officer said around 7,000 volunteers are expected to participate in the peace march, which is scheduled to start at 11 am from Mandi House and will culminate at Jantar Mantar.

The traffic police took to Twitter to suggest the commuters to avoid the Sikandara Road, Barakhamba Road, Copernicus Marg, Firoz Shah Road, Bhagwan Das Road, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Tolstoy Marg, Sansad Marg from Outer Circle Connaught Place to Patel Chowk and Janpath from Outer Circle Connaught Place to R/A Windsor Place between 8.30 am and 2 pm.

Police said these will only be used for pedestrian movements during the period.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Asserting that is the most tolerant country in the world, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said is safe in this country, not because of any government or party, but because it is in the blood and veins of every individual living here.

He also stressed that the basic primary education must be in .

"Ours is a great country, fortunately is again on the move, world is now recognising and respecting once again, nobody can ignore us. Though some people might write here and there small things, don't worry about it. Some people are not able to digest India's progress, they are suffering from indigestion, we cant help it," Naidu said.

Addressing the platinum jubilee celebrations of Mount Carmel Institutions here, he accused the western media of carrying lots of negative stories about India, forgetting the great achievements being made by the country and its people in various fields.

Acknowledging that there are certain challenges before the nation like social inequality, poverty, gender disparity, which need to be addressed, the Vice President said, India doesn't believe in colonial rule or doesn't want to impose itself on other countries, and has never attacked any country in its long history.

"....India is the most tolerant country in the world, one can take it for granted. People discuss secularism, is safe, not because of this government or that government, this party or that party, is in the blood and veins of every individual, this has to be understood by one and all."



In India anybody can reach the top posts of the nation, he said.

"Show me any other country where such equal opportunities are given for all sections. What are they, some people, are trying to teach us? See what is happening internally in those countries, the so called advanced rich nations, I don't want to name any."



There should be no place for violence, Naidu said adding that peace is the prerequisite for progress.

Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, former Governor of Rajasthan Margaret Alva, who is also the alumni of the institution and Metropolitan Archbishop of Bengaluru Peter Machado were among those present times.

The Vice President advised to take pride in one's own language, religion, but not to denigrate others.

"We are seeing here and there some people have the weakness of denigrating others and deriving vicarious satisfaction, it is not good. Every religion is great in its own way. What we have to focus is not religion, religion is personal way of worship, we should focus more on our culture and heritage, which are way of life," he said.

Noting that he feels happy talking about mother tongue, Naidu said the basic primary education must be in mother tongue, as it will be easy to understand, grasp and to communicate



" (is like) mother. I'm happy that we are again back to roots. The primary basic education must be in mother tongue, afterword you can go to brother tongue or other tongue, I have no problem... is like your eyesight, other languages are like spectacles, if you have eyesight, spectacles will work," he said.

Expressing happiness that the new education policy is giving importance to mother tongue, Naidu further said he was not against other languages.

"Learn as many languages possible, but first learn the mother tongue. There is a wrong perception in the minds of the people that unless you have English education, you cannot go up, it is not true, learning English is an additional strength," he said, as he pointed out that the President, Vice President and the PM of India studied in village school and did not get convent education.

Calling on the students to encourage, learn, propagate and feel proud of mother tongue, he said, "but don't denigrate or neglect other languages."



Stressing upon women's education, the VP said 50 per cent of the population are women, they should be given equal respect, equal place and opportunity, and provide them empowerment.

Highlighting the importance of character, caliber, capacity and conduct, he said, "unfortunately in the present trend, here and there some people replace these 4Cs by other 4Cs- cast, community, cash and criminality, it may give only temporary gains."



Observing that he has been in the thick of public life all these years and amid the boundaries of protocol which he has to abide by being the Vice President, Naidu who is at the verge of ending his term said, "I'm going to retire on August 11, country is going get freedom (celebrating) August 15, I'm getting before that.

(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.)
Undeterred by the deadly flash floods that have claimed at least 16 lives at Baltal, devotees thronged the base camp in Jammu on Saturday with a "high degree of enthusiasm and devotion" for their onward journey to the cave shrine situated at a height of 3,880 metres in the south Kashmir Himalayas.

Expressing grief over the tragedy that occurred on Friday, the pilgrims said they have no fear as they have full faith in Lord Shiva, adding that it would be a great privilege for them if they die in the abode of the god.

The 43-day annual pilgrimage started on June 30 from the twin routes -- the traditional 48-km route from Nunwan in Pahalgam in south Kashmir's Anantnag and the 14-km shorter but steep Baltal route in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir.

Over one lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance at the cave shrine as the yatra is scheduled to end on August 11 on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.

"We reached Jammu on Saturday. We have no fear. We have come here taking the name of Lord Shiva. If the god takes our lives here, we will accept it. But we have come to have darshan of Bholenath and nothing can stop us from doing that," Anantajit, who has come along with his wife and two children from Tripura, said.

Pointing out that those who have been born will also have to die one day, he said, "If the death occurs in the abode of Shiva, it would be the most pious thing to happen to anyone."



Chanting "Bam Bam Bhole", "Har Har Mahadev" and "Bholenath Ki Jai", a group of 60 enthusiastic pilgrims from Rajkot in Gujrat entered the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here for their onward journey to the twin base camps of Pahalgam and Baltal on Sunday.

"We have no fear in our hearts and minds. Whether there is a cloudburst or flash floods, we will go to Amarnath with the blessings of Bholenath. We are enthusiastic to have darshan of the ice lingam as we could not visit the shrine in the last two years due to COVID-19," Surinder Singh of Kanpur said.

Over 6,000 pilgrims have arrived in Jammu from various parts of the country for their journey to Kashmir to pay obeisance at the cave shrine. A heavy rush was seen at the registration counters, token centres and lodging centres, apart from the base camp in Jammu.

The shrine houses an ice stalagmite structure called the "lingam" that wanes and waxes with the phases of the moon. Devotees believe that the "lingam" symbolises the mythical powers of Shiva.

The flash floods triggered by have failed to alter the religious fervour and devotional mood in Jammu, officials said.

"Pilgrims devoid of fear and with high enthusiasm are coming in hundreds. There has been no fall in pilgrim arrivals," an official said.

Over 3.42 lakh pilgrims had paid obeisance at the shrine from July 1 to August 1, 2019, before the Centre cancelled the pilgrimage midway, ahead of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of into Union territories.

At least 16 people have been killed while 15,000 pilgrims, who were stranded near the holy cave due to the flash floods, have been shifted to the lower base camp of Panjtarni, officials said.

A massive operation is on to trace the missing people.

(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.)
Ahead of Eid-al-Adha, the police here have reached out to the people of the Muslim community asking them to refrain from slaughtering animals in the open, and anywhere except the designated spots.

To intimate them about the prohibition, over 6,000 meetings were held across the state with the leaders of the community, police said in a statement.

"3,010 meetings of the Peace Committee at the police station level in all the districts of UP Police, 3,407 meetings with the Imams and religious leaders of the mosques have been done jointly by the local police and administration," Additional Director General (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said in the statement issued on Saturday.

The statement also asked the community to ensure that "prohibited cattle are not sacrificed to maintain the law and order.

Police personnel have been deployed at 28,260 mosques and Idgahs, where Eid prayers will be offered, it said.

Eid-al-Adha will be celebrated for three days across the state and for four days in Mau district from July 10.

Tight arrangements have been made across the state by the police ahead of the festival. A total of 2,167 places across 1,500 police stations of the state have been identified as "communally sensitive," police said.

"For better police management these police stations have been divided into 2,422 sectors in which 1,539 Quick Response Teams (QRTs) have been deployed for quick action. Magistrates and equivalent police officers along with adequate police force will be present in each sector, the statement read.

Police pickets have also been put up at places considered communal hotspots and UP-112 vehicles have been directed to be deployed in sensitive areas and routes.

In addition to the local police, 152 companies of PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) force have been deployed across Uttar Pradesh.

Besides, 11 companies of Central Police Force have been provisioned for 11 very sensitive districts of the state, police said.

According to the statement, Uttar Pradesh Police headquarters and district social media cells are also monitoring platforms like Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram to look out for inflammatory posts.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least seven persons, including two policemen, were injured in clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters who had gathered in large numbers in the central Colombo's Fort area demanding the resignation of President Gotabya Rajapaksa.

Tens of thousands of protesters broke police barriers blocking the President's House where Rajapaksa has been housed since late March when the island-wide protests raged calling for his resignation.

At least seven persons, including 2 policemen, were injured and admitted to the Colombo national hospital on Saturday, officials said.

The police fired tear gas at two access roads to the President's House -- Chatham Street and Lotus Road, but the defiant protesters continued unabated.

The protesters also clashed with the railway authorities at provincial towns of Galle, Kandy, and Matara as the demonstrators forced authorities to operate trains to Colombo.

Large contingents of police, special task force, and the Army had been deployed around the area.

The organisers of the movement Whole country to Colombo' said people were walking from the suburbs to join the protesters at Colombo Fort.

Protesters said they won't relent until Rajapaksa quits the presidency.

Sri Lankan Police had earlier in the day lifted the curfew imposed in seven divisions in the country's Western Province, including Colombo, ahead of the planned anti-government protests, after coming under sustained pressure from top lawyers' associations, human rights groups, and political parties.

The curfew was imposed in seven police divisions in the Western Province, which included Negombo, Kelaniya, Nugegoda, Mount Lavinia, Colombo North, Colombo South, and Colombo Central with effect from 9 pm on Friday night until further notice, police said.

"People living in the areas where police curfew had been enforced should strictly limit themselves to their houses and law would be enforced severely against those violating curfew," the Inspector General of Police (IGP) C. D. Wickramaratne announced on Friday.

The Bar Association of protested the police curfew, terming it illegal and a violation of fundamental rights.

Such curfew is blatantly illegal and a violation of the fundamental rights of the people of our country who are protesting against President Gotabaya Rajapakse and his Government over its failure to protect their basic rights, it said.

The body cautioned that the curfew intended to stifle freedom of expression and dissent, which would gravely harm Sri Lanka's economy and its social, political, and standing.

The Human Rights Commission of called the police curfew a gross violation of human rights.

The Human Rights Commission informs that the imposition of police curfew arbitrarily by the inspector general of police is illegal.

It directs the IGP to recall this illegal order which is a gross violation of the fundamental rights of the people immediately, it said in a statement.

On Friday, police in Sri Lanka's commercial capital Colombo imposed a curfew after firing tear gas and water cannons on student protesters ahead of a weekend rally, as public outrage escalated over the island nation's worst in seven decades.

The police curfew was imposed to quell the weekend protest rally march to Colombo from around the country is planned over the weekend by religious leaders, political parties, medical practitioners, teachers, civil rights activists, farmers, and fishermen on Saturday demanding the resignation of the President as well as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

They blame Rajapaksa for the country's economic malaise, the worst since independence in 1948.

Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, crippled by an acute shortage of foreign exchange that has left it struggling to pay for essential imports of fuel, and other essentials.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Julie Chung on Friday urged the country's military and police to allow peaceful protests.

Violence is not an answer... Chaos & force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankans need right now, she said in a tweet.

Political and economic instability could potentially derail Sri Lanka's much-awaited USD 3 billion bailout package from the Monetary Fund (IMF), warned analysts.

Last week, Wickremesinghe announced in Parliament that Sri Lanka would present a debt restructuring programme to the IMF by August to secure a bailout package while underlining that negotiations with the global lender were more complex and difficult than in the past because the country was bankrupt.

The country, with an acute foreign currency crisis that resulted in foreign debt default, had announced in April that it is suspending nearly USD 7 billion foreign debt repayment due for this year out of about USD 25 billion due through 2026.

Sri Lanka's total foreign debt stands at USD 51 billion.

(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.)
US Secretary of State met his Chinese counterpart on Saturday in a new effort to try to rein in or at least manage rampant hostility that has come to define recent relations between Washington and Beijing.

Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi were holding talks in the Indonesian resort of Bali, a day after they both attended a gathering of top diplomats from the Group of 20 rich and large developing countries that failed to reach consensus over Russia's war in Ukraine and how to deal with its impacts.

Wang and Blinken were discussing a range of contentious issues from tariffs and trade and human rights to Taiwan and disputes in the South China Sea. Just two days earlier, the two countries' top military officers had faced off over Taiwan during a virtual meeting.

In a relationship as complex and consequential as the one between the and China, there is a lot to talk about and I'm very much looking forward to a productive, constructive conversation, Blinken said as the pair headed into the closed-door meeting.

Wang said it is necessary for the two countries to maintain normal exchanges and to work together to ensure that this relationship will continue to move forward along the right track.

He echoed frequent Chinese lines about remaining committed to the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. That, he said, "serves the interests of the two countries and two peoples. It is also the shared aspiration of the community.

U.S. officials said ahead of time they don't expect any breakthroughs from Blinken's talks with Wang. But they said they are hopeful the conversation can help keep lines of communications open and create guardrails to guide the world's two largest economies as they navigate increasingly complex and potentially explosive matters.

The and China have staked out increasingly confrontational positions, including on Ukraine, that some fear could lead to miscalculation and conflict. The U.S. has watched warily as China has refused to criticize the Russian invasion, while condemning Western sanctions against Russia and accusing the U.S. and NATO of provoking the conflict.

The Biden administration had hoped that China, with its long history of opposing what it sees as interference in its own internal affairs, would take a similar position with Ukraine. But, it has not, choosing instead what U.S. officials see as a hybrid position that is damaging the rules-based order.

At the G-20 meeting, Wang made an oblique reference to China's policy on global stability, saying to place one's own security above the security of and intensify military blocs will only split the community and make oneself less secure, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

On Thursday, China's joint chiefs of staff chairman Gen. Li Zuocheng upbraided his U.S. counterpart Gen. Mark Milley over Washington's support for Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province.

Li demanded that the US cease military collusion with Taiwan, saying China has no room for compromise on issues affecting its core interests, which include self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.

China demands the U.S. ... cease reversing history, cease U.S.-Taiwan military collusion and avoid impacting China-U.S. ties and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Li said.

At the same time, Li was also quoted in a Defense Ministry news release as saying China hoped to further strengthen dialogue, handle risks, and promote cooperation, rather than deliberately creating confrontation, provoking incidents and becoming mutually exclusive.

China routinely flies warplanes near Taiwan to advertise its threat to attack, and the island's Defence Ministry said Chinese air force aircraft crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait dividing the two sides on Friday morning.

The meeting between Li and Milley followed fiery comments by Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe at a regional security conference last month that was also attended by U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.

Wei accused the of trying to hijack the support of countries in the Asia-Pacific region to turn them against Beijing, saying Washington is seeking to advance its own interests under the guise of multilateralism.

At the same meeting in Singapore, Austin said China was causing instability with its claim to Taiwan and its increased military activity in the area.

In May, Blinken incurred Chinese wrath by calling the country the most serious long-term challenge to the international order for the United States, with its claims to Taiwan and efforts to dominate the strategic South China Sea.

The U.S. and its allies have responded with what they term freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea, prompting angry responses from Beijing.

(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.)
Due to the ongoing Russian blockade, about 30 chiefs of European railways plan to sign the "Ukrainian Declaration" in Vienna on Saturday help Kiev grain.

Among other things, the document stipulates that new terminals and trans-shipment points would have to be built to better the grain by rail, Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

According to Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz, even if the war ends quickly, it will probably take longer before the sea route is fully usable again because of the mines.

Lutz also noted that Kiev is working on bringing its railway track in line with the European one, which is narrower.

"This is another signal that is moving towards the European family at full speed," he was quoted as saying.

has to about 22 million tonnes of grain, while the railway allows it to export about 800 thousand tonnes per month.

Previously, the former deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Senik, said that in the conditions of the sea blockade of Russia, Kiev had established two grain export channels across Poland and Romania, reports Ukrayinska Pravda.

It is also negotiating with the Baltic states.

President Volodymyr Zelensky recently confirmed is negotiating with Turkey and the UN regarding the export of grain by sea.

--IANS

ksk/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
reportedly offered the to split its ad-tech business, which allows to place ads on Internet and and apps, into a separate entity under the Alphabet umbrella, to avoid an antitrust lawsuit.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal was part of multiple concessions the tech giant offered the US Department of Justice to avoid lawsuits alleging anti-competitive practices.

The US Justice Department is conducting a probe into allegations that " abuses its role as both a broker and auctioneer of digital advertisements to steer itself business at the expense of rivals", and preparing a lawsuit that could be announced soon.

In a 64 page complaint with 194 numbered items, the US Justice Department and 11 states sued in October 2020 for antitrust violations, alleging that it weaponised its dominance in online search and advertising to kill off competition and harm consumers.

The lawsuit marks the US government's biggest move since its case against Microsoft more than 20 years ago. This comes after 15 months of investigation and could be the opening scene of more antitrust actions against other Big Tech .

Reacting to the WSJ report that came out on Friday, a Google spokesperson said that they have been engaging constructively with regulators to address their concerns.

"As we've said before, we have no plans to sell or exit this business. Rigorous competition in ad technology has made online ads more relevant, reduced fees, and expanded options for publishers and advertisers," the company spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report.

Not just the US, Google is facing anti-trust probes in the UK and India too.

The UK competition watchdog in May opened a second investigation into Google's unfair practices in ad tech, following the launch of a probe into Google and Meta's 'Jedi Blue' agreement.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating whether Google has broken the law by restricting competition in the digital advertising technology market.

"We're worried that Google may be using its position in ad tech to favour its own services to the detriment of its rivals, of its customers and ultimately of consumers," said Andrea Coscelli, the CMA's Chief Executive.

The CMA is assessing whether Google's 'ad tech stack' practices may distort competition.

In July 2021, the French regulator closed a similar case against Google having imposed a fine and secured commitments.

In March this year, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered an investigation into complaints against Google for abusing its dominant position related to news referral services and Google ad-tech services in the Indian online news media market.

The CCI found that prima facie, these allegations of abuse of dominant position are under the purview of the Competition Act, 2002 and requires a detailed investigation by the Additional Director General.

--IANS

na/vd

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President had a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of and discussed how Abe Shinzo's legacy will live on as they continue the important task of defending peace and democracy, the White House has said.

During the conversation, Biden expressed his outrage, sadness and deep condolences after former Japanese leader Abe's assassination, it said.

Abe, 67, was shot from behind in Nara in western while giving a campaign speech. Police have arrested a Nara resident in his 40s, who allegedly used a handmade gun to shoot Abe, a tragedy that has shocked which has some of the strictest gun laws in the world.

The President underscored that he and the American people stand with the Prime Minister and the people of Japan in their time of mourning, said a readout of the call on Friday.

The President noted the importance of Prime Minister Abe's enduring legacy with his vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific and the establishment of the QUAD meetings of Japan, the United States, Australia and India, the White House said on Friday.

Abe was one of the architects of the Quad, the US, India, Japan and Australia alliance aimed at countering China's growing influence and military might.

The four countries had in 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the "Quad" or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region.

The President noted our unwavering confidence in the strength of Japan's democracy and the two leaders discussed how Abe Shinzo's legacy will live on as we continue the important task of defending peace and democracy, it said.

Biden, who is dealing with mass shootings in the US, also said gun violence always leaves a deep scar on the communities that are affected by it.

Biden said while there are many details that are not yet known about the attack, we know that violent attacks are never acceptable and that gun violence always leaves a deep scar on the communities that are affected by it.

Meanwhile, in a joint statement, Senators Jim Risch and Mitt Romney said Abe was the first to lay out a vision for advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific, and through his own determination, helped create forums like the Quad so the United States, Japan, Australia, and India could work together to further this strategy.

Despite his loss, we remain committed to these ideals. Japan is a steadfast ally, and we will continue to advance his vision, they said.

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A German court has decided a suit in favour of smartphone brand in its 4G/5G patent dispute against .

According to GizmoChina, the suit resulted from the breakdown in discussions between and over 4G (LTE) and 5G patents.

While instituted cases are in four countries, countersued in nine countries. OPPO had stated that the lawsuit filed by Nokia was shocking.

The German Regional Court ruling is the first ruling regarding the disputed patents.

Nokia had sued OPPO over nine Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) and five implementation patents in three regional German Courts.

Nokia is the standard-bearer in the 5G SEPs segment with huge investments of about $130.3 billion approx.

It has tons of patents in the field and has gotten several settlements in recent times. Daimler and Lenovo are some of Nokia's recent opponents who have settled with the Finnish company.

The Mannheim Regional Court granted Nokia a cease-and-desist order against OPPO. This means that OPPO and devices are banned from Germany.

OPPO's objection to the decision was dismissed by the judge who labeled the Chinese firm as an unwilling licensee, the report said.

--IANS

vc/kvd/ksk

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Ahead of the major anti-government on Saturday, an indefinite has been enforced in entrance areas to capital Colombo from Friday night and the Defence Ministry warned police and military have been empowered to act against those engaging in any form of violence.

A major people's march to Colombo from around the island is planned by religious leaders, political parties, medical practitioners, university teachers, civil rights activists, farmers, and fishermen on Saturday demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

"People living in the areas where police had been enforced should strictly limit themselves to their houses and law would be enforced severely against those violating curfew," the Inspector General of Police (IGP) announced in a statement on Friday night.

However, legal practitioners have termed the IGP's orders as illegal and claimed that the police chief has no authority to issue curfew under Sri Lanka's law. They demanded that curfew orders be withdrawn forthwith.

The Bar Association of (BASL) contended that Police Ordinance does not have a provision for the imposition of curfew and warned that failure to withdraw curfew order will have severe consequences for the country.

"The declaration of curfew is clearly intended to stifle the freedom of expression and dissent and is totally unacceptable and undemocratic and will gravely harm Sri Lanka's economy and its social and political stability. It will affect Sri Lanka's standing," BASL President Saliya Peiris said.

"We call upon the people of to take all necessary steps to safeguard their democratic rights and to use every peaceful means at their disposal to protect such rights," he added.

Reports have revealed that over 6,000 military and police have been summoned to the capital where by university students were violently controlled by police and military on Friday evening.

Fearing violence and clashes between security and the protestors, the United Nation's Human Rights Office urged government to show restraint in policing of assemblies and ensure every necessary effort to prevent violence.

"As a general rule, the military should not be used to police assemblies. Where, in exceptional circumstances, members of the military carry out law enforcement functions they are bound by norms and standards and must remain fully subordinate to civilian authorities and accountable under civilian law," Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said.

"The people of Sri Lanka are already suffering enormously and live in continuing uncertainty of how they can meet their basic needs including access to the right to food, health and education. They have a right to peacefully protest to demand a better life and an end to economic and social hardship," the UN spokesman emphasised.

Responding to demands by people to step down, President Rajapaksa charged that opposition political groups have misled the people and claimed the move would reverse progress of the country again.

He requested the people to properly understand the current situation and act peacefully and intelligently without getting caught up in wrong ideologies, the President's Office said.

Sri Lanka is undergoing a severe with no food, fuel, medicine and education for children and had defaulted foreign debts in May. The country awaits a bailout from the Monetary Fund (IMF) to get financial assistance from India, China, and Japan.

--IANS

sfl/vd

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The top diplomats of South Korea, the US and talked in Indonesia where they agreed to step up cooperation against North Korea's threats and make efforts to resume dialogue with Pyongyang, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin held his first tripartite meeting with his US and Japanese counterparts, Antony Blinken and Yoshimasa Hayashi, on the resort island of Bali, on the margins of the Group of 20 meeting that was held from Thursday to Friday, Yonhap news agency reported.

"The three ministers shared the view that North Korea's nuclear and missile threat is a pressing issue that needs to be dealt with as a priority by South Korea, the US and Japan," the ministry said in a statement.

"(They) agreed to make efforts to bring a united, firm response from the global community against North Korea's provocation and closely coordinate based on a flexible, open diplomatic approach to bring (Pyongyang) back to dialogue," it added.

The U.S. Department of State later said Blinken and his South Korean and Japanese counterparts discussed ways to expand security cooperation between their three countries.

"The secretary and foreign ministers condemned the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's unlawful ballistic missile launches and discussed how to expand trilateral security cooperation," it said in a press release, referring to by its official name.

"The secretary reiterated the United States' commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and immediate resolution of the abductions issue," it added.

The trio also reaffirmed the importance of trilateral cooperation to address emerging regional and global challenges and pursue "future-oriented cooperation" to promote peace, security and prosperity in the region, the South Korean foreign ministry said.

It marks their first in-person group session since the inauguration in May of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who emphasized bolstering the alliance with Washington and expressed willingness to mend soured ties with Tokyo.

Their gathering took place after leaders of the three countries met in Madrid on the sidelines of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit and agreed to bolster their security cooperation against amid concerns over the reclusive regime's preparations for a nuclear test.

The Friday meeting began 30 minutes later than the scheduled time and the ministers expressed condolences for former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was killed in a gun attack while giving an election campaign speech earlier in the day.

Park strongly condemned the shooting as "a violent criminal act that is unacceptable in any case," and Blinken mourned Abe as "a leader with great vision" who boosted relations between the two allies.

--IANS

int/shs

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As thousands of protesters stormed Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's residence in Colombo on Saturday demanding his government's resignation amid the ongoing economic crisis, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremmesinghe has summoned an emergency meeting with political party leaders to discuss the situation.

According to the Prime Minister's Office, the premier also has requested the Speaker to summon Parliament in an effort to find a solution to the crisis.

Meanwhile, 16 MPs of President Rajapaksa's Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party in a letter requested him to resign immediately and make way for a leader who could command the majority in Parliament to lead the country.

They stated that should give an opportunity to a mature leader without corruption allegations to take over the country.

However, he has not announced anything and his whereabouts are not known.

Social media reports have indicated that a group in 20 VVIP vehicles were heading for the airport, while another group left in two ships belonging to to Navy.

However who left in them remains unclear.

Religious leaders have also urged the President and Prime Minister to resign immediately and allow the swift passage of power.

Lawyers have emphasized that President Rajapaksas himself has to decide what course of action he should take amidst the mounting public protests against him.

Representing the country's legal fraternity and sitting judges, the Bar Association of (BASL) said it calls upon the "President to consider whether he could continue to fulfil his obligations and the powers and duties as the President of Sri Lanka any longer".

They also urged the Prime Minster, Speaker, Cabinet and MPs to immediately ensure that political stability of the nation was secured forthwith and there should be no delay in ensuring such transition.

"We call upon the police and the armed forces to ensure that no further harm is caused to the people who are engaged in the protest," the BASL said.

The lawyers also urged public to protect public property, specially the President's House and Secretariat and also ensure that no ham is caused to any person.

Violent clashes broke out on Saturday as the protesters stormed the President's residence in Colombo, with police using tear gas shells to disperse the.

More than 40 protesters have been hospitalised, with three critically injured.

Anti-government protesters also surrounded another residence of the President in Kandy, as well as the ancestral house of former Prime Minister Mahinda in the southern city of Tangalle.

With the mounting crisis and tension in the country, schools which have been closed until July 18.

In the wake of the island nation's worst economic crisis since it gained independence in 1948, people have been protesting against President and his government, asking him to step down.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa and several other family members who were in the cabinet and Parliament have already resigned.

With no fuel country's transportation have been stopped completely for two weeks and Indian ocean island is virtually under lockdown.

The island nation of 22 million people has witnessed its foreign exchange reserves shrink due to economic mismanagement and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a result it has struggled to pay for imports of essential goods, including fuel, food and medicine.

In May, it defaulted on its debts for the first time in its history after a 30-day grace period to come up with $78 million of unpaid debt interest payments expired.

--IANS

sfl/ksk/

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Sri Lankan has lifted the that was imposed in seven divisions in the country's Western Province, including in Colombo, ahead of planned on Saturday, after coming under sustained pressure from top lawyers' association, human rights groups and political parties.

The was imposed in seven divisions in the Western Province, which included Negombo, Kelaniya, Nugegoda, Mount Lavinia, Colombo North, Colombo South and Colombo Central with effect from 9 pm of Friday night until further notice, said.

"People living in the areas where police had been enforced should strictly limit themselves to their houses and law would be enforced severely against those violating curfew," the Inspector General of Police (IGP) C. D. Wickramaratne announced on Friday.

The Bar Association of protested the police curfew, terming it illegal and a violation of fundamental rights.

Such curfew is blatantly illegal and a violation of the fundamental rights of the people of our country who are protesting against President Gotabaya Rajapakse and his Government over its failure to protect their basic rights, it said.

The body cautioned that the curfew intended to stifle freedom of expression and dissent, which would gravely harm Sri Lanka's economy and its social, political and standing.

The Human Rights Commission of called the police curfew a gross violation of human rights.

The Human Rights Commission informs that the imposition of police curfew arbitrarily by the inspector general of police is illegal. It directs the IGP to recall this illegal order which is a gross violation of the fundamental rights of the people immediately, it said in a statement.

On Friday, police in Sri Lanka's commercial capital Colombo imposed a curfew after firing tear gas and water cannons on student protesters ahead of a weekend rally, as public outrage escalated over the island nation's worst in seven decades.

The police curfew was imposed to quell the weekend protest rally march to Colombo from around the country is planned over the weekend by religious leaders, political parties, medical practitioners, teachers, civil rights activists, farmers, and fishermen on Saturday demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

They blame President Rajapaksa for the country's economic malaise, the worst since independence in 1948.

Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil in seven decades, crippled by an acute shortage of foreign exchange that has left it struggling to pay for essential imports of fuel, and other essentials.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Julie Chung on Friday urged the country's military and police to allow peaceful protests.

Violence is not an answer... Chaos & force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankans need right now, she said in a tweet.

Political and economic instability could potentially derail Sri Lanka's much-awaited USD 3 billion bailout package from the Monetary Fund (IMF), warned analysts.

Last week, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe announced in Parliament that Sri Lanka would present a debt restructuring programme to the IMF by August to secure a bailout package, while underlining that negotiations with the global lender were more complex and difficult than in the past, because the country was bankrupt.

The country, with an acute foreign currency crisis that resulted in foreign debt default, had announced in April that it is suspending nearly USD 7 billion foreign debt repayment due for this year out of about USD 25 billion due through 2026.

Sri Lanka's total foreign debt stands at USD 51 billion.

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Sri Lanka's embattled President Gotabaya would resign on July 13, Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said on Saturday night.

President informed the speaker about this decision after Abeywardena wrote to him asking for his resignation following the all-party leaders meeting held Saturday evening.

Abeywardena wrote to on the decisions made at the meeting.

The party leaders had demanded the immediate resignation of Rajapaksa and his Prime Minister to make way for Abeywardena to become acting president until parliament appointed a successor.

Wickremesinghe has already expressed his willingness to resign.

Rajapaksa responded to his letter, saying he would quit on July 13.

His whereabouts was not known after he was moved out of his residence on Friday ahead of Saturday's protests during which thousands of irate anti-government protesters stormed into his official residence in Colombo.

Rajapaksa, who was facing calls for resignation since March, was using the President's House as his residence and office since protesters came to occupy the entrance to his office early April.

Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, crippled by an acute shortage of foreign exchange that has left it struggling to pay for essential imports of fuel, and other essentials.

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Elon Musks attempt to walk away from his $44 billion Inc. buyout will turn on a three-word phrase thats sometimes asserted in busted mergers -- but rarely passes muster with judges.



Material Adverse Effect was cited by Musks lawyers in a regulatory filing Friday which argued that undisclosed information about bots on the social media platform is fundamental to Twitters business and financial performance.

To escape the deal, Musk must prove the alleged omission amounts to an unexpected, fundamental, permanent negative development -- akin to blowing a hole in the transaction that cant be fixed, said Larry Hamermesh, a University of Pennsylvania law professor.

In a 2020 case involving Boston Scientific Corp., a Delaware judge defined the term as an adverse change in the targets business that is consequential to the companys long-term earnings power over a reasonable period, which one would expect to be measured in years rather than months.

So far, Delaware courts have found only one case in which a clear MAE emerged -- Fresenius SEs $4.3 billion buyout bid in 2018 for rival drugmaker Akorn Inc.

A judge blessed Fresenius decision to walk away from the deal after finding Akorn executives hid an array of problems that cast doubt on the validity of data backing up approval for some drugs and profitability of its operations.
Inc has a strong legal case against walking away from his $44 billion deal to acquire the U.S. social media company but could opt for a renegotiation or settlement instead of a long court fight, according to legal experts.

Delaware courts, where the dispute between the two sides is set to be litigated, have set a high bar for acquirers being allowed to abandon their deals. But target often choose the certainty of a renegotiated deal at a lower price or financial compensation rather than a messy court battle that can last for many months, three corporate law professors interviewed by Reuters said.

"The argument for settling at something lower is that litigation is expensive," said Adam Badawi, a law professor at UC Berkeley. "And this thing is so messy that it might not be worth it."

and Musk spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Musk's main claim against is that the San Francisco-based company breached their deal because it will not share with him enough information to back up its claim that spam or fake accounts constitute less than 5% of its active users. Twitter has stood by this estimate but also said it's possible the number of these accounts is higher.

Musk also said in a letter to Twitter on Friday that the company's misrepresentation of the number of spam accounts might be a "material adverse effect (MAE)" that would allow him to walk away under the terms of the deal contract.

But legal experts said Delaware courts view MAEs as dramatic, unexpected events that cause long-term harm to a company's performance. Deal contracts such as the one between Musk and Twitter are so prescriptive that a judge has ruled that an MAE has validly been triggered only once in the history of such litigation -- in the case of German healthcare group Fresenius Kabi AG ending its deal for U.S. generic drugmaker's Akorn Inc in 2018.

In that case, a court ruled that Akorn's assurances to Fresenius that it was in compliance with its regulatory obligations were inaccurate. It also found that Akorn had withheld facts about its deteriorating performance that emerged in whistleblower allegations.

Legal experts were dismissive of the idea that inaccurate spam account numbers would amount to an MAE for Twitter on the same level as the problems that plagued Akorn.

"If it goes to court, Musk has the burden to prove more likely than not, that the spam account numbers not only were false, but they were so false that it will have significant effect on Twitter's earnings going forward," said Ann Lipton, associate dean for faculty research at Tulane Law School.

Musk also claimed that Twitter breached their agreement by firing two key high-ranking employees, its revenue product lead and general manager of consumer, without his consent as required by their contract.

"That's probably the only claim that has any purchase," said Brian Quinn, a professor at Boston College Law School, but he added he did not believe the firings were serious enough to affect Twitter's business.

In 2020, the Delaware court allowed Mirae Asset Capital Co of South Korea to walk away from a $5.8 billion luxury hotel deal because the pandemic caused the seller, Anbang Insurance Group of China, to alter its ordinary course hotel operations.

SETTLING RATHER THAN LITIGATING TO THE END

Most of the times the courts find in favor of the target and order acquirers to complete their deals - a legal remedy known as "specific performance."

In 2001, for example, Tyson Foods, the largest U.S. chicken processor, decided it no longer wanted to buy the largest meatpacker, IBP Inc. A judge ordered that the deal be completed.

Many companies, however, choose to settle with their acquirers to end uncertainty about their future that can weigh on their employees, customers and suppliers.

This happened more frequently when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020 and delivered a global economic shock. In one instance, French retailer LVMH threatened to walk away from a deal with Tiffany & Co. The U.S. jewelry retailer agreed to lower the acquisition price by $425 million to $15.8 billion.

Simon Property Group Inc, the biggest U.S. mall operator, managed to cut its purchase price of a controlling stake in rival Taubman Centers Inc by 18% to $2.65 billion.

Other let the acquirers walk away in exchange for financial compensation. That includes medical technology firm Channel Medsystems Inc, which sued Boston Scientific Corp for trying to walk away from their $275 million deal. In 2019, a judge ruled the deal should be completed and Boston Scientific paid Channel Medsystems an undisclosed settlement.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; additional reporting by Hyn Joo Jin and Krystal Hu; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis & Shri Navaratnam)

(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.)
Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday has resigned as Sri Lankan prime minister to make way for an all-party government to take over, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.



According to the media reports, protesters broke into the private residence of Wickremesinghe on Saturday evening and set it on fire.





When this government resigns, it is essential that another government be ready to immediately assume duties to ensure stability, the PMO said, adding that the new governament must ensured that economic recovery, such as discussions with Monetary Fund, are not hindered.

Earlier in the day, thousands of protesters stormed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's residence in Colombo, demanding his government's resignation amid the ongoing economic crisis. Soon after, Wickremesinghe summoned an emergency meeting with political party leaders to discuss the situation.

To ensure the continuation of the Government including the safety of all citizens I accept the best recommendation of the Party Leaders today, to make way for an All-Party Government.



To facilitate this I will resign as Prime Minister.  Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) July 9, 2022

Meanwhile, 16 MPs of President Rajapaksa's Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party in a letter requested him to resign immediately and make way for a leader who could command the majority in Parliament to lead the country.

They stated that should give an opportunity to a mature leader without corruption allegations to take over the country.

On Saturday morning, violent clashes broke out, with police using tear gas shells to disperse the protestors. According to local media reports, over 40 people have been hospitalised, with three critically injured.

Anti-government protesters also surrounded another residence of the President in Kandy, as well as the ancestral house of former Prime Minister Mahinda in the southern city of Tangalle.

With the mounting crisis and tension in the country, schools have been closed until July 18.

In the wake of the island nation's worst economic crisis since it gained independence in 1948, people have been protesting against President and his government, asking him to step down.

The island nation of 22 million people has witnessed its foreign exchange reserves shrink due to economic mismanagement and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ukrainian President on Saturday dismissed several of Kyiv's senior envoys abroad, including India's, according to the presidential website.

In a decree that gave no reason for the move, he announced the sacking of Ukraine's ambassadors to India, Germany, Czech Republic, Norway and Hungary.

It was not immediately clear if the envoys would be handed new jobs.

Zelensky has urged his diplomats to drum up support and military aid for Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russia's Feb. 24 invasion.

Kyiv's relations with Germany, which is heavily reliant on Russian energy supplies and also Europe's biggest economy, are particularly sensitive.

Andriy Melnyk, who was appointed by Zelenskiy's predecessor as to Germany in late 2014, is well-known among politicians and diplomats in Berlin.

The 46-year-old regularly engages in outspoken social media exchanges, and has branded politicians and intellectuals who oppose arming Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion as appeasers.

He once accused German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of behaving like an "offended liver sausage" when Scholz did not immediately accept an invitation by Zelenskiy to visit Kyiv.

Kyiv and Berlin are currently at odds over a German-made turbine undergoing maintenance in Canada. Germany wants Ottawa to return the turbine to Russian natural gas giant Gazprom to pump gas to .

Kyiv has urged Canada to keep the turbine, saying shipping it to Russia would be a violation of sanctions imposed on Moscow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Seeking to corner the ruling over the issue of terror and its alleged links with terrorists, the will on Saturday hold a series of press conferences in 22 cities across the country.

leaders said the aim is to counter the BJP's "fake nationalism claims" and to take the message to the grassroots level that the ruling party has "connections" with individuals who have indulged in heinous crimes and terror acts.

"Today, 22 of our senior leaders and spokespersons will hold press conferences in 22 cities to expose the "links of terrorists with BJP"," general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet in Hindi, alleging that "evidence of terrorists having links with the has come out".

"The has links with terrorists, what is this relationship called? he posed in the tweet.

The Congress has alleged that Riyaz Attari, one of the prime accused in the killing of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Rajasthan's Udaipur was a BJP member. It has also released his photographs purportedly with BJP leaders in Rajasthan.

The BJP, however, has denied any link with such elements and claimed that some of them had clicked pictures with its leaders after infiltrating the party ranks.

The Congress also claimed that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Talib Hussain Shah who was nabbed by people in Reasi town in Srinagar recently was an office-bearer of the BJP's minority cell in Jammu and Kashmir, a charge denied by the BJP leadership in the Union Territory.

Congress leader Pawan Khera has asked how Talib Hussain Shah, who was allegedly planning to attack the Amarnath Yatra in Kashmir, was seen in a photograph with Amit Shah. He wondered whether it was not a security breach.

This is the second series of press conferences being organised by the Congress after the first such effort was made against the new Agnipath military recruitment scheme.

The Congress has decided to take the BJP head-on over issues of importance, and the party will continue to hold countrywide pressers to take its message to the people and to "expose" the claims of the BJP.

Top Congress leaders who are going to address the press conferences include Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda in Ahmedabad, Shaktisinh Gohil in Jaipur, Ajoy Kumar in Mumbai, Uttar Kumar Reddy in Bangalore, former Union minister M M Pallam Raju in Chennai, media and publicity head Pawan Khera in Raipur, Rajeev Gowda in Kolkata, Ranjeet Ranjan in Guwahati and Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka in Visakhapatnam.

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NDA's candidate on Friday sought the support of BJP legislators and its alliance partners for the July 18 presidential elections citing her humble background and the work for weaker sections.

"A woman born in a tribal society has come to you to seek your support. Despite odds, I got higher education on the strength of my strong will power. I have worked lifelong for the deprived sections and tribal society. I am sure that I will get the support of all of you," she said, according to a BJP release.

Addressing legislators of the BJP-led Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the CM's residence here, she said, "I call upon every MP and MLA of the state for positive cooperation."



Welcoming her, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said they are grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for nominating Murmu for the highest constitutional post of the country.

This decision has not only been accepted by the NDA constituents with a positive spirit but also seems to be breaking boundaries between parties, he said.

Appreciating Murmu, he said the commitment with which she has discharged her duties as an MLA and a minister in the past has been appreciated everywhere.

She never deviated from her values and her dedication for the uplift of the tribal society has been exemplary, the CM said.

Murmu has been pitted against Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the elections.

Murmu, who arrived in Lucknow to ramp up support for herself for the July 18 elections, was earlier accorded a warm welcome at Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport in Amausi here by senior BJP leaders.

The meeting was attended by NDA allies Apna Dal (S) and the Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal, sources said.

The Opposition Samajwadi Party's ally Om Prakash Rajbhar and Shivpal Singh Yadav attended a dinner hosted by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the honour of Murmu, a development showing chink in the opposition camp that is backing Yashwant Sinha for the post.

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Chief Minister on Saturday exuded confidence about completing his tenure in office and even winning the next elections in alliance with the .

Addressing a press conference here with Deputy Chief Minister by his side, he said a decision about the expansion of the council of ministers will be taken in Mumbai next week.

Shinde and Fadnavis, who arrived in the national capital on Friday night, met President Ram Nath Kovind, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and chief J P Nadda on Saturday.

Earlier, the chief minister and his deputy had lengthy deliberations with Union Home Minister Amit Shah during which the broad contours of the power-sharing arrangement were learnt to have been finalised.

Shinde dismissed his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray's call for mid-term elections, asserting the state government was strong and enjoyed the support of 164 MLAs in the house of 288 while the opposition had just 99 legislators.

At the press conference, when Fadnavis was asked about the cadre being unhappy over his "demotion" to the post of deputy chief minister, he said that on the contrary, the party workers were happy that the "injustice" done to them in 2019 has been rectified.

The BJP workers were happy as natural allies BJP and Shiv Sena have formed government, unseating the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, he said.

"It is very clear. The chief minister is the leader. We will work towards making this government successful," Fadnavis said.

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Chief Minister on Saturday said he would expand his council of ministers after discussions with his deputy next week and exuded confidence that he would complete his tenure in office.

Addressing a press conference during a whirlwind tour of the national capital, Shinde also dismissed his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray's call for mid-term polls in and asserted that his government is strong and stable with the support of 164 MLAs, while the opposition has only 99.

After their arrival here on Friday evening, Shinde and Fadnavis met President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president J P Nadda.

On Friday night, the duo had a long meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah during which the broad contours of the power-sharing arrangement in the new government were learnt to have been finalised.

Shinde and Fadnavis left for Pune on Saturday evening en route Pandharpur, where the chief minister will worship Lord Vitthal on the occasion of Ashadi Ekadashi.

Shinde and Fadnavis assumed office on June 30, after Thackeray resigned as the chief minister facing a massive rebellion in the Shiv Sena that brought down the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.

Asked whether he was disappointed at the "demotion" to the post of deputy chief minister, Fadnavis said he had merely followed the directives of his party.

"My party made me big by appointing me as the chief minister. It is not a question of being large hearted. I have followed the directives of my party," Fadnavis, who served as the Maharashtra chief minister from 2014 to 2019, said.

"I am with Shinde. I have been the chief minister and I know the chief minister is the leader. We will work under Shinde's leadership. Our primary goal is to make this government successful," he added.

Shinde rejected allegations that he had betrayed the Shiv Sena by unseating Thackeray as the chief minister.

"We are following the ideals of Balasaheb Thackeray. He taught us to rise up against injustice. This is not a defection. This is a revolution. All MLAs have joined me voluntarily," he said, adding that leaders such as Sanjay Raut have nothing else to do apart from levelling allegations.

Shinde asserted that he is the leader of the "real" Shiv Sena and added that the Maharashtra Assembly speaker too had recognised his group as such.

He said he tried to reach out to Thackeray on at least three or four occasions with a request to join hands with the BJP, the "natural ally" of the Shiv Sena, but was unsuccessful in convincing him.

Shinde also came to the defence of the BJP, which has often faced allegations of going to any extent to come to power in states.

"The has 115 MLAs and people had expected a chief minister in Maharashtra. People used to say that breaks other parties to come to power. I have 50 MLAs. Can people now say the same thing about the BJP? They cannot. A small worker like me has got a chance to be the chief minister," he said.

Fadnavis said the BJP workers were unhappy after the Shiv Sena walked out of its alliance with the saffron party in 2019 to form the government in Maharashtra with the help of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

"In 2019, the BJP workers felt insulted. We had sought votes together, but our ally had left us. The party workers are now happy. Their pain has now been removed," Fadnavis said to a question on whether the BJP cadre was demoralised at his "demotion" as the deputy chief minister.

(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.)
Maharashtra Chief Minister and his deputy are scheduled to meet Prime Minister and President J P Nadda on Saturday as the new-found allies move towards constituting their council of ministers.

Shinde and Fadnavis, who assumed office on June 30, a day after the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray quit in the face of a massive rebellion, are also expected to make courtesy calls on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.

The two Maharashtra leaders met Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday night and are learnt to have discussed the broad contours of the power-sharing formula between the and the Shinde-led faction of Shiv Sena.

I am confident that under the guidance of Narendra Modi, both of you will serve the people faithfully and take Maharashtra to newer heights of development," Shah said on Twitter on Friday night.

The visit of Shinde and Fadnavis to the national capital comes ahead of a crucial hearing in the Supreme Court on July 11 on a petition filed by the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of Shinde and 15 MLAs of his faction.

We have faith in the judiciary, Shinde told reporters in the national capital, asserting the group led by him had the support of two-thirds of the Shiv Sena MLAs. The Shiv Sena had 55 MLAs before the split triggered by Shinde's revolt. Nearly 40 Shiv Sena MLAs had backed Shinde, who also enjoys support of independents and MLAs from smaller outfits.

The Speaker has also granted us recognition, he said, referring to the decision of the newly-elected Speaker Rahul Narwekar.

Shinde was sworn in as chief minister on June 30 with the support of the after he rebelled against the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, walking out of the Shiv Sena with a large chunk of MLAs leading to the fall of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.

Shinde won the trust vote in the Maharashtra assembly on July 4.

(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 Droupadi Murmu's visit to on Saturday to meet SKM and BJP lawmakers in the state was postponed in the wake of the one-day national mourning, as a mark of respect to former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe, a SKM leader said.

Murmu has been visiting various states to seek support from lawmakers for the July 18 presidential polls.

"Murmu's visit stands postponed in view of the mourning being observed in India as a mark of respect to the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe," senior Krantikari Morcha (SKM) leader Jacob Khaling Rai told reporters.

All arrangements were made by ruling SKM and BJP leaders of Sikkim to receive Murmu for her visit to the state to seek support for her candidature in the upcoming presidential elections, but we came to know that her visit has been postponed, he said.

Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang along with MLAs of the SKM and BJP had called on Murmu in the national capital a week ago and pledged their support to her in the presidential election.

The NDA has 31 members in the 32-member Sikkim Legislative Assembly comprising 19 of the ruling SKM and 12 of the BJP which supports the Tamang government from outside.

The lone Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) MLA and former Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling has also committed to support Murmu's candidature in the presidential elections.

(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.)
Religion cannot be a tool to divide people and those who cause such a division can't be true spiritualists, Chief Minister said on Saturday while appealing to the people to ignore those seeking cheap publicity, instead tread the path of progress.

Those doing in the name of religion are not aware of the contribution of for development, including renovating temples and improving the infrastructure in heritage towns, he said.

The Chief Minister, who chose the meeting at the temple town of Tiruvannamalai known for the ancient Annamalaiyar temple, girivalam procession and Karthigai deepam festival, said he was not against any religion. But, he said he opposed those dividing people on the basis of religion. He said he ignores those accusing him of being anti-Hindus and that the accusations were from people trying to seek cheap publicity.

"I don't care about those who utter lies and seek cheap publicity. Even you should not care but move on to embrace development," the Chief Minister said after laying foundation stones for new projects worth Rs 340 crore, inaugurating projects worth Rs 70 crore and disbursing welfare assistance of Rs 693 crore to 1.74 lakh beneficiaries.

He said he was not running the party or the government on the basis of religion but only with the objective of serving the people. To those wondering if temple renovation is a Dravidian model of governance, he said he would reiterate that such model of governance hinges on equitable development.

"To go a step further, I would say that the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Act was enacted in 1925 by our parent organisation, the Justice Party, to bring the temples under the control of the State government," Stalin said.

People who do in the name of religion would not know this as they lack genuine intention, he said in a veiled reference to the BJP, which has been highly critical of him. "They are not real spiritualists. They are hypocrites. They play the religious card to serve their ends," the Chief Minister said.

Assuring to provide amenities for the Arunachaleshwar temple and the town and along the 14-km-long girivalam route, Stalin announced that a high-level committee comprising officials of the HR & CE, district administration and panchayats would be formed to also take up recurring maintenance work in this town.

Also, steps would be taken to formulate a detailed project report for ensuring road connectivity and a bus stand, and the projects would be implemented after obtaining environmental clearance for the benefit of 75,000 tribals living in about 20 mountainous villages in the district, he said.

He said the DMK's principles were nurtured on the philosophy of its leaders C N Annadurai and M Karunanidhi who emphasised that one can "see God in the smile of the poor (Eazhaiyin Sirippil Iraivanai Kanbom), one clan, one God (Ondre Kulam Oruvane Devan), and all beings are equal by birth (pirapokkum ella uyirkkum).

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chief Minister and his deputy met President and Defence Minister here on Saturday.

The meetings followed lengthy deliberations over the power-sharing arrangement in between the and the Shinde-led faction of the at the residence of Union Home Minister that began late Friday night and stretched till the wee hours of Saturday.

Shinde began his day by offering floral tributes at the statues of Chhatrapati Shivaji, B R Ambedkar and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule at the Sadan here.

Shinde and Fadnavis then drove down to the Rashtrapati Bhawan for a meeting with Kovind, their first after assuming office on June 30.

The two leaders then had a meeting with the defence minister at his residence.

Shinde and Fadnavis, who assumed office on June 30, a day after the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray quit in the face of a massive rebellion, are also scheduled to meet Prime Minister on Saturday.

At the five-hour overnight meeting with Shah, the two Maharashtra leaders are learnt to have discussed the broad contours of the power-sharing formula between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shinde-led faction of the .

"I am confident that under the guidance of Narendra Modi, both of you will serve the people faithfully and take Maharashtra to newer heights of development," Shah said on Twitter on Friday night.

The visit of Shinde and Fadnavis to the national capital comes ahead of a crucial hearing in the Supreme Court on July 11 on a petition filed by the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, seeking the disqualification of Shinde and 15 MLAs of his faction from the Assembly.

"We have faith in the judiciary," Shinde told reporters here on Friday, asserting that the group led by him had the support of two-thirds of the MLAs.

The Shiv Sena had 55 MLAs before the split triggered by Shinde's revolt. Nearly 40 Shiv Sena MLAs had backed Shinde, who also enjoys the support of Independent legislators and MLAs from smaller outfits.

"The speaker has also granted us recognition," Shinde said, referring to the decision of the newly-elected speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly, Rahul Narwekar.

Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister on June 30 with the support of the after he rebelled against Thackeray, walking out of the Shiv Sena with a large chunk of MLAs that led to the fall of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.

Shinde won a trust vote in the Maharashtra Assembly on July 4.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As part of its latest venture in private aviation, MJets has signed an agreement with Sersol Berhad that will see the two companies set up a joint venture company (JVC).

The JVC will offer aircraft charter services, ground handling services and aircraft management, and bring a fleet of private jets into Malaysia and Indonesia. The new JVC will have a 50:50 equity split made up of cash and non-cash contributions to the venture.

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With 15 years of experience in private jet services and maintenance experts for the aviation industry, we believed that MJets has the capability and strategic approach to soar towards success with the development and expansion of private jet services in Southeast Asia, said Natthapatr Sibunruang, chief executive officer at MJets. We are thrilled to come into an agreement with Sersol and look forward to the future development and long-term relationship of our partnership and this flagship project in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Sersol is taking steps to expand our business into aviation, technology, sustainable energy, property development, telecommunication and healthcare, elevating the company to new heights, said Datuk Wira Justin Lim, Sersol Group managing director. We believe the private jet charter aviation sector offers a blue ocean opportunity to enter Malaysia and Indonesias aviation sector. There is increasing demand within differentiated market segments desiring safe and reliable travel options easing travel complications.

The heads of agreement signing was witnessed by Yang di Pertua Negeri of Melaka, Tun Seri Setia Dr. Haji Mohd Ali Bin Mohd Rustam.
Whats new: Guineas government has again suspended the construction of Simandou iron ore mine, citing the failure of investors to reach an agreement on starting a joint venture, according to a Tuesday official statement.

Its the second time this year that authorities put a break on development of the project, which seen as crucial for China to reduce its reliance on Australian iron ores.

While the West African countrys ruling junta blamed investors for the halt, sources familiar with the project told Caixin that investors had submitted an agreed upon joint venture plan to the government, but never received a response.

The sources added that the government demanded tangible benefits from the project, such as cash payments, so it tried to force the investors to compromise by suspending the project.

The context: Simandou is considered the worlds largest, highest-quality iron ore reserve. The region holds more than 8.6 billion tons of ore with an average content of 65% iron, among the highest in the world, according to Guineas National Institute of Statistics.

Projected annual production will reach 100 million to 150 million tons, 5% to 7% of the global total. Chinese investors are among the main forces pushing the Simandou project forward as it could bring down prices for Chinas steel mills. Investors in the project include London-based mining giant Rio Tinto PLC, Chinas state-backed aluminum giant Aluminum Corp. of China and Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group Co. Ltd.

In March, the Guinean government halted activities related to project, saying that foreign investors werent working toward the countrys interest. But construction resumed two-weeks later after investors offered a 15% free stake in the mines infrastructure to the government.

Related: Guinea Agrees to Resume Simandou Iron Ore Project With New Infrastructure Pack

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use.

Contact reporter Guo Yingzhe (yingzheguo@caixin.com) and editor Bertrand Teo (bertrandteo@caixin.com)

Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go.

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Why are they suing? The plaintiffs are accusing Ringling College of neglecting to fulfill its duty to provide a safe campus environment for its students. The group alleges that the school mishandled student-on-student reports of sexual assault, sexual harassment, threats of violence, and stalking. They also assert that the college failed to fulfill its duty to protect students and student employees from discrimination. More specifically, the group alleges that dozens of students were discriminated against by former associate dean of students in resident life, Christopher Shaffer, based on gender, race, disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ status.

Three of the eight plaintiffs allege that after being sexually assaulted on campus, school officials mishandled the reporting of those incidents and attempted to cover up the complaints. The trio claim that their experiences were not unique, but representative of a pattern of silencing students and covering up reports of student-on-student misconduct in violation of Florida and federal anti-discrimination laws since 2008.

Who is Christopher Shaffer? Shaffer is a now-former dean of students who is also suing the school for defamation. Further, for nearly two years, Shaffer has been suing Ringling alumnus Megan Ruiz for defamation after she publicly spoke out about her experiences with Shaffer and began collecting reports, as many as 60, from other alumni making similar claims of abusive behavior.

What the plaintiffs are saying: When the group of eight filed their suit against the school, Ruiz stated, For much of the past two years, I didnt have the mental health needed to pursue this lawsuit. Now that others have come forward, I am reminded that my only goal since all of this started was to advocate for the well-being of the Ringling community. The college was negligent, and Im moving forward for the sake of the mental health and safety of others, as scary as this is.

What Ringling is saying: The safety of our students and the entire Ringling College community is and always has been a top priority, the school told Cartoon Brew. As a practice, however, the College does not comment on pending legal matters.
Photo: Contributed The Cap Mountain fire burning near Whitehorse is shown on Tuesday, July 5, 2022.

Several parts of Northern Canada are enveloped in smoke from wildfires along with unusually high seasonal temperatures.

Yukon has seen a huge leap in the number of blazes with just over 846 square kilometres of land scorched this year, while heat warnings and air quality statements are in effect in the Northwest Territories and part of Nunavut.

Yukon fire information officer Mike Fancie says there have been 161 active wildfires in that territory this season, compared with 41 over the same period in 2021.

Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for parts of central and northern Yukon and Northwest Territories that says wildfire smoke will continue to impact communities this week.

The weather agency says Beaver Creek, Dawson and Pelly-Carmacks are among the regions that will see daytime highs in the upper 20s and overnight lows in the lower teens, while a heat advisory in Old Crow warns of temperatures nearing 30 C for the next four days.

In the Northwest Territories, heat warnings and special air quality statements flank the Mackenzie River from Aklavik to Great Slave Lake, with temperatures near 30 C on Friday.

While Yellowknife escaped the extreme heat, wildfire smoke prompted Environment Canada to warn against strenuous outdoor activity and to take precautions.

The agency also warns of abnormally high temperatures and wildfire smoke in parts of Nunavut, including Kugluktuk.

"Air quality and visibility due to wildfire smoke can fluctuate over short distances and can vary considerably from hour to hour," it says.

A fog advisory is in effect in the area of Grise Fiord in northern Nunavut, where visibility may be significantly and suddenly reduced to zero through early Sunday.
Photo: Contributed

Suncor Energy says Mark Little has stepped down as president and chief executive officer and resigned from the board of directors, effective immediately.

Calgary-based Suncor says in a release that Kris Smith, who is currently executive vice-president of its Downstream division has been named interim CEO.

"Suncor is committed to achieving safety and operational excellence across our business, and we must acknowledge where we have fallen short and recognize the critical need for change," said Board Chair Michael Wilson in a release. "We commend Mark for his professionalism and the exceptional work he did to guide Suncor through the pandemic and lead our sector's progressive approach to the energy transition. We thank him for his years of service with the company and wish him well."

"Kris is an accomplished executive with 22 years of experience across our business," added Mr. Wilson. "He is a highly capable leader and has the Board's full confidence to serve as Suncor's Interim CEO."

The release did not state a reason for Little's departure.
Photo: The Canadian Press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listens to speeches as he attends a pancake breakfast in Calgary on Saturday, July 7, 2018. Regardless of their political stripe, politicians ride into the city looking to lasso partisan support in the form of votes.

There's more to the Calgary Stampede than a rodeo, cowboy hats and horses  it's also a major opportunity for politicians.

Regardless of their political stripe, they into ride into the city looking to lasso partisan support in the form of votes.

The 10-day festival celebrating the cowboy way of life has attracted all federal leaders, who often take on the persona of duelling gunslingers looking for votes in a game of political one-upmanship.

Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been a regular visitor to the Stampede, as have the leaders of the federal Conservatives, NDP and Green Party.

Most of the attention this year will be on the federal Conservative party leadership race, with all five remaining candidates attending a local party barbecue Saturday evening as well as many provincial politicians looking to replace Alberta Premier Jason Kenney as leader of the province's United Conservative Party.

"It isn't just Conservatives that do this. I think somehow it evolved," said Lori Williams, a political science professor at Calgary's Mount Royal University.

"There was enough media attention and enough people coming from outside of Calgary that it became a magnet for leaders across the country to come and engage in sort of feel-good political connections that would be seen by people across the country."

She said there's some "star power" associated with the Stampede too.

"Seeing someone they have viewed online or on television and they want to sort of see and connect  and that's a great opportunity for politicians, because sometimes those connections can change hearts and minds."

The federal Conservatives are scheduled to elect a new leader in September.

Interim leader Candice Bergen was scheduled to address the crowd at the Conservative barbecue, as well as leadership candidates Pierre Poilievre, Jean Charest, Leslyn Lewis, Scott Aitchison and Roman Baber.

"It's an opportunity for politicians to be in more of a relaxed and different setting, looking a bit different, engaging in different activities, a bit of a friendlier, more positive vibe to things," Williams said.

Former Calgary Conservative MP Joan Crockatt said politicians get a chance to see a lot of people during the Stampede, which makes it very efficient.

"I think what people have kind of come to expect from the Stampede is that there's going to be some star quality, you get to wear your rhinestones and your cowboy hat and your cowboy boots," said Crockatt, who represented Calgary Centre from 2012 to 2015.
Chino, CA (91710)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy. Low 68F. W winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy. Low 68F. W winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.
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Moms for Liberty is hosting a School Board Candidate Forum - Districts 3, 6, 8, & 11 on Monday from 6-8 p.m.

It will be at Red Bank High School.

A second forum for Districts 5, 9, & 10 will be Monday, July 18, from 6-8 p.m. at Ooltewah High School.

Officials said, "The aim is to engage with the candidates in order to make an informed vote. In the well-established spirit of having these forums at the schools in Hamilton County, local parents and community members asked Moms for Liberty to invite all candidates to participate regardless of their political affiliation. This nonpartisan event is an effort to ensure that everyone can be a well-informed voter.

"Parents and residents of Hamilton County are invited to attend both forums, and take the opportunity to engage in their children's education.

"Moms for Liberty is a non-partisan nonprofit dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government."
In 2017, police in South Carolina, during a routine traffic stop, discovered military grade machine guns stolen from a National Guard Armory. (WSOC TV, 12/21/2017). As far back as 1974 what was described as enough armaments to outfit a full Army company was stolen from a Guard Armory in Compton, CA (NYTimes, 07/06/1974).

Some stolen military weapons, according to the AP, have been used over the years to commit violent crimes in Boston, MA, 2016 and Albany, NY, June 15, 2021. In Dec, 2021, a Pecos, NM man was charged with stealing and selling military weapons from an armory near Santa Fe. He was also arrested on drug charges including fentanyl. As we have seen, gun running and illegal drugs go hand in hand.

I say all of this to show with all the regulations and difficulties securing weapons, we can see criminals still get guns. Case in point: the ease in which the alleged Highland Park shooter, even with a troubled background, got guns. Add to that how progressive DAs, in states with very restrictive gun regulations, release violent, repeat offenders even when guns are involved in the crime.

Progressives wont address the criminality of crossing the border illegally, wanting instead to focus on the causes. But when it comes to mass shootings, they never want to address the causes, only the fact a gun was used. Call Bidens election illegitimate or say Hunters laptop was not Russian meddling and you get suspended from social media. That same crowd then expects us to believe they cant detect a social media trail leading to mass shooters. That is pure progressive bunk.

Crimes committed with guns must carry the full sentence and violent felons not released back on to the streets only to repeat the crimes. Until then, all the political talk of new gun laws which only restrict the people who obey the law will just create more violent crimes.

Ralph Miller

* * *

Once again, I believe Ralph Miller's opinion is incorrect.

I do not dispute the facts he cited about armory thefts. Or that gun running and drugs go hand in hand: after all, if you can smuggle two high profit items for the same cost, why not do it? I agree with the ease with which the last two mass murderers obtained their weapons.

It's the last paragraph of his letter with which I disagree.

"Crimes committed with guns must carry the full sentence and violent felons not released back on to the streets only to repeat the crimes. Until then, all the political talk of new gun laws which only restrict the people who obey the law will just create more violent crimes."

He advocates gun crimes carry the full sentence as a deterrent to gun crimes. A reasonable man would be deterred by the likelihood of prison time for his actions. However, to date, that likelihood has not been a deterrent. I do not believe the perpetrator thinks that because he may get a shorter sentence, he commits the crime. Nor will a longer sentence will deter him from committing that crime. He has already made up his mind.

In the second phrase (violent felons not released . . .), Mr. Miller appears to be advocating life sentences for violent felons (presumably gun crimes). But has the prospect of not being released been a deterrent. Supposedly, those that murdered with guns were aware of the possibility of life imprisonment or a death sentence before the crime. Did that deter them? No. Some had a death wish.

Solving this nation's gun problems cannot be solved instantaneously. Because of the Second Amendment, there will always be gun crimes.

What must first be addressed is the availability of AR-15 type weapons allowing the firing of shots as quickly as one can pull the trigger. We must stop the most heinous of mass murders first. We may not prevent all deaths, but will prevent many just by limiting the speed of firing and reloading. If that means people who otherwise obey the law believe they are burdened without that type of weapon, we already have a precedent: automatic weapons have been banned. They are already imposed upon.

As for banning, we are also banning books despite the First Amendment ( . . . or abridging freedom of speech, or of the press; . . .). So there is precedent.

Second, ammunition that is manufactured for war should be banned. This type ammunition not only kills violently, but if not killing, wounds violently. A coroner should never have to resort to DNA for gunshot victim of identification. Nor should anyone suffer the agony of knowing their loved one was violently ripped apart.

Joe Warren

* * *

Joe Warren, I think your opinion has many holes in it, and not from gunfire.

The Constitution, as you have noted, does guarantee many rights, but all of those rights "end" when you trespass upon the rights of someone else. For instance, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms," ends for someone when they use "arms" to kill (other than special circumstances like self-defense, military action, etc.). If they choose to "kill", this infringes upon another's right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, just as abortion "kills" someone that has not trespassed against another and is denied their right to life. The "methods" that can be used to take the life of another are endless; car, knife, bomb, hammer, fist, pipe, etc.

Just a note, a semi-automatic 9mm handgun can be "shot as quickly as one can pull the trigger" and ARs come in 9mm also.

There were roughly the same amount of deaths each year caused by auto accidents and guns here in the U.S., so would you ban "fast cars" in order to curb auto related deaths?

I deal with many people that are inconvenient, costly and I just don't want to have that "burden" of them in my life, but that does not give me the right to "kill" them.

To sum this up, the right to bear arms is a Constitutional right, abortion is not. The right to "life" is also given in the Constitution and abortion denies that. Simply, I do not see the relationship between these two at all.

Patrick Lee




A woman on W. 37th Street told police the refrigerator was stolen from the house she rents out. She said the fridge was older and cost around $750 to replace. She believes it was the previous tenants but doesn't know for sure. They moved out Friday night around 1 a.m. She had a lease agreement with them and got an eviction notice so they moved out. The woman wanted warrants taken out on the previous tenants but could not prove that they were the ones that stole the fridge.

* * *

A man on Parker Lane told police the drivers side window to his Chevy truck had been broken out and miscellaneous tarps, chains and tie down straps had been taken. At this time the only known suspect information appears to be five unknown black males between the ages of 13-18, according to hotel surveillance, possibly in a silver Hyundai Santa Fe, black Ford truck, and black Chevy/GMC truck.

* * *

A woman told police that sometime over the weekend, while her vehicle was parked at Enterprise Rental at 5912 Lee Hwy., someone cut the catalytic converter off her 2006 Hyundai Tucson.

* * *

A woman on Walker Avenue told police that at some unknown time, someone entered her unlocked 2012 VW Passat and stole a xerox copy of her Social Security card.

* * *

A man at La Quinta at 311 Browns Ferry Road told police his silver Toyota Tacoma had been burglarized in the parking lot. Police saw the trucks passenger window was busted out. The suspect(s) stole a black duffle bag with clothing and Samsung earbuds from the vehicle. There was nothing to process at the scene. No suspect info could be obtained, although there were several other vehicle burglaries at this location and surrounding areas during this time frame.

* * *

Officers met with a woman on Summertown Court who said she needed to get a few of her belongings from a house across the street. There was a man with her who said he had a TV in the home he would like to get. Officers went to the address and spoke with a man and woman in the home. The woman said the TV was given to someone there by the man. Everyone had to be asked multiple times to stop arguing with each other. The woman collected her belongings and left.

* * *

An officer responded to a shoplifting at 2220 Hamilton Place Blvd. A man told the officer a white male came into the store and stole two pairs of Nike shoes worth $300. The suspect left in a gray Honda Pilot with a Georgia tag.

* * *

A woman told police she left her wallet on the counter at Murphy USA at 5716 Hwy. 153. When she returned it was gone. The woman said she even double-checked Walmart to see if the wallet was there but it was not. She has canceled her debit card but still needed a report to replace her drivers license and Social Security card.

* * *

A woman on S. Willow Street told police her yellow tricycle valued at $200 had been stolen off of the front porch of the residence. She believed it had happened within the last 10 minutes. Police checked the area but were unable to locate the tricycle.

* * *

A man at Patten Towers at 1 E. 11th Street told police the occupants of room 420 were making false reports to police on him. It was apparent that he was likely suffering from some type of paranoia. When asked he became uncooperative and said he should not have called police.

* * *

The manager of City Cafe at 901 Carter St. called police and said a man stole a piece of cake and threatened him. The manager wanted for the man to be told he was not welcome back if contacted by police. Police couldnt find the man.

* * *

Police were asked to check on a suspicious man standing in the road at the entrance to Walmart at 3550 Cummings Hwy. Police were in the area due to a large increase of auto burglaries. The man said he was homeless and was walking back to his camp. Police checked him for warrants but none were found. He left the area.

* * *

The manager of Speedway at 1330 E. 3rd St. told police a woman had been arguing with staff and was refusing to leave. The manager said the woman had been hanging out on the premises much of the night and bothering customers. Police asked the manager if she wanted the woman trespassed and she said yes. While on scene, police identified the woman and told her she was trespassed from Speedway and she seemed to have a hard time understanding what that meant. Police explained to her that she was not allowed to come back onto Speedway property and, if she does, she will be cited or arrested. Police walked the woman off the property and onto the sidewalk.

* * *

An employee at Exxon at 2301 4th Ave. told police the store was very busy and a black male was attempting to use his credit card inside the store. The man became irate when his card was declined multiple times. He then pushed a store display off the counter and onto the floor. The man left in a Lincoln MKX, south on 4th Avenue.

* * *

The manager of Speedway at 1330 E. 3rd St. told police she saw a white female in the store with brown hair in a bun, wearing a gray zip-up sweater and blue jeans, possibly in her mid-30's to mid-40's. A customer in the store came up to the manager and said the described woman had run out of the store with three 12-packs of Coors Light. The manager saw the woman exit the Speedway and get into a silver car with a broken brake light. The manager said the car was occupied by three other people and she was not able to tell police which direction they went. Each 12-pack of beer cost $12.99, for a total theft of approximately $39. Police provided the manager with a complaint card and she told police Speedway would prosecute on the matter. Police drove around the vicinity of 1330 E. 3rd St. and didnt find a car or occupants matching the descriptions given.
The Battle of Athens is the most significant event in McMinn Countys history. It is known to people all over the world and is still talked about generations later. Beginning at 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 30, at Market Park in Athens, the public is invited to commemorate this event on its 76th anniversary. It will be just a few blocks away from the site of the battle.

On the evening of Aug.1, 1946, dozens of WWII veterans gathered on a hill across from the county jail on White Street (now the parking lot of Carter Insurance) demanding that the sheriff and his deputies hand over the ballot boxes they had confiscated from the polls for safekeeping. A shot rang out, and the two sides exchanged gunfire for several hours.

The fighting only ceased after dynamite blasts finally forced the deputies to surrender. A fair count of the ballots took place. The GI Non-Partisan Ticket, comprised of Democrats and Republicans, had defeated the local political machine. A decade of election fraud, graft, and police brutality finally came to an end. Our county quickly began to heal, but this event can never be forgotten.

The Battle of Athens Festival will feature multiple speakers, including local historians and descendants of the GIs who risked their lives and futures on that hot summer night. An expert on Tennessees elections laws will discuss how the Volunteer State now has the most secure elections in the country. Photographs from and videos about the battle will be screened. Dozens of vendors and food trucks will also feature.

The festival lasts until 9 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend and there will be something fun for everyone. Email battleofathensfest@gmail.com or visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BattleofAthens75 for more information.
Kim Wexler was first introduced in the pilot episode of Better Call Saul, though she said very little. Over the course of its slow six-season burn, Kim has become one of the most important characters in the Breaking Bad prequel. As the series approaches its end, fans are extremely concerned about Kims fate. Jimmys wife is mysteriously absent from Breaking Bad, which makes things especially ominous as the show approaches its final episodes. Given that Kim is such an important character, fans may be surprised to remember that Kim barely even spoke in the pilot episode.

Patrick Fabian as Hamlin and Rhea Seehorn as Kim in Better Call Saul | Ursula Coyote/AMC

Kim Wexler only has a few lines in the Better Call Saul pilot

Better Call Saul launched its first episode in 2015. As the name suggests, the Breaking Bad prequel focuses on Jimmy McGills transformation into the sleazy criminal lawyer Saul Goodman. The pilot episode began with a flashback to the Gene Takovic timeline. The show then jumped back to Jimmy McGills thankless work in public defense.

After a run-in with the skateboarding twins, Jimmy pays Howard a visit. He barges into the conference room where Howard sits, along with Kim. After a frustrating confrontation with Howard, Jimmy steps outside where Kim is smoking. The pair share only a few words of dialogue before Kim returns inside.

Peter Gould didnt expect Kim to become so important

Since the Better Call Saul pilot episode, Kim Wexler has become an incredibly significant character. A few brief scenes have shown glimpses into her upbringing with an alcoholic, grifter mother. Kim is drawn to the swindling con man side of Jimmy and in season 5 the pair seal their relationship and get married.

However, according to Better Call Saul showrunner and co-creator Peter Gould, no one anticipated just how significant Kim would become. We had no idea, when we started, how important her character was going to be, Gould told The New York Times. If you watch the pilot of the show, she has probably three lines of dialogue.

In March 2007, #BreakingBad started shooting its pilot in Albuquerque, New Mexico.



Today, nearly 15 years later, #BetterCallSaul  the prequel/sequel series to 'Breaking Bad'  shot its last day in Albuquerque, New Mexico. pic.twitter.com/3P9s9Ha8on  Brian Davids (@PickYourBrian) February 10, 2022

While Kims importance in the series wasnt initially clear, its now obvious that the characters fate will deeply affect Jimmy. Whats more, Kims survival in the prequel series is not a guarantee.

Better Call Saul fans are worried about Kim Wexler

As of season 6 episode 7, Kim Wexler is one of the few living Better Call Saul characters who doesnt appear in Breaking Bad. Her fate in the final episodes of the prequel series is now one of the shows greatest mysteries. Whatever happens to Kim may even change the way fans see Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad.

There are plenty of theories circulating about Kims fate. Some fans believe Kim will die before the end of Better Call Saul Season 6. Others believe she will leave Jimmy and go into hiding, perhaps with help from the Disappearer. Some fans have even suggested that Kim could be running a long con on Jimmy in order to get part of the Sandpiper settlement money. However, Kims fate may turn out to be something no one anticipated.

Better Call Saul returns with new episodes on July 11.

RELATED: Better Call Saul: Howard Hamlins Fate Was Decided Long Ago
Its easy to get the impression that a celebrity renowned for their beauty like Charlize Theron would have spent their life receiving compliments supporting this. But the action star says thats not the case. While Theron has been known to take on roles where shes clearly a bombshell  and often a powerful one at that  the star makes it clear that she grew up in a house where what she could do was emphasized far more than the way she looked.

Charlize Theron became an actor after a rocky start

Charlize Theron attends the special screening of Liongates Bombshell at Regency Village Theatre on December 10, 2019 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Today, Charlize Theron is an A-list celebrity and Oscar-winning actor known for her impressive range. She came to this dazzling career through a very rough path. Born in 1975 in South Africa, Theron grew up living in South Africa during apartheid, and shes been open about carrying trauma from the experience. By 16, she was traveling Europe as a model.

Once she and her mother moved to the United States, Theron began training as a ballet dancer. When Theron packed up and headed to Hollywood, she ran into trouble trying to cash her last modeling paycheck.

Theron desperately needed the money, but the bank wouldnt cash an out-of-state check. While she was arguing with the teller, she caught the eye of acting manager John Crosby, who handed her his card. That fateful meeting turned into a flourishing career that has left Theron one of Hollywoods top stars.

Beauty was never emphasized in Charlize Therons childhood

Speaking with Oprah, Theron revealed more about her childhood and her mothers support. Oprah Winfrey complimented Theron by saying, When I first walked in, I thought, You are as beautiful as beauty gets.' Theron downplayed the comment, but Winfrey insisted. Theron dug deeper into how beauty was (or, rather, was not) valued in her upbringing.

That was never emphasized in the house I was raised in, she explained. I dont think my mom ever said, Isnt she a pretty girl? Shed say, You should hear her sing. You should read this poem she wrote. The praise was always about what Id done, not how I looked.

Like everyone, Theron admitted that she sometimes looks in the mirror and thinks, not so good. But she ultimately said, I really love myself. Im comfortable in my skin.

Charlize Theron has stepped behind the camera with recent projects

Therons confidence in her abilities has led her to branch out beyond acting. As her IMDb filmography shows, in addition to her 70 acting gigs, shes racked up nearly two dozen producer credits.

Shes slated to both produce and star in a sequel to The Old Guard, a Netflix movie in which shes at the center of a group of immortal mercenaries. Theron returns to another former role with Atomic Blonde 2, a follow-up in which shell produce and star as Lorraine Broughton, the main character in the Cold War spy thriller. Additionally, she once again joins the beloved action franchise in Fast X, which features Jason Momoa as a new villain.

Theron has built an acting legacy on her abilities, in addition to her beauty. The ambitious star has worked hard to build a body of work that showcases her many talents that reach far beyond her looks, and perhaps thats a result of the childhood emphasis on skill over appearance.

RELATED: I Dont Wear Pants Anymore, Charlize Theron Quipped About Home Life During the Pandemic
Chris Hemsworth Was Terrified That Marvel Was Going to Fire Him While Filming Thor

Thor is one of the original superheroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and after 11 years, his tenure continues despite the retirement of a few of his Avenger pals. Chris Hemsworth will be the first Marvel actor to get to a fourth solo film with Thor: Love and Thunder. But the actor revealed that he wasnt always confident in his ability to play the God of Thunder.

Chris Hemsworth | Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage

Chris Hemsworth has played Thor in the MCU since 2011

The MCU introduced Chris Hemsworth as Thor to the world in 2011 when Thor premiered in theaters. And since then, he has appeared in seven other films as the Asgardian  The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Thor: Love and Thunder.

Thor was one of the original six Avengers, alongside Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. They first assembled after Thors brother Loki invaded Earth and have teamed up numerous times in the years that followed.

After Thanos snap, Thor fell into a deep depression, and the hope that they could save everyone they lost five years later is the only thing that brought him out of it. The God of Thunder was one of the many who saved the world, and now hes on a journey of self-discovery.

Chris Hemsworth stated that he would play Thor as long as possible. However, he questioned his superhero acting abilities early in his Marvel career.

The actor had doubts about the longevity of his Marvel career

Chris Hemsworth appeared on Australias TODAY to discuss Thor: Love and Thunder. And during the interview, the actor reflected on his time in the MCU.

It was a lot of nostalgia in [Thor: Love and Thunder] for me, as it was with the last Avengers film, Hemsworth said. Ten, 11 years Ive been doing it. The first time I played Thor was opposite Natalie Portman, and it was one of my first jobs and I kept thinking I was going to get fired, or nothing was gonna work, or fans werent going to accept my version of the character. And if she thought I was any good, or I deserved to be there, or what have you.

Its safe to say that not only did Portman, who plays Jane Foster, think he excelled at playing Thor, but fans believed so as well. Hemsworth went on to explain Thor and Janes new relationship in the fourth Thor movie.

So 10 years later to reunite  both of us, our lives have dramatically changed in many ways, the actor shared. Also, the characters have changed. I think Thor is in a very different place to where he was in the first film, and now we see Jane Foster come in, and has a whole bunch of superpowers and is a superhero herself. It made for some fun on-camera dynamics there.

Thankfully, Marvel did not fire Chris Hemsworth, and 11 years later, fans still get to see him as Thor in the MCU.

https://twitter.com/thorofficial/status/1542583748952297472

When will Chris Hemsworth retire from playing Thor?

Thor: Love and Thunder is Chris Hemsworths eighth MCU film, so its natural to wonder when his Marvel career will end. But the actor doesnt have a confident answer right now.

Each time, if the opportunity comes up and presents itself, Im just open to whatever creative exploration can happen, thanks to different writers and directors and so on, Hemsworth told Total Film.

But I love playing the character. I really do, he explained. It always comes down to: Is this script different to the last one? Are we repeating something? And when it becomes too familiar, I think thats when Id have to say, Yeah, no, this doesnt  I think Ive  [Laughs] Id like to exit before people tell me to exit.

Thor: Love and Thunder is now playing in theaters.

RELATED: Thor: Love and Thunder: Tom Hiddleston Didnt Want to Be Involved as Loki
Anna Duggars life is in a weird place right now. Following Josh Duggars December 2021 conviction, Anna began operating as a single parent. Still, she remained in Arkansas. Now that Josh has been transferred to a federal prison in Texas, Duggar family followers think Anna will be following him. Its not just a wild theory, either. There is a lot of evidence suggesting Anna could move in the coming months.

Anna traveled to Texas in recent weeks

Josh Duggar was transferred from an Arkansas detention center in late June, following his May 25 sentence. While he settled in at his new digs at FCI Seagoville in Seagoville, Texas, Anna started to make moves, too. The ultra-conservative Christian wife mentioned road-trippin' to see her bestie shortly after Joshs transfer.

Josh Duggar | Washington County Sheriffs Office via Getty Images

A few days after she mentioned the planned trip, she popped up in Fort Worth, Texas, with her sister and brother-in-law. Josh and Annas eldest child, Mackynzie Duggar, was also photographed in the state, leading some Duggar family followers to assume Anna was in the state to visit Josh. Theories that Anna was planning to move to Texas permanently began to fly shortly after.

Anna Duggars sister and brother-in-law own plenty of unused property in the state

Annas travels to Texas following Joshs transfer struck Duggar family followers are interesting, but there wasnt much to suggest she was planning a big move. Now, though, it looks like there is plenty of property for the mother of seven to utilize if she does choose to move to the state permanently.

Annas sister and brother-in-law, Priscilla Waller and David Waller, currently reside in Fort Worth, Texas, where David is a pastor. While its believed the couple lives in a church-owned home with their children, Priscilla and David also own two pieces of property in Texas.

According to the U.S. Sun, the couple has owned a house in Big Sandy, Texas, since 2018. They also purchased a piece of land in 2020. According to the publication, the couple promptly built a single-family home on the property. It appears to be vacant at the moment. In theory, Anna could live in either property and be much closer to FCI Seagoville than she would be from her current home base in Tontitown, Arkansas.

Anna Duggar and Josh Duggar | Kris Connor/Getty Images

Anna and her seven children have been living in a converted warehouse on Jim Bob and Michelle Duggars property. She has resided on the property since she and Josh sold their farmhouse in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, in 2019. Josh lived on the property until his arrest in April 2021.

Joshs defense team requested he be sent to three prisons in Texas ahead of his sentencing

Joshs current prison residence is no coincidence. The prison where he will serve his 12-year sentence is one of three that Joshs defense team requested. Joshs defense team requested Josh be sent to FCI Texarkana, FCI Seagoville, or FCI Fort Worth before sentencing. Judge Timothy L. Brooks tossed FCI Forth Worth out of consideration because it is for medically complex prisoners. Josh does not have any medical conditions. Fort Worth is where David and Priscilla Waller live.

The fact that Joshs defense team requested three different federal prisons within a couple of hours of David and Priscilla Waller doesnt appear to be an accident. When you factor in that Joshs brother, Justin Duggar, lives in Cresson, Texas, it seems even less like an accident.

It seems plausible that Joshs defense team was planning for a potential move for Anna. There are other federal facilities closer to the Arkansas town where the Duggars live. Still, the defense requested none of them.

While Duggar family followers monitor Annas movements, they are unlikely to know Annas plans before they happen. Anna has kept her social media activity to a minimum in recent months. Its likely her current intermittent posting schedule may continue for the foreseeable future.

RELATED: Duggar Family News: Anna Duggar Seems to Confirm Shes in Texas
Japan's former prime minister Abe dies after being shot at stump speech

Xinhua) 10:51, July 09, 2022

File photo taken on July 22, 2019 shows Shinzo Abe attending a news conference in Tokyo, Japan. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is confirmed dead after being shot Friday by a gunman during a speech in the western city of Nara when campaigning for Sunday's upper house election, local media reported. (Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi)

TOKYO, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was pronounced dead on Friday after being shot twice by an ex-Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) worker while he was delivering a speech in the western prefecture of Nara.

Abe, 67, died at 5:03 p.m. local time, the hospital that received the former prime minister said at a press conference in the afternoon.

Abe, also former leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was shot twice from behind at 11:30 a.m. local time by Tetsuya Yamagami, a former worker for the MSDF and resident of the western city while speaking in front of Kintetsu Railway's Yamato-Saidaiji Station, ahead of Sunday's upper house election, local police and firefighters said.

Two shots were heard at the site and Abe fell to the ground with blood seen on his shirt. He was later rushed by medevac to the Nara Medical University Hospital.

Abe was conscious when admitted but then fell into unconsciousness later in the afternoon. He was injured in heart and two places of neck after being shot, the hospital said, adding that his wound was deep enough to reach his heart.

The cause of death was believed to be blood loss, according to the hospital.

The 41-year-old Yamagami, who worked for MSDF for three years until around 2005, was arrested at the scene for attempted murder and was quoted as telling police he intended to kill Abe as he was "dissatisfied" with the former prime minister, although said his actions were not a grudge against Abe's political beliefs, according to police reports.

Yamagami was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and local police retrieved what appeared to be a handmade gun from the vicinity of where the former prime minister was shot.

The death of Abe has sent shock waves around Japan where gun crime is rare. The shooting was quickly condemned in the "strongest terms" by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who after returning to his office in Tokyo by helicopter from Yamagata Prefecture where he was campaigning, called the shooting "barbaric."

Japan's top government spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, meanwhile, told reporters that any brutal act should never be tolerated, adding, "We strongly condemn this."

Abe started his political career in 1982 when he served as an assistant to the minister of foreign affairs.

He has since been elected to the House of Representatives nine times starting from 1993.

He also once served as director of the Social Affairs Division of the LDP, deputy chief Cabinet secretary, secretary general of the LDP, and chief Cabinet secretary.

He served as prime minister from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020, but stepped down from his post due to a chronic intestinal disease, becoming the nation's longest-serving prime minister by number of consecutive days in office on Aug. 24, 2020.

Abe announced on Aug. 28, 2020 that he would step down from his post due to health concerns.

Local police said the full motive for the murder of Abe is not yet known, but investigations are underway.

A staff member distributes copies of an extra edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reporting on the shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on a street in Tokyo, Japan, July 8, 2022. (Photo by Sun Jialin/Xinhua)

A man shows an extra edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reporting on the shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on a street in Tokyo, Japan, July 8, 2022. (Photo by Sun Jialin/Xinhua)

A citizen mourns at the site where late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot in Nara, Japan, July 8, 2022. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was pronounced dead on Friday after being shot twice by an ex-Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) worker while he was delivering a speech in the western prefecture of Nara.

Abe, 67, died at 5:03 p.m. local time, the hospital that received the former prime minister said at a press conference in the afternoon. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)

A citizen mourns at the site where late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot in Nara, Japan, July 8, 2022. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was pronounced dead on Friday after being shot twice by an ex-Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) worker while he was delivering a speech in the western prefecture of Nara.

Abe, 67, died at 5:03 p.m. local time, the hospital that received the former prime minister said at a press conference in the afternoon. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
George Harrison Said He and Keith Richards Kept in Touch by Sending T-Shirts to Each Other

George Harrison and Keith Richards had a bond. In the 1960s, they were the only two people who knew what it felt like to be the lead guitarists of enormously successful rock bands. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones mightve been competitive, but George and Richards admired one another from afar.

Years later, they kept in touch when their careers went separate ways.

(L-R) George Harrison and Keith Richards | Tim Boxer/Mark and Colleen Hayward/Getty Images

George Harrison and Keith Richards had a bond

In the special edition of Rolling Stone called Remembering George, Richards said he and George had a bond.

George and I kind of formed-without talking too much about it, although we did have a laugh here and there-a bond, in that we felt we were kind of fulfilling the same role within our respective bands, Richards said. It was a nod and a wink to say, Well, theyd be nowhere without us.

So George and I always used to have that thing of, Well, hows your end holding up? He was a very quiet and enigmatic guy in many ways. He had a very sly sense of humor, very quiet. But there was always this unspoken bond between us.

Richards understood why George liked to live in privacy because one of his fellow Stones, Charlie Watts, was similar. No one could tell The Beatles or The Rolling Stones how to operate in the spotlight. George and Watts never got used to it.

I think the other thing, that strain that runs between George and the Beatles and ourselves, the Stones, is just that were basically the same age and happened to find ourselves in this unique position without any training. You cant go to star school. And George was never interested in that.

George reminds me very much of Charlie Watts, in that way and in many ways-the understatedness, the modesty, and just being a gentleman, really. Theres very few Id give that word to, and I wouldnt give it to myself. But he was a gent.

RELATED: George Harrison Said Releasing My Sweet Lord as a Single Was Like Sticking His Neck out on the Chopping Block

George said he and Richards kept in touch by sending each other T-shirts

In a 1988 interview with MTV, George said he liked Richards a lot. George left a party at Richards home, Redlands, right before police raided the place and arrested him and Jagger. Later, Keith recalled the times he and George used to get high together.

I havent seen Keith in years, George said. Hes lived, I presume, in Jamaica and New York, I havent seen him for a long time. Yeah, I like Keith a lot. We occasionally send T-shirts to each other.

They shouldve sent each other guitars.

RELATED: George Harrison Heard A Member of The Band Singing Whenever He Listened to All Things Must Pass

The Rolling Stones guitarist loved The Beatles guitarist

Richards loved Georges guitar playing and said it spoke for itself. George was an artist who was, because he didnt write that many songs but the ones he did write were very meaningful, very well worked out, and well thought about, an incredibly meticulous man with respect to his work and to what he wanted to do, he continued to Rolling Stone.

The record speaks for itself-[While My] Guitar Gently Weeps, Something, My Sweet Lord. When he did put something out, he worked on it a long time and got it right the way he wanted it, which is a very difficult thing to do, especially when youre part of something else.

He was a lovely lead guitarist, Richards continued, beautifully understated. The thing is, youve got your Jimi Hendrix, youve got your Eric Clapton, and then youve got guys who can play with bands. And George was a band and a team player. To me, thats way above being some virtuoso flash artist George was an artist, but he was also a f***ing craftsman.

When you listen to his songs, youre aware of how much went into it. He didnt flip anything off. George crafted his stuff very, very carefully, and it all had its own feel. This was a guy who could come out with a great song or a great record anytime.

Unfortunately, there came a time when Richards stopped getting T-shirts from George and, more importantly, music. However, just because George died doesnt mean he stopped influencing Richards.

RELATED: George Harrison Told Paul McCartney He Couldnt Write Songs Like Martha My Dear
Outside of Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, and Tom Hiddleston, there might not be another actor more familiar with the Thor franchise than Tessa Thompson. She and Hemsworth have made several movies together, and shes played the prominent role of Valkyrie in the past two Thor films, including Thor: Love and Thunder. The latest Marvel film in the franchise sees Thor and Valkyrie take on Christian Bales villain, Gorr. And Thompson channeled Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee to explain why Gorrs trauma makes him such a great villain.

Tessa Thompson attends the Thor: Love and Thunder world premiere. | Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney

Tessa Thompson joined the MCU in Thor: Ragnarok

Thompson joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe late, at least compared to her fellow Asgardians. Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Ray Stevenson (Volstagg), Jaimie Alexander (Sif), and Idris Elba (Heimdall) played Thors running mates from the beginning.

But coming on board for Ragnarok might have been for the best for Thompson. Fans and critics considered The Dark World the worst MCU movie for years. But the third Thor movie, with director Taika Waititi at the helm, got the franchise back on track.

Waititi, Hemsworth, and Thompson are back at it again in Love and Thunder, along with several Oscar-winners. Christian Bale is one of them as he plays the primary villain, Gorr the God Butcher. And Thompson channeled Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee when she described why Gorr is such a menacing villain.

Thompson describes why Christian Bales Gorr is such a great villain

RELATED: Natalie Portman Reveals How Thor: Love and Thunder Is Different From Any Movie Shes Starred In

Waititi convinced Natalie Portman to reprise her role as Jane Foster for Love and Thunder, and he also talked Bale into signing on. The last time we saw Bale in a superhero movie, he dined al fresco in Italy after saving Gotham from an atomic bomb as Batman in The Dark Knight Rises.

This time, however, Bale plays the bad guy. Thompson described why the character is such a great villain and why Bale shines in the role. As she told Fandango All Access (via YouTube):

You have this thing that Stan Lee talked about, right, which is that your trauma is the thing that makes you both a superhero and a villain. In the case of a villain, its unchecked. Your source of pain is what manifests into your villainry. I think [Bale] captures that so well. And he was also just so surprising. He just would make choices that youre like, Oh. He was just so fun to watch, and such dexterity, and also what he did with his body, and hes really in it in the way you would assume Christian is, but he also has a sense of humor about it. Thor: Love and Thunder actor Tessa Thompson on Gorr

RELATED: Christian Bale Compares Working With Thor Director Taika Waititi and Batman Director Christopher Nolan

What makes Gorr such a standout villain is hes not that different from Thor. They have both experienced pain, heartbreak, and trauma. But where Thor channels his feelings into heroism, Gorr stands at the other end of the spectrum.

Bale didnt undergo any of his dramatic bodily transformations to play Gorr. He didnt have time to get shredded for the role, but a smaller physical presence doesnt diminish Gorrs viciousness.

Thor: Love and Thunder has 2 post-credits scenes and several Hemsworths in the movie

Thor: Love and Thunder received a PG-13 rating and runs nearly two hours, per IMDb. It follows in the Marvel tradition with post-credits scenes  two of them.

No spoilers here, but both post-credit scenes involve surprise cameos. One has a Thor regular make an appearance, and the other has Ted Lasso fans excited.

Love and Thunder is also something of a Hemsworth fest. In addition to Chris Hemsworth, the movie features his brother Luke in an uncredited role as Actor Thor. Additionally, one of Chris twin sons, Tristan, plays Kid Thor while other son Sasha is an Asgardian Kid. And his daughter, India, plays the titular Love. Plus, his wife, Elsa Pataky, even appears as Wolf Woman.

Thor: Love and Thunder is now in theaters.

For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheets YouTube channel.

RELATED: Is Thor: Love and Thunder on Disney+ or Any Other Streaming Platform?
10 reactions to Japans Shinzo Abe assassination: Biden stunned, Trump calls it bad news for the world

World leaders reacted with a range of emotions shortly after the assassination of Japan's former and longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Friday morning. Abe died at the age of 67 after he was shot while campaigning for a candidate ahead of national elections.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, was charged with attempted murder before Abe's death was announced, according to Japanese media.

Hidetada Fukushima, the professor in charge of emergency medicine at Nara Medical University Hospital, told The New York Times that Abe was pronounced dead shortly after 5 p.m. in Japan.

This was approximately five hours after he was brought to the hospital showing no vital signs.

Dr. Fukushima said Abe sustained two bullet wounds to the front of his neck, damage to the heart and a major artery, causing blood loss, according to The Wall Street Journal.

He was shot by a man who approached him from behind and fired twice, according to witnesses.

He went into cardiopulmonary arrest and lost vital signs while he was transported to the hospital. Doctors could not resuscitate him after they tried to stop the bleeding and conducted a transfusion.

The following pages highlight 10 reactions from global leaders to Abe's death.
How Campus Crusade and a personal relationship with Christ led one man on a mission to save lives

In July 2017, Dr. Allan Sawyer found himself yet again in central Togo. A long, narrow country in West Africa, Togo is home to 8 million people, nearly 82% of whom live below the poverty line, and one out of every eight children there wont live to see their fifth birthday.

In addition to the multiple lengthy flights it took him to get to the capital city of Lome from his home in Phoenix, Arizona, Sawyer had also endured a bone-crunching 10-hour car ride on pot-hole pocked roads to ultimately arrive at his dusty hotel. Exhausted, dirty and jet-lagged, he needed a shower and some solid sleep before he could start work in the delivery room the next morning. This was Sawyers fourth journey to Togo to help rural, poverty-stricken women and children as an obstetrician-gynecologist medical missionary.

Togo is a country where there are only five physicians for every 100,000 inhabitants. The average man can only expect to live to age 62, while a woman might make it to 67. Its also an area where female genital mutilation is practiced, and the risk of death for pregnant women is 1 in 67.

This is the environment to which Sawyer willingly traveled. Where, in the middle of one dry and hot July night, his guest room phone rang and jolted him awake. We need you in the operating room right now, doctor, urged a heavily accented voice. He stumbled to turn on the light, and, after throwing on his scrubs, walked to the hospital in the dark of night.

The Hospital of Hope had been constructed a few years earlier and was modern by African standards. Once inside the operating room, Sawyer felt like hed stumbled onto the set of a horror film: an unconscious woman lay on a bed, looking more dead than alive, surrounded by blood that stretched from floor to ceiling.

After a quick examination, he determined that her uterus was ruptured and that her bladder had been torn open by her infants large head. The baby had not survived. The woman was bleeding so heavily that Sawyer believed she probably also wouldnt make it. Saying a prayer, he began to operate. After three hours, he still had much more to do. I have to keep going until were done, or until she dies, he thought to himself.

Several hours later, after the last stitch, Sawyer knew hed done the best he could do with what he had. He went back to his room to catch a few hours of sleep.

When he returned to the hospital the next day, he looked all over for the woman. One of the workers said, There she is! and pointed to a patient who was sitting up in a bed eating breakfast. She gave him a smile, and he felt a huge relief. You look great! he exclaimed, contrasting the calm and smiley woman who was sitting up in front of him now with the sheer nightmare hed walked into only the night before. He saw her every day until she was recovered enough to warrant being discharged.

The woman returned a few weeks later for a follow-up visit. Your recovery is amazing, he told her, stunned at how quickly shed healed. God saved you. She looked at him and responded, Well, God may have saved my life, but God taught you what to do to save it. Thank you, Dr. Sawyer.

Sawyer was born at Moffit General Hospital in San Francisco. (In a bit of foreshadowing, the doctor who delivered him would be the same doctor to sign his OB/GYN board certificate over a quarter-century later!) Both of his parents were healthcare workers, and they raised him and their other son in nearby Stockton, California. After he graduated from Lincoln High School, Sawyer enrolled at Stanford University as an industrial engineering major.

One night he attended a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting after being invited by a roommate. The pastor asked the young attendees to consider several serious questions during his talk: If you were to find yourself before the throne of God, how can you be assured of your salvation? Do you know what following Christ really requires? Why do you need a Savior? Has Jesus ever been the Lord of your life?

Sawyer grew up Episcopalian. During high school he was the lead altar boy, and his family attended church regularly. Yet hed never heard any of these questions posed before. As he listened to the pastor explain the path of salvation and studied the Bible tract hed been given titled The Four Spiritual Laws, he tried to make sense of it all.

This was all so foreign to my understanding, Sawyer recalled. I thought if you were baptized or confirmed and you went to church, that was all that being a Christian required. This pastor was talking about a personal relationship with Jesus when I didnt even know that was an option.

After spending that evening questioning his beliefs, young Sawyer decided that he did indeed need a Savior, and he prayed to receive Christ.

Sawyer, however, wanted validation for his decision. If Christ is really inside of me, I want other people to see that and notice it, he thought. He confided to a friend that hed accepted Christ into his heart and that he hoped it would make a difference in how he lived his life to the point where others would see hes a changed man.

Six months later, this friend approached him. Someone noticed you were different! he exclaimed. One of the guys at the dorm just asked, Hey, whats with Allan Sawyer? We used to call him Allan the a--hole behind his back, and he's changed! He isnt one anymore! That was a turning point for Sawyer, as he knew the Holy Spirit had changed his heart and changed how he treated people.

He began attending a local Presbyterian church where his relationship with Jesus grew. One Sunday a visiting missionary who served as a physician on overseas mission trips gave his testimony during the service. Allan felt like the physician was speaking directly to him.

I heard the Lord say, Allan, if you change your major, you could do what he is doing! Sawyer said. I walked out of the church and immediately changed my major the next week to biology, which right away felt like the right decision. It was all due to that testimony and God speaking through it to me!

Allan received his bachelors and masters degrees at Stanford, and then in 1984 he headed to Oral Roberts University for medical school. Two years in, a fellow student approached Allan on campus and asked, Excuse me sir, do you have any jumper cables? My car wont start. Sawyer was so smitten with the beautiful young woman that he connected the ends of the cables to the wrong terminals and blew the fuses. It was a unique beginning to a lasting relationship. In 1988, Teresa and Allan were married.

While he was in medical school, Sawyer helped a doctor  who was also a professor at Oral Roberts  deliver the baby of a couple who had struggled with infertility for years. When the baby was successfully delivered, everyone in the room was crying. Afterward, the professor asked, Do you want to do what we just did for the rest of your life? Sawyer nodded in the affirmative. Then you really should be an OB/GYN, the professor urged.

As a result of that exchange, Sawyer decided OB/GYN would be his specialty. He and Teresa moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to finish his residency training, and the hospital where he did his training asked him to stay when he was finished. He opened his own OB/GYN practice and Teresa acted as its finance manager.

In 2003, a doctor friend who did medical missions through Samaritans Purse recruited Sawyer to join him on some medical trips. Remembering the physicians testimony he heard in college that had led him to change his major, Sawyer was intrigued.

He wanted me to go to Papua New Guinea with him for a three-week trip. I asked, What will we do? He answered, I cant explain. Just go with me. When Sawyer and the Samaritans Purse doctor arrived in country, they found only a handful of physicians working in the entire hospital. We saw hundreds of people with all kinds of ailments. But that was it for me; I knew I had found an organization where I could use my skills for Gods glory in a new way.

Sawyer returned to Papua New Guinea in 2005, and the following year he served at a hospital in Kijabi, Kenya. When asked why he feels especially called to go to Africa, he responded:

Theres just simply a sparsity of trained physicians in sub-Saharan Africa. There are many countries where theres one general surgeon for every 2.5 million people and one OB/GYN for every 4.5 million people. Also, most hospitals there want to be paid upfront, so patients will die on the stairs because they cant pay. They oftentimes have to live with their pain. I hear the word Inshallah a lot, which means if Allah wills it. They accept thats the way it is and just live with it. But its an incredible hardship.

Sawyer began going on more trips overseas. We started going every year, then multiple times per year. But thats hard to do when Im in private practice, he said.

In 2017, Sawyer sold his practice, primarily to have the ability to serve on medical mission teams full time.

After I closed my practice, we went out with some friends who asked what made me decide to do that. I answered, 70 percent God called me, and 30 percent frustration with U.S. medicine.

Sawyer explained that his frustration stems from witnessing the rising cost of U.S. healthcare yet seeing the number of physicians remain about the same. The for-profit model of healthcare has switched from something that was benevolent to a money-making machine, said Sawyer. That is just not for me.

However, Sawyer still works covering shifts at the Phoenix hospital, fulfilling board certification requirements so he can keep his U.S. medical license, which in turn ensures that he can practice overseas.

I enjoyed my private practice. My wife is still the finance manage for the doctors who purchased my practice. Because she had kept it running so smoothly for so many years, the doctors who bought the practice wanted to keep her on!

By the time Sawyer left his practice, he had delivered over 11,000 babies.

Sawyer has now served on medical teams to Papua New Guinea, Kenya and Togo a total of five times each. Hes been to Zambia on three occasions, as well as to Cameroon and Uganda.

When asked why he loves serving on overseas medical mission teams, Sawyer responded:

"So often Im dealing with people who have lost all hope. We give them the hope of Jesus. Samaritans Purse President Kenny Isaacs says, 'The quality of our service is the platform for our witness.' To me, giving people excellent medical care while being the hands and feet of Jesus for patients who cant pay for care, in their eyes has earned you the right to share the Gospel with them. It is the ministry of medicine which opens the door to the Gospel with these patients.

Sawyer raises his own support through Samaritans Purse, and he also fundraises for facility upgrades at the African hospitals where he serves.

Romans 15:13 is Sawyers favorite Bible verse. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Being an OB/GYN doctor is so faith-affirming," he added. "Giving that hope to people who have lost it, and doing it in Jesus name, is such a privilege.

He also recalled a patient in Togo who was facing a female problem that very few doctors in the entire country had the ability to resolve.

"Shes a great example because it was a complex case. I was standing across the operating table from a local tradesman turned surgical scrub technician who was assisting me. I asked him, 'Do you like your job?' and he said, 'So much! Because I get to see miracles with my own eyes every day.' Ill bet the operation and her survival does look like a miracle to him, and it is. And witnessing a miracle produces hope."

Teresa Sawyer has remained a tireless supporter and helpmate of her husband and of his God-given passion to help those who lack access to adequate healthcare overseas.

Recently, they celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary. They have two sons who are now 27 and 30 years old. In 2002, the couple went to China where they were blessed to adopt identical twin daughters. Both girls are now juniors in college and are thriving. A few years ago, the couple's eldest son, Michael, married a woman whom his father had delivered 24 years prior, bringing his work full circle.

In Fall 2021, while Sawyer was working in the operating room of a hospital in rural Kenya, he had the incredible opportunity to deliver triplets and a set of twins on the same day.

To have triplets survive in sub-Saharan Africa is rare, said Sawyer. I was just so thrilled that I could help manage this high-risk pregnancy and delivery, and blessed to witness that miracle. Theyre doing well. I stay in touch with their grandmother, and Im just so pleased those boys will have a strong chance at a good life.

When asked what motivates him to continue going on medical mission trips to far-flung locales when he could stay in his comfortable, familiar surroundings, Sawyer answered:

In the movie Chariots of Fire, theres a scene where the Olympic sprinter Eric Liddell is talking to his sister, Jenny, in Scotland, discussing their return as missionaries to China. He tells her that he does intend to return, but first he wants to run in the Olympics. I believe God made me for a purpose. But he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. I think God has given me skills and an aptitude for this work, and when I go serve on missions where I care for people and deliver their babies, I feel Gods pleasure.

Recently, Sawyer attended a ceremony at his old high school, Lincoln High School. The purpose was to recognize and formalize his induction into the Hall of Fame for his work overseas. He enjoyed that event and felt very honored by the gesture. But we know that a higher ceremony awaits Sawyer  the one at the end of his life that will be announced by the angels, welcoming their good and faithful servant into the Kingdom.
China is more dependent on US and our technology than you think

The Biden administration has been wrong to frame U.S.-China competition as a technological competition. This is because, in most areas, there is no technology competition between the two countries. There is only Chinas reliance on the U.S.  a far more technologically advanced nation with far more technologically advanced allies and trading partners. And its in the U.S. interest to keep it that way and maintain  and even expand  Americas tech advantage.

The lack of technological superiority means Chinas economic advancement is subject to other countries supplying it with critical chips and capital equipment. Thats why China has been making efforts to reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers and produce more technology domestically.

Apart from economic reasons, the ability to produce key technology of its own would allow China to further pursue its geopolitical ambitions without restraint, such as its self-declaration of sovereignty over Taiwan and the South China Sea.

In contrast, reducing reliance on foreign technology is not an issue for the U.S. Instead, given many countries reliance on U.S. technology, the priority for America is to improve its current technology to always keep other countries lagging behind.

Chinas late start is the main reason for its inferior level of technology. The communist regime didnt start actively promoting the industrys development until the 1980s. Drawing lessons from the experiences of the East Asian Tigers  the four highly developed economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan  China had stepped up its efforts by encouraging foreign direct investment in assembling products such as smartphones, laptops, computers, etc., in China.

Despite getting itself inserted into the global production network to make these goods, China did not profit much from being the global assembler and low value-added provider. Instead, Chinas export-oriented economic development, based on using and assembling foreign countries capital equipment and industrial components, has trapped the nation into technology reliance on foreign countries.

Chinas reliance on foreign industrial goods with high technology intensity is evidenced by its growing trade deficit in electrical machinery (including semiconductor chips) from $15 billion in 2001 to $217 billion in 2021, according to data from the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The U.S. was Chinas fourth-largest import source of electrical machinery in 2021, after Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. This reliance can also be seen in Chinas rush to stockpile equipment from the U.S. last year before new U.S. export restrictions took effect.

In addition, the U.S.s dominant role in the upstream side of the technology production network has enabled it to restrain the sales of high technology goods to China from its midstream partners. A typical example is the U.S. ban on Taiwans TSMC and South Koreas Samsung from exporting semiconductor chips to Chinese technology manufacturer Huawei. The U.S. was able to do so as the two companies use U.S. technology in making their chips.

Chinas heavy reliance on foreign technology is also evidenced by the huge amount it pays for the use of intellectual property over the past few years, according to Chinas Ministry of Commerce. The U.S. has been Chinas largest source of intellectual property.

Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that the U.S. exports of intellectual property to China tripled in the last decade, making China the largest buyer of U.S. intellectual property in the Asia-Pacific region. For comparison, U.S. imports of Chinese intellectual property was a mere $3 million in 2020, a fraction of the nearly $8.3 billion of U.S. exports to China.

And the U.S.s expansion of licensing requirements in 2020 did not discourage China from purchasing licensed technology from America. According to the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security, the number of license applications from China for purchasing tangible items, software, and technology increased from 3,747 in 2020 to 5,923 in 2021. The total amounts paid for those applications increased from $106 billion to $545 billion. As a result, the licensing amounts per application went up from $28 million to $92 million. In addition, the average processing time in 2021 was 19 days longer than in 2020. In other words, the U.S. export restrictions have made it more costly and lengthier for Chinese companies to acquire license approvals from the U.S.

In trying to reduce Chinas reliance on foreign suppliers and produce more technology domestically, the countrys leadership believes that money can solve anything. Although its research and development expenditures as a percentage of its gross domestic product have been notable over the past year, the government-dominated R&D expenditures, including R&D spent by state-owned enterprises, have not yet resulted in significant technology breakthroughs for China.

Obviously, money is not the only means available. But Chinas weak regulatory environment to protect intellectual property and authoritarian way of governance have discouraged innovation in the private sector there.

Chinas attempts to acquire foreign technology by either theft or coercion show it is unsatisfied with its current technological progress. It understands that slower technological advancement means slower economic growth, which might challenge the Chinese Communist Partys political legitimacy in the future. It also means the suboptimal development of a military directly competing with the U.S. and of an internal surveillance infrastructure indispensable to the Communist Partys grip on power.

For a latecomer to the high tech world like China, the direct transfer of technology from more advanced countries is the most efficient way to elevate its level of technology. However, due to declining foreign investment in manufacturing and fewer joint ventures there, China nowadays is less able to rely on foreign investors alone to climb the technological ladder. As such, the government has stepped up its intervention to help Chinese companies acquire technology from the U.S.

Chinas rapid economic growth over the last few decades has been based on its joining of the global supply chain network, where the U.S. and its allies hold the technology high ground. Chinas direct political confrontation with the U.S. has only exposed its weakness in this solid technological hierarchy and its unbreakable dependence on the U.S. Thats something for the U.S. to build upon and leverage to our strategic advantage.

Originally published at The Daily Signal.




Rainbow Oreos and American democracy

For those who suffer from a lack of enthusiasm for LGBTQ activism, there is a weirdness about the movement that, upon reflection, seems to be a serious threat to American diversity and democracy.

Within the wide range of beliefs and backgrounds that comprise a vastly diverse American society, it is no surprise to find groups of people who fundamentally disagree with each other on highly important issues, such as the nature of human sexuality. Christians make for a good case in point.

Traditional Christians affirm sex only within male-female marriage. However, as is the case with every other moral question, not everyone agrees. There are many who dont believe the writings of Paul are inspired, many who dont believe monogamous marriage is important, and many who dont believe there is an intended order inherent in the human body. Welcome to America!

Many Christians, Jews, and Muslims are offended by people proudly practicing homosexuality; many who identify as gay are offended at their offense. Being offended is the price one must pay for living in a pluralistic, liberal democracy. Our characteristically thick-skinned nation is, in many ways, an unprecedented city on a hill for the world to see, but I recently had the unsettling sense of an ominous cloud engulfing that city as I clicked on my inbox during pride month.

Im on an email list for the National Park Service, and I received an announcement proclaiming National Parks as outdoor safe spaces, which offered the opportunity to purchase a rainbow-colored pin, sticker, or tumbler (with a spill-proof lid) to show that youre either LGBTQ or an ally. At first, this struck me as woefully weird. Until now, has it been the case that one could drive through a National Park and see signs that say, Dont feed the wildlife, Only camp in designated areas, and You better not be gay here!? What in the world do peoples sexual desires have to do with hiking? What exactly is the National Park Service supposed to protect gay people from?

Shortly after being notified that the canyons and streams in our parks are fully affirming of same-sex relationships, I was walking through Wal-Mart with my 14-year-old. In the center walkway, between the paper goods and the cereal aisle, we both noticed a big stack of rainbow Oreos with a large cardboard display that read, Come out with pride and show that youre an ally. This is beyond weird. Its like a big Keebler cookie display in the middle of Target showing the Keebler Elf caressing two female elves with the caption, Keebler loves swingers! Or maybe a promiscuous peanut butter ad with a quote bubble over a salaciously grinning Planters Peanut Man saying, Spread the love.

I know the alleged purpose of the rainbow movement is to counter the oppression of the past. But blacks and Jews have suffered as much or more oppression as gays (setting aside for the moment the fact that being of a certain race is a very different thing than engaging in certain kinds of sexual behavior), and yet the National Parks have never been declared a black safe space. To my knowledge, there has never been any pro-Jewish Oreos.

At this point, Id like to be able to leave the issue alone and just stop while scratching my head at the weirdness, but, as Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant once said, our capacity for reasoning was not given to make us happy. (Dogs live happy lives because they dont contemplate issues like these).

On his website, the activist who came up with the rainbow tree logo to signify outdoor safe spaces in the National Parks gives some chilling insight as to why so many things from the Grand Canyon to Oreos are covered in the rainbow flag: Have you ever asked yourself, Is it safe to hold my significant others hand here? LGBTQ+ people are regularly assessing if spaces are welcoming. Even more so in outdoor and rural places that have traditionally been less-so than urban bubbles.

Heres another way to say the same thing: Have you ever been troubled by the fact that when you go into public places some of the people you see dont hold the same beliefs as you? Does it bother you that anyone would have the audacity to disagree with you or to believe that youre not behaving as you should? Heres a pin you can wear on your jacket or backpack to let people know that they should never be allowed to disagree with your beliefs about human sexuality.

In a thoroughly pluralistic society, how is asking, Is it safe to hold my gay partners hand here? any different from a Christian walking into a diverse neighborhood with a mix of Muslims and Jews and asking (with a quivering voice) Is it safe to eat pork here?

In reflecting on all this, it seems there is something intentional behind the weirdness of gay-affirming National Parks and Oreos. One doesnt have to be a total cynic to suspect an illegitimate motive when canyons and cookies are said to have a sexual ethic. Regardless of what one believes about the morality of homosexuality, the ubiquitous and hyper-active rainbow campaign should be deeply concerning to any American. The utter intolerance of differing beliefs about sexual ethics in the LGBTQ movement and the incessant, often militant, obsession with affirmation and allies should not be taken lightly.

You may not like being cramped next to a large, snoring person on a flight from New York to San Diego. You dont have to put up with it, but your only other option is to take the extra four days to make the drive. The problem with so many LGBTQ activists is that they are not like the annoyed, skinny person on the flight who can accept that losing the armrest to a portly passenger in the next seat is the price one must pay for traveling 3,000 miles in four hours. They begin yelling that only skinny people and skinny allies should be allowed on the plane. The fat passenger may think at first that he has as much right to fly as anyone else, but when he looks around and sees skinny-affirming flag stickers on the pretzels, the flight attendants lapel, and the airline logo, he realizes that hes probably not going to be on the plane much longer.

If we cannot live with the ideological tension inevitable in such a diverse nation as ours, we would likely be better off moving to a more culturally and ideologically homogeneous society like Iran or North Korea. The thing that should trouble all Americans is that the motives and methods of the rainbow movement seem frighteningly similar to those of the people who created Iran and North Korea.

Originally published at Juicy Ecumenism.
David Platt urges Christians to 'understand reasons' behind abortion after Dobbs ruling

Megachurch pastor David Platt of McLean Bible Church in Virginia marked the overturning of Roe v. Wade by delivering a message this Sunday offering his view of what Scripture has to say about what it means to be pro-life.

Citing the "historic moment" of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Platt told his congregation that he's "not interested in promoting a political party or personality."

The author and former head of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board continues to urge believers to speak up on behalf of the unborn and continue caring for mothers and families.

Acknowledging the spectrum of political views within the Church, Platt challenged Christians with eight biblical affirmations to consider in light of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling that the U.S. Constitution doesn't confer a right to abortion.

First, he said, every human being is worthy of honor, according to 1 Peter 2:17  including women who opt for abortion.

"So much pro-choice rhetoric revolves around honoring women in ways that dishonor and eventually discard a child in the womb," the 43-year-old said. "And at the same time, so much pro-life rhetoric revolves around honoring the child in the womb while dishonoring various challenges that women face."

"Meanwhile, God clearly says we must honor both the child in the woman and the woman who carries that child."

Platt cited examples of women "whose physical life may be in danger" from medical complications with pregnancy and "the women who, for a variety of social, relational or economic reasons, feels like she cannot care well for a child and sees abortion as her only hope."

"God help us to honor her and every woman in every way that God Himself does," Platt said.

Citing data suggesting that 85% of women seeking abortions are unmarried, Platt said the choice between honoring women or honoring children as our "two-party political system says we must" is false.

"We must honor both women and children," he said, adding that it's both "biblically good and right" for the government to protect both women and children.

"As a basic rule of thumb, we should work on behalf of the most vulnerable who are being harmed or mistreated," the Radical author said. "That's true when it comes to abuse, that's true when it comes to racism, surely it's true when it comes to abortion.

"So let's step out of a muddled middle road that says, 'I don't think we should impose morality on someone else' and realize that God institutes government for this purpose, the protection of people, and it is right for us to protect all people from harm."

Platt also discussed economic factors, such as one survey that found 75% of women seeking abortions live at or near the poverty line.

Many women, he said, don't prefer abortion but also don't see any other way out of their circumstances.

"So, yes, let's be thankful for a court ruling, but let's also realize that a court ruling doesn't change those circumstances," he said.

Platt then offered five applications for Christians to get involved and urged believers to "understand the reasons behind abortion" and "spend time with people from different perspectives."

He said Christians should support and serve "women and men with unwanted pregnancies"  including for other men to come alongside men dealing with those circumstances  as well as single parents and grandparents.

Platt advised the Church to reach out to those in need by "working for justice in high-risk communities so that the factors that lead to abortion are addressed."

"If we don't address root issues of poverty and sexual activity and substance abuse and sexual abuse and affordable housing and healthcare and on and on, then we're just putting Band-Aids on broken limbs," he said.

At the 2020 March for Life in Washington, D.C., Platt told The Christian Post that there was a time in his life when he needed to "repent" for failing to preach on abortion as a younger pastor.

"There was a point as a pastor when I just kind of stayed away from abortion [because I'd think] that's a political issue," Platt said. "But I got really convicted. Far before it is any kind of political issue, it is a biblical issue that God speaks really clear about the value of life."

Platt said that as a younger pastor, he "dodged abortion altogether."

"I had to repent before the Lord for sitting idly by and not doing anything personally or pastorally to mobilize people to see the value of life according to God's Word," he said.

During his sermon Sunday, Platt said he has worked to launch a foster care and adoption ministry with over 150 families. Platt and his wife, Heather, have adopted three children of their own.
India: Christians call on NIA to release 83-year-old pastor

Church groups and civil society leaders in India are protesting against the arrest of an 83-year-old Jesuit priest by the countrys federal counter-terrorism task force on charges of being a Maoist, or extreme Marxist. The Catholic Church in India says he is being punished for protecting the rights of aboriginal people.

The National Investigation Agency arrested Swamy last Thursday from his home in the eastern state of Jharkhand.

Two days before the arrest, Swamy said in a video message posted on YouTube that he feared he would be arrested because he fought against the government's indiscriminate arrest of thousands of young aboriginal people and local settlers who question big business projects that take away their land.

The government falsely claims that all such protesters are part of an outlawed Maoist group, said Swamy, who documents the displacement of tribal, or aboriginal, people as a result of commercial projects like mining, setting up industrial units and the construction of dams on their resource-rich ancestral land.

Several states in India, including Jharkhand, are affected by a Maoist-led insurgency.

During the past three decades I have tried to identify myself with the Adivasi (aboriginal) people and their struggle for a life of dignity and self-respect, Swamy said. As a writer, I have tried to analyze the different issues they are faced with. In this process, I have clearly expressed dissent with several policies, laws enacted by the government in light of the Constitution.

Swamy was transported to Mumbai city by plane at about 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 9, where he was charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the Sessions Court, according to the U.K.-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide, which further reported that he has been sent to Taloja Jail near Mumbai until Oct. 23.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of India expressed deep sorrow and anguish over his arrest.

According to our reports, Fr. Stan has for decades been working to protect the rights of the Adivasis (aboriginals), especially their land rights. This could have worked against the interests of certain people. When questioned during the months of July-August 2020 by authorities, Fr. Stan Swamy fully cooperated with investigating agencies and has provided detailed statements, claiming to be innocent in the case, CBCI said.

It is difficult to comprehend the plight of an octogenarian with several morbidities, like Fr. Stan Swamy to have to undergo such difficulties during this pandemic in which even a normal healthy person would hesitate to travel or would never travel risking ones life.

The Catholic body called on the authorities to immediately release Swamy, who is originally from the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

A human rights activist, Xavier Dias, who is close to Swamy, told Indian media that the priest had publicly disagreed with the Catholic Church.

He was depressed that the Church sided with the elites, The Indian Express quoted Dias as saying. He said big institutions run by Jesuits taught in English medium, leaving behind the poor who did not understand the language. He demanded that schools run by Jesuits should be converted to Hindi medium so that the common people may benefit.

CSWs founder president, Mervyn Thomas, said in a statement, We have grave concerns about the Indian authorities handling of the investigation and their heavy-handed approach towards a human rights activist who has long spoken out for the rights of the tribal community.

Thomas said a worrying trend is visible in India where voices speaking out for truth and justice are being suppressed.

The Indian government is increasingly being seen as heavy-handed. In June, New Delhi denied entry visas to representatives of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom who had planned to investigate reports of persecution of Muslims and Christians following the release of its report that designated India as a Country of Particular Concern.
National Education Association president calls abortion 'fundamental freedom' at annual teachers' gathering

The head of the largest teachers union in the United States called abortion a fundamental freedom and vowed to defend the right to choose after warning of what she called a radicalized Supreme Court at an annual meeting of the National Education Association.

More than 6,000 delegates gathered both in-person and virtually at the 2022 NEA Representative Assembly in Chicago, which concluded Wednesday, where several measures were ultimately passed on a range of hot-button topics, perhaps none more heated than the issue of what the union called reproductive rights following the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

President Becky Pringle delivered a provocative keynote address at the meeting on Sunday in which she pledged to use the NEAs influence on issues ranging from abortion and prayer in schools to LGBT rights and school vouchers.

In her address, Pringle invoked the words of Marxist activist Angela Davis  who was once on the FBI's "10 most wanted" list for her involvement in the murder of a judge  in calling for teachers across the nation to share that view professor Davis holds dear: Whether it is a mind, a heart, a school, a community, or our world, transformation is always possible.

Calling the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling and other Supreme Court decisions a gut punch, Pringle linked the challenges facing the NEA directly to the election of former President Donald Trump.

We have known since the 2016 election, this day would come; we would feel the effects of a radicalized Supreme Court issuing decisions that do not reflect the views or the values of the majority of Americans, she said. We knew the ground had shifted, and the stage had been set to move us further away from the promise of America for all Americans.

She called the Dobbs decision a move meant to hijack the fundamental freedom to decide for ourselves when and how to have a family and criticized the courts other rulings on school prayer and school vouchers.

As part of the assemblys proceeding, delegates ultimately voted in favor a measure that read in part: NEA will publicly stand in defense of abortion and reproductive rights and encourage members to participate in activities including rallies and demonstrations, lobbying and political campaigns, educational events, and other actions to support the right to abortion, contraception, and a persons decision about their health.

Pringle also vowed to fight unceasingly for the rights of our LGBTQ-plus students and educators.

We will say gay. We will say trans, she said in reference to Floridas "Parental Rights in Education law prohibiting sexual orientation or gender identity curricula in kindergarten through third grade.

As of publication time, there was no response to a request for comment by The Christian Post.

During this weeks conference, delegates voted in favor of the NEA taking all necessary steps to overturn the Florida law and others like it.

Pringle also vowed to leverage the NEAs considerable political clout to hold lawmakers accountable when it comes to school shootings, warning that those who refuse to keep our schools safe, while calling on us to take up arms will face a backlash at the ballot box.

If you stand against our students, we will stand against you. If you vote against our educators, we will vote against you, she said. This November, if you get in the way of our progress toward a more just nation, we will get in the way of your election.

In the wake of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the assembly passed a measure that would allocate roughly $500,000 to provide a unified response to protect schools and neighboring communities from gun violence.

While several other measures were passed, some proposals  including a national policy of mandatory masking and COVID-19 vaccines in schools  were defeated.
US Rep. Juan Vargas demands investigation into priest's death in India

U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas is demanding an independent investigation into the death of 84-year-old Indian Jesuit priest and human rights defender Fr. Stan Swamy nine months after his arrest without trial under the countrys anti-terrorism laws.

The Democratic congressman from California this week introduced a resolution to commemorate Swamys death in police custody last July.

Father Stan was a staunch human rights defender who dedicated his life to giving a voice to the voiceless, he said in a statement. He advocated for the rights of the indigenous Adivasi people, trained young community leaders, and strived for justice for many mistreated communities in India.

Swamy was arrested in October 2020, alongside nine other activists, on charges of collaboration with Maoist terrorists under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA, and accused of instigating violence in the western state of Maharashtra in 2018.

At the time of his arrest, Swamy was already suffering from Parkinsons disease and had contracted COVID-19 in pre-trial detention. In the several letters he wrote from prison, Swamy detailed the inhumane treatment he received, including being denied a sipper to drink water. Despite his deteriorating health, his bail applications were repeatedly denied. He died on July 05, 2021.

As a former Jesuit, Im appalled that Father Stan faced relentless abuse and was denied medical treatment while in custody, Vargas said. Its an honor to introduce this resolution as we remember Father Stan for his lifelong commitment to the greater good.

In an earlier op-ed for The Christian Post, Joseph DSouza, the founder of Dignity Freedom Network, which delivers humanitarian aid to the marginalized and outcasts of South Asia, called Swamy a martyr and suggested that the Catholic Church should proclaim him a saint.

Days after Swamys death, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the Biden administration to hold the Indian government accountable.

Condemning in the strongest terms the deliberate neglect and targeting by the government of India that led to the death of the priest, USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza urged the United States to hold the Indian government accountable and to raise religious freedom concerns in the U.S.-India bilateral relationship.

The Washington Post noted at the time that Indias anti-terror law, amended in 2019, allows the government to designate an individual as a terrorist and detain people for up to six months without producing any evidence. Further, the accused can subsequently be imprisoned for up to seven years. Critics have called the law draconian, and accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modis government of using it to mute dissent.

Two days before his arrest, Swamy had said in a video message posted on YouTube that he feared he would be arrested because he fought against the governments indiscriminate arrest of thousands of young aboriginal people and local settlers who question big business projects that strip them of their land.

During the past three decades I have tried to identify myself with the Adivasi (aboriginal) people and their struggle for a life of dignity and self-respect, Swamy said. As a writer, I have tried to analyze the different issues they are faced with. In this process, I have clearly expressed dissent with several policies, laws enacted by the government in light of the Constitution.
Click here to read the full article.

Actor Tony Sirico, best known for his portrayal of the wise-cracking Paul Paulie Walnuts Gualtieri on The Sopranos, has died at the age of 79.

It is with great sadness, but with incredible pride, love and a whole lot of fond memories, that the family of Gennaro Anthony Tony Sirico Jr. wish to inform you of his death on the morning of July 8, 2022, a post from Siricos brother, Robert Sirico, on Facebook read. A Warner Bros. spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the post to Rolling Stone. The family is deeply grateful for the many expressions of love, prayer and condolences and requests that the public respect its privacy in this time of bereavement, Sirico wrote.

As news of Siricos death broke, many of his Sopranos co-stars shared tributes to the beloved character actor.

We found a groove as Christopher and Paulie and I am proud to say I did a lot of my best and most fun work with my dear pal Tony, Michael Imperioli, who played young upstart Christopher Moltisanti on the hit TV series, wrote in a post on social media. He was beloved and will never be forgotten. In a statement to Rolling Stone, Edie Falco highlighted the actors charming personality. Tony Sirico was an original, said the actress, who played Tony Sopranos wife, Carmela Soprano. There was no one like him; deeply loyal and kind. And so funny. Its a heartbreaking loss.

Born July 29, 1942, Sirico grew up on the mean streets of Brooklyn  first in East Flatbush, then Bensonhurst  and was a self-described rough-and-tumble kid, he told Rolling Stone in a 2001 cover story. A devotee of James Cagney films, the young Sirico found himself drawn to the gangsters hed often see around Bensonhurst. Theyre all dressed, slicked back, they got cars, they got girls, very enticing, he said. I got close to making a huge mistake I almost got too close to becoming one of those guys I portray. Noticing Sirico had issues with authority, a friend refused to sponsor him for membership in a crime organization. The good thing I had going for me not being involved profoundly with wiseguys was that I dont like anybody telling me what to do.

Still, Sirico had his fair share of brushes with danger and the law. He had a bullet wound in his leg after he was spotted kissing a girl that had broken the shooters heart. (In true Paulie Walnuts fashion, Sirico told Rolling Stone of the incident, At the time, all I thought about was, Fucking ruined my white suit.') Before embarking upon his acting career, he was arrested 28 times and spent two stints in prison, racking up charges including extortion, armed robbery and assault. I got 28 arrests and only two convictions, so you gotta admit I have a pretty good acting record, he told The Los Angeles Times in 1990.

Sirico was inspired to pursue acting in the early Seventies while in prison after attending a performance by an acting troupe comprised of ex-criminals. After a series of bit parts, he eventually landed roles in major films including Goodfellas, Mighty Aphrodite, The Pick-up Artist and Casino. Later in his career, Sirico appeared in a variety of television shows  including Lillyhammer, where he starred alongside his Sopranos co-star Steven Van Zandt, and Family Guy.

But, it was Siricos turn as the neurotic, hot-headed and surprisingly endearing caporegime Paulie Gualtieri that brought him the most recognition. In his portrayal of the eccentric mobster, he effortlessly moved between unrestrained rage to an almost zen-like introspection, often lending advice or providing clarity to other characters in the form of ribald parables. Despite Paulies many flaws, Sirico lent a certain depth of humanity to the character, transforming a seemingly unlikeable figure into a complex, multi-faceted figure in the Sopranos universe.

Throughout his acting career Sirico found himself playing the very men he admired as a youth. And do I mind being stereotyped? Absolutely not, he told Rolling Stone in 2001. Ive paid my rent, I take care of me and Ma. He found fans in his neighborhood, who were tough guys as well. They love me for being in this show, Sirico said of his role in The Sopranos. Im still part of their family in their hearts. They know Im a stand-up kid, whether Im a tough guy or not.
NEW YORK (AP)  As Donald Trump considers another White House run, polls show he's the most popular figure in the Republican Party. But it wasn't always that way.

Competing at one point against a dozen rivals for the presidential nomination in 2016, Trump won only about one-third of the vote in key early states. He even lost in Iowa, which kicks off the nomination process.

But he prevailed because those in the party who opposed his brand of divisive politics were never able to coalesce around a single rival. That same dynamic could repeat itself as Trump mulls a new bid for the presidency as soon as this summer.

With a growing list of candidates gearing up to run, even a Trump diminished by two impeachments and mounting legal vulnerabilities could hold a commanding position in a fractured, multi-candidate primary.

"I fear it could end up the same way as 2016, which basically was everyone thought everyone else should get out," said Republican strategist Mike DuHaime, who advised former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's campaign that year. I think every major candidate realized that he or she would have a better shot against Trump one-on-one. But of course each person thought he or she should be the one to get that shot and nobody got out of the way. ... And then it was too late.

The anxiety is mounting as a growing list of potential rivals take increasingly brazen steps, delivering high-profile speeches, running ads, courting donors and making repeat visits to early voting states.

That group now includes upward of a dozen could-be-candidates, including Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence; his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo; and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Rick Scott of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina. All could run on the former president's policies.

In the anti-Trump lane, politicians such as Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan are raising their profiles.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is increasingly seen as Trump's heir apparent, even by Trump's most loyal supporters, and viewed by Trump allies as his most formidable potential challenger.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and others have said they will not challenge Trump if he does go forward. But others, including Christie, seem to be gunning for the fight, even if they seem to be long shots.

Im definitely giving it serious thought. Im not gonna make any decision probably until the end of the year, Christie said in a recent interview. He has urged the party to move on from Trump and his ongoing obsession with the 2020 election.

For me, its about the party needing to go in in a new direction from a personality perspective, and to continue to have someone who can bring strong leadership, tough leadership, that the country needs, but doesnt have all of the other drama that goes along with it," he said. Im hearing the same things from donors that Im hearing from voters  that theyre very concerned that we cant put ourselves in a position to have 2024 be about anything but the good of the country.

Pompeo, who has had a busy travel schedule and plans to return to Iowa this summer, said in a recent interview that he has been spending time reading and listening to President Ronald Reagans speeches as he prepares for a possible run.

Were getting ready to stay in the fight, he said last month as he courted evangelical Christians at a gathering in Nashville, Tennessee.

He said he and his wife would sit down after the November elections and think our way through it, pray our way through it, and decide wheres best to serve. It could be presenting ourselves for elected office again. We may choose a different path. But were not gonna walk away from these things that Ive been working on for 30 years now. They matter too much.

Pompeo sketched out a possible approach in much the same mold as Trump.

He was a disruptor that was most necessary in 2016, theres no doubt about that," Pompeo said. And now the task is to take those set of understandings, those set of principles, and defend them and build upon them. And its gonna take a lot of work to do that, leaders of real fortitude and character to do that."

Such open talk comes as Trump faces a cascade of escalating legal troubles.

The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has revealed increasingly damaging information about Trumps final weeks in office. The Department of Justice has its own investigation. In Georgia, the prosecutor investigating Trump's potentially illegal meddling in the state's 2020 election has stepped up her inquiry by subpoenaing members of Trump's inner circle. In New York, Trump, his namesake son and his daughter Ivanka have agreed to answer questions under oath beginning next week in the state attorney generals civil investigation into his business practices.

Mick Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman who served as Trump's acting White House chief of staff, said the moves suggested potential candidates might see an opening where none existed two months ago.

Trump fatigue might be a real thing, he said, with voters asking themselves whether, if they vote for another candidate, they "can get the same policies without all the baggage.

At the same time, Trump has seen some of his endorsed primary candidates falter. Those who have won, including Senate hopefuls JD Vance in Ohio and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, have done so with about 30% of the vote, meaning that two-thirds of party voters went against Trump's picks.

I dont think anybody underestimates Trump. Theres a reason hes the most sought-after endorsement in every single Republican primary," said GOP strategist Alex Conant. That said, I think theres a recognition that a lot of Republican voters are looking to the future and ready for whats next.

To what extent remains an open question. During a trip to Iowa this week, Cotton declined to weigh in on Trumps standing. But the senator said he hoped to be an effective national leader, not only for my party but for the American people in my role in the Senate and any other future role I might serve.

Still, Cotton argued, candidates should embrace Trump's legacy.

I know that Donald Trump is very popular among our voters who appreciate the successes he delivered for four years in a very hostile environment. They dont want Republicans who are running against that legacy, because they view that legacy as a great success, he said Thursday in Cambridge, Iowa.

Trump continues to move forward with his own events.

On Friday night, he campaigned in Las Vegas alongside Adam Laxalt, his pick for Nevada Senate. And on Saturday night, he planned a rally in Anchorage, Alaska, to campaign with Kelly Tshibaka, whom he has endorsed in her race against Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and others, including former Gov. Sarah Palin, now running for Congress.

Conant said it made sense for candidates to continue testing the waters for now.

A lot of potential candidates are realizing that 2024 may be their last best chance, regardless of what Trump does," he said. Theres a very vulnerable Democrat in the White House, Republicans seem likely to win, and if its not Trump, theyre basically sidelined for the next 10 years.

Still, Conant, who served as communications director to Florida Sen. Marco Rubios 2016 presidential bid, noted the similarities.

It looks like its increasingly clear theres going to be a lot of people running for president. And while I think theres an appetite for something different, the alternative to Trump needs to coalesce around one candidate, he said. "That never happened in 2016. And it might not happen in 2024.

__

Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Steve Peoples contributed to this report.
"This isn't some imagined horror. It is already happening. Just last week, it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim - 10 years old - and she was forced to have to travel out of state to Indiana to seek to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life." - President Joe Biden, remarks during signing of executive order on abortion access, July 8

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Update: An arrest has been made in this case, providing additional confirmation. More details below.

- - -

This is the account of a one-source story that quickly went viral around the world - and into the talking points of the president.

The Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed a right to abortion, has led a number of states to quickly impose new laws to restrict or limit abortions. Ohio was one of the first, imposing a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape and incest.

On July 1, the Indianapolis Star, also known as the IndyStar, published an article, written by the newspaper's medical writer, about how women seeking abortions had begun traveling from Ohio to Indiana, where less restrictive abortion laws were still in place. "Patients head to Indiana for abortion services as other states restrict care," the article was headlined.

That was a benign headline. But it was the anecdotal beginning that caught the attention of other news organizations. The article said that three days after the June 24 court ruling, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, Caitlan Bernard, who performs abortions, received a call from "a child abuse doctor" in Ohio who had a 10-year-old patient who was six weeks and three days pregnant. Unable to obtain an abortion in Ohio, "the girl soon was on her way to Indiana to Bernard's care," the Star reported.

The only source cited for the anecdote was Bernard. She's on the record, but there is no indication that the newspaper made other attempts to confirm her account. The story's lead reporter, Shari Rudavsky, did not respond to a query asking whether additional sourcing was obtained. A Gannett spokeswoman provided a comment from Bro Krift, the newspaper's executive editor: "The facts and sourcing about people crossing state lines into Indiana, including the 10-year-old girl, for abortions are clear. We have no additional comment at this time."

The story quickly caught fire, becoming a headline in newspapers around the world. News organizations increasingly "aggregate" - or repackage - reporting from elsewhere if it appears of interest to readers. So Bernard remained the only source - and other news organizations did not follow up to confirm her account.

A sampling:

- The Daily Mail, July 1: "Child abuse victim, 10, who was six weeks pregnant is forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana for an abortion after home state outlaws it under Roe v Wade ruling."

- The Guardian, July 3: "10-year-old rape victim forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana for abortion."

- The Jerusalem Post, July 3: "10-year-old rape victim denied abortion in Ohio"

- Bangladesh Weekly, July 3: "US: 10-year-old Ohio girl denied abortion after abortion ruling"

On CNN's Sunday interview show on July 3, South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem was pressed about the story. Noem, a Republican who opposes abortion rights, said the story was "tragic" and the focus should be on the rapist. "As much as we can talk about what we can do for that little girl, I think we also need to be addressing those sick individuals that do this to our children," she said.

Under Ohio law, a physician, as a mandated reporter under Ohio Revised Code 2151.421, would be required to report any case of known or suspected physical, sexual or emotional abuse or neglect of a child to their local child welfare or law enforcement agency. So Bernard's colleague would have had to make such a report to law enforcement at the same time he or she contacted Bernard. Presumably then a criminal case would have been opened.

Bernard declined to identify to the Fact Checker her colleague or the city where the child was located. "Thank you for reaching out. I'm sorry, but I don't have any information to share," she said in an email.

Dan Tierney, press secretary for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), said the governor's office was unaware of any specific case but he said under the state's decentralized system, records would be held at a local level. Thus, he said, it would be hard to confirm a report without knowing the local jurisdiction to narrow the search. He added: "The rape of a ten-year-old certainly would be newsworthy."

As a spot check, we contacted child services agencies in some of Ohio's most populous cities, including Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo. None of the officials we reached were aware of such a case in their areas.

DeWine, asked Wednesday about the report, called it a tragedy and said the doctor in question presumably reported it to law enforcement. "We have out there, obviously, a rapist," he told reporters. "We have someone who is dangerous and we have someone who should be picked up and locked up forever."

An abortion of a 10-year-old is pretty rare. The Columbus Dispatch reported that in 2020, 52 people under the age of 15 received an abortion in Ohio.

This is a very difficult story to check. Bernard is on the record, but obtaining documents or other confirmation is all but impossible without details that would identify the locality where the rape occurred.

With news reports around the globe and now a presidential imprimatur, however, the story has acquired the status of a "fact" no matter its provenance. If a rapist is ever charged, the fact finally would have more solid grounding.

- - -

Update, July 13: The Columbus Dispatch reported that a 27-year-old Columbus man had been charged with impregnating a 10-year-old Ohio girl who had traveled to Indianapolis for an abortion on June 30. Gershon Fuentes was arrested July 13 "after police say he confessed to raping the child on at least two occasions," the newspaper reported "He's since been charged with rape, a felony of the first degree in Ohio."

A police detective testified that "Columbus police were made aware of the girl's pregnancy through a referral by Franklin County Children Services that was made by her mother on June 22," the Dispatch said. While reporting this story, the Fact Checker had contacted the Franklin County agency to ask if such a referral had been made. Unlike similar Ohio county agencies we contacted, Franklin County officials did not offer a response.

The detective also testified that "DNA from the clinic in Indianapolis is being tested against samples from Fuentes, as well as the child's siblings, to confirm his paternity."

This is an interesting example of the limitations that journalists face in corroborating this type of story without evidence confirmed by law enforcement. Should Bernard have disclosed the case before the police charged a suspect? Should the IndyStar have published her account without a second source? Should other news organizations have repeated the story without doing their own reporting? Those are questions beyond the purview of the Fact Checker, but worthwhile for readers and media pundits to consider.
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. - From this leafy suburb along Chicago's North Shore, residents had watched as mass shootings cast a deadly scourge from coast to coast, leaving a relentless pall of havoc and heartache in their wake.

Just weeks ago, more than 100 people had taken to the streets of downtown Highland Park to call for stronger gun control laws in the aftermath of the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas. They called out the names of other cities that had suffered horrific bloodshed: Newtown, Conn., Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, Parkland, Fla., Buffalo.

They did not imagine it would be Highland Park up next on the seemingly unending carousel of American carnage.

In a close-knit community that locals refer to as a "modern Mayberry," where generations have felt safe enough to leave their front doors unlocked and where police haven't investigated a single homicide since 1994, a simple message has been shared again and again among anguished residents since Monday's mass killing: "How could this happen to our sweet little town?"

"When Texas happened, I had a quick thought of, 'Could that happen here?' . . . But then I thought, 'Not us, not this place,' " said Michael Belsky, Highland Park's former mayor. "When people say it can happen anywhere, I don't know that anyone really believed that included here."

On Tuesday evening, Belsky walked along Central Avenue, joining stunned neighbors who stood staring past billowing yellow caution tape into the heart of downtown where a gunman with a semiautomatic rifle scaled a roof and took aim at one of the community's most cherished traditions - the annual Fourth of July parade - killing seven people and injuring more than 40 others.

Satellite trucks hummed nearby as reporters from across the country talked over each other in live shots. Lights from police cars flashed on the buildings, illuminating the empty lawn chairs and strollers left abandoned along the sidewalk where Belsky had often stood to watch the parade with his own kids when they were young.

To Belsky, it looked like the aftermath of tragedy from other towns he'd seen on television, not Highland Park. "I couldn't believe this was my hometown, this crime scene," Belsky said. "No one can believe it. . . . We've always thought our kids are safe, our schools are safe, our town is safe. But now, we know that's not true."

A town of 30,000 that somehow seemed smaller than that, Highland Park has long felt like a refuge - far away from the spiking homicide rate of Chicago, 30 miles to the south, and the daily gun violence that has plagued other American cities. Its quaint streets and picturesque homes were the backdrop for touchstone 1980s films like "Sixteen Candles" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," cinema that shaped the perception of the American high school experience for a generation.

About a third of the population is Jewish, according to estimates from local faith leaders, their presence dating back more than a century to when Jewish families made Highland Park their home after being rejected by other Chicago suburbs.

"It's the kind of town where you go into a restaurant, and you're going to know half the people there," said Rabbi Evan Moffic, who leads Makom Solel Lakeside, one of several large synagogues in town. "There are many families where multiple generations live in the town, and children who grow up here come back and live here. So it's very special in that way."

His congregation and others had already been shaken by acts of violence against the Jewish community - most recently a January incident in which a gunman stormed a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, in an hours-long hostage crisis.

Moffic estimated that about 100 families - about half of his synagogue - were at Monday's parade when gunfire erupted. A bullet hit one of his congregants, an older woman, embedding in her cheek. She survived.

After the shooting, word quickly circulated around town that security officers at the Central Avenue Synagogue had encountered a man resembling the suspect, Robert E. Crimo III, at their most recent Passover services. The synagogue, located near the site of Monday's shooting, said in a statement that the unidentified man appeared "out of place" but ultimately left without incident.

Though law enforcement officials have said they have found no evidence that the accused gunman's motivations stemmed from race or religion, the incident has unsettled a Jewish community that already felt "deeply vulnerable," Moffic said.

On Wednesday, his synagogue held a vigil for the victims that was organized in part to encourage a shattered community to come together in person and mourn. But like a handful of other religious institutions that held memorial events in recent days, his synagogue also chose to live-stream its event, in part because of the awareness that some traumatized community members have felt reluctant to leave the house or be around large crowds since Monday.

"Even people who weren't there, the feeling of safety has been punctured," Moffic said. "Human beings are very resilient . . . but right now, I think there's little bit of an air of fear."

The trauma has played out not only for people who were in the line of fire but friends and families of those who came very close to losing their lives.

Gerry Keen and her husband, Steven, were at their usual parade spot - in front of the Gearhead Outfitters store at Central Avenue and Second Street - when gunfire erupted. After four gunshots, the couple fell to the ground and pretended to be dead, hopeful the gunman would aim elsewhere.

After a few minutes, Gerry Keen glanced up and saw a man later identified as Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, a grandfather in a wheelchair who had been sitting near her. She saw his head. And lots of blood.

"We knew he was dead," Keen said. The couple joined others who ran into the sporting goods store to escape the gunfire. Through the window, Keen finally saw the complete scene for the first time: a ground littered with remnants of the parade, including tiny U.S. flags, empty chairs and water bottles, alongside bodies and pools of blood.

"It was a ghost town of horror," Keen said.

Days later, Keen said, she cannot stop hearing the gunshots - a sound she'd never heard before. The 76-year-old grandmother, who has spent most of her life in Highland Park and enjoyed the safety and comfort of the city, said she has been unable to go out in public because of fear.

"I am not OK," she said.

Members of her family - including her children and grandchildren - are equally traumatized, even though none of them were there. They keep reminding Keen and her husband that they could have been killed. "They keep calling multiple times a day," Keen said. "They want to know that we are still here."

Allison Kamen, 50, was sitting across the street from the Keens with her family when she heard what she thought were fireworks. Then they realized the sounds were bullets and dove for cover. Her father was hit by a bullet fragment - though not seriously injured.

While grateful that none of her family were killed in the attack, Kamen felt anguish about the damage it had done to the community and to an event that she had attended for nearly her entire life. Born on July 4, Kamen recounted a cherished family story of how her father had left the hospital the day of her birth to run up and down the parade route announcing the birth of his daughter.

"Highland Park is my safety net," she said. "It is the safest place . . . But the sweetness of the town has been damaged."

Still in shock, Kamen wondered if she could ever return to the parade.

On Monday, hours after the attack, the city was quiet and still, as scores of law enforcement officers descended on the bedroom community as they have in other places scarred by mass killings. A warm summer night, one usually marked by the pops of fireworks or music or the smells of family cookouts, was instead a specter of empty streets and the sounds of a police helicopter zooming low over the city into the night.

As the days progressed, some have slowly started to emerge - walking from their homes to take in the vision frozen on Monday morning. A makeshift memorial began to take shape at the eastern end of Central Avenue, one that looked like others that have risen in places like Uvalde and Buffalo. There, as in those other places, rose wooden crosses with the names and photos of the victims, alongside piles of flowers.

At a candlelight vigil the day after shooting, someone handed out freshly printed white T-shirts with the phrase "Highland Park Strong." People wiped away tears and shared long lingering hugs as some recounted the stories of where they were, what they heard and who they knew among the injured and killed.

Some noticeably kept their distance from the crowd - including a woman who stood alone staring down Central Avenue, toward the intersection where the attack took place, which was brightly lit by large flood lights as law enforcement continued to search for evidence.

Caroline, who declined to give her last name, said she had been running late to meet her family and was walking toward the parade route when she heard bangs that she now knows were gunshots, followed by terrified screams. "I wanted to be here," she said of the memorial gathering. "But when I walked up and saw these all these people, I got nervous. I guess I don't feel safe anymore."

It's a sentiment that leaders across the city say they've heard in recent days, as residents try to work through their emotions about the horror.

"I often used to tell my students, 'We live in a bubble. We live in this wonderful area,' " said Moffic, the rabbi. "And now I don't think I am going to say that anymore. We are now experiencing what so much of the country has experienced . . . including our neighbors in Chicago. And it's all very painful."
U.S. prosecutors leveled new accusations Friday against the leader of the Oath Keepers and alleged members who have been charged with seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, saying one co-conspirator came to Washington with explosives and detailing allegations that a co-defendant kept a "death list" with the name of a Georgia election official.

The allegations came days before the Jan. 6 House committee is set to hold its next hearing Tuesday, which is expected to explore connections between extremist groups accused of playing key roles in the violence at the Capitol and former president Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election through false claims of voter fraud.

In a 28-page filing, prosecutors said a law enforcement search on Jan. 19, 2021, of the home of charged co-defendant Thomas Caldwell, a retired Navy intelligence officer from Berryville, Va., recovered a document that included the words "DEATH LIST" handwritten across the top with the name of a Georgia election official and a purported family member of the official. Both were targets of baseless accusations that they were involved in voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, prosecutors said.

"That Caldwell made and kept a 'death list' that includes officials involved in the presidential election process -- contemporaneous with his preparation to travel to Washington, D.C. -- illustrates his actions during the alleged conspiracy and intent to oppose by force the transfer of power," Assistant U.S. Attorney Troy A. Edwards Jr. of Washington wrote, referring to the seditious conspiracy charge against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and eight others including Caldwell.

On Friday evening, Caldwell attorney David Fischer forwarded a statement from his client rejecting the allegation, which prosecutors first raised in arguing for Caldwell's pretrial detention in February 2021. A judge has since granted Caldwell conditional release.

"The DOJ's claim that I intended to assassinate election workers is an absolute, 100% disgusting lie. Unfortunately, the DOJ has withheld from the public the evidence that exonerates me by hiding behind protective orders," the statement said.

Separately, Edwards said the government has evidence that members of the group from Florida and Arizona allegedly staged semiautomatic rifles and other weapons in a suburban Washington hotel while a third team from North Carolina kept their firearms "ready to go" in a vehicle in the parking lot.

The prosecutor claimed that another Rhodes co-defendant, purported Florida "state lead" Kelly Meggs, had told a cooperating defendant who has pleaded guilty in a cooperation deal with the government that another Florida member of the group, Jeremy Brown, came to Washington with explosives in his recreational vehicle, which he left parked in College Park, Md. Brown, who has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor Jan. 6 counts, is not charged in the seditious conspiracy indictment but was described by prosecutors as an "unindicted co-conspirator."

The government last September allegedly seized weapons from Brown, including two illegal short-barreled firearms from his home in Tampa and military grenades from "the same RV that Brown used to travel to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6," the prosecutor asserted.

Standby counsel for Brown -- a retired Special Forces soldier and onetime congressional candidate who is defending himself but has been detained pending trial on separate federal weapons charges in Florida -- did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The latest U.S. allegations were contained in a court filing required because prosecutors seek to introduce derogatory evidence at the Oath Keepers scheduled Sept. 26 trial that is not directly related to their charged offenses. Federal criminal rules usually bar such extraneous material but make an exception for relevant information that allegedly shows motive, the intent of a wider charged conspiracy or is otherwise "intrinsic" to a case.

Prosecutors asserted that the defendants face charges including conspiracy to corruptly obstruct Congress's certification of the 2020 election results and to oppose President Biden's swearing-in by force. Charging papers allege that the group coordinated travel, equipment and firearms and stashed weapons outside Washington, ready "to answer Rhodes' call to take up arms at Rhodes' direction."

"Caldwell's travels to Washington, D.C., for Jan. 6, as evidenced by his statements, were informed by a belief that the election was fraudulent and that the lawful transfer of presidential power must be thwarted by force. His writings targeting election workers are directly relevant to this point," Edwards said.

Edwards added: "Brown's statements, firearms, and explosives are intrinsic to the co-conspirators' charged offense as contemporaneous, direct evidence of the manner and means used by the co-conspirators to advance the goals of the charged conspiracy."

In plea papers, three Oath Keepers defendants who have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy charges admitted to allegations that they were among a group that forced entry through the Rotunda doors after marching single file in a stack up the steps wearing camouflage vests, helmets, goggles and Oath Keepers insignia. They acknowledged some brought rifles to Washington that were stashed beforehand at a Ballston hotel and one in Vienna.

Rhodes, Caldwell and the remaining co-defendants have pleaded not guilty. Rhodes in an interview with The Washington Post in March 2021 said there was no plan to breach the Capitol. He has said the group staged firearms in Northern Virginia in case it was needed as a "quick reaction force" if Trump invoked the Insurrection Act and mobilized armed groups to keep himself in office. Rhodes's attorney declined to comment Friday night about the government's latest allegations.

The attack on the Capitol came after a rally outside the White House, at which Trump urged his supporters to march to Congress. The rioters injured scores of police officers and ransacked Capitol offices, halting the proceedings as lawmakers were evacuated from the House floor.

Separately, an attorney for Rhodes said he contacted the House Jan. 6 committee earlier Friday offering to testify before it on condition that he be allowed to appear live, in-person and unedited, not from jail where he is in pretrial custody.

Rhodes "is not interested in any games," attorney Lee Bright said, and would talk about his group's activities in the last election and on Jan. 6, waiving his Fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination. Bright said the committee appears to be considering Rhodes's conditions acknowledged, as a practical matter, that such an appearance would probably likely a court order from the judge, input from prosecutors in his criminal case and transport by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Author Joe Squillace will visit Jacksonville in coming days to discuss the Morgan County Poorhouse and Farm and the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane.

Squillace, an associate professor and director of social work at the University of St. Mary in Leavenworth, Kansas, and former director of MacMurray Colleges social work program, has written books on both topics.
MADISON, Wis. - A divided Wisconsin Supreme Court barred the use of most ballot drop boxes on Friday and ruled voters could not give their completed absentee ballots to others to return to election clerks on their behalf, a practice that some conservatives disparage as "ballot harvesting."

Voting rights proponents said the decision would make it harder for voters - particularly those with disabilities - to return their absentee ballots. Many Republicans countered that the ruling provides needed protections against voter fraud and could help prevent someone from casting a ballot in the name of someone else.

For years, ballot drop boxes were used without controversy across Wisconsin. Election clerks greatly expanded their use in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic as absentee voting hit unprecedented levels.

By the time of the presidential election, more than 500 ballot drop boxes were in place across Wisconsin, many of them at libraries and fire stations and some of them under video surveillance. Some Republicans balked at their use, pointing to a state law that says an absentee ballot must "be mailed by the elector, or delivered in person, to the municipal clerk issuing the ballot or ballots."

The state's high court on Friday ruled that means voters themselves must return absentee ballots and cannot use drop boxes.

"The key phrase is 'in person' and it must be assigned its natural meaning," Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote for the majority.

The 4-3 ruling fell along ideological lines, with the justices elected with support from Republicans in the majority and justices elected with support from Democrats in dissent. The court's writings came to 140 pages, much of it in the form of concurring and dissenting opinions. A majority agreed on just 22 paragraphs scattered throughout Bradley's lead opinion.

In a portion that reflected the views of three of the seven justices, Bradley wrote that if "the right to vote is to have any meaning at all, elections must be conducted according to law" and that over history, "tyrants have claimed electoral victory via elections conducted in violation of governing law."

Bradley then listed examples: Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un in North Korea, Raul Castro in Cuba and Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

"Even if citizens of such nations are allowed to check a box on a ballot, they possess only a hollow right," Bradley wrote. "Their rulers derive their power from force and fraud, not the people's consent.  If elections are conducted outside of the law, the people have not conferred their consent on the government. Such elections are unlawful and their results are illegitimate."

In a dissent, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley called such commentary inappropriate when there is no evidence of significant voter fraud in Wisconsin.

"The majority/lead opinion's sky-is-falling rhetoric not only defies the facts, but also is downright dangerous to our democracy," she wrote. "Absent evidence that supports its statements, the majority/lead opinion still lends its imprimatur to efforts to destabilize and delegitimize recent elections."

The two Bradleys on the court are not related.

The majority opinion flatly stated "ballot drop boxes are illegal under Wisconsin statutes" without distinguishing between those that are staffed and those that are unstaffed. The dissenters said they considered the matter unresolved because the lower court found that drop boxes that were staffed and in clerk's offices could be used.

"This is a bad day for democracy," said Scott Thompson, an attorney who fought the lawsuit for Disability Rights Wisconsin and other groups that intervened in the case. "Whenever we are taking away familiar and simple and accessible ways to vote it is problematic for our democracy."

Rick Esenberg, the president of the group that brought the lawsuit, called that view overblown. Wisconsinites can send in ballots by mail or vote in person during the two weeks leading up to Election Day, he noted. While long available in some jurisdictions, drop boxes were not widely used before 2020.

"I don't think anybody would have said, 'Well, we don't have a democracy' prior to the 2020 election," he said.

In response to the decision, Milwaukee officials were keeping their drop boxes locked to make sure they could not be used and are considering removing them from libraries, said Claire Woodall-Vogg, the city's election director. She said she hoped to create more opportunities for the curbside drop-off of absentee ballots at early-voting sites this fall.

The case started last year when Esenberg's group, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, brought a lawsuit over the use of drop boxes on behalf of two suburban Milwaukee men. State law does not mention ballot drop boxes and the lawsuit argued their use "causes doubts about the fairness of the elections and erodes voter confidence in the electoral process."

Wisconsin law says no person may "receive a ballot from or give a ballot to a person other than the election official in charge." Those bringing the lawsuit argued that policy must be strictly followed, meaning it would be illegal for someone to drop their elderly parents' ballots off for them or for church members to gather ballots after a service and then take them to a clerk's office.

State election officials and those who intervened in the case defended the use of drop boxes, saying they offered a way for voters to return ballots in person. In addition, they contended nothing in state law bars voters from having their spouse, a friend or someone else deliver their completed ballot to a clerk so it can be counted.

In January, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren ruled in favor of those who brought the lawsuit. He concluded state law did not allow unstaffed ballot drop boxes and required absentee voters to return their ballots in person or place them in mailboxes themselves.

Friday's ruling upheld that decision and will be in place for elections starting with the Aug. 9 primaries, when voters will narrow the fields for governor and U.S. senator. Both contests in this battleground state are being closely watched nationally. Clerks began mailing absentee ballots last month.

The state legislature is out of session and unlikely to change any voting laws before the elections. Next year Republicans who control the two chambers plan to pass a fleet of new voting bills, but whether they can get signed will depend on who wins the governor's race.

Thirty states and the District of Columbia allow ballot drop boxes, according to the U.S. Vote Foundation. Thirty-one states have laws allowing voters to have someone else return their ballot for them, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some of those states allow voters to designate whoever they want for that role, while others limit it to family members or caregivers.

Republicans in Wisconsin have been most concerned about large-scale efforts to collect ballots by partisan actors. While some have engaged in that practice in other states, neither side deployed extensive operations for ballot collection in Wisconsin in 2020, when Joe Biden narrowly defeated President Donald Trump in the state.

The lower court ruled that ballots returned by mail could be placed into mailboxes only by voters themselves - a finding that alarmed advocates for the disabled because some voters physically cannot get to the polls or place their ballots in the mail.

The Supreme Court didn't go as far, saying for now it would not address whether a voter can have someone else place a ballot in the mail. Advocates for the disabled said they believed federal laws such as the Americans With Disabilities Act and Voting Rights Act would ensure disabled voters could get help to return ballots, whether by mail or other means.

Many of those following the case were closely watching Justice Brian Hagedorn, who won a 2019 race with the help of Republicans but in several high-profile cases has sided with the court's three liberals.

Hagedorn signed onto much of Bradley's decision, giving conservatives the four votes they needed for a majority.

In a concurring opinion, Hagedorn urged lawmakers to clarify the state's election laws, some of which were first enacted more than a century ago.

"Some citizens will cheer this result; others will lament," he wrote of the majority decision. "But the people of Wisconsin must remember that judicial decision-making and politics are different under our constitutional order. Our obligation is to follow the law, which may mean the policy result is undesirable or unpopular. Even so, we must follow the law anyway."
The Connecticut Lottery Corp. reached a $450,000 settlement with its former vice president who testified about contacting the FBI about possible wrongdoing by a board member.

In a joint statement attached to the settlement, the Connecticut Lottery Corp. said Chelsea Turner was acting in good faith in her efforts to safeguard CLC (Connecticut Lottery Corporation) from what she believed were unethical practices.

CLC and Ms. Turner both agree that she acted properly in approaching the FBI so that her concerns could be vetted by an agency appropriate to address them, the statement said.

The quasi-public agency placed Turner on administrative leave in July 2019 after she testified at a public hearing. In the testimony, she said her and a prior Connecticut Lottery president and CEO, Anne Noble, reached out to the FBI in 2014 when they suspected wrongdoing by past chairman Frank Farricker, a Greenwich resident.

The Hartford Courant reported that investigators had Noble hide a recording device in an eyeglasses case during at least one meeting with Farricker.

No action was taken against the Board member as a result of their report, according to the joint statement from Turner and the Connecticut Lottery Corp.

Turner filed a lawsuit with the Connecticut Lottery in February 2020 claiming she was improperly placed on administrative leave and that the Connecticut Lottery defamed her based on statements contained in the administrative leave letter, according to the settlement.

The two parties reached the settlement on June 30, which was obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media through a Freedom of Information Act request. The settlement states that the Connecticut Lottery Corp. will pay $450,000 to Turner and her lawyers.

The court dismissed the case Friday, according to federal court records.
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CLEVELAND, Texas (AP)  Authorities have arrested a woman in the killing of a Texas couple who was found beaten to death in their home more than 17 years ago.

Shelley Susan Thompson, 41, has been charged with capital murder in the April 2005 deaths of Antonio Rodriguez, 80, and his wife Luz, 77. The couples daughter found them in their home in Cleveland, located about 45 miles (70 km) northeast of Houston.
A four-day workweek sounds appealing to workers. Possibly alarming to employers.

A bill introduced in California earlier this year proposed a regular pay rate for 32 hours of work per week, with overtime kicking in after that. The measure stalled in committee for a lack of broad support but could resurface in 2023.

Meanwhile, 4 Day Week Global, a nonprofit foundation associated with Oxford University, is piloting a six-month trial of a four-day workweek with no loss of pay for employees. More than three dozen companies in the U.S. and Canada are participating in the experiment, with a total of 150 organizations and 7,000 employees involved worldwide.

Of more than 1,000 U.S. adult employees surveyed by research firm Qualtrics in January, 92% said they would support their employer going to a four-day workweek; 79% of them said it would help mental health, and 82% said it would make them more productive.

Will more employers embrace the change?

Ive always been curious about burnout. It truly affects those that should be thriving, says Lisa Belanger, CEO of ConsciousWorks. She consults with businesses on workplace well-being. In her quest to find how work is meant to be, she decided to explore a four-day workweek herself.

Results have been mixed, at best, she says.

I think Ive failed so far in my own personal experiment, Belanger says. Business travel plans or other work-related responsibilities often interrupted her Day Five off.

One of the reasons its so challenging for me, and most people, to do a four-day workweek is other people are working on that fifth day, so youre getting email and youre getting pulled in, Belanger says.

People are realizing that while this might be an intriguing or interesting idea, theres probably some trade-offs, says Benjamin Granger, head of employee experience advisory services at Qualtrics. He says the companys research indicates concerns regarding customer frustration if staffing changes have an impact on response time.

Widespread adoption would have to reach critical mass, where companies believe they have to adopt a shorter workweek to compete in the workforce, he adds. And consumer behavior and customer expectations and services would need to be reshaped.

Were not even close to that yet, he says.

If its not a four-day workweek, there are other levers to pull when it comes to workplace flexibility, Granger says.

Those could include perks that make a job more attractive, like choosing the hours you want to work rather than the usual 9-to-5, or the ability to run errands during the workday.

Fewer than four in 10 (37%) of the employees surveyed by Qualtrics would be willing to take a 5% or more pay cut for a four-day workweek . But nearly three-quarters (72%) of those surveyed said a four-day workweek would mean they would have to work longer days.

However, 10-hour days often arent child care friendly. And if a company offers to pay for only four days of eight hours each, it could indicate a shorter workweek might be the result of a company trying to reduce expenses.

I think there is a lot of work and research that an organization has to do before it pulls the trigger on this, Granger says.

A four-day workweek  or other workplace flexibility  might begin with a series of discussions. If there is interest on both sides of the payroll, Granger suggests a trade-off analysis: Look statistically at the factors that people would be willing to trade off, and would it be worth it to them? If interest remains strong, the organization could run a pilot program with a small group of employees before a wider rollout.

If a four-day workweek isnt in your near future, Belanger offers these ideas for employees to possibly seek  and employers to consider:

Occasional extended weekends off. Belanger says this allows time away without the stressful work is piling up while Im away feeling during longer vacations.

A meeting-free Friday or a reduction in the number of meetings overall.

Email, instant messaging or texting hiatuses. Telepressure  the compulsion to quickly respond to work-related messages of any kind  is a real thing, Belanger says.

You need a couple of hours every single day where youre wholly not working  100% not working, for mental health, she adds.
The Betsie River is famed for its fishing. Not just locally, either: A Chicago chapter of Trout Unlimited touts the Betsies prowess on its website. Madison, Wisconsin-based Fishidy talks up the river. So does Whacking Fatties, a fishing store in in Missoula, Montana.

The Betsie is known for phenomenal trout and salmon, steelhead and chinook, said Scott Heintzelman, the Central Lake Michigan Unit Manager of the Fisheries Division of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Its one of the leading producers of chinook.

The appeal becomes even more obvious in the fall, when those chinook salmon head upstream to spawn and run into the Homestead Dam.

Its pretty special, said Tab Wakley.

The man behind the YouTube channel Reel Michigan Anglers has fished all over the state and said the Homestead Dam area is one of the best spots for anglers anywhere.

Its a place to go to get your first King, Wakley said.

He should know.

Its where I caught my first King. A buddy and I went there. I hooked it right away, Wakley said.

Over the past few years, the dam area has become a huge attraction for anglers. The spawning salmon meant a chance to try their skills against the wriggling fish swimming upstream. But for others, the behavior of many of those became too much to handle.

That includes Charlie Snedeker, of Grand Rapids, a frequent visitor to the area who loves fishing on the Betsie  just not at Homestead Dam.

He said the illegal snagging, overcrowded conditions and attitude of many of those casting their lines made it impossible for him to enjoy fishing there.

My last time was probably four years ago, he said.

Snedeker wasnt alone in his attitude.

Its known for its battle-fishing environment, said Wakley.

As its popularity grew, there were more and more complaints, agreed Heintzelman.

They ranged from snagging to people taking more fish than the limit, claiming a spot and camping for days along the bank, cutting down trees and staying overnight in the overcrowded parking lot.

Throw in prohibited campfires, the overflowing toilets and the violations spreading beyond public land to private parcels. For many like Snedeker, it became too much and they began to go elsewhere.

The behavior, erosion, littering and overuse eventually triggered action.

All those things and tons of complaints, said Heintzelman.

The result was Fisheries Order 204, which closes the Homestead Dam to fishing within 100 feet of the dam and within 300 feet of the lamprey barrier and fish passage facility from Aug. 1 to Nov. 15. New restrictions also prohibited the use or occupancy of the area between 1 and 4 a.m.

According to Heintzelman, those changes, which took effect in 2020, have made a positive impact on the area.

Its stopped the confrontations in tight areas and gives the fish a little more breathing room, he said.

Fishing is not the only claim to fame for the area. Though salmon and steelhead have helped make its name, according to Heintzelman the river is also popular with paddlers.

They can access below (the dam) to put in a kayak or canoe, he said.

He said theres even talk of improving the amenities for those taking to the river in their watercraft. Its ultimately about straddling the middle ground so the area can be protected while still allowing people to utilize it.

We have to find a balance between protecting the resource and still making it usable, Heintzelman said.
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PHOENIX (AP)  Arizona's governor has signed a law that restricts how the public can video police at a time when theres growing pressure across the U.S. for greater law enforcement transparency.

Civil rights and media groups opposed the measure that Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed Thursday. The law makes it illegal in Arizona to knowingly video police officers 8 feet (2.5 meters) or closer without an officers permission.

Someone on private property with the owners consent can also be ordered to stop recording if a police officer finds they are interfering or the area is not safe. The penalty is a misdemeanor that would likely incur a fine without jail time.

There needs to be a law that protects officers from people who either have very poor judgment or sinister motives, said Republican Rep. John Kavanagh, the bills sponsor.

Im pleased that a very reasonable law that promotes the safety of police officers and those involved in police stops and bystanders has been signed into law, Kavanagh said Friday. It promotes everybodys safety yet still allows people to reasonably videotape police activity as is their right.

The move comes nearly a year after the U.S. Department of Justice launched a widespread probe into the police force in Phoenix to examine whether officers have been using excessive force and abusing people experiencing homelessness. Its similar to other investigations opened in recent months in Minneapolis and Louisville.

The Phoenix Police Department, which oversees the nations fifth-largest city, has been criticized in recent years for its use of force, which disproportionately affects Black and Native American residents.

The law has left opponents like K.M. Bell, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, incredulous.

Federal appellate courts already have ruled that recording police is a clearly established right," according to Bell.

The law wont work in real-life scenarios.

Were talking about people being in public and a place they have a right to be. Were not talking about, like somebody breaking into the (National Security Agency), Bell said.

Kavanagh, who was a police officer for 20 years, amended the legislation so it applies to certain types of police actions, including questioning of suspects and encounters involving mental or behavioral health issues.

The law also makes exceptions for people who are the direct subject of police interaction. They can film as long as they are not being arrested or searched. Someone who is in a car stopped by police or is being questioned can also film the encounter.

Those exceptions were based upon input from all sorts of people, including the ACLU, he said.

Rumblings two years ago about anti-police groups who deliberately approach officers while filming inspired draft legislation. There was a risk of an officer being injured or a suspect escaping or ditching evidence, Kavanagh said.

The Rev. Jarrett Maupin, a Phoenix activist, has represented victims of excessive force by police. Some of the cases received more publicity because video captured by bystanders was posted online.

In one case, a Black couple had police officers point guns at them in front of their children in May 2019 after their young daughter took a doll from a store without their knowledge. They received a $475,000 settlement from the city.

Maupin believes the law is a tactic to help police avoid responsibility.

Proximity is not a luxury in terms of documenting the actions of officers who engage in acts of brutality, Maupin said. Sometimes the victims and the bystanders have no choice but to be within the proximity that the bill now prohibits."

Bell said it's unlikely that other states might follow suit to limit police recording directly given questions about constitutionality.

The new law doesn't make exceptions for the press.

Media groups including The Associated Press said the measure raises serious constitutional issues. They signed onto a letter from the National Press Photographers Association, or NPPA, in opposition to the bill.

Setting one-size-fits-all conditions like "arbitrary distances of 8 feet (2.5 meters) for filming police just doesn't work, said Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the NPPA. It's also unclear if someone is breaking the law if an officer approaches them within a few feet.

What happens when youre in situations like we saw during all of the protests for the past couple of years, where you have multiple people with cameras? Were not just talking about journalists, Osterreicher said. And youve got multiple police officers. Is everybody going to be running around with a ruler?

Cellphone cameras have transformed policing with one of the biggest examples being the 2020 killing of George Floyd, but Kavanagh said a law like Arizona's wouldn't have made an impact since the video in that case was taken from a greater distance away.

Osterreicher argued a police officer could invoke the law even if the person filming is far enough away.

But that didn't happen in the Floyd case.

Fortunately, those officers out of all the wrong things that they did, the one thing they didnt do was tell her to turn off the camera or try to interfere with her recording, Osterreicher said.
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP)  One of three men who carried out a daring, elaborate escape from a Southern California jail was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison.

Bac Tien Duong, 49, was sentenced both for the Jan. 22, 2016, breakout and for attempted murder in the case that first got him locked up. He was given credit for the more than seven years he already spent in jail.

Duong, a reputed street gang member, was awaiting trial when he and two other inmates broke out of the Orange County Central Jail Complex in Santa Ana.

Using smuggled tools, the three cut through a metal grate in their maximum-security dorm cell, then climbed through plumbing shafts within the walls to reach the roof, where they rappelled down five stories using a rope made of bed linens, according to authorities and a cellphone video shot by one of the men.

That day, Duong allegedly called an unlicensed taxi driver who had advertised in Vietnamese-language publications. The 72-year-old driver was kidnapped and sometimes held at gunpoint as he drove the men around. The men then stole a van and took both vehicles and taxi driver Long Ma along as they drove hundreds of miles north to the San Francisco Bay Area, authorities said.

The men and Ma stayed in motels until on Jan. 29, when Duong took an opportunity to drive with Ma alone back to Southern California, telling Ma that another escapee had intended to kill the driver, according to an account Ma gave the Orange County Register in 2016.

The other two men, Hossein Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu, were arrested the next day in San Francisco, ending a weeklong manhunt.

The taxi driver, who has credited Duong with saving his life, filed a letter to the court asking the judge to show mercy to Duong, the Register reported.

Duong was the first of the three men to go to trial on escape charges.

At the time of the escape, Tieu was facing retrial on charges of murder and attempted murder for a 2011 shooting outside an Orange County pool hall.

Nayeri was sentenced in 2020 to life in prison without possibility of parole for kidnapping and torturing a marijuana dispensary whose penis was cut off in 2012 by robbers who mistakenly thought he'd buried $1 million in the desert.
SEATTLE (AP)  The Washington state Commission on Judicial Conduct has admonished a King County District Court judge for implying in court that a defendant would be raped in prison if he didnt change his behavior.

The Seattle Times reports Judge Virginia Amato, who was elected in November 2018, presided over the arraignment of a man charged with misdemeanor domestic-violence assault and resisting arrest last August, according to the stipulation, agreement and order of admonishment signed June 24 by the commissions executive director, J. Reiko Callner.

Before imposing conditions of release, Amato noted the mans alleged crimes happened while he was on probation, the order says.

The man had no felony convictions, and could not be sent to prison for misdemeanors, yet Amato is quoted in the order as telling him he was setting himself up to be Bubbas new best girlfriend at the state penitentiary.

That may hopefully give you a graphic image to think about  And if you think Im kidding, Im not, she reportedly said.

A confidential complaint was filed in October with the commission, which is responsible for reviewing and acting on complaints of judicial misconduct, and Amato was served with a statement of allegations in December, the order says.

Amato acknowledged that her statements to the defendant violated the Code of Judicial Conduct but said her comments, while insensitive and thoughtless, were not motivated by bias or ill-will toward the defendant."

The commission found that Amato violated rules requiring judges to uphold the integrity of the judiciary by avoiding impropriety or the appearance of impropriety and to maintain appropriate courtroom decorum.

The commission found it was an isolated event that was out of character. An admonishment is the least severe disciplinary action the commission can issue and is meant as a caution to a judge not to engage in certain proscribed behavior.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP)  A federal judge on Friday threw out a lawsuit by Missouri Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt that blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh said in his 38-page ruling that in this case federal rules prohibit a sovereign foreign entity from being sued in American courts.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP)  A Florida man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for attempting to support the Islamic State terrorist group by posting a video online for making explosives.

Romeo Xavier Langhorne, 32, was sentenced Thursday in Jacksonville federal court, according to court records. He pleaded guilty last year to one count of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization.
BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP)  A man has been sentenced to decades in prison in the rapes of four former Penn State students over a seven-year period.

Jeffrey Fields, 38, of Port Matilda was sentenced Friday in Centre County to 29 1/2 to 61 years in state prison in the assaults, which occurred between 2010 and 2017 in State College, the Centre Daily Times reported.

Fields, who worked in State College at the time, pleaded guilty in March to all but two of the charges filed against him, including felony counts of rape and sexual assault.

First Assistant District Attorney Sean McGraw said Fields was a very sophisticated rapist who committed calculated, planned attacks on vulnerable women.

One victim said in a statement to President Judge Pamela Ruest that the defendant changed my life completely. He changed who I am at my core.

Defense attorney Steve Trialonas said in a sentencing memo that each of the rapes had overtones of power and control; two aspects in Jeffs life that were absent outside these crimes. He said his client never challenged the evidence against him since his July 2020 arrest, never sought bail and didn't want the victims to have to testify.

Fields spoke for nearly 20 minutes, calling his crimes unspeakable.

I regret everything Ive done. You did not deserve to go through this. I am so sorry," he said, later adding If I could go back in time and change everything, I would."

The father of one victim said he lives in a constant state of anger, and no sentence would be tough enough.

This man is the embodiment of evil, he wrote. May God forgive me, but I have no room in my heart for forgiveness or mercy. May he burn in hell.
ANDERSON, S.C. (AP)  A man was shot in the head Saturday at a shopping mall in South Carolina.

Anderson Police Chief Jim Stewart told news outlets that the shooting happened at Anderson Mall, and investigators believe the shooter and victim know each other.
BALTIMORE (AP)  Ridership for Maryland Transit Administration bus and rail lines has yet to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.

That's according to a report Friday from The Daily Record, which found that the decline in ridership can be seen across all the agency's services.
Culpeper Battlefields State Park wont open for a little while, but thats not stopping its advocates from sprucing up some of its historic sites.

Four entities recently collaborated to update and add wayside markers on Culpeper Countys Cedar Mountain battlefield, where Confederate troops ended the Unions attempt to seize Gordonsvilles strategic railroad junction in 1862.

Officials of the American Battlefield Trust, Civil War Trails Inc. and Friends of Cedar Mountain Battlefield installed the illustrated markers as overcast skies sprinkled rain on the June 27 undertaking.

The national nonprofit trust, which owns the preserved portion of the battlefield, and the town of Culpeper Department of Economic Development and Tourism split the cost of the 13 markers.

We are very excited to have the interpretive signs installed in time for the 160th anniversary of the battle, Daniel Davis, the trusts senior education manager, said Thursday. The signage will enhance visitors experiences at the battlefield and provide a deeper understanding of what happened on that hallowed ground.

It is amazing to see battlefields function as both an open air museum and as places for visitors to hike or take a digital detox, said Drew Gruber, executive director of Civil War Trails. Watching families and friends create history of their own at sites like these makes our job truly rewarding.

The partners installed 12 interpretive markers about the Battle of Cedar Mountain as well as one sign that describes the work of the American Battlefield Trust, which preserves battle-related sites of the American Revolution, War of 1812 and Civil War.

As with most preservation work, fabrication and installation of these signs was a true team effort, said Jim Campi, the trusts chief policy and communications officer. Civil War Trails fabricated and designed the signs, historian Mike Block did the initial crafting of the text, with the American Battlefield Trust team further refining the content and maps.

All of the historical waysides include maps, quotes from battle participants and photos pertaining to different parts of the savage Aug. 9, 1862, battle, in which Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson drew his sword (actually, his swords rusty scabbard) for the only time.

The new signs build off existing stories being told at Cedar Mountain, enhancing the overall visitor experience, said Paige Read, director of Culpeper Economic Development and Tourism.

Mike Block, a volunteer with Friends of Cedar Mountain, thanked Davis, Read, Gruber and Chris Brown, assistant director of the multi-state trails group, for making the project happen.

It was this partnership and support that made the new waysides possible, he said.

The marker project is part of an overall effort by the American Battlefield Trust, working with its local partners, to improve interpretation at Culpepers Brandy Station and Cedar Mountain battlefields, Campi said.

The partners started with Cedar Mountain in June, so the new signs were installed in time for the battles 160th anniversary next month.

Next, we will be focusing on replacing signage at St. James Church and Bufords Knoll in time for the 160th anniversary of Brandy Station next year, Campi said.

The new markers will also help orient the influx of new visitors expected with the announcement of the new state park, which formally opens on July 1, 2024, he said.

And soon, signs will be erected in Culpeper to notify visitors about the new state park, Campi said.

At Cedar Mountain, seven of the new markers replace signage that served visitors from around the world for over a decade, Block said. They offer more engaging text and images to help fuel the imagination of visitors as they stand where the historic events took place on the battlefield, he said.

Each wayside has a map that reflects the 1862 terrain and locations of the contending armies on different parts of the field.

The partners placed four signs covering new material that enables visitors to understand the fighting on portions of the battlefield that had gone without interpretation, Block said.

Two describe the fighting in the woods on and behind The Point, and another above the Brushy Field.

A third sign near the Crittenden Gate, perhaps the best-known part of the field and the place where visitors now enter it, provides an overview of the battle.

Finally, a new wayside discusses KOCOA, a military acronym that stands for Key Terrain, Observation Points and Fields of Fire, Cover and Concealment, Obstacles and Avenues of Approach/Retreat.

As used by the U.S. armed services and the National Park Services American Battlefields Protection Program, KOCOA is the process that experts use to study military terrain and classify the cultural-landscape features of battlefields and battle-related historic sites.

Now, a visitor to Cedar Mountain can study and understand the battlefield as a modern combatant, Block said.

As indicated by signage there, the Cedar Mountain battlefield is part of the Civil War Trails Inc. system. Each CWT site is networked together with more than 1,400 others across six states, including Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

CWT sites are marketed internationally by state tourism offices, destination marketing organizations and municipal partners.

The popular program, which provides a smartphone app, a website and free maps to travelers, helps drive economic development by promoting heritage travel.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Iranian authorities arrested an outspoken pro-reform activist, saying he conspired to act against state security, semi-official media in Iran reported Saturday.

The arrest is the latest in a wave of detentions against the backdrop of escalating tensions with the West and Tehrans rapid advancement of its nuclear work, while talks to revive the landmark 2015 atomic accord remain at a standstill.

The semi-official Fars news agency said activist Mostafa Tajzadeh was taken into custody on Friday afternoon and charged with gathering (to protest) and conspiracy to act against the countrys security.

Tajzadeh is a well-known activist who has criticized the countrys top leader and high-ranking officials. He spent years in prison following the disputed 2009 re-election of Irans hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the turmoil that ensued.

Meanwhile, Tehran chief prosecutor Ali Salehi was quoted by the judiciarys Mizan news agency on Saturday as endorsing the latest arrests and saying that activities of those detained created divisions that led to incitement in the media and society.

On Friday, the state-run IRNA news agency reported the arrests of two filmmakers over an appeal they posted on social media, accusing them of links with opposition groups based outside the country and plotting to undermine state security.

Award-wining filmmaker Mohamad Rasoulof and colleague Mostafa Al-Ahmad were taken into custody for posting a statement on social media urging members of the Iranian security forces to lay down their weapons. At least 70 Iranian filmmakers and movie industry workers had signed the appeal.

The hashtag #put_your_gun_down is a reference to the violent crackdown during the unrest following a building collapse in the southwestern city of Abadan that killed at least 41 people earlier this year. The May 23 collapse dredged up painful memories of past national disasters and triggered protests in Abadan during which police clubbed demonstrators and fired tear gas.

Over the past months, there have been protests in Iran over price hikes and the slashing of subsidies by the government. Also, teachers gathered for weeks, demanding better pay and working condition.

Memories are also fresh of Irans fuel price hike in November 2019, when widespread protests  the most violent since the creation of the Islamic Republic in 1979  rocked the country.

Iran has also detained a number of Europeans in recent months, including two French citizens and a Swedish tourist, as it seeks to gain leverage in the nuclear negotiations.

Dual nationals and those with Western ties have also been arrested, often on widely criticized espionage charges, to be used as bargaining chips in the negotiations. Tehran denies using detainees to further its political aims.

Talks to revive Tehrans tattered nuclear deal with world powers have stalled for months. A recent effort to break the deadlock between U.S. and Iranian negotiators ended without making progress in Qatar.
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. - The high school students had come to understand they might experience a mass shooting one day, maybe in the classroom, like the drills they'd done before. But they didn't think it would happen outdoors, while many of them were part of a parade.

Just before bullets from a semiautomatic rifle ripped into concrete, glass windows and their neighbors' flesh, the Highland Park High School marching band was providing the soundtrack for the Fourth of July celebration. Then they dropped their instruments and ran.

Meeting Thursday at their school with two psychologists, some of the teenagers who participated in the parade said they felt guilty, and wished they'd done more to help others escape.

"It's a natural feeling when people go through traumatic experiences," said school psychologist Casey Moravek, who shared aspects of the counseling session with The Washington Post. "But to hear guilt from people who should not have been put through this in the first place - the fact that they have this negative feeling about themselves - is heartbreaking."

In the days since Monday's mass shooting, which killed seven and injured more than 40, Highland Park community leaders and advocates have focused on addressing the psychological toll on children and teenagers touched by the violence.

Both the parade and the crowd of onlookers included hundreds of youngsters of all ages. The community's schools and churches have been converted into therapy resource centers for families seeking guidance in the aftermath.

Michelle Marks brought her sons, 8 and 4, to the parade. Her 10-year-old was at summer camp. The family sat about a half-block from where the gunman, perched on a rooftop and disguised in women's clothing, concentrated his assault.

When the shooting started, Marks and her husband grabbed the boys from their seats on the curb and sprinted for an open coffee shop. They ran out a back door to a parking garage, finding shelter in a stairwell as the boys shrieked in terror and confusion.

Last month, Marks, who practices employment law, decided to tell her eldest sons about the massacre at Robb Elementary School, 1,100 miles away in Uvalde, Texas. She believed that if she didn't tell them, they would hear about the shooting from friends or online.

Somebody came to a school with weapons he shouldn't have had and tried to hurt kids, she told the boys. She didn't say 19 fourth graders were killed - that seemed incomprehensible. Instead, she told them to be watchful of people at their school who didn't belong. And she assured them they were safe, and that nothing like that would happen here.

"Kids can hear about stuff like that and assume it happens everywhere all the time," Marks said. "I believed what I said, because the chances really are low. Now all I can say is, 'it won't happen twice.' "

On Wednesday, Marks brought her two youngest sons to Ravinia Elementary School in Highland Park, where donated toys, therapy dogs and counselors awaited impacted families. The boys were eager to meet the dogs. Marks decided against having them meet a counselor.

"I felt like the 8-year-old would think maybe I'm having him see someone because something's wrong with him or maybe he's not feeling enough about this," Marks said. "I'd rather just follow his lead and give him some time."

Psychologists and therapists in Highland Park emphasized that the emotional needs of each child who witnessed the mass shooting would be different. For some, open conversation with family members can suffice. Others who experience prolonged symptoms of trauma, such as trouble sleeping, aversion to crowds, nightmares and separation anxiety, should consider professional help, they said.

Alex Ochoa, a clinical social worker with Family Services of Glencoe, a town that borders Highland Park, met with about 15 people affected by the shooting between Tuesday and Thursday. She said parents reported their children having difficulty sleeping during two nights of thunderstorms across the Chicago metropolitan area. Young children asked parents, "Is the bad guy here? Is he coming to get us?"

"I recommended keeping them close, helping them fall asleep by remaining in the room, letting them know what they can do to access them," said Ochoa. "And it's important to answer all their questions."

Ashlee Jaffe's 5-year-old son had plenty.

A 39-year-old pediatric physiatrist in Philadelphia, Jaffe was visiting family in Northbrook, Ill., over the holiday weekend. She took photos of the very beginning of the parade, when neighborhood children walk the route on bicycles and tricycles festooned with streamers and American flags, their pet dogs in tow. Then came the first responders, Highland Park's police and fire departments, then the high school marching band.

A few minutes after most of Highland Park's first responders passed by, a bullet struck Jaffe's hand. She dove for her son, pulling him by a leg and shoving him underneath the bench they had been sitting on, inadvertently smearing blood on his face and leg.

Sprinting from the scene, her son saw a man with multiple chest wounds, blood staining his shirt. He struggled to make sense of it.

"My son guessed the paramedics painted around the wounds in red paint, so the doctors would know where they were," Jaffe said.

The boy has suffered sleepless nights, complaining of a headache and a stomachache. Asked what would make it feel better, he said talking about the parade might help.

He guessed that maybe someone was shooting at balloons, accounting for the loud bangs. He asked if parades always end like this. And he was eager to see the stitches in Jaffe's hand when she removed the bandage.

He wanted to know if the shooter had been caught, and he wanted to know his name.

"We answered all of his questions, and then he wanted to talk to his grandma, so we FaceTimed her and he asked all the same questions," Jaffe said.

After speaking with her son's pediatrician, she's also holding off on therapy, for now.

"I can't believe that I have to explain to my son what a shooter is," Jaffe said. "I can only hope this is the only mass shooting he'll ever be a part of."

Older children in Highland Park told therapists and parents they imagined they might one day be witness to a mass shooting, but felt safe at the parade.

"What I heard expressed was that they were more on edge at school and felt prepared if something happened at school," said Moravek, the high school psychologist. "But they did not feel prepared at the parade and were shocked that something happened there."

Jaffe said an FBI investigator who interviewed her shared that other victims and witnesses had described the middle and high school students at the parade as the most competent in the immediate aftermath of the attack, identifying appropriate cover and shelter and leading the way.

High school counselors have told parents to watch for symptoms like eating disorders and a lack of motivation to do activities that once excited their kids. Many of the students and parents have expressed a desire to advocate for gun control measures as an outlet for their emotions, asking counselors how they can get politically involved, Moravek said.

Gun control was a major factor in keeping the Marks family in Illinois during the pandemic, Michelle said. They considered moving back to her home state of Texas. But she said they couldn't square Texas's gun culture and comparatively lax gun control laws with the values they wanted to impart to their sons.

"I grew up a Texan, and I used to be proud of it, but the world has changed," she said. "Is it ironic that we decided to stay in Illinois and this happens? Yeah. There's nowhere to go in this country to escape this."
Three days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden used a break between Group of Seven summit meetings at the luxury Schloss Elmau resort in Germany to get an update on the stunning and sudden loss of abortion rights for millions of Americans back home.

Huddling with top aides, including some who dialed in from the White House, Biden declared at the outset of the call that he wanted to endorse ending the Senate filibuster to codify Roe into law, a position he so far had refused to take, angering many Democrats in the process.

But Biden kept his decision private until three days later when, during a news conference in Madrid, he deployed the carefully crafted language he and his team had perfected just moments before, denouncing the "outrageous behavior of the Supreme Court" and calling for "an exception to the filibuster for this action to deal with the Supreme Court decision."

For many Democrats, however, it was too little and too late, just one more example over the two weeks in which Biden and his team struggled to come up with a muscular plan of action on abortion rights, even though the Supreme Court ruling had been presaged two months earlier with the leak of a draft opinion.

Biden and his team were also caught off guard by the timing of the decision and, in the immediate hours afterward, failed to channel the raw and visceral anger felt by many Americans over the decision.

To many increasingly frustrated Democrats, Biden's slow response on abortion was just the latest example of a failure to meet the moment on a wave of conservative rollbacks, from gun control to environmental protections to voting rights. Some aspects of the White House reaction have felt to some Democrats like a routine response, including stakeholder calls and the creation of a task force, to an existential crisis.

"Leadership right now is coming from the streets, and we would love to be met in that effort by the White House and the Democrats more broadly," said Rachel Carmona, the executive director of the Women's March, on Thursday. "I think that Biden has an opportunity to step forward in a leadership role in a way that he has not."

This account of the administration's 14-day struggle to craft a message and policy plan after the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization is based on interviews with 26 senior White House officials, Democratic lawmakers, abortion rights activists, Democratic strategists and other Biden allies, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to share candid details.

White House officials defend the urgency of Biden's response and the actions he has taken on abortion, which they argue are in step with mainstream opinion. "The president has been showing his deep outrage as an American and executing his bold plan -- which is the product of months of hard work -- ever since this decision was handed down," White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said in a statement Saturday.

"Joe Biden's goal in responding to Dobbs is not to satisfy some activists who have been consistently out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party. It's to deliver help to women who are in danger and assemble a broad-based coalition to defend a woman's right to choose now, just as he assembled such a coalition to win during the 2020 campaign," she said.

While many exasperated Democrats and activists argue the administration could do much more, others say they understand the White House view that its options are limited and that most major steps would need to come from Congress or the states.

"The reason this one feels different is because the decision we have feared for nearly 50 years finally happened," said Scott Mulhauser, a Democratic strategist who previously served as a senior adviser to Biden's commerce secretary. "This moment, as the country takes a giant step backward, and moments like it are too often laid on the White House, as if they had a magic wand to fix it all, rather just insufficient votes in Congress and a regressive Supreme Court majority."

On Friday, Biden gave an emotional speech that cheered many Democrats with its tone of outrage and a call to combat, while signing an executive order bolstering abortion rights and access to contraceptives. He railed against the Supreme Court ruling, calling it "wrongheaded" and "an exercise in raw political power," and urged women to "turn out in record numbers to reclaim the rights that have been taken from them by the court."

Yet Biden's genteel tendencies were still in evidence, as he referred to "my Republican friends" even while calling them "extremist" and deriding them for "talking about getting the Congress to pass a national ban" on abortion.

"One of the reasons he was elected was that he is a decent, temperate person, and there is no doubt that he can raise his voice, but it doesn't come naturally to him and it doesn't land well," said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to former president Barack Obama. "People got the president they voted for, and I think those are good qualities that he has, but they may not be the qualities that some people, particularly activist Democrats, are looking for right now."

- - -

About four hours after the decision overturning Roe v. Wade was handed down on June 24, the White House emailed numerous abortion rights allies asking them to join a call with top officials that afternoon to "hear more about the Supreme Court ruling and the fight ahead." Those invited expected a fiery call to action and a detailed plan from the White House, a road map not just for the immediate aftermath but for the weeks and months ahead.

Instead, top White House and administration officials stressed the issue was important to Biden and reiterated the actions the president had already outlined earlier that day, including expanding access to the abortion pill and protecting women who travel across state lines to get an abortion. The call lasted about 20 minutes and officials took no questions, according to an outside adviser who was on the call. Afterward, multiple attendees complained to each other that the call was a waste of time, the outside adviser said, and left deflated.

The sentiment was similar after the draft opinion leaked two months prior. At the time, Democratic activists quickly contacted the White House asking for ways to organize a response. But many of the groups felt they were met with vague platitudes, a handful of listening sessions and promises the administration was working on a plan, said a Democratic strategist who works with some of the groups. After the official decision came out, some Democrats felt the administration had wasted valuable time in organizing the party apparatus to respond, the strategist added.

Decision day did not unfold as White House officials had expected, or as Democrats had hoped. White House aides had expected the Supreme Court to release the ruling as its final decision of the term on June 30, the day Biden was set to return from Madrid. It is not clear why they believed that. The court announces expected release dates shortly ahead of time but does not say which opinions will be dropped on a specific day.

Still, the president had already signed off on his prepared remarks. Had the decision been released on June 30, Biden would have given his speech upon returning to Washington, one White House official said.

Biden had been planning to nominate a conservative opponent of abortion rights to a lifetime federal judgeship in Kentucky on the very day that Roe was overturned, according to emails first reported by the Louisville Courier Journal. The White House appears to have abandoned that idea after the abortion ruling, according to those emails.

After the decision dropped, the White House scrambled to accelerate its timeline. In an Oval Office meeting that morning, Biden gathered with top advisers to fine tune his remarks. The group focused on what actions he quickly could take to protect women's rights, as well as the impact the ruling would have on the lives of millions of Americans and the nearly 50-year effort by Republicans to restrict abortion access, two senior administration officials said.

Then, they sent the president out to deliver his speech. "Make no mistake: This decision is the culmination of a deliberate effort over decades to upset the balance of our law," Biden said at the time. "It's a realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error by the Supreme Court."

But Biden's delivery lacked the urgent tone that many Democrats felt was required, and even some White House officials later said they wished the president had been more fiery, another senior administration official said. The official added that they felt Biden had missed the mark in part because he and his team had been unprepared for the timing of the decision, and the reality of the ruling had not fully set in.

Vice President Kamala Harris was on the way to a previously scheduled speech in Illinois when the ruling came down. Her team printed it out for her aboard Air Force Two, and she pored over it on the plane as her motorcade sped to her first event, where she and her aides overhauled her remarks to reflect the sudden crisis. "This is the first time in the history of our nation that a constitutional right has been taken from the people of America," Harris said.

The White House also canceled the previously scheduled briefing by press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Although she did an MSNBC interview, the canceled briefing dismayed some White House allies, who felt the administration should have used all available opportunities to drive its message and attack Republicans in the immediate aftermath of the decision. A White House official, however, said the decision was made to let the remarks from Biden and Harris carry the day.

Meanwhile, some progressive lawmakers began calling on the administration to declare a public health emergency, a mostly symbolic gesture that would signal how seriously the administration viewed the issue but that would make limited difference in terms of policies or actions Biden could take.

Some in the White House and Department of Health and Human Services supported the idea, believing it would bring more attention to the issue, according to a person familiar with the discussions. But White House aides and agency officials became uncomfortable declaring the Supreme Court decision a public health emergency, the person said.

They worried that declaring an emergency without the ability to fundamentally change things would backfire and argued that such a declaration would not necessarily unlock many new authorities or funds for the White House to deploy, this person and another familiar with the discussions said. Still, the second person added that the White House has not yet ruled out such a declaration.

White House officials have also been reluctant to put forward policy proposals that are likely to be struck down in court. The administration's most ambitious policies on the coronavirus response, for instance, have almost all been overruled in court, including a vaccine mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees and a federal mask mandate on public transportation.

But some Democrats and advocates have called on the administration and Democratic lawmakers more broadly to adopt the Republican playbook and put forward more creative policies and proposals, even if they may ultimately get struck down, as a signal to voters that they are fighting for them.

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., who is among a group of Democratic women who have consulted with White House officials on possible actions since May, applauded Biden on Friday for finally taking action after weeks of consultation. But she said the moment demands more.

"I do think that he is working overtime with his administration to figure out ways that can protect women," she said. "I do have to say, though, I myself favor a public health emergency. And I think there are others that do, as well." She added, "I think it is worth being bold, and then deal with the legal challenges in court. The issue is that there is suffering right now."

Young Democrats have been particularly disappointed with their party's response to the Supreme Court ruling. In a focus group of 10 Democratic base voters between the ages of 25 and 39 convened Wednesday evening by Democratic consulting firm HIT Strategies, participants reported feeling disappointed and discouraged.

Most of the voters said they wanted elected officials like Biden to demonstrate and clearly articulate how lawmakers are fighting for them, and said they wanted to see a specific plan. Some pointed to tweets from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., shortly after the decision that clearly outlined steps Democrats could take.

"They still concluded at the end that, 'Yes, I'm going to vote no matter what,' but they're craving Democrats" being "active in the way they are being active," said Ashley Aylward, who moderated the group, noting that young voters engage by donating to women's funds, volunteering for abortion rights groups and helping to transport friends in states with restrictive abortion laws. "They're looking for many more specifics in the plan to react to the overturning of Roe and protecting their abortion rights."

- - -

On Friday, exactly two weeks after the abortion ruling, Biden again stood in the White House and addressed the nation. He excoriated the Supreme Court ruling and railed against the "extreme" laws in some states that do not allow abortion even in the cases of rape and incest.

And he became visibly moved as he recounted the story of a young girl, pregnant by rape, who was reportedly forced to travel out of her home state of Ohio to seek an abortion in Indiana. The case, described by a doctor to the Indy Star, has not been corroborated.

"Ten years old. 10 years old! Raped, six weeks pregnant, already traumatized, was forced to travel to another state," Biden said. "Imagine being a little girl."

It took two weeks but, in the view of many Democrats, Biden had finally hit the right tone. "I was glad to see him come out today with some specific responses," said Rep. Dina Titus, D-N.V., after his remarks Friday, adding that it likely "put some of that criticism to rest" from Democrats who have been eager for the president to mount a more aggressive response to the overturning of Roe.

The White House began planning for a possible overturning of Roe last summer, when the Supreme Court did not stop a Texas law that banned abortions at around six weeks, two senior White House officials said. Biden appointed Jennifer Klein, director of the Gender Policy Council, and White House counsel Dana Remus to run a response team "on the anticipated wholesale assault on women's rights," one of the White House officials said.

That work "went into overdrive" after the leak of the draft decision in May, culminating in an effort that involved the White House Counsel's Office, the Justice Department and Health and Human Services Department, along with outside allies and advocacy groups, the White House official said. Biden began receiving regular briefings on potential policy responses and White House officials held calls and meetings with stakeholders ranging from abortion providers and doctors to patients and faith leaders.

On the day the Supreme Court decision came down, White House aides argue that not only did Biden and Harris speak forcefully on the issue, but that the administration held several calls with roughly 2,000 individuals in the abortions rights community.

Still, some Democrats and activists felt Biden's tone and the White House response more broadly failed to capture the anger, betrayal and fear that many of them felt. Progressive lawmakers, including Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., began calling on the administration to do more, such as opening up abortion clinics on federal lands in states that had banned or would soon ban abortion.

The White House was intrigued by the proposal, one senior White House official said, and began evaluating it. But while they found they could protect federal employees who used that option, they could not protect other women or providers once they stepped off federal land, putting them at legal risk, an assessment echoed by outside legal experts.

A White House official also pointed to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll that found Biden's approval ratings rising from 77 percent to 84 percent among Democrats in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.

But other polls show differing results. A Monmouth University poll that overlapped with the decision found 74 percent of Democrats approved of Biden, down from 81 percent in May. An Economist/YouGov poll in early July found 59 percent of Democrats said they approve of the way Biden is handling the abortion issue, which is 18 points lower than his overall approval rating among Democrats at 77 percent. About one in four Democrats disapproved of his handling of the issue at 26 percent, while a sizable 16 percent had no opinion.

Several Democrats who were critical of Biden's initial response welcomed the more forceful spirit of his speech on Friday. "The tone was right, the political symbolism was right, all of the values and deepest concerns that advocates have raised were addressed," said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of medicine at Georgetown University and faculty director of its Institute for National and Global Health Law. "The one thing that was missing was tangible concrete action."

For Jennifer Palmieri, the White House communications director under Obama, the criticism was never fair to begin with. "Republicans gamed the system and they got two Supreme Court justices they shouldn't have, and those people had a 40-year plan to overturn Roe and they did it, and to continue to blame Biden for the fact that more Americans didn't vote for Democrats is an epic example of missing the forest," she said.

"We are in such a bigger fight than what the president of the United States can deliver, and if you're thinking that it can be solved by a president taking any action in the course of the two weeks after the decision, then you're not appreciating what a big fight it is and what a precarious moment it is," Palmieri added.

- - -

The Washington Post's Scott Clement and Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.
New round-trip Amtrak routes will start Monday between Washington and two Virginia cities: Norfolk and Roanoke.

The additions will bring to eight the number of state-funded round trips from the nation's capital, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Were adding more options for people at the right time, said Michael McLaughlin, chief operating officer at the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. Capacity on the trains is getting full, and ridership is at record-high levels.

The extra train to Norfolk will be the third round trip to the area, according to the newspaper. It will depart Norfolk at 1 p.m. and arrive in Washington in a little over 4.5 hours. A new southbound train will depart Washington at 12:05 p.m.

Amtrak already runs one morning trip from Roanoke to D.C. and an evening return trip. Starting Monday, a new train will leave Washington for Roanoke at 8:05 a.m., and a Washington-bound train will leave Roanoke at 4:30 p.m., arriving shortly before 9:30 p.m.

Amtrak, which expanded service to Richmond last year, said the additions will give riders more options to travel in Virginia and boost connections to the Northeast.

Virginia is among 17 states that have state-sponsored Amtrak service, the Post reported.
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP)  No parent wants the words in memory of listed in front of their childs name, but Angela Pope hopes a vehicle dedicated to her daughter will save other families from the pain hers experienced.

Lauren Pope was 26 when she died after snorting heroin laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid and powerful painkiller. Police told her parents, Angela and Jake Pope of Spotsylvania County, that it looked like someone left her in a bathroom by the way the young woman was positioned.

Had she received Narcan, a nasal spray to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses, Angela Pope wonders if her firstborn would still be alive. She often thinks about the way her daughters life ended, as well as how things changed dramatically in her mid-teens.

The once-bubbly and busy runner and cheerleader was about 15 when her mother said she fell into the wrong crowd and started using drugs. An unwanted pregnancy and abortion followed, and her mother suspects possible sex trafficking or gang violence. But she just doesnt know because months would pass without a word from her child.

I sit and dwell on it, she said, and theres nothing thats going to change the situation so I have to try to do something positive with it.

The Popes said they were honored when Zoe Freedom Center, a faith-based recovery program in Spotsylvania, recently launched a Mobile Harm Reduction Unit, or Narcan van, in memory of Lauren Pope. Lauren was the first client at Zoe, and co-founder Dana Brown helped get her into a recovery program.

After Brown spoke at her funeral, she and her husband, Mark, the centers co-founder, talked about a mobile unit that would regularly dispense boxes of Narcan to individuals and businesses. The Browns promised the Popes it would bear Laurens name.

The Narcan van made its debut on a recent Saturday as Zoe Freedom Center volunteers met in Fredericksburg and canvassed the downtown area, passing out goodie bags and materials about the centers free services, including counseling and peer support groups. They also asked people if they would put Narcan in their first-aid kits.

Some businesses wanted a box for each kit in the building, others declined the offer. The center plans to return to downtown, visit hotels along U.S. 1 and set up regular routes and distribution times when it has enough volunteers.

Based on past experience, Dana Brown believes the same divine guidance that helped Zoe get off the grounda month before the pandemic startedwill get their mobile unit out on a regular course.

I feel like were gonna have enough volunteers to do at least a once-a-week route, probably within a month, she said. Were excited about being able to meet the needs on a routed, time-based schedule so people in the community who need our help know when were coming.

And theres plenty of need, said Sherry NortonWilliams, a prevention specialist with the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board. For five years, shes led REVIVE! training on how to recognize and respond to an opioid emergency using Narcan, the brand name for the chemical naloxone.

RACSB offers regular virtual trainings and twice-a-month distributions when people whove completed the class can pick up free Narcan. More than 2,000 people have been through the program since 2017including many who then trained othersand NortonWilliams has noticed an increase this year in the demand for Narcan.

In the past, maybe half of those trained picked up their Narcan at a separate distribution site. This year, more than 8 of every 10 people trained have gotten it.

We are seeing more lives being lost, NortonWilliams said, not because there are necessarily more drugs on the street but because of what they contain. Its about fentanyl being in everything or possibly being in everything. People are realizing the medicine cabinet is not necessarily the problem. Its the illicit substance people are getting their hands on.

Last year, 81% of the fatal overdoses in the Fredericksburg region, from Culpeper to the Northern Neck, involved fentanyl, according to the Virginia Department of Health website. The state hasnt reported any 2022 statistics yet, but Dana Brown said shes hearing about increasing numbers of overdoses from local police officers.

While in her office off Bragg Road, Brown showed a graphic from the Journal of American Medical Association, showing the number of fatalities involving fentanyl among adolescents. Nationwide, 253 young people between the ages of 10 and 19 died in 2019 from overdoses involving fentanyl. The death toll climbed to 680 in 2020 and shot up to 884 in 2021.

Brown believes many of those who overdosed probably thought they were getting something else from a friend, maybe Adderall or Percocet. Adderall is used to treat hyperactivity but has become widely misused by high school and college students who want to pull all-nighters and cram for exams or write lengthy term papers, according to American Addiction Centers.

Likewise, Percocet is a common pain pill, but can become lethal when laced with fentanyl.

Thats starting to happen more and more, Dana Brown said. This is why (Narcan) is so important. Having this in your first-aid kit will give you the only tool that you can possibly have to save your childs life.

NortonWilliams hopes people who receive Narcan will never need to use the treatment on loved ones but she often finds the opposite is true.

I cant tell you how many times Ive had a person walk up to a table at an event or pick up a second dose because they already used the first one or it had expired, she said. I had one gentleman in a training program whos overdosed seven times.

Shes trained workers in local shelters, convenience stores and national parks on how to administer Narcan. The free online class, REVIVE!, takes about 60 minutes, and NortonWilliams and others at RACSB will offer training to businesses and organizations. Those interested can contact her at 540/940-2325 or snorton@rappahannockareacsb.org.
A majority of Texans disapprove of the states trigger law, which will ban almost all abortions, new polling shows.

The Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, Austin shows 54% of respondents said they disapprove of the trigger law, and 37% approve. The law will go into effect in the coming weeks.

The poll was conducted from June 16-24, just before the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark case that established the constitutional right to an abortion.

Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project, said though the poll was conducted before the decision, the results are likely to be consistent, as other recent polls have shown.

I dont expect there will be a major sea change in what we saw in the data we have on abortion, particularly given the substance of the data, he said. Very consistently over time, only a very small share of Texans have favored making abortion completely unavailable.

The poll, which surveyed 1,200 Texas registered voters, matched others that have revealed Gov. Greg Abbotts lead narrowing over Democratic challenger Beto ORourke and Texans views that the state is on the wrong track.

Support for total abortion bans was fairly low, with 15% of respondents saying abortion should never be permitted. Of those surveyed, 26% said abortion should only be available in cases of rape, incest or when the womans life is in danger.

What you wind up seeing is when you give people particularly dire circumstances like the threat to a womans health, cases of rape, cases of incest, support really goes down for making abortion completely unavailable, Henson said.

Governors race

The Texas Politics Project poll showed Abbott with a 6-point lead over ORourke, down from 9 in April

A June 15 Quinnipiac University poll also showed ORourke catching up, putting Abbott 5 points ahead among likely voters. A Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll in May had Abbotts lead at 7.

Henson said negative sentiment toward incumbents, especially in the wake of the Uvalde massacre, could be hurting Abbotts numbers.

Of the respondents, 59% said things in Texas are headed on the wrong track, up from 51% in April and 46% in February.

One of the things that was really consistent across the poll is that Texans view the general state of affairs in Texas and the United States in a very negative way, Henson said.

The numbers are likely to fluctuate between now and November, Henson said, but the governors race is likely to be much more competitive than in the past several cycles.

The state is getting more competitive, and we are seeing an environment where a lot of voters are very discontented with how things are being run in the state and the country, he said.

Guns

Henson said attitudes on guns have stayed relatively consistent since the mass shooting in Uvalde.

When asked if gun control laws should be more strict, less strict, or the same, 52% of respondents said more strict, up from 43% in February.

Support for universal background checks to purchase a gun was high, with 78% of respondents supporting the policy, and 16% opposed.

A majority of respondents also supported raising the legal age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21, with 70% supporting the policy and 25% opposed.

Approval ratings

Although no Texas elected official in the poll had an approval rating above 45%, ratings dropped significantly for Sen. John Cornyn, the lead Republican negotiator on the most significant federal gun control legislation in years.

Cornyns total approval rating was 24%, down from 32% in April.

Henson said Cornyns work on the bill was the most likely explanation for the drop in his approval ratings.

Cornyns approval decrease was so large, and it came from all partisans, he said. His job approval numbers have worsened among Republicans, among Independents, and though there wasnt much room for them to get worse, they still did get a little worse among Democrats.
WFO SACRAMENTO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Monday, July 11, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Sacramento CA

222 PM PDT Sat Jul 9 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM TO 11 PM PDT MONDAY...

* WHAT...Hot temperatures with highs 102 to 112.

* WHERE...Northern and central Sacramento Valley and adjacent

foothills and Burney Basin.

* WHEN...From 10 AM to 11 PM PDT Monday.

* IMPACTS...Heat-related illnesses will be possible, especially

for groups that are sensitive to the heat.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Overnight lows will also be warm Sunday and

Monday night with upper 60s to upper 70s.

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.

* WHAT...Elevated risk for heat related illness with hot

temperatures ranging from 98 to 105 degrees expected. A few

locations may see temperatures reach up to 110 degrees.

* WHERE...West Side Valleys in southern Oregon and northern

California. This includes the Rogue, Illinois, Applegate, Lower

Klamath River, and Shasta Valleys. This also includes some

higher elevations as well, including on Interstate 5 around

Siskiyou Summit.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS....The hottest temperatures are forecast to

occur in the Lower Klamath River Valley near Happy Camp.

Temperatures near Siskiyou Summit will be in the upper 80s to

mid 90s, which is considerable considering the higher

elevation.

* View the hazard area in detail at

https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/?wfo=mfr

* WHAT...Hot temperatures ranging from 95 up to 101 expected.

* WHERE...Portions of southern and eastern Siskiyou County, Modoc

County in California. In Oregon, portions of southern and

Central Klamath County. This includes Mount Shasta City, Klamath

Falls, McCloud, Tennant, Alturas, Adin, Chiloquin, and Howard

Prairie.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Temperatures on Tuesday may be even hotter

than Monday, and the heat advisory may need to be both extended

in time and expanded to include additional locations.

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM TO 8 PM MONDAY...

* WHAT...Temperatures up to 110 along the Trinity river valley

with temperatures in the low 100s in other low elevation areas.

* WHERE...Trinity County.

* WHEN...From 10 AM to 8 PM Monday.

possible, reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible.

To reduce risk during outdoor work, schedule 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 EL PASO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 9, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in El Paso has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Northwestern Hudspeth County in western Texas...

* Until 545 PM MDT.

* At 506 PM MDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 13 miles west of

Cornudas, moving northwest at 10 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage

to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Desert Haven.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 9, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in Midland/Odessa has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

South Central Reeves County in southwestern Texas...

* Until 600 PM CDT.

* At 259 PM CDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms produced

heavy rain across the warned area. Between 1.5 and 2 inches of

rain have fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing.

HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban

areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as

other poor drainage and low-lying areas.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Saragosa.

This includes the following streams and drainages...

Sandia Creek, Barrilla Draw and Toyah Creek.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

Please report observed flooding to local emergency services or law

enforcement and request they pass this information to the National

Weather Service when you can do so safely.

...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of central Bosque

County through 330 PM CDT...

At 259 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm over

Meridian State Park, or 10 miles northwest of Clifton, moving

southwest at 10 mph.

HAZARD...Wind gusts up to 50 mph.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around

unsecured objects.

Locations impacted include...

Meridian, Cranfills Gap and Meridian State Park.

If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.

This storm may intensify, so be certain to monitor local radio

stations and available television stations for additional information

and possible warnings from the National Weather Service.

LAT...LON 3201 9774 3191 9756 3169 9767 3171 9769

3170 9771 3178 9784 3187 9790

TIME...MOT...LOC 1959Z 034DEG 8KT 3190 9770

MAX HAIL SIZE...0.00 IN

MAX WIND GUST...50 MPH

...OZONE ACTION DAY...

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has issued

an Ozone Action Day for the Dallas-Fort Worth area for Sunday,

July 10, 2022.

Atmospheric conditions are expected to be favorable for producing

high levels of ozone air pollution in the Dallas-Fort Worth area

on Sunday. You can help prevent ozone pollution by sharing a

ride, walking, riding a bicycle, taking your lunch to work,

avoiding drive-through lanes, conserving energy, and keeping your

vehicle properly tuned.

For more information on ozone:

Ozone: The Facts (www.tceq.texas.gov/goto/ozonefacts)

Air North Texas: (www.airnorthtexas.org)

EPA Air Now

(www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action.local_state&STATEID=45&TAB=0)

Take care of Texas (www.takecareoftexas.org)

North Central Texas Council of Governments Air Quality

(www.nctcog.org/trans/air/index.asp)

...AIR QUALITY ALERT IN EFFECT FROM 9 AM TO 9 PM MDT SUNDAY...

The Texas Department of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has issued an

Ozone Action Day for the El Paso Area, from 9 AM to 9 PM MDT Sunday.

high levels of ozone pollution in the El Paso area. You can help

prevent ozone Pollution by sharing a ride, walking, riding a

bicycle, taking your lunch to work, avoiding drive through lanes,

conserving energy and keeping your vehicle properly tuned.

OZONE: THE FACTS

www.tceq.texas.gov/airquality/monops/ozonefacts.html

EPA AIR NOW:

www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&cityid=236

TAKE CARE OF TEXAS:

www.takecareoftexas.org/air/airquality

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO SHREVEPORT Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 9, 2022

_____

EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Shreveport LA

249 PM CDT Sat Jul 9 2022

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS

EVENING...

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM THIS EVENING TO 7 PM CDT

SUNDAY...

* WHAT...For the Excessive Heat Warning, dangerously hot

conditions with heat index values up to 112. For the Heat

Advisory, heat index values up to 110 expected.

* WHERE...Portions of north central and northwest Louisiana and

east and northeast Texas.

* WHEN...For the Excessive Heat Warning, until 7 PM CDT this

evening. For the Heat Advisory, from 7 PM this evening to 7 PM

CDT Sunday.

* IMPACTS...Extreme heat and humidity will significantly increase

the potential for heat related illnesses, 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.

* WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with heat index values up to

112.

* WHERE...All of north central and northwest Louisiana,

southeast Oklahoma, south central and southwest Arkansas and

* WHEN...For the Excessive Heat Warning, from 10 AM to 7 PM CDT

today. For the Heat Advisory, until 10 AM CDT this morning.

* IMPACTS...Extreme heat and humidity will significantly

increase the potential for heat related illnesses,

particularly for those working or participating in outdoor

activities.

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM TO 8 PM CDT SUNDAY...

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH IN EFFECT FROM NOON TO 8PM CDT MONDAY...

* WHAT...For Sunday, hot conditions with high temperatures of 105

expected. For Monday, dangerously hot conditions with high

temperatures up to 110 possible.

* WHERE...Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

* WHEN...For the Heat Advisory, from 1 PM to 8 PM CDT Sunday. For

the Excessive Heat Watch, from noon to 8 PM Monday.

* IMPACTS...Heat related illnesses increase significantly during

extreme heat events.

Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of

the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.

Do not leave young children and pets in unattended vehicles. Car

interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.

Monitor the latest forecasts and warnings for updates.

_____

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
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NEW MILFORD  In the weeks before her resignation as schools superintendent, Alisha DiCorpo received a mixed evaluation of her performance that praised the way she led the district through COVID-19, but raised concerns with how she communicated with staff, the public and the board.

In reviewing her performance for the 2021-22 school year, the board found Ms. DiCorpos leadership has at times been one-sided and that she does not always understand all sides of an issue.

It was stated she can be brusque, shutting down naysayers rather than displaying reflective listening, states the written evaluation, signed June 15 and obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media through a Freedom of Information Act request. She must also accept constructive criticism without becoming defensive and realize that others may perceive her and her comments differently than she may perceive them.

The evaluation included detailed comments from board members in regard to specific performance and district goals and expectations. No individual board members were named in the review.

DiCorpo said she wished she had received that feedback throughout the year, her first full school year as New Milfords superintendent.

In a letter sent on June 17 to the education board, DiCorpo said the review contains many subjective comments, all of which were mentioned for the first time in the end-of-year summation.

She added the nature of an evaluation process is to promote growth and support, and said there needed to be clarity of expectations and ongoing feedback for the duration of the school year.

She said the ongoing feedback would have allowed her to make adjustments in real-time before year-end, helping us to obtain success as a governance board. The feedback also would have allowed me to better understand the Boards perspectives. Moreover, the governance board has an obligation to work with the Superintendent collaboratively to support effective ongoing communication and collaboration. It is this support that will enable us to work together to create the best possible educational experience for the children of New Milford.

DiCorpo announced to the board on Wednesday that she intends to resign in October for a job with EdAdvance, an organization that supports school districts in western Connecticut. She had initially asked the board vote on whether to offer her a new three-year agreement, but withdrew that request prior to her resignation announcement.

School board Chair Wendy Faulenbach said the boards evaluation of DiCorpo was the product of considerable time and effort, and was completed using guidelines and criteria that were mutually agreed to by the board and DiCorpo in accordance with her contract. School boards typically evaluate superintendents at the end of the academic year.

As the evaluation shows, the Board felt that Superintendent DiCorpo met the majority of her goals for the prior year but that there was room for growth in some areas, Faulenbach said in a statement prior to DiCorpos resignation.

Faulenbach said board district has faced unprecedented challenges in the past few years, and the board appreciates DiCorpos hard work and dedication on behalf of the District.

DiCorpos performance has been in the spotlight since April when New Milford High School Principal Raymond Manka announced his resignation, which he later rescinded following a walk-out from students who supported him. The resignation prompted a petition calling for the superintendent to be ousted, with close to 2,000 signers blaming her for the departure of 10 staff members since she became school chief.

In her June 17 letter to the board, DiCorpo wrote she appreciates the recognition of all that was accomplished by her leadership over the past year and the acknowledgment of how difficult it was to lead through a global pandemic while taking on four executive leadership positions in the Central Office simultaneously for months.

Communication

Multiple board members gave DiCorpo high marks for enhancing parent and community engagement, but others said that area needs improvement, according to the review.

One board member said she increased communication to stakeholders, but another stated DiCorpo lacks an awareness of what the community wants from the school district and that more respect needs to be shown for the members of the community.

Another said DiCorpo needs to be more visible in the schools, while another said she at times had a lack of engagement with members of the community as evident by a lack of collaboration with the town officials.

It was stated that Ms. DiCorpo's perception of what community engagement should be is different from what it needs to be in reality, the evaluation says.

The board suggested DiCorpo should find a way to establish two-way communication opportunities for families and community members that arent specific to individual topics but allow the public to ask questions about issues related to the district.

In the category pertaining to enhancing teacher leadership effectiveness, the responses were also mixed.

Some board members said DiCorpo was very dedicated to this responsibility and that she has made efforts to increase her visibility in the school. However, others expressed concerns including a perceived lack of morale and staff turnover and that she does not make herself available to meet with teachers, nor does she visit classrooms.

The review noted concerns over her lack of active involvement during the teacher negotiations this past year and that the negotiations were awkwardly negative.

Board members suggested DiCorpo be more visible and available to staff in all schools. This includes making herself available at times that are more convenient for staff and faculty, the review states.

In one part of the review, a board member addressed a concern parents and community members previously raised in regard to the high turnover of staff in the district.

I appreciate and recognize the intent to cross train and organize departments, the board member said. After years of revolving leadership this is a must. We have had several key positions and new hires leave during this past year and my concern is where are we failing in those plans? Are they obtainable and when and how do we support those not meeting the expectation? New hires have come and gone  why?

Relationship with board, town

The board agreed DiCorpo fell short of the goal to work collaboratively with members of the Board of Education and the town to enhance practices and align resources.

Some board members argued she does an excellent job in this category, but the review notes members said she talks down to them and does not communicate with them in a respectful manner.

Additionally, the review said her communications with board members have created an unnecessary level of tension that has increased over time.

Some also expressed concerns about communicating with her because theyre worried about her reaction, which may include getting emotionally defensive.

The evaluation states she has difficulties taking constructive criticism from board members and others.

One board member said DiCorpo must be able to be open-minded and increase her self-awareness, as well as realize that others may perceive her differently than she perceives herself, so that she can have a better impact on staff, members of the Board, and the community.

Board members stated during their discussion that DiCorpo will sometimes defensively state that issues that arise are not her fault, even when no blame was being placed on her.

Additionally, her review said she doesnt engage in enough meaningful dialogue or communications with town officials such as members of the Town Council and Board of Finance.

She puts her all into this job

DiCorpo received positive comments in categories that tend to involve preparation, knowledge of the budget, hard work and effectiveness on the opening of the schools during COVID-19.

The review stated she held budget workshops for the board so members could understand the budget process and provide input, and she accessed the budgetary needs of the district brought on by the pandemic.

The review said board members agreed that "Nobody can deny that she puts her all into this job.

Other kudos given to DiCorpo include she worked diligently to support student achievement by establishing district-wide data and intervention teams in order to implement teaching and learning supports to improve student academic outcomes.

DiCorpo was also evaluated on a set of superintendent's competency framework-leadership performance standards.

For a category called Develops and implements vision that inspires action and commitment, DiCorpo received favorable comments.

Board members said she handled the challenges from COVID-19 well, has an excellent work ethic, and understands the needs of students and available curricula and academic resources.

Alisha effectively led the district through a deadly pandemic by creating successful plans for Chromebook distribution for all students, distance learning, reopening of schools, mitigating strategies, staff absences due to positive testing, outbreaks, returning from school breaks and quarantine guidelines, one board member said. She effectively communicated with stakeholders on all plans and changes to plans throughout the pandemic and collaborated with health officials on school safety strategies, vaccination clinics, distribution of testing kits.

On Tuesday, the Board of Education will meet Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Schaghitcoke Middle School to discuss the next steps on Dicorpos resignation.
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LONDON (AP)  A British Cabinet minister tipped to be a frontrunner in the Conservative Party's leadership race ruled himself out of the contest Saturday.

Defense Minister Ben Wallace said after careful consideration and discussion with colleagues and family, he will not be running to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader and the country's next prime minister.

Wallace was seen by some as the favorite choice among Conservative party members in what's shaping up to be a wide open leadership race following Johnson's resignation announcement on Thursday.

Johnson quit as party leader after months of insisting he would stay in the job despite mounting ethics scandals. He said he would stay on as prime minister until the party chooses his successor.

Newly-appointed Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi launched his campaign to become Tory leader Saturday, pledging to lower taxes and boost defense spending.

Zahawi's announcement came a day after former chancellor Rishi Sunak, the best-known of the leadership contenders and regarded as the bookmakers' favorite to win, launched his bid. Sunak resigned on Tuesday, kicking off a mass exodus of government officials that toppled Johnson.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, Attorney General Suella Braverman, lawmaker Tom Tugendhat and former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch have also thrown their hat into the ring, and more announcements are expected over the coming days.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and trade minister Penny Mordaunt are widely expected to run, as are former health secretaries Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt.

Wallace said his decision wasn't an easy choice to make, but my focus is on my current job and keeping this great country safe."

Conservative party officials on Monday are expected to set out the timetable for a leadership contest, with the aim of having a winner by the end of the summer. The two-step process involves Tory lawmakers voting to reduce the field of candidates to two, who will then go to a ballot of all party members  about 180,000 people.

The winner of the vote will become both the leader of the Conservative party and Britain's next prime minister, without the need for a national election.

Johnson's resignation marked the end of three tumultuous years that saw the divisive leader fend off numerous scandals and a Conservative leadership challenge. For months, he managed to cling on to power despite allegations that he protected supporters from bullying and corruption allegations, and that he misled Parliament about government office parties that broke COVID-19 lockdown rules.

But his handling of allegations about a senior politician who had been accused of sexual misconduct proved the last straw for many Conservatives, who this week openly revolted and forced him out of office.

Johnson remains in office to head a caretaker administration, but many Conservatives don't want a lame-duck leader  especially amid a worsening cost-of-living crisis triggered by soaring food and energy prices.

___

Follow all AP stories on British politics at https://apnews.com/hub/boris-johnson.
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WATERBURY  Police are looking for a gray Honda Accord that struck a Waterbury man in a hit-and-run early Friday.

Officers were called to the intersection of East Main and Baldwin streets at around 5 a.m. Friday. At the scene, police found a 62-year-old Waterbury man lying in Baldwin Street, according to Lt. Ryan Bessette.

An ambulance took the man to Saint Marys Hospital and is in stable condition, Bessette said Friday evening.

Investigators determined that the man was walking south along the side of Baldwin Street when a vehicle turning south onto the street struck him. After hitting the pedestrian, the car continued driving down Baldwin Street, according to Bessette.

Police described the vehicle as a gray Honda Accord from 2012 to 2015. The vehicle had dark tinted windows and no front bumper or front marker plate, according to Bessette.

Police are investigating the incident and are seeking help from the public to help find or identify the vehicle involved in the crash.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Waterbury Police Departments Crash Reconstruction Unit at 203-346-3975.
Chinese, Saudi Arabian FMs meet, vow to deepen comprehensive strategic partnership

Xinhua) 11:02, July 09, 2022

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) meets with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers' meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Xu Qin)

BALI, Indonesia, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met here with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, and expressed China's willingness to jointly promote the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership to a new high.

During a meeting with Faisal on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers' meeting held in Bali, Indonesia, Wang said China and Saudi Arabia have, as always, firmly supported each other over issues concerning their core interests, which demonstrated the important value of the China-Saudi Arabia comprehensive strategic partnership.

China firmly supports Saudi Arabia in safeguarding national sovereignty, security and stability, and opposes any foreign interference in its internal affairs, Wang said, adding that China will continue to support Saudi Arabia in playing its important and unique role in international and regional affairs.

China is willing to work with Saudi Arabia to jointly promote the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership to achieve new developments, Wang said.

For his part, Faisal said Saudi Arabia remains firmly committed to the one-China policy and has always stood against any foreign interference in China's internal affairs, adding that Saudi Arabia is ready to deepen the all-dimensional cooperation with China.

Both sides agreed to elevate the cooperation between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to a higher level, and speed up the negotiation on the China-GCC free trade agreement.

The two sides also agreed to continue to enhance communication and coordination within multilateral platforms including the United Nations, the G20 and the BRICS mechanism.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
Declaring a very strong roll-out for the conversion of Connecticuts $60 million unemployment insurance benefits system, the commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Labor acknowledged Wednesday struggles by some people to get the new ReEmployCT platform to load correctly in their web browsers, but that the vast majority had success.

In the first two days after its noon Tuesday launch, more than 8,000 people have entered certifications for continuing benefits, of 20,000 who have registered in the system. People have through Saturday to get certified for the regular issuance of this weeks benefits, according to Dante Bartolomeo, commissioner of DOL, who spoke Wednesday at DOLs office in Wethersfield alongside Gov. Ned Lamont in a press conference carried by CT-N.

We did experience some slowdowns for some folks  others not  you might have seen a spinning wheel, which you then experienced a time-out, and when refreshed you could get back in, Bartolomeo said. We enacted the plan that we were ready with  we were ready with additional servers, we were ready with enhanced capacity. We made technological changes and by 4 p.m. the system was flowing, people were signing up.

DOL has been working actively on a replacement for its older system since 2016, according to Bartolomeo. Connecticut chose to participate in the ReEmployUSA consortium which includes Rhode Island, Maine, Mississippi and Oklahoma. Tata Consultancy Services designed the underlying architecture for the system. ReEmployCT cost $60 million to develop and implement, with $35 million covered by the federal government.

The past two weeks weve been around the clock, 24-7, in command centers, eight different conference rooms  decommissioning the legacy system and then preserving that data [and] migrating 6.2 billion parts of data into ReEmploy and putting it into production, Bartolomeo said. Weve gone from a system that was built together with components  we like to joke  but its not so much a joke  that it was held together with duct tape. We now have one, cloud-based system.

Lamont said the new system is one important step in an overhaul of Connecticuts unemployment insurance system, along with a restructuring last year of the formula for businesses to pay into the unemployment insurance trust fund.

It took a long time  but here we are and its long overdue, Lamont said Wednesday.

The state had planned originally for a 2021 implementation date, well after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that forced more than a million residents to file for benefits after getting furloughed from their jobs.

We had a system that was only programmed to pay out three digits  so we could only go up to $999, Bartolomeo said. When the pandemic started and the federal pandemic unemployment compensation  the additional $600  was put in, all of a sudden we had to pay out over $1,000. That meant that all of our tables needed to be expanded so that the system could even generate a payment related to the pandemic compensation.

Bartolomeo said the old system froze for several hours on March 16, 2020, after 8,300 applications for benefits hit in a single day, far above the normal volume.

We now know what can happen  we experienced a really horrible time with the pandemic volume that we never could have contemplated, Bartolomeo said. But we are ready  the system is nimble, its expandable. And just as we did yesterday, we monitored, we saw that there was a lot of activity [and] there was capacity issues, and we immediately expanded in adding additional servers.

Inbound calls maxed out DOLs call-center capacity on Wednesday, however. Department spokesperson Juliet Manalan told CTInsider that 150 representatives are working the lines this week  well above the normal allotment of 90  and that DOL turned to American Jobs Centers in Connecticut for 10 people to handle callers who have general questions.

Manalan said a majority of the inbound calls Tuesday and Wednesday were by people who had filed initial claims for unemployment, and so were calling with questions as they familiarized themselves with the process for the first time.

At maximum capacity, the call center can handle more than 5,000 inquiries. When wait times exceed a set threshold, the system has an automated function that asks callers to enter their phone numbers for a call-back within 24 hours. A few people reported Wednesday that the call-back option was not offered them on their call, forcing them to try again later or attempt to find a resolution via the ReEmployCT website.

DOL confirmed the call-back queue was full on Wednesday afternoon, but that people could check back in Thursday morning. The department includes a ReEmployCT call-back link on its website for people to schedule, at portal.ct.gov/dolui.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
Elon Musk announced Friday that he will abandon his tumultuous $44 billion offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts. Twitter immediately fired back, saying it would sue the Tesla CEO to uphold the deal.

The likely unraveling of the acquisition was just the latest twist in a saga between the worlds richest man and one of the most influential social media platforms, and it may portend a titanic legal battle ahead.

Twitter could have pushed for a $1 billion breakup fee that Musk agreed to pay under these circumstances. Instead, it looks ready to fight to complete the purchase, which the companys board has approved and CEO Parag Agrawal has insisted he wants to consummate.

In a letter to Twitter's board, Musk lawyer Mike Ringler complained that his client had for nearly two months sought data to judge the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on the social media platform.

Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musks requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information, the letter said.

Musk also said the information is fundamental to Twitters business and financial performance, and is needed to finish the merger.

In response, the chair of Twitter's board, Bret Taylor, tweeted that the board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon" with Musk and "plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

The trial court in Delaware frequently handles business disputes among the many corporations, including Twitter, that are incorporated there.

Former President Donald Trump weighed in on his own social platform, Truth Social: THE TWITTER DEAL IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE TRUTH. Musk said in May that he would allow Trump, who was banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, back onto the platform.

Much of the drama surrounding the deal has played out on Twitter, with Musk  who has more than 100 million followers  lamenting that the company was failing to live up to its potential as a platform for free speech.

On Friday, shares of Twitter fell 5% to $36.81, well below the $54.20 that Musk agreed to pay. Shares of Tesla, meanwhile, climbed 2.5% to $752.29. After the market closed and Musk's letter was published, Twitter's stock continued to decline while Tesla climbed higher.

"This is a disaster scenario for Twitter and its board, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to investors. He predicted a long court fight by Twitter to either restore the deal or get the $1 billion breakup fee.

On Thursday, Twitter sought to shed more light on how it counts spam accounts in a briefing with journalists and company executives. Twitter said it removes 1 million spam accounts each day. The accounts represent well below 5% of its active user base each quarter.

To calculate how many accounts are malicious spam, Twitter said it reviews thousands of accounts sampled at random, using both public and private data such as IP addresses, phone numbers, location and account behavior when active, to determine whether an account is real.

Last month, Twitter offered Musk access to its fire hose of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets, according to multiple reports at the time, though neither the company nor Musk confirmed that.

One of the chief reasons Musk gave for his interest in taking Twitter private was his belief he could add value to the business by getting rid of its spam bots  the same problem that hes now citing as a reason to end the deal.

This whole process has been bizarre, said Christopher Bouzy, founder of research firm Bot Sentinel, which tracks fake Twitter accounts used for disinformation or harassment. He knew about this problem. Its odd that he would use bots and trolls and inauthentic accounts as a way of getting out of the deal.

On the other hand, Bouzy said, the letter from Musks legal team makes some valid critiques of Twitters lack of transparency, including its apparent refusal to provide Musk with the same level of internal data it offers some of its big customers.

It just seems as if theyre hiding something, said Bouzy, who also believes the number of fake or spam Twitter accounts is higher than what the company has reported.

Musk's lawyer also alleged that Twitter broke the agreement when it fired two top managers and laid off a third of its talent-acquisition team.

The sale agreement, he wrote, required Twitter to seek and obtain consent if it deviated from conducting normal business. Twitter was required to preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organization, the letter said.

Musks flirtation with buying Twitter appeared to begin in late March. Thats when Twitter said he contacted members of its board  including co-founder Jack Dorsey  and told them he was buying up shares of the company and was interested in either joining the board, taking Twitter private or starting a competitor.

Then, on April 4, he revealed in a regulatory filing that he had became the companys largest shareholder after acquiring a 9% stake worth about $3 billion.

At first, Twitter offered Musk a seat on its board. But six days later, Agrawal tweeted that Musk would not be joining the board after all. His bid to buy the company came together quickly after that.

When Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, he inserted a 420 marijuana reference into his price. He sold roughly $8.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla to help fund the purchase, then strengthened his commitments of more than $7 billion from a diverse group of investors including Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

Inside Twitter, Musks offer was met with confusion and falling morale, especially after Musk publicly criticized one of Twitters top lawyers involved in content-moderation decisions.

Groups opposing the takeover from the outset  including those advocating for women, minorities and LGBTQ people  cheered Friday's news.

Despite what Musk may claim, this deal isnt ending because of Twitter bots or spam accounts. This deal is collapsing because of Elon Musks own erratic behavior, embrace of extremists and bad business decisions, said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, a left-leaning nonprofit watchdog group thats been critical of Musks Twitter bid.

Musk, he said, made it clear that he would roll back Twitters community standards and safety guidelines, which would turn the platform into a fever swamp of dangerous conspiracy theories, partisan chicanery and white supremacist radicalization.
WFO LAKE CHARLES Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 9, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Lake Charles LA

337 PM CDT Fri Jul 8 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM CDT THIS EVENING...

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM TO 8 PM CDT SATURDAY...

* WHAT...For the first Heat Advisory, heat index values up to

109. For the second Heat Advisory, heat index values up to 111

expected.

* WHERE...In Louisiana, Vernon, Rapides and Avoyelles Parishes.

In Texas, Tyler, Northern Jasper and Northern Newton Counties.

* WHEN...For the first Heat Advisory, until 8 PM CDT this

evening. For the second Heat Advisory, from 10 AM to 8 PM CDT

Saturday.

* 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.

* WHAT...Heat index values up to 109 expected.

* WHERE...Portions of central, south central and southwest

Louisiana and southeast Texas.

* WHEN...From 10 AM to 8 PM CDT Saturday.

...OZONE ACTION DAY...

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has issued

an Ozone Action Day for the Dallas-Fort Worth area for Saturday,

July 9, 2022.

Atmospheric conditions are expected to be favorable for producing

high levels of ozone air pollution in the Dallas-Fort Worth area

on Saturday. You can help prevent ozone pollution by sharing a

ride, walking, riding a bicycle, taking your lunch to work,

avoiding drive-through lanes, conserving energy, and keeping your

vehicle properly tuned.

For more information on ozone:

Ozone: The Facts (www.tceq.texas.gov/goto/ozonefacts)

Air North Texas: (www.airnorthtexas.org)

EPA Air Now

(www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action.local_state&STATEID=45&TAB=0)

Take care of Texas (www.takecareoftexas.org)

North Central Texas Council of Governments Air Quality

(www.nctcog.org/trans/air/index.asp)

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
Only True Blue ideas can spur Tory victory

Having stuck the knife into Boris Johnson with unseemly haste, Tory MPs may live to repent at leisure.

Brutally despatching the Prime Minister, whose political stardust delivered the Conservatives their largest majority since 1987, has gifted Labour a huge opportunity.

Already, their regicidal lunacy has triggered a backlash from furious constituents. And nowhere more so than in the so-called Red Wall.

Mr Johnson persuaded millions of traditional Labour voters to give him a chance. Now their trust has effectively been betrayed by self-obsessed Tory assassins.

Having stuck the knife into Boris Johnson with unseemly haste, Tory MPs may live to repent at leisure

The danger is obvious. If those disgruntled voters desert the party, it risks Sir Keir Starmer seizing No10 with the Lib Dems  and stitching up the electoral system to keep the Conservatives from power for decades. To avoid this, the Tories must not choose the next leader with undue haste.

After the candidates are whittled down to two, their policies and suitability for high office must be rigorously tested. After all, the Tories will only get one chance.

Former chancellor Rishi Sunak yesterday became the first big beast to announce his candidacy. To his immense credit, he is an original Brexiteer, not an opportunist convert, and he emphasises Tory values aspiration, hard work and family.

However, some wont easily forgive his role in Mr Johnsons downfall.

While the Mail is keeping an open mind on who should take over, we have a tick list of True Blue policies.

Tax cuts to help struggling families and businesses. No backsliding on Brexit  and being tough on changing the Northern Ireland protocol. Tightening our borders against the tsunami of illegal Channel migrants. And ending the wokery infecting our schools and public services.

That is the only way to give the Tories a fighting chance of winning the next election  and keep a coalition of chaos out of No 10.

Dorries derring-do!

Yesterday The Mail+ app revealed Nadine Dorries is considering throwing her hat in the ring for the Tory crown.

A self-styled disruptor candidate, she vows to defend Brexit vigorously, carry the torch for levelling up and wage war on woke while shes at it.

The howls of derision from the sneering liberal Left were as immediate as they were predictable. But as a woman brought up in a council house and who worked as a nurse, the Culture Secretary is a breath of fresh air  and as far removed from those snobby elites as its possible to be.

And lets face it, if theyre squealing, she must be on to something!

Still sitting ducks...

Last year, this newspaper uncovered a catalogue of catastrophic technical flaws that are putting peoples lives at risk on smart motorways.

But National Highways insisted that the systems installed where the hard shoulder was removed protected stricken motorists.

A bombshell report reveals that the quango knew life-saving technology was failing to detect countless breakdowns, leaving drivers dangerously stranded

Today, we learn that wasnt true. A bombshell report, hushed up, reveals that the quango knew life-saving technology was failing to detect countless breakdowns, leaving drivers dangerously stranded.

Yet instead of suspending this misguided policy, ministers are expanding it. Smart motorways were meant to keep drivers safe. Instead, they have become sitting ducks.

We welcome the long-overdue decision to give an Afghan interpreter who worked with David Cameron sanctuary in Britain. But to make this brave man, who faced lethal revenge from the Taliban, resort to legal action first was grotesque. Unlike the millions to whom we have thrown open our borders, the translators have risked their lives serving our country. In return, they deserve a safe haven.
It is already being called the 'dirtiest Tory leadership race in history', with wild stories about prostitutes, affairs and money laundering being traded on the 'dark web' of Westminster gossip.

A member of one leading candidate's campaign team is even said to have held a secret meeting with a Labour official to pass on information about their rivals.

The bitterness surrounding Boris Johnson's astonishing ejection from office has seeped into the contest to succeed him, with candidates whispering conspiratorially about the source of the fortune of new Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and the already contentious wealth of his predecessor, Rishi Sunak.

In characteristic fashion, former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings  who waged a long guerrilla campaign against Mr Johnson and is reputed to be hoping for a return to Government if Mr Sunak wins the contest  has published some of the wilder claims on Twitter, writing that it would be 'very Westminster' for 'Boris to get the bullet cos of lies over sex/groping... only to be replaced by someone actually sh***ing their spad!'

In characteristic fashion, former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings  who waged a long guerrilla campaign against Mr Johnson and is reputed to be hoping for a return to Government if Mr Sunak wins the contest  has published some of the wilder claims on Twitter

A 'spad' is Westminster shorthand for the special advisers who work for Ministers. Mr Cummings said: 'At least 3 current candidates would be worse than Boris... at least 1 is more insane than Truss, clearly unfit to be anywhere near nuclear codes... at least one a spad sh***er.'

He then added: 'Sorry, correction, I'm informed by Cabinet Office 'at least 2 spad sh***ers!' '

The Mail on Sunday knows the identity of the candidates referred to by Mr Cummings, and has been assured by them that they are 'baseless smears'.

Another candidate was horrified to be told that a rival campaign team was spreading false rumours about their alleged use of prostitutes, while a third is said to have been named in the divorce papers of a leading Establishment figure.

But perhaps the most extraordinary claim is that an adviser to one of the leading contenders  this newspaper is not identifying them  met a Labour Party official in a pub on the outskirts of Westminster last week to pass on gossip about their rivals, in the expectation that it would be passed on to Labour-friendly newspapers in what is known as a 'fencing' operation.

The bitterness surrounding Boris Johnson's astonishing ejection from office has seeped into the contest to succeed him, with candidates whispering conspiratorially about the source of the fortune of new Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and the already contentious wealth of his predecessor, Rishi Sunak

Mr Sunak's early advantage in the leadership contest comes just three months after his political career had been effectively written off by many advisers following revelations that his multi-millionaire wife Akshata claims non-domicile status, which allows her to save millions of pounds in tax

Mr Sunak's early advantage in the leadership contest comes just three months after his political career had been effectively written off by many advisers following revelations that his multi-millionaire wife Akshata claims non-domicile status, which allows her to save millions of pounds in tax.

But the former Chancellor's ratings rose again as Mr Johnson became bogged down in by-election losses and rows about sleaze, culminating in the terminal crisis over 'groper' Chris Pincher.

Mr Sunak's Lazarus-like resurgence has fed anger among Mr Johnson's allies  who denied leaking the tax stories to damage the former Chancellor  over his perceived 'betrayal' of the PM.

Rival candidates are already planning to revive the tax issue, on the grounds that it is alienating to working-class voters. They will also focus on the questions being asked about why Mr Sunak held a US Green Card for more than 18 months after becoming Chancellor. The card puts the holder on the path to US citizenship if they declare their intention to make America their permanent home and pay tax there, and at times it allowed him to bypass tough US travel restrictions during the Covid pandemic.

Mr Sunak insisted he followed 'all laws and rules' and gave up the status after seeking advice on his first official trip to America.

Mr Zahawi, who entered the race yesterday, has also faced questions over his wife's tax status  he says she is not non-domiciled  along with his work fundraising with novelist Lord Archer in the 1990s, and the millions he made from a Kurdish oil business.

Mr Zahawi's attendance at the infamous Presidents Club dinner at London's Dorchester Hotel in 2018, where guests were reported to have groped and sexually propositioned women employed at the event, has also been raked up.

He was given a 'dressing down' by the Tory chief whip for attending the event. Sources close to Mr Sunak deny claims by rival camps that Mr Cummings is working on his campaign.
It was inevitable Boris Johnsons resignation would bring out the very worst side of his opponents.

From the megalomaniac Dominic Cummings to arch-Remainers, they made little attempt to hide their glee at having finally brought down a Prime Minister they loathe.

However, the 14 million people who, less than three years ago, voted Conservative and put Boris Johnson into power, will feel very differently. Unlike the gloating commentariat, many will feel disillusioned, disappointed and demoralised.

Because for them, despite his faults, a Johnson-led Government represented a rare chance to push forward a fresh vision of the country  one thats good for them rather than for the sort of people who dominate the corridors of power.

The 14 million certainly wanted to Get Brexit Done and to demolish Jeremy Corbyns radical Left. But Johnsons appeal ran deeper than that.

Many saw him not just as a politician but as a man offering a rarer opportunity  to push back against a political and cultural revolution that has been sweeping through the country since at least 1997, if not earlier.

It was inevitable Boris Johnsons resignation would bring out the very worst side of his opponents

Overseen by both the Left and Right  as much by David Cameron as by Tony Blair  this revolution was driven by a very specific vision of Britain. It is a Britain that is fully integrated into the EU, subservient to Brussels. It is a country open to mass immigration, with an economy built on cheap imported labour.

It is a society that is socially liberal in tastes, values and lifestyles, and which is dismissive if not disdainful of the attachments that have traditionally held the British people together, such as their national identity, strong families and sense of community.

Also, it is a world organised around a highly destabilising model of globalisation which prioritises London, graduates and big business over the wider nation and has consistently been shown by economists to impose profoundly negative effects on ordinary workers.

This revolution has dominated Britains politics, media and culture for many years, pushed on and aggressively promoted by urban liberal graduates  the sort of well-spoken people who also control our most important institutions.

From the megalomaniac Dominic Cummings to arch-Remainers, they made little attempt to hide their glee at having finally brought down a Prime Minister they loathe

Yet, as the evidence clearly shows, for much of the last half-century it also left millions of working British people behind, leaving them to deal with some of the sharpest regional inequalities in the Western world, the negative effects of mass immigration, higher rates of family breakdown, alcohol and drug abuse, and even lower life expectancy.

For good reason, many of these people have long felt like second-class citizens, strangers in their own country, treated with suspicion if not open contempt.

And when they do speak up, they are invariably denounced as racists, bigots, Gammons and Karens  a morally inferior underclass that should know its place and stay silent.

Boris Johnsons unique talent has been to recognise and mobilise this reservoir of disillusionment in a way that no other politician could, and perhaps no other politician will ever do again.

From Stoke-on-Trent to the Southern shires, he connected powerfully with people who came from different social classes and political tribes but who all share a palpable sense that Britain is fundamentally broken. That the revolution that turned our lives upside down has completely lost its way.

The 14 million certainly wanted to Get Brexit Done and to demolish Jeremy Corbyns radical Left. But Johnsons appeal ran deeper than that

This is why, unlike those who voted for John Major or David Cameron, the electorate that gave Johnson an 80-seat majority was genuinely cross-class, rooted as much in True Blue Tories as hard-working former Labour patriots.

Many of these voters never sat comfortably in the old Left and Right politics, where both Labour and Conservative politicians embraced the cultural and social revolution and looked indistinguishable from each other.

It remains a remarkable fact that until Boris Johnson, no mainstream politician with a household name had the courage to challenge the elite consensus on EU membership. There was a sense that neither the Left nor the Right really understood such people and certainly had no real interest in speaking for them. It was only through Nigel Farage, Brexit and then Boris Johnson that they found a way of ensuring their views were heard, forcing the arc of politics to bend in their direction.

Through these revolts, the 14 million made it crystal clear that they wanted to Say No to six things that have defined the country for far too long.

They want to Say No to the EU and the courts in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Overseen by both the Left and Right  as much by David Cameron as by Tony Blair  this revolution was driven by a very specific vision of Britain

They want to Say No to mass immigration.

They want to Say No to a political, media and cultural class that has become too insular, self-serving and adrift from the rest of the country.

They want to Say No to a country that is built around a university-educated minority in London and the South East and which shows so little interest in everybody else.

They want to Say No to the growing influence of radical woke progressives who routinely insist that Britain is institutionally racist, that our history, culture and centuries-old traditions are a source of shame rather than pride.

And they want to Say No to the ideology that women can become men and men can become women, and to those who use the arms of the state  schools, universities, government  to impose a stifling orthodoxy among our children and young people.

It was this much deeper groundswell which, as Johnson pointed out in his resignation speech, handed Conservatives their largest Commons majority since 1987 and the largest share of the vote since 1979, not to mention seats they had never before won in history.

This is why, unlike those who voted for John Major or David Cameron, the electorate that gave Johnson an 80-seat majority was genuinely cross-class, rooted as much in True Blue Tories as hard-working former Labour patriots

Not that he was perfect. While Johnson unleashed the full power of this counter-revolution, he never really knew what to do with it.

While he delivered on his promise to Get Brexit Done, he consistently failed to seize the benefits of Brexit until it was too late.

While he reformed Britains deeply unpopular immigration policy, he presided over some of the highest levels of net migration ever seen in the country. While he sketched out some interesting ideas for levelling up, they remained too vague and unambitious, leaving non-graduates and apprentices wondering whether he really got it.

And while he said he was on the side of the people, he failed to run Downing Street in a way that treated those people with the respect they deserve.

For all these reasons, Johnson is now on his way out and will be judged accordingly. The Great Hope will almost certainly go down in the history books as The Great Disappointment.

It was only through Nigel Farage, Brexit and then Boris Johnson that they found a way of ensuring their views were heard, forcing the arc of politics to bend in their direction

But for both the Conservative Party and his eventual successor, the only way forward now is to keep the voice of those who voted for Johnson in 2019 at the very forefront of British politics.

The only way the Conservatives have a chance of holding power at the next General Election is by doubling down on their appeal to those people. And that means the working-class North as well as the affluent South.

For those 14 million turned to Boris Johnson because they believed the party he led would deliver a sustained pushback to the metropolitan revolution and start building a different Britain.

They could be convinced to do so again. But only if the Conservatives have the courage to stand up and speak authentically, loudly and convincingly on their behalf.
The astonishing thing about our departing Prime Minister is that he is so ordinary. See past the fake Edwardian growl, the artfully rumpled appearance and the little jokes and you find a rather dull person with no actual ideas or aims.

He is a Bertie Wooster without a Jeeves, amusing at first but not so funny later, bound to get himself and you into impossible trouble.

Some of you may remember the Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy's fictional English hero. By day he was the apparently moronic Sir Percy Blakeney, a languid, drawling fop, but by night he was a ruthless, courageous and successful rescuer of French aristocrats from the guillotine.

The astonishing thing about our departing Prime Minister is that he is so ordinary. See past the fake Edwardian growl, the artfully rumpled appearance and the little jokes and you find a rather dull person with no actual ideas or aims

Quite a lot of Englishmen of Mr Johnson's class think that they are like this. Generally they only manage the languid, drawling bit.

In the same way he likes to think he is a new Churchill, but Churchill had a profound knowledge of English history and had faced bullets in real combat. Johnson's knowledge of the past and of the world is shallow, and he knows nothing of war.

Has he ever actually said anything interesting about politics? When he was Foreign Secretary, the most responsible detailed brief he has ever held, I listened to his speeches and statements with amazement. How could anybody so superficially brilliant be such a dull retailer of official cliches?

His performance over the great Covid panic was a mixture of gullible, credulous floundering and iron despotism, which it is still painful to remember.

Look at the effort and co-ordination that went into all those resignations. Who knew we had so many Ministers on the public payroll? What do they all do? How on earth did they get their jobs?

So you will not find me among those mourning his fall, even though his successor is certain to be even worse.

But you will find me jeering at those who brought him down. They are even less attractive than he is.

Look at the effort and co-ordination that went into all those resignations. Who knew we had so many Ministers on the public payroll? What do they all do? How on earth did they get their jobs?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson reads a statement outside 10 Downing Street, London, formally resigning as Conservative Party leader after ministers and MPs made clear his position was untenable

And above all, why were they so outraged by the Pincher affair, when they had sat silent and obedient through Johnson and Sunak's mad smashing of the economy, which all of us will pay for until we die, and the gross assault on our liberty made by the whole Cabinet in the name of Covid?

They have now shown that they are not in fact the goggling wax dummies they appeared to be during that needless disaster.

They have voices, and they can write letters and go on the BBC and criticise their leader. Just not when it really matters. Johnson was quite right, in his Thursday speech, to blame his fall on a mindless stampede.

If he is not fit for office, and actually he never was, those who brought him down were not fit to remove him. We have just seen a coup d'etat against the useless, by the pointless.

Or perhaps it was the other way round. I struggle to care.

Who could doubt this killer had a dope habit?

With infuriating slowness, conventional wisdom is starting to grasp that marijuana is actually a horrible, dangerous drug which should not be legal. Maybe the realisation will come in time to save us from a dreadful mistake. Maybe not.

Last month the self-important New York Times, still very much on the side of legalising this poisonous filth, actively suppressed news that the recent Texas school shooter had been a dope smoker. Last week, the less grand New York Post recognised that Robert Crimo, the mass shooter in Highland Park, Chicago, was unquestionably a marijuana user, and that this might have influenced his behaviour. Well, look at this pathetic individual with his facial tattoos and his air of being broken and deranged. Even before his acquaintances confirmed his drug habit, who could have been in doubt?

Miranda Devine wrote in the Post: 'He does fit a familiar pattern of mass killers: alienated young male stoners who appear to be in the grip of a distinctively American madness.'

Last week, the less grand New York Post recognised that Robert Crimo, the mass shooter in Highland Park, Chicago, was unquestionably a marijuana user

She added: 'But virulent attacks always greet any hint of opposition to wholesale drug legalisation. Youth mental illness is a crisis in this country and yet we are not allowed to discuss a scientifically verified trigger.'

How true this is, in Britain as well as the USA. My astute and diligent colleague Eve Simmons filed a dispatch from California a week ago about the growing mountain of evidence that cannabis has grave health dangers.

Her article was carefully researched, full of verifiable facts and figures and quoted experts. But she was subjected on social media to a revolting storm of personal insult and abuse. (I have been getting this for years, and am used to it. When you first experience it, it is deeply nasty.)

How much of this is organised, we cannot know. But the huge, rich Big Dope lobby for marijuana legalisation will do anything to silence dissent. It has never been more important that the anti-drug view is heard.

To my bafflement, some people seem to think that Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, would be a good Prime Minister. Leaving aside her time as a Liberal Democrat, her republican speechmaking, her silly posing in tanks and fur hats, and her wild encouragement of British people to volunteer to fight in Ukraine, and her ignorance of geography in that region, theres this: in a recent appearance before the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee (wearing a badge featuring the Ukrainian flag and the Union Jack), she was reduced to long pauses and pathetic evasions when asked how our supposed opposition to authoritarian regimes applied to blood-soaked Saudi Arabia. She could not, under repeated questioning by Chris Bryant MP, give one example of an occasion when she had raised human rights issues with any Gulf leader. You have been warned.

To my bafflement, some people seem to think that Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, would be a good Prime Minister

A free country should free Assange

I don't think anyone even bothers to deny any more that the police have virtually given up pursuing a large amount of crime. Muggers, vandals, burglars, car thieves, shoplifters  nothing much ever happens to them.

Yet Julian Assange is enduring miserable conditions in a cell in Belmarsh maximum-security prison, among murderers and terrorists.

Yes, he jumped bail, but he was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for that offence in May 2019, more than three years ago. Why is it necessary for him still to be held in this especially grim place? He is now an unconvicted prisoner, awaiting extradition to the US for embarrassing the American government.

At the very least he should be transferred to somewhere less gruelling, in which it is easier for him to be visited by his wife and two young children. But really, he should be released, as the alleged offence is plainly political and no free country should grant extradition on such grounds.
A mother has revealed how she quit her job to start a business that provides supervised activities for children in restaurants, pubs and food halls to allow parents the freedom to enjoy a relaxing lunch.

Sarah Frow, 40, from Wimbledon, south-west London, came up with the idea following a trip to a restaurant while on holiday in Ibiza with her son and husband in 2016.

A kids' corner full of activities kept her son Theo occupied for hours, allowing Sarah and her husband to enjoy a three-course meal and providing her with inspiration for her business The Kids' Table.

On her return she swiftly quit her fast-paced corporate PR job and set about starting her first business which in less than five years has expanded from operating in three venues to 28 with plans now to franchise across the country.

The 40-year-old from Wimbledon recalled that the venture was daunting at the start and that the pandemic had a devastating impact. But now the company is on track to make a turnover of nearly 300,000 this year, up from 49,000 in 2018, its first full year.

Sarah Frow, 40, from Wimbledon, south-west London, came up with the idea following a trip to a restaurant while on holiday in Ibiza with her son and husband in 2016

Childcare professionals run a range of crafts and games during weekend lunchtimes and school holidays in 28 venues across Surrey and London

The Kids' Table is the first business of its kind, providing supervised activities for children in restaurants, pubs and food halls to allow parents the freedom to enjoy a relaxing lunch.

It pops up in 28 venues across Surrey and London on weekends and school holidays, with around 80 DBS checked, first aid trained, childcare professionals running craft activities and games to keep the kids occupied.

Sarah said: 'The pub might already have a family audience for a Sunday lunch but when there's nothing for the kids to do you'll have a very speedy one course and then leave.

'But with what we're doing, because everyone is having a lovely time and the children aren't getting bored, the parents are having a starter and a dessert and having a long leisurely lunch which extends the dwell time.'

She said that the decision to quit her job and take the risk of starting a small business was out of character: 'I'm generally quite risk averse and I think if it had been a business that required a lot of up-front investment, that had a huge amount of overheads, it probably would have been something that I'd chickened out of.

The mother-of-two said that she had to force herself to set boundaries and treat the business like a nine to five so she could spend more time with her children Theo, 8, and Ruby, 4

'It was definitely quite daunting but I had a lot of conviction in the idea. And I'd speak to other people and they'd suddenly be like "that's such a brilliant idea, why has no one thought of that before".

'It's been a very steep learning curve in terms of everything from registering as a limited company to navigating corporation tax, and sometimes when it's untrodden territory and no-one else is doing it it's hard to know what you can and can't do.'

The mother-of-two said that she was tired of the corporate world and wanted more flexibility to spend time with her children.

'But I guess what I didn't consider is that when you become a business owner you never switch off,' she said.

Sarah said that Debs, shown here with her daughters Georgia and Margot, joined at the perfect time as she was starting to find running a business single-handedly 'quite lonely'

'So even though sometimes I'm physically there for my kids and I can do the school run, I'm still thinking about the business or I'll be getting messages coming in from the team and from clients.'

She advised other mums who are thinking about starting a business to make sure to set boundaries.

She said: 'My business partner Debs and I got to a point in December, when we were just coming out of lockdown and there was a lot of pent-up demand for our service, where we were messaging each other at ten o'clock at night with an idea.

'It sounds really basic but instead of sending each other messages we've now set up a google sheet to-do list and we talk through everything at a weekly catch-up.

'It's about being strict with yourself and setting boundaries because there's no one to tell you that anymore, you're completely in control of your own working day.'

She also advised first-time business owners to stick to their guns and know their worth, saying that she regrets agreeing to give people discounts when she was starting out.

Sarah said: 'At the beginning I would sometimes back down and take money off or there would be a pub where I just had a gut instinct that it wasn't right and I should have said that to them.

'I'm sure this is something that a lot of small business owners do because at the beginning you're so eager to build a reputation and build a client base that you might take on clients that maybe aren't a great fit for your brand or that aren't willing to pay the rates.

'I wish I'd stuck to my guns more and not started discounting.'

Sarah and Debra Burnett, her business partner since 2019, are now in discussions with a franchise advisor about taking the business national, with plans to launch three franchises this year, and they are also planning on tapping into the wedding and festival market.

Sarah said that the pandemic really 'took its toll', forcing them to completely shut down overnight, but she is delighted that they have now managed to get to a better position than they were in before.

She said: 'We beat our target of how many venues we wanted to have by quarter one of 2022.

'I think there's a pent-up demand of parents wanting this service and of hospitality venues seeing the benefits we can have in getting these customers back through their doors and incentivising them to visit their venue over another.

'It's absolutely thriving and we can't move for new launches at the moment.'
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Pippa Middleton is understood to be 'heavily pregnant' with her third child - as she reportedly spends 15million on a family home in Berkshire.

Pippa, 38, the sister of Kate Middleton, already has two children with her husband James Matthews: Arthur, three, and Grace, one.

It has been widely rumoured that she is pregnant again, after she arrived at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June appearing to sport a bump.

Now, a source has confirmed Pippa and James are 'thrilled' by news of the new arrival.

'Pippa and her family are thrilled,' a friend confirmed to Daily Mail's Richard Eden. 'It's a very exciting time in their lives.'

Pippa Middleton is understood to be 'heavily pregnant' with her third child. It has been widely rumoured that she is pregnant again, after she arrived at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June appearing to sport a bump

Prince William and Kate (pictured above with Pippa at Wimbledon in 2012), who have three children, are understood to be considering a number of properties on the Queen's Windsor estate

The source also told Eden that Pippa and James are 'looking forward to living closer to her parents' after reportedly buying an impressive 15million home in Berkshire.

Their new home is close to Pippa's parents Michael and Carole Middleton in Bucklebury - and near to where her brother James owns a 1.45million farmhouse.

Meanwhile, Prince William and Kate, who have three children, are understood to be considering a number of properties on the Queen's Windsor estate.

Their children will all start at the same private school in the county in September.

A source says Pippa and James are 'thrilled' by news of the new arrival. 'Pippa and her family are thrilled,' a friend confirms to Richard Eden. 'It's a very exciting time in their lives'

Rumours were sparked of Pippa's third pregnancy last month when she appeared at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations

The source also said that Pippa and James are 'looking forward to living closer to her parents' after reportedly buying an impressive 15million home in Berkshire. Pictured: Moving trucks outside their London home

The latest news about Pippa and her husband James comes as the mother-of-two is set to graduate from her Master's degree with a distinction.

Pippa, who conducted research into how parents encourage their children into activity from a young age, has just finished her degree at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

After completing her studies, she opened up about the challenges of studying while parenting.

She said: 'Getting back into studying took some getting used to but I felt really well supported by the team at UWTSD.

'The nature of the course being divided into specific modules also meant that it was easier to compartmentalise what was required each term.'

Pippa and James' new home is about a 20-minute drive from Michael and Carole Middleton's home in Bucklebury, Berkshire (pictured)

Pippa added: 'I have enjoyed the balance of work and motherhood and getting back into reading, writing, and learning again.'

She said her experience raising her young children inspired her to look into the activity of preschool kids. 'I am passionate about sport and exercise and also love being with children,' she said.

'I wanted to find a topic that combined these two and felt that there wasn't enough information, knowledge or focus on early years physical development for mums particularly.

'I wanted to learn to not only help my own children but to also continue work in the field to stress the importance of children moving from an early age.'

Pippa and James Matthews, pictured, are moving to a home about 20 minutes from her parents

Pippa married former professional racing driver James, 46, in 2017 and together they already have two children, three-year-old son Arthur and one-year-old Grace.

Rumours were sparked of her third pregnancy last month when she appeared at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Wearing a bright green dress Pippa appeared to show off a baby bump - with Page Six reporting a source had said the couple were 'so happy'.

Several weeks later the Duchess of Cambridge's sister stepped out pushing a pram in London wearing a loose navy blue dress which added fuel to the rumours.

The Duchess of Cambridge carries Princess Charlotte followed by her brother James and sister Pippa for a service at Bucklebury parish church on Christmas Day in 2016

The Duchess has maintained a close relationship with her parents, brother, sister and their families, even as her role within the Royal Family has become more demanding.

The Middletons are often quiet pillars of support at high profile moments in Kate Middleton's life, including the recent carol concert at Westminster Abbey.

The move to Berkshire by Pippa and James comes after her own brother James moved to the area last year.

In an interview with magazine Good Housekeeping UK last year, her mother Carol described herself as hands on with her grandchildren.

I want to run down the hills, climb the trees and go through the tunnel at the playground, she said. As long as I am able to, thats what Ill be doing. I cook with them, I muck around dancing, we go on bike rides.

She added: Im not someone to sit on the sofa for a long time. I have a lot of energy .

Pippa's news comes weeks after her sister Kate showed she is still feeling broody for a fourth child during a visit to Cambridgeshire with her husband Prince William.

During their final appointment at the County Day, at Newmarket Racecourse, Kate was seen looking delighted as she held the youngster, who was wearing a pink dress.

A video of the sweet moment shows the mother-of-three smiling at and chatting with the baby, who she asked if she could hold, telling her mother: 'I love babies.'

Meanwhile, Prince William was seen loitering nearby, watching his wife as she cuddled the tot, and Kate was certainly in no hurry to go when he urged her to move on.
Army personnel carry out the rescue operation in the cloudburst affected areas near the Amarnath cave shrine, J & K, Saturday, July 9, 2022. (PTI Photo)

Srinagar: A flash flood triggered by a cloudburst near the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir swept away scores of people, killing at least 13 and swamping tents and community kitchens with mud and rocks hurtling down a hillside, police and NDRF officials said.

An official of the union territory administration said the Amarnath yatra, which began on June 30, has been suspended following the tragedy and a decision on its resumption will be taken after rescue operations get over.

An official on the ground said about 40 people are missing while five have been rescued.

NDRF Director General Atul Karwal told PTI that a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was already based in the affected area and two more from nearby locations of Barari Marg and Panchtarni have reached there.

"We have three teams comprising about 75 rescuers in action right now," Karwal said.

The cloudburst that occurred around 5.30 pm dumped copious rain and thick streams of sludge rolled down the mountain slopes into the valley.

According to the automatic weather station at the holy cave, the area received 31 mm rainfall from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm.

"It was a highly localised cloud only over the holy cave. Such rain had happened earlier this year as well. No flash flood," said Sonam Lotus, director of J&K's meteorological department.

The gushing waters hit the base camp outside the shrine, damaging 25 tents and three community kitchens where the pilgrims are served food, according to officials.

Temporary hospitals have been set up in Sonamarg and other places for providing assistance to the injured.

An integrated command centre has been put in place under the charge of Divisional Commissioner (Kashmir) besides establishing helpline numbers in Anantnag in south Kashmir, Srinagar and Delhi to help the families of those who might have been affected.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration has also pressed Advanced Light Helicopters into service for rescue operations.

Videos showed water running through the tents and people scampering to safety carrying gas stoves and blankets.

A group of rescuers was seen digging the earth with bare hands as they gingerly looked for survivors under the rock-and-mud debris.

Karwal said 13 people have been killed and personnel from various paramilitary forces and the NDRF present in the area are working to ensure that relief and rescue operations are conducted for as long as required.

ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey said security forces are working tirelessly to ensure each and every missing person is accounted for.

President Ram Nath Kovind said he was distressed to know about the loss of lives in the cloudburst.

"My condolences to the bereaved families. Relief and rescue measures are in full swing to provide succour to those stranded. I pray and hope that the yatra be soon resumed," Kovind tweeted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguish over the incident.

"Anguished by the cloud burst near Shree Amarnath cave. Condolences to the bereaved families. Spoke to @manojsinha_ Ji and took stock of the situation. Rescue and relief operations are underway. All possible assistance is being provided to the affected," he said in a tweet.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah directed the central forces and Jammu and Kashmir administration to ensure swift rescue and relief.

Shah said in a Tweet in Hindi that he has spoken to J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to take stock of the situation.

"NDRF, CRPF, BSF and local administration are engaged in the rescue work. Saving people's lives is our priority. I wish all the devotees well," the minister said.

Sinha said he is closely monitoring the situation and instructed all concerned to provide necessary assistance to the pilgrims.

"Deeply pained by unfortunate incident of cloudburst at Shri Amarnathji holy cave, in which precious lives have been lost. I send my heartfelt condolences to bereaved families. Rescue operation by NDRF, SDRF, BSF, Army, JKP & Shrine board admin is in progress," he tweeted.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration has set up four helpline numbers where people can get information about the incident.

The 43-day Amarnath yatra began after a gap of three years on June 30. In 2019, the yatra was cancelled midway ahead of the Centre abrogating Article 370 provisions of the Constitution. The pilgrimage did not take place in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.
A farmer who sent Countryfile viewers wild with her appearance on the show has revealed she has been inundated with explicit messages.

Becky Houze, a dairy farmer from Jersey, appeared on the agricultural programme during a segment about the area.

Countryfile presenter Charlotte Smith described Becky as an 'internet sensation', revealing that the farmer has a following on Instagram as well as an OnlyFans account.

The posts she has shared on OnlyFans include images of agricultural life on the farm, including pictures of herself using equipment and sitting on hay bales.

She has also shared clips from Model Farmers, an OnlyFans show which sees its creators try their hand at working on Becky's farm for a week.

Speaking to The Sun about her sudden fame, Becky revealed: 'I turned on my phone to see I had thousands of new followers on Instagram...I've been asked if I'm going to post more explicit pictures.'

Becky Houze, a dairy farmer from Jersey, who sent Countryfile viewers wild with her appearance on the show has revealed she has been inundated with explicit messages

The posts she has shared on OnlyFans include images of agricultural life on the farm, including pictures of herself using equipment and sitting on hay bales

She added: 'But I'm going to stay true to myself. I get questions about what I've been up to on the farm, and after Countryfile I was even asked what fly spray I use.'

The farmer also revealed she is used to personal questions from her followers, explaining that many ask her 'if she is single' or 'has a husband.'

But she insisted that work down the farm isn't as sexy as some might be dreaming it is.

She explained: 'When it's pouring with rain and the machinery has broken down, there's poo in your hair and oil on your face or you've got your hand up a cow's bum, it isn't glamorous.'

The farmer revealed she is used to personal questions from her followers, explaining that many ask her 'if she is single' or 'has a husban'

Introducing the 29-year-old on the show last week, presenter Charlotte said: 'When someone says Jersey to me, the first thing I think of is cattle.

'Famous for their long eyelashes and creamy milk, they go back centuries here on the island, but not every dairy farmer is taking a traditional approach.'

She then described Becky as a 'bit of an internet sensation'.

Speaking on the programme, Becky said that while her 'real name' is Becky, most people know her as 'Jersey Cow Girl'.

She added: 'I'm one of the youngest dairy farmers here in Jersey.'

She added: 'When I was younger, I did every single type of dancing known to man and I would have loved to have been a ballerina.

During the programme, Becky (pictured) said that most people know her by her online persona 'Jersey Cow Girl'

'But then I realised that I've got a beautiful farm here - why not give it a shot at becoming a dairy farmer?

'And I've been slowly taking over the family business.'

After she appeared on the programme, some viewers took to Twitter to compliment Becky on her appearance.

One tweeter wrote: 'Blimey don't see many farmers like that #countryfile.'

Another added: 'Of course Becky is an internet sensation, she's stunning! #countryfile.'

And a third simply said: 'Becky was nice! #countryfile.'

Her OnlyFans page includes photographs show the 29-year-old straddling a motorbike, enjoying a night out with friends, and on holiday.

Becky, who is known online as the 'Jersey Cow Girl', also has 67,5000 followers on Instagram.
Princess Sofia of Sweden and her husband Prince Carl Philip today shared a sweet family photograph - and wished the country a 'wonderful summer'.

The image, posted on Instagram this morning, pictures the proud parents with their three children: Prince Alexander, five, Prince Gabriel, four and Prince Julian, one.

The family are sitting together in a field of daisies in the joyful snap, with Princes Alexander and Gabriel grasping flowers in their hands.

Princess Sofia, 37, holds her eldest son on her lap, while her husband, 43, stays close to the younger two boys.

In the caption of the image, the royal family wrote: 'Our family wishes you all a wonderful summer!'

The image, shared to Instagram this morning, pictures the proud parents with their three children: Prince Alexander, five, Prince Gabriel, four and Prince Julian, one

Earlier this summer, Sofia and Carl Philip appeared at a charity event in Stockholm together

Swedes were thrilled to see the photograph, with one writing: 'Such a cute family photo'

Swedes were thrilled to see the photograph, with one writing: 'Such a cute family photo.'

Others said: 'I want to wish you the same' and 'enjoy the summer'.

Another person wrote: 'How nice you are, the whole family. Nice summer to you.'

Earlier this summer, Sofia and Carl Philip appeared at a charity event in Stockholm.

The royal couple attended a performance organised in collaboration with the Tim Bergling Foundation, the real name of late Swedish DJ Avicii, who died in 2018.

Mother-of-three Sofia donned a stunning lace dress from the DAY Birger et Mikkelsen AW22 collection, while Carl Philip looked equally polished in a navy suit.

Princess Sofia of Sweden and her husband Carl Philip meet Britain's Princess Beatrice

The couple earlier shared this adorable snap of their three sons to mark Julian's first birthday

Sofia, 37, looked stylish in a stunning lace dress from the DAY Birger et Mikkelsen AW22 collection paired with a woven handbag

The royal couple attended a performance organised in collaboration with the Tim Bergling Foundation, the real name of late Swedish DJ Avicii, who died in 2018

They spent time talking with some of the 9,000 students, teachers and adults from the business community at Glada Hudik Theater, Avicii Arena.

Avicii, whose real name was Tim Bergling, died by suicide during a holiday with friends in Oman on 20 April 2018, aged 28 - two years after stepping away from the spotlight.

The artist shot to worldwide fame in 2011 with his song Levels yet he stopped touring in 2016 following a battle with alcohol and opioid addiction.

Carl Philip and Sofia had a 'good relationship' with the DJ; he performed during their 2015 wedding reception and the royal couple attended a tribute concert to Avicii in 2019, where all proceeds went to charities supporting mental health awareness.

After the announcement of his death, the royal couple released a statement saying: 'We are grateful that we got to know him. He made our wedding unforgettable with his amazing music.'
A young woman who was diagnosed with two different cancers at the age of 28 has warned against being afraid to discuss 'embarrassing' symptoms.

Kimba Barry was diagnosed with bowel cancer in November 2019 after feeling nauseous for a year, vomiting, suffering diarrhoea and cold sores and struggling to stomach food weeks prior to seeing doctors for help.

The 31-year-old from Perth, Western Australia, told FEMAIL she initially thought she had food poisoning and was dismissed by doctors in the emergency room.

It wasn't until she had surgery that doctors investigated her endometriosis which found the second rare peritoneal cancer (the thin tissue that lines the abdomen) which meant her bowel cancer had moved to stage four.

Kimba Barry (pictured) was diagnosed with bowel cancer and peritoneal cancer in November 2019 after feeling sick for a year, vomiting and not being able to stomach food weeks prior to seeing doctors for help

The now 31-year-old from Perth, Western Australia, told FEMAIL she initially thought it had food poisoning and was dismissed by doctors in the emergency room

Despite the awful experience, Kimba says having cancer has been the 'best thing' that's ever happened to her because it's changed her perspective on life.

Kimba said her grandfather had bowel cancer in his late 60s and her mother had cervical cancer - but doctors think there is an underlying chromosomal link between the two diseases.

'Doctors believe I had the same gene as my mum's cervical cancer but my body mutated it, and it only needs a slight mutation for it to develop into bowel cancer,' she said.

Recalling her horrendous symptoms Kimba said: 'I had cold sores that scarred all over the top of my lip, down the side and up into my nose cavity - and I never had any before in my life.

'Then I had a couple drinks with friends at lunch and thought I got food poisoning - from that point on my body didn't accept any food or liquids.'

It was a week later when a work colleague suggested going to the emergency room, so she left and drove 45 minutes home before her mum took her to the ED.

'I hadn't eaten, I was severely dehydrated and working on a uni assignment in emergency while waiting for the doctor,' she said.

While her blood glucose levels were low, the doctor couldn't figure out what was wrong and suggested anxiety could be a cause.

'The doctor in the ward at the time said to me, "You have a history of anxiety, so I just think it's that",' she said.

Her mum, who's an emergency nurse, though the comment was absurd and Kimba urged for a CT scan but was rejected.

A medical student intern then suggested visiting her GP.

It had been almost two weeks before she was able to secure an appointment with the GP and in that time Kimba said she had lost up to 9kg from not being able to stomach food

It had been almost two weeks before she was able to secure an appointment with the GP and in that time Kimba said she had lost up to 9kg from not being able to stomach food.

Four days later she was sent to have a gastroscopy - a procedure used to check inside the stomach via the oesophagus - and the surgeon asked 'more heavy questions' about her symptoms.

'I had rapid weight loss, dark blood in stools, bleeding and have bowel movements five or six times a day.. and sometimes it's like jelly - which is when the surgeon was seeing red flags,' she said.

Kimba said her family has a history of stomach problems so she thought it was 'normal' to go to the toilet frequently daily.

After the colposcopy was conducted in late November, a 6cm legion was found in her colon and Kimba was sent for a CT scan.

The following week she returned for another appointment where doctors delivered the awful news that the growth was cancer.

'That same day I had an opening show for a stage production I was in, so I had to go on stage and pretend like my life wasn't completely falling apart,' she said.

After the colposcopy was conducted in late November, a 6cm legion was found in her colon and Kimba was sent for a CT scan. While being told you have cancer can be a terrifying and scary experience for some, Kimba said it was nothing but 'relief' for her

While being told you have cancer can be a terrifying and scary experience for some, Kimba said it was nothing but 'relief' for her.

'I knew something was wrong; looking back I realised that throughout 2019 I was actually really sick, so fatigued and just f*cking over everything,' she said.

'I was relieved knowing I was going to be able to get this cut out and then recover from it.'

On December 12, Kimba had a four-hour surgery to remove 32cm of her bowel and several lymph nodes - but because she was a private patient doctors also investigated her endometriosis on the outside of her uterus scattering around the cancerous area.

During the surgery doctors contacted her gynaecologist to ask if the endometriosis can be removed to send away for testing.

And she's lucky physicians made this decision because a secondary cancer was found called peritoneal - which is a layer of tissue lining in between organs on the inside of the abdomen.

If Kimba was a public patient, it's likely doctors would've just removed the bowel cancer and moved on.

'I didn't know any of this until after I came out from surgery and was in recovery - the doctor came into the room and turned the tv off,' Kimba said.

'The oncologist then came in and said: 'I'm really sorry but we've elevated this to a stage four cancer',' Kimba recalled. 'It started getting pretty daunting at that point because I went from potentially not needing chemotherapy to definitely needing it for six months.'

Doctors took 36 lymph nodes, eight of which had cancer, along with the endometriosis.

'The oncologist then came in and said: "I'm really sorry but we've elevated this to a stage four cancer",' Kimba recalled.

'It started getting pretty daunting at that point because I went from potentially not needing chemotherapy to definitely needing it for six months.

'It was the chemo that scared the sh*t out of me more than anything, because you hear people talk about how awful it is.

'I think my saving grace through it all was my medical team - I pretty much handed my life to them, I didn't sway from their advice and just lived my life as best I could.'

Four weeks after surgery Kimba started her first round of chemotherapy in 2020 for both cancers and the main symptoms experienced included extreme fatigue and numbness in the hands and feet.

What is peritoneal cancer? Peritoneal cancer is a rare cancer that develops in the peritoneum, a thin, delicate sheet that lines the inside wall of the abdomen and covers the uterus and extends over the bladder and rectum Source: ucsfhealth.org Advertisement

Flash forward six months later to July, Kimba had finished her treatment then had laparoscopy (keyhole) surgery to inspect her internal abdomen and conduct a biopsy for the peritoneal cancer.

Initially the surgeon wanted to wait for the cancer to return by conducting laparoscopy surgeries every six months before providing any further treatment - but Kimba advocated for her health and was against this option for her own mental stability.

Instead she proceeded with a peritonectomy procedure on August 10 to remove the cancer from the peritoneal cavity - which turned into a huge 11-hour surgery.

Her stomach, bladder and intestines were 'pulled out' so the cavity lined with cancer could be stripped of the cancerous cells.

Kimba said doctors removed anything she could live without, including her reproductive system, cervix, gallbladder and appendix.

Once the necessary organs were put back in place, she was stitched up and put through one round of internal chemotherapy with the aim to kill any remaining cancer cells.

Doctors proceeded with a peritonectomy procedure on August 10 to remove the cancer from the peritoneal cavity - which turned into a huge 11-hour surgery. Her stomach, bladder and intestines were 'pulled out' so the cavity lined with cancer could be stripped of cancerous cells

Since the surgery Kimba is now on hormonal replacement medication and her last scan was in May 2022.

She now only needs check-up every six months, which she'll need for the rest of her life.

Throughout the entire ordeal she remained positive by shifting her mindset, accepting the situation and feeling proud of what her body has been through with minor repercussions.

After having cancer Kimba dropped out of university to pursue a business venture and now owns two brands and hosts a podcast.

She strongly advocates for listening to your body if you think something is wrong and getting second opinions from different doctors if needed.

Kimba also shares her story with others on Instagram and runs the Facebook group 'Millenials with Menopause'.
Barely one in 70 children under five years old have got their first dose of the Covid vaccine despite it being approved last month.

Health chiefs rubber-stamped jabs for the age group claiming 'millions' of parents were 'eager' to get their youngsters inoculated.

But three weeks into the drive a senior White House source told CNN that only 300,000 children have been brought forward for the jab, less than 1.6 percent of the 19million-odd who are eligible.

The source insisted uptake was low because it was still early in the drive, and that many parents were holding off getting their children the jab until they had a check-up for another appointment.

But many experts say it is not necessary for children to get the Covid vaccine because they face such a vanishingly small risk of dying from the virus.

Surveys also suggest less than one in five parents want to get their children inoculated against the virus.

Defending the slow uptake to CNN, the source said: 'It's predicated on a couple of things: In particular, how parents tend to make these kinds of decisions.

'The overwhelming majority want to get their kids vaccinated in the pediatrician's office or family provider's office and about half say they prefer to do that during an annual wellness visit or routine visit and so that's how they're used to vaccinating their kids.'

They claimed officials had 'expected' uptake to be slower in this age group compared to five to 11-year-olds.

Within the first three weeks of the roll out for this group, however, 15 percent got their first dose  or eight times more.

'It's just kind of what we anticipated, and what we prepared for,' they alleged.

Children aged six months to five years were able to get the Covid vaccine from June 18 after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) signed off on plans.

Those who receive the Pfizer jab need three doses, with the second administered up to eight weeks later and the third more than eight weeks later.

But those who are offered the Moderna jab only need two doses, with the second also given up to eight weeks after the first.

Both jabs are using doses less than a quarter of the size of those given to adults.

Approving the vaccines for use in the age group last month, health officials said they were safe and effective for the age groups.

But a number of experts have raised concerns over vaccinating children, who face a small risk of becoming seriously ill with Covid and a vanishingly small chance of death.

Official figures show under-5s account for just 0.05 percent of America's more than a million Covid deaths.

There are also fears over myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation that may be detected in up to one in 20,000 boys following vaccination. Girls are less at risk from the complication.

While in most cases the condition is mild, scientists are not yet sure of the long-term effects.

Earlier this year Dr Michael Kurilla  who previously sat on the panel  was one of the few members to refuse to approve Covid jabs for five to 11-year-olds.

He told DailyMail.com at the time that while he thinks children with certain conditions that put them at a high risk should receive the shot, it was not clear if they should be approved for healthy children.

Further suggesting why so few children may be vaccinated, the head of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases Dr Sean O'Leary told CNN it was still too early to judge the roll-outs success.

'The campaign is still getting ramped up,' he said, adding that there is also 'often a lag in data'.

O'Leary also noted that many parents are taking a 'wait-and-see' approach, suggesting uptake will rise further.

A total of 5million doses have been distributed across all states except Florida for the vaccine roll out.

When they were approved by the CDC, its director Dr Rochelle Walensky claimed: 'We know millions of parents and caregivers are eager to get their young children vaccinated, and with today's decision, they can.'

She added: 'I encourage parents and caregivers with questions to talk to their doctor, nurse or local pharmacist to learn more about the benefits of vaccinations and the importance of protecting their children by getting them vaccinated.'

Uptake across the U.S. has slowed as the roll out expanded into younger age groups.

CDC data showed among people over the age of 75 years 88 percent are fully vaccinated, alongside 93 percent of people aged 65 to 74.

For comparison, among five to 11 year olds just 30 percent are double-jabbed while among 12 to 17-year-olds the level is 60 percent.

A survey carried out in May by health pollster Kaiser Family Foundation found just 18 percent of parents would 'definitely' get their child vaccinated against Covid.

But two in five said they would refuse the jab for their children or only get it for them if it was a requirement.

It comes after surveillance by the CDC found more than three quarters of under-18s already have Covid antibodies from a previous infection.

Pfizer's shot How many doses? Pfizer requires three doses. How long is it in between doses? The second is given three weeks after the first, the third is two months later. How long does it take to reach maximum protection? Maximum protection is achieved within 90 days. Why does Pfizer only have three doses? Pfizer contains a lower dosage which is why it takes longer to reach maximum protection but it may work in your child's system for longer. What are the side effects? One study showed that Pfizer had less impactful side effects in babies than Moderna. Is one more effective than the other? Experts say no. Advertisement
A tense week ahead at Burberry where bosses could get a bloody nose at their annual meeting to be followed by the release of a trading update that might be best approached with low expectations.

Glass Lewis is advising shareholders to vote against the reappointment of Danone chief executive Antoine de Saint-Affrique as a director, warning that he could be overstretched if there was a crisis at the luxury goods giant.

Meanwhile, Pirc is urging investors to oppose the pay report, pointing out that Burberry executives are paid 44 times more than the average member of staff.

Chequered future: Burberry shares have already dropped this year

Analysts expect that the trading figures, to be announced on Friday, will show a drop of more than 40 per cent in first-quarter revenues because of China's economic situation and Covid lockdowns.

Shares have already dropped this year with this in mind.

Hargreaves Lansdown's Sophie Lund-Yates warns a shaky outlook could hit shares further.

Former Novacyt boss at Love Hemp

Novacyt's former chief executive Graham Mullis has taken up the chairman role at Love Hemp, a struggling cannabis company whose shares on Aquis were suspended in May.

Love Hemp's corporate adviser quit when an investor in a February placing failed to complete a 1.2million investment  prompting the suspension.

A replacement is yet to be found. Mullis was a littleknown boss outside of biotechnology circles before the pandemic.

Novacyt's fast-moving work to create a test for Covid in 2020 made its shares rocket and turned it into a stock market darling.

But the AIM-listed firm's star has since faded and it is now locked in a battle with the Department of Health and Social Care.

Greggs eyeing up petrol station market

As sales lag in city centres, Greggs is eyeing up the petrol station market.

It is opening its first store with fast-growing forecourt operator Ascona.

Another 30-odd are expected to follow over the next five years.

Greggs is Britain's leading budget baker, but the FTSE250 group said in May that it is suffering from a permanent shift to 'hybrid' working.

Ascona's 59 sites across England and Wales serve 170,000 customers a week.

B&Q owner Kingfisher latest target for hedge funds

Almost 8.6 per cent of the FTSE100 group's stock is out on loan to short-sellers who are betting that its share price will drop.

This adds up to a whopping 420million position against the group, which was formerly one of the 'pandemic winners' after those stuck at home during lockdowns hastily caught up with redecorating projects and spent more time working from their spare rooms.

A 'teach-in' day for analysts and investors last week had little effect and some short positions rose afterwards.

Short bets have also increased as the scale of the cost-of-living crisis becomes more apparent and threatens to hit sales.
A controversial 3billion levy would blow a hole in the UK's affordable homes revolution, British builders have warned.

New estimates from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) show that 75,000 homes targeting lower-income families could be scrapped due to the charge, which the industry argues 'unfairly' targets UK companies.

The organisation has expressed its concerns in a letter to Greg Clark, incoming Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Warning: New estimates from the Home Builders Federation show that 75,000 homes targeting lower-income families could be scrapped

It wants Clark to reassess the proposal put forward in the wake of the cladding scandal by his predecessor Michael Gove, who enraged housebuilders by describing them as a 'cartel'.

Foreign firms will avoid the tax, according to the letter.

'Inevitably, the message conveyed by your predecessor was that if a company wishes to avoid its obligations and minimise its costs, it is best served by headquartering itself overseas or ignoring reasonable requests by Ministers,' according to an extract of the letter seen by the MoS.

Housebuilders say they have already set aside billions to cover costs. The additional levy would damage their ability to fund future affordable housing projects. Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the HBF, said the additional 3billion levy poses a 'serious threat' to business, jobs and housing supply.

He said: 'Government must act to make other responsible parties pay their share and not take the easy option of targeting UK builders again for a problem they did not create.

'Saying 'it's too hard' to get contributions from other parties is unacceptable and an affront to UK businesses who employ hundreds of thousands and pay billions in UK taxes.'

Peter Truscott, chief executive of FTSE250 firm Crest Nicholson, told this newspaper: 'As a sector, we've stepped up to the plate.

'The thing that we are aggrieved about is the [3billion] proposal that we should be funding buildings that we had absolutely nothing to do with, built by [companies] that either don't exist anymore or are foreign domiciled.

'If we are paying for that, then we are not paying for the new homes that people need.' Another industry executive said: 'It is not right that we are the only group that should be hammered because we are the only ones that the Government can get hold of and find.

'The money isn't free. It is a straight choice between the dividends paid to pension funds for UK citizens versus foreign domiciled property developers.'

The Government calculation for the 3billion figure has also been criticised, with one executive claiming it has been 'plucked out of the air'.

David Thomas, boss of Britain's biggest house builder Barratt Developments, wrote to Gove in May to express his 'deep disappointment' that the 3billion levy  originally aimed at firms building high-risk blocks  would now be industry wide.

He said the expansion of the levy would punish those 'who were not responsible' for the cladding scandal.

Gove tore up Government policy in January when he said developers should bear the full cost of fixing cladding and other defects in the wake of the 2017 Grenfell fire. He also threatened to shut out building firms that refused to contribute to a new building safety fund.
Vivienne Leggett was bullied out of her job at Hawkesbury Race Club by CEO Greg Rudolph and won a $2.8million payout

A bullying boss whose ongoing campaign of harassment against a female worker led to a multi-million dollar payout has been promoted by his latest employer.

Greg Rudolph was CEO of Hawkesbury Race Club when Vivienne Leggett was forced to quit her role in sponsorship and promotions over his oppressive behaviour.

Ms Leggett, who had worked for the club for 25 years, won the $2.8million payout due to bullying she suffered from Mr Rudolph, and for being denied annual leave, long-service leave and commission payments.

The Federal Court heard Mr Rudolph's conduct caused Ms Leggett to develop a significant depressive disorder with anxiety that has left her unemployable for almost six years.

The court ruled in Ms Leggett's favour in February and in late May awarded her the millions in compensation.

In a damning judgement, Justice Steven Rares found the workplace bullying 'effectively destroyed Mrs Leggett's life'.

Mr Rudolph, who had previously been deputy chair of stewards with Racing NSW, was hired by South Australia's equivalent body early this year.

He was initially employed as a senior steward but was recently promoted to racing operations manager in a revamp of the organisation.

Hawkesbury Race Club CEO Greg Rudolph (above) was found to have bullied and harassed Ms Leggett over several months in 2016. The Federal Court heard Mr Rudolph's conduct caused Ms Leggett to develop a depressive disorder that has left her unemployable for six years

Racing SA chief executive Nick Redin confirmed last month he and his board were comfortable with Mr Rudolph's appointment to the newly-created job, despite Ms Leggett's experience.

'We did our due diligence when Greg joined us,' Mr Redin told the Herald Sun.

'We were satisfied with Greg on the way in and we've seen nothing since he's been with us to indicate we should have any cause for concern.'

Ms Leggett's case included an email she sent Mr Rudolph in which she referred to him screaming at her on the telephone to return to the office when she was at the race barriers.

She described feeling embarrassed by Mr Rudolph's 'rude' demand and said the incident 'compounded many other situations which I have felt downtrodden, excluded and questioned unreasonably'.

'I feel like we are reaching an untenable situation which needs to be resolved,' Ms Leggett wrote.

Vivienne Leggett sent this email to Hawkesbury Race Club CEO Greg Rudolph complaining he had embarrassed her in a screaming phone call ordering her back to the office. The incident 'compounded many other situations which I have felt downtrodden' she wrote

Mr Rudolph did not address any of Ms Leggett's concerns in a response to her email about his behaviour. Instead he asked her to attend a meeting with him the following morning

In response, Mr Rudolph did not address any of Ms Leggett's concerns, instead telling her to attend his office with the club's functions manager the following day.

'Please meet me in my office tomorrow morning at 9am with Joanne Price, to discuss your work performance,' Mr Rudolph wrote.

'You may bring a support person with you if you wish.'

When Ms Leggett received that reply she felt 'even more distressed, emotionally drained and began vomiting', according to the Federal Court judgement.

The court heard Ms Leggett began employment at the club in 1991 when she was 28 years old, working under then-CEO Brian Fletcher, who described her as a 'trusted employee'.

Mr Rudolph took over as Hawkesbury Race Club CEO in May 2016. The court heard the new chief began bullying Ms Leggett from the outset, believing she was being paid too much. Hawkesbury racecourse is pictured

She was responsible for bringing in new deals and retaining existing contracts, and was promoted to become the club's sponsorship and marketing manager.

Mr Rudolph took over as CEO in May 2016 after Mr Fletcher left to take the top job at the Penrith Panthers NRL club.

The court heard the new chief began bullying Ms Leggett from the outset, believing she was being paid too much.

Mr Rudolph would single the sponsorship manager out, micromanage her tasks, relentlessly email her and deny her basic employee benefits.

Ms Leggett complained to Mr Rudolph about his behaviour about four months after he started his new role, explaining the impact it was having on her mentally and her capacity to do her own job.

Vivienne Leggett (pictured) worked in sponsorship and promotions at Hawkesbury Race Club for more than 25 years before quitting due to the treatment of its CEO - before winning $2.8million after taking the club to Federal Court

The Federal Court heard the incident at the barriers on October 9, 2016 and the subsequent email from Mr Rudolph was 'the last straw'.

Shortly before the start of the day's last race Mr Rudolph had called Ms Leggett and 'screamed down the telephone with rage in his voice'.

Ms Leggett said she had previously been told she should 'feel free' to be at the barriers 'whenever', but Mr Rudolph demanded she return to the office then hung up.

After receiving Mr Rudolph's response to her email about the incident Ms Leggett got a medical certificate from her GP stating she was unfit to work for the next week.

She emailed the certificate to Mr Rudolph, who later that day forwarded it to his father-in-law, Racing NSW's respected former chairman of stewards Ray Murrihy, with the comment: 'Dropping like flies'.

Brian Fletcher (left) was Hawkesbury Race Club's CEO before Greg Rudolph and described Ms Leggett as a 'trusted employee'. Mr Rudolph's father-in law is respected former Racing NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy (right)

Mr Rudolph claimed his email to Ms Leggett asking her to come into his office was sent out of concern for her welfare, which Justice Rares noted could be contrasted with his 'gloating' to Mr Murrihy.

'A genuinely concerned person would not have behaved in this manner,' Justice Rares found.

'Rather, Mr Rudolph's true colours came out in his triumphal statement that reflected what he had been doing for months, namely, trying to force Mrs Leggett out of her job without dismissing her, because he knew that there was no basis to do so.'

On another occasion, upon reviewing Ms Leggett's use of the club's credit card, Mr Rudolph questioned her spending $15 on parking. The court heard he often held 'dogged interrogations' over expenditures.

Justice Rares found the club was in breach of its contractual obligation and the Fair Work Act for not paying Ms Leggett the benefits she was entitled to.

The court also ruled that the club was negligent in providing a safe work environment for Ms Leggett.

Ms Leggett began employment at the club in 1991 when she was 28 years old, working under then-CEO Brian Fletcher, who described her as a 'trusted employee'

'In my opinion, the club's conduct, through Mr Rudolph, effectively destroyed Mrs Leggett's life,' Justice Rares found.

'She cannot work and, as the joint experts agreed, is permanently incapacitated from doing so because of Mr Rudolph's and the club's conduct.'

In an interview with Just Horse Racing, Ms Leggett claimed she had 'suicidal thoughts' because of the ordeal but did not have enough money to pay for treatment.

After resigning in 2019, Mr Rudolph said he was proud of his achievements at the helm of Hawkesbury Race Club.

'The Board and I are proud of what we have achieved during my term, which has extended beyond my initial three year commitment,' he said.

'The time is right for me to complete my business studies and to put some more time into various other commitments I have, in charity fields, for example.'
Shaffy working alongside David Cameron

David Cameron's former Afghan translator wept with joy yesterday after being told he and his family can finally begin a new life in the UK.

Despite working with the British military for six years  three on the frontline and three with senior officers and visiting politicians such as Mr Cameron  the man known as Shaffy was denied relocation to Britain because of his dismissal over misconduct allegations.

But the 33-year-old father-of-five will now be allowed to settle in the UK after lawyers pressed for a judicial review, leading to the ex-translator  twice injured by Taliban bombs  being granted sanctuary under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Programme (ARAP).

The Daily Mail have fought for Afghan translators who helped the British war effort before being abandoned to the Taliban.

Shaffy was fired in 2013 for what Ministry of Defence officials described as serious offences that centred on allegations of threats to a female officer.

But after months of discussion about the case and his dismissal, including with the woman involved, he has now received an offer of relocation.

Shaffy said: 'It was 3.15 in the morning when I opened the email from the Ministry of Defence saying that I was eligible for relocation. The news was amazing. There were lots of tears of happiness and relief.

'From the day I appeared on Afghan and international television beside David Cameron, I became a prized target for the Taliban.

'They told me I was an "infidel spy" because I stood with Mr Cameron helping the British as they killed their fighters and that I would die because of it.'

He added: 'I want to thank the British Government, my lawyers, campaigners and those like the Daily Mail who believed in me.'

Retired Major General Charlie Herbert, who took up the case, said: 'I am absolutely delighted that Shaffy has finally been granted eligibility.'
Starbucks has removed one of its new products from shelves after a slew of people claimed they suffered horrendous diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pains.

The coffee company stripped stores of its chicken, maple butter and egg sandwich just days after it was introduced.

Social media users posted a flood of stories on TikTok and Twitter claiming it had left them bed-bound for days.

Even some of its employees reportedly said it had made them ill, with one posting an alleged internal memo online telling staff to remove the product.

But Starbucks said the sandwich had been taken down because it did not meet their quality standards and had no link to food poisoning.

The firm said it did not have any relation to the boats of listeria sweeping across parts of the country such as Florida.

The coffee company stripped stores of its chicken, maple butter and egg sandwich just days after it was introduced

Social media users posted a flood of stories on TikTok and Twitter claiming it had left them bed-bound for days (file photo)

The breakfast sandwich was introduced on June 21 but was quietly removed on June 27, the New York Post reported.

Less than a week after hitting store shelves, the coffee giant reportedly sent out a memo telling staff to 'stop selling and discard' them.

The company notice that was posted online by a supposed Starbucks employee also instructed workers not to donate the sandwiches.

Customers and staff reportedly complained of horrific vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain from the product.

One woman named Sabreen posted a photo of her lying in bed and cautioning others to beware.

She said: 'Starbucks recalled the new chicken, maple butter sandwich which just launched so RIP to those who tried it.'

Another posted: 'Ever since I had the @Starbucks chicken sandwich on June 23 I've been on the toilet throwing up, felt feverish and severely dehydrated.'

One person wrote online: 'Why can't they just bring back the cool lime refresher.'

One woman named Sabreen posted a photo of her lying in bed and cautioning others to beware

The company notice that was posted online by a supposed Starbucks employee also instructed workers not to donate the sandwiches

One alleged Starbucks employee put: 'I'm the one who recalled the new maple chicken sandwich as I had a bone in my sandwich.

'I'm an employee there and when I bit down there was a bone,' as they posted a photo. 'Here's proof.'



A Starbucks spokesman said: 'We issued a voluntary stop sell and discard on the Chicken, Maple Butter and Egg Sandwich because the product didn't meet Starbucks quality standards.

'We are committed to a high level of quality in the products that we serve and always act with an abundance of caution whenever a product or quality issue is raised.

'This is not an FDA issued recall nor is it related to salmonella or listeria contamination.

'The quality issue that was identified by Starbucks would not lead to food borne illness and any reports linking the stop sale to illness are inaccurate.'
A man suspected of being one of two 'Shepherds' who assassinated a high ranking AFP officer is now married and living quietly in suburbia.

Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Colin Winchester was shot two times in the back of his head outside his Canberra home in January 1989.

Italian police revealed two people, known as 'The Shepherds', had been tasked with carrying out the hit by the mafia and sent to Australia in October 1988.

Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Colin Winchester (pictured) was shot two times in the back of his head outside his Canberra home in January 1989

One of the suspected Shepherds is reportedly married with a family and still living in a north-eastern suburb of a major Australian city.

Italian police told AFP in 1990 the Ndrangheta organised crime syndicate had arranged for the man, then 21, to murder the AFP officer before marrying a local boss's daughter so that he could stay in the country.

It's believed the assassination was ordered to protect an illegal drug distribution network operating along Australia's eastern seaboard.

The man was questioned by police in Australia but denied any involvement in the murder saying he was just an Italian immigrant.

He claimed any links drawn between him and the mafia were coincidental as they came from the same villages in Calabria in Italy, Daily Telegraph reported.

'This is not me, the police are knocking on the wrong wall,' he said.

'This [claim] was all investigated a long time ago and had nothing to do with me.'

The second man suspected of being the other Shepherd fled the country shortly after the shooting.

Australian police instead arrested a public servant they wrongfully suspected of carrying out the attack.

David Eastman spent almost 19 years behind bars after he was wrongfully arrested over the 1989 shooting

David Eastman spent almost 19 years behind bars for the 1989 shooting.

He was found not guilty of Mr Winchester's murder at a retrial in 2018, as his first conviction was quashed in 2014 due to concerns about the original evidence.

He had pleaded not guilty in 1993 but received a life sentence two years later.

Mr Eastman was awarded more than $7 million compensation after seeking between $14 million and $18 million under the ACT's human rights laws.
VIJAYAWADA: YSR Congress president and Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the third state Plenary of YSRC near Acharya Nagarjuna University at Kaza in Guntur district on Friday by stressing that power must be wielded for the good of the people. He said, I salute the people of AP and the people of our party for their support to us. We have come across many hurdles in the last 13 years of our journey. We have fulfilled 95 per cent of the promises in our 2019 poll manifesto and discharged our responsibilities in a transparent manner without any discrimination of caste, creed and religion.

Setting the tone for the two-day plenary, Chief Minister Jagan referred to the challenges and hurdles the party faced in the past 13 years. It all started as a conflict in Pavuralagutta in 2009. In 2011, the idea of launching a party arose during the Odarpu Yatra. The YSRC emerged to take forward the legacy of Dr. Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy.

The CM said he didnt back off or lose confidence even though there were many conspiracies and evil propaganda against him. I moved ahead with the staunch support of the people to extend welfare benefits to every poor person. People are with the YSRC, he said and thanked them for giving it an unprecedented majority of 151 seats in a house of 175 in the 2019 polls that catapulted the YSRC to power.

In a scathing attack on Telugu Desam, the CM dubbed Opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu as an emperor of corruption and said the people were fed up with the TD rule and reduced its tally in the Assembly to 23 seats. Since coming to power in 2019, some 95 per cent of the promises the party made in its poll manifesto were fulfilled. We took welfare to every doorstep in a transparent manner without any act of corruption, he said.

The CM said the TD, which betrayed people with fake promises during elections and removed its manifesto from public platforms,
Life-saving technology on smart motorways is failing to detect nearly four in ten broken-down vehicles within a time limit considered safe by road bosses.

A shocking internal report found stopped vehicle detection (SVD) technology is flagging only 62 per cent of those stranded in live traffic within 20 seconds.

This is the time frame deemed acceptable by the roads agency National Highways, according to the unpublished 2019 report, obtained by the Daily Mail under the Freedom of Information Act.

Motoring groups said it showed the radar-based SVD system is woefully inadequate and means drivers are often sitting ducks when breaking down on all-lane running (ALR) smart motorways.

These have their hard shoulder removed and drivers can become marooned in live traffic, risking being hit by other vehicles.

The study found a fifth of SVD alerts are wrong when no more than 15 percent should be wrong

Around a fifth of SVD alerts are also wrong, the study found, including flagging breakdowns on the opposite carriageway to where they actually happen. National Highways says no more than 15 per cent should be wrong.

The disclosure raises fresh questions about why ministers and National Highways have pressed ahead with the roads despite such failures in a key safety feature.

The report reinforces the findings of a Mail investigation last year into the death trap roads that revealed a litany of safety failures putting lives at risk.

An internal report found stopped vehicle detection (SVD) technology is flagging only 62 per cent of those stranded in live traffic within 20 seconds

An undercover reporter at a National Highways control centre witnessed the system fail to go off when there was a stranded car on a smart motorway section of the M25 for 30 minutes.

The February 2019 report, compiled by external consultants, has been kept secret by National Highways despite safety campaigners calling for it to be published.

Yet more deadly miles Another deadly stretch of smart motorway opened this week to create the biggest road of its type in the country. The 15-mile stretch from Hayes, west London, to Maidenhead adds to an adjoining 17-mile section opened earlier this year. It means the hard shoulder has been removed and turned into an extra live lane on 32 miles of the M4 between junctions 3 and 12, running from west London into Berkshire. It is 64 miles of road when both sides of the carriageway are included. Most smart motorways are ten or so miles, or 20 including both sides. While 100 miles of such projects have been paused, another 100 miles are going ahead, including the M4 stretch. Advertisement

It tested SVD over four days on a stretch of ALR motorway on the M25 between junctions 23 and 27, with 563 alerts raised. Only 62 per cent were detected within 20 seconds and 86 per cent within a minute, with 14 per cent missed.

The report says: Clearly, a prompt response is vital to the effective use of the SVD system, since earlier operator intervention will mitigate the risk presented by a stopped vehicle in a live lane.

SVD is critical to safety as lanes blocked by breakdowns cannot be closed to traffic until the system alerts control room staff.

Jack Cousens, of the AA, said: So-called smart motorways were sold to the public by National Highways on the basis that if the worst happens, we will find you and keep you safe.

Shockingly, drivers are sitting ducks for longer than they should be. These figures show the system is woefully inadequate.

Claire Mercer, whose husband Jason was killed on a stretch of the M1 with no hard shoulder in 2019, said: The technology is not working and its killing people.

The Department for Transport said it had commissioned an evaluation of SVD and paused new smart motorway schemes while we collect more data.

National Highways Duncan Smith said the technology adds to a system of inter-related features on smart motorways to help further reduce the risks.
Cambridge University vice Chancellor Stephen Toope

University is no place for cancelling or viciously attacking people with opposing views, according to the outgoing vice- chancellor of Cambridge.

Stephen Toope condemned some of the elite institutions academics and students who lash out on social media in ways that are, frankly, shameful.

As a student, he chose to listen to Enoch Powell, whose anti-immigration views he says he despised. But today, the tyranny of small differences sometimes takes over the ability to listen to each other, to debate, to challenge.

Professor Toope used the annual Kate Pretty lecture at Homerton College to condemn the emergence of extremism of all stripes as part of the culture wars.

The 64-year-olds comments come amid rising numbers of woke rows at campuses and attempts to limit free speech.

Professor Toope, who was born in Montreal, said: When I was a PhD student here in Cambridge, Enoch Powell was invited to address the Trinity College middle common room. Even as an international student in this country, I knew what he represented. I knew what some of his views were, and I despised them. But still I went along to hear him. I chose to go  curious about what hed say, and whether I would find any of it remotely compelling.

Enoch Powell visited Cambridge university where the students 'challenged him through robust questioning, and then we sent him packing'

I didnt. His arguments did not win me over, nor did they appear to convince the vast majority of my fellow students. But that evening we listened to a man whose views we strongly disagreed with, we challenged him through robust questioning, and then we sent him packing.

The professor added: A university is no place for cancelling, or for viciously attacking anyone whose lawfully expressed views we dont share.

Fans of the comedian Roy Chubby Brown are fighting a decision by council bosses to cancel his show. The 77-year-old had been due to perform at The Platform, a Lancaster City Council-run venue in Morecambe, next month. But when 59 locals accused Brown of being racist, homophobic, and misogynistic in an online petition officials pulled the plug.

More than 3,000 fans and anti-censorship supporters have signed a rival petition, calling for the right to free speech and demanding the show go ahead.
Troy Place is a sedate cul-de-sac in a newly desirable suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina. The sort of neighbourhood where people stop to make small talk while walking their dogs and picking up the post. It used to be a predominantly white area, but times have changed in the South, and these days its very mixed.

One long-standing resident is a middle-aged divorcee of African-American heritage who works for a big pharmaceutical printing firm. Until recently hed exchange a few words with the elderly white lady two doors away, who sat on the porch in her wheelchair. She was sometimes a little grumpy, he says, but she seemed OK.

When I told him about her past life in the Mississippi cotton-belt, he was momentarily dumbstruck. Had he known about it, would he have talked to her so genially?

He shoots me a glance. No, ah sure as hell wouldnt. The rightful place for that woman is jail, he says in his Southern drawl.

Chanting black power slogans, on Wednesday, a group stormed three addresses in Raleigh to which they believed the 88-year-old woman might have moved, having quietly slipped away from the cul-de-sac in April. (Neighbours say she left only because her son, Tom, and daughter-in-law, Marsha, with whom she lodged, are divorcing.)

They put Nazi war criminals in prison when theyre very old, dont they? So then, why not her?

This week, as Carolyn Bryant Donhams alleged involvement in the lynching of 14-year-old black boy Emmett Till  one of the most notorious race murders in American history  finally caught up with her after 67 years, I have heard that same line of reasoning many times and from people of every ethnic background.

For some black activists, disillusioned by decades of ineffective FBI investigations and hollow political rhetoric, the time for talking is long gone.

Chanting black power slogans, on Wednesday, a group stormed three addresses in Raleigh to which they believed the 88-year-old woman might have moved, having quietly slipped away from the cul-de-sac in April. (Neighbours say she left only because her son, Tom, and daughter-in-law, Marsha, with whom she lodged, are divorcing.)

They even burst into a nursing home, for Bryant Donham is registered blind, reportedly has cancer and uses a wheelchair.

Iconic black figureheads who say Emmetts story inspired them range from Rosa Parks, who famously refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama, to Muhammad Ali

They put Nazi war criminals in prison when theyre very old, dont they? So then, why not her? This week, as Carolyn Bryant Donhams alleged involvement in the lynching of 14-year-old black boy Emmett Till  one of the most notorious race murders in American history  finally caught up with her after 67 years, I have heard that same line of reasoning many times and from people of every ethnic background

Then on Thursday, 800 miles south in the cotton-belt town of Greenwood, Mississippi, I watched members of the New Black Panthers  an organisation inspired by the militant group founded in the 1960s civil rights struggle  lobbying a district attorney to press charges against her.

For it was there, a few weeks ago, that a filmmaker and his team rifled through thousands of long-forgotten legal files and discovered a new document pointing to Bryant Donhams possible involvement in the crime: an old arrest warrant.

Issued on August 29, 1955, it was based on the sheriffs suspicion that she played a part in the kidnap of Emmett, who was then brutally tortured and murdered by her husband and brother-in-law.

So now this obscure backwoods courthouse has become the unlikely Ground Zero in the campaign for justice being spearheaded by Tills family and black civil-rights leaders. A campaign that, in the racial tinderbox of modern America, is spreading with worrying speed.

Some of their tactics might be questionable. But having immersed myself in the harrowing details of a case that has, to borrow a phrase from one Till historian, become a national metaphor for Americas racial nightmares, I can easily understand why emotions are running so high.

Millions of words have been written about Emmett Till. His story is the subject of school curriculums, powerful orations, documentary films and plays. It is endlessly analysed and revised. Yet essentially it is a story of innocence and evil.

Raised in Chicago, a relatively harmonious northern city, a high-spirited boy boards a southbound train looking forward to an outdoorsy summer holiday with his country kin. But he falls foul of people whose minds have been poisoned by ignorance and fear, and never comes home.

His tormentors were unrepenting to the grave, to which both went prematurely. In a conversation secretly recorded by a friend 30 years later, however, Bryant claimed he backed out on killing the motherf****r at the eleventh hour, suggesting they dump Emmetts broken body outside the hospital

Down the years, many African-Americans have decreed that Emmett wasnt murdered  but crucified. If so, retracing his last hours, far away from his protective mother Mamie, might be likened to visiting the stations of the cross.

Like the muddy rivers that snake through the fields, time moves slowly down in the Delta. The backdrop to this parable looks little different today than when Emmett arrived to stay with his pious uncle, Preacher Moses Wright.

Driving along an arrow-straight road, flanked by endless rows of cotton and corn, it begins at the ramshackle grocery store in a hamlet named Money, where Carolyn and Roy Bryant  a hard-drinking ex-soldier with whom she eloped at 16  sold staple foods, snuff, sweets and tobacco to black sharecroppers living in the surrounding shacks.

There are many versions of the disastrous clash that occurred when Emmett bought bubblegum there that fateful Wednesday evening and, egged on by his friends, ignored the impassioned warning his mother gave him before he left Chicago: to comply with the different racial code in the South, abhorrent though it was.

According to Dr Timothy Tyson, who secured the only known interview with Carolyn Bryant Dunham while researching his definitive work The Blood Of Emmett Till, her version has not always been consistent.

Giving evidence in her husbands murder trial (where one drooling Parisian described her as a crossroads Marilyn Monroe) she claimed that the n*****, as she casually referred to Emmett, had done far more than flirt with her.

She painted him as a violent sex pest who had grabbed her round the waist and told her in lewd terms what he wanted to do with her.

The daughter of a plantation boss who rode through the cotton fields brandishing a whip and a rifle, she had been raised to expect black men to call her Maam and step into the gutter when she walked past them.

The boys actions had terrified her to the point where she was about to fetch a gun from the car as he gave her a wolf-whistle and swaggered away.

The redoubtable Mamie (pictured) also devoted the rest of her days to the cause. So when, in June, the five-member team  including Emmetts cousin Deborah Watts and a criminal justice student, Melissa Earnest  found the missing warrant, there were hugs and tears

However, Dr Tyson says that at the outset of their interview  which began with her hugging him warmly and offering him cake and coffee  she admitted to exaggerating her damaging court testimony.

That parts not true, she said, according to Tyson, when he asked her about the grabbing incident.

Shocked by this dynamite admission, and hastily making notes because he hadnt had the time to switch on his recorder, he asked her what really happened in the shop. I want to tell you. Honestly, I just dont remember, came the reply.

It was 50 years ago. You tell these stories for so long they seem true. After a while, she offered a further reflection: Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him.

Presuming that Dr Tyson, a stickler for detail, remembers the exchange correctly, she had perjured herself. However, in 2017 when his book was published, she denied the quotes attributed to her, standing by her trial testimony. As a result, the U.S. Justice Department closed the case again, finding insufficient evidence to prove that Bryant Donham had ever told the professor that any part of her testimony was untrue.

But if she was lying in court, could this have been a factor when  after deliberating for just 67 minutes  the all-white, all-male jury acquitted her husband and brother-in-law, who promptly lit up cigars in the courthouse?

Perhaps not, for the judge had sent the jury out before allowing her evidence. Yet a defence attorney cleverly managed to inflame the jurors by alluding to her alleged molestation during his closing speech.

And what if she complained to her husband (who was away on a driving errand that evening) of being physically manhandled by a black boy? Wouldnt this have impelled a vicious white supremacist such as Roy Bryant to commit murder?

One day we might hear the authentic story behind the shop encounter  but it could take 14 years. For, as I have learned, Bryant Donham has written a 100-page memoir. Dictated to her daughter-in-law, however, she insists it must remain in the vaults of North Carolina State Universitys Southern Historical Collection until 2036.

But back to Mississippi in that insufferably hot August of 1955. Strangely, we might think, four days passed before Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J.W Big Milam, an 18-stone brute who had honed his killing techniques as a World War II platoon leader, winning a Purple Heart, took action.

Commanding two or three black workers on the Milam cotton plantation to guide them to Emmetts uncles house, they awoke the boy in his bed, shining a torch in his face, and frogmarched him to a pick-up truck.

Should the 67-year-old warrant be deemed to justify Bryant Donhams arrest and charge, what happened next will be crucial to the case.

Preacher Wright claimed the two kidnappers asked someone out of sight in the darkened truck whether this was the boy who had pestered Bryants wife. A voice, which he said was lighter than a mans had replied in the affirmative.

Could this have been Carolyn Bryant herself? She denies it, claiming instead that when Big Milam and her husband brought a boy to the store for her to identify, she told them they had the wrong one, whereupon they released him.

Quite how her story squares with the two mens confession of guilt  made several months later to a magazine that paid them about 4,000  is anyones guess.

Knowing they could never be retried, Milam said they had intended only to whip Emmett and scare the wits out of him by dangling him above a 100 ft ravine.

Yet he refused to beg for forgiveness and acknowledge their racial superiority. To Milam, who had forged a reputation for bringing plantation workers to heel, this marked Emmett out as a fool.

The truth he couldnt bring himself to speak was that the boy from Chicago had been extraordinarily courageous and paid the ultimate price for his bravery.

The cruelty they inflicted on him, after he was dragged into a barn, probably strung up by his arms, whipped relentlessly and mutilated with farm tools, defies description.

Enough to list some of his injuries: gouged out eye, sliced off ear, nose severed with an axe, broken wrists and thigh bone. A skull shattered with such force that pieces fell out when he was found a few days later, garrotted by barbed wire fastened to a 75lb cotton gin fan weighting him, head-first, to the bed of the Tallahatchee River.

His tormentors were unrepenting to the grave, to which both went prematurely. In a conversation secretly recorded by a friend 30 years later, however, Bryant claimed he backed out on killing the motherf****r at the eleventh hour, suggesting they dump Emmetts broken body outside the hospital.

But the others decided he was too far gone, so their brother-in-law Melvyn Campbell dispatched him with a bullet to the neck. Campbell was never arrested.

Ask folks in these parts whether the bigotry has gone, and youll hear differing views. In Milams home-town, Glendora, a 50-year-old black farmworker enthused about the preponderance of mixed friendships and marriages.

Yet Desiree Simmons, the curator of the Emmett Till museum  housed in the metal cotton gin where he is believed to have breathed his last  says she is regarded with blatant suspicion and contempt whenever she enters a white-run shop in the nearest city.

It is also a sad fact that white youths take pot-shots at the information signs on the Till heritage trail. And when I called on a member of the Bryant-Milan clan, it seemed the hatred had passed down the generations .

If this is about that Emmett Till s***, dont dare call here again, he snarled menacingly.

So many lynchings went unreported or investigated in Mississippi that Emmetts case might have slipped under the radar but for his mothers insistence on placing his disfigured body on public view in a glass-topped coffin.

During the four days it was displayed, in a Chicago church, up to 250,000 people filed past, many collapsing at the sight of him.

When news magazines broke with taboos to publish close-up images of his face, the story went round the world. Iconic black figureheads who say Emmetts story inspired them range from Rosa Parks, who famously refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama, to Muhammad Ali.

The redoubtable Mamie also devoted the rest of her days to the cause. So when, in June, the five-member team  including Emmetts cousin Deborah Watts and a criminal justice student, Melissa Earnest  found the missing warrant, there were hugs and tears.

When I descended into that chaotic court basement this week, their astonishing perseverance  underpinned by a remarkable stroke of luck  became apparent.

There was no organisation. Files from (as far back as) the 1800s were scattered all over different areas. Everything is mixed up, recalls documentary-maker Keith Beauchamp, who promised Emmetts late mother he would

never give up the pursuit of justice. The only way was to sift through them one by one. The warrant was found inside a red manila file, itself jammed in a battered cardboard box labelled simply County Criminal Court 5039-5179.

When court clerk Elmus Stockstill removed it from a safe and showed it to me, with evident pleasure, its good condition came as a surprise.

Signed by the county sheriff of those days, George Smith, it lists the three people to be brought in for Emmetts kidnap. There are ticks beside Milam and Roy Bryants names, but not beside Mrs Bryant who, Smith declared in a handwritten note, was not found in my county.

Yet more important still, in Beauchamps view, were the accompanying minutes, and an affidavit from the county prosecutor, stating without a shadow of a doubt that she was wanted for the kidnap of Emmitt Lewis Tell, as his name was erroneously spelt. These documents seem to prove, too, that the warrant was never retracted.

An arcane legal debate as to the current status of these documents is now underway. The district attorney has spoken to a consultant to the FBI, which has already conducted two cold-case reviews of the murder, the most recent of which closed last year.

So, aside from the black activists on her trail, does an 88-year-old woman have anything to fear? In legal circles, the smart money says no.

This week, however, I was allowed inside the 10 ft x 12 ft cell where she would have been held in custody, had the sheriff found her.

After just a few minutes in there, the murderous Mississippi heat boiled the blood.

The metal toilet and shower were open to the gaze of any leering warden who stared through the grille.

It must have been tough for any woman cooped in this stifling hellhole, surrounded by some of the meanest men in the state. Doubly so for an alluring Southern Belle such as Carolyn Bryant.

But if the crossroads Monroe played even the smallest part in the murder of Emmett Till, she surely deserves to spend her every remaining minute languishing in the bowels of hell.

Additional reporting: Daniel Bates
A series of little-known MPs have put their names forward in the race to replace Boris Johnson in what the PM described as 'the best job in the world'.

While the big hitters have held off from launching their campaigns  except for Rishi Sunak, who announced he was running yesterday  those with an outside chance have thrown their hats in the ring.

Backbenchers John Baron, Jake Berry, Bill Wiggin and Rehman Chishti have said they are considering a bid despite being virtually unknown outside Westminster.

Attorney General Suella Braverman and foreign affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat have announced they will stand, but are languishing in the polls.

Former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch is the latest name to join the already bloated list of wannabe leaders.

North Herefordshire MP Sir Bill Wiggin has also been canvassing support among Tory MPs for a potential leadership bid

Backbenchers John Baron (left), Jake Berry, Bill Wiggin and Rehman Chishti (right) have said they are considering a bid despite being virtually unknown outside Westminster

Jake Berry (pictured) served as Minister for the Northern Powerhouse from 2017 to 2020

Many senior figures are expected to launch their campaigns in the next few days  including Liz Truss, Sajid Javid, Ben Wallace and Nadhim Zahawi. Mr Baron, the MP for Basildon and Billericay, said he was considering a tilt for the top  and insisted there is a 'wealth of talent' on the backbenches.

'Backbenchers, I think, have a lot to offer and have made some very good calls for the party,' he told the BBC.

Mr Wiggin, the MP for North Herefordshire, has reportedly emailed colleagues asking for nominations  and argued for a return to small state, low-tax Conservatism. Both men have been in Parliament for more than 20 years.

And Mr Chishti, former Tory vice chairman, told PoliticsHome that the country needs a leader 'who best reflects modern Britain'. The MP for Gillingham and Rainham said: 'In the coming days I will be reflecting on how best I can serve our country with my own experience and background having been a parliamentarian for over 12 years. Our country and party need new ideas and fresh leadership.'

But some backbenchers mocked their colleagues. Workington MP Mark Jenkinson parodied their bids with: 'I have sought counsel from those I can trust to blow smoke up my a**e. That, when weighed against my own inflated sense of self-importance, leads me to conclude that I should throw my hat into the ring and stand for election as Leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party.'

Promises to slash taxes and help struggling families are set to dominate the leadership race  and prospective candidates have already begun setting out their stalls.

Chancellor Mr Zahawi has said he 'instinctively' wants taxpayers to keep more of their money, and has vowed to wage war on Government waste. Foreign Secretary Miss Truss, who has returned from Indonesia to launch her bid, has frequently brandished her low-tax credentials.

Former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch is said to be the latest to throw her hat into the ring, with a plan for a smaller state and a government 'focused on the essentials'

Meanwhile former minister Steve Baker has backed Attorney General Suella Braverman's campaign - despite previously saying he was seriously considering putting himself forward for the top job.

Mr Baker said that Tory blog ConservativeHome 'consistently put me in their top 10 for next prime minister, they sometimes put me in their top five', but said it would be 'very difficult' to persuade colleagues to back him for the party-wide ballot without Cabinet experience.

On Friday evening, he tweeted: 'I considered standing for the leadership. My priorities were delivering against our manifesto with our mandate, cutting taxes and seeing through Brexit.

'Happily I no longer need to stand. Suella Braverman will deliver these priorities and more.'

In an interview with The Telegraph, Braverman said: 'There's no better organiser in Westminster, and I'm so glad it's my campaign that has got [Baker]. He'll make a vital contribution.'

She added: 'I'm delighted to receive the backing of Steve Baker. We need clarity of purpose and a clear vision to steer our country through the choppy waters ahead.

Former minister Steve Baker has backed Attorney General Suella Braverman (pictured), who stated she was 'delighted' to have received his support

'Finish Brexit, deliver tax cuts and solve our energy crisis. That's the great task facing the new leadership.'

Earlier, Mr Sunak announced his bid for leader on Twitter, saying: 'Let's restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite the country.'

His move came as allies of former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, who was runner-up to Mr Johnson in 2019, said he was 'virtually certain' to stand again this time.

Mr Sunak has the backing of Commons Leader Mark Spencer, former Tory Party co-chairman Oliver Dowden, and ex-minister Liam Fox.

But Mr Wallace, a former Army officer, is expected to attract support from across the Conservative parliamentary party. He remained loyal to his close friend Mr Johnson and did not resign from the Cabinet.

Supporters speak of his strong sense of duty and service. He is also considered a 'safe pair of hands' after leading the UK's military effort in Ukraine  and before that the mission to rescue UK nationals and entitled persons from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

Rishi Sunak announced his bid for leader on Twitter, saying: 'Let's restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite the country'

The YouGov poll earlier this week asked Conservative Party members to name their preferred candidate. Mr Wallace won 13 per cent of the votes, ahead of Miss Mordaunt on 12 per cent, Mr Sunak on 10 per cent and Miss Truss on 8 per cent.

Mr Hunt trailed in joint eighth on just 5 per cent, the same as new Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.

Earlier this year, the Defence Secretary topped a 'satisfaction rating' poll for Government ministers, with 79.7 per cent of respondents saying he was doing a good job. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss polled second on 66.7 per cent.

Mr Wallace, MP for Wyre and Preston North, has repeatedly sought to present himself as a reluctant leadership candidate. But he has never ruled himself out of running.

Last night, a supporter said: 'He's decent, straight-talking and has a real sense of duty and service... He's got a good sense of humour too, even when things go wrong.

'But [running for leader] remains an if. Right now he is discussing it with his family and those he loves.'

So, will Ben Wallace be next to join the fray?

Ben Wallace has a leadership campaign team ready to go  but was still holding fire last night.

The Defence Secretary is a favourite with some bookies to replace Boris Johnson as Tory leader and has topped a YouGov poll of potential runners.

But last night supporters said he was still discussing with his family whether to enter the contest.

Armed Forces minister James Heappey, who is understood to be managing Mr Wallace's campaign, told The Daily Telegraph: 'One of the things I most like about Ben is he has spent the last 48 hours thinking really hard about whether he wants to do it. It's so typically Ben that he understands it is a massive responsibility and wants to make sure he is ready for it, and if he is, he will make a great prime minister.'

Former Scottish secretary David Mundell, who is also said to be involved in the leadership campaign, said he would support father-of-three Mr Wallace, 52, if he stood. 'His decency and integrity is not in question,' he added.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is a favourite with some bookies to replace Boris Johnson as Tory leader and has topped a YouGov poll of potential runners

'We've had too much drama recently and he is ideally placed to bring in a period of calm, competent leadership.'

Mr Wallace held off announcing his candidacy even after former chancellor Rishi Sunak launched his campaign yesterday.

Several other likely candidates, including Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss, Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt, are also yet to declare.

Mr Wallace, a former Army officer, is expected to attract support from across the Conservative parliamentary party. He remained loyal to his close friend Mr Johnson and did not resign from the Cabinet. Supporters speak of his strong sense of duty and service. He is also considered a 'safe pair of hands' after leading the UK's military effort in Ukraine  and before that the mission to rescue UK nationals and entitled persons from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

The YouGov poll earlier this week asked Conservative Party members to name their preferred candidate. Mr Wallace won 13 per cent of the votes, ahead of Miss Mordaunt on 12 per cent, Mr Sunak on 10 per cent and Miss Truss on 8 per cent.

Mr Hunt trailed in joint eighth on just 5 per cent, the same as new Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.

Earlier this year, the Defence Secretary topped a 'satisfaction rating' poll for Government ministers, with 79.7 per cent of respondents saying he was doing a good job. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss polled second on 66.7 per cent.

Mr Wallace, MP for Wyre and Preston North, has repeatedly sought to present himself as a reluctant leadership candidate. But he has never ruled himself out of running.

Last night, a supporter said: 'He's decent, straight-talking and has a real sense of duty and service... He's got a good sense of humour too, even when things go wrong.

'But [running for leader] remains an if. Right now he is discussing it with his family and those he loves.'
A left-wing activist group is encouraging users on social media to tweet the location of any of the conservative Supreme Court Justices in exchange for money.

The justices were the majority who voted to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision last month.

Since then, pro-abortion activists have repeatedly protested outside the justices' homes and, in some cases, confronted them in public.

ShutDownDC is promising a bounty of $50 for anyone who shares a 'confirmed sighting' and a further $200 if they are still in that location half an hour later.

'DC Service Industry Workers... If you see Kavanaugh, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Coney Barrett or Roberts DM us with the details!

'We'll Venmo you $50 for a confirmed sighting and $200 if they're still there 30 mins after your message,' the activist group tweeted on Friday.

A left-wing activist group is encouraging social media users to tweet the location of any of the conservative Supreme Court Justices are spotted out and about

The tweet specifically targets Justices Kavanaugh, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Coney Barrett or Roberts - the six conservative justices who overturned Roe V. Wade

Twitter has so far been completely silent on whether the 'bounties' may contravene the social media platforms rules and policies.

Twitter forbids users from encouraging others to harass an individual or group of people.

'We prohibit behavior that encourages others to harass or target specific individuals or groups with abusive behavior.

'This includes, but is not limited to; calls to target people with abuse or harassment online and behavior that urges offline action such as physical harassment,' reads the platform's policy on abusive behavior states.

On Wednesday night Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was forced to sneak out of a Washington D.C. steakhouse when he was confronted by pro-choice protesters.

A number of other left wing groups have planned marches in the neighborhood's where Supreme Court Justices reside

Kavanaugh was having dinner at Morton's when activists showed up and told the manager to kick him out.

The justice was forced to leave through the back door, Politico's Playbook reported, as fury continues to spread across the country over the court's recent decisions on gun rights and abortion.

The latest targeting of Kavanaugh also comes less than a month after a 22-year-old man was arrested and charged with attempted murder for traveling from California to his Maryland home and threatening to kill him.

In a statement Morton's said: 'Honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and all of our other patrons at the restaurant were unduly harassed by unruly protestors while eating dinner at our Morton's restaurant.

'Politics, regardless of your side or views, should not trample the freedom at play of the right to congregate and eat dinner.

'There is a time and place for everything. Disturbing the dinner of all of our customers was an act of selfishness and void of decency.'

ShutDownDC tweeted how Kavanaugh 'snuck out the back with his security detail', and criticized Morton's for 'welcoming a man who so clearly hates women'.

Kavanaugh was having dinner at Morton's when activists showed up and told the manager to kick him out, two weeks after he was in the majority that overturned Roe v. Wade. The restaurant slammed the protesters for 'harassing' him

Twitter users had their own take on the idea of protesting in public where Supreme Court Justices might be

Protesters have turned up at the homes of the justices and singled them out in the weeks since the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked.

The White House has condemned such intimidatory tactics but has also offered its support of 'peaceful' actions.

'We have said that we want to see peaceful protests. When it comes to intimidation, that is something that we have condemned,' White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Members of Congress have demanded more security for the nine members of the highest court. A bill was signed last month to extend protection to their families, but there are still fears for their safety.

Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, California, sparked the greatest security fears by bringing a gun, knife and burglary tools to Kavanaugh's home at the beginning of June, according to law enforcement.

He has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of a federal judge in a trial set to begin on August 23. If convicted if faces life in prison.

According to an FBI affidavit, Roske had flown from California to Washington and was spotted arriving at Kavanaugh's home in the middle of the night on June 8, CBS reported.

Abortion rights activists march outside the home of conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, in Falls Church, Virginia on June 30. Activists marched past her house numerous times

Cops stand outside of Brett Kavanaugh's home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on June 29, five days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade

He was carrying a suitcase armed with a Glock-17 pistol, two magazine clips, a speed loader, a tactical knife, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, nail punch and a crowbar.

Shortly after arriving on the scene, however, police said he called 911 saying he was having suicidal thoughts, telling the operator that he was going to kill Kavanaugh and then himself because he did not expect to get away with the crime.

Roske was quickly taken into custody following the call and allegedly confessed to investigators that he was upset about the leaked Supreme Court draft decision indicating that Kavanaugh and his fellow conservative justices were poised to overturn Roe V. Wade and women's federal right to abortions.

Investigators added that Roske told them that he believed Kavanaugh would loosen gun laws in the country in the wake of the deadly Uvalde, Texas, school shooting.

'Roske stated that he began thinking about how to give his life a purpose and decided that he would kill the Supreme Court Justice,' according to the affidavit.

Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, California, sparked the greatest security fears by bringing a gun, knife and burglary tools to Kavanaugh's home at the beginning of June, according to law enforcement. He has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of a federal judge and his due to stand trial in August
The ex-Whitehall mandarin who helped to bring down Boris Johnson was yesterday accused of gloating.

Lord McDonald, who triggered this weeks crisis by publicly accusing No10 of lying, posted online a photograph of Parliament at sunset and added the caption: It was a good day.

His provocative Twitter message on Thursday evening, just hours after Mr Johnson announced he was leaving Downing Street, had been liked more than 10,000 times by yesterday.

But Conservative politicians attacked him, saying it was wrong for an unelected civil servant to celebrate the downfall of a PM. Former MEP David Campbell Bannerman asked: Is this former senior civil servant gloating over a deposed Prime Minister then? Or just a nice sunset? Conservative councillor Simon Whelband wrote: An unelected former senior civil servant peer gloating about the end of a Prime Minister who won a huge democratic mandate less than three years ago. Sadly Im not surprised.

Lord McDonald is pictured with then-Foreign Secretary Johnson outside No 10 in June 2017

Retired Foreign Office chief mandarin Simon McDonald played a major part in the PM's fall

Mr Johnson (pictured making his resignation speech) quit in large part thanks to McDonald

Tory peer Lord Moylan simply replied to Lord McDonald with the word blob  the term used by Mr Johnsons allies to refer to the Whitehall establishment. Fellow Conservative Baroness Foster replied to the mandarins tweet: Really?

Lord McDonald revealed that Mr Johnson knew of allegations made against Chris Pincher (pictured) when in the Foreign Office

She said it was not a good day and asked him if he had been present when Mr Johnson was briefed about accusations against disgraced Tory whip Chris Pincher. An explosive intervention by Lord McDonald on Tuesday morning undermined Downing Streets account of the scandal.

In a highly unusual move for a career diplomat, he published a letter he had written to the Commons sleaze watchdog claiming that it was not true that no formal complaints had been made about Mr Pinchers conduct or that Mr Johnson had been unaware of them. Lord McDonald was the top Foreign Office mandarin between 2015 and 2020, including the period when Mr Johnson was Foreign Secretary.

Insiders said the pair repeatedly clashed and Mr Johnson thought the Remainiac mandarin was trying to undermine him by leaking stories about him being lazy.

In an interview last year, Lord McDonald said he was soaked by the hard rain that Mr Johnsons former top aide Dominic Cummings forecast was coming for Whitehall.

Meanwhile, another former mandarin yesterday accused the current head of the civil service of not doing his job properly.

Sir David Normington, ex-permanent secretary at the Home Office, urged Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to step up in the next few weeks.

Lord McDonald was accused of gloating for the seemingly celebratory tweet on Thursday

Lord McDonald took the extraordinary step of publishing revelations about Whitehall conduct

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: He has presided over a decline in standards. Hes had a very difficult Prime Minister to deal with, but hes sometimes seemed like the bystander at a car crash.

nA FORMER top Whitehall figure toasted Mr Johnsons demise with a specially created cocktail last night.

Sir Jonathan Jones, who quit as head of the Government Legal Service over Brexit plans, posted on Twitter a photo of a drink he dubbed the One out of Ten  a reference to the PM leaving Downing Street.

He said it was based on an American cocktail I came across called a Constitution.
More than 60,000 unvaccinated Army National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers will be barred from performing their military duties and have their pay and benefits cut because they refuse to get their shots, officials announced on Friday.

'Soldiers who refuse the vaccination order without an approved or pending exemption request are subject to adverse administrative actions, including flags, bars to service, and official reprimands,' according to a statement from the Army.

There are about 40,000 National Guard soldiers and 22,000 Reserve soldiers how have not been vaccinated.

Maryland Army National guardsmen line up to fill out their medical paperwork for vaccination

New York National Guard soldiers shown here administer and receive Covid-19 vaccination

The announcement to bar unvaccinated soldiers from drills comes as most guardsmen and reservist prepare to partake in summer drills

The announcement comes as many of the so-called 'weekend warriors' would be taking time off to perform their compulsory two-week training drills for their units.

The military branch has raised the stakes for anti-vaxxer soldiers and promised to go one further and discharge their personnel if they continue to resist immunization.

'In the future, soldiers who continue to refuse the vaccination order without an exemption may be subject to additional adverse administrative action, including separation,' an Army representative said.

Across the military, the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps have discharged as many as 4,000 active duty service members for refusing the vaccine

The ultimatum comes one week after the June 30 deadline set by the Army National Guard for all their soldiers to get their jabs.

As of the beginning of the month, 13 percent of the Guard soldiers and 12 percent of the reservists are still unvaccinated.

'We're going to give every soldier every opportunity to get vaccinated and continue their military career,' Director of the Army Guard, Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen told Military.com. 'We're not giving up on anybody until the separation paperwork is signed and completed.'

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has drawn a hardline on getting soldiers vaccinated

The hardline that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has taken on unvaccinated soldiers could backfire on the military branch.

The Army recently backpedaled on an announcement that they would no longer require a high school degree to enter the force, as their recruitment goals have fallen short by 60 percent.

There have been 30,000 request from guardsman and reservists for medical and religious waivers, but the Department of Defense have not approved any of them.

Soldiers are required to be vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella and nearly a dozen other diseases.

Although, guardsmen serve under state authority, answerable to their respective governors, the federal government funds much of the military service and under the DOD restrictions, unvaccinated soldiers may not participate.

Republican governors from Wyoming, Alaska, Iowa, Mississippi and Nebraska have asked the military in late 2021 to exempt their soldiers from vaccination, but the DOD refused.

There have been 1,148 active-duty soldiers discharged due to vaccine refusal.
Key aides of Michael Gove and Boris Johnson got into a heated altercation at a summer drinks party following the Prime Minister's resignation.

Josh Grimstone, a special adviser to the ex-levelling-up secretary, confronted Guto Harri, No 10's communications chief, at a do hosted by The Spectator magazine.

Mr Grimstone accused Mr Harri of being a 'disgrace' and criticised his behaviour when ministers were urging the Prime Minister to resign.

Josh Grimstone (pictured), a special adviser to the ex-levelling-up secretary, confronted Guto Harri, No 10's communications chief, at a do hosted by The Spectator magazine.

Mr Grimstone accused Guto Harri (pictured) of being a 'disgrace' and criticised his behaviour when ministers were urging the Prime Minister to resign

The row on Thursday came the day after Mr Gove was sacked when The Mail+ revealed he had told the Prime Minister he should quit  a move Mr Grimstone reportedly branded a 'revenge' sacking.

The revelations come as Mr Johnson has urged his Cabinet to focus on the public rather than themselves amid fears the leadership contest could descend into a mud-slinging match between Tories.

Warning that a divided party risked defeat, he told ministers on Thursday: 'Think about the voters. If there is any advice I can give to you at this stage, it is think about the voters, think about the people. We win when we talk about them, not us.'

Mr Johnson has urged his Cabinet to focus on the public rather than themselves amid fears the leadership contest could descend into a mud-slinging match between Tories

Key aides of Michael Gove and Boris Johnson got into a heated altercation at a summer drinks party following the Prime Minister's resignation

Warning that a divided party risked defeat, he told ministers on Thursday: 'Think about the voters. If there is any advice I can give to you at this stage, it is think about the voters, think about the people. We win when we talk about them, not us.'

Staunch supporter Nadine Dorries has already warned that the 'dogs of hell have been unleashed', with at least 11 MPs vying to lead the party. According to a Government source, she told ministers: 'Imagine 11 businesses all competing for one contract. I would like to remind colleagues that we have to be unified and we have to steer this ship for the next two months as a united party.'

But the attacks have already begun, with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace branded the 'son of Boris' and Tom Tugendhat labelled 'too Left-wing'.

Ex-health secretary Sajid Javid is said by critics to have 'lost the room' following his resignation, while Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has been savaged as a 'Poundshop Thatcher'. Jacob Rees-Mogg also attacked Rishi Sunak, saying he was 'not a successful chancellor'.
Amber Heard's lawyers on Friday demanded a new trial in her $8 million defamation fight with ex-husband Johnny Depp, claiming the wrong person served on her jury and ruled against her.

Heard's team filed the court documents in Virginia 'based on additional discovered facts,' they said.

Her lawyers allege two people with the same last name lived at the home in Virginia where the jury duty summons was sent in April.

The summons was intended for a 77-year-old person, but instead the 52-year-old showed up in court and served on the jury.

'It is deeply troubling for an individual not summoned for jury duty nonetheless to appear for jury duty and serve on a jury, especially in a case such as this,' they write.

Amber Heard, pictured testifying on May 4, on Friday claimed that there had been a mix up with jurors, and said she needed a retrial

Johnny Depp was on June 1 awarded by the jury $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages

Fans of Depp, 59, are pictured on April 25 outside the courtroom in Fairfax, Virginia

The filing notes that Virginia has safeguards in place to prevent these types of mixups, such as using of a seven-digit juror number, zip code, and birthdate to verify jurors' identities.

Depp is seen on July 6, on tour with his band in Germany

'Those safeguards are in place and relied upon by the parties to verify the identity of the correct juror, to ensure due process and a fair trial for all litigants,' reads the filing.

'When these safeguards are circumvented or not followed, as appears to be the case here, the right to a jury trial and due process are undermined and compromised.

'Under these circumstances, a mistrial should be declared, and a new trial ordered.'

The document did not provide any reason for why this allegedly occurred or say how the situation was uncovered.

Friday's filing comes after the actress' legal team on July 1 filed claims that the verdict at trial was not supported by evidence presented during the six-week hearing.

The July 1 outlined the issue of the 'wrong' Juror 15, but did not go into as much detail as Friday's document.

Depp sued his former partner over a 2018 article she wrote for the Washington Post about her experiences as a survivor of domestic abuse, which his lawyers said falsely accused him of being an abuser.

On June 1 the jury ruled in his favor.

Heard's lawyers also said last week that the judge should throw out the verdict because the amount awarded to Depp  $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages  was 'excessive' and 'indefensible.'

She was awarded $2 million.
Karen Andrews has warned it is only a 'matter of time' before Australia is rocked by a political assassination after former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was killed.

The shadow minister for foreign affairs and former home affairs minister in the Morrison government said security measures needed to be 'revisited' for current and former members of parliament to prevent a copycat attack.

'I hate to say this, but it is a matter of time until we experience such an assassination attempt in Australia,' she told Today on Saturday.

Karen Andrews has warned it is only a 'matter of time' before Australia is rocked by a political assassination after former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was killed

Mr Abe was assassinated on a street in western Japan by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech on Friday

Mr Abe was assassinated on a street in western Japan by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech on Friday.

The 67-year-old, who was Japan's longest-serving leader when he resigned in 2020, collapsed bleeding and was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Nara.

He was later pronounced dead after receiving massive blood transfusions, Japanese officials said.

Ms Andrews said the topic of bolstering security had first been raised following the assassination of Conservative British MP Sir David Amess.

Sir Amess was stabbed more than 20 times during a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on 15 October 2021.

'It [security] became an issue that was talked about a lot after the assassination effectively of Sir David Amess in the UK,' Ms Andrews said.

'We did look at it in government what we could possibly do. We worked very closely with the Opposition at the time and cross-benchers.'

Ms Andrews said the attack against the former Japanese prime minister was a reminder the conversation around security needed to be continued.

The 67-year-old, who was Japan's longest-serving leader when he resigned in 2020, collapsed bleeding and was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Nara

In a press conference on Saturday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed security concerns for Australian politicians as he paid tribute to Mr Abe.

'We have arrangements in place in Australia that certainly give me confidence and I have absolute confidence in the people who look after myself and others in high office,' Mr Albanese said.

'But as someone who went to Ukraine recently, with not just the close personal protection of the AFP but with members of our special forces, they do an incredible job, but they take a risk as well.

'I was very clear in undertaking that visit that there were some risks involved, quite clearly.

'But we need to, in this country, go about our business. I think that is a very good thing in Australia that ... I can go out and walk the dog, not by myself but with some protection these days.

'That is a good thing.'

Ms Andrews described the assassination as 'devastating' saying the world was in 'absolute shock'.

'Our relationship with Japan is so important to us,' she said.

'The fact that we have now lost a very close friend Shinzo Abe is very, very devastating for us and of course, it's devastating for Japan.'

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday said Mr Abe was one of Australia's closest friends and that under his leadership Japan had emerged as one of Australia's most like-minded partners in Asia.
TRS party MLAs in Aswaraopet and Wyra assembly segments are facing dissidence, leg-pulling and embarrassing movements from some senior party leaders.

Khammam/Kothagudem: Ruling TRS party MLAs in Aswaraopet and Wyra assembly segments are facing dissidence, leg-pulling and embarrassing movements from some senior party leaders.

Mecha Nageswara Rao won from Aswaraopet assembly segment on a Telugu Desam ticket in 2018 but joined the TRS later. Rao however failed to establish a cordial relationship with the TRS leaders in the constituency. Later, a former TRS MLA, Thati Venkateswarlu, joined the Congress party in protest against the styles of Nageswara Rao.

TRS MP Nama Nageswara Rao and Khamman district TRS president Thatha Madhu faced cold responses from Aswaraopet MLA Nageswara Rao in Chandrugonda.

V Parvathi, mandal parishad president of Chandrugonda, expressed her anger in the presence of Nama and Tatha Madhusudan and flayed Mecha Nageswara Rao.

She said, TRS faced loss due to the style and functioning of MLA Mecha Nageswara Rao. He (MLA) benefited a lot by joining the TRS. The MLA is encouraging one group in the party and ignoring the sarpanches and other local body representatives in Chandrugonda. Dalit Bandu financial help was given only to the leaders in his group and he ignored other eligible aspirants.

She said the party interests were hurt in the area and many leaders were set against the MLA. TRS leader Bhojya Naik explained to the senior party leaders on the damage being done to the party by the style of functioning of the MLA.

In Wyra, TRS MLA Ramulu Naik is unable to check the activities of two dissent leaders. Chandravathi, former MLA of Wyra, is holding meetings with her followers in various villages.

She is seeking a TRS ticket from Wyra in the next elections. She won the 2009 elections from there and later joined the TRS. She contested as TRS nominee there in 2014 and lost the race. Local leader Iramulu Naik failed to check her activities in the constituency.

Madanlal, who won on a YSRCP ticket in 2014 and later joined TRS, is convening meetings in villages with his followers and discussing the future course of action with them. Madanlal, who lost the 2018 assembly poll, is claiming that the TRS high command has promised him the Wyra ticket.
School children were told prostitution is a 'rewarding job' by sex education providers who promoted wild kinks to pupils.

Organisations brought in to teach kids about sex have introduced children to hardcore kinks including being flogged, caned, locking people up in a cage and being slapped in the face, The Times reported.

Children were even told to show where they liked to touch themselves by one organisation.

Private contractor Bish (Best in Sexual Health) is written by Justin Hancock and charges 500 a day to deliver sex education sessions at secondary schools.

Private contractor Bish (Best in Sexual Health) is written by Justin Hancock (pictured) and charges 500 a day to deliver sex education sessions at secondary schools

His website advises a 14-year-old girl in a relationship with a 16-year-old boy that her 'risks of pregnancy are very, very low' even if her boyfriend relies on pulling out rather than using a condom.

Mr Hancock did not tell her the relationship was illegal but instead suggested using lube during anal sex.

The 'sex and relationships educator' also told someone on his site that prostitution could be 'rewarding'. He suggested if this was not the case for a sex worker, they could 'get better clients'.

Writing about masturbation Bish suggested children could practice on plasticine models of their genitals to understand how to touch themselves, a move the Safe Schools Alliance told The Times was 'sexual abuse'.

Bish suggested children could practice on plasticine models of their genitals to understand how to touch themselves (File image)

Although Hancock said the website should not be used in classrooms, Bish says more than 100,000 young people learn about sex from the site every month.

Meanwhile, LGBT youth charity the Proud Trust, asked children between the ages of seven to 11 whether they were 'planet boy, planet girl, planet binary'.

Although gender is a social construct and can be chosen, sex is a biological fact and cannot be changed.

Last night campaigners said that 'inclusiveness is overriding child safeguarding' and that the materials were 'bordering on illegal'.

Mr Hancock declined to comment when approached by MailOnline, while the Proud Trust did not respond.
Twitter's lawyers are telling employees to remain silent about Elon Musk pulling the plug on his $44 billion acquisition of the social media giant.

The billionaire blasted the social media giant for refusing to 'comply with its contractual obligations' throughout the acquisition process.

But Twitter immediately hit back, with its chairman revealing the firm planned to force through the blockbuster takeover through the courts.

The company's chairman Bret Taylor tweeted: 'The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.'

Amir Shevat, whose Twitter bio says he works on the company's developer products, made a joke about Musk promising 'exceptional' employees could work from hom

Jared Manfredi, whose profile says he works on iOS products at Twitter, gave his two cents on Musk pulling the plug

That message was retweeted by Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. That appears to be the only public statement that the company will be making right now.

A leaked internal memo from the company's general counsel Sean Edgett read: 'Given this is an ongoing legal matter, you should refrain from Tweeting, Slacking, or sharing any commentary about the merger agreement,' according to New York Times' reporter Mike Isaac.

The message continued: 'We will continue to share information when we are able, but please know we are going to be very limited on what we can share in the meantime. I know this is an uncertain time, and we appreciate your patience and ongoing commitment to the important work we have underway.'

Speaking to NBC News about the collapsed deal, an anonymous Twitter employee said that Musk had 'f**king destroyed the company.'

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal is set to come face-to-face with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Saturday when Musk delivers the marquee address at the annual Allen and Company's Sun Valley Conference, which Agrawal has been attending for the past three days

The world's wealthiest man had earlier stalled on the deal after claiming that he wanted his team to do 'due-diligence' over the number of fake accounts on the platform.

The employee said: 'I guess it feels like we won. But it feels like the end of the movie, where the characters are bloodied and bedraggled with a Michael Bay explosion behind them. We could see this was coming, but in the meantime he's f**king destroyed the company.'

Amir Shevat, whose Twitter bio says he works on the company's developer products, posted on the service soon after news of Musk's termination, 'End of season one - what a cliffhanger...'

Shevat later tweeted: 'I still plan to be remote and exceptional,' an apparent reference to Musk saying earlier that 'exceptional' employees would be allowed to work from home.

Jared Manfredi, whose profile says he works on iOS products at Twitter, wrote, 'If only this wasnt the start of a long drawn-out court battle that will just end up lowering the purchase price and continuing the circus for another indefinite amount of time.'

Twitter told employees last month that it was on track to increase the number of users who see ads by 13 million during the just-ended second quarter, the highest such goal it has ever set. Twitter has not yet announced second-quarter results.

Musk told Twitter staff later in the month on a video townhall that he wants to grow the company to at least 1 billion users from 229 million. He also told them users should be allowed to post 'pretty outrageous things.'

Meanwhile, world's richest man Musk is currently embroiled in a months-long deal to but Silicon Valley social media giant Twitter for roughly $44 billion - and his stark anti-remote sentiments would likely fly in the face of the company's more relaxed work from home rules

Musk has been in the South of France last month attending galas and weddings with Natasha Bassett

Musk, a prolific user of Twitter, has said in owning a social media service, he could make it more entertaining and maintain it as an essential public forum.

His attorney in a regulatory filing on Friday said Twitter had violated a deal provision to 'preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organization' by firing two managers, laying off a chunk of its talent acquisition team, instituting a hiring freeze, rescinding job offers. It also cited the resignations of three department leaders.

Twitter had over 7,500 employees as of the end of 2021.

During an all-hands meeting with employees in April, Agrawal attempted to quell employee anger after workers demanded answers to how managers planned to handle an anticipated mass exodus prompted by Musk.

Agrawal stood to make $42 million if the Musk deal went ahead.

Musk is also claiming that Twitter had failed to operate normally over the past two months as it froze its hiring process and fired senior staff.

The day before Musk made his announcement, Twitter announced that they had laid off 30% of their acquisition team, which amounted to nearly 100 people. In a brief comment to Business Insider, a Twitter spokesperson said that the lay offs were to 'align Twitter with its news business needs.'

In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission dropping the bombshell, Skadden Arps attorney Mike Ringler - acting for Musk - said Twitter were in material breach of multiple provisions of the agreement.

Ringler wrote: 'Mr Musk is terminating the Merger Agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement, and is likely to suffer a Company Material Adverse Effect.

'While Section 6.4 of the Merger Agreement requires Twitter to provide Mr. Musk and his advisors all data and information that Mr. Musk requests 'for any reasonable business purpose related to the consummation of the transaction,' Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations.

'For nearly two months, Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to 'make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter's platform'.

'This information is fundamental to Twitter's business and financial performance and is necessary to consummate the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement because it is needed to ensure Twitter's satisfaction of the conditions to closing, to facilitate Mr Musk's financing and financial planning for the transaction, and to engage in transition planning for the business.

'Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr Musk's requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr Musk incomplete or unusable information.'
A 34-year-old man has been charged following a drive-by shooting that injured a nine-year-old girl in Sydney's south.

The girl was with her mother and two other children unloading groceries from a car when a gunman allegedly opened fire on Queens Road at Connells Point at 5.50pm on Friday.

The nine-year-old suffered a gunshot to the hip and was rushed to Sydney Children's Hospital in a stable condition.

The drive-by shooting marked the second time in eight months the home has been targeted.

A 34-year-old man was found by police on Neville Street, in Oatley, about 7.15pm after fleeing the scene in a black BMW before he was arrested and taken to St George Police Station.

Detective Superintendent Grant Taylor said another man was also involved and remains on the run.

A 34-year-old man has been arrested following a drive-by shooting that injured a nine-year-old girl in Sydney's south

He was charged with one count of shoot at with intent to murder, refused bail and scheduled to appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.

The intended target was a man who lived at the Connells Point house, Det Supt Taylor said. The man, who is known to police, was not home at the time.

'It is not bikie-related but it is connected to criminal networks that are known to us,' Det Supt Taylor said.

He said it was unclear if the children were the target but he said the nine-year-old, who was in her pyjamas, would have been hard to mistake for an adult.

He labelled the shooting an 'ungainly act of violence'.

'This shooting was a dangerous, ungainly act of violence that resulted in a child being rushed to hospital for surgery,' he said.

'A multi-level response was immediately deployed, which saw Raptor Squad and other specialist officers work in unison to immediately locate an alleged offender within hours, and gather other crucial forensic evidence.'

Emergency services rushed to the home at Queens Road, Connells Point, following reports of a multiple shots fired, said police.

First responders carried out first aid on the nine-year-old before the arrival of NSW Ambulance paramedics.

'I ran outside after I heard the shots and I could smell the gun powder,' one neighbour told the Daily Telegraph.

'I could hear a woman wailing.'

Officers attached to St George Police Area Command established a crime scene and commenced initial inquiries.

The girl was with her mother and two other children, unloading groceries from a car, when a gunman opened fire on Queens Road at Connell Point at 5.50pm on Friday (stock image)

A red Mini Cooper and a burnt-out black BMW found nearby were seized for forensic examination.

In November a home on the same street was peppered with nine bullets, with the two men home at the time escaping injury.

One neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, labelled police 'weak' saying they didn't 'do enough' to investigate the first shooting.

If they had investigated properly this wouldn't have happened. We never heard anything back from police after the first shooting,' he said.

On that occasion police also found a burned out car located nearby.
Household bills are set for a bigger than expected winter shock this year, analysts warned, as consumer champion Martin Lewis said 'millions' will fall into poverty.

Energy consultancy Cornwall Insight said the price cap for the average household could go up in January by 360 more than previously thought.

Its experts said bills could rise from today's record 1,971 to 3,245 in October and then further to 3,364 at the start of next year.

Money Saving Expert founder Lewis said that 'far more' help is needed for British families in what's set to be a 'catastrophic' winter.

Experts said the energy cap could go up in January by 360 more than thought (file image)

Families are OFFICIALLY suffering the worst squeeze since records began in 1955 Families are officially suffering the worst squeeze on record after real disposable incomes fell for the fourth quarter in a row. Finances failed to keep up with soaring inflation once again at the start of the year, making it the longest sequence of drops since official figures started being compiled in 1955. Real household disposable income was down 0.2 per cent between January and March, as income growth of 1.5 per cent was outstripped by household inflation of 1.7 per cent. Household finances have now been under pressure for a straight year with costs of energy, food and other goods spiking after Covid and with the Ukraine crisis raging. Meanwhile, HMRC figures have shown nearly two million people have been dragged into the higher and additional rates of tax over the past three years. Underlining the burgeoning burden on workers, 6.1million are projected to be paying income tax at 40 per cent or 45 per cent in 2022/23. Advertisement

He told The Times: 'It will push millions into poverty.'

The Cornwall Insight estimate marks a steep rise from the firm's previous predictions, as international gas prices remain stubbornly high.

In its previous forecast, on June 22, the energy consultancy predicted bills rising to 2,981 in October, and 3,003 in January.

The forecasts are based on what an average household will spend on gas and electricity in a year.

A household that buys more energy will see higher bills, and vice versa.

The new predictions are bleak, and will put further pressure on households already facing rising food costs amid the cost-of-living crisis.

In April energy bills rose 54% for the average household.

Dr Craig Lowrey, from Cornwall Insight, said: 'There is always some hope that the market will stabilise and retreat in time for the setting of the January cap.

'However, with the announcement of the October cap only a month away, the high wholesale prices are already being 'baked in' to the figure, with little hope of relief from the predicted high energy bills.'

Before he left office, former chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a 15 billion package to help with the rising cost of living.

It promised up to 1,200 for the most vulnerable households.

But the price cap was at 1,277 last winter, so if Cornwall's January predictions are correct, households will be left nearly 900 worse off than they were before the crisis, even with the maximum help from the Government.

The energy price cap means households are set to be 900 worse off even with maximum help

A third (33 per cent) surveyed by Redfield and Wilton Strategies for MailOnline last November said that they were keeping heating turned off in cold weather in an attempt to lower their bills

The consultancy said the energy market has become increasingly volatile amid uncertainty over the gas that Russia sends to Europe, while recent strikes by Norwegian offshore workers have also driven up wholesale costs.

Ultimately these prices will trickle down to consumers.

'As it stands, energy consumers are facing the prospect of a very expensive winter,' Cornwall said.

Fuel poverty charity National Energy Action says there are 'few signs of energy prices becoming affordable this winter' amid a jump that is seven per cent higher than forecast by Ofgem ahead of the government's recent cost of living support package.

Families are already battling soaring food and fuel prices after inflation rose to a whopping 9.1 per cent in May and is predicted to rise as high as 11 per cent later this year.

A nationwide survey of 4,000 households found that 56 per cent are buying fewer groceries

Real household disposable income was down 0.2 per cent between January and March, as income growth of 1.5 per cent was outstripped by household inflation of 1.7 per cent. It is the longest sequence of drops since official figures started being compiled in 1955

The government has said it does not recognise the rise in energy bills, adding that it will 'keep a close watch' along with Ofgem, the BBC reports.

But the 3,000+ bill predicted for the winter is higher than Ofgem predicted in May.

From May 2021 to May this year, home gas prices rose by 85 per cent and home electricity prices rose by 54 per cent, according to government figures.

The chief executive of Ofgem said in May that he expected the energy price cap rise again around 2,800 in October 2022 - around a 40 per cent rise.

Experts have warned that families should be told to move their dinner times and turn down their thermostats to avoid blackouts this coming winter.

The public should be asked to cut their energy consumption as part of contingency planning for the worst case scenario amid potential gas shortages over the winter months, according to UK National Infrastructure Commission Chairman Sir John Armitt.

Sir John told The Telegraph people should be asked to turn their thermostats down in the colder months and limit household tasks such as cooking and using the washing machine at peak times, between 6pm and 8pm, to reduce the reliance on gas.

'In the first place they should have a PR exercise to say please cut back on usage as far as you are able,' he said.

IN NUMBERS: Cost of living crisis mean less socialising with friends and saving money, while monthly outgoings and supermarket costs soar The latest Wealth & Wellbeing survey by insurance firm LV= has painted a gloomy picture when it comes to the average Brit's financial concerns. Statistics collected by The Grocer from the Retail Price Index also show the rising prices in supermarkets. Below are what the poll of 4,000 people, carried out in June, and the latest statistics, mean for the average Briton: 12% - the average price increase of a weekly supermarket shop 30% said they are having to spend less money on socialising 36% described their financial situation as 'struggling' 38% of Brits are worried about money 43% expect their finances to deteriorate over the next quarter 46% of 18-34-year-olds are worried about money 53% say their finances have worsened in the past three months 61% said their total monthly outgoings had increased over the last quarter Advertisement

'People will have to shift their cooking patterns. 'Do we need to heat our homes at 21C or is it more efficient to have a steady lower temperature?'

'The Government could ask people to turn down their thermostats. I'd be amazed if the Government didn't do this at some point this winter.'

He added that asking the public to reduce usage is 'the responsible thing to do.'

'Treat the public like grownups and be open about the challenge and how we can all help,' he said.

A petition to slash fuel duty was also signed by 300,000 pained motorists - as fuel duty and VAT currently make up 85p of the current average 1.91 for a litre of unleaded petrol according to the RAC. Bills already rose by 700 on average in April, placing a further squeeze on families.





Bills already rose by 700 on average in April, placing a further squeeze on families.

The Bank of England also warned earlier this month that the economy has deteriorated materially.

In a gloomy update, the Bank said households were facing a serious squeeze on their finances  and warned of a wave of company collapses.

It comes after a poll last week found that more than a third of Britons are 'struggling financially'.

According to the 'wealth and wellbeing' survey of 4,000 people, carried out by insurance firm LV= last month, more than half of adults - 53 per cent - say their finances have worsened over the last quarter.

LV= said the findings are the most negative since June 2020, when its quarterly survey first began - and many Brits predict things will get worse, with 43 per cent expecting their finances to deteriorate over the next few months.

Families up and down the country this week united in horror at the rising cost of their weekly shop, particularly after a 750g tub of Lurpak butter went on sale at Sainsbury's for 7.25 - before a large 1kg tub was seen retailing at close to a tenner (9.30) in Iceland yesterday.

In fact butter and milk, alongside meat and dog food, have been named as the worst offenders by market researchers Kantar, who say grocery prices are rising at the fastest rate in 13 years.

The situation has come about thanks to a perfect storm of surging post-pandemic demand and rising energy, fuel and transport costs, made worse by the invasion of Ukraine and the resulting shortage of grain.

Exacerbating their financial woes, six in 10 Brits told LV= researchers that their total monthly outgoings had increased over the previous three months, while three in 10 (30 per cent) said the amount they are saving had fallen over the same period.

Nearly six in 10 (58 per cent), meanwhile, have seen an increase in their supermarket spending, while 31 per cent have been forced to spend less money on socialising.

More than a third (36 per cent) of UK adults surveyed described their financial situation as 'struggling' - and LV= said this has increased each quarter over the past year.

Nearly two-fifths (38 per cent) are worried about money, rising to 46 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds and 44 per cent of parents with children aged 10 years old or under.

Clive Bolton, managing director of protection, savings and retirement at LV said: 'The results of the latest LV= Wealth and Wellbeing Monitor highlight how the finances of millions of people are being squeezed by the large rise in the cost of living.

'The indices for savings, financial outlook and outgoings are the worst recorded since we started surveying consumers during the coronavirus pandemic, and worse than in the dark days of Covid.

'Consumer sentiment had been steadily improving between spring and early autumn 2021 but the sharp rise in the cost of living has dented consumers' confidence.

'Millions of people say they are struggling financially and standards of living are falling across the country.

'Rising energy prices are becoming a significant problem for many people, and many families with young children and low income households are struggling.'
The heads of MI5 and the FBI warned yesterday that it is getting harder to join the dots to catch terrorists in time.

In a joint briefing, FBI chief Christopher Wray said there were often fewer dots to follow before a lone wolf strikes.

And MI5 director general Ken McCallum said most threats were now transnational.

Mr Wray said MI5 and the FBIs relationship had become more important recently to tackle the rise in less sophisticated plots.

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum (left) and FBI Director Christopher Wray meet at MI5 headquarter

He said: Youre talking about largely lone actors, maybe with one or two other people who dont have to do a lot of plotting... What that means is that with fewer dots, and less time in which to detect those dots, it may well be that Kens folks have one dot and we have the other dot and if were not super lashed up were going to miss the only picture thats out there and its got to happen really fast.

Mr McCallum said: We partner with the depth that we do because the threats demand it.

Whether it is Russian and Chinese covert operatives moving around the world... [or] teenagers exposed to radicalising ideology sat in their bedrooms.
Germany was dubbed the sick man of Europe yesterday after it was forced to ration heating and hot water and dim street lights due to an energy crisis.

The country remains heavily dependent on Russian gas supplies even as Vladimir Putins forces continue their assault on Ukraine  and there are fears the taps could be turned off.

Russian gas supplies via its Nord Stream 1 pipeline are already being choked off. Gazprom, Russias gas giant, has reduced volumes sent via the pipe to 40 per cent of capacity  because of delays in servicing a turbine, it says.

The Gazprom-owned Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline is shutting down on Monday for routine maintenance although there are fears it might not reopen

In Germany, the crisis is particularly acute. The countrys largest residential landlord, Vonovia  which owns 490,000 apartments  is limiting central heating between 11pm and 6am to 17C

From Monday, Nord Stream 1 will be shut down for ten days for regular maintenance, but there are doubts over whether it will resume on time. Energy bills are being pushed higher across Europe as the war drives up wholesale prices.

But in Germany, the crisis is particularly acute. The countrys largest residential landlord, Vonovia  which owns 490,000 apartments  is limiting central heating between 11pm and 6am to 17C.

A housing association in Saxony has been rationing the supply of hot water to tenants to ten hours a day over three set periods, according to the Financial Times.

A district near Frankfurt is switching off hot water in schools and gyms from September, while Dusseldorf has closed a swimming pool complex and Cologne is dimming its street lighting to 70 per cent of full strength from 11pm.

Germany last month moved to stage two of its three-tier emergency gas plan  one step before the government begins full-scale rationing of fuel consumption as it steels itself for shortages.

It has said that households would be prioritised over industry in the case of an emergency, while appealing to the public and companies to cut consumption.

Berlin is already handing out subsidies for petrol and public transport to help consumers shoulder soaring costs.

Julian Jessop, economics fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said that while much recent commentary had been focused on Britains economic worries, Germany was the real sick man of Europe.

They are talking about effectively rationing, Mr Jessop added.

Even if they can keep subsidising prices, at the end of the day if the energys not there, its not there. Its clearly a major problem for them.

Last month Germany announced it was going to burn more coal so it could limit its use of Russian gas.

 Drivers in rural areas of Britain are potentially being ripped off by petrol retailers, the competition watchdog said yesterday.

A report by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said motorists in rural areas pay on average 1p to 2p a litre more for fuel  and that in some regions it is substantially more than this.

It said there tended to be fewer supermarket forecourts in rural areas, meaning less competition, with profit margins potentially being inflated.

The CMA report, ordered by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, said: Weak competition may lead to price differences that are unrelated to costs.
Donald Trump suggested convicted drug dealers should get the death penalty during a somber-toned speech in Las Vegas on Friday night.

He also said his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani is in the hospital with a 'heart problem' just days after being subpoenaed in Georgia prosecutors' election fraud investigation in Fulton County.

The former New York City mayor is 'getting well,' Trump said, adding: 'Can you believe it? What they put Rudy through.'

However, Giuliani's lawyer later told NBC that he was already out of the hospital after receiving heart stents earlier this week.

Speaking with his hands clenched firming on the podium, the ex-president called the United States a 'failing nation,' citing rising crime rates in big cities and a surge of migrants at the southern border.

He also painted a dark picture of violence in US cities, claiming 'elderly women are being raped' and children are being wantonly slaughtered in an unusually grim tone.

'To put it simply, we are a nation in decline. We are a failing nation,' Trump said.

He claimed the country was gripped by a 'deadly wave of lawlessness and chaos.'

'Our country has been knocked to its knees, humiliated before the world, yet we presume to lecture other people in other countries on their democracies,' Trump said.

He followed with a statement that appeared at first to tease a 2024 bid.

'So this is a little controversial. And I will either get a standing ovation - and I don't care about the ovation, I care about the country - or people are going to walk out of the room for what I'm about to say. But it's time finally to say it,' the former president said.

'If you look at countries through all throughout the world...The only ones that don't have a drug problem are those that institute the death penalty for drug dealers.'

The former president gave an unusually dark speech where he described 'blood' flowing in the streets of Democrat-run cities

Former President Trump is speaking at Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas

He added, 'They're the only ones they don't have any problem.'

'We just want to have, it's very simple, a great country again. And we have to have a safe country.'

Describing what he believes is the toll of rising crime in unusually dark detail, Trump claimed Democrat-run cities were full of rape and murder crimes. He was also quick to blame President Joe Biden's policies for fueling the wave of violence.

'The blood of these victims is almost exclusively in these Democrat strongholds. Babies are being killed, elderly women are being shot in the face and being raped,' Trump said.

'Elderly women are being raped. Children are being knife stabbed and disfigured. As a candidate, Joe Biden helped led his party's vile campaign against our police officers ,and then he carried the rioters' agenda straight into the White House.'

He said Biden's recent executive order increasing police accountability - including banning chokeholds, restricting no-knock warrants, among other measures - was 'defunding police departments.'

Trump accused Biden of having 'staffed his administration with an army of anti-police radicals,' despite voices to the president's left insisting his closest advisers may be too moderate on the issue.

He also used the crime wave concerns to launch yet another presidential tease.

Trump said his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani is in the hospital with a 'heart problem' days after he was subpoenaed by Georgia prosecutors in their ongoing election fraud probe

'Job number one for a new Republican Congress will be to stop this extreme agenda right in its tracks. We want law and order,' Trump said.

'And then we need to elect a Republican president in 2024 to bring Joe Biden's reign of lawlessness to an end.'

A recent report suggested that violent crime is increasing at an alarming rate compared to last year.

Six major cities - Los Angeles, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York City, and Washington, DC - are all set to outpace their 2021 violent crime rates despite being just over halfway through the year, according to Fox News.

During the speech Trump once again took aim at New York Attorney General Letitia James, a frequent political foe of his since the Democrat official launched an investigation into his family's real estate empire in 2019.

He and his two eldest children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., have agreed to testify in James' civil probe into whether the Trump Organization committed financial fraud by misrepresenting the value of its assets. Their deposition date is scheduled for next Friday, July 15.

Trump suggested James' investigation was a violation of his civil rights in the Friday night speech.

'We have to dismantle every single street gang, cartel, and violent criminal organization operating in America,' Trump told his supporters. Prosecutors, no easy job, have to go after these violent criminals and really mean it.'

'In many cases, however, racist prosecutors should also be vigorously investigated for their brazen violation of federal civil rights laws.'

New York Attorney General Letitia James has been investigating the Trump Organization since 2019. She subpoenaed Donald Trump and his two eldest children late last year

Hitting James directly, he said: 'It's happening to me, with a racist Attorney General in New York, who campaigned solely on the fact that she would get Donald Trump'

'I said, who is this woman? Is she crazy? A little bit. No, a lot,' he added as the crowd laughed.

Trump opened his rally with a video montage that began with clips that falsely suggested defunding the police is a goal for mainstream national Democrats.

It ends with hopeful, cinematic music and Trump promising: 'We will succeed.'

But his rally appearance got off to an awkward start as the former president began with a tribute to recently assassinated ex-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - but was drowned out by his intro song, Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless the USA.'

Republicans see Nevada as rife with vulnerable blue seats that they can flip in the upcoming midterms.

Trump is in Las Vegas to campaign for Adam Laxalt, the former Nevada Attorney General whos now running to unseat Democrat Senator Catherine Cortez Masto in November.

Hes also stumping for Nevada gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo. Lombardo, sheriff of Clark County, clinched the Republican nomination with Trumps backing and is now set to face incumbent Democrat governor Steve Sisolak.

Both races are considered toss-ups. Lombardo is narrowly trailing Sisolak by just over two points in FiveThirtyEights polling average.

A Change Research poll from late June shows Cortez Masto holding onto a small three-percent lead.

Trump is immediately following his Las Vegas speech with a Save America rally in Alaska on Saturday.

It's the former president's first of two back-to-back rallies this weekend. He is speaking in Alaska on Saturday

Republican Nevada Senate candidate Adam Laxalt (3L) speaks on a panel discussion at a "America First Agenda" rally where former US President Donald Trump is slated to speak in Las Vegas, Nevada, July 8

Trump previously made remarks at a tele-rally for Laxalt, Nevada's former Attorney General (pictured shaking hands with Trump)

There, the ex-president is whipping up support for Republican Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka and House candidate Sarah Palin, Alaskas former governor and a one-time vice presidential nominee.

While Palin is running to fill the seat of late longtime Rep. Don Young, who died this year, Tshibaka is looking to take down incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Murkowski is a fellow Republican who infuriated Trump by voting to convict him in his second impeachment trial.

The high-profile primary race will take place on August 16.

Trumps back-to-back campaign appearances come on the heels of multiple reports that hes looking to announce another presidential bid soon, as the House of Representatives January 6 committee investigation closes in on his current and former allies.

And in yet another hint that the former president wants to run for the White House in 2024, he announced on Wednesday night that his iconic Trump Force One plane is back in service after being nearly unused since he took office in 2017.

The Boeing 757 jet was Trumps favored method of transport during his 2016 presidential campaign.
A Georgia mom has slammed American Airlines for losing her 12-year-old daughter when she flew alone from Tennessee to Miami.

Monica Gilliam, 39, a photography professor, blasted the airline after Kimber was not escorted off the plane and disappeared.

The youngster had been flying solo from Chattanooga to Miami last week to see her father for a three-week trip.

Her mother had forked out an extra $150 for her to be chaperoned through both airports and wear a badge information cabin crew she was not with an adult.

But when she got off the aircraft they simply smiled and waved at her and let her wander around the airport before finally being found by her dad.

It came amid general chaos at airports across the US, with hundreds of flights canceled and thousands delayed over the July 4 holiday.

The weekend marked the busiest travel period since the pandemic began as nearly 50million took to the skies, roads and rails to see loved ones.

Mayhem continued this week as nearly 100 flights into, out and around the country were cancelled and 245 were delayed.

Meanwhile the Biden administration looked to invest $1billion annually for the next five years for improvements at 85 airports across the US.

The $5 billion will go toward several projects  including air traffic control towers, terminals, security checkpoints and baggage inspection and screening areas.

Monica Gilliam, left, took to TikTok to vent about a call that she got from American Airlines telling her that her daughter was 'lost' in Miami airport

@relativelymonica The utter failure by @American Airlines ,#tsa and #mia is absolutely unforgivable. The complete abandonment of a minor in their care, and the negligence displayed today, is criminal. Parents beware.  original sound - relativelymonica

A representative from American Airlines told Gilliam that they shut down Miami airport looking for her 12-year-old daughter who they had lost sight of

Flight chaos continued across the United States this week, with Friday's misery map from Flight Aware pictured

Delays and cancelations continued to rip across the country on Friday, with Atlanta the worst hit

What SHOULD customers get for American Airlines' $150 unaccompanied minors policy? American Airlines' 'unaccompanied minors' policy says those aged five to 14 have to use their service. It says those aged between 15 and 17 can use it but it is optional. The system costs $150 to use each way on top of the ticket price and there is a further charge for siblings flying together. Its website says it includes: 'Early boarding to allow extra time to get settled and meet the flight attendants. 'Kids-only lounges in our hub cities for flight connections Complimentary Kids' Kits from Quaker with snacks and activities (for ages 5  10, in hub cities). 'An airport escort to help your child to the gate for flight connections Escorting the child to the authorized adult picking them up when they land. 'Keep in mind, our flight attendants will be busy with onboard duties and can't continuously monitor your child during their flight. Let your child know to ring the call button if they need anything.' Advertisement

Gilliam said: 'It's not OK and it shouldn't happen. Almost an hour after her flight landed, I got a call from American Airlines.

'It was the American Airlines manager at Miami and he says 'your child is missing, we've shut down the terminal, we don't know where she is.'

The child's flight had landed early and instead of an escort she was ushered off the plane with a wave from the flight attendants, Gilliam said.

She continued: 'It turns out that the flight attendants waved her off the plane and said 'bye' and she didn't know what to do so she kept going because they were telling her 'bye' so she kept walking.'

The child wandered through the terminal, an image that shook Gilliam to her core.

'So she's going through the airport with that billboard on her, that she was an unaccompanied minor in one of the largest human trafficking hubs in the country,' she said on TikTok.

The child was able to get in touch with her father and he talked her through the airport until they met up without further drama.

'On the way out, no American Airlines employees stopped her to see if she had an adult, not one Miami airport employee stopped her and even the TSA security agent-before she left the secure area into baggage claim-stopped her.'

American Airlines' 'unaccompanied minors' policy says those aged five to 14 have to use their service. It says those aged between 15 and 17 can use it but it is optional.

The system costs $150 to use each way on top of the ticket price and there is a further charge for siblings flying together.

Monica Gilliam feared that her daughter was wandering unattended in what she called 'the largest human trafficking hubs in the country'

Flight cancelation Q&A: Why are airlines slashing so many flights and what is being done to fix it? Why are there so many delays and attempts by the airlines to cancel and delay flights? The airlines are increasingly trying to blame delays on understaffing at the Federal Aviation Administration, which manages the nation's airspace and hires air-traffic controllers. The FAA has admitted it's understaffed, especially in an important air control center in Florida, which has meant a decrease in the quality of service and an increase in delays and cancelations. Problems were popping up well before the weekend, with some disruptions caused by thunderstorms that slowed air traffic. Why are airlines cutting flights? Many of them, including Delta, Southwest and JetBlue, have trimmed summer schedules to reduce stress on their operations. They are using larger planes, on average, to carry more passengers with the same number of pilots. Those steps haven't been enough so far this summer. Are the pilots striking? The pilots are not striking. Federal law creates a long and difficult process before airline workers can legally go on strike. The pilots are still walking picket lines while remaining on the job at various airports. The pilots plan to picket, not strike, on the days they're not scheduled to work in order to bring attention to the issues. Why are pilots attempting to picket? Pilots have complained that thinly staffed airlines are asking them to work too many flights, with more pilots reporting fatigue. The Air Line Pilots Association claimed earlier this week its nearly 14,000 members are working longer hours even as airlines cancel thousands of trips. What have officials proposed to potentially fix this or punish the airlines? The Biden administration is blaming the airlines, saying it received billions in stimulus money to keep them afloat during the pandemic and should stick to the schedule it publishes. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said earlier this month that airlines had until July 4 to figure out the issues and work out the kinks so travelers can have a smooth summer holiday. Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote a letter to Buttigieg demanding he fine airlines $55,000 per passenger for every flight cancellation they know can't be fully staffed. Congressional leaders are demanding the airlines provide answers as to why there continues to be disruptions, especially since the industry received $50 billion in relief during the pandemic in an effort to keep business afloat. Advertisement

Its website says it includes: 'Early boarding to allow extra time to get settled and meet the flight attendants.

'Kids-only lounges in our hub cities for flight connections Complimentary Kids' Kits from Quaker with snacks and activities (for ages 5  10, in hub cities).

'An airport escort to help your child to the gate for flight connections Escorting the child to the authorized adult picking them up when they land.

'Keep in mind, our flight attendants will be busy with onboard duties and can't continuously monitor your child during their flight.

It adds: 'Let your child know to ring the call button if they need anything.'

Flyers across the US were hit by a slew of cancelations and delays that caused pandemonium across the country over the last week.

Around 48 million people traveled over the weekend, with AAA estimating 3.5million were to take to the air.

But the actual number of passengers flying may have been dramatically higher as experts screened more than 2.4 million travelers at airports on Thursday alone.

But many fliers faced disappointment, with 604 flights canceled by lunchtime last Saturday and 2,879 delayed.

Since the hectic Juneteenth travel weekend, the US has seen more than 12,000 flights cancelled, according to Flight Aware.

In addition to airport chaos and heavy traffic, holiday travelers will have to contend with higher prices.

Average gas prices have soared 56 percent from a year ago, mid-range hotel prices have increased 23 percent, and average lowest airfares are up 14 percent.

The Biden administration is blaming the airlines, saying it received billions to keep afloat during the pandemic and should stick to the schedule it publishes.

Buttigieg said earlier this month airlines had until July 4 to figure out the issues and work out the kinks so travelers can have a smooth summer holiday.

The airlines are increasingly trying to blame delays on understaffing at the FAA, which manages the nation's airspace and hires air-traffic controllers.

The FAA admitted it is understaffed, especially in an important air control center in Florida, which has meant a decrease in the quality of service and delays.

Problems were popping up well before the weekend, with some disruptions caused by thunderstorms that slowed air traffic.

Many airlines, including Delta, Southwest and JetBlue, trimmed summer schedules to reduce stress on their operations.

They are using larger planes, on average, to carry more passengers with the same number of pilots. Those steps haven't been enough so far this summer.

Meanwhile the Biden administration is tapping funds from the bipartisan infrastructure bill to invest a whopping $1 billion annually for the next five years for improvements at 85 airports across the US.

The $5 billion will go toward several projects  some of the most important being upgrading air traffic control towers, terminals, security checkpoints and baggage inspection and screening areas.

'America is a country that brought the modern aviation age to the world  and yet around the world, in most rankings of airport quality, not one of our airports ranks among the top 25. That's something that we have to change,' Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters.

The investment comes as U.S. airlines and airports continue to face staff shortages and other complications, leading to an increase in flight cancellations and delays.

The Independence Day weekend holiday saw pre-pandemic travel levels in the U.S., which led to 1,400 cancellations and 14,000 delays Friday through Sunday.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) usually fronts investments in runways and air control towers, but the administration's investments go further.

Buttigieg claimed while airlines are footing the costs for many airport improvement projects, federal resources should also be allocated toward airport infrastructure.

'I don't think anybody could look at airports across America today and say that the existing system or the existing levels of funding have been adequate,' he said.

'It is very natural for public funds to go to publicly important resources and pieces of infrastructure,' Buttigieg added. 'And we think that includes airport terminals.'

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared on Fox News to defend his record and explain why travel was disrupted over the holiday weekend. He said he had no plans to raise the retirement age for pilots beyond 65 to ease staffing shortages

The man in charge of implementing Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure package concurred.

'Airport terminals is not something the federal government has historically invested in. It's typically been to local airport owners and airlines that have done that,' said Mitch Landrieu, who is also a former New Orleans mayor.

'But the need is evident,' he added.

Grants announced Thursday include $20 million each for the main airports in Detroit, Michigan and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania just to renovate their bathrooms.

Some of the largest FAA grants provided are $60 million to improve the terminal and bag-handling system at the Denver International Airport, as well as $50 million for Boston's Logan Airport and another $50 million for the Orlando International Airport in Florida.

Dulles International Airport in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. will get $49.6 million to build a new concourse and the Pittsburgh International Airport will receive $20 million to build an additional terminal.

Another $5 million is going toward terminal expansion at Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport in Tennessee.

Projects range from massive hubs like the Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport to small regional airports like the Dexter Airport in Maine.

A whopping 532 airports across the country submitted grant applications for 658 different projects, according to the FAA. If all were approved the total would amount to $14 billion.

Some of the complications with flights recently have been pilot shortages, but Buttigieg said Tuesday that the administration does not plan to raise the retirement age despite how it could help with the staffing issue.

The maximum age for a pilot is 65, which was increased 15 years ago.

Even though Americans are living and working longer  including 79-year-old President Joe Biden  Buttigieg said the retirement age would not be increased again.

'I'm much more interested in raising the bar on things like compensation and job quality than lowering the bar on something like safety,' Buttigieg told Fox News on Tuesday following the hectic holiday weekend for air travelers.

'And when you get to these training hours, retirement age, and those things, those are fundamentally safety regulations,' he added.

'The United States of America shouldn't be able to have a robust aviation system without watering down our expectations on safety and I will consider and entertain anything that does not compromise safety.'

American Airlines said it was investigating the incident involving Gilliam and her daughter.

A spokesman said: 'American cares deeply about our young passengers and is committed to providing a safe and pleasant travel experience for them,' according to the airline's statement.

'We take these matters very seriously and are looking into what occurred. A member of our team has reached out to the customer to learn more about their experience.'
Alex Berenson has filed a federal lawsuit against Twitter challenging his ban

The independent journalist Alex Berenson has been reinstated to Twitter following an 11-month ban that saw him 'permanently banned'.

Last December he filed a federal lawsuit against the social media platform claiming his first amendment rights had been violated.

In the lawsuit filed in District Court for Northern California, Berenson sought to be reinstated to Twitter and requested unspecified monetary damages over his ban which which began last August.

'The parties have come to a mutually acceptable resolution. I have been reinstated. Twitter has acknowledged that my tweets should have not led to my suspension at that time,' Berenson wrote on his Substack page earlier this week.

'Twitter banned me after I got five strikes under its Covid-19 misinformation policy. Which meant I'd supposedly made 'claims of fact' that were 'demonstrably false or misleading' and 'likely to impact public safety or cause serious harm'. Now we come to find those tweets 'should not have led to my suspension'?' he wrote.

'All in the past, though! The lil bird and I are now the best of friends,' he jokes.

Berenson was reinstated to Twitter earlier this week although he had continued to write on the blogging platform Substack

'I can't wait for Insider and NBC News and everyone else who drooled over my suspension in August 2021 and later to devote equal space to the fact that I'm back and Twitter's admission it should not have banned me. Much more, actually, because this has NEVER happened before.

Berenson, 49, a former New York Times reporter and prominent skeptic of many pandemic policies, was banned over a tweet in which he stated that COVID vaccines do not prevent infection or transmission of the virus.

Berenson had previously called the pandemic an excuse for the government to overstep its boundaries in terms of rules and authority.

He notes on his blog that he is unable to explain what happened behind the scenes in order for him to be reinstated because he has been bound by secrecy.

'I can't tell you, because the statement is all I can say about the settlement.'

Berenson has said he will continue to try and uncover what caused him to be banned in the first place, noting that he believes government pressure may have played a part.

'The settlement does not end my investigation into the pressures that the government may have placed on Twitter to suspend my account. I will have more to say on that issue in the near future. I made a promise to readers last month, and I take my promises to readers seriously,' he added.

Upon returning to Twitter, the journalist posted the exact same tweet as the one that got him banned, knowing that this time it would be allowed.

Upon returning to Twitter, the journalist posted the exact same tweet as the one that got him banned, knowing that this time it would be allowed.

Berenson has returned to Twitter and has posted several tweets since his reinstatement

The lawsuit filed in December in US District Court for Northern California sought Berenson's reinstatement to Twitter and unspecified monetary damages over his permanent ban

Berenson was banned from Twitter over this tweet about Covid vaccines

'Mr. Berenson's claim that the COVID-19 vaccines do not 'stop infection' or 'transmission' of COVID-19 was true at the time and is true now,' his attorneys said in his 2021 lawsuit.

Since being banned Berenson has gone on to author the bestseller Pandemia

'It is undisputed that vaccinated persons can contract and spread COVID-19,' the lawsuit adds, noting that Dr. Anthony Fauci himself has stated in published interviews that vaccinated people can be infected.

However, the crux of the lawsuit did not rest on whether Berenson's criticism of vaccines was objectively true or not.

The detailed 70-page complaint alleged that Twitter is legally a 'common carrier,' similar to a railroad or a telegram, which is required under California and federal law to provide service to all comers.

'Twitter's role in public debate in the twenty-first century resembles that of the telegraph in the nineteenth,' the lawsuit argued.

Berenson's attorneys also argued that he had 'a uniquely viable claim that Twitter acted on behalf of the federal government in censoring and barring him from to its platform.'

The complaint argued that his Twitter ban came only days after high officials including President Joe Biden called for a crackdown on pandemic misinformation on social media, and that the company was responding to government pressure in banning him.

Pictured: a screenshot of Berenson's suspended Twitter account. The social media platform permanently banned the former New York Times journalist for his tweets in August 2021

The suit claimed violation of the First Amendment, false advertising, and violation of California common carrier law, among other complaints.

Following his Twitter ban, Berenson was still able to publish his opinion and reporting on the platform Substack. He has also released a book entitled Pandemia, which reached the bestsellers list.

In the tweet that earned him his ban, Berenson wrote: 'It doesn't stop infection. Or transmission. Don't think of it as a vaccine.'

'Think of it  at best  as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS,' he added.

Berenson began his anti-mask and vaccine mandate crusade in 2020, when an Op-Ed he penned for the Wall Street Journal claimed the pandemic had caused 'a new age of censorship and suppression.'

Berenson began reporting on the pharmaceutical industry and financial crime for the New York Times in 1999, before leaving the newspaper in 2010

'Information has never been more plentiful or easier to distribute. Yet we are sliding into a new age of censorship and suppression, encouraged by technology giants and traditional media companies,' Berenson wrote.

'As someone who's been falsely characterized as a coronavirus 'denier,' he wrote at the time. 'I have seen this crisis firsthand.'

The controversial journalist and writer also revealed an ongoing dispute of his with Amazon, who Berenson alleges tried to suppress his self-published books on the subject of COVID-19 and the ensuing response.

'Since June, Amazon has twice tried to suppress self-published booklets I have written about Covid-19 and the response to it,' he continued.

'These booklets don't contain conspiracy theories. Like the scientists who wrote the Great Barrington Declaration, I simply believe many measures to control the coronavirus have been damaging, counterproductive and unsupported by science.'

Berenson began reporting on the pharmaceutical industry and financial crime for the New York Times in 1999, before leaving the newspaper in 2010 to pursue a career as a full-time author and novelist.

The Yale-educated writer was dubbed 'the pandemic's wrongest man' by The Atlantic over his predictions about the virus.

He had originally predicted that the US would not surpass 500,000 deaths due to COVID-19. The country has now exceeded more than one million deaths.

Berenson had previously enjoyed a large social media following, with more than 340,000 followers prior to his ban. He has since gained a further 50,000 followers.

In announcing his lawsuit on Substack last December he wrote: 'Remember, folks - Don't take the law into your own hands, you take 'em to court!'
Amber Heard's insurance company is refusing to cover part of the $8.3million in damages the actress owes ex-husband Johnny Depp following her defamation trial in May.

Heard had a $1 million liability policy with New York Marine and General Insurance Company which she had hoped that might cover at least a portion of the damages bill she needs to settle.

The policy covers wrongful conduct of various sorts including defamation but there is a clause which will likely see the insurance company refusing to pay out, reports TMZ.

Under California law, the state in which the insurance policy was issued, the company claim to be able to refuse the million dollar payout if Heard was found to have committed 'willful' misconduct.

The New York Marine Company say that in their determination the judge found the defamation committed by Amber to be both 'willful' and 'malicious'.

The insurance company now want to see the judge declare that they are not going to be on the line to foot part of Amber's bill based on the policy.

Amber Heard's insurance company is refusing to cover part of the $8.3million in damages the actress owes ex-husband Johnny Depp following her defamation trial in May

The fallout from the showdown is still rumbling on with Heard's lawyers on Friday demanding a new trial in her defamation fight claiming the wrong person served on her jury and ruled against her.

Heard's team filed the court documents in Virginia 'based on additional discovered facts,' they said.

Her lawyers allege two people with the same last name lived at the home in Virginia where the jury duty summons was sent in April.

The summons was intended for a 77-year-old person, but instead the 52-year-old showed up in court and served on the jury.

'It is deeply troubling for an individual not summoned for jury duty nonetheless to appear for jury duty and serve on a jury, especially in a case such as this,' they write.

Johnny Depp was on June 1 awarded by the jury $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages

Fans of Depp, 59, are pictured on April 25 outside the courtroom in Fairfax, Virginia

The filing notes that Virginia has safeguards in place to prevent these types of mixups, such as using of a seven-digit juror number, zip code, and birthdate to verify jurors' identities.

Depp is seen on July 6, on tour with his band in Germany

'Those safeguards are in place and relied upon by the parties to verify the identity of the correct juror, to ensure due process and a fair trial for all litigants,' reads the filing.

'When these safeguards are circumvented or not followed, as appears to be the case here, the right to a jury trial and due process are undermined and compromised.

'Under these circumstances, a mistrial should be declared, and a new trial ordered.'

The document did not provide any reason for why this allegedly occurred or say how the situation was uncovered.

Friday's filing comes after the actress' legal team on July 1 filed claims that the verdict at trial was not supported by evidence presented during the six-week hearing.

The July 1 outlined the issue of the 'wrong' Juror 15, but did not go into as much detail as Friday's document.

Depp sued his former partner over a 2018 article she wrote for the Washington Post about her experiences as a survivor of domestic abuse, which his lawyers said falsely accused him of being an abuser.

On June 1 the jury ruled in his favor.

Heard's lawyers also said last week that the judge should throw out the verdict because the amount awarded to Depp  $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages  was 'excessive' and 'indefensible.'

She was awarded $2 million.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is going all out to woo students and youth in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly elections. (DC file photo)

Hyderabad: Faced with the wrath of student organisations for neglecting students and youth since coming to power in 2014, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is going all out to woo students and youth in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly elections.

The party's leadership is making an effort to reach out to young voters between the ages of 18 and 30. The government hopes to gain the support of government job aspirants between the ages of 18 and 49 by raising the maximum age limit from 34 to 44 years for a two-year period, as BCs, SCs, and STs have further relaxation of five years until they reach the age of 49.

Among the major decisions taken by the government recently to garner the support of students and youth are a series of job notifications to fill over 80,000 vacancies, timely release of funds for scholarships and fee reimbursement, and the establishment of a large number of residential colleges and study circles all at once from this year to train students for competitive and recruitment exams for free.

According to party sources, the importance placed on students and youth can be gauged by the fact that finance minister T.Harish Rao held a six-hour meeting with senior department officials on July 4 to expedite the process of clearing long-pending arrears of scholarships and fee reimbursement to students. Following this meeting, Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao held a seven-hour review meeting on Tuesday to discuss the opening of a large number of new residential educational institutions at the intermediate and graduation levels, as well as the establishment of four study circles in each of the 33 districts to train students for state-level and national-level competitive/recruitment exams beginning this academic year (2022-23).

Harish Rao directed finance officials to release Rs 363 crore immediately to clear pending scholarships of students belonging to BC, SC, ST, EBC, Minorities and Physically-challenged. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao issued directions to Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to take steps immediately to start new residential educational institutions and study circles across the state.

The TRS faced the wrath of opposition parties and student organisations for neglecting students and youth since coming to power in 2014 by not issuing adequate job notifications to fill vacancies in government departments and keeping payment of scholarships and fee reimbursement pending for years. Opposition Congress and BJP held several protest rallies against TRS government failing to fill jobs, release funds for scholarships, fee reimbursement etc along with various students' organisations.

The government has already issued notifications to fill over 35,000 vacancies since May this year out of the total 80,000 vacancies it had announced to fill in March this year. The government has decided to release the notifications for balance vacancies in a phase manner and complete the entire recruitment drive for 80,000 posts before the 2023 Assembly polls.
Vice president Kamala Harris responded with an incoherent word salad when asked in an interview whether Democratic presidents and congresses failed by never codifying abortion rights over the nearly 50 years Roe v Wade stood.

'I think that, to be very honest with you, I do believe that we should have rightly believed, but we certainly believe that certain issues are just settled. Certain issues are just settled,' Harris said.

Roe v Wade was passed in 1973. Since then Democrats have had 15 congressional majorities, and four presidents.

In the interview with CBS News' Robert Costa, the Vice President also said that congress needs to act and pass a law guaranteeing abortion rights to American women, and that women have been stripped of a 'constitutional right' following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade.

Asked whether years of Democratic majorities had failed by not codifying abortion rights, VP Kamala Harris said: 'I think that, to be very honest with you, I do believe that we should have rightly believed, but we certainly believe that certain issues are just settled.'

EXCLUSIVE: Vice President Harris sits down with CBS News' @costareports to discuss the Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade, the economy and gun violence ahead of the midterm elections.



Tune in tonight for the full interview on @CBSEveningNews and on Sundays @FaceTheNation. pic.twitter.com/rrHNR6I5rY  CBS News (@CBSNews) July 8, 2022

Harris said: 'I think all of us share a deep sense of outrage that the United States Supreme Court took a constitutional right that was recognized, took it from the women of America.'

The vice president continued: 'We are now looking at a case where the government can interfere in what is one of the most intimate and private decisions that someone can make.'

The interview will air on CBS's 'Face the Nation' this Sunday.

On Friday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order designed to help women travel to states where abortions are legal as well as expanding access to abortion pills through the Department of Health and Human Services.

Harris said: 'We also need Congress to act because that branch of government is where we actually codify, which means put into law, the rights that again, we took for granted, but clearly have now been taken from the women of America.'

When asked if she felt as though past Democratic leaders had failed in not writing Roe v Wade into law, Harris dodged the question: 'I think that, to be very honest with you, I  I do believe that we should have rightly believed, but we certainly believed that certain issues are just settled. Certain issues are just settled.'

Harris avoided echoing calls from other Democrats for conservative Supreme Court judges should be impeached.

Congress needs to act: Vice President Kamala Harris tells @costareports that Congress needs to codify abortion rights into law, following the executive order Pres. Biden signed today. pic.twitter.com/xjPamdt6SG  CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) July 8, 2022

The interview comes just days after Harris was criticized for her seemingly incoherent speech at the scene of the Highland Park shooting

The former California senator did say that she didn't 'believe' the justices who said that they felt Roe v Wade was a settled issue

On Friday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order designed to help women travel to states where abortions are legal as well as expanding access to abortion pills

Officers cut the chains that protesters used to attach themselves to Los Angeles City Hall on July 6

The former California senator did say that she didn't 'believe' the justices who said that they felt Roe v Wade was a settled issue.

Harris said: 'I start from the point of experience of having served in the Senate. I never believed them. I didn't believe them. It's why I voted against.'

The vice president put the onus on congress to act on Roe v Wade: 'If you think about the Voting Rights Act, Congress acted, Civil Rights Act, Congress acted because where there was any question, especially through the courts or any other system, about the sanctity of these rights, we decided as a nation, we would put it into law. That's what we need to do with Roe and the principles behind Roe.'

It comes days after Harris was widely criticized for her apparent incoherent speech in the wake of the Highland Park shooting that killed seven people on July 4th.

Harris said at the scene of the shooting: 'We've got to take this stuff seriously as you are because you have been forced to take this seriously.'

She went on: 'The whole nation should understand and have a level of empathy to understand that this could happen anywhere [to] any people in any community. And we should stand together and speak out about why it's got to stop.'

One person wrote on Twitter about the speech saying: 'Word salad. Means absolutely nothing.' Another read: 'Unbroken streak for like nineteen months now of never making a single coherent statement as VP. Almost admirable in its consistency.'

On Friday, Harris met with Democratic lawmakers from Indiana, Florida, Nebraska and Montana, states that have Republican legislatures and governors, and may soon pass abortion bans.

Harris was quoted as saying at the meeting that the Biden administration would show 'commitment to protecting access to reproductive health care.' The vice president urged pro-abortion lawmakers to 'continue defending reproductive rights and freedoms at the state level.'

On Friday, Harris met with Democratic lawmakers from Indiana, Florida, Nebraska and Montana, states that have Republican legislatures and governors, and may soon pass abortion bans

Harris also said: 'Women should be able to make decisions about their body'

NBC News recently reported that Harris' new chief-of-staff, Lorraine Voles, has led to the vice president being more involved in the Biden administrations response to major events

Harris also said: 'Women should be able to make decisions about their body.'

At the meeting, South Dakota Democrat Erin Healy said: 'How close to death does someone have to be before a doctor intervenes? South Dakotans should have the freedom to travel anywhere they want in this country, no questions asked. Enforcing some kind of state border laws about who gets to leave and who doesn't paints a very grim future for America.'

South Dakota's Republican Governor Kristi Noem has announced plans to tighten her state's abortion ban further during a special legislation session.

While Indiana Democrat Phil GiaQuinta told WPTA about his feelings on meeting with Harris saying: 'I think the administration is doing a nice job, excellent job of getting that message out that they believe in the health and welfare of women. And again, that politicians have no business being in that decision.'

NBC News recently reported that Harris' new chief-of-staff, Lorraine Voles, has led to the vice president being more involved in the Biden administrations response to major events.

A recently released Yahoo News/YouGov survey taken June 24-27 shows that California Governor Gavin Newsom would fare better in a presidential election against ex-President Donald Trump in a hypothetical 2024 election than the vice president.

In a head-to-head matchup between Harris and Trump, the two tie at 41 percent with another 18 percent saying they don't know for whom they would cast their ballot in that hypothetical 2024 election.

But when the former president was put up against Newsom, the California Democrat had just a 1 percentage point advantage  39 percent to 40 percent.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has joined other Republicans in calling for prominent Democrats, including the president, to apologize to four border patrol agents who were cleared of whipping migrants.

In September 2021, four border patrol agents were falsely accused of whipping a group of Haitian migrants at the southern border.

A 500-page report released by the Customs and Border Protection this week found that the narrative surrounding the whipping allegations that were perpetuated by the White House was false.

During an appearance on 'Hannity' on Friday, Paxton said: 'There's no doubt this was political. And it's really unfortunate for these border agents who've given their lives to securing our border and defending Americans.'

The attorney general continued: 'And here they are being punished, they should be rewarded. They should be taken care of. Instead, their careers may be ruined, and they've been humiliated in front of the entire American public.'

Paxton told Greg Jarrett, who was standing in for Sean Hannity: 'And I just think it's really wrong. I would expect instead that Joe Biden and some of these political leaders should come out and actually apologize to these guys for what they've been through.'

The images of agents on the banks of the Rio Grande in Del Rio, Texas, sparked a humanitarian outcry and a strong response from Biden calling for the officers to 'pay' for their treatment of Haitians.

On Facebook, House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy also called for Democrats to apologize.

McCarthy said in a statement: 'Our brave Border Patrol agents work to secure our border every day despite the fact that President Biden makes their mission more difficult and more dangerous because of his unconscionable support for a wide-open southern border.'

Paxton told Greg Jarrett: 'I would expect instead that Joe Biden and some of these political leaders should come out and actually apologize to these guys for what they've been through'

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that the border patrol agents were 'smeared by President Biden, Vice President Harris, and their allies in the media - and they should all apologize to these Border Patrol agents.' While Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzalez weighed in saying: 'I will not stand for a politicized narrative against our Border Patrol agents'

He continued: 'Their reputation was smeared by President Biden, Vice President Harris, and their allies in the media - and they should all apologize to these Border Patrol agents.'

The statement went on: 'These agents were cleared of criminal wrongdoing months ago, but instead of admitting they were wrong, the Biden administration is doubling down on baselessly attacking these agents to perpetuate their open-border agenda.'

'Rather than disparage the men and women tasked with protecting our border, President Biden should give them the tools they need and deserve to secure our southern border once and for all.'

Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez also weighed in saying: 'I will not stand for a politicized narrative against our Border Patrol agents. Instead of pursuing political games, it is critical this Administration focuses on the most important task at hand- securing our southern border.'

A 500-page report released by Customs and Border Protection on Friday said the agents acted unprofessionally, unsafely and used unnecessary force - but concluded they did not strike the migrants with their reins.

The results of the investigation came as the U.S. still grapples with a surge in migrants across the border and reports of law enforcement morale declining.

CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said the disciplinary investigation is still ongoing but would not release details of any action taken. He also didn't identify the employees involved.

The report outlined the agents' 'unprofessional or dangerous behavior' toward Haitians, including yelling profanity and insults related to a migrant's national origin.

It also said agents used unnecessary force against migrants attempting to reenter the United States with food.

It found one agent on horseback grabbed a man and spun him around.

Customs and Border Protection has referred four horseback agents falsely accused of whipping Haitian migrants in September 2021 for disciplinary action

The images taken in September 2021 sparked a firestorm and a strong response from Biden calling for them to 'pay' for their treatment of Haitians

According to the report, one agent 'acted in an unsafe manner by pursuing the individual he had yelled at along the river's edge, forcing his horse to narrowly maneuver around a small child.'

The incident originated, the report found, when Texas' Department of Public Security (DPS) officials also on the scene asked for assistance from Border Patrol. A lack of clear command lead the agents to inappropriately follow DPS instructions to prevent migrants from crossing the river back into the United States.

'The report showed there were failures to make good decisions at multiple levels of the organization,' Magnus said in a statement on Friday.

'Failures to maintain command and control over Horse Patrol Units, lack of appropriate policies and training, and the overall chaotic nature of the situation at Del Rio at the time contributed to the incident.'

Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said Friday that the report is proof that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas 'doesn't deserve to lead' his department.

'Today we learned what we knew all along - the accused Border Patrol Agents in Del Rio did nothing wrong,' Roy said in a statement to the press.

'But this administration can't miss a chance to destroy the morale of our overrun, hardworking Border Patrol for political gain, and it issued disciplinary action anyway to finish off one of the most despicable displays of leadership seen from any cabinet Secretary.'

Migrants were frequently crossing into Mexico to bring back food and supplies that were scarce in the makeshift encampment under a bridge.

Initial reports said the migrants were being 'whipped' - but the claim was quickly debunked.

It was later clarified that the agents were swirling their long reins, to control the horses, and were not actually raising the leather straps to beat the migrants.

Up to 15,000 migrants set up camp under and around the Del Rio International Bridge, using a dam area to cross between the Mexico and US side of the border.

CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said the disciplinary investigation is still ongoing, would not release details of any action taken and didn't identify the employees involved

Up to 15,000 migrants set up camp under and around the Del Rio International Bridge, using a dam area to cross between the Mexico and US side of the border

The camp's squalid and bare conditions prompted outrage from Republican lawmakers and progressive activist groups alike.

About 8,000 were rapidly expelled in the weeks that followed under a COVID-era order known as Title 42.

In November the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declined to press criminal charges against the officers.

Mayorkas said in September that the investigation would be completed in 'days, not weeks'.

But since then the Border Patrol's Office of Personnel Responsibility has been reviewing photographs and interviewing witnesses and agents.

On Thursday, Republican Governor Greg Abbott said he had authorized the Texas National Guard and state authorities to 'apprehend' migrants and transport them to the border with Mexico.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the apprehension of migrants is a federal issue and accused Abbott of meddling.

Magnus said in an earlier statement that the 'hateful images' on the 'deeply offensive' coins angered him and distracted from the essential work of the Border Patrol.
Ukrainian soldiers being trained by British forces to help them in their fight against Russia have arrived in the UK.

The first cohort in the UK-led military programme met with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace on Thursday as they started their several weeks-long training, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

The programme will train up to 10,000 Ukrainians over the coming months.

New Ukrainian recruits are trained by UK army specialists at a military base near Manchester

In training: The programme will train up to 10,000 Ukrainians over the coming months

Mr Wallace said: 'This ambitious new training programme is the next phase in the UK's support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in their fight against Russian aggression.

'Using the world-class expertise of the British Army we will help Ukraine to rebuild its forces and scale-up its resistance as they defend their country's sovereignty and their right to choose their own future.'

Mr Wallace said the UK will have trained 10,000 Ukrainians by the end of the programme's first phase.

Wallace said the goal was to 'make sure the soldiers are the best,' and also spoke to the Ukrainian troops himself, laughing and telling them to 'have patience with the British food.'

The soldiers, aged between 18 and 60, are receiving a heavily compressed version of the 28-week Combat Infantry Course taught at the British Army's Infantry Training Centre in Catterick.

Around 1,050 UK service personnel are being deployed to run the programme, which will take place at MoD sites across the North West, South West and South East of the UK.

The training will give volunteer recruits with little to no military experience the skills to be effective in frontline combat.

Based on the UK's basic soldier training, the course covers weapons handling, battlefield first aid, fieldcraft, patrol tactics and the Law of Armed Conflict.

'Training matters,' Mr Wallace said in an interview during his visit.

'When you're in a war and you're against Russia, you need to make sure that you can be the best you can be, and that this is the process we're doing here.

New recruits to the Ukrainian army are trained by UK army specialists at a military base

He added: 'Many recruits had never touched a weapon before. If the Ukrainians ask for more, we'll be open to more.'

Asked how many, he said: 'We could do thousands and thousands.'

British trainers said the motivation levels of the Ukrainians were extraordinary, with the new troops working from 6am until 10.30pm every day, seven days a week, according to Sky News.

The Government has also procured AK variant assault rifles for the training programme, meaning Ukrainian soldiers can train on the weapons they will be using on the front line.

This was supported by the Welsh Guards, who tested more than 2,400 such rifles in 17 days to ensure they were ready for the Ukrainians to commence their training.

The UK has also gifted clothing and equipment to support Ukrainian soldiers in their training and deployment back to Ukraine.

In training: A Boeing H-47 Chinook helicopter transports new recruits of the Ukrainian army being trained by UK military specialists to the training camp, near Manchester, England

Pictured: Defence Secretary Ben Wallace speaking to new recruits to the Ukrainian army who are being trained by the UK armed forces personnel at a military base near Manchester, UK

Each soldier will be issued with personal protective equipment including helmets, body armour, eye protectors, ear protectors, pelvic protection, and individual first aid kits.

They will also be issued with field uniforms and boots, cold and wet weather clothing, bergens, day sacks and webbing.

The UK has a long history of supporting Ukrainian service personnel through Operation ORBITAL, which trained 22,000 Ukrainians between 2015 and 2022.

The MoD says new programme will build on this success and demonstrate the UK's continued leadership in responding to Ukraine's military requirements as the war evolves.

It is the latest package of support from the UK, worth more than 1.3 billion, which has seen Britain send thousands of anti-tank and anti-air missiles, artillery and other equipment to Ukraine.
A pilot has died after his helicopter crashed in dense bushland north of Sydney, sending emergency crews rushing to the scene.

Police Rescue officers found the body of the pilot, believed to be a man in his 60s, amongst the wreckage, but he has not yet been formally identified.

Emergency response teams were called to the remote bushland near South Maroota just before midday on Friday and battled their way through tricky terrain and flood-affected trails to get to the helicopter.

The body of the helicopter pilot, believed to be in his 60s, was found amongst the shattered wreckage of the aircraft on the remote hillside (pictured)

Rescue teams were led to the scene by thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the Maroota hillside (pictured)

The pilot is believed to have been the sole occupant of the helicopter.

The helicopter was on fire when New South Wales Fire and Rescue first arrived, with thick black plumes of smoke billowing over the dense tree canopy.

The Fire and Rescue teams quickly contained the fire.

Emergency services fought through dense and flood-affected terrain as they tried to reach the helicopter crash site

Other emergency crews were then able to begin making their way to the wreckage, and found the body of the pilot in the debris.

Police established a crime scene and will guard the area overnight.

Recovery operations and further investigations will continue on Sunday.

The response team included Police helicopter teams, Police Rescue, NSW Ambulance helicopter, NSW Rural Fire Service, NSW SES and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will lead the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.
His wife has revealed shocking details about accident that changed their lives

was paralysed from the shoulders down in April

Doctors worked a medical miracle to make sure quadriplegic NRL star Nathan Stapleton could be by his wife's side for the birth to their new baby son.

The former Cronulla Sharks wing-fullback remains in intensive care months after a rugby tackle went wrong but was determined not miss the special family moment.

Prince of Wales Hospital custom-built a mobile intensive care unit to keep Stapleton alive and breathing as he was wheeled next door to the Royal Hospital for Women.

The massive effort allowed Stapleton to be there for wife Katy as she gave birth to their second child on July 1.

The 32-year old this week thanked the two Sydney hospitals for working together and said he was thrilled and excited to have been there for the birth.

Nathan Stapleton - pictured recovering in intensive care with wife Katy and first son Harry by his side - says he feels 'positive' despite having his life turned upside down by the accident

Stapleton scored 17 tries for Cronulla when he represented the Sharks from 2009 to 2014

'We had him on Friday and it all went really well,' Ms Stapleton told the Daily Telegraph.

'Nate got to be at the birth which was wonderful.'

Stapleton has been left a quadriplegic after a horror clash during a rugby game left him paralysed from the shoulders down and needing a ventilator to breathe.

He broke his neck while playing a match in West Wyalong, around 500km west of Sydney, on April 9.

The former Sharks star went into cardiac arrest after breaking his neck in the match for Boorowa Goldies rugby union club, with local nurse Louise McCabe stepping in to give him CPR straight after the horrific incident.

Ms Stapleton said doctors expected her husband to suffer severe brain damage because he was starved of oxygen for 16 minutes.

But she said she could tell he would bounce back because she knew he recognised her as soon as they locked eyes afterwards.

'When it first happened everyone that was there when it happened assumed I was going to Sydney to turn off his life support,' she said.

Ms McCabe said she was overwhelmed by the response from the Stapleton family for saving his life.

Katy (pictured left with Nathan). He was able to be wheeled from Prince of Wales Hospital to the Royal Hospital for Women so he was by his wifes side for the birth of their second child on July 1

'I definitely do feel like I saved his life, I acknowledge that I saved his life and medical professionals have given me credit,' Ms McCabe said.

'Katy rang me and thanked me for what I did and she said the doctors had said if we didn't start early CPR, Nathan wouldn't be here today.

'I'm very overwhelmed and I've had Nathan's family reach out to me again to thank me.'

An appeal was put together on crowdfunding website GoFundMe to help relieve some financial stress off of the Stapleton family, with over $170,000 raised.
A drama school teacher said he was forced to quit his Catholic school job after students called him out as gay in a viral TikTok trend.

His career was destroyed by the teenagers using TikTok to post 'clues' in a 'guess who' viral social media trend.

The series of snippets of information pointed to the un-named Perth drama tutor's identity and which he said gave him away.

The video clip featured the school's crest with clues, 'not many people like him', the name of his school house group, images of theatre comedy, a tragedy mask and a muscled male torso alongside a pride flag.

Perth drama Catholic school teacher forced to quit after being outed as gay in a TikTok (stock image)

The Tik Tok was a 'guess who' game which is currently trending on the app, providing 'clues' which suggested the drama teacher was gay

'I was victim to students making a TikTok about me that effectively was outing me,' the teacher told The West Australian.

'Being gay and working in a Catholic school, the scriptures and the Church believe homosexuality is wrong and that teachers may be dismissed from their role due to religious grounds.'

The conditions of employment for all teachers in Catholic education state teachers bans them from coming out publicly as homosexual.

The teacher had been at the school for six years and said he loved his job and was disappointed by the lack of support from the Catholic system.

And he said more needs to be done to protect teachers from cyber harassment by students.

A Catholic Education WA spokesperson said it strongly believed in respecting the dignity of every person and condemned harassment of any nature.

'Whilst it would not be appropriate to comment on matters involving individual employees or students, the safety and wellbeing of all students and staff are central to our processes and practices,' the spokesperson said.

'Appropriate online behaviour continues to be an educational and pastoral focus with clear policies and procedures if student conduct does not meet the high standards expected.'

TikTok community guidelines state the platform does not tolerate bullying or harassment of any kind and encourages users to report inappropriate content.
Urban free climber George King-Thompson has been handed a four-month suspended prison sentence in Spain for BASE jumping from Europe's tallest and fastest rollercoaster.

The 22-year-old admitted to breaking into the Port Aventura theme park on the Costa Dorada before it opened and parachuting off the top of Red Force, which is 367 feet high with a maximum speed of 112mph.

The thrill-seeker, jailed for scaling The Shard in London in 2019, was handed his punishment by a court in Barcelona after admitting to an offence of breaking and entering into an establishment open to the public.

An 18-year-old Spaniard who filmed the stunt also received the same penalty in a speedy trial at Barcelona's Court of Instruction Number Four.

The pair, who were fined 480 (406), have been warned they will be jailed if they reoffend in Spain in the next two years.

George King-Thompson broke into Port Aventura theme park on the Costa Dorada and climbed to the top of the tallest rollercoaster

From the top, George leapt off the top of Red Force rollercoaster and opened a parachute

Once he landed he was apparently swarmed by police and security who arrested him and put him in a cell for two days

George poses for a selfie from the top of the Shard in London in 2019, one of the tallest buildings in Europe

'BASE' is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: buildings, antenna, (referring to radio masts), spans (bridges) and earth (cliffs).

King-Thompson, from Oxford, confirmed he had landed himself in hot water in a social media post alongside footage of his 6am July 4 stunt.

Admitting he was 'very loco', he said: 'Once I landed I got swarmed by security/police with no opportunity to run I decided to lay like a star fish on my back looking up at the sky from where I had fallen laughing hysterically whilst all the authorities formed a semi circle around me looking down at me trying to work out what to do with this strange Englishman.

'They then slapped me in the cells for 48 hours and handed me a 2 year suspended prison sentence.... which means no more climbs in Spain for 2 years!

'Estoy muy loco!' which translates as 'I am very crazy'.

The daredevil landed himself with a six-month term in Pentonville Prison for breaching a court order for illegally climbing The Shard, the tallest building in the UK and the seventh-tallest building in Europe.

He went on to scale the 36-storey Stratosphere Tower building in Stratford, east London, after spending 12 weeks in Pentonville, admitting he decided to risk his life again while he was still behind bars.

Free-solo climber George King climbed to the top of the residential Unex Tower, in Stratford east London, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021

King stands at the top of the Stratosphere Tower building, a 36-storey residential tower block in Stratford, east London. Picture date: Tuesday August 3, 2021

King, who is from Oxford, scaling The Shard in 2019, one of the tallest buildings in Europe, which landed him in HMP Pentonville

British skyscraper climber George King (L) chats with French skyscraper climber Alain Robert as he leaves HM Prison Pentonville in north London on January 10, 2020

King gestures cheerfully to supporters and will-wishers as he gets out of jail in north London on January 10, 2020,

The August 3 2021 climb, which began at sunrise around 5.30am and took him just 30 minutes, marked his 10th skyscraper ascent and his second in the UK.

Nine days later he climbed the 305 feet Unex Tower, also in Stratford, without ropes in just 10 minutes.

Mr King-Thompson, who shares his feats on his Instagram as @shardclimber and also posted his Port Aventura theme park climb on YouTube, has also scaled Barcelona's 38-storey skyscraper Torre Glories without ropes.

Speaking after his latest Spanish feat, he wrote on his Instagram: 'I have wanted to climb this structure since 17. But I made a pact to myself that I was going to wait until BASE before getting it under my belt. Patience is a beautiful thing I'm glad I waited.'

BASE jumping is the recreational sport of jumping from fixed objects, using a parachute to descend safely to the ground.

Participants exit from a fixed object such as a cliff, and after an optional freefall delay, deploy a parachute to slow their descent and land.

In contrast to other forms of parachuting, such as skydiving from airplanes, BASE jumps are performed from fixed objects which are generally at much lower altitudes, and BASE jumpers only carry one parachute.

BASE jumping is widely considered to be one of the most dangerous extreme sports.
Russia's McDonald's replacement is running low on the basic staple of French fries and will be forced to temporarily stop serving them.

The 'Vkusno i Tochka' fast food chain, which translates as 'Tasty and that's it', made a statement to Russian news agency Tass explaining that a poor 2021 potato harvest has hit their ability to serve a variety of fries with their burgers.

The company expects to return to a normal menu by the autumn, they said, but the issue comes mere days after customers posted pictures to social media of burger buns covered in mould.

'Vkusno i Tochka' came into existence when McDonald's Corporation pulled out of Russia in protest at the country's invasion of Ukraine and sold its franchises to a Russian businessman in June.

The new business reopened on June 12 with a rebranded menu and new staff uniforms and flocks of people queuing around the corner of Pushkin Square in Moscow city centre.

The McDonald's replacement fast food chain in Russia, 'Vkusno i Tochka', which translates as 'Tasty and that's it', is running low on the basic staple of French fries and will be forced to temporarily stop serving them

Customers have complained of mould on the buns of their burgers in several outlets

The new Russian McDonald's, 'Vkusno i Tochka', is remarkably similar to the old American company but has been plagued with supply chain issues that have hit the quality of it produce

Although uniforms are almost identical to McDonald's worker outfits and the old equipment stayed behind as part of the exit deal

But less than a month on, the running of the operation is already struggling to fulfil basic demands that McDonald's customers would expect effortlessly.

'Rustic potatoes', a thicker-cut version of fries may also be unavailable to fast food fans.

The Russian company said that although it tried to source its potatoes from Russian suppliers, it had become impossible to import potatoes from external markets to make up for the shortfall in the domestic crop.

However, the Russian agriculture ministry issued a combative statement on Telegram entitled 'There are potatoes - and that's it' disputing Vkusno i Tochka's account that it could not source domestic potatoes.

'The Russian market is fully supplied with potatoes, including processed ones. In addition, crops from the new harvest are already arriving, which rules out the possibility of a shortage,' the ministry said.

The Russian agriculture ministry's statement could be part of a state-wide propaganda effort to downplay or deny completely the impact of Western sanctions on the country's economy.

However, it is not the first time that Vkusno i Tochka's ability to replace McDonald's operation in Russia has come into question.

Supply chain issues that have plagued the company have been put down to the wide-ranging sanctions placed on the Russian economy in response to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier this month the fast food chain, which also translates as 'Delicious full stop', was caught serving mouldy burgers to fed-up customers, suggesting that it was struggling to source fresh burger buns too.

Russia's re-branded McDonald's restaurants have been caught serving mouldy burgers to fed-up customers after the US chain left the country over its invasion of Ukraine

'Insect legs' have also been found in the Russian burgers, to the shock and disgust of customers

Eaters have complained of mould on the buns of their burgers in several outlets, according to Ksenia Sobchak, a popular TV celebrity and the Russian opposition's most prominent female politician.

Separately, 'insect legs' have also been found in the Russian burgers.

The first McDonald's in Russia opened in the middle of Moscow more than three decades ago, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It was a powerful symbol of the easing of Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.

McDonald's was the first American fast-food restaurant to open in the Soviet Union, which finally collapsed in 1991.

McDonald's decision to leave comes as other American food and beverage giants including Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Starbucks have paused or closed operations in Russia in the face of western sanctions.

Russian businessman Alexander Govor, who ran 25 McDonald's branches in Siberia, bought all 847 sites off the company in May.

Mr Govor is also a part owner of Neftekhimservis, a construction company which runs an oil refinery.

The fast food giant's operations in Russia were worth around 9% of its annual revenue, or $2billion (1.48billion).
The Russian Navy were delivered a 'doomsday' submarine yesterday equipped with nuclear torpedoes 'the size of a school-bus' so powerful they could cause a 'radioactive tsunami'

The 184m (604ft), 30,000 ton Belgorod submarine is the largest sub built in 30 years and can fit six 80ft long Poseidon nuclear torpedo drones armed with an up to a 100 megaton nuclear payload, US Naval Institute News reports.

These unmanned weapons could produce a tsunami up to 500m (1,650ft) high and are built to cause 'devastating' widespread radioactive contamination akin to a cobalt bomb.

Poseidon torpedoes are designed to cause 'destroy' economically important coastal cities by 'creating wide areas of radioactive contamination, rendering them unusable for military, economic or other activity for a long time', according to a leaked Russian document translated by the BBC in 2015.

The ship is believed to be equipped with up to six nuclear-armed torpedoes, each capable of carrying warheads with an explosive power of up to 100 megatons  which could cause radioactive devastation if used against coastal cities

The 80ft long Poseidon torpedo drones can carry a warhead up to 100 megatons according to leaked reports from 2015. These unmanned weapons could produce a tsunami up to 500m (1,650ft) high and are designed cause widespread radioactive contamination akin to a cobalt bomb

It was also revealed the weapon has a range of thousands of miles.

A warhead of this size would destroy the US coast with a gigantic tsunami and radioactive fallout - and Russian military experts suggested the 2015 leak was a warning to the US.

In May 2020 state-run Russian news agency TASS reported the payload could be up to two megatons to 'destroy enemy naval bases' and have a operation depth of over 1km.

The Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Nikolay Tevmenov said at the submarine's delivery ceremony yesterday, July 8, that it will be used for 'research and scientific expeditions', according to TASS.

He said: 'The submarine Belgorod opens new opportunities for Russia in holding various researches and helps carry out diverse scientific expeditions and rescue operations in remote areas of the World Ocean.'

The ship was built at the Sevmash Shipyard in Severodvinsk, the largest shipbuilding operation in Russia, and delivered to the Russian Navy Northern Fleet's headquarters in Severodvinsk yesterday.

The handover to the Russian Navy comes after beginning it's first sea trials last year reportedly under the secretive Main Directorate of Undersea Research after threats to sink British and American warships in the Black Sea.

The Belgorod is an Oscar-II missile cruise submarine, which is modified to conduct covert missions and carry the large Poseidon nuclear torpedoes

President Vladimir Putin's (pictured) ginormous submarine Belgorod could be used to cut undersea phone and internet cables which could cause untold damage to Western economies

'On July 8, 2022, a special ceremony was held at the Sevmash Production Association (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation), Russia's largest shipbuilding enterprise, to sign a certificate of the acceptance/delivery of the Belgorod research submarine to the Navy,' the Shipyard said in a statement reported by TASS.

In January this year, the Russian Navy said they would receive the 'special-purpose sub with nuclear-armed drones' in July 31 this year - meaning the transfer is three weeks early.

It will be operated by the navy but it's missions will be controlled by President Vladimir Putin.

The Belgorod sub was was caught via satellite imagery on on the surface of the White Sea along with the second biggest sub in the world, Dmitry Donskoi on June 26 according defence analyst HI Sutton, who labelled Belgorod a 'doomsday submarine'.

He said: 'These subs are ginormous, much bigger than anything in the West, even the US Navy's Ohio Class'.

A picture of a Poseidon underwater drone

One of the earliest pictures of the 604ft Belgorod, the largest submarine of its kind of the last 30 years. It was delivered to the Russian Navy yesterday, July 8, after years of testing

The sub could also contain 'unique' drones designed for covert missions such as cutting undersea phone and internet cables, causing untold damage to Western economies.

Last year Dr Sidharth Kaushal, from the Royal United Services Institute, told The Mail on Sunday he believed the fleet of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) could be of strategic value for President Putin.

Dr Kaushal said: 'The Belgorod is large enough to act as a mother ship for a unique set of smaller vessels which have deep-diving capabilities and the ability to tamper with undersea infrastructure.

'It's well equipped for sabotage and clandestine operations. Its Poseidon nuclear torpedoes could also be a very effective means of attacking an aircraft carrier in wartime  one against which at present no defence exists.

'The Belgorod will not be part of the Russian Navy per se, meaning its covert and aggressive actions will effectively be deniable.

'The submarine appears set up for non-attributable Special Forces warfare with its commanders answering directly to the [political] leadership and bypassing the Russian naval command structure.'
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Thousands of protestors stormed the president's house in the capital of Colombo today over public anger at the government's handling of an economic crisis.

The planned rally, one of the largest anti-government marches in the crisis-hit country this year, turned violent as thousands of furious demonstrators surged past police barricades and into the presidential compound and nearby office of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Some protesters, holding Sri Lankan flags and helmets, broke into the president's residence, video footage from local TV news NewsFirst channel showed, even going so far as to take a dip in the presidential swimming pool.

Two defence ministry sources said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was removed from the official premises on Friday for his safety ahead of the planned rally over the weekend, with government spokesman Mohan Samaranayake unsure of Rajapaksa's whereabouts.

The island of 22 million people is struggling under a severe foreign exchange shortage that has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine, plunging it into the worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.

Many blame the country's decline on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, as it muddles through with aid from India and other countries and its leaders try to negotiate a bailout with the International Monetary Fund.

The president's older brother resigned as prime minister in May after violent protests saw him seek safety at a naval base, while three other Rajapaksa relatives had quit their Cabinet posts earlier.

His replacement, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, has informed party leaders that he is willing to resign from his post to make way for an all-party government, his office said a short while ago.

Much of the public ire has been pointed at the Rajapaksa family, with protesters blaming them for dragging Sri Lanka into chaos with poor management and allegations of corruption and nepotism.

Protestors stormed the President's House in Colombo today in anger at President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's handling of an ongoing economic crisis, occupying the colonial grounds and climbing onto the rooves

Hundreds of protestors entered the President's House in Colombo, some waving Sri Lankan flags and wearing hard hats

Angry protestors gather inside the compound of Sri Lanka's Presidential Palace in Colombo after they stormed past police barricades

People in Sri Lanka have struggled to buy essential items such as fuel, food and medicine, due to rampant inflation and a lack of foreign currency to pay for imports from abroad

They are furious at a government and a leader that has overseen mass shortages of essential items, rampant inflation and rolling electricity blackouts that blight their lives

A raging demonstrator speaks from inside the President's House after storming the palace along with thousands of others

Protestors stormed the palace and paraded through the corridors chanting against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and even took a dip in his pool

The President's House is the official residence and workplace of the President of Sri Lanka. Built in 1804, it was previously the residence of the British Governor and Governors-General and was known as the 'King's House' or the 'Queen's House' until Sri Lanka became a republic in 1972.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been blamed for the economic crises pummelling the country under his leadership

A new prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, took over in May to help steer the country out of the crisis. Meanwhile, Rajapaksa has held on to power despite largely peaceful protests since March demanding his resignation.

Thousands of people swarmed into Colombo's government district, shouting slogans against the president and dismantling several police barricades to reach Rajapaksa's house, a witness said.

There were even reports that angry protestors from out of town had forced railway staff to run trains to take them to Colombo.

Demonstrators have been camped outside the entrance to his office for the past three months.

Videos posted on social media showed protesters storming the residence, chanting 'Gota go home,' calling the president by his nickname. Dozens were seen jumping into the pool, milling about the house and and watching television. Outside the building, barricades were overturned and a black flag was hoisted on a pole.

At the president's office, security personnel tried to stop demonstrators who pushed through fences to run across the lawns and inside the colonial-era building.

Police use water canons and fire tear gas to disperse the protesters angry at the president in Colombo, Sri Lanka today

Huge crowds of people attend an anti government protest rally, calling for the resignation of the president over the alleged failure to address the economic crisis

Protests have been rocking the country for over three months before demonstrators stormed the president's palace today

Protestors react to a tear gas cannister, with one donning a gas mask and another readying a blanket to smother it with

Protesters cover their faces and try to disperse and flee as a tear gas shell fired by police lands next to them

Security forces fire tear gas to disperse a massed crowd in an anti government protest rally, as they call for the resignation of the president and prime minister

Why are Sri Lankans so furious with their president? The fury that Sri Lankans feel towards President Gotabaya Rajapaksa runs deep. Rolling blackouts cut electricity to power fans and air-conditioners, essential items double in price each month, and petrol to fuel tuk-tuks and motorbikes is hard to come by. Sri Lankans must now dedicate enormous quantities of their time to queueing. Queueing for food, queueing for gas, queueing for water. This is on top of their usual working weeks, to earn rupees that are worth less and less. In poorer neighbourhoods, people have taken to banding together and cooking in the street - with the food they can afford and the food they can find. Malnourishment is now a problem in South Asia's most developed country. These problems, long-running and ongoing as they are, are put squarely at the door of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family, who have run the country like their own personal business for over a decade. Between Gotabaya and his brother, Mahinda, who was prime minister until he was forced out by violent riots in May, and the other brothers and family members they appointed to governmental posts, they have been accused of a myriad of corruption offences. Ranging from dodgy deals with Chinese state companies to diverting tsunami relief funds and dipping into public coffers to make personal purchases of land, the alleged mismanagement has been egregious. The present prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, revealed that Sri Lanka has less than $1 million in foreign reserves, dwindling medical supplies and almost no fuel. Advertisement

Police fired shots in the air but were unable to stop the angry crowd from surrounding the presidential residence and pushing through fences to run across the lawns and inside the colonial-era building.

At least 34 people including two police officers were wounded in scuffles as protesters tried to enter the residence. Two of the injured are in critical condition while others sustained minor injuries, said an official at the Colombo National Hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Thousands of protesters entered the capital from the suburbs earlier on Saturday after police lifted an overnight curfew. With fuel supplies scarce, many crowded onto buses and trains to come to the city to protest, while others made their way on bicycles and on foot.

Protest and religious leaders called on Rajapaksa to step down, saying he has lost the people's mandate.

'His claim that he was voted in by the Sinhala Buddhists is not valid now,' said Ven. Omalpe Sobitha, a prominent Buddhist leader. He urged Parliament to convene immediately to select an interim president but said that Wickremesinghe did not enjoy the people's support.

Protest leaders in their proclamation demanded the resignation of not only the president and the government but all government officials and the country's ambassadors. They said that the protesters should have access to governance as a pressure group.

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has summoned an emergency meeting of political party leaders today in response.

Last month, Wickremesinghe said the country's economy had collapsed. He said that the negotiations with the IMF have been complex because Sri Lanka was now a bankrupt state.

In April, Sri Lanka announced it is suspending repaying foreign loans due to a foreign currency shortage. Its total foreign debt amounts to $51 billion of which it must repay $28 billion by the end of 2027.

Police had imposed a curfew in Colombo and several other main urban areas on Friday night but withdrew it Saturday morning amid objections by lawyers and opposition politicians who called it illegal.

U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung on Friday asked people to protest peacefully and called for the military and police 'to grant peaceful protesters the space and security to do so.'

Demonstrators run from tear gas used by police during a protest demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

People at the anti government protest rally near the President's house in Colombo call for the resignation of the president over the alleged failure to address the economic crisis

Protestors march in an anti-government demonstration outside the Galle International Cricket Stadium in the south of the island during the second day play of the second cricket Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia

A demonstrator throws back a tear gas grenade towards police members as police use tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators

Police and security troops react to a tear gas cannister that has landed near them

'Chaos & force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankans need right now,' Chung said in a tweet.

Despite a severe shortage of fuel that has stalled transportation services, demonstrators packed into buses, trains and trucks from several parts of the country to reach Colombo to protest the government's failure to protect them from economic ruin.

Discontent has worsened in recent weeks as the cash-strapped country stopped receiving fuel shipments, forcing school closures and rationing of petrol and diesel for essential services.

Sampath Perera, a 37-year-old fisherman took an overcrowded bus from the seaside town of Negombo 45 km (30 miles) north of Colombo, to join the protest.

'We have told Gota over and over again to go home but he is still clinging onto power. We will not stop until he listens to us,' Perera said.

He is among the millions squeezed by chronic fuel shortages and inflation that hit 54.6% in June.

Political instability could undermine Sri Lanka's talks with the International Monetary Fund seeking a $3 billion bailout, a restructuring of some foreign debt and fund-raising from multilateral and bilateral sources to ease the dollar drought.
Draupadi Murmu, the former Jharkhand Governor who was fielded as its Presidential election candidate by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). (DC file photo)

HYDERABAD: Draupadi Murmu, the former Jharkhand Governor who was fielded as its Presidential election candidate by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP, will arrive in Hyderabad on July 12 for campaigning and seeking support from the electoral college that comprises legislators and MPs from the Telangana.

According to state BJP spokesperson N.V. Subhash, Draupadi will be in the city for a day and will be appealing for support for her candidature. It may be recalled that the TRS has extended support to former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, the Opposition nominee for the Presidential elections.

Meanwhile, Murmu's visit to Sikkim on Saturday to meet SKM and BJP lawmakers in the state was postponed in the wake of the one-day national mourning, for former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe.

Socialist leader Shivpal Yadav said he has decided to vote for Murmu, and blamed SP chief Akhilesh Yadavs political immaturity for allies leaving him.
A 22-year-old British backpacker has died after falling 65ft down a cliff in Peru.

The male tourist was reportedly climbing up a rocky hill on Circunvalacion Avenue in Cusco, Peru, before falling down a ravine and sustaining serious injuries.

He was with two friends, local media reports, who called the emergency services.

Despite the best efforts of medical staff, who transferred him to hospital, the 22-year-old man died.

A 22-year-old British man has died after reportedly climbing up a rocky hill on Circunvalacion Avenue in Cusco, Peru (pictured), before falling down a ravine and sustaining serious injuries

Police are now investigating the incident, The Sun reports.

Cusco is a city in the Peruvian Andes and was once the capital of the Inca Empire. It is around 45miles (73km) away from tourist hotspot and one of the seven Wonders of the World, Machu Picchu.

Much of the roads in the mountainous area of Cusco do not have clear barriers from the line of driving and the sheer drop beneath.

One of the roads often taken from the city of Cusco to landmark site Machu Picchu has been dubbed the 'Road of Death', with very little room for vehicles and rocky roads, all at a great height.

It is not yet clear how the 22-year-old man fell down the ravine during the climb with his two friends.
The pilot killed in a horror accident in remote bushland north of Sydney was a hero helicopter veteran who flew mercy missions in the Hawkesbury floods and bushfires.

Carl Hearps, 67, died when his helicopter crashed in dense bushland north of Sydney on Saturday, with thick plumes of smoke leading rescuers to the site.

Police Rescue officers found Mr Hearps' body among the shattered burning wreckage but were unable to save him.

Carl Hearps, 67, died when his helicopter crashed in dense bushland north of Sydney on Saturday, with thick plumes of smoke leading rescuers to the site

Police Rescue officers found Carl Hearps's body among the shattered burning wreckage but were unable to save him.

The respected and skilled pilot had played a key role in fighting the 2019 bushfires and helping stranded families in the recent floods.

On Friday he posted an eerie Facebook update, linking to a picture of tangled powerlines which had almost brought down another helicopter in Wiseman's Ferry.

'Well there is a lucky helicopter pilot out there somewhere apparently!' he posted in the chilling message.

'The pitfalls of flying in marginal weather St Albans NSW.'

On Friday Carl Hearps posted an eerie Facebook update, linking to a picture of tangled powerlines which had almost brought down another helicopter in Wiseman's Ferry

Just 24 hours later, shocked friends and colleagues were paying tribute to the beloved grandfather after his death was confirmed.

'Very sad today to hear the tragic passing of an incredibly experienced aviator Carl Hearps, having worked with him at many fires from the south coast to the mid north coast,' said firefighter Alex Millgate.

'Whenever he found out he was working on a fireground I was at, he always made sure to come say hi and check in on our crew, even if it was as far away as Cooma

'A massive loss to the firefighting community.'

The respected and skilled pilot had played a key role in fighting the 2019 bushfires and helping stranded families in the recent bushfires

Friends and colleagues called Carl Hearps a 'gem of a man' (seen here grabbing water to fight a bushfire) and a massive loss to the firefighting community

Steven Alchin added: 'A bloke that was in the middle of all the disasters helping those in need!'

And Joel Rhind admitted: 'The world lost another absolute gentleman and one hell of a pilot, doing what he loved and did best.'

Another family friend described him as a 'gem of a man' with a 'beautiful family who do so much for the community.'

'He loved flying his helicopters and always helping when the fires went through plus floods in the Hawkesbury area,' the friend told the Daily Telegraph.

'He was truly a gem of a man who would give you the shirt of his back if you needed help.'

Social media videos revealed many of his vital missions as chief pilot for NSW Helicopters, flying in vital supplies to cut-off communities and carrying out hazardous water-drops on bushfires.

He began his flying career in 1982, but reportedly survived a high speed boat crash on the Hawkesbury in 2002 while competing in the Dargle Cup and his boat flipped at 250km/h.

Emergency response teams called to the remote bushland near South Maroota just before midday Saturday and battled their way through tricky terrain and flood-affected trails to get to the helicopter.

Carl Hearps was chief pilot for NSW Helicopters, flying in vital supplies to cut-off communities and carrying out hazardous water-drops on bushfires

Rescue teams were led to the scene by thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the Maroota hillside (pictured)

The helicopter was on fire when New South Wales Fire and Rescue first arrived, with thick black plumes of smoke billowing over the dense tree canopy.

The Fire and Rescue teams quickly contained the fire.

Emergency services fought through dense and flood-affected terrain as they tried to reach the helicopter crash site

Other emergency crews were then able to begin making their way to the wreckage, and found the body of the pilot in the debris.

Police established a crime scene and will guard the area overnight.

Recovery operations and further investigations will continue on Sunday.

The response team included Police helicopter teams, Police Rescue, NSW Ambulance helicopter, NSW Rural Fire Service, NSW SES and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will lead the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.
Vladimir Putin is enlisting convicted murderers and jailed spies to fight on the front line in his war in Ukraine, it has been revealed.

Russia is recruiting from prisons in a number of regions across the country.

Among those recruited are jailed ex-military intelligence agents and other former special forces members with previous military service.

Earlier in the war, prisoners serving sentences for the most serious crimes were rejected from the Russian military, but there are now reports that murderers are being recruited as Putin looks for more frontline soldiers.

In some jails, hundreds of inmates are said to be ready to enlist on the promise that they will be granted an amnesty.

Hundreds of prisoners at this prison in Bor, east of Moscow have volunteered to fight in the war

Vladimir Putin has turned to recruiting prisoners to help his invasion of Ukraine after suffering huge losses in the war

The inmates were promised an amnesty for their crimes after six moths of military service in Ukraine

Members of the Wagner mercenary group in Eastern Ukraine - which prisoners who volunteer to fight in the invasion are reported to join

Yet the recruitment drive is seen as a sign that Putin is short of troops ready for the front line despite having a one million-strong army.

Convicts are selected then give two weeks training before being flown to the war zone and placed in 'assault groups' on the frontline by Wagner, a private military company, working closely with the Russian defence ministry.

'Some were chosen by penal colony chiefs,' a source told Russian opposition channel SOTA.

'They were taken off prison camp jobs, against their wishes, and "invited" to have a chat.

Prisoners at two jails in St Peterburg were also offered money and their freedom if they agreed to fight in Ukraine

The prisoners are expected to be sent to the front line of the conflict in eastern Ukraine

'These were former participants of war service, or those with reasonably senior military ranks.

'Others were just told by a duty officer "Whoever wants to go to war, go put your name forward."'

One relative: 'They explain it by their desire to have an amnesty and live normally after coming back, for the sake of their families and their children.'

At least one convicted murderer is known to have been sent to the Donbas region to fight, with the promise of their sentence being quashed after six months if fighting.

Prisoners are also promised just under 3,000 to fight in the war, with 64,000 sent to their relatives if they are killed.

The FSB security service - once headed by Putin - is reportedly involved in the scheme.
Vladimir Putin has lost at least 60 colonels in the war in Ukraine, it was revealed today.

Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Moskvichev, 45, was buried with full military honours.

A paratrooper, it took Russia three months to retrieve his body from the war zone and conduct his funeral, it was revealed.

He was the 60th known colonel to have died in the bloody war, which has seen a crushing toll of high-ranking officers in Putin's forces, including at least 11 generals.

The revelation of his death came as Putin declared he had hardly begun his military campaign in Ukraine.

'We haven't started anything yet in earnest,' he claimed, despite suffering an overall toll of more than 30,000 troops, according to estimates.

Russian Lieutenant Colonels Alexander Smirnov (left) and Sergei Moskvichev (right), 45, are the 59th and 60th Russian colonels to die in the war in Ukraine

Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Moskvichev's funeral in Ryazan, a city in western Russia. He served in the 83rd Airborne Brigade in Ussuriysk, then the 155th Marine Brigade in Vladivostok

Mourner's alongside the coffin of Lieutenant Colonel Moskvichev - with his portrait atop it

Russia has kept its death toll under wraps but accounts emerged of Moskvichev's funeral in Ryazan.

The lieutenant colonel was the son of an heroic rescuer at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the 1986 explosion.

He served in the 83rd Airborne Brigade in Ussuriysk, then the 155th Marine Brigade in Vladivostok.

He is survived by his wife and two children.

Earlier today it was revealed that Lt-Col Alexander Smirnov, who had served as deputy commander of the 11th Separate Guards Airborne Assault Brigade, was killed in the so-called Luhansk People's Republic (LPR).

He was the 59th colonel known to have died.

Russia has kept its death toll under wraps but accounts emerged of Moskvichev's funeral in Ryazan (pictured)

Lieutenant Colonel Moskvichev was the son of an heroic rescuer at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the 1986 explosion. He was buried with full military honours

The paratrooper commander was evidently fighting alongside or embedded with pro-Russian forces from the rebel region.

Smirnov was hit while at a combat post of the headquarters of the Sixth Separate Cossack Motorised Rifle Regiment.

Smirnov was killed on July 1 but his death only now came to light, but no further details were available.
Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns has defended sticking her middle finger up at a 'baying mob' of anti-Boris Johnson protestors, saying: 'I had reached the end of my tether'.

The Tory MP and newly appointed junior education minister, who made the gesture as she entered Downing Street on Thursday afternoon, prior to getting the job, has admitted she 'should have shown more composure' after lashing out at the 'Bye Boris' protestors.

She said she was standing up for herself after being subject to 'huge amounts of abuse' over the years, including two death threats in recent weeks.

Tories today hit out at the minister after she was filmed making the rude gesture while entering Downing Street.

Tories today hit out at Boris Johnson loyalist Andrea Jenkyns after she was filmed appearing to make a rude gesture while entering Downing Street

'I should have shown more composure but am only human,' Ms Jenkyns added.

Commons Leader Mark Spencer has said it is up to Ms Jenkyns to 'justify' her actions, whilst former science minister George Freeman slammed her conduct as 'appalling'.

Mr Spencer, a former chief whip, added that he does not believe the gesture was 'the right thing to do at all'.

After leaving Downing Street, Ms Jenkyns again confronted protesters, shouting: 'He who laughs last, laughs the loudest...wait and see.'

However, her taunt was largely drowned out by a sea of boos and the Benny Hill theme tune, which had been ringing out from the speaker of notorious anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray, 53, for most of the day.

Mr Bray had earlier interrupted a live TV broadcast with the song, and was once again heard blaring out 'Bye Bye Boris', his modified rendition of Bay City Rollers classic, 'Bye Bye Baby'.

Asked if Ms Jenkyns' gesture was acceptable, Mr Spencer told BBC Breakfast: 'No, I don't think it is, to be honest. I don't seek to condone that at all.

'I mean, Andrea will have to... justify that for herself. But I do understand emotions were running pretty high and they were pretty raw on that day. But I don't think that was the right thing to do at all.'

Pressed on whether she should retain her ministerial role, he said: 'That's not my decision.'

Mr Freeman, who resigned from his role this week, said on Twitter: 'Ministers should set the highest standards in office. I'm sorry but this is appalling conduct for a Minister of the Crown.

'This is exactly why we need a new Prime Minister: to restore the Ministerial code & respect for the responsibilities of service in public office.'

Ms Jenkyns was appointed to the role of parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Education on Friday in a reshuffle by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The footage, shared on social media on Thursday evening, appears to have been filmed shortly before Mr Johnson announced he was stepping down as leader of the Conservative Party.

It is unclear who the gesture was aimed at.

Newly appointed education minister Andrea Jenkyns defended herself on Twitter after sticking her middle finger up at protesters outside Downing Street on

In her statement shared on Twitter, Ms Jenkyns said: 'On Thursday afternoon I went to Downing Street to watch the Prime Minister's resignation speech.

'A baying mob outside the gates were insulting MPs on their way in, as is sadly all too common.

'After receiving huge amounts of abuse from some of the people who were there over the years, and I have also had seven death threats in the last four years.

'Two of which have been in recent weeks and are currently being investigated by the police, I had reached the end of my tether.

'I responded and stood up for myself.

'Just why should anyone have to put up with this sort of treatment.

'I should have shown more composure but am only human.'

The Tory MP for Morley and Outwood, made the sign with her hand as she walked through the black gates yesterday afternoon, prior to being named education minister

Commons Leader Mark Spencer has said it is up to Ms Jenkyns to 'justify' her actions

In response to the video, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson tweeted: 'Ministers aren't expected to be perfect. But is it really too much to ask that they don't treat the public like this?'

Ms Jenkyns was appointed to the role of parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Education on Friday in a reshuffle by outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The education minister was one of the MPs to show support for Mr Johnson outside No 10 on Thursday as he announced his resignation.

Former science minister George Freeman slammed her conduct as 'appalling'

The footage, shared on social media on Thursday evening, appears to have been filmed shortly before Mr Johnson announced he was stepping down as leader of the Conservative Party.

The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.

A timetable for the Conservative Party leadership contest is expected to be drawn up next week after the election to the executive of the backbench 1922 Committee.

The protesters outside Downing Street appeared to be largely opposed to Mr Johnson.

One of the demonstrators waiting outside Downing Street was holding a placard reading: 'Get your Johnson out of our democracy'.
Australia's most wanted man, Comanchero boss Mark Buddle, has reportedly been captured by the FBI while returning to his hideout on the Cyprus border.

The Comanchero 'world commander' recently left his latest safe haven in Cyprus to meet with a fellow international member of the gang in Germany.

He then travelled back via Turkey, an area where many Australian fugitives hide out, and FBI agents swooped as he tried to re-enter Cyprus, underworld sources said.

'Mark Buddle's been captured up. The boys knew about it hours ago,' one Sydney source told Daily Mail Australia.

Daily Mail Australia understands Australia's most wanted fugitive Mark Buddle (pictured) has been arrested by the FBI at the Cyprus border

Buddle (right) fled Australia in 2015 for Dubai, where he set up a new life with his glam partner Melanie Ter Wisscha (left), after a security guard was fatally shot

Buddle took over the leadership of the Comancheros when former boss Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi was jailed over a fatal brawl in Sydney Airport in 2009.

Buddle fled Australia in 2016 for Dubai, where he set up a new life with his partner Melanie Ter Wisscha, after he came a person of interest in the 2010 murder of a security guard.

Last year, the 44-year-old left Dubai soon after a video surfaced showing him fighting tourists at a resort pool.

Since then it is understood he has hopped between numerous countries before settling in Cyprus.

The AFP have a live warrant for Buddle's arrest but police were unable to confirm whether he had been arrested by the FBI.

The Sydney-born crime boss who grew up in a Maroubra housing commission estate before joining the Comanchero, has reportedly been living in Cyprus since mid-2021.

However, his stay has not been low-profile and has rarely been out of the local headlines, making the front-page of Cyprus newspaper Kibris Gercek last year.

The news outlet claimed Buddle decided to live in Northern Cyprus following meetings with high-ranking politicians, who granted him residency until August 6, 2022.

The reason given for the resident permit was because he would bring 'high income to the country'.

The Bakirkoy Gazetesi claimed Buddle - said to be worth $100million - arrived on the island on a 30-day visa before he got a resident's permit.

The newspaper article report claimed Buddle was under the protection of a group of 'business people' in the north of Cyprus, as well as 'official authorities'.

'He hasn't made any investments, but there are other developments with him...It is now certain that someone inside the state is protecting (him),' the newspaper stated.

Buddle left Dubai after video emerged showing him fighting tourists at resort pool. He then hopped between numerous countries before settling in Cyprus

Mark Buddle (left) was a mentor to new Comanchero national president Allan Meehan (right) in Sydney

Sources recently said the exile life was taking a heavy toll on Buddle, with the Commander of the Australian arm of the Comancheros isolated from his daughters, who were believed to have been living away from him in Australia.

When Buddle fled Australia in 2016, he entrusted the Comanchero in Australia to national sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed, national president Mick Murray and Sydney commander Alan Meehan.

In May, Zahed miraculously survived an assassination attempt at Bodyfit Gym in Auburn when he was shot multiple times as more than 20 bullets were fired.

He was rushed to hospital fighting for life and was taken into surgery with ten bullet wounds to his head and body, with one bullet piercing straight through his eyeball.

His brother Omar, 39, was killed during the shooting.

With Zahed recovering from his injuries and Murray facing charges in Victoria, Meehan has been named Comanchero national president.

MARK BUDDLE'S LIFE ON THE RUN 2009 - Mark Buddle takes over leadership of the Comancheros after former boss Mahmoud Mick Hawi was jailed over the fatal Hells Angels 2009 Sydney Airport brawl. 2016 - Buddle flees Australia for Dubai after becoming a person of interest in the shooting murder of armoured guard Gary Allibon in Sydney in June, 2010. September 2017 - Buddle declares himself 'commander of the world' 2018 - He leaves Dubai for the first time to head to Greece when Sydney underworld figure John Macris was executed. He returned to Dubai a short time later. 2021 - Buddle flees Dubai after video surfaced of a poolside fight with tourists at a resort. Mid-2021 - Buddle hops between numerous countries, including Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey, before settling in Cyprus. Cyprus news outlet Kibris Gercek claimed Buddle organised to live in Northern Cyprus after meetings with high-ranking politicians, who granted him a residency until August 6, 2022. June 2022 - Buddle's girlfriend Mel Ter Wisscha posts pictures of herself online as she enjoyed the facilities at Turkey's $11,000 a night D Maris Bay Resort July 2022 - Buddle leaves Cyprus to meet with a fellow international member of the Comancheros in Germany July 9, 2022 - Buddle is detained by FBI agents near the Cyprus border, according to Sydney underworld sources Advertisement

Meet the heavily tattooed underworld boss who has taken over as president of Australia's most powerful bikie gang the Comancheros

BY KYLIE STEVENS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

A man who grew up in public housing and regularly attends church for Catholic mass has become Australia's most powerful outlaw bikie boss.

The notorious Comancheros Sydney and Canberra chapter commander Allan Meehan was appointed as the new national president in Melbourne last month following months of turmoil.

He takes over from former Melbourne-based boss Mick Murray, who recently stepped aside over a murder charge.

Meehan, 35, grew up in public housing in Sydney's south-west and has spent his half his life rising through the bikie gang ranks.

He joined the Rebels when he turned 18 and later became a Cronulla chapter president before he defected to the Comancheros.

Allan Meehan (right) is the new national president of the Comancheros. He's pictured with former national president Mick Murray (centre) and national sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed (left)

Sources claim he was lured to switch allegiances by mentor, Comanchero 'commander of the world' Mark Buddle, who is one of Australia's most wanted men over the 2010 shooting of Armaguard security guard Gary Allibon in Sydney.

Meehan is well 'respected' among both the gang's old guard and its new recruits.

'He's spent his entire adult life in bikie gangs,' one source said. 'He doesn't know any other life.'

He was promoted to commander of the Canberra chapter early last year after the murder of former president Pitasoni Ulavalu and became the Sydney commander six months later.

It's understood Meehan has told members he'll oversee the Comancheros from Sydney but is expected to regularly travel to Melbourne.

Allan Meehan (pictured) has spent his half of his life progressing through the bikie gang ranks

He was regarded as next in line to take over from Murray, 44, was arrested in April over the 2019 gangland killing of Mitat Rasimi, an associate of high-profile drug lord Tony Mokbel

He was charged with one count of murder and remains behind bars.

It's been a chaotic few months for Australia's most powerful bikie club still reeling from the recent underworld shooting which left national sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed with serious injuries and claimed the life of his brother Omar.

Dozens of other members have been also arrested in AFP raids as part of Operation Ironside, one of the biggest and most significant crackdowns of organised crime in Australia's history.

One source recently said Meehan was regarded as 'pretty full on' but has a level head to control some of the gang's more volatile elements.
Jeremy Clarkson is finally set to open his restaurant at Diddly Squat Farm despite local planners objecting to the project.

The Amazon Prime star is taking bookings for the 40-seat Diddly Squat restaurant online and said it is thanks to loophole in regulations that they have been able to move forward.

Although there is no official menu, diners can pay from 49 and will be only be offered beef served along with food produced on Clarkson's 1000-acre farm near the quiet village of Chadlington, Oxfordshire.

According to the Sun, Clarkson said: 'We had planning permission turned down but we're opening anyway.

'Everyone at Diddly Squat has spent the last three months becoming an expert in planning regulations and we've found a delightful little loophole.

'We're going to sell all the stuff we produce on the farm and finally make some profit from the stuff we grow rather than run up losses.'

Jeremy Clarkson is set to open his restaurant at Diddly Squat Farm despite local planners objecting to the project thanks to a 'planning loophole' which enabled them to move forward

Clarkson says there is no menu 'as such' at the new restaurant with diners being offered the best produce available that day at 49 per head or a VIP dining experience for 69 per head

The restaurant is now taking bookings on online reservation site Open Table where Clarkson warns prospective patrons that the venue is small.

The description reads: 'Before making your booking, you should know it's small, mostly outdoors and very rustic.

'Ordering a beer or going to the lavatory isn't as easy as in your local pub and we don't cater to the faddy.

'We've done our best to keep you warm and dry, but this is England. On the upside, the view is enormous and almost everything you eat was grown or reared on our farm, so it's fresh with minimal food miles.'

With a kitchen run by The Great British Menu's Pip Lacey, Clarkson says there is no menu 'as such'.

Diners being offered the best produce available that day at 49 per head or a VIP dining experience for 69 per head for a three course meal, according to the Times.

The restaurant is now taking bookings on Open Table with limited availability for this evening

The 62-year-old said diners will be served beef and will not get a choice over which cut they are given.

He told the Times: 'I am told 1,000 people can eat from one cow and we have had one hanging for 29 days. Some people are going to get oxtail, some tongue and some will get fillet steak.'

All diners have to consent to being filmed for his show, Clarkson's Farm, on Amazon Prime, the newspaper reports.

Diners are advised to dress appropriately as they may get wet with most of the seating situated outside.

Anyone who wishes to use the lavatory has to be escorted via tractor or quad bikes.

On Open Table, he added: 'Our bread, made with Hawkstone lager is absolutely brilliant. We even have a tiny VIP room housed in an old shepherd's hut.

'This seats four (just) but it is dry and warmer than outside. We will even serve you a complimentary bottle of English sparkling wine. Don't scoff. It's very good.

'This is a restaurant like no other. Apart from one I went to in Croatia once. And which served me the best lunch I've ever had.'

Jeremy Clarkson, pictured, at the Diddly Squat Farm with his Lamborghini Tractor

Open Table shows the restaurant has so far received at least 30 bookings today with few slots available for this evening.

In January, Clarkson said he was 'very' frustrated after local officials refused his attempt to build a new restaurant and 70-space car park on the site of his 1,000-acre Diddly Squat farm.

Mr Clarkson personally attended a meeting of West Oxfordshire District Council's planning sub-committee that month in a last-ditch attempt to push his plans through but seven out of ten councillors voted against the plans.

The Grand Tour host left the meeting saying it was a bad day for farmers and labelled one of the planning officials a comedian.

But he went on to find support in his community among those who say council planners are dismissive of new ideas in farming.

At the council meeting in January, Mr Clarkson insisted that he is simply trying to 'diversify' his business and warned that farmers will be unable to properly look after the natural environment because of their finances.

'Farmers look after the woodland, they look after the hedges, the streams and the fields, they keep it beautiful,' he said.

'Farmers are not going to be able to do that for much longer because of the farmers's state of finances. We have been told as farmers to diversify  that is exactly what this proposal is.'

Though councillors at the meeting were split over Mr Clarkson's proposals, local officials agreed to refuse permission.

They argued that the cafe would be 'out of keeping' with the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Donald Trump has gloated about Elon Musk ending his efforts to buy Twitter, writing: 'THE TWITTER DEAL IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE TRUTH.'

The former president shared his thoughts on his own rival social network Truth Social Friday evening, shortly after it emerged that Musk, 51, had withdrawn a $44 billion bid.

Trump's post was liked close to 37,000 times, and shared more than 9,000 times on Truth, where Trump has 3.5 million followers.

He set up the Twitter look-a-like after being banned by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in January 2020, days after the Capitol riots.

Truth Social boasts an estimated two million active users, compared to the 300 million who've signed up to Twitter.

On Friday Musk, who is the world's richest man, announced he was ending his bid to buy Twitter at $54.20-a-share, prompting a furious response from the firm's bosses, who say they'll sue to force through the deal.

Musk accused Twitter bosses of refusing to hand over details about the number of fake users on its site, in a letter announcing that he was reneging on the deal.

The billionaire blasted the social media giant for refusing to 'comply with its contractual obligations' throughout the acquisition process.

Donald Trump gloated about Elon Musk withdrawing his bid to buy Twitter on his rival social media network Truth Social Friday

Musk, pictured at the Met Gala in May, announced he was terminating his bid to buy Twitter on Friday after claiming Twitter is in breach of an agreement they'd reached

He also claimed the company had failed to operate normally over the past two months as it froze its hiring process and fired senior staff.

Twitter shares closed at $36.81 on Friday after Musk moved to back out of the deal, sparking speculation the Tesla owner is still trying to acquire the firm - but for a far lower price than he previously offered.

Musk is expected to speak at the so-called Billionaires' Summer Camp at Sun Valley, Utah, on Saturday.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal is also at the tycoons' summit, although it remains unclear if the two men have met.

In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission announcing Musk was ending his bid for Twitter, Skadden Arps attorney Mike Ringler - acting for Musk - said Twitter were in material breach of multiple provisions of the agreement.

Ringler wrote: 'Mr Musk is terminating the Merger Agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement, and is likely to suffer a Company Material Adverse Effect.

'While Section 6.4 of the Merger Agreement requires Twitter to provide Mr. Musk and his advisors all data and information that Mr. Musk requests 'for any reasonable business purpose related to the consummation of the transaction,' Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations.

'For nearly two months, Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to 'make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter's platform'.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal is pictured at the Sun Valley billionaires' summit Friday. His firm has now announced they'll sue Musk to force him to go through with the $44 billion deal

Twitter's share price closed at just $36.81 on Friday evening - far below the peak of $50-a-share it hit after Musk announced his desire to buy up the firm

TIMELINE OF BILLIONAIRE ELON MUSK'S BID TO CONTROL TWITTER January 31: Musk starts buying shares of Twitter in near-daily installments, amassing a 5% stake in the company by mid-March. March 26: Musk, who has 80 million Twitter followers and is active on the site, said that he is giving 'serious thought' to building an alternative to Twitter, questioning free speech on the platform and whether Twitter is undermining democracy. He also privately reaches out to Twitter board members, including his friend and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. March 27: After privately informing them of his growing stake in the company, Musk starts conversations with Twitter's CEO and board members about potentially joining the board. Musk also mentions taking Twitter private or starting a competitor, according to later regulatory filings. April 4: A regulatory filing reveals that Musk has rapidly become the largest shareholder of Twitter after acquiring a 9% stake, or 73.5 million shares, worth about $3 billion. April 5: Musk is offered a seat on Twitter's board on the condition he amass no more than 14.9% of the company's stock. CEO Parag Agrawal said in a tweet that 'it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.' April 11: Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announces Musk will not be joining the board after all. April 14: Twitter reveals in a securities filing that Musk has offered to buy the company outright for about $44 billion. April 15: Twitter's board unanimously adopts a 'poison pill' defense in response to Musk's proposed offer, attempting to thwart a hostile takeover. April 21: Musk lines up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter. Twitter board is under pressure to negotiate. April 25: Musk reaches a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion and take the company private. The outspoken billionaire has said he wanted to own and privatize Twitter because he thinks it's not living up to its potential as a platform for free speech. April 29: Musk sells roughly $8.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla to help fund the purchase of Twitter, according to regulatory filings. May 5: Musk strengthens his offer to buy Twitter with commitments of more than $7 billion from a diverse group of investors including Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. May 10: In a hint at how he would change Twitter, Musk says he'd reverse Twitter's ban of former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, calling the ban a 'morally bad decision' and 'foolish in the extreme.' May 13: Musk said that his plan to buy Twitter is ' temporarily on hold.' Musk said that he needs to pinpoint the number of spam and fake accounts on the social media platform. Shares of Twitter tumble, while shares of Tesla rebound sharply. June 6: Musk threatens to end his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter, accusing the company of refusing to give him information about its spam bot accounts. July 8: Musk tells Twitter he is terminating agreement because firm wouldn't hand over information on spam bots July 12: Twitter files suit seeking a court judgement forcing Musk to complete the merger at the agreed price Advertisement

'This information is fundamental to Twitter's business and financial performance and is necessary to consummate the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement because it is needed to ensure Twitter's satisfaction of the conditions to closing, to facilitate Mr Musk's financing and financial planning for the transaction, and to engage in transition planning for the business.

'Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr Musk's requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr Musk incomplete or unusable information.'

Musk had previously threatened to halt the deal unless the firm showed proof spam and bot accounts were fewer than 5 per cent of users who see advertising on the social media service.

But Twitter immediately threatened to take legal action and said it was confident it would win.

Taylor tweeted: 'The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement.

'We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.' That message was later retweeted by CEO Agrawal.

In an internal memo, Twitter's general counsel reportedly said: 'Given this is an ongoing legal matter, you should refrain from Tweeting, Slacking, or sharing any commentary about the Merger Agreement.'

Speaking to NBC News about the collapsed deal, an anonymous Twitter employee said that Musk had 'f**king destroyed the company.'

The employee said: 'I guess it feels like we won. But it feels like the end of the movie, where the characters are bloodied and bedraggled with a Michael Bay explosion behind them. We could see this was coming, but in the meantime he's f**king destroyed the company.'

Twitter is famed for a woke workforce who've previously been blasted for censorious behavior in the interest of blocking speech they deem 'harmful.'

Musk said he planned to take a far more laid back approach to moderation.

He wanted to impose temporary suspensions on users, rather than outright, lifetime bans for bad behavior - such as the one imposed on Donald Trump over his alleged stoking of the January 6 riots.

Musk is an avid user of the site, and says he wanted to buy it to shape it into a powerful force for free speech.

During an all-hands meeting with employees in April, Agrawal attempted to quell employee anger after workers demanded answers to how managers planned to handle an anticipated mass exodus prompted by Musk.

Agrawal stood to make $42 million if the Musk deal went ahead.

Musk's decision is likely to result in a protracted legal tussle between the billionaire and the 16-year-old San Francisco-based company.

Disputed mergers and acquisitions that land in Delaware courts more often than not end up with the companies re-negotiating deals or the acquirer paying the target a settlement to walk away, rather than a judge ordering that a transaction be completed.

That is because target companies are often keen to resolve the uncertainty around their future and move on.

Twitter, however, is hoping that court proceedings will start in a few weeks and be resolved in a few months, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The drama could be resolved by Twitter agreeing to sell itself to Musk for a lower amount, or by Musk agreeing to pay a settlement to the firm for backing out of the deal.
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Thousands of spectators narrowly avoided being gored as bulls charged through the streets at Pamplona's famous San Fermin festival today (July 9).

Seven men needed hospital treatment after being injured by the bulls, which stampeded down the city's narrow streets before being fought in the bullring.

One man was scratched by a bull's horn and another was lacerated in the ring.

Reports had initially suggested two men had been stabbed by the bulls' horns, but officials later said that no one had been seriously injured.

However, there were several close calls as the bulls rampaged through the streets of the city in northern Spain.

Six bulls and six tame oxen charged through the streets, surrounded by crowds of thousands for around three minutes

A bull stampedes through Pamplona's cobbled streets at the beginning of the 'encierro', which celebrates the city's patron Saint, St Fermin

Festivalgoers grab on to fences at the side of the road to get out of the bulls' path as they storm through the city

A man is helped by paramedics after being injured in the bull running. Seven people needed hospital treatment on July 9 but no one has so far been gored

Spectators run for cover during the famous running of the bulls in Pamplona, northern Spain on the third day of the 2022 festival

A bullfighter is rammed by a bull's horns in the Plaza de Toros de Pamplona after the animals are herded through the city

The bullfighter summersaults out of the bull's path. Bullfighting in Spain dates its history back to as early as the eighth century

Thousands of festivalgoers lined the streets wearing traditional white t-shirts and bright red neckerchiefs.

The crowd guided six bulls and six tame oxen through the 875-metre course through Pamplona's old quarter in the third event planned this year in the first San Fermin festival since 2019.

Several onlookers were bowled over and stomped on by the bulls amid the chaos.

Expert runners that take part in the historic festival run directly in front of the bulls before trying to jump out of the way at the last minute without being injured - with varying success.

The bulls stampede through the city's old quarter for around three minutes, egged on by the surrounding crowd and runners

Participants do their best to run in front of the bulls and jump out of the way in time - with varying success. Authorities said no one was seriously injured

The enormously popular festival in Pamplona has been running for centuries and still attracts tens of thousands every year

Pamplona's narrow streets make it difficult for festivalgoers to outmaneuver the bulls. At least 18 have been injured in three days of the eight day festival

At the last festival in 2019, eight people were gored by the bulls before a two-year hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Five others were hospitalised in the first day of festivities on July 7, and six were injured on the second day.

The running of the bulls in Pamplona is thought to date back to the 13th century. It began as a way of clearing the streets for traders to get their bulls through the city, with the animals goaded on by locals and runners to reach the bullring.

It is now the main event of the San Fermin festival, and a chance for thrill-seekers to test their courage by running alongside, or in front of, the bulls.

After being herded at speed through the cobbled streets for around three minutes, the bulls are fought in the ring - an even more dangerous task - and killed.

Since 1910, 16 people have died and many more have been injured, with the last death at the event in 2009.

The running of the bull's was brought to the English-speaking world in large part by Ernest Hemingway's description in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises.

It continues to draw thousands of spectators, and daredevils, from around the world.

The bulls rampage through the city as spectators scramble to get to safety. The running of the bulls attracts daredevils from all over the world
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has pulled out of the running to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, despite having been the bookmakers' favourite to win.

The politician, 52, had topped a YouGov poll of potential runners to take over as Conservative Party leader and had put a campaign team together.

But he announced on Twitter this afternoon that he will not take part in the race, a day after former Chancellor Rishi Sunak launched his own leadership campaign.

Mr Wallace said on Twitter: 'After careful consideration and discussing with colleagues and family, I have taken the decision not to enter the contest for leadership of the Conservative Party.'

He added that it had not been an 'easy' choice to make, but said his focus is on his role as Defence Secretary and 'keeping this great country safe'.

It was reported on Friday night that Mr Wallace was still discussing with his family over whether to enter the contest to replace Mr Johnson.

Mr Johnson said on Thursday he will step down after dozens of ministers resigned from his Government.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has pulled out of the running to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, despite having been the bookmakers' favourite to win

Mr Wallace added in his statement: 'I wish the very best of luck to all candidates and hope we swiftly return to focusing on the issues that we are all elected to address.'

Armed Forces minister James Heappey was believed to have been managing Mr Wallace's campaign.

Mr Heappey told the Daily Telegraph last night that the Defence Secretary had spent the last two days 'thinking really hard' about whether he wanted to run.

'It's so typically Ben that he understands it is a massive responsibility and wants to make sure he is ready for it, and if he is, he will make a great prime minister,' he added.

Mr Wallace, a former Army officer, had been expected to attract a lot of support from across the Conservative party.

He remained loyal to close friend Mr Johnson and did not resign from Cabinet during the crisis this week.

Mr Wallace announced on Twitter this afternoon that he will not take part in the race, a day after former Chancellor Rishi Sunak launched his own leadership campaign

Mr Sunak launched his leadership campaign yesterday with a slick campaign video. Above: The former Chancellor leaving his home this morning

He is also considered a 'safe pair of hands' after leading the UK's military effort in Ukraine.

He was also in charge of the mission to rescue UK nationals and others from Afghanistan following the takeover of the country by the Taliban last August.

Along with Mr Sunak, Attorney General Suella Braverman is the other big name to have declared she is running.

Other likely candidates, including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former Health Secretary Sajid Javid are yet to announce their bids.

Jeremy Hunt, who was Foreign Secretary and Health Secretary under Theresa May and David Cameron, has refused to comment on whether he will be launching his own bid.
An Iowa beach has temporarily closed after a man contracted a brain-eating amoeba while swimming there and is now fighting for their life in the intensive care unit.

The beach at the Lake of the Three Fires State Park has been shut down since July 7 as a 'precautionary response to a confirmed infection of Naegleria fowleri in a Missouri resident,' a statement read.

The CDC is testing to confirm the presence of the risky amoeba at the lake, but results could take several days to complete.

Authorities have not identified who the Missouri victim is, but they are being treated for primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services confirmed. PAM is not contagious, but can be life-threatening.

The patient's case has already been confirmed, but authorities are trying to locate where he contracted.

They say there's a high probability he was infected at the Lake of the Three Fires water spot, although water sources close to his Missouri home are also being tested.

A Missourian more than likely contracted a brain-eating amoeba at the beach at the Lake of the Three Fires in Iowa (pictured) sometime in June and is now in the ICU. The lake is temporarily closed while the CDC does testing

The amoeba (pictured) is usually contracted through ingesting contaminated water through the nose, where it travels to the brain and starts destroying tissue

The Health Department told the Des Moines Register the patient likely contracted the virus within a two weeks, but it is unclear when those two weeks were.

'It's strongly believed by public health experts that the lake is a likely source,' the Missouri Department of Health said in a Facebook post.

The Health Department is now warning Missourians to be careful around warm freshwater that is around 115 degrees.

'Naegleria fowleri itself is very common  it's in the environment and we can't get rid of it. However, the brain infection that the ameba can cause is extremely rare,' the post read.

The infection begins after ingesting the amoeba through the nose, where it travels to the brain and starts destroying tissue.

The last case found in Missouri was 35 years ago and it was fatal, the Health Department said on Facebook.

PAM is not contagious, but can be life-threatening. The last case in Missouri was 35 years ago and it was fatal

Only 154 known cases have been identified in the entire US since 1962.

The presence of the amoeba can be found in rivers, lakes, and hot springs and occurs naturally. The free-living microscopic single-celled living organism can cause PAM in patient and usually infects people when they consume contaminated water.

Symptoms include: Headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, hallucinations, and more.
Highland Park shooter Bobby Crimo III reportedly tried to kill himself at least twice in front of friends - only for his father to allegedly block a concerned local who flagged his suicidal tendencies in a private Facebook message.

Former friends and parents have now revealed the lonely child experienced a 'downward spiral' and had attempted suicide and talked about overdosing.

A mother of two of Crimo's skatepark friends, who asked to remain anonymous, said the 21-year-old used to come to her home often in 2016 and 2017.

She also said Crimo had threatened and attempted to kill himself a few times while he was hanging out with her kids and that he struggled with self-harm and suicidal thoughts as early as 2016.

She described the then-boy as polite and quiet and would have 'never guessed that he would hurt a fly.'

'Hurt himself? Yes. But hurt someone else? No,' the mom told the Daily Beast. 'He was a sweet kid, but he hurt. He was very, very much a loner and depressed. And I think his emotional instability was kind of brushed under the rug by his family.'

Another friend of Crimo reportedly messaged his father on Facebook in 2015 after he said 'some concerning things' about overdosing, she told the Beast. She also said Crimo Senior had blocked her.

Crimo's parents' attorney George Gomez told the Beast he was 'not aware' of 'anything like that happening in 2016.' He also said they 'didn't follow' their son on social media and did not know about his rapping.

Formers friends and friend's parents revealed that Highland Park shooter Bobby Crimo, 21, had attempted suicide multiple times in 2016 and 2017 and had threatened to overdose

One former friend reportedly messaged Crimo's father (left) in 2015 to warn him about his son threatening to overdose, but the father allegedly blocked her. Another friend reportedly warned them again at their home a few weeks later, but his parents (pictured together) said they do not recall that

Crimo posted several music videos under the alias Awake the Rapper. One of his videos, show a depiction of a shooting being gunned down police. Another showed him inside a classroom, draped in the American flag, and wearing tactical gear.

He also reportedly had a Discord channel, which has since been disabled, where he posted a beheading video and reportedly interacted with a devoted to death message board, according to NBC New York.

Now, the anonymous mother is wondering how Crimo's parents were able to say there was nothing wrong with their child, as she said there were many warning signs.

'I thought it was a joke when his uncle came out and said: "There were no signs of this. He was always this quiet kid, working in his apartment and behind the house." When it was like he had tried killing himself twice when he was hanging out with my [children], so how could you say there was no signs of this?'

Crimo's father even sponsored a gun permit application, despite the 2019 police reports indicating he had tried to kill himself and in a separate occasion, threatened to kill his family. Gomez said the father had arrived home after police had arrived in 2019.

'I think theres a lot of balls dropped, no matter which way you look at it, the mother said. 'Parents, the government itself. I mean, if what they are saying is true on the report that happened back in 2019, why would his father sponsor him to legally purchase these guns?'

Weeks later, another mutual friend would go over to Crimo's house and voice concern as well, the friend told the Daily Beast.

'He felt a lot of times that his parents didnt care about him,' the friend told the Beast.

'From what it sounded like, his parents worked a lot,' the friend told the outlet. 'If they werent home, they were working, and when they were home, they were resting or sleeping. So Bobby was always out doing his own thing.

'He felt alone and misunderstood. He said a couple of times he wished he was like other kids. He was, but he didnt think so,' they said.

Crimo's parents have denied ever hearing warnings about their son, Gomez told the Beast.

Pesina was pictured arriving home from Target on Wednesday, two days after her son killed seven people attending a July 4 parade

Crimo is pictured with his mother as a teenager

The 2019 police report after Highland Park Police paid a wellness check on Crimo following violent threats against his family

An April 2019 police report, obtained by the Daily Beast, showed police had performed a welfare check on Crimo and had reported he had attempted to 'commit suicide by machete' and was 'known to use marijuana.'

In September 2019, police turned up again to the Highland Park residence and a police report allegedly stated he had threatened to kill his whole family.

Police confiscated 16 knives, a 12-inch dagger and a 24-inch samurai sword during the wellness check, according to the report, but returned them to Crimo's father, who claimed they were his, which is one of the reasons why, police officers said, the young shooter passed the Red Flag law.

Even though, as the documents show, Crimo was deemed a 'clear and present danger,' who, 'if granted access to a firearm or firearm ammunition poses an actual, imminent threat of substantial bodily harm to themselves or another person[s] that is articulable and significant or who will likely act in a manner dangerous to the public interest.'

Police also reportedly filed a 'clear and present danger' foam with the Illinois State Police. State police would later determine that Crimo did not meet the criteria to be considered a danger.

Despite the incident, Crimo's father helped him apply for a firearm owner identification card (FOID) mere weeks later, and Crimo passed four Illinois background checks to purchase the gun he would go on to murder seven people with three years later.

Crimo's attorney, Steve Greenberg, told Fox 32 that the process was 'no different than signing up your kid for driver's ed.'

'He bought everything on his own, and theyre registered to him,' the elder Crimo told the New York Post. 'You know, he drove there, he ordered them, he picked them up, they did his background check on each one.'

The news came as a photo of the second gun Crimo carried on the day of the shooting was revealed. He allegedly considered using it in a second attack on another parade but changed his mind at the last minute.

Crimo also had about 60 rounds of ammunition on him, according to police.

However, a Civil Defense Attorney Stephan Blandin told the Beast that it was 'bizarre' for the father to sign for an 'obviously mentally troubled kid.'

Gomez dismissed any idea of criminal charges against the father.

The skatepark mom also said Crimo grew up in an unstable home and that his parents lived in separate homes. She said the shooter's mother wanted a divorce and to 'move on with her kids.'

Highland Park shooter Robert 'Bobby' Crimo III, 21, told cops he was a depressed drug user during a wellness check three years ago, documents show.

'But I dont think that was ever really an option for her unfortunately,' she told the Beast. 'I think they worried about what the outsiders thought versus what their son actually needed.'

She also said she no longer recognizes Bobby and 'feels bad' because he 'needed help and couldnt get the help,' but she didn't excuse his actions.

'I think he just wanted to be loved, and there was a lot of stuff going on in the family dynamic between his mother and father. And I feel like he just wanted to be wanted and not a burden on anybody,' she told the Beast.

Another parent Michele Rebollar - whose late son was friends with Crimo - also echoed similar statements.

'Theres no justification, he could have got help, he could have told somebody, but if youve never had somebody to tell, how do you even know who to tell, if no ones ever been there for you?' she told the Beast.

She also said Crimo had spoken at her son's funeral and he no longer resembles the little kid who said her son had made him feel 'like I wasnt alone anymore, like I had somebody there, like, that was actually there.'

Other court documents suggested that Crimo's parents weren't always thinking of his well-being, as one document said his mother had left her small son in a hot car for 27 minutes as a toddler. His mother was later convicted over the incident.

The disturbing 2002 incident was one of multiple brushes with the law Crimo's mom Denise Pesina and dad Bob Crimo Jr had with cops prior to Monday's massacre in Chicago that killed seven.

It is unclear if the hot car incident left Crimo with any physical or mental injuries that may have ultimately led to the horrific shootout.

Police were also called to his family's home 10 times, to reports of domestic violence. Those incidents included Denise Pesina allegedly attacking her husband with a screwdriver and shoe after he berated her looks.

The report details nine instances cops were called to the Crimo family home in Highwood between 2010 and 2014, often to address physical disputes between the youth's mother and father, Robert Crimo Jr. and Denise Pesina.

During one drunken altercation in August 2010, Crimo Jr. told police responding to a domestic abuse call that Pesina had struck him in the head with her shoe.

Crimo Jr. - who unsuccessfully ran for Mayor in Highland Park in 2019 - reportedly told officers that his relationship with Pesina was 'failing,' and that she was intoxicated.

Robert Crimo Jr. (left) told ABC 7 Chicago that all he did was fill out a basic consent form allowing his son, Robert Crimo III, 21, (right) to go through the Illinois State Police process of receiving a firearm owner identification card (FOID) required for ownership.

Photos of weapons similar to what Crimo owned. He used a Smith & Wesson M&P similar to the top photo in the shooting. He also owned a Remington 700 rifle (bottom left) and a Glock 43 pistol (bottom right)

Pesina, meanwhile, told police that Crimo Jr. had 'disrespected and belittled' her by making disparaging remarks about her appearance. She said those comments spurred her to drink.

In October 2010, police recorded another incident were they were called to the home because of a reported fight between Pesina and Crimo Jr.

The encounter saw Pesina hit Crimo Jr. with a screwdriver, the aspiring statesman told police. He added that his wife had been 'trash-talking' him, knocked all his belongings off his dresser, before bludgeoning him with the backside of the tool.

Pesina argued that Crimo Jr. had been 'making mean statements to me like always, calling me names.'

Another two calls saw the parents call the police on one another for attempts to drive while intoxicated.

On both occasions, the calls devolved into domestic disputes involving police.

In June 2011, Crimo Jr. called cops to report that Pesina was attempting to drive to pick up her daughter, Crimo's sister, while intoxicated.

Pesina confronted Crimo Jr. about this, cops said, where at which point Pesina blocked the dad from leaving, spurring him to call police.

Court records show Pesina pleaded guilty to driving under the influence in Lake County in 2012.

In 2002, Pesina was slapped with a child endangerment charge, after leaving Crimo III alone in a car with the windows rolled up for 27 minutes in the parking lot of a toy store, court records show.

It was approximately 80 degrees outside during that incident.

Seven dead in Highland Park July Fourth shooting Seven people have died in the Highland Park Fourth of July massacre. The victims include Stephen Straus, 88; Katherine Goldstein, 64; Jacki Sundheim, 63; Nicholas Toledo Zaragoza, 78; Eduardo Uvaldo, 69, and husband and wife, Irina and Kevin McCarthy, 35 and 37. On July 6, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office revealed that the seventh victim, Uvaldo, died at Evanston Hospital around 8 a.m. The number of injured victims now stands at 46, ranging in age from 8 to 85 years old. Robert Crimo, 21, appeared in Lake County court on Wednesday, after being charged with seven counts of first-degree murder. He is expected to face a slew of other charges and is being held without bail. Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart told the court that Crimo carried out a 'calculated and premeditated attack'. He said Crimo confessed to standing on a roof above the parade route and took aim at people standing across the street, reloading his Smith & Wesson AR-15 rifle three times. Police recovered 83 spent casings from the roof. Irina and Kevin McCarthy, 35 and 37, were both killed in the massacre. Their two-year-old son, Aiden, was pulled from underneath his father's body Nicolas Toledo, 76, had not wanted to attend the July 4 parade in Highland Park, Ill., on Monday, his granddaughter because he was in a wheelchair Irina and Kevin McCarthy, 35 and 37, were the parents of a two-year-old boy, Aiden, who is now orphaned. He was pulled from underneath his father's body and taken care of by paradegoers. Nicolas Toledo, 76 was the first victim to be identified. He was a grandfather visiting his family from Mexico. His family said he was shot in the head as he sat in his wheelchair, his blood splattering on them. Toledo had not wanted to attend the parade, his granddaughter told the New York Times. But because of his disabilities that restricted him to a wheelchair, and his family's insistence of going, he obliged. Another victim, Jacki Sundheim was a longtime teacher at the North Shore Congregation Israel synagogue. She is survived by her husband Bruce and daughter Leah, the Times of Israel reported. 'There are no words sufficient to express the depth of our grief for Jacki's death,' the synagogue said in a statement. Eduardo Uvaldo, 69, who was in hospital with a gunshot wound to the arm and back of the head, died on Wednesday. His wife, Maria, was hit in the head by fragments, and his grandson received a gunshot wound to the arm but is stable. On July 6, Katherine Goldstein's daughter, Cassie, described how her mother was shot in the chest and fell down dead in front of her. 'He shot her in the chest, and she fell down. And I knew she was dead,' Cassie told 'NBC Nightly News.' 'So I just told her that I loved her, but I couldn't stop because he was still shooting everyone next to me.' Katherine Goldstein, pictured left, was among the people killed in the Highland Park parade mass shooting on July 4 Steve Straus, 88, (left) was among the seven people who were killed during the Highland Park Fourth of July parade massacre. Eduardo Uvaldo, 65, (right) died on Wednesday. Family said he had been shot in the arm and back of the head A local doctor who rushed into the carnage described the shooting victims as being 'blown up' by the attacker's high-powered weapon. Dr. David Baum, a long-time obstetrician in Highland Park, was attending the parade with his wife and children to watch his two-year-old grandson participate. When the shots rang out and others fled, he ran into the fray to try to help the victims. In an interview with CNN, Baum described seeing victims with 'wartime' and 'unspeakable' injuries. 'The people who were gone were blown up by that gunfire,' Baum said. 'The horrific scene of some of those bodies is unspeakable for the average person.' 'Having been a physician, I've seen things in ERs, you know, you do see lots of blood. But the bodies were literally -- some of the bodies -- there was an evisceration injury from the power of this gun and the bullets.' 'There was another person who had an unspeakable head injury. Unspeakable,' he told CNN. 'And the injuries that I saw -- I never served -- but those are wartime injuries. Those are what are seen in victims of war, not victims at a parade,' Baum said. Baum said there were at least three doctors, a nurse and a nurse practitioner, who joined him in treating victims. He recalled paramedics covering up victims who they knew were dead at the scene. Advertisement




A massive tree in Ohio struck by a lightning bolt looked sinister as it burned from the inside out as glowing red hot flames spiraled up the trunk.

Lightning bolts have a temperature of 50,000f, meaning the tree was set ablaze with flames that will have initially been 10 times hotter than the surface of the sun.

The blaze started early Tuesday morning as severe storms moved through the area of rural Ridgeville Township, Ohio located about 45 miles southwest of Toledo, that brought damaging winds and heavy rainfall to the area.

Firefighters from Ridgeville Township responded to the burning tree that is located on a large parcel of land, near a barn and a storage unit, with a corn field nearby.

As flames moved along the tree's interior trunk as the outer branches and rest of the tree's branches and leaves remained healthy and unaffected.

The surrounding property was untouched by the fire as well.

The mysterious tree fire started early Tuesday morning as severe storms moved through the area of rural Ridgeville Township, located about 45 miles southwest of Toledo

A second video of the burning tree showed just how how its insides were

Firefighters from Ridgeville Township responded to the burning tree that is located on a large parcel of land, near a barn and a storage unit, with a corn field nearby

A close-up of some of the damage the tree incurred after firefighters extinguished the flames

'Lightening can do some crazy things,' the fire department wrote on their Facebook page sharing the haunting images.

Fire officials said that they had 'a tough time getting to every hot spot in this tree trunk,' and called in a tree service to ensure all the flames were destroyed.

Purdue University experts offered an explanation to why this natural phenomenon occurred, which is due in part, to trees serving as natural lightning rods, as their sap serves as a conductor.

The way they also grow in rings means their insides are composed of layers which can catch fire and burn from within, while the outside initially appears stable.
Melbourne's cocaine use has skyrocketed since Covid restrictions have been lifted with the city also earning the unwanted title of the heroin capital of Australia.

The state's cocaine users went on a massive binge when Covid restrictions were eased, with sewage tests revealing a massive surge in coke use among Melburnians.

Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission's National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program monitored 10 sewage sites across Victoria up to February 2022.

The wastewater testing showed a spike in cocaine use in Melbourne beginning in late in August 2021, and peaking over Christmas, with a similar surge in heroin use.

Victoria's biggest city is now Australia's heroin capital, and Melburnians are also the the nation's biggest consumers of cocaine after Sydney.

Melbourne has seen a massive spike in cocaine use as Covid restrictions lifted

Wastewater testing showed a spike in cocaine use in Melbourne beginning in late in 2021. The testing also revealed Victoria is the heroin capital of Australia

Traces of cocaine in Melbournes waste water peaked in December 2021 just as pubs, clubs and gaming venues returned to normal operations.

Border restrictions had also been mostly lifted, making it easier for drugs to again be moved interstate and also internationally.

The ACIC report noted: 'Organised crime groups continue to find ways to supply the major illicit drug markets, generating significant illicit revenue.'

Cocaine consumption has been steadily increasing in almost all Australian capital cities and many regional parts of Australia for the years leading up to the start of Covid restrictions.

But the pandemic caused consumption to decline dramatically across the country, says ACIC.

Melbourne had the highest average capital city consumption of heroin while the state also had the second highest regional consumption.

'Victoria had the highest consumption levels in December 2021, well above the average,' said the ACICD report.

It added: 'Elevated heroin consumption in capital city Victoria is clearly evident.'

The findings published by ASIC also showed alcohol, nicotine, methamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA and fentanyl consumption had increased across Victoria.

ASIC revealed consumption of the major illicit stimulants methylamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA had exceeded regional consumption for the first time since April 2017

However, cannabis, oxycodone and heroin consumption had decreased across the state.

This comes as, Australia-wide, the use of illicit stimulants in capital cities has drastically spiked.

Consumption of methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA now exceeds regional consumption for the first time since April 2017.
The Texas yoga teacher accused of murdering her love rival allegedly had a huge meltdown over a food allergy while attending a yoga retreat in Bali four years ago as she attempted to 'improve' herself.

A former yoga classmate of Kaitlin Armstrong, 34, of Austin, told The Sun they attended a four-week retreat with the accused killer in 2018 at an instructional seminar in Canggu, Bali.

The classmate, who wished to remain anonymous, said Armstrong was there to battle her inner-demons and had been the quietest student until she freaked out over a 'small allergic reaction' during dinner.

'She was quite anxious just kind of shaking and breathing heavily,' the classmate said, adding that the episode frightened everyone and kept them at a distance from Armstrong.

'It was just unnecessary to react like that. Everyone knew what was happening. It was, you know, a whole scene.'

Armstrong had spent 43 days on the run before being arrested in Costa Rica after allegedly killing her love rival, pro-cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson, who had spent an evening with her boyfriend, Colin Strickland, in Austin in May.

A classmate of Armstrong's (pictured) said 'she really overreacted' over a small food allergy reaction while on a yoga retreat in Bali in 2018

Armstrong will be transferred to Austin, where she faces murder charges for allegedly killing cyclist Anna Moriah 'Mo' Wilson, 25, (pictured) during a feud over Armstrong's on-and-off boyfriend, Colin Strickland

Armstrong had spent 43 days on the run before being arrested in Costa Rica

The classmate told The Sun that the meltdown occurred early into the retreat, where seven classmates, including Armstrong, enjoyed dinner at a house one of them had rented.

'She had some sort of minor panic attack because she was having a small allergic reaction to some of the food,' the classmate said, saying that the reaction amounted to only a small rash on her chest.

'She really overreacted.'

The classmate added that while most of the attendees were in the course to become Vinyasa yoga instructors, Armsrong appeared to have a stronger motive.

'The way she was talking, you could tell she wanted to improve [herself], they said. 'You could feel the pain in her eyes.

'She didn't want to have this pain inside and she was seeking refuge or change or healing to try and eliminate [her] internal struggle.'

The classmate said they were heartbroken and in disbelief that Armstrong allegedly killed Wilson, but they ultimately condemned the murder.

'[She] must have gone through some internal battles that we have no idea about, and accumulated along with a moment of madness, and jealousy, and rage and whatever,' they told The Sun.

'It is heartbreaking that someone is now in this position,' the classmate added. 'Do I feel sorry for her? Yeah, I do.

'But at the same time, she shouldn't have done what she did.'

Kaitlin Armstrong (left, before the alleged attack and right, after she was caught), 34, was transferred from Harris County in Houston to Travis County Jail in Austin on Tuesday afternoon

Armstrong was eventually tracked to Costa Rica last month after US Marshals learned she'd used her sister's passport to flee the country.

Armstrong used sister Christine's passport to flee to the Central American nation from Newark Airport in New Jersey on May 18, Inside Edition reported.

US Marshals were able to track her by doing what they call a 'wild card' search.

On realizing Armstrong's own passport hadn't been used to leave the US, they entered the details of passports belonging to people close to Armstrong to see whether they'd been used recently.

Investigators hit the jackpot with her sister Christine, according to Today and Good Morning America.

It is unclear if Christine was aware that her passport had been taken by her sister, and she isn't facing any criminal charges.

US Marshals discovered that yoga teacher Kaitlin Armstrong had used her sister Christine's passport, pictured, to flee the United States for Costa Rica after allegedly murdering love rival Anna Moriah Wilson

Kaitlin Armstong's passport - and that of her sister Elizabeth - was obtained by Inside Edition following her arrest in Costa Rica June 30

At a press conference on Thursday, US Marshals said they caught Armstrong through 'good old-fashioned police work' by going door-to-door at hostels in San Jose, Jaco Beach and Saint Teresa - for six weeks. She had used three aliases to try to conceal her identity.

Armstrong's undoing began after she caught a bus from San Jose to Jaco Beach, and then frequented several yoga studios under several aliases, including Beth Martin, Liz Martin and Ari Martin. Locals identified her after being shown a photograph.

She then fled to Saint Teresa where she stayed at Don Jon's Lodge - a $50-a-night hostel where she taught part-time yoga under the Ari Martin alias. Local officers arrested her at the hostel where they discovered she had altered her appearance, including cutting her hair and dyeing it brown, and she had a bandage on her nose. Local officers also found a $6,350 receipt for cosmetic surgery in her belongings.

She was arrested after failing to prove her identity, and only confessed who she was on a six-hour journey back to San Jose.

Armstrong arrived at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Sunday looking very different to the picture of her before her disappearance

After being extradited, Armstrong was booked in Travis County Jail in Austin and charged with first degree murder as well as theft of service between $100 and $750.

Photographs show her with a visibly altered look, having had $6,350 in cosmetic surgery as well as cutting and dying her hair brown.

She has been charged with felony first-degree murder and theft of service.

Armstrong has retained two lawyers in her defense so far, Naomi Howard and Richard Lyn Cofer, II. DailyMail.com approached both for comment on the charges.

Before being arrested, a witness said he saw her with bandages on her nose before her June 29 arrest at a $50-a-night 'treehouse hostel' in Santa Teresa Beach.

Zachary Paulsen claimed Armstrong had been asking for ways to cut back on costs before she was caught out by cops during a routine check.

'She was just asking about how to get around cheaper, and then the police came,' Paulsen told Inside Edition.

Armstrong shown in Costa Rica before she was deported to the US

ABC 13 video showed Armstrong in handcuffs and hiding her face behind her formerly red hair, which she cut and dyed brown to allegedly disguise herself in the Central American country

Armstrong was arrested at a $50-a-night 'treehouse hostel' in Santa Teresa Beach on Wednesday after having been sought after by U.S. authorities since May 11. She is pictured on the right during her arrest

Timeline of Kaitlin Armstrong's movements since the murder of her boyfriend's lover May 11: Cyclist Anna Moriah 'Mo' Wilson, 25, is found dead in an apartment in Austin, Texas, shortly after going swimming with Armstrong's boyfriend, Colin Strickland. May 13: Armstrong sells her Jeep Grand Cherokee, seen in surveillance footage outside the apartment where Wilson had been staying, and gets a check on May 15 for $12,200. May 14: An anonymous police tipster tells investigators that Armstrong flew into a rage after discovering Strickland's romance with Wilson. Armstrong is questioned by cops on an old warrant but had to be released when police realized it had expired. During the police interview Armstrong admitted it 'doesn't look good' when cops pointed out she had been near the apartment at the time of the murder. An anonymous caller tells Austin police that Armstrong had recently obtained a handgun. Armstrong is released and goes on the run from cops by hopping on an Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to Houston Hobby and then getting on a connecting Southwest flight to LaGuardia in New York. May 17: The firearm located at Strickland's residence was 'test fired' and police have determined it had 'significant potential' to be the gun used in the crime May 18: Armstrong is last seen at Newark Liberty International Airport, a two-and-a-half hour drive from Camp Haven in Livingston Manor where she is said to have been spotted about a month ago. June 30: Armstrong is arrested at a hotel in Costa Rica after a 43-day manhunt. July 3: Armstrong is extradited to the U.S. Advertisement

Armstrong was seized by Costa Rican officers after they could not find her fake name in their database.

Paulsen alleged the fugitive left behind two American passports in a locker where she had stored her things.

One of the documents bore her name and the other seemingly belonged to her lookalike sister, Christine Armstrong.

Photographs of the documents show one passport bearing the name Kaitlin Marie Armstrong and featuring the yoga instructor's personal information and picture.

The other passport seemingly belonged to a 31-year-old brunette named Christine Elizabeth Armstrong, believed to be Armstrong's younger sister.

Authorities confirmed to the news outlet Armstrong had 'cropped her hair about shoulder length' and 'dyed it dark brown.'

This was likely an attempt to better resemble Christine.

Paulsen also claimed to have found a $6,350 receipt for cosmetic surgery under 'another name' among her belongings.

He alleged Armstrong had been walking around the hostel with a 'bandage on her nose and blood in her nostrils.'

The receipt doesn't indicate what services were provided, but Paulsen claims Armstrong had bandaged her nose.

Meanwhile ABC 13 video showed Armstrong in handcuffs and hiding her face behind her formerly ginger hair.

Brandon Filla, deputy U.S. Marshal for Austin, Texas, said she was captured 'at a good time' before she could further alter her appearance.

Filla told the 'TODAY Show' that Armstrong had made the changes 'to throw off law enforcement officials,' and indicated she may've attempted to get tattoos to make her more unidentifiable.

At Don Jon's Lodge in the small town of Santa Teresa, which is home to only 3,000 people. fellow guests described her as a 'strange' loner who would 'keep to herself,' despite sleeping in an eight-bunk bed dorm.

A source revealed to DailyMail.com on Friday that Armstrong first arrived at the Don Jon's Lodge on June 8.

Staff had repeatedly turned down her requests to work as a yoga instructor, but eventually relented and she started helping with the classes when the normal teacher was off. She was also working shifts on the front desk in reception.

The source said: 'When the [regular] yoga girl couldn't make it, [Armstrong] carried out the class instead of the other one. She didn't always work.'

They continued: 'She didn't talk to anyone. She didn't have to work in the morning and slept late. When she got up, she drank a lot of coffee. And she sat in some chairs, apart from the others.'

The 34-year-old would sit on chairs apart from the other guests who even thought she had left because they never saw her get home from her shifts at the resort (pictured, a file photo of the treehouses on the resort's website)

Kaitlin Armstrong was described as a 'strange' loner who would 'keep to herself' while sleeping in an eight-bunkbed dorm (pictured, her bed) at Don Jon's Lodge in Santa Teresa before she was arrested yesterday after six weeks on the run

Santa Teresa: Remote village where fugitive yoga teacher was finally caught Santa Teresa is a remote village on the Nicoya peninsula of Costa Rica, 93 miles from the capital city of San Jose. The population is around 3,099 inhabitants with another 500 throughout the the year due to tourism. Armstrong was found in Santa Teresa Beach, a remote Costa Rican town that has become popular for tourists in recent years Previously a quaint fishing community, the town has been transforming into a tourism hotspot, boasting beautiful beaches, yoga retreats, spas and surfing. There are currently 44 hotels, 59 tourist rental houses and 49 restaurants in the area. The town holds both luxury resorts and affordable hostels with prices ranging from $50 to $550 a night, making it attractive to both backpackers and celebrities alike. Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen are often spotted in the area, and have been going to Costa Rica together since 2007 There is also a bustling nightlife due to the bars and restaurants that line the beaches. The getaway was popularized in part by Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, who are frequently spotted in the area with their kids. Bundchen has said they have been visiting since 2007. Advertisement

Armstrong had led cops on a mammoth six-week chase across multiple countries and U.S. states, including Texas, New York and New Jersey before she was arrested.

Earlier this week, DailyMail.com exclusively revealed footage of the alleged killer being marched into a police station in Costa Rica with a dramatically changed appearance.

Susan Pamerlea, the U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Texas said Thursday: 'The Marshals Service elevated the Kaitlin Armstrong investigation to major case status early in this investigation, which likely played a key role in her capture after a 43-day run.'

Armstrong stands accused of the May 11 shooting of Wilson, a cyclist whom she thought was having a relationship with her boyfriend, Colin Strickland.

The yoga instructor was linked to Wilson's death after authorities found her 'bleeding and unconscious' at her friend's apartment in Austin. She had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.

Police performed CPR on Wilson before pronouncing her dead at the scene. Wilson, a Vermont native and 'world-class' cyclist, was staying in Austin for a race.

Armstrong's car was seen in the area around the time of the shooting, leading authorities to believe she had killed Wilson out of jealousy.

They later found out that earlier on May 11, Wilson had gone to dinner with Armstrong's on-off boyfriend Strickland, who told police the two of them had been swimming at Deep Eddy Pool before getting burgers at Pool Burger.

Strickland said he picked her up from the apartment of her friend Caitlin Cash on his BMW motorbike at 5: 45 p.m. and dropped her off again at 8:36 p.m.  stopping shortly after to text Armstrong to tell her he had been dropping off flowers to another friend and that his phone had run out of battery.

But, unknown to Strickland, Armstrong had allegedly been tracking both he and Wilson using the app Strava, which shows the routes runners and cyclists take.

A neighbor, who asked not to be named, previously told DailyMail.com her security camera caught Armstrong's black Jeep Cherokee driving up to the property - above a garage at the back of a larger home - at 8:35 p.m.

She also told DailyMail.com that Armstrong had been caught on camera the previous day, riding a bike in the same spot.

During Wilson and Strickland's secret meet-up, Armstrong's 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee was spotted driving outside the home of Wilson's friend, where the cyclist was staying

Armstrong was questioned by Austin police officers on May 14, after they discovered the yoga instructor had an open misdemeanor warrant on a theft of services charge.

Cops used the opportunity to briefly question her about Wilson's death several days earlier - after they received an anonymous tip that Armstrong flew into a rage when she discovered that Strickland had previously been romantically involved with Wilson.

During the interview, cops showed Armstrong video surveillance of her SUV apparently coming to a stop outside the apartment, where Wilson was found dead on May 11. The footage was time-stamped just one minute after Wilson, 25, entered the building following a swim and dinner with Strickland.

Armstrong also admitted it 'doesn't look good,' and a probable cause document for her arrest says she 'had no explanation as to why it was in the area, and did not make any denials surrounding the statements presented to her.'

On May 13, five days before she fled the country, it was discovered that Armstrong had sold her black Jeep Grand Cherokee to a car dealership in Austin for $12,200.

A police tipster, who did not want to be identified, told investigators Armstrong flew into a rage on discovering cyclist Strickland's romance with fellow cyclist Wilson in January 2022.
Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin sparked rumors that he is considering a 2024 White House run by making a speech at Nebraska's GOP convention this weekend.

Some political strategists speculated that the trip to Nebraska indicates a move to gather attention in the bordering state of Iowa, where the pivotal first nomination contests in presidential primaries are held.

'Going to Nebraska is as close as going to Iowa without actually stepping foot in the state,' Republican consultant Brendan Steinhauser said, 'It's hard to know for sure his motivation, but it seems like he's at least exploring or heavily flirting with the idea of a run.'

Youngkin's office denied that his appearance in Nebraska has anything to do with any plans for himself, saying he is merely doing a favor for Nebraska Governor and chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Pete Ricketts.

But political analysts are convinced he's testing the water for a White House run, which could pit him against Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis - both seen as Republican frontrunners for the 2024 nomination.

The Republican governor won a major upset victory against Democrat Terry McAuliffe in last year's November gubernatorial race and has since become a GOP media darling after he scored a number of major political and legislative wins in his state.

He ran on an anti-woke platform, with his vow to crack down on critical race theory-inspired 'equity' lessons being taught in schools largely credited with helping him thrash McAuliffe - who sparked fury after insisting parents should mind their own business when it came to what schools were teaching.

In June, he delivered on campaign promises by signing a two-year budget into law which slashed taxes and put a record-breaking amount of money into education.

Youngkin has become a GOP media darling after he scored a number of major political and legislative wins in his state

Former president Donald Trump has indicated that he intends to run in 2024, while Florida governor Ron DeSantis has gained traction as a potential frontrunner

'It will be worth keeping a closer eye on Youngkin as he begins to lift his national profile,' columnist Karen Tumulty in the Washington Post, 'Republicans have won the popular vote in only one presidential election since 1988. He may not be the guy to end that drought. But it is past time for them to find someone who is.'

Talk of Youngkin as a strong choice for Republican ticket have begun to swirl as the 2024 field has already begun to take shape.

Former president Donald Trump has indicated that he intends to run again - but stopped short of declaring outright - and Florida governor Ron DeSantis has gained traction as a potential frontrunner.

'He's [Youngkin] got an interesting message that could resonate with voters, especially those looking for a fresh face,' Steinhauser said, 'He could be an alternative to Trump, but also someone more acceptable to the majority Republicans because he isn't seen as a Never Trumper.'

Since winning Virginia, Youngkin has positioned himself as a centrist conservative. That makes him appealing for swing voters, and even for centrist Democrats who feel their party has been hijacked by a progressive platform that is intent on pushing hard-left economic and social policies.

Youngkin's office denied that his appearance in Nebraska has anything to do with any plans for himself, saying he is merely doing a favor for Nebraska Governor and chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Pete Ricketts

Florida Governor has been sized up as a strong candidate to oppose Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential ticket

Though Youngkin's name has become steadily more present in the national conversation, awareness of him may still be limited in the heavily Trump supporting Iowa. This week's appearance, some argue, may be the beginning of a campaign to change that.

'The race is fairly open, especially here in Iowa,' Bob Vander Plaats, the head of Iowa conservative group, The Family Leader, said, 'There's a lot of avid Trump supporters and people thankful for what the former president did, but there are also folks who are ready to turn the page.'

'This Nebraska trip might get him in the news a little bit over here,' Vander Plaats said, 'But it's also probably going to raise questions on why a freshly elected governor is out on the trail and not back home leading. That's something he'll have to confront if he chooses to make the race.'

No official announcements have been made about 2024 presidential bids from both Republicans and Democrats.

President Biden's intentions for 2024 have remained continually unclear, although there are growing concerns the 79 year-old -already the oldest president ever to take office - will be unfit to run again.

Kamala Harris' polling numbers remain very low, sparking concern among Democrats that she'll never win an election.

Many also fear being painted as racist or misogynist if they challenge the party's highest-ever ranking woman, who is also of African-American and Asian heritage.

California Governor Gavin Newsom appears to be flirting with his own 2024 campaign in recent weeks, taking to Donald Trump's Twitter rival Truth Social to tease the former president, while also offering sanctuary to Florida residents sick of DeSantis.

Talk has swirled about California Governor Gavin Newsom being on the Democratic ticket for 2024
Russia is boosting its military capabilities in both the air and on the ground in Belarus amid high tension with the West, say reports.

Russian forces have begun 'intensive training' at five military airfields in the landlocked authoritarian state bordering NATO countries Poland and Lithuania.

The moves come after Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko reaffirmed his support for Putin's war against Ukraine during a visit to Moscow last month.

But it will dismay his generals, who wrote an extraordinary open letter to the despot imploring him to stay out of the war in Ukraine, calling such a move 'pure suicide'.

They went a step further, labelling the Russians as trying to 'destroy the sovereignty' of Belarus.

In spite of this, some 20 top air force fighter pilots recently arrived by regular train from Moscow, reported Belarusky Gayun, a Telegram channel monitoring troops movements.

Russian 'intensive' military training drills were held all over Ukraine Saturday, while an S300 anti-air missile system was spotted being transported near the town of Baranovichi

A motorist took this photo of a Russian S-300 missiles being transported around Belarus near Baranovichi

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko reaffirmed his support for Putin's war against Ukraine during a visit to Moscow last month

Russian (left) and Belarus (right) soldiers shaking hands during joint exercises of the armed forces of Russia and Belarus at a firing range near Brest on the Polish border on February 19

Russia is also said to have taken control of Prybytki Air Base in Belarus where it already deploys an S-400 battalion with Pantsir and Iskander missiles.

The officers of the fifth brigade of the special forces observed that Russia's highest political leadership have infringed Clause One of the Belarus Constitution.

'According to this Clause, the Belarus Republic maintains supremacy and full authority on its own territory,' they wrote.

'It also enjoys independence over its internal and foreign politics.'

They were also strongly against joining Putin in his war against Ukraine, which they called a 'friend of our state' and considered doing so as 'the destruction of the sovereignty of Belarus.'

'To join Russia in its fight against Ukraine would be an act of pure suicide.'

Russian and Belarus tanks drill manoeuvres on a firing range near Brest on the Polish border, Feb 19

Helicopters conduct training drills during joint exercises of the armed forces of Russia and Belarus on Feb 19

Nonethless, convoys of Russian missile defence systems were seen moving towards the Belarus border with Poland, said Belarusky Gayun.

'There are about ten units in the column, among them communication vehicles based on KamAZ and tilt trucks, some pulling generators, and one flies the flag of the USSR' - something that will alarm the Belarus generals even further.

'The vehicles are in camouflage colours, with the identification mark 'V' on the doors.'

Drills including troops from both Russia and Belarus have been extended to around 15 or 16 July at more than a dozen training bases in Belarus in a move described as 'atypical', said reports.

'About 20 pilots from Russia arrived in Baranavichy. on a regular Moscow-Brest train,' said the channel.

'This is not the first report that the Russian military has again begun to arrive in Belarus on ordinary passenger trains.

'There is a certain correlation between the arrival of the Russian military and an increase inair training.'

Russia has previously deployed in Belarus to attack Ukraine.

File photo of a Russian Pantsir C1, self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile system, which are reported to be stationed in Prybytki Air Base in Belarus

File photo of a S-400 surface-to-air missile launcher similar to the anti-air systems Russia has moved into Belarus

But Belarus also borders Poland and Lithuania and the new intensity may show Vladimir Putin and his Minsk ally Alexander Lukashenko boosting defences at the border with NATO.

Three S-300 air defence systems have been seen on the move on the Minsk-Brest highway, in the direction of the border with Poland.

One autocrat came to another's rescue in the summer of 2020 when widescale protests broke out in Belarus over a fraudulent election that saw Lukashenko retain power.

Putin provided security forces, financial aid and even TV presenters to spout government propaganda when the native ones went on strike in protest.

The price for saving Lukashenko's regime from a democratic uprising now appears to be the sovereignty of Belarus, with Putin in effect occupying the country with his military.

Inside Russia, in Bryansk region a bomb exploded on a rail track in Bryansk region, said governor Alexander Bogomaz.

This appears to be the latest in a series of sabotage attacks on rail lines in Russia.

The aim of the unknown perpetrators appears to be to disrupt the use of trains to move troops and weapons.

Dozens of such attacks have been reported in recent weeks.

At Baranavichy, in Brest region, close to the Polish border, fighter pilots are reportedly training in takeoffs and quick climbs.

From June 16, Mi-8 helicopter training has been underway.

'Typically, such training takes place a couple of times a year, but in three weeks their annual rate has already been exceeded,' said the channel.

The movements by Putin's forces come after NATO states agreed to boost their presence in countries bordering Russia.
A teenage farmer has died after he became trapped in a hay bale making machine at a farm.

Police have confirmed that the young farmer was working a farm in Plympton, a suburb of Plymouth, Devon when the tragic incident occurred.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) also released a statement saying the worker was trapped and killed while in the bale-wrapping machine on June 22.

The teenage farmer tragically got trapped in a hay baler and died on June 22. Pictured: A hay baler machine pulled by a tractor, discharging a compacted straw bale from the rear in a field of recently harvested barley (file image)

Devon and Cornwall Police said they were called the incident by the ambulance service after the teenager sustained serious injuries while working at the farm.

The fire service, police and both air and land ambulances attended the accident, but the boy was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The death is not currently being treated as suspicious by police.

The death is being treated as work-related by the HSE, and will be subject to further assessment, Farmers Weekly reports.

Police said they would support HSE with their investigation due to the farmer's young age.

The fire service, police and both air and land ambulances attended the accident, but the boy was pronounced dead at the scene, police said

A spokesperson for Devon and Cornwall Police said: 'Police were contacted by the ambulance service on the evening of Wednesday June 22 following reports of a teenage male having sustained serious injuries while working at a farm in the Plympton area of Plymouth.

'The fire service, police, plus air and land ambulances all attended the scene, but tragically the male was pronounced deceased at the scene.

'His next of kin have been informed and this death is not currently being treated as suspicious.

'Due to the age of the male, police will support the Health and Safety Executive with their investigation into this matter.'
A spokesperson for Boris Johnson said reports that he is planning to stand down as Prime Minister on Monday in order to run again for Tory leader are completely untrue.

Mr Johnson resigned as leader of the Conservative Party on Thursday, but said he intends to remain in office until his successor is elected.

He said on Thursday: 'It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister.

'And I've agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs, that the process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week.

'And I've today appointed a Cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place.'

But claims then emerged that Mr Johnson may be planning to run again, prompting Number 10 to clarify that Mr Johnson will stay out of the leadership race.

A spokesperson for Boris Johnson said reports that he is planning to stand down as Prime Minister on Monday in order to run again for Tory leader are completely untrue

Journalist Petronella Wyatt, who had an affair with Mr Johnson when they both worked at the Spectator magazine, was among those who reported claims that the PM may attempt to stay in Downing Street.

She said: 'A source at Number 10 tells me that Boris Johnson intends to stand down as Prime Minister on Monday, in order to run for the Tory leadership.'

Ms Wyatt had said earlier this week before Mr Johnson said he was stepping down that he would not resign.

She revealed a former Tory Minister telephoned her last night with the prediction that Boris would be gone by the end of the week.

But she said: 'Knowing Boris as I well as I do, I could not concur. Boris's obsession with his own divine right will tear apart his party and cause collateral damage to the country.'

Number 10's insistence that the PM is definitely stepping down comes after new Education Secretary James Cleverly told Sky News 'there is no such thing as a caretaker Prime Minister'.

Asked what he has resigned from, Mr Cleverly added: 'He is resigning from his role as Prime Minister and leader of the party once a successor has been appointed.'

When presenter Kay Burley asked if that means the PM 'hasn't yet resigned' from his role, Mr Cleverly added: 'What I am saying is he has made an announcement, you can read it...'

Mr Johnson resigned as leader of the Conservative Party on Thursday, but said he intends to remain in office until his successor is elected. Above: Mr Johnson greeting his son Wilfred and wife Carrie Johnson after walking back into Number 10

Journalist Petronella Wyatt, who had an affair with Mr Johnson when they both worked at the Spectator magazine, was among those who reported claims that the PM may attempt to stay in Downing Street

So far, four Tory MPs have announced they are standing to replace Mr Johnson.

Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak has emerged as the frontrunner after launching his campaign with a slick video yesterday.

As well as Mr Sunak, former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, Attorney General Suella Braverman and backbench MP Tom Tugendhat have confirmed they are running.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had been widely expected to launch his own bid but announced today that he will not take part in the race.

Mr Wallace said on Twitter: 'After careful consideration and discussing with colleagues and family, I have taken the decision not to enter the contest for leadership of the Conservative Party.'

He added that it had not been an 'easy' choice to make, but said his focus is on his role as Defence Secretary and 'keeping this great country safe'.

Other likely candidates, including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former Health Secretary Sajid Javid are yet to announce their bids.

Jeremy Hunt, who was Foreign Secretary and Health Secretary under Theresa May and David Cameron, has refused to comment on whether he will be launching his own bid.
About a quarter of Canada's internet service was knocked out after a massive outage left millions without WiFi, ATMs or emergency services for 19 hours.

Rogers Telecommunications, which boasts more than 11 million wireless subscribers, said its network was beginning to recover after nearly every facet of life had been disrupted on Friday when Canadians lost internet access, cell phone and landline phone connections following the outage.

Some callers could not reach emergency services via 911 calls, and police across Canada issued warnings to residents.

Canada's border services agency said the outage also affected its mobile app for incoming travelers, while retailers' cashless pay systems went down and banks reported issues with ATM services.

Many Canadians had to resort to crowding into cafes and public libraries that still had internet access and hovering outside hotels to catch a signal as they blasted Rogers, one of three telecom companies that dominate the nation's market.

Millions of Canadians lost access to the internet on Friday after a major outage from Rogers Communications, one of the three major telecom giants in the nation. The outage hit Canada's most dense cities, including Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal

Rogers Communications said it had restored the majority of service 19 hours after it went down on Friday morning, affecting its 11 million users

Many Canadians had to resort to crowding around cafes to get online (pictured)

Netblocks, a network monitoring group, said the outage began on Friday morning and knocked out a quarter of the country's connectivity

Netblocks, a network monitoring group, said the outage began on Friday morning and knocked out a quarter of the country's connectivity before being gradually restored on Saturday.

Throughout the ordeal, Ottawa and Winnipeg police warned residents that they could face issues connecting with 911, and urged them to try calling from landlines or from cell phones from other providers.

Hospitals were also affected as on-call medical employees for the Scarborough Health Network, which runs hospitals throughout Toronto, were told to stay in hospitals until the issue is fully resolved, the BBC reported.

Court systems experienced hiccups as well, notably delaying the trial hearing for disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard, charged with 11 counts of sexual assault, because officials were unable to connect him to a videoconference.

In urban areas, people have flocked to cafes, community centers and other places with functioning public Wi-Fi.

'There's tons of people here with their laptops just working away ferociously, the same as they would at home, because they've got no service at home,' one Starbucks customer in Toronto told Reuters.

Rogers President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Staffieri apologized for the outage, saying: 'Today we let you down. We can and will do better.'

He added that the company doesn't have a timeline on when the networks will be fully restored, 'but we will continue to share information with our customers as we restore full services.'

He said a credit would be applied to affected customers.

A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said Friday evening that the outage was not the result of a cyber attack.

Ottawa and Winnipeg police warned residents that they could face issues connecting with 911, and urged them to try calling from landlines or from cell phones from other providers

Pictured: People using public WiFi at a community center in Ontario

Many Canadians who could connect online took to social media to vent about the situation and the 'monopoly' over its telecommunication systems.

One Twitter user with the handle Avi B. wrote: 'The fact that when Rogers goes out, it knocks out ATMs, Non cash payment abilities, 911 services, internet and mobile from almost all of Canada should be the warning sign that monopolies put Canadian citizens at unnecessary risk.'

Another Twitter user with the handle Johnny echoed the complaints about one company controlling a major portion of Canadian's connectivity.

'Canada is so heavily dependent on a MONOPOLY that today most of our population have no access to internet, mobile services, and even 911 - all thanks to Rogers,' he wrote.

'And we have to pay the highest internet bill from the G7 countries. End monopolies in Canada.'

Many who could get online blasted Rogers for the outage and called out the fact that the majority of Canadians depend on only three companies for telecommunications services

Canada's industry minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, called the outage 'unacceptable'

Birgit Uwaila Umaigba, an ICU nurse in Ontario, said hospital staff who were sick on Friday had no way of notifying their coworkers that they would be out.

'Yesterday, staff who were sick had no way of notifying the hospital thanks to Rogers mass network outage,' she wrote. 'They just did not show up. Patients suffered tremendously. So did the few staff who were present.

'Who else thinks it's time to end cellphone monopolies in Canada?

Canada's industry minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, called the outage 'unacceptable' and said he was speaking with Rogers and leaders of the two other telecom giants, Bell and Telus, to fix the situation.

'Spoke to the CEO of Rogers. Shared with him the frustration of millions of Canadians,' Champagne tweeted. 'Also spoke w/ the CEOs of both Bell and Telus. Everyone is in solution mode, willing to help.

'This unacceptable situation is why quality, diversity & reliability are key to our telecom network.'
China, EU hold environment, climate dialogue

Xinhua) 11:14, July 09, 2022

Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, holds the third High-level Environment and Climate Dialogue between China and the European Union with Frans Timmermans, executive vice president of the European Commission for the European Green Deal, via video link in Beijing, capital of China, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The third High-level Environment and Climate Dialogue between China and the European Union was held via video link on Friday, with both sides agreeing to deepen cooperation on environment, climate, and energy.

Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng and Frans Timmermans, executive vice president of the European Commission for the European Green Deal, held the meeting.

Han, also a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that the two sides should make full use of the high-level dialogue platform to further implement the consensus reached by their leaders and promote the deepening of the China-EU green partnership.

Han noted that China unswervingly promotes green and low-carbon development, solidly advances the green and low-carbon transformation of the energy sector, actively boosts the development of new energy and clean energy, improves the level of clean and efficient utilization of coal, and ensures that it can realize carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals as scheduled.

China stands ready to work with the EU to further strengthen the policy coordination, enhance technological innovation cooperation, and create more cooperation highlights on energy use towards green and low-carbon transformation, climate change response, and environmental protection, he said.

China appreciates the active leadership of the EU in the global environment and climate governance, Han said, adding that China is willing to work with the EU to promote the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for practical results.

Timmermans said that the European side highly appreciates China's strong measures and obvious achievements in promoting green and low-carbon development, and is willing to enhance cooperation with China in the fields of environment, climate, and energy.

The EU supports China in successfully holding the second phase of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Timmermans said.

Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, holds the third High-level Environment and Climate Dialogue between China and the European Union with Frans Timmermans, executive vice president of the European Commission for the European Green Deal, via video link in Beijing, capital of China, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
Russian forces are managing to 'raise true hell' in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland despite reports claiming they were taking an operational pause, a regional governor said Saturday.

Another Ukrainian official urged people in Russian-occupied southern areas to evacuate quickly 'by all possible means' ahead of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Deadly Russian shelling was reported in Ukraine's east and south.

The governor of the eastern region of Luhansk, Serhyi Haidai, said Russia launched over 20 artillery, mortar and rocket strikes in the province overnight and its forces were pressing toward the border with the Donetsk region.

'We are trying to contain the Russians' armed formations along the entire front line,' Haidai wrote on Telegram.

Last week, Russia captured the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, the city of Lysychansk. Analysts predicted Moscow's troops likely would take some time to rearm and regroup.

But 'so far, there has been no operational pause announced by the enemy. He is still attacking and shelling our lands with the same intensity as before,' Haidai said.

Lena, 58, reacts near her critically wounded during a Russian military strike, dog Hera, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kostiantynivka today

A firefighter hoses down a house on fire after cluster rockets hit a residential area, in Konstantinovka, eastern Ukraine today

Ukrainian investigators work outside residential buildings destroyed by a missile strike in Kharkiv today

Ukrainian soldiers from the 14 mechanised brigade, Andrii the commander, Ivan the driver and mechanic and Maksym the gunner siton their T-72 tank on the frontline, in the countryside near Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine today

In a later post, he claimed Russian bombardment of Luhansk was suspended because Ukrainian forces had destroyed ammunition depots and barracks used by the Russians.

Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, appealed to residents of Russian-held territories in the south to evacuate so the occupying forces could not use them as human shields during a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

'You need to search for a way to leave, because our armed forces are coming to de-occupy,' she said. 'There will be a massive fight. I don't want to scare anyone. Everyone understands all of this anyway.'

Speaking at a news conference late Friday, Vereshchuk said a civilian evacuation effort was underway for parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. She declined to give details, citing safety considerations.

It was not clear how civilians were expected to safely leave Russian-controlled areas while missile strikes and artillery shelling continue in surrounding areas, or whether they would be allowed to depart or even hear the government's appeal.

The war's death toll continued to rise.

Five people were killed and eight more wounded in Russian shelling Friday of Siversk and Semyhirya in Donetsk province, its governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, wrote Saturday on his Telegram channel.

In the city of Sloviansk, named as a likely next target of Russia's offensive, rescuers said they pulled a 40-year-old man from the rubble of a building destroyed by shelling Saturday. Kyrylenko said multiple people were under the debris.

Russian missiles also killed two people and wounded three others Saturday in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, according to regional authorities.

An attack helicopter Mi-24 flying over a field near Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine today

Ukrainian soldiers unload two FV103 Spartan, British armoured personnel carriers (APC), in the countryside near Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine today

A multiple rocket launcher BM-21 grad on a road in the countryside near Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine today

'They deliberately targeted residential areas,' Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, asserted on Telegram. Kryvyi Rih's mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, asserted on Facebook that cluster munitions had been used and urged residents not to approach unfamiliar objects in the streets.

In northeast Ukraine, a Russian rocket strike on Saturday hit the centre of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, injuring six people, including a 12-year-old girl, authorities said.

'An Iskander ballistic missile was probably used in the strike,' the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's office said. 'One of the missiles hit a two-story building, which led to its destruction. Neighbouring houses were damaged.'

The city has been targeted throughout the war, including several times in the past week. As survivor Valentina Mirgorodksaya dabbed at a cut on her cheek, first responders warily inspected the building shattered in Saturday's strike.

'I don't know,' Mirgorodksaya said. 'I just don't know.'

Mykolayiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych reported in a Telegram post that six Russian missiles were fired at his city in southern Ukraine, near the Black Sea, but caused no casualties.

Rescuers sort through the rubble of an apartment building after Russian missile hit a residential building in the city center in Kharkiv, Ukraine today

A local resident Volodymyr, 64, walks near his burning house after a Russian military strike, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine today

Russian defence officials claimed Saturday that their forces destroyed a hangar housing U.S. howitzers in Ukraine, near the Donetsk province town of Chasiv Yar. There was no immediate response from Ukraine.

In other developments, Ukraine's national police force said it was opening a criminal investigation into the Russian military's alleged destruction of crops in southern Ukraine's Kherson region.

In a Telegram post, it accused Russian troops of not allowing residents to put out fires in fields and otherwise sabotaging the harvest.

'Because of the constant shelling, it is extremely difficult to extinguish (field) fires in the de-occupied territories, and in the occupied lands, the Russians deliberately do not allow the extinguishing of fires,' the police force said.

The British Defense Ministry reported Saturday that Russian forces in Ukraine were now being armed with 'obsolete or inappropriate equipment,' including MT-LB armoured vehicles taken out of long-term storage. The MT-LB entered service in the Soviet military in the 1950s and does not provide the same protection as modern armoured vehicles. The Russians also have brought Cold War-era tanks out of storage.

'While MT-LBS have previously been in service in support roles on both sides, Russia long considered them unsuitable for most frontline infantry transport roles,' the British ministry said on Twitter.
Shamed former New York Governor used state resources to push his controversial $5 million COVID memoir - then bullied an official watchdog into letting him publish it, an investigation found.

An independent law firm investigation whose findings were leaked Friday concluded that Cuomo steamrollered the taxpayer-funded deployed New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCPOE) into letting him publish American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawyers found that Cuomo had nearly finished the book, for which he was paid a $5 million advance before seeking approval by the watchdog agency when he began to pen the manuscript in 2020.

Cuomo, who was forced to resign in August 2021 over multiple sex pest claims, had already written 70,000 words in the 80,000-word memoir that details his role as governor in leading the state's response during the COVID pandemic.

The investigation revealed that the JCOPE failed to recognize the potential 'moral quandary' in approving the deal and failed to properly-vet Cuomo's behavior Spectrum News1 reported.

Disgraced ex-NY Governor Andrew Cuomo had already written 70,000 words in the 80,000-word memoir that details his role as governor in leading the state's response during the Covid pandemic before seeking approval by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics

According to the report, 'rather than telling the Executive Chamber what information it needed to provide in order to obtain approval, the Executive Chamber told JCOPE what information the Governor would provide, which was not much,' the news outlet reported.

The reports findings also reveal how the then-Governor's office strong armed the watchdog committee to expedite the approval process without the agency performing a standard review of its terms.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics, that is in the process of being demobilized, voted to release the report in a meeting that took place on Thursday.

Lawmakers and New York Governor Kathy Hochul plan to create a new commission that will oversee the lobbying and ethics in New York government.

A separate investigation into whether Cuomo improperly used state resources to help him write the book is ongoing. Cuomo's team have denied the allegations made against him by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

At the time of the book's publication, he was feted as a national hero - and possible future presidential candidate - because of his cool handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and regular briefings, which many New Yorkers found soothing.

Cuomo's career later collapsed after he was accused of inappropriate sexual behavior towards multiple women. He was also blamed for many of New York's 15,000 nursing home COVID deaths after forcing the facilities to accept COVID-positive patients at the start of the pandemic.

Disgraced ex-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo bullied the state's watchdog ethics agency to approve a multi-million book deal while on the city's clock that was funded by hardworking taxpayers, an investigation reveals

James Derring (pictured) served as a Commissioner on the New York State Pubic Ethics Committee and was appointed by former Governor Cuomo

In April, Cuomo filed a lawsuit against the state's ethics commission, after the JCOPE ordered him to hand over the profits from the lucrative book deal in December, according to a previously reported Associated Press story.

The ex-governor's camp refused and a bitter legal dispute ensued.

In the lawsuit that was filed in state Supreme Court in Albany, Cuomo accused the watchdog committee for violating his constitutional rights, the news outlet reported.

He claimed JCOPE showed 'extraordinary bias against him.'

A spokesperson for JCOPE at the time said they had no comment based on Cuomo's outcry.

Cuomo's book deal had been approved in July 2020 by JCOPE, whose role is to have regulatory oversight over lobbyists and government officials.

The former governor was granted approval to write his book under the condition tat he would not use state personnel or resources.

The investigation revealed that state resources were being used and state employees were involved during the book's promotion and publishing.

Though Cuomos representatives denied any wrongdoing claiming they were working on their personal time, not on the company payroll.

Former special counsel in the governors office, Judith Mogul, said in a memo that no state resources were used in writing the book, and that any staff assisting the former governor on the book were doing so on their own time, the AP reported.

Cuomo spokesperson Richard Azzopardi said the the report provided a measure of vindication by confirming the governors office provided all that was required by the commission for approval, the Associated Press reported.
A London council was today accused of 'grotesque profiteering' after figures showed it was set to raise 22million from low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) fines in one year.

Officials in Lambeth, south-east London have handed out 183,192 penalty charges over the past 12 months.

With fines costing 120 - or 65 if their paid within two weeks - that means the maximum Lambeth council could have raised is a whopping 21,983,040.

Alternatively, if every driver paid the fee on time, the council would have been just under 12million better off over the period, The Telegraph reported.

Lambeth Council (Brixton HQ pictured) handed out 183,192 penalty charges in the past year

At May's borough election, Labour won 58 of 63 seats on the council, followed by the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.

The Conservatives went from one to none.

Across all of London, figures show drivers were hit with more than 750,000 fines - or 80 every hour - after being caught by cameras policing the controversial schemes.

Some motorists have been ensnared multiple times while driving down streets that for years they were able to use unhindered.

Damaged low traffic neighbourhood infrastructure is pictured in Hackney earlier this year

More than 300 car-free zones have been installed in the last two years or are in the pipeline across the UK.

The schemes include pop-up cycle lanes, wider pavements and closing streets to cars.

They are enforced with warning signs and CCTV cameras.

A spokesman for anti-LTN campaigners One Lambeth told The Telegraph: 'It's an awful lot of money.

'People are struggling to pay their bills, striking because of low wages, struggling with fuel costs, so to have these fines in this excessive climate is slightly grotesque.

'It's an abuse of power in a climate where people are struggling financially.'

A Lambeth Council spokesperson said: 'LTNs work to reduce through traffic, lower vehicle speeds and reduce road danger. In our borough, which has low car ownership, they also contribute to tacking health inequalities.

'Drivers who are fined are breaking the rules. We anticipate the numbers of fines will fall as more people embrace environmentally friendly transport options, and those who have to drive follow the rules.'
Putin is 'preparing fresh attacks in Ukraine as he moves reserves across Russia to Ukraine border', the British Ministry of Defence reports after Kremlin warned fighting 'hasn't started in earnest yet'.

'Russia is moving reserve forces from across the country and assembling them near Ukraine for future offensive operations,' defence sources said today.

However, they claimed that Russia's kit is antiquated and dilapidated, adding: 'Many of its reinforcements are ad hoc groupings, deploying with obsolete or inappropriate equipment.'

A large proportion of the new Russian infantry units are probably deploying with MT-LB armoured vehicles taken from long-term storage as their primary transport, Britain's Ministry of Defence tweeted in a regular bulletin.

A regional governor warned today that Russian forces are managing to 'raise true hell' in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland despite reports claiming they were taking an operational pause.

Another Ukrainian official urged people in Russian-occupied southern areas to evacuate quickly 'by all possible means' ahead of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

British intelligence sources have warned that Putin (pictured) is assembling reserve forces close to Ukraine for use in future attacks

'Many of its reinforcements are ad hoc groupings, deploying with obsolete or inappropriate equipment,' intelligence sources said. Pictured, a firefighter hoses down a house on fire in Konstantinovka, eastern Ukraine

Deadly Russian shelling was reported in Ukraine's east and south.

The governor of the eastern region of Luhansk, Serhyi Haidai, said Russia launched over 20 artillery, mortar and rocket strikes in the province overnight and its forces were pressing toward the border with the Donetsk region.

'We are trying to contain the Russians' armed formations along the entire front line,' Haidai wrote on Telegram.

Last week, Russia captured the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, the city of Lysychansk. Analysts predicted Moscow's troops likely would take some time to rearm and regroup.

But 'so far, there has been no operational pause announced by the enemy. He is still attacking and shelling our lands with the same intensity as before,' Haidai said.

A regional governor warned today that Russian forces are managing to 'raise true hell' in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland. Pictured, Kostiantynivka, Ukraine

Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, appealed to residents of Russian-held territories in the south to evacuate so the occupying forces could not use them as human shields during a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

'You need to search for a way to leave, because our armed forces are coming to de-occupy,' she said. 'There will be a massive fight. I don't want to scare anyone. Everyone understands all of this anyway.'

It comes as Russian forces began 'intensive training' at five military airfields in the landlocked authoritarian state bordering NATO countries Poland and Lithuania.

Last month, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko reaffirmed his support for Putin's war against Ukraine during a visit to Moscow.

But the development will dismay his generals, who wrote an extraordinary open letter to the despot imploring him to stay out of the war in Ukraine, calling such a move 'pure suicide'.

They went a step further, labelling the Russians as trying to 'destroy the sovereignty' of Belarus.

In spite of this, some 20 top air force fighter pilots recently arrived by regular train from Moscow, reported Belarusky Gayun, a Telegram channel monitoring troops movements.

Russian 'intensive' military training drills were held all over Ukraine Saturday, while an S300 anti-air missile system was spotted being transported near the town of Baranovichi

A motorist took this photo of a Russian S-300 missiles being transported around Belarus near Baranovichi

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko reaffirmed his support for Putin's war against Ukraine during a visit to Moscow last month

Russian (left) and Belarus (right) soldiers shaking hands during joint exercises of the armed forces of Russia and Belarus at a firing range near Brest on the Polish border on February 19

Russia is also said to have taken control of Prybytki Air Base in Belarus where it already deploys an S-400 battalion with Pantsir and Iskander missiles.

The officers of the fifth brigade of the special forces observed that Russia's highest political leadership have infringed Clause One of the Belarus Constitution.

'According to this Clause, the Belarus Republic maintains supremacy and full authority on its own territory,' they wrote.

'It also enjoys independence over its internal and foreign politics.'

They were also strongly against joining Putin in his war against Ukraine, which they called a 'friend of our state' and considered doing so as 'the destruction of the sovereignty of Belarus.'

'To join Russia in its fight against Ukraine would be an act of pure suicide.'

Russian and Belarus tanks drill manoeuvres on a firing range near Brest on the Polish border, Feb 19

Helicopters conduct training drills during joint exercises of the armed forces of Russia and Belarus on Feb 19

Nonethless, convoys of Russian missile defence systems were seen moving towards the Belarus border with Poland, said Belarusky Gayun.

'There are about ten units in the column, among them communication vehicles based on KamAZ and tilt trucks, some pulling generators, and one flies the flag of the USSR' - something that will alarm the Belarus generals even further.

'The vehicles are in camouflage colours, with the identification mark 'V' on the doors.'

Drills including troops from both Russia and Belarus have been extended to around 15 or 16 July at more than a dozen training bases in Belarus in a move described as 'atypical', said reports.

'About 20 pilots from Russia arrived in Baranavichy. on a regular Moscow-Brest train,' said the channel.

'This is not the first report that the Russian military has again begun to arrive in Belarus on ordinary passenger trains.

'There is a certain correlation between the arrival of the Russian military and an increase inair training.'

Russia has previously deployed in Belarus to attack Ukraine.

File photo of a Russian Pantsir C1, self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile system, which are reported to be stationed in Prybytki Air Base in Belarus

File photo of a S-400 surface-to-air missile launcher similar to the anti-air systems Russia has moved into Belarus

But Belarus also borders Poland and Lithuania and the new intensity may show Vladimir Putin and his Minsk ally Alexander Lukashenko boosting defences at the border with NATO.

Three S-300 air defence systems have been seen on the move on the Minsk-Brest highway, in the direction of the border with Poland.

One autocrat came to another's rescue in the summer of 2020 when wide-scale protests broke out in Belarus over a fraudulent election that saw Lukashenko retain power.

Putin provided security forces, financial aid and even TV presenters to spout government propaganda when the native ones went on strike in protest.

The price for saving Lukashenko's regime from a democratic uprising now appears to be the sovereignty of Belarus, with Putin in effect occupying the country with his military.

Inside Russia, in Bryansk region a bomb exploded on a rail track in Bryansk region, said governor Alexander Bogomaz.

This appears to be the latest in a series of sabotage attacks on rail lines in Russia.

The aim of the unknown perpetrators appears to be to disrupt the use of trains to move troops and weapons.

Dozens of such attacks have been reported in recent weeks.

At Baranavichy, in Brest region, close to the Polish border, fighter pilots are reportedly training in takeoffs and quick climbs.

From June 16, Mi-8 helicopter training has been underway.

'Typically, such training takes place a couple of times a year, but in three weeks their annual rate has already been exceeded,' said the channel.

The movements by Putin's forces come after NATO states agreed to boost their presence in countries bordering Russia.
The leader of a gang of illegal fisherman escaped jail and was forced to pay just 1 in nominal fines after being found guilty of stealing 62,000 worth of salmon and trout.

The judge at Swansea Crown Court said on Friday he was 'surprised' there was no prison sentence for the crime.

Emlyn Rees, 35, was caught after 20 years of illegal poaching, out of which seven years was proved to be criminal.

He was trapped by his own photographs and diary of his prize catches.

Bricklayer Rees was traced after an illegal net was rigged up to catch salmon and sea trout.

Emlyn Rees, 35, plundered more than 60,000 worth of trout and salmon - and was fined 1

Rees's poaching gang were blamed for plundering the waters of the River Teifi in West Wales - and saw salmon stocks drop from 4,342 to 1,197 since 2005.

A 'poaching diary' of a log book containing dates, photographs of the gang alongside their catches and fish records dating back 20 years was found by bailiffs at his home.

During a search of Rees' property, bailiffs seized nets, sacks, ropes and two freezers stocked with fish.

The court heard it earnt Rees around 61,751 - but the money has vanished.

The court heard he is awaiting an operation and is on benefits because he cannot work as a bricklayer.

Rees, of Cenarth, Carmarthenshire, had pleaded guilty to eight charges relating to the illegal handling of salmon at Haverfordwest Magistrates - and was sent to Swansea Crown Court for sentence.

His Honour Judge PH Thomas QC fined him 1,600 and awarded the nominal 1 amount awarded for compensation for his proceeds of crime - and said: 'I imagine members of the public will question that.'

'It is certainly not a case of the court giving him a free pass. It is recognition that the court has not been able to identify any assets.'

Swansea Crown Court heard that he could not be sent to prison - because there is no custody for poaching.

'It is surprising that there is no custodial option,' said Judge Thomas. 'Had there been, the chances are I would have taken that custodial option.'

Judge Thomas went on to fine Rees 200 for each offence totalling 1,600. He also awarded costs of 1,000.

'You have been a persistent poacher of salmon and sewin over many many years,' he said. 'You had significant impacts on fish stocks in the river.

'Unfortunately, I have no power to imprison and can impose nothing more than a fine. However, I take this very seriously.

'I can only fine you what you can afford. I have some misgivings over what you say about your means, but I can only fine you what you are able to pay over the course of two years.

'I can only order you to pay an amount that is affordable regarding costs. There is also the proceeds of crime application in excess of 60,000. I can only impose a 1 charge on you.'

Prosecutor Jon Tarron said: 'Emlyn Rees was undoubtedly the control factor in this large-scale poaching operation.

'For over two decades, others were all involved on different scales.'

His fishing crime spree was halted when at 5am the bailiffs saw a man in dark clothes walking across the fields carrying a large rucksack.

He was seen to pull a net from the river and remove trout.

A court heard Rees fled the scene by jumping into the river near Cenarth, West Wales, in a bid to escape the river patrol.

But he was later arrested - and a search of his home uncovered the rest of the poaching gang dating back 20 years.

During a search of his property bailiffs seized nets, sacks, ropes and two freezers stocked with fish.

'The damage of an operation like this is painfully obvious,' said Mr Tarron.

After the case, Gavin Bown, of Natural Resources Wales, said: 'The impact of this illegal fishing operation on the Teifi, other watercourses and coastal waters cannot be underestimated.

'These caused terrible damage to the stocks of salmon and sea trout and have seriously hindered the future prospects for the stocks of these iconic species.

'Their actions negate the outcomes and benefits that would otherwise arise from investment by responsible river users and from public funds.

'I would like to thank our dedicated team of Enforcement Officers, whose detailed and dogged investigation exposed an astounding scale of criminality.'
A 10-year-old boy is distraught after his mother and his two-year-old sister vanished after they went on a camping trip with her alleged abuser ex-boyfriend.

Brayden Sidebotham-Farmer has been 'hurting pretty bad' since his mother Jill Sidebotham, 28, and his half-sister Lydia Hansen disappeared while camping in Phillips, Maine, on June 27, his grandfather Ron Sidebotham, 61, told DailyMail.com on Saturday.

Ron claims Jill's former partner, Nick Hansen, believed to be 39, is a domestic abuser, and now fears he could hurt or even kill his ex-partner and their daughter if cornered.

'He's trying so hard to keep it in,' the grandfather said of Brayden's anguish at his missing loved-ones. 'I think he's just that one step from breaking down.'

'He's trying to not let it get [to] him, but I can tell,' Ron added. 'He's gets snappy once and a while and he's never like that, never snappy.

'He's such a good boy, for him to be snapping like he has the past couple of days is out of character for him.'

Brayden was really close to his little half-sister and is struggling to hold it together as more days past and the family continues to hear nothing but radio silence.

Brayden Sidebotham-Farmer, 10, of Springville, (pictured) is just 'one step from breaking down' after his mother Jill Sidebotham, 28, and his sister Lydia, two, disappeared on June 27, his grandfather said

Jill and Lydia (pictured with Brayden) went on a camping trip with Lydia's father and Jill's ex-boyfriend Nick Hansen, believed to be 39, for the Fourth of July. Jill's phone has not been on since July 28 and Nick's has not had a signal since June 29

Jill's father Ron Sidebotham believes she was 'taken against her will' and that Nick had kidnapped them because he has an 'obsession with Jill)

The stricken grandpa also believed Nick planned to disappear with Jill and Lydia during the camping trip.

And he says he fears there are lots of very remote areas in which to dispose of any bodies.

The family was expected to return on June 30 after spending a weekend celebrating the Fourth of July, but never returned.

Jill's phone has been turned off since June 28, a day after she and her ex-boyfriend took off on a camping trip in the woods. Nick's phone has also not had signal since June 29.

'[Brayden] loves his little sister so much and she loves him. Oh my god, [they're] inseparable,' Ron said of Jill's two children. 'They'll just laugh and laugh and laugh...he never gets upset with her.

'Oh my god, he worships the ground she walks on. He's big brother and that's all there is too it,' Ron told DailyMail.com.

Jill's mother Cottie, who suffers from Hepatitis-C and neuropathy - nerve damage - has dropped 10 pounds in the last week from the stress. Ron, himself, even broke down a few times on the phone and said he had trouble sleeping.

Nick (pictured) has been arrested twice during the couple's two year relationship over domestic disputes where he 'punched' Jill in the head and went after her fiance Corey Alexander with a 'drywall hammer,' Ron recalled

Ron also said that Nick had 'very little to do with the baby.' Ron said: 'He could care less about the baby. It's an obsession with Jill, and he's using the baby against her or as a pawn for it'

'The whip-lash effect is just amazing, I just can't believe what it's doing to us,' Ron told DailyMail.com. 'I'll just lay on the couch and wait for the phone to ring and wait, wait, wait. I'll lay there and doze off and as soon as I hear a car coming up, my eyes are wide awake.'

Ron was at work when Jill took off with Nick nearly two weeks ago and when he returned home to the apartment he shares with his wife, daughter, and her two children, he was informed Jill had taken off.

'When I came home, my wife said: "She went camping with Nick," and I was like: "Are you serious?"' he said. Ron also told DailyMail.com that Cottie tried to stop her from going, but was unable to convince her.

'My daughter, of course, ends everything with "it will be fine,"' he said. 'She has a fiance [Corey Alexander], which is another thing that makes me wonder why and makes me think that she was taken against her will.'

Although the Sanford Police Department said they do not suspect foul play, Ron believes they are downplaying the situation over fears that Nick will disappear. However, he said they are aware of the domestic disputes and violence Nick has perpetuated over the past few years.

Many people have directed Ron to Nick's Facebook, which DailyMail.com has previously reported on. Jill's father said he had 'never followed' the alleged abuser and didn't want too. But after looking at it, he noticed the weird posts and said it showed his obsession with Jill.

Ron (pictured with Lydia) said the whole family's health has been effected by Jill and Lydia's disappearance and that his wife Cottie has lost 10 pounds in a week and he is barely sleeping

Two weeks prior to the camping trip, Nick shared a Rachel Byram poem that features lines such as: 'I'm done playing you game. Did you ever even care? Cause you act like I was never there. I'm not just some game.'

It also featured: 'You should be ashamed. I could have been everything you wanted. Cause you were everything I ever wanted. But you made your choice. Your mind maybe thinking one thing. But your actions are the only thing that's speaking.'

He also posted another photo on June 16, reading: 'If you want me in your life, figure out a way to put me there. I'm done trying.'

It is unclear if these posts were made with the intention of Jill seeing them.

'I looked into [the Facebook page], and oh my god, if I had only seen this stuff before I may have had an idea,' Ron told DailyMail.com.

When asked if the Facebook posts and the decision to camp in the woods versus on a campground indicated the Nick was planning on kidnapping the two, Ron said he has 'reasons to believe so.'

Another reason Ron believes this was deliberate was after he found out that Nick had texted his boss to 'piss off' and had quit his job around three weeks ago.

'He's not a really smart guy. It sounds like something he was planning, trying to put together,' Ron told DailyMail.com. 'I actually do believe that she is being held against her will.'

He said Nick was possessive and 'wouldn't let her out of her sight.' He also said Nick accused her of cheating on him with her longtime friends and had even gone through her phone before destroying it at one point.

Ron worries that Nick could harm Lydia and Jill and fears the farther north they go, the less likely they'll be discovered. Although he didn't know if Nick would kill them, he said northern Maine was an area where 'bodies can be hidden up there and never found again'

Ron is now worried he has destroyed Jill's phone again and that's why they are unable to get in contact with her.

His oldest daughter Reta, 34, has recently changed the Netflix ID to someone 'only her and Jill would know' in hope that she will login into the shared account to give them a sign that she is alive. Ron said she oftentimes played shows for her daughter Lydia and is hoping Jill will notice the 'cryptic message.'

However, they have not logged on since their disappearance.

Reta, who declined to speak with DailyMail.com because she wasn't in the 'best emotional state,' and her sister Heather, 31, have headed up north to look for their beloved sister.

Jill, Nick, and Lydia were last seen at a Mexico, Maine, Walmart on July 2, where they were seen on security footage buying food and appeared to not be in distress.

'They were buying food items and there did not appear to be anything nefarious or criminal,' Sanford police Lieutenant Matthew Gagne told the Boston Globe. '[However], we cannot verify their state without seeing them.'

They were last seen in a silver 2005 Volkswagen Jetta with a black rear bumper sticker and a Maine license plate, according to the wanted poster.

Ron now just wants his daughter to be found or at least contact them so she can at least say she's alright.

The couple was last seen heading north and Ron worries about her safety the farther north they go.

In the farther northern points of Maine, towns because 'territories' and it's very 'woodland country' with very little people traversing the area.

Although he doesn't believe Nick plans on taking them out of the country, as neither had passports, he did admit there was a lot of 'woodland' areas up there that could potentially lead to a secret crossings.

He also didn't know if Nick would ultimately kill Jill or Lydia, but admitted he 'didn't know what [Nick] would if he was backed into a corner.'

'Worst case scenario is...bodies can be hidden up there and never found again,' Ron told DailyMail.com. 'There are just so many places that people can hide and never been seen.

Ron said it's a big, big worry of mine' that Nick will kill them and he's 'praying' it will not be the case

Jill's father also said he was 'blown away' by the amount of support the family has received since his daughter and granddaughter disappeared

'That's a big, big worry of mine. I hope he wouldn't go that far - I'm praying that he wouldn't go that far - but it's something you can't get out of the back of your mind.'

Throughout Jill and Nick's relationship - which only lasted around two years - Nick was arrested twice for domestic disputes.

About a year-and-a-half ago, Lydia was crying in the bedroom and when Jill got up to go check on her, Nick forcibly told her 'no,' Ron recalled. When he tried to intervene between the two after they started arguing, Nick became more aggressive and Ron realized Nick was 'drunk.'

'He tried to lunge at me and I took him down and put him in a headlock,' Ron told DailyMail.com.

The first time Nick was arrested was after he had accidently hit Jill in the head with his elbow and she asked him 'not to hit me like that.' Afterward, Nick 'punched' Jill in the head and he was arrested, it is claimed.

The second time, Nick waited outside the family's residence until Ron left for work before he 'busted through the door and went after her fiance with a drywall hammer.'

The family said they are extremely worried about her disappearance Nick is 'not a stable person'

DailyMail.com has requested the arrests records from the Sanford Police Department.

Nick also has two children with another woman and does not have custody over them and is not allowed to see them, Jill's family alleged. His sister currently has fully custody and has not heard from Nick in more than three years, Ron told DailyMail.com.

'He is court ordered to stay away from them,' the grandfather said. Jill has custody of Lydia.

Ron also told DailyMail.com that he believes Jill and Lydia's disappearance has nothing to do with the two-year-old and everything to do with Jill.

'This has very little to do with the baby, he could care less about the baby,' Ron told DailyMail.com. 'It's an obsession with Jill, and he's using the baby against her or as a pawn for it.

'I know him, I know how he is.'

Two weeks before their camping trip, Nick made weird Facebook posts, including a poem and photo that indicated he was 'done trying' to keep someone in his life. It is unclear who these posts were directed toward

Despite the terrifying 12 days so far, Ron has been 'blown away' by the amount of support the family has received.

'The support has been unbelievable,' he told DailyMail.com.

Jill's ex-boyfriend and Brayden's father's fiancee has even helped Ron by 'making phone calls and calling campgrounds.'

A Facebook page has also been set up for the family of three, called Missing: Lydia, Nick Hansen, and Jill Sidebotham. The public group is dedicated to finding Jill and Lydia, mainly, and people can list potential sightings.

'It just blew me away when I saw that, when I got an invite out of nowhere, because I've been glued to Facebook,' Ron told DailyMail.com.

'People not only that I've never met [and] will probably never meet in my life are just doing everything they can to help me and my wife and [Jill's] son.'

Sanford Police are urging anyone who thinks they spotted the family to call local law enforcement.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was criticized for mocking the alleged harassment from pro-choice protesters that caused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to flee a D.C. steakhouse.

Kavanaugh, who previously faced an assassination attempt, was having dinner at the Morton's restaurant on Wednesday when activists showed up and told the manager to kick him out, two weeks after he was in the majority that overturned Roe v. Wade, Politco reported.

Poking fun at the situation, the New York Democrat tweeted on Friday: 'Poor guy. He left before his souffle because he decided half the country should risk death if they have an ectopic pregnancy within the wrong state lines.

'It's all very unfair to him,' Ocasio-Cortez added. 'The least they could do is let him eat cake.'

Although many cheered the congresswoman on, others slammed her for not condemning the protesters and claimed she was spreading false information about ectopic pregnancies.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (left) mocked the incident where Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was forced to leave a D.C. steakhouse after pro-choice protesters demanded management kick him out following the high court's ruling to end Roe V. Wade

Ocasio-Cortez poked fun at Kavanaugh, who was forced to leave before he could eat dessert

A spokesperson for the Morton's restaurant in Washington D.C. (pictured) criticized the protesters and said the justice had to leave the restaurant through the back

A spokesperson for the Morton's restaurant criticized the protesters who showed up against Kavanaugh, who was forced to leave through the back.

'Honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and all of our other patrons at the restaurant were unduly harassed by unruly protestors while eating dinner at our Morton's restaurant,' the spokesperson said in a statement.

'Politics, regardless of your side or views, should not trample the freedom at play of the right to congregate and eat dinner.'

Matt Walsh, a commentator for the conservative Daily Wire, called Ocasio-Cortez a hypocrite for mocking the situation while previously saying she had feared for her life during the January 6 Capitol riot.

'Didn't you cry about having a near death experience because people were trespassing in a building you weren't even in,' Walsh tweeted.

Conservative radio host Dana Loesch also took a jab at the congresswoman, calling her claim about ectopic pregnancies 'disinformation.'

'Ectopic pregnancies aren't denied treatment because they aren't viable pregnancies as modern medicine can't solve the problem of transplanting a fetus to the uterus, Loesch tweeted. 'You'd do much better without this blatant disinformation.'

An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg gets implanted outside the uterus, putting the mother at risk of life-threatening blood loss.

Although the current state-level abortion bans make exemptions for medical emergencies, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has warned that the bans may impede timely treatment of ectopic pregnancy as doctors worry over the rules in their states.

Many took to Twitter to criticize the congresswoman for her statements

Tom Fitton, president of the Judicial Watch conservative activism group, also criticized Ocasio-Cortez for her tweet and called her a 'Marxist.'

'AOC, a Marxist politician, supports illegal intimidation of Supreme Court justices because she is angry that states are once again able to protect the right to life of unborn human beings,' he tweeted.

One Twitter user named Eric Robinson simply asked, 'If people accost her during her next meal, will she feel the same way?'

Following the backlash, the congresswoman wrote: 'I will never understand the pearl clutching over these protests.

'Republicans send people to protest me all the time, sometimes drunk and belligerent,' she claimed. 'Nobody cares about it unless it's a Republican in a restaurant.

'Can someone please explain the obsession because I don't get it.'

The New York Democrat called her critics hypocrites, claiming she too has faced protesters from the right, who are 'sometimes drunk and belligerent,' she tweeted

Cops stand outside of Brett Kavanaugh's home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on June 29, five days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade

Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, California, sparked the greatest security fears by bringing a gun, knife and burglary tools to Kavanaugh's home at the beginning of June, according to law enforcement. He has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of a federal judge and is due to stand trial in August

Protesters have turned up at the homes of the justices and singled them out in the weeks since the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked.

Members of Congress have demanded more security for the nine members of the highest court. A bill was signed last month to extend protection to their families, but there are still fears for their safety.

Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, California, sparked the greatest security fears by bringing a gun, knife and burglary tools to Kavanaugh's home at the beginning of June, according to law enforcement.

He has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of a federal judge in a trial set to begin on August 23.

If convicted he faces life in prison.

According to an FBI affidavit, Roske had flown from California to Washington and was spotted arriving at Kavanaugh's home in the middle of the night on June 8, CBS reported.
Safety officials have opened a 37th probe into a Tesla crash after a couple's car slammed into the back of a Walmart truck, shearing its roof off.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating the wreck, which happened at the Paynes Prairie Rest Stop just south of Gainesville, Florida, on Wednesday.

Its female driver, aged 66, and her 67 year-old male passenger were killed. The pair were visiting from Lompoc in California, and neither their age nor their relationship to one another has been disclosed, in accordance with Florida state laws.

The Tesla - a 2015 S model - was driving on Interstate-75 souhbound when it exited off the highway onto the rest stop ramp 'for an unknown reason,' Florida Highway Patrol said in statement.

The car then drove through the parking lot where it rear-ended the trailer of a Walmart 18-wheeler, killing the 66-year-old female driver and a 67-year-old male passenger.

Photos from the scene showed the front end of a red Tesla jammed under the overhang of a Walmart trailer, the top end of the car sheared violently back past the car's front doors.

The victims were pronounced dead at the scene.

The accident is the second fatal Tesla crash in a week to be investigated by the NHTSA.

They say its too early to disclose a possible cause, but that Tesla's controversial autopilot self-driving technology is being probed over the incident.

Photos from the scene show the front end of a red Tesla jammed under the overhang of a Walmart trailer, the top end of the car sheared violently back past the car's front doors

A close-up of the same image shows the sheer violence of the crash, with most of the Tesla's roof sheared off by the impact of the smash

Highway Patrol Lt. P.V. Riordan said in an email that authorities were looking into whether automated features were involved in the wreck.

Previous autopilot-related crashes were linked to the Teslas' cameras being confused by flashing lights and reflectors on stopped emergency vehicles, but there is currently no suggestion the Florida crash involved an ambulance, cop car or fire truck.

'That is a consideration that will be explored during our investigation,' he said.

The 2015 Teslas were the first to use the company's autopilot technology, but did not include fully automated options. Instead they used a number of features intended to assist drivers, including automated in-lane steering, and automated lane changing prompted by the driver's commands.

'The driver is still responsible for, and ultimately in control of, the car,' Tesla wrote in a blog post announcing describing the then-new features. They're warned to keep their hands on the wheel at all time.

Elon Musk's company has been in a series of probes from regulators due to its Autopilot feature

Wednesday's crash bore a striking similarity to a score of Tesla crashes that have occurred since 2015 in which drivers were killed when their cars merged into tractor trailers and wound up beneath them.

The NHTSA has opened 37 special crash investigations involving Tesla vehicles in which advanced driver assistance systems like autopilot were suspected of being used since 2016, according to Reuters.

A total of 17 crash deaths have been reported in those Tesla investigations, including the Florida wreck.

The NHTSA typically opens more than 100 special crash investigations annually into emerging technologies and other potential auto safety issues that have, for instance, previously helped to develop safety rules on air bags.

This latest investigation comes after the NHTSA announced it would be investigating an accident in which a man, 39, struck and killed a woman while reportedly being high on drugs and driving a Tesla on Autopilot.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on June 7 that the Tesla went airborne and struck and killed the woman. NBC 7 San Diego said the man was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of drugs in the incident.

The case is believed to have involved Frank Shoaf, who was high from huffing - inhaling household items - while driving on Othello Avenue around 8.30am. He admitted to police that he had run the red light then hit a dip, which caused him to go airborne two feet, before he hit Cassandra May, 40.

After Shoaf struck the woman, her body reportedly was lunched seven to eight feet in the air before landing 25 feet away. She was transported to the hospital, where she later died.

As his car continued forward, it crashed into a no parking sign and landed in a bush outside of a local KFC with one of its tires missing.

The accident is the second Tesla crash in a week to be investigated by the NHTSA. Last week a man, 39, struck and killed a woman while reportedly being high on drugs and driving a Tesla on Autopilot

In June, the NHTSA upgraded its defect probe into 830,000 Tesla vehicles with Autopilot, a required step before it could seek a recall.

The NHTSA opened a preliminary evaluation to assess the performance of the system in 765,000 vehicles after about a dozen crashes in which Tesla vehicles struck stopped emergency vehicles - and said last month it had identified six additional crashes.

The NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff told Reuters on Wednesday he wanted to complete the Tesla Autopilot investigation 'as quickly as we possibly can, but I also want to get it right. There's a lot of information that we need to comb through.'

Nearly 400 car crashes in the US within a ten-month period were caused by self-driving or driver assistance technology, NHTSA report found.

Teslas were involved in the vast majority of those crashes, 273 out of 392, which occurred between July 1, 2021, and May 15 this year and resulted in six deaths and five serious injuries.

Worldwide automobile companies made the disclosures to the NHTSA after the regulator issued an order in June 2021 requiring automakers and tech companies to immediately report all crashes involving advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and vehicles equipped with automated driving systems being tested on public roads.

Of the remaining amount of crashes involving ADAS technology reported by a dozen automakers, 90 of them involved Hondas and 10 were Subrarus. Ford Motor, General Motors, BMW, Volkswagen, Toyota, Hyundai and Porsche reported fewer than five incidents each.
A retired three-star Army general was suspended from a high paying mentoring job for mocking a recent tweet Jill Biden made regarding the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

'Glad to see you finally know what a woman is,' was the response Lieutenant General Gary Volesky tweeted on Friday. The tweet, which appeared to reference ongoing arguments over transgender rights and gender-neutral language, has since been removed.

The offensive remark may have cost the retired army general his cushy $92 hour mentoring role as the Army conducts its own internal investigation.

Volesky posted his snarky comment less than 30 minutes after the First Lady sent out a tweet expressing her devastation over the Supreme Court's ruling that denied a woman's constitutional right to abortion, that has been in effect since 1973.

'For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make their own decisions about their bodies,' Jill Biden said.

'Today that right was stolen from us.'

'And while we maybe devastated by this injustice, we will not be silent. We will not sit back as the progress we have already won slips away.'

'Glad to see you finally know what a woman is,' was the response Lieutenant General Gary Volesky tweeted on Friday. The tweet that was posted on Friday has since been removed

The First Lady sent out a tweet expressing her devastation over the Supreme Court's ruling that denied a woman's constitutional right to abortion, that has been in effect since 1973

The offensive remark got the retired army general into some hot water, and may even cost him his cushy $92 hour mentoring role as the Army conducts its own internal investigation.

A US Army spokesperson told Fox News: 'Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin, commanding general of the Combined Arms Center, has suspended retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky from performing duties as a Highly Qualified Expert  Senior Mentor pending the outcome of the commanders inquiry.'

The word 'woman' and its definition has become a controversial topic that has prompted a culture war between conservatives and Democrats, who seemingly have dodged the answer for fear of angering woke pro-trans mobs.

Many progressives have taken to using terms including 'pregnant people,' 'menstruators' and even 'uterus-havers.'

They say the terms are designed to include transgender men and non-binary people, neither of whom are women.

But critics say the language erases women - themselves a group who've long been persecuted, and who have spent decades pushing for equal rights.

In March during Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Jackson replied that she was 'not a biologist, when the question was asked by Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, The Washington Post previously reported.

The word 'woman' and its definition has become a hot button issue surrounding women's sports.

First Lady Biden has not made any comment on what she thinks the definition of a woman is, and has largely managed to avoid gaffes or controversies since her husband was confirmed as president.

Volesky, who earned a silver star of valor while serving in Iraq, was in charge of the Armys 101st Airborne Division, before his retirement in 2020.
Trump supporters in Alaska expressed a general sense of disenfranchisement with Lisa Murkowski, one of those most moderate Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Senate, as they gathered Saturday afternoon for a rally in Anchorage.

'She doesn't represent Alaskans anymore  what we want,' a woman, who traveled from a town around Seward, Alaska told DailyMail.com as she waited to gain entrance to the rally.

Former President Donald Trump is making his first ever rally stop in Alaska  jetting to the Last Frontier State directly from Las Vegas, Nevada after holding a rally there Friday evening to stump for Murkowski's primary challenger Kelly Tshibaka and House candidate Sarah Palin.

He will also rally for Mike Dunleavy in his bid for reelection to the governor's mansion.

Several other rally goers and Alaskans from all over the state dining in Anchorage over the weekend agreed that Murkowski was not representative of the Republican Party.

Former President Donald Trump is making his first ever rally stop in Alaska  jetting to the Last Frontier State directly from Las Vegas, Nevada after holding a rally there Friday evening to stump for Murkowski's primary challenger Kelly Tshibaka and House candidate Satah Palin

An Alaska Survey Research poll taken July 2-5 shows Murkowski with 52 percent support to Tshibaka's 48 percent. But an average of the polling in the state shows the two slightly closer with just 3 percent separating the two

As well as rallying for Kelly Tshibaka and Sara Palin in Anchorage on Saturday, Trump will also rally for Mike Dunleavy in his bid for reelection to the governor's mansion. Pictured: Trump at a rally in Las Vegas on Friday

Trump supporters have rallied in Anchorage, Alaska ahead of former President Donald Trump's arrival

Masked-up Trump supporters are seen waiting to get into the rally in Anchorage

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell poses with a Trump supporter ahead of the rally

One Democratic Anchorage resident who identified himself as only Dan told DailyMail.com while dining at Snow City Cafe Saturday morning that he would cast his ballot for Murkowski now that the state has switched over to an open election system. The 47-year-old said that it's better to have an 'anti-Trump' Republican in Congress than risk wasting his vote on a Democrat who would likely go on to 'lose the general election.'

Alaska went red for Trump in 2020 by an exact 10 percent margin and in 2016 by a 14.7 percent margin.

A handful of voters, most of whom did not want to identify themselves, told DailyMail.com that while they support Trump and Palin, they would still cast their ballot for Murkowski in the primary election.

An Alaska Survey Research poll taken July 2-5 shows Murkowski with 52 percent support to Tshibaka's 48 percent. But an average of the polling in the state shows the two slightly closer with just 3 percent separating the two.

The same polling group shows Palin consistently trailing Republican primary candidate Nick Begich, who is also vying to fill Young's seat. The competitor ties or pulls ahead of Palin by 1-2 percentage points.

Begich has capital among Alaska Republicans. He served as a co-chair for Young's final reelection campaign in 2020.

Supporters in the stands of the Alaska Airlines Center on the campus of the University of Alaska Anchorage cheered wildly for Palin as she entered the arena a few hours before Trump's arrival time.

Trump supporters in Alaska expressed a general sense of disenfranchisement with US Senator Lisa Murkowski

People at the 'Save America' rally on Saturday wait as the auditorium fills up

Trump supporters waited in long lines to enter the arena in Anchorage

The arena has 5,000 seat capacity and included standing room Saturday for supporters to get close to the former president. The seating capacity was nowhere close to at capacity as the upper deck of the in-door arena remained nearly fully empty after the time programming was set to begin.

Trump backed Palin in her special election run to replace late Representative Don Young, who was the U.S. congressman for Alaska's at-large House district from 1973 until his death in March 2022.

The former president is finally making a trek to the 49th state now that the House, one Senate and the governor's seat are all open simultaneously. The move also comes as part of his revenge tour as he pushes his 2022 midterm candidates especially hard against incumbents who voted for his impeachment.

Current junior Senator Dan Sullivan was reelected for a second term in 2020.

Trump supporters in Alaska are trying to once again propel Palin to office  she served as governor from 2006-2009 and mayor of Wasilla, Alaska from 1996 to 2002.

The Alaska primary election will be held later in the summer on August 16 before November's primaries will decide who will serve Alaska's at-large House district as well as if Murkowski will continue to represent the state in the Senate and if Dunleavy will keep his seat in the governor's mansion.

Murkowski is the second-most senior Republican woman senator  falling behind only fellow moderate Susan Collins of Maine. Both hold crucial swing votes in the upper chamber, especially with a 50-50 split Senate with a Democrat tie-breaker.

The daughter of former Alaskan governor and U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski, the senior senator was controversially first appointed to her seat in December 2002 by her father when he resigned to become governor of the state.

She completed her father's term in January 2005 and started her first full term, which she was elected for in November 2004.

Despite the perceived nepotism, Murkowski, 65, is a widely popular name in Alaska  and she likely would have risen to the Senate even if her father did not appoint her to the post. She is only the second ever U.S. senator, after Strom Thurmond in 1954, to be elected by write-in vote in the 2010 election.

Murkowski is now looking to earn a fourth term in office  but it's looking increasingly likely that she could be booted from her seat.

August's primary elections are the first Murkowski has to face since she was one of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial. This led to Murkowski's censure by the Alaska Republican Party.
A new film about the British Raj is at the centre of a colonialism storm amid claims that rulers are wrongly portrayed as being addicted to torture and murder.

Critics say the movie RRR, Rise, Roar Revolt, which is currently being screened by Netflix, grossly mispresents history and that 'fiction is presented as fact' in its twisted version of events.

The 60 million film is set in 1920 against the backdrop of the fight for Indian independence, and is loosely based on the lives of two real revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, who challenged British colonial power. Despite the films narrative, there is no record of them having met, let alone joining forces.

But it is the depiction of a villainous British governor who relishes violence that has sparked particular anger.

Critics say the Netflix movie RRR  Rise Roar Revolt  grossly misrepresents history and that fiction is presented as fact in its twisted version of events

The movie  the most expensive Bollywood film ever made  opens in a forest in the district of Adilabad in the Indian state of Telangana.

The fictional Catherine Buxton, wife of Governor Scott Buxton, is entranced by a young Indian girl and tells her husband she wants to have this little package on our mantelpiece.

The girl is then kidnapped and her mother left for dead after a guard smashes her in the head with a piece of wood on the orders of Buxton, played by actor Ray Stevenson.

Meanwhile, in arguably the most shocking scene in the three-hour epic, Bheem is flogged publicly without trial as Buxton and his wife, played by former Bond girl Alison Doody, complain that he is not suffering enough. They order him to be hit harder and demand that blood be spilled, before insisting the whip is replaced with one embedded with nails.

Other scenes show British soldiers massacring men, women and children.

RRR also features British actress Olivia Morris, who, as Scott Buxtons niece Jenny, is romantically linked to Bheem.

The movie  the most expensive Bollywood film ever made  opens in a forest in the district of Adilabad in the Indian state of Telangana. The fictional Catherine Buxton, wife of Governor Scott Buxton, is entranced by a young Indian girl and tells her husband she wants to have this little package on our mantelpiece

Dr Zareer Masani, an expert on British colonialism, said: The entire plot is a travesty of history.

Its fiction presented as fact. Far from brutalising natives, British governors and their wives enforced the rule of law and opened schools and hospitals. There may have been occasional acts of violence in the 19th Century, but not in the 20th.

RRR, currently the most popular non-English language film on Netflix, carries a disclaimer stating the story is purely fictional. The movie is also being shown in the UK by Indian streaming platform Zee5.

But Dr Masani, a former BBC producer who is an author of several books about the Raj, said: I dont think the disclaimer is enough. [The film] will be taken as gospel by many. Its irresponsible of Netflix to be presenting this sort of stuff and I would advise them to withdraw it.

RRR, currently the most popular non-English language film on Netflix, carries a disclaimer stating the story is purely fictional

It goes with a certain kind of prevailing prejudice, which has even reached the BBC, to keep reminding people how brutal and exploitative the British Raj was, which is grossly inaccurate.

Cambridge historian Professor Robert Tombs said: This film is a piece of xenophobic slander, utterly false and without historical foundation. It panders to extreme nationalism in an outrageous way.

Fellow historian Andrew Roberts said: RRR seems to combine sadism with anti-British racism and a good dollop of historical invention. What you get is a very dangerous concoction of lies. Its very, very sad that Netflix should be promoting hatred in this way.

Free Speech Union founder Toby Young said: Portraying employees of the colonial service as cartoon villains is par for the course nowadays. In reality, they were almost all conscientious, highly scrupulous public servants.

RRR is the first Indian film to be nominated for Best Picture category at the Hollywood Critics Association Awards.

Netflix declined to comment.
Thomas Jefferson's famous Monticello mansion has been accused of bombarding visitors with unending and over the top references to the Declaration of Independence author's history as a slave owner.

The reactions come after a ten-year effort to overhaul the exhibits at the Virginia estate and provide a more balanced view of the third US president who wrote: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal' in 1776, yet owned slaves till his dying day in 1826.

'The whole thing has the feel of propaganda and manipulation,' founder of the libertarian Brownstone Institute Jeffrey Tucker told The New York Post after a recent visit, 'People on my tour seemed sad and demoralized.'

Recent visitors have described a deluge exhibits and signs that criticize Jefferson, and even employees who go out of the way to 'besmirch' him.

Some visitors however have argued that the changes are not enough, with one visitor labeling the slavery exhibit specifically as 'benevolent slaveholder b.s.'

Recent visitors have described a deluge exhibits and signs that criticize Jefferson, and even employees who go out of the way to 'besmirch' him

Some visitors however have argued that the changes are not enough, with one visitor labeling the slavery exhibit specifically as 'benevolent slaveholder b.s.'

In the decades since Monticello opened to the public in 1923 the attention given Jefferson's slaves were few, mostly consisting of cursory references to the quarters and cabins where they lived on the estate.

But as Jefferson's legacy as a slaveholder has come under increased scrutiny in recent years.

Last year his statue was removed from the New York City Council's chamber, with the exhibits at Monticello also enjoying an overhaul intended to address Jefferson's enthusiasm for owning slaves head-on.

He began building Monticello in 1794, and continued working on the property until his death in 1826.

'Our goal is to present an honest, inclusive history of Monticello in all its aspects as well as Jefferson's contributions to the founding of the country,' a Monticello spokesperson Jenn Lyon told The Post.

One visitor to the tour claimed it was too woke - although he didn't any further issues

But another visitor, Debi Jansen, suggested the tour wasn't woke enough

The current tour of Monticello begins with a reference to the Native Americans who once lived on the land, and a ticket booth adorned with a painting of the president's slaves in tears.

Throughout the building, signs pointing out household positions continually refer to them with the moniker 'enslaved' before them, according to The Post, while trigger warnings abound and signage asks questions that provide their own answers.

'Is 'all men are created equal' being lived up to in our country today?' a sign hung on the patio outside the snack shops reads, 'When will we know when it is?'

And the centerpiece of the house - the octagonal music room that was meticulously restored to look as Jefferson's exact decorative specifications - a portrait of a black man with his face marred out hangs front and center.

The man's 'hands and face of featureless tar' are meant to represent 'the faceless lives of all who served in bondage, witnessing but never recognized,' the painting's placard reads.

Former Virginia governor and senator George Allen characterized the new Monticello as a 'contemporary politicization of a beautiful historic property.'

'Some of this to me just detracts from how people can be inspired and understand Thomas Jefferson and his time and how brilliant he was, how creative he was, his innovations and how ahead of his time he was.'

And Douglas McKinnon, author of The 56: Liberty Lessons From Those Who Risked All to Sign The Declaration of Independence, said the exhibit's view of history is clearly warped through the lens of contemporary politics.

'It's very problematic to look at 1776 and Thomas Jefferson through the prism of 2022,' MacKinnon said. 'You can't go back 250 years to know what was in their hearts at that time.'

'Jefferson was the ultimate Founding Father of our nation. His name should not be diminished because of our political disagreements.'

Stephen Owen said he enjoyed the tour, and had no issues with the exhibits about slavery - but said the guides themselves needed to tone-down the Jefferson bashing

'Our goal is to present an honest, inclusive history of Monticello in all its aspects as well as Jefferson's contributions to the founding of the country,' a Monticello spokesperson Jenn Lyon told The New York Post

Visitors have also taken to the internet to express their dismay, with one Google review from Wesley Stevens, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, writing 'They are trying to rewrite history to make it seem like the founding fathers were terrible immoral creatures that happened to start a country.'

'The tour guides play 'besmirchment derby,' never missing a chance to defame this brilliant, complex man,' said Stephen Owen of Enochville, North Carolina, in a Facebook post.

Still, some seem to think the new Monticello has not gone far enough.

'The guided slavery tour was all benevolent slaveholder b.s.,' wrote Debi Jasen on Facebook, 'I thought the tour was supposed to have improved and not be so whitewashed. What an infuriating disappointment.'

Monticello took the time to respond to Jasen, writing:

'We want all of our guests to have an experience that meets their expectations and to find our programs and tours engaging. Our goal is to bring the history of Jefferson and Monticello forward into the contemporary dialogue so that we can learn from this history and how it can inform our present-day issues.'
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Sandra Lee was seen packing on the PDA with fiance Ben Youcef on the balcony of of their Lake Como villa this weekend, on a romantic getaway meant to ring in the TV chef's 56th birthday.

The former Food Network star and her shirtless beau put on an amorous display during the love-fest early Saturday, with the 43-year-old actor pictured passionately kissing Lee's neck while holding her close.

It was the latest exhibit of love from the happy couple, who have been unable to keep their hands off of each other since Youcef proposed to Lee last August.

Lee dated disgraced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for 14 years before shacking up with Youcef, who has starred.

For the past week, the pair have embarked on a steamy summer holiday at Lee's Villa d'Este property.

Sandra Lee was seen packing on the PDA with fiance Ben Youcef on the balcony of of their Lake Como villa this weekend, on a romantic getaway meant to ring in the TV chef's 56th birthday

The former Food Network star and her shirtless beau put on an amorous display during the love-fest early Saturday

The 43-year-old Algerian actor - who emerged from the villa only in his underwear - was pictured passionately kissing The TV chef's neck while holding her close

Photos showed the pair getting particularly handsy Saturday, on The Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee star's balcony.

Lee donned a black night gown and enjoyed a mug of some sort of breakfast drink during the excursion, walking out onto the wooden terrace alone before being joined by her hubby-to-be.

Youcef, meanwhile, emerged from the villa shirtless, in his underwear, grabbing his future wife from behind in a warm embrace.

Lee looked to enjoy the encounter, craning her neck as she welcomed her beau's advances.

Enjoying a mug of some sort of breakfast drink, Lee donned a black night gown during the excursion, which saw the TV chef first walk out onto the wooden terrace alone, before being joined by her hubby-to-be

Lee donned a black night gown and enjoyed a mug of some sort of breakfast drink during the excursion, walking out onto the wooden terrace alone before being joined by her hubby-to-be

Youcef, meanwhile, emerged from the villa shirtless, in his underwear, grabbing his future wife from behind in a warm embrace

Lee looked to enjoy being caressed, and craned her neck as she welcomed her beau's advances

The pair shared a passionate smooch in front of photographers who captured the early-morning love-fest

The happy couple have been unable to keep their hands off of each other since Youcef proposed to Lee last August

The couple went on to share a passionate smooch in full view of a DailyMail.com photographer, while continuing to clasp each other.

The pair proceeded to playfully converse on the balcony, before retiring back into the sprawling home.

Earlier this week, Lee was spotted sharing a kiss with the actor - who hails from Algeria and has starred in films like The Algerian and X-Men Apocalypse - after leaving the villa in a vintage 1956 Porscher Speedster.

According to People, friends of the couple are known to affectionately refer to the pair as 'Bendra.'

The couple resides in Malibu, with Lee taking up residence there after splitting with Como in 2019, when the then-New York governor found himself at the center of a heated sex scandal.

The pair proceeded to playfully converse on the balcony, before retiring back into the sprawling home

According to People, friends of the couple - who live in Malibu and have been engaged for 11 months - are known to affectionately refer to the pair as 'Bendra'

The pair flew to Lee's Lake Como Villa last week to celebrate the TV chef - who dated disgraced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for 14 years before splitting in 2019 - her turning 56 on Sunday

The pair flaunted their relationship for all the world to see during the steamy encounter

Last week, they flew to Lee's Lake Como Villa to celebrate her turning 56 on Sunday.

She gushed about the birthday celebrations with her 11-month fiance on a post to Instagram.

'Romantic Sunset cruise on Lake Como pre-party with my Ben,' she captioned a photo of herself passionately kissing Youcef... so romantic and special for my birthday!! Happy birthday everyone- may your kisses be filled with love and passion. Loving 56 so far! So gratefulXoxo Sandy.'

On Saturday, she posted a photo of herself passionately kissing Youcef on a balcony in Verona, the setting for Shakespearian romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet.

'So lots to share from today on!! ' she wrote. 'First and most importantly I am making my years count instead of counting the years. Yesterday my Pre-birthday day, a Magical day in Verona was spent at Juliet's balcony (the Romeo and Juliet balcony) with my Ben.

Earlier this week, Lee was spotted sharing a kiss with the actor - who hails from Algeria and has starred in films like The Algerian and X-Men Apocalypse - after leaving the villa in a vintage 1956 Porscher Speedster

LADIES FIRST: The Algerian-born actor opened up the door to the driver's seat of the vintage Porsche like a true gentleman

WHEN'S THE WEDDING: The couple looked as if they had just gotten married, with Lee wearing a white, laced outfit and Youcef wearing a blazer

Lee was spotted earlier in the week wearing a daring see-through white dress as she celebrated her birthday with a romantic cruise around Lake Como in Northern Italy with her fiance Youcef

The happy couple was spotted kissing passionately while vacationing in Lake Como

They couldn't keep their hands off each other as they smooched in a boat while taking a spin around Lake Como on Sunday

The couple gazed into each other's eyes as they sailed around the lake in Italy on Sunday

Lee and Youcef held hands as they strolled aroundVilla d'Este over the weekend

They both wore white and looked relaxed as they went for a walk in Northern Italy

The happy couple held hands and smooched as they enjoyed their holiday in Italy

'After this past year of health struggles, I know that life is too short not celebrate every single chance I can get. So looking forward to Ben's next surprise! Yay Birthdays, what a gift they are!! Xo Sandy'.

Earlier this year, Lee opened up about undergoing a hysterectomy, saying at the time that the surgery was a 'bit rough' and she had a 'long road of recovery ahead.'

Lee, who turned 56 on Sunday, took to Instagram to gush about the man by her side

'Romantic Sunset cruise on Lake Como pre-party with my Ben,' she captioned a photo of herself passionately kissing Youcef'

On Saturday, she posted a photo of herself kissing Youcef on a balcony in Verona

Lee's ex, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, was by her side when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy in 2015

She has praised him for being incredibly supportive during her cancer battle and subsequent reconstructive surgeries, although they split up in 2019, leaving Lee heartbroken.

Lee developed an infection from her double mastectomy and was rushed to the hospital in August 215.

'I did my very best to avoid this (when I tell you I did everything, I mean everything  modern, Eastern and holistic) but infection is an incredible monster,' she wrote in a Facebook message to fans at the time.

'I am a long way from where I was and a long way from where I need to be, but at this point I understand that right now I just need to complete this unexpected phase of a tough journey.'

Lee started her reconstructive surgeries in 2016, and it took four years for them to be completed due to complications.

'It's a really intense thing, having that operation,' she told People in June 2016. 'Being put out, it's lights out. You go, 'Oh God, please sweet Lord, take care of me while I'm here.''

They couple shared a passionate kiss as they spent time in Northern Italy on Sunday

Youcef steals a kiss from Lee as they walk around the in Lake Como at Villa d'Este

The two strolled cobblestone streets while enjoying the sights of the area - and each other - as they celebrated Lee's 56th birthday on Sunday

The couple shares an intense moment while in Northern Italy over the weekend

Lee  who was dubbed 'First Girlfriend' while she was with Cuomo  kept a low profile during most of his first two terms as governor, but she emerged as an advocate for cancer screening after her own diagnosis.

'Early diagnosis just gives you the opportunity to be the most aggressive that you can be,' she told People in 2018. 'It's the best treatment.'

Lee also opened up about her cancer diagnosis in the 2018 HBO documentary 'RX: Early Detection, A Cancer Journey with Sandra Lee.'

She moved to Malibu after she and Cuomo split in September 2019. They dated for 14 years and lived together, but they never got engaged in their decade and a half as a couple.

Cuomo was by her side when she underwent a double mastectomy in 2015 and started reconstructive surgery a year later

Lee, pictured with her ex, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2012, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015

Lee and Youcef are believed to have met at a charity event in Santa Monica back in March 2021, with him making the first move.

He is a father to five-year-old twins with his soon-to-be ex-wife, California-based realtor Apryl Stephenson.

Though the pair are still legally married, they separated in 2019 and they filed for divorce in January 2020.

Youcef proposed to Lee in August during their whirlwind trip to France that coincided with the sexual harassment scandal surrounding Cuomo.

'Ben really wanted to distract Sandra from all the news, so he whisked her away to Paris,' an unnamed source close to Youcef told the New York Post.

'He knows how hard this has been on her and he wants to make sure she feels loved and supported.'

The source added: 'Ben is incredibly protective of Sandra. They're soulmates and head-over-heels in love.'

Cuomo, 64, resigned from office in August after investigators working for New York Attorney General Letitia James authored a report concluding he had sexually harassed 11 women.

Lee, meanwhile, couldn't be happier with Youcef, whom she praised in a gushing Valentine's Day post last month. She shared a carousel of photos of them together, including snapshots of them kissing.

Lee's fiance, Ben Youcef, was by her side when she underwent the procedure to remove her uterus

Lee moved to Malibu after she and Cuomo split in September 2019, and she met Youcef nearly two years later in March 2021

'So this happened! Ben happened! Love happened! Happiness happened!' she wrote. 'I was certain it never would again. I was shocked when it did. I swore I would never fall again, trust again, love again or open myself up again.

'On our one year anniversary I shall share the story of how we met but until then, my wish for you is that no matter where you are, how old you are or what has happened, you can welcome hope back into your life again.'
Liz Truss will fight to become next Tory leader with the promise of reversing Rishi Sunak's controversial National Insurance hike, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The Foreign Secretary is set to launch her bid to succeed Boris Johnson this week, claiming to be the only candidate who can emulate his election-winning skills with 'classic Conservative principles'.

Her economic plan also involves cutting corporation tax, introducing measures to ease the cost of living crisis and paying off the debt accrued during the Covid pandemic in instalments over a decade. Mounting a scathing criticism of Mr Sunak today, one Truss ally said: 'Britain does not currently have an economic policy.'

Mr Sunak, whose resignation as Chancellor last week helped precipitate Mr Johnson's brutal eviction from Downing Street, has gathered early momentum in the race to succeed him. His leadership bid kicked off on Friday with a slick video which pledged to 'restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite the country'.

Liz Truss (left) will pitch herself as the female Boris Johnson in the Tory leadership race  a candidate who can win seats both in the South and the Red Wall.

Mr Sunak today makes his first policy proposal, pledging through the MoS to better protect women's rights, including reversing 'recent trends to erase women via the use of clumsy, gender-neutral language'. He argues: 'We must be able to call a mother a mother and talk about breastfeeding.'

Ms Truss hopes to stop the Sunak bandwagon with a series of eye-catching, small-state, Thatcherite policies, including a vow to reverse Mr Sunak's 12 billion National Insurance rise. The new health and social care levy took effect in April following a bruising series of disagreements between Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson which poisoned the atmosphere between them.

Ms Truss was one of only three Ministers, alongside Lord Frost and Jacob Rees-Mogg, who spoke out against the policy in Cabinet.

The Foreign Secretary's allies are urging MPs to unite under her candidacy to prevent the Right wing of the party from being frozen out of the final stages of the race.

More than a dozen Tories are currently planning bids to move into Downing Street. But Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, one of the early favourites in the contest, yesterday announced that he would not be entering the contest.

Friends said that although he had secured substantial backing from MPs, the father-of-three did not want to subject his family to the pressures of the job.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson was at the centre of new claims of inappropriate conduct last night as it was alleged he lobbied for a woman to be given a job after he had a sexual relationship with her.

The pair are said to have had a fling in 2008 when Mr Johnson was married, newly elected Mayor of London and MP for Henley and she was a graduate in her 20s.

The Sunday Times said he advocated for her to get a job in City Hall but it was blocked by Kit Malthouse, then a deputy mayor and now Cabinet Office Minister

Mr Johnson is said to have admitted pushing her forward for the job when they met again, years later in 2017, to discuss the relationship that she felt was inappropriate.

A Downing Street spokesman said: 'This is not about his time as PM and has no public interest as I see it, and we don't talk about his private life.'

Sajid Javid, who stepped down as health secretary within minutes of Mr Sunak's resignation, has 7/1 odds of taking his party's reigns

At the end of 2021 the Chancellor was the number one candidate to succeed Boris Johnson.

New Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi (right) chats at the Spectator summer party in Westminster

As the race to replace him heated up last night:

Former Health Secretaries Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid entered the contest, both calling for massive tax cuts;

Nadhim Zahawi, who publicly called on Mr Johnson to step down just a day after being promoted to Chancellor, launched his bid, pledging 'to steady the ship and stabilise the economy';

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced his bid in the Mail on Sunday, promising to cut taxes and red tape;

The contest was tainted by 'dirty tricks' allegations as it was claimed a supporter of one leading candidate had passed smears about rivals to Labour;

Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt, who is also expected to mount a bid within days was criticised by Tory women's groups for describing the battle for transgender rights as the 'fight of our age';

Friends of Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said donors had asked her 'where to send the cheque' to bankroll a possible leadership bid;

Questions were asked about how long Mr Sunak had been plotting his bid, after it was claimed that the domain name for his 'Ready For Rishi' website was registered in December;

Ms Dorries claimed Mr Javid had told colleagues Mr Sunak had resigned hours before the news was announced, amid suspicion that the two men had acted in concert  although her claim, and the allegations of collusion, were strongly denied by both sides;

The Sunak camp denied claims by rival campaigns that former No 10 adviser Dominic Cummings is working on his bid.

Meanwhile Tory donors lobbied for Mr Johnson to stay in Downing Street, as the Prime Minister's former lover, the journalist Petronella Wyatt, suggested he planned to run in the leadership race.

She tweeted: 'A source at Number 10 tells me that Boris Johnson intends to stand down as Prime Minister on Monday, in order to run for the Tory leadership.' However No 10 rejected that suggestion.

Ms Truss is expected to throw her hat into the ring tomorrow.

Allies claim she is the party's most likely Election winner because she is 'a tough, experienced politician with a delivery record that isn't matched by other prospective candidates'.

One supporter said: 'Liz has a clear vision for the economy based around classic Conservative principles of low taxes and a lean state.

The Foreign Secretary's allies also say that the Leeds-born Minister, 'would keep the 2019 coalition of the Red and Blue Wall together'.

The Red Wall comprises traditional Labour seats in the North that the Tories took under Mr Johnson, and the Blue Wall refers to the Tory seats under threat from the Liberal Democrats in the South.

Ms Truss's supporter said: 'Liz comes from the Red Wall. Her vision of unleashing aspiration is what resonates in these seats.'

Her allies regard Mr Sunak as the only serious threat to her ambitions after Mr Wallace decided against running, believing Mr Zahawi 'blew himself up' by moving against Mr Johnson.

A supporter said: 'This isn't the time for a rookie or someone with a narrow offer. We need someone experienced who can hit the ground running and turn things around quickly.

'The fact that we'll be launching a few days later than some other candidates shows Liz has been loyal and focused on the job, not prepping campaign videos that are ready to go.'

Backbencher Tom Tugendhat, Attorney General Suella Braverman and former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch have also confirmed they are standing.
Nadhim Zahawi launched his pitch for the Conservative leadership last night with a thinly veiled swipe at his rival Rishi Sunak, saying that we cannot tax our way into prosperity.

Mr Zahawi appeared to take aim at the man he replaced as Chancellor in dramatic circumstances last week by declaring that the burden of tax is too high.

The comments will be seen as a bid to woo Tory MPs who accuse Mr Sunak of trashing the Tories low-tax credentials.

But The Mail on Sunday was told that Mr Zahawi began distancing himself from his predecessor within 24 hours of replacing him.

One fellow Minister and Johnson loyalist said last night: Nadhims behaviour last week has put a lot of people off him.

Sources said Mr Zahawi told a Tory fund-raising event on Wednesday that being Conservative Chancellor with Conservative values meant being the party of low tax.

Coincidentally, the new Chancellor was speaking at the same Carlton Club venue where a week earlier the ex-Tory deputy whip Chris Pincher was accused of groping two men in an incident that ultimately led to Boris Johnsons resignation.

Guests said Mr Zahawi, who had replaced Mr Sunak as the guest at a fund-raiser for Bolsover Tory MP Mark Fletcher, also aimed a gentle dig at Mr Johnson by saying the party is bigger than one person.

But former education secretary Mr Zahawis leadership launch came amid claims that he did himself immense damage last week by accepting promotion from Mr Johnson only to then call on him to step down.

One fellow Minister and Johnson loyalist said last night: Nadhims behaviour last week has put a lot of people off him.

However, sources close to Mr Zahawi told The Mail on Sunday that the Prime Minister holds no grudges over his behaviour last week and wants him to deliver a Conservative economic strategy as Chancellor.

Mr Zahawi, who also served as the Covid vaccines minister during the pandemic, put reducing taxes at the heart of his pitch to succeed Mr Johnson.

The millionaire ex-businessman, who co-founded the polling company YouGov, said: The burden of tax is simply too high.

As an entrepreneur and businessman, I know that lower taxes are how we create a thriving and dynamic economy.

Insisting that taxes for individuals, families and business would be lower on my watch, Mr # Zahawi added: Overseeing the highest tax burden since 1949 is not the Conservative way. We cannot tax our way into prosperity.

Sources close to Mr Zahawi told The Mail on Sunday that the Prime Minister holds no grudges over his behaviour last week and wants him to deliver a Conservative economic strategy as Chancellor

As a Kurd who was born in Iraq and arrived in the UK at age 11 speaking no English, he has previously hailed Britain as the best country in the world.

But yesterday Mr Zahawi  who also said the Conservative Party has made me who I am today  warned that the Britain of boundless optimism and opportunity that existed under Margaret Thatcher had been lost.

Reaching out to Conservative Brexiteers, however, he appeared to raise Britains departure from the EU as one way to restore those lost opportunities. He said: Thanks to Brexit, we are now a free nation. Lets not just talk about the opportunities that follow, lets take them.

Mr Zahawi also vowed to increase defence spending and continue with his education reforms.
Advertisement

With so many cancellations due to staff shortages at airlines and airports, flying can feel like a lottery. So it pays to know where you can expect the least possible disruption and what exactly are your rights if things go wrong.

Travel data companies report that Stansted has the fewest cancellations, with Liverpool, Birmingham and Leeds Bradford also performing well. In London, Heathrow has done better than Gatwick. The best airlines, with fewest cancellations, are Jet2.com and Ryanair.

In Europe, the countries with the fewest cancellations/delays come out as Malta, Croatia and Iceland, with Spain, Germany and France the worst. Heres our guide to flying off this summer...

Travel data companies report that Stansted has the fewest cancellations, with Liverpool, Birmingham and Leeds Bradford also performing well. In London, Heathrow has done better than Gatwick. The best airlines, with fewest cancellations, are Jet2.com and Ryanair

PICK OF THE BUNCH: JET2

Of the mainstream airlines, Jet2.com has performed remarkably well, with a mere 11 departures cancelled within 72 hours of travel out of a total of 9,299 since the beginning of May  making it a good choice for a summer getaway.

Compensation procedure: Go to the Delays and Disruptions page of Jet2.com and complete the form.

Jet2 said: 'We took action to recruit well ahead of the bounce back... you only have to look at our fully-staffed check-in desks to see the difference between ourselves and other airlines'

Future cancellations: Only two cancellations are planned for the rest of the summer and these are down to routine review purposes.

What the airline says: We took action to recruit well ahead of the bounce back... you only have to look at our fully-staffed check-in desks to see the difference between ourselves and other airlines.

DOING WELL: RYANAIR

Ryanair said that full flight schedules will operate this summer unlike at many other airlines, which have failed to plan adequately for the return of travel post Covid

Given the size of its operation, with some 134.5 million passengers a year, Ryanair has handled the crisis well, with only 56 cancelled departures within 72 hours out of a whopping 23,600 flights since the start of May. This is the best of the budget airlines.

Compensation procedure: The EU-261 Passenger Rights page of help.ryanair.com has details; customers affected should be contacted by the airline about making a claim.

Future cancellations: None scheduled, although staff strikes could be an issue in Spain on July 12-15, July 18-21 and July 25-28.

What the airline says: Full flight schedules will operate this summer unlike at many other airlines, which have failed to plan adequately for the return of travel post Covid. It predicts minimal disruption in Spain due to strikes.

SOME TURBULENCE: TUI

Tui said that all planned cancellations were communicated in May. Andrew Flintham, managing director of TUI UK and Ireland, said: Last-minute flight delays and cancellations are always deeply regrettable'

TUI has not been flawless, with 34 cancellations since the beginning of May affecting around 6,000 customers. All planned cancellations were communicated in May. This does not, however, rule out unplanned ones that may come at the last minute.

Compensation procedure: The airline says it informs customers who are due compensation under the European Union rule 261.

Future cancellations: None are scheduled. Plans to operate a full service.

What the airline says: Andrew Flintham, managing director of TUI UK and Ireland, said: Last-minute flight delays and cancellations are always deeply regrettable and disappointing for customers were confident weve got the staff we need to get customers away on their well-deserved holidays.

COULD DO BETTER: WIZZ AIR

Wizz Air has cancelled at short notice 146 flights, affecting around 22,000 people, since May - not a good record

There have been worrying stories of last-minute cancellations at Wizz Air, with some passengers being turned back at the boarding gate. To have cancelled at short notice 146 flights, affecting around 22,000 people, since May is not a good record.

Compensation procedure: Go to the Refunds and Cancellations page of wizz.com, then click through on the Claim Form at the bottom.

Future cancellations: The airline has cancelled over half its flights to and from Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Details of services at other airports unavailable.

What the airline says: Wizz Air constantly reviews its flight schedule to ensure it is deliverable, and recognising the impact of continued supply chain issues, has already implemented the majority of its summer schedule adjustments.

POOR: BRITISH AIRWAYS

BA has cancelled, since the beginning of May, 670 flights, affecting as many as 110,000 people

Last-minute cancellations (within three days of travel) have been commonplace at BA since the beginning of May: 670 cancellations in total, affecting as many as 110,000 people. Having estimated that 10 per cent of flights during the main holiday period were being cancelled, the airline recently upped this by 3 per cent to 13 per cent.

Compensation procedure: Go to the Complaints and Claims page of ba.com to follow links to make a claim. BA could not say whether it contacts customers.

Future cancellations: 13 per cent of flights cancelled from April to October; around 30,000 in total, with as many as 4.5 million passengers affected.

What the airline says: Additional recent cancellations of flights at the end of June were regrettable, and most passengers with cancelled flights are being informed way in advance.

WORST: EASYJET

EasyJet cabin crews in Spain are due to strike on July 15-17 and July 29-31. See the airlines Delays and Cancellations webpage for details

It is estimated that 172,000 EasyJet passengers have suffered cancellations within 72 hours of departure since the beginning of May. This covers 1,144 flights, and at 3.6 per cent of all flights is the worst performance in our chart.

Compensation procedure: The Compensation Claim Form page at easyjet.com is at least clear and user-friendly.

Future cancellations: Watch out as EasyJet cabin crews in Spain are due to strike on July 15-17 and July 29-31. See the airlines Delays and Cancellations webpage for details. It is thought that as many as 10,000 flights could be cancelled between July and September, affecting 1.5 million people.

What the airline says: We have completed the pre-emptive cancellation programme, so customers will have been notified.

Flight from Lisbon to London cancelled on the day, a 1.50-a-minute helpline and 'no support to get me home': Passenger reveals why she'll 'never use Wizz Air again'

By Ted Thornhill

A British holidaymaker has vowed never to use Wizz Air again after the airline cancelled her flight from Portugal to London with just eight hours' notice  and was unable to help with rebooking an alternative flight or finding hotel accommodation.

The passenger, Alicia Fellowes, was due to fly from Lisbon to London Luton with her boyfriend, Oliver, on Sunday, June 26, at 10pm  flight W9 4494 - but received a text message at 2pm informing her that the flight was cancelled, along with a link for a refund or 'Wizz Credit' that didn't work.

The pair needed to return for work commitments the following day  but the next Wizz Air flight was three days later. As a result, they were forced to spend nearly 700 on a flight to Manchester with Air Portugal that landed that evening and 144 on an airport hotel. Alicia spent 33 on a train to London the following day, while Oliver paid 154 for a flight from Manchester to Inverness instead of from Luton as planned.

Holidaymaker Alicia Fellowes has revealed how her flight from Lisbon Airport (above) with Wizz Air was cancelled on the day - and says the airline offered no support to get her back to London. She was forced to fly with her boyfriend to Manchester with Air Portugal and catch a train to the capital from there

Alicia, 25, summed up the experience to MailOnline Travel as 'horrendous'.

When a flight is cancelled within 14 days of departure, the airline the passenger booked with is legally obliged to get them home and must offer free phone calls and accommodation.

Alicia revealed that none of this was forthcoming  and in fact spent over 50 minutes on the phone to Wizz Air while at Lisbon Airport at a cost of 1.50 per minute.

The Budapest-based airline has a 'live chat' service, but Alicia said that didn't work.

She said: 'We were given no explanation as to why the flight was cancelled or any support following the cancellation - there were no Wizz Air ground staff at Lisbon Airport and no guidance offered as to how best to get home. We were offered no financial support to book another flight.

'At the airport we were told to go to a help desk where an agent could speak to us on behalf of the airline. However, the agent made it very clear that as they didn't work for the airline there was very little they could do. They gave us a Wizz Air cancellation form that highlights the compensation you are entitled to.

Alicia revealed that she spent over 50 minutes on the phone to Wizz Air while at Lisbon Airport (above) at a cost of 1.50 per minute

'They also told us the next flight wasn't for three days so suggested we either find a hotel for the next three days in Lisbon - they couldn't book this for us and offer us spending money for the three days so that would have to be an additional cost - and then fly home, or call the Wizz Air helpline to see if they would cover another flight home with another airline.'

So Alicia rang the Wizz Air helpline.

After three denied calls by Wizz Air, having been on hold for over 15 minutes in total, she got through to an operator 'who seemed very unsure what Wizz Air could offer in terms of compensation'.

Alicia continued: 'I mentioned that we had found a flight to Manchester and asked if the airline would book the flight for us or cover the cost. She said she thought they would cover that along with transport back to London but couldnt book it themselves and said it would be unlikely that the airline would cover the cost of an airport hotel, even though we had to stay in Manchester as the flight landed so late.

'I informed her of the significant costs of the flight, and she said it should be fine as long as we weren't flying premium economy or above.

'I felt positive at this point, but then she started to backtrack, saying she couldn't send us an email confirmation confirming approval of these expenses directly and said we would just have to submit a claim and hope.'

At this point, Alicia and Oliver booked the flight to Manchester and then decided to call Wizz Air again 'to see if someone could confirm a refund/expenses via email'.

'I really started to feel anxious about the money we spent,' said Alicia, 'and this woman was even less reassuring, saying she would hope the airline would give me a refund, but couldn't promise anything.'

Alicia, who lives in London, said: 'We feel scammed and very angry at how badly [Wizz Air] could treat paying customers'

When Alicia discovered these calls cost 1.50 a minute, she decided to avoid using the helpline.

Wizz Air has since refunded Alicia and Oliver 119, but that still leaves them nearly 1,000 out of pocket.

Alicia, who lives in London, added: 'We feel scammed and very angry at how badly they could treat paying customers. I will never ever use them again and have told others not to use them either.'

Unfortunately, her experience with Wizz Air will be all too familiar for some.

Dozens have taken to Twitter and Tripadvisor to complain about the airline cancelling flights, then leaving them stranded.

And MailOnline Travel heard from Wizz Air passenger Fenella Barrons, who claims that she has been left over 1,000 out of pocket after the airline overbooked a flight to Montenegro and cancelled the return service.

The 25-year-old said: 'On May 29, 2022, my five friends and I travelled to Gatwick Airport for a Wizz Air flight to Montenegro. Although we had attempted check in the night prior, upon arrival one friend and I were told they had overbooked the flight and we would be "lucky to get on the flight".

'It turned out we were not "lucky" and we were denied boarding after two hours of waiting for the delayed flight.

'We therefore had to rebook a flight for the following day from Heathrow, arriving at our destination over 24 hours later. This cost us over 400.

'On Saturday, June 4, when we thought it couldn't get any worse, it was time to fly home with Wizz Air. Wizz Air sent us an email two hours before check-in time saying the flight was cancelled. Following this, I received no correspondence or advice from Wizz Air to help with the situation I found myself in and felt completely abandoned in a foreign country.

I will never ever use Wizz Air again and have told others not to use them either Holidaymaker Alicia Fellowes

'No advice was given on the availability of alternative travel options, when the next Wizz Air flight might be, or any useful information to help me through this stressful situation.

'Given we had to get back for work on the Monday, we took it upon ourselves to book flights to Paris, which then resulted in us getting a train across France and an overnight ferry from France to Portsmouth. Again, this cost us roughly 400 each.

'Since then, we have constantly been trying to get hold of Wizz Air for the compensation we are due. I have personally had no response from the company. My friend has had a response denying the claim, saying she is due only 70 euros for the inconvenience when we are both over 1,000 out of pocket. This has caused me a huge amount of stress and anxiety. I have had to take time off work to deal with the stress it has caused me and I am now living cautiously with little to no spare cash.'

Rory Boland, Which? Travel Editor, clarified what passengers who experience flight cancellations should expect in terms of support.

He told MailOnline Travel: 'When a flight is cancelled within 14 days of departure, passengers are entitled to at least 220 compensation, depending on the length of the flight. Importantly, the airline you booked with is legally obliged to get you home, using other carriers if necessary. Be wary of accepting a refund, as once you do so, the airline has no legal duty of care to you.

'If you are left with no choice other than to pay for flights, accommodation or food from your own pocket then you should keep receipts and claim them back from the airline. It's important to remember that expenses must be deemed "reasonable" to qualify for reimbursement.

'When a flight is cancelled or delayed due to an extraordinary circumstance, your airline is not obliged to offer compensation. However, if you choose to be rerouted they must still offer assistance in the form of two free phone calls, faxes or emails, free meals and refreshments appropriate to the delay, and free accommodation and hotel transfers if an overnight stay is required, as it was in Alicia's case.

'Extraordinary circumstances apply to events which are outside the airline's control. While operational issues at the airport could be classified as an extraordinary circumstance, you are entitled to appeal their decision and apply for compensation if you disagree with the reason given. If they reject the claim, they must provide clear evidence of the reason for the cancellation.

'If at this point you are still dissatisfied with the airline's decision, you can register your complaint with an alternative dispute resolution scheme - the Civil Aviation Authority holds a list of approved providers and which airlines they cover. You also have the right to take an airline to the small claims court if you feel it is unfairly refusing to pay you compensation. If you decide to take this route, it is recommended to seek legal advice.'

Wizz Air said: 'Wizz Air has looked into the issues raised in these customer cases and found that their claims were rejected due to an internal error. Wizz Air sincerely apologises for this. Ms Fellowes will be reimbursed in line with the expense claims submitted as well as for the difference in cost between the original Wizz Air flight and the replacement flight.

'The two affected passengers under Ms Barrons booking will be reimbursed in line with the expenses claims submitted, and will be compensated according to EC 261 regulation. The customer service team is resolving both of these cases as a matter of priority.'


Rating:

Persuasion, Netflix

This has been a bad week for people called Johnson. First, the Prime Minister was ousted, now the lovely Dakota Johnson (almost certainly no relation), having sprung to fame as masochistic Anastasia Steele in the Fifty Shades trilogy, subjects us to an altogether different form of torture in a truly dreadful Netflix adaptation of Jane Austens wonderful novel Persuasion.

Its hard to know where to start in con-veying just how misbegotten, to use a suitably 18th century word, this film is.

I watched it with my wife, who happens to also be a novelist called Jane, and, more to the point, re-reads all of Austens books every five years or so.

She was looking forward to it enormously. After all, Persuasion has been relatively overlooked by filmmakers.

Persuasion. (L to R) Dakota Johnson as Anne Elliot, Cosmo Jarvis as Captain Frederick Wentworth

So, unless youre of the view that Austen generally has been adapted to death and needs no more new interpretations, her last completed novel is overdue some attention.

This kind of attention, regrettably, it can do without. Director Carrie Cracknell has crossed from the theatre to make her screen debut and it shows  her film plays smirkingly to the audience, with its smug anachronisms and knowing glances at the camera.

I try not to be a dusty traditionalist regarding Austen adaptations, and period dramas in general. But the anachronisms here are so wincingly arch that they trigger a kind of personal groan-o-meter, which in my case reached its limit when Johnson, as Anne Elliot, referred to Captain Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis) giving her a playlist of favourite songs.

Anne is persuaded by her godmother, Lady Russell, to break her engagement to Wentworth on the grounds that he is her social inferior. But on meeting him again seven years later she comes to realise she has loved him all along. Can she overcome the hurt she caused him and rekindle their relationship?

In those intervening years Anne is meant to have lost her bloom. But Johnsons sparky, defiant Anne doesnt look like shes lost anything, except maybe her virginity, possibly to the Household Cavalry. She shimmers with radiant self-confidence, which is compounded by her repeated, conspiratorial looks to camera.

Cosmo Jarvis as Captain Wentworth in Persuasion

Dakota Johnson as Anne Elliot in Persuasion

Again, Im not instinctively against this deliberate shattering of the so-called fourth wall. But it has to be consistent with character. Making Anne do it shows an almost wilful misunderstanding of the book. Either that, or Johnson is disastrously miscast. Or both, more likely.

From start to finish, this lamentable Persuasion looks painfully derivative, as if Cracknell has made her own playlist of successful period dramas and resolved to copy the most original bits. The multi-ethnic cast, for example, with Nikki Amuka-Bird as Lady Russell, and Henry Golding playing Annes unscrupulous kinsman William Elliot, looks like a direct steal from another TV hit, Bridgerton. Only Richard E Grant as Annes vain and silly father, Sir Walter, seems sensibly cast.

Moreover, while Austen possibly intended Anne to hail from the West Country, she certainly didnt mean a country as far west as the United States. Johnson makes a half-decent stab at a posh English accent, but every now and then her vowels sound disconcertingly Californian.

Its hard to know where to start in con-veying just how misbegotten, to use a suitably 18th century word, this film is

The writers of this rot are Alice Victoria Winslow and Ron Bass, the latter a veteran Hollywood scribe whose credits include Rain Man (1988) and My Best Friends Wedding (1997), and who should therefore know better.

I dont know which of them came up with the ghastly line, It is said that when youre a five in London, youre a ten in Bath. Either way, that was the moment when my wife could bear it no longer. I, alas, had to soldier on to the bitter end.

Persuasion is on Netflix and in select cinemas

Miscast? Dakota Johnson as Anne, with Cosmo Jarvis as Wentworth
She certainly made a statement with her eccentric headwear at the Balenciaga afterparty days ago.

And many joked that Kim Kardashian looked more ready to terrorize the crew of a spacecraft than a dinner.

The 41-year-old SKIMS mogul was one of the most talked about people at Paris Fashion Week as she sported a full faced black statement mask by Balenciaga on Wednesday night.

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Scary funny: Kim Kardashian's statement mask by Balenciaga on Wednesday drew hilarious comparisons to the creature known as the Xenomorph from iconic 1979 Ridley Scott film Alien

The interesting look even drew hilarious comparisons to the creature known as the Xenomorph from iconic 1979 Ridley Scott film Alien.

One social media user replied to a Twitter post by Balenciaga and Kim writing: 'What fashion is this? It was inspired by the alien.'

An Instagram user hilariously compared the outfit to the highly-popular internet image of the Alien Xenomorph in an evening gown walking up the stairs.

All eyes on her: The 41-year-old SKIMS mogul was one of the most talked about people at Paris Fashion Week as she sported a full faced black statement mask by Balenciaga on Wednesday night

One social media user replied to a Twitter post by Balenciaga and Kim writing: 'What fashion is this? It was inspired by the alien'

Another social media user posted similar images with the caption: '#KimKardashian & #Balenciaga ya better run Alien her money'

Another social media user posted similar images with the caption: '#KimKardashian & #Balenciaga ya better run Alien her money.'

On the outing with the face mask Wednesday, Kim also wore a sequinned black dress with a high neckline and an expansive train which trailed on the ground as she walked.

Kim's gown glistened under the flashing lights of awaiting photographers and clung to her hourglass curves.

Fashion forward: On the outing with the face mask Wednesday, Kim also wore a sequinned black dress with a high neckline and an expansive train which trailed on the ground as she walked

She carried a small black handbag with her to match the rest of her ensemble while her long bleached blonde tresses tumbled down across her shoulders.

The sparkly number highlighted her recent weight loss, after revealing she had managed to drop even more pounds after her astonishing weight-loss journey for the Met Gala.

Kim famously shed 16lbs in two weeks so that she could attend the Met Ball in the dress Marilyn Monroe wore to John F. Kennedy's birthday party in 1962.

Statement: The television personality, 41, also wore a sequinned black dress with a high neckline and an expansive train which trailed on the ground as she walked

Dazzling: Kim's gown glistened under the flashing lights of awaiting photographers and clung to her hourglass curves

Coordinating: She carried a small black handbag with her to match the rest of her ensemble

Marilyn herself had to be sewn into the gold frock, which she wore while seductively singing: 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President,' three months before her death.

While appearing on the Today show, Kim revealed that she had taken off a further 5lbs since the Met Gala, resulting in a total weight loss of 21lbs.

She also denied allegations that she had damaged the Marilyn dress, noting that Ripley's Believe It Or Not!, which has the frock in its possession, took her side.

Is that you? Kim was recognisable by her long bleached blonde tresses, which tumbled down across her shoulders

Svelte: The sparkly number highlighted her recent weight loss, after revealing she had managed to drop even more pounds after her astonishing weight-loss journey for the Met Gala

Weight loss: Kim famously shed 16lbs in two weeks so that she could attend the Met Ball in the dress Marilyn Monroe wore to John F. Kennedy's birthday party in 1962

Iconic: Marilyn herself had to be sewn into the gold frock, which she wore while seductively singing: 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President,' three months before her death

Slimmed down: While appearing on the Today show, Kim revealed that she had taken off a further 5lbs since the Met Gala, resulting in a total weight loss of 21lbs

'Kim Kardashian wearing the "Happy Birthday" dress has been hotly contested, but the fact remains that she did not, in any way, damage the garment in the short amount of time it was worn at the Met Gala,' Ripley's said.

Kim also took a few slings and arrows online over her dramatic weight loss, but she defended her decision on the Today show, saying: 'Yeah, you know, I looked at it like a role.'

She added: 'I really wanted to wear this dress. It was really important to me. It actually taught me a lot about my lifestyle and my health and since then, afterwards, I continued to eat really healthy. I am down 21lbs now.'

Kim declared: 'I'm not trying to lose any more weight but I have more energy than ever. I cut out so much sugar, a lot of junk food I was eating - I didn't even realise it. A lot of fried foods. And I completely changed my lifestyle.'
Cole Sprouse and Ari Fournier have been basking under the summer sun while enjoying a vacation to Greece.

The couple uploaded photos and videos from the trip onto their Instagram pages to share with their followers.

The two began dating last year in March and appear to have grown closer over the course of their relationship.

Cute: Ari Lou Fournier uploaded a series of photos onto her Instagram story to capture special moments from their trip to Greece

Ari shared a photo of her boyfriend sitting at a table with an unlit cigarette hanging from his lips. The scenic background with green hills was sprawled in the background.

Another snap captured the model looking out at the crystal blue water from the ocean.

Her blonde hair flowed in the wind as she gazed out at the waves crashing down on the rocky shore.

Gorgeous: The model is pictured looking out the blue ocean water as the waves crash down on the rocks in front of her

The couple also shared photos of the naturistic views and settings that surrounded them during their trip.

The two were able to show the beautiful and quaint coastal towns that stood among the mountains and hills.

Cole and Ari appeared to spend a lot of time on the water and explored many areas in Greece.

Making memories: The couple had time to themselves as they traveled around the gorgeous country of Greece

Hobby: Cole was pictured holding his professional camera and taking snaps of the scenery during their vacation

Cole has a passion for photography, and even created a separate Instagram account to showcase some of his work.

His beau took an adorable snap of him in his element as he took photos with his own camera he brought along with him.

The Riverdale actor also took beautiful photos of Ari as they enjoyed their time together.

One picture caught his girlfriend relaxing on the edge of a stone wall as the sun set in the background. Cole added a caption and wrote, 'Last night in Crete.'

Stunning: Cole took a photo of Ari sitting atop a wall as the sun set, creating colors of orange in the sky

Vacation mode on: Cole's girlfriend was seen laying under the summer sun in a black bikini as she relaxed on the water

Another snap showed Ari relaxing on a small boat as it floated along the water. She donned a black bikini as she soaked up the sun.

The two had a chance to enjoy their relationship without the cameras of the paparazzi constantly around them.

Cole previously dated his Riverdale co-star, Lili Reinhart. The two split in 2020, and the actor has discussed in the past the hardships of having such a public relationship.

The Five Feet Apart star and Ari officially began dating March of last year. The model, who has collaborated with brands such as Aldo and Nasty Gal, began working professionally at the age of 15.

Cole's new beau: Ari Fournier grew up in Montreal, Canada, and began her modeling career at the age of 15

Adorable: The couple have started to share photos of them together on their social media pages

According to People, the couple haven't exactly received a lot of positive reception from fans since his breakup with Lili.

'Followers report everything about Ari and me as bullying, and it gets taken down pretty immediately,' Cole stated in an interview with GQ. He then added, 'Even on my other friends' accounts, it gets taken down.'

Due to the difficulty of their relationship being the public eye, the two have kept a lot of their dating life rather private.

However, the couple have recently been stepping out of their comfort zone and occasionally will share their happy moments.
Much-loved Australian actress Rachel Griffiths will take viewers on a journey across the continent in the new ABC travel-art show, Great Southern Landscapes.

A spectacular new trailer teases that the six-part half hour series will tell the stories behind some of Australia's most famous paintings.

The Muriel's Wedding star turned host says in the preview that she has travelled, 'to the exact spot where our beloved artists captured their iconic images'.

Much-loved Australian actress Rachel Griffiths (pictured) will take viewers on a journey across the continent in the new ABC travel-art show, Great Southern Landscapes and will host the show

'Along the way I'll discover the stories behind the epic vistas,' she added.

The preview features stunning images that fly over outback landscapes, rugged bushland rivers and glowing inland plains.

Rachel, 53, is seen examining the paintings close-up in galleries and discussing them with experts.

Fans can expect that the show to celebrate Australia's wilderness and culture as Rachel 'follows in the 'footsteps of a great artist'.

The six-part half hour series will tell the stories behind some of Australia's most famous paintings Picture: A scene from Great Southern Landscapes

Amongst the works discussed in the series are paintings by Olsen to Von Guerard, Arthur Streeton, Albert Namatjira, Narelle Autio and Clarice Beckett.

The Six Feet Under star says in the trailer that Great Southern Landscapes is a chance to discover 'epic vistas and the artists who have inspired our national imagination'.

The show, Rachel says in the preview, will 'celebrate our cities, journey to out great lakes, head into the outback and hit the beach'.

The Muriel's Wedding star says in the new trailer for the series that she has travelled, 'to the exact spot where our beloved artists captured their iconic images'

An art lover, this is Rachel's second dip into exploring Art on TV since 2021's popular three-part ABC series Finding the Archibald.

Married to painter Andy Taylor, the high-profile couple moved back to Australia from the United States in 2012.

Griffiths and Taylor are parents to son Banjo, 17, and daughters Adelaide, 16, and Clementine, 12.

Rachel Griffiths and her husband Andy Taylor (pictured in 2010)

In a May column for Stellar Magazine last year, the star, who lived in the U.S. for a decade before returning to Australia, explained her reasons for coming home.

'I was hungry to come home and tell our own Australian stories with humanity and vigour,' she wrote.

'So I did, and the years since have been the most satisfying of my career.'

Great Southern Landscapes will debut on ABC TV and ABC iview on Tuesday August 9
Ariana DeBose spent a night out with friends while vacationing in Rome on Thursday.

The Academy Award winner, 31, appeared to be enjoying the company of her pals as the trio took in all the sights that the historic city had to offer.

DeBose struck a pose in front of one of the many statues strewn about Rome while rocking an orange and blue patterned sundress with a sexy plunging neckline.

Night on the town: Ariana DeBose spent a night out with friends while vacationing in Rome on Thursday

The Schmigadoon! actress also sported a set of light pink sandals as she strolled along the city streets.

DeBose kept a stylish white purse slung over her right shoulder that matched her manicure.

Her lovely blonde-to-brunette pixie cut contrasted perfectly with the bright tones of her dress.

Jovial: The Academy Award winner, 31, appeared to be enjoying the company of her pals as the trio took in all the sights that the historic city had to offer

Beauty: DeBose struck a pose in front of one of the many statues strewn about Rome while rocking an orange and blue patterned sundress with a sexy plunging neckline

DeBose shared a selfie that had been taken during a trip to the Fontana Di Trevi-Roma to her Instagram account on Thursday.

The performer rocked a low-cut black dress while she posed in front of the famous fountain. The actress accessorized her look with a stylish pair of aviator-style sunglasses and jewelry.

She also added a short message in her post's caption that read: 'When in ROME.'

Taking in the sights: DeBose shared a selfie that had been taken during a trip to the Fontana Di Trevi-Roma to her Instagram account on Thursday

DeBose later attended the Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 22/23 fashion show, which took place on Friday.

The actress was seated not far from fellow Oscar winner Anne Hathaway, with whom she posed for several photos.

She stood out while wearing a hot pink frilly dress that was covered in magenta toned roses made of fabric.

DeBose also carried a clutch and rocked a set of platform heels, both of which matched her bright dress.

Paris Fashion Week: DeBose later attended the Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 22/23 fashion show, which took place on Friday

Winners: The actress was seated not far from fellow Oscar winner Anne Hathaway, with whom she posed for several photos

DeBose is currently prepping for the release of the forthcoming superhero movie Kraven The Hunter, in which she is set to appear.

The movie will be centered on the villain of the same name, who will be portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

The actress is set to play Spider-Man's occasional adversary Calypso, who also serves as the titular character's love interest.

Kraven The Hunter is presently scheduled to be released on January 13 of next year.
Monday Swimwear co-founder Natasha Oakley announced her engagement to liquor heir Theo Chambers on Friday.

And shortly after, the 31-year-old Aussie stunner showed off her gorgeous diamond engagement ring with fans.

Natasha showed off her new sparkler in a short video and said she was 'blown away and speechless'.

Natasha Oakley showed off her HUGE diamond ring on Friday and said she's 'blown away and speechless' after announcing her engagement to liquor heir Theo Chambers

'Blown away and speechless. One quick little look,' she captioned the post.

She then shared a picture of herself and her new fiance cosying up at lunch and having a glass of wine as they holiday in Capri, Italy.

Earlier on Friday, Natasha announced their engagement after he dropped down to one knee on the balcony of their hotel room in Capri.

She then shared a picture of herself and her new fiance cosying up at lunch and having a glass of wine as they holiday in Capri, Italy

'Blown away and speechless. One quick little look,' she captioned the post

She shared a black and white video of the romantic moment followed by a selfie of the pair together as they walked the streets of Capri while she wore her new ring.

Tash wrote in her caption alongside the posts: 'Officially The Baby Mou's', perhaps referring to a pet name for her boyfriend.

The beauty was inundated with congratulations, including from television star Ksenija Lukich who wrote: 'Congrats lovelies!!! So happy for you both'.

Earlier on Friday, Natasha announced their engagement after he dropped down to one knee on the balcony of their hotel room in Capri. She shared a black and white video of the romantic moment

Tash wrote in her caption alongside the posts: 'Officially The Baby Mou's', perhaps referring to a pet name for her boyfriend

Socialite Nadia Fairfax commented: 'Congrats kids!!!!!! How bloody good! (also the non-Instagrammer sends his love'.

The couple, who will celebrate their fourth anniversary in November, marked three years together last year.

Natasha paid tribute to Theo for their anniversary, sharing a series of photos of the pair throughout their relationship.

'Three years of love, fun and adventure with my best friend. Love you BM @theochambers,' she captioned the Instagram post.

The couple, who will celebrate their fourth anniversary in November, marked three years together last year

The pair have had an on/off relationship, and confirmed they were back together in March 2020, after a split in November 2019.

Speaking to Stellar, Tash was quizzed on recent social media posts which suggested she and Theo had rekindled their romance.

'I'm happy to share a lot, but my relationship is something I like to keep private,' Natasha said, appearing to confirm the rumours.

'As my career progresses and as I get older, privacy becomes more important,' she added.

Natasha announced her split from Theo in November 2019, telling The Daily Telegraph: 'We broke up, [but] we're still really good friends.'

She added: 'I do travel a lot and have a very different lifestyle. We had an amazing relationship but these things happen in life.'

Despite being newly single at the time, Natasha insisted she was 'really happy'.
It was the series that remade TV - scooping dozens of awards and making stars out of its cast along the way.

The Sopranos first aired 22 years ago this January, before wrapping up 86 episodes and six seasons later, in 2007.

Now, Mail Online examines what happened to the cast since the curtain dropped.

Iconic: The Sopranos first aired 22 years ago this January, before wrapping up 86 episodes and six seasons later, in 2007; the entire cast pictured in 1999

James Gandolfini - Tony Soprano

Playing an anxiety-prone mob boss juggling the demands of his figurative family - the Mafia - with his literal family was breakout star of the show, James Gandolfini.

Balancing the ruthlessness expected of a mob boss with a repressed emotional side and the tenderness requires of a family patriarch, Gandolfini's portrayal earned him three Emmy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Golden Globe.

James Gandolfini (right in 2013) played leading many Tony Soprano

Sadly, the actor passed away in 2013 aged 51 while on holiday with his family in Rome from a heart attack.

He was found unconscious on his hotel floor by son Michael who alerted the emergency services, but was pronounced dead in hospital.

Michael, now aged 23, portrayed a young Tony Soprano in prequel film The Many Saints of Newark, which was released in 2021.

Michael Gandolfini, now aged 22, is currently portraying a young Tony Soprano in prequel film The Many Saints of Newark (left in 2019) due for release in 2021

Edie Falco - Carmela Soprano

Tony's trophy wife who decided to turn a blind eye to his many affairs and means of income and focus instead on the income itself.

Living a life of luxury did not solve all of Carmela's problems, however, as she struggled to raise her two children against a backdrop of immorality and violence.

Carmela Soprano, Tony's long-suffering wife, was played by Edie Falco who has appeared often on TV since (pictured left in character, right in 2020)

Falco, who won three Emmys, two Golden Globes and five Screen Actors Guild Awards as Carmela, went on to star as the eponymous hero in series Nurse Jackie.

She also worked alongside Louis C.K. in web series Horace and Pete, and as attorney Leslie Abramson in Law & Order True Crime.

In 2011 she also won a Tony Award for her role in the Broadway revival of The House of Blue Leaves. Edie stayed in the HBO family as the title character in Nurse Jackie from 2009-2015.

She will portray Hillary Clinton in season three of Ryan Murphy's anthology series American Crime Story in September 2021 which follows President Bill Clinton's sex scandal and impeachment.

Jamie-Lynn Sigler - Meadow Soprano

Growing up as the child of a notorious mobster comes with its challenges, especially for the principled Meadow - who struggles to reconcile how her father makes his money with the benefits it brings her.

Aged 17 when The Sopranos first aired, she carved out an acting career for herself in parallel with the TV series.

Jamie-Lynn Sigler was 17 when she was cast as Meadow Soprano (left), and has appeared in TV shows since, including HBO's Entourage (pictured right in January 2020)

She appeared in a Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast as Belle between 2002 and 2003, and played the titular character in Cinderella at Madison Square Garden in 2001.

Since the series wrapped she has made sporadic TV appearances, including as herself in two series of HBO's Entourage.

She has also featured in episodes of How I Met Your Mother and Ugly Betty, and appeared in the music video for The Lonely Island's song Jizz In My Pants.

Sigler dabbed in other fields - releasing an album in 2001 that flopped and she later said had embarrassed her - and modeled in FHM.

Robert Iler - AJ Soprano

The youngest child of Tony and Carmela, he starts the series as the innocent if badly-behaved tearaway of the family who fails to live up to his father's many expectations.

As the series goes on his innocence is shattered and he begins to exhibit all of Tony's negative traits, leading to a battle with depression.

Robert Iler was just 13 when he was selected to play Tony's son AJ (left) after working on commercials. He got into trouble with the law during filming, and has worked in TV seldom since (pictured right in January 2019)

Robert had featured in commercial for Pizza Hut and bit-parts on SNL before he was cast as AJ aged just 13.

He appeared sporadically in other TV roles while the show was on air - including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - and just one since, also in Law & Order.

In 2001, Robert was arrested for armed robbery of two Brazilian tourists in the Upper East Side and possession of marijuana and was given three years' probation. After suffering from substance abuse he became sober in 2013.

Lorraine Bracco - Jennifer Melfi

Tony's psychiatrist and outlet for his anxiety and deeply repressed emotions, Jennifer was both fascinated and repulsed by the mobster.

Advised by her colleagues, loved ones and her own better nature to part ways with Tony, she never-the-less commits to helping him through his troubles.

A star of Goodfellas, Bracco (right in 2019) agreed to work on The Sopranos only if she could play Tony's morally conflicted psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi (left). She has continued to appear in films and TV since (pictured right this year), and did some voice acting in Bojack Horseman

Bracco was a former model, the wife of Harvey Kietel, and starred in mobster mega-hit Goodfellas alongside Robert de Niro before landing her Sopranos role.

While creator David Chase wanted her to play Carmela, Bracco said she would only sign on if she was allowed to take the role of Dr Melfi.

She appeared extensively in other shows and films during The Sopranos' run, including Riding In Cars With Boys and Law & Order: Trial by Jury.

Since the series wrapped, she has starred in TV movie Long Island Confidential, series I Married a Mobster and Blue Bloods, and as a voice actor in Bojack Horseman.

Most recently, Bracco purchased a 200-year-old home in Sambuca di Sicilia, Italy for just one euro which she went on to renovate for the HGTV series My Big Italian Adventure.

Michael Imperioli - Christopher Moltisanti

Tony's distantly-related cousin, fellow mobster, and chosen protege - Christopher is driven by a desire for success and notoriety that sees him at odds with Tony's 'strong, silent type' image and butting heads with his older 'colleagues'.

His character is also a drug addict who is frequently abusive to his partner, and is ultimately whacked.

Michael Imperioli was a veteran of Goodfellas before being cast as Christopher Moltisanti (left) in The Sopranos, and has continued his careers as an actor and screenwriter since (right in April 2019)

He scooped a Primetime Emmy for his portrayal in 2004.

An experienced actor before the series began - starring alongside Bracco in Goodfellas, along with appearances in Jungle Fever, Bad Boys and Malcolm X - he has appeared extensively in film and TV since.

Imperioli played Detective Ray Carling in the US adaptation of British cop show Life On Mars, and followed fellow Sopranos cast members into the Law & Order series, playing NYPD Detective Nick Falco.

He played Detective Louis Fitch in the ABC police drama Detroit 1-8-7 until it was cancelled, and in 2008 he achieved character Christopher's dream of writing a feature film, entitled The Hungry Ghosts.

Michael had stints on several series since The Sopranos like Californication, Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods.

Andrea Donna de Matteo - Adriana La Cerva

Christopher's girlfriend-turned-wife, she is vain, obsessed with money and material goods, and desperate for fame.

Often a victim of violence at Christopher's hand, she turns mole in the later series but refuses to give up the family's deepest secrets.

Shallow, materialistic, stupid and vain - Andrea Donna de Matteo (right in 2019) won a Primetime Emmy for her portrayal of Adriana la Cerva (left). She has continued acting since, and played Joey Tribbiani's sister on Friends spin-off series Joey

Matteo won a Primetime Emmy award for the role in 2004, alongside Imperioli.

She used her Sopranos fame to launch a silver screen career, including appearances in Swordfish, Assault on Precinct 13, Dark Places, and Sex, Death and Bowling.

Matteo has also appeared in numerous TV shows since The Sopranos ended, including as Joey Tribbiani's sister Gina in Friends spin-off Joey.

She also starred in Sons of Anarchy, Desperate Housewives, CSI: Miami, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Dominic Chianese - Corrado 'Junior' Soprano

Tony's petulant, resentful, power-hungry uncle who conspires with his mother early on to have him whacked so he can assume control of the family.

Out-played at the game of power by Tony he is ultimately left frail and confused after suffering from dementia.

A good friend of Al Pacino, Dominic Chianese (right in 2019) was an experienced film actor when he took the part of Corrado 'Junior' Soprano (left) in the series. He has continued acting since, including in Boardwalk Empire, and still finds work aged 90

Good friends with Al Pacino, Chianese was well-known before The Sopranos started having starred in The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, ...And Justice For All, and Looking for Richard.

He continued to find work well into his 80s, including voice acting in Mr. Popper's Penguins as well as TV appearances in Boardwalk Empire and The Good Wife.

He appeared this year in new NBC drama The Village, about a Brooklyn apartment block and the people who live in it. The star celebrated his 90th birthday in February 2021.

Aida Turturro - Janice Soprano

Tony's older, new-agey sister who fled her family's troubles rather than stay and confront them, she returns to New Jersey and immerses herself in mob life.

Work-shy, manipulative and amoral, she has a love-hate relationship with Tony, born out of their shared childhood trauma.

Aida Turturro (right in 2017) appeared once as Tony's selfish, manipulative sister Janice (left) in the first series of The Sopranos but was then brought back for a permanent role. She has appeared in Blue Bloods and Law & Order since then, along with many of her former colleagues

Following the series finale in 2007, Turturro has appeared sporadically in film and TV, following many Sopranos alumni into roles in Blue Bloods and Law & Order.

In 2012 she was reunited with Edie Flaco in an episode of Nurse Jackie, while also appearing in ER, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Brooklyn Nine Nine.

Aida debuted a weight loss transformation in 2020 when she appeared much slimmed down in the Blacklist.

Tony Sirico - Paulie Gualtieri

One of Tony's right-hand men, Paulie is as vicious as he is paranoid, often carrying out hits on his boss's enemies and disloyal friends alike.

His loyalty to Tony - alongside his killing temperament - see him rise through the ranks to become underboss of the DiMeo crime family.

Sirico was born in Brooklyn and as a teenager he was part of a real-life street gang, and was once seen associating with Colombo family Caporegime Jimmy 'Green Eyes' Clemenza, along with fellow Sopranos actor Vincent Pastore.

A real-life gangster who spent parts of his youth in jail, Tony Sirico (right in 2019) agree to play paranoid mobster Paulie Gualtieri (left) on one condition - he never becomes a snitch

A real-life gangster who spent parts of his youth in jail, Tony Sirico (right in 2016) agree to play paranoid mobster Paulie Gualtieri (left) on one condition - he never becomes a snitch

He served time in jail for robbery and felony arms possession before deciding to give acting a try after being visited by a troupe of reformed convicts behind bars.

He initially tried out for the role of Junior was was persuaded into taking on Paulie on one condition - the character would never become a snitch.

Following The Sopranos he has made sporadic appearances in TV and films, including Family Guy, American Dad!, and Lilyhammer.

He was also also set to reprise his Sopranos role in prequel film The Many Saints of Newark which was released last year but his health had prevented him from returning to his signature role.

Sirico died on July 8, 2022 at an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Steve Van Zandt - Silvio Dante

Silvio is the calm, collected, and ever-stylish owner of the gang's hangout spot and headquarters - a strip club called the Bada Bing!

Another of Tony's trusted advisers, he is often selected to carry out high-level assassinations, including on Christopher's girlfriend, Adriana.

Zandt was famous long before The Sopranos though for a profession other than acting. He was, and still is, a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band where he plays guitar and mandolin.

Bandanna-wearing Van Zandt (right in 2019) has since admitted that mobster Silvio's luscious locks (left) were a hairpiece. He has a successful career as a musician and in 2014 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with Springsteen, he also founded his own band - Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul - in the 1980s.

Zandt continued to pursue acting after Sopranos, starring in and co-writing Netflix series Lilyhammer, which also starred Tony Sirico.

He also appeared in Netflix's The Christmas Chronicles in 2018.

Steve R Schirripa - Bobby Baccalieri

An unusual character within the mob world, Bobby Baccalieri was portrayed as lovable, kind-hearted, loyal to his wife, and caring of others.

A senior member of Junior's crew, he ends up caring for his former boss when he suffers from cancer, and marries Tony's sister Janice.

Bobby Baccalieri (left) played by Steve R Schirripa (right in 2019) was the rarest of things - a lovable mobster. He has continued to work in TV since the series, but has also written children's books and launched his own range of vegan pasta sauce

Schirripa has appeared regularly in both film and TV since his role as Baccalieri ended, including on series Blue Bloods.

He has also diversified away from acting and writes books playing on his mob persona, as well as children's stories.

Schirripa made a Nickelodeon film from his kid's book Nicky Deuce and in 2014 launched his own range of vegan pasta sauces.
They both fell victim to the Casa Amor curse during this week's Love Island, turning their heads as they recoupled with new bombshells.

And Indiyah Polack and Dami Hope finally addressed the situation during Friday evening's episode, as the extent of the latter's behaviour was revealed.

During the conversation, Dami questioned: 'So, are you done with me?', as Indiyah explained she was initially coming back to continue their relationship.

Talking it out: Love Island's Dami Hope and Indiyah Polack finally addressed their relationship during Friday night's episode - after recoupling with other people following Casa Amor

While the pair both decided to recouple, it soon became clear that Dami had done a little more than just get to know the new girls- kissing bombshell Summer Botwe multiple times before making the final decision.

But after not allowing her new partner, Deji Adeniyi, to kiss her during Casa Amor - Indiyah was looking for an explanation from Dami on his behaviour.

After being asked if he kissed Summer more than once, the Dublin native admitted to kissing his new partner 'four or five times' before choosing to recouple with her.

Over? During the conversation, Dami questioned: 'So, are you done with me?', as Indiyah explained she was initially coming back to continue their relationship

Multiple: After being asked if he kissed Summer more than once, the Dublin native admitted to kissing his new partner 'four or five times' before choosing to recouple with her

Respect: Indiyah then quipped 'I'm a heartbreaker but I'm not disrespectful', as Dami questioned if she thought he had been disrespectful towards her

After outlining her loyalty to Dami, Indiyah admitted that she was coming back to the villa in the hopes of continuing to get to know both him and Deji.

As she quipped:'I'm a heartbreaker but I'm not disrespectful', Dami questioned if she thought he had been disrespectful towards her.

'Well I didn't kiss Deji, he tried to but I didn't,' she replied.

Admitting it: Dami then explained that he still had feelings for Indiyah: 'Like I still very much like you and I do feel like we have a great connection. I literally started this with "I miss your eyes" like c'mon man, please, help me out here, I'm not saying these things just for the crack, I wouldn't do that'

'Summer has just begun': After getting to know new girl Summer during Casa Amor, Dami admitted he'd like to recouple during Thursday's episode

'I came back here with the intention of us obviously speaking and getting to know each other, I never came here with the intention of us being over,' explained Indiyah - after Dami asked if she was 'done'.

While he echoed her thoughts, explaining: 'I didn't bring her here to cut you off or anything like that. Like I still very much like you and I do feel like we have a great connection. I literally started this with "I miss your eyes" like c'mon man, please, help me out here, I'm not saying these things just for the crack, I wouldn't do that.

'But then obviously, I still want to get to know her. Same thing you're doing. See, It's like we are similar but we're different,' added Dami, as Indiyah cut in to snap 'shut up', while he continued: 'You know it too'.

Same boat: But to Dami's unassuming shock - Indiyah also decided to twist, returning to the villa moments later with Deji Adeniyi on her arm

Taking to the beach hut, Indiyah explained that she 'doesn't really understand why he did what he did', before telling him 'you've made your bed, so now you have to lie in it'.

But in another back-and-forth battle to have the last word, Dami added: 'So have you. We both have.'

Love Island continues on Sunday at 9pm on ITV2 and ITV Hub.
Katie Holmes stepped out in New York City on Thursday night to hang out at Bar Pitti.

The actress, 43, was captured chatting with pals outside of the celeb-loved establishment.

Holmes cut a relaxed figure for the evening in an oversized blue button-up shirt and beige ruffled maxi skirt with lace detailing.

Out and about: Katie Holmes stepped out in New York City on Thursday night to hang out at Bar Pitti

The Thank You For Smoking star slipped her feet into a pair of black patent leather shoes with silver buckles to complete her look.

She carried her belongings in a patterned tote bag that remained slung over her shoulder as she mingled.

Her beautiful brunette hair was free-flowing and she rocked a radiant, makeup-free complexion.

Chatty: The actress, 43, was captured chatting with pals outside of the celeb-loved establishment

Relaxed: Holmes cut a relaxed figure for the evening in an oversized blue button-up shirt and beige ruffled maxi skirt with lace detailing

Holmes and her dinner crew eventually headed inside Bar Pitti to dine and drink the restaurant's offerings.

Her outing occurred after the world premiere of her second directorial effort, Alone Together.

The feature is centered on a food critic and a recently-single individual who develop a relationship while being forced to quarantine together amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to helming the movie, the performer also wrote its script and served as its leading actress. Other cast members included Jim Sturgess, Melissa Leo and Derek Luke.

Natural beauty: Her beautiful brunette hair was free-flowing and she rocked a radiant, makeup-free complexion

Alone Together premiered during the most recent Tribeca Film Festival, which took place last month.

Following the movie's debut, Holmes spoke to Variety about her passion for filmmaking.

'I'm trying to make artistic movies that are relevant to today's world and that speak to something deep within all of us,' she stated.

Alone Together's producer Jordan Yale Levine also spoke to the media outlet and praised the actress' dedication to her craft.

Making a debut: New project: Holmes' outing occurred after the world premiere of her second directorial effort, Alone Together. The film premiered during the most recent Tribeca Film Festival, which took place last month

Dedicated: Following the movie's debut, Holmes spoke to Variety about her passion for filmmaking

'Katie's not just a talented actress, she's a true filmmaker who gets involved with wardrobe and production design, and even understands the financial repercussions and what has to make sense in order for a movie to be successful,' he said.

He also noted that he and his producing partners were eager to collaborate further with Holmes in the future.

'As soon as we were done with Alone Together, we knew we wanted to make more things together,' he stated.

Alone Together is currently set to be released to the public on July 22.
Chris Hemsworth was the latest famous face to read a CBeebies' Bedtime Story on Friday and fans rushed to Twitter to gush over the Marvel star.

The Australian actor, 38, read Salina Yoon's Stormy Night about a teddy scared of thunder, following in the footsteps of Harry Styles and Tom Hardy who have both appeared on the show.

Taking to social media one viewer wrote: 'Gosh I feel a swoon coming on!' and other said they would record the episode to watch it many more times.

'I put my kids to bed early'! : Viewers swoon as Chris Hemsworth read CBeebies' Bedtime Stories on Friday

Chris channelled his Marvel character Thor, the God of Thunder, as he told the sweet story, donning a smart linen suit which he layered over a simple t-shirt.

One viewer commented: 'I still haven't worked out if it was for the little ones or the mum's'.

While another added: 'And for some dads!' and a third wrote: 'Looks like the kids are going to bed early tonight'.

Narrator: Chris channelled his Marvel character Thor, the God of Thunder, as he told the sweet story, donning a smart linen suit which he layered over a simple t-shirt

LOL: One viewer commented: 'I still haven't worked out if it was for the little ones or the mum's'

Sweet: The Australian actor, 38, read Salina Yoon's Stormy Night about a teddy scared of thunder, following in the footsteps of Harry Styles and Tom Hardy who have both appeared on the show

Other viewers offered to keep the Hollywood star 'safe in a storm' while another said: 'crack the wine open ladies!'.

Another viewed said she tuning in to the pre school programme - despite her son being almost a teenager.

Speaking earlier this week he father-of-three - who shares daughter India, 10, and eight-year-old twin sons Sasha and Tristan with wife Elsa Pataky  said he 'loves nothing more' than reading to his own kids and is honoured to appear on the show.

Comfy: Chris sat on a comfy chair as he was surrounded by lighting bolts in refence to his famous superhero character

Fans: Viewers rushed to social media to gush over the handsome Marvel star

He said: 'I love nothing more than reading bedtime stories to my children and it was a joy to get to read 'Stormy Night', a story about a little bear who is scared of storms.

'Even though I know a thing or two about thunder and lightning, I always feel better when the storm passes.'

The Office star Steve Carell was the latest star to appear on the children's show as he narrated Miguel Ordonez's The Eyebrows of Doom last week.

Speaking about appearing on the show, he said: 'I loved reading to my kids when they were younger so it was a great pleasure to read a Bedtime Story for CBeebies, about a pair of mischievous eyebrows causing havoc  something I'm sure we can all relate to.'

Family: The father-of-three - who shares daughter India, 10, and eight-year-old twin sons Sasha and Tristan with wife Elsa Pataky  said he 'loves nothing more' than reading to his own kids

'I know a thing or two about thunder': Chris will channeedl his Marvel character Thor, the God of Thunder

The father-of-two  who shares daughter Elisabeth Anne, 21, and son Johnny, 18, with his wife Nancy Carell  answered some fan questions on social media before his appearance.

One viewer revealed a 'sweet' misunderstanding with their daughter who thought they were looking for Duggee and the Squirrels in a forest, instead of trying to spot actual squirrels, and so they ended up on a 30-minute hunt for CBBC characters.

Steve replied: 'That's very sweet. That's a moment you're going to treasure with your kids... And it might all feel insane, it might all feel like you're losing your mind slightly, but you will reflect back on these memories and these moments with such joy.

Tom, 44, has appeared twice on the children's series, as he paid tribute to his late dog Woody who passed away.

The star read the story of Fleabag, by Helen Stephens, on National Dog Day on August 26th.

Famous faces: The Office star Steve Carell was the latest star to appear on the children's show as he narrated Miguel Ordonez's The Eyebrows of Doom last week

Appearance: Harry Styles also recently featured on the show, appearing to read the bedtime story in his pyjamas

The heart-warming story follows a friendship between a young boy and a scruffy dog, who needs a home, while the boy wants a pet pooch.

After both their longing, the two come across one another with drama and fun ensuing before Fleabag eventually finds the home he has been craving for.

More recent story readers include the Duchess of Cambridge, who narrated the modern children's classic, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, by Jill Tomlinson, to mark Children's Mental Health Week.
Karlie Kloss gave herself a bit of a wardrobe update as she swung by the luxury store Hermes in Miami, Florida on Friday.

For the midday shopping trip, the 29-year-old supermodel strutted her stuff in a sporty denim jumpsuit.

She slipped her feet into a pair of squeaky clean white sneakers and toted her essentials in a black Birkin bag.

Designer threads: Karlie Kloss gave herself a bit of a wardrobe update as she swung by the luxury store Hermes in Miami, Florida on Friday

She was also captured carrying a huge orange Hermes shopping bag in her right hand.

Her light brown hair was tightly tied back in a ponytail and she fastened a pair of shiny gold studs to her ears.

Kloss' appearance in Miami came just a few days after she attended a lavish party in Paris, France during star-studded Paris Fashion Week.

Denim darling: For the midday shopping trip, the 29-year-old supermodel strutted her stuff in a sporty denim jumpsuit

Sporty: She slipped her feet into a pair of squeaky clean white sneakers and toted her essentials in a black Birkin bag

The Chicago native posed up a storm alongside fellow catwalk queen Carla Bruni at the David Yurman Paris Flagship Grand Opening on Tuesday, July 5.

Taking place at Paris' famous Louvre Museum, the guests looked picture perfect in their designer looks as they milled around together.

Karlie slipped her lithe frame into a champagne slip gown which skimmed over her slender curves.

Tight hairstyle: Her light brown hair was tied back in a ponytail and she accessorized with a pair of gold stud earrings

Fashionista: Kloss' appearance in Miami came just a few days after she attended a lavish party in Paris, France during star-studded Paris Fashion Week. The Chicago native posed up a storm alongside fellow catwalk queen Carla Bruni at the David Yurman Paris Flagship Grand Opening on Tuesday, July 5

The midi dress featured a thigh high split to flash her toned pins and expose a pair of strappy black heels.

Carla, 54, turned heads as she attended the event in a figure-hugging little black dress that highlighted her phenomenal figure.

The former French First Lady added to the glamour by wearing a dazzling gold necklace with a striking emerald stone that complemented her tanned complexion.

The pair were in good company at the swanky soiree, which was also attended by the likes of Olivia Palermo, Coco Rocha and Clemence Poesy.

Wow: Karlie looked sensational as she slipped her lithe frame into a champagne slip gown which skimmed over her slender curves
Tom Cruise is set to experience a new first as part of his glittering movie career - the actor has been given extremely rare permission to film inside Westminster Abbey in London for Mission: Impossible 8.

The Hollywood heavyweight, 60, will be returning to the UK capital to film for the latest flick from the franchise and he will act out scenes inside the religious landmark.

A film source told The Sun: 'Nothing but the biggest and the best will do [for Tom].

Making history? Tom Cruise, 60, is set to experience a new first as part of his glittering movie career - the actor has been given extremely rare permission to film inside Westminster Abbey

'So when he wanted to film inside a church for the new Mission film, it had to be Westminster Abbey. They turn down almost every request, so its an incredible nod to Tom and to the production team to say yes.

'It will make an extraordinary filming location and sets the tone for just how big this film is going to be. The budget is enormous, of course, but the ambitions are even bigger.'

MailOnline has contacted Paramount Pictures and Westminster Abbey for comment.

Privilege: The Hollywood heavyweight will be returning to the UK capital to film for the latest flick from the franchise and he will act out scenes inside the religious landmark

It comes after Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 were pushed back at the start of the year due to Covid-related delays.

The latest instalment of the action saga, the seventh film, was first due for release in July 2021, but was pushed back to May this year and later delayed again to 30 September.

However, Paramount Pictures and Skydance have announced the movie will now not be seen in cinemas until 14 July 2023 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on production.

Pauses: It comes after Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 were pushed back at the start of the year due to Covid-related delays (Tom pictured in Mission: Impossible 3 in 2006)

As a result, the eighth film, which was expected to be released in July next year, will now not come out until 28 July 2024.

In a joint statement, the studios said: 'After thoughtful consideration, Paramount Pictures and Skydance have decided to postpone the release dates for Mission: Impossible 7 & 8 in response to delays due to the ongoing pandemic.

'We look forward to providing moviegoers with an unparalleled theatrical experience.'

Production on the seventh film - which is directed by Christopher McQuarrie - began in Venice, Italy, in February 2020 but it was halted due to the pandemic and eventually moved to the UK when work could restart.

However, it has been hit by delays twice, most recently in June 2021 following positive COVID-19 tests within the cast and crew.

Tom famously does his own stunts and it was recently revealed he had been learning to fly a World War II military plane for Mission: Impossible 8.

A source recently told The Sun: 'Tom had started to learn to fly a Boeing Stearman biplane earlier this year for a major stunt scene in Mission: Impossible 8.

'It's obviously a highly skilled task but as usual he has no plans to cut any corners or bring in a stuntman.

'Filming has only just wrapped on 'Mission: Impossible 7' but Tom has not given himself a break.

'And trying to film jaw-dropping scenes with an 80-year-old plane is particularly dangerous.'
Three days after collapsing during the middle of a show in Michigan, rock legend Carlos Santana postponed his returning concert in Noblesville, Indiana, just minutes before he was set to take the stage.

Santana, 74, was preparing to play at the Ruoff Music Center on Friday when the decision was made to postpone the performance, according to USA Today.

Opening artists, Earth, Wind & Fire, had just finished their set when the audience was informed that Santana was still not feeling well enough to play.

An official told the crowd their tickets would be honored at the rescheduled date, which is already set for Wednesday, August 3.

Not feeling well: Carlos Santana, 74, canceled his show at Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana on Friday, just minutes before he was set to take the stage

Friday's ill fated show in Indianapolis had been slated to be his first since collapsing onstage at Pine Knob Music Theatre in Michigan Tuesday.

He was in the middle of his set in Clarkson, which is just over 40 miles north of Detroit, when he fell down, according to witnesses and several videos shared on social media.

Medical workers proceeded to attend to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee before he was carried offstage.

He was briefly hospitalized and diagnosed with dehydration and heat exhaustion.

Health concerns: Friday's cancelation comes three days after the Grammy-winning guitarist fell on stage during the middle of his set

Scary moments: Santana was in the middle of his set in Clarkson, Michigan, which is just over 40 miles north of Detroit, when he fell down; medical personnel then proceeded to attend to him before taking off stage and to the hospital

Santana's team then promptly canceled Wednesday's scheduled show in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania.

The legendary musical artist's team is not taking any chances as they went on to postpone his next six concerts 'out of an abundance of caution for the artists health, his manager, Michael Vrionis of Universal Tone Management said Friday evening.

The statement continued: 'I regret to inform you that the Santana band has postponed tonights show at Ruoff Music Center Noblesville, Indiana. And, we are postponing the July 9 show at Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Ohio; July 10 at American Family Insurance Amphitheater  Summerfest Grounds in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; July 12 at Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion in Rogers, Arkansas; July 15 at Dos Equis Pavilion in Dallas, Texas; July 16 at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Woodlands, Texas.

Hospitalized briefly: The band and crew scrambled to assist Santana in the moments after he fell, which has since been diagnosed as a result of dehydration and heat exhaustion

'Doctors have recommended that Mr. Santana gets rest to recuperate fully.'

On Tuesday, the Grammy-winning guitarist shared a post on Facebook originally posted to his wife Cindy Blackman Santana's page, thanking everyone for their 'prayers, love, care & concern.'

Blackman wrote, 'Please know that he's resting and doing very well. He was diagnosed with heat exhaustion & dehydration it was 100 degrees on stage and 114 under the lights so that coupled with not enough water is what caused the issue.'

She went on to add that Santana will 'be as good as new soon.'

Scary moments: Worried concertgoers looked on as medical staff worked on Santana

The Soul Sacrifice star also shared a message where he revealed that he 'forgot to eat and drink water' prior to playing on Tuesday.

'I dehydrated and passed out,' he continued, adding, 'blessings and miracles to you all.'

The Miraculous Supernatural Tour still has another 19 dates left, which goes through late August 27 in Tampa, before the band heads back to Las Vegas for his residency at the House of Blues.

Just last December the Smooth musician canceled a number of performances in Las Vegas after he underwent an unspecified and unscheduled heart procedure.

The next scheduled date of the tour is on Saturday, July 9, at the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

So far there's no official word on whether it too will be canceled.
Mama June's daughter and son-in-law Pumpkin and Joshua geared up to face off against her for full custody of June's youngest child Alana.

On the latest episode of Mama June: Road To Redemption, June tried to get Alana, 16, aka 'Honey Boo Boo,' to move in with her and her then-boyfriend Justin Stroud, whom she met in rehab and has since married.

Alana was dead-set against this idea, and Pumpkin and Josh, who had been taking care of her for three years, ramped up their battle to keep her in their home.

At the center: Mama June's daughter and son-in-law Pumpkin and Joshua geared up to face off against her for full custody of June's youngest child Alana (pictured)

In the previous episode, it emerged that June and Justin had moved into a house just down the street from Pumpkin, aka Lauryn Efird, and her husband Joshua Efird.

June's plan was to reintegrate herself into her family's life and to get Alana and one of her other daughters, Jessie, to come live with her and Justin.

At the end of the previous episode, Pumpkin and Jessie drove over to June's house to confront her about having moved in so close without telling them.

This week's episode picked up where the previous episode left off, in the middle of a furious argument between Pumpkin and her mother outside June's house.

Attempt: On the latest episode of Mama June: Road To Redemption, June tried to get Alana, 16, aka 'Honey Boo Boo,' to move in with her and her then-boyfriend Justin Stroud

Making it work: Alana was dead-set against this idea, and Pumpkin (left) and Josh (right), who had been taking care of her for three years, ramped up their battle to keep her in their home

Married now: June's plan was to reintegrate herself into her family's life and to get Alana and one of her other daughters, Jessie, to come live with her and Justin (left)

Who's who: Pumpkin demanded to know 'how long' June had known Justin, to which June replied: 'I met him at the rehab'

Pumpkin demanded to know 'how long' June had known Justin, to which June replied: 'I met him at the rehab.'

'Another mark on the checklist,' Pumpkin joked bitterly, asking if Justin was a 'convict too' and getting a smirking: 'Yes,' from her mother.

'Ding, ding, ding! We have another f***ing winner Jessie,' said Pumpkin, leading June to demand: 'You b****, why you gotta be like that?'

'Let me pull out my f***ing list,' said Pumpkin. 'One, you wanted to go get f***ed up on crack cocaine and get locked up, which landed me with custody of Alana.'

Her side: 'Im still the mama, Alana is mine and I can take her back anytime I want,' said June, whose personal struggles with addictions and men are the center of the reality show

The other side: 'Ive worked my a** off to build this family that is somewhat functional and Id be damned if I let Mama come back around and change all of that,' said Pumpkin

Pumpkin continued to detail a colorful array of her mother's previous misdeeds, such as pawning the title to Jessie's car and selling her house for crack.

June demanded to be 'given a chance,' arguing that 'people do change' and that 'You gotta get, like - I moved closer, I listened!'

In addition to asking that Alana move in with her, June then asked that Jessie moved in with her - and Jessie refused as her mother had 'just popped in out the blue.'

Jessie said she would prefer to sleep on Pumpkins couch instead, and Pumpkin fully agreed, out of a desire not to subject Jessie to June's 'f***ing mess and her do-boy.'

Couple's conversation: June went back inside her house, licking her wounds and commiserating with Justin, who was able to empathize with Pumpkin's position

Counterargument: June insisted on her right to be forgiven for her admittedly f***ed-up decisions and spending money on men that I shouldnt have spent money on'

'A do-boy,' Pumpkin said in a confessional: 'is basically any man that Mama gets. She cant drive so they drive her around. They basically run her around and do errands.'

'I mean, theyre just doing all they wanna do, so they know they can get their money in return,' Jessie piped up. 'Why, they can wipe her a** and theyll get $100.'

June insisted to her two older daughters that she wanted her new home with Justin to be 'a house for everybody. So I mean, Alana can stay here - 

Pumpkin let out a frustrated scream and said: Alana is not staying here, get that through your thick f***ing skull!'

'They're not ready to be done': Justin noted that June thinks she can just leave the past behind and move forward, but her children arent done with it'

Unfiltered: He pointed out: 'Now my and the girls relationship started off with a lie,' adding: 'Theyre not gonna be comfortable until they see action'

However when Pumpkin said of Alana: 'I'm her Mama now,' June said with a mischievous smile: 'Yeah? You got that in writing?'

Both of the two women then appeared in confessionals where they explained each of their sides in their battle of wills.

'Im still the mama, Alana is mine and I can take her back anytime I want,' said June, whose personal struggles with addictions and men are the center of the reality show.

'Ive worked my a** off to build this family that is somewhat functional and Id be damned if I let Mama come back around and change all of that,' said Pumpkin.

Looking back: June insisted on her right to be forgiven for her admittedly f***ed-up decisions and spending money on men that I shouldnt have spent money on'

Looking ahead: He meanwhile counseled her to fix her relationships with her daughters so that the problems do not burn us later on'

After making fun of June and Justin's romance, Pumpkin stormed off in the car with Jessie and when June said: 'I love ya,' Pumpkin replied: 'Well, I don't f***ing love you.'

June went back inside her house, licking her wounds and commiserating with Justin, who was able to empathize with Pumpkin's position.

While maintaining that he is not a 'do-boy,' Justin told June that 'here's the problem - when you date guys for years and they are your do-boys, because in a sense you tell them what to do and you flash a little bit of money at em, thats what they expect.'

June insisted on her right to be forgiven for her admittedly f***ed-up decisions and spending money on men that I shouldnt have spent money on.'

Chewing it over: Meanwhile Pumpkin and Jessie were in the car agreeing with one another that June has wasted all this money, living like a teenage party-animal

Unimpressed: Pumpkin brought up the fact that he does not even know Justin, whom she theorized was 'barely sober' and whom Jessie dismissed as the toothless wonder'

Justin noted that June thinks she can just leave the past behind and move forward, but her children arent done with it. Theyre not ready to be done. And youre asking for them to give something a chance, but youre lying to them off the rip.'

He pointed out: 'Now my and the girls relationship started off with a lie. Theyre not gonna be comfortable until they see action.

June suggested a weekend away with Justin and the children so that they could see that he is different from her other men and not obsessed with her money.

He meanwhile counseled her to fix her relationships with her daughters so that the problems do not burn us later on.'

All in the family: When Pumpkin arrived home, she and Jessie told a sympathetic Josh all about about what happened - at which point Alana walked in and overheard them

Her preference: 'I don't wanna move in with my Mama, I'm just fine here!' said Alana, and Josh sweetly concurred: 'Your Mama's talking stupid s***'

Meanwhile Pumpkin and Jessie were in the car agreeing with one another that June has wasted all this money, living like a teenage party-animal.

Pumpkin brought up the fact that she does not even know Justin, whom she theorized was 'barely sober' and whom Jessie dismissed as the toothless wonder.'

When Pumpkin arrived home, she and Jessie told a sympathetic Josh all about about what happened - at which point Alana walked in and overheard them.

'I don't wanna move in with my Mama, I'm just fine here!' said Alana, and Josh sweetly concurred: 'Your Mama's talking stupid s***.'

And there it is: When Alana said June 'lives in Alabama,' Pumpkin dropped the bombshell on her: 'Oh, no, baby girl, she lives right down the street!'

It all comes out: Pumpkin revealed to Alana that she only found out about Junes new location that morning and traveled there with Jessie to confront her

When Alana said June 'lives in Alabama,' Pumpkin dropped the bombshell on her: 'Oh, no, baby girl, she lives right down the street!'

Pumpkin revealed to Alana that she only found out about Junes new location that morning and traveled there with Jessie to confront her.

When Alana asked: 'Who is she even living with?' Pumpkin compared Justin to the sisters' father, saying: 'Ugh, some little Sugar Bear lookalike with no teeth.'

Pumpkin announced June wanted Alana and Jessie to move in with her, and Alana said she had no idea whether Justin might steal from her while she slept.

Wow: When Alana asked: 'Who is she even living with?' Pumpkin compared Justin (left) to the sisters' father, saying: 'Ugh, some little Sugar Bear (right) lookalike with no teeth'

Scathing: Pumpkin announced June wanted Alana and Jessie to move in with her, and Alana said she had no idea whether Justin might steal from her while she slept

'I know how this works. I used to stay with Geno and Mama,' said Alana in a confessional, referring to June's ex Geno Doak.

Among a series of misadventures, Geno and June were arrested for possession of crack cocaine together at a gas station in 2019.

'It starts out all nice and the guy tries to win you over, try to become "stepdad," and then something goes wrong,' said Alana.

'Even when Geno got clean, he still kinda freaked me out. As much as I wish Mama was there for the little things in life, like when I come home from school everyday, its just not even worth it at this point.'

Flashback: 'I know how this works, I used to stay with Geno and Mama,' said Alana in a confessional, referring to June's ex Geno Doak

Life experience: 'It starts out all nice and the guy tries to win you over, try to become "stepdad," and then something goes wrong,' said Alana

Alana told Pumpkin she did not want to live with June and asked Pumpkin to ensure that this did not happen. Pumpkin assured Alana that she would.

Josh and Pumpkin, who share two small children together, decided they needed to get a move on in their efforts to obtain full custody of Alana.

Unfortunately, Pumpkin and Josh lost their custody papers while moving house, and all they they were able to unearth was a picture of one of the custody papers.

Pumpkin shared in a confessional that their temporary guardianship papers were expired and that really worries me, because I want Alana to grow up in a stable home, and its not stable if Mama can just come in and take her from me.'

Next step: Josh and Pumpkin, who share two small children together, decided they needed to get a move on in their efforts to obtain full custody of Alana

Unfortunately: Pumpkin and Josh lost their custody papers while moving house, and all they they were able to unearth was a picture of one of the custody papers

Josh was confident that they could keep Alana as she has technically been in our possession for the last three years, while Pumpkin counterargued that the paperwork is not in their favor and June has way more money than we do.'

As a result Josh advised Pumpkin to begin looking for lawyers, and they officially embarked on the process of trying to obtain full custody.

Meanwhile June and Justin go out to lunch and she told him the story of her weight loss surgery, after he marveled at her diabetes in a cup when she poured a mound of sugar into her cup of iced tea.

When Justin left the table, June FaceTimed her manager Gina and informed her that she wants another gastric sleeve - to which Gina noted that June was asking for weight loss surgery while shoveling down French fries.

Loving: Pumpkin shared in a confessional that their temporary guardianship papers were expired and that really worries me, because I want Alana to grow up in a stable home'

Differences: Josh was confident but Pumpkin counterargued that the paperwork is not in their favor and June has way more money than we do'

June also asked Gina to find a dentist that could fix Justins smile and missing teeth, so that they would look like the hottest new couple in Hollywood.'

Pumpkin and Josh took Alana to a lawyer, informed the lawyer of Junes crack arrest and said that even before the arrest, Alana did not want to live with her mother.

Alana assured the lawyer that 'I definitely dont wanna go live with my daddy,' and Pumpkin assured her Sugar Bear had already signed the papers.

However Pumpkin and Josh had not managed to secure Junes signature: Weve got rid of the addiction of drugs, just not the addiction of men yet Josh: Men and lying Pumpkin: I dont want Alana to be around that

Raring for a fight: As a result Josh advised Pumpkin to begin looking for lawyers, and they officially embarked on the process of trying to obtain full custody

Meanwhile: June and Justin go out to lunch and she told him the story of her weight loss surgery, after he marveled at her diabetes in a cup

Work talk: June also asked Gina to find a dentist that could fix Justins smile and missing teeth, so that they would look like the hottest new couple in Hollywood'

The lawyer advised that they 'file a private custody action in superior court. This action will simply just state that you all are looking for sole physical custody and sole legal custody. Legal custody just deals with decision-making. Okay? Decisions about academics, health care, extracurricular activities. Now, we have to get June served.'

Pumpkin asked if it might be a good idea for her to ask [June] first to sign, but the lawyer frankly observed that 'those typically dont go over very well.'

Alana agreed that if June realized that shes gotta sign her rights over, shes not gonna do that' - setting the stage for a potential court battle.

June called Pumpkin, who failed to pick up, so she left a voicemail apologizing for her prior misdeeds and inviting the family to Las Vegas.

Moving ahead: Pumpkin and Josh took Alana to a lawyer, informed the lawyer of Junes crack arrest and said that even before the arrest, Alana did not want to live with her mother

What to do: The lawyer advised that they 'file a private custody action in superior court' to 'state that you all are looking for sole physical custody and sole legal custody'

Jessie said she was 'not looking forward to this trip but I guess Ill go,' while Pumpkin quipped they needed 'separate hotels with a deadbolt, two deadbolts.'

Pumpkin only agreed to go to Las Vegas in the hopes that it would make June happy enough that she would agree to sign the papers.

She headed off to meet June for lunch, planning to agree to the trip but inform her mother that the past was not buried and that Alana would not live with her.

Almost as soon as they sat down, June taunted Pumpkin that it was a good job they were meeting in a public space where you cant yell at me in the restaurant.'

Trouble ahead: Pumpkin asked if it might be a good idea for her to ask [June] first to sign, but the lawyer frankly observed that 'those typically dont go over very well'

Choppy waters: Alana agreed that if June realized that shes gotta sign her rights over, shes not gonna do that' - setting the stage for a potential court battle

'Do you get why I yelled?' asked Pumpkin, to which June replied: 'Not really,' talking about 'learning to stop living in the past.'

'Oh my God, "the past" is not a week ago - "the past" is 10 years ago,' said Pumpkin, noting how recently June had hidden from them that she had moved nearby.

Further, Pumpkin disabused June of idea Alana would move in with her, noting: She doesnt wanna stay there with someone she doesnt know.'

June was flummoxed at not being able to put the past in the past by simply throwing some money around and being forgiven.

Mending fences?: June called Pumpkin, who failed to pick up, so she left a voicemail apologizing for her prior misdeeds and inviting the family to Las Vegas

Now there's a plan: Pumpkin only agreed to go to Las Vegas in the hopes that it would make June happy enough that she would agree to sign the papers

The morning they were to leave on their trip, Pumpkin and Jessie chatted in the formers bedroom about the daunting task of getting June to give up custody.

Jessie said it might be easy but Pumpkin doubted it, theorizing that their mother would flip a b**** but saying that only June would wind up embarrassed if she made the decision to show her a** in court.

When Jessie and Pumpkin landed in Las Vegas, they discovered June had hired a limousine to ferry them around town.

A determinedly cheery June wanted to go down memory lane to Pumpkins Vegas wedding - but Pumpkin was less keen to revisit a time when June was on drugs.

That's the idea: She headed off to meet June for lunch, planning to agree to the trip but inform her mother that the past was not buried and that Alana would not live with her

Laugh it up: Almost as soon as they sat down, June taunted Pumpkin that it was a good job they were meeting in a public space where you cant yell at me in the restaurant'

Back and forth: 'Do you get why I yelled?' asked Pumpkin, to which June replied: 'Not really,' talking about 'learning to stop living in the past'

Right from the off, they had different ideas for the trip - June wanted to party through the night, whereas Pumpkin wants to use her time off from motherhood to get some sleep, prompting June to call her daughters 'Debbie Downers.'

Meanwhile, Josh at home tries to introduce tachos - nachos with tater tots and a bunch of sauces - to his and Pumpkin's baby son Bentley.

June's sister Doe Doe came to visit Josh, who revealed to her that he and Pumpkin were gunning for 'sole custody of Alana.'

Doe Does sympathy was with Pumpkin and Josh, and she said of her sister: Junes just gonna have to suck it up.'

War council: The morning they were to leave on their trip, Pumpkin and Jessie chatted in the formers bedroom about the daunting task of getting June to give up custody

Differences of opinion: Jessie said it might be easy but Pumpkin doubted it, theorizing that their mother would flip a b****

When Josh declared that they would take her a** to court if June declined to sign the papers, Doe Doe asked if they would pursue child support.

Josh had not considered the matter, but once it was brought up, he conceded he 'should definitely ask. I mean, f***er owes us.'

Taking care of a teenager is expensive and June has not done it,' said Josh, noting Alana has her hair and nails done and dreams of going to college.

Back in Las Vegas, June and her two older daughters went to Fremont Street and ordered massive frozen drinks they could carry with them outdoors.

The news spreads: June's sister Doe Doe came to visit Josh, who revealed to her that he and Pumpkin were gunning for 'sole custody of Alana'

Another wrinkle: When Josh declared that they would take her a** to court if June declined to sign the papers, Doe Doe asked if they would pursue child support

To Pumpkin's initial consternation, June, who was two years sober, ordered a pina colada, insisting she would not drink it but just wanted to carry it around.'

Luckily June did indeed almost instantly hand the alcoholic beverage over to Jessie and spent the evening in spectacular form.

Pumpkin said in a confessional that she was experiencing the old Mama, who had a good time and ensured everyone else did too. I do miss her this way.'

Swanking about: When Jessie and Pumpkin landed in Las Vegas, they discovered June had hired a limousine to ferry them around town

Whoops: A determinedly cheery June wanted to go down memory lane to Pumpkins Vegas wedding - but Pumpkin was less keen to revisit a time when June was on drugs

Having fun: Back in Las Vegas, June and her two older daughters went to Fremont Street and ordered massive frozen drinks they could carry with them outdoors

What a time: To Pumpkin's initial consternation, June, who was two years sober, ordered a pina colada, insisting she would not drink it but just wanted to carry it around'

June arranged from them to take pictures with Chippendales for them and Pumpkin felt herself being worn down as shes still my mom at the end of the day.'

Pumpkin agonized over prospect of asking for custody, pointing out that there was a lot on the line over the case,

She could potentially permanently destroy her relationship with her mother - or wind up fighting a custody trial, and I dont wanna drag Alana through court.'

Having a ball: June arranged from them to take pictures with Chippendales for them and Pumpkin felt herself being worn down as shes still my mom at the end of the day'
Aussie influencer and tanning entrepreneur Elle Ferguson has opened up her wardrobe for fans.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, Elle said she three separate closets for all her clothes and has more than 200 pairs of shoes.

It comes after she and her footy star fiance Joel Patfull quit The Block earlier this year, after just 48 hours of filming.

Influencer Elle Ferguson revealed on Saturday that she has THREE separate wardrobes for her designer clothes and over 200 pairs of shoes

'I think people would be surprised that I have three wardrobes,' Elle began.

'One for everyday wear, one for styling and one for archives.'

Elle said she's meticulous about her cupboards being organised, saying: 'Everything has a place, a specific coat hanger and gets filed away.'

Elle said she's meticulous about her cupboards being organised, saying: 'Everything has a place, a specific coat hanger and gets filed away'

She went on to describe her sense of style as being 'eclectic' and said some of her favourite brands include Chanel, Balenciaga and Levi's.

The blonde added some of her wardrobe must-haves include denim pieces and a blazer.

Elle is the creator of the now-defunct fashion blog They All Hate Us, and recently launched her own spray tan label, the ELLE EFFECT.

Elle is the creator of the now-defunct fashion blog They All Hate Us, and recently launched her own spray tan label, the ELLE EFFECT

In April, Elle and her footy star fiance Joel Patfull pulled out of the latest season of The Block following a family emergency.

The couple initially tried to stay on the show but left after they 'couldn't get a definitive answer' from producers as to whether Joel, 37, could 'come and go' from the building site in country Victoria to visit his ailing mother Trish in Adelaide.

Without assurances that he could regularly leave to visit his mum, who had broken her neck in a fall, the pair pulled the pin on the Channel Nine show.

In addition to her broken neck, Trish fractured her wrist and has also potentially broken her coccyx.

At the time of their exit, Elle wrote on Instagram: 'Wherever you are in the world, whatever you are doing, family always comes first.'

She also shared a black-and-white image of Joel sitting with their luggage as they prepared to catch a flight to Adelaide.

A Nine spokesperson confirmed the pair's departure to Daily Mail Australia.

'Over the weekend, we were surprised to have one of our new contestant teams depart The Block a few days into filming for the upcoming season,' they said.
The Project host Carrie Bickmore is set to return to the Channel 10 show next week, a new report has claimed.

According to The Herald Sun, the 41-year-old will be back in the show's Melbourne studio on Monday and back on screen.

It comes after Carrie enjoyed an extended break from the show and moved to the UK in April with her partner Chris Walker and their kids.

She's back! Carrie Bickmore is set to make an imminent return to The Project desk after moving to London with her family. According to a new report, she's back on screen on Monday

Carrie revealed her grand plans to move overseas with partner Chris Walker and their children in March.

'In April I'm going to be taking a few months off The Project desk. Chris and I and the kids are heading off on a family adventure together.'

'We've been wanting to do it for a while but for lots of reasons the timing hasn't been right, but we figure it's never going to be the perfect time to go.

Carrie revealed her grand plans to move overseas with partner Chris Walker and their children in March. They moved overseas in April

'It's something we really want to do before my son starts his final years at school so we're doing term two in the UK. So I will be off for a couple of months.'

Carrie also said she had been inspired by The Project panellist Kate Langbroek, 56, who spent two years living in Bologna, Italy, with her family.

It comes after her TV executive partner was officially let off the hook after he was caught with his trousers down on a company Skype call in May.

The executive producer of comedy show The Weekly, stripped naked in front of shocked ABC staff after he thought he'd left a video conference on May 17.

'It's something we really want to do before my son starts his final years at school so we're doing term two in the UK. So I will be off for a couple of months.' Pictured abroad

While the gaffe led to an avalanche of embarrassing headlines for the ABC, Walker is 'unlikely to face serious sanctions', according to The Australian.

The public broadcaster reportedly took the incident 'seriously' but managers say the steps already taken will 'probably' be the end of the matter.

An insider told the newspaper: 'It was a genuine mistake. Obviously, the ABC is taking it seriously if people were traumatised.

'But if serious action was taken against Chris Walker for an accidental flash, there'd also be an outcry.'

The ABC has since offered counselling to staffers who witnessed the incident, The Herald Sun reported.
Winnie Harlow put on a leggy display as she let her hair down at the star-studded Wireless after party on Friday night at The Standard in London.

The model, 27, showed off her sensational figure in a black and gold mini dress for the Spotify event.

The stylish number had a halterneck design and featured a gold clasp around her neck as well as stud detailing down the front of the dress.

Stunning: Winnie Harlow put on a leggy display as she let her hair down at the star-studded Wireless after party on Friday night at The Standard in London

Winnie boosted her height with gold heels and accessorised to perfection with matching statement earrings.

She wore her dark tresses in a wavy style over her shoulders and opted for a natural makeup look to show off her pretty features.

Also at the party was fellow model Jourdan Dunn who flashed her abs in a blue and white crop top and matching skirt.

Pose: The model, 27, showed off her sensational figure in a black and gold mini dress for the Spotify event

The look: The stylish number had a halterneck design and featured a gold clasp around her neck as well as stud detailing down the front of the dress

Star: Winnie boosted her height with gold heels and accessorised to perfection with matching statement earrings as she caught up with Jourdan Dunn (left)

Confident: She wore her dark tresses in a wavy style over her shoulders and opted for a natural makeup look to show off her pretty features

She wore her braided hair piled on top of her head and looked like she was having a great time at the party.

Liam Payne's ex Maya Henry was also at the party and looked stylish in a gold jumpsuit and Chanel belt.

The belt cinched her in at the waist and the jumpsuit was teamed with black heels and gold hoop earrings.

Looking good: Also at the party was fellow model Jourdan Dunn who flashed her abs in a blue and white crop top and matching skirt

Pretty: She wore her braided hair piled on top of her head and looked like she was having a great time at the party

Pals: The pair enjoyed a cosy catch up at the party

It comes after last week Winnie was making the most of her time in Paris for fashion week and soaked up the sights during her trip.

She visited the Eiffel Tower and attended the Schiaparelli after party on Tuesday evening during the jam-packed week.

Winnie rose to fame and became one of the fashion industry's top models following her appearance on America's Next Top Model in 2014.

Moving on: Liam Payne's ex Maya Henry was also at the party and looked stylish in a gold jumpsuit and Chanel belt

Fashion: The belt cinched her in at the waist and the jumpsuit was teamed with black heels and gold hoop earrings

Single: She split from Liam for good last month after an on-off engagement

Strutting her stuff: She put on a confident display as she left the party

Lovely: Love Island star Antigoni Buxton was seen leaving the party in a pink coord

Big star: Sean 'Diddy' Combs, also known as P Diddy, was at the Wireless party and looked suave in a white jacket and cross chain

Having fun! He left the party clutching a bottle of alcohol

The look: He teamed his white jacket with black jeans and white trainers

Inkings: He showed off his arm tattoo as he got into his car to go home

She became part of the modeling competition show's 21st cycle after being discovered on Instagram by supermodel Tyra Banks, who served as a judge, host and executive producer on the show.

The 18 & Over actress gave a TEDx talk in 2014 called How I Define Beauty. The video has been viewed more than a million times.

Since then, Winnie has appeared in runway shows for lingerie giant Victoria's Secret, as well as for luxury fashion designers like Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Cowan.

Leggy: Also at the party was Amelia Dimoldenberg who looked great in a pink and black dress

Radiant: The Olay ambassador showed off her perfect skin with a pretty makeup look

You ok? Lil Simz looked a little downcast as she headed to the party

Now a household name and a fashion fixture, Winnie made the shift into the beauty space by launching Cay Skin earlier this year.

The suncare brand's standout product - Isle Glow Face Lotion - offers 45 SPF and is designed to be silicone-free, vegan, cruelty-free, and environmentally friendly, according to the official Cay Skin site.

Speaking to BYRDIE, Winnie revealed that the inspiration for creating Cay Skin stemmed from a 'traumatic' shoot in the Bahamas in 2018.

Crew: Popcaan, Giggs and P Diddy all looked like they were enjoying the party together

Cheers! Winnie enjoyed taking some shots with the boys

Shades: P Diddy wore his dark sunglasses the whole night despite being inside

Cool: They threw some wild poses

Party time! They let loose as they showed off their best poses

Music man: He caught up with friends at the party

'I was shooting in the Bahamas sun for two days, and no one [on set] wanted me to reapply sunscreen because the ones we had left a blue or purple cast,' she explained.

Being that she was without any protection from the harsh sun, Winnie's skin suffered some major consequences that required her to seek medical attention.

Winnie suffers from an autoimmune disorder and skin condition called Vitiligo, which 'causes loss of skin color in patches,' according to the Mayo Clinic.

Bold: Ms Banks wore a pink and white tracksuit

Curves: She showed off some leg in the daring ensemble

Big names: Munya Chawawa attends the Spotify Who We Be x City Girls Wireless Festival after-party

Fashionista: Adele White looked great in a green mini dress

Reality star: Former Love Island contestant Jack Fowler wore jeans and a white T-shirt

'When I finished the two-day project, I got back to my hotel and my skin was so red and tight. Doctors had to come to the hotel room and give me injections for pain and inflammation. It was a traumatic experience.'

Though the experience was excruciating, it inspired Winnie to create sunscreen that suits all skin tones in the hopes that what happened to her wouldn't happen to someone else.

'It's so important to protect your skin, and there should be products that work for everyone,' she told the outlet. 'That's really how the idea for Cay Skin came to life.'

Fun: Rob Pascoe attends the Spotify Who We Be x City Girls Wireless Festival after-party at The Standard

LOL: Micheal Ward and Ms Banks joked about their height difference

The look: Micheal wore a bright blue jacket and black jeans

Lads: Micheal Ward, Araloyin Oshunremi and Hope Ikpoku Jnr all posed together

Candid: Winnie suffers from an autoimmune disorder and skin condition called Vitiligo, which 'causes loss of skin color in patches'
Chanelle Hayes put on a loved-up display with her fiance Dan Bingham while walking their dogs at the Newmillerdam Country Park in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on Friday.

The former Big Brother contestant, 34, kept things casual in a teal gym top and leggings while flashing her sparkling engagement during a stroll around the lake.

Dan, 40, who cut a white top and blue joggers, put his arm around his future wife and went on to give her a kiss, as she wrapped up in a khaki padded jacket.

Wow! Newly engaged Chanelle Hayes flashed her diamond ring and donned tight gym wear as she kissed her fiance Dan Bingham while walking their dogs in West Yorkshire on Friday

Chanelle recently revealed she's now feeling 'confident' enough to wear a wedding dress after her nine stone weight loss - as she plans her nuptials to Dan.

The TV personality has told in a candid new interview that she 'wouldn't have wanted to get married if she was still bigger'.

Sparkling: She gave a flash of her engagement ring during the outing

The beauty revealed she was engaged to Dan, 40, in April this year after they were introduced in the 2020 lockdown through a mutual friend.

Chanelle lost nine stone after undergoing a gastric sleeve operation in August 2020, which saw her drop from a size 18 to a size 10.

Speaking to New magazine, Chanelle told that she hasn't been dress shopping yet as she wants to get her boobs done in January and a tummy tuck to get rid of loose skin after her 9st weight loss.

Trendy: The former Big Brother contestant, 34, kept things casual in a teal gym top

Outfit: She teamed the number up with grey leggings while flashing her sparkling engagement during a stroll around the lake at the Newmillerdam Country Park in Wakefield

Couple: Dan, who cut a white top and blue joggers, put his arm around his future wife

Pucker up: He went on to give her a kiss as she wrapped up in a khaki padded jacket

She explained: 'I feel like nothing would fit properly until those two things are done and that would get me down. I don't know whether I would have wanted to get married if I was still bigger. But I am excited because I feel confident as I am now.

'I know I won't want a big meringue style dress and will probably go for something quite simple, but I'm not deciding anything for certain yet.'

Dan added that he hadn't taken into account she had lost weight when he bought the ring so it had to be resized as it fitted 'like a bracelet'.

She added that she has started to create a mood board of how she wants the wedding to be and revealed she wants it to be in the UK not abroad.

Loved-up: Chanelle recently revealed she's now feeling 'confident' enough to wear a wedding dress after her nine stone weight loss - as she plans her nuptials to Dan

Exciting! The TV personality has told in a candid new interview that she 'wouldn't have wanted to get married if she was still bigger'

Cute: The beauty revealed she was engaged to Dan, 40, in April this year after being introduced in the 2020 lockdown through a mutual friend

Amazing: Chanelle lost nine stone after undergoing a gastric sleeve operation in August 2020, which saw her drop from a size 18 to a size 10

During the interview she also gushed over her new romance, saying: 'Everyone's got 'a person' and Dan is mine. I've never been able to fully be myself and I just know that he loves me so much.'

She also told how he proposed when she was hungover in her dressing gown, looking like a 'dog's dinner'.

Chanelle said of the proposal: 'He said: ''They say life beings at 40 and I want to spend the rest of my life with you''. It was perfect. I wouldn't have had it any other way.'

She added that she had always known that they would get married but that she didn't know he would do it when she was sat in her pajamas and 'feeling shaky from the night before'.

Back in April Chanelle accepted the proposal from Dan, with a source telling OK! magazine she was 'over the moon' and 'said yes straight away', adding: 'She's been dreaming of this for such a long time.

'Chanelle has really been through it when it comes to relationships and this time it really feels like she's found The One.

'She's already looking into wedding plans and can't wait to finally get married  she's been dreaming of this for such a long time.'

The TV personality shares her son Blakely, 11, with her ex-partner Matthew Bates, who she was in relationship with between 2009 and 2010.
Paulini Curuenavuli has revealed how she had to take time out to grieve after the loss of her father during the pandemic.

The former Australian Idol star, 39, whose dad, Isireli Curuenavuli, died in 2020, says she was actually grateful for the time away from the spotlight during lockdowns as she had time to process her pain.

'I'm not going to downplay it, it was a hard time for us and so many. It actually gave me a lot of time to think about those things and to really process,' she told The Daily Telegraph on Saturday.

Paulini Curuenavuli (pictured) has revealed how she had to take time out to grieve after the loss of her father during the pandemic

'Because while Covid was happening, my father passed away, which was such a hard time and I loved that I could take time out to heal from that mentally, spiritually.'

The pop star, who will next star in a new stage production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, says her father inspired her career.

'My dad was such a huge part of me musically, learning how to sing, so I do miss him in a lot of things that I'm kind of doing now' she said.

Paulini announced the tragic death of her father following a lengthy health battle in September 2020. She shared the devastating news to Instagram, and said she'll be 'forever grateful for the sacrifices he made for her family' Pictured is her father Isireli Curuenavuli

'But I know he's always watching over me. And my mum has always been such a massive support.'

Paulini announced the tragic death of her father following a lengthy health battle in September 2020.

She shared the devastating news to Instagram, and said she'll be 'forever grateful for the sacrifices he made for her family'.

'I have received some emails and messages in regard to my absence from all things social of late... My family and I have been spending precious time at the bedside of my Father  Isireli Curuenavuli,' she wrote.

'My dad was such a huge part of me musically, learning how to sing, so I do miss him in a lot of things that I'm kind of doing now' she said on Friday

'But our Fijian loving Warrior fought his last battle yesterday, 17th September 2020,' she said.

'My adored 'Deddy' is now among the angels in heaven. Although he has left this earth it does not mean he is gone, because those we love never really leave us they may no longer pass our eyes, but they will never leave our hearts,' she added.

Paulini went on to say: 'I already miss him, his smile attitude and wisdom and will every day.'

'I am and will forever be grateful for the sacrifices he made for the betterment of our family. And I will forever sing for him,' she concluded.

Paulini rose to fame after appearing on Australian Idol back in 2003.
Friday night's Love Island instalment showed the explosive consequences of Casa Amor as tensions worsened in the villa after the Islanders reunited.

But in the heat of the moment, one interaction between Davide Sanclimenti, 27, and Tasha Ghouri, 23, left viewers howling amid the drama.

As Andrew Le Page, 27, was forced to come clean about how far he's gone with Coco Lodge, 27, the dancer and model, from Thirsk, yelled out that he's a 'f**king liar' after catching up with the girls.

Comic relief: In the heat of the moment, one interaction between Davide Sanclimenti, 27, and Tasha Ghouri, 23, left viewers howling amid the drama

Sensing an opportunity for a moment of comic relief, Davide cheekily responded: 'Tasha, that is my line', in a throwback to when he called Ekin-Su Culculoglu, 27 a 'liar' and 'actress' following her terrace trysts and smooches with Jay Younger, 28.

The infamous dramatic argument earlier in the show also saw the Italian Stallion saying the Turkish actress was going to get an 'Oscar'.

After David's quip on Friday, the girls hit back: 'Davide...not the time,' as a bewildered Tasha continued: 'Are you actually stick going to stick up for him?'

However social media users went wild for the interaction, as they called for the Italian hunk to be 'given the 50k' prize money 'now'.

Cracking a joke: Sensing an opportunity for a moment of comic relief, Davide cheekily responded: 'Tasha, that is my line'

One wrote: 'Davide's only contribution this ep was 'that's my line, tasha' and i love him for it.'

Another comment said: 'That is my line Tasha...I just can't Davide is the funniest guy here.'

''That is my line Tasha' nah davide that was SO UNNCECESSARILY FUNNY,' a user added.

A fourth viewer penned: 'Davide kills me...he just copyrighted Tasha.'

'He just copyrighted Tasha': One wrote: 'Davide's only contribution this ep was 'that's my line, tasha' and i love him for it'

However some pointed out that it was not the appropriate time to make a joke.

One wrote: 'Dami was literally rolling on the floor laughing at Tasha's pain, and Davide & Luca were making jokes. I don't know how any of the girls could respect them after that.'

Another tweet read read: ''That is my line Tasha' DAVIDE IT WAS TOO SOON LMFAO.'

A third viewer penned: ''U can't use my line tasha' - davide baby i love u but like time and place.'

'Time and place': However some pointed out that it was not the appropriate time to make a joke

Meanwhile, others found the interaction hilarious, calling Davide 'too funny'.

One audience member penned: 'Some get this man a TV, Gucci & government deal.'

''That is my line Tasha' GIVE DAVIDE THE 50K now,' another wrote.

A third added: ''THATS MY LINE TASHA'...Eee nah Davide is too funny man.'

'Give Davide the 50k now': However others found the interaction hilarious, calling Davide 'too funny'. One audience member penned: 'Some get this man a TV, Gucci & government deal'

It comes as Tasha was left seething during the episode after Coco revealed she'd had sexual contact with Andrew during Casa Amor, prompting him to claim he'd forgotten about the incident.

Coco was unable to keep it to herself that Andrew had told her he wanted to 'ruin her' as he kissed her breast in the pool after she entered the main villa while his former partner Tasha was in Casa Amor.

Tasha screamed at Andrew from the other side of the villa after learning of his actions, branding him a liar, telling him he'd 'f**ked it.'

Raging: Tasha was left seething during Friday night's episode of the show after Coco revealed she'd had sexual contact with Andrew during Casa Amor, prompting him to claim he'd forgotten about the incident

After telling Tasha about what had happened, Coco expanded: 'A lot of touching, a lot of things were said. He obviously wanted to f**k me.'

Having been asked by Tasha if anything more had happened, Coco continued: 'After sucking my tits and telling me he wants to ruin me? It was genuine sexual talk.'

Speaking in the Beach Hut, Tasha said: 'He's showed me what he would be like on the outside world and I'm not here for that... He's f**ked it. I'm done.'

Honest: Coco was unable to keep it to herself that Andrew had told her he wanted to 'ruin her' as he kissed her breast in the pool

Apologising to Tasha later, Coco said: 'I feel like I've been holding that in. It's just come out. Probably in the wrong way.

'I don't want to cry but I feel guilty.'

She was then seen taking Andrew aside to tell him she'd revealed the situation to the group, to which he asked: 'You told her everything?'

Furious: Tasha screamed at Andrew from the other side of the villa, branding him a liar, telling him he'd 'f**ked it'

Coco said: 'It may have slipped out sorry,' to which Andrew replied: 'It's fine, it is what it is.'

After Tasha pulled Andrew aside to confront him, he told her: 'So Coco, obviously we kissed in bed or whatever. I didn't think there was much more to it but she's told the guys that I kissed her tits or whatever, sucked her tits or whatever.

'I don't even remember that.'

Rocked: After telling Tasha about what had happened, Coco expanded: 'A lot of touching, a lot of things were said. He obviously wanted to f**k me,' with the news shocking the original villa girls

'What do you mean you don't remember that?!', a shocked Tasha asked.

'A lot of s**t was going through my head,' he told her.

Earlier in the evening Coco pulled Tasha for a girl-to-girl chat about what happened in Casa Amor.

Speaking about her time with Andrew, Coco told Tasha: 'I don't think you would be happy with some of the things that were said or done.'

Full details: Having been asked by Tasha if anything more had happened, Coco continued: 'After sucking my tits and telling me he wants to ruin me? It was genuine sexual talk'

Breaking the news: She was then seen taking Andrew aside to tell him she'd revealed the situation to the group, to which he asked: 'You told her everything?'

Tasha said: 'He said it was out of anger basically, he said that the boys were egging him on... Was there a lot of kissing?

'Was he making comments like, you had a connection?'

Coco replied: 'He was obviously just feeding me bulls**t. He was hugging and kissing me in the pool. It was just very intense for like a day.'

Caught out: Coco said: 'It may have slipped out sorry,' to which Andrew replied: 'It's fine, it is what it is'

Smoothing things over? Earlier in the day Tasha was seen pulling Andrew for a chat on the terrace, saying: 'I want you to be honest with me right now and tell me everything'

Earlier in the day Tasha was seen pulling Andrew for a chat on the terrace, saying: 'I want you to be honest with me right now and tell me everything.'

Tasha mentioned what she heard from Coco and said: 'You have probably been doing worse than what I've done with Billy!'

Andrew replied: 'I put my hands up and what I've done initially out of anger, worse, granted, yes.

Talking it over: Tasha mentioned what she heard from Coco and said: 'You have probably been doing worse than what I've done with Billy!'

'But I've never felt like we're together in this situation, because you've got to know every single guy that walks through the door.'

He added: 'At the end of the day, I have genuine feelings for you. Do you want to see where this goes or do you want to shut the door?'

When Tasha suggested she was no longer interested, Andrew put his head in his hands and declared: 'I can't believe this!'

Moving on: Meanwhile, following last night's recoupling, and Paige finding out about Jacques' time in Casa Amor, she puled him for a chat to question his motives

Tasha went on to say: 'You keep playing the victim here! But you've been kissing her, doing whatever you've been doing in this villa. You know, being in bed, kissing, canoodling, hugging.'

Meanwhile, following last night's recoupling, and Paige finding out about Jacques' time in Casa Amor, she pulled him for a chat to question his motives.

The rugby player chose Paige during the recoupling episode, even though he recently made a move on Cheyanne.

Paige said: 'I get Casa is a test, but it's only a test if you want it to be a test and you only want tests if you feel like something is missing or if you feel like something's not 100%.

Standing up for herself: Paige said: 'I get Casa is a test, but it's only a test if you want it to be a test and you only want tests if you feel like something is missing or if you feel like something's not 100%'

'Why did you do it if you didn't have any of those things with her [Cheyanne] or if you genuinely felt that way about me? Because it's not adding up. I'm not sure you quite understand how'

Jacques said: 'Look I know you're hurt mate, I know you are. You deserve better'

Paige asked: 'Well, why couldn't you just have been better then?'

After Paige made her feelings clear, Jacques hit back while she was out of earshot, hinting he may quit the show after their row.

During a chat with Paige shown on Thursday night, Jacques told Paige about what he'd done with Cheyanne, saying: 'One night we had a good chat and we kissed...after that I got in bed and we had another a kiss.

End of the road: Paige was unimpressed, saying in the Beach Hut about Jaques: 'Respectfully, honey. You've f**ked it'

'If you can't accept that then I understand, if that takes a few days or a few weeks...'

After Paige's hostile reaction Jacques suggested during Friday's episode that he could even leave the villa as a result of the fall-out.

'No point me being here,' he confessed.

She later told him: 'I feel like you're not ready for relationship things. I want to be respected and you're not in that place.'

He replied: 'I see you in my life after here, I do. I'm sorry, I really am. If I had my time again I'd do things differently... Would I ever want to be in this position again where I could possibly lose you? No.'

However, Paige was unimpressed, saying in the Beach Hut about Jaques: 'Respectfully, honey. You've f**ked it.'

Love Island airs at 9pm weekdays and Sundays on ITV2 and ITV Hub. Episodes are available the following morning on BritBox.
Molly-Mae Hague put on a loved-up display with her boyfriend Tommy Fury in Cheshire on Friday after celebrating three years together.

The former Love Island stars, both 23, looked smitten as they walked down the street hand-in-hand.

The PrettyLittleThing Creative Director cut a casual figure in a white t-shirt, grey Nike joggers and a pair of sandals.

Smitten: Molly-Mae Hague put on a loved-up display with her boyfriend Tommy Fury in Cheshire on Friday after celebrating three years together

Molly-Mae opted for a natural makeup look while sporting black shades and wearing her trademark platinum blonde hair in loose waves.

Meanwhile, Tommy looked low-key in a grey Nike top, matching shorts and a pair of sporty trainers.

Influencer Molly-Mae and Tommy met on Love Island in June 2019 when they finished in second place behind Amber Gill and Greg O'Shea.

The couple moved in together in September 2019 and have been going from strength-to-strength ever since.

Loved-up: The former Love Island stars, both 23, looked smitten as they walked down the street hand-in-hand

Stylish: The PrettyLittleThing Creative Director cut a casual figure in a white t-shirt, grey Nike joggers and a pair of sandals

Gorgeous: Molly-Mae opted for a natural makeup look while sporting black shades and wearing her trademark platinum blonde hair in loose waves

Molly-Mae called Tommy her 'soulmate' as the couple celebrated their third anniversary together on Thursday.

The stars took to their Instagram Stories to share some pictures of themselves looking cosy together to mark three years since they cemented their relationship on the ITV2 show.

In one picture posted by Tommy, Molly-Mae could be seen kissing the boxer on the forehead as he smiled, with the sportsman captioning his post: 'With me through thick and thin. Couldn't as for a better woman.'

Other photos posted by Molly-Mae showed the couple on previous holidays in locations such as the Lake District and Dubai, with Molly-Mae writing to Tommy across the top of one picture: 'I love you so much.'

Looking good: Tommy looked low-key in a grey Nike top, matching shorts and a pair of sporty trainers

Couple: Influencer Molly-Mae and Tommy met on Love Island in June 2019 when they finished in second place behind Amber Gill and Greg O'Shea

In July - the month after Molly-Mae and Tommy met on Love Island - he asked her to be his girlfriend on the ITV2 dating show by writing a heartwarming love letter from her teddy bear Ellie Belly.

The note read: 'Dear Mummy. Daddy left me here in his best interests.

'He wanted me to tell you that you're his everything. I'm going to leave it with Daddy. So'

With the whole villa and audiences watching, Tommy added: 'On a serious note, you know how much you mean to me and you're the only girl for me.

'I only want to be with you. Therefore, I was wondering if you wanted to be my girlfriend?'

In love: Molly-Mae has called boyfriend Tommy her 'soulmate' as the couple celebrated their third anniversary together on Thursday

Romance: Each of the former Love Island stars took to their Instagram Stories to share some pictures of themselves looking cosy together to mark three years together

Their latest outing comes after the pair sparked engagement rumours when they were spotted at a jewellers in Dubai last month.

The couple eyed-up a six-figure engagement ring during their sun-drenched getaway, according to reports.

In a picture obtained by The Sun, the reality stars sat next to each other in Cara Jewellers during their trip to the United Arab Emirates, where Manchester-born Tommy allegedly insisted that his girlfriend's ring must be a 'top of the range, flawless gem'.

Love Island: The couple moved in together in September 2019 and have been going from strength-to-strength ever since (pictured in July 2019)

A source at the sophisticated showroom told the publication that Pretty Little Thing's creative director spoke for an hour about how she wanted the ring mounted, before Tommy sighed: 'I'm just here to pay for it, mate.'

The source continued: 'It was a very funny moment. Molly-Mae pretended to be upset but then laughed and got on with discussing the ring.

'The couple were lovely and charming and looked very much in love.

'Tommy was insistent it must be a rare, top of the range flawless gem. And Molly-Mae spent a long time discussing how the ring must be designed.'

Sweet: In July, the month after Molly-Mae and Tommy met, he asked her to be his girlfriend by writing a heartwarming love letter from her teddy bear Ellie Belly
Love Island fans are convinced that Paige Thorne and Dami Hope could get romantic as the villa may be set to see a new unexpected couple emerge.

It comes after Friday night's episode which saw the microbiologist comfort paramedic Paige when she was upset over partner Jacques' behaviour in Casa Amor.

Many on Twitter spotted their 'connection' after he rushed to comfort Paige in the bedroom after she stormed off from her row with Jacques who kissed Cheyenne behind her back.

Interesting: Love Island fans are convinced that Paige and Dami could get romantic as the villa may be set to see a new unexpected couple emerge

In addition, later in the episode the pair had a catch up over whether Dami wanted to continue to get to know new girl Summer who he recoupled with or former flame Indiyah.

Some viewers then noticed that Dami jumped on top of Paige in a flirty way and gave her a hug at the end of the conversation.

The fans' theory come after Dami's heart raced the most for Paige during the heart rate challenge.

Hug: It comes after Friday night's episode which saw the microbiologist comfort paramedic Paige when she was upset over partner Jacques' behaviour in Casa Amor

Happy: Many on Twitter spotted their 'connection' after he rushed to comfort Paige in the bedroom after she stormed off from her row with Jacques who kissed Cheyenne behind her back

'Dami is into paige,' wrote one fan on Twitter, while another said: 'dami wants paige so bad. he definitely planned this.'

And a third added: 'Dami fancies Paige and no one can convince me otherwise.'

It comes after on Saturday Love Island star Jacques' family revealed that he was diagnosed with ADHD when he was a child which means he 'struggles with his emotions' - as they address the furious backlash over his treatment of Paige.

While running his Instagram account during his stint in the villa, his nearest and dearest urged viewers to 'be kind' and stressed that they only see an edited version of events.

Flirty? In addition, later in the episode the pair had a catch up over whether Dami wanted to continue to get to know new girl Summer who he recoupled with or former flame Indiyah

Close: Some viewers then noticed that Dami jumped on top of Paige in a flirty way and gave her a hug at the end of the conversation

Jacques has come under fire from fans after he kissed Cheyanne during Casa Amor and then failed to apologise to loyal Paige afterwards - instead using the excuse that he wanted to 'test himself'.

According to the NHS, people with ADHD can seem restless, may have trouble concentrating and may act on impulse.

Making the announcement on his social media, his family wrote in the caption: 'Jacques was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 9 years old.

Reaction: 'Dami is into paige,' wrote one fan on Twitter, while another said: 'dami wants paige so bad. he definitely planned this'

'By no means is this a get out clause for his actions but it is to show that he can fundamentally struggle with his emotions at times.

'He is an amazing person who I'm proud to call my friend/little brother.

'All the hate thrown towards Jacques doesn't go to him directly.It comes to his loved ones who have always supported him and not just whilst he is on Love Island.

'Love Island, although real. Is still a show where the producers do have control and we see 45minutes out of the 1440 in 24hours. Please be kind .'

Upset: Jacques has come under fire from fans after he kissed Cheyanne during Casa Amor and then failed to apologise to loyal Paige afterwards - instead using the excuse that he wanted to 'test himself'

It came after the rugby player's behaviour was revealed in scathing fashion by Cheyanne during the dramatic recoupling and end of Casa Amor.

Jacques first decided that he was going to stick with Paige, leaving the brunette visibly delighted as she returned to the villa alone.

Asked by Laura Whitmore whether she was surprised she hadn't been chosen by one of the boys, Cheyanne revealed: 'I thought I had a connection with someone... I suppose my version of a test was different to someone else's....' and then admitted that Jacques was the man in question.

Drama: It came after the rugby player's behaviour was revealed in scathing fashion by Cheyanne during the dramatic recoupling and end of Casa Amor

Attempting to justify his decision, Jacques said: 'I wanted to see if what I've got with Paige is real. I wanted to see if something could be better... but it wasn't.'

'It's not really what you want to hear when you come back.' Paige added, insisting she did remain loyal in Casa Amor.

Paige then pulled Jacques aside to confront him about his behaviour, with him quickly admitting: 'One night we had a good chat and we kissed... after that I got in bed and we had another kiss.

'If you can't accept that then I understand, if that takes a few days or a few weeks.'

Paige added: 'You can get to know people without kissing them, I would never do that to someone I cared about,' breaking down in tears as she ran into the villa.

The episode ended with many of the show's couples in turmoil, with a teaser showing Jacques with tears in his eyes as he seemingly considers leaving the villa - after a hurt Paige questions 'What the f*** were you doing?'.

In a tense chat on Friday night's episode, Paige confronted him again and said: 'I get Casa is a test, but it's only a test if you want it to be a test and you only want tests if you feel like something is missing or if you feel like something's not 100 per cent.

'Why did you do it if you didn't have any of those things with her [Cheyanne] or if you genuinely felt that way about me? Because it's not adding up. I'm not sure you quite understand how'

To which Jacques said: 'Look I know you're hurt mate, I know you are. You deserve better'

But Paige asked: 'Well, why couldn't you just have been better then?'

Love Island fans will now have to wait until Sunday's episode to find out if Paige will forgive him.
Charlotte Crosby commanded attention as she was pictured filming material for her upcoming BBC Three reality show, Charlotte In Sunderland, on Friday.

The pregnant Geordie Shore star, 32, concealed her baby bump in a dramatic blue ruffled gown, which featured a classic black bow, which ensured to catch the eye.

It comes just one day after she wore the exact same dress in pink to parade around a beach while shooting content for the programme.

Emerging: Charlotte Crosby commanded attention as she was pictured filming material for her upcoming BBC Three reality show, Charlotte in Sunderland, on Friday

Charlotte's new show will see her prepare for motherhood with boyfriend Jake Ankers.

Members of the crew tended to the influencer's unmissable number as she worked her stuff for camera operators on the beach.

Charlotte - who is expecting a girl - showcased her growing baby bump as she posed for a snap alongside some of her Geordie Shore co-stars on Tuesday.

The reality star took to Instagram and posted a mirror selfie alongside Chloe Ferry, Sophie Kasaei, Kyle Christie and Nathan Henry as they filmed the reunion special in London.

Look at me! It comes just one day after she wore the exact same dress in pink to parade around a beach while shooting content for the programme

Radiant: The pregnant Geordie Shore star, 32, concealed her baby bump in a dramatic blue ruffled gown, which featured a classic black bow, which ensured to catch the eye

Exciting: The programme will see her prepare for motherhood with her boyfriend Jake Ankers

Peace out! She proceeded to strut around the beach while shooting content

Stylish: She oozed glamour while posing up a storm for videographers

It was previously announced that MTV are producing a Geordie Shore reunion series with several of the show's original cast members.

OG stars including Charlotte, Sophie and Holly Hagan will be returning to screens together, 11 years after the reality show first aired in 2011.

The upcoming reunion series will include a group holiday, a long-awaited wedding and a party in the Geordie Shore house.

Charlotte, who was part of the show from series one, originally left in 2016 after announcing her departure on Twitter.

Out of this world: She worked her stuff for camera operators on the beach

Congrats! Charlotte is expecting a girl but concealed her bump beneath the billowing number

Ouch! Charlotte went barefoot on the rocky beach. She never disappoints with her looks

Happy: Projecting a beaming smile, the Ex On The Beach star appeared to be in high spirits

It 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.

Coming soon: It was previously announced that MTV are producing a Geordie Shore reunion series with several of the show's original cast members

Woohoo! OG stars including Charlotte, Sophie Kasaei and Holly Hagan will be returning to screens together, 11 years after the reality show first aired in 2011

Busy bees: The upcoming reunion series will include a group holiday, a long-awaited wedding and a party in the Geordie Shore house

Farewell: Charlotte, who was part of the show from series one, originally left in 2016 after announcing her departure on Twitter

Charlotte also invited many of her former Geordie Shore co-stars along to the bash, including newly married Holly Hagan and Sophie.

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.

Cute: It comes after Charlotte revealed her baby's gender by enlisting the help of a skywriter to draw a heart in the sky
She's currently awaiting the judge's verdict following the historic Wagatha Christie libel trial.

And on Saturday, Coleen Rooney proved she wasn't going to let her style standards slip, as she headed to her local supermarket in Cheshire.

The TV personality 36, got all dolled up for the low-key outing, rocking a hot pink co-ord and a pair of matching sliders.

Supermarket chic: Coleen Rooney got all dolled up in a hot pink co-ord as she headed to her local supermarket in Alderley Edge in Cheshire on Saturday

The mother-of-four who was still wearing her surgical boot after suffering a fall back in March, showed off her toned pins rocking a chic mini skirt with frill detail.

The elegant two piece which featured a short sleeved tie front shirt accentuated her svelte physique.

Her glossy brunette locks were parted in the middle and were styled in stunning soft waves and accessorised with oversized sunglasses.

Thirsty work: Coleen proved she wasn't going to let her style standards slip even if it was to pick up some wine

Rocking the boot: The mother-of-four who was still wearing her surgical boot after suffering a fall back in March, showed off her toned pins rocking a chic mini skirt with frill detail

Radiant: The elegant two piece featured a short sleeved tie front shirt that accentuated her svelte physique

Saturday errands: Her glossy brunette locks were parted in the middle and were styled in stunning soft waves and accessorised with oversized sunglasses

Coleen is currently waiting for the judge's verdict in her Wagatha Christie trial after facing her former pal Rebekah Vardy in court back in May.

The two WAGs' ongoing dispute finally reached the High Court after Rebekah claimed Coleen had libelled her when claiming she was leaking personal stories about her to the press, an accusation made in a bombshell social media post by Coleen on 19 October 2019.

Coleen, whose husband Wayne is England's all-time top goal scorer, claims the post was a 'last resort' after coming to the conclusion someone was leaking information about her to The Sun, but has defended it as being true.

Rebekah claims that the post, which was published while she was pregnant, cost her a book deal and an endorsement for placenta capsules, while also acting as a lightning rod for people to abuse her on social media.

The trial, which has captured the attention of the British public, came to an end last month with a written judgement from Mrs Justice Steyn, who has presided over the proceedings, expected at a later date.

Despite the expense of the legal battle - it is thought to have cost both parties millions - Coleen is said to be extremely confident she will win, even missing the last day of the case to go on holiday.

All packed up: The TV personality - who has been wearing the leg brace for some time now - had no problem manoeuvring the trolley for her visit to the supermarket

In her absence her barrister, David Sherborne, blasted Rebekah, branding her a 'highly unreliable witness' while accusing her of lying to the court in her testimony.

It is being reported that the mother-of-four told friends that while the trial has been a painful experience, she was glad to the public now know 'the truth' and believes she will win.

The two sides will have to wait weeks or even months for the outcome of the case.
Madonna took to her Instagram Story to share her appreciation for Kim Kardashian after the reality star paid tribute to the music legend's iconic Jean Paul Gaultier breast-baring dress.

On Saturday, the Queen of Pop, 63, shared a side-by-side collage of photos in which she was seen rocking the original look in 1992 and Kim, 42, was pictured modeling the recreation during Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week.

'Kewt,' Madonna wrote in blue scrawl above the photos, adding a series of blue heart emojis along with the designer's initials 'JPG'.

'Kewt': Madonna took to her Instagram Story to share her appreciation for Kim Kardashian after the reality star paid tribute to the music legend's iconic Jean Paul Gaultier breast-baring dress

The songstress and the KKW Beauty founder have enjoyed a long friendship after first meeting decades ago.

In the throwback snap that Madonna shared, she was seen on the runway alongside Gaultier at the designer's amFAR fashion show benefit at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

Kim was seen holding hands with her nine-year-old daughter North West as the two posed at Gaultier's PFW show on Wednesday.

Back then: Madonna first wore the controversial look when she walked the runway alongside Gaultier at the designer's amFAR fashion show benefit at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Seen in 1992

The SKIMS founder's dress was a slightly more concealed version of Madonna's boundary-pushing ensemble.

Kim sported a black pinstripe maxi dress with a plunging neckline and nude cups layered over the chest area.

The seven-time Grammy Award winner's dress had the same pinstripe patter, except rather than nude cups, it featured a leather harness around the chest - leaving her breasts completely exposed in the middle.

Recreation: The SKIMS founder's dress was a slightly more concealed version of Madonna's boundary-pushing ensemble. She wore the dress to Gaultier's PFW show on Wednesday, which she attended with her daughter North, nine

Dubbed one of the star's most memorable and controversial looks, she walked the stage hand in hand with Gaultier, throwing off an oversized blazer to reveal her bare chest on the runway.

And while going for the more toned down version of the look, Kim is still sporting her blonde hair to add to the accuracy of the recreation.

In another homage to Madonna's original outfit, Kim had on platform black-heeled boots.

Pals: The songstress and the KKW Beauty founder have enjoyed a long friendship after first meeting decades ago

Funny: North later went viral after writing 'STOP' across her invitation and holding the makeshift sign up in front of the flashing cameras

But when it came to accessories, she added some personality with some heavy duty silver wrist cuffs, a matching chunky choker, chains and a chain nose ring - which was similar to those in Jean Paul Gaultier's 1994 Les Tatouages collection.

With a matching nose ring chain, North donned a similar look to her mother in a pinstripe skirt and waistcoat layered over a white shirt.

The mother-daughter duo, who have been enjoying a girls trip to Paris, were seated in the front row at the famed fashion house's show.

Good times: The mother-daughter duo have been enjoying a girls trip to Paris

North later went viral after writing 'STOP' across her invitation and holding the makeshift sign up in front of the flashing cameras.

In response to a video of the tween's sassy move, posted by fashion exec Michail Pelet, Kim admitted she 'didnt realize until afterwards' what North had done.

'North I guess had it with the people taking pictures of her so she wrote on her invite STOP and held it up to the people taking pics and wanted them to just focus on the show,' she captioned a slideshow of images from their outing as well as a video of North with her sign.

Museum trip: Kim and North were seen admiring the Mona Lisa and posing side by side in a hall of Renaissance paintings

The entrepreneur later shared two other fun posts with images from the two's excursions in the City of Lights, including a trip to the Louvre Museum.

Kim and North were seen admiring the Mona Lisa and posing side by side in a hall of Renaissance paintings.

North took center stage in a slideshow that her proud mom posted on Friday, which was captioned, 'North takes Paris'.

'North takes Paris': North took center stage in a slideshow that her proud mom posted on Friday

In one snap from their trip to the Louvre, North positioned herself to make it look like she was touching the top of the famous pyramid-shaped building.

She was also seen posing at the Eiffel Tower with her friend Ryan Romulus and modeling a series of trendy ensembles at various fashion events.

Kim shares North, daughter Chicago, four, and sons Saint, six, and Psalm, three, with her ex-husband Kanye West, 45.
As Hollyoaks prepare to tackle the serious issue of knife crime in their forthcoming episodes, actor Richard Blackwood has revealed that he knows the severity of it all too well.

The star, who plays Felix Westwood in the soap, opened up about his scary past as he attended the TRIC Awards on Wednesday - revealing that he has been mugged twice, with both a knife and a gun.

Sharing that he bounced back and 'was able to live another day and attack life', the 50-year-old also added that his son, Keaun, was mugged at knifepoint when he was just 11 years old.

Awful: Richard Blackwood, 50, has revealed that he has been held at knife and gunpoint during two separate mugging incidents, one when he was 17 and another at 35 (pictured in 2020)

Speaking to The Mirror at the awards, Richard addressed the storyline in Hollyoaks, explaining: 'We've got an upcoming storyline about knife crime and we are really approaching it in a serious manner.

'A lot of these young kids are going through it right now, so we want to let them know we hear them and know what they are going through.'

And sharing his own experience, he continued: 'When I was 17 I got mugged at knifepoint. Unfortunately knife crime has been going on for years. When the knife got pulled on me it was like a sword.'

After being mugged as a teenager, Richard had another brush with death as he was mugged at gunpoint 18 years later at age 35.

Scary: The 50-year-old added that his son, Keaun (pictured), was mugged at knifepoint when he was just 11 years old

Coming soon: Hollyoaks are preparing to tackle the serious issue of knife crime in their forthcoming episodes, with Richard's character Felix involved in the storyline

After being held with a gun to his head outside a London nightclub, the actor was forced to return to the venue just a week later to DJ.

'My mum said, 'Are you OK to go back to the club?' I said, 'Yes'. You either make me stay in my house and be afraid to go outside or be grateful I was able to live another day and attack life,' he shared.

And his son Keaun, now 21, was also faced with a frightening mugging at just 11 years old - where he was threatened with a knife.

'Like a sword': haring his own experience, he explained: 'When I was 17 I got mugged at knifepoint. Unfortunately knife crime has been going on for years. When the knife got pulled on me it was like a sword'

Richard explained: 'My son also got a knife pulled on him aged 11. He had an iPhone 5 and I remember him saying to me, 'I'm going to get a cheaper phone' - adding that he is 'very proud' of him for coming through it

Richard explained: 'My son also got a knife pulled on him aged 11. He had an iPhone 5 and I remember him saying to me, 'I'm going to get a cheaper phone'.

'He had to adapt to what was going on in the street and go 'I'm going to make myself less of a target'. My son came through it though and I'm very proud of him.'

Admitting he hasn't told his son about the awards yet, he concluded: 'Our kids have to go through their own stories but we are always there with them and it's what we teach them that helps them navigate through.'

Prior to appearing on Hollyoaks, Richard played the role of Vincent Hubbard in EastEnders - with his character's run being ended after final scenes showed a police officer pulling a gun out on him.

And Hollyoaks are set to explore the prominent topic of knife crime this summer, with the storyline circling around Richard's on-screen son DeMarcus (Tomi Ade) and his bullies, led by Joseph Holmes (Olly Rhodes).

The storyline is set to kick off on July 15th.
Kate Garraway is taking life 'day by day' after her husband Derek Draper was admitted to hospital once again as he continues to battle horrific long Covid.

The Good Morning Britain host, 55, has been very open about the couple's struggles after he fell ill in March 2020.

And, while Kate admits she is exhausted, she's trying to remain positive, looking forward to a time when Derek can return home again to be with his family after he missed his 16-year-old daughter Darcey going to prom.

Step by step: Kate Garraway, 55, is taking life 'day by day' after her husband Derek Draper was admitted to hospital once again as he continues to battle horrific long Covid

She told The Sun on Wednesday this week: 'He's been in hospital a couple of months now. He's been coming in and out.

'Hopefully he'll come out again. Hopefully tonight. I'm crossing my fingers.

'I'm really tired but I take it day by day to level out the ups and downs.'

Troubles: The Good Morning Britain host has been very open about the couple's struggles after he fell ill in March 2020 (Derek pictured with medical professional on ITV's Kate Garraway: Caring for Derek)

Kate, who is also mother to son Billy, 12, with Derek added that she is trying to 'embrace' life after their family struggled for the last two and a half years after Derek fell ill.

She said she showed her partner pictures of Darcey in her prom dress and that he is now able to press the button on the phone to FaceTime her.

Kate confirmed on Wednesday this week that Derek, who has required round-the-clock care since he contracted coronavirus in March 2020, had returned to a medical facility, insisting he was 'OK'.

Heartbreaking: Kate is looking forward to a time when Derek can return home again to be with his family after he missed his 16-year-old daughter Darcey going to prom

She told The Sun: 'He's OK, he's back in hospital actually, so that's a development. There we are.'

Kate admitted the couple's two children have been 'amazing' at supporting their father.

Speaking at the TRIC Awards at London's at Grosvenor House, she said: 'They've been amazing - all the way through.'

Derek spent more than a year in hospital before returning home in April 2021, but he has continued to battle the after-effects of Covid after the virus ravaged his body.

Earlier this week, Kate thanked fans for their help after she was reunited with her husband's medication after it was left in a taxi.

Long battle: Kate told The Sun on Wednesday this week: ' He's been in hospital a couple of months now. He's been coming in and out'

The TV presenter initially tweeted a post to Black Cab Lost Property, writing: '@BC_Lostproperty help!! Have just brought Derek home in a mobility black cab from hospital for a weekend visit have left a case with all his meds and kit in the front! (sic)'

She then added: 'The driver recognised me but may not know it's there - please look get in touch - need urgently!! (sic)'

Kate was flooded with offers of help, including from one follower who said they knew the driver.

They wrote in a message to Kate: 'I know the driver Kate as he mentioned he'd taken you and your husband to me this evening. I'm trying to get in touch right now.'

The next day, the star returned to the social media site to confirm the lost medication had been found and returned to her.

She wrote: 'It's been returned! Thanks to all who reached out - the message got to driver lovely Robert who has returned it - phew and thanks to all. #happysundayeveryone.'

Kate recently admitted she hopes to take Derek to Buckingham Palace to pick up her MBE.

She said: 'I do feel there's room for celebration, though, and my hope is that if we do eventually have a ceremony, Derek will be further along in his recovery and we can go together. That would be wonderful.

'When you nearly lose someone, it certainly brings everything into sharp focus.

'In many ways, we're still learning how we are as man and wife, as so much has changed.

'It's the same for the children  they're having to relearn the experience of being with their dad. And, of course, the biggest learning is for poor Derek.'
Jennifer Lawrence and her husband Cooke Maroney put on a loved-up display as they went for a romantic walk in New York City.

The 31-year-old actress and the 38-year-old art gallerist wrapped their arms around each other as they strolled in the West Village on Saturday.

The Academy Award winner, who gave birth to the couple's first child four months ago, donned a white crop top that bared a sliver of her midriff.

Romantic: Jennifer Lawrence and her husband Cooke Maroney put on a loved-up display as they went for a romantic walk in New York City

The Hunger Games star layered an unbuttoned crimson linen shirt over her crop top.

She completed her comfortable ensemble with wide-legged light wash blue jeans that she wore low on her hips.

The blonde beauty pulled her long locks up into a loose topknot and shielded her eyes from the sun with large tortoiseshell sunglasses.

Affectionate: The 31-year-old actress and the 38-year-old art gallerist wrapped their arms around each other while on a stroll in the West Village on Saturday

The Kentucky native sported brown sandals and carried a camel-colored leather shoulder bag.

The American Hustle performer accessorized simply with a gold chain necklace that had several small pendants.

Cooke was clad in a white t-shirt with bright blue pants and matching white and blue sneakers.

New mom: The Academy Award winner, who gave birth to the couple's first child four months ago, donned a white crop top that bared a sliver of her midriff

The director of New York City's Gladstone Gallery had on black shades and a silver watch.

Jennifer and Cooke were first romantically linked in 2018 and got engaged in February 2019.

In October 2019, they tied the knot in a lavish wedding ceremony in Newport, Rhode Island.

Falling in love: Jennifer and Cooke were first romantically linked in 2018 and got engaged in February 2019. Seen in 2018

The couple confirmed in September 2021 that they were expecting their first child together.

The star gave birth in February 2022 though no details as to the baby's birth date, sex or name have been revealed.

However, when Jennifer called into the May 23rd episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the 64-year-old host accidentally slipped and called her child 'him' - indicating she has a son.

Last month the pair were spotted checking out a $20M 9,300-square-foot, five-bedroom Bel-Air mansion once owned by three-time Oscar-nominated director Ernst Lubitsch.

Jennifer has previously been linked to her Mother! director Darren Aronofsky, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, and her X-Men co-star Nicholas Hoult.

First time parents: The couple confirmed in September 2021 that they were expecting their first child together. Seen in 2021

It has been over a year since Lawrence wrapped Lila Neugebauer's New Orleans-set drama Red, White and Water, which hits US theaters later this year.

In the film, The Real Housewives super fan portrays an American soldier who returns home with a traumatic brain injury.

Jennifer also executive produced the A24 movie also featuring Samira Wiley, Brian Tyree Henry, and Stephen McKinley Henderson.

She is starring in two Apple TV+ movies - Paolo Sorrentino's Sue Mengers biopic and Adam McKay's Elizabeth Holmes biopic Bad Blood.

The two-time SAG Award winner will also reportedly star in Gene Stupnitsky's R-rated raunchy comedy No Hard Feelings for Sony Pictures.
Khloe Kardashian was treated to a trip on her sister Kylie Jenner's private jet for her 38th birthday.

On Saturday the Good American founder took to Instagram to share outtakes from the swanky festivity.

Along with a photo of her sitting on the ladder of the aircraft Khloe wrote, 'Wheels Up on Kylie Air.'

Fun! Khloe Kardashian was treated to a trip on her sister Kylie Jenner's private jet for her 38th birthday

She didn't say where the flight was headed but she added, 'Kamp KoKo is underway.'

Her niece North West celebrated her recent June birthday in a similar way, with mom Kim Kardashian flying the nine-year-old and her friends to Wyoming for a 'Camp North' retreat via Kim Air.

Kylie's pink and white jet was decked out in a balloon arch with different shades of pink.

Four pale pink balloons spelled out 'Koko' as they decorated the entrance of the airliner.

Mommy-daughter time! Khloe's four-year-old daughter True, who she shares with ex Tristan Thompson, joined her on the excursion

Khloe wore a chic, body-hugging all black outfit and large glamorous and sporty black sunglasses.

Her four-year-old daughter True, who she shares with ex Tristan Thompson, joined her on the excursion.

The tot was clad in a long-sleeved pajama set with hearts patterned throughout.

Also along for the ride were Khloe's niece Chicago, four, brother Rob Kardashian, 35, and his daughter Dream, five.

Rob, who's chosen to live a life outside of the spotlight, was only present with a shot of his back for a few seconds in a video upload.

A good time: True appeared to have a blast on the private plane in her adorable pink pajamas

Festive: A birthday cake and macaroons awaited Khloe aboard the sleek aircraft

Last Sunday Khloe appeared on social media to thank fans for their birthday wishes.

She flaunted her figure in a curve-hugging, Barbie-pink latex mini dress with matching pink pumps.

The denim designer posed for pictures in front of a balloon sculpture reading 'Happy birthday Khloe, love you.'

She wrote in her caption, 'Thank you all so incredibly much for all of the birthday love. I have been overwhelmed with love and blessings and I am so beyond thankful.'

Grateful: Last Sunday Khloe appeared on social media to thank fans for their birthday wishes

She continued, 'We took about 400 photos to try and get a few with the girls. Lol this is the best we have but I love them.'

She was referring to True and Chicago, who made appearances in some of the bright shots.

Khloe wore her blonde hair in a voluminous shoulder-length bob and wore glinting diamond jewelry around her neck and wrist.
With seven children between them, it seems the Surrey mansion Jamie Redknapp shares with new wife Frida has become rather cramped.

The couple welcomed their latest addition, baby son Raphael, in November, and now I hear they are extending their home in Oxshott. It already has six bedrooms and six bathrooms but the footie pundit is adding a gym and extra garage space.

Frida, 38, has four kids from her marriage to hedge fund tycoon Jonathan Lourie, while Jamie, 49, is dad to sons Charley, 17, and Beau, 13, with ex-wife Louise.

With seven children between them, it seems the Surrey mansion Jamie Redknapp shares with new wife Frida has become rather cramped

The couple welcomed their latest addition, baby son Raphael, in November, and now I hear they are extending their home in Oxshott. It already has six bedrooms and six bathrooms but the footie pundit is adding a gym and extra garage space

My lips are sealed, but...

Which celebrity author was advised by their publisher to delete descriptions of sex scenes from their autobiography because the content was too X-rated?

Oxford Universitys brainboxes are dismayed that its historic Catholic college, St Benets Hall, is to be sold off.

Now I hear that the hall, whose alumni include Tony Blairs son Leo, could have been saved, but the university turned down a rescue bid from a consortium of wealthy Americans. A source tells me the money had too many strings attached. A university spokesman said the offer provoked concerns about the long-term sustainability and independence of the college.
Heartbroken by her split from media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Jerry Hall has a new fight on her hands. Neighbours are opposing her plans to build a stable block at Holmwood House, the couples 11 million Georgian manor near Henley, Oxfordshire, that she may get in the divorce.

One neighbour has filed concerns about the potential smell and flies generated, while another railed against a muck heap and compost heap included in the plans, which will be discussed by the parish council later this month.

Meanwhile, Murdochs daughter Elisabeth seems sure her third marriage to artist Keith Tyson will stand the test of time. The couple have named the estate they are building in the Cotswolds Tymure House, a blend of their surnames. They also have a company of the same name.

Rupert Murdoch, left, and Jerry Hall, right, have recently announced they are to divorce

Ms Hall is currently seeking planning permission for a stables block at her Oxfordshire home

Crush of the week... Dogan Yildiz

Stephen Fry has cited long walks as the key to maintaining a trim figure. But surely some credit should go to his personal trainer Dogan Yildiz, who has been working with the 64-year-old actor and broadcaster for three years.

German-born Yildiz, right, a chiselled 37-year-old who sidelines as a model, tells me: You only have one body. Take care of it.

He charges 125 a session but is clearly in demand. Yildiz has an 80-year-old client who flies to London from the US to train with him. He must be good

Wicked! It's a love match for Georgina

West End star Georgina Castle was devastated when Andrew Lloyd Webber shut down his struggling musical Cinderella last month, cutting short her role as one of the wicked stepsisters.

But offstage, the 29-year-old, left, seems to be having more luck. I hear Georgina, the daughter of Wimbledon commentator Andrew Castle, has been enjoying the Centre Court action with new beau Amit Pradhan, 47, a Silicon Valley hotshot who recently raised $1 million for his tech start-up, Rainfall. Could be game, set and match!
Paleontologists say the discovery of a giant tiny-armed meat-eater similar to the famous T. rex in Northern Patagonia made the news.

This new species of theropod dinosaur is Meraxes Gigas or M. gigas, whose small arms developed independently, despite not being a tyrannosaurid.

New Dinosaur Species With Tiny Arms

Findings were published by the journal Current Biology on July 7, stating that the small arms of the M. gigas and the T. rex are not useless but used for mating and movement support, reported Phys Org.

According to Juan Canale, leader of the project at Ernesto Bachmann Paleontological Museum in Neuquen, Argentina, the fossil they found has complete arms and legs that allowed them to understand how Carcharodontosaurids evolved, noted National Geographic.

The authors of the study explained the short arm of the M. gigas is not from any tyrannosaurid because they are separate. It died out nearly 20 million years before the rise of tyrannosaurs, and they are distant on the evolutionary tree with no relation at all.

Canale thinks minute arms are not the butt of jokes for this giant tiny-armed meat-eater, but it has a specific purpose for survival, which looks the same but is very different.

Looking at the skeleton of the carnivore's arms especially brings attention to large muscular insertions and developed pectoral girdles, evidence of strong-arm muscles. It means it had a function because it was useless to the animal, but how it was precisely used is unknown.

Previous research verified that the two similar theropods with large heads would have small arms due to evolution. These limbs were not for hunting because the large head and teeth did the job of slaying and ripping up prey like in the T. rex.

Read Also: NASA Hubble Image Shows Stunning View of Farthest Star Seen; Is it Also the Oldest?

Canale still thinks that some unknown activities led to small arms and how the gigas theropod lived.

Inputs About the M. Gigas Fossil

It was found in Northern Patagonia in Argentina when it died at 45 years old, and more than 30 feet long, as heavy as four tons, with a big family to boot, citing SciTech Daily.

This species was successful and had diversity in the members of the species before dying out. One conclusion for the tiny arms is for mating with females, and getting up from the ground as well, added New Scientist.

Examination of its skull reveals such characteristics as crests and furrows, with other features like bumps and hornets. Everything about the dinosaur evolved because these features are theorized to arise as the animal aged. As adults and having these matured characteristics is are ornamental like birds and used to attract females with such an appearance.

Canale assumes that looks are crucial to being sexually attractive to mates, but it is unknown how it works and its connection to behavior.

Furthermore, he remarked that the fossil of M. gigas is preserved and intact. Also, there might be more to the fossils found to get more clues.

On the day they prospected for dinosaur remains, it was there and intact when they found them. It was the best point of his career, started Canale.

There is a lot more to this giant tiny-armed meat-eater which is like a T. rex but not really; that was found in Northern Patagonia where giant sauropods roamed.

Related Article: Paleontologists Discover Largest Carnivorous Dinosaur That Existed During the Cretaceous in Europe

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Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair (in white cap) is escorted by policemen at the Patiala House Court in a case related to an allegedly objectionable tweet . (AFP file photo)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted five-day interim bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair with a restriction that he will not leave Sitapur, where he is facing criminal proceedings arising from an FIR for outraging religious sentiments and promoting enmity between different groups by describing Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop as hate mongers. The court, however, clarified that its interim bail order is with respect to the Sitapur FIR and has nothing to do with a separate case registered against the journalist in Delhi.

Granting interim bail to Mr Zubair in the case registered by Uttar Pradesh police, a vacation bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and J.K. Maheshwari also restrained Zubair from posting any fresh tweets on the issue before the top court.

The court further said that the order of the magistrate court remanding Mr Zubair to police custody be translated and furnished to the court along with the order rejecting the plea for bail by Mr Zubair.

The court in its order granting interim bail said, "In the meanwhile, the petitioner shall be granted interim bail in connection with FIR No. 0226 dated 01.06.2022 lodged at P.S. Khairabad, district Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh for a period of five days from today or until further orders of the regular bench on terms and conditions to be imposed by the judicial magistrate-I, Sitapur, which shall include the conditions that the petitioner shall not post any tweets and shall not tamper with any evidence, electronic or otherwise, in Bengaluru or anywhere else."

Recording solicitor general Tushar Mehtas submission that Mr Zubair is in judicial custody in Delhi in connection with a different offence, the top court in its order said, "This court is not concerned at this stage with any FIR other than the FIR No. 0226 dated 1st June, 2022 lodged at PS Khairabad, District Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh which is the subject matter of these proceedings."

Having granted interim bail to Mr Zubair for five days, the court issued notice on his petition and posted the matter for further hearing on July 12 before an appropriate bench to be assigned by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana.

Appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, Mr Mehta told the vacation bench that a grant of interim bail will not entitle him to be released as he is in the judicial custody of a Delhi court in connection with another case.

At this, the court made it clear that its order granting interim bail is only with respect to the case arising from an FIR registered in Sitapur on June 1 and not any other FIR. The court also made it clear that its order will not impede the investigation, seizure of evidence in the Sitapur case.

Appearing for Mr Zubair, senior lawyer Colin Gonsalves told the court that Mr Zubair is facing prosecution for outraging religious feelings and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, but ironically, the "hate mongers" are roaming free after being granted bail.

Mr Gonsalves made a slight of the Uttar Pradesh police for invoking Section 67 of the Information Technology Act that punishes a person for publishing or transmitting material containing sexually explicit acts and asked what Mr. Zubair's offence was. He asked where is the material that attracts this section of the statute relating to the IT Act?

Mr Mehta admitted that Section 67 of the IT Act was not violated and the investigating officer had already dropped it and replaced it with Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) of the Indian Penal Code.

Opposing the plea by Mr Zubair seeking protection from arrest and quashing of the UP police FIR, the solicitor general told the court that the affidavit filed on Thursday (July 7) evening does not disclose that the Sitapur court had earlier in the day rejected his bail and sent him to police custody. Also, there was no mention of the Delhi case, where too his plea for bail was refused and he was sent to judicial custody.

The solicitor general also challenged the argument about the threat to Zubairs life, citing that he is already in custody.

Mr Mehta said, "It is not about one tweet. Whether he is part of a syndicate, which is regularly posting such tweets with the intention to destabilise the country. There is something more than what meets the eye in this case. There are many facts suppressed and he says he runs a fact-checking website."

The solicitor general also said that financial transactions involving overseas entities are also being investigated. "There is some kind of money angle too. Whether donations from countries inimical to India have been received by them is under investigation," he said.

Mr. Mehta described Mr. Zubair as a "habitual offender." He said that one isolated tweet is not the offence; his overall conduct is being criminally investigated and he is a habitual offender.

Defending Mr Zubair, Mr Gonsalves said, "He is performing the role of pointing out hate speech and reporting it to police. It is not promoting enmity between religions, he is promoting secularism in fact. He is telling them to stop promoting enmity and stop hate speech."

He further told the court that no criminal case can be made out against Mr Zubair. "The foundation of this case is a tweet. Here, we seek a quashing of proceedings and questions of police or judicial custody are irrelevant," he added.
Recent footage surfaced showing a Russian soldier in the act of shooting a Ukrainian S-300 missile launcher at close range with a surprising result.

The video was published on a pro-Russian Telegram channel with a soldier using a PKM belt-fed support machine gun with an anti-armor incendiary round aimed at the missile carrier.

Russian Destroys Ukraine's Missile Launcher

After pulling the trigger, anticipating to damage the hardware or sending off a tiny explosion, leaving the launcher unworkable, The EurAsian Times reported.

According to pro-Russian video outlets, the man who destroyed the missile launcher comes from the Russian 255th regiment. The publishers asserted that none of the soldiers in the video were hurt. However, given the magnitude of the explosion, it seems unlikely that any of the unit's members were hurt, noted 6Park.

Each of the four missiles launched from a Ukrainian S-300 missile launcher uses flammable solid rocket fuel and has a huge blast-fragmentation warhead weighing between 100 and 150 kg, per The Drive.

Read Also: Xi Jinping Net Worth 2022: How Wealthy Is China's President

Given that Ukraine is much ahead of Russia in information warfare, Russian soldiers may be trying to make the video more spectacular to grab spectators' attention by firing at the launcher from such a close distance.

Compared to the equipment used by Ukrainian forces, social media is flooded with videos showing Russian military equipment being destroyed.

Interestingly, this video depicts the destruction of an S-300 launcher, which would be the most recent in a string of systems lost by Ukrainian forces in recent months and a source of concern for Kyiv authorities.

Before the Russian invasion, Ukraine had up to 300 launchers and 100 operating batteries for these long-range air defense systems.

According to the numbers compiled by the military tracking blog Oryx based on visual confirmations, Ukraine looks to have abandoned about 24 of these launchers more than four months into the war.

The Ukrainian military received a large amount of air-defense weaponry from the Soviet Union, including six brigades, four regiments for the Ukrainian Air Force, and some more for the Ukrainian army.

A brigade may have 100 or more launchers and more than 400 operational missiles, compared to a missile regiment of four batteries operating up to 48 launchers with 192 missiles.

The slow and steady loss of Ukraine's collection of longest-range surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) may cause tremendous alarm for Kyiv officials because the more launchers that are destroyed as the war drags on, the larger the actual number of losses may be.

According to reports, Ukraine's air defense systems are losing nearly three or four missile launchers weekly.

Russia's Advantage Over Kiev

In March, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky asked the US Congress for assistance in acquiring more S-300 systems, emphasizing their importance and possibly signaling that the Ukrainian military may face a severe shortage of SAM batteries.

The air defense system was given to Ukraine by Slovakia, but the Russian Ministry of Defense has already asserted that it was destroyed using sea-based Kalibr cruise missiles close to the city of Dnipro. The loss of the vital Ukrainian S-300 missile launcher will leave Kyiv's forces open to missile and air strikes.

Related Article: China Overtakes America as AI Superpower by Tapping US Firms To Leap Frog Development

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The aircraft, which flew near the Indian position early morning at 4 am, was detected by the men on ground and Indian radars. (Representational Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) flew its aircraft close to the Indian positions at one of the friction points at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh in the last week of June, it has been learnt. In response, the Indian Air Force activated its assets as per standard operating procedures.

The aircraft, which flew near the Indian position early morning at 4 am, was detected by the men on ground and Indian radars. This led to the Indian Air Force activating its assets for any eventuality. This incident happened as the Chinese military is carrying out exercises involving its fighter jets and other assets, including the Russian S-400 air defence system near the Ladakh sector.

The Indian forces have taken up the issue with the PLA, with whom the Army has been conducting prolonged negotiations for the past two years in a bid to resolve the ongoing standoff between the two armies in eastern Ladakh.

It should be noted the IAFs Western Air Command, which is in charge of the sector, also has French Rafale fighter jets to take on any challenge. India has also deployed the Aakash air defence system in this sector.

The Indian troops in the region are also equipped with Russian-origin Igla shoulder-fired air defence missiles on the crucial heights.

China has upgraded its airbases near Ladakh and has deployed a number of aircraft and UAVs in the region.

The Indian Air Force, however, has a geographical advantage over the PLAAF in Ladakh as the Chinese jets must fly and take off from very high-altitude bases while the Indian jets can take off from the plains and reach the mountainous region swiftly. Since the air is thin at those heights, the Chinese jets have to carry a lower load, which affects their operational capabilities.

Last year the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal V.R. Chaudhari, had said the Chinese Air Forces capability to launch multi-mission sorties from such high-altitude airfields will remain its weak point.
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by YSRC MP Kanumuru Raghu Rama Krishna Raju and his son Bharat, seeking directions to quash an FIR registered against them at the Gachibowli police station for an alleged assault.

The Gachibowli police registered a case against Raju, Bharat, P.A. Shastri and others based on a complaint filed by Farook Basha, a constable working for AP Intelligence on July 4. Basha, who was working in Hyderabad, was allegedly picked up by the security guards of the Narsapuram MP. The AP constable was allegedly confined in the MP's house for two hours, and was allegedly beaten badly.

Govind Reddy, the counsel for the AP government, submitted to the court that the act of the Narsapuram MP and his security personnel was an example of naked hooliganism and this kind of activity was not expected from a Member of Parliament.

The Chief Justice, during the course of adjudication of the Quash Petition, observed that the member of parliament should behave like any other common man as the counsel for the MP requested the court should give relief to his client as he is an MP.

The Chief Justice, however, dismissed the petition as the case was still under investigation.

As per the FIR filed by the Gachibowli police, which was accessed by Deccan Chronicle, Basha said he was a constable with the intelligence wing in Vijayawada of Andhra Pradesh. He was in the area to pass on information to his superiors over a planned agitation following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Hyderabad and his subsequent movement to Andhra Pradesh.

The FIR read, "...one car, bearing number 7777, approached him and some persons asked him about his purpose to be there. Upon informing that he is an intelligence constable and even after showing his ID card, they allegedly kidnapped him in their car and took him to a villa opposite to ISB. They wrongfully confined him, abused him in filthy language. One Sandeep, a CRPF constable, beat him on his buttocks with a fiber lathi. A CRPF ASI K. Ganga Ram and another one constable also beat him with fiber lathis and kicked him... one Bharath came to the spot and allegedly informed that he is the son of MP Raghurama Krishnam Raju, along with Shastri, personal assistant of the MP, and joined in thrashing him... Later, Bharath came back with his father, MP Raghurama Krishnam Raju, who also abused him and took the fiber lathi from CRPF constable Sandeep and beat him up."

According to the police, Basha asked them for his ID card as he was heading to Delhi, but the Narsapuram MP allegedly told his personnel to shock him with electricity. The accused are alleged to have snatched his ID card, wallet and gold ring.

Meanwhile, the CRPF suspended ASI K. Ganga Ram and CT (jawan) Nanaware Sandeep Sadhu of Battalion-221, with its commandant Mahesh Kumar directing the duo to report to the battalion headquarters at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh.
The forest and police teams attempted to prevent the people from cultivating lands and take the land into their custody but the agitators strongly resisted these efforts. (DC file photo)

ADILABAD: With the onset of rains, the podu land issue created a tense situation in the erstwhile Adilabad district and people feel that it is high time the state government intervened and resolved the issue.

In the latest clash between forest officials and tribals, two women forest staff and eight adivasi women were injured over the podu lands issue at Koya Poshaguda in Dandepalli mandal of Mancherial district on Friday.

Forest officials booked cases against seven adivasi women under relevant sections. Teams of police and forest staff were deployed there to remove the huts and take the cultivators into their custody. Vehicles were kept ready to shift them.

The teams used ropes to cordon off the adivasi podu cultivators and arrest them. Some of these cultivators had earlier been arrested and then released on bail a few days ago.

The forest and police teams attempted to prevent the people from cultivating lands and take the land into their custody but the agitators strongly resisted these efforts. Subsequently, the forest staff withdrew from the lands at night on July 7.

Adivasi women alleged that the forest staff physically harassed them after taking them into custody. Officials forced them to abandon their podu cultivation and even women forest staff allegedly attacked them physically and behaved in an inhuman manner.

The videos of the clash went viral on social media, in which forest staff were seen dragging an adivasi woman on the ground while her clothes got off her body.

The Thudum Debba Adilabad district president Godam Ganesh flayed the forest staff for their inhuman treatment of the adivasi women fighting for pattas to the podu lands they have been cultivating for long. He said the state government should intervene and issue pattas to the podu lands.

Out of a total of eight huts erected near a canal, six were removed. Two huts remained there on the outskirts of the Koya Poshagudem.

The forest staff used lathis to chase away the podu cultivators from the lands and dismantled the huts they erected there.

It is said that the podu cultivators used red chili powder to chase away the forest staff and protect themselves. The cultivators chased the forest staff with bamboo sticks on the outskirts of Koya Poshagudem. All the injured women cultivators and women forest staff were undergoing treatment, officials said.

Forest officials say these were forest lands and come under the Kawal Tiger Reserve while the cultivators say they have been cultivating these lands since 2002.

The stakeholders say the state government should intervene and resolve the podu land issue by announcing a clear policy on thisissue.

What is required is of identifying the land --whether it is forest land or revenue land-- and for how many years these people cultivated the lands.

Families of podu land cultivators obstructed the jeeps when forest staff arrested seven adivasi women and took them to the forest office of Thallapet.

The agitators staged a protest in front of the forest office demanding immediate release of the arrested women. The forest staff released the women after producing them before the local tahsildar officer.

The Thudum Debba has given a call for an erstwhile Adilabad district bandh on July 11 in protest against the forest officials attacks on adivasis women.
Chhattisgarh Police personnel give a notice to the local police in the Sector 20 Police Station regarding the arrest of Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan, in Noida, Wednesday, July 6, 2022. (PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday restrained various state authorities from taking coercive steps against TV news anchor Rohit Ranjan, who is facing multiple FIRs for playing a doctored clip of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during a programme on July 1.

A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheshwari also issued notice to the Centre, through the office of the Attorney General, on Ranjan's plea seeking quashing of complaints or FIRs relating to the telecast.

The apex court was hearing the plea of the anchor who is facing FIRs in some states.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday demanded mid-term elections in Maharashtra, and also asserted that nobody can take away his party's 'bow and arrow' symbol even as the rebel Sena faction has staked a claim to it.

Speaking to reporters at his residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra, Thackeray dared the rebels led by new Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the BJP to face mid-term elections, saying that people should be allowed to take a stand on the toppling of the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by him.

If people did not favour his party in the elections, he would accept the verdict, he said.

Thackeray said the Supreme Court's verdict on the disqualification plea of 16 rebel MLAs, scheduled to be given on July 11, will decide not just the future of the Shiv Sena, but also of Indian democracy.

Shinde raised a banner of revolt against the party leadership last month, a move that led to the fall of the MVA government comprising Sena, NCP and Congress. A day after Thackeray resigned as chief minister on June 29, Shinde took oath of the top post with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis being sworn in as his deputy. Shinde enjoys the support of 40 out of 55 MLAs of the Sena.

Hardening his stand against the rebels, Thackeray asked how they can claim to love the 'Matoshree' and the Thackeray family if they align with those who have subjected him and his family to the worst kind of criticism and even attempted to "destroy his sons' lives".

"According to law, no one can take away the bow and arrow symbol from Shiv Sena. I am saying this after talking to constitutional experts," he said.

Rebel Shiv Sena MLA Gulabrao Patil had on Wednesday said the faction led by Shinde was the real claimant of the party's poll symbol.

Seeking to assuage the concerns of his party workers, Thackeray said people do not just look at the party symbol while voting, but also look at the person and also whether the candidate belongs to the Shiv Sena.

The Shiv Sena as a political party and a legislature party are two separate identities, he said, adding that even if just one, 50 or even 100 MLAs leave the party, it does not cease to exist.

"Confusion is being created. Legislature party and registered party are two different identities. No one can take along the party workers with them," Thackeray said.

"There should be mid-term polls. If we have made a mistake, people will not favour us and that will be acceptable to us," he said.

Earlier this week, Sena leader Sanjay Raut claimed that his party will win over 100 seats if mid-term polls are held in the state.

On Thursday, the rebel faction's spokesperson had said that if there was any possibility of reconciliation with the parent party, then Thackeray should also talk to the BJP as the dissidents have aligned with that party.

Thackeray hit out at the rebel group for keeping mum when the BJP targeted and "abused" him and his family in the last two-and-a-half years.

"You keep in touch with them and betray your own party like this," he said without naming anyone.

He wondered whether the rebel MLAs' love for him and his family was real.

You are sitting next to those who criticised the Thackeray family in the worst forms. You are hugging them. They tried to ruin my sons' lives...," he said.

He said the change of power in the state could have happened with grace and in a dignified manner in 2019 without "betrayal".

He was referring to the Sena and BJP's parting of ways after the 2019 Assembly poll results over the issue of rotational chief minister.

Thackeray said the Supreme Court's verdict on July 11 will decide not just the future of Shiv Sena but also the future of Indian democracy.

"I trust the judiciary. The Supreme Court order (on the plea for disqualification of rebel MLAs) is not restricted to Shiv Sena alone, but it will also show the direction in which the democracy is heading. The country is looking at what decision the SC gives because this will also show the future of democracy in the country and whether the four pillars of democracy are discharging their duties or now," he said.

Thackeray also said he would take a decision which candidate to support for the presidential election after consulting the party MPs. Earlier this week, Sena's Lok Sabha member Rahul Shewale urged him to direct the party MPs to vote for the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.

During his press conference, Thackeray did not take any questions from the media.
HYDERABAD: BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Friday asked the state government to distribute pattas for Podu lands during the state-wide Revenue Sadassus starting from July 15.

In a letter to Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, state BJP president and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar said the meetings, which are being organised and conducted by the revenue department, should also have officials from the forest department as all Podu lands are part of forest areas.

Bandi Sanjay reminded the Chief Minister that he had promised that he would sit in each village and ensure the pattas are issued and said if the Chief Minister was not in a position to do so now, he should ensure the distribution of pattas for Podu lands through officials as promised.

The BJP leader said Chandrashekar Rao had promised that he would bring with him the entire administrative machinery to ensure this happens, twice, once in November 2018, and again in July 2019.

Some three lakh applications were received by the state government after calling for fresh applications for rights over Podu lands in November 2021. Despite a Cabinet sub-committee chaired by tribal welfare minister Satyavathi Rathod being set up to go through the applications and formulate guidelines, no steps have been taken to fulfil the promise.

The delays are causing enormous problems, both for tribals who submitted the applications and are waiting for pattas, and forest departments field staff, who are under instructions not to allow any farming in forest areas, Bandi Sanjay said, adding this situation was resulting in unfortunate confrontations between the two.

He urged the Chief Minister to make public all the details regarding pending Podu land rights applications, and these details must be provided for mandal and village wise, before the Revenue Sadassus begin on July 15.

If the state government does not take action to keep the Chief Ministers promise, Bandi Sanjay warned that the issue of Podu lands will get even more complicated and could result in severe unrest among tribals in the state.
Ministers, Former Ministers, MLAs and MLCs greets Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy after announcing the Permanent President of YSR Congress Party at the concluding day of Plenary at Kaza village near Nagarjuna University in Guntur district on Saturday. (Photo: DC)

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was elected as the lifetime president of the YSR Congress after the party amended its bylaws during the YSRC Plenary meeting on Saturday.

YSRC general secretary and MLC Ummareddy Venkateswarlu during the plenary announced the appointment of party MP and general secretary V. Vijaysai Reddy as the returning officer for the election of the party president.

He announced that 22 sets of nominations were filed on behalf of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for the post of the national president of the party. As there was no other nomination for the post, Jagan Mohan Reddy was declared elected unanimously by the returning officer amidst rapturous applause from the huge gathering.

The Plenary has also approved two important amendments to the Party Constitution. The first amendment was to change the name of the party from the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party to the YSR Congress Party or YSRCP. The second amendment was to change the tenure of the post of the party president to a lifetime.

After declaring the election of Jagan Mohan Reddy as lifetime president of YSRCP, party leaders on the dais congratulated him.

The YSRCP leaders cited the case of the DMK, which was allowed by the Election Commission to name M. Karunanidhi as the party chief for life and stated that they are following the same precedent.

The party leaders said that YSRCP will now inform the Election Commission of India (ECI) about its amendments and hoped to get the poll panel's approval.

The decision of the YSRCP to elect Jagan as lifetime president, however, attracted strong criticism from the BJP.

Lanka Dinakar, AP BJP Political Feedback Pramukh, said politicians in a democratic country like India should respect the democratic process even within a political party.

"Unfortunately, CM Jagan has been elected as President of their party for his lifetime. Only dictators and autocratic leaders practice such undemocratic methods. He stated that every political party must have internal democracy. But it is not followed in the parties that run by a family and a dynasty like the sole proprietorship concern," he said.
Two recent developments have fuelled speculation in the Capital that a Cabinet reshuffle could take place after the process for the elections of the President and Vice-President are concluded. First is the resignation of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and R.C.P. Singh and the second is the possibility of Lok Sabha MPs from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena shifting allegiance to the Eknath Shinde camp. Mr Singh and Mr Naqvi put in their papers last week as they are no longer Rajya Sabha members and, therefore, not eligible to hold a ministerial post. Though their ministries have been allocated to Union ministers Smriti Irani and Jyotiraditya Scindia, a Cabinet rejig is not being ruled out. After successfully splitting the Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra Assembly, the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena, ably assisted by the Bharatiya Janata Party, is actively wooing the Lok Sabha MPs of the Uddhav-led Shiv Sena In fact, the Shinde faction has publicly claimed that at least 12 of the 19 MPs are in touch with it and are willing to switch sides. Besides wanting to be on the winning side, the Shiv Sena MPs are also tempted with the promise of accommodation in the Union Cabinet, an offer which could prove difficult to refuse.

*

Is it the end of the road for the feisty Trinamul Congress MP Mahua Moitra or will she survive the controversy she is currently embroiled in following her comments on Goddess Kali. Ms Moitra was first put in place by the party leadership when she antagonised her party colleagues during the Goa election campaign. And now the Trinamul Congress has dissociated itself from her recent description of Kali as a meat-eating and alcohol accepting goddess which has provided a ready opportunity to the Bharatiya Janata Party to mount an offensive against the Trinamul Congress. While uncomfortable with Ms Moitras statement, the Trinamul Congress is also irked by her defiant stand as she is refusing to back down from a confrontation with the BJP. Trinamul Congress insiders maintained Ms Moitras big mistake is that she sees herself as another Mamata Banerjee who has acquired the reputation of a streetfighter. However, Ms Moitras strategy could boomerang as there can be only one Mamata Banerjee in the party.

*

Soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, a clear message was sent out to ministers and senior bureaucrats that they should keep a safe distance from the media. Over the years, access to the press has been restricted by several ministries. The same template has also been adopted by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. In the earlier days, mediapersons on the beat could move around the party office headquarters and talk to any available office-bearer. Similarly, the daily official press briefing was invariably followed by an informal chit-chat session when the spokesperson spoke off-the-record to media persons, providing insights about the partys thinking on various issues. Party spokespersons today have been instructed not to linger and chat with the press after a briefing while movement in the party office is restricted. In keeping with this, presspersons covering the BJPs national executive meeting in Hyderabad were kept at a safe distance from the venue and chitchatting with leaders was a no-no.

*

The Bharatiya Janata Party has a serious problem in Chhattisgarh, which goes to polls next year-end. Though the party was in power for three consecutive terms, it is virtually leaderless in the state today as it is unable to find an acceptable and charismatic mass leader who can be projected as its chief ministerial candidate. Former three-time chief minister Raman Singh is the only tall leader that the BJP has on offer in Chhattisgarh but it is also accepted that he has outlived his utility. The BJP is desperate because it has a good opportunity to unseat the Congress government as chief minister Bhupesh Baghel is becoming unpopular not just within the party but also among the people. Though Mr Baghel has acquired a larger-than-life image, there is growing anger against him as he is perceived to be promoting Kurmis, the caste to which he belongs, at the cost of others.

*

If the Bharatiya Janata Party is struggling to find a leader in Chhattisgarh, the Congress faces a similar difficulty in Uttar Pradesh. It is now close to four months since the UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu stepped down following the partys dismal performance in the last Assembly polls but there is no sign of his replacement. According to Congress insiders, several leaders, including P.L. Punia and Pramod Tiwari, were approached but no one seems to be keen on taking on this responsibility. It is, after all, a thankless job given that the Congress is virtually non-existent in this electorally-important state and there appears to be little hope of reviving the party. Even Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, has shown no urgency in streamlining the state organisation. Apparently, Priyanka is now going to be preoccupied with the year-end Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh.
The CII Young Indians organised a national conclave called UTKARSH on Friday.

Minister of Higher Education Dr C N Ashwath Narayan spoke about the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship in making India self-reliant. He explained how government policies help the growth of businesses, and how India aims to create accountability in the business sector and have entrepreneurs who uphold ethics and morals.

Senapathi Kris Gopalakrishnan, the Chairman of Axilor Ventures, challenged the young entrepreneurs to push the limits and make India the leading economy in the 21st century.

He also dwelt on nation-building through entrepreneurship. He explained how the still-developing nature of India is an opportunity for the country to create a sustainable, affordable, inclusive and equitable model of development. This can only be done through will, desire, and hard work. What role will you play in creating the future?, Gopalakrishnan asked.

Carbon neutral session

The CII Young Indians conclave convened in the first-ever national session held by the organisation and it was completely carbon neutral. The rest of the day had other interesting sessions. There was a panel discussion on changes in the landscape of the startup ecosystem. It talked about the current trends and the future possibilities for businesses.

There was a speech by Arjun Ranga on how to build a brand and how to market it. Maroof Raza, an Indian defense analyst, gave a talk on India-China relations and the boundary dispute.

Aravind Thondan, the Chapter Chair of CII Yi in Bengaluru, Raunak Goyal, the National Chair, Dilip Krishna, National Vice-Chairman, Praveen Agarwal, Regional Chair, and Bhavin Dinesh Pandya, co-chair of the Bangalore Chapter, were present.

On Saturday, there will be a masterclass by five IIM-B professors on the theme of "sustain, scale and succeed".
Pakistan's law enforcement agencies have arrested six terrorists, including four from the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who were planning to target security personnel and sensitive buildings in the country, police said on Saturday.

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Police in a statement said that four terrorists from TTP -- Wahid Bhatti, Jameel-ur-Rehman, Mohsin Khursheed and Imran Khan -- have been arrested from different cities of the Punjab province. They were planning to target law enforcement personnel and sensitive buildings.

Kashif Ali and Shafqat Hussain of the banned militant group Islamic State (ISIS) have also been arrested.

Police recovered 1,115gm of explosives, four hand grenades, one IED bomb, four detonators and cash from the arrested terrorists.

In two recent previous raids, the CTD arrested 20 terrorists of the TTP and ISIS from Punjab province.

Currently, the military establishment is holding 'peace talks' with the TTP leadership.

The military had reassured the political leadership that no extra-constitutional concessions would be given to the banned TTP in the ongoing dialogue and any deal made with the terrorist group would be subject to parliamentary approval.

The negotiations process was secretly revived in April which led to the TTP announcing a ceasefire on the occasion of Eid ul Fitr. As matters progressed, the ceasefire kept being extended.

Pakistani authorities are asking for the dissolution of the terrorist organisation, laying of arms, and respect for the Constitution, whereas the TTP is seeking withdrawal of security forces from the erstwhile tribal areas, annulment of the 2018 merger of tribal agencies with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the release of its fighters, and compensation for the damage it suffered.
On Friday, President Joe Biden visited the house of the Japanese ambassador in Washington and signed the condolence book for Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan who had been killed earlier in the day.

Biden placed a little bouquet next to a photo of Shinzo Abe before signing the book. After delivering his message, he engaged in brief conversation with Koji Tomita, the Japanese ambassador to the United States.

Biden "Stunned, Outraged" Over Shinzo Abe's Assassination

Ahead of Sunday's elections for the upper house of Japan's parliament, Shinzo Abe, 67, was shot twice in the neck while making a campaign address in Nara, approximately 20 miles east of Osaka. His enormous blood loss and the fact that one of the bullets made it all the way to his heart were subsequently discovered by doctors, according to NY Post.

I am stunned, outraged, and deeply saddened by the news that my friend Abe Shinzo, former Prime Minister of Japan, was shot and killed. He was a champion of the friendship between our people.



The United States stands with Japan in this moment of grief.  President Biden (@POTUS) July 8, 2022

Testuya Yamagami, 41, the alleged shooter, has been placed in custody. After Shinzo Abe was killed, Biden first expressed his shock and outrage, calling the crime "stunning."

Biden also took a minute to reflect on recent mass shootings in America, saying: "We know that violent attacks are never acceptable and that gun violence always leaves a permanent scar on the communities who are impacted by it, even though there are many aspects that we do not yet know." Biden issued a proclamation mandating that US flags on state grounds be flown at half-staff through Sunday in order to further honor the late prime minister.

In contrast to the "between three and four thousand cases" that have already occurred in the United States, Biden said that Abe's murder was the "first use of a weapon to murder someone in Japan" this year.

Kishida is "a very, very stable ally, and [he does] not feel it's likely to have, but I don't know yet, any fundamental destabilizing influence on Japanese security or Japanese unity," he said, Washington Examiner reported.

Read Also: Boris Johnson Resignation: Partygate, Other Scandals Lead to UK Prime Minister's Downfall

Other US Leaders Paid Respect to Former Japan Prime Minister

The White House is preparing for a ceremony to commemorate the enactment of a new US when Biden made his previous comments to reporters. Although Biden has urged to incorporate an assault weapons ban, the first such bill in years does not include strong gun control provisions.

Following the mass shooting at a July 4th parade in Highland Park, Illinois, the White House has not yet presented a new approach. In the wake of the terrible killing of the former Japanese prime minister, who was shot while campaigning in Nara, Japan, for members of his party, Biden led a legion of condolences from international leaders and previous American presidents.

Donald Trump urged that Shinzo Abe's killer be dealt with "swiftly and harshly," while Barack Obama praised Shinzo Abe's love to his nation. Biden, in a long statement, called Abe's slaying a "tragedy," saying violent acts are never acceptable and leave a profound scar.

According to statistics from the University of Sydney, nine people died from weapons in Japan in 2018, compared to 39,740 in the US. Size is not the primary determinant because Japan has a population of 125 million compared to the US's 330 million.

According to the National Police Agency of Japan, there was just one gun-related fatality in Japan in 2021 compared to 45,034 in the US. A 2022 University of Washington research revealed that there were 4 gun-related homicides per 100,000 people in the US, compared to 0.02 per 100,000 people in Japan. Japan has stringent gun restrictions, a protracted application procedure, background checks, test requirements, and a prohibition on handgun ownership, as per Daily Mail.

Related Article: Japan's Shinzo Abe Shot at Election Event, Suspected Dead After Local Officers Claim Former PM Shows No Vital Signs

@YouTube

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The country owes its global economic stature and the resilience of its economic architecture to the five-year plans formulated by the Planning Commission, which laid the foundation of a modern India, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday, asserting that this is the legacy of his party and the people of the country.

In a Facebook post, the former Congress chief said on the eve of India's independence, the economy was in a ravaged state after two centuries of the exploitative British rule.

At this juncture, India's founding leaders took on the momentous task of building the country from scratch and raising people's standard of living through the visionary Planning Commission, headed by then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, he said.

"It was on this day in 1951 that Pt. Nehru presented the First Five-Year Plan in the Parliament. The plan had envisioned a 2.1 per cent GDP growth for that fiscal year. India outdid all predictions and recorded a GDP growth rate of 3.6 per cent," Gandhi said.

With a focus on improving agriculture and irrigation, the work on the Bhakra dam and the Hirakud dam was started during this period, he noted.

Five IITs were also started at the end of the plan in 1956, the University Grants Commission (UGC) was set up to strengthen higher education and contracts were signed to start five steel plants, the Congress leader pointed out.

"Efforts were also made to improve posts and telegraphs, roads, railways and civil aviation," he said.

This model of planning subsequently saw 12 successive five-year plans that laid the foundation of a modern India and led to immense growth, transforming India into a leading economy, Gandhi asserted.

The country owes its global economic stature and the resilience of its economic architecture to these plans and policies, he added.

That is the legacy of the Congress and the people of India, Gandhi said.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday said the Centre will bring back the climate change chapters, which were dropped from school textbooks.

We have to include such elements in our universities and education system so that we can deal with the challenges of climate change and achieve sustainable development goals, Pradhan said.

He was speaking during a 3-day education conclave organised by the ministry. Pradhan was talking about the changes that the National Education Policy 2020 will bring as it is being rolled out.

Teachers' group had raised objections to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) dropping topics related to weather and climate change in classes 6 to 12.

A statement released by educators fighting climate change, Teachers Against the Climate Crisis, urged the NCERT to undo the changes. Students all over the world have been deeply concerned with the drastic changes wrought by environmental degradation  of which climate change is an example Students need to understand the complexity of climate crisis...to respond and engage intelligently with it, the statement read.

To reduce the academic load on students after the Covid pandemic, the NCERT has made changes in syllabuses for students in classes VI to XII. Over 30 per cent of the syllabus has been dropped.

In the conclave, Pradhan further said that by allowing for education in Indian languages in the NEP 2020, a large section of kids will be connected to the education system. For a long time, the system worked to end our culture, our guru-shishya tradition and education system. From the destruction of the Taxila in the fifth century to the destruction of the Indian teaching methods by Macaulay, our languages, knowledge systems and culture were destroyed, Pradhan said.
Rising motor fuel prices, high cost of domestic and industrial energy, long queues outside grocery shops, street demonstrations against the government are all indications of an immense, perhaps catastrophic, unrest that Pakistan is likely to be hit with. Sri Lanka is already close to a descent into anarchy  with protesters having stormed President Gotabaya Rajapaksas presidential home on Saturday, forcing him to flee. There have been reports of incidents of lynching and robbing of wealthy citizens in some parts of Colombo in recent weeks. Cities in Pakistan seem to be not too far off from witnessing similar scenes.

The International Monetary Fund, which Pakistan approached for a $6 billion loan to tide over its foreign exchange crisis, has imposed certain pre-conditions. Important among them are raising fuel and electricity rates and instituting a mechanism to guarantee zero corruption. While the government has promptly complied with the first, the corruption issue appears to be haunting the new dispensation.

Also Read: Why didnt Indira Gandhi press to settle Jammu & Kashmir issue?

Charges and counter charges of corruption is the norm of the day in Pakistani politics. Former PM Imran Khan had blamed the countrys ruin on earlier corrupt leaders. Paying him back in similar coin, the present Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has certified Imran Khans reign as rule by an incompetent mob.

Truth is, profligacy has been the standard operating procedure of every government, and rampant corruption and disproportionate spending on the military and its appended agencies inevitably became a part of the countrys economic programme. The politicians needed the Pakistan Army to remain in power, and the Army needed the fig leaf of political parties to remain relevant. In time, the Army, the clergy, and the political parties  the three power centres in Pakistan  have landed the country at the doorstep of a full-blown economic collapse.

Under tremendous pressure, the government has banned imports of almost everything that the common citizen needs to carry on normal daily life. It has even asked people to reduce the consumption of tea, an item that greatly adds to the import bill.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is being touted as the cause for Pakistans economic troubles. The conflict no doubt has had an adverse impact on energy supplies and increased risks for investors, muddying the business environment. But this certainly is not the only, nor even the primary, reason for the economic slide in countries like Sri Lanka and Pakistan. As a report by the Asian Development Bank says, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has limited direct impact in most of the region, except in the Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as Mongolia, which all have close trade and financial linkages with the Russian Federation. This seems to be a correct assessment  given that not all the countries in South Asia are on the path to economic collapse as Sri Lanka and Pakistan are.

A singular, but not surprising, factor common to the economic predicament of Pakistan and Sri Lanka is the overdependence on the Belt and Road Initiative projects dangled as the proverbial carrot by China, leading both countries to the inextricable debt trap. Pakistan was on cloud nine when China offered billions of dollars to develop the controversial China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in 2015. Pakistan willingly became a pawn in Chinas strategic gameplan of gobbling up big chunks of Indian territory in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and build an all-weather road all the way to the Gwadar port for access to the Indian Ocean. The CPEC is under review and Beijing is not keen to invest any further until Pakistans economic situation improves. Besides, China will want to pressure Islamabad to align itself completely and unequivocally with it. Can Pakistan afford to do so?

This is not the first time that Pakistan has gotten into a deep economic crisis. A major crisis hit it when the US imposed sanctions on it in the wake of its nuclear tests in May 1998. Pakistan had then initiated unwise moves like freezing capital outflows, which had an adverse effect on foreign exchange inflows, and a drop in short-term lending by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), triggering a financial crisis. Even as it barely managed to extricate itself out of the mess, it was hit by the global financial crisis of 2008.

According to knowledgeable sources, sometime in 2009, Islamabads coffers ran out of foreign exchange. Many of Pakistans friends were slow to come to its aid as they evaluated what they wanted from it in return. Months later, during the Republic Day event in New Delhi, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is said to have offered to park $500 million in Pakistans central bank as interest-free deposit to help it tide over the crisis. The offer was conveyed to Islamabad through trusted sources. Sadly, the then government refused the help, though it profusely thanked Singh for his gesture.

Also Read: Historic cascade of defaults is coming for emerging markets

In the light of past experiences and given the freeze in India-Pakistan ties, New Delhi will have to carefully consider its steps if it wishes to respond to the unfolding economic crisis in the region. A bankrupt neighbourhood will invite not only political instability and chaos but also drive Pakistan further into the Chinese debt trap. Beijing is already rolling out a plan to broaden the BRICS membership, for which Pakistan, Iran and Argentina are aspirants. China as chair of BRICS could seek to include countries in South Asia that have gone belly up and infuse funds into their economy through the New Development Bank. India will then have no option but to shell out its share under Chinese leadership, and yet be considered an enemy nation to the recipients.

While the Indian economy can withstand the current headwinds, the smaller South Asian economies could buckle under Chinas debt trap pressure if the Russia-Ukraine crisis continues to impact them. The emerging situation is both a challenge and an opportunity for New Delhi to script a new chapter in geopolitics and geo-economics. As a strong regional economy and an aspiring power in the emerging contours of the Indo-Pacific, India needs to recalibrate its neighbourhood first policy, widen its ambit of economic assistance, and use the unfortunate but massive crises as a springboard to regain strategic foothold in the region.
Elon Musk is terminating the $44 billion Twitter payout deal over fake mDAUs (Monetized Daily Active Users) data provided by Twitter. Musk filed the decision on Friday, July 8, 2022. In response, the social media company has warned of legal action against Musk. Lets go through the SEC (the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) filing and also what Twitter representatives have to say about the turn of events.

Elon Musks Twitter Deal: SEC Filing

According to Musks SEC filing, he has made repeated requests to Twitter over the last two months for information regarding 

Twitters process for auditing the inclusion of spam and fake accounts in mDAU.

Twitters process for identifying and suspending spam and fake accounts.

Daily measures of mDAU for the past 8 quarters.

Board materials related to Twitters mDAU calculations.

Materials related to Twitters financial condition.

The filing mentions what Twitter claims about mDAU and fake account calculation. The company says, We have performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimate that the average of false or spam accounts during the first quarter of 2022 represented fewer than 5% of our mDAU during the quarter, and After we determine an account is spam, malicious automation, or fake, we stop counting it in our mDAU, or other related metrics.

However, Musk has apparently found the above material representations as false and misleading.

SparkToro's auditing tool

Musks filing also alleges that Twitter includes suspended accounts (that could be fake or spam) in its quarterly mDAU count. Also, the whole process is blamed to be arbitrary and ad hoc.

He also finds the recent firing of top execs without his approval as a breaching of the contract.

Thus, the billionaire believes that he has the right to seek rescission of the Merger Agreement.

But if the deal does fall through, Musk is obligated to pay a $1 billion breakup fee to Twitter.

In response, Twitter's chairman, Bret Taylor tweeted, The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

We shall keep you posted on any new developments in this case.

As for other news, reviews, feature stories, buying guides, and everything else tech-related, keep reading Digit.in.
According to the police chief of Highland Park, Illinois, it was difficult for authorities to quickly determine where shots were coming from when the Fourth of July parade gunman started fire with a semi-automatic weapon from his covert rooftop post along Central Avenue.

Jogmen stated as he provided new information of the devastation and what happened, "In the panicked aftermath, authorities spent nearly eight hours seeking for the gunman, thinking he would repeat his murdering rampage."

Highland Park Shooting Suspect Released 70 Shots

Police arrested Robert E. Crimo, III, during a traffic stop the same day after receiving information from "an alert member of the community," and he was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder; further charges are anticipated, according to prosecutors. Without a bail, he is detained.

Ben Dillon, an assistant state's attorney for Lake County, said at a virtual bond hearing on Wednesday that Crimo told authorities in a voluntary statement that he had fired two 30-round magazines out of his gun before loading a third and firing again.

Crimo may receive a life sentence if found guilty. The Lake County State's Attorney, Eric Rinehart, has refrained from commenting on whether anybody involved would face prosecution, despite the fact that officials claim Crimo acted alone. The motive for the shooting is still unknown four days later, as per CNN.

Following the Illinois State Police's approval of his state weapon owner's identification card, according to Lake County Sheriff's Police, Crimo purchased the pistol in 2020. Police claim that the semi-automatic M&P15 Smith & Wesson gun used in the rooftop shooting in Highland Park was abandoned at the site.

However, prosecutors claimed that after reportedly opening fire earlier that morning on crowds gathering to witness the Highland Park Fourth of July parade, Crimo went to Madison, Wisconsin, with a second gun and had pondered shooting additional people.

Read Also: Brittney Griner Takes Full Responsibility, Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges as Russia Warns US That "Hype" Over Case Won't Help

Crimo's Family May Face Charges

On its website, the maker of the folding rifle owned by Crimo, the alleged Highland Park shooter, promotes the firearm as "Light/Compact/Effective." It appears that the firearm police claimed to have discovered in the suspect's mother's car, the vehicle Crimo was using when he was apprehended on Monday, was the Kel-Tec Sub2000 semi-automatic carbine.

Per ABC7 Chicago, the weapon's maker promotes how easy it is to use and how readily it can be disassembled and packed away in a bag. The folding rifle appeared to have been recovered inside a bag, according to a photo of the weapon posted by the Lake County Major Crime Task Force on Wednesday.

As his parents hired a new lawyer late Thursday, prosecutors have not yet ruled out charging the father of suspected Highland Park shooter with a crime. According to State Police Director Brendan Kelly, as the criminal investigation into the Fourth of July massacre that killed seven people in the Chicago suburb proceeds, the suspected gunman's father, Robert Crimo, Jr., may be held civilly liable. When asked whether authorities are considering possible criminal charges against Crimo's family on Wednesday, Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart said he didn't want to comment on the idea.

A dagger, sword, and 16 knives were removed from Crimo's house in September 2019 after the 21-year-old rapper wanna-be threatened "everyone" in his family, according to Illinois State Police. Crimo's father sponsored him three months later when he applied for a FOID, or firearm owner's identity card, NY Post reported.

Related Article: Highland Park Shooting Orphan Aiden McCarthy Has Heartbreaking Words to His Parents; Donation for Toddler Reaches $2 Million

@YouTube

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PHILADELPHIA, July 5, 2022Duane Morris LLP is pleased to announce that it has promoted two attorneys, Rebecca Guzman and Reshma Shah, to the firm partnership.

These two outstanding lawyers have made significant contributions to the success of our clients and to the success of Duane Morris, said Duane Morris Chairman and CEO Matthew A. Taylor. As we continue in our growth mode, we will increasingly look to them for leadership and input that will advance Duane Morris as a global firm.

Rebecca A. Guzman practices in the firms Corporate Practice Group in its Wilmington office. She focuses on the representation of startups and emerging growth companies with a focus on life science companies in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics and healthcare IT industries. Guzmans practice spans the entire corporate lifecycle, from formation through liquidity. In addition to her company client counsel, Guzman represents a number of prominent venture capital funds and institutional investors in their financing activities and currently serves as a vice chair of the M&A Division of the firm. Guzman also has extensive experience and regularly advises in all areas of Delaware corporate and alternative entity law.

Guzman is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, (J.D., 2013), where she was articles editor and senior editor of the Berkeley Journal of International Law and won the Prosser Prize in Negotiations. She is also a graduate of Lehigh University (B.A., with highest honors, 2007), where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Guzman was a Fulbright Scholar in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Reshma Shah practices in the firms Private Client Services Practice Group in its New York office in the areas of tax, estate planning and the administration of estates and trusts, with particular emphasis on estate planning for high-net-worth individuals and families with cross-border connections. Her work also involves asset transfers, premarital agreements, pre-immigration planning, expatriation planning, foreign trusts, planning for the purchase of U.S. property by non-U.S. persons and compliance with federal informational reporting requirements as well as federal and state estate, gift, inheritance and income tax returns. Shah also has extensive experience with clients disclosing overseas accounts through voluntary disclosures and streamline submissions to the IRS.

Shah is a graduate of St. Johns University School of Law (J.D., 2011), where she was executive research editor and Duberstein director of the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review. She is also a graduate of Macaulay Honors College at the City College of New York (B.A., magna cum laude, 2008), where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

About Duane Morris

Duane Morris LLP provides innovative solutions to todays multifaceted legal and business challenges through the collegial and collaborative culture of its more than 800 attorneys in offices across the United States and internationally. The firm represents a broad array of clients, spanning all major practices and industries. Duane Morris has been recognized by BTI Consulting as both a client service leader and a highly recommended law firm.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently revealed that he plans to terminate his $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter due to "false and misleading representations," causing the social media company to threaten the world's richest man with a lawsuit.

Musk reportedly sent a letter to the social media company's board saying that he was planning to terminate the deal. However, Twitter said that it plans to file legal action against the world's richest man and noted it was "confident" it would prevail.

Musk's $44 Billion Twitter Acquisition Deal

The chair of the social media company's board, Bret Taylor, posted that the board is "committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement."

If Musk continues to pull out of the agreement, Twitter could have accepted the $1 billion termination fee that the Tesla CEO agreed to. The issue between the world's richest man and the social media company began in March when the former announced he would pull the funds necessary to buy the company that he thought was failing to live up to its potential, as per DW News.

Furthermore, Musk revealed that he had already been talking to executives at Twitter, including co-founder Jack Dorsey, to let them know that he was buying up shares in an attempt to gain a majority. The Tesla CEO's lawyers said in a court filing that Twitter had breached the acquisition agreement by failing to provide enough information about fake accounts on its platform.

Read Also: Elon Musk Slams YouTube for "Scam" and Fake Ads, MrBeast Agrees

According to the document, this was a crucial piece of data for measuring the social media company's business performance following the news. Twitter shares fell 6% in extended trading. Musk said his latest move was made due to a "material breach" of the deal.

According to Rolling Stone, ever since Musk announced his plan to buy Twitter for $44 billion back in April, he has accused the social media company of inflating its user base with spam accounts. The Tesla CEO's legal team said that for nearly two months Musk had sought the data and information necessary to make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter's platform.

Backing Out of the Agreement

The social media company has publicly said that an estimated 5% of daily users who see ads are bots or spam accounts, though it admits it could be higher in reality. Musk believes that fake Twitter accounts comprise as much as 20% of the platform. However, even if the numbers don't match up, it may not be enough for the world's richest man to renege on the deal without penalty.

A business law professor at Tulane University, Ann Lipton, said that merger agreements are drafted to avoid exactly what Musk is doing, which is trying to find a little reason to walk away. Agreements specifically say that a buyer cannot fall back on their commitment unless the reason was incredibly false.

The situation comes as Musk's attempts to buy the social media company have resulted in various internal changes for Twitter and would notably be different compared to before the Tesla CEO's acquisition plans, The Verge reported.



Related Article: Elon Musk To Meet with Twitter Employees First Time To Answer Concerns

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China, France agree to enhance strategic collaboration, deepen pragmatic cooperation

Xinhua) 11:28, July 09, 2022

BALI, Indonesia, July 9 (Xinhua) -- China and France have agreed here to enhance strategic collaboration and deepen pragmatic cooperation to push the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries to a new high.

While meeting with French Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna in Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Friday, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China and France have witnessed stable development of bilateral ties with the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, which not only benefits the two peoples, but also brings stability to the volatile world.

China cherishes the mutual trust and friendship between the two sides, and highly appreciates and firmly supports France for upholding strategic autonomy, Wang said.

For her part, Colonna said France and China have maintained close communication and good cooperation on a wide range of bilateral and multilateral issues. The French side also values the friendliness between the two sides and has been devoted to advancing the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

France staunchly advocates for safeguarding the United Nations Charter, respects the sovereignty principle and attaches great importance to the role China has played in maintaining world stability, the French foreign minister said, holding the view that the strategic collaboration between the two countries is vital to confronting the challenges facing the world.

Noting that French President Emmanuel Macron has advocated for building a harmonious multi-polar world, Colonna said her country will continue to uphold the tradition of strategic autonomy.

The two sides agreed to promote and facilitate people-to-people exchanges, and strengthen cooperation on climate change and biodiversity conservation.

The two sides also exchanged views on China-European Union (EU) relations.

Wang said that as two major forces with global influence, China and the EU should stick to the keynote of win-win cooperation and stay committed to the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership.

China expects France to continue to play a constructive role in China-EU relations, Wang said.

Colonna said France has always stood for advancing the EU-China relations and advocated for building consensus through dialogue, and will continue to take a long-term perspective, stay rational, remain open and deepen EU-China cooperation in various fields.

The two sides also exchanged views on Ukraine, the Korean Peninsula and other international and regional issues of common concern.

Wang is on an Asia tour, which takes him to Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
United States President Joe Biden vows to veto attempts to make abortion illegal in the country after the Supreme Court's extreme decision to overturn Roe v. Wade using a new executive order and commitment to doing more.

The executive order that the Democratic leader signed on Friday is dedicated to protecting women's abortion rights and follows calls from lawmakers from the left and advocates. The order directs several federal agencies to take action on abortion. It has been described by some legal experts and activists as a crucial first step but argue that it falls short of what many previously called for.

Biden Supports Abortion

In a statement, health law professor Lawrence Gostin from Georgetown University said that nothing in Biden's executive order will fundamentally change the everyday lives of poor women in a red state.

This Court has made it clear it will not protect the rights of women.



I will. Thats why today I'm signing an Executive Order to protect access to reproductive health care.  President Biden (@POTUS) July 8, 2022

But the Democratic leader's order indicates progress and emphasizes the White House's support for protecting access to medication abortion, defending access to contraception, and guaranteeing a patient's right to emergency medical services.

Today I signed an Executive Order to protect the reproductive rights of women in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's extreme decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.



It formalizes the actions I announced right after the decision and will add new measures to protect women's health. pic.twitter.com/cujWTnxKvw  President Biden (@POTUS) July 8, 2022

Furthermore, the order addresses some of the concerns that progressive lawmakers and abortion rights activists had about Biden's initial response. It also sends a message about how seriously the Biden administration is taking the issue, as per Vox.

The U.S. president criticized the Supreme Court for its decision and called it "out of control" as he was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and Health Secretary Xavier Becerra. He rebuked the conservative majority on the court for stripping U.S. citizens of their fundamental rights that he argued were protected by the Constitution.

Read Also: Biden Signs Executive Order Boosting Abortion, Contraception Access: Here's What's In It

Speaking from the White House, Biden said that they cannot allow the nation's highest court, working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican Party, to take away freedoms and "our personal autonomy."

According to CNBC, the U.S. president also called out Justice Clarence Thomas' comments in a concurring opinion overturning Roe v. Wade that invited challenges to past rulings on contraceptive access, gay marriage, and other issues.

Supreme Court's Decision

Biden blasted the Supreme Court by asking what century they were living in as he committed to vetoing any future Republican-led effort to ban abortion in the country. The Affordable Care Act guarantees women free birth control and contraceptive counseling.

The president also ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to issue a report within the next month detailing actions to safeguard medication abortion, ensure access to emergency contraception and IUDs, and bulk up reproductive education.

The instructions direct HHS to take steps to protect access to abortion pills, though it is unclear what exactly the federal government plans to do moving forward. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the abortion pill, mifepristone, more than two decades ago as a safe and effective way to end a pregnancy before the 10th week.

The Biden administration will also convene volunteer lawyers to "encourage robust legal representation of patients, providers, and third parties lawfully seeking or offering reproductive health care services through the United States. That representation could potentially include helping to protect a patient's right to travel to another state to get an abortion, Axios reported.



Related Article: Michigan Governor Calls on Biden To Ensure That Americans Can Cross Over to Canada While Carrying Abortion Bills

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Two nurses from the Cope Foundation have received teacher of the year awards for supporting students on placement.

Clinical nurse manager Emily Murphy was presented with an Award for Recognition by UCCs School of Nursing and Midwifery with her students saying she offered them great guidance and multiple learning opportunities.

Cathy Maguire was named Preceptor of the Year by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and received the award for outstanding mentorship in nursing.

Congratulating both nurses, chief executive of Cope Foundation, Sean Abbott, said: Were lucky to have so many wonderful nurses as part of our team at Cope Foundation and we love when other organisations recognise what we see in them every day.

Pictured at the presentation of the INMO Preceptor of the Year Award were (l-r): Albert Murphy, director of industrial relations; Tony Fitzpatrick, director of professional services; Eilish Fitzgerald, outgoing first vice president, Executive Council; Roisin OConnell, INMO student and new graduate officer; Erin Walsh, student nurse and nominee; Cathy Maguire, Cope Foundation, prizewinner and staff nurse; Alison Brereton, Cornmarket Group Financial Services; Nial Jordan, Cornmarket Group Financial Services;Karen McGowan, INMO president; Phil Ni Sheaghdha, INMO general secretary; Edward Mathews, INMO deputy general Secretary and Steve Pitman, INMO head of education and professional development.

The Preceptor of the Year awards are particularly important because its all about teaching, mentoring and inspiring the next generation of nurses.

The last two years have been challenging for students on placement and their mentors but these awards show how they have adapted and risen to the challenge with creativity.

Ms Murphy said she was honoured to have received the award from UCC.

I know from experience how daunting placement can be, she said. Trying to meet new people, learn and be in an intensive healthcare environment can be stressful, but students always bring great motivation and enthusiasm to the floor.

I love working with students and teaching them has always been a massive passion of mine.

Ms Maguire was also delighted with her award.

This is an incredible recognition to receive, she said.

I was so happy to be nominated, never mind win the award.

Its so important to support student nurses and lead by example.

I want to say a huge thank you to Erin Walsh who nominated me. She was an outstanding nurse student, I have no doubt that she has a bright career ahead of her.
A Bus Eireann driver was assaulted by a passenger in Ballincollig and when a man fitting the description of the assailant was asked on the night if he carried out the assault he replied: Of course I did.

John Long, 35, who is living at a Simon Community facility called J&A on Anglesea Street, failed to show up for the case against him at Cork District Court.

Judge Marian OLeary heard the evidence in the case which was listed for hearing. The judge convicted John Long of assault in his absence from court and issued a bench warrant for his arrest so that he could be brought before the court for sentencing.

Bus driver, Dermot Murphy, said he was stopped in Ballincollig for a period that night before the timetable time was reached to travel on to Carrigaline.

Mr Murphy said of the accused mans behaviour at around 11pm on July 22, 2021: He squared up to me. He hit me in the face with his right hand to the left side of my face.

I said, You have made a big mistake. The guards are on the way.

Cross-examining, Michael Quinlan solicitor said to the bus driver: You are saying you are still on your route even though you are stopped. Mr Murphy said, This is just semantics.

Mr Quinlan said to the driver that he had a conversation with the passenger about fares. Mr Murphy said, I did. I never expected the man to assault me on the night but he did

He was never aggressive to me before  I gave him the benefit of the doubt even though I knew he was an aggressive person.

Mr Quinlan said the defendant claimed that he (the bus driver) called him (Long) a paedophile. Mr Murphy said he never said such a thing to the defendant.

Garda Sinead ORiordan arrived at the scene and got a description of the accused. She later encountered John Long nearby at 11.45pm.

He said that he had been on the bus.

Garda ORiordan cautioned and questioned him: Did you hit a bus driver?

He replied: Of course I did.

Asked why, John Long replied: Because he called me a paedophile. What he said was wrong. He shouldnt have said it.

Judge OLeary said: On the basis of the evidence before the court I convict him.

The judge issued a warrant for Longs arrest in the case that was prosecuted by Inspector Jason Lynch.
TABOR Group received more than 1,000 calls from people seeking support last year, with alcohol continuing to be the main challenge for those looking for help.

Figures in relation to the number of presentations to the Cork-based group, one of the countrys leading providers of residential addiction treatment services, were given during a recent presentation to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health during a discussion on addiction services.

Tabor Group clinical director Mick Devine said the organisation completed more than 300 initial assessments and admitted more than 200 people last year to its two treatment service centres.

These centres are Tabor Lodge in Belgooly and Tabor Fellowship at Spur Hill.

The group offer residential treatment services and community-based addiction treatment programmes to men and women over the age of 18 who are struggling with addiction to alcohol, drugs and gambling.

Speaking to the Oireachtas Committee, Mr Devine said alcohol continues to be the main challenge for those seeking help from Tabor Group.

In 2021, 49% of the people who were admitted to our programme cited alcohol as the main substance of addiction.

We are seeing continued growth in the numbers presenting with poly-addiction, which involves addiction to many substances.

Alcohol is usually central but illicit substances are part of the addiction profile of more people attending for treatment, especially those aged between 18 and 35.

Last year, 32% of those who accessed treatment at Tabor Group said alcohol and other substances comprised the profile of their addictions, he said.

In 2021, under the leadership of the groups senior counsellor, Mr Devine said the group introduced and completed the first full year of its integrated recovery programme at Tabor Fellowship.

This is a milestone for the Tabor Group. It involves us offering a 12-week residential programme that is open to men and women who have complex needs, including mental health challenges, poly-addiction, cross-addiction, and a history of previous treatment and relapse, as well as challenges relating to coping and living skills, he explained.

Tabor Group also provides a dedicated family support service.

On average the organisation get five calls a week from family members and loved ones who are seeking support.
Amber Heard wants the defamation trial against her by Johnny Depp to be ruled as a mistrial because she claims the wrong juror appeared.

Heard's attorneys contend that she is entitled to a mistrial "based on newly found facts and evidence that Juror No. 15 was not the individual called for jury service on April 11, 2022," according to paperwork submitted to the Circuit Court of Fairfax County on Friday.

Amber Heard Alleges Wrong Person Served as Juror in Defamation Trial

According to the papers, the jury member was 77 years old at the time and lived at the same home as a person who was 52 years old. The two jurors chosen by Fairfax County are local residents who are registered to vote, and information from their voter registration includes their names, birthdays, and addresses.

The younger individual, not the elder one who was really called, according to Heard's defense team, was a juror throughout the six-week trial. According to the actress' attorneys, she was not provided with "due process," thus she is requesting that a mistrial be declared and a new trial be conducted.

According to PEOPLE, the appeal comes one week after Heard's attorney requested that the decision be completely overturned. The 'Aquaman' actress' legal team claimed that the decision was not adequately supported by the facts in a 43-page document that was submitted to a Virginia court on July 2.

The filings state that, even though the 77-year-old was called for jury service, it was the 52-year-old who really turned up. Anyone summoned to jury service in Fairfax County is required to complete an online questionnaire with their personal information and birthdate as a security measure to confirm their identification, according to Heard's team.

Although Virginia law restricts punitive damages at $350,000, the seven-person jury gave Johnny Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Amber Heard's countersuit against her ex-husband resulted in a $2 million settlement, as per NY Post.

Read Also: [Report] Britney Spears' Former Managers Earned $18 Million After Helping Dad Jamie To Create Conservatorship

Amber Heard'a Lawyer Claims Johnny Depp' Settlement Fee Is "Excessive"

After the actress' legal team claimed on July 1 that the evidence produced during the six-week hearing did not support the judgment at trial, a filing was made on Friday. The July 1 discussed the "wrong" Juror 15 issue, but it did not go into as much depth as the Friday document, Daily Mail reported.

Additionally, Heard's attorneys argued last week that the judge ought to overturn the verdict because the $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive penalties that were given to Johnny Depp were "excessive and indefensible."

The information was released just days after Heard's attorneys again requested a new trial, arguing that the first verdict had not been backed by sufficient evidence. Depp filed a lawsuit against Heard, his ex-wife, over a piece she wrote for the Washington Post in 2018 about her experiences as a victim of domestic violence, which according to his attorneys unjustly implicated him in the assault.

Per Sky News, Depp called his ex-charges wife's of domestic abuse "heinous and unsettling," and he denied assaulting Heard. Heard argued that the "larger cultural discourse" surrounding the #MeToo movement at the time, not her ex-husband, was the subject of her essay.

The trial concluded on June 1 after six weeks of testimony, with the jury determining that the article was defamatory of Depp and awarding him $10.35 million in damages. Heard did succeed in proving that one of Depp's lawyers had defamed her by calling her claims "an abuse hoax" intended to capitalize on the #MeToo movement in one count of her countersuit.

Related Article: [Report] Amber Heard Meets Johnny Depp in Private To Convince the Actor To Reduce $10 Million Settlement After Losing in Court Battle

@YouTube

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Residential care provider Silver Stream Healthcare Group has announced the launch of three new nursing homes that will see the creation of more than 500 full-time permanent roles across the country.

The announcement was unveiled by An Taoiseach Michaal Martin at a special event held at one of the new care homes, in Riverstick in Cork.

The group is also opening new homes in Meath and Dundalk and is currently recruiting for roles in Nursing, Physiotherapy, Housekeeping, kitchen, Facilities, and for Care Assistants and Activity Coordinators.

In addition, Silver Stream has announced the opening of a transitional step-down care centre at Riverstick, which it says will help alleviate the demand on Cork University Hospital as it provides an extension to the acute bed capacity.

Im delighted to officially open these three new care homes in Cork, Louth and Meath on behalf of Silver Stream Healthcare Group," Mr Martin said today.

"We know that for the most part, older people indicate their preference to live in their own homes and communities, for as long as possible.

"The Programme for Government commits to creating an Age Friendly Ireland, while Slaintecare aims to provide the right care, in the right place, at the right time. I would like to congratulate all involved in the development of this new nursing home facility in Cork, as well as the homes in Louth and Meath, which will no doubt be a great asset for their communities.

The Riverstick Care Home comprises 92 single and 2 double ensuite bedrooms spanning nearly 4,500 m2. Located close to the Dundalk Institute of Technology campus, Dundalk Care Home at Greenpark has 130 single ensuite bedrooms spanning 6,000 m2 across two floors, while the Duleek home has 120 single ensuite bedrooms spanning nearly 5,500 m2.

Were delighted to launch three new excellently located and well-positioned care homes to our growing group," CEO at Silver Stream Healthcare, Tom Finn said. "This is a pivotal time for the aging population of Ireland, and their families, for whom our industry provides critical solutions and services.

Our model is all about creating a home-away-from-home for residents and these three new homes perfectly align with our ambitions to deliver a more intimate care home experience, in a comfortable and familiar environment, while at all times responding to the rapidly changing care needs of older people.
By Grainne Ni Aodha, PA

President Michael D Higgins has expressed his deep condolences to the Emperor of Japan at the appalling murder of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.

The fact that he fell victim to this most brutal of crimes whilst actively engaging in Japans democratic process of political choice makes todays events all the more appalling, he wrote in a letter to Tokyos Imperial Palace.

Mr Abe (67) was shot from behind during a campaign speech in western Japan on Friday and died in hospital.

Police arrested the suspected gunman at the scene of the attack, which shocked many in Japan  one of the worlds safest nations with some of the strictest gun control laws.

In a letter to Emperor Naruhito, Mr Higgins paid tribute to Mr Abe, who was Japans longest-serving prime minister.

In this moment of darkness, we all take comfort in reflecting upon Mr Abes distinguished career in public service in Japan, which spans the period both before and after your ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Please know also, your Majesty, that Ireland and the Irish people share your sorrow and offer solidarity with you and the citizens of Japan, whom we count among our most long-standing friends and like-minded partners.

President Higgins has written to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan on the death of former Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. pic.twitter.com/qutPQw2Wkt  President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) July 8, 2022

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheal Martin also said he was deeply saddened by the appalling killing.

He was a strong and committed democrat, and it is especially shocking that he was murdered while engaged in that most democratic of activities, campaigning ahead of an election, the Taoiseach said in a statement.

Putting your arguments before an electorate and asking for their vote is at the very heart of what we believe in as democratic politicians. The attack on former PM Abe is therefore an attack on democracy itself.

It is all the more shocking that it happened in a peace-loving country like Japan.

My most heartfelt and sincere sympathies are with the people of Japan, whom PM Abe served with such commitment and distinction; with Prime Minister Kishida and his colleagues across Government; and especially with Mr Abes family.

On this very sad occasion, on behalf of the Government and people of Ireland, I extend our most profound condolences and solidarity.

Northern Ireland First Minister designate Michelle ONeill, who met Mr Abe on his visit to the island of Ireland in 2013, said on RTE Radio that Mr Abes death was absolutely shocking.

My thoughts are very much with his family and with the people of Japan.

I had the pleasure of greeting him actually as a minister in the executive at that time and had deputised for Martin McGuinness and I greeted him off the plane.

Its truly a shocking event and clearly all of our thoughts are with the devastated family and the devastated people in Japan.
Mohammed Maliki, Moroccos Ambassador in India, made a courtesy call on Prof (Dr) Manojranjan Nayak, Founder-President of Siksha O Anusandhan (SOA) Bhubaneswar on Friday, July 8.

Maliki had a wide-ranging discussion with Prof (Dr) Nayak and senior SOA officials and academics about the universitys contribution to the field of higher education and healthcare.

Speaking about Morocco, Maliki said the country accounted for 72 per cent of the global fertiliser production while it was a front-ranking nation in the field of pharmaceuticals and tourism as well.

Maliki said he was highly impressed by the infrastructure and faculty members of SOA. He said he would try to facilitate the study of students from Morocco at the university.

SOAs Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Registrar Prof BB Pradhan, Controller of Examination Prof Manjula Das, Dean (Students Welfare) Prof Jyoti Ranjan Das, Additional Dean (Research) Dr Priyabrata Patnaik, Deans of different institutions and Prof Nachieketa K. Sharma, Director, University Outreach Program were present.
Ramsey Lifeboat aids stricken vessel in Bay

Ramsey RNLI were called out to the aid of a broken down vessel on Friday evening.

The 18ft "Boston Whaler" had one person on board when it broke down half mile out in Ramsey Bay.

The vessel was towed back in to Ramsey by the lifeboat.

Coxswain Mark Kenyon said: despite the engine having been fully serviced it appears that the problem was fuel related. It may seem wasteful to discard the previous seasons fuel but anyone intending to go to sea after a vessel has been unused for a long period should always ensure that fresh fuel is used. Modern Petrol does not store well in cans and quickly deteriorates if conditions are not ideal. Condensation in part filled tanks can also cause engine problems should water be drawn into the fuel lines.



This was the second service call for the RNLI Lifeboat 'Ann and James Ritchie 2' and the first service launch for the vessel following her naming ceremony on 2nd July 2022.
Former United States President Donald Trump faces a downhill legal battle after a federal appeals court ruled on Friday that a House committee is entitled to a wide array of records on the Republican businessman's finances and business practices.

However, the court also further narrowed aspects of the subpoena that the Democrat-controlled House issued to Trump's accountants in 2019. If the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision stands, the former president's former accounting firm, Mazars, will be required to give the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee five years' worth of records.

Trump's Legal Battle

The documents could potentially include inaccuracies in the financial statements of Trump or his business and a little more than two years of records related to the lease with the federal government for the former Trump International Hotel in Washington.

Furthermore, the accounting firm will also be required to provide records from 2017 and 2018 on transactions between the Trump Organization and any foreign, local, or state government or official. The former president could still ask the full bench of the D.C. Circuit to rehear the case or petition the Supreme Court to take it up again, as per Politico.

Two years ago, the justices issued an opinion rejecting Trump's sweeping claims of executive privilege but declared that lower courts did not do enough to scrutinize the House panel's purported needs for the information and whether or not the subpoena was tailored to those needs.

Read Also: Jan. 6 Hearing: 3 Most Shocking Revelations About Donald Trump's Major Role in US Capitol Riot

In an opinion joined by Judge Judith Rogers, D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, Trump has uniquely pertinent information that cannot reasonably be obtained from any other source. However, they added that the committee's emoluments-related objectives cannot possibly justify the breadth of documents encompassed by the subpoena.

According to the Washington Post, the decision comes as the panel was revisiting a matter that the U.S. Supreme Court returned to the lower courts for further proceedings in July 2020. The 67-page opinion included Srinivasan's interpretation of how to apply the Supreme Court's directive to "insist on a subpoena no broader than reasonably necessary to support Congress' legislative objective.

Trump Organization

The case is known to deal with a largely unprecedented fight over how far Congress can go in investigating alleged corruption by the nation's chief executive, and what protections former presidents retain from lawmakers' probing after leaving office under the Constitution's separation of powers.

Trump's legal battle comes as he is expected to be preparing for another presidential bid in the 2024 elections. He was the first major party nominee in decades to refuse to release his tax returns, publicly criticizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for auditing him.

The decision came, as last year, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found that Trump's business firm should turn over some, but not all the financial records sought by the committee. Furthermore, the appeals court also noted that the former president has the right to continue fighting the subpoena, which means that the legal battle between him and the committee would most likely last longer, Fox News reported.



Related Article: Trump Calls Cheney a 'Despicable Human Being' After Comments on Potential Criminal Referral of Former President

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Samsungs next Galaxy S series phone could mark the end of an era. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo , the company is likely to single-source the processor for its next S series flagship from Qualcomm. That would be a significant departure for Samsung. Over the years, the company has used both Snapdragon and Exynos SoCs in its flagship phones.

The model you got would depend on where you lived. In the US, Galaxy S and Note series phones have exclusively come with Qualcomm chips, much to the envy of Samsung customers in Europe and Asia. In the past, in nearly every situation where Samsung has offered both Snapdragon and Exynos variants of its phones, the former have either outperformed the companys in-house chips or provided better battery life. Qualcomm processors tend to also offer a more stable experience when it comes to apps and games .

(1/3)

1. Qualcomm will likely be the sole processor supplier for Samsung Galaxy S23 (vs. 70% shipment proportion for S22) thanks to the next flagship 5G chip SM8550 made by TSMC 4nm.   (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) July 8, 2022

Kuo suggests that reality has become too hard for Samsung to ignore. S23 may not adopt Exynos 2300 made by Samsung 4nm because it cant compete with SM8550 in all aspects, he wrote on Twitter , referring to the next flagship chips from both Samsung and Qualcomm. Kuo adds such a decision would further cement Qualcomms dominance in the Android market.
Tony Sirico, an actor best known for his role as Paulie Walnuts on "The Sopranos," passed away on Friday, his brother Robert announced on Facebook. He was 79.

The priest wrote with a picture of Gennaro Anthony "Tony" Sirico, "It is with tremendous grief, but with incredible pride, love, and a whole lot of happy memories that the family of Gennaro Anthony "Tony" Sirico wishes to inform you of his passing on the morning of July 8, 2022."

"Tony is survived by his two cherished children, Joanne Sirico Bello and Richard Sirico, as well as grandchildren, brothers, nieces, nephews, and a large number of other relatives.

"The family is extremely appreciative of the many offers of love, prayers, and sympathies and begs privacy during this time of mourning.

Donations in his memory may be given to Wounded Warriors, St. Jude's Hospital, and the Acton Institute.

Michael Imperioli, his co-star, also wrote a tribute on Instagram, stating "Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone i've ever known."

Tony will be known primarily for his part in "The Sopranos," for which he earned two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.

In numerous films, including "Goodfellas," "Mighty Aphrodite," "Gotti," "Copland," and "Mickey Blue Eyes," he portrayed a mobster or gangster.

Sirico was a staunch supporter of the United States military; he and James Gandolfini once traveled to Iraq to attend a demonstration for the troops. In addition, he maintained his support for the Wounded Warriors organization.

ALSO READ: Lenny Von Dohlen Cause of Death Mysterious: How Did 'Twin Peaks' Actor Die?

His passing took place a few days after a death hoax about him went viral and was belied by his representatives afterwards, immediately.

Verified Instagram acct of The Sopranos star Michael Imperioli says his 79 year old co-star has died. A death hoax just 2 days ago regarding Tony Sirico was denied by the actors publicist.

Not Paulie Walnuts! The same week as Sonny Corleone? #RIP #TonySirico #TheSopranos pic.twitter.com/pqVJW3ih1Q  Todd McDermott (@wpbf_todd) July 8, 2022

A Facebook page titled "R.I.P. Tony Sirico" garnered nearly one million 'likes' on Thursday, fueling rumors of the actor's purported demise. The 'About' page provided a credible story of the American actor's death:

"At about 11 a.m. ET on Thursday (July 07, 2022), our beloved actor Tony Sirico passed away. Tony Sirico was born on July 29, 1942 in New York. He will be missed but not forgotten. Please show your sympathy and condolences by commenting on and liking this page."

Hundreds of fans quickly began posting condolences on the actor's Facebook page, expressing their regret at his passing at the age of 79. And as usual, the death hoax enraged the Twittersphere.

While some trusting followers believed the post, others were immediately wary, possibly having learned their lesson from the plethora of false celebrity death stories that have surfaced in recent months. Some pointed out that the news had not been reported on any major American network, indicating that it was a hoax, as the death of an actor of Tony Sirico's stature would have been a major story on all networks.

Soon after, the actor's representatives formally confirmed that Tony Sirico is still alive.

Some fans have criticized the false claim, calling it irresponsible, disturbing, and harmful to the actor's fans. Others think this demonstrates his worldwide popularity.

Unfortunately, the hoax came true.

READ ALSO: Gregory Itzin Cause of Death Tragic: 'Star Trek' Unexpectedly Died at 72 Due to THIS
Despite disruptions of global supply chains, investments into China continue to accelerate.

The World Investment Report 2022 shows that the structure of global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows has been affected significantly by the pandemic. The report brought out by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) indicates that global FDI inflows staged a smart recovery in 2021 rising by a substantial 64.3% to touch $1.58 trillion, thus surpassing the pre-pandemic flows. This is in sharp contrast to the 35% fall in FDI inflows to $963 billion in 2020.

A major consequence of the pandemic was that the share of FDI inflows to developed economies slipped to just around one-third in 2020, the lowest recorded. Though the FDI inflows to developed economies more than doubled to $746 billion in 2021, its share in global FDI inflows still remained lower than that of the developing economies. A major reason for the shrinking share of developed economies in global FDI inflows is the decline of inflows into the European Union (EU) for two consecutive years, which reduced its share in global FDI inflows from around a quarter to less than a tenth.

Another major consequence of the pandemic was that FDI outflows from developed countries rose sharply from around two-thirds of the global outflows in the pre-pandemic years to around three-fourths in 2021. This surge was mainly powered by the United States (US), which now emerged as the largest source of FDIs. The US now accounts for close to a quarter of global FDI outflows, marginally exceeding even that of the EU. Another major change noticed after the pandemic was that, for the first time, in many years, the global outflows of FDI from almost all major developed countries were higher than their FDI inflows.

Similarly, another major fallout of the pandemic was that the developing countries have now become the dominant beneficiaries of global FDI inflows with its share exceeding that of developed countries both in 2020 and 2021. However, the pickup in FDI inflows to developing economies was sharply skewed. While FDI inflows to Africa more than doubled to $82.9 billion in 2021 and that to South America surged by three-fourths to $88 billion, both flows probably buoyed up by the global commodity boom. However, FDI inflows into Asia barely grew by around one-fifth. And this was also highly skewed. While inflows increased by around half in South East Asia and West Asia, it declined by a quarter in South Asia.

What is surprising is that the disruption of supply chains and the setback to globalisation during the pandemic seems to have had no significant impact on the geographical distribution of FDI inflows. Though many developed countries repeatedly promised to reduce the global dependence on Chinas exports and ward off trade vulnerabilities by diverting investments to other areas, these initiatives seem to have floundered. In fact, the trends show that the result has been the opposite with FDI inflows to China accelerating even as FDI inflows to other developing countries like India falter badly.

Consequently, between 2019 and 2021, the share of FDI inflows to China (including that to Hong Kong) went up from 14.5% to 20.3%, while that to India shrunk from 3.4% to 2.8%. Certainly, India seems to have failed to take advantage of the new opportunities offered by the pandemic. The efforts to persuade the world to bring in increasingly larger share of the FDI flows within its shores and diversify the global supply chains have apparently not borne fruit. Similarly, the slowdown in the economy has also affected FDI outflows from India with its share in global FDI outflows slumping down to 2.8%, the lowest level across the last four years.

The Government of India data on the FDI show that equity inflows have declined by around one-fifth to $51.3 billion in 2021. However, the decline was not uniform. While FDI inflows from Mauritius, the largest contributor to the cumulative FDI inflows into India, more than doubled to $8.7 billion in 2021, that from Germany and Japan increased by around a quarter. However, FDI inflows from almost all other major investor nations declined. While FDI from Singapore, the US, the Netherlands, and United Arab Emirates fell by more than a quarter, that from the United Kingdom and Cayman Islands fell by around one-fifth.

However, the bulk of decline in FDI flows in 2021 was due to the fall in investments in the computer software and hardware, the biggest segment, which fell by half to $12 billion. Similarly, FDI inflows into infrastructure and construction sectors also declined by half. Surprisingly, FDI inflows to services (that include finance, banking, insurance, research and development, and others), which account for more than a tenth of the total FDI inflows, rose by a quarter to touch $6.5 billion in 2021. In manufacturing, the improvement in FDI inflows was largely confined to automobiles, drugs and pharmaceuticals. Clearly, India still has a long way to go to emerge as a manufacturing hub in the global economy.

The steady decline of FDI outflows from the EU is a major setback for India, more so because India has failed to tap the potential for increasing inflows from the US, which has emerged as the largest source of FDI outflows. The consequent slump in the share of FDI inflows into India should set alarm bells ringing in the government. Certainly, it is still not too late to woo new investments to reduce global supply chain vulnerabilities and the excessive dependence on China.
Some lawyers and rights advocates say more young Russian men have been looking to avoid the countrys mandatory military service since the conflict with Ukraine began, illustrating ambivalence in Russian society to the conflict.
A pregnant Texas woman who was ticketed for driving in the HOV lane is arguing that Roe v. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court means that her fetus counted as a passenger, and that she should not have been cited.

Brandy Bottone was recently driving down Central Expressway in Dallas when she was stopped by a sheriff's deputy at an HOV checkpoint to see whether there were at least two occupants per vehicle as mandated. When the sheriff looked around her car last month, she recounted to KXAS that he asked, "Is it just you?"

"And I said, 'No, there's two of us,'" Bottone said. "And he said, 'Well, where's the other person?'"

Bottone, who was 34 weeks pregnant at the time, pointed to her stomach. Even though she said her "baby girl is right here," Bottone said one of the deputies she encountered on June 29 told her it had to be "two people outside of the body," according to the Dallas Morning News, the first to report the story. While the state's penal code recognizes a fetus as a person, the Texas Transportation Code does not.

"One officer kind of brushed me off when I mentioned this is a living child, according to everything that's going on with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. 'So I don't know why you're not seeing that,' I said," she explained to the newspaper.

Bottone was issued a $215 ticket for driving alone in the two-or-more occupant lane - a citation she told local media she'd be challenging in court this month.

"I will be fighting it," she told the Morning News.

While the Texas Department of Transportation has not indicated whether it is weighing changing the transportation code, Bottone's case is one that could move the state into "unchartered territory" following the June 24 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Chad Ruback, a Dallas-based appellate attorney, told The Washington Post.

"I find her argument creative, but I don't believe based on the current itineration of Texas Transportation Code that her argument would likely succeed in front of an appellate court," he said. "That being said, it's entirely possible she could find a trial court judge who would award her for her creativity."

Ruback added, "This is a very unique situation in American jurisprudence."

Bottone, 32, of Plano, Texas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Saturday. It's unclear whether she has an attorney. Representatives for the Dallas County Sheriff's Department and Texas Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The news comes as all corners of the country are dealing with the fallout from the Supreme Court's decision more than two weeks ago. President Joe Biden delivered an emotional speech Friday announcing an array of steps aimed at bolstering abortion rights, responding to growing demands from activists that he take bolder and more forceful action. Biden signing an executive order to enhance access to reproductive health-care services was a move generally welcomed by abortion activists, many said it would likely do little for women in states where abortion is banned. The president acknowledged the limits of his executive powers, saying the Dobbs ruling was "the Supreme Court's terrible, extreme and, I think, so totally wrongheaded decision."

"What we're witnessing wasn't a constitutional judgment," Biden said. "It was an exercise in raw political power."

Texas is among the 13 states that had "trigger bans" designed to take effect once Roe was struck down, prohibiting abortions within 30 days of the ruling.

It is Texas's nearly century-old abortion ban that was ruled unconstitutional in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe on June 24 in a 5-4 decision, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) advised that prosecutors could now enforce the 1925 law, which he described as "100% good law" on Twitter. Abortion rights groups and clinics sued, arguing that it should be interpreted as repealed and unenforceable.

A judge in Harris County, Texas, granted a temporary order last month to allow clinics to offer abortions for at least two weeks without criminal prosecution. Judge Christine Weems (D) ruled that a pre-Roe ban enforced by Paxton and prosecutors would "inevitably and irreparably chill the provision of abortions in the vital last weeks in which safer abortion care remains available and lawful in Texas."

But the Texas Supreme Court granted an "emergency motion for temporary relief" of Weems's ruling last week, after Paxton requested the injunction.

Five days after the Dobbs ruling, Bottone was in a rush to pick up her son and decided to drive in the HOV lane since she "couldn't be a minute late," she told the Morning News.

As she attempted to argue the fetus was her second passenger, Bottone recounted to local media that the deputy wasn't open to the debate. "He was like, 'I don't want to deal with this . . . Ma'am, it means two persons outside of the body,'" she said, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Bottone said that while one of the deputies told her that the ticket would likely get dropped if she fought it, she's upset that the citation was issued in the first place, according to the Morning News.

"This has my blood boiling. How could this be fair? According to the new law, this is a life," she said. "I know this may fall on deaf ears, but as a woman, this was shocking."

Ruback told The Post that he is not aware whether Texas or other states would consider such a change to their transportation codes.

"It's entirely possible that Brandy could petition the representatives in legislature to make that change, but I have not heard about it if it happened," said Ruback, who is not involved in her case. "My impression is that I think she would be happy if she got out of her traffic ticket. Then again, these are unusual times we're living in, that's for sure."

Bottone maintained to KXAS that she hoped the Texas laws would be consistent on how the measures recognize unborn children.

"I really don't think it's right because one law is saying it one way but another law is saying it another way," she said.

She's due in court on July 20, which is around the same time her daughter is due.

- - -

The Washington Post's Matt Viser, Caroline Kitchener and Adela Suliman contributed to this report.
'Meritless' Newsweek claims obfuscate, mixing religion, legal matters

On Friday IBT Media fired back via a statement from its lawyer against dual attempts by Newsweek CEO Pragad to obfuscate his lack of ownership interests in the company by once again unethically weaponizing the newsroom and through a "meritless" legal filing that mixes religion and shareholder rights.

Dev Pragad is not a shareholder of Newsweek

IBT Media attorney Michael C. Hefter of Hogan Lovells stated Friday that a new Newsweek lawsuit's claims are "meritless." Hogan Lovells is a top ten law firm globally by revenue.

Hefter explained in a statement that IBT Media is the "rightful and legal" owner of Newsweek. Dev Pragad "supposedly" transferring the ownership is a "facade," and Pragad "engineered... a fiction" to support his baseless ownership claims, the attorney said this week to media covering the IBT ownership of Newsweek.

Contrary to Pragad's claim to own shares of Newsweek, LLC., the financial obligations written on the sales contract between Newsweek Media Holdings and IBT Media, Inc. remain unfulfilled to the present day, according to an IBT Media lawsuit filed on June 30, 2022.

The lawsuit indicates that Pragad owns no shares of Newsweek

Instead of addressing his failure to adhere to his contractual obligation to purchase Newsweek shares which would have required substantial payments, Pragad continuously paid nothing while touting himself as the man who "saved the news." With no payments made, he never consummated the supposed contract to purchase Newsweek--as HNGN previously reported.

The derivative lawsuit filed by Pragad on Friday further misuses his position at Newsweek Media Holding by suing IBT Media and other parties without the consent of its shareholder, Johnathan Davis. Brazen misrepresentation of his status and misappropriation of company funds for personal gain are typical of Pragad's two-faced character, court documents reveal. A court ruling in IBT favor will not only force Pragad to acknowledge the true ownership of Newsweek as IBT Media, thus bursting Pragad's "engineered... fiction," but will also remove him from the company completely.

Why does Pragad talk about religion in a legal filing?

In the lawsuit, Hogan Lovells represents that in early 2022, "Pragad began to take aggressive steps" to protect his ownership facade "for which he had not paid a single dollar."

In addition to weaponizing the newsroom in a series of articles after telling opponents he would mow them down like "puppies before a machine gun," as HNGN has previously reported, on July 7 Pragad lashed out in a new, additional step, suing Johnathan Davis and several parties associated with Davis.

Pragad's lawsuit includes religious claims that have absolutely nothing to do with the legal issues of his ownership "facade," according to IBT Media lawyers, who dismissed the lawsuit as "meritless" on July 8. The "troubling... narrative" Pragad presents by mixing religious matters with legal issues seem to obfuscate the reality Pragad can't escape from: the truth that he owns no Newsweek shares.

Pragad not a "savior of the news"

In Pragad's desperation play to smokescreen the public eye from his ownership woes, the Newsweek suit claims that money is owed to Newsweek by IBT Media. Meanwhile, IBT Media says under Pragad, the companies acted as one, and that Newsweek owes IBT Media "damages" for Pragad's "ill-gotten gains" from his ongoing deception.

Pragad's claim plays into his recent promotion of himself as the "savior of the news" to which IBT is indebted. However, further research indicates Pragad's view of himself as the "architect" of Newsweek's success is "fiction," according to IBT lawyers.

For example, Pragad's lawsuit accuses owner IBT Media of mismanagement of Newsweek. But Newsweek was a better publication under IBT Media than it is now under Pragad's management, according to the lawsuit.

In 2018, when the Newsweek offices were expiring, Pragad moved Newsweek into the IBT Media offices, thus IBT Media was the one that saved Newsweek from becoming a homeless magazine. Then in 2021, Pragad moved Newsweek out of IBT Media's offices to escape responsibility for the rent, according to a landlord lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed by plaintiff Broad Financial Center LLC, alleges that with Pragad at the helm, Newsweek "stripped IBT of its valuable assets in a wrongful attempt to insulate themselves from the obligations" of paying rent. Further, the claim asserts Newsweek did this to "mislead, harm, and thwart" creditors. The rent lawsuit puts damages northward of $1.1 million.

It was at this time, when the company Pragad managed ran away from its rent responsibility, that Pragad started to spin his "fiction" of being an owner and "savior" of the company.

Etienne Uzac and Johnathan Davis, the purchasers of Newsweek in 2013 through IBT Media, are the real owners of Newsweek, the lawsuit states. This duo built the executive team, many of whom Pragad poached from IBT Media and brought to Newsweek while the companies operated as one under Pragad's management, the lawsuit states. The Uzac and Davis team rebuilt the newsroom and business team from scratch after the previous owner had shut down the print edition entirely. The two successfully restored the print edition of Newsweek, developed most of the international network of Newsweek, and set up Newsweek's distribution network.

Where was Pragad when all of this took place? Pragad was far away in London, and had nothing to do with the successful setting up of Newsweek, instead only using his "duplicity" as a master of stealing credit for other people's work, the lawsuit indicates.

Pragad threatened to destroy enemies like "puppies before a machine gun"

When Pragad doesn't get his way, things get ugly, according to HNGN sources. Though "the image that Dev Pragad has cultivated" in the public eye remained pristine, Pragad showed another side, hidden except to his enemies, according to the filing. Early in 2022, when Pragad's aggression escalated, he began to voice his threats against the shareholder of Newsweek, Johnathan Davis, threatening to leverage Newsweek's reporters in a "nuclear bomb" against Davis if he did not give Pragad the company, as HNGN has previously reported.

In a text message exchange that this correspondent has seen, an anonymous source shared a recent conversation with Pragad, in which the Newsweek CEO told a former friend that he is "inseparable from Newsweek" and he will "detonate a nuclear bomb and kill [Davis and his associates]." He further bragged that he has "a lot of lawyers," and that his adversaries would be like "puppies in front of a machine gun" because "I am a PhD."

Pragad continued with the "nuclear bomb" threats a few days later: "This is nuclear bomb [sic]. Don't engage if you don't know how to deal with a nuclear bomb. If it goes off, it will nuke everyone. And it's the end. I don't want that to happen and for this to happen unintentionally coz some silly people who don't know what they are doing start tinkering. There is nothing they can do. It will just blow up on their face if they try to do anything. This may trigger a congressional investigation in Olivet. I'm so close to congress and senators and they love what I'm doing at Newsweek. They are all watching so closely along with world leaders."

Sweeping all media and business ethics aside, Pragad's threats have been fulfilled through his publishing of a series of Newsweek hit pieces, repeatedly weaponizing the Newsweek newsroom against his declared enemies, as HNGN has previously reported.

The latest in Newsweek's growing list of hatchet-job articles was posted July 8 on the Newsweek homepage--in it, Pragad unashamedly bashes his enemies once again, further muddling unrelated religious issues with his ownership calamities.

Pragad cheating Newsweek workers and the public

Dev Pragad claims that government officials and world leaders "love" what he's doing at Newsweek, but these officials may only know Pragrad's carefully groomed external image. Yet as IBT fires back, a darker side of Pragad is being revealed--through "duplicity," apparently cheating both Newsweek workers and the public at large, Pragad no longer appears to be the "savior" of the news. The IBT Media lawsuit exposes him, instead, as simply a fraudster.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco has agreed to testify before a Texas House committee investigating the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School after initially refusing to do so, the panels chairman said Thursday.

In an effort to compel the appearance, the committee had sent Nolasco a notice of deposition for a videoconference hearing on Monday, according to state Rep. Dustin Burrows, the Lubbock Republican who chairs the special House committee. The notice warned that the sheriff could face civil penalties if he declined to appear.

Burrows said Nolasco confirmed he would show for the hearing in a phone call Thursday morning, a day after the notice had been sent.

I appreciate him coming voluntarily, Burrows said.

Nolasco could be issued a subpoena if he fails to show on Monday. If he were to ignore the subpoena, he could face a charge of contempt of Legislature, a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days to a year in prison and a fine of $100 to $1,000.

The committee has so far interviewed 36 people, including 19 law enforcement officials, as part of its charge to conduct an examination into the circumstances surrounding the shooting in Uvalde, where 19 students and two teachers were killed on May 24. The testimony has been held behind closed doors, though the committee plans to issue a report outlining its key findings.

THE LATEST: A Uvalde officer asked permission to shoot gunman outside but got no answer, report finds

In the weeks since the massacre, authorities have revealed a number of details  accompanied by video footage and transcripts  that suggest law enforcement officials committed major errors in their response to the shooting. Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told lawmakers last month that officers had enough resources to stop the gunman just three minutes after he entered the school, yet waited more than an hour to confront him.

Minutes before the shooting unfolded, a Uvalde police officer saw the gunman, Salvador Ramos, carrying an assault-style rifle outside the school but failed to fire on him, instead asking a supervisor for permission.

The supervisor either did not hear or responded too late, according to the report by the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center, which added that a reasonable officer, upon hearing gunshots and seeing someone approaching the school with a rifle, would have concluded that the use of deadly force was warranted.

Uvalde County sheriffs deputies were among the law enforcement officers to respond to the shooting, including a deputy who joined a team of Border Patrol agents that entered the classroom and fatally shot Ramos. Its unclear what additional role the agency played in the law enforcement response, which officials say was overseen by Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo.

Arredondo is among the 19 law enforcement officials who have testifed before the House committee. The committee, along with a separate panel in the Senate, is one of two special legislative committees created last month to investigate the shooting.

Additionally, the Texas Rangers  a part of the Texas Department of Public Safety  and the FBI are conducting their own investigations into the shooting.

jasper.scherer@chron.com
I was reading an old (Aug. 22, 2020) column on the origin of the Alamo table. If the mystery of the table has not been solved, I have a postcard showing the table, its location and the tables name.

The postcard I have of the Alamo Table is the front cover of an accordion style booklet that does not have the typical back sides that separate postcards normally have. It contains 10 postcards printed on each side of the other for a total of 20 postcards. The back of the Alamo table (card) was a postcard showing a herd of elk in Brackenridge Park.

I am enclosing the entire front cover of the booklet, which shows the Alamo table with a place for a 2-cent stamp. Also enclosed is a copy of the postcard flap, which shows the publisher but no date.

 Tim Palomera III

The caption on your postcard  Bridal Breakfast Table at Otto Koehler Park  cracked the case of the Alamo-motif picnic table mystery, first investigated here in 2020 when a reader sent a family photograph of it. Experts on San Antonio city parks, the Alamo and concrete sculpture drew a blank while admiring the tables folk-arty distinctiveness. Thanks to the postcards identification with Otto Koehler Park, we now know when it was created, where it was located, who ordered it, who made it and why it came to be  just not what happened to erase it so thoroughly from municipal memory.

The mystery case begins: Unusual Alamo picnic tables story eludes experts

Back when this city had at least two daily newspapers and a much smaller population, very little got past its reporters, including the origins of the Alamo table. This rustic seat and table with a replica of the Alamo at either end, as described by the San Antonio Light, Sept. 19, 1916, was a new feature provided for Otto Koehler Park, then pretty new itself, donated the previous year by Emma Koehler in memory of her husband, Otto, a wealthy brewer who was shot dead in 1914 under murky circumstances. Her gift of just under 11 acres of land stipulated that beer could be sold there on every day but Sunday  the opposite of the adjacent teetotaling Brackenridge Park at the time.

Park visitors may have quaffed some Pearl beer  the Koehlers products  at the table in question while it lasted. Based on a few available photos, its top and backrests were made of wood. According to the Light, the supports of the table and the two seats facing it are of concrete, and those (supports) beneath it are the ones fashioned like the front of the Alamo.

More from Paula Allen: Koehler House was once citys costliest private home

The artisan credited was Joseph Wilkens, a city employee. As such, he went back a long way; the San Antonio Freie Presse fur Texas, a German-language newspaper, Sept. 5, 1883, notes that Wilkens had been put forward and announced as a new police officer. In city directories, hes listed as a laborer for the city; and in the 1910 U.S. census, hes a custodian at Cassiano Park. If he was a sculptor, it was as a hobby or side hustle.

The Alamo table was ordered and probably imagineered by Ray Lambert. He was a former stonemason who became San Antonios parks commissioner in 1915 and developed a vision for Brackenridge Park  an aggregation of donated and purchased land that included a disused quarry  that took advantage of its natural, unspoiled qualities and developed it as the location for a municipal zoo. The Light says that Lambert considered the new table to be one of the most attractive features of the park and that he plan(ned) to have others constructed. The others  who knows if any were built?  might have depicted other Spanish colonial missions. They are older than the missions in California and are finer examples of architecture, Lambert said. It has always seemed to me that we dont make enough display of (them), and Ill venture to say there are thousands of visitors who come here every year and never see any of the missions save the Alamo.

OK, but why was the first of (maybe) many a Bridal Breakfast Table? The benches look as if they might seat six comfortably. No offense to Wilkens skills, but it doesnt look like a particularly accommodating spot for a morning wedding reception or a honeymoon breakfast. So bridal  wedding-related  might have been a typo or misspelling of bridle  as in bridle path, a trail for horseback riding.

More from Paula Allen: Tea garden once a city showplace

Part of Lamberts vision for Brackenridge Park included 9 miles winding through the almost primeval beauty of the parks rocky setting, which were drawing an ever-increasing number of early-morning riders, as reported by the Light, July 6, 1925. To ride along quietly on horseback and to regard nature at close hand  is giving restful divertissement to many business men before they start for the office.

Some prominent names are mentioned  Chittim, Gage, Halff, Kampmann, Negley and others  and maybe some of the regular riders were sent off by wives or servants with a packed breakfast to enjoy at trails end. Maybe Luther Bynum L.B. Clegg, head of the San Antonio Printing Co., or some of his associates or customers were among them, which could be why the Alamo table would be thought of as significant enough to make the cover of the Park Scenes in San Antonio booklet.

From the turn of the last century through the mid-1920s, this growing business was known by the name on the postcard booklet, changing to the Clegg Co. and branching out from lithography, printing and engraving into office furniture and supplies. (It was later the Marshall Clegg Co., until it was sold in 2000.) As printers, the firm produced brochures, calendars, checks and stock certificates, and business and social stationary. According to Southwest Texans, a biographical reference published in 1952 and provided by the Conservation Society of San Antonio library, the Clegg Co. eventually printed telephone books for more than 85 South Texas cities.

More from Paula Allen: San Antonio Mayor Maury Maverick sponsored La Villita guidebook

The San Antonio Printing Co. name indicates that the postcard booklet was published not later than 1927, based on city directory references and company advertising. The firm was producing booklets before that, on the evidence of its 1924 publication of The Romance of San Antonios Water Supply and Distribution, by Bert J. McLean, a 24-page paperback with some park-scene illustrations of its own, as noted by Gregg Eckhardt, environmental scientist and curator of the Edwards Aquifer website, www.edwardsaquifer.net.

If San Antonio Printing was like most postcard publishers, it based its products on existing photos as much or more than new ones commissioned for the project. The tinted Alamo table image on the cover appears to have derived from a more detailed photograph in the collection of the Witte Museum, said Lewis Fisher, author of the forthcoming Brackenridge Park: San Antonios Acclaimed Urban Park and San Antonios Historic Plazas, Parks and River Walk.

He confirms the photos location in Koehler Park, suggesting that the row of rocks along one side of the roadway about upper-right center could be bordering the river, which curves back sharply to the left at what looks like a bridge. The original Koehler Pavilion could be hidden by the dense trees toward the upper right. So the table may have stood on the site of the present (miniature) train station and also on the northeast corner of the tourist camp Lambert opened in Koehler Park in 1919, which could have used some picnic tables.

The elk postcard on the reverse of the Alamo table card fits the timing.

More from Paula Allen: Donkey herd provided adventures for young park visitors

Along with a buffalo herd and other animals, the elk were a project of Lamberts predecessor, Ludwig Mahncke, who started a menagerie in Brackenridge Park that became the foundation for a municipal zoo. The elk and buffalo herds were procured from the Goodnight Ranch in the Panhandle and arrived in 1902. The elk did almost too well here; thanks to their successful breeding and the cost of their feed, the city began selling them off in the 1910s, and the remainder were moved to an enclosure in the San Antonio Zoo by the late 1920s.

Since the Alamo table appears a bit dilapidated in the photo and postcard images, in which the main supports appear to be leaning, its construction may have been faulty, and the table may have been removed by the end of the 1920s, which would explain the relative scarcity of photos. Anyone with more information about this table or any similar ones may contact this column.

historycolumn@yahoo.com | Twitter: @sahistorycolumn | Facebook: SanAntoniohistorycolumn
UPDATE AS OF 7:30 A.M.

A suspect was apprehended Saturday for allegedly making threats against a Jewish community facility in the San Antonio area.

Security personnel at area synagogues and agencies were on the highest alert, according to an announcement on the Jewish Federation of San Antonio Facebook page.

Temple Beth-El San Antonio cited the threats as it announced on its Facebook page Saturday that it canceled in-person and online Shabbat Services.

Details about the threat and the suspect's capture were not made available.

Anti-defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt thanked law enforcement for taking this threat to Texas Jewish communities seriously and working diligently to identify and apprehend the suspect.

UPDATE AS OF 3:30 P.M.

The FBI said that there is no known imminent threat in effect any longer for the San Antonio area Jewish community, according to a Jewish Federation of San Antonio Facebook announcement.

The updated alert comes after the organization said local Jewish gatherings should be suspended due to the FBIs notice of a potential threat at an unconfirmed Jewish community facility.

The Jewish Federation still recommended staying vigilant and aware of your surroundings at all times.

We are pleased to share that the urgency of concern has been lowered, the post reads.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

Local formal Jewish gatherings are being suspended until further notice after the FBI identified a potential threat to an unconfirmed Jewish community facility in the San Antonio area, according to an announcement on the Jewish Federation of San Antonio Facebook page.

The Saturday morning post said security personnel at area synagogues and agencies are aware of the situation and are on the highest alert.

We continue to work closely with law enforcement to ensure the safety of our community, the post reads.

On ExpressNews.com: Disgusting: Lawns in Alamo Heights are latest hit by nationwide antisemitic flyer campaign

The Jewish Federation recommends that people be aware of their surroundings and to call 911 if they see something unusual.

Temple Beth-El San Antonio announced on its Facebook page that it is canceling in-person and online Shabbat services scheduled for Saturday.

We have received information from our experts that the safety situation for the Jewish synagogues in San Antonio today is not optimal for us to conduct our regularly scheduled Shabbat Services, the post reads.

megan.rodriguez@express-news.net
A San Antonio man has been indicted on a murder charge in connection with the 2016 death of a Houston-area man who was found headless and handless, his body burned beyond recognition.

The case was among 73 felony indictments handed down this week by two Bexar County grand juries, the District Attorneys Office said Friday in a statement.

Police in Kinney County arrested Jorge Alberto Rivera on April 2 when authorities found six undocumented immigrants in his vehicle. He was charged in a human smuggling case, but admitted while in custody that he was involved in the death of Javier Thomas Soto, 43, an affidavit supporting his arrest stated.

Soto was reported missing from the Houston area and was last seen on Aug. 20, 2016. The next day, his body was found in San Antonio, engulfed in flames inside a trash bin at the Marigold Apartments in the 2300 block of Goliad Road on the Southeast Side, police said. He had been decapitated and his hands severed.

On ExpressNews.com: Investigators identify body found in dumpster

At the time, San Antonio police investigators released a photograph of a tattoo of Sotos first name on his upper right arm, and also released surveillance footage captured from the area that showed someone dumping Sotos body in the trash bin.

Following Sotos identification by the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office, they ruled his cause and manner of death as homicidal violence including sharp-force injury. But the case then went cold for six years.

According to the affidavit, once in custody, Rivera, 39, described details of Sotos death, how he was killed and the condition of his body, to investigators, and also admitted he was the man seen in the surveillance video.

The Docket: Local crime and courtroom news, delivered to your inbox weekly

The document stated, without detailing it, that Rivera revealed a motive behind the killing.

Riveras case is being heard in the 226th District Court. If convicted of murder, he faces five to 99 years or life in prison.

In a separate case, the DAs Office said Friday that grand jurors on June 30 declined to indict a San Antonio police officer who last year fatally shot a man going through what family members said was a mental health crisis.

A police report said officers responded to a 911 call about a man with a knife who had broken into a home in the 1300 block of Brighton Avenue on March 26, 2021. They encountered John Pena Montez, 57, who threatened to kill himself during an argument with his common-law wife and appeared intoxicated.

Officer Douglas Meynig twice attempted to use a stun gun on Montez but it had no effect, the report said. Montez was lunging at the officers when Officer Stephen Ramos shot him several times, according to the document.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio police officer who killed 13-year-old also fatally shot man last year; mans family disputes police account of 2021 incident

Montezs widow and sister disputed that account and said the U.S. Army veteran suffered from depression and post traumatic stress disorder. Ramos was placed on administrative duty and returned to full duty in September after an Internal Affairs investigation and a review panel found no administrative violations.

San Antonio police sent their findings to the DAs Office, which presents all officer-involved shootings that result in death or serious injury to a grand jury, District Attorney Joe D. Gonzales noted in a statement released Friday.

Thats what we have done here, he said. We have deferred to the judgment of the citizens of Bexar County. A memo detailing the facts of the case will be posted to the Civil Rights Division website soon.

He declined further comment.

Ramos is currently under investigation and on administrative duty in connection with another fatal shooting June 3 of Andre AJ Hernandez, 13.

He was driving a stolen Toyota Corolla the 5100 block of War Cloud Street when officers pulled up on both sides of the car. Authorities said Andre attempted to ram the drivers door of one of the police vehicles, putting in danger an officer who was stepping out of the SUV. Ramos fired one shot, fatally wounding Andre in the abdomen.

The Hernandez family has hired an attorney and is seeking a murder charge against Ramos.

ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863


Air Serbias CEO, Jiri Marek, has said the airline is soon expected to make a decision on weather to lease a second Airbus A330-200 aircraft in order to expand its long haul operations. An additional twin-aisle jet will enable the Serbian carrier to launch new destinations in Asia and North America, as well as increase frequencies on its New York service. Earlier this year, Air Serbia undertook due diligence and drafted a business plan for the introduction of flights from Belgrade to either Shanghai or Beijing in Asia, as well as Chicago or Toronto in North America. Mr Marek confirmed the airline had initially planned to wet-lease an A330-200 for this summer season but gave up on the idea due to rising fuel prices. Air Serbias CEO, Jiri Marek, has said the airline is soon expected to make a decision on weather to lease a second Airbus A330-200 aircraft in order to expand its long haul operations. An additional twin-aisle jet will enable the Serbian carrier to launch new destinations in Asia and North America, as well as increase frequencies on its New York service. Earlier this year, Air Serbia undertook due diligence and drafted a business plan for the introduction of flights from Belgrade to either Shanghai or Beijing in Asia, as well as Chicago or Toronto in North America. Mr Marek confirmed the airline had initially planned to wet-lease an A330-200 for this summer season but gave up on the idea due to rising fuel prices.





Last year, Air Serbia replaced its A330-200 jet with another aircraft of the same type, that has lower leasing costs, which is believed to have contributed to pushing its sole long haul service, between Belgrade and New York, into profitability. This summer, in addition to serving the Big Apple, the jet has also been trialled on shorter popular routes such as Paris, Barcelona, Zurich, Istanbul and Moscow.





Earlier this year, Serbias President, Aleksandar Vucic, said, After almost five years of hard work, the service to New York is finally profitable. Now we want to increase frequencies on that route and introduce another destination in North America, either to Toronto or Chicago. He added, In Asia, we are initially planning one route to China, which would increase to two. We are talking about Belgrade - Shanghai and Belgrade - Beijing. I believe we can be successful in this pursuit. Of course, we are seeking certain discounts and incentives from the Chinese side, in terms of airport fees and taxes. We believe that flights to China will become profitable earlier than was the case with New York.





During the pre-pandemic 2019, China (excluding Hong Kong) was the largest long haul market from Serbia based on OAG data, just outperforming the United States, which was followed by Canada. Shanghai and Beijing were Belgrade Airports two busiest unserved routes in 2019. That year, a total of 62.526 passengers flew indirectly between Serbias capital and Chinas largest city, while a further 52.289 travelled indirectly between Belgrade and Beijing on a single itinerary. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Shanghai was still Belgrade Airports busiest unserved destination in 2020, while Beijing came fourth, falling behind Toronto and Chicago. There is also believed to be notable cargo demand between the two countries.




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NASA condemns Russia's use of the ISS to support its war against Ukraine, as the station's principal objective is to enhance research and technology for peaceful purposes.

NASA and Russian Space Agency Argues Over ISS

It seems that a dispute over the usage of the International Space Station has broken out between NASA and the Russian space agency.

The chairman of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said that the Russian space agency would utilize its portion of the ISS to carry out any tasks it "considers essential and valuable."

The most recent incident in a spat between the two space agencies started when Russian astronauts seemed to be using flags in anti-Ukraine propaganda while posing for pictures.

Asserting that the space station is meant to be politically impartial, NASA has criticized the images. Despite tensions on the ground, the US space agency's announcement was very unusual and went against its previous practice of primarily aiming to avoid any political impact on the floating lab.

According to a spokesperson for NASA, Russia's use of the International Space Station to support its war against Ukraine is strongly condemned by the space agency. This starkly contrasts the station's primary purpose, which is to advance science and technology for peaceful purposes among the 15 participating nations.

Mr. Rogozin responded by saying that Roscosmos will carry out anything that we deemed essential and beneficial in the Russian part. Rogozin additionally said he counseled Western allies to lift their foolish sanctions.

Roscosmos' official Telegram channel had released the photographs that sparked the most recent argument earlier in the week. They featured cosmonauts on the Russian section of the space station, waving the flags of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics and celebrating Russian military triumphs in Ukraine.

Read Also: Tesla's Starlink Satellite Installation Expands at Supercharger Locations

Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Rogozin has been one of the most vocal high-profile Russian officials. He has fought with people like Elon Musk and regularly called for sanctions to be lifted, using his official accounts to criticize US policies.

However, cooperation on the space station has largely proceeded as anticipated despite their public pronouncements. There were concerns that NASA astronauts may not be allowed to return to Earth aboard Russian spacecraft, for example, but these arrangements have mostly gone on as usual.

Russian Astronauts in ISS Broadcasted Anti-Ukrainian Propaganda

According to an article by Space.com on July 6, Russia's state space agency Roscosmos posted two pictures of its cosmonauts flying the flags of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, two rebel regions in eastern Ukraine that get support from Russia.

The photographs are being referred to as clear propaganda, a regrettable abuse of the ISS as a political bargaining chip after Russia invades Ukraine and the ensuing economic sanctions by the West.

On July 4, the Roscosmos account on the social media platform Telegram posted propaganda pictures shot inside the ISS. The images show the tricolor flags of Luhansk and Donetsk as cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev, and Sergey Korsakov are all smiling. In May 2022, Artemyev was named ISS commander.

The statement with the two pictures makes it clear that certain people at Roscosmos are still trying to exploit the International Space Station to spread pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian propaganda. According to a Roscosmos message on Telegram, people of the Luhansk region's occupied districts had been anticipating this day for eight years. They are sure that July 3 will forever go down in American history.

Related Article: Russian Space Chief Rogozin Makes New Threat To Leave ISS
International experts and scholars urge the Taiwanese government to immediately rectify the Tai Ji Men case to defend freedom of religion or belief

WASHINGTON, July 08, 2022at the summit addressed the Tai Ji Men case -a case of violations of religious freedom and human rights in Taiwan that has lasted for over 25 years.



The summit was chaired by former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, bringing together global religious, political, and academic leaders, including Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, U.S. Congressman French Hill, Member of Parliament of the UK Fiona Bruce, Member of Finnish Parliament Paivi Rasanen, as well as religious freedom defenders and victims of religious persecution. The event, attended by approximately 1,000 people, aimed to promote religious freedom and human rights protection around the world.

On June 30, the Action Alliance to Redress 1219 organized a breakout session under the theme of "The 2022 Review of Taiwan's Implementation of the Two UN Human Rights Covenants and the Tai Ji Men FORB Case ."

A film was presented at the beginning of the meeting, featuring the international review of Taiwan's third national report on UN human rights covenants (the ICCPR and ICESCR) by nine international human rights experts in May 2022. The conclusion of the film represented the views of many scholars: "The two covenants have been in force in Taiwan for 13 years. However, they simply exist in name. Human rights are not being respected in government agencies. Over the years, the international reviewers' concluding observations and recommendations have not been taken seriously. The basic human rights guaranteed by the two covenants, such as freedom of religion, have yet to be implemented."

Charlotte Lee, an attorney in Taiwan and a representative of the Action Alliance to Redress 1219, pointed out the violations of the two covenants in the Tai Ji Men case , such as the fact that Taiwan's National Taxation Bureau issued ill-founded tax bills to Tai Ji Men and treated Tai Ji Men differently from other martial arts and religious groups, which violated the protection of equal rights and the principle of non-discriminatory treatment under Articles 2 and 26 of the ICCPR and Article 2 of the ICESCR. She also indicated other violations of the two covenants, including the prosecutor's investigation, which resulted in cruel treatment of the master and disciples of Tai Ji Men, a violation of Article 7 of the ICCPR.

Alessandro Amicarelli , president of the London-based European Federation for Freedom of Belief, visited Taiwan before and was invited to teach courses on human rights and religious freedom there. He praised Taiwan's incorporation of the two international covenants on human rights into Taiwan's domestic law in 2009. This is a very significant step towards full democracy in Taiwan, he said, adding that the final recommendations of the third review of the two covenants in May of this year failed to mention freedom of religion. He noted that since the Tai Ji Men case is still unresolved, he and other scholars and human rights activists would continue their efforts to urge the Taiwanese government to improve by organizing monthly seminars and publishing articles and books.

Dr. Donald Westbrook , a lecturer for the Library & Information Science Department at San Jose State University, USA, visited Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in Los Angeles in February 2022, which allowed him to gain an even deeper understanding of the beliefs, practices, and community of this group. He stated, "I come to you today primarily as a religious studies scholar and teacher who is most disappointed about the ongoing injustice in Taiwan with respect to this case. I say this with respect to the tax case, certainly, but also in light of confiscated sacred land in Taiwan and the clear infringement on human rights and religious freedom."

Regarding the protection of freedom of religion or belief, he stated, "But making this a lived (and legal) reality, needless to say, can be an entirely different manner, as others have already addressed in connection to Taiwan's domestic implementation of two human rights covenants. In particular, the failure to adequately address freedom of religion or belief (FORB) and the rights of taxpayers is disappointing as much as it is perplexing."

Another breakout session on the Tai Ji Men case focused on the theme "Tai Ji Men: International Ambassadors of Peace and Goodwill and Their FORB Case."

Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, zhang-men-ren (grandmaster) of Tai Ji Men, delivered a video message, emphasizing, "Among the rights that human beings are born with, the main and most important one is the right to freedom of religion or belief." "We believe that conscience, which is the core essence of faith, will serve as a talisman in defending people's rights to religious freedom. Life is a series of struggles and exploration. Although our time on this planet is limited, through faith, our conscience and innate kindness will be awakened, motivating us to unite hands with more people inspired by compassion and care, to unite and sincerely support one another. To attain harmony and peace among people, between humans and nature, and between humans and other living things, we must take positive action and reflect on ourselves daily and never give up." He also encouraged global citizens to defend freedom of religion or belief around the world, bravely temper their spirituality, and move forward for true peace and sustainability for all.

A movie titled "Who Stole Their Youth? The Tai Ji Men Case in Taiwan" was presented during the forum. The movie, written and directed by Prof. Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist and the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), answers three questions: What is Tai Ji Men? What is the Tai Ji Men case? Why the protests?"

The film was followed by the speech of Marco Respinti , director in charge of Bitter Winter magazine. He praised Taiwan, saying, "Taiwan is a beautiful country, inhabited by beautiful people, great people, great culture, great food." He also pointed out that Tai Ji Men is an organization "totally dedicated to spreading peace, love, and harmony in the world. And this movement has been falsely accused of an awful crime of tax evasion. The serious consequences of these blatant lies remain." He noted that the Tai Ji Men community has been deprived of their freedom of religion or belief and advocated for an immediate redress of the injustice: "We need a decision from the Taiwanese state to end this case, because there is no understandable reason to keep that on. There is no legal reason for Tai Ji Men to be curtailed from its fundamental freedom, religious freedom. The solution must come and must be political."

Dr. Holly Folk , professor of humanities and social sciences at Western Washington University, has visited Taiwan many times and loves Taiwan. She said that she was not surprised that the case happened in Taiwan and that her remarks are not an attack against Taiwan. She stated, "What Tai Ji Men has faced happens very often, in many countries, even in first world democracies. Religious minorities very often face a distinct type of harassment through bureaucratic regulation." "The tax case has been used to erode the financial situation, membership and the morale of the Tai Ji Men community. It's also been used to send the group into permanent legal ambiguity. And that is the point. And that is something that has happened to other groups around the world as well," she added, emphasizing, "If a religious minority is attacked as a cult or a dangerous social organization, the same strategies are very, very easily activated against secular organizations, against environmentalists, against people pushing for LGBT equality. In other words, everybody, secular and religious, has a stake in this game."

Pamela Chen, a representative of the Tai Ji Men dizibegan, she had just graduated from college, and she risked being followed, bugged, and detained by the prosecutorial and investigative authorities, bravely serving as a contact person with the defense lawyers for the Tai Ji Men case. At the time, she felt as if the White Terror had reappeared. Twenty-five years later, the persecution is still going on. Now a mother, Pamela understands that as a victim she must be braver and stronger, and she brings her daughter along to promote reform in Taiwan to help it become a truly free and democratic country where human rights prevail.

The issue of human rights violations in the Tai Ji Men case has attracted a lot of attention at the IRF Summit, where Tai Ji Men members introduced the case to attendees from around the world and invited them to co-sign a petition calling for a solution to the Tai Ji Men case. It is stated in the petition: "We join Tai Ji Men in respectfully asking the government of Taiwan, whose commitment to democracy in a region plagued by non-democratic regimes we appreciate and applaud, to return through a political act the confiscated sacred land to Tai Ji Men and publicly confirm that, as Taiwan's Supreme Court stated, they never violated the law nor evaded taxes. It would be a small step for Taiwan's government, but a crucial one to tell the world Taiwan is truly committed to freedom of religion or belief and to the protection of religious and spiritual minorities that were once persecuted by its authoritarian and post-authoritarian regimes."

The petition was quickly signed by over 100 people, including Prof. Massimo Introvigne, managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) and editor-in-chief of Bitter Winter magazine; Rosita Soryte, representative of European Federation for Freedom of Belief; Marco Respinti, director in charge of Bitter Winter magazine; Dr. Donald Westbrook, a lecturer for the Library & Information Science Department at San Jose State University, USA; Dr. Holly Folk, professor of humanities and social sciences at Western Washington University; Dr. Alessandro Amicarelli, president of European Federation for Freedom of Belief; and others.

The organizers of these two forums encourage everyone to pay attention to the Tai Ji Men case and join others to sign a petition, hoping to help make Taiwan a true democracy that respects its people's human rights and religious freedom so as to achieve the motto of the IRF Summit: "Religious freedom for everyone, everywhere, all the time!"

Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy : Tai Ji Men is an ancient menpaiin 1966, and since then it has grown to 15 academies worldwide.

Dr. Hong teaches his diziculture and martial arts around the world while embodying what is true, good, and beautiful as well as spreading the ideas of conscience, love, and peace. Over the past half-century, the shifu and dizi have self-funded trips to over 300 cities in 101 nations to conduct more than 3,000 cultural performances and exchanges and have been recognized as " International Ambassadors of Peace and Goodwill ."

Media Contact:

Lily Chen

Representative

info@taijimenla.org

626-202-5268

http://www.taijimen.org/TJM2016G_ENG/index.php

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8ec2c8c4-bd12-45c4-a971-b188ce910181. The photo is also available at Newscom, www.newscom.com, and via AP PhotoExpress.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has terminated his $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter, claiming that the social media giant failed to comply with its obligations in the merger agreement.



In response, Twitter said it is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Musk and plan to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. It is confident it will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.



Twitter could have pushed for a $1 billion breakup fee that Musk agreed to pay under these circumstances. But it plans to pursue legal action to complete the deal.



In a letter to Twitter, which was disclosed in an SEC filing on Friday, Musk's legal team Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP said that Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations.



Musk's legal team has claimed that Twitter did not provide Musk with relevant business information. Musk previously wanted to assess Twitter's claims that about 5% of its monetizable daily active users are spam accounts.



Musk's legal team claimed that Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Musk's requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Musk incomplete or unusable information.



According to Musk's legal team letter, Twitter also did not comply with its obligations under the merger agreement to seek and obtain consent before deviating from its obligation to conduct its business in the ordinary course and 'preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organization.'



Twitter's conduct in firing two key, high-ranking employees, its Revenue Product Lead and the General Manager of Consumer, as well as announcing on July 7 that it was laying off a third of its talent acquisition team, implicates the ordinary course provision.



Twitter has also instituted a general hiring freeze which extends even to reconsideration of outstanding job offers. Moreover, three executives have resigned from Twitter since the Merger Agreement was signed: the Head of Data Science, the Vice President of Twitter Service, and a Vice President of Product Management for Health, Conversation, and Growth.



Musk's legal team letter alleged that Twitter has not received Parent's consent for changes in the conduct of its business, including for the specific changes. The company's actions therefore constitute a material breach of the merger Agreement.



It was in late April that Twitter agreed to accept Musk's offer for $54.20 per share in cash and to become a privately held company.



However, in May, Musk put the Twitter acquisition on hold, demanding further information about spam and fake accounts on the microblogging site. Musk then said he suspected that they make up at least 20 percent of users, while Twitter continued to admit that spam/fake accounts represent only about 5 percent of users.



However, later, Twitter complied with Musk to provide him access to the data he asked for.



This week, Twitter officials reiterated that spam accounts make up less than 5% of the company's daily monetizable users.



Meanwhile, Twitter's board of directors in mid June had unanimously recommended that its shareholders vote in approval of the merger.



The deal was expected to close in 2022.



TWTR closed Friday regular trading at $36.81 down $1.98 or 5.10 percent. In the after-hours trade, the stock further dropped $1.77 or 4.81 percent.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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HANGZHOU, China, July 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 8, 2022, Dr. Feng Zhao, Honorary Director of the China National Silk Museum and Prof. Shahbaz Khan, Director of the UNESCO Office in Beijing, co-launched a book entitled, Thematic Collection of the Cultural Exchanges along the Silk Roads: Textiles and Clothing Volume, a co-publishing project between UNESCO and the China National Silk Museum.

The first volume of UNESCO's Thematic Collection of the Cultural Exchanges along the Silk Roads from chief editors Prof. Marie-Louise Nosch, President of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters and Dr. Feng Zhao, fully reflects the vital role of textiles and clothing in human society, especially regarding the development of the Silk Roads.

The book's twenty-two chapters cover contributions from no less than 30 renowned international scholars in the field of textiles and clothing from 15 countries, including Denmark, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Italy, South Korea, India, Japan, Egypt, Ghana, and China. The writers interpret and explain the development of textile materials, technology, patterns, art, culture, and function of the Silk Roads from varying perspectives as well as exchanges along the routes.

The book provides a grand, comprehensive overview of the role that textiles and fabrics have played in global history, which helps readers understand the implications of this broad topic that spans almost four millennia. Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO said, "I hope this fascinating volume will act as a valuable resource for the expert and general reader alike. It will further knowledge on this important topic and contribute to the wider goals of the Thematic Collection to deepen our collective understanding of these cultural exchanges and their contemporary legacy."

Globally renowned historian Peter Frankopan, author of the book's preface, commented, "We learn how patterns, dyes and fashions were important elements of imitation, influence and exchange, as well as why, when and where particular designs and motifs were adopted and how they evolved in their new settings."

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1855769/dabcda8f6ac208eb0d09f2e407939a3.jpg
Elon Musk is officially backing out of the $44 billion deal to takeover Twitter . This latest development has been made official by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing made by the Tesla CEO's legal team.

In response, Twitter has is planning on suing Musk for backing out, according to a statement made by the company's chairman.

Here is what we know:

Elon Musk Officially Backs Out of Twitter Takeover

Elon Musk, the billionaire who owns Tesla and SpaceX, among others, has officially declared he does not want to buy Twitter any longer.

According to a report by Engadget, the billionaire's legal team made an SEC filing and said that "the Tesla CEO wishes to terminate the agreement because of 'false and misleading representations' made by Twitter."

It is being assumed that the false and misleading representations being pertained to involve the number of fake accounts and bots on the platform and how the social media giant counts them. Musk's legal team has accussed the company of withholding information regarding the matter and misleading the Tesla CEO.

Engadget states in its report that Twitter has insisted that fake accounts make up only less than 5% of the app's total daily users. The company also says that it has turned over a number of data to Musk to prove their claims.

However, Musk's legal team says in the SEC filing that Twitter is "dramatically understating" the number, adding that preliminary analysis made by the billionaire's advisors on the provided data shows that the number is much higher.

Related Article: Elon Musk Puts Twitter's $44 Billion Deal 'On Hold' Following Pending Details on Fake Accounts

Twitter Plans to Sue Elon Musk for Backing Out

Twitter has already responded to Musk officially backing out of the $44 billion deal and, according to The Verge, the social media giant is planning to sue.

According to a tweet by Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor, "The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement." You can view the full tweet below:

The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.  Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022

Terminating the deal has a hefty cost for the Tesla CEO as The Verge's report points out that both Musk and Twitter have agreed to pay a $1 billion termination fee should either party back out for specific reasons.

"Musk agreed to pay the fee if he isn't able to secure the funding he needs to complete the takeover - which, so far, he hasn't," The Verge's report states. It also notes that the fee has not been mentioned in the SEC filing made by Musk's lawyers.

Read Also: Did Elon Musk Mislead Investors? Twitter Shareholder Sues Musk Delaying Disclosure of Twitter Acquisition
Starting next month, Secret Service Director James Murray will join Snap, Snapchat's parent company, as per The Verge report. Accordingly, he will report directly to CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel.

Murray is retiring from his post at the government. In a public statement, the Secret Service announced Murray's official departure after his longtime protective service in the agency.

Murray Will Help Protect the Safety and Security of Snap Employees

In a statement to The Verge, Pete Boogaard, Snap spokesperson, said: "We're thrilled to welcome Jim Murray to Snap and look forward to him joining our team on August 1st."

According to Snap, Murray will be in-charge of protecting the safety and security of Snap employees. He will also work with law enforcement when necessary.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Secret Service is praising Murray for his work navigating "the unique challenges presented by the historic COVID-19 pandemic."

The agency also stated that Murray performed his duties while carrying out the agency's "integrated mission of providing protection to senior elected leaders and investigating crimes targeting our financial infrastructure."

"Jim embodies the meaning of service over self, and protected the families of U.S. Presidents like they were part of his own. We are incredibly grateful for his service to our country and our family," said President Joe Biden in a statement last Thursday.

The Secret Service is mostly in charge of protecting the safety of presidents, their families, and other high-level US officials.

However, over the last few weeks, "Secret Service agents have been roped into the House's January 6th probe into former President Donald Trump's role in allegedly inciting riots at the US Capitol," according to The Verge.

In recent days, the Secret Service has been the focus of people's attention after more details emerged about Mr. Trump's actions on Jan. 6, 2021. On the said date, "a mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol in an effort to stop the routine process of certifying the results of the presidential election," as per the New York Times report.

Read Also: Snap Inc. Files For Initial Public Offering

Murray Retires From the Secret Service

After a 27-year career with the Secret Service, Murray will retire from his post.

"Joining the Secret Service was the easiest decision I have ever made. Deciding it is time to move on, however, has been one of the most difficult." Murray wrote in a letter to agency employees on Thursday, as reported by the New York Times.

Former President Donald J. Trump appointed Murray in 2019 after Mr. Trump became disillusioned with the Secret Service's director at the time, Randolph D. Alles. The director of the Secret Service does not require Senate confirmation as he is directly appointed by the president.

According to the New York Times, in a letter, Murray told the homeland security secretary, Alejandro N. Mayorkas that he planned to retire and take a job outside of government.

Engadget reported that for some time now, Murray was looking to retire from public service, and that his "departure is unrelated to any recent scandals."

An agency spokesperson stated that Murray has accepted a position with the social media company Snap, which is known for its messaging app, Snapchat.

Related Article: Snap Announces Snapchat+: Here's What You Have to Know
Army, or BTS fans, all over the world are celebrating the ninth birthday of the boy group on July 9.

To mark BTS ninth anniversary as a group, Google, through its Arts and Culture platform, has released a new street view experiment in collaboration with the band, as per The Verge.

Viewers can see the group's favorite artworks through a virtual tour of BTS x Street Galleries exhibition.

BTS Members Curate a Virtual Gallery

With their selections placed in various public locations that will be easily recognized by BTS fans, each member has curated a virtual gallery.

You will find the UN General Assembly decorated by J-Hope. This is a place where BTS gave an address and shot a music video last year.

Meanwhile, fans will enjoy Seoul's Namdaemun as RM guides them through the place. This is where BTS performed for 2021's Global Citizen Live festival.

Some BTS members, including leader RM, are known art aficionados. Others, on the other hand, haven't yet been as public about their tastes in art.

In the virtual tour, viewers will find a photo of a rowboat with V's comment "my kind of jam."

Meanwhile, Jin wrote of Antonio Corradini's Adonis: "Everyone knows I'm handsome, just like this hunky Adonis,"

On the other hand, Jungkook commented "I love taking photos of the clouds because each cloud is completely different to the next," on a photo.

Viewers might experience minor glitches however, the virtual tour provides an "interesting look at each member's artistic interests mixed with a healthy dose of personality, according to The Verge.

A number of online tours of famous galleries can be found in the Arts & Culture platform. Other tourist attractions, including the Alhambra and the Pyramids of Giza, are also part of the platform.

Read Also: [VIDEO] Boston Dynamics Robots Dance to the Tune of BTS Song

Google, YouTube Commemorate BTS anniversary

YouTube has been hosting a "#MyBTStory challenge" for the past month. The platform invited fans of BTS to share their favorite memories of the band's nine-year career.

While the anniversary is on July 9, YouTube is wrapping up with a special tribute video to the BTS ARMY on the band's YouTube Channel on July 13.

In addition, Google is continuing to collaborate with BTS as the company launched two delightful new additions.

To start things off for BTS anniversary, Google Search has added a new easter egg. As per 9to5Google, "simply head to Google.com and search for "BTS," and on the search results page you should see a flashing purple heart."

When you click it, the page will be flooded with a never-ending stream of purple balloons. Once you tap or click one of the normal balloons, it will "pop and leave a splash of purple on the page."

You'll find a heart-shaped balloon occasionally. There is a flashing microphone inside. If you pop one of these balloons, you'll hear an audio clip from one of the band members saying "I purple you."

"I purple you" was coined in 2016 by band member V. According to him "purple means I will trust and love you for a long time."

In addition to the audio, you'll find a handwritten message from one of the band members. The message is directed to the BTS ARMY to celebrate the group's anniversary.

Related Article: BTS Dance Lessons Coming to Apple Fitness+ Next Week
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.
With the imminent release of its first full-color photos and spectroscopic data, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), will soon unveil unparalleled and in-depth views of the cosmos.

First Glimpse of Through the Eyes of James Webb Space Telescope

NASA said that the first photographs and spectroscopic observations will be made once each of Webb's instruments has been calibrated, examined, and given the all-clear by its science and engineering teams.

The Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), the third of the observatory's four scientific instruments, just underwent calibration and testing, as per Space.com. The Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), Near Infrared Camera (NIRCAM), and Fine Guidance Sensor/Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS) are among Webb's instruments. Webb can conduct observations in 17 different modes with these four instruments.

Read More: James Webb Space Telescope to Investigate Orion Nebula's Stellar Nursery, Trapezium Cluster

Targets of the James Webb Space Telescope for Its First Observations

NASA said at 10:30 a.m. EDT on July 12, NASA will begin a livestream in which the first observations will be made available. Both the agency website and social media will have access to each image at the same time.

The list of cosmic objects that Webb focused on for these first observations is listed below. They also mark the official start of Webb's general science activities. An international committee made up of members from NASA, ESA, CSA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute chose these targets.

Carina Nebula. It is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the universe. It can be found in the southern constellation Carina, 7,600 light-years away.

SMACS 0723. A deep field look into both the extremely distant and intrinsically faint galaxy populations is made possible by the massive foreground galaxy clusters that magnify and distort the light of objects behind them.

Southern Ring Nebula. A planetary nebula, also known as the "Eight-Burst", is an expanding cloud of gas that surrounds a dying star. Its diameter is almost half a light-year and its distance from Earth is almost 2,000 light-years.

Stephan's Quintet. It is located about 290 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus.

WASP-96 b (spectrum). It is a massive planet outside of our solar system that is primarily made of gas. Nearly 1,150 light-years away from Earth, the planet makes an orbit around its star every 3.4 days. It was discovered in 2014 and has almost half the mass of Jupiter.

A Great Milestone for the James Webb Space Telescope

Engadget noted that the official start of the observatory's broad science activities is a significant milestone for the observatory. The goal is to provide us with more precise photographs and data about the earlier stars and galaxies as well as exoplanets that might be able to support life.

The Webb required several months to journey to its destination after its launch in December and prepare for full operation.

Related Article: NASA Gives Hints on What the First Photos of James Webb Space Telescope Will Include
Roseau, June 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As part of the Commonwealth of Dominicas aims to become the first climate-resilient country in the world by 2030, as announced by the country's Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit following the devastation ravaged on the island nation by Hurricane Maria in 2017, the nation is actively investing in sustainable development projects. These include developing and enhancing its renewable energy capabilities, as well as sustainable housing, healthcare and educational facilities.

The Commonwealth of Dominica already obtains 28% of its energy requirements from renewable energy sources such as hydropower and wind. However, it currently has a small power system that relies heavily on diesel to produce electricity. The average price of electricity on the island is amongst the highest in the world, close to US $0.33/kWh and customers are exposed to the volatility of international oil prices.

In March 2019, the World Bank approved a US$27 million project to support the construction of a 7MW small geothermal power plant in the Rosseau Valley area of Dominica, which aims to increase the share of renewables, diversify the countrys energy matrix, and identify a clear road map for private sector investment in geothermal development.

Geothermal power plants essentially work the same as coal or nuclear power plant, the main difference being the heat source. With geothermal, the Earths heat replaces the boiler of a coal plant or the reactor of a nuclear plant. The hotter the resource, the less fluid needs to flow from the ground to take advantage of it, and the more useful it is. Brimming with hot springs, geysers, and volcanic activity where the Earth is particularly hot just below the surface, Dominica is the perfect location to manifest geothermal energy.

The Geothermal Power Plant shows Dominicas commitment toward resilience. Projects like the geothermal plant are putting the Nature Isle ahead of the world in combatting climate change while relieving the nation of its reliance on imported fossil fuels, said Micha Rose Emmett, CEO of the world's leading government advisory and marketing firm, CS Global Partners

The Geothermal Risk Mitigation Project will significantly lower electricity costs in Dominica and increase the share of renewable energy in the countrys energy mix from 25 to 51%, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 38,223 tons of CO2 per year.

The Dominica Geothermal Development Company Ltd (DGDC) is implementing the project and is financed by a US $17.2 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA), US $9.95 million from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), as well as grants from the UKs Department for International Development  US $10 million from DFID and US $2 million from the SIDS DOCK Initiative  and technical assistance from the Government of New Zealand and the Agence Francaise de Developpement. Economic Diversification Fund proceeds from the countrys Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme are also providing part of the funding.

The DGDC has decided to build a binary cycle power plant, which whilst more costly than alternative geothermal plant models, is the most environmentally friendly and accordingly, the long-term benefits accrued by not causing pollution, far outweigh the additional cost.

Work on the geothermal plant is well underway, and in February 2021, the Government signed a US $12.5 million contract with an Iceland-based company to drill two wells. Dr Vince Henderson- the Parliamentary Representative for the Grand Bay Constituency and Minister for Planning, Economic Development, Climate Resilience, Sustainable Development, and Renewable Energy of Dominica recently visited the site to observe the progress of the project and confirmed that the completion of the geothermal project is to take around 18 months, with the plant expected to be operational by the end of 2023.

The geothermal plant will have a substantial and positive impact on the islands national advancement and the lives of its citizens. In addition to the creation of local jobs related to the construction and maintenance of the plant, the Government is hoping to use the energy generated to power 23,000 homes with clean geothermal energy, which represents approximately 90 per cent of Dominicas entire population. It will also provide electricity to the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, which in turn will encourage foreign exchange.

About Dominicas Citizenship by Investment Programme

Though small in size, Dominica is considered the best second citizenship to invest in, according to an independent study by the Financial Times PWM publication, which particularly highlighted the programmes stringent due diligence, efficient times and affordability. After applicants pass the due diligence checks, citizenship hopefuls then choose to either invest in real estate or contribute to a government fund. The latter is known as the Economic Diversification Fund (EDF), and it sponsors public and private sectors in Dominica that need financial support or have economic potential, such as the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Project.

Each eligible person to become a citizen of Dominica adds at least USD 100,000 to the EDF. If they apply jointly as a family, which is possible under Dominicas Citizenship by Investment Programme, these contributions amount to USD 200,000 for a family of four and another USD 25,000 for any additional dependents. Ultimately, the money goes towards modernising the local infrastructure, schools, and hospitals, and even towards developing thriving industries like tourism and IT.

Successful applicants, often within three months, attain the rights that come with Dominican citizenship, like travel to over 75 per cent of the world, including key business hubs like China and increased business prospects and the ability to pass citizenship on for generations to come.

Considering the flow of foreign investment through programmes like citizenship by investment, Dominica is prepared to set long-term goals that exceed sustainability expectations on a global scale.

The government of Dominica has allocated a part of the revenue generated from the Citizenship by Investment Programme to fulfil the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, which include improving marine life, forest management, and youth and women-led grassroots movements for better land stewardship. Additionally, Citizenship by Investment funds have provided a much-needed lifeline in rebuilding, focusing on housing through Dominicas housing revolution. The project aims to build over 5,000 hurricane-proof homes across the island for displaced families.

Accordingly, those applicants who pass the vetting process and are allowed to invest can rest assured that their contribution is channelled towards the betterment of their new home country and the lives of their fellow citizens.
HOUSTON, July 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Paris Tribunal judiciaire has issued a decision, recognizing an award rendered in favor of renowned Houston entrepreneur, economist, academic, educator and philanthropist Dr. Maya Dangelas, and her two U.S. Companies. The award ordered the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam to pay to Dr. Dangelas and her two U.S. Companies the majority of their fees and costs in the jurisdiction phase of an arbitration against Viet Nam. The decision of the Paris Tribunal judiciaire allows Dr. Dangelas and her two U.S. Companies to seek to enforce the award upon the assets of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. In parallel, the arbitration will now proceed to the merits phase. Dr. Dangelas, the Chairwoman of Tan Tao Energy Corporation, U.S. Global Institute, Inc., and Angels Company, Inc., is breaking her silence, she said:

"This is the fight of my life against corruption, bribery, extortion and money laundering of tens of billions of dollars taken and stolen from American and other foreign investors in Vietnam by Nguyen Tan Dung, the then Prime Minister of Vietnam. I am calling on all American and other foreign investors to bravely stand up for what is right and fight for their investments that were unjustly stolen. Many financiers were threatened and extorted, and thus gave up all the money they had saved and invested in Vietnam business ventures and opportunities. My voice and actions through this arbitration shall serve as a wake-up call to all of the wrongdoing so that American and other foreign investors can feel secure and trust that investing in Vietnam is a safe and wise investment choice."

Dr. Dangelas further added:

"We launched these proceedings in September 2019 against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for lost investment and lost profit damages due to the misconduct of its then Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung. The Vietnamese Government, led by the then Vietnam Prime Minister, illegally terminated the Tan Tao Energy Corporation's Power Plant Project, after approximately $340 million had already been invested, resulting in billions of dollars of economic loss by both Vietnam and the U.S. investors."

Dr. Dangelas continues to explain:

"This award will help to stop government corruption and hold the Socialist Republic of Vietnam accountable for the misdoings of its then Prime Minister, Nguyen, Tan Dung. We must provide a level playing field for current and future investors and ensure foreign investment laws between the United States and other foreign countries such as Vietnam are respected and hold those accountable who do not play by the rules.

"Here is our saga: on July 15, 2007, the government of Vietnam agreed to create an investment project for an industrial park, urban area power plant, and deep seaport in Kien Luong District with Tan Tao Investments. Nine years into the project, in March 2016, Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung requested the removal of the Kien Luong Thermal Power Complex without justification, after an update to the National Power Development Plan from 2011 to 2020 with Visions Extended to 2030. This removal excluded the project from the list pf power projects to be put into operation during 2016-2030 and prevented its advancement, thus violating the treaty between U.S. and Vietnamese Government by the then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. I am seeking and demanding damages in violation of the international obligations of Vietnam to U.S. Investors via the misconduct of its then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung who was serving his own interests. I am seeking an award in an amount of not less than US $2.5 billion.

Through my companies, the Kien Luong Thermal Complex would have created an economic boost of countless billions of dollars which would have provided employment and educational opportunities for the underserved in Vietnam and the United States. This arbitration matter is not only a legal case for me, but it is the cause of my lifetime."

The Kien Luong Power Plant Arbitration was demanded under the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Paris is the seat of arbitration due to its worldwide recognition as a leading forum for international arbitration.

Dr. Dangelas finally confides:

"The United States, and in particular, Houston, has been my home and the center of my life and is the place where my family members and I have finally found safety and protection. In this country, I have found the most valuable gifts that can be bestowed upon an immigrant in a foreign land: love and acceptance. Most importantly, I am forever grateful to America for giving me opportunities, not only to be able to support myself and my family, but also for allowing me to give back to America by providing employment opportunities, academic scholarships, and promoting scientific development. I draw inspiration from the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta: 'I alone cannot change the world, but [together with you] can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.'"

###

About Dr. Maya Dangelas

Dr. Dangelas was born and educated in Vietnam. From 1992 to 2011, she worked diligently to bring business and academic opportunities to Vietnam through her enterprises: Tan Tao Group, Tan Tao Corporation, Tan Tao Investment and Industry Corporation, and Tan Tao Energy Corporation ("Tan Tao Companies"). Dr. Dangelas holds a doctoral degree in higher education and resides in Houston, Texas. She was recently named "Honorary Professor of Academic Union, Oxford."
WASHINGTON, July 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit 2022 took place on June 28-30 in Washington, D.C., with religious freedom advocates from around the world in attendance. Two breakout sessions at the summit addressed the Tai Ji Men case a case of violations of religious freedom and human rights in Taiwan that has lasted for over 25 years.



The summit was chaired by former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, bringing together global religious, political, and academic leaders, including Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, U.S. Congressman French Hill, Member of Parliament of the UK Fiona Bruce, Member of Finnish Parliament Paivi Rasanen, as well as religious freedom defenders and victims of religious persecution. The event, attended by approximately 1,000 people, aimed to promote religious freedom and human rights protection around the world.

On June 30, the Action Alliance to Redress 1219 organized a breakout session under the theme of "The 2022 Review of Taiwan's Implementation of the Two UN Human Rights Covenants and the Tai Ji Men FORB Case .

A film was presented at the beginning of the meeting, featuring the international review of Taiwans third national report on UN human rights covenants (the ICCPR and ICESCR) by nine international human rights experts in May 2022. The conclusion of the film represented the views of many scholars: The two covenants have been in force in Taiwan for 13 years. However, they simply exist in name. Human rights are not being respected in government agencies. Over the years, the international reviewers' concluding observations and recommendations have not been taken seriously. The basic human rights guaranteed by the two covenants, such as freedom of religion, have yet to be implemented.

Charlotte Lee, an attorney in Taiwan and a representative of the Action Alliance to Redress 1219, pointed out the violations of the two covenants in the Tai Ji Men case , such as the fact that Taiwans National Taxation Bureau issued ill-founded tax bills to Tai Ji Men and treated Tai Ji Men differently from other martial arts and religious groups, which violated the protection of equal rights and the principle of non-discriminatory treatment under Articles 2 and 26 of the ICCPR and Article 2 of the ICESCR. She also indicated other violations of the two covenants, including the prosecutor's investigation, which resulted in cruel treatment of the master and disciples of Tai Ji Men, a violation of Article 7 of the ICCPR.

Alessandro Amicarelli , president of the London-based European Federation for Freedom of Belief, visited Taiwan before and was invited to teach courses on human rights and religious freedom there. He praised Taiwan's incorporation of the two international covenants on human rights into Taiwan's domestic law in 2009. This is a very significant step towards full democracy in Taiwan, he said, adding that the final recommendations of the third review of the two covenants in May of this year failed to mention freedom of religion. He noted that since the Tai Ji Men case is still unresolved, he and other scholars and human rights activists would continue their efforts to urge the Taiwanese government to improve by organizing monthly seminars and publishing articles and books.

Dr. Donald Westbrook , a lecturer for the Library & Information Science Department at San Jose State University, USA, visited Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in Los Angeles in February 2022, which allowed him to gain an even deeper understanding of the beliefs, practices, and community of this group. He stated, I come to you today primarily as a religious studies scholar and teacher who is most disappointed about the ongoing injustice in Taiwan with respect to this case. I say this with respect to the tax case, certainly, but also in light of confiscated sacred land in Taiwan and the clear infringement on human rights and religious freedom.

Regarding the protection of freedom of religion or belief, he stated, "But making this a lived (and legal) reality, needless to say, can be an entirely different manner, as others have already addressed in connection to Taiwans domestic implementation of two human rights covenants. In particular, the failure to adequately address freedom of religion or belief (FORB) and the rights of taxpayers is disappointing as much as it is perplexing."

Another breakout session on the Tai Ji Men case focused on the theme "Tai Ji Men: International Ambassadors of Peace and Goodwill and Their FORB Case."

Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, zhang-men-ren (grandmaster) of Tai Ji Men, delivered a video message, emphasizing, Among the rights that human beings are born with, the main and most important one is the right to freedom of religion or belief. We believe that conscience, which is the core essence of faith, will serve as a talisman in defending peoples rights to religious freedom. Life is a series of struggles and exploration. Although our time on this planet is limited, through faith, our conscience and innate kindness will be awakened, motivating us to unite hands with more people inspired by compassion and care, to unite and sincerely support one another. To attain harmony and peace among people, between humans and nature, and between humans and other living things, we must take positive action and reflect on ourselves daily and never give up." He also encouraged global citizens to defend freedom of religion or belief around the world, bravely temper their spirituality, and move forward for true peace and sustainability for all.

A movie titled Who Stole Their Youth? The Tai Ji Men Case in Taiwan was presented during the forum. The movie, written and directed by Prof. Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist and the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), answers three questions: What is Tai Ji Men? What is the Tai Ji Men case? Why the protests?

The film was followed by the speech of Marco Respinti , director in charge of Bitter Winter magazine. He praised Taiwan, saying, "Taiwan is a beautiful country, inhabited by beautiful people, great people, great culture, great food." He also pointed out that Tai Ji Men is an organization totally dedicated to spreading peace, love, and harmony in the world. And this movement has been falsely accused of an awful crime of tax evasion. The serious consequences of these blatant lies remain. He noted that the Tai Ji Men community has been deprived of their freedom of religion or belief and advocated for an immediate redress of the injustice: "We need a decision from the Taiwanese state to end this case, because there is no understandable reason to keep that on. There is no legal reason for Tai Ji Men to be curtailed from its fundamental freedom, religious freedom. The solution must come and must be political."

Dr. Holly Folk , professor of humanities and social sciences at Western Washington University, has visited Taiwan many times and loves Taiwan. She said that she was not surprised that the case happened in Taiwan and that her remarks are not an attack against Taiwan. She stated, What Tai Ji Men has faced happens very often, in many countries, even in first world democracies. Religious minorities very often face a distinct type of harassment through bureaucratic regulation. The tax case has been used to erode the financial situation, membership and the morale of the Tai Ji Men community. It's also been used to send the group into permanent legal ambiguity. And that is the point. And that is something that has happened to other groups around the world as well, she added, emphasizing, If a religious minority is attacked as a cult or a dangerous social organization, the same strategies are very, very easily activated against secular organizations, against environmentalists, against people pushing for LGBT equality. In other words, everybody, secular and religious, has a stake in this game.

Pamela Chen, a representative of the Tai Ji Men dizi (disciples), shared her experience as a victim of religious persecution. When the Tai Ji Men case began, she had just graduated from college, and she risked being followed, bugged, and detained by the prosecutorial and investigative authorities, bravely serving as a contact person with the defense lawyers for the Tai Ji Men case. At the time, she felt as if the White Terror had reappeared. Twenty-five years later, the persecution is still going on. Now a mother, Pamela understands that as a victim she must be braver and stronger, and she brings her daughter along to promote reform in Taiwan to help it become a truly free and democratic country where human rights prevail.

The issue of human rights violations in the Tai Ji Men case has attracted a lot of attention at the IRF Summit, where Tai Ji Men members introduced the case to attendees from around the world and invited them to co-sign a petition calling for a solution to the Tai Ji Men case. It is stated in the petition: "We join Tai Ji Men in respectfully asking the government of Taiwan, whose commitment to democracy in a region plagued by non-democratic regimes we appreciate and applaud, to return through a political act the confiscated sacred land to Tai Ji Men and publicly confirm that, as Taiwans Supreme Court stated, they never violated the law nor evaded taxes. It would be a small step for Taiwans government, but a crucial one to tell the world Taiwan is truly committed to freedom of religion or belief and to the protection of religious and spiritual minorities that were once persecuted by its authoritarian and post-authoritarian regimes." (A copy of the petition is available here.)

The petition was quickly signed by over 100 people, including Prof. Massimo Introvigne, managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) and editor-in-chief of Bitter Winter magazine; Rosita Soryte, representative of European Federation for Freedom of Belief; Marco Respinti, director in charge of Bitter Winter magazine; Dr. Donald Westbrook, a lecturer for the Library & Information Science Department at San Jose State University, USA; Dr. Holly Folk, professor of humanities and social sciences at Western Washington University; Dr. Alessandro Amicarelli, president of European Federation for Freedom of Belief; and others.

The organizers of these two forums encourage everyone to pay attention to the Tai Ji Men case and join others to sign a petition, hoping to help make Taiwan a true democracy that respects its peoples human rights and religious freedom so as to achieve the motto of the IRF Summit: Religious freedom for everyone, everywhere, all the time!

Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy : Tai Ji Men is an ancient menpai (similar to school) of qigong, martial arts, and self-cultivation. It has carried forward the wisdom of Daoist philosophy, one of the highest philosophies of humankind. It is an international nonprofit cultural organization. Its contemporary zhang-men-ren (grandmaster), Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze established the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in 1966, and since then it has grown to 15 academies worldwide.

Dr. Hong teaches his dizi (similar to disciples) methods to achieve physical, mental, and spiritual balance, and tens of thousands of families have benefited from his teaching. At Tai Ji Men, martial arts and wisdom have been passed down from the shifu (master) to his dizi. Through this time-honored tradition, the shifu and dizi promote the Tai Ji Men culture and martial arts around the world while embodying what is true, good, and beautiful as well as spreading the ideas of conscience, love, and peace. Over the past half-century, the shifu and dizi have self-funded trips to over 300 cities in 101 nations to conduct more than 3,000 cultural performances and exchanges and have been recognized as  International Ambassadors of Peace and Goodwill .

Media Contact:

Lily Chen

Representative

info@taijimenla.org

626-202-5268

http://www.taijimen.org/TJM2016G_ENG/index.php

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8ec2c8c4-bd12-45c4-a971-b188ce910181. The photo is also available at Newscom, www.newscom.com, and via AP PhotoExpress.
Mooresville, July 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mooresville, North Carolina -

North Carolina based firm PeopleSuite Talent Solutions would like to reach out to businesses in the area and nationwide that may be looking for a reputable search firm. The firm is deeply cognizant of the gravity of the decisions that it brokers between employers and the talent they hire. They know that these decisions can impact the growth of a business and the career path of the individual behind the business. As such, PeopleSuite has created a consultative process to ensure that the outcome of every decision they make results in success for all parties involved. Their website can be found at https://www.peoplesuite.com.



Partnering with PeopleSuite comes with a number of benefits. To begin with, it includes access to a dedicated senior level search team with the tools and experience to conduct searches both expertly and efficiently. They make it a point to deliver on their promises with no exceptions. PeopleSuite provides a candidate portfolio of qualified professionals for each position, and once the candidates are placed, they conduct ongoing follow-up to ensure each performs as expected. The firm provides timely updates with customized, in depth weekly reports. Perhaps most important is their commitment to treating every candidate with respect and their transparent search process. Overall, the PeopleSuite team works hard to identify industry changing talent whose career aspirations meet their clients requirements.



Our approach is a blend of science and art, the firm says. While laser-focused on speed, delivery and detailed requirements, our team of seasoned professionals keeps a thoughtful eye on your unique story and culture. Our journey began in 2004 when our founder envisioned a consultative search practice that could separate itself from the pervasive Book it, Bill it, Fill it industry mentality. To attract the best talent and to identify the right person, for the right client at the right time, he knew you needed to get passionate about both the art and science of human relationships.



PeopleSuites reach extends across the country, meaning they have an incredibly deep pool of candidates to choose from. They identify their clients needs then pick out candidates who they believe have the skills and experience needed to meet said needs. While they do have a deep understanding of the industries that they work in, they are not bound by restrictive off-limits lists that hamper the efforts of larger firms, and they have the ability to reach talent that others would not have access to. Read more about the firm at https://www.peoplesuite.com/our-story.



The firm has a number of case studies on its website that showcase the effectiveness of PeopleSuites methods. A client, a private equity firm in need of a CEO with industry experience, made use of PeopleSuites services in one example. The case study says, The client wanted a well-regarded retail/e-commerce executive with superb merchandising and leadership skills, who could drive sales significantly and expand on this e-commerce companys footprint. We needed an executive who could get buy-in and navigate any negativity once he or she was in place. Leadership was key. Once hearing from the client about what was needed on the technical skills and soft skills, our network and industry knowledge immediately enabled us to identify four candidates, who met all the needs for this CEO role. Because PeopleSuite is well-known in executive search, these candidates took our phone calls. We knew their reputation and interviewed them thoroughly. Our compelling story about the opportunity led them to want to be considered for the role. We know that the story we present about each opportunity is so critical in getting talented executives to consider a new role.



The client was pleased to have a number of choices and selected a client who was very well known in retailing. Industry pundits reported being pleased that such a revered candidate would be heading the e-commerce company. The company did an IPO in less than a year, and as a result of PeopleSuites placement of a successful candidate, the client chose to have PeopleSuite help them find another CEO for a new acquisition.



For more information on PeopleSuites services, visit https://www.peoplesuite.com/services. Interested parties are welcome to reach out to their representatives directly as well.

###

For more information about PeopleSuite Talent Solutions, contact the company here:



PeopleSuite Talent Solutions

Michelle Preston

(704) 746-9931

michelle@peoplesuite.com

222 N Main St

Mooresville, NC 28115
NEW YORK, July 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Unilever PLC (Unilever or the Company) (NYSE: UL). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.



The investigation concerns whether Unilever and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

Unilever is a British multinational consumer goods company which sells more than 400 products in over 190 countries, including Ben & Jerrys ice cream, which they acquired in 2000. In an attempt to preserve Ben & Jerrys longstanding Social Mission, Unilevers acquisition of Ben & Jerrys included allowing for an independent board of directors, which was given primary responsibility for preserving and enhancing the objectives of the companys Social Mission (the B&J Board).

More than 20 years after the acquisition, Ben & Jerrys remains a wholly owned subsidiary of Unilever with an independent board addressing the companys Social Mission. Since the acquisition, the B&J Board continued its Social Mission by engaging in promotions and advocacy across a host of issues concerning the environment, voter turnout, fair trade, and genetically modified organisms. Today, the B&J Board, chaired by Anuradha Mittal (Mittal), consists primarily of social activists who joined long after Unilevers acquisition.

The B&J Board passed a resolution in July 2020 to end sales of Ben & Jerrys products in areas that the B&J Board considers to be Palestinian territories illegally occupied by Israel. According to Mittal, Ben & Jerrys CEO Matthew McCarthy (McCarthy) chose not to operationalize the resolution immediately, thus temporarily thwarting the B&J Boards decision. During the morning of July 19, 2021, Unilever and its hand-picked CEO McCarthy operationalized the B&J Boards resolution to boycott Israel. Ben & Jerrys announced on its website and through its Twitter account that, upon the expiration of the current licensing agreement by which its products had been distributed in Israel for decades, Ben & Jerrys would end sales of its ice cream in Occupied Palestinian Territory, but Ben & Jerrys would purportedly continue to sell its products in Israel.

The decision by the B&J Board appeared to arise out of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. The BDS movement is a pro-Palestinian movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. The BDS movements objective is to coerce Israel into making concessions to the Palestinians by using boycotts and the like to exert economic and political pressure. Additionally, and of particular significance here, 35 U.S. states have adopted laws, executive orders, or resolutions aimed at discouraging boycotts, divestment, and sanctions of Israel (Anti-BDS Legislation).

During the morning of July 22, 2021, CNBC reported that the states of Texas and Florida were examining Ben & Jerrys actions in connection with the states Anti-BDS Legislation. In addition to condemnation of Ben & Jerrys boycott by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, CNBC reported that Texas State Comptroller Glenn Hegar, who controls billions of dollars in assets for Texas public pension funds, had already told his office to take action. Similarly, the state of Floridas CFO Jimmy Patronis (Patronis), who controls Floridas public pension funds, told CNBC that his office was already discussing the issue. In a letter reportedly sent to Ben & Jerrys CEO, Patronis wrote: It is my belief that Ben & Jerrys brazen refusal to do business in Israel will result in your placement on the Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel List. The letter also stated that Florida would then be prohibited from investing in Ben & Jerrys or its parent company, Unilever. Being added to the list also meant that Unilever would not be able to enter or renew contracts with the state or any municipality in Florida.

Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com
Twitter chief counsel warned personnel not to tweet, slack, or criticize the takeover transaction after Elon Musk abandoned the $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter.

Twitter Chief Told Staff to Avoid Posting Criticisms Regarding Twitter Transactions

Employees have been told not to discuss the transaction publicly after Elon Musk said on Twitter that he wants to cancel the $44 billion agreement to buy the firm.

The business advised staff to avoid tweeting, slacking, or posting any criticism regarding the acquisition deal in a document allegedly delivered to staff on July 8 by Twitter chief counsel Sean Edgett.

Twitter's staff instantly sent some rather amusing tweets about the issue when it was revealed on Friday, July 8, that Musk wanted out of the arrangement. One person tweeted that they had "unilaterally canceled my mortgage" and were relieved they were no longer responsible for paying it, referencing that it's quite unclear if Musk can just say no and go.

Another tweet mentioned a staff vacation to Disney that was postponed in order to save money after the Musk transaction was made public.

Elon Musk Cancels Twitter Acquisition; Twitter Responds with a Lawsuit

The billionaire's legal team reportedly filed a statement with the SEC stating that "the Tesla CEO intends to cancel the agreement because of "false and misleading promises" made by Twitter."

The false and deceptive claims are believed to be related to the number of fake accounts and automated accounts on the site and how the social media goliath counts them. According to Musk's legal team, the company intentionally withheld crucial facts, which led to the Tesla CEO being deceived.

However, Musk's withdrawal has prompted a response from Twitter, and the social media behemoth is reportedly preparing to file a lawsuit, according to The Verge.

According to a tweet from Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor, the Twitter Board is dedicated to completing the acquisition on the price and conditions agreed upon with Mr. Musk, and the company intends to take legal action to enforce the merger agreement.

The Tesla CEO would incur a significant loss if the agreement were to be terminated since both Twitter and Musk have committed to pay a $1 billion termination fee if one side withdraws for a particular cause.

Since his letter withdrawing from the agreement was made public with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk hasn't tweeted since then. His most recent tweet, on Thursday, expressed his enthusiasm for Tesla's product development.

Read Also: Tesla's Starlink Satellite Installation Expands at Supercharger Locations

Elon Musk Lawsuit Last Month

Back in June, Tesla's CEO also faced lawsuits concerning pyramiding scheme allegations by a crypto investor.

Elon Musk was presented before a federal court in Manhattan on June 16 for a class-action lawsuit that accuses the billionaire and his company of operating a pyramid scheme.

Musk and his businesses were sued for allegedly engaging in unlawful racketeering to maintain high Dogecoin pricing. Musk raised the price and then let it decline.

The investor said that despite knowing that the meme cryptocurrency had almost no value, Tesla and SpaceX's CEOs encouraged Dogecoin to capitalize on its trade.

The lawsuit also claims that Musk operated and manipulated the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for financial gain, publicity, and fun.

Related Article: Bots are Twitter's Problem and Not China, Says Elon Musk
In front of the Viaplay camera, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris all had words of praise for all the Dutch fans who had come to the Austrian Grand Prix. They enjoy the great atmosphere in the grandstands while racing.

0

Alonso: Very nice to see the Dutch fans and the grandstands with an amazing atmosphere and a lot of passion and we enjoy that even if the support is for Red Bull or for Max or whatever. I think the whole formula one community enjoys when you see this kinda of atmosphere. Hopefully we put a good show for them and they enjoy the race.

Norris can also get used to the grandstands being coloured all orange. McLaren is driving an orange car, so it also feels a bit like a helping hand. "My second home race, actually my third home race after Belgium, then Zandvoort as well. Its always a lot of fun. Fans are crazy. The music is normally good

Finally Hamilton says: When you go to Zandvoort and you see the Orange Army. It's amazing, it's great to see so many people come out in force and be so passionate and supportive. We've experienced times where we have not had people at those races and it was empty. It felt like a practice day. And so when you have the crowds there. A few of those really great countries that we get crowds, like Zandvoort and Silverstone those really are highlights of the years.."

Criticism of Verstappen fans too

Not everywhere Max Verstappen fans received compliments after Friday's race at the Red Bull Ring. Britain's Sky Sports, for example, was unhappy with the spectators who cheered when Lewis Hamilton drove into the wall during Q3 in Austria. The drivers, however, seem to have either not noticed or simply weren't paying attention.
Sebastian Vettel has once again got himself into trouble and must report to the stewards. This is not so much to do with an incident during the sprint race in Austria, but everything to do with his alleged behaviour during the drivers' briefing.

0

The Aston Martin driver must report to the stewards at 6pm for statements he allegedly made during the driver's briefing. The FIA believes he may have caused damage to the governing body by doing so.

Vettel must report to stewards

The FIA official document refers to articles in the regulations which speak of 'any words, deeds or writings which are morally damaging to the FIA, its bodies, members or executive officers, and in general the interests of motorsport and the values it represents.

The incident is said to have taken place after the qualifying session on Friday. It is not clear exactly what statements were involved, but it is not the first time someone has been called to account for a similar incident. Last year Christian Horner was called before the stewards after he criticised a marshal during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix.

Article continues under ad

Update | Vettel fined for leaving drivers' briefing without permission

The stewards have imposed a conditional fine of 25,000 on Vettel. The reason: he left the drivers' briefing without permission and expressed his frustration with the meeting. "Drivers at this level are role models for every driver around the world and in the opinion of the stewards in this case Vettel did not meet that standard," reads the FIA statement.

Vettel has since spoken to the race director and apologised, after which the stewards decided to impose the fine conditionally.
Xi extends condolences over passing of former Japanese PM Abe

Xinhua) 13:58, July 09, 2022

BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a message of condolence to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida over the passing of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

On behalf of the Chinese government and people, and in his own name, Xi expressed deep condolences over Abe's sudden and unfortunate passing, and offered sincere sympathies to the family of Abe.

Xi pointed out that Abe made efforts to improve China-Japan relations during his time in office and contributed positively to this endeavor.

Xi said he had reached important consensus with Abe on building a China-Japan relationship that meets the needs of the new era, adding that he deeply regrets the sudden passing of Abe.

The Chinese president said he stands ready to work with Prime Minister Kishida to continue developing a good-neighborly friendship and cooperation between China and Japan in accordance with the principles established in the four political documents between the two countries.

Also on Saturday, Xi and his wife, Professor Peng Liyuan, sent a message of condolence to Abe's wife Akie Abe to express their sympathies.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
Glencores Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (INO) has ordered a full fleet of Epiroc battery-electric equipment for use at the Onaping Depth Project in Ontario, Canada. The nickel and copper mine is located below the existing Craig mine and is being developed to start production in 2024.

The order also includes the capability for advanced automation solutions, including remote control.

Traditionally, mining machines are diesel-powered, though more and more mining companies are adding battery-electric machines to their fleets. The benefits with battery electrification are significant, including eliminating emissions in operations, reducing noise pollution, and lowering costs by lessening the need for ventilation and cooling when required; this is especially important as underground mines keep getting deeper.

Epiroc scored high on safety, design and testing of the entire battery system. Epiroc also offers large capacity batteries, uses a standard CCS charging protocol, has a battery swap system, and the designs are universal and compatible. Also, the batteries have integrated cooling systems and safety systems built into the design. Peter Xavier, Vice President of Glencores Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations

The ordered battery-electric equipment is manufactured in Orebro, Sweden. The 23 machines ordered include Scooptram loaders, Minetruck haulers, Boomer face drilling rigs, Boltec and Cabletec rock reinforcement rigs, and Simba production drilling rigs.

Scooptram loader

Minetruck hauler

Boomer face drilling rig

Cabletec rock bolting rig

Simba drill rig

The Simba rigs will be operated in part through tele-remote from the comfort of a control room.

All units will be equipped with Epirocs Rig Control System, making them ready for automation and remote control, and will also be installed with Epirocs telematics system, allowing for intelligent monitoring of machine performance and productivity in real-time.

Onaping Depth Project. Sudbury INO received full approval for further development of the Onaping Depth Project in 2017. This US$700-million deep mine project is located below the existing Craig Mine in Onaping, Ontario. When completed, Onaping Depth will provide Sudbury INO with a significant new source of high-grade nickel ore beyond year 2035.

The Onaping Depth project completed the highly customized underground headframe excavation in 2019. Work continues to be conducted in shaping the underground infrastructure for this future deep mine. The internal shaft, currently piloted and reamed to the 1915 level and finished at the 1260 level, will eventually extend to 2630 level1,430 meters (m) of total internal shaft length.

In addition, three substantial chambers each spanning 15m wide by 20m long by 10m high, were excavated to house the permanent hoisting infrastructure: 3,400 hp double drum production hoist, 4,500hp blair service hoist, and associated sheaves, which allowed for the full mobilization of construction crews.

Onaping Depth is intended to be a complete break from the traditional idea of underground mining. Real-time remote management, monitoring, and control will be done from the surface. Innovative safety systems will be integrated into the operation. The mine will feature mine-wide Wi-Fi communication between employees and from underground to surface. In some areas, miners will be removed from the working face utilizing autonomous mining equipment.

The entire fleet of mining equipment will feature battery-powered electric vehicles, eliminating diesel emissions and reducing noise pollution. Through using EVs, Onaping Depth is expected to reduce its energy usage by 44% for ventilation systems and by 30% for cooling equipment, compared to an equivalent diesel-fueled operation.

New technology will also be applied to critical ventilation and cooling systems where the ambient rock temperature can reach 40 C (104 F) at depth.

Earlier, Caterpillar tested the proof-of-concept battery electric R1300 at Sudbury INO with the machine running in trials alongside its diesel equivalent. Caterpillar used the insight gained from its proof-of-concept testing to develop the R1700 XEits first commercial battery-electric Load-Haul-Dump (LHD).




Korea's new coronavirus cases bounced back above 20,000 for the first time in 45 days Saturday, putting authorities on alert over a possible uptick amid the summer vacation season.







The country added 20,286 new COVID-19 infections, including 223 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,491,435, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.







Saturday's tally is up 963 from the previous day and nearly double the 10,712 reported a week ago. It also marks the first time the daily tally has surpassed 20,000 since May 25.







The country added 19 COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 24,624. The fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent.







The number of critically ill patients fell by one to 61, the KDCA said.







The country's case curve hit a peak in mid-March with more than 621,000 cases. The KDCA has said the pace of decline has recently slowed down amid waning immunity and eased social distancing rules.







On Friday, Korean health authorities said the country is undergoing a new wave of COVID-19 infections, citing the fast spread of the highly contagious mutation of the omicron strain.







Authorities said the spreading BA.5, a subvariant of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, is more infectious than the earlier mutations and allegedly resistant to the immunity from previous COVID-19 infections.







Korea is set to introduce a tighter plan to contain the COVID-19 resurgence by next week.







Of the 20,063 locally transmitted cases reported Saturday, Seoul accounted for 4,897 cases, with the surrounding Gyeonggi Province reporting 5,595 cases and Incheon logging 1,011 infections. The three areas accounted for 57.2 percent of all local infection cases. (Yonhap)


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NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP)  Chinas support for Russias war in Ukraine is complicating U.S.-Chinese relations at a time when they are already beset by rifts and enmity over numerous other issues, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Chinese counterpart on Saturday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed the U.S. for the downturn in relations and said that American policy has been derailed by what he called a misperception of China as a threat.

Many people believe that the United States is suffering from a China-phobia, he said, according to a Chinese statement. If such threat-expansion is allowed to grow, U.S. policy toward China will be a dead end with no way out.

In five hours of talks in their first-to-face meeting since October, Blinken said he expressed deep concern about Chinas stance on Russias actions in Ukraine and did not believe Beijings protestations that it is neutral in the conflict.

The talks had been arranged in a new effort to try to rein in or at least manage rampant hostility that has come to define recent relations between Washington and Beijing.

We are concerned about the PRCs alignment with Russia, Blinken told reporters after the meeting in the Indonesian resort of Bali. He said it is difficult to be neutral in a conflict in which there is a clear aggressor but that even it were possible, I dont believe China is acting in a way that is neutral.

The Chinese statement said the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on Ukraine but provided no details.

The Biden administration had hoped that China, with its long history of opposing what it sees as interference in its own internal affairs, would take a similar position with Russia and Ukraine. But it has not, choosing instead what U.S. officials see as a hybrid position that is damaging the international rules-based order.

Blinken said every nation, China included, stands to lose if that order is eroded.

The two men met a day after they both attended a gathering of top diplomats from the Group of 20 rich and large developing countries that ended without a joint call to end Russias war in Ukraine or plan for how to deal with its impacts on food and energy security.

However, Blinken said he believed Russia had come away from G-20 meeting isolated and alone as most participants expressed opposition to the Ukraine war. However, the ministers were unable to come to a unified G-20 call for an end to the conflict.

There was a strong consensus and Russia was left isolated, Blinken said of individual condemnations of Russias actions from various ministers, some of whom shunned conversations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

He noted that Lavrov had left the meeting early, possibly because he didnt like what he was hearing from his counterparts.

It was very important that he heard loudly and clearly from around the world condemnation of Russias aggression, Blinken said, adding: We see no signs whatsoever that Russia at his point is prepared to engage in diplomacy.

On China, Blinken said he and Wang discussed a range of contentious issues from tariffs and trade and human rights to Taiwan and disputes in the South China Sea that have all been complicated by the Chinese position on Ukraine.

Wang called on the U.S. to lift tariffs on imports from China as soon as possible, stop interfering in his country's internal affairs and refrain from harming its interests in the name of human rights and democracy. He also accused the U.S. of using salami-slicing tactics on Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its territory and says should come under its control.

Just two days earlier, the countries top military officers had faced off over Taiwan during a virtual meeting. Blinken said he stressed U.S. concerns with Chinas increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity near Taiwan and the vital importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He added that he had also raised human rights concerns regarding minorities in Tibet and in the western Xinjiang region.

Wang refuted some erroneous U.S. views on Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea, the Chinese statement said.

U.S. officials had said ahead of time they didnt expect any breakthroughs from Blinkens talks with Wang. But they said they were hopeful the conversation could help keep lines of communications open and create guardrails to guide the worlds two largest economies as they navigate increasingly complex and potentially explosive matters.

Were committed to managing this relationship, this competition responsibly as the world expects us to do, Blinken said.

The United States and China have staked out increasingly confrontational positions, including on Ukraine, that some fear could lead to miscalculation and conflict. The U.S. has watched warily as China has refused to criticize the Russian invasion, while condemning Western sanctions against Russia and accusing the U.S. and NATO of provoking the conflict.

At the G-20 meeting, Wang made an oblique reference to Chinas policy on global stability, saying to place ones own security above the security of others and intensify military blocs will only split the international community and make oneself less secure, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

On Thursday, Chinas joint chiefs of staff chairman Gen. Li Zuocheng upbraided his U.S. counterpart Gen. Mark Milley over Washingtons support for Taiwan.

Li demanded that the U.S. cease military collusion with Taiwan, saying China has no room for compromise on issues affecting its core interests."

The meeting between Li and Milley followed fiery comments by Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe at a regional security conference last month that was also attended by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Wei accused the United States of trying to hijack the support of countries in the Asia-Pacific region to turn them against Beijing, saying Washington is seeking to advance its own interests under the guise of multilateralism.

At the same meeting in Singapore, Austin said China was causing instability with its claim to Taiwan and its increased military activity in the area.

___

Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.
Tesla CEO Mr. Elon Musk announced his plans to buy social networking site Twitter in April for $44 billion but later put the acquisition on hold as he awaited more data about the spam bots on Twitter. While Musk said the deal was not out of question and could happen at a lower price, the world's richest person is now terminating the deal.

Musk's team, in a filing with USA's Securities and Exchange Commission, cites "material breach of multiple provisions" of the agreement and "false and misleading representations" by Twitter as the reasons for the deal's termination. The social network is also accused of not complying with its contractual obligations towards the deal.

The filing says that Musk repeatedly asked for data about the spam bots on Twitter to make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitters platform, but the company failed to provide this information.

Twitter sometimes ignored Musk's requests for this data, and sometimes it rejected them for "reasons that appear to be unjustified." The company also claimed to comply with Musk's requests sometimes by providing incomplete or unusable information. You can read the entire letter here.

In response, Twitter Chairman Mr. Bret Taylor said that the company's board is committed to closing the deal on the price and terms agreed upon by Musk, and it plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement.

The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.  Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022

Musk is obligated to pay a $1 billion break-up to Twitter as a part of the contract if he cannot complete the acquisition. Hence, he will have to make strong arguments to justify the pull-out to avoid paying the break-up fee to the social network.

This Twitter deal has been a rollercoaster ride since the beginning, and it remains to be seen if Twitter actually proceeds with a legal action to force Musk into completing the acquisition at the agreed price and terms, or if both parties end this saga with a settlement.

Source
The Nexus 4 was a groundbreaking phone  a near flagship for $300. Okay, it did have its quirks, e.g. no LTE support (though that wasnt as important back in 2012), storage was limited too. Instead of focusing on just one phone we wanted to look at the trends in Googles phone line-up.

We mentioned the price of the Nexus 4 and well see what happened to the flagship killer status of the series. This series is all about exploring a well recognized trait of a particular brand or series  and we think that software support is one of the defining features of the Nexus and Pixel phones.

The Nexus phones were affordable at first, especially if you waited a few months. The Nexus 4 dropped as low as $200 at one point. The Nexus 5 got price cuts as well. Then came the Nexus 6  its $650 price tag made many fans unhappy. It was still an excellent phone and it influenced Googles approach to handsets.

The following year in 2015 the Nexus line was split into two models that well call base and pro for consistency. That was also the last of the Nexus line, Google started fresh with the Pixel phones.

Those gradually increased in cost over the years, peaking in 2018 and 2019 with the Pixel 3 and 4 at $800 and Pixel 3 XL and 4 XL at $900. After that Google changed course and lately the price of the small model has been falling, going down to $600 with the Pixel 6. The Pixel 6 Pro is still $900, though.

Interestingly, the increased prices didnt hurt the performance of the Pixel phones on the market. The opposite, in fact, as Googles 2019 shipments surpassed previous years by quite a margin. Note that the image below shows cumulative shipments of all Pixel phones, but it clearly looked like Google is on the right path. The company allegedly had big plans for the Pixel 6 series too, planing to produce 7 million, more than any other series. However, Google isnt one to talk about sales, so we dont actually know how well the 6-series did (well have to wait for analysts to figure that out).

We will get back to pricing in a moment as we havent covered the Pixel a series whose main goal is to offer a Google phone on the cheap. How much would you pay for that fabled Google software support? Actually, how good is that support?

We tried to convey that through a chart. The red line shows the period in years during which a generation of phones received OS updates (including minor ones). The blue line is for the period during which security patches were issued.

On average, Google offers 3 years of OS updates. The Nexus 6 stands out, but that was actually an old update that arrived late  early on Android 7.1.1 was breaking Android Pay and it took Google a while to find a fix (meanwhile users were downgraded to 7.0).

The Pixel 3 generation also stands out  it got 4 years security patches instead of 3 years as originally planned. In fact, the last update for the two 2018 phones rolled out at the end of June this year (Android 12 arrived last year).

Note that the Pixel 4, 5 and 6 series currently run Android 12. The Pixel 4 and 4 XL will receive their last guaranteed OS update in October of this year. By the looks of it, that will be just long enough to get Android 13 installed.

Starting with the Pixel 6 generation, Google changed up the strategy a bit. It still promises only 3 years of OS update (competitors like Apple and Samsung offer more), but it committed to 5 years of security patches. According to the Help center, the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro will get their last guaranteed OS update in October 2024 and the last guaranteed security patch in October 2026. Guaranteed since, as you saw with the Pixel 3, there are some exceptions.

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Phone Nexus 4 Nexus 5 Nexus 6 Nexus

5X & 6P Pixel & XL Pixel

2 & XL Pixel

3 & XL Pixel

4 & XL Pixel

5 Pixel

6 & Pro Start OS version 4.2 4.4 5.0 6.0 7.1 8.0 9.0 10 11 12 End OS version 5.1.1 6.0.1 7.1.1 8.1 10 11 12 13 - - When? 2015 2015 2018 2017 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 OS updates 3 years 2 years 4 years 2 years 3 years 3 years 3 years 3 years 3 years 3 years Last security patch 2015 2015 2017 2018 2019 2020 2022 2022 2023 2026 Patches 3 years 2 years 3 years 3 years 3 years 3 years 4 years 3 years 3 years 5 years Price (base) $300 $350 $650 $380 $650 $650 $800 $800 $700 $600 Price (pro) $500 $770 $850 $900 $900 $900

Before we wrap up, lets have a quick look at the Pixel a phones. We have grouped the Pixel 3a and 4a as relatively small phones and the Pixel 3a XL, 4a 5G and 5a as larger phones (with 5G in the latest iterations). As you can see, the pricing is fairly stable at around $400 for the first group and $500 for the second.

We havent plotted software support on a chart since it would have made for a boring chart  the a phones get 3 years of OS updates and 3 years of security patches.

2019 2020 2021 Phone 3a & 3a XL 4a & 4a 5G 5a Start OS ver. 9 10 & 11 11 End OS ver. 12 - - When? 2022 2023 2024 OS updates 3 years 3 years 3 years Last security patch 2022 2023 2024 Patches 3 years 3 years 3 years Price (base) $400 $350 $450 Price (pro) $480 $500 $450

There is a Pixel 7 series coming later this year, but Google hasnt revealed too much about it yet. Considering previous models, however, we can say that the phones will probably get 3 years of guaranteed OS updates and 5 years of security patches. And we wouldnt be surprised if Google maintains the starting prices at the current levels either.
These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales.




Foreign Minister Park Jin said Saturday he plans to visit China at an early date for talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on bilateral and regional issues.







Park made the remark upon returning from a trip to the Indonesian resort island of Bali for the Group of 20 foreign ministers' meeting, which marked his debut on the multilateral diplomatic stage since taking office in May.







On the sidelines of the G20 meeting, Park and Wang on Thursday had their first in-person talks to discuss bilateral relations and issues of mutual concern, and they exchanged invitations to their respective countries, the minister said.







"I will visit China in the near future to continue S. Korea-China consultations," Park told reporters after arriving at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, about 30 kilometers west of Seoul.







He did not elaborate on the schedule. Seoul and Beijing commemorate the 30th anniversary of establishing their diplomatic relations next month.







Since taking office in May, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has focused on strengthening the alliance with the United States and vowed support for its Indo-Pacific strategy, widely seen as Washington's efforts to counter Beijing's growing clout in the region.







The move was interpreted as a departure from the previous Moon Jae-in administration's position of "strategic ambiguity" between its main ally U.S. and China, Seoul's largest trading partner.







During Thursday's talks, Park said the Yoon administration will prioritize diplomacy based on key values, such as freedom and human rights, and called for China's constructive role in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.







Wang said China is willing to work with the Seoul government and expressed hope for developing "strategic cooperative partnership." (Yonhap)






Samsung's Expert RAW camera app will get two new features with next update, release for older models delayed

Samsung has announced two new features for its Expert RAW camera app, which will be available for the users with the next update.

First is the Custom Preset feature, which will let users save their custom camera settings and use them to take pictures again. Second is the Save Format menu, which will allow users to save the shots captured through the Expert RAW app in RAW or JPEG format. Right now, the app stores the photos in both file formats, which could be inconvenient.

In addition to announcing new features, Samsung also said that the release of Expert RAW for the Galaxy S20 Ultra, Galaxy Note20 Ultra, and the Galaxy Z Fold2 has been delayed.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra

These smartphones were supposed to get Expert RAW support in H1 2022, but since it requires one full camera system update, the schedule has changed. However, Samsung is aiming to release Expert RAW for these devices by September.

While Samsung hasn't provided an exact date for Expert RAW's release for the S20 Ultra, Note20 Ultra, and Fold2, the company revealed that Expert RAW will only work with the wide and ultrawide units on the S20 Ultra, with no support for the telephoto lens.

Samsung says that's because the Expert RAW's Computational RAW is based on Bayer RAW, which the Galaxy S20 Ultra's Hybrid Optic 10x telephoto lens wasn't able to output the images in.

Source (in Korean)
News

featured

Precinct officials wanted for primary election; pay increase being considered

PDN FILE PHOTO Early-bird voters enter the Liguan Elementary School precinct to vote in the primary election Aug. 25, 2018.

The call is being put out for officials to work at voter precincts for the Aug. 27 primary election, and with low turnout so far, the $350 one-day stipend may be raised.

While the Guam Election Commission typically relies on local political parties to find officials for the primary, not enough applicants were received by the deadline.

When we sent out the letter to the parties, we invited them to be sending us official applications as they get them. So I thought we were doing well, up until a couple of weeks ago when I checked again, said Election Commission Executive Director Maria Pangelinan.

Each of the 67 precincts will have five officials to watch over the ballots on primary day, a total of 335.

The Republican and Democratic parties submitted applications for officials, but only 283 were received by the July 6 deadline and not all will be able to lock in for the job, according to the Guam Election Commission.

Open to public

With the deadline passing, members of the public are now able to apply and go through training with GEC.

You must be registered to vote in the district where you will work, and as of Friday, there are many openings in the villages of Inalahan, Mangilao, Tamuning and Yigo.

Besides the 335 officials, 80 alternates are needed, who will be paid their stipend if they get called in to work the primary.

Election Commission Chair Alice Taijeron during a board meeting earlier this month requested that the stipend pay be raised to $500 for precinct leaders and $400 for workers. According to a discussion between commissioners, the long hours required for the gig may be a deterrent for applicants, with work starting at 6 or 7 a.m. and possibly continuing until 1 a.m.

Precinct officials also have to remain on-site for most of the day, though food is provided for them. According to Pangelinan, once time for training is factored in, the $350 pay for one days work comes out to about $16 an hour.

She said she has permission from commissioners to request funding for a pay increase from the Legislature and will be making the request at an upcoming budget hearing.

The Election Commission is still waiting on a $609,000 allocation from the Legislature to run the primary and early, in-office voting.

Early voting for the primary opens July 28, at the Westin Resort Guam.

You can get a precinct official application from the Election Commission office at the Oka Building in Tamuning.

Find them online at: bit.ly/3ImKmcJ

Qualifications

Qualifications for the job listed on the GEC website are:

Must be a registered voter for the district in which the appointment is made. Must be able to read and write the English language, and demonstrate math and English competencies. Must not be holding or be a nominee for an elective office. Must not be an immediate relative of an elected official or candidate. (Immediate relative means: parent, step-parent, grandparent, step-grandparent, sibling, step-sibling, child, step-child, grandchild, step-grandchild, spouse, common-law or in-law). Must be able to follow instructions. Must be able to attend an instructional seminar. Must be able to pass a standardized examination of the elections laws. Must not be a director or deputy director of the executive branch, administrative director or assistant administrative director of the legislative or judicial branch.

Related
PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Guahan Academy Charter School

July schedule:

Monday-Friday: Summer school.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Daniel L. Perez Elementary School

Summer school 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday to Friday. Call 671-635-2177/0404.

Orientation at 10 a.m. at the cafeteria:

Aug. 2: Kindergarten students.

Aug. 3: second- and third-grade students.

Aug. 4: fourth- and fifth-grade students.

Faneyakan Sinipok program

CHamoru Immersion Program is open to all kindergarten students 5 years old by July 31, 8:30 a.m.-2:45 p.m. at P.C. Lujan Elementary. Transportation must be provided by parent or guardian.

Fill out an application and provide necessary documents at rb.gy/8uubxk, followed by interview. Families will need to commit to:

Active participation.

Parents and family members must take CHamoru immersion classes.

Provide eight hours of in-kind service to the program per month.

Contact 671-300-2498 or 671-300-1367 or email jsteria@gdoe.net.

SCHOLARSHIPS

GCC Allied Health scholarship

Take Care Inc. and the Guam Community College Allied Health Department are awarding ten $1,000 scholarships to Practical Nursing or Medical Assisting majors or students taking the Nurse Assistant course. Must be a resident of Guam with a 3.0 GPA or higher.

The 10 chosen awardees will receive $1,000 that will be applied directly to the students account. Deadline to apply is July 14. For more information contact the Financial Aid office at 671-735-5543/5544 or email financialaid@guamcc.edu.

GCC Foundation LGBTQ Leadership scholarship

Guam Community College students who self-identify as part of the LGBTQ community can apply for the LGBTQ Leadership scholarship. Must be a resident of Guam who is a full-time new or continuing student with a GPA of 2.5 or higher at GCC.

Two awardees will receive $500 for the Fall 2022 semester. Deadline to apply is Aug. 31. For more information contact the Financial Aid office at 671-735-5543/5544 or email financialaid@guamcc.edu.

Atilana Rambayon scholarship

Guam Community Colleges Atilana Rambayon scholarship is open to full-time or part-time new or continuing students who are a single parent pursuing a GCC Associate degree program. Must have a 3.0 GPA or higher, be a graduate of the GCC GED or Adult Education program and is a resident of Guam.

The awardee will receive $500 for the Fall 2022 semester. Deadline to apply is 5:00 p.m. Aug. 31. For more information contact the Financial Aid office at 671-735-5543/5544.

The Society of Emeritus Professors and Retired Scholars scholarship

Full-time undergraduate or graduate students attending the University of Guam with a minimum of a 3.0 GPA can apply for the Society of Emeritus Professors and Retired Scholars scholarship.

The awardee will receive up to $1,000 for the academic year with $500 given per semester and be invited to attend an award ceremony. Deadline to apply is 3:00 p.m. Aug. 26. For more information, contact finaid@triton.uog.edu.

The Filipino Ladies Association of Guam scholarship

Guam residents or U.S. citizens who are full-time undergraduate students at the University of Guam with a minimum of a 3.0 GPA can apply for the Filipino Ladies of Association of Guam scholarship. Additionally, applicants can not be a recipient of any other private scholarship and not have a criminal record.

Two awardees will be given $500. Deadline is 5 p.m. Aug. 22. For more information contact finaid@triton.uog.edu.

Rotary International District 2750 PBG Friendship scholarship: Rotary Club of Tokyo-West scholar

Rotary International District 2750 PBG Friendship scholarship is open to University of Guam undergraduate students with 60 credits who are not current recipients of any other private or national scholarship.

Awardees will receive $10,000 for up to two academic years at UOG. Deadline to apply is 5:00 p.m. July 15. For more information, visit https://uguam.formstack.com/forms/rotary_int_tokyowest or contact finaid@triton.uog.edu.

Dave J. Santos scholarship

The Guam Chamber of Commerces Dave J. Santos scholarship is open to full-time juniors or seniors at the UOG School of Business and Public Administration. Must have a 3.0 GPA, be a graduate of a Guam high school or resident of Guam for at least two years and have a genuine interest in promoting entrepreneurship.

Awardee gets $1,000 per semester, paid internship with Chamber. Apply until Aug. 12. Contact the UOG Financial Aid office at 671-735-2288 or Guam Chamber at 671-472-6311/8001 or email info@GuamChamber.com.gu.

COLLEGES

University of Guam

Applications for Fanuchanan semester are accepted until Aug. 8. Classes begin Aug. 17; most classes are in person.

Residents ages 50 and older are eligible for the tuition waiver program. Call Office of Admissions and Records at 671-735-2210/1 by Aug. 12.

For more information, contact the Office of Admissions and Records at 671-735-2202 or email admitme@trition.uog.edu.

Guam Community College

Apply for fall semester until Aug. 12. Classes begin Aug. 17.

Register in person or online at www.guamcc.edu/apply. Call 671-735-5531 or email gcc.registrar@guamcc.edu. GCC will be open from 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays until Aug. 7 for students who need help with registering. Placement testing will not be available Saturday.

Students are encouraged to complete and submit a Free Application for Student Aid form. Call 671-735-5543/5544 or email financialaid@guamcc.edu.
When she was a child, Katherine Kat Perez ran in the opposite direction at the sight of a bee. Fearful of getting stung, she always shied away from the creatures.

But after owning a beehive for a year under the University of Guam Beginner Beekeeper Program, she didnt just find a new passion  she discovered a potential livelihood.

In September 2020, the University of Guam received a grant from the Beginner Farmer and Rancher Program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The three-year grant has funded agricultural workshops, internships and assistance for new farmers in the community.

One of these projects is the Beginner Beekeeper Program, aimed to support the growing honey industry on island and help get more pollinators out to farms, according to program coordinator Rita Barcinas.

The beekeeping program started with 10 participants in March 2021. In partnership with the Guam Beekeepers Association, the program provided guidance and equipment for each participant to set up a beehive of their own. Over the last year, the beginning beekeepers have learned the basics of beekeeping while managing their hives, with some even producing their own honey harvests.

Members of the program ranged from young adults in their 20s to people who recently retired. Experience with bees or farming was also diverse.

First-timers

There are a few who have experience with agriculture from growing other things. For most of them, this is their first time getting into beekeeping, and so this is probably a culture thats completely new to them, said Barcinas.

As an agriculture major at UOG, 23-year-old Perez has taken every opportunity she could from the grant, but beekeeping was something she never looked into.

Its always been planting for me. I didnt have prior experience with livestock, but Ive always wanted to raise chickens and goats. With this program Ive learned bees are the easiest livestock you can do because theyre very low maintenance.

To get started, the beekeepers received protective equipment along with a framed wooden box where the colony would reside. Most members like Perez based their hive in their own backyard.

However, local farmer Marilyn Salas set up her hive on her farm in Humatak. I looked positively at how a honeybee project would help improve my farm and increase my yields, said Salas.

Every few months the program checked on each participant to examine the hive.

Throughout these hive checks, they get to see different things that are happening, like if their colony isnt getting enough resources or if its getting attacked by pests, Barcinas said.

Some hives experience requeening, where the old queen is removed because she isnt producing enough larva. In Perezs hive, a new colony including a new queen were introduced into her already established hive. It was a really cool experience since it doesnt happen that often, Perez added.

Bee activity

In between these monthly checks, the beekeepers check on their bees daily to observe their behavior.

Its a community that caters to the queen and the brood, Perez said. But other than that, theyre just living day-to-day activities.

Those activities include fanning their box in extreme heat, cleaning their hive, foraging for pollen, building wax, caring for the queen, and feeding the larva.

The drone bees are always busy guarding, and the worker bees are in search of food throughout the farm for their queen and colony, Salas added.

When not observing their hives, beekeepers check on the nature surrounding them. They are always looking out for the greater-banded hornet, a major threat to bees. Guams rainy weather, however, improves the bees productivity to create their main industry: honey.

While honey and other hive products serve as nutritional and medicinal products in the economy, they are initially created as food storage for the bees. If the beekeepers are lucky enough for their bees to produce excess honey from their harvests, they will scrape it off of their hive.

Its basically like youre stealing their honey. So theyre going to try to prevent you from taking their food. Thats why (bees) have stingers, said Perez, who recalls getting six stings on one foot while harvesting.

However, getting stung is only a small price to pay as a beekeeper. The joy of producing honey, beeswax, royal jelly and other honeybee products will let you forget the sting, Salas said.

Growing community

With this first cohort of beekeepers and a second cohort started in March 2022, the number of beekeepers on Guam is only growing.

The purpose of this grant is to help beginners because theres such a big barrier getting into (beekeeping). Once you have that, its easier to expand on your own to keep building on what you have, Barcinas said.

Perez is grateful for the opportunities beekeeping opened for her to connect with the community. The honey market on Guam is pretty high. But were already starting to see local produce and honey. This program has opened up the opportunity to be reliant on the land and ourselves once again, she said.

Salas also claimed that owning a hive has improved her efforts in providing for the community. The economic importance of having honey bees on the farm makes it all worth the effort. They pollinate crops, help with healthy and abundant fruits and vegetables and give the farmer a honey industry.
Saina Eileen Meno, center, and other Guma Irensian Taotao Tano cultural members perform OAsaina, a blessing in CHamoru, during a wreath laying ceremony celebrated at the Hasso Barigada Kalaguak Memorial site in Tiyan, Barrigada, July 8, 2022. The event was being held to remember and honor those who suffered and died at the site during the occupation of the island by Japanese military forces in World War II.
While the Guam Education Board continues to search for a new school superintendent, members will look at potential candidates for the interim superintendent position when they meet Friday.

There will need to be an interim superintendent once I leave, outgoing Superintendent Jon Fernandez said. There has to be someone in charge. Without a superintendent, no one gets paid, no contracts get executed, and things that dont happen without the signature of the superintendent.

Although Fernandezs resignation will be effective Friday, his last day working at department headquarters was July 1. He appointed Frank Cooper-Nurse as acting superintendent until Friday.

Expected date

GEB Vice Chair Mary Okada said the board is looking at late August or early September to have a new superintendent in place.

Right now, the board needs someone who can keep the momentum, in terms of where the superintendent has left off, and until we get another superintendent on hand, she said.

Okada said there are some candidates already interested in the permanent position, but the board wont know how many actual applications have been submitted until July 15.

She said the board needs to make sure that all of our ducks are in a row and the applications are complete.

The job announcement for the permanent superintendent position has been posted and is still open.

Lead all aspects

In addition to having a masters degree in education, public administration, business administration or a related area, Okada said the board is looking for a candidate who will lead all aspects of the department.

We need someone to continue, not just the curriculum and instructional piece, but to continue to support parent engagement, we need someone to support the financial components as well. Theres a lot of financial implications and construction with this, Okada said.

So it really is someone who can, I wont necessarily say multitask, but is able to facilitate. Someone whos able to lead different aspects of what it takes to run a department as large as the Guam Department of Education, said Okada.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero, center left, at a press conference July 1, 2022. The governor in a release expressed sincere condolences over the news of the death of former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Letter: Office of Public Accountability plays a crucial role in safeguarding and examining the use of government funds and programs
Courtesy of Amika San








Haiti - Assassination of the President : Statement by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken





Thursday, July 7, Antony J. Blinken, US Secretary of State on the first anniversary of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise (August 7, 12021 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34162-haiti-flash-president-jovenel-moise-assassinated-by-mercenaries-official-updated-7am-+-video.html ) issued the following statement:







"Today marks one year since the assassination of Haitis President, Jovenel Moise. The United States continues to staunchly support the pursuit of justice and accountability for those who planned, financed, and perpetrated this terrible crime.



We remain concerned about the limited progress of Haitis investigation into the assassination. Although the fifth investigating judge was recently appointed, Haitian authorities have not adequately addressed the judiciarys calls for stronger security measures to protect judicial workers assigned to the case and to preserve the chain of custody of key evidence. Unfortunately, the same can be said for many other cases, including that of the assassination of Port-au-Prince Bar Association President Monferrier Dorval in 2020.



We urge the Haitian authorities to move forward with an independent and thorough investigation into the assassination of President Moise, consistent with Haitian law and international rule of law standards, to ensure those responsible for this crime are brought to justice. We remain a committed partner to supporting this aim, as shown by the extraditions of individuals alleged to have conspired in the perpetration of this offense through acts committed within U.S. jurisdiction. We hope the joint efforts of the Haitian government and relevant international partners soon shed light on the crime, so that justice may be served, and the Haitian people can confidently say President Moises murder was not met with impunity."



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-37103-icihaiti-cap-haitien-private-ceremony-in-the-garden-of-the-moise-family.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37099-haiti-politic-tribute-ceremony-in-memory-of-the-late-president-jovenel-moise-video.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37092-haiti-flash-one-of-the-suspects-in-the-assassination-of-president-moise-pleads-not-guilty-before-a-federal-court.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36629-haiti-justice-assassination-president-a-third-suspect-appeared-in-federal-court.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36347-haiti-flash-former-colombian-soldier-mario-antonio-palacios-pleads-not-guilty-in-the-usa.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35822-haiti-assassination-moise-the-hearing-of-rodolphe-jaar-postponed-for-30-days-in-the-usa.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34162-haiti-flash-president-jovenel-moise-assassinated-by-mercenaries-official-updated-7am-+-video.html



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH : Seizure of 120,000 ammunition, Me Michelet Virgile releases the alleged traffickers





On Wednesday July 6, 2022, Me Michelet Virgile Government Commissioner at the Court of First Instance -TPI) of Port-au-Paix, ordered the release of Jonas Georges and Fritz Jean Relus whom he had arrested 5 days earlier under the Chief of charge of complicity in the illicit trafficking of firearms.



Let's recall that Fritz Jean Relus had been arrested at the home of Edy Lafrance and who had received part of this cargo hidden in "7 barrels" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37058-haiti-flash-seizure-of-tens-of-thousands-of-ammunition-at-the-wharf-of-port-de-paix-video.html while Jonas Georges, is the owner of the cargo ship "Miss Lily" from Florida, having transported the ammunition and weapons clandestinely.



Strongly criticized for these two releases, the Government Commissioner justified these two releases, which were surprising to say the least "Because Jonas Georges, the owner of the ship, has nothing to do directly with the cargo of ammunition and weapons and that Fritz Jean Relus for his part helped a lot in the investigation, the Port-de-Paix prosecutor's office actually ordered the release of these two people."



The police issued arrest warrants for 3 other Haitians : Marie Guirlene Estimable (exporter), Wilfrid Estimable (importer) residing in the USA and whose all the elements of the investigation have been handed over to the American authorities and Edy Lafrance actively sought in Haiti for the illegal storage and distribution of weapons and ammunition.



Only remaining sanctions: The ban on departure of the cargo ship "Miss Lili" and all the crew whose identity documents have been seized must remain at the disposal of justice until the light is shed...



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37058-haiti-flash-seizure-of-tens-of-thousands-of-ammunition-at-the-wharf-of-port-de-paix-video.html



SL/ HaitiLibre


















U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, shakes hands with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a meeting in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, July 9. AP-Yonhap



China's support for Russia's war in Ukraine is complicating U.S.-Chinese relations at a time when they are already beset by rifts and enmity over numerous other issues, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Chinese counterpart on Saturday.



In five hours of talks in their first-to-face meeting since October, Blinken said he expressed deep concern to Foreign Minister Wang Yi about China's stance on Russia's actions in Ukraine and did not believe Beijing's protestations that it is neutral in the conflict.



The talks had been arranged in a new effort to try to rein in or at least manage rampant hostility that has come to define recent relations between Washington and Beijing.



''We are concerned about the PRC's alignment with Russia,'' Blinken told reporters after the meeting in the Indonesian resort of Bali. He said it is difficult to be ''neutral'' in a conflict in which there is a clear aggressor but that even it were possible, ''I don't believe China is acting in a way that is neutral.''



The Biden administration had hoped that China, with its long history of opposing what it sees as interference in its own internal affairs, would take a similar position with Russia and Ukraine. But it has not, choosing instead what U.S. officials see as a hybrid position that is damaging the international rules-based order.



Blinken said every nation, China included, stands to lose if that order is eroded.



The two men met a day after they both attended a gathering of top diplomats from the Group of 20 rich and large developing countries that ended without a joint call to end Russia's war in Ukraine or plan for how to deal with its impacts on food and energy security.



However, Blinken said he believed Russia had come away from G-20 meeting isolated and alone as most participants expressed opposition to the Ukraine war. However, the ministers were unable to come to a unified G-20 call for an end to the conflict.



''There was a strong consensus and Russia was left isolated,'' Blinken said of individual condemnations of Russia's actions from various ministers, some of whom shunned conversations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.



He noted that Lavrov had left the meeting early, possibly because he didn't like what he was hearing from his counterparts.



''It was very important that he heard loudly and clearly from around the world condemnation of Russia's aggression,'' Blinken said, adding: ''We see no signs whatsoever that Russia at his point is prepared to engage in diplomacy.''



On China, Blinken said he and Wang discussed a range of contentious issues from tariffs and trade and human rights to Taiwan and disputes in the South China Sea that have all been complicated by the Chinese position on Ukraine.



Just two days earlier, the countries' top military officers had faced off over Taiwan during a virtual meeting. Blinken said that the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its territory was just one of a series of problematic issues.



He said he stressed U.S. concerns with China's ''increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity near Taiwan and the vital importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.'' He added that he had also raised human rights concerns regarding minorities in Tibet and in the western Xinjiang region.



Going into the talks, Wang said ''it is necessary for the two countries to maintain normal exchanges'' and ''to work together to ensure that this relationship will continue to move forward along the right track.''



Wang also echoed frequent Chinese lines about remaining committed to the principles of ''mutual respect,'' ''peaceful coexistence'' and ''win-win cooperation.'' That, he said, ''serves the interests of the two countries and two peoples. It is also the shared aspiration of the international community.''



U.S. officials had said ahead of time they don't expect any breakthroughs from Blinken's talks with Wang. But they said they were hopeful the conversation can help keep lines of communications open and create ''guardrails'' to guide the world's two largest economies as they navigate increasingly complex and potentially explosive matters.



''We're committed to managing this relationship, this competition responsibly as the world expects us to do,'' Blinken said.



The United States and China have staked out increasingly confrontational positions, including on Ukraine, that some fear could lead to miscalculation and conflict. The U.S. has watched warily as China has refused to criticize the Russian invasion, while condemning Western sanctions against Russia and accusing the U.S. and NATO of provoking the conflict.



''We are concerned about the PRC's alignment with Russia,'' Blinken said, adding that he did not accept Chinese protestations that it is neutral in the Ukraine conflict. ''I don't believe China is acting in a way that is neutral.''



The Biden administration had hoped that China, with its long history of opposing what it sees as interference in its own internal affairs, would take a similar position with Russia and Ukraine. But, it has not, choosing instead what U.S. officials see as a hybrid position that is damaging the international rules-based order.



At the G-20 meeting, Wang made an oblique reference to China's policy on global stability, saying ''to place one's own security above the security of others and intensify military blocs will only split the international community and make oneself less secure,'' according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.



On Thursday, China's joint chiefs of staff chairman Gen. Li Zuocheng upbraided his U.S. counterpart Gen. Mark Milley over Washington's support for Taiwan.



Li demanded that the U.S. cease military ''collusion'' with Taiwan, saying China has ''no room for compromise'' on issues affecting its ''core interests,'' which include self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing threatens to annex by force if necessary.



''China demands the U.S. ... cease reversing history, cease U.S.-Taiwan military collusion and avoid impacting China-U.S. ties and stability in the Taiwan Strait,'' Li said.



At the same time, Li was also quoted in a Defense Ministry news release as saying China hoped to ''further strengthen dialogue, handle risks, and promote cooperation, rather than deliberately creating confrontation, provoking incidents and becoming mutually exclusive.''



China routinely flies warplanes near Taiwan to advertise its threat to attack, and the island's Defense Ministry said Chinese air force aircraft crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait dividing the two sides on Friday morning.



The meeting between Li and Milley followed fiery comments by Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe at a regional security conference last month that was also attended by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.



Wei accused the United States of trying to ''hijack'' the support of countries in the Asia-Pacific region to turn them against Beijing, saying Washington is seeking to advance its own interests ''under the guise of multilateralism.''



At the same meeting in Singapore, Austin said China was causing instability with its claim to Taiwan and its increased military activity in the area.



In May, Blinken incurred Chinese wrath by calling the country the ''most serious long-term challenge to the international order'' for the United States, with its claims to Taiwan and efforts to dominate the strategic South China Sea.



The U.S. and its allies have responded with what they term ''freedom of navigation'' patrols in the South China Sea, prompting angry responses from Beijing. (AP)






Haiti - News : Zapping...





Minister of Health's mother kidnapped

Friday, July 8, unidentified armed men kidnapped Dr. Gretta Lataillade Roy (the mother of the Minister of Public Health) at the entrance of the Christ-Roi Church where she was going. His driver was also kidnapped



Jovenel Moise 6th President of Haiti assassinated

Did you know ? Jovenel Moise is the 6th President of Haiti assassinated since 1806:



6th - Jovenel Moise, assassinated at his home on July 7, 2021, at the age of 53.

5th - Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, lynched in front of the French Embassy on July 28, 1915 at age 56;

4th - Cincinnatus Leconte, disappeared in the explosion of the National Palace, August 8, 1912 at age 58;

3rd - Sylvain Salnave, executed on the ruins of the National Palace, January 15, 1870 at age 44;

2nd - Jean Baptiste Riche, poisoned on February 27, 1847 at age 70;

1st - Jean-Jacques Dessalines, founder of La Patrie, ambushed at Pont Rouge on October 17, 1806 at the age of 48;



Notice do not travel

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a travel and security warning for Haiti "Given the current unfavorable security conditions and the increase in criminal acts in Haiti, it is in the interest of our citizens to avoid travel to this country, except for mandatory situations."



Canada : $5 million more for the PNH

At the 43rd Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Canada announced additional funding of $5 million to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Pooled Fund for the security, which will reinforce vital support to the capacity building of the National Police of Haiti (PNH).



190,000 barrels of fuel arrived

A cargo of 75,000 barrels of gasoline and 115,000 barrels of diesel arrived in Port-au-Prince. The vessels MT Lora and Citrine are waiting to unload these petroleum products at Thor and Varreux.



Cite Soleil : training of grassroots community organizations

The Organization of American States (OAS) in Haiti, in partnership with the "US. Department of State: Bureau of Intl Narcotics & Law Enforcement" (INL) and the "Pan American Development Foundation" in Haiti, carried out two days of training aimed at strengthening the capacities of 22 Community Based Organizations (CBOs) working in Cite Soleil . The OAS supports the efforts of community leaders who are key players in sustainable development.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Ukrainian soldiers ride atop a tank through a street in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, July 8. AP-Yonhap



Russian forces are managing to ''raise true hell'' in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland despite reports of them taking an operational pause, a regional governor said Saturday as the government in Kyiv urged people in Russian-occupied areas in the south to evacuate ''by all possible means'' ahead of a Ukrainian offensive.



Deadly Russian shelling was reported in Ukraine's east and south.



The governor of Luhansk, Serhyi Haidai, said Russia launched over 20 artillery, mortar and rocket strikes in the province overnight and its forces were pressing toward the border with neighboring Donetsk.



''We are trying to contain the Russians' armed formations along the entire front line,'' Haidai wrote on Telegram.



Last week, Russia captured the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, the city of Lysychansk. Analysts predicted Moscow's troops likely would take time to rearm and regroup.



But ''so far, there has been no operational pause announced by the enemy. He is still attacking and shelling our lands with the same intensity as before,'' Haidai said.



Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, appealed to residents of Russian-held territories in the south to evacuate so the occupying forces could not use them as human shields during a Ukrainian counteroffensive.



''You need to search for a way to leave, because our armed forces are coming to de-occupy,'' she said. ''There will be a massive fight. I don't want to scare anyone. Everyone understands all of this anyway.''



Speaking at a news conference late Friday, Vereshchuk said a civilian evacuation effort was underway for parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. She declined to give details, citing safety considerations.



It was not clear how civilians were expected to safely leave Russian-controlled areas while missile strikes and artillery shelling continue in surrounding areas, or whether they would be allowed to depart or even hear the government's appeal.



The war's death toll continued to rise.





A handout photo made available by the Ukrainian presidential press service shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting with local officials in the Dnipropetrovsk area, Ukraine, July 8. EPA-Yonhap
Tetsuya Yamagami, center, holding a weapon, is detained near the site of gunshots in Nara, western Japan, July 8. AP-Yonhap



The man who killed Shinzo Abe believed the former Japanese leader was linked to a religious group he blamed for his mother's financial ruin and spent months planning the attack with a homemade gun, police told local media on Saturday.



Tetsuya Yamagami, an unemployed 41-year-old, identified as the suspect on suspicion of murder on Friday after a man was seen in videos repeatedly shown on Japanese television calmly approaching Japan's longest-serving prime minister from behind and firing.



Wiry and bespectacled with shaggy hair, the suspect was seen stepping into the road behind Abe, who was standing on a riser at an intersection, before unloading two shots from a 40-cm-long (16-inch) weapon wrapped with black tape. He was tackled by police at the scene.



Yamagami was a loner who did not reply when spoken to, neighbors told Reuters. He believed Abe had promoted a religious group that his mother went bankrupt donating to, Kyodo news agency said, citing investigative sources.



"My mother got wrapped up in a religious group and I resented it," Kyodo and other domestic media quoted him as telling police. Nara police declined to comment on the details reported by Japanese media of Yamagami's motive or preparation.



Media have not named the religious group he was reportedly upset with.



Yamagami jury-rigged the weapon from parts bought online, spending months plotting the attack, even attending other Abe campaign events, including one a day earlier some 200 km (miles) away, media said.



He had considered a bomb attack before opting for a gun, according to public broadcaster NHK.



The suspect told police he made guns by wrapping steel pipes together with tape, some of them with three, five or six pipes, with parts he bought online, NHK said.



Police found bullet holes in a sign attached to a campaign van near the site of the shooting and believe they were from Yamagami, police said on Saturday. Videos showed Abe turning toward the attacker after the first shot before crumpling to the ground after the second.





A hearse carrying the body of slain former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrives at his residence in Tokyo, Japan, July 9. EPA-Yonhap







Hostess bars



Yamagami lived on the eighth floor of a building of small flats. The ground floor is full of bars where patrons pay to drink and chat with female hostesses. One karaoke bar has gone out of business.



The elevator stops on only three floors, a cost-saving design. Yamagami would have had to get off and walk up a flight of stairs to his flat.



One of his neighbors, a 69-year-old woman who lived a floor below him, saw him three days before Abe's assassination.



"I said hello but he ignored me. He was just looking down at the ground to the side not wearing a mask. He seemed nervous," the woman, who gave only her surname Nakayama, told Reuters. "It was like I was invisible. He seemed like something was bothering him."



She pays 35,000 yen ($260) a month in rent and reckons her neighbors pay around the same.



A Vietnamese woman living two doors down from Yamagami who gave her name as Mai, said he appeared to keep to himself. "I saw him a couple of times. I bowed to him in the elevator, but he didn't say anything."





Riot policemen leave the house of suspect Tetsuya Yamagami following a search in Nara, western Japan, July 8, EPA-Yonhap
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A partial restart of operations at Freeport LNGs Quintana Island facility is not expected until October, when it aims to deliver substantially all of its volumes, the company said in a statement.

The Houston liquefied natural gas companys update follows an order issued last week by the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which deemed the Quintana Island facility unsafe after last months explosion that caused significant damage. The order outlined a series of steps the company must take before resuming operations, noting conditions at the facility pose an integrity risk to public safety, property, or the environment.

The blast and subsequent production disruption sent a major ripple through the global gas market, which had been relying on the facility to send LNG to Europe as the European Union distances itself from Russia  previously its primary supplier of natural gas  in the wake of Moscows invasion of Ukraine.

On HoustonChronicle.com: U.S. natural gas prices fell and those in Europe soared after blast at Freeport LNG

Exports from the facility go primarily to Europe and account for about 10 percent of the continent's imports, according to research firm Rystad Energy. The company aims to bring the plant fully online by the end of the year.

Since the incident, Freeport said, the company has worked collaboratively with all local, state and federal officials regarding the incident response, investigation, and safe resumption of liquefaction operations.

The federal order directs Freeport to commission a third-party analysis of the explosions root cause and send its findings to the agency within 60 days. Preliminary evidence suggests a pressure safety valve failed, allowing pressure to build along a 300-foot stretch of pipe, which then burst.

The ruptured pipe had been used to transfer LNG around the facilitys storage area and is located along a rack that supports additional piping, power cables and equipment, the order said, noting much of the other piping in the area was also damaged and will require repairs or replacement before LNG transfer operations can recommence.

On HoustonChronicle.com: LNG companies are in a race to the Gulf Coast, where industry sees opportunity during Ukraine war

The pipeline safety administration, an arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation, said in the order that the facility is within an ecologically sensitive area and is near neighborhoods, recreational areas and highly trafficked waterways.

Freeport LNG must submit for review a report detailing the blasts cause, a third-party review of the facilitys employee training and qualifications, a plan for corrective action and an inspection schedule, the order said. A separate order from the U.S. Coast Guard also prohibits the facility from shipping until it conducts a risk analysis.

The company said it is working with regulators to bring the facility back online safely. Safety has always been, and will continue to be, the highest priority for Freeport LNG, it said in a statement.

amanda.drane@chron.com
After fitful starts and restarts that punctuated two years of pandemic agony, New Orleans tourism industry is on the rebound. The new year has already brought the successful return of Mardi Gras, the French Quarter Festival and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. And 2022 will continue to bring tourists back for events such as the Essence Festival on Fourth of July weekend and Southern Decadence over Labor Day weekend.

Big Easy dining is feeding the tourism resurgence. The food and drink that has made the city famous  Cajun and Creole classics, poboys and muffulettas, gumbo and jambalaya, Sazeracs and snoballs  are now, more than ever, a critical factor in reestablishing New Orleans status as a top travel destination.

New and legacy restaurants in the French Quarter, the heart of the tourist draw, show just why the Crescent City rules.

Chemin a la Mer

The second of the two big-deal restaurants to open at the Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans is from a familiar face on the citys dining scene. James Beard Award-winning Donald Link, founder of the Link Restaurant Group (Herbsaint, Cochon, Cochon Butcher, Peche, Gianna) opened his grand ode to French-inspired Louisiana cuisine in late 2021. With Link and the hotels other marquee name, Alon Shaya, helming Miss River, the Four Seasons is clearly among the most prized dining venues in the Crescent City.

Chemin a la Mer (French for pathway to the sea) occupies a scenic slice of the fifth floor pool level, with an indoor/outdoor space snug on the Mississippi River. The dining room looks ship-deck rich, a fitting setting for Links menu of oysters, steaks and seafood. Start with raw Gulf oysters, Gulf fish and shrimp ceviche, crawfish and asparagus remoulade, or bistro-perfect pate. Mains include a fish of the day, steaks, duck confit, salmon with lentils and pan-seared shrimp with cauliflower rice gratin. Anchoring the bar is a painting by artist John Alexander called Purple Grackle, a tribute to Links friend, the late Julia Reed, the Southern journalist who reveled in New Orleans culture, especially food. 2 Canal St.; cheminalamer.com

Saint John

Haute Creole cuisine is both historic and pervasive in New Orleans, but it somehow seems newly essential at this lively French Quarter restaurant. The flavors and traditions of Italian, French, Spanish, African, German and Caribbean cuisines that contributed to the great gumbo that is Creole are deliciously elevated and energized by chef/owner Eric Cook, working with chef de cuisine Daren Porretto.

Cooks crawfish remoulade is made with grilled mudbugs and served with fried green tomatoes and okra corn chow chow; shrimp etouffee is smothered in butter and comes with steamed Louisiana popcorn rice; crispy fried oysters are served with hoppin John and laced with green remoulade; seared fish of the day sits atop a colorful corn and shrimp maque choux. Creole beef daube is made with short ribs; the plate for his crispy-skin duck breast is dotted with jalapeno Creole cream cheese and satsuma glaze; and a signature deep-fried whole fish can be finished in either almond brown butter meuniere or Creole court-bouillon. And when is the last time you saw smothered turkey necks in brown gravy with potato salad? 1117 Decatur; saintjohnnola.com

Bijou

The French Quarters North Rampart, for years a somewhat sketchy thoroughfare, is now a veritable Restaurant Row, with chic bars and eateries enticing visitors away from the Bourbon Street hubbub.

Bijou, opened in late 2021 on the northernmost boundary of the French Quarter, is an inviting new player with a tapas-style menu from chef Eason Barksdale, who mentored under superchef Susan Spicer at her Bayona and Mondo restaurants. Its a lively restaurant set in a historic Creole cottage designed with a snug bar up front and a narrow passage to a larger, light-filled bar and dining room in back with a patio.

The brief dinner menu includes tuna tartare with sesame wontons; pan-seared salmon with gochujang sauce and kimchi served with ginger scallion rice; Cuban sandwich; tom yum chicken; squid ink spaghetti; and a proper house burger fashioned with sharp cheddar and griddled onions. A happy hour menu offers choice bites such as truffled deviled eggs with caviar and a selection of house cocktails and good wines by the glass.1014 North Rampart; bijouneworleans.com

Tujagues

At 165 years, Tujagues isnt just the second-oldest restaurant in New Orleans, its the third-oldest restaurant in the country. The restaurant that invented the Grasshopper cocktail has new lease on life courtesy of a move in late 2020 six blocks upriver from its former address on Decatur.

Pronounced two jacks, the restaurant offers a menu of New Orleans classics: shrimp remoulade on fried green tomatoes, gumbo, pan-roasted chicken breast, sauteed veal and crawfish over mushroom pappardelle, bread pudding and king cake pain perdu. A vintage ambiance was thankfully preserved in the move, and perhaps the restaurants ghostly apparitions, part of Tujagues famous haunted history, have migrated, too.

During a recent visit, the culinary spirits showed up in a deep seafood gumbo; roasted mushroom crepes; house salad with sugar cane vinaigrette; grilled Gulf fish topped with seared shrimp in a lemon butter sauce; and an iconic New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp served over stone-ground grits. Look for a new party spirit, too: Tujagues has become home to an occasional Sunday drag brunch with full glitter glam and bawdy fun that is perfectly at home in the French Quarter. 429 Decatur; tujaguesrestaurant.com

Brennans New Orleans

This ones a lagniappe. The famed Brennans, now in its 76th year, is enjoying the spotlight with its finalist nomination for Outstanding Restaurant for the 2022 James Beard Awards. The recognition puts the French Quarter restaurant and its luxurious Creole dining menu back among the citys top restaurant choices for locals and New Orleans visitors.

But was it ever not? The restaurant that invented Bananas Foster has made culinary memories since it was founded in 1946. Through its long and complicated Brennans family history, Brennans has made a variety of dishes and drinks relevant even as dining trends changed: turtle soup, Eggs Hussarde and Eggs Sardou, Steak Diane, file gumbo, shrimp remoulade, Caribbean milk punch and those blazing bananas. Brennans is always a party, whether its from its tableside theatrics in the dining rooms or its champagne-sloshing Bubbles at Brennans champagne sabering in the courtyard. 417 Royal St.; brennansneworleans.com
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Hey there friends. Its your ol pal Warner back for more ridicule. Weve been through a lot together over the many years and so Im glad for one of my first acts as president of this esteemed Lions club to be a missive directly from the Lions Club Oval Office. My family and I were honored to attend the 2022 Lions Club International Convention in Montreal this summer. We met Lions from all over the globe in a week-long celebration of service to communities. We got to meet the current International Peace Poster winner, Anja Rozen from Slovenia. She even signed a poster for us! We also were participants in the International Parade. It was the most fun you can have with your boots on. But enough about me, Id like to reserve the rest of my column today for the winner of the Lions Club International Peace Essay Contest, Shreya Zoy of India. Yall have had enough of my witty banter to last a lifetime anyway. And now, Ms Shreya Zoy:

We all know that comforting feeling when we are being physically embraced, feeling heard, emotionally understood and supported by another human being. This warm human connection is very important in maintaining our overall emotional and physical health. There is a saying in Sanskrit Vasudhaiva Kutumbikam mainly the world is one family. Certainly we can see that the whole world is populated by people who are working to attain same things - happiness, peace, security, resources like food and shelter and a hopeful future. Our real identity is not whether we belong to a certain ethnic group or culture. Yes, we may follow different paths or religions but these can be changed and the soul is above all such temporary designations. and the nature of soul is to love and be loved. Happiness is found in relations and no happiness is more than a deep loving relationship. But the highest relationship is that when we are spiritually devoted to the supreme being, the ultimate lovable object. That is eternal spiritual path. By having a solid knowledge of spiritual knowledge, we automatically are respecting all others regardless of their race, gender or species. This brings moral and peaceful social behavior in everyone towards, everyone. By having respect for everyone's spiritual identity, parts and parcels of Lord, also gives us innate happiness. We can understand that we are visiting this planet for a short time and we are all in this together. It is after thousands of destructive wars, humans realized the importance of peace. It applies on every angle like wars, pollution, natural disasters and more. When peace and harmony are maintained, things will continue to run smoothly without any delay. Moreover, it is a saviour for many who do not like to engage in destructing activities and more. I think there is another deeper lesson from Covid-19. A lesson about our interconnection and interdependence. It is now clear that if we follow the right measures of our own, if we wash our hands, if we wear a mask, follow proper social distancing, then we may prevent ourselves from Covid. Unless we are working to make those decisions and choices, then we aren't able to open the school, workplaces are not going to back up and running, our healthcare systems will be continued to be overtaxed and society won't essentially set up. And, one of the lessons of Covid is we can't respond alone. So, we have to mount a unified, thoughtful response. Unity is not just on a country basis, but between countries. We must be able to work together and put our common welfare ahead of our individual choices. If we want to build a unified response to Covid and future pandemics, we recognise that we are truly connected and we depend on one another. To conclude, We are birds of the same nest, wearing different skins, speaking different languages, believing in certain religions and belonging to different culture - yet we are in the same home - our earth. Born on the same planet, covered by the same skies, gazing at the same stars and breathing the same air, we must learn to progress together happily. For humans can live individually but can survive only collectively. Yes, we are all connected.
OnScene.Tv

A man was shot and killed Friday night outside a northwest Houston apartment complex in an apparent drug deal, according to authorities.

Officers responded to reports of a shooting at 9:42 p.m. at the 3900 block of Hollister Road and found a 21-year-old man with an upper body gunshot wound, Houston police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Houston firefighters.
A man was shot and killed Friday night by a Harris County Sheriff's Office deputy, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.

Deputies were called to a possible assault at a store at 2004 W FM 1960, according to the sheriff's office. The shooting happened in the 15000 block of Kuykendahl Road, about one mile away from the initial call location, Gonzalez said.

As a sergeant was taking a man into custody, the man "took control" of the sergeant's Taser, Gonzalez said, citing preliminary information

The sergeant shot the man, who died at the scene, Gonzalez said. The sergeant was unharmed, according to the sheriff's office.

He didn't immediately identify the deputy or the man who was killed.

The Harris County District Attorneys Office and Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences were called to the scene of the shooting, Gonzalez said.

This is a developing story. Check back later for more details.
Police in Cleveland have arrested a woman in connection to the 2005 slaying of an elderly couple, according to multiple news reports.

Shelley Susan Lemoine Thompson, 41, of Freeport was arrested and charged with the murders of Antonio and Luz Rodriguez, who were found dead in the home on April 15, 2005. Lemoine Thompson's arrest was reported by the Montgomery County Police Reporter and Houston TV station KHOU.

According to reports, Lemoine Thompson was connected to the couple's death by DNA collected from the scene, according to the Police Reporter.

The DNA matched to Thompson in 2021 after she was arrested on a drug charge, according to the Police Reporter.

Lemoine Thompson was interviewed by Cleveland Police and the Texas Rangers while she was in prison in Gatesville. investigators took another DNA sample that also matched to DNA found at the Rodriguez's home, according to the Police Reporter.

A warrant was issued for Lemoine Thompson's arrest on July 5. She had been released from prison and was arrested in Freeport on Friday, according to the Police Reporter. She was held on $1 million bond, according to the reporter.

The Cleveland Police Department didn't respond to a request for comment on Friday night.

Antonio and Luz Rodriguez were found beaten to death by their daughter on Thursday afternoon in 2005. He was 80 years old and she was 77. Antonio Rodriguez was a World War II veteran

The couple had operated a popular Mexican restaurant in out of their Cleveland home in the 1990s. Before that they operated a grocery store in South Texas. They had 10 children and also raised three nephews.

At the time of their deaths, police said they hadn't determined a motive or if anything had been taken from their home.

In an interview with the Police Reporter, one of the couple's children said the family had been informed about Lemonie Thompson's arrest, and wasn't aware of any connection between the woman and her parents.

"We thought we would never get justice," said Juanita Espinosa. "I thank God and I thank the Rangers and everybody that put their part into it."
A California doctor has a plan to launch a floating reproductive health clinic in the Gulf of Mexico, where care will be regulated by federal -- not state -- law.

The plan -- currently in the fundraising stage -- hopes to make surgical abortions, contraception and other reproductive health services available to Gulf Coast patients living in states restricting such services.

"Those in the most southern parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas may be closer to the coast than to facilities in bordering states where abortion and reproductive health care are available," reads the website for the ship, named PRROWESS -- an acronym for Protecting Reproductive Rights of Women Endangered by State Statutes. It added that similar facilities "have been used by the military and relief organizations for years."

The plan was first reported by San Francisco-based KCBS Radio, which said that the effort was being organized by a Bay Area Ob-Gyn, Meg Autry.

Autry, who is from the South, told the Chronicle that her inspiration traces back to a phenomenon popular along the Mississippi: riverboat casinos. The fact that different laws applied to gambling on land and on water led her to consult with lawyers about whether there may be a way to continue providing abortion access after the Supreme Court reversed the Roe vs. Wade decision that protected the procedure.

"We believe that patients should be able to make a choice," she said.

The legal team of the PRROWESS now includes maritime lawyers and criminal attorneys, who have determined that a floating clinic in federal waters would be able to legally provide services that individual states may restrict, such as surgical abortions.

One of her partners also conducted a study that found a sizeable number of patients in the South said they would seek care on a vessel if it was their closest option.

When, roughly a year ago, the rollback of Roe vs. Wade began to seem likely, the group stepped up organizing efforts, securing seed funding to pay ship and security consultants. It recently launched the fundraiser.

The PRROWESS website does not say how much funding would be required to launch a floating clinic -- in part, Autry explained, because it depends on the vessel they're able to secure. She estimated it would take roughly $20 million unless a ship is donated. The funds would cover the purchase of the boat, the retrofitting process to turn it into a clinic and equipment such as beds and ultrasound machines. The timeline for the floating clinic depends on its fundraising success, but Autry hopes it will be able to open in a year.

After one-time costs are met, the ship would rely on ongoing donations to cover operational costs such as medical procedures, crew and security. Autry and other medical providers would volunteer their labor, each taking time off from their regular lives for stints at sea.

The PRROWESS would offer surgical abortions up to 14 weeks after conception, as well as contraception, vaccinations and on-site testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. The ship would have a helicopter in addition to water shuttles so that patients could be quickly transported in case of emergencies.

Patients would be pre-screened and provided transportation arrangements onto the vessel, which would operate three weeks out of every month, to give it down time for maintenance and flexibility for weather conditions. Autry estimated that the clinic would be able to see 1,800 patients every six months, but said that number would increase if it acquired a larger ship.

Autry said the floating clinic would be an important resource for patients living near the Gulf who wanted a surgical abortion, since the proximity would make it easier for them to get to and require them to take less time off from work. It may also be less expensive than flying patients to states where abortion is legal.
Houston urologist Russel Williams typically performed about 10 vasectomies a day. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, it's already up to 15.

Houston urologists are seeing an increase in vasectomies, mirroring national trends, as Texas prepares to ban most abortions, following the Supreme Court decision.

ROE EXPLAINER: What does overturning Roe v. Wade mean in Texas? Things to know about the abortion trigger law

Dr. Williams, who runs The Y Factor and its six urology and fertility clinics that dot the Greater Houston area, said there has been a tremendous increase in patients getting the procedure at his offices.

Were pretty busy, which is the new normal in our office, said Stephanie Alvarado, the surgery coordinator at The Y Factor.

Despite the influx, the clinic has adapted to the demand.

The Y Factor has four people who just answer phones all day, Williams said, and others work on opening schedule times for patients. Williams, who founded the clinic in 2000, has also credited his practices efficiency, which he said help keep the procedure short  10 minutes in some cases.

Houston Metro Urology, which staffs 19 urologists has seen similar trends at its facility in the Galleria area.

Its definitely something weve taken notice of and have tried to accommodate, chief operating officer Nancy Nicolovski said.

Although her office is well staffed to handle the surge, she said, Nikolovski has considered expanding its operating hours to meet the demand. HMU was also already working on opening a vasectomy-only clinic on Saturdays before the Supreme Courts ruling, but talks have accelerated and will likely open in the next few months, because she expects the trend to keep up through the end of the year.

Vasectomy has always been a very popular procedure, anyway, but the changes in our landscape has prompted people who have been discussing it to just do it, she said.

Nikolvski said she has noticed the increased popularity is not exclusive to men.

DEEP DIVE: A constitutional law professor explains the opinions overturning Roe v. Wade. Read her notes.

A lot more women are inquiring on behalf of their significant others, she said. Instead of the men actually calling, theres an uptick with the women. Women are usually the caretaker in the family and we kind of make the health care decisions as well for our families.

At Williams office, there has also been a shift in interest.

Many of his cases are still usually the typical married fathers who dont want more children, but he has noticed an influx of younger patients who are single and wanting to get vasectomies.

In the short term, a vasectomy is a relatively accessible and short procedure thats nearly 100% effective, according to the Mayo Clinic. Even in the rare case in which it isnt, further treatment can achieve infertility, Williams said.

But if younger patients decide they want children later in life, the process of getting a vasectomy reversed can be difficult.

For one, the patient would have to find a urologist who specializes in those reversals. Once they find the right doctor, the procedure could take up to four hours or longer, and there is no guaranteed success in conceiving a child, according to the Mayo Clinic.

RENEW HOUSTON: After Roe v. Wade ruling, Houston women are deleting period tracking apps, citing privacy concerns

And unlike vasectomies, which are often covered by insurance, reversals are usually not covered by most plans, according to the International Center for Vasectomy Reversal.

Reasons for getting the procedure can vary, but Williams still frets whether some of his patients decisions are sound or impulsive reactions to ever-evolving issues.

If a guy comes in and says, The world is going to hell in a handbasket because of global warming and I dont want to have children, Im very worried about that, he said. Even if they tell me the Supreme Court decision is part of their equation, it still makes me very worried.
Like rolling waves at a beach, mass shootings in this country occur with such tidal regularity the details tend to mingle and merge. From Sandy Hook to Aurora, San Bernardino to Orlando, Las Vegas to Parkland, Thousand Oaks to Pittsburgh, Santa Fe to El Paso, Buffalo to Uvalde, to name a few, we look on in horror, anger and frustration and then get on with our lives until another and then another claims our attention.

It goes without saying that for survivors, family members and to some extent whole communities, nothing will ever be the same after the random horror of a mass shooting. The best a nation can do in some instances - if we continue in our refusal to substantively address the core issues - is to offer compensation for the pain, suffering and pecuniary loss that is the new reality for the men, women and children trying to cope with life after mass murder.

In two earlier mass-shooting cases involving federal liability, the 2015 mass shooting at Mother Emanuel Baptist Church in Charleston, S.C., and the 2018 Parkland School shooting in Florida, the U.S. Justice Department settled with survivors and family members, paying Parkland victims a total of $127 million and the Charleston church victims $88 million.

Earlier this year, U.S. Judge Xavier Rodriguez of the Western District of Texas ordered the U.S. Air Force to pay victims of the 2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting $230 million in damages. His ruling was based on the uncontested finding that the Air Force on six separate occasions failed to forward the shooters criminal history to the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division.

Had that information been submitted as required by law, the shooter would have been banned from purchasing the guns he used to massacre 26 worshipers and wound 22 more at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs during a Sunday-morning service. Had the Air Force simply followed protocol, he might have ended up buying a gun on the street or from an individual, but not from a licensed gun dealer. Rodriguez ruled that the Air Force was 60 percent responsible and the shooter 40 percent responsible for the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history.

Two hundred thirty million dollars is a lot of money, but keep in mind the judge was parceling out varying amounts to 84 individuals. Ultimately, there is no satisfying way to determine the worth of these families pain, he wrote in his 185-page decision, noting that he considered pain, anguish, physical impairment, medical expenses and loss of future earnings in his judgment.

Those the judge deemed eligible to receive compensation include a church member who was 39 when he lost three generations of his own family, nine members in all, including his mother, father, brother, pregnant wife, niece and three step-children. They include a lively 6-year-old girl who loved racing around the churchyard with her pals after services, before, that is, her small body was ravaged by three blasts from an AR-15; she survived but can no longer run or even stand for long periods because of permanent damage to her left leg. It includes a mother who dropped off her teenage daughter at church in the midst of a typical mother-daughter tiff; that was the last time she saw her beautiful child.

A young father paralyzed from the waist down, An older woman shot multiple times and now requiring around-the-clock care from her adult daughter. A little boy who has endured more than 30 surgeries since being shot five times. Their stories are heart-rending, and financial compensation cant repair broken hearts. What it can do is help pay for lifelong medical treatment, provide for therapy and counseling, help with bills for those no longer able to work. (And, of course, a sizable share goes to attorneys.)

Such was Judge Rodriguezs plan for the people of Sutherland Springs. Now, that plan may never come to fruition.

Two weeks after the horrendous Uvalde shooting, the U.S. Justice Department announced, in essence, that the Sutherland Springs survivors dont deserve the compensation Rodriguez calculated. The government - for no good reason that we can determine - appealed his ruling.

What that means, at best, is that the Sutherland Springs plaintiffs will have to wait months, if not years, before they ever see a dime of compensation. What it means, at worst, is that the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals could decide that the plaintiffs deserve only a pittance, maybe nothing. Whatever the outcome, the Sutherland Springs survivors and family members can anticipate having to recount to a court yet again the horrendous details of that day in November nearly five years ago.

The Justice Department offered no rationale for its decision to appeal, beyond a written statement from department spokesperson Dena Iverson: "The department will continue to engage in a review of this case while it remains on appeal in the Fifth Circuit, considering all options for reaching a resolution, including possible mediation or settlement. ... By filing this notice, the government continues its close review of the legal issues presented.

What those issues are, Iverson didnt say. Does the government believe the settlement was too large? Justice Department lawyers insisted on a figure close to $31 million; plaintiffs lawyers asked for an amount almost 10 times that much. St. Marys University School of Law dean A.J. Bellido de Luna told San Antonios KENS-TV that had the case gone to a jury the settlement might have exceeded a billion dollars. Rodriguez, with sole discretion in the case, settled on $230 million.

Is the Justice Department prepared to argue that background checks are ineffectual, that the Air Forces failure to send the shooters criminal record to the FBI would have made no difference? Its hard to believe the Biden administration would countenance such a legal strategy, particularly at a time when the White House is fighting for expanded background checks and other tools to somehow quell the senseless gun violence afflicting this nation.

Or, is the Justice Department simply trying to run out the clock, as one of the plaintiffs attorneys suggests. Five elderly victims have died awaiting the final verdict.

Last fall, the Justice Department announced its settlement with victims families and survivors of the shooting at the iconic Mother Emanuel AME Church. The settlement came after the FBI was found to be negligent when it failed to stop the sale of a gun by a licensed firearms dealer to the shooter, who used it to kill nine people in hopes of igniting a race war.

The department is pleased to bring closure to this long-running litigation, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton of the Justice Departments Civil Division. These settlement agreements represent another chapter in the justice systems efforts to address this horrific event, following the governments prosecution and conviction of the shooter for federal hate crimes.

And Sutherland Springs? Its been nearly five years. Wheres another chapter for more than 80 devastated survivors and family members? Wheres the closure? The Justice Department needs to reassess its ill-considered decision to appeal a decision designed to bring a bit of relief to a little country church east of San Antonio, where survivors and family members are doing their best just to get by.
Regarding Alert: Police say a seventh person has died as a result of the mass shooting at a July 4 parade in Highland Park, Illinois, (July 5): As the collective media covers the tragic parade shooting in a Chicago suburb, they miss the forest for the trees. Just look at the headline from a Chicago news story before the parade shooting: Over 60 shot, 15 fatally, in violent July Fourth weekend in Chicago.

Sadly, this is somewhat of a regular occurrence in Chicago and other cities across America, yet it never makes for a 24/7 news cycle like the one-off crazy person shooting up a place. If the politicos were serious about reducing gun deaths, they wouldnt be focusing on scary-looking weapons of war and the size of magazines, theyd be focusing on the root causes such as lack of education and job opportunities among the many issues that lead people to a life of crime. Im sure if someone looks at the stats, they might discover that the number of innocent people caught in the crossfire in these near-daily city shootings exceeds those killed in the mass shootings the media seem to love. These stats are likely to also reveal that far more innocent children are caught in the crossfire each and every year than were killed in Uvalde.

Tim Graney, Katy

Im in our school, listening to the children sing This land is your land, this land is my land...this land was made for you and me. This land is not truly made for them until we make it safe for them. Safe to worship, go to parades, shop and attend school.

This is on us. We have to push for local, state and national legislation that will make this country safe for children again.

Pam Nelson, founder, Montessori House for Children and Elementary School

The recently passed, bipartisan bill on gun control, signed by President Biden less than two weeks ago has already failed, this time on the Fourth of July. Why? The legislation failed to recognize, by legislators, actions which would protect themselves, their families and their own kids or grandkids were they to find themselves in the line of fire at a place such as Highland Park, gunned down by a person with access to weapons of war, legally purchased.

Legislators must ask the obvious: What do I need to legislate to keep these weapons out of the hands of deranged, malicious people who may target a function my family and I may attend? If the legislation drafted does not move to directly stop or eliminate the potential for massacres such as that of Sandy Hook, Uvalde and Highland Park it is insufficient and needs to be redone. If this means banning the use of these weapons, except as part of A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, then these weapons need to be so-regulated, and banned, such that they are only in the hands of persons subject to such well regulated militia. This may be done by presidential executive order, for up to one year, with appropriate permanent regulations drafted by a joint task force of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Department of Defense, voted on by Congress and made applicable to each state.

Hold your congresspeople and senators responsible for keeping firearms out of the hands of domestic terrorists. Your vote is your voice. No mas!

Rex Alfonso, Missouri City

I guess we need to wear both masks and body armor now to go out.

Alan Jackson, Houston

As a former public school teacher for 25 years, the senseless massacre of children and teachers in Uvalde terrified me. It changed lives and caused unfathomable grief and sadness for so many people that will never go away. Fast forward to the senseless, horrific massacre on July 4 at a parade in Highland Park, Chicago.The more facts that come out, the worse it is and again, lives are changed and the grief and sadness for so many people will never go away. The celebration of freedom promised in our country is replaced by fear for our lives.

The Supreme Court has become a political pawn for Mr. Trump and his followers. There is a huge contradiction between making abortion a crime but basically saying freedom for all when it comes to guns. I keep hearing that we are saving so many babies lives. So at what age is it OK for people to be randomly shot with the guns you make so available? The stupidity and hypocrisy is beyond belief. Whose human lives are you choosing to save?

Carol Anderson, Houston
A Travis County judge on Friday granted a narrow injunction against the state of Texas that will continue to block investigations of child abuse for two families who allowed their children to receive gender-affirming care.

The suit was brought by three Texas families and national LGBT advocacy group PFLAG in response to the Department of Family and Protective Services resuming the investigations this spring, after the Texas Supreme Court ruled it could in a similar but separate case.

The DFPS Rule was given the effect of a new law or new agency rule, despite no new legislation, regulation, or even valid agency policy, said Judge Amy Clark Meachum, a Democrat, in granting the injunction, which will last until the cases resolution.

Like another Travis County judge who granted a temporary restraining order that blocked the investigations into the plaintiff families, Meachum wrote in her ruling Friday that restarting the inquiries would cause immediate and irreparable injury to them.

RELATED: Families sue to halt Texas investigations of medical care for transgender children

Unlike the previous injunction, however, Meachums order does not apply to all members of the chapter-based group PFLAG.

Meachum said Friday that she will consider legal and factual consideration and rule as soon as possible on whether to do so. Adam and Amber Briggle, the third plaintiff family, was also not included in Fridays injunction, as their CPS case was closed after the lawsuit was filed.

Within an hour after the district court's ruling, Texas had already filed an appeal, the plaintiffs attorneys said. The attorney generals office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton has argued that taking away a childs constitutional right to procreate, especially when they are too young to legally consent  and even the use of gender-affirming medications  could result in physical and mental harm that amounts to abuse. He and Gov. Greg Abbott began pushing for the investigations early this year, though most major medical organizations in Texas and across the nation support gender-affirming care for minors with gender dysphoria.

Gender dysphoria is defined as distress associated with a persons gender identity not matching with their sex assigned at birth.

There have been 11 investigations of parents of Texas transgender youth, testified Marta Talbert, a director of the states Child Protective Investigations unit who was called as a witness by state lawyers. Talbert said five have been closed and two are close to being closed.

Talbert said this was either because the state found the youth were not on any kind of puberty blockers or hormones or, more often, because their doctor was able to provide information about their care to investigators.

The other cases are stayed by the court through litigation.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs disputed that the investigations were being held up for purely administrative reasons and said there seemed to be further activity by the child welfare agency on them, contradicting Talberts testimony.

In court on Wednesday, two Texas mothers of transgender children, who are plaintiffs in the case and going by pseudonyms to protect their privacy, testified that the investigations had a devastating impact on the wellbeing of their children and families.

Mirabel Voe described to the court how her son ingested an entire bottle of aspirin on the day that Gov. Greg Abbott issued the directive that the state begin the investigations.

The family was later reported to the state for possible child abuse by staff at the psychiatric facility where the boy spent nine days after being discharged from the hospital. An investigator came knocking on their door two days after they returned home.

No one ever wants to be told theyre a bad parent, and especially by the state that they live in, because they love their child enough to take them to receive medical advice, medical treatment, Voe said, her voice breaking up. It was sickening, it was maddening, it was horrific to say the least.

The state called as a witness James Cantor, a clinical psychologist based in Ontario, Canada, who said his reviews of studies have found that the majority of children with gender dysphoria no longer end up having symptoms of the condition after hitting puberty and instead tend to realize they are gay or lesbian.

Most of the studies he cited in a blog post making the same argument were published before 1988. Gender identity disorder did not make an appearance in the nations manual of mental disorders until 1980.

The plaintiffs attorneys objected to Cantors testimony, saying the studies referenced were not of transgender youths but rather tomboys or effeminate youth. They also pointed to a North Carolina district court opinion that found that Cantor lacked personal experience or expertise treating minors with gender dysphoria and therefore gave his testimony very little weight.

Its a complete misrepresentation of the science, one that frankly is the basis and foundation for all of Paxtons opinions, Gov. Abbotts directive and the departments actions, said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior attorney with Lambda Legal. Its a fundamental misunderstanding about trans kids because they dont believe trans kids should exist.

taylor.goldenstein@chron.com
WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 9, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in Midland/Odessa has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

Northwestern Culberson County in southwestern Texas...

* Until 715 PM CDT /615 PM MDT/.

* At 513 PM CDT /413 PM MDT/, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms

producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 0.5 and 1

inch of rain has fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to

begin shortly.

HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban

areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as

other poor drainage and low-lying areas.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Pine Springs and Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

This includes the following streams and drainages...

Nickel Creek and Delaware River.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

Please report observed flooding to local emergency services or law

enforcement and request they pass this information to the National

Weather Service when you can do so safely.

...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of north central Uvalde

and southern Real Counties through 600 PM CDT...

At 515 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm over

Tuff, or near Leakey, moving southwest at 15 mph.

HAZARD...Winds in excess of 40 mph and nickel size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around

unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is

possible.

Locations impacted include...

Leakey, Camp Wood, Tuff and Barksdale.

If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.

Frequent cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm.

Lightning can strike 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. Seek a safe

shelter inside a building or vehicle.

LAT...LON 2977 9963 2951 9988 2963 10001 2964 10001

2966 10003 2968 10002 2971 10006 2972 10003

2974 10003 2990 9977

TIME...MOT...LOC 2215Z 047DEG 13KT 2979 9977

MAX HAIL SIZE...0.88 IN

MAX WIND GUST...40 MPH

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
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Ces deux institutions vont signer prochainement un protocole daccord afin de faciliter le developpement chez les entrepreneurs et des etudiants dans un Win-Win Situation.

Cabinet has agreed to the SME Mauritius Ltd signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mauritius Institute of Training and Development for the benefit of small and medium enterprises. The Memorandum of Understanding would pave the way in establishing a coherent and comprehensive approach in the development of the SME sector. In addition to being equipped with the technical know-how to operate in their respective field of activity, SMEs would be simultaneously empowered in the setting up of their own businesses, which would help in the enhancement of the entrepreneurial culture. The objectives of this joint collaboration are, inter alia:

(a) the promotion of an entrepreneurship culture by enhancing entrepreneurial skills;

(b) the promotion of learner ability in identifying market needs and prospective solutions through an entrepreneurial perspective;

(c) the provision of short courses in relevant trades to help and support SMEs in their quests for development and growth; and

(d) the provision of technical assistance as well as the organisation of workshops and seminars on entrepreneurship
Elon Musk is nearly always newsworthy, but even for him, the past week has been headline-filled. First, the world learned on Wednesday that last November--weeks before the birth of Musk's second child with the musician Grimes--he secretly fathered twins with Shivon Zilis, a rising star in the world of artificial intelligence and director of operations and special projects at Musk's company Neuralink. The births came to light after Insider discovered court documents granting Zilis and Musk's request that the babies' names be changed, adding their father's last name and having their mother's last name become part of their middle names.

Then on Friday, in a regulatory filing, Musk sought to officially back out of his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, claiming that the company had failed to provide requested information on the prevalence of bots (tweeting algorithms) on the platform--or at least not in a sufficiently useful format. This wasn't exactly surprising. Musk seems to have been trying to squirm out of this purchase almost from the moment his offer was accepted--which very likely came as a surprise to him. It's not entirely clear how the whole Twitter saga will work out for Musk, though, since he made a firm offer in writing to buy the company and that offer was not contingent on how many bots were or weren't on the platform. In fact, he waived his right to due diligence to get the deal done quickly.

Twitter has responded with a tweet saying the company plans to sue Musk to ensure that the deal goes through. The value of both Twitter shares and shares of Tesla, which Musk is using to finance the deal, have both gone down quite a bit since Musk first moved to buy Twitter, so some observers speculate that all this posturing is just a prelude to a renegotiation of the purchase at a lower price. If Musk really does bow out, it seems likely he'd be on the hook for at least $1 billion in charges, and potentially a lot more.

If indeed Musk fails to purchase Twitter and suffers financial consequences as a result, it won't be the first time something like this has happened to him. He famously tweeted in 2018 that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private when that turned out to be untrue. He and Tesla each wound up paying a $20 million fine as a result, and Musk was forced to give up his role as chairman of the company for three years, although he retained his position as CEO.

So the Twitter brouhaha may be business as usual for Musk, but news of the the secret twins is something else again. The timing of this revelation makes it seem like part of a very bad pattern. About six weeks ago, a judge ruled that a lawsuit alleging widespread sexual harassment at Tesla can go forward, despite the company's attempt to shut it down by citing an arbitration clause. And just a few days before that, Insider reported that SpaceX had paid $250,000 for a flight attendant's silence about Musk's inappropriate behavior and sexual advances during a flight on a company jet. (Musk has denied the harassment allegations but not commented on the payment.)

In light of these other accusations, Musk's liaison with Zilis, along with the secrecy surrounding it, looks a lot like one more instance of a spoiled, out-of-control billionaire seeking sexual congress with whatever youthful female happens to be in reach, and allowing or even promoting an atmosphere of sexual harassment throughout his workplace. That's a very big shame because data science in general and artificial intelligence in particular are fields completely dominated by white men. Four years ago, AI expert Rana el Kaliouby reported attending the premiere of a new AI documentary where she and Zilis were the only two female AI experts. "AI is in dire need of diversity," Kaliouby wrote. Until this week, Zilis represented a bit of that needed diversity. She was listed in both Forbes' "30 Under 30" and LinkedIn's "35 Under 35" for her achievements. Unfortunately, from now on she'll be most famous as the mother of Musk's secret twins.

Does Musk have too much power?

These events make clear that there are weaknesses, as well as strengths, when an organization has a single, all-powerful leader. Musk, who has tweeted about his bowel movements, famously has no filter. This is part of his appeal and the reason he has more than 100 million Twitter followers--and it's why his public persona and social media are the only marketing strategy Tesla has ever needed. At the same time, his public persona and social media can be a real liability. Musk's most recent tweets seem designed to encourage engineers and other employees to avoid his companies, for instance by warning them that they'd be expected to work "at least" 40 hours a week in the office at Tesla or that work ethic expectations if he buys Twitter "would be extreme."

However male employees or prospective employees might feel about working at a company Musk owns, I have to believe the events of the past few weeks would cause female engineers to question the wisdom of working in places where they reportedly would have to put up with lewd comments, inappropriate touching, and sexual propositions as part of their workplace landscape. It's hard to see how people believing that could be beneficial to any of Musk's companies.
Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt announced on Friday that she has completed filming for her first Hollywood film, 'Heart of Stone'. Alia shared the update with her fans and followers on Instagram alongside a series of photographs from the movie sets.

Instagram

She thanked her co-stars and director for the unforgettable experience.

Instagram

Sharing pictures from the sets, Alia wrote:

Instagram

"Heart of Stone  you have my wholeeeeee thank you the beautiful @gal_gadot.. my director Tom Harper @jamiedornan missed you today.. my whole team for the unforgettable experience. I will be forever grateful for the love and care I received, and I cant wait for you all to see the film!."



The spy thriller also stars "Wonder Woman" star Gal Gadot and "Belfast" actor Jamie Dornan. The Netflix film is directed by Tom Harper from a script penned by Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder.

Instagram

Gal Gadot urged fans to shower love on Alia Bhatt. Calling her 'amazing talent and a great person', Gal wrote:

Instagram

Twitter

Bhatt, 29, who announced her pregnancy last month during her stay in London for the films shoot, also expressed her excitement to come back home to her husband, Ranbir Kapoor.



Instagram/AliaBhatt

After marrying Ranbir Kapoor in April, the couple recently announced that they are all set to embrace parenthood.

Instagram

"Our baby... coming soon," Alia wrote on Instagram, adding a picture from her ultrasound appointment.



She also posted a picture of a lion cub that features two lions. A day after announcing her pregnancy, Alia thanked everyone for their wishes.

Web Screen Grab

"Overwhelmed with all the love. I have tried to read everyones messages and good wishes and all I want to say is, it truly feels so special to celebrate such a big moment of our lives with all the love and blessings. Thank you to every single one of you," she posted on Instagram.



Bhatt also called out reports that claimed that the former has planned her pregnancy in such a way that her film commitments are not affected. The reports also stated that Ranbir would be flying down to the UK "to pick up" Alia.

Instagram

Expressing disappointment over misogynistic coverage of her pregnancy news, Alia took to Instagram Story and wrote,

"Meanwhile we still live in some peoples heads we still live in some patriarchal world.. FYI. Nothing has gotten delayed!!!! No one needs to PICK anyone up. I am a woman, not a parcel!!!!! I do not need to REST at all but good to know youll have a doctor's certification as well  This is 2022. Can we pls get out of this archaic way of thinking! Now if you would excuse me.. my shot is ready."



Alia and Ranbir Kapoor tied the knot on April 14, 2022, after dating for many years, at Ranbirs Mumbai residence in an intimate ceremony.

(To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.)


Amid growing religious communal tension due to the Udaipur killing in the country, a movie poster shared by Documentary filmmaker Leena Manimekalai sparked another controversy. She shared a poster of her film depicting a woman dressed as Goddess Kaali, smoking a cigarette.



Twitter/@RashmiDVS

Several Internet users considered the poster an insult to Hinduism and called for legal action against the filmmaker while others asked for respect religious sentiments of every community.

Several political leaders have also expressed their objection and called for strict action to be taken against the filmmaker.

Manimekalai told BBC, the goddess she shows in her film "champions humanity and embraces diversityAs a poet and filmmaker, I embody Kali in my own independent vision,"

Several FIRs for deliberately hurting religious sentiments

An FIR is registered against her by the Uttar Pradesh Police for criminal conspiracy, offence in a place of worship, deliberately hurting religious sentiments, and intention to provoke breach of peace.

Unsplash/Representational Image

A complaint was also filed with the Delhi Police for hurting the sentiments of the Hindu community.

Most of the complainants demanded punishment against her by taking strict action under Section 295A of IPC, Section 79 of IT Act 2000 and Prohibition of Indecent Representation of Women Act, 1986.

Who is Leena Manimekalai?

Born in Madurai, Leena Manimekalai is a Toronto-based Indian filmmaker, poet and actor. She has published poetry anthologies and a dozen films in genres, including documentary, fiction and experimental poem films, as per the Zee news report.

Twitter/@LeenaManimekali

Currently living in Canada, she owns Leena Manimekalai Productions. Leena Manimekalai is the producer of the documentary film 'Kaali'. Further, she has directed several documentaries including Mathamma, Parai, Breaking The Shackles, Love Lost, A Hole in the Bucket, and Goddesses.

In 2007, she made a documentary Goddesses that was screened at the Mumbai and Munich film festivals. In 2019, she made Maadathy - An Unfairy Tale, the film was a fictional story of how a young girl from a marginalised caste group is immortalised as a deity.

Previous incidents

In India, religion is indeed a sensitive issue and depicting religious figures often lead to controversy. In 2015, a Bollywood film Angry Indian Goddesses was asked for various cuts by the censor board. The film showed the images of Hindu goddesses.

Last year, Saif Ali Khan-starrer web series 'Taandav' was also criticised for allegedly creating a possibility of communal tension by depicting Hindu Gods in a bad light.

Anurag Basu's 'Ludo' also faced Twitteratis' anger for depicting 'Hinduphobic' content in the film.

There are several other incidents when films are blamed for hurting the religious sentiments of certain communities.

What does the filmmaker say?

Manimekalai told BBC that it was a "candid shoot" of herself dressed up as a goddess.

"In my film, Kali chooses me as a spirit, holds a Pride flag and a camera in her hands and meets the First Nations (indigenous people), the People of African, Asian, Persian descent, the Jews, the Christians, the Muslims and the mini-universe that one can capture across any cross-section of Canada," she added.

Twitter/@sumit1027

She stated that people often dress up as Kali and consume alcohol in village festivals in southern India.

She further said that poster portrays the goddess showing love as she "kindly accepts the cigarette from the working-class street-dwellers at the park around the Kensington Market".

She insisted that artists should not be stopped by the climate of fear and need to be louder and stronger. She wrote in a tweet in Tamil, "I have nothing to lose. Till the time I live, I wish to live with a voice that speaks what I believe without fear. If the price for that is my life, it can be given,"

What did MP Mahua Moitra say on Kali?

TMC MP Mahua Moitra's controversial remarks on Goddess Kali led to bitter relations with her own party. On the poster controversy, she said that she had every right as an individual to imagine Goddess Kali as a meat-eating and alcohol-accepting Goddess, as each person had his or her unique way of worshipping deities, as reported in TOI.

The TMC distanced itself from Moitra's comments, stating that her views were made "in her personal capacity and are not endorsed by the party".

TOI

After the partys comment, Moitra unfollowed the TMC's official Twitter handle.

Further, Madhya Pradesh Police registered an FIR against Moitra after MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan objected to her comment, Hindu religious sentiments have been hurt by Mahua Moitras statement and insult of Hindu deities will not be tolerated at any cost.

The case is registered under Section 295A (hurting religious sentiments) of IPC.

Reverting to several comments on her, Moitra tweeted "To all you sanghis - lying will not make you better Hindus. I never backed any film or poster or mentioned the word smoking. Suggest you visit my Maa Kali in Tarapith to see what food and drink is offered as bhog,"

"Bring it on BJP! Am a Kali worshipper. I am not afraid of anything. Not your ignoramuses. Not your goons. Not your police. And most certainly not your trolls. Truth doesn't need backup forces," she added.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor supported Moitra, he tweeted "obviously wasnt trying to offend anyoneI am no stranger to malicious manufactured controversy, but am still taken aback by the attack on Moitra for saying what every Hindu knows, that our forms of worship vary widely across the country. What devotees offer as bhog says more about them than about the goddess.

What are the laws concerning the controversy?

The filmmaker is charged with Section 295A of IPC, Section 79 of IT Act 2000 and Prohibition of Indecent Representation of Women Act, 1986 for her recent shared poster on Twitter.

PTI

Section 295A notes, Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to [three years], or with fine, or with both.

Prohibition of Indecent Representation of Women Act, 1986 prohibits indecent representation of women through advertisement or in publications, writings, paintings, figures or in any other manner.

If found guilty, one can be punished for up to two years in jail for an offence committed for the first time and imprisonment of 6 months to 5 years for a second conviction.
Microchips are becoming increasingly injected into humans; these chips can do everything from unlocking doors and processing payments to storing COVID vaccination records.

"Human cyborg," is much similar to other individuals who have microchips implanted in them: grain-sized capsules that react to data through radio frequency identifying signals (RFID).

According to experts, in the future, brain implants may help humans remember things better. Passwords and keys could be replaced by RFID chips or implanted magnets. Exoskeletons could increase human strength and improve a variety of other human capabilities.

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What is a Cyborg?

A person with both organic and biomechatronic body parts is referred to as a cyborg (a combination of the words cybernetic and organism). Nathan S. Kline and Manfred Clynes first came up with the term in 1960.

The term "cyborg" refers to an organism that has enhanced capabilities due to the integration of a synthetic component or technology that relies on feedback, as opposed to bionics, bio-robotics, or androids. Although humans and other mammals are typically thought of as mammals, including cyborgs, they might theoretically be any form of an organism.

The introduction to D. S. Halacy's 1965 book Cyborg: Evolution of the Superman described it as a "new frontier" that was "not only space but more fundamentally the interaction between "inner space" to "outer space" - a bridge between thought and matter."

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Some definitions of the word claim that humans are already cyborgs due to their bodily ties to even the most primitive technologies.

A classic example of a cyborg is a person who has an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator or synthetic cardiac pacemaker since these machines can deliver electrical stimuli, process signals, and measure voltage potentials in the body.

They use this artificial feedback system to keep an individual alive. Cochlear implants in particular are cyborg improvements since they mix mechanical alteration with any form of feedback response.

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Some theorists use intraocular lenses, hearing aids, cellphones, and contact lenses as instances of how people have been fitted with technology to improve their biological capabilities.

Using this technology, it is possible to instantaneously verify that a person is who they claim to be, among other things. All the data typically saved in wallets can be stored on an RFID (short-range radio frequency identification) implant.

Implanted microchips are simply cylinder-shaped bar codes that send a specific signal through a layer of skin when they are scanned. Despite occasional human experiments, they have primarily been employed to inventory goods, identify stray animals, and organise livestock.

Robot vs Cyborg

Cyborgs and robots appeared to be science fiction staples, and in some ways, they are. But the majority of people are unaware that robots and cyborgs actually exist, although not in the same form as they are portrayed in popular culture. The possibility of life distinguishes cyborgs from robots as their main distinction. A robot is essentially a highly developed machine.

Unsplash/Representational image

It frequently involves automation and hardly any connection with people. Cyborgs, in contrast, are a hybrid of a machine and living beings. It doesn't have to be a person; it may be a dog, a bird, or anything else that lives.

A cyborg is different from a robot since it has a life component.

The RFID chip

The RFID chip is essentially a tiny two-way radio, about the size of a rice grain, that can store different kinds of information. The chip is placed beneath the skin and, when scanned, can offer data such as an individual's ID number, which links to a database containing more specific information on the wearer.

An RFID can allow human beings to access public transportation, communicate our identifying information as we pass through a security checkpoint, and eliminate long lineups at the grocery store checkout.

Getty Images

The first RFID chip was implanted into a human arm in 1998 by Kevin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at Reading University in the UK. The objective was to see if his computer could follow him around the university wirelessly.

When Florida-based Applied Digital Solutions tested implanting its VeriChips, which are now known as PositiveID, in regular individuals in the early 2000s, the technology took off and was approved by the FDA in 2004.

A brief history of technical device implantation

The paper "Cyborgs and Space" (1995), written by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline in 1960, featured an experiment involving a lab rat.

The rat has a tiny osmotic pump implanted that could deliver precisely measured amounts of chemicals as the animal required under various circumstances. Instead of modifying the circumstances in space to create surroundings similar to those on Earth, the goal was to create an artificial system that could adapt a living person to those conditions.

A new level of homeostasis was added when a technology gadget was linked to a biological system. Thus, it should be able to equip astronauts with bodily-connected technological equipment to facilitate space travel.

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The technology is now widely used commercially after many years. It's actually fairly prevalent in Sweden, where thousands of individuals have welcomed the technology.

Experts believe that a regulated interaction between biological systems and mechanical equipment that would take care of providing the body with the fuel it needs should fill the role of the organic conditions that exist in the link between human physiological processes and the environment.





For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.


The world was left shocked on Friday by the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot dead during an election campaign.

India is observing a day of mourning on Saturday to condole the untimely death of Abe, who had warm relations with the country during his days in office.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his shock over the tragic demise of Abe.

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PM Modi calls Abe 'Dear friend'

PM Modi wrote, "I am shocked and saddened beyond words at the tragic demise of one of my dearest friends, Shinzo Abe. He was a towering global statesman, an outstanding leader, and a remarkable administrator. He dedicated his life to make Japan and the world a better place."

In a blog post titled "My Friend, Abe San" PM Modi wrote, "In the passing away of Abe, Japan and the world have lost a great visionary. And, I have lost a dear friend."

He referred to him as "San" which means "Dear" and said that he met Abe in 2007.

BCCL

"I first met Abe San in 2007 and since then, we have had so many memorable interactions. I will cherish each of them. Abe San energised the India-Japan relationship. He ensured that Japan is there side by side as New India accelerates its growth," wrote PM Modi.

True friend of India: MMS

Former PM Manmohan Singh described Abe as a true friend of India, who had worked to deepen the relationship and strategic partnership between the two countries.

In a letter to the Japanese ambassador Satoshi Suzuki, Singh said, I am deeply saddened and shocked to learn about the tragic assassination... During my tenure as PM, we worked to raise both our countries' ties to the level of a global and strategic partnership. Our efforts elevated India-Japan relations to a qualitatively new level.

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Beyond politics and economics

Abe's relationship with India was not limited to politics and business, but munch deep-rooted.

He first visited India in 2007 and was the first Japanese PM to attend the Republic Day parade as chief guest. He also addressed the parliament with his Confluence of Two Seas speech highlighting the partnership between the two countries.

In 2014, during the first visit of PM Modi to Japan, he and Abe signed the Kyoto-Varanasi Partner City Agreement to help rejuvenate the ancient city which has a rich heritage. Abe had broken protocol and had traveled to Kyoto to welcome Modi.

In the following year, Abe also visited India and also went to Varanasi.

Abe's Nehru jacket in Varanasi

During his visit to the Holy City, many were left surprised to see Abe wearing a golden beige-coloured Nehru jacket when he attended the Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat along with PM Modi.

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The Nehru jacket was a gift to Abe by Dubai-based NRI businessman Dr Shamsheer Vayalil who met Abe the previous day in Delhi.

According to Dr Shamsheer, the Founder and CEO of Burjeel Holdings he had read about Nobusuke Kishi Abes paternal grandfather who was also a former Japanese Prime Minister visiting India then Jawaharlal Nehru was in office.

The memory of reading about Abes grandfather inspired Dr. Shamsheer to pick out a golden beige-coloured Nehru jacket to present to the Japanese leader.

BCCL

He was intrigued when he saw the golden beige jacket and said let us try it on now. He asked me to help him put the jacket over his white shirt. He then happily posed for a photo wearing the jacket. He didn't remove the jacket even when I left, making it seem like a symbol of friendship between India and Japan, Dr. Shamsheer recalled.

AFP/ File Image

Two years later, in 2017 Abe visited India again. It was during this visit that the foundation was laid for the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project, which was being constructed with a 50-year-loan from Japan at an interest of 0.01%.

For more on news, sports, and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
Three teenagers gang-raped a teenage girl in Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore. The girl is a Class 10 student, and all three suspects have been arrested by police, according to a TimesNow report.



When the rape survivor repeatedly excused herself from school, her parents became suspicious.

istock

The girl, who was depressed, refused to go to school. When confronted about the incident, she said she went to a male friend's birthday party in May without telling her family.

The birthday party was held on the school grounds, and some other boys recorded footage of the girl attending while it was happening.

Twitter

After that, the boys blackmailed her and told her they would show her parents the video. They said the victim accompanied them to one of their homes after she continuously asked them to delete the video.



Tribune India/Representational Image

They lied to the victim that the phone that carried the video of her attending the birthday party was inside that house to tempt her into it. They went berserk and gang-raped her as soon as she entered the house.

The accused boys recorded the gang rape and threatened to broadcast the video around the entire school if she dared to tell anyone what had happened.

Reuters

The girl claimed that the guy abruptly locked the door and invited two of his friends inside. The three students allegedly sexually assaulted the 15-year-old girl and recorded the act on tape. The footage was also shared with other students of the same school.



Representational Image

After that, the girl struggled with depression and stopped wanting to attend school. After learning the truth, her parents complained, and an FIR was filed under the POCSO Act. Because the accused are minors, they were sent to an observation home instead.



Police have launched an investigation into the terrible crime.

(For more trending stories, click here.)


A food bank in Cork city has registered almost as many new clients in the first six months of the year as it did for all of last year as the cost-of-living crisis deepens.

Feed Cork, which distributes food to families in need, is registering new clients every week, with 443 coming forward so far this year. For all of last year, it registered 480 new clients.

Its gone through the roof, Emma Byrd, a volunteer with the charity, told the Irish Examiner. Its frightening. Definitely, the numbers are increasing in a big way.

Food banks have been identified as a common feature in Britain over the last decade, with a report in The Times of London this week highlighting the UK has more food banks than McDonalds restaurants, and increasing numbers of people in Ireland are now beginning to rely on them as an essential service.

Pastor Hamp Sirmans (centre), who is director of Feed Cork, with volunteers Natalee and Gavin Monaghan. Picture: Jim Coughlan

With households dealing with energy bills that are hundreds of euro more than last year, petrol and diesel through the roof and rents continuing to rise, Ms Byrd said that many who come through their doors have exhausted their finances meeting those costs and cannot afford the weekly shop.

Its not just people on social welfare, she said. Were seeing a lot more families on low incomes not receiving social welfare. And food is their final priority by the time they have paid for everything else.

Feed Cork opens on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, but volunteers are working Monday to Friday handling food donations and preparing it for when clients come in. When they arrive, food is laid out in a similar manner as to how it would be in a supermarket.

We try to make people feel as welcome as possible and try to make it a normal shopping activity  as if they were going to do their groceries, so theyd feel they were coming into a shop rather than a food bank

"Its a huge step for someone to actually make that call to come to a food bank, Ms Byrd said.

There is also a cafe on site, where people can have a coffee, cake, or sandwich

School scheme

The team also operates a programme called After School Fuel. It links with 13 Deis schools in Cork City to provide hot meals, prepared by Brooks Food Catering, to families on Fridays.

Other organisations offering support have highlighted the huge strain being put on families in recent month as inflation begins to bite.

FoodCloud operates in a number of countries and said that the number of tonnes of surplus food it is redistributing in Ireland this year is over double the amount it was doing in 2019.

Demand for food

It regularly surveys the community organisations and charities it provides support to and, according to its most recent survey in May, three in four say theyre experiencing an increase in demand for food. One in four said they werent meeting the demand for food.

Almost all organisations agree this is predominantly down to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, with some saying that they are continuing to support people due to the impact of the pandemic, FoodCloud said.

No end in sight

Ms Byrd agreed that more and more people were relying on food banks and the situation looked set to continue.

Two of the volunteers at Feed Cork.

That need is definitely increasing, she added. We rely on donations from the public, so were grateful to get those resources to keep providing this service every week.
Joe Barry was a veteran of RTE, having commenced his career there in 1956, starting as a technician in the engineering division.

The ebullient Dunmanway man with the sparkling smile then worked his way up to the top position of director general of the national broadcaster from 1992 to 1997.

His forensic knowledge of the organisation, along with his unique interpersonal skills, which were readily manifest in his able dealings with staff during the bitter RTE strike of the early 1990s, characterised the essence of a formidable DG.

Then minister for the Arts, Culture, and the Gaeltacht, Michael D Higgins, and RTE director general Joe Barry at the launch of Teilifis na Gaeilge in October 1996. File picture: Andrew Downes

Barrys tenure as DG would be immortalised by a tenacity of vision that saw him oversee four triumphs in the Eurovision Song Contest, the launch of TG4, and the opening of the RTE Cork studios, as well as producing, in 1994, a very comprehensive and insightful report on the context and complexities of television advertising aimed solely at children.

Barry has left an unrivalled and lasting legacy during his time in the top position at RTE.

While he would go on to chair the RTE Authority and remain engaged with Irelands cultural life, it is his pioneering stewardship and his formidable vision during his time as DG that deserves some illumination and rumination.

He took the reins at RTE in 1992, soon after Linda Martin mesmerised the Malmo audience with her rendition of the Johnny Logan classic, Why Me?

Then in stepped gutsy entrepreneur Noel C Duggan, whose mantra was why not Millstreet? artfor the staging of the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest.

To many urbanites, the concept seemed absurd. Millstreet, a tiny town in the north west of County Cork with a population of 1,500, with no train station, no main roads to Dublin, no hotels, and an unfinished equestrian centre.

Joe Barry, a native of another small Cork town called Dunmanway, along with a senior manager in RTE, Liam Miller, loved the idea, and embraced both the technical and creative challenges that staging the contest in Millstreet would involve.

Niamh Kavanagh duly won the 1993 contest with In Your Eyes and now a headache loomed for Joe Barry, namely the cost of staging yet another worldwide event.

On May 17, 1993, this paper celebrated Niamh Kavanagh's Eurovision win in Millstreet and the success of a small town in rural Ireland hosting the event  due in no small part to Joe Barry.

Barry would then become part of a legacy that created Riverdance, a dance extravaganza that was performed as an interval act, under the watchful eye of its co-creator Moya Doherty, herself the producer of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest.

Despite Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan winning that year with Rock n Roll Kids, it is the cultural legacy of Riverdance that still impacts today, and Joe Barry was part of all that iconography and mythmaking and reinvention of Irelands musical and artistic heritage.

Joe Barrys affiliation with the Eurovision would end with Eimear Quinn winning in 1997 with The Voice, as Barry vacated the corner office as DG. Fortunately for him, he would no longer have to concern himself with the financial demands of staging a fourth Eurovision song contest in just five years.

During his tenure, Barry oversaw the launch of Teilifis na Gaeilge on October 31, 1996.

The annual cost of 20m was the subject of intense controversy, but the diplomatic Dunmanway man was more than able to allay the fears of then minister for arts and the Gaeltacht, Michael D Higgins, regarding RTEs support of the Irish language.

Joe Barry officially opening the new RTE Cork studios on December 15, 1995. Directly behind the ribbon are RTE Cork head of broadcasting Gerry Reynolds, Lord Mayor Joe O'Callaghan, and Joe Walsh TD. Just behind Joe Barry is RTE Authority chairman Farrel Corcoran, and second from right is RTE's then director of news, Joe Mulholland. Picture: RTE Stills Library

Barrys achievements are manifold, including laying the groundwork for digital television. He also cared deeply about the media entities beyond the centrifugal locus of Dublin, opening the new RTE Cork studios on Father Mathew Quay in 1995 at a cost of 1m, and host to a staff of 50.

Lest one forget also the setting up of the Independent Production Unit, along with Clare Duignan and her staff of commissioning editors, a legacy which still endures.

In his book, RTE and the Globalisation of Irish Television, former chairman of RTE, Farrel Corcoran, quotes Joe Barry on the solitary aspect of being a DG, which often requires very lonely decisions.

Barry would no doubt have endured many a solitary vigil as he dealt with the media fallout from contentious Late Late Show interviews such as that with Annie Murphy in 1992, where she revealed her affair with Bishop Eamonn Casey and that she had borne his child, and the Gerry Adams interview in 1994, following on from the revocation of Section 31.

Then retired as DG, Joe Barry, centre, joined Dermot Kenneally, Mary Kenneally, then Lord Mayor of Cork Jim Corr, and historian Paddy Clark at the opening of the radio museum at Cork City Gaol in April 1997. File picture: Richard Mills

Nonetheless, this dynamic Dunmanway man, who had dedicated almost all of his working life to RTE, should be remembered for his unerring stewardship of the national broadcaster from 1992 to 1997 and for that, he did the State some service.

 Finola Doyle-ONeill is a broadcast and legal historian at the School of History, UCC. She is the author of The Gaybo Revolution: How Gay Byrne Challenged Irish Society.
The deputy chair of An Bord Pleanala, Paul Hyde, who has been at the centre of rolling controversies for over two months, has resigned from his position.

Mr Hyde tendered his resignation to the Minister for Housing Darragh OBrien on Friday, pre-empting the outcome of a number of inquiries into decisions he has made in his capacity as the second most senior board member at the state's planning appeals body.

In early May, the Housing Minister appointed senior counsel Remy Farrell to investigate allegations that Mr Hyde had failed to declare conflicts of interest in a number of planning decisions.

Mr Farrell was due to report at the end of June but his deadline was extended by a month.

An internal review of cases over which Mr Hyde presided is also being conducted in An Bord Pleanala, and the Irish Examiner previously reported that an investigation by the chair of the board, under section 110 of the Planning Act, is under way.

On May 6, Mr Hyde stepped aside from his role while the various inquiries were being conducted but denied any impropriety or conflict of interest.

At the time, An Bord Pleanala issued a statement saying he was absenting himself on a strictly without prejudice basis which implied that he would likely resume his role once the inquiry was completed.

However, in the intervening period the Irish Examiner and other media outlets have reported on a number of planning issues that have given rise to serious questions about processes and decision-making within the board.

Most of these have involved, to a greater or a lesser extent, Mr Hyde.

Growing controversy The initial allegations against him surfaced on The Ditch website and concerned planning decisions involving family members, in-laws and in one instance a company in which he himself was a substantial shareholder. Planning was refused for this proposed development in Blackpool, Cork City. In April, it emerged that Paul Hyde had been involved in refusing planning for this development and that he was part owner of other land near the site, File picture That case related to a proposed development in Blackpool in Cork City where he signed off a ruling denying planning permission for an apartment development. In late April, it emerged that Mr Hyde and his father owned some land near to the proposed development but he had never declared his interest. Since then, a whole array of decisions in which he played a role have raised serious questions, principally those involving strategic housing developments and communication masts.

Mr Hyde was appointed to the board in 2014 by then Environment Minister Phil Hogan.

He had previously served as a member of the Marine Institute, to which he was appointed by his long-time acquaintance, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney.

In recent months it emerged that his appointment to An Bord Pleanala followed a nomination from the Irish Rural Dwellers Association, which had actually ceased to exist at the time of the nomination.

In 2019, Mr Hyde was promoted to deputy chair of the board and appointed chair of the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) sub committee.

The SHD system, in which large housing developments applied directly to An Bord Pleanala for planning permission, has been highly controversial and a number of decisions have in recent months been the subject of further investigation and analysis.

An architect by training, Mr Hyde had previously worked out of his native Cork in the Hyde Partnership.

His current term was due to expire in 2024 but he tendered his resignaton ahead of the completion of the reviews into his work.

A spokesman for the Department of Housing confirmed last night that the minister, Darragh O'Brien, has this afternoon received notification from Mr Paul Hyde of his resignation as a member of An Bord Pleanala.

Attempts to contact Mr Hyde were unsuccessful.
An Iarnrod Eireann worker narrowly escaped death after jumping clear of a railway track just four seconds before the Dublin-Belfast Enterprise Service passed where he had been standing at over 140 km/h.

A new report by the Railway Accident Investigation Unit recorded details of the near miss which occurred near Gormanston train station in Co Meath on July 21 last year.

The report said, under slightly different circumstances, there could have been a fatality or serious injury.

The employee, who was attached to Iarnrod Eireanns chief civil engineers department, was acting as track safety co-ordinator for a group of construction workers working close to the Dublin-Belfast railway line near Gormanston train station.

The report recorded that the employee had decided of his own volition to go onto the railway line to place two temperature gauges on the railway to check the tack's temperature as it was a hot and sunny day in order to prevent any buckling or damage to the rails.

The employee returned to the track at 10.04am to collect the gauge when he noticed the Enterprise service from Connolly to Belfast was approaching.

RAIU inspectors noted he managed to clear the line four seconds before the train passed him at 142km/h.

The train driver had sounded a horn and applied an emergency brake before coming to a stop.

The report found the employee would have had sight of the approaching train for 385 metres, which was almost half the required length for the maximum speed limit for that section of track.

Worker should not have been on track

As a result, it said the worker should not have been on the track without having alternative protection arrangements.

Tests for drugs and alcohol on the worker were negative.

The investigation said a lack of concentration by the worker and not ensuring he adhered to requirements of the companys rule book were major factors in the incident.

They require someone on a track to look up frequently and be able to reach a position of safety at least 10 seconds before a train arrives.

The report said the worker should have realised it was not safe to work alone on the line at the location where the incident occurred.

It also concluded he had not looked or listened for trains before going on the track and may have been distracted by noise from the construction work.

The RAIU said a contributory factor may have been that the workers experience and confidence as a long-term staff member may have meant he momentarily lost concentration and was not as alert as he should have been.

The RAIU made a number of safety recommendations as a result of its finding that the division did not have a risk assessment for the monitoring of rail temperatures.

It also found that documentation did not require staff from the division to carry out any checklists before going on or near the line.

The RAIU said Iarnrod Eireann should develop a formalised process to consider whether it was necessary for staff to go or work near a line and what local knowledge was required to operate safely.

Iarnrod Eireann said it has issued a company-wide safety alert following the incident to highlight the key safety message to staff not to go on or near the line unless their duties required them to do so.
Russia has a clear capacity to engage in serious intelligence operations in all countries, including Ireland, a senior US official to Nato has warned.

David F Helvey, Deputy Defence Advisor for the US Mission to the military alliance, said the threats include disinformation campaigns, political interference, and cyber attacks.

He said Russia has also been creating food and energy insecurity in countries and pointed out that borders offered no protection to Russian agents engaging in chemical attacks against fellow citizens living in European countries.

His comments, made during a webinar held in Dublin, come just a week after an Irish judge, charged with overseeing surveillance powers by An Garda Siochana and the Defence Forces, flagged a growing Russian threat to the security of Ireland in the last year.

In his annual report to the Taoiseach, as revealed in the Irish Examiner last weekend, Mr Justice Charles Meenan said: The Russian invasion of Ukraine has considerably increased the level of danger and threat to the security of the State.

Asked to comment on what threats Russian intelligence and security services posed to countries like Ireland, Mr Helvey said: One of the things that we have seen from Russia that I think does need to be of concern to all of us and this extends beyond the unprovoked war that President Putin has launched on Ukrainian people is Russia's capacity to engage in disinformation and influence operations which basically could occur anywhere globally.

Addressing an event organised by the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), he said countries need to be mindful of the potential impact disinformation can have, not only on the politics of the country targeted but also its economy.

He said the world was seeing how Russia was leveraging its economic resources as a coercive tool and added: This may not be applicable directly to Ireland, but to the extent that you know, energy security and the use of energy as a weapon, and the cascading effects go beyond those that are immediately hit by those challenges."

Similarly, food insecurity, he said, has affected supplies and prices in Ireland had probably increased, like elsewhere.

Mr Helvey said: Even beyond those types of things, we have seen Russia resort to chemical weapons attacks against Russian citizens outside of Russia."

The career civil servant in the US Department of Defence also cited cyberattacks and hacking.

He also said that China was engaging in similar tactics: There are influence activities that China can engage in that affect the security interests across the Euro Atlantic area, whether it's investments in critical infrastructure, investments in critical technologies, supply chain and the potential for supply chain disruptions and political influence.

Mr Helvey's talk Defending Europe: American Perspectives on the Madrid Summit and NATOs New Strategic Concept referred to this weeks meeting in the Spanish capital and the launch of the alliances new security document.

Days before the Government publishes its implementation plan of the Commission on the Defence Forces report, which was published last February, Mr Helvey was asked to comment about Irish defence investment.

I don't offer advice in public fora on what other countries have to do with their defence.

He then added: But I would certainly think, and hope, that Ireland would look very, very carefully at security environments and the resources that are necessary to meet, in a sustainable way, the tasks that are given to the armed forces with respect to protecting the security environment and the security interests that are here.

Commenting on the threats posed to maritime security, including trans-Atlantic underwater cables, many of which pass near or through Irish-controlled waters, Mr Helvey said this was an issue of the resilience and security of critical infrastructure.

He said: Whether its undersea infrastructure or transportation networks or power generation and oil and gas having the security of that critical infrastructure is necessary, not only for the physical security of our countries but also our ability to maintain healthy economies."

On Nato-EU linkages, he said that greater cooperation between the two institutions was important, if not essential to advance our interests and defend our security.

He cited examples of cybersecurity, disinformation, and malign influence as obvious areas where co-operation could deepen.

He also mentioned talking to each other about defence investments in order to avoid duplication and make the best use of public resources.

A key area, he said, was more joint training exercises and building partners outside Nato and the EU.

He said outside defence, there could be co-operation in relation to climate change, emerging and disruptive technologies, innovation and space.

He said that there were 50-75 areas for co-operation and that the list was getting longer.
A woman who suffered a campaign of harassment and intimidation has had a judgment issued against her for legal costs she accrued in trying to restrain her harasser.

Laura OConnell is facing legal bills of 26,000 as a result of taking out a civil injunction against Sonya Egan, The Lawn, Lios Cara in Killeens, Co Cork, who has been jailed for two years for the campaign of harassment.

Former Sinn Fein TD Jonathan OBrien had also been a victim of Egan and her conviction took the two cases into account.

Now it has emerged that Laura OConnell is being pursued for the 26,000 it cost her to take out the injunction in 2019 and for repeated court appearances every time Egan broke the injunction and kept harassing her.

Cork Circuit Court ordered Egan to pay Ms OConnell 25,000 towards her legal costs but no money was ever paid. Now, Ms OConnells solicitor has been granted a judgement against his former client for the fees that have gone unpaid.

Laura OConnell told the Mick Clifford podcast that she is co-ordinating with the office of Cork City Sheriff to see how she can repay the debt.

I am left with the legal bill I cant afford to pay, she told the podcast.

Im not working the 40 to 50 hours I should be.

This has destroyed me mentally, combatting it all has made me unwell so Im not earning to the capacity I could be earning at.

"The solicitor has decided to execute a judgment against me.

"This is after four years of being bullied and harassed and now I have this fear of the sheriff coming to the door. I dont own a property, I rent. My car is a 2010 model. Look, Im sure I will get my life back on track but right now it looks pretty bleak.

She said that her experience as a victim of crime in the criminal justice system was not pleasant.

The courts need to do much better for victims. Its not just the legal fees, its all the health fees Ive accrued as a result of what was done to me.

In her victim impact statement at Egans sentencing hearing, Ms OConnell said that Egan posed as a member of several trustworthy professions to vulnerable people.

She is a menace to society and one that I was and am not being protected from. How is society being protected from Sonya Egan? A person who takes no heed of undertakings to Gardai, injunctions, and bail conditions.

"She has never showed remorse and to this day still makes it clear she has an agenda to continue her behaviour. After her plea of guilty, she contacted several reporters to talk about the case and its victims.

Laura OConnell is this weeks guest on the Mick Clifford podcast.
Governance issues in charities have come to the fore in recent years. There have been high-profile incidents of individuals behaving in a manner that would not have been deemed acceptable in a corporate setting, where focus is on accountability and the bottom line.

Now, questions are arising about another charity, Active Retirement Network Ireland (ARNI).

ARNI does vital work, organising activities for senior citizens at a crucial stage in life. The membership-led organisation had 25,000 members pre-pandemic and is rebuilding.

It is staffed by a small executive team of seven, but the board is made up of members. The executive team is led by Maureen Kavanagh.

Her son, Peter Kavanagh, who recently completed a term as mayor of South Dublin County Council, is the communications manager of ARNI.

Last Monday the Irish Examiner reported on a highly controversial sacking in the organisation, which was deemed an unfair dismissal by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

Peter Kavanagh, who recently completed a term as mayor of South Dublin County Council, is the communications manager of ARNI. Picture: Marc O'Sullivan

Siobhan Hopkins was summarily suspended in January 2020 after viewing an innocuous WhatsApp message on Peter Kavanaghs workstation. Three months earlier, she had made a complaint under sick leave policy about Peter Kavanagh.

Her suspension was described by the WRC as opportunistic, punitive and effected without due rigour. Following a disciplinary process  which involved employing five different HR consultant firms and was criticised by the WRC  she was then dismissed.

Dismissal 'extremely harsh'

A recommendation by an appeal officer that she not be dismissed was ignored. The WRC described the dismissal as extremely harsh and one which no reasonable employee would have [done] in the circumstances.

The WRC also criticised various conflicts of interest in the case, particularly that of the CEO being involved in a process against an employee who had previously complained about her son.

Now, it is emerging that there were other aspects to the sacking of Ms Hopkins that give rise to questions of governance. Following a series of questions from the Irish Examiner earlier this week, an emergency board meeting of ARNI was convened on Wednesday last.

At issue is whether or not the board of ARNI had any detailed knowledge of the dismissal of Siobhan Hopkins or whether they were effectively kept in the dark.

The Irish Examiner has learned that minutes from the board meeting around the time she was dismissed have no specific reference to the dismissal and no discussion on it. Neither do the minutes from the time record that the appeals officer decision was ignored.

Siobhan Hopkins was informed of her dismissal by letter in October 2020. The letter was signed by Maureen Kavanagh and the then president of ARNI, Kay Murphy. Ms Murphys signature was in electronic form.

Earlier this year, Ms Hopkins contacted Kay Murphy as she was still aggrieved over how she had been treated, notwithstanding the vindication she received at the WRC.

Responding to her, Ms Murphy wrote: Thank you for your email. Shocking as it was. Your letter of dismissal was a whole new revelation to me and it is the very first time Ive seen it  I certainly didnt write it.

Kay Murphy confirmed this position to the Irish Examiner. I am quite sure I didnt sign it, she says.

When I became aware of it I rang the CEO and she informed me that my board had instructed me to sign it. I asked to be sent the minutes of the September 2020 board meeting but I heard nothing since.

This newspaper has seen the minutes from the September 2020 board meeting. The minutes do not include an instruction to dismiss Siobhan Hopkins, nor make any reference to her dismissal. The only reference to the case is in relation to a grievance procedure Ms Hopkins had taken over how she had been treated.

'Unease' over handling of matter

Serving and former board members of ARNI confirmed there was a lot of unease over the handling of the matter, both because of how it reflected on the organisation and in sympathy for Siobhan Hopkins, who was known to many of the board members.

To that end, a number of motions were placed before this years AGM, conducted last May, but were ruled out of order. The current president, Anne Drury, told the Irish Examiner that these were effectively statements presented as motions. She said anybody who wanted their say at the AGM was given the opportunity to do so.

At Active Retirement Irelands launch of The Old Country audio series on community radio stations in Ireland were Cllr. Peter Kavanagh, mayor of South Dublin; Teresa Quinn, volunteer and presenter with CRAOL Community Radio; Pat Quinn of CRAOL Community Radio Ireland; and Maureen Kavanagh, CEO of Active Retirement Ireland.

Meanwhile, around the same time, Siobhan Hopkins wrote to ARNI on foot of her interaction with Kay Murphy. She accused ARNI of forgery in relation to Ms Murphys signature on the dismissal letter.

A reply was prepared by leading Dublin law firm Mason Hayes Curran, dated April 20, 2022. It refuted the allegation of forgery.

It went on: Ms Kay Murphy, who was then the president of ARNI, was actively involved in the meetings, correspondence and decision-making concerning your disciplinary and dismissal from the organisation in 2020."

For health and safety concerns arising out of Covid-19, and for convenience, Ms Murphys signature was electronically placed on your dismissal letter. She had full knowledge of the content of the letter and consented to her signature being affixed thereto.

The correspondence also stated Ms Murphy had been copied on the email containing the dismissal letter.

For some reason, the email was never sent but two months after it was drafted, Kay Murphy received a copy from the board of ARNI. She was extremely annoyed over how she was represented in it and wrote immediately to the legal firm.

Mason Hayes Curran act for Active Retirement Ireland; this is accurate. However, you do not act for me. I have had no communication from your office regarding your correspondence dated 20 April 2022. She said she found this alarming.

She addressed her alleged role in the decision-making process about Siobhan Hopkins.

Not only was I not actively involved in any decision-making process, regarding the allegations against Siobhan Hopkins, I was not involved at all.

She also refuted she had full knowledge of the letter or consented for her signature to be attached to it.

I have repeatedly requested copies of the minutes of the meeting where it is alleged that I had knowledge of this letter and consented to have my signature electronically affixed thereto. These minutes have not been forthcoming.

Ms Murphy told the Irish Examiner that in 2020, she did receive reports as the process against Ms Hopkins was progressing, but she was not consulted and did not partake in any meetings about the matter.

Two people who were members of the board in 2020 have confirmed their recollection of events coincides with that of Kay Murphy.

The current president (ARNI uses the term president for chair of the board) Anne Drury told the Irish Examiner the dismissal was a decision of the board.

Following the emergency board meeting on Wednesday, Ms Drury issued a statement saying the board is aware that some individuals remain unhappy as to how certain HR matters have been dealt with and this will be raised as the next board meeting.

Maureen Kavanagh told the WRC she had a good working relationship with Siobhan Hopkins before the WhatsApp incident involving her son Peter. Yet Ms Hopkins was dismissed in an expensive, convoluted process which has been heavily criticised by the WRC.

It remains unclear the extent to which the board was aware of what was going on, whether they sanctioned it or whether they were, as some of them contend, kept in the dark.
ITS been almost two weeks since 53 migrants were killed in Texas, suffocating in a trailer on their journey into the US.

We can now learn their names and see their faces because their families shared information and photos of some of the dead, back when they were alive and well.

The victims included 27 people from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala, and two from El Salvador.

Among the dead were two cousins and best friends, Juan Wilmer Tulul Tepas and Pascual Melvin Guachiac Sipac. Reports from The Associated Press put the boys age at 13.

They came from a tiny indigenous Quiche community in the mountains, about 100 miles from Guatemala City, the countrys capital. They left on June 14, two weeks before their bodies were found in the back of a truck on the outskirts of San Antonio.

Fleeing poverty and violence

Magdalena Tepaz, centre, and Manuel de Jesus Tulul, right, parents of Wilmer Tulul, wait for the start of a community meeting in Tzucubal, Guatemala, after the loss of their son. Picture: AP Photo/Moises Castillo

The man accused of driving and abandoning the truck and an accused conspirator have been charged in US federal court on Wednesday with human trafficking offenses.

If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of life in prison or possibly, the US Justice department said in a statement, the death penalty.

Its extraordinary that the government issued such death threats, considering their own complicity in the crime. Many within the US government, including US president Joe Biden, have publicly blamed these smugglers and traffickers for the migrant deaths.

That isnt quite right because its far from the whole story. Its like the school bully gripping your hands and making you hit yourself, then telling you to stop hitting yourself and blaming you for getting hurt.

The people in the trailer had no choice except to be in it because migration laws in the US made it impossible for them to get there in any safe way. These deadly migration laws are not unique to Americans.

More people are on the move now than at any time since the Second World War, and the US is far from alone in ramping up its legal and physical barriers to entry.

Forcing people to take ever more treacherous routes to safety is part of a dangerous global trend lead by wealthy countries like Australia, Britain, and European Union members, including Ireland.

The children and adults killed in the truck in San Antonio had made it across the border to the US before they died, adding a tragic sense of irony to their plight.

The same week as the horror in Texas unfolded, another played out in a tiny port city in Africa called Melilla, a so-called autonomous community bordering Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea.

Different irony

Melilla is the only EU land border with Africa, and this is where a reported 37 people died on June 24.

In a different but just as ugly irony, migrants there were met and killed by border policies created thousands of miles away from where they died.

In Melilla, colonising powers never left Africa; they just changed shape. Spain kept Melilla as an exclave after Morocco gained their independence in 1956 and today uses all manner of legal and physical barriers to keep African migrants out.

Writing African migrants in this context feels strange and inaccurate. It only makes sense if you have the worst kind of imperialist mind.

Melilla is of the continent of Africa, but Europe has claimed it and built a moat, a detention centre, and a giant metal fence with watch towers looming amongst metres upon metres of razor wire.

People gather during a protest at Callao square in Madrid, over the deaths of 37 people at the border between the Spanish enclave of Melilla and Morocco. Picture: AP Photo/Manu Fernandez

It is unclear exactly how the 37 people were killed, with opposing accounts from the migrants and the Spanish and Moroccan authorities. The latter claimed there was a stampede and that many people fell from the high fences, and the Spanish first minister Pedro Sanchez alleged an organised and vicious assault by the migrants.

The migrants deny this, claiming it was the authorities who brutalised them. The Moroccan Association of Human Rights shared images and videos online of police and border patrol in riot gear beating motionless migrants as they lay bleeding on the ground, packed together and held there in the aftermath of their attempt to get through the fence.

Judith Sunderland of Human Rights Watch, quoted in The Guardian newspaper, said: Video and photographs show bodies strewn on the ground in pools of blood, Moroccan security forces kicking and beating people, and Spanish Guardia Civil launching tear gas at men clinging to fences.

This brutality caused a fierce backlash in Spain, with protesters in major cities taking to the streets to call for safe passage.

The Catalan MEP, Riba i Giner, asked: With what face can Europe dare to talk about human rights when it tramples them underfoot by being complicit in cold-blooded murder on its own doorstep?

She contrasted the beatings and killings in Melilla to the open arms the same European governments offer Ukrainians.

We demonstrated it with Ukraine. If we want to, we can.

The UN Committee on Migrant Workers made a statement calling for an investigation into what caused the deaths. It said:

We deplore the violations of the right to life, which is enshrined in the International Convention on Migrant Workers. Based on the information we have gathered, we remind all States that migrants shall not be subjected to any cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

States must also guarantee that all policies and practices at borders effectively respect all human rights obligations, ensuring the right to life, dignity, security and physical integrity of migrants in all circumstances.

Wealthier, whiter countries have locked ourselves into fortresses and are killing  daily and from a distance  the men, women, and children who try to join us.

In Texas and Melilla last month, scores of people, including Juan and Pascual, the young cousins from Guatemala, were killed by deadly migration laws.

Nobody, be they Ukrainian, Honduran, or Eritrean, should be forced to scale a razor wire fence or cram into the back of a truck to reach safety.

Its up to us to stop forcing them.

Europe, Australia, Britain, and the US must offer migrants and asylum seekers legal and secure routes to safety. This is possible; our ancestors proved it so.

Today, Ireland is a comfortable member of the European Union, quietly making and funding the draconian immigration laws that lead to much suffering and death.

In the past, millions of people from Ireland fled and resettled, arriving in nations with far fewer resources than today.

It is true that Irish migrants of the past were not exactly embraced in places like Britain, the US, and Australia, but just as true and much more salient is that they were allowed in.
Moscow has taken a page out of Washingtons playbook to troll both the US and the UK by renaming the streets in front of their embassies in the Russian capital.

The streets are now officially named after the two separatist regions of eastern Ukraine where fighting is now the fiercest.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised their independence in February just before sending in troops to liberate them from Ukraine.

Municipal workers adjust a sign reading Luhansk Peoples Republic Square outside the British embassy (Alexander Avilov, Moscow News Agency photo via AP)

The US and Britain have not recognised the Donetsk and Luhansk peoples republics, but Moscow officials said they will at least have to recognise the new addresses if they want to receive their mail.

A sign went up on Friday renaming the street in front of the British Embassy the Luhansk Peoples Republic Square. The US Embassy in Moscow since last month has been located on Donetsk Peoples Republic Square.

The US, however, has played this game far longer. In the 1980s, the section of 16th St outside the Soviet Embassy in Washington was symbolically renamed Andrei Sakharov Plaza, in honour of the Soviet nuclear physicist and leading human rights activist and dissident.

Since 2018, the section of Wisconsin Avenue in front of the new Russian Embassy has been symbolically called Boris Nemtsov Plaza.

Mr Nemtsov, an opposition leader who led anti-Putin protests and worked to expose official corruption, was shot dead near the Kremlin in 2015.

The Russian Embassy in London, for now at least, has kept its more genteel address at Kensington Palace Gardens.
Guest Column Myanmar, Thai Militaries in Cahoots

Thai troops guard a border area in Tak province after Myanmar fighter planes bombed ethnic insurgents along the border late last week. / Thai 3rd Army Area via Bangkok Post

The recent incursion by a Myanmar MiG-29 fighter jet into Thai airspace is par for the course in the intimate ties between the militaries of both countries. Myanmars military, also known as the Tatmadaw, in fact wants to be more like its Thai counterpart. The Royal Thai Armed Forces, on the other hand, may end up later having to be more like the Tatmadaw to maintain their role and rule in politics. These two militaries together pose a litmus test for states and societies everywhere. If the popular will and public interest can be systematically stolen and subverted in this corner of the globe, it can happen anywhere.

Prior to the MiG-29 incident, the contextual optics in Thai-Myanmar relations had already raised eyebrows. As Thailands top brass seized power time and again in 2006 and 2014, military-military relations between the two countries became ever closer, characterized by regular high-level visits and top-tier dialogue and communication.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is famously regarded as the adopted son of the late General Prem Tinsulanonda, a former Thai army chief and Privy Council chairman. After he staged a military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, who received a royal decoration in Thailand in the past, sent a personal letter to Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha explaining the seizure of power and asking for the Thai governments support.

As leader of the junta-styled State Administration Council, Myanmars lead coup maker later came up with a roadmap that includes a new constitution and ostensible election slated for next year. No one expects this kind of military-concocted charter and manufactured poll to be free and fair with any hint of legitimacy and credibility. Yet the attempt to replace outright military government with a constitution and election is noticeable. It looks like Myanmars military is taking its cue from the Thai side, intent on taking over power by force and rigging rules to stay in office indefinitely.

The more immediate data points are damning. A senior Thai army commander visited Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaing just one day prior to the MiG attack on Myanmars ethnic Karen insurgent army along the Thai border. Prayut, the air force chief and the RTAF spokesman all dismissed the aerial incursion as no big deal. Unless it happens between treaty allies with explicit defense cooperation, such a violation of airspace would sound alarm bells for air defense systems and the immediate scrambling of home-country fighter jets to intercept and repel the intruder. A case in point is Taiwan, which regularly sends up its fighters to ward off Chinese aerial harassment. But here in Thailand, the government went out of its way to let the incident go.

To be sure, the MiG-29 incursion was a big deal on multiple fronts. First, it shows that the Thai government cannot or does not intend to protect the Thai people from foreign forces. Viral social media videos have shown Thai villagers and schoolchildren along the Myanmar border in Tak province running for their lives as the fourth-generation Soviet-era multirole fighter crisscrossed the sky into Thai airspace looking for its prey. Thailands air defense and air force preparedness were slow to act, as the scrambled F-16s entered the scene well after the aerial deed had been done.

As prime minister and defense minister, Gen. Prayut cannot avoid scrutiny and responsibility. His rule since seizing power eight years ago was supposed to prioritize security over prosperity and open society. If he cant even keep Thais safe from foreign forces, whats he good for?

Second, apart from allowing Thailands sovereignty and territorial integrity to be compromised, the Thai government became complicit in helping the Tatmadaw terrorize its own people. It is common knowledge that Myanmar is gripped by a nasty and brutal civil war where a civilian-led nationwide uprising and the parallel National Unity Government are standing up and putting their lives on the line against Myanmars military and the SAC. If Thailand wants to be neutral and impartial in its next-door neighbors internal fight to the death, we should not be assisting and abetting the Tatmadaws military offensives in any shape or form. Letting Myanmars air force attack an opposition group from Thai territory is indefensible, putting Thailand in a tight diplomatic spot.

Third, the humanitarian ramifications are far-reaching. The more than 2,400 km of porous border between Thailand and Myanmar is the last refuge for Myanmar people fleeing from violence and gun battles. If the Tatmadaw can use Thai air space along the border for bombing runs and ground attacks, there will be nowhere to seek safety for adversely affected innocent civilians. As a safe-haven country for internal conflicts next door in recent decades, Thailand has earned diplomatic capital and a favorable international reputation as a result. The military-military ties with the Tatmadaw therefore undermine Thailands international standing.

Finally, there is more to this incursion than meets the eye. The cooperation between the Tatmadaw and the Thai military has political consequences. The military-backed, Prayut-led Thai governments support for Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing and the SAC goes against the sanctions and preferences of the international community and ASEANs own efforts to find a peaceful way out of the Myanmar morass through mediation and dialogue. The Thai military also gains more authoritarian momentum and justification if it is not the only regime in the neighborhood to subvert popular legitimacy.

The message is clear enough. If Myanmars military government can become more like Thailands with a crooked constitution and bogus polls, then Thailands conservative military-backed regime can be more like Myanmars Tatmadaw by manipulating and robbing its own people of their vote if that is what it takes to hold on to power.

The tale of these two militaries suggests that what the peoples on both sides of the long Thai-Myanmar border are fighting for is one and the same. It is to determine their own political futures by getting rid of ruling generals from supervising and controlling political outcomes.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak is a professor and director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn Universitys Faculty of Political Science.

This article first appeared in The Bangkok Post.
Junta Watch Junta Watch: Coup Leader Says Military Still Needed in Politics; Another ASEAN Snub, and More

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and his wife Daw Kyu Kyu Hla greet military personnel and their families at a battalion in Ayeyarwady Regions Pathein on July 4, 2022.

Min Aung Hlaing repeats military as guardian line

Offering a view that is the complete opposite of that held by the Myanmar people, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said during a meeting with military personnel and their families in Pulaw Township, Ayeyarwady Region on Monday that the Tatmadaw (Myanmars military) must continue to take a leadership role in the countrys politics and maintain its oversight position as the guardian of the country.

The junta chief said the militarys role in politics was necessary for the sake of peace and stability. But everyone knows the Tatmadaws real motivationto maintain its absolute grip on power. Min Aung Hlaing has been working on switching the country to a proportional representation (PR) system for the next election, which the regime plans to hold next year, after the National League for Democracy won landslide victories in both elections held under the first-past-the-post system.

The PR system makes it much harder for popular parties to secure a large number of seats in the legislature, thereby enabling the militarywhose appointees are already guaranteed 25 percent of seats in the legislature under the army-drafted 2008 constitutionto lawfully take control of Myanmars political stage.

Soe Wins call for free and fair election a sick joke

Amid serious doubts over the integrity of the general election the regime plans to hold next year, junta No. 2 Soe Win on Wednesday called for timely implementation of a process that can ensure a free and fair election, while attending a meeting of the regime-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC) on voter registration.

Soe Win was briefed by UEC chairman U Thein Soe, Home Affairs Minister Lieutenant-General Soe Htut and Immigration Minister U Khin Yi on the work being done to ensure the accuracy of voter lists.

Ex-Major General U Thein Soe oversaw the 2010 general election, which was widely criticized as being rigged in favor of the militarys proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party. As the chairman of the junta-appointed electoral body, he scrapped the results of the 2020 general election, from which the NLD emerged the winner.

U Khin Yi, who served as the police chief under the previous military regime, organized pro-military rallies ahead of the military coup in 2021. Lt-Gen Soe Htut was appointed Home Affairs Minister by Min Aung Hlaing long before the coup.

It is not surprising that Myanmar people and the international community have no trust in the integrity of an election to be organized by such persons.

I think theres no chance it could be free and fair, US State Department Counselor Derek Chollet said on June 11 about the planned election.

Myanmar junta barred from (another) ASEAN summit

For the fifth time, the Myanmar military regime has been excluded from an international meeting. Once again its Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin whos been snubbed; the minister has been barred from attending the upcoming foreign ministers summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)of which Myanmar is a memberin Cambodia. Last month India declined to invite him to its meeting with ASEAN foreign ministers.

The exclusion is another major diplomatic blow to the junta, which has been desperate for international recognition as the legitimate ruler of the country since its coup last year.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was excluded from the regional summit in October and the US-ASEAN Special Summit in Washington last month. Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin was also barred from the blocs foreign ministers meeting in February this year.

The exclusions came after the regimes failure to implement the blocs peace plan for Myanmar, which has been in social and political turmoil since last years coup.

Chinas top diplomat cant find time for junta chief

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi left Myanmar this week without meeting junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who counts China as one his few allies after the world denounced him for last years coup and subsequent bloody crackdowns.

Wang, the most senior Chinese diplomat to visit Myanmar since the takeover, was in the country for three days, mainly to co-chair the 7th Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers meeting. But his failure to meet with Min Aung Hlaing was a huge embarrassment for the latter who craves visits from foreign dignitaries as a form of recognition for his junta.

But dont make the mistake of thinking that Beijing is suddenly concerned about international opinion, or sensitive to criticism from the Myanmar people, who detest China for its support to the junta. While he failed to meet with Min Aung Hlaing, Wang told his Myanmar counterpart that Beijing would support Naypyitaw in safeguarding the countrys legitimate interests, as well as its national dignity on international occasions. It seems safe to say that Beijings support for the regime is motivated by a desire to protect its strategic and economic interests in Myanmar, whatever the cost.
Although the dropout rate has declined for decades, millions didnt complete high school in 2020 as some 2 million American students between 16 to 24 years of age dropped out of school, according to federal data.

Despite the large number, the drop-out rate had actually declined from 10 years before, meaning a lower percentage of students were considered dropouts than in 2010.

The report measures the status dropout rate, defined as the percentage of 16- to 24-year-olds who are not enrolled in high school and who lack a high school credential.

For 2020, the status dropout rate was 5.3, meaning that 5.3 percent of people in that age bracket were not attending school and lacked a high school equivalent credential, such as a GED.

But compare that to 2010, when the status dropout rate was 7.4 percent among of those aged 16 to 24.

A previous edition of the report from 2012 noted that the status dropout rate from 1990 to 2010 also decreased, which indicates the percentage of students in the same age bracket who did not attend high school or hold a high school equivalent credential has been decreasing for 20 years.

In 1990, the status dropout rate was 12 percent.

The report also notes that the status dropout rates in 2019  the year before the coronavirus pandemic began  did not measurably differ from the rates in 2020 for any racial/ethnic group.

The report is based on data from the Current Population Survey within the U.S. Census Bureau, which includes only information about the noninstitutionalized population, meaning the data excludes people who are incarcerated or living in nursing facilities.

Rates changes reflected demographic differences. For example, in 2020 the status dropout rate for males was 6.2 percent while the rate for females was 4.4 percent.

As for race and ethnicity, most of the main categories identified in the report saw decreases in the rate of status dropouts, but some more than others.

In 2020, the status dropout rate for Hispanic individuals was 7.4 percent  a significant percentage drop from 10 years earlier, when it applied to 15.1 percent of Hispanic students.

Black individuals also had a lower percentage of dropouts over the past decade. In 2020, the status dropout rate for Black people was 4.2 percent, compared to 8.0 percent in 2010.

White individuals had a status dropout rate of 4.8 in 2020, down from 5.1 percent in 2010. And for Asian individuals, it was just 2.4 percent, down from 4.1 percent in 2010.

State laws vary

The age at which a student can drop out of school varies from state to state. Currently, Florida law permits a student as young as 16 to drop out with parental consent.

A bill introduced during the 2022 state legislative session aimed to raise the age of compulsory school attendance from 16 to 18 years old, but the measure did not make it through session.

The Condition of Education report contains annual data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics within the U.S. Department of Education.

Portions of this story appeared on the website of the Florida Phoenix, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to coverage of state government and politics from Tallahassee. You can visit them by clicking here.
Get unlimited access to all content and features at ivpressonline.com with our Full Online Access Subscription. Read our E-Edition, the digital replica of the print newspaper online, access content in exclusive sections including Family, Teen, Business, Databases, Farm and more. This option does not include daily home delivery of the Imperial Valley Press newspaper. For home delivery service, please select Premium or Premium Plus.
President Paul Kagame, de facto ruler of Rwanda since the end of the genocide in 1994, has indicated he will stand for president again at the next election due in 2024.

Asked if he would seek re-election, Kagame said: "I consider running for another 20 years. I have no problem with that," he told the France 24 news channel in an interview broadcast Friday.

"Elections are about people choosing," he added.

Kagame changed the constitution in 2015 allowing him to remain in power until 2034.

The 64-year-old swept the 2017 presidential election with an official 99 percent of the vote.

He was just 36 when his Patriotic Front party forced out Hutu extremists blamed for the genocide in which some 800,000 mainly Tutsi people were murdered between April and July 1994.

Kagame fiercely defended Rwanda's record on human rights and political freedoms at a Commonwealth summit in Kigali at the end of June.
Germany's lower house of parliament on Thursday recommended that German lawmakers recognise as a "genocide" the 2014 massacre of Kurdish-speaking Yazidis by Islamic State group jihadists in Iraq, following the lead of UN investigators.

"The recognition of the genocide is an essential step to overcome the traumas for the Yazidi community," said Greens MP Max Lucks, highlighting the precarious situation faced by survivors still living in Iraq.

"A safe life, peace... must be our ambition for the Yazidi community," he said.

The Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, on Thursday approved a petition asking for this recognition, but still needs to hold a final vote in a plenary session in order to complete the process of recognition.

Germany, home to a large Yazidi diaspora, is one of the few countries to have taken legal action against IS.

Last November, a German court convicted an Iraqi jihadist of genocide against the Yazidi minority, a first in the world that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad hailed as a "victory" in the fight for recognition of the abuses committed by IS.

The Yazidi minority has been particularly persecuted by the jihadist organisation, which forces its women into sexual slavery and killed men in their hundreds.

A special UN investigation team announced in May 2021 that it had collected "clear and convincing evidence" that jihadists had committed genocide against the Yazidis.
"Yumi's Cells 2" which stars Kim Go Eun and GOT7's Jinyoung is currently one of the top trending topics on Twitter after the series aired its episode 9. Viewers were surprised to witness the twist and turns of the romance between Kim Yumi (Kim Go Eun) and Yoo Babi (Park Jinyoung). Keep on reading for all the details.

'Yumi's Cells 2' Episode 9: Are Kim Yumi and Yoo Babi Really Over?

In "Yumi's Cells 2," episode 9, Yumi broke up with Yoo Babi after an incident with the new character Yoo Da Eun, played by Shin Ye Eun.

The reason was Yoo Babi's strange closeness with their intern Yoo Da Eun and his reaction after she confessed her feelings towards him.

In the eighth episode, Yoo Babi introduced Kim Yumi to Yoo Da Eun when she visited his place. Right then and there, Yumi sensed something was wrong and thought that Babi and Da Eun's closeness was a bit strange.

However, she shrugged it off after knowing the intern was about to transfer to a different company.

Unfortunately, things changed after Yoo Da Eun's confession, sending Yoo Babi's cell village into an earthquake.

'Yumi's Cells 2' Episode 9 Gains Mixed Reactions from Viewers

With the release of Kim Go Eun and GOT7 Jinyoung's new episode for "Yumi's Cells 2," viewers expressed their disappointments on social media.

When Yumi wanted to break up, Babi explained his side and pleaded for forgiveness for hurting her feelings.

"It was nothing. It meant nothing so I didn't tell you. I'm sorry for hurting your feelings. But nothing happened, really. I still love you. I really don't want to break up with you. Please don't go," he said in the episode.

#YumisCells became a trending topic after viewers questioned Yoo Babi's action toward Yumi.

Some viewers raised the idea that what he did with Yumi was unacceptable after he broke her trust.

Here is some thoughts on why what Ba bi has done was unacceptable - and broke Yumi's trust, even if he is not a cheater. First of all, from this clip we saw thoughts and care building up in Ba bi's mind about Da Eun #YumisCells2 https://t.co/e9Do997Mx5  rynmrssn (@rynmrssn) July 8, 2022

Meanwhile, others pointed out that it is a form of cheating and should not be tolerated. On the other hand, some viewers expressed their disappointment in the scene where Kim Yumi reached out to her ex-boyfriend Goo Woong, played by Ahn Bo Hyun, after she broke up with Yoo Babi.

so yumi meets her ex bf after breaking up with babi and babi is the only one suffering after the unnecessary breakup but somehow babi is the one labeled as the bad guy/ cheater

I'm so mad at this i don't even want to continue watching it#YumisCells2#2 https://t.co/UnffcaJWxC  Summer (@SummerbeSummer) July 8, 2022

As for some, they are focused on Yumi's skyrocketing career after seeing that her book is finally published and officially on the market.

Where to Watch 'Yumi's Cells 2' Episode 10

With the surprising turn of events in episode 9, viewers could catch "Yumi's Cells 2" every Friday and Saturday.

Meanwhile, episode 10 is slated to air on July 9 via TVING and iQiyi for subtitles.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Bae Suzy, Kim Go Eun, Jeon Jong Seo Dramas To Dominate This June



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The vision of a new center to support local veteran was unveiled in Kenosha Saturday as The Bunker Coffee House opened its doors during a community open house.

Owner Jo Wynn, CEO of the non-profit organization Walkin in My Shoes, opened the site at 2211 50th St., welcoming veterans, members of the community, and guests including Gov. Tony Evers, who greeted and spoke with veterans in attendance.

Wynn gave Evers a tour of the new nonprofit business and showed him aspects such as its pantry area and a tree painted on the wall for veterans and their families to write their names.

Evers, who did not make a formal address, told Wynn he wanted to help her with the new cafe.

Local veterans turned out and were pleased with what they saw.

Its good to have veterans of any area be able to come to a place and receive services and have a place to hang out, said Michael Hellquist, a local Army veteran who served from 2007 to 2016.

Hellquist added there are other resources in the community for veterans to use as well, such as the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Heros Cafe.

This is a place where you can come and have breakfast, Hellquist said. You cant do that at the American Legion Post (and) you cant do that at the VFW.

Some attendees, such as Shaunta Barker, said she has struggled to get veterans assistance and benefits.

I dont know what resources are out here for the veterans, Barker said.

Barker, who is an Army National Guard veteran originally from Arkansas, could not find information at job centers about what type of benefits she qualified for.

I went to the job center and the guy looked it up on the computer and he put the little veteran logo sticker on my drivers license, Barker said. But he didnt tell me what I qualified for.

Among its services of providing free coffee, breakfast and lunch, Bunkers Coffeehouse will provide assistance to veterans looking to apply for Veterans Affairs benefits.

Christine Gursky and Jimmie Rosko of the Good Old Boys and Girls, which consists of American Legion members, visited the cafe to see Wynns vision and how the Legion post could possibly help.

Were always looking for ways that we can help the community maybe do fundraisers (and) maybe contribute in some way, Gursky said. We heard about this and wanted to come find her and see what shes got going on, what shes hoping to build, what her vision is for it and how we can possibly help.

Gursky and Rosko are both veterans; Gursky served in the Army from 1997 to 2006 and Rosko served in the Marines from 1967 to 1971.

Wynn said she knows there are other resources for veterans in the area, but God was telling her to continue to pursue her vision for a safe space for vets. Wynn emphasized the importance of listening to the needs of people who need help from their communities.

Also among those attending Saturdays open house was state Rep. Tod Ohnstad, D-Kenosha, who toured the facility for its grand opening, and greeted people who came to support Wynn.
BURLINGTON  For years, opponents of Wisconsins dark store method for taxing big-box retailers worked in vain to persuade state lawmakers to change the law.

Those opponents now are pinning their hopes instead on the judicial branch of state government.

City administrators and others say a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling expected later this year could stop Walmart and other retailers from avoiding paying their fair share of property taxes.

But if the Supreme Court rules in favor of dark store taxation, the strategy of seeking judicial relief will backfire for the cities, villages and towns that are taking on big business in the hopes of increasing tax bases.

Curt Witynski, deputy director of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, acknowledges the risk involved in pushing the issue in the courts. And now that the states highest court has agreed to weigh in, Witynski said, the stakes are higher than ever.

Were excited, he said. But a little bit nervous, too.

The league, a longtime critic of dark store taxation, has intervened in the Supreme Court case with a friend-of-the-court brief arguing against the tax breaks for big-box operators.

Business groups have intervened, too, urging the court to rule in favor of retailers by upholding a system that the groups defend as fair taxation.

Scott Rosenow, an attorney for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, wrote in his brief that the underlying dark store issues could have implications for other Wisconsin property owners.

This courts decision, Rosenow wrote, will be far-reaching.

The dispute began in Wisconsin after a different ruling from the Supreme Court in 2008 allowed for setting a retail stores taxable value based on similar properties that are vacant, a.k.a. dark stores.

Walmart, Target, Menards and other large retailers began arguing for lower values on their stores, in many instances leading to court fights with cities whose tax assessors would not make adjustments to match the value of currently operating stores with the value of mothballed properties.

Local government officials contend that operating retail stores are inherently more valuable to their owners and, therefore, should have a higher value for tax purposes. Businesses say the value of the land and building has nothing to do with whether a store is open for business.

In Racine County, Walmart filed a suit last year against the City of Burlington, arguing that the taxable value of its store at 1901 Milwaukee Ave. should be reduced from $8.6 million to $4.5 million.

If Walmart succeeds, its yearly property tax bill in Burlington will be slashed from $160,000 to about $80,000. That would force city officials to make up the difference by either reducing government services or increasing taxes on other property owners in the community.

Court records show that both sides in the Walmart-Burlington dispute have agreed to postpone action in their case until the Supreme Court ruling later this year.

In another case, the Village of Mount Pleasant settled out-of-court with Walmart last year by agreeing to trim about $1 million in assessed property value from two local stores that had previously been assigned a combined value of $24 million.

The case headed to the Supreme Court stems from a dispute between the City of Delavan in Walworth County and the owners of a Lowes Home Improvement store at 2015 E. Geneva St.

The City of Delavan has assigned the Lowes store a value of $8.9 million for tax purposes. Lowes Home Centers LLC has invoked the dark store rule and filed suit to reduce its tax assessment to $3.6 million.

After losing at both the circuit court and appeals court level, Lowes appealed to the Supreme Court. The justices agreed to hear the case, marking their first review of dark store taxation since the issue arose from the courts previous action in 2008.

Only three of seven justices who ruled in the 2008 case are still on the court today.

Oral arguments in the Lowes-Delavan case are scheduled for Sept. 28.

Lowes Home Centers attorney Mark Vyvyan declined to comment.

Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian is among the local government officials who are watching the Supreme Court case with interest throughout the state.

Kenosha currently is being sued by both Lowes Home Centers LLC and grocery store operator Woodmans Food Markets Inc. in disputes over store property assessments.

Antaramian said the Supreme Court ruling will impact how cities handle such disputes in the future. If the court allows the dark store loophole to continue, he said, some local officials might reconsider whether they want big-box retailers in their communities.

People will start looking more and more at the cost-benefit of having retail, the mayor said.

Online court records show similar pending court cases involving Walmart in Sturgeon Bay, La Crosse, Fond du Lac, Watertown, Baraboo, Franklin, Mukwonago, Rice Lake, Monona, New Richmond and St. Croix Falls.

In addition to Kenosha, those battling Lowes Home Centers currently include Manitowoc, Plover and Wauwatosa.

Plover Village Administrator Dan Ault, whose community has filed a brief with the Supreme Court, said the high court ruling will set a precedent with statewide implications.

If the court allows big business to continue seeking unfair tax breaks, Ault said, homeowners and other taxpayers will be the victims forced to pay higher taxes to make up the difference.

Its really important that we prevail here, he said. Thats a big win for the people.

Dark store opponents spent years lobbying Wisconsin state lawmakers to take legislative action addressing the issue. But state legislative leaders voiced mixed feelings and left the matter unresolved.

Witynski said the municipal league then made an effort to encourage cities, villages and towns to fight big-box retailers in court, theorizing that if the legislative branch would not respond, maybe the courts would.

Many municipalities have since won their court fights, Witynski said, so his group has high hopes for scoring a knockout blow with the Supreme Court case.

While acknowledging that the current seven-member court has a reputation for siding with big business, Witynski said, fairness in taxation seems to be an idea that transcends ideology.

This is one of the issues that dont fall along clear party lines, he said. We think the judges will understand this.
A surge in violence in the city over the past week has Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian calling again for an increase in police officers, as well as more community efforts for youth-focused programs.

The Fourth of July in Kenosha marked the beginning of a multi-day streak of violence in the city, with three shootings leaving at least six wounded and one dead.

On the night of July 4, five people were victims of a mass shooting that killed a 20-year-old man and injured four adults in the 6300 block of 25th Avenue in the Uptown neighborhood.

Family members identified the 20-year-old fatal shooting victim as Anderail K. Armstrong, who was also known as Lil Cash. They have established a GoFundMe page to help pay for Armstrongs funeral expenses.

Just a day later another shooting occurred in the Uptown neighborhood just blocks away from the July 4th mass shooting. Police responding to a call in the 6100 block of 24th Avenue found a vehicle struck by gunfire unoccupied in the area. While investigating, officers received information that the man was inside a nearby house and suffered a gunshot wound to the chest. The 49-year-old man was transported to the hospital.

On Wednesday night, a man arrived at a local hospital with multiple gunshots to his upper body after being shot in the Wilson Heights neighborhood. The 43-year-old man has since been released from the hospital.

On Friday, the department also responded to a report of a gunshot that occurred near a gas station in the 5200 block of 39th Avenue on Friday at 1:45 a.m.

In another incident Downtown, the July 4th carnival was shut down early due to fights breaking out between various groups reportedly in their late teens.

Two main sources

Antaramian said the violence over the past week have two main sources.

The fights that broke out at the carnival Downtown are from a greater need for youth-focused programs to keep them from trouble, which Antaramian said typically enjoy support from the community.

The city has, over the years, continually tried to expand its services for young people to keep them active, Antaramian said.

The shootings, however, are a more difficult problem to handle, Antaramian said.

That is a much more difficult issue to deal with, Antaramian said. We just have much too many guns in our community.

The Kenosha Police Department have seized over 140 guns in 2022, arrested 18 people for aggravated assault with a firearm and 53 people for concealed carrying of a weapon.

Antaramian criticized attempts at the state level to reduce the age for concealed carry of weapons to 18, arguing that addressing gun violence requires more background checks and more police officers.

Kenosha is not any different from anywhere else in the country about gun violence, Antaramian said. Its a multi-faceted issue.

He said the city needs to expand the police department to better address gun violence and other crime, and plans to hold a referendum in August to add 10 new police officers to the local police department.

As of Saturday, no suspects have been identified in any of the shootings. Kenosha Police Public Information Officer Lt. Joseph Nosalik said detectives are working countless hours on those shootings and trying to put the pieces together.

If you are aware of somebody who has a firearm and shouldnt have the firearm, call the police, Nosalik said. If you see something, say something. We need people to cooperate with police. We need people to call the police and give us information.

Nosalik asked for anyone with information to contact the detective bureau at 262-605-5203 or Kenosha Area Crime Stoppers at 262-656-7333. People who call Crime Stoppers remain anonymous.
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featured

Shot over the bow

SCS files complaint against Pier B

Claims operators failed to report $75M in revenue

Provided photo The Carnival Dream is seen at Pier B in March. Activists say the ship exceeds the legal limit for dockage.

The group that proposed a series of restrictions on cruise ships calling on Key Wests ports has filed a complaint with state officials alleging the operators of Pier B failed to report $75 million in revenue as part of its lease agreement with the state.

The complaint, filed Key West Committee for Safer Cleaner Ships, comes the same week that the state Department of Environmental Protection granted the operators of Pier B a Temporary Use Agreement temporarily expanding the lease boundaries to the north and west to ensure ships are not obstructing the entrance to Truman Harbor, DEP spokeswoman Alexandra Kutcha said.

DEP added about 50 feet to accommodate the width of the ship and about 42 feet for the length of the ship.

The Temporary Use Agreement comes after Safer, Cleaner Ships, residents, the city and the U.S. Navy all filed complaints with DEP about cruise ships in Key West exceeding the maximum length and/or width boundaries of the state submerged-land lease.

The department recognizes that the waterward edge of the original lease boundary was established years before the larger ships were calling to the port, and it has been working with Pier B Development Corporation (the lessee) to bring the site into compliance, Kutcha said in statement on Thursday. While a long-term solution is sought, DEP has issued Pier B a year-long TUA (Temporary Use Agreement), temporarily expanding the lease boundaries to the north and west to ensure ships are not obstructing the entrance to Truman Harbor.

DEP will continue to monitor the situation and will address any activities that cause impacts to environmental resources or water quality through our enforcement process.

Safer Cleaner Ships questioned if a formal environmental study or review and whether an environmental impact statement was conducted before the Temporary Use Agreement was granted.

Its appalling, said Arlo Haskell, treasurer of Safer Cleaner Ships. Its really shady.

The Keys Citizen sent Kutcha an email Friday asking if the DEP had conducted any review or environmental assessments before granting the TUA, but she did not respond as of deadline on Friday.

Mark Walsh, of the Pier B Corp., issued a statement on Friday about the new TUA stating: All of the ships that are scheduled at Pier B in 2022 are no bigger than any of the ships in the past.

On Thursday, Safer Cleaner Ships sent DEP Assistant Director of District Management, Compliance Assurance Program Jennifer Carpenter a complaint alleging that the Pier B Development Corp. filed at least 15 false financial reports to the State of Florida in connection with the cruise port it operates on a state sovereign submerged-lands lease and has hidden more than $75 million in income from the state, dating to 2005. Since submerged-lands lease fees are calculated based on a percentage of annual gross income earned on the parcel, 6% plus relevant taxes, it appears that Pier Bs falsification of annual reports has deprived the people of Florida of at least $4.5 million, the complaint stated.

Evidence of Pier Bs false financial reporting was gleaned from public documents produced by the City of Key West, the complaint stated. The Pier B cruise port is operated under a revenue-sharing agreement with the City (Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions, City of Key West Resolution #93-405). Under the terms of the agreement, Pier B Development Corp. receives 75% of the total disembarkation revenues from the operation of the cruise port, and the city receives the remaining 25%. The city reports the actual revenue it receives from its 25% share each year as part of its published budget. Thus, the 25% share can be multiplied by a factor of 4 to find the total (100%) disembarkation revenue. The information came from city budgets, the complaint stated.

For example, during the citys 2019-20 fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2019Sept. 30, 2020), the city reported $808,909 from its 25% share of the Pier B disembarkation revenue, the complaint stated. Multiplying by four shows total disembarkation revenue at Pier B of $3,235,636. However, Pier B reported only $353,142, or approximately 10% of the actual amount earned from disembarkation revenues, in its annual revenue reports to the state. The city reported revenues separately for each of the three cruise ports within the Port of Key West, so it does not appear possible that revenues were mistakenly attributed to Pier B.

DEP received this complaint and is currently investigating it, Kutcha said.

The department is committed to conducting a diligent investigation and any identified non-compliance will be addressed appropriately through our enforcement process, Kutcha said.

All required payments from Pier B are up-to-date, Mark Walsh responded Friday.

tohara@keysnews.com
THE Centre for Natural Resources Governance (CNRG) has alleged that the ruling Zanu PF party will likely use funds from illicit gold trade to bankroll its 2023 electoral campaign.

In a 35-page report released on Wednesday titled Zimbabwes Disappearing Gold: The Case of Mazowe and Penhalonga, CRNG alleges that the artisanal mining sector has been captured by politically-connected individuals who are likely to oil Zanu PFs 2023 elections campaign machinery.

The report, produced by human rights activist Farai Maguwu, claims that the party has appointed Zanu PF councillor and gold dealer Scott Sakupwanya to be part of its fundraising committee, which was a clear indication that cartels in the mining sector will bankroll the ruling partys 2023 campaign.

Illicit financial flows in the artisanal mining sector in Zimbabwe are responsible for leakages of an estimated three tonnes of gold, valued at approximately US$157 million every month. The sector has now spread its tentacles from alluvial gold deposits along rivers and riverbeds to large scale disused mines that are now patronised by politicians and ruling party officials, the report read.

It alleges that political elites have captured the artisanal mining sector and are keeping it informal so that they can harvest the gold.

This led to a Godfather syndrome which saw powerful individuals with political connections tightly controlling artisanal gold mining at district and provincial level, the report claims.

Early this week, Zanu PF political commissar Mike Bimha told NewsDay in an interview that the party was on a whirlwind tour of the country, meeting artisanal miners as part of its Listening Tuesday initiative.

CNRG says Zimbabwes mineral sector has been politicised.

Gold barons sponsor a tightly monitored patronage system that is recruiting artisanal miners through political offices. Artisanal miners earn a pittance while in return the gold barons get lucrative rewards.

Over the past four years, Zimbabwe has experienced an unprecedented increase in illicit financial flows. The problem dominates the mining sector where artisanal mining is rampant. Artisanal gold mining, which has become a major mining activity in Zimbabwe, is fuelling leakages of going into the parallel system which are being run by Zanu PF cartels.

Access to minerals has been patronised by the ruling party, which parcels out gold claims to its youth, women and senior officials, the report alleges.

As a result, mining was now characterised by lawlessness, machete gang violence and blatant disregard of human rights.

New gold discoveries in the country are brought to the attention and control of powerful ruling party officials under the guise of restoring order while there is secrecy surrounding the artisanal mining sector.

In the report, Regai Tsunga, a former opposition MP in Mutasa South accuses Zanu PF politicians of using their economic muscle to organise artisanal miners to vote for them.

Tsunga narrowly lost in the Mutasa South constituency to Zanu PFs Misheck Mugadza in the March 26 by-elections.

Politicians are controlling artisanal mining sites where they are using their political and economic muscle to organise artisanal miners to vote for the ruling party during elections, Tsunga is quoted as saying in the report.

Bimha yesterday dismissed the allegations.

I do not know anything about the allegations. These are lies, how can artisanal miners finance us? Mining in the country is governed by the government, Bimha said. Newsday
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Attorneys for Amber Heard have asked the court to declare a mistrial and order a new trial in the defamation case with her ex-husband Johnny Depp.
US to provide Ukraine with four more mobile artillery rocket systems in new $400 million Ukraine security assistance package
Concerns about state data collection from period apps has increased in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling.
People offer prayers at a makeshift memorial near the scene where former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was fatally shot while delivering his speech to support the Liberal Democratic Party's candidate during Friday's election campaign in Nara, July 9. AP





The man suspected of killing former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe with a hand-made gun on Friday could have made the weapon in a day or two after obtaining readily available materials such as wood and metal pipes, analysts say.







The attack showed gun violence cannot be totally eliminated even in a country where tough gun laws mean it is nearly unheard of for citizens to buy or own firearms.







There have been some cases in recent years where people illicitly made weapons themselves in Japan. But still, gun crime is very rare in Japan: last year there were 10 shooting incidents, eight involving gangsters, according to police data. One person was killed and four wounded.







"The making of guns with a 3D printer and the manufacturing of bombs can nowadays be learned off the internet from anywhere in the world," said Mitsuru Fukuda, a Nihon University professor specialized in crisis management and terrorism.







"It can be done in two to three days after obtaining parts such as pipes," said Fukuda, who analyzed images of the gun used in Abe's shooting.







Video images showed the assailant fired at Abe with a device that had a pistol grip and what appeared to be two pipes covered in black electrical tape. Police arrested a 41-year-old man at the scene and said he had admitted shooting Abe; the suspect was later identified as Tetsuya Yamagami.







"Anyone with a basic understanding of how guns work could have made it with minimum knowledge," said firearms commentator Tetsuya Tsuda, adding that it may not even have taken half a day to manufacture the weapon used in the attack.







Japanese media said on Saturday the suspect had told investigators he had searched online for instructions how to make firearms, and ordered parts and gunpowder on the internet as well.



The gun measured 40 by 20 centimeters (15.7 by 7.9 inches), and was made of materials such as metal and wood, officials from the Nara prefectoral police told reporters on Friday.







Police did not rule out the possibility that the bullets were also made by hand but said they were still investigating.







Investigators seized what appeared to be five hand-made guns from Yamagami's house, the Mainichi newspaper reported on Saturday.






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A new business is offering some cold Hawaiian-style treats near the lakefront area this summer.

Grace Narayanan, 19 of Lake Geneva, opened Malini Bikini Authentic Shave Ice in late May in the Lake Geneva American Legion Post 24 canteen building, 112 Wrigley Drive, located near Library Park and Geneva Lake.

Malini Bikini offers different flavors of Hawaiian-style shaved ice including Pina Colada, Blue Hawaii, Tigers Blood and the signature Malini Bikini. Various toppings are available including sno-caps, coconut flakes, gummy slices, fresh fruit, chocolate and ice cream.

Ice cream we can put in the bottom for a little bit of creaminess and the sno-cap topping is the drizzle that goes on top, Narayanan said. Thats what makes it authentic to Hawaii.

Narayanan said, even though she has never been to Hawaii, she decided to start the business to offer a cool, non-dairy treat to people visiting the beach or taking a stroll along the lakefront area.

She said she first sampled Hawaiian-style shaved ice while on vacation a few years ago and thought it would be an enjoyable option to offer in Lake Geneva.

Myself and my younger sister are lactose intolerant and we live in Wisconsin, which prides itself on dairy, so finding options are pretty hard to come by, Narayanan said. We were on vacation a couple of years ago and tried authentic Hawaiian shaved ice for the first time. We absolutely loved it, and I thought it would be a unique business to bring to Downtown Lake Geneva.

Narayanan said she began working with the Lake Geneva American Legion Post in January about using the canteen building for the Malini Bikini business. She said she started the business herself but has hired a couple of employees to help her during the summer.

In January, I started writing a business plan to the American Legion and here we are, she said.

The business has received a positive response from customers who are looking for a summertime treat.

People love it. People have come who have had snow cones before and just get the traditional flavors, Narayanan said. We have people who have been to Hawaii and have come looking for Hawaiian shaved ice and are really excited to have it and love it. It takes them right back to Hawaii.

Narayanan said the lakefront area is the ideal location for the Hawaiian shaved ice business.

Its been a lot of fun. Were right by the lake, which is awesome, Narayanan said. On the hot days, it brings a lot of people out looking for a cool treat. I have loved it so far.

Narayanan is currently taking online courses from Southern New Hampshire University to obtain a business degree.

The online platform allows me to have a lot of freedom, Narayanan said. So I was able to have the time and resources to start this business.

She admits operating a business and attending online college courses has kept her busy during the past few months.

Its stressful but a new learning opportunity, Narayanan said. Im very excited about this.

This is the first business Narayanan has operated, but her parents have owned a construction business and a farming business.

My parents have owned several businesses, Narayanan said. I have them as a resource.

Malini Bikini is open from 1 to 8 p.m., Sunday through Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Narayanan said she plans to keep the business open daily through Sept. 5 and on the weekends through the end of September, weather permitting.

For more information about Malini Bikini visit www.malini bikini.com.
Dane Countys efforts to recover the cost of cleaning up toxic forever chemicals used in firefighting foam have been combined with hundreds of similar cases in federal courts.

The county in April filed a lawsuit in state court against dozens of companies, including DuPont and 3M, accusing them of making and selling products for decades despite knowing the contents were toxic and would not break down once released to the environment.

Last month Chemguard, which operates a foam manufacturing plant in Marinette, and its parent company, Tyco Fire Products, had the case transferred to federal court, where it has been consolidated with hundreds of other cases from around the country, including one filed by the city of La Crosse.

Assistant Corporation Counsel Amy Tutwiler said the change of venue doesnt change the countys position and will simply streamline procedures.

The case will proceed in the same manner as any other lawsuit, Tutwiler said.

According to the complaint, the defendants began selling a water-based foam in the 1960s known as AFFF made with PFOA and PFOS, two of thousands of fluorinated compounds generally known as PFAS.

Highly effective for extinguishing liquid fuel fires, the foam continues to be used at airports and military bases, though the complaint claims AFFF can be made with different PFAS compounds.

The suit claims the defendants knew  or should have known  since the early 1980s that using AFFF according to their instructions would release PFAS to the air, soil and groundwater and that the chemicals could damage the liver, kidneys and nervous system, among other negative health effects.

Because of the manufacturers failures, the suit alleges the airport continues to be contaminated, creating an environmental hazard and forcing the county to investigate, monitor and clean up the damage at significant expense.

Tyco says because it was a government contractor making products to meet specifications set by the Department of Defense it is immune from such liability claims. The company also notes that since 2006 commercial airports like Madisons have been required to stock firefighting foam that meets those military specifications.

Tyco argues it cant be held responsible under state law for design choices dictated by the military.

Tutwiler declined to comment on Tycos claims but said we are confident in our legal right to proceed despite raised defenses.

In 2018, the Department of Natural Resources informed the county, Wisconsin National Guard and the city of Madison that they were responsible for PFAS contamination at and around the airport, including several burn pits where firefighters trained with the toxic foam.

The National Guard Bureau is heading the remediation effort using a federal process under which actual cleanup may not begin for at least a decade.

Earlier this year a Waukesha County judge said the DNR lacks authority to enforce the states spills law without first going through the Legislature, though that ruling is on hold while a state appeals court reviews the decision.
Absentee ballot drop boxes, which were used in hundreds of communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, are now illegal in the state except in clerks offices, a divided Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled just one month before the Aug. 9 primary.

In a 4-3 decision Friday, the states high court upheld a lower courts January ruling that absentee ballots must be delivered by mail or in person to a local clerks office or designated alternate site. However, the court did not rule on whether voters can have someone else handle their ballot on its way to a mailbox.

The Aug. 9 primary is one month away, and absentee ballots are out. Yet the court failed to make a timely decision or provide voters with needed guidance including rules around assistance in mailing ballots, said Debra Cronmiller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, one of the groups involved in the lawsuit. These changes to our election rules are especially troubling for voters with disabilities, the elderly, and folks working 9 to 5 jobs who cannot get to the clerks office during their open hours.

Writing for the majority, conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley said only the state Legislature, and not the Wisconsin Elections Commission, has the authority to permit the use of absentee ballot drop boxes. State law is silent on the use of the secure ballot drop boxes.

WECs staff may have been trying to make voting as easy as possible during the pandemic, but whatever their motivations, WEC must follow Wisconsin statutes, Bradley wrote. Good intentions never override the law.

Bradley was joined in the ruling by fellow conservative justices Patience Roggensack, Annette Ziegler and Brian Hagedorn, who has often been a swing vote on the seven-member court.

Liberals dissent

Liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley blasted the majoritys decision as one that blithely and erroneously seeks to sow distrust in the administration of our elections and through its faulty analysis erects yet another barrier for voters to exercise this sacred right.

Although it pays lip service to the import of the right to vote, the majority/lead opinion has the practical effect of making it more difficult to exercise it, Walsh Bradley added. Such a result, although lamentable, is not a surprise from this court.

She was joined by fellow liberal justices Rebecca Dallet and Jill Karofsky. The Bradleys are not related.

The state Supreme Courts ruling comes four months before a high-stakes Nov. 8 election for both major political parties. Democrats are seeking to oust U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, and Republicans have their sights set on defeating Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is seeking a second term.

Johnson, as well as GOP gubernatorial candidates Tim Michels and Rebecca Kleefisch, praised the Supreme Courts decision.

This decision is a big step in the right direction, Johnson said.

Escalating GOP skepticism of the 2020 election is fueled in part by pressure from former President Donald Trump, who continues to push false, unfounded claims of fraud and still holds considerable sway over the party nationwide.

Todays decision is another in a long line of Wisconsin Republicans successes to make it harder for Wisconsinites to exercise their right to vote, to undermine our free, fair, and secure elections, and to threaten our democracy, Evers said in a statement.

While the Supreme Courts conservative majority made clear that drop boxes are not allowed in the state, the courts decision not to rule on whether or not someone can assist a voter by placing their absentee ballot in a mailbox could open the door to new lawsuits on the matter.

The court simply decided not to address what disabled persons who cannot personally mail things or travel to their clerks offices are supposed to do, Ann Jacobs, a Democratic member of the states bipartisan Elections Commission, tweeted Friday. So expect additional litigation on this point. Saying the issue is undeveloped in the briefs simply elides the discriminatory outcome of the decision.

2020 residue

The ongoing battle over the longstanding use of drop boxes has persisted since the 2020 election, due in part to unfounded claims of election fraud by Trump, who lost Wisconsin to President Joe Biden by about 21,000 votes.

Proponents of the free-standing, mailbox-like structures have said they are a secure and safe voting option, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, some Republicans argue that adding any unauthorized method for returning ballots opens the door to fraudulent activity, despite multiple reviews of the 2020 election finding no evidence of widespread fraud.

The case stems from a request by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on behalf of two Milwaukee voters asking the states high court to take up the matter after the District 4 Court of Appeals stayed a ruling by Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren that barred the use of absentee ballot drop boxes except in a clerks office.

The state Supreme Court in January ruled 4-3, with Hagedorn joining the courts three liberal justices, to allow the use of the free-standing, mailbox-like drop boxes in the February primary. The court later denied a request to extend the stay and allow use of the boxes through the April 5 election, with Hagedorn joining fellow conservative justices on the ruling.

Earlier guidance

A focal point of the case targeted guidance issued by the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission in early 2020 to allow election clerks to use their discretion when determining whether to make use of drop boxes. Hundreds of municipal clerks made use of the boxes that year when there still wasnt a vaccine for COVID-19 and public health officials were warning against large gatherings, like at polling places.

At the same time, the large number of absentee ballots requested that year, combined with cutbacks at the U.S. Postal Service, led many to worry their ballots wouldnt make it back in time if they were mailed. More than 40% of voters cast ballots absentee in 2020.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission rescinded the guidance in February following Bohrens ruling.

Bohren ruled in January that state law only allows absentee ballots to be delivered through the mail or in person at a local clerks office. He also asserted that delivering an absentee ballot on behalf of another individual, even someone who is unable to deliver their own ballot, is illegal. Bohrens ruling was widely panned by voting rights and disability advocacy groups for making it harder for elderly and disabled residents to vote.

The right for voters with disabilities to have assistance from a person of their choice is protected by federal law, said Barbara Beckert, director of External Advocacy with Disability Rights Wisconsin. Nothing in this decision changes federal protections for people with disabilities. Voters with disabilities who need ballot delivery assistance may want to contact their municipal clerk to ask for a disability-related accommodation.

WILL president and general counsel Rick Esenberg said the courts ruling provides substantial clarity on the legal status of absentee ballot drop boxes and ballot harvesting.

While the question of whether an agent may mail an absentee ballot remains open, Wisconsin voters can have confidence that state law, not guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, has the final word on how Wisconsin elections are conducted, Esenberg added.

Across Wisconsin

Ballot drop boxes were used in at least 43 cities, 46 villages and 156 towns throughout the state in the 2020 election, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau. Many of those were in areas in the northeastern and northwestern parts of the state, where Trump won the vast majority of counties. Eleven states also use the boxes.

Drop boxes were among the supplies Wisconsins clerks purchased in 2020 with money from the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Tech and Civic Life, which has also become a target of Republican ire and that of GOP-appointed special counsel Michael Gableman, who has baselessly claimed the Chicago-based group was integral to an illegal conspiracy to boost turnout in Democratic-leaning areas in the 2020 election.

Previous court rulings have found nothing illegal about the more than $10 million in Center for Tech and Civic Life grants distributed to about 214 municipalities in 39 of Wisconsins 72 counties, including many solidly won by Trump. Nor did the center turn down grant requests from any of the Wisconsin municipalities that made them. Although, on a per-capita basis, Wisconsins five largest, and mostly Democratic, cities received two to four times more money than smaller communities.
Gurugram, Jul 9 (PTI) Five armed men allegedly barged into Pataudi house of Badli's Congress MLA Kuldeep Vats and roughed up his cook, asking him to warn the party leader against making any comments on gangsters, police said on Saturday.

According to the complaint filed by the cook named Rajiv Kumar, the incident occurred on Friday afternoon when he was alone at home.

Also Read | Assam: Japanese Encephalitis Claims 8 Lives, 82 Infected in Past Nine Days.

"All five were carrying arms. They manhandled me and asked where the MLA was. I told them he was not here. They said that I should warn MLA sir that he should not make any comments about gangsters or he will face the fate of Moosewala," Kumar said, alleging that they also pulled out a gun to threaten him.

Following the complaint, an FIR has been registered against five unknown accused under sections 148 (riots), 149 (unlawful assembly), 323 (hurt), 452 (house trespassing), 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and section 25-54-59 of Arms Act at Pataudi police station, police said.

Also Read | Gurugram: Woman Booked For Kidnapping 10-Month-Old Baby After Offering Sedative Laced Chocolate to Mother.

Gurugram police is yet to identify the accused in a case related to extortion call to Sohna MLA. In the past few weeks, about three Haryana MLAs, including Sohna's Sanjay Singh, Safidon's Subash Gangoli and Sonipat's Surender Panwar, have received death threats.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Guntur (Andhra Pradesh) [India], July 9 (ANI): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday claimed that in the last three years his government has fulfilled 95 per cent of the promises made by the party in the 2019 election manifesto.

Addressing the inaugural session of the two-day plenary of Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), the Chief Minister spoke about the 13-year journey of YSRCP, where the leaders and cadres gave "blood and sweat to the party".

Also Read | First Ever Chess Olympiad Torch Relay Reached Siliguri on 8th July

MLA Siliguri,   Latest Tweet by Prasar Bharati News Services.

"I salute the people of Andhra Pradesh and our cadres for their support. We came across many hurdles in the last 13 years of our journey, which resulted in a landslide victory three years ago," said Reddy.

The chief minister reiterated that it was the blessing of the people of Andhra Pradesh, which made the party and government work towards development, welfare, and social justice.

Also Read | Amarnath Cloudburst: Yatra Suspended From Baltal and Pahalgam Base Camps; Rescue Operation Resumed After 15 Killed, Several Injured in Cloudburst Near Holy Cave.

He said that the people have stood behind the party as a strong pillar, and led it to a landslide victory in the 2019 general elections.

"We have fulfilled 95 per cent of promises on our manifesto without discrimination of caste, creed, and religion. Our government has shown the door for change, development, and prosperity for the state," he said.

"I stand strong with the people of Andhra Pradesh," said Reddy while explaining the issues faced by the government during the COVID.

He said that amidst the pandemic, the state government had handled the hurdles and other issues about the welfare of the people.

"I wish that resolutions, discussions, and speeches in the plenary will be useful for all of us," he added.

The plenary was held for the first time after YSRCP came to power.

The first day of the plenary event saw a sea of supporters. The massive crowd welcomed the Chief Minister and party leaders who spoke about the journey of YSRCP in the state and its welfare measures initiated in line with social justice.

The two-day plenary event attracted lakhs of people. A blood donation camp, medical camp, and registration desks have been arranged for people attending the event.

The event saw an attendance of over 1.5 lakh YSRCP cadres who travelled from across the state on day one. An additional three lakh people are expected on the second day of the event. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Baltal (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], July 9 (ANI): The Central Reserve Police Force officials on Saturday said that all forces including NDRF, CRPF, SDRF, Army, and JKP mountain rescue teams were promptly rescuing the pilgrims from the cloudburst affected spots and informed that sun can solidify the clayey debris which would increase problems for the rescuers to evacuate people.

"All forces including NDRF, CRPF, SDRF, Army, JKP mountain rescue teams are trying to save and evacuate people/bodies stuck in the huge amount of debris that's fallen. Debris is clayey, if the Sun comes out it'll solidify which will be problematic," said IG, CRPF, Charu Sinha.

Also Read | Gurugram: Woman Booked For Kidnapping 10-Month-Old Baby After Offering Sedative Laced Chocolate to Mother.

She also informed that over 200 patients were being treated every day.

"We have set up a makeshift hospital here and are getting over 200 patients here every day, have treated almost 1400 in the past week. All those who are serious are being shifted to the main hospital in Baltal," she added.

Also Read | Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis Meet PM Narendra Modi in Delhi.

Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha chaired a high-level meeting to review the ongoing rescue and relief operations at Amarnath cave, informed the officials on Saturday.

A two-minute silence was also observed during the meeting to pay tribute to devotees who lost their lives in the incident.

"Rescue and relief operation is in full swing. Teams from Army, Air Force, CAPFs, and NDRF doing a commendable job to clear debris within the shortest time. Admin is providing all facilities. I request Yatris to stay put in camps. We're trying our best to restore the Yatra at the earliest," read an official release from the LG's office.

Earlier, as many as 35 pilgrims were discharged following treatment, informed the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) Officials on Saturday.

"35 pilgrims have been discharged following treatment. 17 people are getting the treatment and are likely to get discharged tonight. All safe and healthy," said Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) Officials.

The critically injured patients were airlifted to Srinagar.

"Critically injured people were airlifted to Srinagar. 2 people who were buried but were alive were rescued. We're taking all precautionary steps. 41 missing as per Jammu and Kashmir police out of which some were rescued. Yatra may resume within a day or two," said DG, CRPF, Kuldiep Singh.

At least 16 people have died in the cloud burst incident near the holy shrine of Amarnath, informed National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) DG Atul Karwal on Saturday.

Speaking to ANI, Karwal said, "There are 16 confirmed deaths, about 40 still seem to be missing. There is no landslide, but the rain continues, though no problem in rescue work. Four NDRF teams with over 100 rescuers in rescue work. Besides, Indian Army, BSF, SDRF, CRPF and others continue with the rescue operation."

An Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) official on Saturday informed that rescue operation has been intensified in the Amarnath cloud burst incident.

Speaking to ANI, Vivek Kumar Pandey, PRO, ITBP said, "Rescue operation has been intensified, around 30-40 people are still missing we have got information from the local administration.

The weather is clear near the Amarnath cave. The injured people have been brought to the base using helicopters. Yatra is still on hold and we are advising people not to move ahead."

The Indian Air Force has deployed 2 ALH Dhruv and Mi-17 V5 helicopters each from Srinagar for the rescue operations at the Amarnath cave site. One AN-32 and Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft are on standby in Chandigarh for further requirements, IAF officials informed on Saturday.

In a statement, the ITBP said, "Most of the yatris who were stranded near Holy cave area due to flash flood last evening have been shifted to Panjtarni. ITBP had expanded its Route opening and protection parties from Lower Holy cave to Panjtarni. The evacuation continued till 3.38 AM. No yatri is left on the track. About 15,000 people were safely shifted till now."

Meanwhile, Chinar Corps Commander Lieutenant General ADS Aujla reached the cloudburst-affected areas near the Amarnath cave.

A cloudburst struck the holy cave area of Amarnath on Friday which resulted in a heavy discharge of water in the 'Nallah', adjoining the holy cave. (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, Jul 9 (PTI) Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Saturday called for developing forward-looking, world-class institutions that work on the principle of 'student first-teacher led' learning.

He was delivering the valedictory address at the three-day Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam (ABSS) at Varanasi which concluded Saturday with education leaders resolving to work collectively for transforming India into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society.

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"We must bring in a transformative education system rooted in Indian values, thoughts and sense of service. The National Education Policy 2020 gives us the direction and path for decolonising our education and achieving aspirations, creating pride in our languages, culture and knowledge," Pradhan said.

"Components of NEP such as multi-modal education, Academic Bank of Credits, Multiple Entry-Exit, Skill Development will prove to be milestones in the direction of student first -teacher led learning," he added.

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Pradhan said Shiksha Samagam is a step towards establishing India as a knowledge-based superpower.

"Our higher education should be for the student and by the teacher. Our administration shall do everything to support the teachers in meeting aspirations of our youth," he said

The education minister exuded confidence that universities will play an important role in preparing entrepreneurial society and building job-creators.

"They are the breeding ground of research for the welfare of society and mankind and for furthering ease of living. By providing opportunities for education in Indian languages, we will be able to connect a large section of the education system and promote research and innovation," he said.

Addressing the educationists, Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar said providing a holistic education is the soul of National Education Policy 2020.

"During my visits to different institutions, I felt there is a need for significant increase of macro and micro-actions in the realization of holistic education," he said.

Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam witnessed 11 sessions including nine thematic session and two exclusive sessions on sharing success stories and Best Practices of NEP 2020 Implementation.

The deliberations ranged from themes like holistic and multidisciplinary education, enhancing quality, inclusively and access by use of technology, to the need for promoting an ecosystem for research and innovation, to promotion of Indian languages, Indian knowledge systems and sharing of best practices on NEP implementation.

(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, July 9: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday called on President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

"Eknath Shinde, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, along with Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister, called on President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan," Rashtrapati Bhavan tweeted. Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, His Deputy Devendra Fadnavis Meet Amit Shah.

Rashtrapati Bhavan's Tweet

Shri Eknath Shinde, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, along with Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister, called on President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan. pic.twitter.com/VN5YOFOhXx  President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) July 9, 2022

According to the sources, Shinde and Fadnavis are likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi later in the day. He will also meet BJP President JP Nadda.

On Friday, Shinde and Fadnavis met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed the new government to be formed in Maharashtra and many other subjects.

Earlier in June this year, Eknath Shinde led a group of Sena MLAs against the MVA government, resulting in it losing its majority in the Maharashtra assembly. This also led Shiv Sena chief Thackeray to step down as CM ahead of a floor test.

In Maharashtra, the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of the new government have been sworn in while the rest of the ministers are to be sworn in.

Sources said that more than a dozen people of the Shinde camp can be made ministers. Current eight ministers of the Uddhav government had joined his rebellion along with Shinde. In such a situation, all of them can be made ministers once again.

The visit comes as the first tour for Shinde after taking charge of the office as the CM. With the buzz of the Maharashtra cabinet being expanded in two phases doing rounds, the meeting is significant as reportedly the first announcements of the cabinet will be made before the presidential elections.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde formally took the charge of Chief Minister's Office (CMO) on Thursday in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Shinde won the floor test in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on the last day of the two-day special session of the House. In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it.

Three legislators abstained from voting, while Congress's Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar were among those absent during the trust vote. Shinde was sworn in as CM on June 30, a day after Uddhav Thackeray quit the post. BJP's Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the deputy CM.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Rudraprayag (Kedarnath) [India], July 9 (ANI): Amid the ongoing heavy rainfall from Sonprayag onwards in Uttarakhand, the Kedarnath Yatra has been stopped once again for ensuring the safety of the pilgrims amid the apprehensions of untoward incidents, the Rudraprayag district administration informed on Saturday.

Earlier on June 30, the Rudraprayag police at the Sirobgad area had informed about the district being closed till 4 AM after the debris and stones kept falling from the hill, which resulted in the traffic being jammed on both sides of the highway.

Also Read | Asserting That There is No Political Agenda Vis-a-vis the First Visit to the National   Latest Tweet by IANS India.

Badrinath highway was also blocked due to the falling of several boulders at the Birahi and Pagal Nala area, following the overnight rainfall on June 25.

Meanwhile, on May 17, the traffic movement was disrupted on the Badrinath route, NH7, near Panchpulia in Karnaprayag after the boulders fell from the hill.

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As per the Badri-Kedar Temple Committee on June 18, atleast 7 lakh 27 thousand pilgrims had visited Kedarnath since its doors were opened on May 6.

The India Meteorological Department has predicted isolated heavy rainfall over Uttarakhand on Sunday and Wednesday (July 10 and July 13).

The IMD has also forecasted extremely heavy rainfall over Uttarakhand for today (Saturday, July 9).

"Isolated heavy rainfall very likely over Jammu & Kashmir on 09th and 10th; Himachal Pradesh on 10th, 12th and 13th and over Uttarakhand on 10th and 13th July 2022," IMD said in a tweet.

"...Isolated extremely heavy rainfall also likely over Uttarakhand on 09th July 2022," it added. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chennai, Jul 9 (PTI) Learning the intricacies of mudras in Bharatanatyam and ensuring a realistic portrayal that connects with the audience is not an easy task for many. But, this is what a group of transpersons with a passion for the art is attempting to learn at Tamil Nadu's first dance school exclusively for the community here, helmed by one of the revered Gurus, who sees teaching the aspirants as the art transcending all barriers.

Different professionals from myriad backgrounds pursue their dreams of trying their hands at the ancient dance form at the Chennai chapter of the academy, established by the Sri Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust Kerala and Sahodaran, a city based non-governmental organisation (NGO).

Also Read | First Ever Chess Olympiad Torch Relay Reached Siliguri on 8th July MLA Siliguri,   Latest Tweet by Prasar Bharati News Services.

"This school opened a unique opportunity for transpersons to learn the classical dance form. Here their passion for Bharatanatyam is being ignited," says renowned Bharatanatyam dance master Shanmuga Sundaram K, who teaches them.

"They all come from different backgrounds but are knit by an avid interest in learning this dance," said Sundaram, who is one of India's leading classical dancers and considered as one of the best male exponents of the ancient art form of Bharatanatyam.

Also Read | Amarnath Cloudburst: Yatra Suspended From Baltal and Pahalgam Base Camps; Rescue Operation Resumed After 15 Killed, Several Injured in Cloudburst Near Holy Cave.

The ensemble of 16 aspiring dancers include Vaishnavi, Chennai's first trans auto driver, a chartered accountant, a physiotherapist and a college student and it meets on Sundays to learn from their guru at this free dance academy.

Expressing her keenness to learn Bharatanatyam, Vishnu Vilasini, a student says the novel initiative has inspired her to learn the dance and teach it to the trans person community and underprivileged children for free.

Classes for the free dance academy for transgenders commenced on June 5 though it was launched on May 31 in the presence of Chennai Mayor R Priya. Sathya Sai Charitable Trust founder N K Ananthakumar runs similar dance schools in two places in the neighbouring Kerala.

He wanted to start a dance school for transpersons in Chennai and approached Sahodaran and master Sundaram and immediately the initiative fructified.

Vaishnavi who couldn't get an opportunity to showcase her dancing skills, opines that she could now get groomed to become a performing artist.

"I feel teaching them Bharatanatyam makes this dance form transcend all barriers. This platform grooms them in this traditional art. They have a choice either to be a performer or a guru," says Shanmuga Sundaram, who has over 28 years of experience.

He says he doesn't see them as transgenders but regards them as his students keen on learning this art. "And it's an opportunity for me to teach them Bharatanatyam and help pass on this art. In true sense this art is transcending all barriers," he told PTI.

This was his contribution to this art. Dance should go beyond geographies and connect with the people, he added.

Sundaram who had choreographed and staged Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri - the Divine Comedy - and on French sculptor Francois Auguste Rene Rodin, considered as founder of modern sculpture, says he hopes to organise an exclusive performance of his students in future to send a message across that the trans community could perform equally better.

Depending upon the student's efforts, it would take at least 2 to 3 years for Arangetram (maiden stage performance), he said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
LeT terrorist associate arrested in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla (Photo/ANI)

Baramulla (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], July 9 (ANI): Jammu and Kashmir Police along with Army 22 RR arrested a hybrid terrorist associate of the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Baramulla district, the police said on Saturday.

The terrorist was identified as Mohd Iqbal Bhat, a resident of Tilgam Payeen. He was arrested at a checkpoint in Kreeri area of Baramulla.

Also Read | Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis Called on President Ram Nath   Latest Tweet by ANI.

Based on reliable input regarding terrorist movement in the Kreeri area, joint parties of Police and Army 29 RR established Naka at Kreeri.

During Naka checking one Hybrid terrorist of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit was apprehended along with arms and ammunition, the police said.

Also Read | Weather Forecast: Rainfall and Thunderstorm Likely Over Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka for Next 5 Days', Says IMD; Skymet Issues Caution for Hilly States After Cloudburst in Amarnath.

Incriminating materials include one pistol, a pistol magazine and 7 rounds- pistol ammunition have also been recovered from the hybrid terrorist.

According to police, the terrorist has been actively involved in providing logistics support for terrorist activities and was in touch with Pakistani terrorists Saifullah and Abu Zarar.

The successful apprehension of the hybrid terrorist has helped prevent major terror plots and bust the module responsible for various recent attacks on PRI members and non-locals. In addition, the terrorist was actively involved in providing chemicals and other materials for carrying out an IED attack on National Highway between Narbal and Renji.

Interrogation of the apprehended terrorist is likely to give further inputs for future counter-terrorism operations.

Earlier on Thursday, Jammu and Kashmir Police had arrested a hybrid terrorist linked with the proscribed terrorist outfit Al-Badr in Awantipora.

During checking, the terrorist was identified as Aamir Ahmed Parray son of Abdul Rashid Parray resident of Kashwa Chitragam, Shopian, linked with proscribed terror outfit Al-Badr.

Meanwhile, two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists surrendered before police and security forces following an encounter in Kulgam on Wednesday.

According to Jammu and Kashmir Police, the surrendered terrorists were identified as Nadeem Abbas Bhat, resident of Reshipura, Qaimoh and Kafeel Mir, resident of Mirpura, Qaimoh.

Both were part of a recently recruited module of LeT. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Srinagar, July 9 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha chaired a high level meeting on Saturday to review the ongoing rescue and relief operation at Amarnath cave shrine in the aftermath of the cloudburst incident on Friday that left 15 persons dead and scores of others injured or missing.

The meeting, attended by top officials from the Army, police, Air Force and civil administration, observed two-minute silence to pay tribute to devotees who lost their lives in the unfortunate incident yesterday.

Also Read | Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis Meet PM Narendra Modi in Delhi.

Lt Gen AS Aujla, GoC 15 Corps and Sh Dilbag Singh, DGP briefed the Lt Governor about the ongoing rescue efforts at the holy cave. GoC said all the agencies involved in the rescue and relief operation are working in excellent coordination and they are well equipped to clear the debris, an official spokesman said.

The Lt Governor said the effort should be made to clear the debris within shortest period of time.

Also Read | Amarnath Cloudburst: J&K LG Manoj Sinha Chairs High Level Meet To Review Rescue & Relief Operations at Holy Cave.

The DGP said majority of the injured have already been discharged and few others being treated at base hospital and Srinagar are likely to be discharged within 24 hours.

Sinha said teams from Army, CAPFs, NDRF and SDRF are on the ground and doing commendable job.

I request Yatris to stay put in camps. Administration is providing all facilities for their comfortable stay. We are trying our best to restore the Yatra at the earliest, he said.

He also directed the senior officials, Deputy Commissioners and Camp directors to ensure best possible facilities are provided to the pilgrims staying at camps.

Earlier, Sinha visited SKIMS to enquire about the health of injured pilgrims. He also went to PCR Srinagar where he was briefed about the status of sending the mortal remains of deceased pilgrims to their respective hometowns.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Banihal/Jammu, July 9 (PTI) Administration on Saturday ordered a magisterial enquiry into death of a newly born baby after a private vehicle carrying her to hospital was allegedly stopped in Ramban district following restrictions of traffic due to Amarnath yatra.

The inquiry has been ordered by Ramban District Magistrate Massaratul Islam, officials said.

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The sub divisional magistrate (SDM) Ramsoo Vikar Ahmad Giri has been made as enquiry officer to conduct probe into the circumstances leading to the death of newly-born baby on Friday morning, they said.

Following death of the baby, people had also carried out protests on the Jammu Srinagar highway on Friday, due to which the traffic was also effected for some time near Makarkoot in Ramsoo.

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Muzaffar Ahmad Sheikh, father of the deceased newborn baby, said his wife Naeema Begum delivered a baby on Friday morning and due to the some health issue of baby, "we decided to shift her to Banihal hospital for treatment."

He said the private vehicle carrying the baby was allegedly not allowed to come on the highway near Makarkoot by police officials posted there for the yatra duty.

He said the baby died in the vehicle and was declared brought dead by doctors at near-by hospital in Ramsoo.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Nagpur, Jul 9 (PTI) Krupal Tumane, Shiv Sena MP from Ramtek in Maharashtra's Nagpur district, on Saturday denied there was any meeting in Delhi of parliamentarians of the party with representatives of the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Also Read | Delhi Shocker: Drunk Neighbour Stabs Woman and Her Two Daughters With a Knife for Refusing To Give Food After Birthday Party in Dwarka.

Shinde is in Delhi along with his deputy Devendra Fadnavis and the duo has met senior BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party chief JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Also Read | Mumbai: To Hide Maldives Travel History From Wife, Pune Man Tears His Passport Pages; Arrested.

Talking to some television channels here, he said he was with Uddhav Thackeray and wanted the two factions to unite.

Tumane was replying to media queries on news reports of some Sena MPs meeting representatives of the Shinde faction in the former's Delhi residence.

How can such a meeting take place in Delhi when he is in Nagpur for the past six days, the Ramtek Lok Sabha MP counter questioned.

Someone is spreading rumours, he said, adding that he wanted the two factions to unite.

Some MPs are trying to resolve the issue that has cropped up between Thackeray and Shinde, he asserted.

Tumane said some MPs had met Thackeray as the dominant though was that the party must stay united.

In reply to another query, he said no one from the Shinde group had contacted him.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hoshiarpur, Jul 9 (PTI) A 65-year-old man was shot and wounded when the weapon of a government railway police official accidentally went off in a train, police said on Saturday.

Surinder Singh was hit by a bullet Friday night when he was travelling in Mour Dhwaj Express train returning from Amarnath.

Also Read | Eid-ul-Azha 2022: President Ram Nath Kovind Greets Citizens on Bakrid.

He was hit when the weapon of personnel of Pathankot GRP accidently went off in the train when it was passing near Kandrori Mirthal in Himachal Pradesh, said police.

The train was stopped at Mukerian Railway Station and Singh was rushed to a civil hospital from where he was referred to a private hospital in Ludhiana.

Also Read | Delhi: Cash Worth Rs 1.5 Crore, Jewellery Worth Rs 1.2 Crore Recovered in CBI Raid at Ex-NBCC GM.

Superintendent of Police, GRP, Jalandhar, Praveen Kumar said that the preliminary investigation has revealed that one of the GRP staff had dropped his weapon while going to the train toilet and had accidentally fired it.

An investigation in the matter is underway, Kumar said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jaipur, Jul 9 (PTI) Condemning the recent murder of a tailor in Udaipur by two men over an alleged insult to Islam, the RSS Saturday said the Hindu society has responded in a peaceful and constitutional way, and the Muslim community should also oppose such incidents vigorously.

"It is necessary for all to oppose this together," RSS spokesperson Sunil Ambekar said.

Also Read | Delhi Shocker: Drunk Neighbour Stabs Woman and Her Two Daughters With a Knife for Refusing To Give Food After Birthday Party in Dwarka.

Speaking to reporters after the conclusion of a three-day meeting of the Akhil Bharatiya Prant Pracharaks in Jhunjhunu, he also said the RSS has set a target to increase the number of its shakhas in the country to one lakh by 2024 from the current 56,824.

Ambekar said the meeting discussed upcoming strategies, activities, organisational work, and action plans for the next two years were also evolved. He said work on the last year's target was reviewed at the meeting and a comprehensive expansion plan made for the Sangh's centenary year in 2025.

Also Read | Mumbai: To Hide Maldives Travel History From Wife, Pune Man Tears His Passport Pages; Arrested.

"Under this, by 2024, the number of shakhas will be increased to one lakh across the country and efforts will be made to touch all sections of society and create a positive environment in society," he said.

Replying to a question, Ambekar said public sentiment should also be taken care of while exercising the right to freedom of expression.

Referring to the June 28 murder of Kanhaiya Lal, the Udaipur tailor, he said it was highly condemnable and the Muslim community should oppose such incidents openly.

"There is democracy in our country. We have constitutional democratic rights. If someone doesn't like something, there is a democratic way to react to it," he said.

But such incidents are neither in the interest of society nor the country, he said.

"A civilised society only condemns such an incident. The Hindu society is responding in a peaceful and constitutional way. The Muslim society is also expected to oppose such an incident. Some intellectuals have opposed it, but the Muslim society should also come forward and oppose it vigorously."

In the meeting of the Sangh, Prant Pracharaks and Sah-Prant Pracharaks of all 45 provinces of the Sangh participated.

RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabole, along with Sah-Sarkaryavah Krishna Gopal, CR Mukund, Arun Kumar and Ram Dutt were also present, besides other senior functionaries.

Kanhaiya Lal was hacked to death by two Muslim youths on June 28, days after he was threatened on social media for supporting suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma's controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Tiruvannamalai (TN), Jul 9 (PTI) Religion cannot be a tool to divide people and those who cause such a division can't be true spiritualists, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said on Saturday while appealing to the people to ignore those seeking cheap publicity, instead tread the path of progress.

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Those doing politics in the name of religion are not aware of the contribution of DMK for development, including renovating temples and improving the infrastructure in heritage towns, he said.

The Chief Minister, who chose the meeting at the temple town of Tiruvannamalai known for the ancient Annamalaiyar temple, girivalam procession and Karthigai deepam festival, said he was not against any religion. But, he said he opposed those dividing people on the basis of religion. He said he ignores those accusing him of being anti-Hindus and that the accusations were from people trying to seek cheap publicity.

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"I don't care about those who utter lies and seek cheap publicity. Even you should not care but move on to embrace development," the Chief Minister said after laying foundation stones for new projects worth Rs 340 crore, inaugurating projects worth Rs 70 crore and disbursing welfare assistance of Rs 693 crore to 1.74 lakh beneficiaries.

He said he was not running the DMK party or the government on the basis of religion but only with the objective of serving the people. To those wondering if temple renovation is a Dravidian model of governance, he said he would reiterate that such model of governance hinges on equitable development.

"To go a step further, I would say that the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Act was enacted in 1925 by our parent organisation, the Justice Party, to bring the temples under the control of the State government," Stalin said.

People who do politics in the name of religion would not know this as they lack genuine intention, he said in a veiled reference to the BJP, which has been highly critical of him. "They are not real spiritualists. They are hypocrites. They play the religious card to serve their ends," the Chief Minister said.

Assuring to provide amenities for the Arunachaleshwar temple and the town and along the 14-km-long girivalam route, Stalin announced that a high-level committee comprising officials of the HR & CE, district administration and panchayats would be formed to also take up recurring maintenance work in this town. Also, steps would be taken to formulate a detailed project report for ensuring road connectivity and a bus stand, and the projects would be implemented after obtaining environmental clearance for the benefit of 75,000 tribals living in about 20 mountainous villages in the district, he said. He said the DMK's principles were nurtured on the philosophy of its leaders C N Annadurai and M Karunanidhi who emphasised that one can "see God in the smile of the poor (Eazhaiyin Sirippil Iraivanai Kanbom), one clan, one God (Ondre Kulam Oruvane Devan), and all beings are equal by birth (pirapokkum ella uyirkkum)."

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New Delhi [India], July 9 (ANI): The Supreme Court will deliver its order on July 11 regarding extradited gangster Abu Salem's plea raising the issue that as per the extradition treaty between India and Portugal, his jail terms cannot extend beyond 25 years.

Earlier in May, a Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh reserved the order after both parties concluded their arguements.

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During the hearing, the court remarked that when it was reading some other cases from the UK, it found that India has never violated the extradition assurance.

Abu Salem's advocate had apprised the Supreme Court of India that the Supreme Court of Portugal had stated that if the requesting state (India) exceeds the terms of the agreement, then the accused (Abu Salem) shall be extradited again back. Abu Salem's advocate apprised the SC that there is a violation of the terms of the agreement and assurance given to Portugal.

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SC had observed that the exercising of power by the executive and by the court is different.

Abu Salem's advocate also apprised the court that his client was in custody in Portugal since 2002. Abu Salem was also arrested on the virtue of red corner notice, the lawyer said. He also apprised the court that my extradition started in 2003 and went on for almost 2 years and custody was handed over in 2005.

Centre had earlier submitted that the Union of India honouring its assurance will arise only when the period of 25 years is to expire.

The Centre had said the compliance of the assurance given to the Portugal government during the extradition of gangster Abu Salem will be done at an "appropriate time" and the judiciary, as the Constitution of India envisages, is independent in deciding all cases in accordance with the applicable laws.

The Supreme Court was hearing the plea of Abu Salem which contended that as per the extradition treaty between India and Portugal, his jail terms cannot extend beyond 25 years.The Home Secretary also clarified that the Government of India will abide by the assurances in accordance with the law and subject to the remedies as may be available at that stage.

Explaining the Extradition Act, 1962, the Centre, in its affidavit, said it is an Act enabling the executive of one State [the term "State" being used in the parlance of international law] to deal with another State to extradite accused / convict persons and these powers are executive powers and while exercising such powers, it is an inherent understanding that it would bind the executives of the respective States.

The government also said that before the said date, the convict appellant Salem cannot raise any arguments based on the said assurance.

The Centre Government remarked that the contention of the petitioner about non-compliance of assurance is premature and based on hypothetical surmises and can never be raised in present proceedings.

Salem has raised issues that the 2017 judgment of a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) Court sentencing him to life imprisonment was against the terms of the extradition treaty.

Salem's advocate Rishi Malhotra had said that on December 17, 2002, the Government of India gave a Solemn Sovereign assurance to the Government of Portugal that if the appellant Salem is extradited for trials in India he would neither be conferred with the death penalty nor be subjected to imprisonment for a term beyond 25 years.

He had also said that the TADA Court were not according to the extradition order. He further added that the Government can exercise its powers under section 432, 433 CrPC to commute the sentence of Life imprisonment in order to bring down within the ambit of assurance of the sentence of not more than 25 years as the execution of the sentence was purely in the domain of Government.

The petitioner had also said that the government should ensure to bring down punishment consistent and commensurate with the assurances but it cannot be said that the Court's hands were tied in not awarding punishment to Salem for more than 25 years.

Supreme Court to deliver the order on extradited gangster Abu Salem plea raising issue that as per extradition treaty between India and Portugal, his jail terms cannot extend beyond 25 years, on July 11 (Monday). (ANI)

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New Delhi, Jul 9 (PTI) The AAP on Saturday dubbed the setting up of a delimitation commission for Delhi by the Union home ministry as an "eyewash" and alleged that it is yet another "tactic" of the BJP-led Centre to further delay the municipal polls in the national capital.

The party also contended that the home ministry cannot set up a delimitation commission before it determines the total number of municipal wards in accordance with the provisions of the amended Delhi Municipal Corporation Act and termed the move "illegal".

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"We are happy that the Centre has constituted a committee for delimitation of MCD wards. But no order has been issued on how many wards will there be in Delhi," Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi.

"Then how will this committee work?" he asked.

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Calling the setting up of the delimitation commission an "eyewash", Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said the Centre had to first determine the total number of wards.

"Then only this order (of the home ministry) holds any water," Bhardwaj told PTI when asked to comment on the development.

"Without deciding the total number of wards, this order is an eyewash. This delimitation exercise is also an eyewash," he added.

AAP MLA Atishi said the amended Delhi Municipal Corporation Act "clearly stipulates" that the total number of seats shall in no case be more than 250 and the number of seats in the municipal corporation shall be determined by the Centre at the time of its establishment.

"But the home ministry's order does not say in how many wards the delimitation exercise has to be carried out. This was the most important decision that the government had to take (before setting up a delimitation commission), but it did not do so," she said.

"The home ministry's order is hollow. It is yet another effort of the BJP to delay and postpone the polls because it knows that it will be decimated if the polls are held," the Kalkaji MLA charged.

The BJP-led Centre is applying "one tactic after another" to somehow postpone and delay the MCD polls so that the saffron party remains at the helm of the civic body for "as long as possible", she said.

"But I want to tell the BJP that the people of Delhi are watching. The more you delay the election, the stronger would be the support in favour of Kejriwal," Atishi said, adding, "You will be reduced to single digit in the election and Kejriwal (AAP) will come to power in the MCD as well."

Earlier in the day, the MCD said the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has set up a three-member commission for carrying out a fresh delimitation exercise of the municipal wards in Delhi.

"Taking a step forward in the direction of holding municipal elections, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, by exercising its powers under sections 3, 3A and 5 of the DMC Act, 1957, has constituted a delimitation commission to assist central government in delimitation of wards and carrying out other functions related to it," the civic body said in a statement.

It said the panel will have three members -- Vijay Dev, State Election Commissioner, Delhi, who will be its chairman, Pankaj Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and Randhir Sahay, Additional Commissioner, MCD.

The commission will present its report within four months of its formation, the civic body said.

"In a matter relating to Madhya Pradesh, the Supreme Court had held that you cannot put off the municipal polls on the excuse of a delimitation exercise or any restructuring," Bhardwaj said.

He said the apex court had also said its judgment in the matter will be binding on every state and Union Territory.

"Hence, what the Centre is doing now is completely illegal and amounts to contempt of the Supreme Court," the AAP leader added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chandigarh, Jul 9 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah has announced land for setting up a separate building for Haryana Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Saturday.

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At present, the Punjab and Haryana governments share the Vidhan Sabha complex which is next to the Punjab and Haryana Civil Secretariat in Union Territory of Chandigarh.

The Haryana government had been making this demand for the last one year. Khattar on Saturday took to Twitter to thank the Union Minister for his announcement.

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Shah was chairing the Northern Zone Council meeting in Jaipur and Khattar was also one of the participants.

"Fulfilling our demand for separate building of Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced additional land for Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh. I, on behalf of the people of Haryana, thank the home minister," Khattar said in a tweet in Hindi.

Shah's announcement drew reaction from neighbouring Punjab with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appealing to the Centre to allot land to Punjab in Chandigarh for setting up its own Vidhan Sabha building.

In a tweet in Punjabi, he also said, "There has been a longstanding demand that the Punjab and Haryana High court should be separated. For this also, the Central government should provide land in Chandigarh."

Haryana came into existence on November 1, 1966, but both the states have common buildings for the secretariat, Vidhan Sabha and the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Spelling out the reasons for the need for new additional building for the Haryana Assembly, CM Khattar told the Jaipur meeting that a new delimitation exercise is proposed in 2026 on the basis of which Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections would be held in 2029.

"It is estimated that according to the population of Haryana in the new delimitation, the number of assembly constituencies will be 126 and the number of Lok Sabha constituencies will be 14.

"At present, there are 90 MLAs in the Haryana Legislative Assembly. There is not enough space available in the existing building to even accommodate these 90 MLAs," he said, according to an official release issued here.

It is also not possible to expand this building, because it is a heritage building, he said.

Apart from this, it is also requested that the entire share of Haryana should be provided in the existing building also, Khattar demanded at the meeting.

"Even after 56 years, we have not got our complete rights. The 24,630 square feet area in the Vidhan Sabha building was given to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Secretariat. But the 20 rooms that came to our share are still in the possession of the Punjab Legislative Assembly."

"There is not enough space for our employees as well as for meetings of legislators, ministers and committees. Therefore, we have demanded land from the Chandigarh Administration to construct an additional building for the smooth functioning of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.

"The land has also been identified for this. The Home Minister is requested to intervene in this matter and get us land for the additional building of Haryana Vidhan Sabha," said the CM.

Meanwhile, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said, "Amit shah ji, by giving land to Haryana to establish exclusive Vidhan Sabha without involving process of due deliberations with all stakeholders, especially Punjab govt, there is attempt to bulldoze Punjab's sentiments about Chandigarh."

"It is important to halt the process and take us on board for further action," he said in a tweet.

However, some Punjab leaders took exception to CM Mann's statement in which he appealed to the Centre to allot land to Punjab in Chandigarh to set up its Vidhan Sabha on the lines of Haryana.

Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said, "I am shocked that someone who calls himself the Chief Minister of Punjab can issue statements to give up Punjab's widely acknowledged and inalienable right on its Capital, Chandigarh.

"The entire city belongs to Punjab and the Punjab CM is begging for a little space on our own land for Vidhan Sabha building. How can a Chief Minister of Punjab speak the language of Haryana on allotting land to Haryana?" he asked.

On Shah's statement, Badal said, "The Cente has no right to allot even an inch of Chandigarh to Haryana as the city belonged entirely, exclusively and inalienably to Punjab and its status as a Union Territory is a strictly temporary arrangement pending its transfer to Punjab."

Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira told Mann that he was "weakening" Punjab's claims over Chandigarh by asking for land for the high court and Vidhan Sabha. "Chandigarh is ours and you should vehemently oppose the Center giving land to Haryana for the new Vidhan Sabha," said Khaira in a tweet.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis meet BJP national president JP Nadda at his residence in Delhi.

New Delhi [India], July 9 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda on Saturday held a meeting with the newly-appointed Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on cabinet expansion and the formula for dividing cabinet berths between BJP and Shiv Sena, sources said.

The meeting which lasted about 40 minutes took place at the residence of Nadda in the national capital.

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Watersheds and Neighborhoods in the Reasi, Mirpur, Ramban,   Latest Tweet by Prasar Bharati News Services.

According to the sources, the BJP has in initial talks offered 11 ministerial posts to the Shinde faction and has suggested that 29 ministers would be from the party.

Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde faction is in favour of keeping the Home Department with the Chief Minister. However, no official information has been given on this matter yet.

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This is the first visit of Shinde to the national capital as Maharashtra Chief Minister.

Shinde and Fadnavis had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday.

With the buzz of the Maharashtra cabinet being expanded in two phases doing rounds, the meeting is significant amid the likelihood of the expansion taking place before the presidential election on July 18.

Shinde took oath as Chief Minister and Fadnavis as Deputy Chief Minister of the new government on June 30 after Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray resigned following a revolt in his party.

Shine had led the revolt and was joined by some independent MLAs. Shinde had said earlier that decision on cabinet expansion will be taken soon after discussions.

Sources said that more than a dozen people of the Shinde camp can be made ministers. Eight ministers of the Uddhav government had joined Shinde in the revolt. There is speculation that all of them can be made ministers again.

Shinde and Fadnavis also met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at his residence in Delhi on Saturday.

They also called on President Ram Nath Kovind.

Shinde and Fadnavis are also likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the evening.

After his visit to the capital, Shinde will leave for Pune in a private plane.

During the meeting with Amit Shah on Friday, Shinde and Fadnavis discussed matters related to the state including the formation of the new cabinet.

Sources said the meeting with Shah lasted for four hours and the political situation in Maharashtra.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction has moved the Supreme Court opposing the Maharashtra governor's June 30 decision to invite Shinde-led MLAs supported by the BJP to form a government in the state.

The matter will be heard in the Supreme Court on July 11. Referring to the Thackeray faction, Thackeray has said that no one can take the party symbol of bow and arrow.

In the meeting, they also held discussions on the possibility of giving ministerial posts to all the MLAs who were ministers in the Thackeray government.

Shinde won the floor test in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on the last day of the two-day special session of the House on July 4. In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Jul 9 (PTI) Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis are scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President J P Nadda on Saturday as the new-found allies move towards constituting their council of ministers.

Shinde and Fadnavis, who assumed office on June 30, a day after the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray quit in the face of a massive rebellion, are also expected to make courtesy calls on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.

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The two Maharashtra leaders met Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday night and are learnt to have discussed the broad contours of the power-sharing formula between the BJP and the Shinde-led faction of Shiv Sena.

I am confident that under the guidance of Narendra Modi, both of you will serve the people faithfully and take Maharashtra to newer heights of development," Shah said on Twitter on Friday night.

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The visit of Shinde and Fadnavis to the national capital comes ahead of a crucial hearing in the Supreme Court on July 11 on a petition filed by the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of Shinde and 15 MLAs of his faction.

We have faith in the judiciary, Shinde told reporters in the national capital, asserting the group led by him had the support of two-thirds of the Shiv Sena MLAs. The Shiv Sena had 55 MLAs before the split triggered by Shinde's revolt. Nearly 40 Shiv Sena MLAs had backed Shinde, who also enjoys support of independents and MLAs from smaller outfits.

The Speaker has also granted us recognition, he said, referring to the decision of the newly-elected Speaker Rahul Narwekar.

Shinde was sworn in as chief minister on June 30 with the support of the BJP after he rebelled against the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, walking out of the Shiv Sena with a large chunk of MLAs leading to the fall of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.

Shinde won the trust vote in the Maharashtra assembly on July 4.

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Dang, Jul 9 (PTI) A tourist bus overturned and fell into a gorge near Saputara hill station in the Dang district of Gujarat on Saturday night, killing two persons and injuring at least 30 others, police said.

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The accident occurred around 8 pm when the bus returning from Saputara overturned, broke the railings at a turning and hurtled down 50 feet into a gorge, nearly 3 km from the hill station, said Superintendent of Police Ravirajsinh Jadeja.

Also Read | Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis Meet PM Narendra Modi in Delhi.

"Two women passengers were killed and 25-30 other tourists were injured. They were rescued and taken to different hospitals for treatment," he said, adding that the tourists were returning to Surat after visiting the hill station.

The passengers were part of a garba group, he said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 9 (ANI): Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday emphasized the importance of adopting a futuristic approach to education by focusing on developing 21st-century skills ranging from artificial intelligence to data analytics.

Addressing an event at a college in Bengaluru, Naidu said, "Emerging career options and even established ones, to an extent, now require employees to have wider knowledge in diverse fields. Going forward, youth must not only have an in-depth knowledge of their specialization but must also be strong in the fundamentals of other disciplines."

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Observing that workspaces are changing at a rapid pace, he emphasized the importance of adopting a futuristic approach to education by focusing on developing students' skills.

"They must nurture the ability to assimilate and integrate knowledge from different fields to become competitive in the 21st-century job market. Equally important is to possess effective communication skills," he added.

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Highlighting that Indians are proving themselves as leaders in all fields, he said, "India's rise is widely recognized on the global stage."

Referring to India's glorious heritage in education, Naidu said, "India's stellar contribution to the field of education in ancient times earned it the status of 'Viswa Guru'.

Stressing the need to move away from rote learning to 'active learning', the Vice President wanted educational institutions to adopt an evaluation based on continuous assessment. Calling for breaking rigidity and water-tight compartmentalization of the subjects, he underlined that "Interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity are the way forward."

Terming education as the most powerful instrument for building a just and equitable society, Naidu wanted educational institutions to equip youth with the right skill sets to make them not just employable but also catalysts of New India's growth story.

Emphasizing on women empowerment, Naidu called for removing barriers hindering the emancipation of women in the country.

He said that though our civilizational ethos encourages equal participation of women in various fields, there are many areas in which women are yet to realize their full potential.

The Vice President emphasised a greater push for women's education through consistent efforts of the government. He said that given an opportunity, women have always proven themselves in every discipline.

Mentioning the names of distinguished women scholars of ancient India such as Gargi and Maitreyi, he said that since ancient times, there was a clear emphasis on women's education. He also praised many progressive rulers and reformers from Karnataka like Attimabbe and Sovaladevi, who were great patrons of learning, and the Virashaiva movement that focused on the emancipation of women through education.

Touching on the issue of religious intolerance, Naidu appealed that religion is a personal matter and that while one can take pride and practice one's religion, no one has the right to denigrate others' religious beliefs. He stressed that secularism and tolerance towards others' views are a core part of Indian ethos and that sporadic incidents cannot undermine India's commitment to the values of pluralism and inclusivity. (ANI)

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Amaravati, Jul 9 (PTI) Warning that all freebie schemes being implemented by his government would be stalled if the YSR Congress lost power in the 2024 general election, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday exhorted his party rank and file to alert the people on this.

Delivering the closing speech at the two-day plenary of YSRC here, the party chief alleged that the "yellow media" was already indicating that welfare schemes benefiting crores of people in the state would be stopped if his government fell.

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Vote for (TDP chief) Chandrababu Naidu will be a vote against the welfare schemes. People should play the role of Arjuna to defeat Chandrababu as he is unable to ride the bicycle (TDP election symbol) as it lost its wheels," the Chief Minister remarked.

He asked people to be wary of the 'Dushta Chatushtayama' (evil quartet) of Naidu and three Telugu media houses.

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"Chandrababu will come to you with all sorts of false promises. The evil quartet wants the welfare schemes, being implemented by our government, stalled," Reddy alleged.

He called upon the party cadre to rebut the false propaganda of the opposition by visiting people at their doorstep and putting out the facts.

The YSRC president, who was elected on Saturday for a lifetime, also asked the party cadre to be battle-ready for 2024 and aim for a clean sweep of all 175 Assembly constituencies in the state.

He said his government had, in the last three years, handed out a sum of Rs 1.62 lakh crore under various freebie schemes.

The Chief Minister also spoke about the travails he endured in the past 13 years of his political journey and thanked the party workers and people for supporting him all through.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ballia (UP), Jul 9 (PTI) SP ally and SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar on Saturday said he will decide on supporting NDA presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu in the next few days, while giving mixed signals on continuing with the Akhilesh Yadav-led opposition alliance in Uttar Pradesh.

Even as he suggested that "all is well" between the Samajwadi Party and his Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, he did not rule out joining hands with the BSP in future.

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His remarks came a day after Rajbhar said he was waiting for a "divorce" from the SP's side.

Rajbhar and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) chief Shivpal Singh Yadav on Friday attended a dinner hosted by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Murmu's honour, a development showing chink in the opposition camp that is backing Yashwant Sinha for the top constitutional post.

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"I had gone to meet the BJP's presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu on her invitation. I was at a party programme in Mau on Friday when Murmu invited me. Respecting her request, I met her," Rajbhar told reporters here.

He said Murmu sought his support for her candidature and that he will announce his decision in four days after talking to his party leaders and MLAs.

Asked about the rift with SP, Rajbhar said, "There is no rift from our side. All is well. We are part of the SP-led (opposition) alliance and will remain with it."

He said if Yadav chooses to break the alliance and throw him out, then he will decide on the future course of action but he will not be the one to "divorce" it.

The "weak" never divorce anyone, he said.

The SBSP president, however, said he is keeping open the option of forging an alliance with the BSP or Shivpal Singh Yadav.

Asked if he could join hands with the BJP, Rajbhar said he does not have any such intention yet.

The SBSP had contested the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections held earlier this year in alliance with the SP. However, the ties between the two allies have been strained of late.

Yadav did not invite Rajbhar to a meeting convened in Lucknow in support of the Opposition's joint candidate for the presidential election Yashwant Sinha on Thursday. However, another SP ally and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary was seen with Yadav at the meeting.

Responding to a question, Rajbhar said he gave a suggestion to Yadav that he should step out of his air-conditioned room to strengthen the alliance.

Because the BSP and the Congress have been doing politics from air-conditioned rooms, they have only one and two MLAs, respectively, in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Those who will not come out of their air-conditioned rooms will meet the same fate as the BSP and the Congress, he said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington [US], July 9 (ANI): US President Joe Biden on Friday (local time) visited Japanese Ambassador to the US, Koji Tomita at his residence and offered his condolences over the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Biden also handed over a heartfelt note to Ambassador expressing his sympathies over the tragic incident. He called Abe "A man of peace and judgement".

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"On behalf of the Biden Family and all of America we extend our heartfelt sympathies to Abe's family and the people of Japan. I had the honour to get to know the Prime Minister when I hosted him at the Vice President's residence and when I met with him in Japan," the note read.

"It is not only a loss to his wife and family and the people of Japan but a loss to the world. A man of peace and judgement. He will be missed," it added.

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Earlier Biden condoled Abe's killing and said that he was "stunned, outraged, and deeply saddened" by the news. "I am stunned, outraged, and deeply saddened by the news that my friend Abe Shinzo, former Prime Minister of Japan, was shot and killed while campaigning. This is a tragedy for Japan and for all who knew him," he said in a statement.

"The longest-serving Japanese Prime Minister, his vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific will endure as he cared deeply about the Japanese people and dedicated his life to their service. Even at the moment, he was attacked, he was engaged in the work of democracy," Biden added as he recalled his past interactions with Shinzo Abe.

Joe Biden also condemned the increase in violent attacks globally, especially gun violence, and said they always leave a deep scar on the communities that are affected by it.

"As Vice President, I visited him in Tokyo and welcomed him to Washington. He was a champion of the Alliance between our nations and the friendship between our people," the White House quoted Biden as saying, underlining that the United States stands with Japan in this moment of grief. I send my deepest condolences to his family, the White House release said, quoting Biden.

Abe, first became Prime Minister in 2006. He again held the post in 2012 and was re-elected in 2014 and 2017. He announced his resignation in August 2020 as a chronic illness resurfaced. He was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga and later by Fumio Kishida. Abe was shot on Friday while delivering a campaign speech in Nara city in western Japan.

After the attack on him, Abe was rushed to hospital and initial media reports citing authorities said that it appeared that the former Japanese PM was shot in the chest. They described his condition as in "cardiopulmonary arrest" and said he showed no vital signs.

Public broadcaster NHK later reported, citing ruling Liberal Democratic Party sources that Abe, had died. Abe died at 5:03 pm (local time) and had two gunshot wounds in his neck, according to officials from Nara Medical University Hospital.

Police arrested a suspect for shooting Abe identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old resident of Nara City, according to local media. A gun that appeared to be handmade was retrieved from the site. (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 York, Jul 9 (AP) As Donald Trump considers another White House run, polls show he's the most popular figure in the Republican Party. But it wasn't always that way.

Competing at one point against a dozen rivals for the presidential nomination in 2016, Trump won only about one-third of the vote in key early states. He even lost in Iowa, which kicks off the nomination process.

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But he prevailed because those in the party who opposed his brand of divisive politics were never able to coalesce around a single rival.

That same dynamic could repeat itself as Trump mulls a new bid for the presidency as soon as this summer,.

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With a growing list of candidates gearing up to run, even a Trump diminished by two impeachments and mounting legal vulnerabilities could hold a commanding position in a fractured, multi-candidate primary.

"I fear it could end up the same way as 2016, which basically was everyone thought everyone else should get out," said Republican strategist Mike DuHaime, who advised former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's campaign that year.

I think every major candidate realized that he or she would have a better shot against Trump one-on-one. But of course each person thought he or she should be the one to get that shot and nobody got out of the way. ... And then it was too late.

The anxiety is mounting as a growing list of potential rivals take increasingly brazen steps, delivering high-profile speeches, running ads, courting donors and making repeat visits to early voting states.

That group now includes upward of a dozen could-be-candidates, including Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence; his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo; and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Rick Scott of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina. All could run on the former president's policies.

In the anti-Trump lane, politicians such as Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan are raising their profiles.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is increasingly seen as Trump's heir apparent, even by Trump's most loyal supporters, and viewed by Trump allies as his most formidable potential challenger.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and others have said they will not challenge Trump if he does go forward. But others, including Christie, seem to be gunning for the fight, even if they seem to be long shots.

I'm definitely giving it serious thought. I'm not gonna make any decision probably until the end of the year, Christie said in a recent interview. He has urged the party to move on from Trump and his ongoing obsession with the 2020 election.

For me, it's about the party needing to go in in a new direction from a personality perspective, and to continue to have someone who can bring strong leadership, tough leadership, that the country needs, but doesn't have all of the other drama that goes along with it," he said.

I'm hearing the same things from donors that I'm hearing from voters  that they're very concerned that we can't put ourselves in a position to have 2024 be about anything but the good of the country.

Pompeo, who has had a busy travel schedule and plans to return to Iowa this summer, said in a recent interview that he has been spending time reading and listening to President Ronald Reagan's speeches as he prepares for a possible run.

We're getting ready to stay in the fight, he said last month as he courted evangelical Christians at a gathering in Nashville, Tennessee.

He said he and his wife would sit down after the November elections and think our way through it, pray our way through it, and decide where's best to serve. It could be presenting ourselves for elected office again. We may choose a different path. But we're not gonna walk away from these things that I've been working on for 30 years now. They matter too much.

Pompeo sketched out a possible approach in much the same mold as Trump.

He was a disruptor that was most necessary in 2016, there's no doubt about that," Pompeo said. And now the task is to take those set of understandings, those set of principles, and defend them and build upon them. And it's gonna take a lot of work to do that, leaders of real fortitude and character to do that."

Such open talk comes as Trump faces a cascade of escalating legal troubles.

The congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has revealed increasingly damaging information about Trump's final weeks in office.

The Department of Justice has its own investigation. In Georgia, the prosecutor investigating Trump's potentially illegal meddling in the state's 2020 election has stepped up her inquiry by subpoenaing members of Trump's inner circle. In New York, Trump, his namesake son and his daughter Ivanka have agreed to answer questions under oath beginning next week in the state attorney general's civil investigation into his business practices.

Mick Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman who served as Trump's acting White House chief of staff, said the moves suggested potential candidates might see an opening where none existed two months ago.

Trump fatigue might be a real thing, he said, with voters asking themselves whether, if they vote for another candidate, they "can get the same policies without all the baggage.

At the same time, Trump has seen some of his endorsed primary candidates falter. Those who have won, including Senate hopefuls JD Vance in Ohio and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, have done so with about 30 per cent of the vote, meaning that two-thirds of party voters went against Trump's picks.

I don't think anybody underestimates Trump. There's a reason he's the most sought-after endorsement in every single Republican primary," said GOP strategist Alex Conant. That said, I think there's a recognition that a lot of Republican voters are looking to the future and ready for what's next.

To what extent remains an open question. During a trip to Iowa this week, Cotton declined to weigh in on Trump's standing. But the senator said he hoped to be an effective national leader, not only for my party but for the American people in my role in the Senate and any other future role I might serve.

Still, Cotton argued, candidates should embrace Trump's legacy.

I know that Donald Trump is very popular among our voters who appreciate the successes he delivered for four years in a very hostile environment. They don't want Republicans who are running against that legacy, because they view that legacy as a great success, he said Thursday in Cambridge, Iowa.

Trump continues to move forward with his own events.

On Friday night, he campaigned in Las Vegas alongside Adam Laxalt, his pick for Nevada Senate. And on Saturday night, he planned a rally in Anchorage, Alaska, to campaign with Kelly Tshibaka, whom he has endorsed in her race against Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and others, including former Gov. Sarah Palin, now running for Congress.

Conant said it made sense for candidates to continue testing the waters for now.

A lot of potential candidates are realizing that 2024 may be their last best chance, regardless of what Trump does," he said.

There's a very vulnerable Democrat in the White House, Republicans seem likely to win, and if it's not Trump, they're basically sidelined for the next 10 years.

Still, Conant, who served as communications director to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential bid, noted the similarities.

It looks like it's increasingly clear there's going to be a lot of people running for president. And while I think there's an appetite for something different, the alternative to Trump needs to coalesce around one candidate, he said. "That never happened in 2016. And it might not happen in 2024.(AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Lahore [Pakistan], July 9 (ANI): Lahore High Court has granted bail to senior journalist Imran Riaz Khan in a case registered against him in Punjab's Chakwal city, local media reported.

The court adjourned the hearing on the plea for the expulsion of cases till July 19 and also directed Khan to appear before the magistrate on the next working day, ARY News reported.

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Imran Riaz assured the court and said, "I am also assuring the court that I will not deliver such statements again."

After listening to the arguments, the LHC approved Imran Riaz Khan's bail on personal surety bonds.

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Azhar Siddique Advocate said in a statement, "It is not a fight against the national institutions. After Attock, the matter of judicial magistrate has also ended. Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has given its statement that it was not going to register any case."

He detailed that the actual crime of the journalist was using the word 'imported government'.

The journalist was given 10 days to submit the reply, Siddique said adding that all cases will be clubbed in the coming days for hearings, according to ARY News.

Azhar Siddique said that the real face of the present government has been exposed before the nation.

Earlier, journalist Imran Riaz Khan has been handed to the Lahore's Crime Investigation agency in a case lodged against him at the civil lines police station.

An official said that the police handed over the journalist to the CIA Kotwali police for interrogation. He is likely to be presented before the duty magistrate on Saturday, Dawn reported.

The case was filed by a local resident of Lahore, Muhammad Asif, on charges of abetment of mutiny and criticism of state institutions.

On Tuesday night, journalist Imran Riaz Khan was heading towards Islamabad to acquire a pre-arrest bail from the High Court, when he was arrested by the Attock police, Dawn reported.

Later, in the wee hours of Thursday, the anchorperson was granted relief by the local court but was immediately arrested by a team of Chakwal police outside the courtroom.

Before shifting him to Lahore, a local court of Chakwal district had allowed his judicial remand.

In the latest First Information Report (FIR) against Khan, the complainant alleged that Imran Riaz accused the army of violating human rights and damaging the state by indulging in politics, according to Dawn.

Asif further said Khan had accused the army and said that they had put Pakistan's integrity at stake, adding that the journalist committed an offence by inciting officers and other personnel of the army.

The complainant mentioned that recently Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had been awarded army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa with the King Abdulaziz Medal for making "significant contributions to defence cooperation" between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Asif alleged in the FIR that the journalist also mocked the Saudi government's decision in his video. (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 Shailesh Yadav

Monte Carlo [Monaco], July 9 (ANI): As India and Monaco are having a discussion about the potential collaboration between the two countries, Frederic Genta, Monaco's Minister of Attractiveness and Digital Transition said that Monaco can be a great showroom for Indian technology.

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"We met with Indian Ambassador Jawed Ashraf and had a discussion about the potential collaboration between the two countries. I think Monaco can be a great showroom for Indian technology," he said in an exclusive interview with ANI.

"We are a very small and agile country. So companies that want to have a real experience in a real country to show their technology can come to Monaco at the same time."

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Speaking of the Indian ecosystem, Genta said that India has a lot of talent, a lot of imagination and creativity. He said Monaco investors need to know more about India and the talent there to get a better understanding of the ecosystem.

He said, "The job that India is doing is astonishing. It's an example for us that having such a big population the country has been able to scale at an incredible pace during Covid-19, which destroyed the world."

"They have the best engineers in the world. Great companies, leaders in the tech world, and even the CEO of Google and Microsoft are Indian. They speak English, they have great family businesses as well. I met many of them when I was a student at Harvard. It is a great opportunity to partner with a great country like India and we are proud to be able to work with the country with such great minds," he added.

Talking about the digital ecosystem of Monaco, Genta said that Monaco has been doing a lot of work on digital transformation. He said, "We were the first country in the world to launch 5G in all territories and have a sovereign cloud. We have a digital identity everywhere here. Monaco is moving fast with education and economy."

"Monaco has a great ecosystem for Indian companies to grow and test. For the investors in Monaco, I think it's a great opportunity to access a huge country like India and be able to contribute to the Indian ecosystem. So, it is two ways between us, investing in India, and Indian companies moving to Monaco to have a real showroom in the Principality (Monaco) for the digital products," he added.

Genta said that the Indian residents who moved to Monaco can be the bridge between the two countries. It can help to enhance the relationship between India and Monaco. He was optimistic that the recent discussion between India and Monaco will strengthen their diplomatic ties.

"We have to learn more about India. It is a huge country and Monaco is very small. We are less than a lakh of people. But we have many Indian nationals, who have moved here. Since they know the Indian ecosystem, they could be a bridge between the two countries. Our mutual ambassadors can help Indian companies to come and invest here. They can also make sure that we invest more in India and that we understand the Indian ecosystem better," he asserted. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Colombo [Sri Lanka], July 9 (ANI): Amid the ongoing protest outside Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapakse's residence, leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa demanded the resignation of the President and Prime Minister.

"No fake discussions. The President and the Prime Minister must resign immediately," Premadasa said in a statement.

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Sri Lanka's leader of opposition said that as the people are demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the current Prime Minister, the United People's Power has decided to not participate in the emergency Party Leaders meeting, called by Ranil Wickremesinghe.

He also said that Wickremesinghe is holding the office of Prime Minister illegally.

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"It should be noted that when the Rajapaksas who were hiding in the midst of the people's opposition were brought back to the political arena and secured, the one who betrayed the struggle is the current Prime Minister and he is also the defendant in this crisis," the statement reads.

"We are not going to engage in empty discussions like closing the stable after the horse has run away when the end of the anti-democratic government is now in sight," the statement added.

Premadasa said that the "fake" PM have called another roundtable and that also to ensure the safety of the Rajapaksa. "The entire government should resign from such unstable solutions," he added.

Sri Lanka's leader of opposition said that citizens don't want to discuss the future of the country with the government-led Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He further informed that he will contribute to building this country with all the parties, who came forward with the people's struggle.

Earlier, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe summoned an emergency Party Leaders meeting to discuss the situation and come to a swift resolution.

The Prime Minister is also requesting the Speaker to summon Parliament.

Lankan local publication Daily Mirror reported that several gunshots were heard being fired in the air and police unsuccessfully used tear gas to ward off protestors who surrounded the presidential residence. Two people have reportedly been injured.

Protestors have entered the President's House, tweeted the Daily Mirror.

Sri Lanka's police imposed a curfew in several police divisions in Western Province with effect from 9 pm local time Friday until further notice ahead of a planned protest today demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Strict action will be taken on those violating the curfew, the police said. The Sri Lankan publication said travelling through the areas where police curfew is in effect is completely prohibited and police had advised people to use other alternative routes.

The worsening economic situation in the country has led to increasing tensions and over the last few weeks there were reports of several confrontations between individuals and members of the police force and the armed forces at fuel stations where thousands of desperate members of the public have queued for hours and sometimes days. Police have used tear gas and water cannon at times in an unnecessary and disproportionate manner. On occasions, armed forces have also fired live ammunition.

Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since gaining independence in 1948, which comes on the heels of successive waves of COVID-19, threatening to undo years of development progress and severely undermining the country's ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The oil supply shortage has forced schools and government offices to close until further notice. Reduced domestic agricultural production, a lack of foreign exchange reserves, and local currency depreciation have fuelled the shortages. The economic crisis will push families into hunger and poverty - some for the first time - adding to the half a million people who the World Bank estimates have fallen below the poverty line because of the pandemic.

Some 6.26 million Sri Lankans, or three in 10 households, are unsure of where their next meal is coming from, according to the latest food insecurity assessment from the World Food Programme (WFP), released on Wednesday. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Riyadh [Saudi Arabia], July 9 (ANI/Xinhua): Saudi Arabia announced on Friday its health services were running at full capacity to ensure the health and safety of pilgrims during the ongoing Hajj season.

Health Minister Fahad bin Abdulrahman Al-Jalajel said pilgrims at Saudi Arabia's Mount Arafat, a hill about 20 kilometres southeast of Mecca that hosted an important ritual of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, were in good health condition.

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Health Ministry spokesperson Mohamed Al-Abdal said there were no outbreaks of contagious diseases or illnesses that could endanger public health among the pilgrims, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The number of pilgrims in this year's Hajj season reached nearly 900,000, including about 780,000 foreign pilgrims and 120,000 pilgrims from Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's General Authority for Statistics revealed on Friday.

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This year's Hajj began on Thursday and ends on July 12. It is the first to allow foreign pilgrims to perform Hajj after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

In 2021, the holy city of Mecca received around 60,000 pilgrims, while the number in 2019 was 2.5 million, according to the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah. (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)
Colombo, Jul 9 (PTI) Sri Lankan Police has lifted the curfew that was imposed in seven divisions in the country's Western Province, including in Colombo, ahead of planned anti-government protests on Saturday, after coming under sustained pressure from top lawyers' association, human rights groups and political parties.

The curfew was imposed in seven police divisions in the Western Province, which included Negombo, Kelaniya, Nugegoda, Mount Lavinia, Colombo North, Colombo South and Colombo Central with effect from 9 pm of Friday night until further notice, police said.

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"People living in the areas where police curfew had been enforced should strictly limit themselves to their houses and law would be enforced severely against those violating curfew," the Inspector General of Police (IGP) C. D. Wickramaratne announced on Friday.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka protested the police curfew, terming it illegal and a violation of fundamental rights.

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Such curfew is blatantly illegal and a violation of the fundamental rights of the people of our country who are protesting against President Gotabaya Rajapakse and his Government over its failure to protect their basic rights, it said.

The body cautioned that the curfew intended to stifle freedom of expression and dissent, which would gravely harm Sri Lanka's economy and its social, political and international standing.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka called the police curfew a gross violation of human rights.

The Human Rights Commission informs that the imposition of police curfew arbitrarily by the inspector general of police is illegal. It directs the IGP to recall this illegal order which is a gross violation of the fundamental rights of the people immediately, it said in a statement.

On Friday, police in Sri Lanka's commercial capital Colombo imposed a curfew after firing tear gas and water cannons on student protesters ahead of a weekend rally, as public outrage escalated over the island nation's worst economic crisis in seven decades.

The police curfew was imposed to quell the weekend protest rally march to Colombo from around the country is planned over the weekend by religious leaders, political parties, medical practitioners, teachers, civil rights activists, farmers, and fishermen on Saturday demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

They blame President Rajapaksa for the country's economic malaise, the worst since independence in 1948.

Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil in seven decades, crippled by an acute shortage of foreign exchange that has left it struggling to pay for essential imports of fuel, and other essentials.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung on Friday urged the country's military and police to allow peaceful protests.

Violence is not an answer... Chaos & force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankans need right now, she said in a tweet.

Political and economic instability could potentially derail Sri Lanka's much-awaited USD 3 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), warned analysts.

Last week, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe announced in Parliament that Sri Lanka would present a debt restructuring programme to the IMF by August to secure a bailout package, while underlining that negotiations with the global lender were more complex and difficult than in the past, because the country was bankrupt.

The country, with an acute foreign currency crisis that resulted in foreign debt default, had announced in April that it is suspending nearly USD 7 billion foreign debt repayment due for this year out of about USD 25 billion due through 2026.

Sri Lanka's total foreign debt stands at USD 51 billion.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Sudhakar Dalela, next Ambassador of India to the Royal Kingdom of Bhutan

New Delhi [India], July 9 (ANI): Sudhakar Dalela, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1993 batch has been appointed as the Ambassador of India to the Royal Kingdom of Bhutan, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Saturday.

Dalela is presently serving as the Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India in Washington.

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"Shri Sudhakar Dalela (IFS:1993), presently Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India, Washington, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Royal Kingdom of Bhutan," MEA said in a statement.

He is expected to take up the assignment shortly.

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Earlier, the position was held by Ruchira Kamboj, an IFS officer of the 1987 batch. She was appointed as the Ambassador of India to Bhutan in February 2019.

As per an official statement, "Ruchira Kamboj formally assumed charge of this position upon presentation of her credentials to His Majesty the Druk Gyalpo Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, King of Bhutan on 17 May 2019."

Sudhakar Dalela previously served as Minister (Political Affairs) at the Indian Embassy in Washington D.C, and most recently as India's Consul General in Chicago.

Ambassador Dalela has served in critical roles in New Delhi, including Director in the Prime Minister's Office, focusing on India's engagement with its South Asian neighbors, China, and countries in the Indo-Pacific region, Gulf, Middle East, Africa, and as Joint Secretary (North), overseeing India's relations with Bhutan and Nepal.

Acquiring a vast experience in the trade and economic policy, Dalela served twice at the Permanent Mission of India to the WTO, including as India's Deputy Permanent Representative.

With a bachelor's degree in Electronic Engineering, Dalela began his diplomatic career in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he also acquired proficiency in Hebrew. He has since served in Indian Missions in Brasilia, Chicago, Geneva, Dhaka, and Washington DC.

India and Bhutan share a unique and time-tested bilateral relationship, characterized by utmost trust, goodwill and mutual understanding. Compared to other bilateral ties in India's neighbourhood, the relationship with Bhutan is relatively trouble-free and cordial.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were formally established in 1968 with the appointment of a resident representative of India in the Bhutanese capital of Thimphu. The India House (Embassy of India in Bhutan) was inaugurated on May 14, 1968, and Resident Representatives were exchanged in 1971.

Ambassadorial level relations began with the upgrading of residents to embassies in 1978. The basis for bilateral relations between India and Bhutan is formed by the Indo-Bhutan Treaty of 1949, which provides for, among others, "perpetual peace and friendship, free trade and commerce and equal justice to each other's citizens."

This relationship becomes even more important because four Indian states, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim, and West Bengal - share a 699-kilometre-long boundary with Bhutan. India is important to Bhutan in multiple ways. It is Bhutan's largest trading partner - both as a source and a market for its goods.

As a landlocked country, most of Bhutan's third-country exports also transit through Indian ports. Similarly, Bhutan is also important to India. Bhutan was one of the first nations to recognize the independence of India in 1947.

India considers Nepal and Bhutan as important frontiers in its Himalayan foreign policy of mutual trust and cooperation.

The bilateral ties between the two countries have matured into comprehensive cooperation over the last few years, spanning a wide variety of issues, like hydro-power, information technology, intelligence sharing, disaster risk management, education and culture. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ottawa [Canada], July 9 (ANI): A huge network outage of Canadian telecom giant Rogers caused problems with mobile services and internet connectivity nationwide since Friday morning, local media reported.

The outage affected banking services, 911, passport offices and Canada's ArriveCAN app which is used for border control. Rogers confirmed that the outages are currently affecting its wirelines and wireless networks but the reason behind is still unknown.

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"We acknowledge the impact our outage is having on your life. We have every technical resource and partner fully deployed to solve the problem. As soon as we know the specific time the Networks will be fully operational, we will share that with you. Right now, we are focused on the solution," the telecom giant said in a statement published on Twitter.

"Some of our customers have raised the question of credits and of course we will be proactively crediting all customers and will share more information soon," the statement added.

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Bell, another telecom giant, said its network is operating properly, but Bell customers may be experiencing issues when trying to call or text Rogers subscribers.

Telus issued a similar statement, saying the network outage affecting Rogers customers is not impacting TELUS Internet, home phone or wireless infrastructure.

The country's telecom sector is dominated by the three large carriers: Rogers, Bell and Telus. Rogers is the largest wireless services provider, with about 11.3 million subscribers across the country, Xinhua news agency reported.

Experts said more competition should be introduced into this concentrated wireless services market, where the Big Three serve approximately 87 per cent of Canadian subscribers, the report added. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bhopal, July 9: A tribal woman who was set ablaze by a group of men over a land dispute, succumbed to her injuries in Hamidia hospital here, police said on Saturday.

She had received 80 per cent burn injuries.

Rampyari Bai, a resident of Dhaneria village under Guna district, was set on fire by a group of villagers for resisting encroachment on her land. Enraged over her constant resistance, the group of villagers allegedly set her afire at the village on July 2.

Medical superintendent of Hamidia hospital, Dr Ashish Gohiya confirmed that the woman passed away on Friday night. He said that the body has been handed over to her family for last rites. Madhya Pradesh: 8 Months On, Woman Held for Husbands Murder in Satna.

The woman belonged to the Saharia tribe, which has been classified as a particularly vulnerable tribal group.

As per her complaint lodged with the police, six bigha land that the accused were trying to encroach upon was reportedly allotted to Rampyari Bai's family under a chief minister's welfare scheme launched by the former Digvijaya Singh government.

Reports say that the local administration had also settled a dispute pertaining to the land in the family's favour in May this year. But still, the miscreants didn't budge from their stand and continued to make attempts to encroach upon their land.

The incident sparked a nationwide outrage and various agencies and people condemned the incident demanding arrest and stringent punishment to the culprits.

Police had arrested five persons, including two women, in connection with the incident. A video, purportedly shot by the accused, went viral on social media, in which the woman was seen crying in pain, with smoke all around her.

The person shooting the video was heard saying the woman had torched herself.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 09, 2022 01:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Mumbai, Jul 9: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday said it has decided to cancel the 10 per cent water cut imposed in the city, as the catchment areas have received enough rainfall and there was sufficient water stock in lakes.

The civic body has, however, appealed to citizens to use water cautiously till the time there is sufficient increase in the water stock. Mumbai Rain Forecast: IMD Predicts Heavy to Very Heavy Rainfall in the Financial Capital.

In view of the inadequate rainfall in the catchment areas of lakes supplying water to Mumbai, the BMC had imposed a 10 per cent water cut in the city from June 27.

As per a release issued by the civic body, a total of 14,47,363 MLD water stock is required in seven lakes that supply water to Mumbai. The stock had dipped by 9.10 per cent on June 27.

The lakes have 25.94 per cent, which is 3,75,415 MLD, water stock on Friday, the release stated.

Seven reservoirs Bhatsa, Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Tansa, Modak Sagar, Vihar and Tulsi supply 385 crore litres of water to the megapolis.
Colombo, July 9: As thousands of protesters stormed Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's residence in Colombo on Saturday demanding his government's resignation amid the ongoing economic crisis, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremmesinghe has summoned an emergency meeting with political party leaders to discuss the situation.

According to the Prime Minister's Office, the premier also has requested the Speaker to summon Parliament in an effort to find a solution to the crisis.

Meanwhile, 16 MPs of President Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party in a letter requested him to resign immediately and make way for a leader who could command the majority in Parliament to lead the country.

They stated that Rajapaksa should give an opportunity to a mature leader without corruption allegations to take over the country.

However, he has not announced anything and his whereabouts are not known.

Social media reports have indicated that a group in 20 VVIP vehicles were heading for the airport, while another group left in two ships belonging to to Sri Lanka Navy. Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: Protestors Take Over President Gotabaya Rajapaksas Office in Colombo (Watch Video).

However who left in them remains unclear.

Religious leaders have also urged the President and Prime Minister to resign immediately and allow the swift passage of power.

Lawyers have emphasized that President Rajapaksas himself has to decide what course of action he should take amidst the mounting public protests against him.

Representing the country's legal fraternity and sitting judges, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) said it calls upon the "President to consider whether he could continue to fulfil his obligations and the powers and duties as the President of Sri Lanka any longer".

They also urged the Prime Minster, Speaker, Cabinet and MPs to immediately ensure that political stability of the nation was secured forthwith and there should be no delay in ensuring such transition.

"We call upon the police and the armed forces to ensure that no further harm is caused to the people who are engaged in the protest," the BASL said.

The lawyers also urged public to protect public property, specially the President's House and Secretariat and also ensure that no ham is caused to any person.

Violent clashes broke out on Saturday as the protesters stormed the President's residence in Colombo, with police using tear gas shells to disperse the.

More than 40 protesters have been hospitalised, with three critically injured.

Anti-government protesters also surrounded another residence of the President in Kandy, as well as the ancestral house of former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in the southern city of Tangalle.

With the mounting crisis and tension in the country, schools which have been closed until July 18.

In the wake of the island nation's worst economic crisis since it gained independence in 1948, people have been protesting against President Rajapaksa and his government, asking him to step down.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa and several other family members who were in the cabinet and Parliament have already resigned.

With no fuel country's transportation have been stopped completely for two weeks and Indian ocean island is virtually under lockdown.

The island nation of 22 million people has witnessed its foreign exchange reserves shrink due to economic mismanagement and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a result it has struggled to pay for imports of essential goods, including fuel, food and medicine.

In May, it defaulted on its debts for the first time in its history after a 30-day grace period to come up with $78 million of unpaid debt interest payments expired.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 09, 2022 04:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
#NorthKorean leader #KimJongun held a large-scale group photo session with officials from the ruling party amid an ongoing #COVID19 outbreak in the country, state media reported. pic.twitter.com/LzW1i5FylU IANS (@ians_india) July 9, 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.)
Elon Musk terminated his billion-dollar deal with Twitter on Friday, prompting the social media company to threaten the Tesla mogul with legal action.

According to DW, Musk terminated his $44 billion bid with Twitter through a letter addressed to the company's board.

In the letter, Elon Musk accused Twitter of lying about the number of bots and spam accounts on the social media platform, according to CBS News.

"This information is fundamental to Twitter's business and financial performance and is necessary to consummate," Musk's letter said.

The letter claimed that the advisors of the Tesla mogul analyzed the number of bots on the platform, and they found a number "wildly higher than 5%". Twitter has previously claimed that fewer than 5% of its users are spam or fake accounts.

Musk's buyout also claimed that Twitter failed to provide Musk with the materials he asked for, including the company's methodology for calculating its user numbers and backup materials detailing its financial valuation.

"Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk's requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified," the letter further noted.

Musk's letter also specified that Twitter sometimes claims they complied with what the Tesla CEO has asked, but they gave out "incomplete or unusable information."

The letter underscored that the SpaceX founder notified Twitter about their lapses on June 6, and the time for the company to hand over the information has expired.

READ NEXT: Elon Musk Raises Alarm on Potential Threat of Social Media: 'Is TikTok Destroying Civilization?'

Twitter to Sue Elon Musk to Continue With the Billion-Dollar Deal

Twitter will resort to legal actions if Musk does not push through with his deal with the social media company.

On Friday, Twitter chairman Brett Taylor said they are "committed" to continuing their transaction with Elon Musk.

The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.  Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022

"[Twitter] plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery," Taylor pointed out. One Twitter shareholder also expressed what he thought about Elon Musk's move regarding the deal.

As a shareholder, I am hoping that @elonmusk just pays a hefty penalty to get out of the deal. As someone who uses @twitter, I don't want him owning the company.  Richard Signorelli (@richsignorelli) July 8, 2022

"As a shareholder, I am hoping that @elonmusk just pays a hefty penalty to get out of the deal," Richard Signorelli said, adding that he does not want Elon Musk to own the social media company.

Musk will have to pay a $1 billion termination fee if the deal falls out.

Elon Musk Buys Twitter

In April, Elon Musk bought Twitter after the social media company accepted an offer from the Tesla CEO.

Musk previously said in a statement that he wanted to make the social media platform "better" by enhancing the product with new features and making the algorithms of Twitter an open-source to increase trust.

The said deal between Twitter and Elon Musk had a cash deal worth $54.20 per share, which is valued at around $44 billion.

However, DW claimed that Musk has wavered between doubling down his interest in buying the company and threatening to walk away from the deal.

READ NEXT: Joe Biden Approves to Continue Donald Trump-Era Border Wall Project in California and Close Friendship Park

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WATCH: Elon Musk Terminates Deal for Twitter - From Bloomberg Technology
The assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in 2021 rocked the foundations of the entire country. The main suspect in the assassination is businessman Rodolphe Jaar, who faces trial in a federal court in Miami, Florida, and has pleaded "not guilty."

The United States currently has the alleged assassin in its custody and has charged him with conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States. Jaar has also been charged with providing material support resulting in death. He is currently facing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if found guilty.

Jaar Pleaded Not Guilty but Previously Confessed to His Crimes

Rodolphe Jaar, 49, is a dual Haitian-Chilean citizen. He is one of the main suspects in the assassination of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise. While he pleaded not guilty to the crimes he is accused of, TeleSur reported that he had already confessed to U.S. authorities about his participation in the plot.

Jaar reportedly told U.S. authorities that the initial plan was to arrest the Haitian president, but they later changed it to the assassination. They also initially planned to arrest the president at the airport and then take him away by plane. However, the plan never materialized.

He also confessed to supplying arms and ammunition to the Colombian soldiers and Haitian policemen who killed the Haitian president. However, he changed his tune in January, as he pleaded his 5th amendment rights during a preliminary hearing before Judge Lauren Fleischer Louis.

READ NEXT: Mexico Investigates Ex-President Enrique Pena Nieto for Receiving Millions in Illegal Funds; AMLO Reacts

Jaar Planned Assassination With Haitians and Former Colombian Soldiers

The Washington Post reported that Jaar's trial did not last five minutes. Judge Chris M. McAliley accepted his plea, as well as his request for a jury trial. Jaar also did not speak, but his attorney asked the government to present all the evidence that it has against his client.

Jaar is one of the three defendants being held in the United States for the case. The other two are former Haitian Senator John Joel Joseph and former Colombian soldier Mario Palacios. Meanwhile, the government of Haiti has detained more than 40 people over their alleged involvement in the assassination. This includes 18 former Colombian soldiers, according to the Associated Press.

TeleSur also reported that the U.S. judicial body estimates that about 20 Colombian nationals, as well as several Haitian-Americans, are involved in the kidnapping-turned plot.

The plea came a year after the assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moise on July 7, 2021. A team of Haitian policemen and former Colombian soldiers stormed the Haiti presidential palace and assassinated Moise.

Rodolphe Jaar, who previously worked for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as an informant, is currently being held inside a federal prison in South Florida. He was initially detained in the Dominican Republic, but U.S. authorities stated that he voluntarily agreed to be transferred to Miami and face his charges.

READ NEXT: Nicaragua Police Have Taken Over 5 Opposition-Held Towns Ahead of Elections

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WATCH: One Year Later: Haitian President Jovenel Moise Assassination - LiveNOW from FOX
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has slammed Texas Governor Greg Abbott for authorizing the arrest and transport of migrants to ports of entry on the border with Mexico.

Lopez Obrador said he would urge voters of Mexican origin in the U.S. not to vote for "anti-immigrant" candidates, according to Reuters.

The Mexican president described the migrant policy as "immoral" and intended to attract support ahead of the Texas November election. The Republican governor is running for re-election in the state.

Lopez Obrador told reporters at a regular morning news conference that if there is a candidate from a party that mistreats migrants and Mexicans, they are going to ask their countrymen not to vote for that candidate or party.

On Thursday, Abbott said he had authorized state officials and National Guardsmen to "apprehend" migrants and bring them to ports of entry on the border with Mexico.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has yet to comment on Abbott's statement.

Meanwhile, the U.S. National Guard referred questions to the Texas National Guard, which also has not issued a statement.

READ NEXT: Summit of Americas Opens Without Leaders of Mexico, Cuba, Among Others

Migrant Policy of Texas Governor Greg Abbott

Greg Abbott has cleared state authorities to return migrants they arrested to the border, which could lead to a possible clash with the federal government over the authority to enforce immigration law.

The Texas governor signed a directive that gives the Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety the authority to apprehend migrants who enter the U.S. unlawfully or "commit other violations of federal law."

CBS News reported that it also empowered state officials to return the migrants to ports of entry, which CBP, a federal agency, administers.

Abbott argued that the federal government has "abandoned" a provision in the Constitution tasking it with protecting states from an "invasion" after citing concerns about the Biden administration's handling of the record levels of migrant arrivals along the southern border over the past year.

His proclamation also cited state laws related to disaster responses and the power to task the military with law enforcement.

In a statement to CBS News, White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan criticized the other operations Greg Abbott has launched along the U.S.-Mexico border over the past year.

Hasan noted that the Texas governor's record on immigration does not give them confidence in what "he has cooked up now."

Texas Migrants Policy

Aaron Reichlin-Melnik, policy director for the American Immigration Council, said in a Texas Tribune report that Abbott is inviting a lawsuit from the Biden administration just as the Arizona legislature did over a decades ago.

He added that the order could also expose troopers and National Guard service members to a lawsuit from migrants.

Reichlin-Melnik noted that state authorities could only enforce immigration law if they had been allowed by the federal government.

As recently as April, he said Abbott had shown concern that issuing an "invasion" declaration could expose state authorities to federal prosecution.

The Republican governor's order does not explicitly declare an "invasion." However, it refers to the part of the U.S. Constitution its proponents have cited.

A group of leaders in South Texas has called on Greg Abbott to declare an "invasion" and start putting state resources toward expelling migrants.

Immigration rights groups have reportedly condemned migrants being referred to as an "invasion." They noted that the rhetoric is dangerous to Latino communities and was cited by the El Paso shooter who killed 23 people in 2019.

READ MORE: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Tried to Blackmail Joe Biden, U.S. Senator Says

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WATCH: Gobernador De Texas Se Extralimito Con Orden De Devolver a Migrantes Ilegales, Acusa Lopez Obrador - From Excelsior TV
Colombia-born Nancy Gonzalez is one of the top handbag designers in the world. However, the celebrity fashion designer was recently arrested in her hometown of Cali, Colombia.

She is also facing extradition to the United States on smuggling charges. According to ABC Australia, the "handbag designer to the stars" is facing charges in the U.S. Southern District of Florida.

She could face up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine for her crocodile skin smuggling operations.

Colombia-Born Nancy Gonzalez Paid Passengers to the United States to Smuggle Crocodile Skin

The sale of crocodile skin is not illegal. However, it does require a certificate that is hard and expensive to obtain, according to ABC News.

Investigators from both the United States and Colombia have worked together to investigate Nancy Gonzalez's operations.

They reported that she smuggled hundreds of handbags between the two countries by paying passengers heading to the U.S. to carry her products. They were instructed to say that these were gifts to relatives if customs agents ever asked them.

Authorities from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claimed that as many as 12 people carried four handbags each. They would board a single flight to the U.S. with round-trip tickets that Gonzalez paid for herself.

According to Asuntos Legales, a Colombian legal news website, Gonzalez was arrested along with two others in her hometown of Cali. If she is extradited to the U.S., this will mark the first time that somebody has been extradited to the U.S. from Latin America regarding the leather industry.

Nancy Gonzalez and her associates used the skins of animals, such as snakes, crocodiles, and caiman, for various products, including bags, belts, and wallets.

The probe into Gonzalez's activities in the trade of animal leather is still ongoing.

READ NEXT: Mexican Navy Helping Protect Endangered Vaquita Marina Porpoises

Who is Nancy Gonzalez of Colombia?

A Nancy Gonzalez crocodile leather handbag is quite expensive and sought after by celebrities, influencers, and the rich and famous. The Associated Press reported that these bags sell for around $10,000 in designer stores in Europe and the U.S.

Gonzalez started in the fashion industry by making belts. She later transitioned to handbags in the late 1990s after a trip to New York. She was encouraged by a designer store executive to build up a collection, which would soon make the Colombian fashion designer world-famous.

Her bags were used by characters in the hit HBO show "Sex and the City," which sped up the Colombian's fame in the fashion industry.

Gonzalez has received a long list of celebrity clients, including Salma Hayek, Britney Spears, and Victoria Beckham. However, it is still unknown whether the bags her celebrity clients bought were illegally smuggled to the U.S. or not.

Nancy Gonzalez rose high in the fashion industry, as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York even held an exhibition of her work in 2008.

READ MORE: Mexico: Police Save Big Cats, Others From Animal Rescue After Reports of Mistreatment

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WATCH: Nancy Gonzalez Store Opening in Hong Kong - From Tatler Hong Kong
WWE's former chief executive Vince McMahon reportedly paid at least $12 million to four women to hide allegations of sexual misconduct.

According to a Wall Street Journal report published Friday, McMahon agreed to the multimillion-dollar payout to cover up allegations of "sexual misconduct and infidelity" over the past 16 years.

Sources familiar with the agreements told the outlet that McMahon allegedly made the payments to the four women, who were formerly affiliated with the WWE, People reported.

A former WWE wrestler, which was not named, claimed that Mcmahon forced her to give him oral sex, and he did not renew her contract in 2005 after she refused the other sexual encounters. The WSJ report said the wrestler and her attorney negotiated a $7.5 million payment for her silence in 2018.

In 2006, the WWE executive allegedly made another payment of $1 million to a former WWE manager who claimed to have a sexual relationship with him.

A WWE contractor claimed that McMahon paid her almost $1 million in 2008 after he sent her unsolicited nude photographs and allegedly sexually harassed her while on the job.

READ NEXT: Elon Musk Twitter Deal No More? Tesla CEO Backs Out of $44 Billion Buyout

Former WWE Executive Vince McMahon Faces Sexual Misconduct Allegations

These allegations came three weeks after Vince McMahon voluntarily stepped down from his position as WWE's chairman and CEO.

Vince McMahon stepped down from his post as the WWE chief last month in light of the allegations about him hush paying an employee to cover up for an affair. He reportedly paid the female employee $3 million to hide their affair. The settlement reportedly took place in January.

The woman was hired as a paralegal in 2019, with an initial salary of $100,000. It reportedly increased to $200,000 when McMahon started to have a sexual relationship with her. The WWE is now investigating the allegations of misconduct.

Vince McMahon Documentary Canceled by Netflix?

Netflix previously announced that a documentary about Vince McMahon is in the works. However, the Comic Book reported that the streaming behemoth pulled out the WWE's former CEO documentary.

According to a Fightful report, McMahon's documentary has been pulled and removed from the programming spreadsheet of Netflix.

The report noted that a source at Netflix confirmed that it was no longer on the spreadsheet, while another source said, "that s***'s out of here."

Netflix has yet to confirm that McMahon's documentary has been canceled. But if it's true, it would be another blow to the WWE executive amid his sexual misconduct allegations.

McMahon earlier said that he would cooperate with the investigation conducted by the "Special Committee," and he will accept the findings and outcome of the probe, "whatever they are."

Meanwhile, the WWE said Vince McMahon would retain his role and responsibilities related to "creative content" even though he had already stepped down from his post as WWE chief executive.

READ MORE: Joe Biden Approves to Continue Donald Trump-Era Border Wall Project in California and Close Friendship Park

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WATCH: Vince McMahon Allegations Tarnish His WWE Legacy - From TYT Sports
A federal court in North Dakota has issued a multibillion-dollar judgment against the notorious Juarez Cartel of Mexico for the gruesome killings of nine U.S. citizens in 2019.

According to the Bismarck Tribune, U.S. Magistrate Judge Clare Hochhalter sided with the victims' families, who sued the Juarez Cartel.

The families accused the Mexican drug cartel of ambushing three SUVs along a dirt road in Bavispe town in Mexico's Sonora state on November 6, 2019, which resulted in the deaths of their loved ones.

According to court documents, a hundred cartel gunmen split into two groups and fired into the three vehicles from a distance.

Reports said the gunmen fired hundreds of rounds and set the vehicles on fire. Court documents said this was "a signature move" of the Juarez Cartel.

The victims were Maria Rhonita LeBaron and four of her children, which include 8-month-old twins; Dawna Langford and her two children, ages 11 and 2, and Christina Langford.

Mexico's Juarez Cartel Ordered to Pay $4.6 Billion to Bereaved Families

The Washington Post reported that the judge awarded the families more than $1.5 billion. However, because the United States labels the Juarez Cartel as a known drug trafficker, the award is automatically tripled under the Federal Anti-Terrorism Act, making the total amount $4.6 billion.

The victims' families, who lived in North Dakota at the time of the killings, filed civil lawsuits against the cartel in 2020 and later consolidated it into one suit.

The victims were all members of an offshoot Mormon community and were in a three-vehicle caravan at the time of the ambush.

The victims' families have accused the Juarez Cartel of carrying out the attack as retribution for public criticism and protests against the drug cartel.

However, court documents stated that the end goal of the cartel for doing this brutal act was to take back territory from a rival Mexican drug cartel.

READ NEXT: El Chapo Case: US Officials Sued by Sinaloa Cartel Boss Ask to Dismiss 'Mistreatment' Lawsuit for 2nd Time

Survivors in Ambush in Mexico Detail Violence by the Juarez Cartel

The judge heard testimonies from the survivors of the attack, as well as several experts, during the weeklong trial which took place last February.

Borderland Beat reported that one expert who testified said some of the victims actually survived the initial hail of gunfire and were still conscious. However, Dr. Sebastian Schubl, director of medical operations at the University of California-Irvine Health Administration, noted that what truly killed them was when the vehicles were set on fire.

Schubl, who testified as one of the experts, said that in addition to being shot, LeBaron also had the terror of being helpless in seeing her children shot and then die in a horrible way when the fire started.

Court documents also revealed that the children saw some of their siblings die from gunshot wounds. After the Juarez Cartel members left, some of the survivors managed to walk in near-freezing temperatures to find help.

After the attack, several family members of the victims flew to Mexico and found their loved ones already deceased.

According to The Bismarck Tribune, the Juarez cartel did not respond to a published summons or send any representative during the trial in March. The trial was reportedly held to establish wrongful death and pain-and-suffering damages for the victims and their families.

READ MORE: Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Mayo's Son, 'Mayito Gordo,' Gets 9 Years in Prison but Could Be Released Next Year

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WATCH: 9 Members of Mormon Family Killed in Mexico - From ABC News
Joe Biden signed an executive order at the White House on July 8, 2022, aimed at defending the reproductive rights of American women. SAMUEL CORUM / AFP

A 10-year-old girl lives in Ohio, a state where no abortions beyond six weeks are allowed. That's according to the law, which went into effect immediately after the US Supreme Court decision on June 24, taking away a woman's constitutional right to abortion. This 10-year-old girl was raped. She became pregnant. By a few days, she exceeded the authorized time limit. So she had to be driven to Indiana to have the abortion. "I can't think of anything as much more extreme," Joe Biden said on Friday, July 8, as he signed a symbolic presidential executive order aimed at defending reproductive rights.

Aware of the frustration and anger in the Democratic ranks, the US president insisted on using this landmark example to embrace those sentiments rather than being a secondary target. "We cannot allow an out-of-control Supreme Court, working in conjunction with the extremist elements of the Republican Party, to take away freedoms and our personal autonomy," he said. "The choice we face as a nation is between the mainstream and the extreme, between moving forward and moving backward."

But his speech did not relieve the discomfort. The White House seemed dismayed by the Supreme Court's decision, even though a draft of the decision had been leaked two months earlier, leaving little doubt about the direction it would take. Since then, the administration has been content with a show of indignation, due to the clear political limitations of the Senate. Without a supermajority (60 votes out of 100), it is impossible to write abortion rights into law. And in order to lift the requirement to muster a supermajority, all 50 Senate Democrats would have to agree; two are missing.

Read more Subscribers only In the United States, abortion is no longer a federal right

Fierce legal battle

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The administration also rejected the suggestion of declaring a public health emergency, which some reproductive rights organizations had called for. The argument was that such a declaration would not provide decisive powers or resources. Similarly, the White House did not pursue the option of organizing abortion care on federal property  such as military bases  located in the most repressive states. This would have had very complex ramifications in terms of criminal liability for the participants.

Therefore, "the fastest route available," according to President Biden, is a vast mobilization during the mid-term elections in November. "Its my hope and strong belief that women will, in fact, turn out in record numbers to reclaim the rights that have taken from them by the Court," he said, stressing the absolute urgency in the face of the reactionary wave in Republican states. A fierce legal battle is underway across the country to challenge the implementation of trigger laws, ready-made legislation that was only waiting for the Supreme Court's decision to go into effect.

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Donning a slim-fitting, "Italian style," royal blue suit in Europe at the end of June, Joe Biden displayed a confident, though somewhat frail appearance of a man sure of his leadership. He naturally played the role of pater familias of the Western camp meeting in the Bavarian Alps, then in Madrid for a G7 meeting, followed by a NATO summit. He guaranteed the unity and determination of the family in the face of Vladimir Putin's dirty war in Ukraine. But no sooner had he returned home to Washington that he received yet another blow from the Supreme Court and changed into his domestic costume  that of a loser.

Read more Subscribers only Abortion: Democrats pressure Joe Biden to act after Supreme Court decision

Mr. Biden is calm and efficient on the international scene, leading a transatlantic coalition invigorated by Russian warmongering; but Mr. Biden at home is unable to halt the rise of a Christian ultra-right with strong theocratic tendencies. The Democratic president is paddling along in the midst of a turbulent domestic situation, just a few weeks from mid-term legislative elections that promise to be rather difficult for his party. A sadly ominous poll shows that 71 % of Americans do not want him to run for re-election in November 2024  61 %, admittedly, reject the possible candidacy of Republican Donald Trump.

A 'Marshall Plan' for Ukraine

The issue at hand, which is not new, is that of the inside-outside dialectic: What is the impact of Biden's domestic weakness on his foreign policy? The timing is important. The president must maintain the support of Congress as the war in Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, enters a second phase and will weigh, coming winter, on the daily lives of Americans: soaring prices for fuel and daily necessities.

Addressing the summit of the seven oldest developed economies in opulent Bavaria, Biden spoke little but firmly. Russian aggression in Ukraine must be contained, even if it takes time. On the lines of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the G7 committed to a "Marshall Plan" to rebuild Ukraine once peace is restored  a concern for several generations (Kyiv is talking about a sum of 750 billion dollars!).

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Read more Subscribers only 'Four months after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, the point of no return has been reached between NATO and Russia'

Two days later, in Madrid, the 28 member states of the Atlantic Alliance rediscovered their ambition: to block Russian revanchism. They welcomed two new members, Finland and Sweden. Both former "neutrals" converted to NATO, such is the fear Putin instills across the shores of the Baltic with his barbaric brutality. The allies acknowledged the military return of the United States to Europe: 120,000 troops today, compared to less than 30,000 only recently. They announced the reinforcement of their military facilites in Poland, in the Baltic States, in Spain and in Italy. They denounced the bias of Xi Jinping's China in favor of Putin's war.

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Will Europe manage to redefine its place in the world geopolitical order? With Russia's invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions with China, circumstances oblige it to do so, but hesitations are emerging. Let's say it from the outset: We must maintain the link with the United States, but on the condition that we gain autonomy and get away from the egoism and arrogance that too often characterize the Atlantic and Western discourse toward the rest of the world. Europe has never been so rich. It has more than ever the means and the historical duty to promote another model of development and wealth sharing, more democratic, more egalitarian and more sustainable. Otherwise, the new Western alliance will not convince anyone in its self-proclaimed crusade against autocracies and the reign of evil.

With the US, Europe does indeed share a comparable experience of parliamentary democracy, electoral pluralism and a certain form of rule of law, which is no small feat. This may justify remaining in NATO, insofar as the alliance helps to defend this model. In this case, electoral pluralism is much more firmly established in Ukraine than in Russia, and it is unacceptable to let a more powerful country invade its neighbor and destroy its State without reacting.

Discussion of borders should not be excluded a priori, but it should be done within the framework of the rule of law and on the basis of the dual principle of self-determination and the equitable and balanced development of the regions concerned (which may exclude the secession of the richest; this is not the case here). If NATO members stand for clear principles, then military support for the Ukrainians against invasion and destruction is justified, even more than at present.

More on this topic Subscribers only Thomas Piketty: 'Moving away from three-tier democracy'

Archaic institutions

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It is also essential to explicitly recognize the limits of the Western democratic model and to work to overcome them. For example, it is necessary to fight for international justice that can charge the Russian military and their leaders for war crimes, provided that it is constantly reminded that the same rules should also apply to all countries, including of course the US military and its actions in Iraq and elsewhere. The principles of democracy and the rule of law must prevail everywhere and all the time.

Another example: The US Supreme Court held for nearly two centuries that slavery and then racial discrimination were perfectly legal and constitutional. In its recent string of reactionary decisions, it also just ruled that going out into the streets armed is legal and constitutional. We must denounce the archaic institutions that abound in the US and Europe and stop presenting ourselves to the world as a perfect and final version of the democratic model. For example, the ownership on both sides of the Atlantic of almost all the media by a few billionaires can hardly be considered the highest form of press freedom.

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InvestigationA vast sweep operation carried out in five European countries has shaken one of the most important smugglers networks across the English Channel. We take a look back at the investigation that led to the identification of a logistical base in Germany.

Along the Dunkirk coastline, endless dunes, undulating and crumbling over hundreds of hectares, sometimes allow a glimpse of the great North Sea beaches. It is in this sandy and wooded are that men, women and children have been hiding at night, waiting for a boat to England. When the signal is given, they leap out and rush to a dinghy, brought there by those working for the traffickers. Then, 30, 40 or sometimes 50 of them set off toward the United Kingdom, with determination, but no guarantee of success.

Left: On the beach of La Panne (Belgium) where a small boat ran aground on May 19, 2021. (Photo taken on June 23, 2022.) Right: A forgotten jacket on Dewulf Dune, a place where refugees hide to wait for a sea departure, in the town of Leffrinckoucke (North), on June 23, 2022. AIMEE THIRION POUR  LE MONDE 

During the day, it is not uncommon for walkers to come across the remains of a wood fire or a forgotten coat. At night, it is now normal to see the torch beams of police officers on patrol or to imagine the overflight of drones and surveillance planes, a wealth of resources to deal with the explosion of a phenomenon. Crossing the Channel in small boats is now the main route to England for migrants from Iran, Iraq, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan, Vietnam and, increasingly, Albania. The business has become industrialized, whetting the appetite of the smugglers, most of whom are of Iraqi/Kurdish origin.

According to British authorities, more than 28,500 people arrived in the country in small boats in 2021, up from fewer than 300 in 2018. This year, there have been nearly 15,000 crossings or attempted crossings. The toll is tragic but thought to be reserved for the shores of southern Europe. At least 50 people have drowned since 2018.

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So on Wednesday, July 6, France, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands announced with great fanfare that they had carried out "the largest international operation against small boat smugglers." The day before and the day of the operation, in a vast sweep coordinated by Europol and Eurojust, 39 people were arrested  including the presumed head of the network in England, a 26-year-old Iranian Kurd. Further, 50 searches were carried out, with more than 1,200 life jackets, nearly 135 boats and 50 engines seized.

It was a case involving "sprawling logistics" and "international ramifications." At the press conference held in The Hague (Netherlands) on July 6 at the Eurojust headquarters, the representatives of the five States did not fail to emphasize the importance of their catch. "This network represents between 40% and 50% of the total traffic," General Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, Europol's deputy executive director, told Le Monde. This is one of the singularities of the case: 18 people have been arrested in Germany on the basis of European arrest warrants. All of them are subject to extradition requests to Belgium and, for two of them, to France as well. Among these people are three so-called "high-value" targets  Iraqi-Kurds, arrested in the region of Osnabruck, in Lower Saxony. According to our information, they are Bebak A., Reband O. and Rostam M..

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The contest to succeed Boris Johnson as UK prime minister is likely to become a battle over hand-outs for households, with limited interest in fiscal restraint.

Tax cuts and aid for families struggling with a surge in the cost of living are already at the heart of the political debate, and pressures for largess from the Treasury will only increase during the next few weeks.

By September, when the ruling Conservative Party aims to install a new leader, the government is likely to face strike threats from public sector workers demanding higher pay.

Increases in energy bills and rail fares will have been announced, and the Bank of England is widely expected to have raised interest rates by as much a half percentage point to grapple with rocketing inflation, which is at a 40-year high.

The immediate challenges are rising inflation and the economic slowdown," said Gerard Lyons, chief economic strategist at Netwealth and a former adviser to Johnson. That requires a tighter monetary policy and a looser fiscal policy."

Candidates for the top job include Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, former Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace. Each are likely to appeal to grass-roots Conservative members with a combination of tax cuts and spending increases.

Theyll also want to maintain manifesto commitments left over from the 2019 election to level up" less prosperous areas of the country outside London that helped deliver a landslide for Johnson.

All that means, more than a decade after the Conservatives came to power with promises to rein in government borrowing, talk of austerity is unlikely to form a major part of any candidates pitch.

If we didnt have this interim situation, the argument would be tax cuts on fuel and energy, a suspension of the corporation tax increase next year and help for households through an income tax cut," Lyons said.

The political instinct to splash out Treasury cash contrasts with the central banks aim to tighten monetary policy in order to get a grip on inflation. Investors expect the BOE to raise rates rapidly, delivering more half-point increases by the end of the year in addition to the one in August.

Both business leaders and the Treasurys Office for Budget Responsibility have warned Conservatives against a big splurge. The OBR said this week the budget is on an unsustainable" path, requiring tax increases and spending cuts for years.

Johnsons legacy may well be a state that spends and taxes much more than Tory traditions would suggest. Candidates are already falling over themselves to commit to lowering the UKs tax burden, which ex-Chancellor Rishi Sunak increased to the highest level since the 1940s.

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Tom Tugendhat, who is gathering support among MPs, wrote in The Daily Telegraph on Friday that taxes are too high." He said he would reverse the recent increase in payroll taxes and cut fuel duty under plans to create a low-tax, high-growth economy."

Nadhim Zahawi, the new chancellor who is a potential candidate, has said nothing is off the table - I will look at every which way we can support hardworking families."

He has signaled he would scrap next years increase in corporation tax from 19% to 25% to ease the cost of doing business in an attempt to spur lackluster economic growth, and increase the temporary 5p cut in fuel duty.

Other front-runners including Truss have made it clear in the past they favor tax cuts. Even Sunak has tried to position himself as a tax-cutting Tory, although his record in office may prove a serious handicap.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit opportunities minister, on Thursday said Sunak was not a successful chancellor -- he was a high tax chancellor."

Another option under consideration is a temporary reduction in sales tax on the grounds that it would both reduce costs for households and mechanically lower inflation. Before Johnson resigned, his office was looking at the proposal.

Much of the calculation will revolve around trying to select a candidate that appeals to a wide cross-selection of the electorate; including former red wall seats, as well as the South of England and the larger cities," said Saltmarsh Economics David Owen.

As far as the likely policy mix is concerned, this all tilts the argument further in favor of a looser fiscal stance, and higher rates."

Easier fiscal policy will come on top of support ladled out during the coronavirus pandemic that lifted public debt to a peacetime record. Sunak has already provided 37 billion of support for households this year, including a 15 billion package in late May only partly offset by a windfall tax on energy producers.

However, the weeks over which the leadership contest will run are likely to be peppered by calls for further giveaways. Public sector workers are clamoring for a pay settlement that was due in April, threatening a summer of strikes if no deal is reached. The governments guidance for 3% rises will not come close.

Nurses are asking pay rises of 5% above inflation. Teachers are not satisfied with offers of 9% for new starters and 5% for existing staff. Barristers have rejected a 15% pay settlement. Like rail workers, they have already been on strike and are threatening more action.

Although Johnson said his caretaker government would not make any big fiscal decisions, new commitments may be unavoidable. A 40% increase in energy bills and a potential double digit increase in rail fares will be unveiled in August, alongside a Bank of England interest rate hike.

Candidates will inevitably have to address the issues, according to Benjamin Nabarro, an economist at Citigroup. The backdrop, he said, suggests a contest dominated by the cost of living."

Lyons said, There has to be a sea change in UK economic thinking where Treasury orthodoxy -- that the UK is a structurally low growth economy -- is put back in its box. Fiscal conservatism and a growth agenda are not either/or. If you get growth up, you bring debt to GDP down."

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Prominent Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof, winner of the 2020 Berlin Golden Bear for There Is No Evil, and fellow filmmaker Mostafa Al-Ahmad have been arrested in Iran for posting a statement on social media in the wake of a violent government crackdown.

Rasoulofs producers Saturday also provided an update Saturday, saying that Rasoulof is being held in solitary confinement and also being interrogated in Tehrans Evin Prison where Irans political prisoners are customarily held.

Mr. Mohammad Rasoulof was arrested under the pretext of a one-year prison sentence issued for the movie, The Man of Integrity. The verdict was issued by the Revolutionary Court, the statement said, adding that there are two other open cases currently pending against Rasoulof.

In one case, he is being accused for making the documentary film, Intentional Crime, in which he investigates the intentional death of Iranian poet and writer, Baktash Abtin, the producers stated. The other accusation is for releasing a statement that has gone viral on social media known as #lay_down_your_weapon, they also noted.

Irans state news agency IRNA on Friday reported that the two directors have been detained for posting an appeal urging Iranian security forces to stop using weapons using the hashtag #put_your_gun_down following protests in May in the southwestern city of Abadan where there were clashes with police. The uproar was prompted by a building collapse that resulted in 41 people being killed.

The appeal against police violence for which Rasoulov and Al-Ahmad have been arrested was signed by at least 70 other members of Irans film community, according to the Associated Press.

Rasoulovs Iranian producers Kaveh Farnam and Farzad Pak, issued an initial statement on Friday demanding their release.

On Friday, July 8th, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, respected and dedicated Iranian filmmakers, were arrested in their residences in a coordinated and brutal attack under false pretenses and transferred to an unknown location, the statement said.

As we continue to strongly condemn the authorities for their disregard for basic human rights and civil liberties and the persistent repression and pressure inflicted on committed and independent Iranian filmmakers, we demand the immediate and unconditional release of our colleagues. We ask for support from artists and cinematographers all over the world for the release of imprisoned artists, it went on to add.

There is currently no information about the charges brought against Mostafa Al-Ahmad, the other Iranian director who was also arrested yesterday, or the conditions in which he is being held.

News of the Iranian filmmakers arrests is also rapidly reverberating in the international film community.

We are deeply concerned about the arrest of Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, said Berlin Film Festival co-directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian in a statement on Saturday.

Its shocking that artists are taken into custody because of their peaceful endeavors against violence, they underlined.

The arrest of Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al Ahmad is just another example of how the corrupt nation and municipal authorities twist what is a simple act of protest into an endangerment of public order charge, noted in another statement European Film Academy Chairman Mike Downey who is also co-founder of the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR).

The open letter which they signed calling on the security forces to lay down their arms in the face of outrage over the corruption, theft, inefficiency and repression surrounding the Abadan collapse, is an honest statement, which demands an honest answer. Instead, the only response of the government is repression and arrests. We urge the Iranian authorities to release these two artists without delay, he added.

Rasoulov is among Irans most prominent directors even though none of his films have screened in Iran where they are banned. In 2011, the year he won two prizes at Cannes with his censorship-themed Goodbye, he was sentenced with fellow director Jafar Panahi to six years in prison and a 20-year ban on filmmaking for alleged anti-regime propaganda. His sentence was later suspended and he was released on bail. In 2017 Iranian authorities confiscated Rasoulofs passport upon his return from the Telluride Film Festival where his A Man of Integrity, about corruption and injustice in Iran, had screened.

He was not allowed by Iranian authorities to attend Berlin in 2020. The directors daughter, Baran Rasoulof, who stars in There Is No Evil  which consists of four connected episodes centered on the death penalty and repression of personal freedom in Iran  accepted the fests top prize on her fathers behalf.

There is a conservative backlash [in Iran], and its impact on cinema is very obvious, he told Variety in an interview from Iran during the fest.

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Veteran guitarist Carlos Santana, who passed out onstage during a concert in Michigan earlier this week and was rushed to the hospital, has postponed the next six shows of his Miraculous Supernatural 2022 tour with Earth, Wind & Fire.

The postponements were made out of an abundance of caution for the artists health, his manager, Michael Vrionis of Universal Tone Management said Friday evening. The announcement adds that all shows as planned beginning July 23 in Paso Robles, CA through the end of 2022 are still confirmed and will be performed as scheduled. A rep for Santana said that the incident earlier this week was due to serious heat exhaustion and dehydration.

I regret to inform you that the Santana band has postponed tonights show at Ruoff Music Center Noblesville, Indiana. And, we are postponing the July 9 show at Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Ohio; July 10 at American Family Insurance Amphitheater  Summerfest Grounds in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; July 12 at Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion in Rogers, Arkansas; July 15 at Dos Equis Pavilion in Dallas, Texas; July 16 at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Woodlands, Texas, Michael Vrionis, President, Universal Tone Management said. Doctors have recommended that Mr. Santana gets rest to recuperate fully.

Last December, Santana, who turns 75 this month, underwent what his management described as an unscheduled heart procedure that caused the postponement of that months residency in Las Vegas. However, he resumed the residency the following month and in late March launched another North American tour that has continued ever since. The tour with Earth, Wind & Fire is scheduled to continue through the end of August. Just two weeks later, the musician is slated to resume his longstanding residency at the House of Blues in Las Vegas through the end of September before resuming for two more weeks in November.

Carlos is doing well and is anxious to be back on stage soon. He just needs rest, Vrionis continued. Santana profoundly regrets that these postponements of his upcoming performances; but, his health is our number one concern. He is looking forward to seeing all of his fans very soon.

Live Nation will be announcing the rescheduled show dates. All previously purchased tickets will be honored for the new dates.

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Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official awards predictions for the upcoming Oscars and Emmys ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis; Awards Circuit Column, a weekly analysis dissecting the trends and contenders by television editor Michael Schneider (for Emmys) and Davis (for Oscars); Awards Circuit Podcast, a weekly interview series with talent and an expert roundtable discussion; and Awards Circuit Video analyzes various categories and contenders by Variety's leading awards pundits. Variety's unmatched coverage gives its readership unbeatable exposure in print and online, as well as provide inside reports on all the contenders in this year's awards season races.

To see all the latest predictions, of all the categories, in one place, visit THE EMMYS COLLECTIVE

Visit each category, per the individual awards show from THE EMMYS HUB

To see old predictions and commentary, click the EMMY PREDICTIONS ARCHIVES

For film awards predictions go to THE OSCARS HUB

UPDATED: July 9, 2022

2022 EMMYS PREDICTIONS:

OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY (SERIES)

AWARDS PREDICTION COMMENTARY:

Directed and produced by visionary filmmaker and Oscar-winner Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), the eight hour special has been a critical smash and huge on the streaming platform. Already picking up accolades along the way, including the PGA prize, a nomination seems like a lock for The Beatles: Get Back.

An Emmy-winner for his United Shades of America series, W. Kamau Bells intense and eye-opening exploration of the life, career and conviction (and overturning of that conviction) of Bill Cosby was among the best works to screen at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it was acquired by Showtime. We Need to Talk About Cosby could go the distance.

Executive produced by Emmy darling Ryan Murphy, The Andy Warhol Diaries follows the artist as he narrates his own diary entries through the employment of AI technology (voiced by Bill Irwin), as weell as contemporaries and other Warhol experts. The Netflix series could strike a chord of nostalgia with members.

Ry Russo-Young (Gotham Award winner You Wont Miss Me) turns the camera on herself in Nuclear Family, the three-episode series, offering a poignant examination of her mothers fight to keep her children after being sued by the sperm donors. The timely nature of the piece could strike a chord with voters, especially as reproductive rights continue to be under attack in America.

NYC Epicenters: 9/112021 is a sobering look at life and death told through the eyes of one of cinemas masters, Spike Lee. The miniseries chronicles New York City from the Sept. 11 attacks up to the COVID-19 pandemic, sharpening the hard truth of the citys never-ending fight for survival. Already an Emmy winner, anything Lee touches remains in the awards conversation.

A four-part look into the rise and courage of Earvin Johnson, also known as Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers superstar. One of the last drops into the race, if enough of the TV Academy got to They Call Me Magic, it could be a shoo-in for some love, especially voters who remember the Showtime Lakers of the 1980s.

Following the life of controversial figure and Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West, jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy is an intimate portrait of his rise from musician to businessman. In addition, its one of the more viewed docs in contention this year.

Helmed by director Chris Smith, whose Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (2017) and Fyre (2019) received Emmy nominations, the seven-episode HBO docu-series 100 Foot Wave, revolving around big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara was a massive hit with critics in July 2021. Goodwill and a second season pickup carries it far with voters.

McCartney 3,2, 1  the six-part series, produced by Rick Rubin, icon Paul McCartney discusses his work with the Beatles and as one of the greatest solo artists of all time. Likely helped immensely by the other Beatles doc in the race, it stands a solid chance of squeezing into the category.

One of the new kids on the block, the series follows actor Will Smith (pre-Oscars slap) as he sets out to offer insight into some of the worlds most remote and uncharted locations. With executive producers Ari Handel, Darren Aronofsky and Jane Root, this could be an interesting test to see how Smith will either tank (or increase) the chances for Emmy love.

Also in the mix is Everythings Gonna Be All White from Showtime, Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes from HBO, American Masters from PBS and Voir from Netflix.

See the complete final predictions for all 101 Emmy categories here.

Read more: Varietys Awards Circuit Emmys Predictions Hub

The full television awards season calendar is linked here.

2021 category winner: Secrets of the Whales (Disney+)

ALL AWARDS CONTENDERS AND RANKINGS :

AND THE PREDICTED NOMINEES ARE: RANK SERIES NETWORK 1 The Beatles: Get Back Disney+ 2 We Need to Talk About Cosby Showtime 3 Nuclear Family HBO 4 NYC Epicenters 9/112021 HBO 5 The Andy Warhol Diaries Netflix NEXT IN LINE 6 Secrets of Playboy A&E 7 Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy Netflix 8 They Call Me Magic Apple TV+ 9 McCartney 3,2,1 Hulu 10 Everythings Gonna Be All White Showtime ALSO IN CONTENTION 11 Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes HBO 12 American Masters PBS 13 Welcome to Earth National Geographic 14 The Invisible Pilot HBO 15 Music Box HBO 16 100 Foot Wave HBO 17 Voir Netflix 18 Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story Peacock 19 Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives Netflix 20 Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer Netflix UNRANKED CONTENDERS  Accused: Guilty or Innocent? To be added  Always Jane To be added  Artful To be added  Behind the Attraction To be added  Bug Out To be added  Cold Case Files To be added  Conversation with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes Peacock  Dear Apple TV+  Diana To be added  Eden: Untamed Planet To be added  Heist To be added  Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed To be added  Invisible Monsters: Serial Killers In America To be added  Jailhouse Redemption To be added  Jerusalem: City of Faith and Fury To be added  Kids Behind Bars: Life or Parole To be added  King of the Con To be added  Last Chance Transplant To be added  Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary To be added  LulaRich To be added  Muhammad Ali To be added  Mysterious Death of Easy E To be added  Naomi Osaka To be added  New York Homicide To be added  Once Upon a Time in Queens To be added  Origins of Hip Hop To be added  Our Great National Parks Netflix  Phat Tuesdays: The Era of Hip Hop Comedy To be added  Preaching Evil: A Wife on the Run with Jarren Jeffe To be added  Profiled: The Black Man To be added  Real PD: Kansas City To be added  Reframed: Marilyn Monroe To be added  Rich & Shameless To be added  Secrets of the Chippendales Murders To be added  Serengeti II To be added  The American Presidency with Bill Clinton To be added  The Big Conn Apple TV+  The Curse of Von Dutch: A Brand to Die For To be added  The Deep End To be added  The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet To be added  The Missing Children To be added  The Program: Prison Detox To be added  The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin HBO  Tiger King 2 Netflix  UFO Showtime  Untold Netflix  Uprising To be added  Who Do You Believe? To be added  Worst Roommate Ever Netflix  WWE Evil To be added

2022 Primetime Emmy Awards Predictions

2022 Creative Arts Emmys Predictions

About the Primetime Emmy Awards (Emmys)

The Primetime Emmy Awards, better known as the Emmys, are given out by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). Since 1949, the awards have recognized excellence in American primetime television programming. They are divided into three classes  Primetime Emmy Awards, the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards (honors artisan achievements), and the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards (recognizes significant engineering and technological contributions). The typical eligibility period is between June 1 and May 31 of any given year. The Television Academy comprises over 25,000 members, representing 30 professional peer groups, including performers, directors, producers, art directors and various artisans and executives.

The 74th Emmy Awards will take place on Monday, Sept. 12, and air on NBC.

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L.Q. Jones, a veteran character actor whose career spanned seven decades, died Saturday of natural causes at his home in the Hollywood Hills. He was 94 years old.

Jones death was confirmed by his grandson, Erte deGarces. DeGarces shared that Jones died surrounded by his family.

Born Justice Ellis McQueen on Aug. 19, 1927 in Beaumont, Texas, Jones attended the University of Texas at Austin where he met Sue Lewis, his wife of 23 years. The two divorced in the 1970s.

McQueen took on his stage name, L.Q. Jones, with his first film role in the 1955 Raoul Walsh film Battle Cry. Jones would wear the name through his entire screen acting career. His most recent turn came in 2006 with Robert Altmans final film A Prairie Home Companion.

Jones collaborated with several of the most established directors of mid-20th century Hollywood, including Walsh, Don Siegel for An Annapolis Story and Mervyn LeRoy for Toward the Unknown. He was also a regular supporting player in Sam Peckinpahs action-heavy westerns, with roles in The Wild Bunch, Ride the High Country, Major Dundee, The Battle of Cable Hogue and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Near the end of the century, Jones also took roles in Martin Campbells The Mask of Zorro, Roland Emmerichs The Patriot and Martin Scorseses Casino.

Along with accruing 60 screen acting credits in film over his career, Jones was a regular in the world of TV. He mostly appeared in western series including Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Wagon Train, Rawhide, The Rifleman, Have Gun  Will Travel and The Big Valley.

Jones career also extended beyond screen acting, producing four independent features over his life. He produced, directed and wrote the 1975 feature A Boy and His Dog, which is adapted from Harlan Ellisons novella of the same name. Jones began the project as an executive producer, but took over writing and directing responsibilities as other collaborators fell through.

A post-apocalyptic black comedy, A Boy and His Dog follows a teenager and his telepathic dog as they fight for survival in the southwestern U.S. of 2024, a time when nuclear fallout grips the world. Starring a young Don Johnson and Jason Robards, Jones fellow Peckinpah alum, the film has garnered the reputation of a cult classic over the years, with Jones stating that director George Miller cited it as an influence for his Mad Max series.

Jones is survived by his sons, Randy McQueen and Steve Marshall, and by his favorite daughter, Mindy McQueen.

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Simon Rieths Summer Scars, a seaside tale of fraternal love cast in a woozy glow and cut with shocking spikes of violence, won top honors at this years Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival, claiming the Narcisse Award for best feature film, and with it $10,200 in prize money and a trophy designed Switzerlands own H.R. Giger.

Del Kathryn Bartons Blaze, an hallucinatory Australian drama that carries a young murder witness into a kaleidoscopic fantasy world, received honorable mention and won the Imaging the Future award for best production design, which comes with a $5100 grant.

Other prizes went to Tunisian director Youssef Chebbis Ashkal, which won the international critics award; to Italys Gabriele Mainetti, whose circus-superhero mashup Freaks Out won the RTS audience awards; and to Chris Huang Wen-changs Demigod: The Legend Begins, a martial arts epic told entirely with puppets, which won the audience award for best Asian film.

These prizes reflect the diversity of this years edition, NIFFF artistic director Pierre-Yves Walder tells Variety. Our festival showcases the fantastic in all its forms, promoting divers styles, points of view, themes, and aesthetics  and I think these winners really show as much.

Wrapping up its 21st edition, Neuchatel held 160 screenings while breaking in person records with more than 30,000 admissions and 50,000 attendees  a number that dwarfs the very population of the lakeside Swiss town.

Our public continues to diversify and grow, Walder says. From our Scream Queer retrospective to our talks with Joyce Carol Oates, we came at this edition from a slightly different angle than in previous years, and that paid off. We kept our traditional public interested and invested while welcoming many new attendees.

While presenting screenings I would see faces I recognized, Walder continues. That is to say, faces of people who I knew dont usually come to NIFFF, and that was extremely encouraging. We were able to put on the festival that our public expects, while also exploring new directions. We took great pride in bringing in a different public and introducing them to our festival.

Winner of this years Denis-De-Rougemont youth award, Hypochondriac director Addison Heimann was one new attendee  and you can bet that hell be back.

This is the best festival Ive been to so far, Heimann says with a grin. Our films play in full theaters. The fans really turn out, shouting along at ads onscreen before the movie starts and coming by to see you after the screening.

My movies about my own mental breakdown, he continues. Its very personal. And people come up to me afterwards and share their own stories and journeys, Im very grateful. Hypochondriac is a really American movie, so coming over here, and having people see themselves in it is really cool. To do this festival before our U.S. release  I couldnt ask for more.

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Around 90 minutes after the first date of his After Hours Til Dawn stadium tour was postponed in his hometown of Toronto, the Weeknd posted a message to fans on his Instagram story. The concert was postponed shortly after doors were scheduled to open due to an ongoing, day-long outage of one of Canadas biggest telecom networks, Rogers Wireless.

Im crushed & heartbroken, he wrote. Been at the venue all day but its out of our hands because of the Rogers outage. Operations and safety are compromised and I tried my absolute best. This one hurts the most, and we will make this show happen, but unfortunately not tonight. I know how long youve been waiting and how hard a lot of you worked to make it to the show and experience this special moment with me. I cant wait to see you all.

He closed with a broken-heart emoji.

A statement from tour promoter Live Nation reads: The Weeknd was onsite and ready to play but due to the nationwide Rogers network outage The Weeknd show planned for this evening at Rogers Centre will be postponed as the venues operations & infrastructure are not possible until full service is back. Please hold on to your ticket. Updates on a new date coming soon.

Sources tell Variety that the announcement of the postponement came so late because the Weeknds team was working up until the last possible minute to find a way to make the technically complex show work under such conditions.

The mood among fans outside the venue after the postponement was announced was more sad and disappointed than angry. The feelings of many of the 25-odd people Variety spoke with  all of whom declined to give their full names (maybe its a Canadian thing?)  were summed up by a 23-year-old woman from Newmarket, just north of Toronto. Its nobodys fault so its hard to be mad  Im just disappointed.

Even two women from Switzerland, also 23, were more sad than angry. Weve been looking forward to this for months and were going home tomorrow!

However, some were angry. They didnt tell us anything, an 18-year-old from Toronto said. We came all the way down here and they didnt tell us hours before, like they usually do. If they were having technical difficulties they should have said something before.

Her friend, also 18, added, I couldnt get data but I added it to my Apple Wallet and that doesnt need wifi.

As the Weeknd notes in his message, the venue  which, ironically, is sponsored by and named after Rogers, the wireless company suffering the outage  is so thoroughly wired that it would have been unsafe to hold the show under these conditions. The Rogers Centre, formerly called the Skydome, is a cashless venue and all transactions  merchandise, food, beverage and the majority of ticketing  rely on WiFi, except for fans who saved their tickets to Apple Wallet or other non-Wifi-reliant apps.

While anyone not in Canada might think the postponement was an overreaction, the outage, which began at around 4:30 a.m. ET and affected the entire country, illuminated just how much modern society has come to rely on cellular coverage: Throughout the country, government and banking systems, parking and countless other businesses were incapable of processing transactions. Restaurants were forced to serve on a cash-only basis. Cafes and any business offering free wifi were packed. The level of disruption is genuinely alarming and is a sobering reminder of what would take place in the event of a cyber-attack.

Just a month before the concert, Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the countrys government was on high alert for cyberattacks by Russia and others in the wake of the increasingly hostile international relations caused by the war in Ukraine.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that, in the current geopolitical environment in which we find ourselves, that we are very much on high alert for potential attacks from hostile state actors like Russia, Mendicino said during an appearance at the countrys House of Commons public safety committee.

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The Black Keys performed a trio of tracks and reflected on their now-20-year career in rock as part of CBS Mornings Saturday Sessions.

The duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney and their live band rumbled through the opening tracks from their latest album Dropout Boogie  Wild Child and It Aint Over  before reaching back to their 2012 hit Gold on the Ceiling.

In addition to the performances, the duo reminisced about their careers ahead of their first-ever amphitheater tour in support of Dropout Boogie and the 2021 covers LP Delta Kream, a trek that also celebrates the Black Keys 20th anniversary.

Speaking to CBS Anthony Mason for the first time in a decade  the two last chatted with Mason in 2012, when they were enshrined in their Akron, Ohio high schools Hall of Fame  Auerbach and Carney talked about touring at the start of their careers.

We communicate now more than we did even when we were 22, Carney said. We turned into old farts.

Weve only got each other to talk to, we might as well go back in the van, Auerbach added. Especially with the 20th anniversary, its made us put some things in perspective. Im always reminded when I get with Pat how easy it is to just make music. We dont even talk about, its a magical gift we were given.
An elderly man said he inappropriately touched a girl because he "confused (the child) with his wife," according to Laredo police.

Filiberto Flores-Ortega, 67, was arrested on June 23 and accused of sexually molesting two girls. Webb County Jail records show he remained behind bars as of Friday afternoon.

He is facing charges of one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, six counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact, one count of indecency with a child by exposure and six counts of possession of child pornography.

One case dates back to May 16, when Laredo police officers responded to an aggravated sexual assault of a child in Laredo.

A woman stated that she had found explicit photos of her daughter on Flores-Ortegas cellphone. The daughter later cried out saying that Flores-Ortega had sexually abused her when she was 13 to 15 years old, according to court documents.

The child underwent a forensic interview at the Childrens Advocacy Center, where she stated that Flores-Ortega would touch her part when she was 13 years old. She also stated that Flores-Ortega showed her a video of a man and a woman having sex, authorities said.

She added that Flores-Ortega would touch her part three times a month between the ages of 13 and 14. When she turned 14, the abuse occurred five to six times a month, states an arrest affidavit.

A forensic examination of Flores-Ortegas Galaxy J7 revealed several explicit photos and a video of the child.

On June 23, Flores-Ortega met with investigators at LPD headquarters. Flores-Ortega stated that he took explicit photos of the girl. He also provided details on the alleged abuse of the girl, including that he masturbated while touching her private part, the affidavit states.

The second case was reported on June 8, where officers responded to the 1900 block of Kearney Street.

A woman stated that her 13-year-old daughter had cried out that Flores-Ortega had inappropriately touched her. During a forensic interview, the child stated that Flores-Ortega started touching her when she was 8 or 9 years old. He allegedly touched her in her private parts three to four times.

On June 23, investigators spoke to Flores-Ortega regarding those allegations. He stated that the girl was 12 years old when he started touching her.

Flores-Ortega said he confused (the child) with his wife and began to touch her. Flores-Ortega stated it occurred on two different instances, states the affidavit.
Jay Sakura, owner of the restaurant Sakura Sushi in central Laredo, is hosting an event in Rio Bravo on Saturday, July 9 providing free meals to the residents of Rio Bravo and El Cenizo in efforts to thank them for their business.

Amanda Aguero, a city commissioner for the City of Rio Bravo, said that she, Sakura and Star Murphy were partnering for the event titled Sakura for Citizens. She said that 115 people will be served plates with chicken, meat, rice and beans.

Aguero said she is extremely glad someone from Laredo is trying to bring their business and event of this type to the community, as she knows many from Rio Bravo go to these types of restaurants but may not be able to often due to transportation challenges.

Now, he is coming to us, and that day we are going to close down two streets to provide the event, Aguero said.

Sakura for Citizens will be held on Saturday at the Rio Bravo City Hall from 5-8 p.m.

All the plates and beverages provided during the event will be free, and there will also be live bands. According to Aguero, one of the live bands confirmed is the Jolly Ranchers.

The city commissioner said she feels extremely glad the event will be held, as the people enjoy having fun and going out, and these companies and restaurants must know their clients also come from these communities.

I feel very blessed that people like him reach out to me, because I just think that it is nice that he did not only reach out to help him with the event but also reach out to help serve our people from Rio Bravo and El Cenizo, Aguero said. I feel humbled that he wants to give back to the community and give back to our residents, even if it is just for one day.

Aguero said she is humbled someone who has a thriving business would want to assist his community in such a way.

He wants to give back because of what his business has produced, Aguero said. This is Jay alone doing this, this is not the City of Rio Bravo, as we are just people who got to bring everything together.

Sakura declined comment for the story, but Aguero said they are doing the event to provide back to the community which has supported their efforts and business throughout many years including during the pandemic.
Courtesy/U.S. Attorney's Office

Two men pleaded guilty to smuggling meth in fire extinguishers for an organization affiliated with the Cartel Del Noreste, the U.S. Attorneys Office announced on Thursday.

Bonifacio Turrubiates, 48, of Laredo, pleaded guilty on Thursday while Dionicio Sanchez, 46, of Houston, was convicted on June 3. Each was convicted of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute liquid meth associated with the Cartel Del Noreste, authorities said.
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POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP)  A Ukrainian regional official warned Friday of deteriorating living conditions in a city captured by Russian forces two weeks ago, saying Sievierodonetsk is without water, power or a working sewage system while the bodies of the dead decompose in hot apartment buildings.

Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the Russians were unleashing indiscriminate artillery barrages as they try to secure their gains in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk province. Moscow this week claimed full control of Luhansk, but the governor and other Ukrainian officials said their troops retained a small part of the province.

"Luhansk hasnt been fully captured even though the Russians have engaged all their arsenal to achieve that goal, Haidai told The Associated Press. Fierce battles are going on in several villages on the regions border. The Russians are relying on tanks and artillery to advance, leaving scorched earth.

Russia's forces strike every building that they think could be a fortified position, he said. They arent stopped by the fact that civilians are left there, and they die in their homes and courtyards. They keep firing.

Occupied Sievierodonetsk, meanwhile, is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe," the governor wrote on social media. The Russians have completely destroyed all the critical infrastructure, and they are unable to repair anything.

Haidai reported last week that about 8,000 residents remained in the city, which had a prewar population of 100,000. Some Ukrainian officials and soldiers said Russian forces leveled Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk province's administrative center, before Ukraine's troops were ordered out of the city late last month to avoid their encirclement and capture.

Luhansk is one of two provinces that make up the Donbas, Ukraine's industrial region of mines and factories. Pro-Moscow separatists have fought Ukraine's army in the Donbas for eight years and declared independent republics, which Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized before he sent troops into Ukraine.

After asserting full control of Luhansk, Putin said Russian forces would have a chance to rest and recoup, but other parts of eastern Ukraine have come under sustained Russian bombardment. The Russian leader warned the Ukrainian government in Kyiv that it should quickly accept Moscows terms or brace for the worst.

Everybody should know that, largely speaking, we havent even yet started anything in earnest, Putin said while speaking with leaders of the Kremlin-controlled parliament Thursday.

Ukraine's presidential office said early Friday that at least 12 civilians were killed and 30 wounded by Russian shelling over the past 24 hours. Two cities in Donetsk  the other Donbas province  experienced the heaviest barrage, with six people killed and 21 wounded.

In northeast Ukraine, four more people were killed and nine were wounded in Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, where Russian shelling hit residential areas.

Commenting on Putins ominous statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian leader was reacting to statements by Ukraine's government and its Western allies about defeating Russia on the battlefield.

Russias potential is so big that just a small part of it has been used in the special military operation," Peskov told reporters. "And so Western statements are utterly absurd and just add to the grief of the Ukrainian people.

Russia's war in Ukraine, now in its fifth month, has driven millions of people from their homes, killed untold thousands and shattered European security that was arduously reconstructed after World War II. It has also rippled through the world economy by contributing to higher prices for food and fuel. Ukraine has been unable to export millions of tons of grain and other food, and Russia is facing international sanctions for its invasion.

Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine's prosecutor general, told the AP that her country has recorded 22,000 cases so far related to alleged Russian war crimes  including rape, torture and murder  and an estimated 200 to 300 new cases are recorded each day.

We must gather the evidence quickly, Venediktova said, suggesting the numbers could be even higher  largely because of a lack of access to some parts of the country. It is clear that prosecutors cannot work entirely in the Donetsk region, and the military will not allow it.

In other developments on Friday:

 The Biden administration said it will send an additional $400 million in military equipment to Ukraine, including four more advanced rocket systems. A senior defense official said the weapons will bolster Ukrainian efforts to strike deeper behind Russian frontlines in the eastern Donbas region.

 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to the southern Dnipropetrovsk region, where he met with troops and visited a hospital where wounded soldiers were being treated. He said in his nightly video address that he went to personally express his gratitude to those defending Ukraine and also to the doctors and nurses who save the lives of wounded soldiers and civilians.

 Germany's parliament overwhelmingly approved Sweden and Finlands requests to join NATO. German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said the two countries accession would greatly strengthen NATO's northern and eastern flanks, noting their strong naval forces in the Baltic Sea and their land forces that know the region bordering Russia well. She suggested that Putins efforts to divide and destroy NATO had failed. He bet on our weakness, she said. Now he gets the opposite. All 30 member countries must agree before the Western military alliance can admit Finland and Sweden.

 A court in Moscow sentenced a Russian municipal council member who had publicly criticized the war in Ukraine to seven years in prison on charges of spreading knowingly false information about the Russian military. Alexei Gorinov, 60, criticized Russias military actions in Ukraine at a March meeting. A legal aid group said he is the first person ordered to serve prison time under a law that makes it illegal to disparage the Russian military. Russia's parliament rubber-stamped the law, which carries a maximum prison term of 15 years, a week after the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine.

 The British Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces have made advances near the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson. Meanwhile, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Ukrainian partisans blew up a railroad bridge 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Melitopol, which is to the east of Kherson, on Thursday to disrupt Russian resupply operations.

 On the energy front, the leaders of Greece and Bulgaria inaugurated a new pipeline that will supply natural gas from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria, whose vital supply of Russian gas was cut off in April. And in Germany, energy supply giant Uniper said it is asking the government for a bailout during a growing natural gas crunch due to the war in Ukraine.

___

Murru reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Cara Anna in Kyiv, Ukraine, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Associated Press journalists from around Europe contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Is an unborn fetus a human being in the eyes of...Texas traffic laws?

A pregnant Dallas-area woman argued as much to police officers after recently being cited for driving alone in the HOV lane, according to a story published Friday afternoon by the Dallas Morning News' Dave Lieber.

Lieber reports that Plano resident Brandy Bettone was driving along U.S. Highway 75 en route to picking up her son when she found herself at a checkpoint facing a citation for using the high-occupancy vehicle lane while alone in her car.

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"I was driving to pick up my son. I knew I couldn't be a minute late, so I took the HOV lane," Bettone told Lieber. "As I exited the HOV, there was a checkpoint at the end of the exit. I slammed on my brakes and I was pulled over by police."

Bettone said officers asked her if there were any more occupants inside her vehicle. Pregnant with a daughter, Bettone told the officers her unborn child was inside the vehicle with her, according to Lieber.

"I pointed to my stomach and said, 'My baby girl is right here. She is a person,'" Bettone said. However the officers were not buying it. "He said, 'Oh, no. It's got to be two people outside of the body.'"

Bettone spoke with multiple officers over the course of her encounter, she told Lieber. One seemed indifferent, Bettone claimed, while another gave her a citation and told her to challenge it in court to have it thrown out.

"One kind of brushed me off when I mentioned this is a living child, according to everything that's going on with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. 'So I don't know why you're not seeing that,' I said," Bettone explained. "He was like, 'I don't want to deal with this....Ma'am, it means two persons outside of the body."

Bettone ended up receiving a $215 citation and instructions from the issuing officer suggesting that if she fought it, it would most likely get dropped. According to Lieber, the Dallas County Sheriff Department has declined to issue a statement on Bettone's citation or pregnancy defense.

In Texas, all abortions are now illegal following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe and pending enactment of state trigger laws on the practice. Prior to the high court's ruling, all abortions past six weeks of pregnancy had been outlawed by the Texas Heartbeat Act. This prior measure had been modeled closely after language crafted by Christian anti-abortion group Faith2Action Ministries, which has defined the presence of a fetal heartbeat as a marker of "an unborn human individual," according to The Texas Tribune.

Bettone said she does not plan to pay her fine for the incident.

"I will be fighting it," she said.
Multiple Texas political figures are urging Gov. Greg Abbott to officially declare an "invasion" is occurring on the Texas-Mexico border.

The push is based on a controversial legal theory asserting that the U.S. Constitution would empower Texas state officials and state law enforcement to carry out deportations independent of federal immigration authorities if Abbott formally declared an invasion.

"With an invasion, based on the constitution, that gives the state the authority to secure its own border," Rep. Bryan Slaton asserted in a video posted on Twitter Thursday afternoon. "And what were asking for is for Governor Abbott to listen... and declare this what it really is. It is an invasion."

"If the federal government wont deport them, we must," former gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines added in a tweet Friday afternoon, while also invoking President Trump. "@GregAbbott_TX - send them back to Mexico. No more catch and release. Texas first."

Slaton's and Huffines' comments came just after Abbott issued an executive order Thursday that appears to stop just short of what immigration hardliners are calling on the governor to do.

Abbott's order authorizes Texas National Guardsmen and Texas Department of Public Safety officers to "respond to this illegal immigration by apprehending immigrants who cross the border between ports of entry or commit other violations of federal law, and to return those illegal immigrants to the border at a port of entry." The order does not instruct officers to actually carry out deportations by expelling detained migrants from the U.S.

Abbott voiced skepticism about the legal foundations of taking this step and expressed concern that Texas officers would be opened up to federal prosecutions in April, the Texas Tribune reported.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, one of Abbott's close political allies, has also stopped short of endorsing the hardliners' legal theory. "While we consider this and similar new claims against the federal government, it would be improper, and could compromise Texas's litigation strategy, to comment on and telegraph the State's position and arguments on the issue," Paxton wrote in a June 7 letter declining Rep. Matt Krause's request for an advisory legal opinion on the matter from the AG's office.

The renewed calls urging Abbott to declare an invasion this week follow Tuesday's statements from local officials in multiple South Texas counties who claim they're facing an deluge of undocumented migrants into their communities.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about his economic agenda, during his visit to Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., July 6, 2022.
A Sinn Fein minister has appealed for calm ahead of the lighting of traditional Eleventh Night bonfires across Northern Ireland.

Conor Murphy said it is a time of tension and concern for a number of families.

Police said they were treating an incident on Thursday where petrol bombs were thrown near a bonfire at Adam Street in north Belfast as a hate crime.

The bonfire, which was the subject of failed legal action to stop its erection last year, has been built close to an interface with a nationalist area.

It has long been tradition to burn bonfires in loyalist neighbourhoods across Northern Ireland on the night of July 11 as a way of celebrating the upcoming Twelfth.

Most Eleventh Night fires pass off without incident, with organisers promoting them as family-friendly community celebrations, but a number have become the source of controversy in recent years.

This year it is estimated that about 250 bonfires will be lit across Northern Ireland.

Stormont Finance Minister Mr Murphy said he hopes the Twelfth celebrations will pass peacefully.

He said: We hope for that.

A lot of the tensions are around what can be described as hate crimes where various effigies or images of people on the other side of the political divide are featured on bonfires.

Mr Murphy said he hopes there can be dialogue in the future to ensure the same issues do not keep repeating.

He said: Unfortunately for a lot of communities, particularly in Belfast and other urban areas, it becomes a time of tension and worry and concern for families of young kids.

Earlier, DUP Policing Board member Joanne Bunting urged those preparing for celebrations on July 11 and 12 not to be provoked.

She said: The attack on the Adam Street bonfire is an obvious and deliberate attempt to increase tensions and to provoke a response.

I would urge everyone, both in that area and across Northern Ireland, not to respond to such attempts.

The enjoyment of celebrations over the 11th and 12th July period should not be destroyed by the intolerance of others and attempts to provoke trouble.

So far this year we have not faced some of the difficulties that have arisen in previous years.

Unfortunately there are some elements within our society who want to provoke this trouble, but I would urge cool heads at this time.

We want to see the many events that will take place over the next few days highlighted as the cultural and community celebrations they are, not because of trouble arising.

Meanwhile, the Public Health Agency (PHA) is urging anyone enjoying the Twelfth celebrations to be aware of the dangers of excessive alcohol intake.

Kevin Bailey, the PHAs regional lead for drugs and alcohol, said: Many will be making plans to celebrate the Twelfth and we are encouraging those who will choose to drink alcohol to keep an eye on what and how much theyre drinking.

We understand that its a time to relax and let off some steam, but by setting a plan you can avoid binge drinking, which has been shown to have adverse effects on our health and safety.

Binge drinking, which can be as little as just a few drinks, can have a major impact on health such as causing damage to the liver, heart, brain and stomach.

Over-indulging in alcohol can also affect relationships and spoil the holiday for you, your family and friends.

Drinking too much can also mean more risk-taking behaviour, causing more accidents and impacting on an already under pressure health service.
LIVONIA, MICH.  In June, Linette Popoff-Parks, music education professor, was awarded a second Teacher Enrichment Grant from the Music Teachers National Association. The $750 grant, for private study, specific college-level course work, or projects in performance, pedagogy, music theory, and composition, will help Popoff-Parks with tuition and lesson costs for the second year of the Well-Balanced Pianist Teacher Training program. "I also continue to take individual lessons as part of my own development as a pianist," she said.

In her grant application, Popoff-Parks described the first year of the training which consisted of group sessions to address body alignment, eye space exercises to expand the field of vision for reading music, reducing eye strain, and creating ease in the face and jaw muscles. She also made two presentations on the following topics: 1) perfectionism and its relationship to performance anxiety in pianists; 2) expressive decisions for Mozart Sonata K. 545 in C Major using the content of Pulse/Beat and Harmonic Movement from I-V, Tonic to Dominant.

I have applied the methods I learned from the Teacher Training program to my students; helping their bodies and minds find ease and coordination at the piano, said Popoff-Parks, whose college-level and private studio students range from ages 16 to 67, and include two remote students from abroad, and a teen with autism.

At this stage in the two-year program, Popoff-Parks' teaching will be observed, evaluated, and assessed through co-teaching with her teacher-mentor, observation of recordings of her lessons, and a presentation of one of her student's lessons to the entire teacher training group.
Manchester, VT (05254)

Today

Thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 66F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 66F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Time keeps going on and I really need to get this column written. We had a good soaking rain during the night, along with a thunderstorm. The garden needed rain, so it was greatly appreciated.

Joe and I, with son Joseph and his special friend Grace, attended the wedding last Thursday of nephew Sam and KatieAnn. They had a nice day for their wedding. It was nice to see family and friends. Sisters Liz, Verena and I made the chicken noodles for the meals. Sisters Leah, Emma, and sister-in-law Sarah Irene made the gravy, so we were close enough to get a lot of visiting done as well.

The menu was mashed potatoes; gravy; noodles; dressing; fried chicken; corn; and salad; with pecan, pumpkin custard and strawberry pies; angel food cake; caramel pudding; and fresh fruit with a fruit glaze. For the evening meal, meatballs were added to the menu as well. The tables were also lined with stacks of nothings (a pastry also known as elephant ears). This is a custom at weddings in the Berne, Indiana area.

I was a cook at the wedding, and Joseph and Grace were table waiters. We traveled the two hours with sisters Verena and Emma, nephew Benjamin, and his friend Crystal. Benjamin and Crystal were also table waiters. We left home at 5:30 a.m. and arrived back home safely after 10 p.m.

We wish the couple a long, happy life together! Brother Amos was missed by many at the wedding, and a very nice poem in a frame hung in the wedding corner in his memory. Sam and KatieAnn will live with sister-in-law Nancy and have separate living quarters. Amos and Nancys big house that was so fully occupied is now very empty. Life goes on and time brings changes that we must accept, although it isnt easy.

Brother-in-law Jacob and sister Susan were also missed, as they wouldve always traveled with us to the wedding in Berne.

Friday was daughter Lorettas 22nd birthday. Our family gathered at their house in honor of her birthday. We were served a delicious supper of pizza, ham and beans, chips, cheese ball and crackers, ice cream, and cake.

On July 4 we spent the day at home. Then later Joe and I decided to go join daughter Elizabeth, Tim, and children, daughter Verena, daughter Susan and children, and Susans friend Ervin and his children on a wagon ride to town to watch the fireworks. It started to rain lightly and we were afraid we might get wet, but it quit then. It was around 11:30 p.m. or later by the time we arrived back home to Tims house. The children were all cuddled in blankets sleeping when we arrived there.

It was enjoyable to spend time with the children. I held little Andrea and she watched the fireworks with big eyes.

Tonight, daughter Lovina and son Joseph leave to go camping with their special friends family by the lake for three nights. Hopefully the weather will be good as they will sleep in tents.

I remember one year when Joe and I had only a few children we went camping with sister Liz and Levi and their children back by his parents cabin and pond. Levis children and us all slept in a big tent, and once we were almost all settled for the night sister Liz flashed around the tent to make sure there werent any spiders in there. Well, she spotted one, and of course she and I freaked out, so Levi and Joe had to look for that spider and kill it so their wives could sleep. After all the excitement and all was settled again, it started pouring and then storming, so everyone sleeping in tents decided to move into the cabin for safety. Levi and Joe carried the sleeping children one by one through the rain to the cabin. We all slept on blankets on the floor. Several more of Levis siblings were also camping there, so it was quite packed. The next morning the sun came out and they made a delicious breakfast over the open fire. It was a memorable camping trip! God bless!

This isnt the recipe used at the wedding, but Ill share a recipe for pumpkin custard pie this week.

Lovinas Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her newest cookbook, Amish Family Recipes, is available wherever books are sold. Readers can write to Eicher at Lovinas Amish Kitchen, PO Box 234, Sturgis, MI 49091 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply); or email LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org and your message will be passed on to her to read. She does not personally respond to emails.

Pumpkin Custard Pie

1 9-inch pie shell

3 eggs

1 12-ounce can evaporated milk

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine eggs, evaporated milk, pumpkin puree, sugars, flour, salt, allspice and cinnamon. Beat with a hand mixer until smooth. Pour into pie shell and bake 60-65 minutes or until pie is set in center. Optional: Top with Cool Whip.
President of the United states Joe Biden was accused of reading a part of the teleprompter that he wasn't supposed to and Elon Musk compared the moment to Ron Burgundy of Anchorman.

Republican strategist Greg Price posted the clip on Twitter of Biden allegedly saying "repeat the line" instead of actually repeating the line.

Musk replied to the tweet by saying that whoever controls the teleprompter is the real president.

He also shared a meme of Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy on Anchorman.

The speech came after Biden signed an executive order on Friday to protect women's reproductive rights.

Medal of Honor hoax

Right-wing Twitter accounts have been attacking President Biden on social media with claims that he is mentally declining.

Biden, 79, went viral on Wednesday after a grainy video circulating on social media claimed he put on a Medal of Honor backwards.

The POTUS placed the medal around the neck of retired Army Specialist Five Dwight W. Birdwell for his time in Vietnam.

Fact-checkers have already confirmed that Biden placed the medal in proper fashion.

Regarding the teleprompter slipup, White House Assistant Press Secretary Emilie Simons said her boss said, "let me repeat that line."
New terminal construction for Cat Bi airport approved

Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh has approved a plan to build Terminal 2 in Cat Bi Airport in the northern city of Haiphong.



The Airports Corporation of Vietnam will invest in the VND2.4 trillion (USD103.44 million) project. It is designed to serve around five million passengers per year. The construction will take 18 months from when the land is allocated.

Cat Bi International Airport (photo by Bao Giao Thong)
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Burkina Faso's transitional president, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, said on Friday after a meeting with two former heads of state that the objective was part of a search for social cohesion in order to better fight against terrorism
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Rachel Hadas, Rutgers University - Newark

(THE CONVERSATION) Ever since former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinsons remarkable testimony in the recent January 6 committee hearing, Ive been thinking  as Im sure many people have  about courage. Seeking analogies in literature, I think of two women from Greek mythology: Antigone and Iphigenia.

Courage often engenders more of itself: Being brave may make you even braver. In the cases of these two heroines, courage doesnt save any lives.

But these womens behavior does make us ask what people are capable of, and whether we too might be able to summon such courage. The behavior of the powerful men around Antigone and Iphigenia shows how only a rare few are able to summon courage, and dramatizes how, instead, the drive to maintain power takes the form of cowardice and willful blindness.

Courage vs. silence

In Sophocles tragedy Antigone, the heroine, daughter of the late King Oedipus, ritually buries her brother Polynices by sprinkling dust on his exposed corpse.

Her act defies King Creons recent edict that Polynices be left to rot, unburied. Polynices and his brother Eteocles fought for control of Thebes, and the brothers killed each other. To Creon, Polynices was a traitor who attacked his native Thebes, while Eteocles, who died defending the city, merits a heros funeral.

Antigones sister Ismene, fearful, tries to dissuade Antigone from this act of rebellion. We cant defy the kings command, she protests. Besides, we are only women, and men are stronger. Ismene asks Antigone to pardon her for refusing to help with the rebellious act of burying Polynices.

Undaunted, and contemptuous of her sisters cowardice, Antigone proceeds and is arrested. In the ensuing confrontation, Creon asks whether she has heard his recent decree. Antigone answers defiantly that she is answerable not to Creons edict but to unwritten laws so ancient that no one knows when they originated.

Who makes the laws? she asks. To which laws are we answerable? If a law is unjust, need we obey it?

Henry David Thoreau Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. asked the same questions, Thoreau in his essay on civil disobedience and King in Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Rewards not the point

Antigone disregarded Creons law out of loyalty to her brother. For Hutchinson, the choice was reversed: Would she heed the law and testify to the committee, or would she be intimidated by demands of loyalty made by representatives of former president Donald Trump?

Hutchinson testified.

She may be rewarded for her courage. But often, admiration and memories are the only rewards available. Courage isnt really about rewards. It may be planned or impulsive; it may come as a surprise to the courageous person. It may inspire others to be courageous, or simply inspire with the vision of what this rare quality looks like.

Thats what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has done; and in a different key, thats what Hutchinson has done.

The courage required for such defiance is the salient point. Antigone tells Creon that her fellow citizens would speak of their agreement with her act of defiance if their lips were not sealed by fear.

In that view you differ from all these Thebans, says Creon.

No, answers Antigone: They also share it, but they curb their tongues for you.

Its true that although she has received threats to her safety, Hutchinson doesnt face immediate execution, as Antigone did. But her courage, like Antigones, looks all the more remarkable because it contrasts so starkly with the behavior of many others, many of them her superiors at work and most of them men.

As Antigone points out to Creon, the silence of the cowed Theban populace is not exactly a ringing endorsement of his edict.

To show no fear

Hutchinsons unforgettable descriptions of her boss Mark Meadowss desperate efforts to distance himself from the alarming news she was trying to give him remind me of another Greek tragedy, Euripides Iphigenia in Aulis.

In that play, the heroines father, Agamemnon, decides Iphigenias life is more expendable than his ability to lead the Greek army to military victory. Once he has resolved that his daughter must be sacrificed, Agamemnon summons Iphigenia and his wife Clytemnestra to Aulis, where he claims his daughter will marry Achilles. But a distinctly nonmarital altar awaits the trusting young girl.

Part of the thoroughgoing irony of this play lies in the failure of Clytemnestra and Achilles, despite their promises and protestations, to protect the innocent Iphigenia, whose initial horror gives way to a desperate resolve: She has more courage than her mother or Achilles, let alone than her father. Iphigenia finally goes off willingly to be sacrificed.

I must die. I have to die. But to die gloriously, to step free of lowborn cowardice, not to be base, to show no fear - that is what I wish 

Oh sun that lights the day, I move now to another life, to a different fate. Goodbye, beloved light.

A striking theme is Agamemnons refusal to be transparent about the crisis even after Clytemnestra confronts him. He feels for his daughter, but mostly he feels for himself; its finally all about him. Agamemnons brother Menelaus articulates Agememnons character best, as he recalls Agamemnons rationalization of the decision to sacrifice Iphigenia:

God forbid  that you should lose your power and command, honor, glory, fame, your burnished name.

Agamemnon feels above all self-pity:

Im cornered, trapped, yoked, a crafty demons prey. Some dire divinity has outwitted me.

Later in the play, Agamemnon seems to yield up all power and simply acquiesce to the situation:

No, its not a choice. Its obligation.  Willing, unwilling - its now out of my hands.

If Agamemnon had a phone, its easy to imagine him staring at it, as we are told Meadows did, refusing to look up, refusing to listen.

Agamemnon to Mark Meadows

The ending of Iphigenia in Aulis has Iphigenia spirited away by a goddess, while a deer takes her place on the altar and is sacrificed instead of the girl. But many readers have found this solution purposefully unconvincing and ironic, and the text may be unclear. Were certainly invited to imagine a more dire outcome.

However you imagine the end of this story, a constant seems to be that Agamemnon cannot bear to watch, to see. A mosaic from Pompeii shows him muffling his face in his mantle. The Chorus in Aeschylus Agamemnon describes the sacrifice right up to the climactic moment, and then they, too, flinch: What happened next I did not see and will not say.

A 1977 film version by director Michalis Cacoyannis concludes with Agamemnon staring in horror at something we ultimately cannot see, as a terrifying black-robed prophet grabs the girl, while smoke billows around the altar and obscures the view.

Agamemnon seems paralyzed, helpless to act. In the French tragedian Racines 17th-century version of the tragedy, as well as in Euripides, the onlookers all stare at the ground.

If they had phones, thats where theyd be looking.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/cassidy-hutchinson-and-greek-tragedy-show-that-courage-is-rare-and-cowardice-more-common-186423.
Tim Kelly, Republican primary candidate for the 35th District State Senate seat, has decided to pull out of the League of Women Voters candidate forum on Monday, July 11.

In the past couple of weeks, the Voters Not Politicians have joined League of Women Voters as partners in collecting signatures for Promote the Vote 2022- a petition to codify election reforms that have both failed at the federal level thus far, and are key policies championed by the Democrat Party," Kelly wrote in a news release emailed to the Daily News on Friday.
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MIDDLETOWN  A Middletown firefighter is being credited with saving the life of his girlfriends father, who began choking on a piece of meat while the Portland family was enjoying a Fourth of July meal.

Six-year firefighter Beau Sienkiewicz called the frightening incident a freak accident.

The family was in their sunroom, enjoying the weather and chatting among themselves, Sienkiewicz said. He saw his girlfriends father take a bite of steak and then salad, then stand up from the table looking as if he were about to throw up.

He took a few steps to go out of the sunroom back in the house, and he grabbed for his throat and collapsed to the floor, Sienkiewicz explained.

The man wasnt breathing, said the firefighter, whose first aid training instinctively kicked in as he positioned himself behind the father and began performing abdominal thrusts, known as the Heimlich maneuver.

At that same moment, Sienkiewiczs girlfriend of four years ran inside the house to call 911 before I could even think to tell her to, he said.

After about two minutes, he began performing back blows. I wanted to try something extra, so he leaned the fathers body forward and began hitting his back, hoping that something was high enough in his airway that that would assist in moving it.

His efforts were successful.

I think the steak was stuck, and then the lettuce settled on top of it and it blocked the airway, Sienkiewicz explained. He started to blink and move his head, and I felt a wave of relief.

He was completely unconscious, not breathing. I was very grateful when I saw him blink and move his head around, and slowly start to speak a little bit, he added.

There is a very small window of time to open the airway of a person who is choking, Middletown Fire Chief Jay Woron said. It doesnt take long: After four minutes with no oxygen to the brain, you start to have damage. His quick action saved the mans life.

Sienkiewicz reflected on the moment when he saw the man collapse and his emergency skills took over.

Inside, I thought, oh no, he said. It was instinct and constant training. I had to act and do something to make the situation better.

It wasnt until afterward that Sienkiewicz realized he had saved a loved ones life.

When the Hartford HealthCare ambulance arrived at the hospital, an EMT met the family in the waiting room, knowing they were on the way. He was very, very helpful and very kind to him, my girlfriend and her mom, Sienkiewicz said.

The technician told the family the victim was now in good hands and doing very well, he said. Thats when he learned that the father was able to swallow the rest of the steak as they were driving over the Arrigoni Bridge into Middletown. He ended up clearing it himself, Sienkiewicz said.

It was a freak accident that he walked away from, Sienkiewicz added, which is all we could have asked for.

After four years with his girlfriend, Sienkiewicz said, I have quite a relationship with her family. You dont think about the moment. You have to do what you know. You can think about the fact that hes pretty much family afterward.

It was definitely more intense than if I were at work and going on a regular call  the fact that its a personal relationship, he said.

Meanwhile, his girlfriends father is on the mend. He has no recollection of what occurred other than the ambulance ride, said Sienkiewicz, who believes he is shell shocked.

Hes doing very well, Sienkiewicz said, although hes been very tired for the past few days. He returned to work a couple days ago, and is taking it easy. He thanked me a multitude of times.

The emergency response profession runs in Sienkiewiczs family: His father is a former paramedic at Middlesex Hospital.

Every member of the department is certified as an EMT, Woron said. He put that training to good use, saving a life. Fortunately, he was in the right place, witnessed it, and was able to immediately give the gentleman the medical intervention he needed.

Both Woron and Sienkiewicz recommend everyone consider getting first aid training.

Its best to be prepared, the fire chief said. You never know if a family member, (or) if youre out at a restaurant, on the street  thats the kind of training that can save lives, he said.

You take a practical test and a written test to make sure youre taking something away from the class, and youre confident and competent enough to perform CPR or the Heimlich. God forbid something happens, Sienkiewicz said.

The Mayo Clinic explains how to perform abdominal thrusts on another person

Stand behind the person. Place one foot slightly in front of the other for balance. Wrap your arms around the waist. Tip the person forward slightly. If a child is choking, kneel down behind the child.

Make a fist with one hand. Position it slightly above the persons navel.

Grasp the fist with the other hand. Press hard into the abdomen with a quick, upward thrust  as if trying to lift the person up.

Perform between six and 10 abdominal thrusts until the blockage is dislodged.

To learn about area first aid classes, visit the American Red Cross website at redcross.org.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  It would have been something never quite before seen in America  a defeated president, Donald Trump, standing at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with a mob of supporters, some armed, contesting the election outcome.

Trump intended to go there that day. His allies had been planning for the moment, envisioning the president delivering a speech outside the building or even entering the House chamber amid objections to Congress certifying the 2020 election results for Democrat Joe Biden.

Hes going to look powerful, mused Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to a young White House aide four days earlier.

But White House lawyers thought it was a terrible idea. Counsel Pat Cipollone warned that Trump could be charged with every crime imaginable if he joined mob on Capitol Hill trying to interfere with the certification.

In the end, Trump never made it to the Capitol on Jan. 6. His security refused to take him as rioters, some with weapons, laid siege to the building.

Furious, and stuck at the White House, Trump watched the insurrection on television.

The Jan. 6 hearings are providing dramatic new insight about Trump's intentions as he told loyalists he would join them on a march down Pennsylvania Avenue to fight like hell for his presidency. This account is drawn largely from the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Her recollections from her close proximity to the president and his inner circle suggest Trumps demands were not the brash desires of an impulsive commander in chief but part of his last-ditch plan for stopping Bidens victory.

Trump and his allies quickly disputed Hutchinson's account, and the former president conducted his own interview days later disparaging her with derisive commentary and nicknames.

This coming week, the committee is set to focus on Trumps own actions and those of the extremist Oath Keepers and Proud Boys in allegedly leading the Capitol attack.

A look at what's known about Trumps plans to join the mob on Jan. 6:

___

JAN. 2

It was a Saturday night. Giuliani had been meeting at the White House with Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and others.

The White House and Meadows had placed some 18 calls that day to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state, before Trump finally got the elections official on the phone.

Trump had been disputing the election results in Georgia, which he narrowly lost. He was demanding that Raffensperger find 11,780 votes, exactly enough to tip the balance from Biden's victory. The engineer-turned-civil servant declined.

As Giuliani left the White House that night, he walked out with Meadows' young aide, Hutchinson, a senior adviser.

Cass, are you excited for the 6th? Giuliani asked, as Hutchinson recalled in testimony before the Jan. 6 committee. Its going to be a great day.

Hutchinson had heard discussions about Jan. 6 and the rally being planned outside the White House as Congress was set to certify the election results. She also had heard, when Giuliani was around, mentions of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, two extremist groups.

She looked at Giuliani and asked him to explain.

Were going to the Capitol, Giuliani told her. Its going to be great. The presidents going to be there. Hes going to look powerful.

___

JAN. 3

On Sunday, Cipollone privately raised concerns to Hutchinson about the president's planned trip to the Capitol.

Cipollone told her there were serious legal concerns if Trump went ahead as Congress was certifying the election. He urged her to relay the concerns to her boss, Meadows.

We need to make sure that this doesnt happen, Cipollone said, according to Hutchinson's testimony. This would be a legally a terrible idea for us. Were  we have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol that day.

That Sunday was a busy day at the White House.

The leaders of Trump's Justice Department were threatening to resign if the president replaced the acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, with a lower-ranked civil division head, Jeffrey Clark, to pursue the electoral challenge.

And that same day, the U.S. Capitol Police issued a special event assessment, noting that the Proud Boys and other groups planned to be in Washington on Jan. 6.

The police assessment indicated that "unlike previous post-election protests, the targets of the pro-Trump supporters are not necessarily the counter-protesters... but rather Congress itself is the target on the 6th.

___

JAN. 5

On Tuesday, the eve of Jan. 6, according to Hutchinson, Trump asked Meadows to be in touch with two of the president's associates  Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.

Stone attended rallies for Trump in Washington and was photographed with multiple members of the Oath Keepers who were allegedly serving as his security detail, according to the committee. Both Stone and Flynn invoked their Fifth Amendment rights rather than testify before the committee.

The big Stop the Steal rally was planned for the morning of Jan. 6 near the White House. Meadows spoke with both Stone and Flynn that evening, Hutchinson said. Stone has disputed her account.

Meadows also sought to join Giuliani and others who had set up a war room at the Willard Hotel close to the White House, she testified.

I had made it clear to Mr. Meadows that I didnt believe it was a smart idea for him to go to the Willard Hotel that night, she said.

___

JAN. 6: THE RALLY

The morning of the rally on Wednesday, Jan. 6, Cipollone pleaded once again with Hutchinson to ensure Trump did not head to the Capitol.

Please, he said, make sure we dont go up to the Capitol, Cassidy, she recalled. Were going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.

Hutchinsons desk at the White House was just down the hall from the Oval Office, which was in one corner, and her boss Meadows office in the other. But that day she was with the president backstage as he surveyed the crowd of supporters outside the White House.

Trump was furious.

The crowd was not as full as Trump wanted it. Supporters lingered outside the security screening, unwilling to have their weapons confiscated by the Secret Service to join the main rally area.

Trump ordered his security to get rid of the metal detectors, known as magnetometers, insisting the armed supporters were no threat to him.

The police radios crackled with information; a man in the trees with a rifle or another with a handgun at his waist; three men with an AR-15 walking at 14th Street and Independence Avenue.

Trump has disputed Hutchinson's account. I didn't want guns, he said in an interview with Newsmax that aired two days after the hearing.

But Hutchinson had recounted to the committee what she heard.

Theyre not here to hurt me," Trump told his staff, Hutchinson recalled. "Let them in. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol after the rally's over. .... Take the effing mags away. Then they can march to the Capitol.

___

JAN. 6: THE SPEECH

The president took the stage at the Stop the Steal rally complaining about the election outcome and the need to stop Biden from becoming president.

Were going to walk down, and Ill be there with you," Trump said to the thousand of supporters at the grassy Ellipse.

"Were going to walk down to the Capitol, Trump said. You'll never take back our country with weakness; you have to show strength.

Many people had already started peeling off toward the Capitol, and Trump encouraged the crowd to go.

I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard, he said. Lets walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.

A White House security log, revealed by the Jan. 6 committee, shows the scramble that was underway for Trump to go to the Capitol as well.

MilAide has confirmed that he wants to walk, said one entry on the National Security Council chat.

They are begging him to reconsider, reads another.

The next entry was a discussion of the current route for Trump's motorcade to take 15th Street, to F Street, to 6th Street, to Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol.

So this is happening, reads another entry.

Hutchinson was still in the tent behind the rally stage when she got a phone call from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California.

McCarthy sounded rushed, frustrated and angry, she said. You told me this whole week you arent coming up here. Why would you lie to me? he asked Hutchinson, a former House aide.

Im not lying. I wasnt lying to you, sir, she replied. And McCarthy said, Well, he just said it on stage, Cassidy. Figure it out. Dont come up here.

The mob was breaking past the security fencing around the Capitol.

Capitol Police are reporting multiple breaches, the security log reads. Capitol is now calling for all available to respond.

-

JAN. 6: BEHIND THE WHEEL

Trump climbed into the presidential SUV determined to be taken to the Capitol, Hutchinson recalled.

The Secret Service now disputes her account, as does Trump. But Hutchinson testified under oath that she was told later by Anthony Ornato, the deputy chief of staff for White House operations, that Trump was irate.

The president said something to the effect of, Im the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now, she recalled.

When the driver, Bobby Engel, responded, "Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing Trump grabbed at the steering wheel, and lunged at the driver's clavicles, she said.

Trump never made it to the Capitol. His motorcade headed back to the White House.

In the Newsmax interview, Trump dismissed the idea that he tried to commandeer" the car to go to the Capitol as totally false. He marveled at the incredible size of the crowd  one of the biggest, he said, he has ever attracted. But he did not dispute wanting to go to the Capitol that day.

I wanted to go so badly, he said during an April interview with the Washington Post.

At the hearing, the security log made clear just how close Trump came to creating that unseen image  a defeated president standing with the mob as an armed insurrection was laying siege to the Capitol.

Looks like he is coming home for now, the security log stated.
HONOLULU (AP)  Hawaii's governor ordered the U.S. and state flags to be flown at half-staff to honor former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, calling the assassinated ex-leader a friend of the islands.

Because flags are already at half-staff honoring victims of an Independence Day parade shooting in Chicago, Hawaii Gov. David Ige said the flags will be lowered in Abe's memory from sunrise to sunset on Sunday.
NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP)  Chinas support for Russias war in Ukraine is complicating U.S.-Chinese relations at a time when they are already beset by rifts and enmity over numerous other issues, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Chinese counterpart on Saturday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed the U.S. for the downturn in relations and said that American policy has been derailed by what he called a misperception of China as a threat.

Many people believe that the United States is suffering from a China-phobia, he said, according to a Chinese statement. If such threat-expansion is allowed to grow, U.S. policy toward China will be a dead end with no way out.

In five hours of talks in their first-to-face meeting since October, Blinken said he expressed deep concern about Chinas stance on Russias actions in Ukraine and did not believe Beijings protestations that it is neutral in the conflict.

The talks had been arranged in a new effort to try to rein in or at least manage rampant hostility that has come to define recent relations between Washington and Beijing.

We are concerned about the PRCs alignment with Russia, Blinken told reporters after the meeting in the Indonesian resort of Bali. He said it is difficult to be neutral in a conflict in which there is a clear aggressor but that even it were possible, I dont believe China is acting in a way that is neutral.

The Chinese statement said the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on Ukraine but provided no details.

The Biden administration had hoped that China, with its long history of opposing what it sees as interference in its own internal affairs, would take a similar position with Russia and Ukraine. But it has not, choosing instead what U.S. officials see as a hybrid position that is damaging the international rules-based order.

Blinken said every nation, China included, stands to lose if that order is eroded.

The two men met a day after they both attended a gathering of top diplomats from the Group of 20 rich and large developing countries that ended without a joint call to end Russias war in Ukraine or plan for how to deal with its impacts on food and energy security.

However, Blinken said he believed Russia had come away from G-20 meeting isolated and alone as most participants expressed opposition to the Ukraine war. However, the ministers were unable to come to a unified G-20 call for an end to the conflict.

There was a strong consensus and Russia was left isolated, Blinken said of individual condemnations of Russias actions from various ministers, some of whom shunned conversations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

He noted that Lavrov had left the meeting early, possibly because he didnt like what he was hearing from his counterparts.

It was very important that he heard loudly and clearly from around the world condemnation of Russias aggression, Blinken said, adding: We see no signs whatsoever that Russia at his point is prepared to engage in diplomacy.

On China, Blinken said he and Wang discussed a range of contentious issues from tariffs and trade and human rights to Taiwan and disputes in the South China Sea that have all been complicated by the Chinese position on Ukraine.

Wang called on the U.S. to lift tariffs on imports from China as soon as possible, stop interfering in his country's internal affairs and refrain from harming its interests in the name of human rights and democracy. He also accused the U.S. of using salami-slicing tactics on Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its territory and says should come under its control.

Just two days earlier, the countries top military officers had faced off over Taiwan during a virtual meeting. Blinken said he stressed U.S. concerns with Chinas increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity near Taiwan and the vital importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He added that he had also raised human rights concerns regarding minorities in Tibet and in the western Xinjiang region.

Wang refuted some erroneous U.S. views on Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea, the Chinese statement said.

U.S. officials had said ahead of time they didnt expect any breakthroughs from Blinkens talks with Wang. But they said they were hopeful the conversation could help keep lines of communications open and create guardrails to guide the worlds two largest economies as they navigate increasingly complex and potentially explosive matters.

Were committed to managing this relationship, this competition responsibly as the world expects us to do, Blinken said.

The United States and China have staked out increasingly confrontational positions, including on Ukraine, that some fear could lead to miscalculation and conflict. The U.S. has watched warily as China has refused to criticize the Russian invasion, while condemning Western sanctions against Russia and accusing the U.S. and NATO of provoking the conflict.

At the G-20 meeting, Wang made an oblique reference to Chinas policy on global stability, saying to place ones own security above the security of others and intensify military blocs will only split the international community and make oneself less secure, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

On Thursday, Chinas joint chiefs of staff chairman Gen. Li Zuocheng upbraided his U.S. counterpart Gen. Mark Milley over Washingtons support for Taiwan.

Li demanded that the U.S. cease military collusion with Taiwan, saying China has no room for compromise on issues affecting its core interests."

The meeting between Li and Milley followed fiery comments by Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe at a regional security conference last month that was also attended by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Wei accused the United States of trying to hijack the support of countries in the Asia-Pacific region to turn them against Beijing, saying Washington is seeking to advance its own interests under the guise of multilateralism.

At the same meeting in Singapore, Austin said China was causing instability with its claim to Taiwan and its increased military activity in the area.

___

Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.
The Padres placed right-hander Craig Stammen on the 15-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation. (The placement is retroactive to July 6.) Righty Dinelson Lamet has been called up from Triple-A to take Stammens place on the active roster.

A fixture in San Diegos bullpen for the last six seasons, Stammen is having another good year, with a 3.34 ERA/3.25 SIERA over 32 1/3 innings. The home run ball has been a bit more of an issue for Stammen this season, yet the 38-year-old is still generating plenty of outs thanks to a lot of soft contact, a 51.5% grounder rate, and his typically excellent control. Stammens 3.6% walk rate is in the 97th percentile of all pitchers, and he has been in at least the 91st percentile in each of the last five seasons.

With Steven Wilson, Robert Suarez, and now Stammen all on the 15-day IL, the Padres have lost some key arms from what has been a very solid relief corps. None of the injuries are thought to be overly serious at this point, and Wilson and Suarez are already throwing bullpen sessions.

However, there is an opportunity for Lamet to re-establish himself as a player to watch. A fourth-place finisher in NL Cy Young Award balloting in 2020, Lamet has struggled to stay healthy, and now may be ticketed for bullpen work in an attempt to avoid further IL trips. Working only as a reliever this season, Lamet has a 9.72 ERA over 8 1/3 innings in the big leagues, but he has looked sharper in minor league action.

Given the close proximity to the trade deadline, Lamets recall might also be the Padres way of showcasing the righty to potential trade suitors. San Diego was known to be discussing Lamet with other teams earlier this year, perhaps as a way of giving the Padres a bit of extra luxury-tax breathing room.
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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The Greater Accra Hausa Chief's Palace under the leadership of Sarki, Alhaji Mohammedu Kabiru Kadiri English has presented 100 bags of cement and an amount of GHS5,000 to the family of Musah Abokin Ango as their contribution towards the construction of a Mosque in Sabon Zongo, a suburb of Accra.

The donation of the building materials and the cash forms part of the Palace's annual Sadaka (gift) within the Zongo communities in Ghana.

The construction of the mosque has been supported by many individuals and philanthropists.

Representing the Masarautan Hausawa Ankara, the Commander In-Chief of the Zongo communities, Wazir Alhaji Sanusi Ali Ahmed reiterated that the Palace support towards the construction of the Mosque forms part of the dream of the Greater Accra Hausa Chief which is to see the progress and development of Zongo communities in the country.

He added that history has revealed that the Greater Accra Hausa Chief's Palace has a cordial relationship with Dr. Musah Abokin Ango. He added that the donation will as well strengthen the relationship between the two sides.

According to him, the Palace through its cabinet members has supported the various Zongo communities in a number of areas such as education, health among others.

He noted that other measures have also been undertaken to improve the living standards of the youth and the aged.

He revealed that the Palace has supported other communities with similar donations over the years and will continue to extend its support to other Zongo communities to enhance development.

The Waziri of the Greater Accra Hausa Chief stated that the palace in collaboration with a Non-governmental Organization has selected schools from four communities namely Zangon Tuta, Kwashieman, Darkuman and Fadama and taken upon themselves to support 10 pupils from each school from age 4 to 14 years with rice, oil, canned fish, spaghetti among others every month.

He said those ten pupils were also provided with exercise books, pens and pencils, mathematical sets and other learning materials.

Waziri Alhaji Senusi Ali Ahmed further revealed that the initiative has been going on for the past three years and will continue to render its support to the schools.

He said the Palace few months ago extended its support to some schools by providing them with large waste bins to help in proper sanitation practice.

He added that the Greater Accra Hausa palace will ensure that the Zongo communities continue to be a better place for all irrespective of religious differences as well as render untainted support to help bring growth into those communities.

The Commander In-Chief of the Zongo communities, Wazir Alhaji Sanusi Ali Ahmed further revealed that the Youth Chief of Greater Accra Zongo Communities Alhaji Sarki Salisu Maude four months ago donated a sum of GHS10,000 to an Islamic School in Sabon Zongo.

He added that the Palace as part of its efforts to support the needy within the Zongo Communities especially during the holy month of Ramadan presented bags of rice, oil, tea bags, milk and sugar to chiefs from various Zongo Communities which were distributed to the needy in their communities.

According to him, the Palace during Eid-ul-fitir celebration also presented food to some selected police stations in the Greater Accra as their Sallah package and the inmates in their custody. He added that they also presented about 1000 packs of rice and stew to the Ga community.

The Abokin family commended the Greater Accra Hausa Chief and his cabinet members for their kindness and prayed that Allah would help the palace to grow bigger to provide more for Muslim communities in Ghana.

Waziri Alhaji Sanusi Ahmed was accompanied by Dereni of the Palace, Alhaji Ali Gado and supported by Alhaji Angua Karki the Shamaki of the Waziri.
Business magnate, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom is back after battling some illness.

He said he is now fit and ready to revive his businesses.

Its been a long time since I stood anywhere in Elmina or elsewhere in the country like this. Maybe four years ago when we travelled across the country for the bank.

Since then, I have been living almost exclusively in the USA for health and business reasons, he stated.

This follows a speech he delivered at a durbar held in commemoration of this year's Bakatue festival at Elmina in the central region over the weekend.

He narrated the difficulties he has been facing in business and personal life.

The former PPP Presidential candidate admitted that it has been difficult all around.

He has announced a new beginning in life, a symbol of the Bakatue festival.

Bakatue also signifies a new season and new beginnings. That is what I wish for everyone and Edinaman, he said.

He continued We are working hard, solving problems and praying to God to reward our efforts with success. When we succeed, Edinaman and the whole country will benefit from our success.
The President of the New Ghana Social Justice Forum (NGSJF), Mr Yahaya Alhassan has appealed to President Nana Akufo-Addo to convert the building of the National Cathedral into a vocational and housing unit to accommodate and provide training to the needy in society instead.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra, Mr Alhassan, stated; there are countless lives found in our big cities and God/Allah would prefer shelter for these homeless nursing mothers, girls, children and orphans than building a national cathedral.

According to the NGSJF president, the appeal is in congruence with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) manifesto promise to provide accommodation for head potters (kayayei).

Mr Alhassan urged international donor countries and organizations to advise or suspend any support should Ghana continue the construction of the temple in the face of corruption, homelessness, poor roads, underpaid lecturers, flooded community etc.

He therefore called on the board of trustees to follow Dr. Mensa Otabils example and exit the project.

Read full statement below:
Britain is staring down the barrel of uncertainty as the Conservative party begins the laborious process of finding a new leader to replace Boris Johnson. He's staying on in a caretaker role until a suitable new prime minister is found. However that could take months leaving the country, and the party, in an embarrassing situation.

Johnson announced on Thursday he would step down as head of the Conservative party following resignations by more than 50 government ministers.

Many of his MPs wanted him out of office in the wake of a series of scandals and a loss of integrity. But despite calls for his departure, Johnson made no mention of stepping down as Prime Minister.

In his resignation statement he said only that the "process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week.

Johnson plans to go only once a new leader is found.

In principle, this is not unusual, says Colin Hay, a professor of British civilisation at Paris's Institute of Political Sciences.

There's certainly a precedent for it, pretty much the same thing happened with both Johnson's predecessors Theresa May and David Cameron, he told RFI.

It's controversial because of the circumstances under which he's leaving, but there's no chance whatsoever that he would continue beyond the completion of a leadership contest.

"The problem is the length of time during which British government is essentially dormant under his leadership.

Timetable

The Conservative leadership contest is a lengthy process and might not be sorted out until October.

Sir John Major, a former Conservative prime minister, said it would be "unwise" for Johnson to stay in office for three months.

He, and some other Conservative MPs, said the timetable could be shortened with Johnson resigning immediately and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab taking over as a caretaker premier.

Major also suggested the leadership election process  decided by the executive of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs  could be modified.

Pressure to resign soon

In the meantime, Johnson remains in the job, but pressure is mounting.

Johnson has only gone half way, he's resigned as party leader but hasn't resigned as PM, Keith Dixon, a British civilisation specialist at Lyon University, told RFI.

So I think that on the Conservative party side there will be strong movement to put pressure on Johnson to resign quickly.

Braitain's main opposition Labour Party has called for Johnson to quit immediately, promising a vote of no confidence if he isn't ousted straight away.

He's taking the mickey, former Labour minister Denis MacShane told RFI.

He's been driven out of the Conservative party but insists he can remain head of government and the country: propose laws, name ministers, even declare war.

If Macron, Biden, or whoever are talking to Johnson what powers will he have? That's the problem.

'Limited' powers

In theory Johnson holds onto the same powers until he's replaced; he still represents the UK abroad, and can continue to make public appointments and change cabinet members.

But in reality his powers are constrained  both by himself and by the absence of any significant support even within his own party says Hay.

Johnson said himself he won't engage in new policy initiatives and he doesn't really have the authority to introduce significant new public policy making, even if he chose to do so.

Hay says questions remain, however, over ongoing policy initiatives, notably the Northern Ireland protocol.

What happens next?

After the drama of recent weeks, and Johnson's reluctant resignation as party leader, Hay believes the turmoil will gradually subside.

We're sort of on the eve of the summer recess, so things will now probably slow down a bit. Boris isn't up for stoking the fires yet again," he says.

"I think and hope we might find a relatively more tranquil summer as candidates start to emerge for the leadership contest within the Conservative party and the focus of attention moves away from Boris.

No one has officially thrown their hat in the ring, but close to a dozen names are circulating in the media.

Once a list is drawn up, Conservative MPs will whittle candidates down to a final two and then party members  just under 200,000  will decide which one will be leader, and therefore the next prime minister.

While the new PM is not required to hold a general election straightaway, one must be held by January 2025.

Tarnished image abroad

Meanwhile, the fact Johnson is sitting tight as Prime Minister for the moment is "frankly embarrassing in terms of Britain's international reputation says MacShane.

Hay agrees that it's "giving a terrible image".

It remains to be seen, he says, how much of the damage will be long term and how much is personally associated with Johnson and will therefore change once he's gone.

"I suspect there's a bit of both [...] it's not just been Boris Johnson acting alone that's led to the loss of Britain's international reputation, above all in Europe," Hay says.

"In that sense I think Britain's going to have to re-earn its reputation and that may take quite a time."
09.07.2022 LISTEN

Alhaji Adams Abdulai, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the Pru East has urged Muslims and the general public to mark the festival of sacrifice with the highest level of personal security.

Alhaji Abdulai noted that the country was not in normal times as terrorists and diseases continue to pose as threats.

He urges celebrants of the festive occasion to exercise maximum security caution during and after the festive.

Alhaji Abdulai called on worshippers who would be going to pray at the various centres to be responsible for each others' safety and endeavor to report any suspicious character to the security agencies who would be stationed at various vantage points to provide security protection for lives and properties.

He said Eid -UL- Adha was a festival of sacrifice that project and promote sharing and caring for one another.

It is based on this that everyone must see the security of their neighbours as a civil responsibility.

He commended government for its continuous efforts in ensuring peace and development in communities such as Yeiji and its environs.

The DCE further urged the general public to be circumspect and responsible in ensuring that peace wins at the end of the celebration.
Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, former Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament has asked government to scrap the Free SHS policy to help free some of the monies injected into program to ease the economy.

He said the flagship policies of government are draining the country financially.

The former New Juabeng South Member of Parliament stated that while he is aware those policies were among government's top campaign promises, it is not mandatory to implement all of them.

Teacher and nursing training allowances need to be removed. It was a campaign message though, but there were so many campaign messages that have not been fulfilled your first term you did it fantastically.

"Do you think Free SHS the way it is being run is good? When I was talking about feeding fees, my ten years old son, goes to Agape school their feeding fee for a day is GH 15 for a decent lunch. Is my son better than those kids in the public schools (who are given GH0.97)? So, if you cant do it, scrap it. These kids when they dont go to school on weekends you think they dont eat at home? It will save you (the government) GH 900 million a year, he noted.

Speaking on Metro TV, an Accra-based television station, monitored by Modernghana News, the NPP stalwart suggested that if government cannot scrap it entirely, it should reshape it and save the country a significant amount of money.

Why should we be paying for boarding facilities and the rest? So, we can shape the Free SHS somewhat. You have the Free SHS bill of GH 1.9 billion a year. If you can save lets say GH400 million a year thats huge, he emphasized.
The head of Burkina Faso's ruling junta Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, speaking alongside ex-president Blaise Compaore, on Friday called for "social cohesion" to face jihadist violence plaguing the nation.

Damiba, who took power in a coup in January, made his appeal after inviting former leaders to attend a summit to "accelerate national reconciliation" and attempt to curb jihadist attacks that have rocked Burkina Faso since 2015.

But only two ex-leaders attended: Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo, who was in office from 1982 to 1983, and Compaore, who served as president for 27 years until he was forced into exile in Ivory Coast following a popular uprising in 2014.

Compaore's return home on Thursday for the first time in eight years to attend the summit has drawn widespread criticism.

Many have called for his arrest after he was sentenced in absentia to life in prison in April for his role in the assassination of his predecessor Thomas Sankara, a pan-African icon, during the coup that brought him to power in 1987.

Damiba said Friday's meeting focused mostly on "the quest for lasting peace in our country".

"It is only in social cohesion and unity that the forces fighting terrorism at this very moment will be even more determined and successful," he added, with Compaore standing beside him.

"The urgency of preserving the existence of our homeland requires a synergy of actions that does not allow us to give ourselves the luxury of wasting any time in arguments," Damiba said.

'Shared peril'

Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been caught up in an escalating wave of violence attributed to jihadists allied to both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

The violence has claimed more than 2,000 lives and forced 1.9 million people to flee their homes.

Compaore and Ouedraogo in their own statement called on Burkinabe people to "overcome political rifts" to rebuild the country and face what they described as the "shared peril" of the jihadist insurgency.

"There is an absolute urgency to reconquer occupied lands and restore the state's authority," they said.

Some 40 percent of the country lies outside the control of the government, a regional mediator said last month.

The other former leaders invited to attend Friday's summit were Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who was overthrown in January, Isaac Zida, who briefly took office in 2014 and currently lives in exile in Canada, and Michel Kafando, who ruled from 2014 to 2015.

But none of them showed up.

'Should be arrested'

Dozens of protesters demonstrated Friday morning outside Kabore's home in Ouagadougou to prevent him from attending.

Members of Kabore's party, the People's Movement for Progress (MPP), were among those demonstrating.

"Should we sacrifice justice, the foundation of the republican pact, on the altar of a certain national reconciliation?" the MPP asked.

Boukari Conombo, president of the Black Armband, a civil society movement, dismissed the new president's attempt at reconciliation as "a farce".

"It's not the role of Damiba who made a coup to reconcile people," he told AFP.

The Patriotic Front, which includes some 20 organisations and political parties, said Compaore "should be immediately arrested and taken to prison", as an international arrest warrant has been issued against him.

"This reconciliation must not and cannot be achieved by establishing impunity or by making arrangements between politicians," several trade unions, also present, said.

Among the other former presidents, Zida could not make it "for administrative reasons", while Kafando could not "for health reasons", according to Damiba.
The President of the Republic Of Ghana, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo expressed sadness about the demise of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

In a post on his Twitter page, the chair of ECOWAS extended a message of condolence to the people of Japan and its Emperor Naruhito, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for their loss.

On behalf of the Government & people of Ghana, I send sincere condolences and deep sympathies to Emperor Naruhito, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the Government and people of Japan, and to his family, on the tragic murder of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which occurred today, President Akufo-Addo said in a Tweet this evening.

According to President Akufo-Addo, the Asian country has lost a noble patriot who will be missed by all for a very long time.

Japan has lost a noble son, a patriot, and a distinguished democrat. He will be missed by all who had the privilege and pleasure of knowing and meeting him.

May his soul rest in perfect peace. Amen, President Akufo-Addo added in his Tweet.
The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has urged striking teachers to make considerations and return to the classroom for the sake of school children.

Since Monday, four teacher unions including the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) have been on strike over the governments failure to pay a 20% Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) to members who they argue are struggling to survive

Expressing concern about the effect the strike is having on school children, GNECC has issued a press release appealing to the unions and the government to both make compromises and reach an agreement for the sake of the pupils.

GNECC is appealing to all the parties involved to take into consideration the best interest of the child principle as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the Childrens Act 560 in resolving the current impasse in the interest of the Ghanaian child towards our collective effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 4 targets, part of a release issued on Friday, July 8 reads.

GNECC further calls on the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, the Ministry of Finance, Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, the Ministry of Education, and the Ghana Education Service to take immediate prudent action to address and rectify all industrial issues.

In the meantime, the education coalition pleads with the Teacher Unions to resume work whiles negotiating their COLA and other legitimate terms and conditions of service as enshrined in the Collective Agreement of 2020.

Below is a copy of the GNECC press release:
A police officer ties a crime scene tape in Owo, Ondo, Nigeria on June 6, 2022. Authorities charged Wikkitimes publisher Haruna Mohammed Salisu and reporter Idris Kamal with criminal conspiracy and defamation on June 28. (Reuters/Temilade Adelaja)

09.07.2022 LISTEN

Nigerian authorities should immediately drop all charges against publisher Haruna Mohammed Salisu and reporter Idris Kamal and allow journalists to work free from legal harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

On June 27, police in the city of Bauchi, the capital of northern Bauchi state, arrested and detained Salisu and Kamal, both with the privately owned Wikkitimes news website, according to the journalists and their lawyer, Idrees Gambo, all of whom spoke to CPJ by phone, and a statement by the International Press Center, a local press freedom organization.

Police released the journalists later that day but ordered them to return for further questioning the following day, they said.

On June 28, police took Salisu and Kamal to a local magistrate court, where they were charged with criminal conspiracy, defamation, and cyberstalking over reporting published by Wikkitimes on May 18, according to the journalists and their lawyer.

They were held overnight and then released from custody on June 29, after providing sureties on bonds of 100,000 naira (US$238) each, Salisu and Gambo told CPJ, adding that the prosecution dropped the cyberstalking charge as the court lacked jurisdiction. Their next court date was scheduled for July 25.

Convictions for defamation and conspiracy each carry up to two years in prison and an unspecified fine, according to Gambo.

The prosecution of Wikkitimes journalists Haruna Mohammed Salisu and Idris Kamal offers yet another example of the criminalization of the press in Nigeria, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator, from Durban, South Africa. Authorities should swiftly reform the countrys laws to prevent the targeting of journalists, drop all charges against Salisu and Kamal, and allow them to work without fear of arrest or harassment.

That May 18 Wikkitimes report concerned threats against Husseini Musa Gwaba, the Bauchi state chairperson of the All Progressives Congress opposition political party prior to his death in May, and alleged that former APC member Yakubu Shehu Abdullahi had been displeased by Gwabas appointment as chair.

Abdullahi filed a complaint over the article, which sparked the journalists arrest, according to Salisu and the International Press Center statement.

Bauchi state police texted Salisu on June 18 asking him to come to the states Criminal Investigation Department for questioning, the journalist said, adding that he was out of town and agreed to meet with officers the following week.

Salisu went to the station with Kamal on June 27, and when Salisu told police that Kamal had authored the May 18 report, officers detained both journalists, according to those sources. Mohammed and Salisu told CPJ that officers encouraged inmates to slap and kick the journalists while in detention until Salisu offered to pay the inmates 3,000 nairas (US$7) to stop.

When CPJ called Abdullahi for comment, he hung up after a CPJ representative identified themselves. He did not answer subsequent calls or text messages seeking comment.

CPJ called and texted Bauchi state police spokesperson Ahmed Mohammed Wakil and Ali Shehu, a Bauchi state Ministry of Justice lawyer, but did not receive any replies.
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09.07.2022 LISTEN

The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo expresses grief over the assassination of the former Japanese Prime Minister.

He said the late Abe was a noble son, patriot and distinguished democrat.

In a tweet on Friday, July 8, Akufo-Addo extended his condolences to the current Japanese administration and the family of the late Prime Minister.

Japan has lost a noble son, a patriot and a distinguished democrat. He will be missed by all who had the privilege and pleasure of knowing and meeting him. May his soul rest in perfect peace. Amen!!

On behalf of the Government & people of Ghana, I send sincere condolences and deep sympathies to Emperor Naruhito, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the Government and people of Japan, and to his family, on the tragic murder of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which occurred today, those were the words as sighted by this portal.

Akufo-Addo further described the assassination as cowardice and a despicable act which must be universally condemned.

It is a most cowardly and despicable act, which must receive the firm condemnation of all. Shinzo Abe did not deserve to die this way, he stated.

He further reflected the goodwill and hospitality of the late Shinzo Abe and his quest to see Africa prosper.

As modern Japans longest-serving Prime Minister and one of its most successful, I recall my official visit to Japan in December 2018, where, amongst others, Ghana and Japan pledged to continue to strengthen the excellent relations that exist between our two countries.

During that visit, he was a most gracious host and demonstrated his strong commitment to democratic governance and respect for human rights and individual liberties. Unfortunately, it was in the exercise of these rights that he met his untimely death, his post concludes.

The former Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, met his untimely death after he was shot while delivering a speech during a campaign in the Japanese city of Nara on Friday, July 8.
The President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has extended his best wishes to Muslims in the country as they celebrate this years Eid-ul-Adha.

Today, Muslims in the country have joined the world to celebrate the feast of sacrifice.

In a post on his social media pages, President Akufo-Addo has called for togetherness to make Ghana great and strong.

I send best wishes to all Muslims in Ghana and around the world as we celebrate Eid-ul-Adha, the feast of the sacrifice.

Let us on this day make peace with ourselves and our fellow beings and hold fast to the rope that Allah has United us with, the rope of Ghana.

Only in doing this shall we achieve our aim of making Ghana great and strong. Happy Eid-ul-Adha, a post on the social media pages of President Akufo-Addo reads.

Following the Eid-ul-Adha celebration, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has declared Monday, July 11, a statutory public holiday.
The Director of Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the President, Jubilee House, Akwasi Awuah Ababio has on behalf of Ghanas President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, officially inaugurated, Asanteman Europe, a group of Asantes on the European continent.

He was assisted by Ghanas Ambassador to the Netherlands, Francis Denti Kotia and an Information Technology (IT) consultant, Dr James Owusu to declare Asanteman Europe duly inaugurated.

Asanteman Europe is made up of 15 member associations from 11 countries which are the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom (UK).

There are some Asanteman associations in other European countries which are yet to be officially registered and yet to be recognised by Asanteman Europe.

However, during the inauguration in Amsterdam at the 1000-capacity building at Schepenbergweg 15, 1105 AS, the venue was filled to the brim, leaving many attendants waiting outside.

The Otumfo Brempn Baworhene, Nana Safo Agyemang as Guest of Honour led nananom to make the occasion solemn and pledged the support of Asanteman Traditional Council for Asanteman Europe.

Aside cultural display, the occasion also created opportunities for social gathering and networking; not forgetting the fund raising segment which was at the climax of the event considering the theme: Empowering the Ghanaian Child through Education - the role of Asanteman Europe.

Speaking on the theme for the inauguration, Mr Awuah said the theme was in eye contact with President Akufo-Addos vision to increase literacy in Ghana.

He added that Ghana Central Government launched the Free SHS as Education Policy in 2017, stressing that education serves as the bedrock for development.

For this reason, he said the formation of Asanteman Europe and its inauguration was in synch with the ideology of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo if not to eliminate, to reduce illiteracy in the country in the coming years.

Investment Opportunities

He said in the past few years, COVID-19 as global pandemic had badly affected investment in Ghana and that he seized the opportunity to entreat Ghanaians in diaspora not to hesitate to invest in Ghana now that the pandemic is under control.

He said small or heavy investments from Ghanaians in diaspora, especially members of Asanteman Europe, could help the government's efforts in turning the fortunes of Ghana to become the country we all intend to see it become.

He applauded Nananom and Executives of the Asanteman Europe for their contributions to Ghana in the area of education and health, saying that these are some of the group investments that are good examples for many Ghanaians in diaspora to learn.

Integration & Diversity

He said as Ghanaians in Europe, it was pertinent to realise their cultural identities as they integrate with other nationals in different European countries.

He added that as much as integration and diversity were important in a multicultural environment, it behoves smart people to pause to value their own culture, while living in the midst of many other cultures, so together we all help to reshape, repackage our culture to rebuild our country Ghana.

ICT Learning Centres

President of Asanteman Europe, Papa Yaw Agyei was joined by his two deputies Barima Asabre and Oppong Akosah to explain the education project Asanteman Europe was embarking on.

He said the association is yet to agree on some selected areas to begin ICT learning centres where laptop computers could be shared to some deprived communities in the area of teaching and learning to catch up with the IT world.

That notwithstanding, he said it was possible to begin ICT learning centres in three rural areas in Kumawu, Mampong and Offinso as a pilot project for some period after which it will be extended to other equally deprived areas of Asanteman.

Our ICT project is not only to support education in deprived areas of Ghana, but it could also provide jobs as much as job creation is important for the country, he stated and asked all and sundry to continue to donate both in kind and cash to the project in the area of education and job.

Donations

Apart from Asanteman Finlandhene, Nana Ekuoba Gyasi Semperemo, personally donating financially, other member associations also donated financially to support the fund raising project on ICT education.

There were also donations in kind from Nana Kota Ntiamoah who donated 10 electric sewing machines worth an estimated 5,300 Ghana Cedis on behalf of Asanteman Norway and Chairperson for the inauguration, Dr James Owusu also donating 100 laptop computers worth an estimated 100,000 Ghana Cedis.

From Joseph Kyei-Boateng, AMSTERDAM
I quote Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a good friend, and a former economic adviser to Kofi Anan (whilst Secretary General to the United Nations) for the umpteenth time. He also happened to be a friend of Professor Mills. Professor Sachs has been involved in offering economic advice and assistance to Governments of over 90% of the Global population. In his book entitled The End of Poverty the good professor writes without any of the 'erudition' associated with higher learning in economics, that: 'Economic Development works. It can be successful. It tends to build on itself. But it must first get started.' I think the challenge is, thus far, Africa has developed at a snails pace.

Jeffrey wrote in 2005, that when countries get their foot onto the ladder of economic development, they can continue the upward climb, barring any disastrous Government (my take) or catastrophe. All good things tend to move together at each rising rung: higher capital stock, greater specialization, more advanced technology, and lower fertility. However, once trapped below the ladder of development, with the first rung too high off the ground, the climb does not even get started.

It is now an accepted precept of economic development that the West does not need to invest with the view to making an impoverished economy rich, but it simply ought to be sufficient to get us onto a foothold on the ladder of economic development. However, history has shown us that the West is usually only prepared to proffer hand-outs and bailouts which like alms, given to street beggars, don't develop countries but simply keep them begging, where they are  on the proverbial streets  in destitution. It begs the question whether one should rejoice at what the IMF will be willing to offer us for the price we have to pay for coming to them.

An IMF package with its conditionalities will not develop Ghana and put the country beyond the pangs of poverty and hunger, unless the Country is ruled by leaders who are able to create other meaningful sources of funds such as the learned Dr Bawumiah is wont to say: Formalize the private sector, provide an enabling environment to speed up the growth of the sector to produce a formidable source of private sector investment that can push the country up the Ladder of development. Financial discipline, blockage of leakages, including loss through corruption and sheer theft. Corruption must not just be stopped after it has happened but stopped at the source. Vote buying at party political primaries in Africa should be a conditionality, otherwise, the country labours in vain because the country suffers a vicious cycle of corruption that is used to facilitate elections at every level and an excuse for politicians to enrich themselves beyond the pale.

In March 2016, I said: All things being equal, choosing a Government in 2016, should undoubtedly be one of the easiest and most informed decision Ghanaians would have to make in our relatively short political history, however, time and again, our decisions have been marred by either money or an unwholesomely blind allegiance to tribe, kith and kin, if not simply misreported.

It was indeed easy, NPP won by a whopping one million votes. The 2020 election was somewhat less exciting, obviously after Ghanaians had tasted 4 Years of NPP Government.

To me, it was just a chance that was blown away. It was as if I had a spiritual revelation to have said that even every now and then our decisions as a people have been marred by either money or an unwholesomely blind allegiance to tribe, kith and kin. Whilst I thought the voting could be marred, it was rather the decisions of Government, such as the paramount appointments to Government positions. The recent comments of an extremely able and knowledgeable Senior Government minister unfortunately betray mindsets at play.

It is the absence of a structural approach to Government practices which would appear to have failed our government. The use of reshuffle is to enable us to get some of the best at post to try because with the best will in the world it will not be easy to determine the best human resource available except by trying in a secure environment. Since David Cameron's term as the prime minister of the United Kingdom began on 11 May 2010 till date, Britain is moving on to its 4th Prime minister this year, whilst Ghana is still with its 2nd President, cocooned by their confidants.

I was not surprised to have heard a Parliamentarian justify the payment of Ex-Gratia awards by the fact that votes have to be literally bought at party primaries but I was shocked to note that it was reported as the view of the Speaker of Ghanas Parliament; both practices must be exorcised, before they remove every hope of instilling any financial discipline in our polity, whether by constitutional amendments or by mere legislative.

BY KWAME OHENE ASARE
President Nana Akufo-Addo wants cool heads to prevail on the labour front, following recent industrial actions by labour unions.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Board of the National Labour Commission at the Jubilee House, Nana Akufo-Addo said there must be a fair balance between what labour is demanding and what government can provide.

I believe the promotion of industrial peace and harmony is a function of two things that will establish a balance between the legitimate demands of labour and the capacities of the employer. Striking a fair and equitable balance between the demand and supply becomes the most effective way of promoting industrial peace in our country.

Four teacher groups have declared a nationwide strike over the government's inability to meet the deadline for their demands for the payment of Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).

This follows the expiration of a June 30 deadline the unions gave the government.

The unions are the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Teachers and Educational Workers' Union (TEWU) and Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT).

Various groups including the Union of Professional Nurse and Midwives have also joined calls by some public sector workers for the government to pay them the 20% COLA.

By Citi Newsroom
President Nana Akufo-Addo has appealed to striking teachers to return to the classroom while negotiations continue with the government.

The President mentioned that teachers should consider the pending BECE that must be written by third-year students in Junior High Schools.

The Presidents appeal comes at the back of ongoing labour agitations that have greeted the education sector.

Some four teacher unions have been on strike for the past one week owing to their deteriorating conditions with stagnant salaries.

The teachers are demanding payment of a cost of living allowance to shore up their expenses, stating worsening economic conditions.

The President made a passionate appeal to teachers to reconsider their decision for the sake of the students.

He further urged citizens to bear with the government through turbulent times under the suffocation of covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war.

The President made an undisclosed money donation to the National Chief Imam in support of the Eid Fitr celebration at the Independence Square.

citinewsroom
President Nana Akufo-Addo has appealed to striking teachers to resume work pending the outcome of the negotiations with the government.

Mr Akufo-Addo indicated that teaching should resume in order not to affect the education of the children as the government also works assiduously to resolve the economic challenges facing the country.

In his Edul-Adha message on Saturday July 9, Mr Akufo-Addo said I am aware that some teacher unions have declared strike in pursuit of a twenty per cent Cost of Living Allowance. I am happy that yesterday, the teachers were joined by other members of the organised labour under the Trades Union Congress to sit down with government led by the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations and the Minister for Education to begin negotiations on this matter.

I want to add my voice to the appeal by the outstanding Minister for Employment and Labour Relations Hon Ignatius Baffur Awauh , Member of Parliament for Sunyani West for the teachers to return to the classrooms, pending the outcome of the negotiations so that the education of our children, some of whom are preparing to sit their final exams, is not affected.

We are in a difficult place, the world is in a difficult place. Leaders around the world, like we are doing here in Ghana, are working assiduously to resolve the fundamental challenges that have plunged the world into the current economic conditions in which it finds itself. But, just as the efforts of Hagga resulted in the discovery of Zamzam well, from which we drink these day, I am confident that soon, we shall discoverer our own Zamzam well.

On Monday, 4th July 2022, the four (4) Unions in Education, namely Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), TEWU and Coalition of Concerned Teachers , Ghana, withdrew their services in all the Pre-Tertiary educational space, to back their demand for the Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA).

This involved both Teaching and Non-Teaching staff.

3news.com
It is harvest time in Kenya, and Joseph Thika has had to hire workers to help him harvest his cotton crop. Joseph is happy that his genetically modified plants matured faster this year, compared to the variety he used in the past. Kenya is counting on this solution to revive its struggling textile industry.

Thika is one of the many cotton farmers living in Kibibi Kirinyaga county, some 250 kilometers north of Kenya's capital Nairobi.

According to Thika, farmers like himself have now started reaping big rewards, thanks to the introduction of genetically modified cotton, boosting the local textile industry.

The Bt cotton variety they are using is a genetically modified pest resistant plant which naturally produces an insecticide to combat bollworm, a pest which destroys cotton plants.

The initials Bt stand for Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil-dwelling bacterium which is fatal to bollworm larvae.

We started planting this variety last year and we find it more beneficial than the old one. This one takes 4 to 5 months to mature, compared to the previous one that took 9 months. The yields are also very high, says Thika.

Kenya typically grows two cotton varieties, HART 89M and KSA 81M, both of which produce low yields, leading to farmers incurring losses.

Thika says he ventured into the new variety after receiving training from state agriculture officers.

800 kilos every three months

Evans Ngure lives a few kilometers from Thika's farm. Ngure is a well-known cotton farmer in Nyangate village. According to Ngure, he harvests 800 kilos of ginned cotton from his single-hectare farm every three months.

I used to harvest about 300 kilos but, with the current variety, I can harvest 800 kilos at a go. So far there are about 10 farmers in the area who have ventured into the new variety, Ngure says, adding that they are waiting for the Bt cotton seeds to be brought in so that, when the rains start in October, they will be ready for planting.

Johnson Mwai, another farmer from Mwea East, tells RFI's Africa Calling Podcast that since he started growing cotton in 1967, he has never had big yields, until the arrival of Bt cotton.

Mwai says he stopped planting other crops like maize and beans two years ago because of harsh weather conditions, and now focuses on Bt cotton.

Each sack is 35 kgs and you can harvest 100 sacks and with a kilogram trading for about 55 shillings, you get a lot of money per hectare compared to the old variety.

Mwai also says that life has become a bit easier as he has managed to pay school fees for his children and resolve other issues using the earnings.

Championing research

Organisations such as the International Service for Acquisition of Agribiotech, the Alliance for Science, and the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Organisation have been championing research into genetically modified cotton for the past two years.

Daniel Magondu, a leading Bt cotton farmer and the chairman of the Society for Biotechnology Farming of Kenya says farmers are grateful to the government for providing free seeds, a move that is attracting farmers to revive the crop.

Farmers who are willing to plant go to the Ministry of Agriculture with their Identification card, they get the amount of seed they want to plant in their hectarage. After planting, the ginners are connected to farmers so they come and get the seed cotton from buying centres where they pay farmers on delivery.

It is estimated that, 30 years ago, there were 50,000 cotton farmers in Kenya, producing 40,000 bales of the HART 89M cotton annually.

The industry gradually collapsed due to diseases, poor weather conditions and the importation of second-hand garments from the United States.

Magondu has asked the government to distribute Bt cotton to other areas to revive the ginnery industry which had lost its former glory. He points out that growing Bt cotton also helps farmers to battle the effects of climate change.

Cotton is a drought tolerant crop. It cannot leave you with nothing like the way we are seeing it in our maize fields and other fields where we have nothing to harvest. But in the cotton fields we get at least something to buy food for our families,'' observes Magondu.

Opposition and contamination

Organic agriculture lobby groups are, however, against the move to introduce genetically modified plants in Kenya, saying that there's possibility of contamination of seeds.

According to Eustace Kiarie, chief executive officer at Kenya Organic Agriculture Network, the yield from genetically modified cotton, though initially high, tends to fail over time.

We have seen in countries like Canada where farmers who have grown organic maize have been contaminated by Bt maize from neighbours, and these organic farmers are taken to court for using a technology that they have not paid for. So there are many issues that we need to consider even before the full rollout of this Bt cotton."

The lobby group says that more research is needed on such crops, adding that Kenya should maintain the ban imposed in 2012 on the use of genetically modified crops until their safety is confirmed.

Long-term failure of GM crops

According to Kiarie, the same technology has failed in other African countries, leading to a huge loss of money.

In Burkina Faso, he says, "they started planting and commercialising Bt cotton in 2008 and seven years later they had to abandon planting this crop, and the reason was that the cotton they were getting when it was taken to the ginnery, the threads were very short and the quality was very low, says Kiarie.

It is estimated that Burkina Faso lost around $27,000 because of the low quality of seeds. If Kenya is to learn from Burkina Faso, it should be cautious about adopting this technology.

In 2006, the African Union adopted a resolution stating that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were not welcome on the continent. It did not take long before the resolution was shredded after it became apparent that GMOs have the potential to redefine agriculture.

Despite official concerns, the African continent is slowly becoming the next frontier for GM technology.
09.07.2022 LISTEN

President Nana Akufo-Addo says he has slashed his salary by 30% with immediate effect due to current economic difficulties.

Speaking as the guest of honour at this years Eid Al Adha prayers in Accra, the President announced the cut to send a signal to citizens about the need to sacrifice as the country goes to the International Monetary Fund for support.

He also announced a 50% cut on fuel for government machinery.

According to the president, all ministers are not exempted from the 30% percent salary reduction.

We are all going to have to make some sacrifices to afford us the space to navigate the troubled waters of the current economic difficulties. The expenditure of ministries, departments, and agencies has been cut by 30 percent. The salaries of all appointees including myself have been reduced by 30 percent. Fuel coupon allocations have been slashed by 50 percent and other expenditures suspended.

He urged Ghanaians to bear with him as he puts in measures to ameliorate their plights.

The National Chief Imam admonished Muslims to celebrate in moderation and be generous to friends and neighbours to signify the relevance of Eid Al Adha.

He prayed for the president and used the occasion to call on Ghanaians to appreciate the tough times the country faces now.
Alhaji Mohammed Abdul Hamidu, Deputy Hohoe Municipal Chief Imam, has called on Muslims to mark this year's Eid al-Adha celebrations with a clean heart.

He said the celebration was about their Prophet, who received a ram from Allah to replace his son, Ismael, who was to be slaughtered.

Alhaji Hamidu speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after prayers held at the Hohoe-Adabraka English-Arabic Basic School Park, said the celebration must be marked with good intentions towards one another.

He also led prayers with prayers for peace for the nation and the world while celebrants were urged to mark the day in moderation.

Two rams were also slaughtered to signify the celebration.

Eid al-Adha, also known as Festival of the Sacrifice, is considered the holier of the two Islamic holidays celebrated worldwide, each year.

It honours the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, as a sign of faith and obedience to God's command.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Jonathan Lamptey, Hohoe Divisional Police Commander on behalf of the Service, congratulated the celebrant on their festival.

GNA
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The National Chief Imam, Dr. Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, has urged Muslims to put their trust in Allah as the country experiences economic challenges.

He said the: Almighty Allah has ways of doing things, and charged Muslims and the entire citizenry to keep faith in Him through the economic hardships.

He said this at the celebration of this year's Eid-ul-Adha in Accra.

He urged Muslims to be peaceful during their celebration and share the little they had with others.

At the Ghana Muslim Mission, Imam Nurudeen Quaye, spoke about the significance of the sacrifice made by Prophet Abraham and the need for Muslims to emulate that gesture.

He said sacrifice was an act of obedience to Allah and a duty everyone must carry.

Sacrifice your animals in truthfulness and sincerity to please only Allah, so that you may gain the full blessing it comes with, he urged.

Imam Zakariya Mohammed, Imam of the Teshie Dar-es-salam Central Mosque, also admonished the youth, particularly those in Muslim communities to eschew violence and be productive.

The Imam expressed concerns that issues of Internet fraud and other social vices were becoming rampant and called for concerted efforts to address them.

Sheikh Ishaaq Ibrahim Nuamah, in his Eid-ul Adha at Japan Motors, also reiterated the need for Muslims to be patient in whatever circumstances they found themselves and trust that Allah Almighty would get them out of all situations.

He said Muslims should not allow the current economic crisis to 'destabilise' them.

"Everyone is sad now in Ghana due to the current economic situation. Things to buy are not there and the available ones are expensive but if you think too much of this, stress will kill you.

Sheikh Nuamah said: "Allah has given remedy for such situations in the Quran chapter two," and encouraged Muslims to pray constantly for help from Allah.

Eid-ul Adha is the Eid, which follows the completion of the annual Hajj pilgrimage at the time of sacrifice and falls on the tenth day in the final (twelfth) month of the Islamic Lunar Calendar; Dhu-al-Hijjah.

The Day is dependent on a legitimate sighting of the moon, following the completion of the annual Holy Pilgrimage of Hajj  which is an obligation for all Muslims and allows families, loved ones, and communities to fraternise.

GNA
The British High Commissioner to Ghana, Ms Harriet Thompson, Friday, launched the second phase of a UK's support programme for Research and Innovation Systems for Africa (RISA) project in Accra.

The project, which was introduced in 2021, is to support and strengthen research and innovation systems in Africa to tackle the most complex social, economic and health challenges bedeviling the continent.

Known as the RISA Fund, the project seeks to provide research institutions, think tanks, universities, as well as private sector organisations and international national Non-Governmental Organisations, competitive grants for research and innovation purposes.

The three years project, expected to run from July 2021 to 2024, is being implemented in six countries - Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, South Africa and Ethiopia- with funding from the UKAid.

It is to achieve three key objectives - strengthening research institutions and systems to produce relevant, high-quality research, and to create an enabling environment for researchers and research organisations; strengthening innovation systems to scale up new and emerging technologies with high potential for poverty reduction and inclusive growth; and strengthening synergies between research and innovation systems to identify and support linkages between research and innovation systems that will improve integration and coordination.

Aside these, the programme seeks to build intellectual capital in targeted countries, diversify innovation and research talent pools, provide access to financing and support networking to facilitate relationships within national research communities.

Launching the second phase of the project in Accra, Ms Thompson said the UK appreciated African government's efforts in recognising the importance of science and innovation in building economies and recovering from the pandemic.

The UK government, she said, hoped to accelerate that growth and recovery by strengthening science and innovation linkages between African countries and the UK.

We want to deepen our partnerships and provide more opportunities to collaborate as we work together towards shared development objectives, she emphasised.

The High Commissioner said to deepen those partnerships, the UK established the RISA Fund in 2021 to strengthen research and innovation ecosystems, including the critical linkages between such ecosystems in Africa.

Through this fund, the UK Government works with our partners such as the Government of Ghana to strengthen the enablers for new and emerging technologies with high potential for poverty reduction and inclusive growth to accelerate their scale up, she explained.

RISA aims to strengthen ecosystems in the research and tech sectors at both the micro and macro levels. In the two West African countries participating, Ghana and Nigeria, there's been clear growth in the linkages between actors in the research and innovation systems in sectors like agriculture, SMEs, and health, she said.

Currently, there are over 120 UK funded partnerships between Ghana and the UK, spanning diverse topics ranging from crop fields to air quality, peace, digital diagnosis and poverty.

She urged interested persons to put up innovative proposals by the end of July 31 for funding through the next phase.

Dr Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Oliver Boachie, his Special Advisor, lauded the UK Government for such a programme.

He said the project was in line with measures taken by the Government, through MESTI to strengthen Ghana's research and innovation ecosystem.

We see the participation of MESTI in the RISA programme as an opportunity to analyse Ghana's innovative ecosystem and also as an important tool for the Government of Ghana to promote technology and innovation in the country, he said.

In the end, it is our aim that the character of the nation, the mindset of our people and the engine of Ghana's economy will all be driven by innovation.

Mr Chikodi Onyemerela, Acting Country Director, British Council, said challenges facing the continent could only be addressed through consistent, focused and the evaluation of research and innovation output, as well as, supporting the system that enable the commercialisation of research.

He, therefore, urged research institutions and individuals to take advantage of the project to develop problem-solving solutions for the continent.

Madam Irene Karimi, Team Leader, RISA Fund, commended the first cohort of the programme for ensuring that phase one was a success.

GNA
Dr Kwabena Donkor, former Minister for Energy has called on Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to resign for another person to lead the country's team towards the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to him, the Finance Minister's comment some few weeks ago that the country would never seek an IMF bailout and having gone to the IMF, duty and honour require that he steps down.

Dr Donkor said: Having categorically stated a few weeks ago that this country would not go the IMF and haven't gone to the IMF, duty and honour requires that he steps down.

He has come to the end of the road; I have a lot of respect for him as a person, but the national interest requires that he resigns for another captain to lead the team towards the negotiations with the IMF other than that this country would be negotiating from a position of weakness.

Dr Donkor made the call when he addressed a press conference in Parliament House, Accra, demanding that the Finance Minister does the right thing by tendering in his resignation.

He insisted that the Finance Minister must resign to give the President a free hand to choose somebody to lead the delicate negotiations.

He said the country had gotten to a level in its political development that ministers must begin to take responsibility for their actions.

Dr Donkor explained that Mr Ofori-Atta could still act as an advisor for the Government of Ghana in the negotiations with the IMF, but not as Minister for Finance because of his earlier posture that Ghana would not go the IMF.

When a Minister says we will never deal with the IMF and he is dragged unwillingly before the court of public opinion to go and negotiate with the IMF, he will be negotiating from a serious position of weakness and this country would not get the best out of these negotiations, he added.

Dr Donkor also called on Parliament to intervene in the matter by asking the finance minister to tender-in his resignation, if he refuses resign on his own accord.

If Ken Ofori-Atta does not resign, I believe the Parliament of Ghana must keep faith with the people of Ghana and the people of Ghana deserve better than this. Parliament has the power to ask him to go and Parliament must act, he said.

GNA
The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has said the ongoing economic crisis sweeping through the world must be a wake up call to African countries to adopt a technological approach to development, especially as the continent seeks to rebuild and rise.

Addressing a high-level African Union-backed "BOMA" event (www.africaboma.com), the Veep cautioned against focusing on the short-term symptoms of the current crisis and forgetting the structural issues that the worst-hit countries are confronted, which are mostly to do with the lack of competitiveness of their economies. A situation only technological advancement can address sustainably.

The Boma forum brought together global political and business leaders to deliberate on the progress of Africa towards Agenda 2063, the AU's timetable for transforming Africa into a global economic force.

Vice President Bawumia said the twin factors influencing the global economic crisis - the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Ukraine conflict - have exposed gaps in the

world's economic and political architecture, which will affect Africa's quest for growth, if the continent does not act decisively to build technological industries that are more resilient to global economic shocks. It is clear that countries that depend mostly on primary industries suffer harsher consequences when the global economy takes a nosedive than those that have diversified their economies through higher technology inputs.

"The challenges that have beset the global economy may have been fuelled by temporary crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict. But these challenges are still a wakeup call to Africa that there are deep structural gaps in the global economic and political architecture that can frustrate its rise, unless serious concerted efforts are made to plug them," Dr. Bawumia told the forum on Friday.

Plugging the structural gap, Dr. Bawumia observed, is for the African continent to adopt the emerging data-driven, technological approaches to development, which would help create the right structure for African businesses and SMEs and connect them from isolation, to the world of business.

Urging fellow African countries on, Dr. Bawumia noted that Ghana has chosen to take a path to economic development marked by increasing technological, especially digital, content in its development programs.

Responding to Meta's (corporate parent of Facebook) President for Global Affairs and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sir Nick Clegg, Dr. Bawumia conceded to certain ongoing challenges to optimally harness data, talent and improved regulations to advance the course of technological advancement in Ghana and Africa. But he insisted that these matters are being given the necessary attention. Elaborating on the theme, he added, "if the massive shifts currently underway, such as the fast emergence of a new type of internet, are to benefit, rather than further marginalize Africa, the continent must make the right investments now."

He continued: "we are very mindful of these potential pitfalls and are investing in both the institutions and infrastructure that will enable us to both leapfrog our infrastructure and education system limits and rapidly advance the regulatory capabilities we need to deal with complex challenges like balancing sovereignty and efficiency, as we become a data-driven economy."

Dr. Bawumia, while acknowledging efforts some African countries are making in adopting technology-driven development, also shared with the forum some specific areas Ghana has invested in, and how they are expected to boost commerce.

"We have successfully developed new identity infrastructure that will transform credit scoring for SMEs, remove the bottlenecks in e-commerce and lay the ground for the modernization of business supportive government services," he said.

"We have totally transformed the financial technology landscape and reworked our mobile telecom industry to enable us take advantage of the 5G revolution and the internet of things as they gather pace."

"No one who has followed our policy journey in Ghana can doubt our total commitment to the technological approach to development," added the Vice President.

In addition to Sir Nicholas Clerg, who is the President of Global Affairs of Meta, owners of popular social media sites Facebook and Instagram, the Forum was also addressed by former US President Clinton, former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and many other dignitaries including the Director General of the World Health Organisation and the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations. Also participating were several former and serving African Heads of States, the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union (AU), and a number of AU Commissioners.

Reacting to comments by some of these eminent personalities, Dr. Bawumia emphasised the importance of a global mindset shift in technology investments. "The likes of Meta, Google and Amazon must think beyond consumer products and targeted advertising and invest heavily in utility infrastructure on the ground."

He added, "their ability to connect with their customers beyond Facebook posts and tweets and to impact their lives depend on this deeper integration into industrial and enterprise infrastructure. There are also broader issues of equity."

"As much as we recognize that some of the evolving technologies are changing how we do business and bringing down barriers, they also provide the opportunity for us to create the fluid structures and soft infrastructure our SMEs and startups, long isolated from global value chains, need to leapfrog and convert these challenges into opportunities in a broader marketplace shaped by AfCFTA."

ABOUT THE BOMA OF AFRICA

The Boma of Africa (www.africaboma.com) was organised jointly by the African Union, the AfCFTA Secretariat, the Africa CDC and AfroChampions. With support from Afreximbank, Ecobank, IC Publications, the Village Foundation, BADEA, Orango and MTN.

It was instituted in response to a decision in 2019 by the African Union Heads of State that a date in early July of every year should be set aside to mark and celebrate the effort to realise African integration.

Convened at the highest level, the Boma seeks to move beyond mere deliberations and instead to delve deep into actions that can inspire Africans in various fields such as science and technology, education and creative arts to hone talents for Africa's common good.

Practical Outcomes of Boma 2022

This year, the African Union launched two main flagship initiatives at the Boma: the African Vaccine Passport and eHealth backbone (www.africacdc.org/trusted-vaccines) and a digital platform for accelerating the 
Hajia Safia Mohammed, Savannah Regional Women's Organizer of the New Patriotic Party has urged Muslims to use the Eid-ul-Adha celebrations to reach out to the needy, and host inter-faith activities for peaceful coexistence.

She said "As Muslims, let us use this period to reach out to the less privileged and endeavour to host inter-faith activities that promote religious tolerance and build understanding among religious communities to ensure a peaceful coexistence in our communities."

This was contained in a statement issued and signed by Hajia Safia Mohammed to mark this year's Eid-ul-Adha festivities.

Eid-ul-Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice, is symbolic of the lessons of sacrifice, devotion, and willingness as told by the story of Prophet Ibrahim.

The statement said "Muslims across Ghana and Savannah Region in particular have always embodied these values. As we celebrate the feast of sacrifice today, let us endeavor to reflect on our deeds and the invaluable contributions of Muslims towards the development of our societies."

It said, "we need to recommit ourselves to building a better country where everyone can feel welcome, safe and respected.

"We should also continue to support the government under the leadership of Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo to succeed and chart the path that will bring peace, prosperity and sustainable development to every individual in the country."
INTRODUCTION

The strength of democracy is reflected in the expressions of mass demands for better social safety nets especially in the sectors of health and education services. However, for mass demands to be translated into policy, there need to be an opportunity that numbers can mobilize, and that mobilization counts politically. The strength and quality of democracy makes it possible for civil society, popular organizations and political parties to emerge and consolidate as organizations that can serve to mobilize voters and put demands for networks of social protection on the agenda.. However, this is achievable if all citizens have equal opportunities and access to education to build those capacities. This view aligns with the World Banks statement that sustained poverty reduction requires a commitment to reduce inequality and improve access to opportunities for all citizens (World Bank, 2015).

FORMULATION

The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, 12th September, 2017, launched the Free Senior High School policy, describing the programme as the means to creating a society of opportunities and empowerment for every citizen.

At a ceremony at the West Africa Senior High School, President Akufo-Addo noted that he made the Free SHS pledge because I know that knowledge and talent are not for the rich and privileged alone, and that free education widens the gates of opportunities to every child, especially those whose talents are arrested because of poverty.

IMPLEMENTATION

As stated in Article 25 1b of the 1992 Constitution, Secondary education in its different forms including technical and vocational education, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular, by the progressive introduction of free education.

Goal 4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) states: By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes. It has therefore been a priority of the government and the Ministry of Education to ensure that education is made free from basic to secondary to afford more children in Ghana the opportunity to access quality education.

POLICY ACTORS

One of the primary factors in all stages of the social policy process is the involvement of all actors (role-players and stakeholders).Implementation of social policy involves various actors at various levels, each having a particular interest in the programme. The actors may refer to individuals or collective entities, both formal (e.g. Legislature, Executive, Judiciary) and informal (e.g. parents,teachers, students, political coalitions).

DIMENSIONS/AGENCIES

Agencies like Ghana Education Service (GES), Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) , Association of Private Senior High School Education Providers (APSHSEP), parentteacher associations, Coalition of Concerned Teachers Association (CCTA) contributed largely to the implementation of the free SHS plocy.,The capacity of these implementing agencies is determined by the quality of their human resource on the one hand and by their organizational setting, on the other.

FUNDING

According to Cudjoe (2018), the main source of financing for the Free SHS Policy is oil revenue, which is unsustainable. This is supplemented by the government of Ghana (through taxes, fees and levies) with these sources providing a total of GHS 1.34 billion in the 2018 education budget towards implementing the policy (Cudjoe, 2018). The Government spent GH212 million from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) in the first year of implementing the program. The program have now been removed from the list of projects funded with the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA). It is now funded by the Scholarship Secretariat.

WEAKNESSES

Agenda setting stage

In terms of the agenda setting stage, there was no definition of the problem prior to the campaign pledge and the subsequent launch of the policy. The promises and challenges of instituting a Free SHS Policy are wide ranging and needed broader consultations to determine whether Ghana really had a problem of out of pocket payment for senior high school education.

Formulation stage

If consultation had been built into the process it would have generated feasible alternatives from which the best solution would have been chosen. That is a pilot scheme to test the viability and sustainability of the policy would have been instituted.

Implementation Stage

The Free SHS process has a clearly identified implementation stage. The Ghana Education Service (GES) is the implementing and monitoring agency that is overseeing the provision of infrastructure, the deployment of resources including personnel to the provider institutions and the supervision of performance of the policy.

CONCLUSION

The development of any educational system and standards will be a mirage if viable efforts and structures are not put in place to ensure continuous improvements and sustainability of the gains that have been made in terms of its quality. The government of Ghana, under the leadership of the New Patriotic Party rolled out the free Senior High School Policy, as a social intervention initiative with the overarching aim of improving equity and accessibility to educational services and in the long run enhancing the socio-economic status of the people, and enhancing national development. The Free Senior High School policy provides an appropriate social intervention strategy which has increased secondary school enrolment significantly since its implementation but there is more room for improving the policy to ensure quality education.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The recommendations for dealing with the implementation challenges of the Free SHS.

Policy are several. First, I recommend parents and guardians should be educated on why they need to pay the tuition fees of non-performing students as the state is not ready to pay the fees of such students because wholesale admissions and promotions will spur the growth of enrolments at the Schools and compromise quality education. Second, in view of the cost challenges facing the implementation of the policy, a targeted rather than a universal approach to free education would have been most appropriate. Third, partnership with the private sector in designing and implementing a fee-free SHS education would have been less fiscally burdensome for government.
KNUST SRC Parliament Council is set to probe further into the School Representative Council's Executives' trip to South Africa.

The School's Parliament Council was petitioned by leaders of the Coalition of Concerned Students, KNUST to probe the SRC Executives' travel to South Africa in somewhere July, 2022.

In a response to the petition signed by Mr. Theophilus Berchie, leader of the group, the KNUST SRC Parliament stated that they are aware of the said petition and ready to probe further into the issues regarding the trip to South Africa by the SRC Executives.

The group leader, Mr Theophilus Berchie had earlier accused the SRC president of squandering some amount of money belonging to the students.

Read full petition below:

PETITION BY COALITION OF CONCERNED STUDENTS OF KNUST TO THE KNUST SRC PARLIAMENTARY COUNCIL, KNUST SRC PARLIAMENT.

Leadership, service, accountability, probity and justice are part of the many things that our student leaders whom we elected according to article 7 of the SRC Constitution as amended 2021, owe to us. In spite of the necessary promises to uphold, defend, and safeguard the good name of the SRC, these leaders however, have by the actions and inactions soiled the good name of the SRC.

It is thus with great penchant for justice and a need to know the truth that as concerned students, we write to your good offices, petitioning that you set up a committee as required by the SRC constitution to investigate the alleged misuse of funds by the SRC President over a trip that was supposed to send him to South Africa.

Madam Speaker, the fact that the general student populace was not timely informed of the trip undertaken by the SRC Executive Committee on Thursday, 24th of June, 2022 and the said expenses that went into it through our parliamentarians was enough reason to raise a reasonable cause of suspicion.

Parliament which is empowered to receive, discuss, approve and vet every budget of the bodies of the SRC according to article 41(b) of the SRC constitution has not even had sitting to approve any monies for the said trip that should have clearly been factored into the semester budget. So then, how was the trip sponsored by monies meant for development of students and their collective interests used?

We concerned petitioners would wish that your investigation would boil down to three major issues:

1. Whether Parliament approved the said monies that were used to embark on the trip to South Africa.

2. Whether the SRC President rightly informed Parliament as demanded by article 22(10) of the SRC Constitution indicated in writing two weeks prior notice of his intention to travel.

3.And finally, whether the President squandered the money intended for the trip on his terms or rather returned the money to the Accounts Office of the Directorate of Student Affairs if he indeed did not travel.

Madam Speaker, we would wish to remind you that article 97(1) of the SRC constitution entreats that if any executive officer of the SRC is found guilty to be in violation of his oath of office or a provision of this constitution or misappropriated funds that is a ground for the removal of the executive officer.

We would like to entreat that your ability to thoroughly investigate the said allegations and to prove that your office is indeed a fair one. The vestiges of student leadership and its next phase to avoid the emergence of corrupt, capricious, and insensitive persons all rest in your hands.

Please be reminded that our petition is also in line with our right to request information per the passing of the Right to Information Act, Act 989 where in section 1 of the same act, an individual has the right to information. This petition would also entreat that you make the findings of the committee public for the entire student body and to clear up and instance of doubt in the current administration.

You have a mission to indeed prove to the student body that you would be thorough with this investigation and that students can still have an iota of faith in the administration that began with faith.

Note: We rightly petitioned the office of the Deputy Speaker, on the basis that the SPEAKER lacks credibility to preside over an allegation he is involved and to ensure that the parliament perform due diligence in this matter

Yours faithfully,

SIGNED

THEOPHILUS BERCHIE

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 4

Leader Coalition of Concerned Students, KNUST.

Cc:

Directorate of Student Affairs, KNUST
Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia South, Hon Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has named a library complex after the late Queen Mother of Ashanti Kingdom, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Apem II.

He said the naming of the facility after the late Asantehemaa was to honour her in her passion for education who contributed immensely to the formation of Otumfuo Education fund in Ghana.

The state-of-the-art facility was commissioned at Ashanti New Town in the Manhyia South constituency in the Kumasi metropolis in the Ashanti region on Sunday, July 3, 2022,

The library complex will serve as an educational centre for the residents of Manhyia South constituency and its environs.

It is stocked with 10,000 books for both children and adults, a seating capacity of 200, 36 computers and free Wi-Fi connectivity for users.

The ultra-modern library is the 111th public library under the management of the Ghana Library Authority (GhLA) and 50th under President Nana Akufo Addo's government.

The construction and furnishing of the library was made possible through the support of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) and the share of Member of Parliament of the District Assemblies Common Fund.

Following the footsteps of the late Asantehemaa, NAPO, as he is called in the political circles, stated that his passion for education pre-dates him becoming Minister for Education.

I have always held the view that, it is through education that talents are shaped and the human resource of any country is consolidated.

It is for this reason that I found it not just necessary but highly expedient through the support of GETFUND and the District Assemblies Common Fund to get this Library facility, central to the development of education built in my constituency, the former Education Minister said.

He urged all the young and old to take advantage of the important resource they seek on a daily basis to broaden their horizons.

I want to imbibe in our young ones here in Manhyia the spirit of reading. I believe the biggest legacy I can leave them as their Member of Parliament and developmental Agent, is to set them on a path for greatness through reading and thus, this library complex, he stated.

NAPO, who is the Minister of Energy, handing over the facility to the Ghana Library Authority (GhLA) appealed to the residents and users to take good care of the facility.

The Executive Director of Ghana Library Authority (GhLA), Mr Hayford Siaw, commended the Manhyia South MP for his passion for education, which led to the construction of the library.

The short but impressive ceremony was graced by the management of the Ministry of Education (MOE), Ghana Education Service (GES) led by the Director-General, Prof Kwasi Opoku Amankwa and Assembly Members.

The one-storey building facility was named after the late 13th Asantehemaa of Ashanti Kingdom, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Apem II, who reigned from February 6, 1977 to November 15, 2016.

The late Asantehemaa was the mother of the current queenmother of the Ashanti Kingdom, Nana Konadu Yiadom III.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
July 09, 2022 'Drinking The Kool-Aid' On The War In Ukraine In Summer 2004 Col. (ret.) Patrick Lang published Drinking the Kool-Aid which described the way in which group think had led to the war on Iraq. The idiom itself has a sinister background: [Jim Jones, a self-styled "messiah" from the United States] called together his followers in the town square and explained the situation to them. There were a few survivors, who all said afterward that within the context of the "group-think" prevailing in the village, it sounded quite reasonable. Jim Jones then invited all present to drink from vats of Kool-Aid containing lethal doses of poison. Nearly all did so, without physical coercion. Parents gave their children the poison and then drank it themselves. Finally Jones drank. Many hundreds died with him. Many have never heard of that story or have forgotten it. The idiom's meaning had changed: What does drinking the Kool-Aid mean today? It signifies that the person in question has given up personal integrity and has succumbed to the prevailing group-think that typifies policymaking today. This person has become "part of the problem, not part of the solution." What was the "problem"? The sincerely held beliefs of a small group of people who think they are the "bearers" of a uniquely correct view of the world, sought to dominate the foreign policy of the United States in the Bush 43 administration, and succeeded in doing so through a practice of excluding all who disagreed with them. Those they could not drive from government they bullied and undermined until they, too, had drunk from the vat. With regards to the war in Ukraine Pat himself has sipped the Kool-Aid. It has clearly clouded his judgment. In a recent comment at his blog, Pat writes: Chuba I never let patriotism or any other sentiment cloud my analysis. Russia is past the culminating point of its offensive and is subject to a sudden reversal of fortune. The 'culminating point' is a term of art described in the book "On War" by Carl von Clausewitz. Born in 1780 Clausewitz served in Prussian army. He later joint the imperial Russian army in its war against Napoleon before returning as chief of staff to the Prussian military: Clausewitz was a professional combat soldier who was involved in numerous military campaigns, but he is famous primarily as a military theorist interested in the examination of war, utilising the campaigns of Frederick the Great and Napoleon as frames of reference for his work. Even today "On War" is still a must-read for any military officer. The culminating point is discussed in Book VII 'The Attack', Chapter V 'Culminating Point of the Attack': The success of the attack is the result of a present superiority of force, it being understood that the moral as well as physical forces are included. In the preceding chapter we have shown that the power of the attack gradually exhausts itself; possibly at the same time the superiority may increase, but in most cases it diminishes. The assailant buys up prospective advantages which are to be turned to account hereafter in negotiations for peace; but, in the meantime, he has to pay down on the spot for them a certain amount of his military force. If a preponderance on the side of the attack, although thus daily diminishing, is still maintained until peace is concluded, the object is attained. There are strategic attacks which have led to an immediate peace but such instances are rare; the majority, on the contrary, lead only to a point at which the forces remaining are just sufficient to maintain a defensive, and to wait for peace. Beyond that point the scale turns, there is a reaction; the violence of such a reaction is commonly much greater than the force of the blow. This we call the culminating point of the attack. The attacker, in Clausewitz's description, has a moral and physical force advantage at the start of the battle. But as it attacks it usually also has the disadvantage of taking more losses than the defending side. (One rule of thumb is that the attacker needs a power ratio of 3 to 1 over the defender to win a battle.) Taking more losses than the defending side means that the relative advantage of the attacker diminishes over time. As the battle (or war) proceeds the actual power ration shrinks from 3 to 1 to 2 to 1 and then to 1 to 1 or even lower. There comes a point where the attacker is down to the minimum force needed to keep the other side away. Beyond that is the culminating point of the attack. If the battle or war does not end before that point is reached it will likely end in the defeat of the attacker. Pat Lang claims that Russia has reached the culminating point and has thus exhausted it forces to the point where it has no longer advantages and is now likely to see a reversal of its fortune. But that presumes that we are seeing a typical war like those Clausewitz took part in or Napoleon's or Hitler's marches towards Moscow, the first of which, depicted below by Charles Minard, Clausewitz certainly had in mind.

bigger Napoleon's grande armee indeed suffered attrition, from 450,000 down to 10,000 men, that exceeded the culminating point. But the war in Ukraine is a 'special military operation' and very untypical for several reasons. Russia attacked with a force that was smaller than the Ukrainian forces. Over all roughly 120 Battalion Tactical Groups (BTG) from Russia with 1,000 men each plus some 50,000 soldiers from the Luhansk and Donetzk republics took part in the war. At the begin of the war the Ukrainian forces had 250,000 soldiers and they have since mobilized several hundred thousand more. Russia uses far more sophisticated weapons than the Ukrainian side. These are long range weapon and cruise missiles that hit supplies and incoming troops in the rear of the frontline as well as strategic targets. It has an excellent and nearly impenetrable air defense and electronic war fare capabilities that a high ranking U.S. officer described as 'eye watering'. Russia has a huge advantage in artillery capabilities and a sufficient amounts of ammunition to sustain a high rate of fire over years. It can also outproduce the 'west' with regards to new weapons and supplies. All this has led to the very unusual effect that the Russian advantage on the battlefield has increased over time. It may have been 1 to 1 at the beginning of the battle but it has since increased to about 2 to 1 or even higher. In his latest briefing (vid) the head of the Austrian military academy Colonel Reisner shows how the ratio of forces has changed over time. At 7:10 min in he shows this chart.

bigger He explains that at the beginning of the battle for Donbas in April the force ratio was 93 Russian BTGs against 81 Ukrainian BTG equivalents. On June 26 the ratio of forces was 108 Russian BTGs versus 60 Ukrainian battalion equivalents. Russia had increased the size of its engaged forces while the Ukrainian side had lost 25% of its capabilities. So according to the Austrian military the force ratio at the start of the 'special military operation' was 1.15 to 1 and on June 26 it was at 1.8 to 1. What we are seeing is the opposite of the decrease of the ratio of forces that Clausewitz described as the path to the culminating point. A recent talk by a high ranking Ukrainian general confirms the high rate of attrition of the Ukrainian army. He says that 'western' weapon deliveries only cover 10 to 15% of the Ukrainian losses. In fact the 'west' can no longer produce enough new weapons and ammunition to cover those losses. In Foreign Affairs Prof. Barry Posen writes about Ukraines Implausible Theories of Victory: Ukraines backers have proposed two pathways to victory. The first leads through Ukraine. With help from the West, the argument runs, Ukraine can defeat Russia on the battlefield, either depleting its forces through attrition or shrewdly outmaneuvering it. The second path runs through Moscow. With some combination of battlefield gains and economic pressure, the West can convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the waror convince someone in his circle to forcibly replace him. But both theories of victory rest on shaky foundations. In Ukraine, the Russian army is likely strong enough to defend most of its gains. In Russia, the economy is autonomous enough and Putins grip tight enough that the president cannot be coerced into giving up those gains, either.

...

Ukraines leaders and its backers speak as if victory is just around the corner. But that view increasingly appears to be a fantasy. Ukraine and the West should therefore reconsider their ambitions and shift from a strategy of winning the war toward a more realistic approach: finding a diplomatic compromise that ends the fighting. Lt.Col. (ret) Daniel Davis agrees with Posen: In short, there is no valid military path through which Ukraine can hope that trading space for time will result in stopping Russias methodical progress through Ukraine  much less reverse it. To continue contesting every town and city is to ensure the Ukrainian casualties continue to mount and its urban areas destroyed. In the end, Russia is still likely to achieve a tactical victory. It is necessary, in light of these physical realities, for U.S. and Western policies to change. Continuing to give verbal support to Ukraine and claiming that eventually, Kyivs side will win the war is not likely to change the outcome and is likely to result in a policy failure for Washington. Prof. Posen criticizes the false numbers that various organizations put out to show high losses of Russian forces: Early on during the war, boosters of Ukraine argued that Russia could be defeated through attrition. Simple math seemed to tell the story of a Russian army on the verge of collapse. In April, the British defense ministry estimated that 15,000 Russian soldiers had died in Ukraine. Assuming that the number of wounded was three times as high, which was the average experience during World War II, that would imply that roughly 60,000 Russians had been knocked out of commission. Initial Western estimates put the size of the frontline Russian force in Ukraine at 120 battalion tactical groups, which would total at most 120,000 people. If these casualty estimates were correct, the strength of most Russian combat units would have fallen below 50 percent, a figure that experts suggest renders a combat unit at least temporarily ineffective. These early estimates now look overly optimistic. If they were accurate, the Russian army ought to have collapsed by now. Instead, it has managed slow but steady gains in the Donbas. The numbers and other claims that the British defense ministry puts out get repeated in the U.S. by the neo-conservative Institute for the Study of War. Nearly every U.S. media quotes one of those two sources. They are serving the Kool-Aid Pat Lang, TTG and other around them have been drinking since the beginning of Russian operation. They also presume that Russia could not intensify the war. The president of Russia disagrees with them: Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. Well, what can I say? Let them try. We have already heard a lot about the West wanting to fight us to the last Ukrainian. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but that seems to be where it is going. But everyone should know that, by and large, we have not started anything in earnest yet. At the same time, we are not rejecting peace talks, but those who are rejecting them should know that the longer it goes on, the harder it will be for them to negotiate with us. True to form the British defense ministry used that to serve more Kool-Aid: "Despite President Putins claim on 7 July 2022 that the Russian military has not even started its efforts in Ukraine, many of its reinforcements are ad hoc groupings, deploying with obsolete or inappropriate equipment, an assessment from Britains defense ministry said on Saturday. One sign the defense ministry pointed to was its expectation that fresh Russian troops would be deployed with MT-LB armored vehicles. The MT-LB, first designed in the 1950s to pull artillery, is not heavily armored and can mount only a machine gun to protect its forces. I bet that we will not see any MT-LB at the front line. I doubt that we will see any at all. Russia still has thousands of tanks, real ones, that it can send should there be any need for them. All the Kool-Aid drinkers also forget that this war is about much more than this or that town in Ukraine or even Ukraine itself. As Putin said: But here is what I would you like to make clear. They should have realised that they would lose from the very beginning of our special military operation, because this operation also means the beginning of a radical breakdown of the US-style world order. This is the beginning of the transition from liberal-globalist American egocentrism to a truly multipolar world based not on self-serving rules made up by someone for their own needs, behind which there is nothing but striving for hegemony, not on hypocritical double standards, but on international law and the genuine sovereignty of nations and civilisations, on their will to live their historical destiny, with their own values and traditions, and to align cooperation on the basis of democracy, justice and equality. Everyone should understand that this process cannot be stopped. The course of history is inexorable, and the collective Wests attempts to impose its new world order on the rest of the world are doomed. No Kool-Aid served in Washington or London will change that. It is thus better to stay away from it. Posted by b on July 9, 2022 at 17:28 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 
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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)  A jury on Thursday convicted former Theranos executive Ramesh Sunny Balwani of collaborating with disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes in a massive fraud involving the blood-testing company that once enthralled Silicon Valley.

The 12 jurors found Balwani guilty on all 12 felony counts of defrauding both Theranos investors and the patients who relied on wildly unreliable blood tests that could have jeopardized their health.

Balwani sat impassively as the verdicts were read in a San Jose, California, court, blinking frequently but rarely looking at the seven women and five men who convicted him.

The outcome puts Balwani and Holmes in similar situations. Holmes was convicted on four counts of investor fraud and conspiracy earlier this year. During that trial, Holmes tearfully accused Balwani of sexually and emotionally abusing her while the two were romantically involved. An attorney for Balwani has vehemently denied those charges.

Both Holmes, 38, and Balwani, 57, face up to 20 years in prison.

After the verdicts, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila raised Balwani's bail to $750,000 from $500,000 and set Nov. 15 as his sentencing date. Holmes, who is free on $500,000 bail, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 26.

The dual convictions represent a resounding victory for federal prosecutors, who seized on the Theranos case as a rare opportunity to hold ambitious entrepreneurs accountable for engaging in technological hyperbole while pursuing fame and fortune. In the process, they hoped to discourage the practice of making bold and unproven promises about still-nascent products -- a startup strategy known as "fake it until you make it.

We are gratified by the jurys hard work and attentiveness to the evidence presented. We appreciate the verdict and look forward to the sentencing proceedings," U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds said outside the courthouse.

Balwani didn't respond to requests for comment as he left court with his legal team.

After the verdicts were read and the jury was dismissed, Balwani walked over to his two brothers who were sitting behind him for what appeared to be a solemn discussion. The three stood quietly, heads bowed.

While Holmes insinuated during her trial that Balwani manipulated her into making poor choices, Balwanis lawyers explicitly sought to shift all the blame for any misconduct squarely on Holmes.

As part of Balwanis defense, the lawyers pointed out that Holmes was not only CEO, but also a Silicon Valley star who persuaded investors to pour nearly $1 billion into Theranos. Holmes boasted that her company had found a way to scan for hundreds of potential diseases with a device called the Edison that could test just a few drops of blood taken with a finger prick. Such technology could potentially revolutionize healthcare.

But it turned out that the Edison never worked properly, providing faulty test results that Theranos conducted as part of a deal to set up mini labs in Walgreens pharmacies. The flaws in Theranos vaunted technology prompted Holmes and Balwani to shift their testing to conventional machines made by other vendors and while drawing vials of blood from patients' veins  a far cry from Holmes' promises.

After committing about $15 million of his own money to bolster Theranos and then becoming the companys chief operating officer in 2010, Balwani eventually oversaw the blood-testing lab that was delivering the inaccurate results and supervised the Walgreens deal. That crucial detail may have influenced the jury to convict him of defrauding patients while another jury acquitted Holmes on the same charges.

Balwani also prepared many of the projections about Theranos' future revenue that helped the company raise money from investors Those forecasts proved to be grossly exaggerated.

Unlike Holmes, who spent seven days on the witness stand during her trial, Balwani didnt testify in his own defense. After Holmes' trial, jurors who were interviewed by the media said they found her to be likeable if not entirely credible.

The reason he didn't testify is probably because he knows he doesn't have Elizabeth's charisma," said Jill Huntley Taylor, a longtime jury consultant who also assists with trial strategy.

Balwani's decision not to tell his side of the story left jurors to make their decision based solely on the evidence, which included testimony from witnesses who depicted him as an often abrasive executive.

Just because the jurors didn't hear from Balwani didn't mean they couldn't form opinions of him," Huntley Taylor said.

Balwanis defense mirrored Holmess in one key aspect: Both depicted the pair as tireless workers who believed so deeply in Theranos technology that they never sold their respective stakes in the Palo Alto, California, company. At one point in 2014, Holmes fortune was estimated at $4.5 billion while Balwanis Theranos holdings were valued at $500 million.

But everything began to unravel in late 2015 after a series of explosive articles in The Wall Street Journal exposed rampant problems with Theranos technology. By May 2016, Holmes had dumped Balwani as her business and romantic partner. Holmes is now the mother of an infant son fathered by her current partner, Billy Evans, who was by her side through most of her trial.
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FORT LEE, N.J. (AP)  Attention drivers at the George Washington Bridge: Your cash is no good here.

Starting Sunday, drivers looking to cross the Hudson River from New Jersey into New York will go through an electronic tolling system.

Drivers without E-ZPass who would otherwise be paying cash will instead have their license plates photographed by overhead cameras and bills sent to them by mail.

The move from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey comes as way to help ease congestion at the bridge, the busiest of the three Hudson River crossings that the agency oversees.

Many advocates have been calling for this for a long time and its a welcome move, said Tom Wright, president of the Regional Plan Association.

With the instituting of the new system, the toll booths currently in place will be taken out, removing a link to a memorable chapter in New Jersey's political history known as Bridgegate.

In 2013, traffic in Fort Lee, New Jersey, was snarled for several days when a group of Republican political operatives had some of the access lanes leading into the toll booths blocked in retaliation for a Democratic mayor not endorsing then-Gov. Chris Christie for reelection.

Christie was not charged with anything, but two people were convicted on federal charges. Those convictions were later overturned by the Supreme Court. Another who had pleaded guilty had that plea vacated.

The George Washington Bridge is a crossing point not only to get into New York City, but also for drivers using Interstate 95. The Port Authority said more than 49 million vehicles crossed eastbound over it last year, and it is the most used Hudson River crossing by trucks.

Cashless tolling has been in use at the Holland Tunnel since December 2020, and is expected to start at the Lincoln Tunnel later this year, the Port Authority said.

Wright said using an electronic system for tolls serves more motorists faster and more efficiently. But, he cautioned, that did not mean there would be no more congestion as vehicles converge to get across the span.

It's not like a magic wand, he said.
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  Sri Lankas president and prime minister agreed to resign Saturday after the countrys most chaotic day in months of political turmoil, with protesters storming both officials homes and setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the nation's severe economic crisis.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he will leave office once a new government is in place, and hours later the speaker of Parliament said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would step down Wednesday. Pressure on both men grew as the economic meltdown set off acute shortages of essential items, leaving people struggling to buy food, fuel and other necessities.

Police had attempted to thwart promised protests with a curfew, then lifted it as lawyers and opposition politicians denounced it as illegal. Thousands of protesters entered the capital, Colombo, and swarmed into Rajapaksas fortified residence. Video images showed jubilant crowds splashing in the garden pool, lying on beds and using their cellphone cameras to capture the moment. Some made tea, while others issued statements from a conference room demanding that the president and prime minister go.

It was not clear if Rajapaksa was there at the time, and government spokesman Mohan Samaranayake said he had no information about the presidents movements.

Protesters later broke into the prime ministers private residence and set it on fire, Wickremesinghes office said. It wasnt immediately clear if he was there when the incursion happened.

Earlier, police fired tear gas at protesters who gathered in the streets to march on the presidential residence, waving flags, banging drums and chanting slogans. In all, more than 30 people were hurt in Saturday's chaos.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a televised statement that he informed Rajapaksa that parliamentary leaders had met and decided to request he leave office, and the president agreed. However, Rajapaksa will remain temporarily to ensure a smooth transfer of power, Abeywardena added.

He asked me to inform the country that he will make his resignation on Wednesday the 13th, because there is a need to hand over power peacefully, Abeywardena said.

Therefore there is no need for further disturbances in the country, and I urge everyone for the sake of the country to maintain peace to enable a smooth transition, the speaker continued.

Opposition lawmaker Rauff Hakeem said a consensus was reached for the speaker of Parliament to take over as temporary president and work on an interim government.

Wickremesinghe announced his own impending resignation but said he would not step down until a new government is formed, angering protesters who demanded his immediate departure.

Today in this country we have a fuel crisis, a food shortage, we have the head of the World Food Program coming here and we have several matters to discuss with the IMF, Wickremesinghe said. Therefore, if this government leaves there should be another government.

Wickremesinghe said he suggested to the president to have an all-party government, but did not say anything about Rajapaksas whereabouts. Opposition parties were discussing the formation of a new government.

Rajapaksa appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in May in the hope that the career politician would use his diplomacy and contacts to resuscitate a collapsed economy. But peoples patience wore thin as shortages of fuel, medicine and cooking gas only increased and oil reserves ran dry. Authorities have also temporarily shuttered schools.

The country is relying on aid from India and other nations as leaders try to negotiate a bailout with the International Monetary Fund. Wickremesinghe said recently that negotiations with the IMF were complex because Sri Lanka was now a bankrupt state.

Sri Lanka announced in April that it was suspending repayment of foreign loans due to a foreign currency shortage. Its total foreign debt amounts to $51 billion, of which it must repay $28 billion by the end of 2027.

Months of demonstrations have all but dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty, which has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades but is accused by protesters of mismanagement and corruption. The presidents older brother resigned as prime minister in May after violent protests saw him seek safety at a naval base.

With fuel costs making other forms of travel impossible for many, protesters crowded onto buses and trains Saturday to get to the capital, while others made their way on bicycles and on foot. At the presidents seaside office, security personnel tried in vain to stop protesters who pushed through fences to run across the lawns and inside the colonial-era building.

At least 34 people including two police officers were hurt in scuffles. Two were in critical condition, while others sustained minor injuries, according to an official at the Colombo National Hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Privately owned Sirasa Television said at least six of its workers, including four reporters, were hospitalized after being beaten by police while covering the protest at the prime ministers home.

Sri Lanka Medical Council, the countrys top professional body, warned that hospitals were running with minimum resources and would not be able to handle any mass casualties from the unrest.

Protest and religious leaders said Rajapaksa has lost his mandate and it is time for him to go.

His claim that he was voted in by the Sinhala Buddhists is not valid now, said Omalpe Sobitha, a prominent Buddhist leader. He urged Parliament to convene immediately to select an interim president.

U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung on Friday asked people to protest peacefully and called for the military and police to grant peaceful protesters the space and security to do so.

Chaos & force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankans need right now, Chung tweeted.

___

Associated Press writers Bharatha Mallawarachi in Colombo and Krutika Pathi in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Permian Basin oil and gas operators continue making deals to build scale as demand for crude and natural gas rises. But analysts see signs transactions are cooling off.

A new report from Mercer Capital issued in late June found Permian Basin transaction activity has cooled over the past 12 months with the number of transactions falling by six (or 22 percent) to 21 deals from 27 in the prior 12-month period.

There is some indication that the typical deal size in the Permian is higher in the first half of 2022 as compared to the second half of 2021, with larger acreage positions being acquired in the past six months than the second half of 2021, Justin Ramirez, senior financial analyst, told the Reporter-Telegram by email.

Ramirez said the net effect is theres no material difference when looking at a transaction on a dollar per-acre basis. But from a deal per production dollar perspective, the evidence is that buyers are paying more per barrel of oil equivalent per day.

Given that context, he wrote, what jumps out to me is that the number of deals seems to have really slowed down in the first six months of 2022 as compared to the rate of transactions in the second half of 2021.

The overall trend may be that deals are, on average, growing in size  in terms of value, acreage and/or production  in the first half of the year relative to the second half of 2021, but that buyers are becoming much more selective about their targets.

M&A transaction activity in the Permian declined at an increasing rate over the past year, with two-thirds of the 21 transactions occurring in 2021, and the remaining third transpiring in the year-to-date period ended in mid-June, he wrote. But he said the overall upward trend in deal cost per unit, be it per-production level, acreage or production-acre, indicates buyers willingness to pay more to achieve their desired asset base

He speculated that regional operators are starting to right size their Permian Basin inventories.

There appears to be greater emphasis on acquiring proven and highly probable production, not necessarily focusing on having bigger acreage positions but with more speculative underlying production potential, he wrote.

Mercers report came out just as two Permian Basin transactions were announced.

Earthstone Energy has agreed to acquire the New Mexico assets of Titus Oil & Gas Production for $627 million. The acquisition brings approximately 7,900 net acres in Eddy and Lea counties with a drilling inventory of 114 gross/86 net locations. They are considered low-cost, high-margin producing assets generating significant free cash flow.

Robert J. Anderson, Earthstone president and chief executive, commented in a statement announcing the deal, The Titus Acquisition continues our path of building scale in the Permian Basin, increasing our daily production to around 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day upon closing.

Then Ring Energy this week announced an agreement to acquire Stronghold Energys Permian Basin assets. Strongholds operations are located primarily in Crane County and focused primarily on the development of about 37,000 acres in the Central Basin Platform. The deal brings to Ring more than 200 low-cost, low-risk drilling locations, more than 200 identified low-cost, high rate-of-return recompletions and more than 100 low-cost, low-risk step out locations. Other potential opportunities are being evaluated.

Still, Ramirez cautioned, despite the upward trend in energy prices over the past year, what we are seeing is a likely slowdown in M&A activity in what is generally considered to be the most economical oil and gas basin in the US. If the Permian is a bellwether of US production in general, are we likely to see a slowdown in M&A activity in other basins soon? I would venture to say yes.
By SA Commercial Prop News

Randburg Square Mall situated in Randburg CBD has undergone a complete overhaul and has received much needed facelift from the owners, Vukile Property Fund increasing footfall 20% in the last quarter of last year. Image gallery



The famous Randburg Square Mall situated in Randburg CBD has undergone a complete overhaul and received much needed facelift from the owners, Vukile Property Fund increasing footfall 20% in the last quarter of last year.

A total capital investment of approximately R207-million was poured into the upgrade project which was carried out in three phases, in which the centre management believes that the development will eventually translate into a future positive economic growth.

Other new features that make the new look of Randburg Square Mall appeal to shoppers and visitors alike, include bigger walkways, new flooring, enhanced lighting and reconfiguration of central areas and some of the stores.

Launched in the late-1970s as Sanlam Centre Randburg, the retail areas had long been in need of an extensive revamp to enable the centre to successfully compete with contending centres that have since been developed in the catchment area.

Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed property loan stock company, Vukile Property Fund, which owns the 35 818 square metre mall says that all the latest developments are just the good news that both investors and stakeholders have been waiting for.

"The design process has enabled us to attract 23 new retail stores that allow us to cater for our diverse shoppers who are in love and visit the mall. We expect a high surge in new entrants to the city of Randburg because of the fresh and new look appeal brought by the upgrade," says Vukile Chief Executive Laurence Rapp.

The scope of work carried out includes upgrading of the main entrance at the food court, and the escalators connecting the two shopping levels have been realigned to allow easier flow from the entrance into the centre. This has also created more space for the new banking mall on the lower level. First National Bank, an existing tenant, has relocated to this area while Nedbank, a new tenant, has also started trading here.

There has been a major improvement of all mechanical, electrical and fire safety systems, including the implementation of green energy saving measures wherever possible. The public toilets have also been upgraded aesthetically. Modern alterations were made to the main entrance from Pretoria Street as well as the secondary entrances located along the pedestrian promenade in Hill Street.

Jaco Nel, an executive at JHI Project Management and project manager in charge of refurbishment in the centre says the upgrade has allowed them an opportunity to have a mixture of tenants in the city centre to add value to the shopping experience of those used to the centre and to visitors.

The mall has a large sphere of influence due to the taxi rank close to the centre that mainly services Diepsloot, Randburg, Soweto, Cosmo City, Kya Sands, Alexandra, and Kagiso. There are also households within a two kilometre radius of the centre, in areas such as Blairgowrie, President Ridge, Fernridge, Kensington, Bordeaux and Hurlingham Manor. With an average foot count of over 800 000 customers per month, the mall plays host to commuters, professionals, families and friends.



The local authority, together with property owners, has in recent years upgraded the public facilities in the surrounding area and made improvements to the traffic flow. The new Gautrain bus route and the incorporation of the Randburg CBD into the Bus Rapid Transport system have further improved access to the area.

Vukiles diverse property portfolio is worth about R10bn. It is about 53% retail-focused while 10% is let to central government departments and 3% to a hospital. About 11% is industrial and the balance is office space.



Last year in terms of the empowerment deal Vukile restructured so as to have more than 20% empowerment ownership. This was done through Vukile completing a R1.04bn deal that saw it acquire four government-tenanted properties from the Encha investment group.



Vukile declared a 5% distribution for the six-month period to September 2013 in its most recent financial results. This was below the industry average of about 7% for that period.



However Mr Rapp has said the improved portfolio following the Encha deal means distributions will improve next year.
Journal-Courier

Lexi Egelhoff of Chesterfield has been honored with the First Team All-Beaman from the Department of Fitness & Recreation at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

The award was presented during the Belmont Student Leadership Awards ceremony to recognize the service, leadership and achievement of members of the campus community.
BanksPhotos/Getty Images

CARLINVILLE  A Macoupin County business owner has been charged with failing to keep required records of catalytic converter purchases and of buying unattached catalytic converters.

Both charges are misdemeanors under a state law that took effect May 27. The law attempts to stem a statewide increase in catalytic converter thefts by regulating businesses that buy them. Before the law, businesses were allowed to buy convertors without keeping records. Now, the business must keep various records that include a photo or video of the seller and the product to aid law enforcement officials in tracking down potential thefts.
What's new at Jacksonville Public Library:

"The Omega Factor" by Steve Berry: When UNESCO investigator Nick Lee travels to Belgium, he unwittingly stumbles onto the trail of a legendary panel from the Ghent Altarpiece, stolen in 1934 under cover of night and never seen since. Nick soon is plunged into a bitter conflict, one that has been simmering for more than 2,000 years.

Adult Non-Fiction

"Anna: The Biography" by Amy Odell: This definitive biography of Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, follows the steep climb of an ambitious young woman who would  with singular and legendary focus  become one of the most powerful people in media.

DVD

"Doc Martin" (Series 7, 8, 9) : Have you caught up on "Doc Martin," the quirky British comedy set in beautiful Cornwall? See the latest escapades of the surly, tactless town doctor; his wife, Louisa; and the rest of the villagers in this endearing series.

Young Adult Fiction

"Sailor Moon: Eternal Edition" (Volumes 1-10) by Naoko Takeuchi: International Sailor Moon Day is coming up on Aug. 6 and now you can catch up with all your favorite Sailor Guardians! Usagi is a middle school student who is visited by a magical cat called Luna. Luna gifts Usagi a brooch that allows her to turn into Sailor Moon, the pretty guardian whose mission is to protect Earth from the forces of evil.

Juvenile Fiction

"Luli and the Language of Tea" by Andrea Wang: In this sweet picture book about bridging barriers, 5-year old Luli joins an English as a Second Language class. Luli and her classmates are faced with a challenge they didnt consider  none of the kids speaks the same language. Until Lulu shouts out tea! in her native Chinese and brings out her own teapot to share. Turns out, the kids do speak one language in common  the language of tea! Lulus classmates share their own words for tea and soon Luli is sharing another of her favorite words  cookie!

Did you know?

The Whip Guy will perform at 10 a.m. Tuesday as part of the library's Summer Reading Program. Admission is free for the show of daring tricks and musical routines.
Luis Echeverria, Mexico leader blamed for massacres, dies View Photo

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Former Mexican President Luis Echeverria, who tried to cast himself as a progressive world leader but was blamed for some of Mexicos worst political killings of the 20th century, has died at the age of 100.

Current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador confirmed the death Saturday on his Twitter account and sent condolences to Echeverrias family and friends in the name of the government of Mexico, but did not express any personal sadness about the death.

Lopez Obrador did not provide a cause of death for Echeverria, who governed Mexico from 1970 to 1976. He had been hospitalized for pulmonary problems in 2018 and also had neurological difficulties in recent years.

Echeverria positioned himself as a left-leaning maverick allied with Third World causes during his presidency, but his role in the notorious massacres of leftist students in 1968 and 1971 made him hated by Mexican leftists, who for for decades tried unsuccessfully to have him put on trial.

In 2004, he became the first former Mexican head of state formally accused of criminal wrongdoing. Prosecutors linked Echeverria to the countrys so-called dirty war in which hundreds of leftist activists and members of fringe guerrilla groups were imprisoned, killed, or simply disappeared without a trace.

Special prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo asked a judge to issue an arrest warrant against Echeverria on genocide charges in the two student massacres, the first of which occurred when served as interior secretary, overseeing domestic security affairs.

On Oct. 2 1968, a few weeks before the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, government sharpshooters opened fire on student protesters in the Tlatelolco plaza, followed by soldiers posted there. Estimates of the dead have ranged from 25 to more than 300. Echeverria had denied any participation in the attacks.

According to military reports, at least 360 government snipers were placed on buildings surrounding the protesters.

In June 1971, during Echeverrias own term as president, students set out from a teachers college just west of the city center for one of the first large-scale protests since the Tlatelolco massacre. They didnt get more than a few blocks before they were set upon by plainclothes thugs who were actually government agents known as the Halcones, or Falcons. Prosecutors say that group that participated in the beating or shooting deaths of 12 people.

That attack was depicted in the Oscar-winning 2018 movie Roma, in which two characters stumble across the violence, which turns out to involve one of their boyfriends as a member of the Halcones.

In 2005, a judge ruled Echeverria could not be tried on genocide charges stemming from the 1971 killings, saying that while Echeverria may have been responsible for homicide, the statute of limitations for that crime expired in 1985.

In March 2009, a federal court upheld a lower courts ruling that Echeverria did not have to face genocide charges for his alleged involvement in the 1968 student massacre, and ordered his release, though opponents noted the case against him was never closed.

Echeverria never spent a day in jail, though he was under a form of house arrest for some time.

While few people in Mexico mourned the passing of Echeverria, Felix Hernandez Gamundi  a 1968 student movement leader who was in Tlatelolco plaza on the day of the massacre, and who saw his friends gunned down  mourned what might have been.

The death of ex-President Luis Echeverria is regrettable because it occurred in total silence, because despite his his very long life, Luis Echeverria never decided to come clean about his actions, Hernandez Gamundi said.

Of course we dont mourn his death, he said. We mourn the opacity he displayed his entire life and his decision never to make an accounting, to always take advantage of his immense political and economic power that he enjoyed for the rest of his life.

.He delayed for a long time the inevitable process of democracy that began in 1968, Hernandez Gamundi said, referring to the fact that the massacre became a catalyst for activists trying to end a system of one-party presidential rule. October 2 marked the beginning of the end of the old regime, but it took many years afterward.

Echeverrias death came at a time that his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI  which ruled Mexico with an iron hand for seven decades, before losing power for the first time in the elections of 2000  is losing what little power it still had, discredited and riven by internal scandals and disputes.

Things could have been different, he said. The PRI had a lot of opportunities to put things right and make an accounting.

Born on Jan. 17, 1922, in Mexico City, Echeverria received a law degree from Mexicos Autonomous National University in 1945.

Shortly afterward, he began his political career with PRI. He later held posts in the navy and Education Department, advanced to chief administrative officer of the PRI and organized the presidential campaign of Adolfo Lopez Mateos, who was Mexicos leader from 1958-64.

In 1964, under then-President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, Echeverria was rewarded with the key position of interior secretary, overseeing domestic security. He held that position in 1968, when the government cracked down on student pro-democracy protests, apparently worried they would embarrass Mexico as the host of the Olympics that year.

Echeverria left the interior post in November 1969, when he became the PRIs presidential candidate.

He won that race, and was sworn in on Dec. 1, 1970, and supported the governments of Cubas Fidel Castro and leftist Salvador Allende in Chile.

After Allende was assassinated in 1973 during a coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, Echeverria opened Mexicos borders to Chileans fleeing Pinochets dictatorship.

Domestically, Echeverria presided over boom times in Mexico in the 1970s linked to a bonanza in oil prices and oil discoveries. He vastly expanded the number of government-owned industries, a policy his successors later had to reverse because his ambitious public spending and building programs left Mexico deeply mired in debt.

Seeking to shed his repressive image, Echeverria wore the loose, open-necked tropical shirt known as the guayabera and he later pardoned many of the student leaders jailed during the crackdown on protests in 1968. He actively sought to recruit intellectuals with government jobs and money.

Echeverria traveled the world promoting himself as a leader of the third world and friend of leftist causes. But within Mexico, he couldnt shake his reputation for cracking down on dissent.

According to Carrillo, the prosecutor who tried to charge him, Echeverria was the master of illusion, the magician of deceit.

Juan Velasquez, the lawyer who defended Echeverria, said the ex-president died at one of his homes, but did not specify a cause.

I told Luis that even though nobody  not him, not me, not his family  wanted him to go on trial, in the end it was the best thing that could have happened, because the charges were dropped, Velasquez said.

In his later years, Echeverria tried to project himself as an elder statesman, and a few times when his health permitted  held forth unrepentantly before journalists. But he mainly lived in reclusive retirement at his sprawling home in an upscale Mexico City neighborhood.

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO and MARK STEVENSON

Associated Press
Ride-hailing platform Ola has started laying off employees, as many as 500 from its nearly 1,100-strong workforce, across verticals as it aims to cut costs amid a challenging funding environment.

The SoftBank-backed company has also deferred appraisals as it aims at "leaner and consolidated teams" to keep its "strong profitability intact," according to sources.

In an internal communication on communication platform Slack, as first seen by The Economic Times, Balachandar N., who is Chief of HR said that "we understand the anxiousness around Driven (Ola's appraisal programme)".

"As you would know by now, we are working on the restructuring of some of our businesses and will follow it up with Driven," read the internal communication.

The layoffs begin as Shikharr Sood, the head of Ola's Talent Acquisition, and in charge of talent acquisition for the entire Ola Group, has put in his papers.

His resignation comes amid several resignations by top executives.

Several former executives said that "product complaints, unit closures and 'act fast, think later' culture has led to recent Ola troubles", reports CNBC.

Last month, Ola shut down its used vehicle business Ola Cars as well as Ola Dash, its quick-commerce business.

The company shut Ola Cars within one year of its launch, as it focuses on its electric two-wheeler and electric car verticals.

Meanwhile, Ola Electric, facing a government probe into battery fires along with other EV players, has also seen some high-profile exits in recent months.

Earlier this week, Yashwant Kumar, Senior Director and Business Head for Charging Networks at the company, decided to move on.
Sonora, CA On Thursday at close to 9:30 AM Tuolumne County Sheriff Deputies responded to a report of a burglary in progress at a residence near the area of Cordelia Road and Mono Way in Sonora. The resident reported a male was inside a shed on his property. As deputies arrived they saw a suspect that fit the description running into the bushes nearby. Deputies chased and caught him a short distance away. The male, 37-year-old Kenneth Eldred was handcuffed and detained while the deputies started their investigation.

Deputies spoke to the resident who made the initial call, he went outside to retrieve a tool when he noticed a chain, bolt, and window on his shed appeared out of place. The resident reported hearing banging and walking coming from the shed, so he called 911. Shortly after the call to 911, Eldred exited the shed through the window and the resident chased Eldred off the property while updating dispatch. Eldred damaged a fence on the property as he fled, Further investigation found Eldred had removed the window of the shed to gain access, had cut a padlock, and had been stacking items from the shed near the window.

Eldred was arrested and transported to the Dambacher Detention Center where he was booked on multiple charges including burglary, vandalism, obstructing and resisting a peace officer, and a misdemeanor warrant.
Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office Vehicle View Photo

Sonora, CA  A Sonora man accused of child sexual abuse was also found to have a hidden camera in a residence and was placed on $150,000 bail.

The case was first brought to the attention of Tuolumne County Sheriffs Detectives four months earlier, in April, when a report was made against 61-year-old Rick Crook related to a past sexual abuse by a relative incident. On July 1st, detectives continued the investigation and arrested Crook in the area of Obyrnes Ferry Road in the Copperopolis area of Calaveras County.

Earlier a search warrant had been carried out on Crooks Phoenix Lake Road residence, looking for items that would provide evidence related to the reported crimes. Sheriffs officials did not detail exactly what items were confiscated from the home.

Crook faces charges of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14; possession of child pornography, continuous sexual abuse of a child; unlawful entry for the purpose of annoying or molesting a child under the age of 18; and use of a concealed camera to video another person in a private place. This is an ongoing case, and nothing further will be released at this time, according to investigators.
Tribal elders recall painful boarding school memories View Photo

ANADARKO, Okla. (AP)  Native American tribal elders who were once students at government-backed Indian boarding schools testified Saturday about the hardships they endured, including beatings, whippings, sexual assaults, forced haircuts and painful nicknames.

They came from different states and different tribes, but they shared the common experience of having attended the schools that were designed to strip Indigenous people of their cultural identities.

I still feel that pain, said 84-year-old Donald Neconie, a former U.S. Marine and member of the Kiowa Tribe who once attended the Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) southwest of Oklahoma City. I will never, ever forgive this school for what they did to me.

It may be good now. But it wasnt back then.

As the elders spoke, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, herself a Laguna Pueblo from New Mexico and the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history, listened quietly. The event at the Riverside Indian School, which still operates today but with a vastly different mission, was the first stop on a yearlong nationwide tour to hear about the painful experiences of Native Americans who were sent to the government-backed boarding schools.

Federal Indian boarding school policies have touched every Indigenous person I know, Haaland said at the start of the event, which attracted Native Americans from throughout the region. Some are survivors. Some are descendants. But we all carry the trauma in our hearts.

My ancestors endured the horrors of the Indian boarding school assimilation policies carried out by the same department that I now lead. This is the first time in history that a cabinet secretary comes to the table with this shared trauma.

Haalands agency recently released a report that identified more than 400 of the schools, which sought to assimilate Native children into white society during a period that stretched from the late 18th century until the late 1960s.

Although most closed their doors long ago and none still exist to strip students of their identities, some still function as schools, albeit with drastically different missions that celebrate the cultural backgrounds of their Native students. Among them is Riverside, which is one of oldest.

Riverside, which opened in 1871, serves students from grades four through 12 these days, offering them specialized academic programs as well as courses on cultural topics such as bead-working, shawl-making and an introduction to tribal art, foods and games. Currently operated by the Bureau of Indian Education, it has nearly 800 students from more than 75 tribes across the country, and the schools administration, staff and faculty are mostly Native American.

It is one of 183 elementary and secondary schools across the country funded by the Bureau of Indian Education that seek to provide education aligned with a tribes needs for cultural and economic well-being, according to the bureaus website.

But Riverside also has a dark history of mistreating the thousands of Native American students who were forced from their homes to attend it.

Neconie, who still lives in Anadarko, recalled being beaten if he cried or spoke his native Kiowa language when he attended Riverside in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Every time I tried to talk Kiowa, they put lye in my mouth, he said. It was 12 years of hell.

Brought Plenty, a Standing Rock Sioux who lives in Dallas, recalled the years she spent at Indian boarding schools in South Dakota, where she was forced to cut her hair and told not to speak her Native language. She recalled being forced to whip other girls with wet towels and being punished when she didnt.

What they did to us makes you feel so inferior, she said. You never get past this. You never forget it.

Until recently, the federal government hadnt been open to examining its role in the troubled history of Native American boarding schools. But this has changed because people who know about the trauma that was inflicted hold prominent positions in government.

At least 500 children died at such schools, but that number is expected to reach into the thousands or tens of thousands as more research is done.

The Interior Departments report includes a list of the boarding schools in what were states or territories that operated between 1819 and 1969 that had a housing component and received support from the federal government.

Oklahoma had the most, 76, followed by Arizona, which had 47, and New Mexico, which had 43. All three states still have significant Native American populations.

Former students might be hesitant to recount the painful past and trust a government whose policies were to eradicate tribes and, later, assimilate them under the veil of education. But some welcome the opportunity to share their stories for the first time.

Not all the memories from those who attended the schools were painful ones.

Dorothy WhiteHorse, 89, a Kiowa who attended Riverside in the 1940s, said she recalled learning to dance the jitterbug in the schools gymnasium and learning to speak English for the first time. She also recalled older Kiowa women who served as house mothers in the dormitories who let her speak her Native language and treated her with kindness.

I was helped, WhiteHorse said. Im one of the happy ones.

But WhiteHorse also had some troubling memories, including the time she said three young boys ran away from the home and got caught in a snowstorm. She said all three froze to death.

I think we need a memorial for those boys, she said.

___

Felicia Fonseca contributed to this report from Flagstaff, Arizona.

By SEAN MURPHY

Associated Press
Police leader caught speeding: I need to slow my butt down View Photo

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  The superintendent of Louisiana State Police acknowledges he was pulled over for speeding in an unmarked work vehicle but did not receive a ticket from one of his own officers.

Col. Lamar Davis told WAFB-TV in an interview Friday that he accepts responsibility but does not remember how fast he was driving. A state trooper pulled Davis over June 28 on the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge along Interstate 10 west of Baton Rouge.

I was simply wrong in that situation, Davis said. There is no excuse for it, other than I need to slow my butt down.

The head of Louisiana State Police public affairs, Capt. Nick Manale, said the trooper utilized his discretion and did not issue a citation. Manale said the trooper did not make notes about how fast Davis was driving in the area where the speed limit was 60 mph (96 kph).

WAFB obtained a copy of the troopers body camera footage through a public records request. On Thursday, Louisiana State Police released the troopers body camera footage and a snippet of video from the troopers dashboard camera.

The body camera footage cuts off as soon as the trooper exits his vehicle and recognizes he has pulled over is his boss.

Well, Ill be, the trooper said just before the video stopped.

The dash cam footage, which does not have audio, shows the trooper and Davis talking for a few seconds between their two vehicles before the two shake hands. Within 30 seconds of first exiting his vehicle, Davis stepped back inside his vehicle and prepared to drive off.

During the interview Friday, Davis told WAFB that the troopers actions fell within Louisiana State Police policy.

I know everybody wants to see everything that we do. But, were not putting body cameras on doctors or lawyers or anybody else that is interacting with the public, Davis said. I ask that people trust that we are doing the right thing for the right reasons.

Davis became superintendent of the Louisiana State Police on Oct. 30, 2020.

The U.S. Justice Department announced last month that it was opening a civil rights investigation into the Louisiana State Police amid evidence that the agency has a pattern of looking the other way in the face of beatings of mostly Black men, including the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene.

The federal pattern-or-practice probe followed an Associated Press investigation that found Greenes arrest was among at least a dozen cases over the past decade in which state police troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who oversees the Justice Departments civil rights division, said Davis and Gov. John Bel Edwards pledged to cooperate with the investigation.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Tony Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in The Sopranos and brought his tough-guy swagger to films including Goodfellas, died Friday. He was 79.

Sirico died at an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said his manager, Bob McGowen. There was no immediate information on the cause of death.

A statement from Sirico's family confirmed the death of Gennaro Anthony Tony Sirico with great sadness, but with incredible pride, love and a whole lot of fond memories.

McGowan, who represented Sirico for more than two decades, recalled him as loyal and giving, with a strong philanthropic streak. That included helping ex-soldiers' causes, which hit home for the Army veteran, his manager said.

Steven Van Zandt, who played opposite Sirico as fellow mobster Silvio Dante on The Sopranos, saluted him on Twitter as legendary.

A larger than life character on and off screen. Gonna miss you a lot my friend, the actor and musician said.

Michael Imperioli, who portrayed Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos, called Sirico his dear friend, colleague and partner in crime.

Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone ive ever known, Imperioli said on Instagram.

Sirico was unconcerned about being cast in a string of bad guy roles, McGowan said, most prominently that of Peter Paul Paulie Walnuts Gualtieri in the 1999-2007 run of the acclaimed HBO drama starring James Gandolfini as mob boss Tony Soprano. (Gandolfini died in 2013 at age 51).

He didn't mind playing a mob guy, but he wouldn't play an informant, or as Sirico put it, a snitch, McGowan said.

Sirico, born July 29, 1942, in New York City, grew up in the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods where he said "every guy was trying to prove himself. You either had to have a tattoo or a bullet hole.

I had both, he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1990 interview, calling himself unstable" during that period of his life. He was arrested repeatedly for criminal offenses, he said, and was in prison twice. In his last stint behind bars, in the 1970s, he saw a performance by a group of ex-convicts and caught the acting bug.

I watched em and I thought, I can do that. I knew I wasnt bad looking. And I knew I had the (guts) to stand up and (bull) people," he told the Times. "You get a lot of practice in prison. I used to stand up in front of these cold-blooded murderers and kidnapers  and make em laugh.

Sirico also was cast outside the gangster mold, playing police officers in the films Dead Presidents and Deconstructing Harry." Among his other credits were Woody Allen films including Bullets over Broadway and Mighty Aphrodite, and appearances on TV series including Miami Vice and voice roles on Family Guy and American Dad!

Sirico is survived by daughter Joanne Sirico Bello; son Richard Sirico; his brother, Robert Sirico, a priest; and other relatives.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russian forces are raising true hell in Ukraines eastern industrial heartland, despite assessments they were taking an operational pause, a regional governor said Saturday, while another Ukrainian official urged people in Russian-occupied southern areas to evacuate quickly by all possible means" before a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Deadly Russian shelling was reported in Ukraines east and south.

The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Serhyi Haidai, said Russia launched more than 20 artillery, mortar and rocket strikes on the region overnight and its forces were pressing toward the border with the Donetsk region.

We are trying to contain the Russians armed formations along the entire front line, Haidai wrote on Telegram.

Last week, Russia captured the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, the city of Lysychansk. Analysts predicted Moscow's troops likely would take some time to rearm and regroup.

But so far there has been no operational pause announced by the enemy. He is still attacking and shelling our lands with the same intensity as before, Haidai said. He later said the Russian bombardment of Luhansk was suspended because Ukrainian forces had destroyed ammunition depots and barracks used by the Russians.

Ukraines deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, appealed to residents of Russian-held territories in the south to evacuate quickly so the occupying forces could not use them as human shields during a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

You need to search for a way to leave, because our armed forces are coming to de-occupy," she said. There will be a massive fight.

Speaking at a news conference late Friday, Vereshchuk said a civilian evacuation effort was underway for parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. She declined to give details, citing safety.

It was not clear how civilians were expected to safely leave Russian-controlled areas while missile strikes and artillery shelling continue in surrounding areas, whether they would be allowed to depart or even hear the government's appeal.

The wars death toll continued to rise.

Five people were killed and eight more wounded in Russian shelling Friday of Siversk and Semyhirya in the Donetsk region, its governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, wrote Saturday on Telegram.

In the city of Sloviansk, named as a likely next target of Russias offensive, rescuers pulled a 40-year-old man from the rubble of a building destroyed Saturday by shelling. Kyrylenko said multiple people were under the debris.

Russian missiles also killed two people and wounded three others Saturday in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, according to regional authorities.

They deliberately targeted residential areas, Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram. Kryvyi Rihs mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, asserted on Facebook that cluster munitions had been used and urged residents not to approach unfamiliar objects in the streets. More explosions were reported Saturday evening.

Kryvyi Rih is the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who visited Friday to meet with Vilkul and the brigadier general who commands troops in the region. Zelenskyy's office said he was briefed on the construction of defensive structures, the support of the troops, the supply of food and medicine to the city and the help given people who had fled to Kryvyi Rih after being driven out of their homes elsewhere in Ukraine.

In northeast Ukraine, a Russian rocket strike on Saturday hit the center of Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, injuring six people, including a 12-year-old girl, authorities said.

An Iskander ballistic missile was probably used," the Kharkiv regional prosecutors office said. "One of the missiles hit a two-story building, which led to its destruction. Neighboring houses were damaged.

The city has been targeted throughout the war, including several times in the past week. As survivor Valentina Mirgorodksaya dabbed at a cut on her cheek, first responders warily inspected the building shattered in Saturday's strike.

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych reported on Telegram that six Russian missiles were fired at his city in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea, but caused no casualties.

On this day alone, Russia hit Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Krivyi Rih, villages in the Zaporizhzhia region, Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. It hit residential areas, absolutely consciously and on purpose. ... For days on end, the brutal strikes of Russian artillery  dont stop. Such terrorist action can be stopped only with weapons  modern and powerful ones.

Russian defense officials claimed Saturday that their forces destroyed a hangar housing U.S. howitzers in the Donetsk region, near the town of Chasiv Yar. There was no immediate response from Ukraine.

In other developments on Saturday:

 Zelenskyy dismissed several ambassadors, including Ukraines ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, who has been an outspoken advocate of Kyivs cause but also ruffled feathers in Berlin. He was persistently critical of Germanys perceived slowness to provide heavy weapons. He also faced criticism for an interview in which he defended Stepan Bandera, a controversial World War II-era Ukrainian nationalist. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Melnyk was only speaking for himself. Zelenskyy said the dismissals of the ambassadors were part of a routine rotation. Melnyk had served in the post since 2015.

 Ukraines national police force said it was opening a criminal investigation into the Russian militarys alleged destruction of crops in the southern Kherson region. In a Telegram post, it accused Russian troops of not allowing residents to put out fires in fields and otherwise sabotaging the harvest.

 The British Defense Ministry said Russian forces in Ukraine were now being armed with obsolete or inappropriate equipment, including MT-LB armored vehicles taken out of long-term storage that do not provide the same protection as modern tanks.

While MT-LBS have previously been in service in support roles on both sides, Russia long considered them unsuitable for most frontline infantry transport roles, the British ministry said on Twitter.

 Ukraines sports minister, Vadym Gutzeit, said 100 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed either on the battlefield or from Russian shelling, while 22 were captured by Russian forces. In a Facebook post, Gutzeit said more than 3,000 athletes are now in uniform.

___

Associated Press journalists across Ukraine contributed.

___

Follow APs coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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Tony Sirico, the actor known for playing mobster Peter Paul Paulie Walnuts Gualtieri on The Sopranos, died Friday, Variety confirmed with his manager. He was 79.

Siricos Paulie Walnuts, a bombastic and ferociously funny foot soldier to James Gandolfinis Tony Soprano with one-liners like no one else, was a Sopranos scene-stealer from the start. Sirico balanced Paulies menace with his deadpan humor, and his penchant for malapropisms, once calling Sun Tzu Sun Tuh-Zoo, later referring to the philosopher as the Chinese Prince Matchabelli. Sirico appeared on all six seasons of The Sopranos, after he initially auditioned for the role of Uncle Junior. Dominic Chianese ultimately landed that part.

Born Gennaro Anthony Sirico Jr. on July 24, 1942 to an Italian family in New York City, Sirico spent much of his early life getting into trouble with the law, and has been associated with the real-life Colombo crime family. He was arrested 28 times  first as a 7-year-old after he stole nickels from a newsstand  before getting into acting. He went to prison twice, once after being charged for possessing an illegal weapon, and again for armed robbery.

I was very unstable, Sirico told the LA Times in 1990 about that time in his life. I wasnt thinking right. So I hooked up with these guys and all of a sudden Im a stick-up artist. I stuck up every nightclub in New York.

I gotta admit I feel funny when somebody will spot me and ask for an autograph, he continued. I think its that old guilt. Maybe I feel like I dont deserve the attention.

He made his acting debut as an extra in the 1974 mobster drama Crazy Joe alongside Henry Winkler. That film preceded Siricos countless later roles as gangsters and criminals, from Martin Scorseses Goodfellas in 1990 to Woody Allens Bullets Over Broadway in 1994. Sirico appeared in a number of Allens films, including Cafe Society in 2016 and Mighty Aphrodite in 1995.

In 1989, Sirico appeared in the documentary The Big Bang, in which he discussed his criminal past and how it affected his philosophy on life. In 2013, he appeared in a few episodes of Family Guy as the voice of Vinny Griffin, the family dog. His most recent acting appearance was on two episodes of American Dad as a mobster named Enzo Perotti.

Siricos manager, Bob McGowan called him a very loyal and great client who would always help people in need. He was member of the wounded warriors.

In an Instagram post, Siricos Sopranos co-star Michael Imperioli wrote, It pains me to say that my dear friend, colleague and partner in crime, the great TONY SIRICO has passed away today. Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone ive ever known. I was at his side through so much: through good times and bad. But mostly good. And we had a lot of laughs.

He continued, We found a groove as Christopher and Paulie and I am proud to say I did a lot of my best and most fun work with my dear pal Tony. I will miss him forever. He is truly irreplaceable. I send love to his family, friends and his many many fans. He was beloved and will never be forgotten. Heartbroken today.

On Facebook, Siricos family wrote that they are deeply grateful for the many expressions of love, prayer and condolences and requests that the public respect its privacy in this time of bereavement.

According to his familys post, Sirico is survived by his two children, Joanne Sirico Bello and Richard Sirico, as well as grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews and other relatives.

Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
When it comes to Texas, many people in other states believe the Lone Star State bleeds red and has Republican-led values. However, Texas native and The Try Guys member Eugene Lee Yang wants to prove that isn't true. He thinks Texas is leaning toward becoming a blue state in the next decade. It starts with supporting gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rouke.

"The narrative itself around places like Texas is totally off base, and I think that's something that we need to reshape," Yang, who's from Pflugerville, told MySA. "[Greg] Abbott's administration has demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of what real Texans need and what is currently facing our state. Beto has shown that his views and his plans, and how willing he is and ready to go after change aggressively, is something that I think is a shining light for a lot of the current problems that plagued the state."

Yang is a proud Texan. The YouTube star said still has family living in the state and visits often, which is why he wants to use his platform to show that Texas is more than the conservative laws the GOP passes, such as the "heartbeat bill" and House Bill 25, a law that restricts transgender student-athletes from participating in school sports.

Noam Galai/Getty Images for Shorty Awards

His passion for wanting quality leadership in Texas led Yang to team up with O'Rourke. The two are hosting a fundraising event in San Antonio at the Freight Gallery and 1906 Gallery at 5 p.m. on Monday, July 11. During the event, Yang will interview O'Rourke about the issues facing working Texans and how O'Rourke plans to confront these challenges if elected governor.

The producer and writer will be filming the event for his upcoming documentary named, This is Texas. The documentary aims to showcase the strength of the Democratic resistance in Texas, the issues facing working Texans, and the need for new political leadership. The documentary will be released on September 7 on The Try Guys YouTube channel, which has more than eight million subscribers.

Yang said the Texas GOP is pushing this narrative that the state will always have this conservative stance, but he thinks it's a misrepresentation of what people actually want. He said that he wanted to create the documentary to showcase that Texas is more than what the Texas GOP represents.

"Texas, in the minds of Americans, has been so faulted as this sort of conservative stronghold, when in fact, the demographics show  having not included the voter suppression that has happened in the state  that the ideology of the public is moving towards progress," Yang said. "For me, especially with how much impact I have with my platform, I don't look at it as a political push from my end. I see it as basic education."

In the documentary film, Yang plans on featuring the real voices of Texas who have been deferred because of the GOP who have held office for so long. He plans on showcasing the history of the state and the way Abbott has failed Texas (he mentioned one example of the power grid). Yang will center the film on the event with O'Rourke.

This isn't Yang's first rodeo when it comes to using his platform to advocate for his beliefs. In 2021, he received the Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign. The reward came after Yang released his full-length documentary We Need To Talk About Anti-Asian Hate, which raised over $600,000 for GoFundMe's Stop Asian Hate campaign.

Cindy Ord/MG21/Getty Images

"I think that education is so important," he said. "...The most honest way to go forward is to just tell the truth and just lay out the facts. That's something I think is so important as we continue the conversation about Texans. And, if the documentary can at least create a case of informative media that people can cite when they're looking towards what is happening in Texas and what Texans want."

In Texas, the last day to register to vote is on October 11. Early voting starts on October 24 and Election Day is on November 8. Yang knows this election is a big one as Abbott is up for reelection. However, he believes O'Rourke is the right candidate for Texas. He acknowledged many might feel some voting fatigue towards Texas but said this is the time to take that feeling and channel it into action.

"This is also a state and a time where that fatigue could mean the difference between like the entirety of the direction of whether this is country going backward versus forwards," Yang said. "Texans have a strong amount of power on the national scale. I want to encourage people to feel excited, especially young people to be excited about this opportunity to better represent their viewpoints."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe an outstanding leader of Japan and said that the world has lost a great visionary while he has lost a dear friend.

Remembering Abe, Modi wrote in a blog that he first met Abe in 2007, during his visit to Japan as the Chief Minister of Gujarat and right from that first meeting their friendship went beyond the trappings of office and the shackles of official protocol.

Recalling his interaction with Abe, Prime Minister Modi wrote: "Our visit to Toji temple in Kyoto, our train journey on the Shinkansen, our visit to the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, the Ganga Aarati in Kashi, the elaborate tea ceremony in Tokyo, the list of our memorable interactions is indeed long."

Prime Minister Modi said he will always cherish the singular honour of having been invited to Abe's family home in Yamanashi prefecture, nestled among the foothills of Mt. Fuji.

"Even when he was not the Prime Minister of Japan between 2007 and 2012, and more recently after 2020, our personal bond remained as strong as ever. Every meeting with Abe San was intellectually stimulating. He was always full of new ideas and invaluable insights on governance, economy, culture, foreign policy, and various other subjects," Prime Minister Modi wrote.

Modi pointed that Abe's counsel inspired him in his economic choices for Gujarat and his support was instrumental in building Gujarat's vibrant partnership with Japan.

Modi noted that it was his privilege to work with him to bring about an unprecedented transformation of the strategic partnership between India and Japan from a largely narrow, bilateral economic relationship, Abe San helped turn it into a broad, comprehensive one, which not only covered every field of national endeavour, but became pivotal for our two countries and the region's security.

"His contribution to India-Japan relations was richly recognised by the conferment upon him of the prestigious Padma Vibhushan in 2021," Modi wrote.

The Prime Minister mentioned that among his greatest gifts to us and his most enduring legacy, and one for which the world will always be indebted, is his foresight in recognising the changing tides and gathering storm of our time and his leadership in responding to it.

"Long before others, he, in his seminal speech to the Indian Parliament in 2007, laid the ground for the emergence of the Indo Pacific region as a contemporary political, strategic and economic reality - a region that will also shape the world in this century," Modi wrote in the blog.

Recalling his recent interaction with Abe, Modi wrote: "During my Japan visit in May this year, I had the opportunity to meet Abe San, who had just taken over as the Chair of the Japan-India Association. He was his usual self - energetic, captivating, charismatic and very witty. He had innovative ideas on how to further strengthen the India-Japan friendship. When I said goodbye to him that day, little did I imagine that it would be our final meeting."

Modi further noted that he will always be indebted for his warmth and wisdom, grace and generosity, friendship and guidance, and I will miss him dearly.

"We in India mourn his passing as one of our own, just as he embraced us with an open heart. He died doing what he loved the most - inspiring his people. His life may have been cut short tragically, but his legacy will endure forever. I extend heart-felt condolences on behalf of the people of India and on my own behalf to the people of Japan, especially to Mrs. Akie Abe and his family. Om Shanti," PM Modi added.
Hotter temperatures are rolling in, but that's not stopping us from heading out to San Antonio's fleet of roaming restaurants. Whether it's fresh seafood, Mediterranean, or a classic smash-style burger, our staff curated a list of must-try food trucks that have free rent in our minds.

Check them out below.

Madalyn Mendoza, MySA.com

El Jefe Baja Style

The authentic Baja-style mariscos truck moved from California to San Antonio in April. While the truck has an established Cali ceviche camp, San Antonians are quickly learning why the food truck has taken multiple foodie titles in its home state.

The truck parks at Porta Rossa, a bar at the nestled on the first floor of the 1221 Broadway Lofts. Every order, from the aguaschiles to the ceviche are fresh and made-to-order.

El Jefe has gotten my business twice. The first time was with a friend who insisted that I needed to try the food owner Juan Pablo Cruz is making. He wasn't wrong. The following week, one of my girlfriends felt ravenous after a gallivant at nearby bars. I knew just the place. She was equally impressed and to my surprise, other friends were already getting their own late-night snack because isn't that the best part of going out?

If that's not enough to convince you to check it out, my 10-year-old nephew is also a fan, which says a lot considering the amounts of food he's snuck under the table for auntie to eat when his parents weren't watching.

Each time I've ordered the mixta with fish, shrimp, and crab. Since the ceviche is prepared fresh, the seafood doesn't sit in the lime so much that it overpowers the taste.

The truck being parked at the Porta Rossa makes it a perfect spot to refuel in between weekend fun. Get some ceviche, then get a cocktail or vice versa. Boom, perfect weekend plans. But, you don't have to be a bar-goer to get the food. The courtyard outside the bar is open to ordering.

Find them at: 1221 Broadway

- Madalyn Mendoza

Madalyn Mendoza, MySA.com

The Pita Chick

Texans often joke about Californians moving to the Lone Star State, but after eating at El Jefe and The Pita Chick, which moved from the West Coast in June, they're alright by me! The Mediterranean food truck brings a fresh option to El Camino, the bar and food truck park at 1009 Avenue B.

The food truck offers a straightforward menu. There's three protein options, chicken, steak, or falafel, can be ordered as a pita or combo plate. The combo option comes with rice and your choice of two sides (fries, hummus, or tabbouleh). The menu also has loaded shawarma fries and deluxe hummus, which is housemade and topped with chicken or steak.

Madalyn Mendoza, MySA.com

Texture is big for me. I'm also the type to put two tablespoons of garlic when the recipe calls for a teaspoon. All things considered, The Pita Chick was really that girl. I ordered the combo plate and the shawarma fries to share with my friend. Both were topped with crunchy almonds, had heaps of hummus, and ample amounts of garlic sauce. It should also be known that I love sauces and dips. If you're like me, you're going to be dipping your fries, chicken or maybe even bare fork between your little pots of flavor.

Prices range from $12 to $15.

Find them at: 1009 Avenue B

- Madalyn Mendoza

Madalyn Mendoza, MySA.com

Last Place Burgers

It seems like Last Place Burgers, the self-flagellating underdog of the local burger scene, has been trucking everywhere lately, from Pink Hill to Little Death, since moving from a pop-up to a food truck in January. People love posting Mark Villarreal's wagyu beef smash-patties!

I finally found myself the last person in line for a Last Place burger of my own when they were parked at the Pearl Wednesday night. There were many other lost souls seeking a trendy burger that fateful evening, and I waited patiently. Finally, I ordered an "OG" with dukes mayo, a crown of pleasingly pink pickled red onions, and American cheese.

Camille Sauers, MySA.com

Villarreal also threw in some fries. After 20 sweaty minutes wandering the Pearl's night market, I claimed my bag and lugged it with me to meet my friends at Little Death. I paired my burger with what I think was a Riesling, which I highly recommend. Best burger I've had in months at San Antonio's "worst" wine bar.

Find them at: Last Place is very mobile. Follow them on Instagram to see where they pull up next.

- Camille Sauers

Jess Elizarraras/MySA

AreCebu

San Antonio is all about blending cultures, and thats apparent as soon as you stroll up to AreCebu, the latest food truck to join the mobile kitchens at Street Fare Food Truck Park on Austin Highway this spring. The dual-tone trailer is helmed by chefs Eulogio Jimenez Jr. and Jimmy Sanabria. The business partners decided to take their skills honed at various hotel kitchens, and try their hand at seriously delicious fusion.

At AreCebu, youll find Puerto Rican fare right alongside Filipino favorites. What does one tiny island in the Pacific Ocean have to do with one tinier island in the Atlantic, you say? Both cuisines take their former Spanish Imperial backgrounds, and are just vaguely similar enough for San Antonio diners to find alluring. Lumpia and tostones are a must (and you definitely need a side of atchara, or pickled papaya), but so is their take on salt and pepper fried squid doused in a sweet ginger vinegar sauce served over garlicky rice.

Jess Elizarraras/MySA

Looking for something sweet? I hope you packed your Lactaid, because youll want to order the creamiest flan de queso found in a truck.

Find them at: Street Fare, 1916 Austin Hwy.

 Jess Elizarraras

Jess Elizarraras/MySA

Taquitos El Primo

West Avenue has a plethora of taco trucks and shops and plate sales, but Taquitos El Primo acts as the roadways welcoming entry.

On any given day, dozens of taco connoisseurs surround El Primo (or Los Primos according to some signage), a new-to-the-biz red trailer emblazoned with its menu  mini tacos, burritos, quesadillas, tortas, hamburguesas, all with your choice of protein  truly the call sign of any truck worth its salt.

After driving past the truck for the last year, we decided to stop in after a particularly sweaty Pride Parade. Exhausted from the heat and up way past our bedtime with a rather potent tequila water in our system, the bistek and lengua tacos (five minis for $8) hit the spot. Would they hold up under normal circumstances?

Jess Elizarraras/MySA

We stopped in for dinner  completely sober  and ordered buche (pig stomach) and trompo al pastor. Tender morsels with crunchy textures on one end and citrusy, chile-laced pastor on the other greeted our palates for date night. Ambiance (in this case, brought to you by the lull of traffic on I-10 West) shouldnt stop you from visiting one of S.A.s most underrated taco gems.

Find them at: 5607 I-10 West (Northeast corner of I-10 and West Avenue, next to the Rent-A-Tire) and 7077 San Pedro Ave. (Next to Custom Sounds).

 Jess Elizarraras
When traveling down Interstate 35 near Nacogdoches Road in San Antonio, you might look up and see tiny pilots flying in the air in a powered paraglider. I was curious about it too, so I reached out and experienced an exhilarating discovery flight where I was about 900 feet above the ground.

More than three years ago, Ron Toran decided to bring his paramotor flight school business, Lone Star Paramotor, to the Northeast Side of San Antonio at the Kitty Hawk Ultralight Flying Field. He isn't a stranger to teaching as he was a second-grade educator for 25 years. When Toran retired, he wanted to share his love for powered paragliding with others. He's been an instructor since 2015.

"I've been an airplane enthusiast since I was a kid," Toran told me while his trained pilots flew over us on the sunny and gorgeous morning of June 21. "It's always been a dream of mine to fly, so me getting into this was finding a way to do that in the cheapest way I could and the most mobile way."

Powered paragliding  I've come to learn  is an interesting sport for any thrill-seekers and quirky individuals looking for a supportive community. It's basically a motorized paraglider that is used for flying. There are two basic types of paramotors: foot launch and wheel launch. Both are offered at Toran's flight school.

Luis Vazquez

The Discovery Flight

Toran has several training courses to become a paramotor, which I'll get into more detail later. But, before booking the curriculum, you can feel the thrill of a paramotor ride through Toran's discovery flight, which is what I nervously signed up for.

The flight is a 15-minute tandem wheel launch. It gives you the opportunity to take the controls with the careful guidance of a trained instructor. You also don't have to take the controls if you're too scared, like I was.

When I arrived that day, Toran talked me through what they do and showed me how paramotors take off on their own on foot. Seeing the individuals take off so effortlessly helped me feel better about being almost 1,000 feet in the air.

Luis Vazquez

In the United States, paramotors are allowed to fly up to 18,000 feet due to airspace restrictions. However, most pilots tend to enjoy flying between 300 to 1,000 feet, where the freedom to explore is best experienced, Toran said.

One of his instructors told me it's like flying in the air on a lawn chair. It honestly was exactly that. Once I was harnessed in and secured, my instructor and I took off into the air smoothly. You can take your phone up there  as long as you are careful  to take pictures. My nerves left my body and I enjoyed seeing the world from their perspective.

I saw doves fly over the treetops on private property nearby, the tiny vehicles on the highway, and the limestone quarry next to it. Toran recommends this flight if you're interested in becoming a paramotor. There's no age requirement for a tandem flight but there's a maximum passenger weight limit of 250 pounds. The cost for the flight is $100.

Luis Vazquez

Why become a paramotor?

Bob Lindner first discovered the paramotor world after he and his wife saw three pilots in the sky while on the way to their gym on the Northeast Side. He said his wife turned to him and calmly and forcefully said, "You need to go do that." So, Lindner called Toran and trained in August 2021. Lindner said he has experience in the air after spending 29 years in the Air Force, but added he wished he did paramotoring first.

"It's much more fun," Lindner, 65, said. "This is an honest flight. This is the Wright brothers. This is a great family of aviators out here. Everybody involved in this sport has a fantastic personality. They are a little quirky, but it's as much fun to hang with them as a tribe as it is to get up in the air."

Lindner learned how to foot launch and wheel launch. For the classes, Toran said one of the most popular courses is the zero to hero program. You'll learn everything you need to get into the air. It includes 10 full days of intensive instruction and instruction on tandem flying. It costs $3,000 for the course.

Luis Vazquez

There's also a program for foot launchers who want to learn to trike and for those who are looking to take their skills to the next level. You can find both classes on the company's website at lonestarparamotor.com.

Glen Durkee, who came down from Alaska to train with Toran, just finished his 10-day course when I saw him on the field. He said he traveled to Texas because everybody in the paramotor community recommended to him to train with Toran. Durkee said Toran has a great reputation.

"These guys are fantastic," Durkee, 59, said. "Even from the first flight when I got off the ground, adrenaline will rev at 5,000, but everything they teach you will click. There was nothing missing. It was no problem. It's one of the coolest things I've ever done."

Luis Vazquez

I also saw firsthand one of Toran's students take his first flight on foot. Alberto Raffles said it took him a while to get over his anxiety and take off by himself. But, when he did, Raffles told me he loved it and thanked Toran for his training.

Toran said it's an expensive hobby but worth it for those looking for a chance to fly. Getting into paramotoring would be similar in cost to getting a motorcycle, he explained. Upfront costs including gear and training can range from $5,000 to upwards of $15,000. However, once a new pilot has their gear and is proficiently flying, the ongoing costs are relatively low. Both motor and glider wings are capable of flying for hundreds of hours with proper care, Toran said.

Paramotor pilots are regulated by FAA Federal Aviation Regulation 103 for Ultralight Vehicles. This means that paramotor pilots do not need clearance to take off or land. In fact, they do not need to communicate with a flight tower at any point. However, a quality training program will secure a new pilot to obtain both the physical skills and knowledge needed.

For those looking for a new hobby, I'd recommend trying the discovery flight first. While I don't think I will go and take the classes, I will send some notes to my uncles.
WASHINGTON - Delivering impassioned remarks on the future of abortion access in the United States, President Joe Biden on Friday expressed outrage over the case of a 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio who was forced to travel across the state line to undergo an abortion.

"She was forced to have to travel out of the state to Indiana to seek to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life," Biden said in remarks at the White House. "Ten years old - 10 years old! - raped, six weeks pregnant, already traumatized, was forced to travel to another state."

The Indianapolis Star reported last week that, three days after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, a doctor in Ohio who treats children who have been abused called an Indianapolis-based obstetrician-gynecologist to tell her about the case of a 10-year-old patient, a rape victim, who needed an abortion.

Ohio passed a law in 2019 that made abortion illegal around six weeks, when a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Hours after the Supreme Court erased Roe, the Ohio law took effect. The girl was, at that point, six weeks and three days pregnant.

The Ohio doctor asked the Indiana doctor if there were anything they could do for the girl. She later was able to cross state lines to receive an abortion under the Indiana doctor's care.

While performing an abortion before six weeks is still legal in Indiana, lawmakers in the state will be meeting later this month to consider further abortion restrictions. According to the Indianapolis Star, abortion providers in the state have been receiving more calls from patients out-of-state requesting abortion services.

Abortions performed on patients younger than age 15 in the country are rare - in 2019, only 0.2% of reported abortions were performed on patients that young, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As he retold the girl's story Friday, Biden grew visibly upset. A 10-year-old girl, he said, should not "be forced to give birth to a rapist's child."

Biden's focus on the child came shortly before he signed an executive order to protect abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court decision. The administration has faced pressure from other Democrats to do more, but Biden acknowledged that his executive power has limits.

The Supreme Court's ruling, he said, was "terrible, extreme, and I think so totally wrongheaded decision."

He added that, in his view, the court's majority is "playing fast and loose with the facts" in its opinion by misrepresenting the history of abortion rights in America.

"I can't think of anything as much more extreme as [the] court's decision," an emotional Biden said.

Biden's remarks on the 10-year-old's case were far different from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, who focused on the criminal act, calling the sexual assault of the child a "tragedy," according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, saying that what the state has out there, "obviously, [is] a rapist."

"We have someone who is dangerous and we have someone who should be picked up and locked up forever," DeWine said.

He did not, however, comment on the Ohio law he signed that barred her from receiving an abortion in the state.

"This is a horrible, horrible tragedy for a 10-year-old to be assaulted, for a 10-year-old to be raped," DeWine said Wednesday, according to the Enquirer. "As a father and as a grandfather, it's just gut-wrenching to even think about it."

The Ohio law was one of so-called trigger bans that went into effect in several states immediately after the court struck down Roe.

At the daily briefing after Biden's remarks, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president discussed the girl's case "just to show how extreme the decision on the Dobbs decision was and just how extreme it is now for the American public."

"When you have such a young girl who has to carry out the child of a rapist, that is unacceptable," Jean-Pierre said. "This is why he is calling for action. This is why he's trying to do everything that he can from his legal authority that he has."

Biden, Jean-Pierre said, is "going to do everything that he can to protect young people who are like this young girl."

"But at the same time, he's going to call it out and use his bully pulpit to make it clear of what is happening out there is unacceptable," she added.

The president, during his remarks Friday, also warned of a future in which Republicans in Congress would feel emboldened to pass a national ban on abortion. Such a measure, he said, would not become law under his watch because he would veto it.

"We cannot allow an out-of-control Supreme Court, working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican Party, to take away freedoms and our personal autonomy," he said.
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Local organizations are reacting to a federal measure to ensure abortion access after the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday to protect access to abortion as he faced mounting pressure from fellow Democrats to be more forceful on the subject after the Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to the procedure two weeks ago.

Allison Wilcox of Midland, one of the Women of Michigan Action Network leaders, said the executive order is a positive step forward. She referred to the "Reproductive Freedom for All" petitions that aim to place an initiative on the November 8 ballot to repeal the 1931 state abortion ban.

"Michigan voters who signed the petition and will vote  want that (access to abortion) to be the case across the country," Wilcox said.

The actions Biden outlined are intended to mitigate some penalties that women seeking abortion may face after the ruling, but they are limited in their ability to safeguard access to abortion nationwide. The president acknowledged the limitations facing his office, saying it would require an act of Congress to restore access to abortion in the more than a dozen states where strict limits or total bans have gone into effect in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling.

"I know they (Midland area supporters of reproductive rights) will say it's not enough," Wilcox said. "Because the president's executive orders can't make abortion accessible to women in states where it's limited...You have to do it before six weeks of pregnancy...I am sure people would say that's great, but we need more."

The reproductive rights petition effort has collected 800,000 signatures, which should be enough to be placed on the general election ballot. On Monday, local organizers are turning in signatures to the Secretary of State for certification.

Right to Life of Midland County was not immediately available for comment on Biden's executive order.

About a dozen more states are set to impose additional restrictions in the coming weeks and months.

The fastest way to restore Roe is to pass a national law, Biden said. "The challenge is go out and vote. For Gods sake, there is an election in November. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote!"

Biden formalized instructions to the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to push back on efforts to limit the ability of women to access federally approved abortion medication or to travel across state lines to access clinical abortion services. He was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, HHS secretary Xavier Becerra and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in the Roosevelt Room as he signed the order.

Biden's executive order also directs agencies to work to educate medical providers and insurers about how and when they are required to share privileged patient information with authorities  an effort to protect women who seek or utilize abortion services. He is also asking the Federal Trade Commission to take steps to protect the privacy of those seeking information about reproductive care online and establish an interagency task force to coordinate federal efforts to safeguard access to abortion.

Biden is also directing his staff to convene volunteer lawyers to provide women and reproductive health care providers with pro bono legal assistance to help them navigate new state restrictions after the Supreme Court ruling.

The decision by the court is expected to make abortion illegal in over a dozen states and severely restricted in others. 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, location data, text messages and emails, and even apps that track periods could be used to prosecute people who seek an abortion  or medical care for a miscarriage  as well as those who assist them, experts say.

Privacy advocates are watching for possible new moves by law enforcement agencies in affected states  serving subpoenas, for example, on tech companies such as Google, Apple, Bing, Facebooks Messenger and WhatsApp, services like Uber and Lyft, and internet service providers including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Comcast. Local prosecutors may go before sympathetic judges to obtain search warrants for users data.

Last month, four Democratic lawmakers asked the FTC 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.
Westend61/Getty Images/Westend61

Summer has arrived and with it comes many seasonal activities, such as traveling to the Caribbean, checking out some paddling trails and going to the beach. The arrival of the summer months also means it's time for refreshing seasonal cocktails. On June 29, Google trends published a list of the summer cocktails trending in the U.S. over the past week. The No. 1 trending drink was the lemon drop, followed by a watermelon martini, strawberry margarita, peach bellini and vodka spritzer.

Search interest related to the individual cocktails tends to increase for the majorty of these drinks in June before slowly decreasing in September and October, according to Google Trends search data.
Temple Beth-El canceled Shabbat services in-person and online on Saturday, July 9, due to security concerns that threaten the safety of San Antonio synagogues. The national FBI office said it is investigating a threat that was made.

The synagogue received information from experts that the safety for conducting services on Saturday is "not optimal," according to a statement posted to Temple Beth-El's Facebook. The statement from temple leadership said that the synagogue is partnering with local law enforcement and the FBI to monitor the environment.

The statement did not go into detail on the nature of the security concern that pushed the community to cancel Shabbat services. The FBI said in an emailed statement Saturday that it is investigating a potential threat "targeting an unidentified synagogue in Texas."

"We are working to determine the credibility of the threat and sharing information with our law enforcement partners and our partners in the Jewish community. We would like to remind members of the public that if they observe anything suspicious or have information about potential threats to report it to law enforcement immediately, call their local FBI field office, or submit a tip to tips.fbi.gov."

Debbie Roos, president of Temple Beth-El, said Tuesday that synagogue leadership is always in contact with the Jewish Federation of San Antonio and law enforcement to ensure the safety of the community and the congregation. But temple leadership has been in contact with them for about a week regarding this specific threat.

She didn't provide the full specifics of the potential threat, saying those details are best left to the FBI and law enforcement to divulge. However, she said the information leadership received was enough to determine that holding service on Saturday was not safe.

Roos said that it is "sad and heartbreaking" that the Jewish community can't practice its traditions nor hold Shabbat service.

MySA reached out to other area synagogues.

There has been a rise in antisemitism across San Antonio and Texas in recent years. Residents in Hays County found flyers in bags filled with rocks on their lawns and driveways in November 2021 that had hateful and antisemitic language on them. The flyers were found a month after antisemitic groups held rallies in Austin and San Antonio.

More antisemitic flyers appeared on residents' lawns in Alamo Heights and in a Helotes neighborhood in February. The flyers have been tied to multiple antisemitic groups. The Anti-Defamation League said the one of the groups is a "loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism," while another has used neo-Nazi symbols on its flyers.

"It is something that we're paying close attention to. I think that we operate on a daily scale of situational awareness and a heightened awareness of what our environment looks like," Roos said. "And yet, we won't back down from the positions that we take in terms of who we are and what we believe in and how we're going to practice our faith."

She said that Temple Beth-El continues to receive support from the community and city leaders despite the rise in antisemitism.

If you see flyers from the same groups or using similar neo-Nazi symbolism above, the FBI encourages people who believe they are witnessing hate crimes to submit tips online here.
(Natural News) In response to a request from several border counties in Texas that petitioned him to join their declaration that an illegal alien invasion is occurring, Gov. Greg Abbott has now affirmed that, yes; there is a serious problem at Americas southern border.

On July 7, Abbott took what one media report called an unprecedented step by issuing an executive order directing state law enforcement officers to apprehend illegal aliens and immediately return them to a port of entry at an international bridge.

I  do hereby authorize and empower the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety to respond to this illegal immigration by apprehending immigrants who cross the border between ports of entry or commit other violations of federal law, and to return those illegal immigrants to the border at a port of entry, Abbotts executive order states.

It only took two days for Abbott to respond to the five Texas counties, led by Kinney County, that invoked invasion language to access more state constitutional authority to deal with the illegal alien onslaught that is resulting in tragedy after tragedy.

Abbotts executive order allows him to call on state military forces under Article IV, Section 7 of the Texas Constitution, as well as relevant sections of the Texas Government Code, to take swift action in response to the problem since the federal government is apparently not doing nearly enough to deal with the problem.

President [Joe] Bidens failure to protect our border has necessitated action by the State of Texas to ensure public safety and to defend against violations of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, Abbotts order further reads.

The cartels have become emboldened and enriched by President Bidens open border policies, smuggling in record numbers of people, weapons, and deadly drugs like fentanyl.

More than 2 million illegal aliens have tried to force their way into Texas since Biden assumed office

Since Biden illegally took office back in January 2021, Border Patrol agents have reportedly apprehended more than two million illegal aliens trying to enter just Texas alone. Along the entirety of the southwest border during the same time period, agents have detected, but not captured, another 850,000 of them, which they refer to as getaways.

This is a lot of people, and Abbott says that Biden is refusing to enforce federal laws currently on the books, as enacted by Congress, that require the detention of certain immigrants, including some who have claimed asylum or committed a crime.

President Bidens reckless refusal to secure the border will provide material support to the cartels, allow them to smuggle more dangerous people, drugs, and weapons into Texas, and embolden cartel gunmen to continue shooting at state and federal officials, Abbott says.

Making an example out of one of the many problems that southern Texas faces due to the Biden regimes refusal to enforce the law, Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe personally drove four illegal aliens to the international bridge in Eagle Pass and released them back to Mexico after Border Patrol was unable to take them into custody.

Prior to Abbotts announcement and executive order, Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith says that by the end of July, as many as 25 Texas counties in total were planning to join the invasion declaration as well, due to what they are seeing ever since Biden assumed the White House.

Were at a breaking point, says National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, adding that it is absolutely appropriate for Abbott to invoke his powers under the Constitution.

Weve got miles upon miles of border that just arent patrolled because we have to deal with, frankly, an invasion.

More related news coverage can be found at InvasionUSA.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheEpochTimes.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Amazon, Bill Gates and Communist China are buying up property all over the United States to create concentration camps in preparation for the Great Reset.

What are they planning?  Well, theyre planning to build camps. Theyre planning to build FEMA camps, warned Josh Sigurdson of World Alternative Media. I think its pretty clear at this point that theyre readying the camps, theyre readying the FEMA camps, theyre readying the property to create  GMO food for the food rations to come, which will be coming very soon  because they are controlled collapsing the supply chain.

Amazon shifting business model by taking property acquisition and development in-house

Despite drastically scaling back its warehouse square footage in recent months due to the surge in energy and labor costs, Amazon is still continuing to purchase land and properties all over the United States.

Amazon has been expanding its property empire since 2020 when the already-gargantuan company began searching for property in key U.S. markets. One of Amazons most recent purchases is a 193-acre plot of land outside Round Rock, Texas. So far, Amazon has purchased around 4,000 acres of empty land since 2020.

Amazon used to rely heavily on developers to find, purchase and build new offices and warehouses on different properties. Now that Amazon is taking large parts of the property acquisition and development process in-house, it will be able to keep prying eyes away from its land holdings and have a lot more control over how its new properties are developed.

Bill Gates, China, buying up farmland all over America

The Fufeng Group, a Shandong, China-based company specializing in the production of flavor enhancers and sugar substitutes, has just paid $2.6 million to buy 300 acres of farmland in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Coincidentally, this piece of land is located near an Air Force base that houses sensitive drone technology.

China no doubt wants information on U.S. drones and is happy to own land in the U.S., wrote Joe Hoft for the Gateway Pundit.

It should also be noted that Grand Forks is just 40 miles away from Grafton, where a limited liability company owned by Bill Gates recently paid $13 million for over 2,000 acres of prime potato farmland. (Related: Bill Gates granted legal approval to purchase 2,100 acres of farmland in North Dakota.)

The tech giant had to fight tooth and nail for his LLCs purchase of the land to be approved, including fighting state law in the courts. This whole incident was received very poorly by North Dakotans.

Ive gotten a big earful on this from clear across the state, its not even from that neighborhood, said North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring during an interview with a local television station. Those people are upset, but there are others that are just livid about this.

This is just Gates latest land acquisition. The billionaire technocrat is already considered to be Americas top private farmland owner. He currently owns over 270,000 acres of agricultural real estate. This makes all of the land Gates owns twice as large as the U.S. territory of Guam in the western Pacific.

Watch this episode of World Alternative Media as host Josh Sigurdson talks about the concentration camps Amazon, Bill Gates and Communist China are building in the United States.

This video is from the World Alternative Media channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Amazon buying up massive industrial land holdings across the U.S., even as it reduces warehouse square footage what are they planning?

Meanwhile, communist China is buying up Americas farmland.

Bill Gates reveals reasons behind massive farmland purchases: Developing genetically modified crops to develop biofuels.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

Bloomberg.com

TheGatewayPundit.com

Futurism.com
(Natural News) One of Pennsylvanias popular drag queens, an LGBTQ+ youth adviser, has been charged with 25 counts of child pornography; he allegedly obtained dozens of photos and videos of nude underaged boys performing sex acts.

(Article by Michael Robison republished from TheGatewayPundit.com)

According to the Pennsylvania Attorney Generals Office, Brice Williams, the drag queen Anastasia Diamond is reported to have downloaded dozens of photos and videos of underaged boys performing sex acts between May and December 2020.

Brice Williams, aka Anastasia Diamond  a drag queen who recently has been working with youth- is charged with 25 counts of child pornography.https://t.co/xuUPryxWYF  Craig Campbell (@craig_c83) July 6, 2022

A FOX 43 report said that the child pornography showed genitalia and boys performing oral sex and were linked to Williams email address and phone number.

Williams has been celebrated in the states trend of over-sexualizing children through public and private venues. He has been a prominent figure in the states focus on celebrating alternative lifestyles and transgender rights.

The Patriot-News praised the drag queen last year for being a local activist who spreads pride all year long.

Williams, who uses both masculine and feminine pronouns, is HIV medical case manager at Keystone Health Center in Chambersburg, but this month will join GLO Harrisburg, a center that offers a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth of color. There, hell continue HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness work, while working with LGBTQ+ youth, the outlet reported.

The safe space LGBTQ+ youth program, which opened in November 2019, offers a teen clinic once a week for ages 14 to 21, regardless of gender or sexual identity, according to PennLive/The Patriot-News.

The University of Pennsylvania Medical Center (UPMC) runs the youth center. Its mission is To foster inclusive communities and holistic well-being for LGBTQ+ people through social, educational, and cultural engagement.

According to FOX 43, Williams was also awarded the 2020 Rising Star Award from the LGBTQ Center of Central Pennsylvania for his activism.

A statement from UPMC said Williams had been fired.

UPMCs immediate concern is the health and well-being of our participants who utilize the services provided at GLO, UPMC said. Upon notification of the circumstances surrounding the case, the individual was terminated.

We are fully cooperating with authorities throughout the investigation, the statement added. We have no reason to believe that this individual was at any point alone on the GLO premises with a participant without other staff members present.

According to The Glinner Update, Williams is at least the seventh man who is either a drag queen or a sponsor of drag queens to be arrested for pedophilia offenses in recent years.

Other arrests include Brette Blomme, best known for his role as president and CEO of Cream City Foundation, a fiscal sponsor of the Milwaukee chapter of Drag Queen Story Hour. Also, Albert Garza, a Drag Queen Storytime reader to children at the Houston Public Library.

Read more at: TheGatewayPundit.com
(Natural News) In a riveting legal battle spanning two decades, William Yates Hazlehurst (Yates) on Feb. 2, 2022, became the first vaccine-injured person with a diagnosis of autism to reach a jury since the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986 (the Vaccine Act) became law.

(Article by Megan Redshaw republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org)

In a medical malpractice case filed in the Madison County Circuit Court in Tennessee, attorneys for Yates argued the clinic and physician who administered Yates vaccines, including the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine on Feb. 8, 2001, should be held liable for medical malpractice and the neurological injuries Yates developed after being vaccinated.

Although the jury decided in favor of the physician  who Yates father said failed to adequately inform the parents of the risks of vaccinating Yates while he had an active ear infection  the case exposed major flaws in a system designed to protect children and shield pharmaceutical companies and physicians from liability for vaccine injuries.

In the fight to end the autism epidemic, we were all hoping for the one knockout punch that would bring the truth to light and help end the autism epidemic, Yates father, Rolf Hazlehurst, said.

This medical malpractice trial was the only opportunity in the last 35 years for a jury to hear evidence in a court of law regarding whether a vaccine injury can cause neurological injury, including autism.

Hazlehurst, who is a senior staff attorney for Childrens Health Defense (CHD), said unless the Vaccine Act is repealed, my son is probably the only vaccine-injured child with a diagnosis of autism who will ever reach a jury.

The Hazlehurst case was a medical malpractice case against the doctor who administered the pediatric vaccines that, in the opinion of the worlds top experts, sent Yates, now 22, spiraling into the depths of severe, non-verbal autism.

Although the case was originally filed in 2003, it didnt receive its day in court for 19 years because a separate case involving Yates injury first had to work its way through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP).

When Yates medical malpractice case was finally heard, the trial exposed alarming evidence about autism and vaccines, the low standard of care practiced by physicians administering pediatric vaccines and financial conflicts of interests between pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines and government agencies entrusted with vaccine safety.

During the trial, the worlds top experts in the field of autism and mitochondrial disorder explained how the administration of routine childhood immunizations can cause autism, brain injury, and many other disorders.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, autism is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn and behave. Symptoms can be severe and usually manifest before a child turns 3, which coincides with the age children receive the most childhood vaccines.

Increasing evidence indicates a significant proportion of individuals with autism have concurrent diseases such as mitochondrial dysfunction, abnormalities of energy generation, gastrointestinal abnormalities and abnormalities in the regulation of the immune system.

Yates medical malpractice trial illuminated how vaccines can cause autism in children with mitochondrial disorder and showed how the Vaccine Act  which is designed to ensure informed consent and compensation to injured children  is an abject failure because its largely unenforceable.

Yates was normal until he received his 12-month vaccines

During the first year of his life, Yates developed typically and met all of his developmental milestones.

He was a happy, healthy and normal child, his father said.

After his 6-month shots, Yates experienced a severe screaming episode approximately 24 hours after receiving the DTaP, Prevnar, Hib and Hep B vaccines.

In the days following his vaccinations, Yates began to experience seizure-like shaking episodes.

But his parents didnt realize their sons symptoms were consistent with a severe vaccine adverse reaction because they were not given a Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) at their pediatricians office.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a VIS is an information sheet produced by the CDC that explains both the benefits and risks of a vaccine to recipients.

Federal law requires that healthcare staff provide a VIS to a patient, parent or legal representative before each dose of certain vaccines, the CDC website states.

Instead of providing the VIS, Yates physician told his parents any adverse event to a vaccine would be almost immediate  within 5 to 15 minutes after vaccination.

Before Yates first birthday, his mother and aunt took him to the doctor because he had been sick, and his parents wanted to make sure it was okay for Yates to have a birthday party.

Hazlehurst told The Defender this appointment was not a scheduled well-child check. It was a sick visit. At the appointment, Yates was diagnosed with an ear infection and prescribed an antibiotic.

As the pediatrician turned to leave, he stated Yates would receive his shots, as it was close to his first birthday. A woman returned to the room who portrayed herself to be a nurse, but Hazlehurst later found out was only a medical assistant.

Yates mother asked the nurse whether their son should receive his shots despite being sick and was told he should.

Once again, they were not given a VIS form informing them of the risks of vaccinating Yates while he had a fever and an active ear infection.

By administering vaccines to a sick child, the doctor and his clinic could charge a modified double bill Hazlehurst said.

That day, on Feb. 8, 2001, Yates received the MMR, Prevnar, Hib and Hep B vaccines. Twelve days later, Hazlehurst said his son experienced a high fever, rash and vomiting consistent with a vaccine adverse reaction.

Hazlehurst called the clinic where his son received his vaccine and talked to the doctor on call who asked him which vaccines Yates received. Hazlehurst responded, whatever you get when youre a year old.

Hazlehurst was told his son was having an adverse reaction to the antibiotic and the doctor wrote him a prescription for a different antibiotic and an anti-fungal medication.

Soon after, Yates began to lose the skills he once had and began developing abnormally. He lost his speech, started running wild, was constantly on the go and would knock things off the table.

He was visually stimming off the falling objects and running with his head down for the visual stimulation, Hazlehurst said.

He explained:

It was not like he got the shots and boom, the next day he was autistic. Thats not the way it happened. The mitochondria produce the energy to the connecting tissue in the cells in the brain, and if they dont get enough energy for a short period of time (as short as 6 seconds), cellular death occurs.

The brain keeps developing, but it cannot develop normally because the connecting cellular tissue has been damaged. Thats why it takes time to manifest. Its like watching grass grow. Its happening, but you dont realize its happening.

Yates condition worsened. He developed an obsession with spinning objects, became a picky eater, started hand-flapping and toe-walking, became unable to sleep and exhibited gastrointestinal and multiple other medical and neurodevelopmental issues, Hazlehurst said.

On June 3, 2002, Yates was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

Hazlehurst searches for answers to his sons autism



According to federal law, there are specific recording requirements for vaccine medical records, and healthcare providers must provide records to a parent upon request.

Hazlehurst, on June 21, 2002, requested a copy of his sons original vaccine records so other physicians could evaluate, diagnose and treat Yates.

Hazlehurst had questions about the American Academy of Pediatrics standard of care and wanted to know why his son was vaccinated while he was sick with a fever.

In response to Hazlehursts request and questions about Yates care, the pediatrician rushed out of the room and called his attorney, Hazlehurst said.

The doctor and clinic denied Hazlehursts requests to review and receive copies of his sons original vaccine records, forcing him to petition the court for Yates records.

The court granted the request, and the local sheriffs department seized Yates medical records from the doctors clinic.

Hazlehurst quickly realized there were problems with his sons vaccine record, which was on an unsigned consent form that had a billing code sticker placed over the language regarding the risks and benefits of vaccines and vaccine information materials.

Hazlehurst said he never received a VIS form and Yates had been vaccinated without informed consent.

Hazlehurst files claim with the NVICP for sons vaccine injury

Hazlehurst, like many parents of vaccine-injured children, pursued a claim with the NVICP as federal law requires. The process took nine years  from 2002 to 2011.

In order to bring a case in a court of law, the parents of a vaccine-injured child must first file their case with the NVICP.

The NVICP is a special, no-fault tribunal housed within the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that handles injury claims for 16 federally recommended vaccines. To date, the court has awarded more than $4 billion to thousands of people for vaccine injuries.

In the NVICP, Americas legal system is replaced by a special master. The special masters who review claims are government-appointed attorneys, many of whom are former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys.

Under the NVICP, the parents of vaccine-injured children are forced to sue the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for compensation. HHS is represented by DOJ attorneys.

It is exceptionally difficult to obtain compensation within the NVICP, Hazlehurst said. The proceedings are often turned into drawn-out, contentious expert battles and the backlog of cases is substantial. Because of this, a single case can drag on for over a decade.

Payouts, including attorneys fees, are funded by a 75-cent tax per vaccine. There is a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering and death benefits.

The Vaccine Act established the NVICP, and the 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision Bruesewitz et al v. Wyeth et al later guaranteed vaccine manufacturers, doctors and other vaccine administrators almost always have no legal accountability or financial liability in civil court when a government-recommended or mandated vaccine(s) causes permanent injury or death, Hazlehurst said.

The NVICP ultimately denied Yates claim, but his case against HHS became a central part of the U.S Supreme Courts decision in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth.

Yates case in the NVICP was part of the Omnibus Autism Proceeding (OAP), in which 5,400 claims submitted to the NVICP were consolidated to determine if vaccines cause autism and if so, under what conditions.

HHS whittled down the thousands of cases to six test cases, one of which was Yates case, Hazlehurst said. If HHS could find a way to deny NVICP compensation to the test cases, the agency would be able to deny compensation to all 5,400 families.

Hazlehurst said HHS and the DOJ took advantage of the fact that the rules of evidence, discovery and civil procedure mechanisms available in a regular court do not apply in the so-called vaccine court, and perpetrated fraud upon the special masters, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court.

The special masters on Feb. 12, 2009, in the so-called vaccine court, denied Yates petition for compensation and those of the five remaining OAP test cases involving children who developed autism after receiving their pediatric vaccines.

HHS makes key concession in Hannah Poling case

The potential fourth test case  Hannah Polings  was quietly conceded in 2007, in a corrupt coverup to conceal the opinion of the HHS expert witness, Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, the worlds leading expert in autism research, Hazlehurst said.

When Poling was 19 months old, she was vaccinated against nine diseases at one doctors visit: measles, mumps, rubella, polio, varicella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and Haemophilus influenzae type b. In total, she received five vaccines.

Prior to receiving her vaccines, Poling was described as normal, happy, healthy, interactive, playful and communicative. But two days after being vaccinated, she was lethargic, irritable and febrile, and within 10 days she developed a rash consistent with vaccine-induced chicken pox.

Over the course of several months, Poling stopped eating, didnt respond when spoken to, began showing signs of autism, developed neurological and psychological disorders and was diagnosed with encephalopathy caused by an underlying mitochondrial disorder.

In 2003, Polings father, Jon, a physician and trained neurologist, and mother, Terry, an attorney and nurse, filed an autism claim against HHS under the NVICP for their daughters injuries.

Five years later, the government settled the case before trial and in essence had it sealed.

During the OAP, in the Poling case, the government quietly conceded vaccines caused regressive encephalopathy with features of autism spectrum disorder.

According to CBS News, Poling received more than $1.5 million dollars for her life care, lost earnings and pain and suffering for the first year alone. After the first year, the family was supposed to receive more than $500,000 per year to pay for Polings care, which is estimated to amount to $40 million over her lifetime.

Jon Poling on March 6, 2008, said, the results, in this case, may well signify a landmark decision with children developing autism following vaccinations.

Prior to the Poling case, federal health agencies and professional organizations had reassured the public vaccines didnt cause autism. The Poling case challenged that narrative, which is why the case was conceded and in essence sealed.

HHS concession that Poling developed autism as a result of a vaccine injury briefly became international news. Yet, only a handful of people knew why the government conceded Hannahs case.

When news of the concession in Poling v. HHS was made public in March 2008, Dr. Julie Gerberding, then-director of the CDC, in an interview with CNNs Dr. Sanjay Gupta said:

We all know that vaccines can occasionally cause fevers in kids, so if a child was immunized, got a fever, had other complications from the vaccines, then if you are predisposed with a mitochondrial disorder, it can certainly set off some damage  some of the symptoms can be symptoms that have characteristics of autism.

If HHS had not conceded her case, the truth as to how vaccines cause autism in some children with an underlying mitochondrial disorder would have been exposed by the worlds leading expert witnesses in the spotlight of the OAP, Hazlehurst said.

The concession document in the Poling case states:

The vaccinations Hannah received on July 19, 2000, significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder, which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism, and manifested as a regressive encephalopathy with features of autism spectrum disorder.

Zimmerman was an expert witness for the government defending vaccines in the NVICP. In 2007, during the hearing in the first test case, he told the government vaccines could cause autism in exceptional cases, but said the government later hid that information and misrepresented his expert opinion.

In a 2018 letter, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., CHD chairman and chief legal counsel, and Hazlehurst meticulously described the DOJs fraud pertaining to the misrepresentation of Zimmermans opinions in the OAP and requested an investigation.

The Office of Inspector General passed the buck to the DOJ Department of Ethics, Hazlehurst said. The DOJ investigated itself and wrote a highly misleading letter absolving itself of any wrongdoing.

Zimmerman said in a signed affidavit:

Shortly after I clarified my opinions with the DOJ attorneys, I was contacted by one of the junior DOJ attorneys and informed that I would no longer be needed as an expert witness on behalf of H.H.S. The telephone call  occurred after the above-referenced conversation on Friday, June 15, 2007, and before Monday, June 18, 2007. To the best of my recollection, I was scheduled to testify on behalf of H.H.S. on Monday, June 18, 2007.

As a result of his firing, Zimmerman was not present for the Hazlehurst OAP proceedings, which allowed DOJ attorneys to misrepresent Zimmermans statements related to a separate autism case and apply them to all cases of autism, including Yates case.

Over the years Hazlehurst has repeatedly stated, I want to be very clear, neither the Polings nor Dr. Zimmerman did anything wrong.

But, he added, if I did to a criminal, in a court of law, what the United States Department of Justice did to vaccine-injured children, I would be disbarred and I would be facing criminal charges.

Zimmerman did testify as an expert witness on behalf of Yates in the medical malpractice case filed against Yates doctor, which was finally heard by a Tennessee court in February 2022.

Research by Zimmerman and others determined that at least 30%-40% of children with a diagnosis of regressive autism suffer from a mitochondrial disorder, which is a condition with which Yates was later diagnosed.

Yates in perfect position to file lawsuit after exhausting remedies in NVICP

After exhausting all remedies under the NVICP  a process that took 25 years  the legal floodgates were then open, Hazlehurst said.

But because no one could sue the vaccine manufacturer, the only vaccine-injured child  out of thousands of cases originally included in the OAP  left with legal standing was Yates Hazlehurst and his claim of medical malpractice against the pediatrician who oversaw the administration of his vaccines.

Ultimately, the same medical experts, including Zimmerman and Dr. Richard Kelley, former director of the Genetics Department at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute  whose testimony HHS and the DOJ relied on in the Poling concession  concluded that what happened to Hannah Poling is what also happened to Yates Hazlehurst.

In an affidavit which was not admissible in the 2022 medical malpractice trial, Kelley stated:

I also find, with a high degree of medical certainty, that the set of immunizations administered to Yates at 11 months while he was ill was the immediate cause of his autistic regression because of the effect of these immunizations to further impair the ability of his weakened mitochondria to supply adequate amounts of energy for the brain, the highest energy-consuming tissue in the body.

Zimmermans expert opinion on the cause of Yates neurological condition was consistent with Kelleys opinion.

Throughout the medical malpractice case, opposing counsel representing the pediatrician continuously echoed the CDC slogan, vaccines do not cause autism.

Hazlehurst said:

In a medical malpractice case, the plaintiff has the burden of proof that the defendant deviated from the local standard of care or the defendant failed to obtain informed consent and that the deviation from the standard of care or failure to obtain informed consent caused the plaintiffs injuries.

The plaintiff must prove the standard of care, breach of the standard of care, the standard for informed consent and lack of informed consent through the testimony of an expert witness.

The issue of informed consent was hotly contested, Hazlehurst added. To a large degree, the trial was about whether and to what extent the federal laws applied at all to the standard of care.

Yates father alleged the pediatrician deviated from the standard of care by administering vaccinations when his son had contraindications to being vaccinated.

Hazlehurst alleged the standard of care would include taking a sick babys temperature before administering vaccinations and believes the doctor failed to recognize that the shaking episodes as recorded in the medical records were consistent with a vaccine adverse reaction that should have been considered before further vaccinations were administered.

Most people would be shocked if they witnessed the evidence presented by the defense to the jury as to just how low the requirements for informed consent and the standard of care are for the administration of childhood immunizations, Hazlehurst said.

The defense experts testified the standard of care did not require taking a sick babys temperature before administering a vaccine, that he could be vaccinated even while ill and with an active bilateral ear infection, while on antibiotics and after suffering screaming and shaking episodes following previous vaccinations, he added.

The defense argued the local standard of care did not include following the CDCs Contraindication for Childhood Immunizations.

Yates prohibited from presenting key expert witnesses

Medical malpractice cases are very difficult to win, and finding a pediatrician who is willing to testify in a vaccine injury case like Yates is extremely difficult, Hazlehurst said.

Through the course of Yates long medical and legal journey, several doctors expressed that Yates should not have been vaccinated in his condition, Hazlehurst told The Defender.

However, they would not agree to testify. Most of the experts who refused to testify expressed fear of the negative professional consequences if they testified in an autism case, he said.

Yates was also limited on the expert witnesses he could call due to Tennessee rules that determine which experts may testify about the local standard of care.

These rules along with an extreme reluctance of pediatricians to testify in an autism case severely limited Yates ability to prevail, Hazlehurst said.

Although Zimmerman was able to testify in Yates medical malpractice case, Kelley was not allowed to testify as to the standard of care and was not allowed to give an opinion as to how the defendant was negligent or why Yates should not have been vaccinated.

The court granted an exception to allow Dr. Kelleys causation testimony because his testimony was so highly specialized that another expert witness in the field of genetic metabolic disorders was obviously not available in Tennessee or a contiguous state, but his opinion as a pediatrician was not allowed, Hazlehurst said.

Hazlehurst attempted to compel the CDC to allow whistleblower Dr. William Thompson, a senior scientist at the CDC, to testify in Yates case, but the agency prevailed and blocked Thompson from testifying.

Thompson in 2014 admitted to omitting statistically significant information in a 2004 study he co-authored with other CDC scientists that claimed the MMR vaccine does not cause autism.

But the omitted data suggested that a sub-group of males who received the MMR vaccine were at a significantly increased risk of autism.

Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed, Thompson said in a statement.

Any reference to Dr. William Thompson or the CDC whistleblower was later specifically excluded by the court in Yates medical malpractice trial, Hazlehurst said.

Likewise, the jury was not allowed to hear any reference to the concession in the Poling case and specifically the comments of Gerberding, who in 2010 left the CDC and became the chief patient officer and executive vice president of Merck  the manufacturer of the MMR vaccine.

Due to the substantial length of time between the alleged malpractice and trial, several expert and fact witnesses passed away.

A critical fact witness and two doctors willing to testify on Yates behalf, passed away before trial. Two other doctors who initially gave sworn testimony as to negligence and causation backed out, leaving Yates without the experts needed to bolster his position.

The same was not true for the defendant, who had no difficulty finding expert witnesses to testify on his behalf, Hazlehurst said.

The array of experts the defense called left little doubt as to the importance of this potentially precedent-setting case and raised the question of what forces were at play behind the scene, he said.

Yates was not just up against the local doctor and clinic, and David does not always beat Goliath, Hazlehurst said.

The verdict in Yates medical malpractice case

At the end of the trial, the jury answered two questions based on the evidence it was allowed to consider and the instructions provided by the court.

Yates attorneys asked for a jury instruction quoting the language in the Vaccine Act that a VIS must be given to the parents of the child prior to the administration of a vaccine.

Although the judge originally approved the instruction prior to the start of the trial, the judge later reversed his decision and removed the critical instruction before jury deliberation, Hazlehurst said.

The first question the jury answered was, Did the defendants provide the requisite information to Yates Hazlehursts parents to allow Yates Hazlehursts parents to formulate an intelligent and informed decision on authorizing or consenting to Yates Hazlehurst receiving his childhood immunizations on February 8, 2001?

The jury answered, yes.

The second question the jury answered was, Did the defendants deviate from the recognized standard of acceptable professional practice in this medical community or a similar medical community in his/their treatment of Plaintiff Yates Hazlehurst when administering vaccines to Yates Hazlehurst on February 8, 2001?

The jury answered, no.

Although the jury never addressed the issue of whether a vaccine can cause neurological injury, including autism, valuable evidence was discovered and preserved during Yates legal battle.

The worlds top experts in the field of autism and mitochondrial disorder, on video, explained how the administration of routine childhood immunizations can cause autism, Hazlehurst told The Defender.

These were the same medical experts who compelled HHS and DOJ to secretly concede the case of Hannah Poling during the OAP in the so-called vaccine court, he said.

The trial exposed compelling evidence of the incredibly low standard of practice being taught to medical students and doctors and illuminates how the laws contained in the Vaccine Act  designed to ensure a patient receives informed consent  are unenforceable and largely meaningless, Hazlehurst said.

Many of the reasons Yates lost his case are the same reasons underlying the autism epidemic, he added.

Hazlehurst told The Defender he has sincere gratitude to everyone who has helped Yates over the past 20 years in both his medical and legal struggles.

Regardless of the jury verdict, exposing the evidence which came to light in the legal cases of Yates Hazlehurst will be a powerful tool towards the ultimate goal of bringing the truth to light and ending the autism epidemic, he said.

CHD and Hazlehurst said they will continue to fight for vaccine-injured children.

In the words of Winston Churchill, Now is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning, Hazlehurst said.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Childrens Health Defense.

Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org
The National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu's scheduled visit to Kolkata on Saturday has been cancelled following the Centre's decision to observe a national day of mourning as a mark of respect to Shinzo Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan who died after being shot.

A press statement was issued by the West Bengal unit of the BJP on Saturday morning where it informed the media about the decision to postpone the visit, adding that it will be rescheduled .

"As a mark of respect to former Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, a one-day national mourning shall be observed on July 9. Therefore, all programs of NDA Presidential Candidate Draupadi Murmu stands cancelled for July 9, 2022," the press statement read.

As per the original schedule, she was supposed to have a close-door meeting with 69 elected party legislators in the state.

There was also a likelihood of her visit to the West Bengal Assembly.
(Natural News) Former paramedic and Drumm Emergency Solutions founder Jake Drumm says that preparing for medical emergencies before SHTF should include more than just buying a ready-made first aid kit.

At a self-reliance festival held in Tennessee on June 12, Drumm said that preppers need to get training, learn how to use the equipment you have and have basic knowledge on mid- to long-term care. (h/t to TheEpochTimes.com)

Drumm teaches classes on how to manage first aid emergencies in austere environments, like post-tornado or hurricane, a vehicle accident, a shooting or generally if emergency medical services (EMS) arent available.

Before SHTF, you need to learn how to do medicine when you dont have the stuff to do the medicine, he said. This also means thinking beyond the initial care.

Drumm explained that the leading cause of death for the one to 45 age group is accidents. At least 50 percent of those are blood-loss trauma. Drumm warned that a person can bleed out in three minutes and his five top first aid kit recommendations reflect those statistics. (Related: Prepping must-haves: Medical supplies and first aid kits.)

Combat-approved tourniquet

Make sure your first aid kit has a combat-approved tourniquet and that you know how to apply it, for how long and how to release pressure without poisoning the body. Knowing this helps prevent the permanent damage they can cause.

Quality pressure bandage/Israeli bandage

A quality pressure bandage or Israeli bandage will help stop bleeding. Drumm advised that its important to learn how to apply pressure to stop bleeding when SHTF.

Wound-packing gauze

Drumm said you need a wound-packing gauze, preferably a military-style dressing that comes with a hemostatic agent to aid blood clotting.

Chest seal

A chest seal is used to treat any penetrating trauma to the chest, like a bullet wound. But like with any emergency situation where first aid is required, there are important steps to follow.

After you call 911, make sure that the area is safe then prepare yourself by putting on protective gloves. Next, assess the patients wounds.

If you see a deep puncture wound to the chest wall or if you think there is one, apply a chest seal. Take proper steps to keep air out of the chest cavity.

Applying a chest seal wont hurt the patient, even if their wound isnt deep enough for air to enter the chest cavity.

Remember that some injuries such as gunshot wounds will have an entrance and an exit. If the victim has been shot, always check if the bullet exited the body. Both holes must be sealed to avoid a pneumothorax or collapsed lung.

When providing emergency treatment for a chest wound, follow these steps to apply a chest seal:

Dry the area thoroughly. Some chest seal kits will have gauze for this purpose. Prepare the seal. If you are using a store-bought seal, remove the backing to expose the adhesive (the sticky part). If you are making your own, prepare the material and cut pieces of tape. Apply the seal. Follow the instructions for the seal. Monitor the patient until emergency personnel arrives. If they are having trouble breathing, you may need to burp the chest seal or apply a new one.

The best time to apply a chest seal is after the patient exhales so their chest has the least amount of air in it.

Protective gear

Drumm said your first aid kit should have protective gear like gloves and eye protection. You can also use a pair of racquetball goggles.

HITMAN and SHTF

If SHTF and emergency services are not immediately available, many factors should be considered when caring for an injured person. Drumm uses the acronym HITMAN to run through the often intimidating, but very crucial, prolonged field care essentials.

HITMAN is the list to use beyond the initial 15 minutes of emergency care, explained Drumm.

H = Hydration, hypothermia, hygiene and high anxiety

Two measures of how well someone is hydrated are how frequently they urinate and the color of their urine. Lighter-colored urine is better.

According to Drumm, the number one cause of death is exposure or hypothermia in austere care environments.

Maintain proper hygiene by keeping yourself, the patient and your equipment clean to prevent other illnesses or infections.

Lastly, avoiding high anxiety is important for first aid. Drumm advised that you should learn how to calm down when things go south so you can properly take care of injured people after disaster strikes.

I = Infection and increased temperature

Maintaining proper hygiene and keeping your tools clean will help prevent infections.

Before SHTF, learn how to care for someone with a fever. With limited exceptions, as long as that fevers controlled, as long as youre drinking and eating, that fever is not going to kill you, advised Drumm.

T = Tourniquets, trends and tidy up

Drumm highlighted the importance of knowing how to use a tourniquet and how long to leave it on. He also encouraged people to learn the protocol for tourniquet conversion because releasing a tourniquet that has been left on for too long can be fatal.

When it comes to trends, you need to keep thorough notes of vital signs and treatments, including times. In extreme circumstances, you wont always remember everything and forgetting important details like vital signs may have negative consequences.

Tidy up means constant cleaning, especially when treating a wound in a survival scenario. It can be difficult to stay clean in an austere environment so you have to remind yourself to keep yourself, the patient and the area clean.

M = Medications

Many Americans take prescribed medication on a daily basis, like antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications or antipsychotic drugs. When SHTF, you may need to stop taking your medication or you will have no choice if your supply runs out.

If you are prepping with a family member who takes prescription medication regularly, develop a plan to wean them off their medication over a 30- to 90-day period. This could be the most important thing for planning for austere medicine scenarios, said Drum.

A = Analgesia, alimentary and associated problems

Before SHTF, prepare a plan for pain control. This can be challenging because you wont always have access to analgesics or painkillers.

Alimentary refers to nutrition and digestion. If youre taking care of a patient, they will need to eat and drink. They will also need to urinate and poop.

N= Nutrition, night-night (sleep) and no-go

Nutrition is the caloric intake you need to survive. A patient with burns to 40 percent of body surface area requires 10,000 calories in a 24-hour period.

No-go refers to the decision to stop care and let someone die. This may sound harsh, but its a real consideration with medical planning.

No matter how much you try to help someone, people get sick or injured and die  and you cant always treat them. For example, if a patient has a 50 or 60 percent burn and you dont have pain control, fluids and a way to treat infection, the patient is going to die, said Drumm.

You will not fix everything. We are humans. But you can do some stuff to get prepared now that will make any sort of crisis much easier to manage, he concluded.

Before SHTF, get first aid training, prepare a first aid kit and learn how to use all the items in it so you can help people who need medical attention.

Visit EmergencyMedicine.news for more first aid tips that you can use when SHTF.

Watch the video below to know how to prep an everyday carry or EDC first aid kit.

This video is from the Geordie Prepper channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Prepping before SHTF: 16 Items for your survival first aid kit.

SHTF first aid: Suture options for medical emergencies.

Why you need a first aid kit and trauma kit for various medical emergencies.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

VerywellHealth.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Food and other consumer goods are no longer making their way from point A to point B in the United States, which faces crippling supply chain bottlenecks that threaten to cause mass starvation.

The latest complaint comes from the livestock industry, which says it is just days away from an animal feed crisis if rail lines fail to get their act together, and quickly.

According to reports, many feed users in California and other southwestern states are having to pay $3 more than the CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade) price to secure grain shipments by truck as rail bottlenecks are not only not improving, but in some cases worsening.

AgWeb says that not only are feed users on the brink of running out of grain entirely, but there are also widespread concerns that, come autumn during harvest time, the situation will be exponentially worse.

Members of the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) say that the issues they now face really started ramping up late last winter and early spring. This prompted the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to hold a hearing about the matter, but so far nothing has improved.

The hope was that once summer arrived, the situation would resolve itself at least somewhat. Instead, the problem has worsened, including labor issues that are getting worse, not better.

What Im hearing from our members is fewer equipment issues and that the equipment and engines seem to be not breaking down, but the train times  the amount of time its taking to get the trains  and the reliability of receiving them is still quite a problem in quite a few areas of the country, said Mike Seyfert, President and CEO of NGFA.

Even Foster Farms cant get the grain it needs to feed its cattle, chickens and turkeys

Just to be clear, these are not necessarily just small food providers who are unable to secure feed shipments due to being smaller players. Even large players like Foster Farms, the largest chicken producer in the western U.S., are having trouble.

According to reports, Foster Farms recently asked federal regulators to issue an emergency service calling on the Union Pacific (UP) railroad to prioritize corn shipments to feed its thousands of heads of dairy cattle and millions of chickens and turkeys.

The point has been reached when millions of chickens will be killed and other livestock will suffer because of UPs service failures, the company wrote in its request to the STB this week.

The fact that Foster Farms had to ask for an emergency directive towards this end reveals the seriousness of the issue, according to Seyfert.

At times in the past several months, we have heard from more than one member that has had severe difficulty getting feed, sometimes being within several hours of being short, he is quoted as saying.

AgWeb says that the biggest problem in all this whole scenario revolves around labor. There are simply not enough people willing or available to work  are Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines partially to blame for this, we wonder?

According to NGFA, railroads were already down about 25 percent in staffing prior to the plandemic, and now they are much worse in terms of maintaining a reliable and large enough workforce.

Also this week, 51 members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed a letter calling on the STB to deal with the systemic issues that continue to plague Americas failing railway systems. You can read that letter at AgWeb.com.

To keep up with the latest news about this subject, be sure to check out FoodCollapse.com.

Sources for this article include:

AgWeb.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Michigan Republican legislators have called for a new probe into the 2020 election as documentary film 2000 Mules presented evidence from the True the Vote investigation.

The True the Vote investigators utilized cell phone location data and surveillance video to reveal what they claim as a well-organized operation in battleground states conducted by left-wing groups, which gathered mail-in ballots and paid mules to put them in drop boxes  usually in the middle of the night.

The Republican members of the Michigan House of Representatives pressed Attorney General Dana Nessel in a letter to investigate, and bring charges if credible evidence is found, the Secretary of State of Michigan, members of her office and any organizations or individuals for crimes related to fraud committed in the 2020 election and crimes brought to light in the documentary 2000 Mules.'

The legislators called for an investigation of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson for using 4.5 million dollars of CARES funds to recklessly mail absentee ballot applications to all registered voters not on the permanent absentee voter list, mandating Michigan clerks in October 2020 to presume the accuracy of absentee ballot signatures  in contrast to state law, and not responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by voters and groups like the Michigan Grassroots Alliance related to the voter rolls, Canton Townships voters, and City of Detroit ballots.

The state representatives mentioned that in 2000 Mules, Michigan was named as a state that had such mules influence the 2020 Presidential Election. (Related: Mounds of evidence suggest widespread election fraud in Michigan, Pennsylvania.)

They also ordered an investigation on the influence of the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Tech and Civic Life in Michigan cities. The lawmakers noted that some $7.6 million was divided among 19 municipalities in 474 grants  the most for any state in the nation.

Dinesh DSouzas documentary provided insight into appalling evidence of a nationwide ballot trafficking plot that happened during the 2020 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump previously mentioned that many ballot trafficking mules have been discovered on government surveillance video.

With the recent release of the documentary 2000 Mules, there is additional evidence of individuals (referred to as mules), who would repeatedly visit ballot drop boxes and deposit multiple ballots, allegedly for payment, in states with controversial elections in 2020, such as Georgia and Pennsylvania, added the letter penned by Rep. Steve Carra.

Michigan is at the center of ballot trafficking, dubious election anomalies

Michigan was at the center of ballot trafficking and dubious election anomalies based on the information given in 2000 Mules.

As the top legal officer in the State of Michigan, you are tasked with the enforcement of our states laws. You have a statutory obligation to investigate reported violations of the law and we urge you to look into the new evidence brought forth in 2000 Mules and to review the security of our elections, Carra further stated in the letter to Nessel.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party in Spokane County, Washington has called for an investigation of the 2020 election even as a case in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, has been given to a judge, according to a Just the News report.

An Arizona election worker earlier said the sheriffs office in Yuma County is leading an investigation into the 2020 election that targets non-profit associations that are involved in ballot-trafficking operations.

Earlier, a former mayor in Yuma County was indicted in an alleged ballot-trafficking scheme that was discovered in the True the Vote probe.

In northeast Washington state, Spokane County GOP State Committeeman Matt Hawkins has requested county commissioners for a comprehensive election system audit to restore confidence in our elections.

Hawkins demands the complete inspection to involve the software and hardware of tabulation machines and procedures for ballot distribution and collection.

In Delaware County, Pennsylvania, former Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and 2020 election voting machine warehouse supervisor James Savage have been charged with election fraud and destruction of evidence in the 2020 election.

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 case stated.

Follow VoteFraud.news for more news about election fraud.

Watch the video below to know how 2000 Mules provides indisputable truth that the 2020 election was stolen.

This video is from the TruthTalkWithSteve channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

2000 Mules documentary by Dinesh DSouza finally reveals PROOF that 2020 election was completely stolen from Trump.

Election integrity org set to release damning evidence of organized crime effort to steal 2020 election.

Louisiana AGs investigation into 2020 election fraud concludes it really was rigged.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

RSBNetwork.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Dr. Bobby Mullins shared a story during his last year at the University of Tennessee. The topic of abortion came up in his health issues class.

Talking about abortion was brand new at the time, and in their class of 15 only one person didnt have any problem with it: himself. Mullins said he was brought up in a Southern Baptist Church and had been taught the right things, but he had gotten to a point in his life where he wasnt living for the Lord and had supported abortion.

At that time I was what you would call a political liberal. Through the years and reading the Word of God, and getting right with God, and trusting in what Gods Word says, Ive changed my opinion on almost everything that I held back at that time, he said during the July 3 episode of A Fresh Start on Brighteon.TV.

Mistakes happen, but its never too late to have a fresh start.

Mullins talked about Jesus love for children and how, for years, people have been killing innocent babies because of a ruling that has finally been reversed. Now, America can have a fresh start.

America, please get back on your knees for the sake of our children, Mullins pleaded, pointing out that there had been a travesty in the United States for 50 years when Roe v. Wade helped make abortions legal. (Related: WHO approves abortion, now a threat to millions of unborn children)

Womans womb is a sacred ground

Back in college, Mullins believed in the same narrative being espoused by pro-abortion groups: A woman has the right to her own body and has the right to get an abortion.

Well, she does in our country, Mullins conceded. But that doesnt make it right. Because the womb is sacred ground to God.

When there is life in a womans womb, it is alive in Gods eyes.

Unfortunately, the United States has gotten to a point where people no longer cared what the Word of God says. Instead, they demand their rights.

When people demand their rights, you have rebellion. But when people accept their responsibilities, you have revival.

Mullins said that after the Vietnam War, people built a memorial for all the 58,000 people who died. The names were engraved on both sides of a 245-foot stone. This means that the names of those who died in Vietnam were engraved in 490 feet of granite.

If anyone wants to build a memorial for all the babies who have been aborted, on the same scale as it was at the Vietnam Memorial, people will have to drive all the way from Knoxville, Tennessee, across the plateau to Cookeville. In the middle of the interstate  on both sides  would be names of babies who had been aborted.

And all those names never had a chance to live because their mothers say they have the right to their own bodies. (Related: Accessory to murder: Oakland to become a sanctuary city for baby killers)

Mullins said: You made your choice [with] what you want to do with your body when you had sex and became pregnant.

People had been fighting about the right to get abortions and all things related to it for a long time. Many people say that religion should be kept out of politics. However, this would be similar to saying whether the Bible is the Word of God or not.

Its either obsolete or absolute. If we have to start changing this verse, toning down that verse, apologizing for this verse, and making allowances for that, we might as well give up. So we must take the Word of God as it is, or leave it alone, Mullins said.

While not everyone believes in the Word of God, there are those who do. And Mullins said they have the right, like any other American, to fight for their beliefs and principles.

Im thankful that regarding the issue of abortion, we have seen some positive gains in the courts overruling the right of a woman to get an abortion. But folks, when its issues like this, some people call good evil, some evil, good, Mullins warned. Those who want their right sometimes dont care about whats right. They just want to win.

Watch the video below for more of Dr. Mullins commentary on abortion.

A Fresh Start with Dr. Bobby Mullins airs every Sunday at 8:30-9:00 a.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Arizona AG to enforce 1901 pre-statehood law that bans abortions completely.

Howling leftist demons call for targeted violence against high court justices over Supreme Court plan to overturn Roe v. Wade.

VIOLENCE IS THEIR RELIGION: Abortion advocates in LA attack cops with rocks, smash squad car windows.

NATIONWIDE IMPLICATIONS: Kansas voters will decide on August 2 whether to limit late-term abortions and finally regulate its baby killing industry.

Biden requests $2.6 billion for gender equality programs that many fear will fund abortions.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

Britannica.com
(Natural News) The circumstances surrounding the Robb Elementary School incident that occurred in Uvalde, Tex., back in May are so inexplicably strange that even the mayor of Uvalde himself is now admitting that the whole thing reeks of a cover-up.

Don McLaughlin says the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is involved in this cover-up, which saw police officers who were fully geared up and prepared for a mass shooting refuse to do anything about it for nearly an hour and a half while the alleged shooter went crazy both outside and inside the building.

 the Uvalde shooter was able to fire off rounds outside the school building for 12 minutes, unobstructed and unchallenged by law enforcement before he entered the school and murdered children, reported The Free Thought Project.

He then entered the school where he was allowed to remain unhindered for 1 hour and 17 minutes before a tactical unit with Border Patrol showed up, disobeyed the order not to go in, and finally took him out.

A still shot taken from surveillance footage inside the school shows that Uvalde police were equipped and ready to engage the shooter. At least one of them was seen with a bullet-proof shield nearly an hour before police decided to enter the classroom where the alleged shooter was supposedly hiding out.

Im not confident, 100 percent, in DPS because I think its a cover-up, said McLaughlin, putting DPS Col. Steven McCraw on blast. McGraws covering up for maybe his agencies.

Two weeks ago, McLaughlin claimed the opposite; said there is no cover-up

The police response to the incident, McLaughlin further told the Texas Senate, was an abject failure. Police chief Pedro Pete Arredondo deserves all of the blame, McLaughlin added, but there is more to the story than that. (Related: The bodycam footage of Uvalde police officers will likely never be released, so there is no way for the public to evaluate police actions during the incident.)

Every agency in that hallway is going to have to share the blame, McLaughlin added in a statement. At this point, I dont know what to believe and what not to believe.

I lost confidence because the narrative changed from DPS so many times and when we asked questions, we werent getting answers.

Interestingly, McLaughlins latest statements contradict his earlier ones. Just two weeks ago, McLaughlin stated definitively that there is no cover-up, and now he is alleging just the opposite.

What has possessed this man to change his story all of a sudden? We may never know the true answer to that question. But the whole thing really does reek of a bunch of bureaucrats failing to get their stories straight as to why nobody with any power of authority did a thing for an hour and a half while the alleged shooting took place.

We do know, however, that parents and others who tried to get inside the building to save the children and their teachers were aggressively thrown to the grown, tasered and even handcuffed by the very same police officers who are now under fire for doing nothing to stop the alleged shooting.

The police were doing nothing, said Angeli Gomez, one of the parents who was treated like a criminal for trying to get inside the school to save the children. They [the police] were just standing outside the fence. They werent going in there or running anywhere.

Since deciding to defy police orders and jump the fence to get inside the school, Gomez says she has been relentlessly harassed, including at her own home.

The latest news about Uvalde and other alleged school shootings can be found at FalseFlag.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheFreeThoughtProject.com

NaturalNews.com
Around 11 out of the total 32 zonal liquor retailers in the national capital have surrendered their licences because of lower revenue and unfair competition in the market.

As per industry sources, the retailers who have surrendered their licences largely blamed some barriers in the new liquor policy, including arbitrary price fixing, for the non-viability of their business.

Many posh areas of the national capital are now without liquor shops with south Delhi being the worst-hit by liquor shortage.

"The barriers in the new policy and its faulty implementation have led to outlets shutting down across the city. Areas like Cannaught Place, Saket, Green Park and other pasrt of south Delhi are facing the liquor crisis," said a source from the industry.

"While the policy was good, there were faults at the implementation level which led to this pathetic situation," said Vinod Giri, Director General of the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC).

Underlining the faults, he said that the number of shops in each zone is high. The policy allowed 27 liquor vends in each of the 32 zones, which is not fair, Giri said.

Secondly, he said the bidding policy also led to heavy financial burden on the shop owners as due to higher number of shops, it didn't prove profitable.

With an average reserve price of approximately Rs 225 crore per zone, the reserve price for these zones added up to nearly Rs 7,000 crore. However, Delhi government earned about Rs 9,000 crore through competitive bidding.

Talking about the new excise policy, Giri said that apart from these barriers, another important factor was the protest staged by the opposition at the time of rollout of the programme.

Because of the protests at several places across the city, the rollout of the scheme was slow, and additionally the vendors were facing losses as they had already grabbed their respective licences through bidding process.

"Due to the new excise verification process added by the government to the already existing rules, the vendors had to bear more losses as it delayed the opening of the liquor outlets," said Giri.

He added that the ongoing discount on sale of liquor is the result of this delay, which ultimately led to huge losses for the vendors after which they chose to surrender their licences.
Shinzo Abe, who was Japan's longest serving Prime Minister, was shot at while he was addressing an election rally in the city of Nara on Friday, following which he collapsed and showed no life signs, state media reports said, adding that a 41-year-old man has been arrested for attempted murder.

According to state broadcaster NHK, the incident took place at around 11. 30 a.m. (local time) near the Yamatosaidaiji Station in Nara city while the 67-year-old former leader was making a speech for a Liberal Democratic Party candidate's election campaign.

The police said that he was shot twice, with the second shot hitting him in the back, causing him to fall to the ground. The accused has been identified as Yamagami Tetsuya, a resident of Nara city.

Investigative sources told NHK that a gun seized at the scene appeared to be handmade.

Abe was transferred by medevac to Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara city .

Although there were no immediate updates on Abe's health condition, emergency officials have however said that the former leader does not appear to have any life signs.

The former Prime Minister was in the city to support an LDP candidate running in Sunday's upper house election and there was a crowd of people listening to his speech near the railway station when the incident occurred, says Kyodo News.

Confirming the incident, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters in Tokyo that "whatever the reason, such a barbaric act can never be tolerated, and we strongly condemn it".

Meanwhile, former Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe said in a tweet that Abe was in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest, a term often used before a death is officially confirmed in Japan, reports the BBC.

According to videos circulating on social media, the first shot appeared to have missed Abe but the second one hit in the back.

He immediately fell to the ground bleeding. Security then detained the attacker who made no attempt to run.

Abe became Japan's longest-serving Prime Minister after serving from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020.

He however, stepped down in 2020 citing health reasons.

He later revealed that he had suffered a relapse of ulcerative colitis, an intestinal disease, the BBC reported.

He was succeeded by his close party ally Yoshihide Suga, who was later replaced by Fumio Kishida.

Key figures from across the world have condemned the incident, with former Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd calling it an "attack on supporters of democracy", while US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, said Abe had been an "outstanding leader of Japan and unwavering ally of the US", adding that America was "praying" for his well-being.
Reporter

Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).
India has voted for a UN Security Council resolution sponsored by Western countries on continuing a passage for aid to reach parts of the war-torn Syria and abstained on a counter-motion proposed by Russia, both of which failed to pass because of vetoes.

The vetoes on Friday of competing resolutions on sending humanitarian aid through Turkey to the rebel-controlled areas in Syria using the Bab al-Hawa border crossing snaps a lifeline for 4.1 million people.

The dispute in the Council centred on how long and how to extend the mandate that expires on Sunday for using the crossing and it brought to the fore again the uncompromising polarisation at the UN sharpened by the Ukraine war.

The first resolution proposed by Norway and Ireland calling for a 12-month extension of the Council mandate for sending UN aid through the border was vetoed by Russia.

It showed Moscow's isolation with even China abstaining, while the other 13 members voted for it.

Next, a Russian resolution to extend the mandate for only six months was shot down by a triple veto by the US, UK and France.

Only China voted with Russia for the resolution, while the other 10 countries abstained.

India did not speak at the Council meeting to explain its position.

But Kenya's Permanent Representative Martin Kimani speaking on behalf of India and the other nine non-permanent members of the Council said that they supported a 12-month extension of the arrangement for using the border crossing.

He said the 10 countries wanted unity in the Council for the Syrian people.

Russia has in principle opposed any aid to the Syrian people that bypasses the government of its ally Bashar al-Assad, although under international pressure it has allowed assistance to be ferried under UN auspices through the Turkish Bab al Hawa border crossing and was again willing to allow it for six more months.

Its earlier vetoes had shut down deliveries through Iraq and Jordan, and from another point on the Turkish border, which been in a 2014 resolution setting up the aid programme.

The people trapped in the rebel-held areas depend on the sole remaining border crossing for international aid that includes food, medicine, emergency nutrition for children and, even, blankets for winter.

The Western countries, with the backing of the other seven non-permanent members, insist on a 12-month extension asserting that it was essential for effective planning and logistics.

Norway's Permanent Representative Mona Juul said that as a compromise the resolution proposed by her country and Ireland had provided for two segments of six-month extensions.

The second extension was conditional on there being no opposition to it.

US Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield called the Ireland-Norway draft "an extreme compromise" and said that it was "a life-and-death issue and, tragically, people will die because" of Russia's veto.

Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitri Polyanskiy countered that his resolution for the six-month extension did provide for the continuation of the mandate and it contained all that Thomas-Greenfield wanted.

Expressing his opposition to the Ireland-Norway resolution, he said that it ignored the interests of Damascus, meaning the Bashar al-Assad government.

He also referred to some of the territories held by the Islamic State terror group and said sarcastically: "As for the terrorists who got entrenched in Idlib, you have got opportunities to provide for them anyway."

United Arab Emirates' Permanent Representative Lana Zaki Nusseibeh proposed a compromise of a nine-month extension, which was backed by Brazil, Kenya and Ghana.

Ireland's Permanent Representative suggested suspending the session to hold more negotiations following the suggestion and it was accepted by Brazil's Permanent Representative Ronaldo Costa Filho, who is the Council president for this month.

Last year, US President Joe Biden spoke directly to Russia's President Vladimir Putin to get a similar resolution passed.

Asked by reporters after the Council meeting if Biden would again reach out to Putin, Thomas-Greenfield said: "At the moment we don't plan any."
(Newser)  The men who prosecuted Adolf Eichmann in 1961 had a 700-page transcript of taped conversations between Eichmann and fellow Nazi exile/Dutch journalist Willem Sassen in Argentina a few years prior. The transcript wasn't allowed to be used in court, where Eichmann insisted he was merely following orders and carried no authority. Some 60 years later those tapes have been made public via a new documentary, and they convey something entirely different, per the New York Times: "the boastful confessions of the Nazi war criminal, in his own voice." The tapes eventually landed in a German government archive, which gave the green light to Yariv Mozer and Kobi Sitt to use them in their series, The Devils Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes, which aired in Israel in June.

The Times shares some of what Eichmann was recorded saying, from the tellingly banal (he described a fly he was trying to swat as having "a Jewish nature") to the pointedly ironic ("Nothing annoys me more than a person who later denies the things he has done"). The Jerusalem Post spoke with Sitt, who discusses a "chilling section" in which Eichmann says, "I knew what was being done with the Jews. Whoever needed to go to work, should go to work. Everyone else who cant go to work, should go to the Final Solution." Sassen asked for clarificationdid Final Solution "mean they should be eradicated?" Eichmann says yes.

Kitt says, "Then, on the recording, you hear the publisher [Eichmann was trying to write his memoirs] yelling out that this should not be recorded, and then the tape recorder is shut off." Kitt explains that it's absolutely wild to have that on tape. "Nazis never spoke like that. Youll not find one interview in which a Nazi speaks so directly and honestly like that. ... They understood that this is incriminating evidence. ... Thats why it was so critical to find these recordings." (Read more Adolf Eichmann stories.)
The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce reiterates its call for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign immediately for the sake of the country and its stability as he has lost the trust and confidence of the people as aptly demonstrated by the heightened protests witnessed today on an unprecedented scale around Presidents House and Presidents Office. Further, the Chamber calls upon all political party leaders to come together at this time of grave crisis and act in the best interest of the nation to arrive at a consensual decision that will pave the way for a smooth transition of power in accordance with the constitution. It is hoped that the party leaders will put aside their ideological differences and get together as Sri Lankans at this historic moment to save the country from falling into anarchy. The Chamber requests the public to remain calm while engaging in peaceful protests to prevent any harm to people and property. It also calls upon the security forces and the police to act with restraint and continue to maintain law and order while making way for peaceful protests.












(Newser)  John Fetterman hasn't been on the Pennsylvania campaign trail since mid-May, when he had a stroke and was hospitalized. Still, the Democratic nominee has managed to set the pace of the state's Senate campaign, Politico reports, by buying airtimehelped by the TV absence of his Republican opponent. Mehmet Oz has upset some in his party who expected a brisk start to the general election campaign once he was declared the primary winner after a recount. But he's trailing in the polls, and frustration is building. "I dont have much confidence in their campaign," said the GOP chairman in a county where Oz did poorly. He offered to help the campaign in his area. "And I don't even hear back," he said.

State Republicans have offered other advice that's gone nowhere. Donors suggested that Oz, who has millions, put more of his money into the campaign to rev it up. The answer was, "We're going to spend what we need to spend," one Republican said. Oz's unfavorable rating in polls is higher than Fetterman's, after a primary in which his opponents spent millions to attack him, and many want him to use this time to try to turn that around. Money isn't the problem, Oz's campaign says. "We're raising a lot of money," said Casey Contres, the campaign manager, adding, "Fetterman is spending money right now because he knows he has a lot of issues." Aides also point out that GOP Senate candidates in other battleground states haven't bought commercials yet, either.

Republican groups are going after Fetterman on Oz's behalf. The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a missing person poster this week, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It says Fetterman was last seen May 13, the day of his stroke. A spokesman said Fetterman is doing well and will resume campaigning soon. "He is about 90% back to full strength and getting better," a spokesman said. His campaign announced Friday that it's launching a TV ad this weekend questioning Oz's residency, per the Hill; Fetterman has called Oz a carpetbagger from New Jersey. It's hired a plane to pull a banner along South Jersey beaches on Sunday welcoming Oz "Home to NJ." Oz argued in debates that voters "care much more about what I stand for than where I'm from." (Read more Mehmet Oz stories.)
(Newser)  With his winged coiffure and scathing one-liners, Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri was one of the most memorable characters on HBO's The Sopranos. Now, fellow cast members are saying arrivederci to the actor who played him: Tony Sirico has died in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at the age of 79, his manager, Bob McGowan confirms to Variety. A cause of death hasn't been given. In a statement to People, McGowan notes that Sirico "was a very loyal client of 25 years. He always supported charities. He was an ex-Army vet and member of the Wounded Warriors." For decades before landing his star turn on The Sopranos, Sirico played movie gangsters and criminals, kicking off his career as an extra in the 1974 films The Godfather: Part II and Crazy Joe.

From there, Sirico was seen in such movies as Goodfellas, Cop Land, and a slew of Woody Allen films, including Bullets Over Broadway, Cafe Society, and Mighty Aphrodite. He originally auditioned for the role of Uncle Junior on The Sopranos, a part that went instead to Dominic Chianese, before getting recruited to play Paulie Walnuts. Art imitated life for Sirico, who was mired in crime before he stumbled into acting. Per the New York Times, the Brooklyn-born Gennaro Anthony Sirico Jr. first got into trouble stealing nickels from a newsstand as a boy, then started running with a bad crowd after dropping out of high school. He went to prison twice, for armed robbery and weapons possession, and it was during one of those stints behind bars when he saw a performance by an acting troupe made up of ex-convicts. "When I watched them, I said to myself, 'I can do that,'" he said in a 1999 interview.

Stars from The Sopranos, including Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Jennifer Melfi on the show), Jamie-Lynn Sigler (Meadow Soprano), and Stevie Van Zandt (Silvio Dante), offered their condolences for Sirico's death online, though it was an Instagram post from Michael Imperioli, whose character Christopher Moltisanti shared much screen time with Paulie Walnuts, that proved especially poignant. "We found a groove as Christopher and Paulie and I am proud to say I did a lot of my best and most fun work with my dear pal Tony," Imperioli wrote. "I will miss him forever. He is truly irreplaceable." Per a Facebook post written by Sirico's brother, Sirico is survived by a son and a daughter, as well as "grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews, and many other relatives." (Read more The Sopranos stories.)
(Newser)  They have two kids together and two Oscar nominations between them for their roles in The Power of the Dog. Now, after a six-year romance, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons also have two weddings rings. Page Six reports the couple wed at the posh GoldenEye resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, last weekend, with a Dunst rep keeping it short and sweet: "I can just confirmed they got married. No other details will be given." In 2015, the two met on the set of FX's Fargo, playing a married couple, and started dating a year later, after Dunst broke up with then-boyfriend Garrett Hedlund. Their engagement was announced in January 2017.

People, which confirms the marriage, notes the two have also collaborated on other acting projects, including on episodes of Netflix's Black Mirror and Comedy Central's Drunk History, as well as in the Netflix movie Windfall. "I don't wanna do another project without her," Plemons told the magazine in December, before their dual Oscar nominations for Power of the Dog were announced. "It's just the best." After they did find out about their double honor, Dunst gushed, "I was actually more, weirdly, excited for Jesse. I screamed. To be nominated together is the craziest thing. We just feel so lucky." Dunst, 40, and Plemons, 34, share two sons: Ennis Howard, 4, and 14-month-old James Robert. (Read more Kirsten Dunst stories.)
(Newser)  When California law enforcement agents started trailing a truck this week in San Diego County, little did they know they were about to make a huge bustone that's now being deemed one of the county's largest ever seizures of methamphetamine. City News Service reports four men from Tijuana, Mexico, have been hit with federal drug trafficking charges after the Thursday incident, which began when a box truck that had just made its way into the United States aroused agents' suspicions. Per a statement from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California cited by ABC News, the truck crossed into the United States via the Otay Mesa Commercial Port of Entry around 5pm, then made a stop in National City, where the men began moving dozens of boxes from the truck into a Dodge van.

That's when agents swooped in and say they found 148 bundles of a substance inside the cardboard boxes, weighing upward of 5,000 pounds in total. The substance later tested positive for meth. The menRafael Alzua, 37; Mario Contreras, 41; Galdrino Contreras, 41; and Ethgar Velazquez, 44were arrested and charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. US Attorney Randy Grossman is praising the "monumental seizure," which could bring each of the suspects 10 years to life behind bars, as well as a $10 million fine, if they're convicted. "This is a significant accomplishment," Grossman notes. "Due to stellar work by law enforcement agents, the government stopped more than 5,000 pounds of methamphetamine from being distributed on our streets." (Read more methamphetamine stories.)
(Newser)  Native American tribal elders who were once students at government-backed Indian boarding schools testified Saturday in Oklahoma about the hardships they endured, including beatings, whippings, sexual assaults, forced haircuts, and painful nicknames. They came from different states and different tribes, but they shared the common experience of having attended the schools that were designed to strip Indigenous people of their cultural identities. As the elders spoke, the AP reports, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, herself a Laguna Pueblo from New Mexico and the first Native American Cabinet secretary in US history, listened quietly.

"I still feel that pain," said 84-year-old Donald Neconie, who served in the Marines and is a member of the Kiowa Tribe. He attended the Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, about 80 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. "I will never, ever forgive this school for what they did to me." The event was held at the school, which still operates today but with a vastly different mission. It was the first stop on a yearlong nationwide tour to hear the experiences of Native Americans who were sent to the government-backed boarding schools. Neconie recalled being beaten if he cried or spoke his native Kiowa language at Riverside in the late 1940s and early 1950s. "Every time I tried to talk Kiowa, they put lye in my mouth," he said. "It was 12 years of hell."

Haaland said her ancestors were affected. "Federal Indian boarding school policies have touched every Indigenous person I know," she told the gathering. "Some are survivors. Some are descendants. But we all carry the trauma in our hearts." Haaland's agency recently released a report that identified more than 400 of the schools, which sought to assimilate Native children into white society from the late 18th century until the late 1960s. Dorothy WhiteHorse, 89, a Kiowa who attended Riverside in the 1940s, said she recalled older Kiowa women who served as house mothers in the dormitories letting her speak her Native language and treating her with kindness. "I was helped," WhiteHorse said. "I'm one of the happy ones."

(Read more Native Americans stories.)
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers this afternoon. High near 60F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies with periods of rain late. Low 48F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Cloudy this evening with showers after midnight. Low around 50F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Cloudy this evening with showers after midnight. Low around 50F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.
The phrase for decades suggests that the Trump administration went back beyond 2015, not assessing the situation in Cuba during the five years since it was removed from the list but going back to an era before Obamas action.

by Roger Waters, Vijay Prashad and Manolo de los Santos

The United States maintains a list of countries that it considers as state sponsors of terrorism. There are currently four countries on that list: Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria. The basic idea behind this list is that the U.S. State Department determines that these countries have provided support for acts of international terrorism. Evidence about those acts are not provided by the U.S. government. For Cuba, there is not one shred of evidence that the government has offered any such support to terrorism activities, in fact, Cuba hassince 1959been a victim of acts of terrorism by the United States, including an attempted invasion in 1961 (Bay of Pigs) and repeated assassination attempts against its leaders (638 times against Fidel Castro).

Cuba, rather than exporting weapons around the world, has a long history of medical internationalism with Cuban doctors and medicines being a familiar sight from Pakistan to Peru. In fact, there is an international campaign for Cuban doctors to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Why would a country that floods the world with health care be targeted as a state sponsor of terrorism?

Washingtons Vindictiveness

Cuba was not on the state sponsor of terrorism list from 2015 onward, when President Barack Obama removed Cuba from that list (it was first added to the list in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan). In his last week in office, and days before Joe Biden was inaugurated to replace him, former President Donald Trump put Cuba back on the list on January 12, 2021. The comments made by then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo provide a strange justification for this action: despite Cuba having been removed from the list in 2015, five years previously, Pompeo said that [f]or decades, the Cuban government has fed, housed, and provided medical care for murderers, bombmakers, and hijackers.

The phrase for decades suggests that the Trump administration went back beyond 2015, not assessing the situation in Cuba during the five years since it was removed from the list but going back to an era before Obamas action. There was no new evidence of anything having changed since 2015, which showed that Trumps actions were purely political (to curry favor with the hard-right wing that continues to want to conduct regime change in Cuba and to nullify as many of Obamas policies as possible).

The United States has carried out a blockade against Cuba since 1959 when the Cuban Revolution began a process to transform the country that was ruled by gangsters (including the U.S. mafia) into a country that tended to the needs of its people. The revolution developed programs for literacy and health care and for building up the cultural confidence of the people long suppressed by Spanish and U.S. colonialism. The United States elite was eager to snuff out the example of Cuba, which showed that even a poor country could transcend the socioeconomic conditions of poverty. Each year since 1992, almost all the countries in the world184 out of 193 at last countvote in the United Nations General Assembly to condemn the blockade of Cuba.

Remove Cuba From the List

The designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism by the United States deeply harms the ability of the Cuban government and its people from carrying on with the basic functions of life. The immense power of the United States government over the world financial system means that banks and traders refuse to do business with Cuba since they are afraid of retaliation by the United States government for breaking the blockade. It is stunning to learn that because of this blockade, and despite the murmurs from the U.S. government about medical exceptions, firms refuse to sell Cuba raw materials, reactive agents, diagnostic kits, pharmaceutical drugs and devices, and a range of other materials necessary for operating Cubas excellent but stressed public science and health care system.

U.S. President Joe Biden can remove Cuba from this list with a stroke of his pen. Its as simple as that. When he was running for the presidency, Biden said he would even reverse the harsher of Trumps sanctions and revert to the policies of the Obama administration. But he has not done so, which might be for reasons of political expediency. There is a streak of vindictiveness that runs through U.S. policies against Cuba, an island that proved during the pandemic that its revolutionary process cares for its people. The example of public health care in Cuba, despite being a small island nation, should be exported around the world. The country is not a state sponsor of terrorism but a state sponsor of global well-being.

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

Roger Waters is a musician. He is in the midst of his tour, This is Not a Drill.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest books are Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism and (with Noam Chomsky) The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power.

Manolo de los Santos is the co-executive director of the Peoples Forum and is a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He co-edited, most recently, Viviremos: Venezuela vs. Hybrid War (LeftWord Books/1804 Books, 2020) and Comrade of the Revolution: Selected Speeches of Fidel Castro (LeftWord Books/1804 Books, 2021). He is a co-coordinator of the Peoples Summit for Democracy.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain yesterday strongly condemned the assassination of the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, terming the incident as a heinous terrorist act.

The shocking act contradicts all moral and humanitarian values, Bahrains Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, expressing deep condolences and sympathy to the government and people of Japan and Abes family.

The statement hailed the outstanding contribution of the late PM in serving his homeland and the Japanese people and developing and strengthening Bahrain-Japan ties.

Separately, His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, paid homage to the former Japanese Premier, recalling his prominent role and efforts in boosting bilateral relations and cooperation and wishing his family patience and consolation.

Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-serving leader and Former Prime Minister, died yesterday hours after he was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking a country in which political violence is rare and guns are tightly controlled.

The shooter opened fire on Abe, 67, from behind as the former premier addressed members of the public on a drab traffic island in the western city of Nara. Japanese media reported that the weapon appeared to be a homemade gun.

"This attack is an act of brutality that happened during the elections - the very foundation of our democracy - and is absolutely unforgivable," said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Abe's protege, struggling to keep his emotions in check.

It was the first killing of a sitting or former Japanese leader since a 1936 coup attempt, when several figures including two expremiers were assassinated. Doctors were unable to revive Abe, who was taken to hospital in cardiopulmonary arrest and showing no vital signs.

He was declared dead at 5:03 p.m. (0803 GMT), about five and a half hours after being shot. He bled to death from deep wounds to the heart and the right side of his neck, despite receiving more than 100 units of blood in transfusions over four hours, Hidetada Fukushima, the professor in charge of emergency medicine at Nara Medical University Hospital, told a televised news conference.
Twitter, Facebook parent Meta and other social media companies scrambled Friday to police videos on their platforms of the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that break rules on harmful content.

Multiple videos of the attack by a gunman who fired a homemade, double-barreled weapon twice at Abe circulated on social media. Some only show the moments before and after the attack while others showed both shots.

Abe, who stepped down in 2020, was shot moments into a speech, airlifted to hospital, and later pronounced dead. Police arrested the suspected gunman at the scene.

Twitter said its enforcement teams were working to "address harmful content" relating to the attack by "proactively removing" material that violates its rules, which include restrictions on sensitive media including graphic violence.

Twitter urged users to flag up any potentially sensitive material of the attack so it can take action. Videos of the attack could still be found easily on Twitter many hours after the attack.
What Sri Lanka needs urgently today is international financial support to find its feet.

by N.S.Venkataraman

As Sri Lanka is undergoing serious economic crisis and Ranil Wickremesinghe government is talking to international financing agencies and some countries abroad seeking financial support to enable Sri Lanka to overcome the present crisis, it is distressing that mob of protesters have entered the Presidential palace in Sri Lanka, occupied it and enjoyed swimming in the swimming pool. Fearing violence , Gotabaya has left his residence.

The demand of the protesters is that Gotabaya should leave office, as if this would solve all the economic misery of Sri Lanka in one stroke. Of course, Gotabaya should accept responsibility to some extent for the economic problems of Sri Lanka but he is a duly elected President in a democratic process and cannot be asked to leave by a violent mob. He can be removed only by a democratic process such as no confidence motion in Parliament. In any case, the protesting mob seem to be having its way , which is a disturbing signal and development.

Now, some parliamentarians have demanded that Ranil Wickremesinghe should also quit along with Gotabaya. It is only a few weeks back that Ranil Wickremesinghe became the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and he need to be given time and support.

With Gotabaya and Wickremesinghe leaving office, the demand appears to be that Speaker of Parliament should take over the administration , as if the Speaker has a magic wand to set things right.

What Sri Lanka needs urgently today is international financial support to find its feet. It is well known that international financing institutions and some countries are hesitant to come to the rescue of Sri Lanka, since there is political instability in the country and one is not clear as to who is in control. In such circumstances, the mob rule that is seen in the last one or two days will not create confidence amongst the financial institutions and would only complicate the Sri Lankas economic issues..

The protesting mob ,which may be a few thousand people , are certainly not the representative gathering of Sri Lankan citizens . The mob is thoughtless, unruly and can perhaps even be described as irresponsible people who foolishly seem to think that sending out the President and Prime Minister would lead to solution for Sri Lankas misery.

Millions of Sri Lankans certainly do not approve the mob violence but it appears that they are stunned and remain speechless. Their voice of wisdom is not being heard today and the media , both in Sri Lanka and outside, seem to be only focusing on the protesters , as if they are the people who would decide the fate of Sri Lanka.

The media in Sri Lanka and the enlightened citizens in Sri Lanka should really see the writing on the wall and strongly protest against the mob violence that is disturbing the entire political scenario in Sri Lanka and causing huge bad name for Sri Lankan citizens all over the world.

At this critical juncture, while financial assistance from abroad is needed, political stability and matured public opinion in Sri Lanka is also necessary. Media in Sri Lanka and law abiding citizens in Sri Lanka would be failing in their duty at this critical time, if they would not care to come forward and condemn the violent protesters . If necessary, they need to come out and people should conduct peace march across Sri Lanka and media should publish the voice of wisdom in Sri Lanka. Certainly, the people who involve themselves in violent activities should be shown their place by the people of Sri Lanka.

Todays problems of Sri Lanka can be sorted out over a period of time only in a period of stable political climate and people extending support to the Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and ensure that he would be able to function with courage of conviction that people of Sri Lanka would support him for all the measures he takes.

It is a question whether Wickremesinghe is the best man for the job of Prime Minister in Sri Lanka today. But, he is an experienced person and replacing him today will amount to jumping from frying pan to fire.

The world is waiting to hear the voice of wisdom in Sri Lanka.
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WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP)  Friends, neighbors and dignitaries paid their respects Saturday to the family of Eduardo Uvaldo, one of the seven people who were killed in the attack on a July Fourth parade near Chicago.

Uvaldo, who would have turned 70 on Friday, was a native of Mexico who first moved to the United States when he was 15. In an obituary, he was remembered for his love of his large family  he was survived by his wife, Maria, four daughters, four siblings, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He was funny, charming, handsome, caring, and most importantly loving, his obituary read. His presence brought happiness to each family member.

Outside the visitation at The Memorial Chapel of Waukegan, attendee Lilia Cervantes told reporters that she had known Uvaldo for 20 years and had worked with him for 11 years.

Its a very difficult time for family and co-workers, she said in Spanish. He was very kind.

Uvaldos wife and 13-year-old grandson, Brian Franco Hogan, were wounded in the attack and are still recovering, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Relative Jesse Palacios attended the private service and called Uvaldo a happy man, the newspaper reported.

I dont think Ive ever seen him sad, Palacios said.

Among those who paid their respects Saturday were Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Lieutenant Gov. Juliana Stratton, Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering and Highland Park's police chief, Lou Jogmen.

Uvaldo died Wednesday at an Evanston hospital from wounds suffered during the attack on the parade.

Separate funerals were held Friday for three of the other victims  63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim, 88-year-old Stephen Straus and 78-year-old Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, who, like Uvaldo, was from Waukegan, a city north of Highland Park along the Lake Michigan coast.

Funeral details for the others killed in the attack haven't been made public. Authorities have identified them as 64-year-old Katherine Katie Goldstein and a married couple, 35-year-old Irina McCarthy and 37-year-old Kevin McCarthy, who were attending the parade with their 2-year-old son.

Police say the victims were shot at random and that the assailant had no racial or religious motivation.

This is what I cant understand: how this keeps happening, Palacios said, referring to mass shootings in the U.S.

His sister, Ophelia Palacios, said she wonders what was running through the shooter's mind.

Why did he do it? she asked.

Robert E. Crimo III has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors expect to bring more charges representing the more than 30 people were wounded in the attack.

Investigators have said Crimo, of neighboring Highwood, legally purchased five weapons and planned the attack for weeks before he climbed onto the roof of a business along the parade route and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle.

Investigators reported that Crimo fled the parade by blending in with the fleeing crowd, then drove to the Madison, Wisconsin, area, where he contemplated a second attack. He returned to the Highland Park area and his car was spotted by police.

Questions remain about whether Crimo should have been able to legally purchase firearms in Illinois. Illinois State Police officials have defended the approval of his gun license in December 2019, months after police received reports that he had made suicidal and violent threats.
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BROOKFIELD  First Selectwoman Tara Carrs announcement last month that she would initiate an inquiry into past alleged behavior by the Board of Finance chair sparked concerns that she could operate outside of the town charter and state laws meant to guide personnel complaints and investigations.

In a letter sent to the Board of Finance on June 13, Brookfield Republican Matt Grimes cautioned the town officials around sections of the town charter which designates the Board of Selectmen as the only authority for engaging an investigation,  not the first selectmens office.

Carr said she is unaware of a Board of Ethics complaint submitted about the finance board chair. The Board of Selectmen has not voted to seek outside counsel for an investigation.

I do not know if an ethics violation was ever submitted regarding Glenn Rooney, but yes I do believe any time the Town Charter and/or the Town Code of Ethics is violated it should be filed/reported, investigated and decided on accordingly, she said in an email Thursday.

Carr referred questions about the towns ethics complaint process with links to sections of the towns charter detailing procedures for an ethics complaint.

Complaints must be submitted to the town clerk, who notifies the respondent and the Board of Ethics, which conducts a probable cause investigation within 20 days, according to board procedure. The complaint and related documents wouldnt be made public until after probable cause was determined.

From Grimes view as a former Town Attorney with working knowledge of Brookfields Town Charter and state statues, the Board of Finance is the only entity by law that can discipline one of its members, he wrote.

At a minimum, he concluded by urging the Board of Finance to ask the Board of Selectmen to grant access to special counsel, adding: It goes without saying that recent events create a notion of impropriety for the Towns current retained law firm to advise the [Board of Finance] in this regard.

Ethics questions

The notion of impropriety stems from events leading up to Carrs suggested ethics inquiry: a May email exchange between Board of Finance Chair Glenn Rooney and attorney Timothy Herbst from the towns new legal firm, Marino, Zabel & Schellenberg, PLLC, where Herbst accused Rooney of making misogynistic comments toward Carr.

Members of the Board of Finance and other volunteer town officials defended Rooney in the weeks that followed, demanding an apology and joining other residents, including Grimes, who took issue with the manner in which the attorney interjected himself and called for action to be taken to limit his involvement in town matters.

In an open letter from the Board of Finance to the Board of Selectmen on May 20, its members called Herbsts email insulting and harmful, and crossed the line to personal and professional abuse.

Three weeks after the email exchange, Carr sent a letter on June 8 to Rooney saying she planned to hire independent counsel to investigate a Dec. 3, 2020 incident between Rooney and female town employee where he allegedly threatened to get the woman fired, according to the letter. Rooney has said he apologized to the former first selectman at the time and told Hearst Connecticut Media last month, I had a bad day.

For this story, Rooney did not respond to comment requests by a Thursday afternoon deadline.

Carr sent the letter to Hearst Connecticut Media hours before she read it aloud at the Board of Finance meeting. She noted the finance boards agenda had included a discussion of the legal firm, but that the town attorney hadnt been invited.

Attorney Herbsts statements of which you took exception challenged the tone and demeanor you use when addressing Town staff and officials, she wrote to Rooney. Just as town employees felt you would retaliate against them in 2020, it appears that you are now using your position on the Board of Finance to retaliate against Town Counsel.

I will be seeking procurement of independent counsel to review your past conduct, the potential liability it may create to the Town, and steps to eliminate such further conduct in the future, Carr wrote.

In the letter, she said she would ensure the towns Code of Ethics is fully and fairly enforced as to all such incidents outlined in this letter and any further incidents discovered during the Towns expanded inquiry into this matter.

After the email exchange, some officials demanded changes to the towns contract with its legal firm. The town hasnt done so, Carr said.

No amendments have been made to the towns contract with the firm providing legal counsel, Marino, Zabel & Schellenberg, PLLC, she said.

Criticism of Carr

Howard Lasser, the director of the Brookfield Craft Center and a former Brookfield selectman, referenced the towns charter in a letter sent to Carr on June 10, highlighting sections showing the first selectwoman does not hold authority to engage special counsel without approval by the Board of Selectmen and others laying out the towns Code of Ethics.

...more important though, is that we have a process within our charter and ordinance[s] to address the behavior of town employees and officials, he added.

Even though I think Mr. Rooney is a conscientious volunteer, and though the allegations may be credible, there are challenges with your actions in this regard, Lasser wrote.

A past member of the towns Charter Review Commission, Mark Ferry, also wrote to Carr after she publicly discussed the allegations against Rooney, outlining how Brookfields rules and state statutes for an ethics investigation require total confidentiality of the of the issue, unless consent from the accused individual is received for it to become public.

By publicly announcing that theres an ethics investigation [into Mr. Rooney] that you are going to have the town pay for...you are violating the charter, Mr. Rooneys right to confidentiality, wasting taxpayer money, and putting the town against its contracted law firm, when it is the law firms duty to protect the town, not to perform a witch-hunt on town volunteers, Ferry told Carr.

Grimes said he could not verify them but called the past allegations against Rooney disturbing enough to be deserving of examination.

Still, he too flagged the point of order error made during the finance boards exchange with Carr at their meeting June 8. The matter, he said, involved personnel, meaning that under the Connecticut Freedom of Information Law it can only be discussed in private during an executive session.

A point of order should have been called immediately, wrote Grimes.

At the end of the Board of Selectmen meeting Tuesday night, Carr moved to cancel a planned executive session to discuss parts of the town charter related to ethics investigations, striking it from the agenda as a result of Selectman Steve Dunns absence due to an illness.

During the public comment of the meeting, a couple residents spoke in favor of Carr and an investigation into the allegations. They blamed Dunn and Selectman Harry Shaker for not doing more two years ago when the incident happened.

Shaker said he could not comment on the allegations or if any investigation or ethics complaint existed against Rooney, but said he wasnt aware of the allegations until recently.

I found out the details of [the allegations] when everyone else did, he said.
I do not feel safe in America anymore.

Long before Highland Park, or Uvalde, or Buffalo, or Virginia Tech, or Aurora, or Pittsburgh, or Newtown, or Charleston, or Parkland, or El Paso, or any of the hundreds of other murders of Americans by Americans, it has become difficult to feel safe in public places. These cities and towns have witnessed murders in churches, movie theaters, parades, schools, streets, synagogues and grocery stores. And these incidents do not include the particular danger Black men and women feel after George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and now Jayland Walker in Akron who was shot 60 times by eight police officers after a traffic stop.

The common factors are guns and social alienation. Social alienation, particularly of young white men when it comes to mass shootings, but also with inner-city youths who feel they have nothing to live for live in all countries around the globe. But it is guns that separate us from the rest of the world. The fact is America represents 4 percent of the global population, but we own 42 percent of all privately held guns in the world. There are more than 120 guns for every 100 persons in the U.S. Yemen, a country in the middle of a war, is next on this depressing list with about 58 guns per 100 Yeminis. Based on the illogic of the NRA and their congressional pawns, we should be the safest place on earth, but it is just the opposite.

There are solutions to this crisis that will allow us to feel safe again, but they go beyond the bipartisan bill recently signed by President Biden. The solutions must come from American citizens because too many of our leaders are too afraid of the NRA to lead.

The manufacturing, distribution, sale, and possession of automatic and semi-automatic weapons and the ammunition they use should be illegal. Anyone violating this law should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This would include shareholders of manufacturers, retailers, distributors and private sellers.

All persons currently owning these banned weapons should be contacted by registered mail and told to turn in all these weapons to their local police department. We know who legally bought these weapons and we know how to reach them. If these individuals sold or transferred these weapons to another person, the seller should be made responsible for providing information on the whereabouts of those weapons.

To not violate the 2nd Amendment, owners of these turned-in weapons will have the ability to join a state approved militia or national guard where their guns will be stored, and training will be provided on their use. If you are not willing to join the national guard, you lose the right to your weapon. The national guard is a well-regulated militia.

Manufacturers, retailers, distributors and owners of banned weapons are legally responsible for the use of these weapons in any criminal act where these weapons are used. The owners of these companies and individual owners can be sued by victims and survivors of weapons used in crimes.

Advertisements of all weapons should be illegal in all media.

Gun shows and gun markets should be illegal.

Retailers should be prohibited from selling all weapons. Only the state government would be allowed to sell guns to individuals.

Possession of all guns in public should be illegal. Cash rewards should be given to citizens providing information about people manufacturing, distributing or possessing illegal weapons.

Some variations of these laws are necessary for Americans to feel safe again in our homes, in our churches and synagogues, in our movie theaters, in our schools, in our restaurants, in our parks and in other public spaces.

Government must have a monopoly on guns. This is one market where private markets do not work. In 2021, there were a reported 693 mass shootings which killed 703 people and injured 2,842. So far this year we have experienced 352 mass shootings killing 400 people and injuring 1,300.

It is difficult to value a life, but insurance companies do this all the time. If a life is worth a million dollars, the cost of these violent acts exceeds a billion dollars every year. And this is just the shootings that qualify as mass shootings. For the parents, the children, the neighbors, the friends, and the coworkers of the victims, no amount of money is enough to compensate them for their loss.

I am afraid if we do not make these or similar radical changes, our future as a democracy is in danger. I am not optimistic about the U.S. Congress implementing anything close to what I am proposing now, but why not Connecticut? The U.S. Supreme Court has indicated in its recent rulings that states have rights that were previously reserved for the federal government. We here in Connecticut should act and show the nation enough is enough. It would be nice to feel safe again in public spaces.

Fred McKinney is the co-founder of BJM Solutions, an economic consulting firm that conducts public and private research since 1999, and is the emeritus director of the Peoples Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Quinnipiac University.
OTTAWA, ON, July 8, 2022 /CNW/ - NAV CANADA today released its financial results for the three and nine months ended May 31, 2022.

In the third quarter of fiscal 2022, the Company saw air traffic levels, as measured in weighted charging units(1), increase 95.3% on a year over year basis. The Company's revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2022 was $381 million, compared to $196 million over the same period in fiscal 2021. However, in comparison to the same period in fiscal 2019 (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic), weighted charging units were 19.4% lower.

The Company had negative free cash flow(2) of $21 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2022 as compared to negative free cash flow of $140 million for the same period in fiscal 2021. The negative free cash flow is attributable to capital expenditures exceeding operating cash inflows. The Company ended the quarter with a cash balance of $321 million.

"During the third quarter, NAV CANADA was focused on meeting service delivery demands as air traffic levels continued to increase while progressing on our strategic plan to improve the Company's resilience and provide longer-term value for stakeholders. A key component of our strategic plan is consideration of our employees and collaborating closely with partners, customers and other key stakeholders," said Raymond G. Bohn, President and CEO.

Operating expenses for the third quarter of fiscal 2022 were $361 million as compared to $305 million over the same period in fiscal 2021. The increase is largely due to the end of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program in addition to an increase in overtime costs as traffic levels recover.

Net other income and expenses for the third quarter of fiscal 2022 were a net expense of $28 million as compared to a net expense of $86 million over the same period in fiscal 2021. During the third quarter of fiscal 2021, the Company recorded a $36 million (U.S. $30 million) non-cash reduction to the fair value of its investment in preferred interests of Aireon LLC (Aireon). Lower foreign exchange losses in the third quarter of fiscal 2022 primarily related to the Company's investment in Aireon also led to the decrease in net expense.

The Company had a net loss (before net movement in regulatory deferral accounts including rate stabilization) of $8 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2022 as compared to a net loss of $186 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2021.

The Company is subject to legislation that regulates its approach to setting charges. The timing of the recognition of certain revenue and expenses recovered through charges is recorded through movements in regulatory deferral accounts. The net movement in regulatory deferral accounts for the third quarter of fiscal 2022 was income of $3 million as compared to income of $194 million over the same period in fiscal 2021. This change in regulatory deferrals is primarily due to favourable rate stabilization adjustments of $20 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2022 as compared to unfavourable adjustments of $119 million for the same period in fiscal 2021, along with a net decrease of $52 million in adjustments to align the accounting recognition of certain transactions to the periods in which they will be considered for rate setting.

Associated Links

The Company's Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the three and nine months ended May 31, 2022 can be found at:

Financial Statements

Management's Discussion and Analysis

About NAV CANADA

NAV CANADA is a private, not-for-profit company, established in 1996, providing air traffic control, airport advisory services, weather briefings and aeronautical information services for more than 18 million square kilometres of Canadian domestic and international airspace.

The Company has been internationally recognized for its safety record and technology innovation. Air traffic management systems developed by NAV CANADA are used by air navigation service providers in countries worldwide.

(1) Weighted charging units represent a traffic measure that reflects the number of billable flights, aircraft size and distance flown in Canadian airspace and is the basis for movement-based service charges, which comprise the vast majority of the Company's revenue. (2) Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure used by the Company to enhance the overall understanding of its financial and operating performance. Non-GAAP financial measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. The Company defines free cash flow as cash generated from operations, less capital expenditures, investments in regulatory assets, investments in Aireon LLC and equity related investments and principal payment of lease liabilities. Management places importance on this indicator as it assists in measuring the impact of its investment program on the Company's financial resources.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that are subject to important risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results indicated in these statements for a number of reasons. NAV CANADA disclaims any intention to update any forward-looking statements.

SOURCE NAV CANADA

For further information: Media Information Line: 1-888-562-8226, [email protected]
The cloud burst incident near the revered Amarnath shrine claimed the lives of 15 persons, the Army announced today

The cloud burst incident near the revered Amarnath shrine claimed the lives of 15 persons, the Army announced today.

The Amarnath cloud burst incident claimed 15 lives. Rescue efforts are ongoing. The foot yatra has been put on hold for the time being, Army officials in India claimed. The tragedy has left about 65 people hurt.

Mi-17 helicopters from the Indian Air Force have departed from Srinagar to help the rescue efforts at the Amarnath cave site. The aircraft had been waiting since the morning, but the IAF authorities claimed that severe weather in Srinagar and the surrounding areas prevented them from taking off.

Following the cloudburst incident today near the revered Amarnath shrine, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) reported on Saturday that about 15,000 people had been safely relocated as of this point.

The medical staff assigned to these stations are currently caring for all the injured patients at the three base hospitals: Upper Holy Cave, Lower Holy Cave, Panjtarni, and other local facilities on route to Holy Cave. The rescue operation involves six crews. According to the Indian army, two search and rescue dog squadsone from each of Pattan and Sharifabadwere flown into Panjtarni before proceeding to the holy cave.

The CMO stated that the injured patients were fully treated and are currently stable.

The NDRF commander had earlier on Friday stated that the NDRF crew promptly got to work on the rescue efforts, and so far three persons have been saved.

Near the sacred cave, one NDRF squad is constantly stationed, and it started working on rescue efforts right away. Another team has been sent out, and another is en route Atul Karwal has cited the NDRF DG.

On Friday, a cloudburst incident at Amarnaths holy cave location caused a significant water discharge in the Nallah, which lies next to the holy cave.

The cloud burst at the lower holy cave (Amarnath), according to officials of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), happened at around 5.30 PM, and rescue teams flocked to the area.
by Our Political Affairs Editor

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's private home was set on fire and destroyed by savage agitators. Many files of historical value and many rare books have been destroyed in the fire. It is reported that the houses were looted before burning.

This home was deeded to a certain school to be used after his death. In order to fulfill their narrow nationalistic needs, various gangs are pushing the situation in the country to a very unpleasant state of violence and causing damage to lives and property.

It is unfortunate for the country that the opportunists of groups like the opposition political parties or the lawyers' association that stand on their behalf do not work to stop any of these obscene activities.








Eknath Shinde, the recently appointed chief minister of Maharashtra, and Devendra Fadnavis, his deputy, met with Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday

Eknath Shinde, the recently appointed chief minister of Maharashtra, and Devendra Fadnavis, his deputy, met with Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday.

The three politicians spoke on a variety of topics, including the upcoming formation of the Maharashtra government. Eknath Shinde, the newly elected chief minister of Maharashtra, and Devendra Fadnavis, his deputy, met with him and offered their best wishes. I am confident that both of you would lead Maharashtra to new heights of development while working under the direction of Narendra Modi ji Tweets from Shah.

The new Maharashtra governments Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister have already taken the oath of office; the remaining ministries will follow.

More than a dozen members of the Shinde camp, according to sources, might become ministers. Along with Shinde, the current eight ministers of the Uddhav cabinet had joined his uprising. They might all be reinstated as ministers in such a case.

Eknath Sinde will be in Delhi tomorrow to meet with JP Nadda, the president of the BJP, President Ram Nath Kovind, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While his meeting with the President will take place in the morning, he will meet with PM Modi in the evening.

Shinde led a group of Sena MLAs in opposition to the MVA administration earlier in June of this year, which caused it to lose its majority in the Maharashtra assembly. Thackeray, the leader of the Shiv Sena, resigned as CM as a result before the floor test.

With a 164-99 victory on Monday, the newly elected Eknath Shinde-led administration in Maharashtra proved its majority and solidified his status as the states chief minister and Shiv Sena leader. Shinde received 164 votes in support while the newly formed BJP-Shinde camp combo received 99 votes against it.

A day after Rahul Narwekar of the BJP was chosen as the Assembly Speaker, the trust vote took place. On Sunday, Narwekar accepted Gogawales election as the Shiv Senas top whip and reinstalled Shinde as the partys parliamentary leader.

Shiv Senas Eknath Shinde faction submitted a petition to Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Monday calling for the suspension of 16 party MLAs from Uddhav Thackerays camp for whip violations after the Maharashtra government won the trust vote in the state Assembly.

According to the Speakers office, 16 MLAs will receive notification that they will be suspended. Gogawale had also instructed the partys MLAs to show up in person for the floor test in the Vidhan Sabha.
As a sign of respect for former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the national tricolour at Red Fort, Rashtrapati Bhavan, and Parliament House flew at half-mast today

As a sign of respect for former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated on July 8, the national tricolour at Red Fort, Rashtrapati Bhavan, and Parliament House flew at half-mast on Saturday.

Abe was shot on Friday while giving a campaign speech in the western Japanese city of Nara.

In response to the untimely death of Abe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: As a symbol of our profound respect for former Prime Minister #ShinzoAbe, a day of national mourning shall be held on July 9, 2022.

PM Modi penned: Shinzo Abe, one of my closest friends, passed away tragically, and it has left me speechless and heartbroken. He was a great leader, an extraordinary administrator, and a towering figure in world politics. He committed his life to improving both Japan and the entire world.

A blog entry titled My Friend, Abe San, PM Modi penned. Japan and the world have lost a brilliant visionary with the passing of Abe. I also lost a close friend.

He mentioned meeting Abe in 2007 and addressed him as San, which is Japanese for Dear.

Abe San and I first connected in 2007, and ever since then, weve shared so many special moments. Ill treasure everyone of them. Abe San revitalised relations between Japan and India. He made sure that Japan was there to support New India as it grows more quickly PM Modi wrote.

Abe was attacked, and after being taken to the hospital, initial media reports citing the police claimed that it looked the former Japanese prime minister had been shot in the chest. He had cardiopulmonary arrest, according to their description, and had no vital signs.

According to representatives of the Nara Medical University Hospital, Abe passed away at 5:03 p.m. (local time) and suffered two bullet wounds in his neck.
Bret Taylor, the chair of Twitter's board, announced on Saturday that the firm will sue American billionaire and entrepreneur Elon Musk

Bret Taylor, the chair of Twitters board, announced on Saturday that the firm will sue American billionaire and entrepreneur Elon Musk to compel him to purchase the social media company on the agreed terms.

According to Taylors tweet The Twitter Board is dedicated to completing the merger at the price and conditions negotiated with Mr. Musk, and it intends to take legal action to make sure the merger agreement is upheld. In the Delaware Court of Chancery, we are certain that we will succeed. 

A letter delivered by Musks team to Twitter earlier on Saturday contained an announcement that the USD 44 billion deal to purchase Twitter had been terminated. Due to many violations of the acquisition agreement, Musk made the decision to halt the transaction.

The letter states that the Tesla CEOs team is adamant that the percentage of spam and false accounts is wildly higher than 5%.

Twitter being in material violation of various articles of the Merger Agreement, Mr. Musk is terminating the agreement. The letter stated,  Mr. Musk has repeatedly provided detailed clarifications intended to make it easier for Twitter to identify, gather, and disclose the most pertinent information sought in Mr. Musks original requests, but Twitter has not provided the information Mr. Musk has requested for nearly two months.

In an agreement worth roughly USD 44 billion, Musk and Twitter agreed to be acquired in April at USD 54.20 per share.

Musk, though, placed the agreement on hold in May so that his team could examine Twitters assertion that less than 5% of accounts on the platform are spam or bots.

Back in June, Musk publicly charged the microblogging platform with violating the terms of the merger agreement and threatened to walk away and cancel the purchase of the social media firm if it did not give him the information he had asked for regarding spam and phoney accounts.

In a letter to Twitters head of legal, policy, and trust, Vijaya Gadde, Musk claimed that Twitter is actively rejecting and undermining his information rights as stated in the agreement.

CEO of Tesla demanded that Twitter provide details about its testing procedures to back up its assertions that bots and phoney accounts make up less than 5% of the active user population of the site, a figure the firm has been repeating in boilerplate public disclosures for years.

In light of this, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal last month defended his businesss long-standing spam metric. Twitter said in a statement in June that it has and will continue to cooperatively exchange information with Mr. Musk to consummate the deal in accordance with the provisions of the merger agreement.
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CHICAGO (AP)  Brittney Griner is the fun aunt, according to Nneka Ogwumike. She is resilient and kind, Ogwumike said. A fellow daughter of Texas, and Ogwumike's father's favorite player.

Speaking Friday ahead of the WNBA's All-Star festivities in Chicago, Ogwumike focused more on Griner's humanity than her playing ability as the league continued to push for Griner's release from her detention in Russia.

BG, Brittney Griner, is an American hero, said Ogwumike, an All-Star forward for the Los Angeles Sparks. She is ours and she is yours, and we must get her home.

Ogwumike, the president of the WNBA players' association, joined Griners wife, Cherelle, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Seattle Storm star Sue Bird and union leader Terri Jackson for a press conference calling for mercy for Griner a day after the eight-time All-Star pleaded guilty to drug possession charges that could see her sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Returning to play basketball in Russia, Griner, 31, was first detained at Moscows Sheremetyevo Airport in February. Police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage.

She's been there 4 1/2 months, having to be transported in vehicles too small for her frame, Sharpton said. Incarcerated where, she's in a place where most of the people in that place can't speak her language. I think she's already done a lot of time given what we're talking about was the infraction.

Speaking through an interpreter, Griner told the court Thursday she had no intention of committing a crime and had acted unintentionally because she had packed for Moscow in a hurry. The trial was then adjourned until July 14.

Griner's guilty plea could be an effort by her and her advisers to expedite the court proceedings.

BG has taken accountability, and now it is time  past time  for this to come to a conclusion, Jackson said.

Griner's detention comes at a low point in relations between the United States and Russia. The State Departments designation of Griner as wrongfully detained put her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the governments chief hostage negotiator.

President Joe Biden called Cherelle Griner on Wednesday to assure her that hes doing all he can to win her wife's release as soon as possible. They spoke after Biden read a letter from Brittney Griner in which she said she feared shed never return home.

At this point I am in the position where I understand that what they are doing is very challenging due to the circumstances with Russia and the United States right now, Cherelle Griner said. And so I want to make it very clear that our next move as supporters for BG is to make sure that the administration understands that they have our full support in doing any and everything necessary to be able to bring BG home as well as every other wrongfully detained American.

Cherelle Griner, along with Ogwumike and Bird, did not answer any questions at the press conference.

After first staying quiet in the wake of Brittney Griner's arrest, Cherelle Griner and the WNBA have stepped up their campaign for the release of the two-time Olympic gold medalist. The WNBA put a decal on each of its courts with Griners initials as well as her No. 42, and cleared the way for the Phoenix Mercury to pay her without it counting against the teams salary cap.

Griner is an honorary starter for Sunday's All-Star Game, and Jackson said the league is planning a special recognition for Cherelle and the Griner family during the contest.

Sanctity of sport is important, Bird said, and as an athlete community made up of friends from countries around the world, we all feel rattled by this, and just want her home.

___

Jim Heintz in Moscow and AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg in New York contributed to this report.

___

Jay Cohen can be reached at https://twitter.com/jcohenap

___

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
WASHINGTON (AP)  Two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Russian forces assaulted a nursing home in the eastern region of Luhansk. Dozens of elderly and disabled patients, many of them bedridden, were trapped inside without water or electricity.

The March 11 assault set off a fire that spread throughout the facility, suffocating people who couldnt move. A small number of patients and staff escaped and fled into a nearby forest, finally getting assistance after walking for 5 kilometers (3 miles).

In a war awash in atrocities, the attack on the nursing home near the village of Stara Krasnyanka stood out for its cruelty. And Ukrainian authorities placed the fault squarely on Russian forces, accusing them of killing more than 50 vulnerable civilians in a brutal and unprovoked attack.

But a new U.N. report has found that Ukraines armed forces bear a large, and perhaps equal, share of the blame for what happened in Stara Krasnyanka, which is about 580 kilometers (360 miles) southeast of Kyiv. A few days before the attack, Ukrainian soldiers took up positions inside the nursing home, effectively making the building a target.

At least 22 of the 71 patients survived the assault, but the exact number of people killed remains unknown, according to the United Nations.

The report by the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights doesnt conclude the Ukrainian soldiers or the Russian troops committed a war crime. But it said the battle at the Stara Krasnyanka nursing home is emblematic of the human rights offices concerns over the potential use of human shields to prevent military operations in certain areas.

___

This story is part of an ongoing investigation from The Associated Press and the PBS series Frontline that includes the War Crimes Watch Ukraine interactive experience and an upcoming documentary.

___

The aftermath of the attack on the Stara Krasnyanka home also provides a window into how both Russia and Ukraine move quickly to set the narrative for how events are unfolding on the ground  even when those events may still be shrouded by the fog of war. For Ukraine, maintaining the upper hand in the fight for hearts and minds helps to ensure the continued flow of billions of dollars in Western military and humanitarian aid.

Russias frequently indiscriminate shelling of apartment buildings, hospitals, schools and theaters has been the primary cause of the wars thousands of civilian casualties. Ukraine and its allies, including the United States, have rebuked Moscow for the deaths and injuries and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.

But Ukraine also must abide by the international rules of the battlefield. David Crane, a former Defense Department official and a veteran of numerous international war crime investigations, said the Ukrainian forces may have violated the laws of armed conflict by not evacuating the nursing homes residents and staff.

The bottom-line rule is that civilians cannot intentionally be targeted. Period. For whatever reason, Crane said. The Ukrainians placed those people in a situation which was a killing zone. And you cant do that.

The Associated Press and the PBS series Frontline, drawing from a variety of sources, have independently documented hundreds of attacks across Ukraine that likely constitute war crimes. The vast majority appear to have been committed by Russia. But a handful, including the destruction of the Stara Krasnyanka care home, indicate Ukrainian fighters are also to blame.

The first reports in the media about the Stara Krasnyanka nursing home largely reflected statements issued by Ukrainian officials more than a week after the fighting ended.

Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk, declared in a March 20 post to his Telegram account that 56 people had been killed cynically and deliberately by Russian occupiers who shot at close range from a tank. The office of Ukraines prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said in a statement issued the same day that 56 elderly people died due to the treacherous actions of the Russian forces and their allies. Neither statement mentioned whether Ukrainian soldiers had entered the home before the fighting began.

The Luhansk regional administration, which Haidai leads, did not respond to requests for comment. The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office told the AP on Friday that its Luhansk division continues to investigate Russia's indiscriminate shelling and forced transfer of persons from the nursing home. About 50 patients were killed in the attack, the office said, fewer than it stated in March. The prosecutor general's office did not directly respond to the U.N. report, but said it also is looking into whether Ukrainian troops had been in the home.

Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern industrial heartland, the Donbas, which includes the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. They have declared two independent people's republics, which were recognized by Russia just before the war began. After the invasion, these separatist fighters came under Russian command.

Viktoria Serdyukova, the human rights commissioner for the Luhansk separatist government, said in a March 23 statement that the Ukrainian troops were responsible for casualties at the nursing home. The residents had been taken hostage by Ukrainian militants and many of them were burned alive in a fire started by the Ukrainians as they were retreating, she said.

The U.N. report examined violations of international human rights law that have occurred in Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. The Stara Krasnyanka attack totals just two paragraphs in the 38-page report. Although brief, this short section is the most detailed and independent examination of the incident thats been made public.

The Stara Krasnyanka section is based on eyewitness accounts from staff who survived the attack and information provided by relatives of residents, according to a U.N. official who wasnt authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is still working to fully document the case, the official said. Among the remaining questions are how many people were killed and who they were.

At the beginning of March, according to the U.N. report, when active hostilities drew nearer to the care house, its management requested repeatedly that local authorities evacuate the residents. But an evacuation wasnt possible because Ukrainian forces were believed to have mined the surrounding area and blocked roads, the report said. The home is built on a hill and is near a key highway, which made the location strategically important.

On March 7, Ukrainian soldiers entered the nursing home, according to the U.N. Two days later, they engaged in an exchange of fire with the Moscow-backed separatists, although it remains unclear which side opened fire first, the report said. No staff or residents were injured in this first exchange.

On March 11, 71 residents and 15 staff remained in the home with no access to water or electricity. That morning, the Luhansk separatist forces, which the U.N. referred to as Russian-affiliated armed groups, attacked with heavy weapons, the report said.

A fire started and spread across the care house, while the fighting was ongoing, according to the U.N. An unspecified number of patients and staff fled the home and ran into a nearby forest and were eventually met by the separatist fighters, who gave them assistance, according to the U.N.

A correspondent for the state-owned Russia-1 news channel gained access to the war-ravaged home after the battle and posted a video to his Telegram account in April that accused the Ukrainian soldiers of using helpless old people as human shields.

The correspondent, Nikolai Dolgachev, was accompanied into the building by a man identified in the video as a Luhansk separatist soldier who goes by the call sign Wolf. The extensive damage to the building, both inside and out, is visible in the video. A body is laying on the floor. The AP verified that the location in the video posted by Dolgachev is the care home by comparing it to other videos and photos of the building.

Dolgachev said the Ukrainian troops set up a machine gun nest and an anti-tank weapon in the home. In the video, he stops amid the rubble inside the building to rest his hand on the anti-tank weapon, which he incorrectly called a Tor. The Tor is a Russian-made surface-to-air missile.

Ian Williams, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, reviewed the video and said the weapon is an RK-3 Corsar, a Ukrainian-built portable anti-tank guided missile.

While the opposing sides blame each other for the Stara Krasnyanka tragedy, the grim reality is that much of the war in Ukraine is being fought in populated areas, increasing the potential for civilian casualties. Those deaths and injuries become almost inevitable when the civilians are caught in the line of fire.

The Russians are the bad guys (in this conflict). Thats pretty clear," Crane said. "But everybody is accountable to the law and the laws of armed conflict.

___

Associated Press writer Lynn Berry in Washington and photographer Zoya Shu in Berlin contributed to this report.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE  The Associated Press and Frontline are gathering information from organizations including the Centre for Information Resilience, Bellingcat, the International Partnership for Human Rights, the Ukrainian Healthcare Center, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights to inform the War Crimes Watch Ukraine interactive experience.

___

Contact APs investigations team at investigative@ap.org.
The 2-Rakat Eid-el-Kabir prayer was held in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Saturday under a peaceful atmosphere. State governor, Malam ...





The 2-Rakat Eid-el-Kabir prayer was held in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Saturday under a peaceful atmosphere.





State governor, Malam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and former Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, set aside their political differences and shook hands for the first time in recent times at the Ilorin prayer ground on Saturday.





The public exchange of handshake is coming three years after AbdulRazaq took over the reign of governance from Sarakis successor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed.





Governor AbdulRazaq, shortly after his official vehicle touched the sacred ground around 9:33 am, headed for a space provided for him at the section designated for Very Important Personalities (VIPs).





He arrived in his Toyota Hilux vehicle to the prayer ground with his eldest brother and Mutawalli of Ilorin, Dr Alimi AbdulRazaq.





Saraki had earlier arrived at the Eid prayer ground accompanied by his aides, associates and loyalists.





The governor left his seat with his eldest brother and to the surprise of worshippers headed to where Saraki sat and exchanged handshakes with him.





The development was considered unprecedented in the political annals of the state, especially Governor AbdulRazaq, being a member and leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state while Saraki, who contested the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded primaries, is the leader of his opposition party in the state.





The gesture was greeted with applause from loyalists of the two leaders, just as their loyalists were also seen exchanging banters at the prayer ground.
Muslims in their Sallah messages in Calabar and other major towns in Cross River State have called on the Federal Government to end spates o...





Muslims in their Sallah messages in Calabar and other major towns in Cross River State have called on the Federal Government to end spates of killings, insurgency, and banditry in parts of the country.





In his message, Engineer Aliyu Ibrahim, a key stakeholder in Muslim affairs in the state said the government should expedite action to end bombings and insurgency ravaging the country.





He noted that these have become cancerous and unnecessarily built fear into Nigerians.





Delivering his Sallah sermon at Chief Imam Izala Mosque amid a heavy downpour, Sheik Bashir Salihu Abuga, called on Muslims to fear Allah and distance themselves from violence. He prayed for peace in Nigeria and Cross River State.





He also prayed to God to lead Buharis administration to curb the insecurity challenge bedeviling Nigeria.





A large number of Muslim faithful thronged major Hausa/Fulanis settlements and mosques in Calabar despite the rains.
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), has lamented the worsening security situation and high cost of living in the country, calling on the Mus...





The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), has lamented the worsening security situation and high cost of living in the country, calling on the Muslim faithful to pray as they join others across the globe to celebrate this years Eid-el-Kabir.





In a Sallah message to workers and the Muslim community in the country, NLC decried that Nigerians have been forced to bear the dividends of bad governance and policies against the wishes of the citizens.





Ayuba Wabba, the NLC President explained that one of the immediate consequences of the situation is the complete erosion of the value of the National minimum wage at N30,000 (less than $50 dollars a month for an average family of four).





The message said it is unfortunate that most of those given responsibilities have not done enough to alleviate the suffering of the masses or improve the quality of their lives.





He said it was not surprising that Nigerians continue to record socio-economic hardships and sufferings on a scale never before seen or experienced.





NLC stated that the security challenges ranging from abductions, kidnappings, banditry, secessionist agitation, violent conflicts leading to mass killings and displacements and audacious attacks on military and paramilitary institutions as was recorded in Kuje Prison only a few days ago have become new normal in an increasingly fragile environment.





A statement by NLC read, Our situation has been compounded by unbridled corruption and greed, degraded infrastructure, massive devaluation of the Naira, absence of love, unity, sacrifice and common purpose as well as upheaval/volatilities in the international commodity/energy market exacerbated by the ongoing Russia/Ukraine conflict.





As a result of this, Nigerian workers and people have been pushed to the cliff with skyrocketing energy/food/transportation costs that most can ill-afford.





In spite of these mind-numbing challenges, the message noted that the Nigerian workers continue to create wealth and value, pointing out that the generality of Nigerians with no other country they can call their own, continue to hope against hope as it is in recognition of this that Nigerians salute their courage, productivity, resilience, sacrifice and abiding faith in their country.





NLC observed that the occasion of Eid-el Kabir offers Nigerians an opportunity to engage in frank conversations on the need to muster the requisite political will to make the right decisions, make more reasonable sacrifices, re-enact Gods love for Nigerians, and obey His commands unconditionally.





The NLC used the occasion of Eid-El-Kabir to remind the government to fulfil its promises of the recovery of the national refineries as the only sustainable pathway to end the perennial energy crises in the country; bring to an end through meaningful discussions the protracted ASUU strike and others and encouraged government to invest in green renewable energy.





On security, NLC reminded the government that the primary duty of any government is the security of the lives and property of its citizens, saying that the battle to secure lives and property starts with ensuring the welfare of the people through the provision of decent jobs, effective public infrastructure and transparent-cum inclusive social protection schemes for the vulnerable and the poorest of the poor in Nigeria.





The message also called for effective utilization of defence budgets and proper oversight of the same by the National Assembly.





It said the increasing fragility of the countrys security architecture evidenced by the recent attack on Kuje Prisons which went on unchallenged for hours questioning the collective resolve to confront the challenge of security and the seriousness of the government on security.





On this Eid-el-Kabir, NLC encouraged Nigerian workers not to despair, adding that it was Kwame Nkrumah that advised workers not to agonize but to organize as they work and watch for a New Nigeria and wished all the Muslim sisters and brothers a memorable and rewarding Eid-el-Kabir.
Continuous rainfall on Saturday disrupted Eid prayers and Sallah celebrations in Lagos State as the downpour forced the majority of Muslims ...





Continuous rainfall on Saturday disrupted Eid prayers and Sallah celebrations in Lagos State as the downpour forced the majority of Muslims across the state to stay indoors and miss the EidalAdha prayers.





Eid al-Adha is the second and biggest of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam. It honors the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail as an act of obedience to Allahs command.





Eid prayers, also referred to as Salat al-Eid, are holy holiday prayers in the Islamic tradition.





The literal translation of the word Eid in Arabic is festival or feast and is a time when Muslims congregate with family and the larger Muslim community to celebrate.





With the rain, the majority of Muslims stayed back at home while those who observed prayers, which normally are held annually at an open field or space, were held in mosques in the Ikeja area of the state.





Also the fanfare that usually accompanies the Eid celebrations were missing as the rain prevented Muslims from open cooking, killing of rams and other activities associated with the festival.





Our correspondent gathered that the Muslim communities in Berger, Ogba, Ikeja, Alausa, Maryland, Fadeyi, Ilupeju and Yaba are of the state were forced to pray in their separate community mosques due to the downpour which started in the early hours of Saturday.





Those who observe the Eid prayer at Ogba Oluwole Central Mosque told our correspondent that they had to pray in the mosque due to the rain.





We had to abandon the open space and resort to the mosque because of the rain. The prayer even started by 9:30 am because people were also delayed by the rain before getting here, one of the congregants told our correspondent.





Meanwhile, some Muslims faithful in the Epe area of the state claimed that they were able to observe the Eid prayers in an open space around 10 am. It was, however, gathered that the rain started in the area.





A source in who observe the Eid prayers at Jamahtul Islamiyat, Epe, in Alaka street, Epe, said the Muslim community troop out en mass to perform the Islamic rites.





She said, There was no rainfall in this area and people came out to pray in our communities. However, the rain started around 12pm after we all got back home to begin the cooking for the Sallah celebrations.





When contacted on the significance of the rain on Eid day, the Imam, Alausa Secretariat Community Central Mosque, Imam Gafar, said the downpour was a blessing from the Almighty.





It (rain) is a blessing from God and the Muslim ummah (community) should be happy about it and not downcast, he told our correspondent.





On those who missed the Eid prayer, he said they are permitted in Islam to pray theirs at home with their family, adding, however, that they are not permitted to recite the khutbah (sermon or command).





In the case where the rain prevented the whole community from observing the Eid prayers, they are permitted to pray the next day. But if the community Imam led the Eid prayer in the mosque, those who missed it are allowed to pray at home without the sermon, he said.





The eid al-adha (feast of sacrifice) marks the end or culmination of the Hajj or Pilgrimage of Muslims around the world to the Holy City of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.





It is celebrated every 10th day of the month of Dhul Hajja, the 12th Month of the Hijra Calendar, the Islamic Lunar calendar.





The eid al-adha is one of the two (great) feasts or festivals of Islam, the other one being the eid al-fitr. It is celebrated by Muslims around the world and is a recognized holiday by non-Muslim states.
Chinas criticism of Prime Minister Modi greeting the Dalai Lama only shows that China is not succeeding in suppressing the spirit of Tibetans and their love for Tibetan culture and philosophy.

by N.S. Venkataraman

The respected Dalai Lamas 86th birthday was celebrated by the Tibetans and admirers and the followers of the Dalai Lama all over the world.

While several world leaders including the U S Secretary of State Antony J Blinken greeted the Dalai Lama on his birthday, what is particularly significant is that the Indian Prime Minister Modi spoke to the Dalai Lama over telephone and greeted him on the occasion. Further, the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh attended the celebrations in Dharamshala and Minister of state in Government of India Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi attended the event in Delhi to mark the birthday of the great saint the Dalai Lama.

It is reported that the Chinese Foreign Minister has objected to Prime Minister Modi greeting the Dalai Lama and officials in the Government of India participating in the celebrations. It is good that the Indian Foreign Minister has responded to China stating that the Dalai Lama is an honourable guest of India and the birthday messages were part of Indias consistent policy to treat and respect the Dalai Lama as honoured guest , who is accorded courtesies and freedom to conduct religious and spiritual activities.

Many Indians are of the view that India greeting the Dalai Lama is an internal matter in India and China has no business to object to Indias stand.

Such a vicious mindset of China towards the Dalai Lama is not surprising , since most people in the world do not expect any better behavior from the present leadership of the Government of China.

China has harmed Tibet, massacred innocent Tibetans and is occupying the holy land of Tibet for the last several decades with vice -like grip and suppressing freedom for the Tibetans. China is doing everything possible to brainwash the Tibetans living in Tibet and make them forget the Tibetan culture, traditions and value systems.

Chinas criticism of Prime Minister Modi greeting the Dalai Lama only shows that China is not succeeding in suppressing the spirit of Tibetans and their love for Tibetan culture and philosophy.

The Dalai Lama is an embodiment of peace , harmony and love for all and he hates none . He does not even hate the cruel leaders in present day China, inspite of all the harm that they have been doing to Tibet and issuing venomous statements against the Dalai Lama.

Inspite of such approach and cruel leadership of present Chinese government, the Dalai Lama in a recent video message played before a group of parliamentarians and supporters of Tibetan cause gathered in Washington DC for the 8th World Parliamentarian Convention on Tibet , has graciously said that his goal is the preservation of Tibetan culture .The Dalai Lama said that what most concerns him is the importance of preserving and safeguarding the Tibetan culture and language. The Dalai Lama also noted that growing numbers of Chinese people are taking interest in Buddhism.

The Dalai Lama is a universal person and certainly thinks beyond politics and territories . What a sharp difference between the towering standard of the Dalai Lama and the deplorable mindset of the leaders in the present Chinese government ?

When the Dalai Lama has said that his goal is not independence for Tibet , the statement should be read in the context of his statement that Tibetan culture and language should be preserved.

Obviously, the pre requisite for preserving Tibetan culture, traditions and language is that Tibet should become an independent country and Tibetans must be governing the country. With China continuing to be occupier of Tibet, it is not possible to realise the Dalai Lamas goal of preserving Tibetan culture and Tibetan language.

It is symbolic of the present conditions in the world that a country like China believing in occupation and aggression is not really opposed , even as there is overwhelming sympathy for the sufferers. In such conditions, it is sad that the aggressor appears to have the last laugh ,which it should not be.

It is good that Prime Minister Modi has greeted the Dalai Lama on his birthday and it appears that Prime Minister Modi has not done this on some of his earlier birthdays. The conscience of India is deeply disturbed to see the present plight of Tibetans and the Dalai Lama not being in a position to go back to the holy land of Tibet . Many Indians believe that the Government of India has really not opposed the occupation of Tibet by China in any meaningful way so far.

Now, there is overwhelming realization amongst people in India that mindset of the leadership of China is destructive and China has to be opposed, so that China will not have its way which is full of greed and venom

The conscience of Indians will be satisfied only when Tibet would be freed and the Dalai Lama would regain his rightful place in Tibet and achieve his goal of protecting Tibets tradition and culture.

Many Indians hope that Prime Minister Modi greeting the Dalai Lama on his birthday is a step that should be followed by more proactive ways to help Tibet regain its freedom
Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla (TSLA.O) and the worlds richest person, said on Friday he was terminating his $44 billion...

Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla (TSLA.O) and the worlds richest person, said on Friday he was terminating his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter (TWTR.N) because the social media company had failed to provide information about fake accounts.

Shares of Twitter were down 7% in extended trading. Musk had offered $54.20 per share in April.

Twitters chairman, Bret Taylor, said on the micro-blogging platform that the board planned to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement.

The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk, he wrote.

In a filing, Musks lawyers said Twitter had failed or refused to respond to multiple requests for information on fake or spam accounts on the platform, which is fundamental to the companys business performance.

Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement, the filing said.

The announcement is another twist in a will-he-wont-he saga after the worlds richest person clinched a $44 billion deal for Twitter in April but then put the buyout on hold until the social media company proved that spam bots account for less than 5% of its total users.

The terms of the deal require Musk to pay a $1 billion break-up fee if he does not complete the transaction.

Musk had threatened to halt the deal unless the company showed proof that spam and bot accounts were fewer than 5% of users who see advertising on the social media service.

The decision is likely to result in a long protracted legal tussle between the billionaire and the 16-year-old San Francisco-based company.

(Reuters)
Datti Baba-Ahmed, the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), says social media will have a significant influence on the 202...

Datti Baba-Ahmed, the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), says social media will have a significant influence on the 2023 elections.

He said this on Friday in an interview on Channels Television.

Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, announced Baba-Ahmed as his running mate on Friday.

Reacting to the claim that majority of Obis supporters are online and this may serve as a disadvantage, Baba-Ahmed said hes not scared.

He said supporters Obi, who are in the diaspora, will mobilise thousands of supporters to vote in the forthcoming elections.

Go and start looking at the bookings of major European airlines into Nigeria, not just during Christmas time. Funnily enough, this time after Christmas  late January to the third week of February  you will see that they are getting full, he said.

I am into the business of data and statistics and I decided to particularly look at that.

This tells you that social media is going to vote. Social media, even if theyre in Canada, even if theyre in Antarctica, one person is there and he mobilises 100,000 people to go out and vote, it has succeeded. But we are not scared.

The bank balance of any big politician is starting to be irrelevant. Those of us who sweated for the little that we have, were spending it very wisely and very carefully.

Those of them who made it from government, who just open the coffers and bring it out, theyll continue to splash it and it will continue to mean less and less till the election hour.
President Muhammadu Buhari has again reassured that his administration would continue to address the current security challenges and cost...

President Muhammadu Buhari has again reassured that his administration would continue to address the current security challenges and costs of living in the country, saying I wont rest until I bring relief to Nigerians.

Malam Garba Shehu, the Presidents media aide in a statement, said the president gave the assurance in his Eid-el Kabir message to Nigerian Muslims and other citizens, on Friday in Abuja.

I am quite aware of the difficulties people are facing and working to resolve them, the president added.

He, however, urged Nigerians to put the interest of the country above selfish interests and use religion as a motivation for the love of our common humanity.





Buhari said that if we are putting the teachings of our religions into practice, most of the evils afflicting our society would have been solved.





According to the President Muhammadu Buhari has again reassured that his administration would continue to address the current security challenges and costs of living in the country, saying I wont rest until I bring relief to Nigerians.

Malam Garba Shehu, the Presidents media aide in a statement, said the president gave the assurance in his Eid-el Kabir message to Nigerian Muslims and other citizens, on Friday in Abuja.





I am quite aware of the difficulties people are facing and working to resolve them, the president added.

He, however, urged Nigerians to put the interest of the country above selfish interests and use religion as a motivation for the love of our common humanity.





Buhari said that if we are putting the teachings of our religions into practice, most of the evils afflicting our society would have been solved.

According to the President, religion should not just be used a mere badge of identity, but a motivator for doing good for the country and humanity.





He frowned at the exploitation of the people by traders and the stealing of public funds by civil servants and other holders of public trust, saying these negative vices were reflections of the abandonment of the teachings of our religions.





Our society is a bundle of contradictions. People display external religiosity without fear of God; they make life difficult for others; money becomes their god; leaders abandon their oaths of office by taking money meant for the welfare of the people and divert it to their private pockets, he said.





Buhari congratulated the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria and the world on the occasion of the Eid, citing for special mention, the brave men and women in uniform fighting terror on many fronts and their families, as well as others held hostage and kept away from their families by wicked and heartless terrorists.





He used the occasion to call on all Muslims to reflect on the significance of the sacrifice epitomised by Eid.





We should show love and care to our neighbours and others while celebrating this spiritually important event in our lives, he said.





President Buhari also advised Muslims to promote the good virtues of Islam through personal examples and practice.





Muslims should avoid association with violent extremist ideas that have wrongly given Islam a negative image or poor perception.





The President expressed the hope that this Eid would be a source of blessing, peace, prosperity and safety for all Nigerians, stressing that coexistence and stability would prevail in the country. (NAN), religion should not just be used a mere badge of identity, but a motivator for doing good for the country and humanity.





He frowned at the exploitation of the people by traders and the stealing of public funds by civil servants and other holders of public trust, saying these negative vices were reflections of the abandonment of the teachings of our religions.





Our society is a bundle of contradictions. People display external religiosity without fear of God; they make life difficult for others; money becomes their god; leaders abandon their oaths of office by taking money meant for the welfare of the people and divert it to their private pockets, he said.





Buhari congratulated the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria and the world on the occasion of the Eid, citing for special mention, the brave men and women in uniform fighting terror on many fronts and their families, as well as others held hostage and kept away from their families by wicked and heartless terrorists.





He used the occasion to call on all Muslims to reflect on the significance of the sacrifice epitomised by Eid.





We should show love and care to our neighbours and others while celebrating this spiritually important event in our lives, he said.





President Buhari also advised Muslims to promote the good virtues of Islam through personal examples and practice.





Muslims should avoid association with violent extremist ideas that have wrongly given Islam a negative image or poor perception.





The President expressed the hope that this Eid would be a source of blessing, peace, prosperity and safety for all Nigerians, stressing that coexistence and stability would prevail in the country. (NAN)
Religion leaders and Politicians have called for peace in the coming July 16 governorship election in Osun State. The governor of Osun State...





Religion leaders and Politicians have called for peace in the coming July 16 governorship election in Osun State.





The governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola who is also seeking reelection, tasked all candidates in the opposition party to ensure peace in the poll.





Oyetola while speaking with journalists after Eid prayer on Saturday in Osogbo central praying ground said whoever wants to rule should not unleash violence on the people.





He said an election is not a do-or-die affair and, however, urged people to ensure peace and not engage in violence.





I want to enjoin people to ensure the election that is coming up is peaceful and does not engage in any violence. An election is not a do-or-die affair, our state is known for peace. And I believe by the grace of God, I will be re-elected come July 16.





I want to call every player to please ensure peace.





Also, the Grand Imam of Osun State, Sheik Musa Animashaun has ordered Muslim clerics to maintain neutrality in the election activities in the Osun State gubernatorial election.





The Muslim leader in the state made the call in his sermon after Eid prayer on Saturday in Osogbo central praying ground.





Animashaun said he has called all Imams in the state to be neutral in the coming election.





We should maintain peace in the coming election. I have called all Imams to be neutral and leave politics to politicians.





He, however, called for peace in the state in the July 16 governorship election.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Yes; I'd vote for him

No, but I'd probably still vote for him

No, and I wouldn't vote for him

Yes, but I wouldn't vote for him

Vote

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A special radio wave for the Queen at Mey event

The John O'Groat Journal reports the Caithness Amateur Radio Society (CARS) held a contact event in celebration of the Queen's Jubilee on the weekend of June 25/26



The newspaper says:



During the month of June, radio clubs were allowed to add the Q phonetic to their call sign  so Caithness club became Mike Queen zero Foxtrot November Romeo, MQ0FNR instead of MS0FNR.



CARS club secretary, Nigel Mansfield, said: "With thanks to Shirley Farquhar and the trust committee of the Castle of Mey we were allowed to operate from the castle grounds, thus giving the event a royal connection.



"Many members of the club attended to work the transmitter and contacts were made throughout Europe and the UK. Blessed with good weather the event was considered a success despite radio propagation signals being poor."

The club aims to promote amateur radio activities with like-minded amateur radio operators, constructors (present and future) and short wave listeners. CARS is always interested in finding new members. Anyone with an interest in ham radio should check the CARS website at

http://www.qsl.net/ms0fnr/



Source John O'Groat Journal

https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/a-special-radio-wave-for-the-queen-at-mey-event-280558/
The past and the future, a photojournalist's visual journey revisits the removal of Confederate monuments
Chef Jose Blanco came to New Orleans from Miami because of the food culture. He worked at Lilette, Mais Arepas and Grand Isle before moving to Vermont in 2017 to take a job as executive chef at a restaurant specializing in Latin cuisine. When that restaurant closed during the pandemic, he visited his family in his native Colombia. Last year, he returned to New Orleans to open up a Latin food pop-up named Waska. He also started a donation-based pop-up that gave away tacos to people in need. Waska will be at Miel Brewery on Sunday, July 10, at Okay Bar on Thursday, July 14, and Friday, July 15, and at Oak St. Brewery on Saturday, July 16. Later this summer, Waska will open a stall at St. Roch Market. Find more about Blancos pop-up, his taco giveaways and his work as a muralist at waskanola.com.

Gambit: What inspired your pop-up?

Jose Blanco: I was the chef at a restaurant in Vermont. The owner shut it down during Covid, so I went back home to Colombia to stay with my mom. We were in Waska, a small town near Bogota, the capital. I started eating food around the area, and I got the idea I should open my own concept. I named it Waska as a tribute to the small town. I came back to New Orleans, and I opened up in October (2021).

I am emphasizing street food dishes. I have been working in fine dining restaurants for a few years, and its hard to get away from that. I try to make food as humble and simple as I can.

I use arepas as a vessel to transport different ingredients that I like to play with. Its the same way people get creative with tortillas and tacos.

Arepas originated in Colombia and Venezuela, because they used to be one country before Simon Bolivar. Its a big debate where they came from. Every region makes them different.

We fry the arepas. In Waska, this old lady was deep frying them and slinging them out fast. I got the idea from her because they were so fast. The thing about arepas is they can take about 15 minutes if you grill them. People usually flattop grill them or pan fry them, and they take forever. When I saw her making them in two minutes, I was like, wow, let me take that idea.

I modernize them a bit with the toppings. My most popular is the Bombarepa. Its pollo asado, so grilled chicken, with mozzarella, chimichurri, pickled onions and avocado. Its got the richness of the chicken with the chimichurri and pickled onions. It looks pretty. I top them instead of stuffing them.

Ill use common dishes like arepas, patacon, elotes, ceviche  things like that. I give them my own twist. Its typical Latin dishes that I try to elevate. I dont have a set menu. I play it by ear and look at what type of place it is, what type of crowd they get.

Gambit: Whats next for the pop-up?

Blanco: Its been a big learning experience  a lot different from having your own kitchen. Thats easy compared to a pop-up. You move around a lot and learn what works and what doesnt. I get to play around with food. Its been a lot of fun.

I was thinking about turning it into a food truck or a small brick and mortar. But I have been in talks with the St. Roch Market. It would be foolish of me to pass on the opportunity to sell food every day of the week, get more exposure, build my brand. Its happening a lot sooner than I expected it. I thought Id do the pop-up for two or three years. I am becoming a vendor  July or early August is what we are aiming for.

Gambit: How is your farm-to-pop-up concept going?

Blanco: Farm to pop-up is my goal. Its a work in progress. Its difficult budget-wise. I have been getting to know farmers and local growers. In New Orleans, seafood is the way to do it. Fresh shrimp, fresh fish, fresh crawfish in season. I have been doing more shrimp dishes and some catfish dishes.

Latin food has a lot of plantains and avocados. The main ingredient for the masa is corn. Some of those things arent grown in the area so there is a lot of substituting.

Youre forced to create menus that are seasonal. I did a few pop-ups like this. I would go to farmers markets and see what they had and create menus based on that. I didnt have a menu until I left the market. But its expensive. Some people dont care about it. If its late at night, people who are drinking dont care where the beef is coming from. They just want to eat.

Theres room for Latin food here. I am trying to bring a little bit of Miami to New Orleans. Theres room for growth. People are open to it. Latin food is Creole based. Theres a lot of tomatoes, onion, peppers and garlic. The (holy) trinity is similar to sofrito. The palate is there. Everyone is doing tacos. Mais Arepas is killing it (with Colombian food). In the next 10 years, theres going to be a lot more places.
Hey Blake,

I came across a poster advertising something called the Lee Barnes Cooking School. What can you tell me about it?

Dear reader,

Lee Barnes was a native of Natchez, Mississippi, who graduated from Newcomb College here in New Orleans and Le Cordon Bleu, the famous cooking school in Paris.

She opened her first cooking school in New Orleans in 1974, teaching not just classic local dishes but also new techniques and cuisines. We change the calendar each month, Barnes said in a 1976 article in The Times-Picayune. The newspaper explained that courses ranged from Japanese, Chinese, Creole or French cooking to crepes, soups, hors doeuvres and planning informal buffets. She has been known to offer a course in how to boil water, for extreme cases. Classes were taught by Barnes and other guest instructors, including Leah Chase, Paul Prudhomme, Jacques Pepin and Poppy Tooker.

As Susan Tucker points out in her book New Orleans Cuisine: Fourteen Signature Dishes and Their Histories, Barnes is credited with opening the first cooking school which did not segregate students by race, class or gender.

The cooking school began at 1339 Coliseum St. before moving to 7808 Maple St. and finally to 8400 Oak St. In addition to classroom space, there was also a shop featuring gourmet food products, cookware and cookbooks for sale.

Barnes also produced radio shows for Prudhomme, taught at Delgado Community College and wrote two cookbooks.

In 1986, she and her family left New Orleans for Germany, where her husband accepted a position with the U.S. Department of Defense.

She returned here from time to time to teach cooking classes, including for children at the newly established Louisiana Childrens Museum. In 1988, she was back teaching at a cooking school in the Riverwalk.

By 1989, she had left New Orleans for Alexandria, Virginia. She died in 1992 of complications from a brain tumor. She was 41.
Crash of Pan Am Flight 759: I was booked on that flight, former New Orleans radio DJ recalls
Central Coast Amateur Radio Club News

The club rooms at Kariong are open every Saturday. Members are reminded that Annual Membership is now due.

The clubs Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday, August 13 at 1pm. Details will be emailed to members.

Congratulations to Jayson M who is the winner of the FTDX-10 raffle. The club will be running another raffle shortly for another very nice piece of equipment. Details will be at ccarc.org.au or on social media.

At the VK2RAG Somersby repeater site, the D-Star, Rad-Net DMR and 2m Echolink services are fully functional. Brand Meister DMR and 70cm Echolink and IRLP are still on the sick list.

The club has a Web SDR at Somersby. Websdr.ccarc.org.au is configured to listen on 6 metres, 2 metres, 70 centimetres and 23 centimetres.

The daily Morning Tea Net is held at 10:00am each morning and after the broadcast on Sunday mornings. On the VK2RAG repeater  146.725 MHz with 91.5Hz tone, and on echolink through the HAM and CCARCNSW echolink conferences.

The Thursday evening net is held at 8:00pm on the same repeater and echolink conferences.

Adrian VK2ABS, hosts fortnightly SSTV net on the Clubs 2 Meter WICEN repeater; 147.125 MHz with 91.5 Hz tone, consisting of 2-3 rounds. Adrian has had a large amount of support from other members and would love to see you drop in. The next net is scheduled for Friday the 8th of July at 7:30 PM.

Both of these nets are also video streamed live to the clubs Facebook page and recordings can be found in the Videos section.

You can find out more about the CCARC on the web at ccarc.org.au, by phone on 02 4340 2500, or on social media by searching for Central Coast Amateur Radio Club. Remember to give the club a like to follow for any updates.

73, Alan VK2MG

Publicity Officer,

Central Coast Amateur Radio Club
Foundations of Amateur Radio

The power supply connector dance contest...

In over a decade of writing a weekly article about all manner of different aspects of our hobby and community, I've never once talked about power connectors for your radio. It's so universal as to be invisible and rarely discussed. So much so, that something you do out of habit, makes another stop dead in their tracks and ask themselves why they never thought of it.

Despite how you might feel at the time, there's no such thing as a stupid question. The other day a fellow amateur Dave VK6KV asked about a power connector he'd seen at the local electronics store. That question started a group discussion about powering radios and how best to achieve that.

The very first thing to discuss is that the vast majority of amateur radio transceivers expect a nominal voltage of 13.8 Volt DC. That might sound like a strange requirement, but it's the voltage that comes from a fully charged 12 Volt lead acid battery, which is what many radios use as a power reference.

The next thing to consider is that a transceiver can draw quite a bit of power when it's transmitting. My Yaesu FT-857D user manual suggests 22 Ampere, but I've never seen that in the decade it's been in my possession.

When you purchase a radio, you'll likely discover that it either comes with bare wires, or some random connector that doesn't fit anything else. In many cases I've discovered that people cut off that connector and replace it with whatever standard they've come up with in their shack, but when they take their kit out on a field day, or acquire a new radio, the problem starts all over again.

Let me suggest a different approach.

The Anderson Power company, founded in 1877 by brothers Albert and Johan Anderson in Boston Massachusetts, make a range of connectors called the Anderson Powerpole and they come in a variety of ratings, sizes, shapes and colours.

First introduced as a standard by the ARRL Emergency Communications Course in December of 2000, after previously being adopted by amateur operators in California, the Anderson Powerpole PP15/45 series was selected. The Coordinator for Hawaii State Civil Defense RACES, or Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, Ron, then AH6RH, now KH6D has a detailed description on his QSL page on how this came about.

As a result, the stackable, asymmetric, genderless plugs are in wide use within the amateur community. The plugs are designed to be joined together using various orientations, creating a unique connector to suit your purpose. The Amateur Radio Emergency Service or ARES standard is one such orientation and before you adopt the Anderson Powerpole in your shack, make sure you use their orientation to avoid magic smoke from escaping your equipment.

Picking a connector is just step one.

When you acquire a new piece of 12 Volt equipment, you can cut off the connector and replace it with the ARES Anderson Powerpole connector orientation. Many amateurs I know then throw away the unusable connector, or shove it into a box for later.

Instead, what I do is, terminate the plug that you just cut off in exactly the same way. Essentially, from a visual perspective, you've kept the power cable intact, but inserted a Powerpole join into the lead. As a result you now have a standard Powerpole power lead and you have a new Powerpole adaptor to suit the new connector.

For that reason alone, I tend to bring a box of spare Red and Black Powerpole connectors to any field day and use the opportunity to spread the love around.

As I said, the individual plugs come in a variety of colours, I have a selection of eleven in my shack, where for me a different colour means a different voltage or purpose. For example, I've adopted green as the colour for antenna radials.

One challenge I'd not been able to resolve, until suggested by Ben VK6NCB, was how to avoid plugging a 12 Volt power supply into something that expects say 7.5 Volts. Colour alone isn't sufficiently idiot proof, especially in the dark. Ben suggested that I adjust the orientation of the plugs, preventing connectors of different colours to mate. Looking back, I can't understand why I didn't think of that in the decade I've been using them.

I will note that there are other Anderson connectors in use. A popular one is the grey double connector, used in portable solar installations and caravans. I'd recommend that you consider if you really want to plug your radio directly into a solar panel or not and choose your connectors accordingly.

Before you ask, to my knowledge the Anderson Power Company doesn't know I exist, nor did I get compensated in any way to say Anderson Powerpole. It's the ARRL Emergency Services standard and I'm happy to advocate for its use everywhere I go.

So, whether you're using bare wires, banana plugs, Molex connectors or some other random barrel connectors, consider cutting the lead and inserting Anderson Powerpole connectors.

When was the last time that you had to do the 12 Volt connector dance?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

 This article is the transcript of the weekly 'Foundations of Amateur Radio' podcast, produced by Onno Benschop, VK6FLAB who was licensed as radio amateur in Perth, Western Australia in 2010. For other episodes, visit http://vk6flab.com/. Feel free to get in touch directly via email: cq@vk6flab.com
The eccentric billionaire is apparently no longer willing to buy the social network Twitter, as his lawyers claim that the company has broken several contractual obligations which caused him to back out of the controversial deal worth around US$44 billion.

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In mid-April of this year, news broke that the South African billionaire and richest man in the world, Elon Musk, wanted to take over the beloved social network Twitter for around US$44 billion. In a looming yet stunning plot twist, his plans to fully align the company with the constitutional right to freedom of speech have now been put on ice.

According to corresponding reports at CNBC and numerous other media outlets, Elon Musk's lawyers officially announced on Friday evening that the founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has filed to terminate his acquisition of Twitter. Allegedly, Twitter has not fulfilled several contractual obligations, and in the process, Musk has not been provided with various pieces of information that he requested. One of these issues may revolve around statistics on the number of spam and fake accounts, which are quite important from an economic point of view as they could supposedly account for around 5 percent of Twitter's daily users.

However, terminating the Twitter deal could potentially cost Elon Musk dearly, as he contractually agreed to pay US$1 billion in case he backs out of the acquisition. In an initial reaction, the stock price of Twitter tanked by around 5% in after-hours trading on Friday evening, but a long and tedious legal dispute regarding the acquisition and all of the associated financial obligations now seems more likely than ever.

Twitter's board chairman, Bret Taylor, has since published a Tweet in which he asserts that the company "is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon". He further states that Twitter is confident that it will prevail in a possible legal battle against Elon Musk.

Buy the "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future" biography on Amazon
Rumour has it that Xiaomi has scheduled the release of its next Lite smartphone a day after the debut of the Nothing Phone (1). With a Snapdragon 778G chipset, a 120 Hz AMOLED display, and a 108 MP primary camera, the Xiaomi 12 Lite 5G could prove fierce competition for Nothing's first smartphone.

4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 3D Printing , 5G , Accessory , AI , Alder Lake , AMD , Android , Apple , Arc , ARM , Audio , Benchmark , Biotech , Business , Camera , Cannon Lake , Cezanne (Zen 3) , Charts , Chinese Tech , Chromebook , Console , Convertible / 2-in-1 , Cryptocurrency , Cyberlaw , Deal , Desktop , DIY , E-Mobility , Education , Exclusive , Fail , Foldable , Gadget , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Pixel , GPU , How To , Ice Lake , Intel , Intel Evo , Internet of Things (IoT) , iOS , iPad , iPad Pro , iPhone , Jasper Lake , Lakefield , Laptop , Launch , Leaks / Rumors , Linux / Unix , List , Lucienne (Zen 2) , MacBook , Mini PC , Monitor , MSI , OnePlus , Opinion , Phablet , Radeon , Raptor Lake , Renoir , Review Snippet , Rocket Lake , Ryzen (Zen) , Science , Security , Single-Board Computer (SBC) , Smart Home , Smartphone , Smartwatch , Software , Storage , Tablet , ThinkPad , Thunderbolt , Tiger Lake , Touchscreen , Ultrabook , Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) , Wearable , Wi-Fi 7 , Windows , Workstation , XPS , Zen 3 (Vermeer) , Zen 4 Ticker

Xiaomi continues to tease the 12 Lite 5G on its global social media channels, despite the device's unveiling in Azerbaijan. While the company insists that the 12 Lite 'is coming', it has not confirmed the device's launch date yet, let alone from when it will be orderable. As it stands, Xiaomi posts vague teasers instead, along with others about the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, a smartphone that will be unavailable outside China.

According to @passionategeekz, Xiaomi will unveil the 12 Lite 5G this month. Anticipated to be released globally, @passionategeekz claims that Xiaomi will showcase the device on July 13 alongside the broader release for the Smart Band 7. For reference, Xiaomi already sells the fitness tracker in Europe, so it could be extending its availability to North America, or similar markets.
Eat, pray, love and listen.

Purdue University Northwest's Sinai Forum will be headlined by writer Elizabeth Gilbert, "Mythbusters" co-host Adam Savage and Gen. David H. Petraeus this year.

Tickets for the 69th season go on sale Tuesday. For nearly seven decades, the Sinai Forum has brought prominent speakers to Northwest Indiana and given people the chance to ask them questions during town-hall forums.

Sharing perspectives on the most prominent issues we face is what Sinai Forum does best, said Leslie Plesac, executive director of the Sinai Forum. More than ever, its important that we come together to listen and learn from great leaders, creators and from one another.

Savage will give a talk entitled Every Tools a Hammer: Life is What You Make It at 4 p.m. Oct. 2 at the Stardust Event Center at Blue Chip Casino, Hotel & Spa at 777 Blue Chip Drive in Michigan City.

He was one of the hosts of the long-running "Mythbusters" show on the Discovery Channel. Savage will share his ideas about problem solving, creativity and curiosity.

Will Hurd will give a talk entitled American Reboot: An Idealists Guide to Getting Big Things Done at Purdue Northwest's Westville campus on Oct. 23. He's a former member of Congress, CIA officer and cybersecurity executive.

Gen. David H. Petraeus will give a talk entitled Exploring the Geopolitical Landscape with General Petraeus at Purdue Northwest on Nov. 13.

Petraeus is a four-star general with a 37-year military career who led five combat commands and who became a public figure while leading "The Surge" during the Iraq War.

Rachel Barton Pine will headline An Afternoon with Rachel Barton Pine on Dec. 4. She's performed solos with orchestras around the world, including the Chicago Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Pine has released 40 albums and appeared on The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning and NPRs Tiny Desk.

All of the talks will take place at 4 p.m., mostly at the James B. Dworkin Student Services and Activities Complex at PNWs Westville campus at 1401 S. U.S. 421 in Westville. Doors open at 3 p.m.

For tickets or more information, visit pnw.edu/sinai-forum.
CROWN POINT  A former St. John appliance shop owner pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $35,000 from 18 customers who paid for items he never delivered.

Erik W. Schneider, 44, of Lowell, admitted to theft, a class A misdemeanor.

Lake Criminal Court Judge Salvador Vasquez accepted his plea agreement and sentenced him to an agreed term of one year in jail, suspended in favor of probation.

In exchange for Schneider's plea and his agreement to pay restitution, Lake County prosecutors dismissed one count of corrupt business influence and one count of theft, both level 5 felonies.

Schneider agreed to pay a total of about $35,350 in restitution, with some of the money to be paid to his 18 victims upfront and some in installments during the next year.

According to the plea agreement, Schneider operated Hometown Appliances, 11130 W. 93rd Ave., from Nov. 1, 2018, to Dec. 31, 2019.

He collected money from the 18 people who expected the appliances to be delivered at a later date. Schneider never delivered and failed to return all or part of the money he collected from the customers, records state.

According to charging documents, Schneider initially was accused of bilking 32 customers out of more than $85,000. He often offered a "special discount" if customers paid cash, records state.

Schneider was represented by attorney Joshua Malher. Jovanni Miramontes handled the case for the state.
CROWN POINT  A Gary man admitted Friday to serving as a lookout during an attempted robbery and fatal shooting in 2015 in Gary.

Daidreon Sparks, 25, was 18 years old when he helped several co-defendants during the April 12, 2015, homicide of 21-year-old Donald Fuzzell at a gas station in the 2300 block of Broadway in Gary, according to his plea agreement.

Sparks, who was represented by attorney Joshua Malher, admitted to one count of assisting a criminal, a level 5 felony.

If Judge Salvador Vasquez accepts his plea agreement, Sparks could face a sentence of one to six years. If Sparks receives any time behind bars, he'll be ordered to serve it in the Lake County Community Corrections alternative placement program.

Sparks; Dontrall J. Phillips, 27, of Davenport, Iowa; Jimmie Caldwell, 23, of Gary; and Walter A. Rondo III, 24, of Gary, each were charged in 2018 with murder and attempted armed robbery.

According to Sparks' plea agreement, he and Rondo watched for police while Phillips and Caldwell attempted to rob Fuzzell.

When Fuzzell didn't give up his property, Phillips and Caldwell both shot their guns at Fuzzell, records state.

Phillips pleaded guilty but mentally ill in February 2021 to murder. He was sentenced in March 2021 to 45 years in prison.

Rondo pleaded guilty in December 2018. He and Sparks each agreed they won't be sentenced until Caldwell's case is resolved.

Caldwell has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to face a jury in November.
GARY  It's going to take more than another prayer vigil or gathering at the site of a horrific crime to reduce the gun violence plaguing the city, a Region pastor said.

In response to Monday's mass shooting, the Baptist Ministers Conference of Gary and Vicinity scheduled a news conference for Saturday to announce its plan for action.

"We want the community to know that the Baptist Ministers Conference of Gary and Vicinity  we are not just sitting back and twiddling our thumbs," said the Rev. De'Wan M. Bynum, president of the conference and senior pastor of Christian Valley Missionary Baptist Church in Gary. "We have a plan to curb some of this violence."

The news conference was set for noon Saturday at the Gary Public Library, 225 W. Fifth Ave. Local law enforcement leaders and the Lake County prosecutor's office were expected to attend.

Local leaders also will announce an anti-violence rally planned for August in partnership with the Gary Community School Corp., Bynum said.

In addition, families are welcome to attend the Successful Interaction with Law Enforcement Conference from 9 to 11 a.m. at the library, he said.

Laurence Magnum, 25, of Merrillville, was one of the three people killed when gunfire erupted at a block party about 12:45 a.m. Monday in the 1900 block of Missouri Street.

Magnum played drums at Christian Valley a couple of times, Bynum said.

"I just really hate that it happened. He was a really nice guy," the pastor said. "It's just devastating to all of us."

Others killed in the shooting included Ashanti Brown, 20, of Olympia Fields, and Marquise Hall, 26, of Lafayette.

Seven others were wounded, including one person who was flown by helicopter to a Chicago hospital for a gunshot wound to the torso, police said. Most of the wounded were in their 20s.

Hall was Gary Mayor Jerome Prince's cousin, city officials said.

"Our family is heartbroken and outraged at this loss. Obviously, this hits close to home," Prince said in a statement this week. "However, we're also angry and frustrated at the fact we continue to lose Gary residents to needless violence, including young people gunned down before they even reach adulthood. I never stop thinking about the victims and their families and the incredible losses these senseless deaths leave."

Prince vowed to continue investing in anti-violence initiatives that focus on intervention and prevention for younger residents and to support victims and their families when violence occurs.

Monday's tragedy marked the second mass shooting in Gary in less than a month.

Jonte Dorsey, 34, of Joliet, Illinois, and JahNice Quinn, 26, of Merrillville, were fatally shot and four others were wounded when gunfire broke out about 2 a.m. June 12 during a rap concert at Playo's Nightclub, 1700 Grant St., Gary. One of the four wounded was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said.

The city subsequently ordered the nightclub to shut down.

Bynum said the people of Gary must bow down in prayer to solve the problem of gun violence.

"Out city is not a dumping ground for garbage or dead bodies," he said. "And so we need to pray for the mindset to be renewed."

Bynum's parents and grandparents talked about Gary as a beautiful place, but he hasn't seen it that way during his lifetime, he said.

"But I also believe there are better days ahead for our city," he said. "We just need to come together ... and bow down in prayer and pray for renewed minds and renewed spirits, so that God can heal our land, heal our city."

While the nation mourns for the seven killed and more than three dozen wounded in a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, Bynum doesn't want the mass shooting in Gary to become just another tragedy that's quickly forgotten after everyone goes back to their daily routines.

"People need to know someone is concerned about Gary, Indiana," he said. "The Baptist Ministers Conference cares."
CROWN POINT  Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter urged residents Thursday to take precautions when meeting up with someone to make a purchase arranged online.

Buyers who arrange on social-media platforms to meet a seller should remember they're dealing with a stranger, he said.

"If you're gong to meet an online vendor, meet during the day where there is high visibility and likelihood that there will be other people around," Carter said. "There is safety in numbers, so don't go alone."

Buyers should let someone know where they're going and when they'll return.

If something doesn't seem right, stay home, Carter said.

Buyers also should avoid last-minute changes, especially if the meeting is moved to a more secluded space.

Bring a fully charged phone, and arrange to meet in a public place such as a police department where video surveillance cameras are installed. Anyone who finds themselves in need of help should call 911 immediately.

"Remember to be vigilant to your surroundings," Carter said. "Look around before you step out of your vehicle. Keep your car doors closed and locked when needed."

The following police departments maintain a safe spot in their parking lots (those with asterisks also permit exchanges to be made in their lobbies):

 Cedar Lake Police Department, 7408 Constitution Ave.*

 Crown Point Police Department, 124 N. East St.*

 Dyer Police Department, 2150 Hart St.* (outer vestibule open 24 hours)

 East Chicago Police Department, 2301 E. Columbus Drive*

 Gary Police Department, 555 Polk St.*

 Griffith Police Department, 115 N. Broad St.*

 Hammond Police Department, 509 Douglas St. (east side of parking lot only)

 Highland Police Department, 3333 Ridge Road* (lobby open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.)

 Hobart Police Department, 705 E. Fourth St.* (lobby open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.)

 Lake County Sheriff's Department, 2293 N. Main St.* (check in at security desk door J2)

 Lake Station Police Department, 1969 Central Ave.* (lobby open 24 hours)

 Lowell Police Department, 1333 E. Commercial Ave.* (lobby open 24 hours)

 Merrillville Police Department, 7820 Broadway* (lobby open 24 hours)

 Munster Police Department, 1001 Ridge Road*

 New Chicago Police Department, 122 Huber Blvd.*

 Schererville Police Department, 25 E. Joliet St.* (lobby open 24 hours)

 St. John Police Department, 11033 W. 93rd Ave.*

 Whiting Police Department, 1914 Schrage Ave. (use front of station including walkway)

 Winfield Police Department, 10645 Randolph St.
CROWN POINT  A grandmother was ordered Friday to serve three years on probation for helping her boyfriend evade arrest last year after he fatally stabbed a man while they were picking up her then-6-year-old grandson for school.

Koreena M. Henry, 46, of Gary, pleaded guilty in June to assisting a criminal, a level 5 felony, and agreed to testify against boyfriend Mark A. Jaramillo, 46, of Crown Point.

A Lake Criminal Court jury convicted Jaramillo in November of voluntary manslaughter, a level 2 felony, but found him not guilty of murder in the April 16, 2021, homicide of Rafeal J. Marcano, 27.

Henry admitted in her plea agreement she drove Jaramillio to a home in the 3800 block of Swift Street in Hobart, where he fatally stabbed Marcano.

Henry then drove Jaramillo away from the crime scene with her grandchild, the bloody knife and the child's mother in her car.

They dropped the child off at school, and Henry helped Jaramillo get rid of the clothes he was wearing and hid out with him for a while, according to court records.

Henry's attorney, Nicholas Barnes, told Judge Samuel Cappas he'd reached an agreement with prosecutors for Henry to be sentenced to three years in prison, suspended in favor of probation.

She could have faced a sentence of one to three years for a level 5 felony.

Barnes and Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Dafoe said they reached the agreement because of Henry's level of cooperation.

Henry declined to make a statement, and Dafoe didn't call any of Marcano's family members to give a victim impact statement.
GRIFFITH  Police are seeking information after a man was shot in the leg, early Friday morning.

Just before 5 a.m., Friday, police responded to reports of shots fired at the 1900 block of North Arbogast Street. While at the scene, officers received a report of a man with a gunshot wound in his leg.

According to police, the victim confronted a tall man who was looking in the windows of parked cars along the 1900 block of North Arbogast Street. The man began to shoot at the victim, hitting him in his leg.

The unknown suspect drove away in a dark colored car with tinted windows. Police said the car may have been a Chevrolet Impala.

The victim called the authorities from a nearby gas station. He was treated at a local hospital and has been released.

Police are searching for the suspect and ask anyone with information to contact Det. Al Tharp at 219-924-7503 extension 252 or leave an anonymous message on the Griffith Police Department Tip Line at 219-922-3085.
A state court temporarily blocked Pennsylvania from participating in a regional carbon pricing program to combat climate change, ruling Friday in favor of coal-related interests that argue the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf is seeking to impose an unlawful tax.

Commonwealth Court granted a preliminary injunction that prohibits the Wolf administration from implementing, administering, or enforcing the carbon-pricing policy, which is meant to curb power plants' emissions of carbon dioxide and has long been the centerpiece of the Democratic governor's plan to fight global warming.

The Wolf administration said it will appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Wolf made Pennsylvania the first major fossil fuel state to adopt a carbon pricing policy, in which power plants fueled by coal, oil and natural gas are required to buy a credit for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit. Pennsylvania is one of the nation's biggest polluters and power producers.

The Power Pa Jobs Alliance, a coalition of industry and labor groups, said that power plant operators would have started paying what it called the carbon tax on Friday had the court not issued its injunction. It contends the carbon policy will impose higher electricity costs on consumers. The group called Friday's ruling a significant win for working families."

The regulation at issue committed Pennsylvania to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate consortium that sets a price and declining limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants run by fossil fuels. The Wolf administration estimates that the initiative will reduce Pennsylvanias carbon dioxide emissions by up to 225 million tons through 2030.

The courts decision is yet another roadblock and stalling tactic from RGGI opponents, said Jessica ONeill, an attorney for PennFuture, an environmental group. She contended that Pennsylvanias participation in the carbon pricing program will unquestionably save lives by improving air quality and is necessary to cut Pennsylvanias significant carbon footprint from the power sector.

Commonwealth Court said the plaintiffs  power plants, labor unions and coal mine owners  had raised a substantial legal question about whether the program imposes an unlawful tax, since taxing power rests with the General Assembly, not the executive branch. It did not rule on the merits of the case.

Wolf has long maintained the state can regulate carbon dioxide under an existing law dealing with air pollution.
WASHINGTON  The Biden administration took a key step toward approving a huge oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska, angering environmental activists who said allowing it to go forward would make a mockery of President Bidens climate-change promise to end new oil leases.

The ConocoPhillips project, known as Willow and located in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, was initially approved under the Trump administration and was later supported by the Biden administration but was then was blocked by a judge who said the environmental review had not sufficiently considered its effects on climate change and wildlife.

On Friday, the Biden administration issued a new environmental analysis.

In that analysis, the Department of the Interior said the multibillion-dollar plan would at its peak produce more than 180,000 barrels of crude oil a day and would emit at least 278 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over its lifetime from the burning of the oil produced, as well as from construction and drilling activity at the site.
The agency should also take immediate steps to loosen constraints on medication abortion that experts have long said are unnecessary. For example, the two-drug cocktail commonly used for a medication abortion is approved for up to 10 weeks of pregnancy in the United States, but the World Health Organization has deemed it safe for up to 12 weeks. And as reporting by The Atlantic has noted, the pills have been used safely even later than that.

Likewise, the F.D.A. requires pharmacies to obtain certification to dispense one of the two pills, a policy that isnt used in other countries and impedes access. To this end, federal officials should also support the drugmaker GenBioPro in its Mississippi lawsuit challenging other restrictions; the F.D.A.s public support would help, as would the Justice Departments involvement in the case.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should also make clear, publicly, that all hospitals receiving federal funds for Medicare and Medicaid (meaning nearly all hospitals and clinics) are required to provide all F.D.A.-approved drugs and that emergency departments are bound by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires medical professionals to provide the necessary treatment in a medical emergency.

Both the Medicaid agency and Health and Human Services should make clear  again, unequivocally  that the emergency treatment law applies to abortion when a pregnancy is life-threatening and that they will enforce it. (The Hyde Amendment, a legal provision that prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion, also has a provision for rape, incest and medical emergencies that still applies to federally funded health centers.) Doctors faced with an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage  which can turn deadly if fetal tissue remains in the body for too long  might be less afraid to act if they were reminded that inaction is still a crime, and if they knew that the federal government would support them.

Other federal agencies also have roles to play. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can aggressively monitor and publicize the illnesses and deaths in states where abortion is no longer available. As Americas leading public health agency, the C.D.C. has an obligation not only to continue studying the harm to public health caused by limits on abortion access but also to speak publicly about the intention to do so. The Federal Trade Commission can make clear that anyone who tries to sell fake abortion medications, online or anywhere else, will be prosecuted.

Its true, as administration officials have said, that there are no easy solutions to the fight over abortion rights that Americans are now engaged in; even among those who favor reproductive rights, there is little consensus about the best solution. Its also true that any action the administration takes may prompt litigation. But given the grave threat to public health, failing to act is not an option.
A judge in Louisiana allowed state laws banning nearly all abortions to take effect on Friday, lifting an earlier court decision that had temporarily blocked them.

Abortions were immediately outlawed starting at conception, with an exception for a threat to the life of a pregnant woman, but with no exceptions for rape or incest. Under one Louisiana law, abortion providers face possible jail time of 10 or 15 years, depending on when the pregnancy was terminated.

Louisiana is among a number of conservative states that passed abortion restrictions or bans in anticipation that the Supreme Court would rescind the constitutional right to abortion, which it did last month. The decision triggered those state bans, which quickly went into effect. Abortion rights groups, however, sued in state courts and in some cases won temporary restraining orders to block the bans, allowing abortions to continue.
It doesnt allow the farthest-right Republican to knock out the moderate and be the only candidate in the general election, said Jim Lottsfeldt, a political strategist who is supporting Murkowski. The old primary system punished people who dared to be independent thinkers. You cant do that anymore in Alaska.

By Lottsfeldts reckoning, Murkowski ought to emerge with about 55 percent of the vote after voters preferences are taken into account, while Tshibaka, whose positions on issues like abortion might turn off moderates, is likely to finish at around 45 percent.

Tshibakas team is urging her supporters to use whats known as bullet voting, in which voters do not rank any candidates besides their first choice  thus, they hope, denying thousands of second-choice votes to Murkowski.

They note, too, that Murkowski has never received more than 50 percent of the vote in any of her winning campaigns for Senate, and they point to polls showing the senator to be deeply unpopular with the Republican base.

Its debatable whether Trumps Alaska sojourn will help or hurt his preferred candidate. Tshibaka will probably cut television ads promoting his endorsement, using footage from Saturdays rally, as candidates in other states have done.
I am in complete shock, said Ayane Kubota, 37, who was headed home from work in Tokyo and scrolling through Twitter to catch up on the news on Friday evening. This is so un-Japanese. You never hear about gun violence here. On TV in the United States you hear about it all the time, but not here.

In a news briefing on Friday night, police officials from the Nara prefectural office said Mr. Yamagami had made the double-barreled gun, about 16 inches long and 7 inches wide. The police also found several similar weapons in his apartment near the site.

The authorities have not said what penalty they will seek for Mr. Yamagami. Japan is one of the few highly developed countries that have capital punishment; six people have been executed by hanging in the past three years. The law allows the death penalty for murder, but it is rarely applied for a single killing.

On Saturday, a hearse brought Mr. Abes body to his home in Tokyo. His wife, Akie Abe, accompanied the body during the ride from Nara, according to local news coverage.
Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving Japanese prime minister, who made it his political mission to vanquish his countrys wartime ghosts but fell short of his goal of restoring Japan as a normalized military power, was assassinated on Friday in the city of Nara, Japan. He was 67.

Mr. Abe, the scion of a staunchly nationalist family of leading politicians, had the longest uninterrupted tenure as prime minister in Japanese history, nearly eight years beginning in 2012. He had previously served a year in an earlier stint as the countrys leader.

His long run delivered only partial victories on his two primary ambitions: to unfetter Japans military after decades of postwar pacifism and to jump-start and overhaul its economy. He resigned as prime minister in August 2020, a year before his term was set to end, citing ill health.
TOKYO  It was supposed to be a quiet election for the Upper House of Parliament. But the assassination on Friday of Japans longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has added an element of chaos to Japanese politics just two days before voters head to the ballot box.

For the time being, political parties across the spectrum are pulling back on their messaging, but the election is still going ahead.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said after Mr. Abes death that campaigning for the Upper House election would continue as planned.
He said the pro-Russian portion of the population remained a minority, perhaps half of the 23,000 still remaining out of a prewar population of 100,000.

These are, apparently, the people who are waiting for the arrival of the Russian Army and the L.D.N.R., he said, using a shorthand term for the areas of Luhansk and Donetsk under separatist control. They already have an ingrained opinion.

Mr. Lyakh was once seen as a pro-Russian politician. He entered politics as a member of the pro-Russian party of former President Viktor F. Yanukovych and opposed the democracy protests that overthrew him in 2014. He is serving his second term as mayor of Sloviansk, as a member of an opposition bloc that was formed from the remnants of Mr. Yanukovichs party. The bloc has been banned since the Russian invasion in February.

Yet, appointed by President Volodymyr Zelensky as the head of the civil-military administration in his region, Mr. Lyakh insists there is no question of his loyalty to Ukraine.

Other residents of Sloviansk, however, revealed deeply conflicted views in conversations. Many residents lived through the period under the separatist government in 2014 and said they could do so again.

Russian rule would be no better or worse than Ukrainian, said another man who gave his name as Serhii. It was at least stable, he said, sitting outside the only working supermarket in town. They rounded up the drunks and the drug addicts.
Hello, readers,

Some 20 years ago, the late, great Jenny Diski wrote a review in the London Review of Books. Her evaluation isnt what struck me, though its a fine example of how to dissect a mediocre text sharply but not cruelly. Instead, it was a few lines from the intro. Here she is on the subject of reading:

When you read you make it clear that you have withdrawn your attention from those around you. Perhaps your interest and concern. Who can tell? You are not available. The ability to be physically present but not actually there is a disturbing reminder that people who are supposed to love and care for you live inside their own heads and that their thoughts are their own. It can be a worry.

Anyone who was chastised as a kid for reading too much will be familiar with this sentiment. (Are children still scolded for reading too much, or do modern parents fall to their knees and shed tears of joy at the sight?)

Today, the worry Diski describes is more commonly felt when youre with someone who whips out their phone and vacates the mental space you were previously sharing. Regardless of how often this happens  regardless of how often you do it yourself  it remains eerie.
In Bellingham, Wash., 90 miles from Seattle, one can spend a few days hiking, biking and feasting on oysters. Outside Atlanta, a weekend of wine tasting in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains beckons. There are hidden spots in Chicagolands suburbs that are perfect for camping. In Ojai, an electromagnetic vortex of good energy 80 miles from Los Angeles, youll find otherworldly sunsets and the worlds largest outdoor bookstore.

In Brooklyn, where I live, $2.75 will get you a ticket on NYC Ferry, whose six daily routes service all five boroughs and, through Sept. 11, Governors Island (where you can glamp overnight, if youd like).

Earlier in the pandemic, I wrote a newsletter for The Times about how to lead a full and cultured life at home, or close to it. Id thought that, as pandemic restrictions eased, thered be less need for such counsel, and dreamed that the world would fling open its gates and all of us, too-long cooped-up, would come cartwheeling through. Continuing complications hadnt figured into the fantasy.

Something I realized, thinking and writing for a year and a half about what to do while youre at home, is that these activities dont have to be consolation prizes. Theres as much wonder and delight to be found nearby as there is at the other end of a long plane trip. You dont have to look far to find it.
TOKYO  Candidates for parliamentary election in Japan on Saturday rushed from rally to rally, hoping to appeal to voters during the final hours of the campaign period, just a day after the assassination of Shinzo Abe, Japans longest serving prime minister, sparked fears the campaign would be disrupted.

Mr. Abe was shot on Friday while campaigning for a candidate for the Upper House of Parliament in the elections.

But on Saturday, it appeared to be political business as usual. White vans bearing large photos of politicians, and blaring their names from loudspeakers, rode through the streets. Candidates fist-bumped with supporters and posed for selfies.
In the fall of 1930, two dockworkers were gunned down over a turf battle during the St. Michael the Archangel feast in Red Hook. Every so often, a worker would go missing or a heavy load would fall on some longshoreman working in the ships hold  sometimes accidentally, but who could say?

These were the conditions Mr. Panto found on his return to Brooklyn as a 24-year-old in 1934. He soon got work on the docks, where he blended into the crowd of other Italian immigrants, a medium-built man with dark hair, a thin mustache and a gap between his front teeth. But he had incredible charisma, said Nathan Ward, the author of Dark Harbor: The War for the Brooklyn Waterfront, one of the few books that recounts Mr. Pantos story.

At that time, Mr. Ward said, the West Coast rank and file had organized successfully against waterfront corruption in San Francisco, but the East Coast was far behind. After a few years working on the piers, Mr. Panto landed a job as a hiring foreman in 1939. Seeing firsthand how crooked the system was, he rallied the 2,000 workers in Brooklyn that spring, giving stirring speeches in his accented English. After one meeting of more than 1,200 longshoremen, Emil Camarda, vice president of the dockworkers union, privately told Mr. Panto that Mr. Anastasia, the union boss, was unhappy with the trouble he was causing. Mr. Panto was offered $10,000 to cool off. But the defiant 28-year-old wouldnt back down, refusing the bribe.

Some longshoremen, then and now, considered Mr. Panto a hero. Others thought he was crazy or just stupid for risking his life. But most agree that changes were needed on the waterfront.

On Friday afternoon, July 14, 1939, Mr. Panto left his job on the piers and went to see his 20-year-old fiancee, Alice Maffia. He and Alice, who worked in a moth bag factory, had a date that night and planned to go to the beach the next day.

But a dark sedan pulled alongside Mr. Panto, and he got in. Witnesses said that Mr. Camarda was in the car with union agents.
Instead of an extended take on a particular issue or question, I thought I would use this weekends newsletter to share some of what Ive been reading this summer. My job for The Times involves a lot of research, and while some of what I learn shows up in my work in the form of quotes and other direct references, a lot of it doesnt. You can think of this reading list as a glimpse into where my head is at right now, and what I am thinking.

I spent a week at the end of June visiting my parents down South, during which I read two books by Eric J. Segall, a professor of law at the Georgia State University College of Law. The first was Supreme Myths: Why the Supreme Court Is Not a Court and Its Justices Are Not Judges. The second was Originalism as Faith. These slim volumes pack a big punch. In Supreme Myths, Segall makes a strong argument that the Supreme Court is and has always been a political body that adjudicates public policy, not a court in the traditional sense, bound by precedent and clear rules of interpretation. And in Originalism as Faith he takes aim at the practice of originalism, a method for constitutional interpretation that claims to center the original public meaning of the Constitution. His argument, in short, is that the doctrine is little more than a pretext for achieving conservative political outcomes.

This summer, I decided to reread Eric Foners Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party. It is a comprehensive analysis of the early Republican Party as well as a compelling look at the political world of the 1840s and 1850s, when the expansion of slavery became the principal divide in American politics. Foner devotes an entire chapter to Salmon P. Chase, the Ohio politician who did more than almost any other figure at the time to formulate a political program built around abolishing slavery. I finished the chapter, and the book, wanting to learn more about Chase, so Im currently reading Walter Stahrs Salmon P. Chase: Lincolns Vital Rival, which was published earlier this year.
Congress gave the Justice Department the power to undertake investigations of civil rights violations by law enforcement agencies in 1994, and since then, the department has initiated 76 of these pattern-and-practice investigations into systemic constitutional violations. The reviews often lead to consent decrees, outside monitors and significant reforms. But if an agreement cant be reached, the Justice Department can sue to compel changes. These investigations are among the most robust tools the federal government has to implement policing reforms in a country where policing has largely been left to local control. Mayor Eric Adams of New York and Keechant Sewell, the first Black woman to run the N.Y.P.D., have said they plan to cooperate with the federal investigation. Thats promising.

Across the country, the work of holding law enforcement agencies accountable has been arduous. Among the biggest barriers is the qualified immunity doctrine, which frequently shields officers in the United States from liability when they use excessive force or abuse their power. In New York, police reforms are often stymied by the outsized influence of law enforcement unions, and a labyrinthine set of laws designed to keep officers  and often the departments for which they work  from scrutiny. Reforms are still worth pursuing. One improvement, for instance, would be to end the practice of giving New York Citys police commissioner unilateral authority to discipline officers.

State law currently prevents the city from doing so. One bill, sponsored by State Senator Zellnor Myrie, would change that. It would also allow New York City to move police disciplinary hearings from inside the police department to the city agency that oversees similar hearings for thousands of other municipal workers.

In recent years, the N.Y.P.D. has taken some actions toward improving the Special Victims Divisions effectiveness, such as using new interview rooms for sex crime victims. Department officials have also trained their investigators in how to interview traumatized victims and have hired more people to help survivors navigate what can be a daunting process. The N.Y.P.D. also hired a consulting firm to review the unit and made the findings public. Recently, the department disciplined two former supervisors in the unit for misusing department time, submitting false time sheets and other violations.
After almost 50 years of U.S. law and policy shaped by Roe v. Wade, how does maternal mortality in America compare with that in Europe? The answer is stark. The United States has a much higher rate of maternal death per capita than the European Union. Indeed, one has to go to Moldova  one of the poorest countries in Europe  before finding a European country where maternal mortality is as bad. In 2017, both the United States and Moldova recorded 19 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. That year, while the United States spent $10,103 per person on health care, Moldova spent the equivalent of $244. This rate of death is the average across America, with many states having a far higher rate of maternal mortality than Moldova.

Worse still, across the country, the rate of death for women of color is even higher. In 2020, the U.S. maternal mortality rate for Black women was 55.3 per 100,000 births, compared with 19.1 for white women and 18.2 for Hispanic women. This figure is without parallel in the developed world.

What about European countries with the most restrictive abortion laws? How does maternal mortality in these countries compare with maternal mortality in countries with more permissive laws? The answer again is clear. There is no significant difference in maternal mortality among countries in Europe on the basis of how restrictive their abortion laws are. Indeed, if anything, more restrictive states seem to be safer for women. Poland, which has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, has the lowest rate of maternal mortality in Europe: only two deaths per 100,000 births.

Faced with this evidence, someone might doubt that the data are reliable or are being collected in the same way. This doubt can be addressed by looking specifically at the United Kingdom and Ireland. Until 2018 the British Isles included one of the most permissive legal regimes in Europe and one of the strictest. In England, Wales and Scotland abortion is legal for mental health reasons, effectively on request, up to 24 weeks and is provided free on the National Health Service. In the Republic of Ireland, before 2018, abortion was legal only to save the mothers life. (It remained illegal in Northern Ireland until 2019, and even now it is difficult to obtain an abortion there.)
Occasionally, pitcher plants are found growing traps that are covered by leaf litter or moss, but the traps are usually not functional, said Mr. Tjiasmanto, who is also a conservationist at the nonprofit Yayasan Konservasi Biota Lahan Basah in Indonesia. This new species, Nepenthes pudica, has evolved to grow subsurface traps that are specialized to lure and catch underground insects  a really bizarre underground meat eater, he said.

Pitcher plants typically have upper and lower sets of pitchers. A survey of partially digested insect guts revealed that N. pudicas traps catch quite the haul of prey, mostly ants. In five underground pitchers and an aerial one, the team found thousands of insects from dozens of species.

Nothing is known that does anything like this with underground traps, said Douglas Darnowski, a plant physiologist at Indiana University Southeast who was not involved with the work. The few groups of plants known for their subsurface traps catch only the tiniest of prey, often microscopic ones. N. pudica grows the largest underground traps ever discovered, up to about four inches tall. To withstand the pressure of the soil, subsurface traps grew walls that were thicker than those of the plants rare upper pitchers, the team reported last month in the journal PhytoKeys.

Alluding to the pitchers concealment, this species moniker, which comes from the Latin word pudicus, means bashful. But perhaps the plant is more cunning and sly. Growing pitchers underground may allow it to escape some of the fierce competition for food near the forest floor. It may also provide a wetter environment that sustains the plants, which tend to grow on relatively dry ridges.
ROME  The couture shows came to an end not in Paris but in Rome, with a river of gold ballroom chairs connecting the Piazza di Spagna at the foot of the Spanish Steps  the most famous people-watching and -posing staircase in Europe  to Piazza Mignanelli, where the Valentino headquarters stand.

Twenty-three years after he joined the brand in the handbag department, Pierpaolo Piccioli, now Valentinos creative director, wanted to bring his collection home to where it began, to offer something of a treatise about history, humanity and what happens next. That it came in the form of clothes simply raised the stakes.
The Apple AirTag tracking device that Lily Datta had placed in her luggage before leaving Cleveland on June 27 showed the suitcase had arrived in Paris the following day. That perplexed Ms. Datta because she and her family had no plans to go to Paris. Their destination was Vienna, with stops in Washington, D.C., and Barcelona to get there, but not Paris. It was the familys first foray abroad since the start of the pandemic, a trip to celebrate her son Devs high school graduation.

Ms. Datta filed a lost luggage claim at the airport, but when the suitcase was not delivered to their hotel in Vienna the next morning as promised, she began emailing the airline, sharing the bags location (according to the AirTag) daily. She received no response. Even more frustrating, she said, was that when she called the customer service number she had been given, she just got a recording  no one ever picked up and there was no way to leave a message.

Surging air travel demand and airport staffing shortages have made this a bedeviling summer when it comes to lost and delayed checked luggage. Incidents like the recent baggage system malfunction at Londons Heathrow Airport, which caused such big backups that flights were canceled to give workers a chance to sort out the mess, have only added to the misery.
WASHINGTON  One day after President Biden issued an executive order designed to ensure access to abortion medication and emergency contraception, more than a thousand protesters gathered in front of the White House, with hundreds risking arrest by sitting at the buildings gates, to urge Mr. Biden to do more.

Despite rainy weather and the threat of flash flooding in the area on Saturday, the protesters sat on the wet concrete wearing green bandannas that read bans off our bodies and chanting Disobey! and My body, my choice!

Demonstrators lined up along the gate of the White House, spanning the length of the building. Some tied their bandannas to the gate, while several others tied themselves to it. Beau Loges, a transgender man from Vienna, Va., was one of them. He said he was raped as a child and was given abortion pills at age 11. Now 20, Mr. Loges said he did not think he would have finished school if he had not had an abortion. Im here for everyone who cannot get one, he said.
The governor of Arizona has signed a measure into law that makes it illegal for people to record videos within eight feet of police activity, limiting efforts to increase transparency around law enforcement operations.

The law, signed by Gov. Doug Ducey on Wednesday, goes into effect in September. Many civil rights groups and news media organizations have criticized the measure, which comes after the predominance of cellphone cameras increased public documentation of police activity, including in the high-profile police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Eric Garner on Staten Island, N.Y.

State Representative John Kavanagh, the bills sponsor, said that there was little reason for bystanders to be within eight feet of an on-duty police officer and that the law would protect people from getting close to dangerous situations and prevent them from interfering from police work.
A Florida man who had pledged support to ISIS was sentenced on Thursday to 20 years in prison for uploading a video he believed would help the terrorist group make bombs, the federal authorities said on Thursday.

The man, Romeo Xavier Langhorne, 32, of St. Augustine, Fla., pleaded guilty in March 2021 to one count of providing material support to ISIS, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Florida. The sentence, handed down in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, also included an additional 15 years of supervised release, the statement said.

Prosecutors said that, while in an ISIS chat room online in December 2018 and January 2019, Mr. Langhorne had expressed interest in creating a video that would improve on existing videos about making and using a deadly type of explosive.
Even as Ms. Cheney faces an uphill battle in her congressional race, the Jan. 6 hearings have given her a political lifeline for the future  and, if she loses her primary, something to point to as an explanation for her defeat. A spokesman for Ms. Cheney declined to comment on her standing in the race or her crossover donors.

Ms. Cheneys re-election campaign raised more than $10 million through the end of March, substantially more than Ms. Hageman. Some of those donations came from veterans of Republican administrations like Michael Chertoff, who was homeland security secretary under President George W. Bush, and Theodore B. Olson, who was solicitor general for Mr. Bush and also worked for President Ronald Reagan.

Mr. Chertoff and Mr. Olson co-hosted a fund-raiser this year for Ms. Cheney with Bobbie Kilberg, who was a White House aide under Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush, at a Northern Virginia hotel.

But Democratic dollars have been trickling in to Ms. Cheney as well. Her criticism of fellow Republicans who went along with Mr. Trumps election lies and her questioning of witnesses like the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson have further raised her national profile.

Mr. Klarman, who runs the Baupost Group, a Boston-based hedge fund, is holding a virtual reception for Ms. Cheney on Tuesday, the same day that the Jan. 6 committee will hold its next hearing.

I strongly support Congresswoman Cheneys bid for re-election, as we share a deep commitment to protecting American democracy and the rule of law, Mr. Klarman wrote in an emailed invitation to the event. He added: Im resolved to do everything possible to send a strong message by keeping her in Congress. We need to stand behind Liz and send a rebuke to the most extreme factions in the Republican Party.
WASHINGTON  Pat A. Cipollone, who served as White House counsel for President Donald J. Trump, was asked detailed questions on Friday about pardons, false election fraud claims and the former presidents pressure campaign against Vice President Mike Pence, according to three people familiar with his testimony before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The panel did not press him to either corroborate or contradict some specific details of explosive testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who captivated the country late last month with her account of an out-of-control president willing to embrace violence and stop at nothing to stay in power, the people said.

During a roughly eight-hour interview conducted behind closed doors in the ONeill House Office Building, the panel covered some of the same ground it did during an informal interview with Mr. Cipollone in April. In the session on Friday, which took place only after Mr. Cipollone was served with a subpoena, investigators focused mainly on Mr. Cipollones views on the events of Jan. 6 and generally did not ask about his views of other witnesses accounts.
We are hearing that they want to defeat us on the battlefield, Mr. Putin added. Let them try.

U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss strategy deliberations, are urging the Ukrainians to consolidate their forces at the front. But Ukraines leaders want to go further and mass enough personnel to mount a counteroffensive to retake territory, a goal that American officials support in theory even if they are dubious about the Ukrainians capacity to dislodge the Russians. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told Group of 7 leaders last week that he wanted the war over by the end of the year. But there are serious doubts in Washington about whether that is possible militarily.

The Biden administration does not want to be seen pressuring Mr. Zelensky to negotiate a deal with the Kremlin at the risk of rewarding armed aggression, but officials and analysts said it would be hard to sustain the same level of material support as war fatigue grows on both sides of the Atlantic. Military aid passed by Congress is expected to last into the second quarter of next year, by some estimates, but the question is how long current supplies of weapons and ammunition can last without degrading the military readiness of the United States.

American officials have encouraged other countries to provide leftover stores of Soviet-made weaponry that Ukrainians are more familiar with  an item on Mr. Bidens agenda for a trip to the Middle East next week, when he is scheduled to meet with leaders of Arab states that were once clients of Moscow.

There is a lot of running room, but clearly there is this sense that the next six months are really critical, said Ivo H. Daalder, the president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a former U.S. ambassador to NATO. In the next six months, were going to find out one or both sides are too exhausted, and theyre going to look for a way out.

The Biden administration is also focusing on winning over the swing states, as some call them: Brazil, China, India and other countries that have not joined the campaign by the United States and Europe to isolate Moscow. A diplomatic effort would seek to show them that Ukraine and the United States would be open to a negotiated settlement as long as there are no territorial concessions, making the point that it is Russia that refuses to end the war.

As uncertain as the next few months are, the administration argues that it has met or will meet some of the strategic objectives it set in the spring. The first was to make sure that a vibrant, independent, democratic Ukraine emerged that would be able to survive over the long term. Officials are convinced that the country will survive  but they also believe that unless Ukraine develops a way to export grain and other agricultural products, its economic future could be in jeopardy.
Among those most responsible for the nations shift on abortion, the chief justice may seem like a surprising actor. But Mr. Zaldivar, raised by practicing Catholic parents in a decidedly conservative state, has become one of Mexicos most powerful champions of abortion rights.

He took advantage of the power he had as chief justice of the court to push many things in favor of gender equity, said Ana Laura Magaloni, a law professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. He will be remembered by history for that.

Mr. Zaldivar said that he now considers himself a freethinker of Christian origin with a Buddhist orientation. He believes that calling abortion murder dilutes the humanity of women in virtue of a religious belief.

His personal evolution reflects the sweeping change in a nation forced to reconcile faith and conservative values with unyielding demands by generations of women for control over their bodies. Its also the story of how Mr. Zaldivar was, he said, re-educated by the small circle of women who are his closest aides and confidantes.

Mr. Zaldivar has been criticized by some as too close to the countrys president, too political and too eager to occupy the public spotlight. Some worry that in broadcasting his personal convictions, Mr. Zaldivar risks disqualifying himself from future decisions on key issues.
The few legally acquirable weapons, mostly hunting rifles, can only be purchased after a screening and a training process so onerous that Japan has one of the worlds lowest firearm ownership rates: one gun per every 330 residents.

This figure includes an estimate of illegally owned weapons in Japan, which are thought to be rare in part because restrictions have all but erased private firearms from the country, leaving criminals with fewer black market weapons to purchase. Even the countrys notorious organized crime syndicates largely forgo guns.

American ownership, by contrast, is 1.2 guns for every resident, or 400 times Japans rate.

As a result, a would-be gunman in Japan is all but forced to resort to unusual and difficult methods such as constructing a homemade weapon like the one apparently used to kill Mr. Abe.

Building such a weapon requires time and expertise. Smoke at the scene of the shooting suggests that the ammunition, which is also tightly controlled in Japan, may have been homemade as well. Tinkering with what is effectively a homemade explosive shoved into a metal pipe would bring personal risk to its maker as well.

These are substantial obstacles compared with the ease of walking into a gun store and purchasing a weapon that will reliably fire off many rounds and not detonate in the shooters hand. This may be one of the reasons that shootings are exceedingly rare in Japan. The country experiences fewer than 10 gun deaths nationwide in most years, compared to tens of thousands in the United States. Since 2017, Japan has recorded 14 gun-related deaths, in a country of 125 million people.
One of the political casualties in Sri Lanka on Saturday was Ranil Wickremesinghe, a prime minister six times over whose leadership has been equated with Sri Lankas economic ambitions as well as its collapse.

Mr. Wickremesinghe announced his intention to resign on Twitter, saying he had accepted the recommendation of party leaders. Protesters entered his private home late Saturday and set it ablaze, said Dinouk Colombage, a spokesman for the prime minister, adding that Mr. Wickremesinghe was not at home at the time.

A 73-year-old political veteran, Mr. Wickremesinghe was sworn in as prime minister in May, after months of protests forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to remove his elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, from the post. He quickly began discussions with the International Monetary Fund on the terms of an economic bailout.
The Rajapaksa family has dominated Sri Lankas politics for much of the past two decades, and in recent years, it has increasingly run the island nations government as a family business.

D.A. Rajapaksa, the family patriarch, was a lawmaker in the 1950s and 60s. But it was Mahinda Rajapaksa, his son, who helped cement the familys ascent to prominence, rising to become prime minister and then a two-term presidency from 2005 to 2015.

During his time as president, Mahinda Rajapaksa ended the countrys three-decade civil war by quashing the Tamil Tigers insurgency through brutal military force, in a campaign that led to accusations of widespread human rights abuses. His brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa served as his powerful defense secretary.
One of the biggest reasons Sri Lankan residents took to the streets on Saturday is the countrys desperate need for fuel and other energy supplies. The South Asian nation has run out of foreign currency to pay for fuel, bringing its economy grinding to a halt.

The acute fuel shortages have meant that food and medicines cant be transported. Fresh produce from farms cant make it to cities. People cant travel in cars, buses or trains. The government has even asked airlines to make sure theyre carrying enough fuel for their return flights because it can no longer provide jet fuel.

People are very angry because once fuel is not available, they cant do anything, said W. A. Wijewardena, an economist and a former deputy governor for Sri Lankas central bank.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka  President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose family has dominated politics in Sri Lanka for much of the past two decades, has agreed to resign after months of protests accusing him of running the island nations economy into the ground through corruption and mismanagement, the speaker of the countrys parliament said on Saturday.

Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, the parliamentary speaker and an ally of the president, announced the development at the end of a chaotic day. Protesters entered the presidents residence and office, and thousands more descended on the capital, Colombo, to register their growing fury over his governments inability to address a crippling economic crisis. As the demonstrations swelled, the countrys political leaders urged Mr. Rajapaksa to step down.

There was no direct confirmation about the potential resignation from Mr. Rajapaksa, who is in hiding and who in the past has remained defiant. Mr. Abeywardena, in a televised statement, said the president had informed him he would resign on July 13, to ensure a peaceful transition of power.
Last month, an elevated rail network in Montreal known as the Reseau Express Metropolitain delayed some of its openings until 2024. And earlier plans for another network costing 10 billion Canadian dollars were set back when the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, the provinces pension and investment fund, left the project after many residents said that its downtown portion would disfigure the city and after the transit authority said that it would siphon too much business from its existing routes.

Aside from delays, cost overruns and all-around headaches, what these projects have in common is that they were structured as public-private partnerships, an approach that first gained momentum in Canada during the 1990s. Rather than follow the traditional route of managing, owning and maintaining the project, governments strike a deal with a business  most often a special company formed by several corporations  to handle the work under contract.

But the struggles in those transit projects have now taken the shine off such partnerships.

There is definitely a rethinking on public-private partnerships in Canada, and its been precipitated by the transit sector, said Matti Siemiatycki, the director of the Infrastructure Institute at the School of Cities at the University of Toronto. Transit has just added a whole other level of complexity, and the record is decidedly mixed.
NUSA DUA, Indonesia  Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with his Chinese counterpart on Saturday, pressing him to stand up against Russias war in Ukraine while also extending a hand of cooperation amid a Biden administration campaign to stabilize its strained relationship with Beijing.

The meeting, held on the Indonesian resort island of Bali one day after a summit of Group of 20 foreign ministers, followed months of American warnings to China against sending weapons to Russia or helping Moscow evade Western sanctions imposed in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Mr. Blinken met for more than five hours at a seaside hotel with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, the latest in a series of high-level American encounters with top Chinese officials that analysts called a mutual effort at easing tensions.
At MoMA PS1 in Queens in 2015, Ms. Kim staged an installation that asked visitors to hold a speaker in their hands and walk while trying to keep a protruding antenna in contact with a wire overhead. When done successfully, a voice emerged from the speaker, reading a text. It was a difficult task, a physical embodiment of how tenuous  and rigid  communication can be.

As her reputation has grown and her work has been featured in increasingly high-profile venues, she has become the very rare artist with a public platform that transcends the often insular art world.

At the 2020 Super Bowl, in what she said was an act of both protest and patriotism, Ms. Kim performed the national anthem in American Sign Language, or ASL. But Fox, which was broadcasting the game, showed her for only a few seconds before cutting away, a decision she condemned in a guest essay for The New York Times.

Five years earlier, she delivered a hugely popular TED Talk about ASL, her art and navigating the hearing world. Initially hesitant about the TED invitation  I was almost a little bit embarrassed about how corporate it was  the talk, now viewed over two million times, changed her life, she said, bringing global attention to her work.
LVIV, Ukraine  The tiny wail of newborn babies echoes out from the incubators and cribs lining a small room with mint green walls in a maternity hospital in Lviv.

Twenty-seven years ago, Liliya Myronovych, the chief pediatrician in the neonatal department, delivered a baby boy, Artemiy Dymyd, here. Last week, she watched out the front window as his funeral was held in the cemetery across the road, the dirge of the military band mingling with the cries of the newborns.

It was my boy, said Dr. Myronovych, 64, said of Mr. Dymyd, who was killed in the fighting in eastern Ukraine in mid-June. It was my baby.

Dissonant images of life and death play out side by side in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. They can be stark, as when babies are born steps away from the now overflowing military cemetery where Ukraines young soldiers are laid to rest.

But they can also be subtle.

At the front of the maternity hospital, windows decorated with paper storks are also covered in masking tape to prevent them from shattering in an explosion.
It has greater precision, it offers Ukraine precise capability for specific targets, the official said. It will save ammunition, it will be more effective due to the precision, so its a further evolution in our support for Ukraine in this battle in the Donbas.

The two most likely candidates are the M982 Excalibur round  which is guided by GPS signals, has a range of about 25 miles and can hit within about two yards of its intended target  and the M1156 Precision Guidance Kit, which is also GPS-guided but screws into the nose of a normal high-explosive shell and is believed to be accurate to within 20 yards.

The most significant part of the new package will be four HIMARS rocket launchers along with additional guided rockets for them, which will join the eight HIMARS sent earlier which have been used to destroy Russian command posts and ammunition depots.

Ukraines military had eagerly awaited the arrival of the first batch of truck-mounted, multiple-rocket launchers, whose satellite-guided rockets have a range of more than 40 miles, greater than anything Ukraine had possessed. American and Ukrainian officials have said that the weapons are already making an impact in their first several days on the battlefield.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, fired his ambassador to Germany, a week after the diplomat gave an interview in which he defended the legacy of a World War II nationalist leader who collaborated with the Nazis.

Andriy Melnyk, Ukraines ambassador to Germany since 2014, was one of the most recognized faces of the Ukrainian cause in Germany, never shying away from leveling fierce criticism of what many saw as Germanys slow response to the Russian invasion and often provoking the ire of the countrys political elite.

But in an interview on the show Jung & Naiv, which streamed on YouTube on June 29, Mr. Melnyk defended the memory of Stepan Bandera, the leader of the far-right Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists during World War II. The nationalist group, which espoused fascist ideology, collaborated with German forces when they occupied Ukraine and some of those forces assisted in the mass murders of Poles and Jews.
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THE newest addition to the restaurant scene in Tullamore is Chanapa, located on Church Street in the former Foresters Hall.

Thailand is renowned for its delicious mouth watering food using only the freshest ingredients to produce the most wonderful aromatic and flavorful dishes.

Irish people have embraced Thai food with gusto and the people of Tullamore and the wider Midlands are sure to enjoy Chanapa with its authentic menu, filled with the tempting rich flavours .

Owned by Thai couple Saweang and Sunitta, each of them have a passion for producing only the highest quality dishes which is continuing a family tradition.

Head Chef Sunitta came to Ireland in 2000 having worked as a chef in her native country. Partner, Sawaeng is also a chef with many years experience in the hotel industry. Their son Kittipod is also a chef. He worked in England and later in Dublin. The restaurant is managed by Sarunya Their daughter. Together the family are delighted to bring their unique cuisine to Tullamore.

'My parents have a passion for cooking. My mum is a chef and my dad worked in hotels in Thailand. Its always been my mums dream to open a restaurant. Everywhere she went, she would always say, I would love to open a restaurant here and now she has finally managed to do it, said Sarunya.

The family live outside of Tullamore and source much of their food locally, including vegetables which they get from Kilbeggan and Portlaoise.

We get our seafood from Cork, Kerry, and Wexford. We get all out fresh food delivered twice a week, said Sarunya. The Thai ingredients come from the Asia Market located in Ballymount in Dublin.

Saruaya is hoping to get her wine licence in a few weeks, but in the meantime people are welcome to bring along their own wine.

Saruaya says since they opened they have been very busy especially at the weekends.

Some of the delectable dishes on the menu include Tom Yum which is a Thai soup with mushrooms, tomatoes, lemongrass, galangal (several tropical spices) all in a generous spicy broth garnished with fresh coriander.

Or try Roast Duck with Tamarind Sauce described as roast crispy skin with tender breast served with sweet, tangy tamarind sauce and salted.

Som Tam is defined on the menu as being ''a most famous Thai Salad.'' It is a green papaya salad with carrot, and green beans mixed with crushed chilli, lime, tamarind, palm sugar and fish sauce.

Chanpa is beautifully decorated in a contemporary soft grey with plenty of greenery which creates a very restful environment. Spotlessly clean diners can view the kitchen while their food is being prepared which is a real treat for food lovers.

You can see the flaming wok in the kitchen, while sitting or while waiting for a takeaway, said Saruaya.

When we saw the place we knew a lot of work had to be done. A lot went into getting planning permission but we opened on May 7, so we are here five weeks now, said Sarunya.

The restaurant employs four full-time staff and four part-time staff. We have very lovely, bright staff, and we are currently looking for a manager. said Sarunya.

They are also looking into a home delivery service and are in talks with a number of providers.



To book a table or order a takeaway ring 057-9321952. or order takeaway online atchanapa.ie

Opening hours are as follows

Monday 4pm-10pm

Tuesday 4pm-10pm

Wednesday 12.30-10 pm

Thursday 12.30-10 pm

Friday 12.30-10 pm

Saturday 12.30-10pm

Sunday 12.30-10pm

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Colombo is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo metropolitan area has a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 in the Municipality. It is the financial centre of the island and a tourist destination. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to the Greater Colombo area which includes Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, the legislative capital of Sri Lanka, and Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. Colombo is often referred to as the capital since Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is itself within the urban/suburban area of Colombo. It is also the administrative capital of the Western Province and the district capital of Colombo District. Colombo is a busy and vibrant city with a mixture of modern life, colonial buildings and monuments.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese indicated his intention to travel to Japan to attend Shinzo Abes funeral, alongside past Australian leaders, once the arrangements have been finalised.
Newsy 06 Jul 2022

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The constant threat of airstrikes is being used as a tool of war by Russian forces to subdue millions of citizens in unoccupied Ukrainian cities, according to one Kyiv resident.
Hollywood actor Paul Rudd has become a real-life superhero after reaching out to a schoolboy whose yearbook was only signed by two students.
Residents in the small town of Druzhkivka, south of the eastern Ukrainian industrial city of Kramatorsk, wake up to three suspected missile attacks which ripped apart a supermarket's shop front and left a massive crater in front of the store.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has canceled her visit to Yokohama during her travel to Japan this week, a Treasury Department official said on Saturday, out of deference
China's President Xi Jinping expressed his condolences on Saturday over the death of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whom Xi said had worked hard to improve relations
Sri Lankan protesters stormed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's residence and office on Saturday as tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Colombo to vent their fury against a leader they hold responsible for the nation's economic crisis. (July 9)


Chinese nationalists on social media are celebrating the death of Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated yesterday while speaking to a crowd at a campaign event, some hailing his killer a "hero".Abe, 67,...
By C. Todd Lopez



The U.S. is planning to provide more assistance to Ukraine with another presidential drawdown authority security package valued at $400 million. Included in this latest set of gear and supplies is something the U.S. has previously not sent to Ukraine: 1,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery billed as having greater...
Following the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, President Joe Biden expressed his condolences and bluntly compared Japan's low violent crime rate with the US in spite of the failure of his gun control plan.
(RFE/RL)  Bulgarias centrist Continue the Change party (PP) has announced that it failed to secure the support of a majority in parliament to put forward a new coalition government.



On July 8, Asen Vassilev, who was expected to be nominated to become Bulgarias next prime minister, informed President Rumen Radev that...
The British royal family have shared their condolences after former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and killed during a campaign speech on Friday.
Ukraine is preparing to try its first rape case related to the Russian invasion. Rape has been used a tactic of war by Russians before - against German women during World War II.
In this image from a video, Japans former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes a campaign speech in Nara, western Japan shortly before he was shot Friday. He was airlifted to a hospital and later pronounced dead.
Watch VideoSri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has agreed to resign after party leaders in Parliament demanded both he and the embattled president step down on the day protesters stormed the president's residence and office.



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BERLIN (AP)  The Canadian government says it will allow the delivery to Germany of equipment from a key Russia-Europe natural..
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russian forces are raising true hell in Ukraines eastern industrial heartland, despite assessments they were taking an operational pause, a regional governor said Saturday, while another Ukrainian official urged people in Russian-occupied southern areas to evacuate quickly by all possible means" before a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Deadly Russian shelling was reported in Ukraines east and south.

The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Serhyi Haidai, said Russia launched more than 20 artillery, mortar and rocket strikes on the region overnight and its forces were pressing toward the border with the Donetsk region.

We are trying to contain the Russians armed formations along the entire front line, Haidai wrote on Telegram.

Last week, Russia captured the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, the city of Lysychansk. Analysts predicted Moscow's troops likely would take some time to rearm and regroup.

But so far there has been no operational pause announced by the enemy. He is still attacking and shelling our lands with the same intensity as before, Haidai said. He later said the Russian bombardment of Luhansk was suspended because Ukrainian forces had destroyed ammunition depots and barracks used by the Russians.

Ukraines deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, appealed to residents of Russian-held territories in the south to evacuate quickly so the occupying forces could not use them as human shields during a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

You need to search for a way to leave, because our armed forces are coming to de-occupy," she said. There will be a massive fight.

Speaking at a news conference late Friday, Vereshchuk said a civilian evacuation effort was underway for parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. She declined to give details, citing safety.

It was not clear how civilians were expected to safely leave Russian-controlled areas while missile strikes and artillery shelling continue in surrounding areas, whether they would be allowed to depart or even hear the government's appeal.

The wars death toll continued to rise.

Five people were killed and eight more wounded in Russian shelling Friday of Siversk and Semyhirya in the Donetsk region, its governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, wrote Saturday on Telegram.

In the city of Sloviansk, named as a likely next target of Russias offensive, rescuers pulled a 40-year-old man from the rubble of a building destroyed Saturday by shelling. Kyrylenko said multiple people were under the debris.

Russian missiles also killed two people and wounded three others Saturday in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, according to regional authorities.

They deliberately targeted residential areas, Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram. Kryvyi Rihs mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, asserted on Facebook that cluster munitions had been used and urged residents not to approach unfamiliar objects in the streets. More explosions were reported Saturday evening.

Kryvyi Rih is the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who visited Friday to meet with Vilkul and the brigadier general who commands troops in the region. Zelenskyy's office said he was briefed on the construction of defensive structures, the support of the troops, the supply of food and medicine to the city and the help given people who had fled to Kryvyi Rih after being driven out of their homes elsewhere in Ukraine.

In northeast Ukraine, a Russian rocket strike on Saturday hit the center of Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, injuring six people, including a 12-year-old girl, authorities said.

An Iskander ballistic missile was probably used," the Kharkiv regional prosecutors office said. "One of the missiles hit a two-story building, which led to its destruction. Neighboring houses were damaged.

The city has been targeted throughout the war, including several times in the past week. As survivor Valentina Mirgorodksaya dabbed at a cut on her cheek, first responders warily inspected the building shattered in Saturday's strike.

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych reported on Telegram that six Russian missiles were fired at his city in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea, but caused no casualties.

On this day alone, Russia hit Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Krivyi Rih, villages in the Zaporizhzhia region, Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. It hit residential areas, absolutely consciously and on purpose. ... For days on end, the brutal strikes of Russian artillery  dont stop. Such terrorist action can be stopped only with weapons  modern and powerful ones.

Russian defense officials claimed Saturday that their forces destroyed a hangar housing U.S. howitzers in the Donetsk region, near the town of Chasiv Yar. There was no immediate response from Ukraine.

In other developments on Saturday:

 Zelenskyy dismissed several ambassadors, including Ukraines ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, who has been an outspoken advocate of Kyivs cause but also ruffled feathers in Berlin. He was persistently critical of Germanys perceived slowness to provide heavy weapons. He also faced criticism for an interview in which he defended Stepan Bandera, a controversial World War II-era Ukrainian nationalist. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Melnyk was only speaking for himself. Zelenskyy said the dismissals of the ambassadors were part of a routine rotation. Melnyk had served in the post since 2015.

 Ukraines national police force said it was opening a criminal investigation into the Russian militarys alleged destruction of crops in the southern Kherson region. In a Telegram post, it accused Russian troops of not allowing residents to put out fires in fields and otherwise sabotaging the harvest.

 The British Defense Ministry said Russian forces in Ukraine were now being armed with obsolete or inappropriate equipment, including MT-LB armored vehicles taken out of long-term storage that do not provide the same protection as modern tanks.

While MT-LBS have previously been in service in support roles on both sides, Russia long considered them unsuitable for most frontline infantry transport roles, the British ministry said on Twitter.

 Ukraines sports minister, Vadym Gutzeit, said 100 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed either on the battlefield or from Russian shelling, while 22 were captured by Russian forces. In a Facebook post, Gutzeit said more than 3,000 athletes are now in uniform.

___

Associated Press journalists across Ukraine contributed.

___

Follow APs coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
SAGINAW  St. Johns Lutheran School was recently honored with several awards at the Great Lakes Bay Regional Chief Science Officer (CSO) Awards, held at Saginaw Valley State University.

The CSO program is an international program to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) programs for students in grades 6-12. Representatives are chosen by their teachers and peers to represent their middle or high school in a regional consortium with other area CSOs.

In Michigan, the program is hosted by Saginaw Valley State University and is directed by Mrs. Cole; it consists of approximately 80 students from 50 different schools in the Great Lakes Bay Region. The overall vision of the CSO program is to create a global network of diverse STEM leaders, as well as amplify the STEM culture and career awareness within their schools and communities.

At the 2022 CSO Awards dinner, Hayden Rozewski, a seventh grade student at St. Johns, won the award for Outstanding CSO Action Plan. Rozewski was given the award for St. John's Stemmies, an after-school STEM activity. Many students in grades 6-8 assisted with the Stemmies program, including eighth grader Kelly Derusha, who served as the other CSO representing St. Johns Lutheran School.

Hayden also won an award in 2021 for Outstanding CSO award in 2021 for producing the Stemmies program's "take home kits" during the COVID-19 pandemic.

St. Johns Lutheran middle school teacher and CSO Advisor Michael Hiddings won the Outstanding CSO Advisor award for the Great Lakes Bay Region East Cabinet, which was out of approximately 35-40 CSO advisors. He also received the Regional CSO Advisor of the Year award. This was a big honor, as this award was given out to only one of the CSO Advisors across multiple cabinets.

St. John's Stemmies invites students in grades 1-4 to perform experiments over five weeks and learn about several foundational science principles. The students were able to perform hands-on experiments. They built bridges, testing structure design against weight applied. They created boats that would float when stressed with weight. They created rockets that launched to achieve max distance. They created parachutes, gaining a detailed understanding of design, weight and the impact this has on time of travel. The students built race cars complete with motors, which helped them gain a strong knowledge of design and the impact it has on distance and speed. Working in teams, students were shown examples but had 100% creative design ability that allowed them to think outside of the box.

To learn more about other educational opportunities at St. Johns Lutheran School, visit www.sjlmidland.org.

Learn more about the international CSO program at chiefscienceofficers.org/the-program/ and the local Great Lakes Bay Region chapter at www.svsu.edu/stem/k-12studentsandparents/middleschoolprograms/.
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  A tipster who warned police in Richmond, Virginia, about a potential mass shooting on July 4 told police the man who was planning the attack has connections to a drug gang that operates in Mexico and the U.S., according to a search warrant affidavit.

The tipster, who is described as a concerned citizen in the affidavit, identified the man planning the shooting as Rolman Chapin Balcarcel Ac, 38, one of two men arrested by Richmond police in connection with the alleged plot.

The tipster told police Balcarcel Ac has connections to the Los Zetas criminal syndicate. Detective Michael Kiniry wrote in the affidavit that Zetas is a reference to a gang affiliate with operations in Mexico and the U.S.

The tipster also told police that Balcarcel Ac showed him three guns on June 21.

The affidavit was used to obtain a warrant to search a home in Richmond where Balcarcel Ac lived with a second man who was also arrested in connection with the alleged plot, Julio Alvarado-Dubon, 52. It contains no details of the alleged plot, except to say that the tipster told police a mass shooting was planned in Richmond on July 4.

Authorities have said both men are from Guatemala and are in the U.S. illegally. The only charge against them is possession of a firearm by a non-U.S.-citizen, although Richmond police have said they could face additional charges.

During a news conference Wednesday, Richmond police Chief Gerald Smith said the tipster said the attack was planned for the Dogwood Dell Amphitheater, where an annual fireworks show is held. The search warrant application filed Thursday does not mention any specific location for the alleged planned attack.

The announcement from Richmond police that they had thwarted an attack came on July 6, two days after a gunman opened fire from a rooftop during a Fourth of July parade in the affluent Chicago suburb of Highland Park, killing seven people and injuring more than three dozen.

Richmond police have released few details about the alleged plot or said how formulated the plan was when they arrested Alvarado-Dubon on July 1. Balcarcel Ac was not arrested until July 5. They have not identified any motive for the alleged plot.

It was a very serious threat. Any threat against life and certainly that of a mass shooting is gravely serious. No further information is being provided about this beyond whats been provided at this stage, police spokesperson Tracy Walker said in an email Friday.

The suspect clearly announced a plan to carry this out and clearly had the means to do so based on the weapons and several hundred rounds of ammunition that was seized, Walker said.

Both men are being held in local jails, Balcarcel Ac in Charlottesville and Alvarado-Dubon in Richmond.

Immigration officials told news outlets that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged immigration detainers on both men. Detainers are notices that the Department of Homeland Security issues to law enforcement agencies to inform them that ICE plans to take custody of someone who is currently in their custody.

Court documents filed in General District Court in Richmond say Alvarado-Dubon has lived in Richmond for three years and works in the construction industry. The documents say his visa expired four years ago.

The search warrant affidavit says that after police received the tip about a planned mass shooting, they contacted Homeland Security, then went to a home in Richmond, where Alvarado-Dubon answered the door and allowed them to come inside.

Kiniri wrote that police saw two Glock magazines and a rifle round in plain view in the living room. The affidavit said a second man appeared and provided a Colorado identification with the name Rolman A. Balcarcel AC. The affidavit said the man had two Colorado driver's licenses, a Guatemala ID and a Mexico ID. An agent from Homeland Security Investigations determined that both men are in the U.S. illegally and that Balcarcel Ac has had two previous deportations, the affidavit states.

Alvarado-Dubon's attorney, Jose Aponte, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday. No attorney is listed on court documents for Balcarcel Ac.

Police said Wednesday that officers seized two assault rifles, a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from the home.
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Photo: (Photo : Hu Chengwei)

A 10-year-old girl who is six weeks and three days pregnant was denied an abortion after the Roe v. Wade decision was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court last week.

Cincinnati reported that several groups filed a lawsuit to prevent the state law from taking effect on Wednesday, but the Ohio Supreme Court declined the emergency stay of the abortion ban on Friday, which means the ban can be upheld as the case is evaluated.

The six-week abortion ban in Ohio will stand as the law while the state Supreme court reviews and analyzes a lawsuit to reverse it. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated, "Ohioans are suffering in real-time, and we have not yet seen the worst of this health care crisis. All people deserve autonomy over their bodies and the power to make their own health care decisions."

Devastating news for victims of abuse

Dr. Katie McHugh, an independent obstetrician-gynecologist, has witnessed several requests from pregnant people in Kentucky and Ohio, where abortion cannot be easily accessed.

The 10-year-old girl who is a rape victim didn't have access to abortion in Ohio, forcing her to head west to Indiana. The girl's situation only demonstrates the tangible impacts of the high court's decision on patients seeking access to the medical procedure.

One of the child abuse doctors contacted Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indiana, to help the 10-year-old girl to undergo an abortion, Newsweek reported.

The abortion ban in Indiana has not yet taken effect, allowing the girl to go to Dr. Bernard for the procedure. Other personal information about the child's case was unknown due to her age. Dr. Bernard said it surely is hard to imagine that doctors will no longer be able to provide such care in just a few short weeks.

Read Also: Child Abuse Awareness: Is Vatican Aware of Rape Cases Among the Catholic Church?

The lawsuit against the abortion ban

Despite other state lawsuits that have been argued since Roe v. Wade was reversed, the Ohio suit asserted that abortions under the Ohio Constitution are still protected.

According to Freda Levenson, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, this extrapolation prevents almost every pregnant person from accessing essential care and is unconstitutional under Ohio's state constitution, which includes wide and broad protection for individual liberties.

Similar lawsuits filed in states like Louisiana and Texas have resulted in abortion bans being blocked for the time being, which allows for abortions to be still performed in such states temporarily.

There are suits filed in most of the 13 states that triggered laws set to go into effect instantly or soon after Roe v. Wade was overturned, The Hill reported.

Such lawsuits argued that the bill has "decimated abortion access in Ohio."

Indiana could soon pass its own abortion law later this month as a special session has been scheduled for later in July, and the legislature is expected to touch on a ban on the medical procedure, WFYI reported.

Related Article: Louisiana Mom Loses Full Custody of Daughter to Man Who Raped Her at 16
Photo: (Photo : Getty images )

The Supreme Court Decision to overturn Roe v. Wade may also impact pregnant cancer patients. Although some cancer treatments do not pose risks to pregnancy, other treatments like radiation therapy and chemotherapy affect the fetus and raise the risk of miscarriage.

Experts say that more restrictive laws could make doctors reluctant to provide treatment even when patients need it to survive for fear of being charged with performing an illegal abortion.

Dr. Stephanie Blank, president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, said the ruling calls into question giving treatment that may cause termination of pregnancy even if it is intended to treat cancer.

At the risk of unlawfully helping to terminate a pregnancy

Katie Keith, director of the Health Policy and the Law Initiative at the O'Neill Institute, told Business Insider that providers fear that by providing cancer care, they are at risk of unlawfully helping to terminate a pregnancy.

She added that physicians are placed in an impossible situation and are not going to provide the care for fear of paying a fine, losing their medical license, or spending years in jail.

Dr. Karen Knudsen, Chief Executive Officer of the American Cancer Society, clarified that many cancer treatments would not affect pregnancy. Surgery to remove tumors, for example, does not pose a risk to the pregnancy. However, chemotherapy and radiation therapy can affect the fetus and poses the risk of miscarriage.

Blank added that some cancers like cervical cancer or gestational trophoblastic disease are impossible to treat without terminating a pregnancy.

Knudsen cited a case in the Dominican Republic and said it could also happen in the U.S.

Rosaura Almonte, 16, was diagnosed with leukemia. As she was seven weeks pregnant, the courts denied her treatment for 20 days while they decided if it was legal. Almonte died shortly after. Her mother, Rosa Hernandez, said that when the doctors denied her treatment, it was about "saving two lives," per Ms. Magazine.

Knudsen said that had the girl been given the treatment immediately, she would have a higher chance of survival. Although Knudsen noted that she is not taking a side on the ruling, she is concerned about its impact on cancer patients.

Read Also: How the Roe versus Wade Reversal May Impact Girls with ADHD

Abortion restriction's implications for cancer patients

Recently, the Women's Med Center in Dayton, Ohio, had to refuse a cancer patient seeking an abortion before her chemotherapy. According to Val Haskell, the center's manager, the woman did not expect to get pregnant when she discovered her pregnancy in June. She was in the middle of her cancer treatment.

The woman's doctors, Haskell said, immediately ended her treatment and medication. She was past the six-week Ohio threshold when the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision. The ruling left the woman with no access to abortion within the state. She crossed state lines in Indiana for the termination of the pregnancy.

As per Cancer Letter, about 6,400 American women are diagnosed with cancer during pregnancy each year. The abortion restrictions will have immediate implications for these cancer patients.

Related Article: Most Pampered Toddler in Britain Bathes in Milk and Honey, Wears 750 Versace Chain, Uses 1000 Solid Gold Pacifier
Photo: (Photo : Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Sandals Royal Bahamian)

Families planning to book a vacation rental home for their summer holidays should be wary of the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning and be aware of the ways to prevent this accident. Unknown to many travelers, this has been a common issue among hotels and resorts for the last two decades.

According to Fox News, not every state nor country have strict requirements for installing carbon monoxide detectors in vacation accommodations. Thus, the responsibility for checking if there are safety standards for air quality in a rental home lie on the travelers.

Bobby Davidson of HomePro Chesapeake Inc., a home inspection service provider, suggested packing a carbon monoxide detector during the family's summer trip. There are quality detectors that cost just under $30 and are light and small enough to pack in the suitcase.

He even suggested packing at least two detectors to place on the ground level and the sleeping area, if the rental home is large or has two floors. The inspector also recommended battery-operated detectors to do away with the electrical outlet issues, especially for vacations overseas.

Read Also: Quick-Thinking 9-Year-Old Girl Saves Her Family From Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

American tourists died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the Bahamas

The warning comes as three American tourists died because of carbon monoxide poisoning during their trip to the Bahamas last May 2022. Michael Phillips, 68, his wife, Robbie Phillips, 65, and their friend, Vincent Chiarella, 64, were found dead inside their villa at the Sandals Emerald Bay Resort. Chiarella's wife, Donnis, 65, was still breathing when she was airlifted to a Florida hospital, where she has recovered.

According to NBC News, the pairs went to a medical facility the night before their deaths because they complained of an illness. They were given treatments but returned to their rented villa, where they failed to wake up in the morning.

The local police considered the incident isolated. Nonetheless, Sandals Emerald Bay Resort has since installed carbon monoxide detectors in their rooms.

In 2018, an Iowa family with two young children was also found dead at their rented condominium in Tulum, Mexico. Kevin and Amy Sharp, along with their kids, Sterling and Adrianna, were supposed to be enjoying their summer in the Caribbean but they died due to toxic gas inhalation.

In 2019, a family of 13 avoided a tragic outcome for their holiday in a Tahoe rental home, which did not have detectors. Some of them were starting to feel sick until two family members decided to go to a hospital, where doctors determined they had high carbon monoxide levels.

Upon inspecting the property, the family learned that the house had six times the maximum recommended indoor carbon monoxide level. They were not aware because carbon monoxide is odorless and colorless.

Ask important questions before booking a vacation house or room

Anthony Roman, who runs a risk management firm, advised traveling families to include carbon monoxide detectors in their travel checklist. Stan Sandberg, a travel insurance expert, also told USA Today that travelers must ask pertinent questions about their rental accommodations management and maintenance, heating and airconditioning, gas appliances, and other utilities before confirming the booking.

Davidson also suggested getting right down to the matter and inquiring about the carbon monoxide detector and asking about its last check. The property may also have a generator that should never be indoors.

Once the families reach their rental homes, they must immediately check where the detectors are installed and ensure that these are not blocked by curtains, decorative ornaments, or furniture.

Related Article: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: 5 Idaho Siblings Miraculously Survived Gas Leak
Photo: (Photo : Getty images )

Police arrested a mother, Veronda Gladney, and her boyfriend, Michael Branch, for child endangerment after a seven-year-old girl died when she fell out of a moving SUV onto the northbound Golden State Freeway over the Fourth of July weekend. The incident occurred on the 5 Freeway in Los Angeles County.

California Highway Patrol (CHP) reported that the girl was fatally injured at 3:40 a.m., Saturday, near Weldon Canyon Road.

Officers responded to the scene after receiving a 911 call from someone reporting that a vehicle had struck an unknown stationary object blocking the roadway. It turned out that the unknown object was the girl who had been hit by several vehicles, according to The Sun.

The highway patrol officer called the incident the most tragic accident he had seen in 14 years.

7-Year-Old fell from moving SUV

As per the investigation, the police determined that the seven-year-old girl fell out of the moving 1999 Lincoln Navigator through an open window, resulting in the girl sustaining fatal injuries. The circumstances of how she fell out are under investigation, United News-Post reports.

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) said that Gladney, 28, was the driver of the Lincoln, while Branch, 39, and the seven-year-old girl were the passengers.

The child was not in a child seat when she stumbled out of the broken back window, as the girl was in the very rear portion of the vehicle.

Witnesses said the girl was either hanging out or playing in the back portion. She might have fallen out of the vehicle because the window was broken. Multiple cars hit the girl at freeway speeds, causing her fatal injuries.

CHP officer Joshua Greengard said that he had never seen a crash like it in his 14 years of service with the highway patrol. He said that he has been to numerous tragedies, but this one is very unfortunate.

He added that the witnesses were very upset, especially the girl's mom.

Read Also: Highland Park Shooting Leaves Toddler Orphaned After Father Died to Protect His Son

Charges against mom and boyfriend

Gladney, the girl's mom, was charged with one felony and one misdemeanor count of drug abuse causing death and a single felony count of vehicular manslaughter. Her boyfriend, Branch, was charged with one misdemeanor count of child abuse. Both suspects pleaded not guilty on Wednesday. It is still unclear if either had legal representation.

As per Newsweek, California Law stipulates that children under the age of eight must be seated in car seats or booster seats if they are under a certain height.

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Photo: (Photo : Michael Schwarzenberger/Pixabay)

Media publisher Gannett Company was disrupted by a family controversy after a Florida man wrote a defamatory obituary for his father, which ran in their newspaper, the Florida Times-Union.

In a statement published with First Coast News, Gannet Company issued an apology for causing distress even as there are no U.S. laws supporting a defamation claim against the dead. Nonetheless, the company expressed its regrets for publishing "an obituary that did not adhere to the guidelines" because Lawrence Pfaff Jr. wrote scathing depictions about his "abusive" dad, Lawrence H. Pfaff Sr.

Lawrence Sr. died in June 2022, and Lawrence Jr. admitted to First Coast News that he wrote the obituary as part of his healing process from his father's abuse. The Florida man started writing more than a year ago, without even thinking he would have the opportunity to use the obituary one day. The father and son have been estranged for more than 30 years.

Read Also: Will Smith Reveals Thoughts of Killing His Father for Abusing His Mom in New Memoir

Lawrence H. Pfaff Sr.'s obituary

The son alluded that five or more children survived his father. Lawrence Jr. said he may have more siblings he has not yet met because his father was a ladies' man who "enjoyed the life of a bar fly" as an alcoholic.

Though Lawrence Sr. served with the New York Police Department, his son said he was a negligent cop due to his alcohol addiction. The father allegedly claimed to be sober, but the son said he never worked on making amends with those he hurt, especially his children. Someone who has taken the path to sobriety was supposed to be in programs like 12 Steps, which always included a reconciliation.

Lawrence Jr. said that all of his father's kids are broken as adults. He added that it would be hard to miss someone like his father because he was narcissistic.

"Lawrence, Sr.'s passing proves that evil does eventually die," the son wrote, per the Florida Times-Union. "It marks a time of healing, which will allow his children to get the closure they deserve."

Readers shocked; some related to Lawrence Jr.'s experience

Many readers were shocked by the obituary, per Daily Mail. The old man's friends even wrote messages on the online obituary stating how much they would miss him. However, Lawrence Jr. also received a few words of encouragement and applause for his courage from other readers who could relate to his experience.

One of the messages the son received came from Cathy Nix, who told him that she lived in a kind of hell with a father who was just like Lawrence Sr. She said she was also trying to work on her healing and thanked Lawrence Jr. for speaking up.

Meanwhile, Lawrence Jr. said he does not resent getting the obituary published. He also does not resent that his father is gone because he lost him more than 30 years ago.

The son added that what he said was his truth, and he needed to get the word out that his father damaged his life, so he could finally put this matter to rest.

Related Article: Mom Jessica Marie McKenna-Ryan Writes Her Obituary Before Losing Battle to Breast Cancer
Photo: (Photo : Brett Hondow from Pixabay )

The mom of a suspect arrested for a deadly road rage shooting in Springfield, Pennsylvania is now being charged in connection with the case. Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said that Amanda Washington has been charged with hindering prosecution in the case relating to the death of 54-year-old King Hua.

Authorities said that Hua and his wife were driving south on State Road in the curb lane on June 29 when Amanda Washington passed them on the shoulder in her dark blue Chevrolet Equinox. According to police, her 22-year-old son Saddiq Washington was in the passenger seat of the vehicle and fired the fatal shots that killed Hua.

Springfield Township's Chief Daly said that the suspect's car pulls on to the shoulder of the road before the shooting. Once the car got ahead of the victim's vehicle, he got out of the vehicle and fired two shots at the car which permeated the window, killing the operator, according to Fox 29.

Suspects fled southbound at a high rate of speed after road rage shooting

According to investigators, Amanda and her son fled southbound at a high rate of speed after the shooting. Police said surveillance video showing her car and license plate coupled with witness testimony helped lead investigators to the two suspects.

According to authorities, once officers arrived at the Darby address that was listed on the vehicle's registration, they saw the car in the driveway and began surveilling the house while they waited for a warrant. Cops said that Washington and two other females were seen leaving the Darby residence and getting into the Chevrolet Equinox around 5 a.m. the following day, CBS Philadelphia reported.

Officials said that officers then took Amanda and Saddiq Washington into custody as well as the two women that were seen with the mother. The District Attorney's (DA) Office said that officers interviewed Amanda and she told police that she and her son were driving to work, but they were running late on the day of the shooting.

Read Also: Son Wins Prestigious Carnegie Medal After Saving His Mother From Burning Arlington Home

Mom had no knowledge that her son was carrying a gun that day

The DA's Office said that the mother stated that she was late, and that the driver of the white Camry was driving very slowly. Amanda told them that when she got in front of Mr. Hua's vehicle, she heard shots and realized that her son was shooting out of the passenger side of the car, according to the Daily Times.

Authorities added that Amanda told police that after the road rage shooting, her son said that he hoped he did not kill nobody. Amanda claimed to have had no knowledge that her son, who was licensed to carry, was carrying the gun on the day of the shooting, according to police.

Saddiq Washington has been charged with first-degree murder for Hua's death, according to Stollsteimer. Hua's only daughter said that her dad worked as a nail technician and immigrated to the United States from Vietnam more than 20 years ago to seek a better life.

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The Public Affairs Director of Parliament, Ms Kate Addo has emphasized the need to include social skills, negotiation, policy and effective communication in today's educational structure, as requisite skills at the secondary level to adequately prepare students to meet tomorrows workforce.



Speaking at the launch of the 80th anniversary of Ebenezer Senior High School, Kate Addo underscored the challenges confronting today's students and urged them to cooperate with their teachers and to learn outside school hours. She also underscored the importance of soft skills as a prerequisite for the world of work.



Todays students need education in social skills, negotiation, policy, effective communication and other soft skills if they are to be effective, relevant competitors in tomorrows workforce. she stated.



As a past student of the school, she raised concerns about the poor access to ICT knowledge and further stressed the need to give precedence to ICT education as a means to enhance productivity and be abreast with the rest of the world. She called for deliberation and the construction of an ultra-modern ICT laboratory to improve computer literacy at every stage of learning towards preparing students for the future.



ICT is a key ingredient for anyone pursuing any type of education. Now, in most learning institutions, work is done online. An ultra-Modern ICT lab for our school is imperative. Computer literacy and application must be a major requirement at every stage of learning since most of the information needed for knowledge acquisition in any subject can be found online. And it is a skill needed by our students for future work.



Adding that, past students over the years have not done much in improving the image and physical structure of the school. She persuaded a communal effort ahead to uplift the image of the school.



The Ebenezer Senior High School was established in 1941 by RobertbTeiko Aryee with a current enrollment number of 2578. The school has seen the likes of Lawyer Ayikoi Otoo, Professor Jeffery Squire at Waterloo University in Canada, Prof Mills, and Ms Kate Addo among other distinguished personalities as past students.







Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has rejected calls from his party folks to the government for consideration and review of the school feeding programme among others in the wake of the economic crisis the country is plunged into to save its financial burden, Purefmonline.com reports.



Parliaments former Finance Committee Chair, Mark Assibey-Yeboah in an interview with Accra-based CiTi TV asked President Akufo-Addo to plan to make hard trims to significant social strategies to get the economy in the groove again.



He said the Free Senior High School programme (FSHS), the School Feeding Program, and the Nation Builders Corps (NABCo) are regions the public authorities could make reserve funds for and must consider reviewing. He called for a complete scrap of the school feeding program.



But in a response to Kumasi-based Pure FMs Pure Morning Drive on July 7, the Minister of Education asked Ghanaians to reject the appeal as it is not in the best interest of the pupils.



We have something generally called stunting, research shows that feeding children in school helps eliminate this stunting in the growth of a kid.



Many countries that do the school feeding like we do has a focused goal of helping children from impoverished backgrounds have some level of nutritious growth so as to aid their sense of learning".



"What we need to do as a people is to strengthen the school feeding program and not scrap it. Sometimes, it is only the source of food for some pupils so we shouldnt be clamoring for its scrap but rather a restrengthening of it.



The school feeding is very relevant. It helps our pupils to study better and I believe many shares in this view. We shouldnt entertain the calls for its cancellation. As the Minister of Education, I am against the call for its cancellation. Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum told Kwame Adjei Bohyen.













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Millions of Public Relations practitioners across the globe are set to celebrate the second edition of the annual World PR Day to hold on July 16, 2022.



Launched in 2021 to forge a global agenda of enlightening the world about the nobility and misconceptions around PR, World PR Day witnessed participation from thousands of practitioners, organisations, and public observers.



Set aside as a day dedicated to truth, honesty and reputation management in a way that is beneficial to all people across the globe, July 16 also honours Ivy Lee, one of the pioneers of Public Relations practice who was born on the same date 145 years ago.



The second World PR Day will further advance conversations on the topical understanding and outlook of the practice. It will extensively spotlight the strengths, limitations, and potential of the profession, as well as the utilisation of new tools and trends, value propositions, and funding.



BHM Founder and CEO, Ayeni Adekunle, said, "We decided to begin to have tough, largely ignored conversations about PR last year, and we want to show once again how the practice has deeper connotations to how our world functions than it gets credit for.



"It is in our collective interests for the world to continue to understand the role of PR in shaping and inspiring not only businesses or governance across the globe but critical human actions that can make or mar generations to come."



As part of a three-pronged activity, the 2022 World PR Day will feature #MyPRStory - an inclusive new media activity where every PR professional will be encouraged to share one unforgettable memory from their journey in the PR industry. The stories will help to show the world the many facets of PR practice and how they impact society.



The event will also feature the PR Bible - a crowdsourced repository of PR resources from PR pros across the world.



A Fireside Chat on Twitter Spaces featuring top PR executives across the world to drive conversations and answer questions on trust, truth, and transparency will make up the third frame of the day's activities.



Alastair McCapra, Chief Executive, Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR); Francis Ingham, Director General of the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA); Nitin Mantri, President, International Communications Consultancy Organization (ICCO); Rachel Roberts President, Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR); Sylvester Chauke, Chief Architect - DNA Brand Architects; Steve Barrett, Editorial Director, PRWeek and Emma Wenani Chief Director, GMA Worldwide, have been confirmed to speak at the event.



PR practitioners and enthusiasts across the globe are encouraged to actively participate in the celebration by hosting formal events, global recognitions, seminars, debates, or workshops and; reading up and learning about PR through CIPR, PRSA or PRCA publications.



Stephen Waddington, a WPRD Committee Advisor and the Managing Partner, Wadds Inc., a professional advisory firm said, "We urge practitioners to drive social conversations by sharing their thoughts about the value, opportunity, relevance, and future of the PR profession on social media or publish blog posts and opinion editorials on their LinkedIn page or company websites.



"Participants can add to the conversations by sharing videos of their PR experience on YouTube or Instagram tagging @wordprday or using the hashtag - WPRD."



In the first-ever World PR Day celebration, BHM successfully propelled conversations around the world to extol the merit of PR practice. Conversations in the edition centred around the rise of digital communications over the years, the reductive view of PR's scope of functions, and the common failure of organisations to attribute the results of PR activities to their top line.



BHM also drives the Global Day of Influence - an annual event launched in 2020 to raise awareness about the need to stop the abuse of influence.



The events are part of the international PR firm's general commitment to continually propagate the appreciation of PR and its impact on 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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Former Chairman of Parliaments Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, has urged the government to scrap some of its flagship social intervention initiatives, including the teacher and nursing trainee allowances and the school feeding programme.



He said that the government is currently not implementing these programmes well enough.



According to him, scrapping them will help it save funds needed to salvage the current economic situation.



In addition to the scrapping of these programmes, he said that the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) also needs to be reviewed.



Dr Assibey Yeboah, who made these remarks in a Citi TV interview monitored by GhanaWeb, also suggested that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is likely to ask the government to either scrap or review some of these programmes before it gets the bailout it is seeking from the fund.



Teacher and nursing training allowances (should be scraped)  It was a campaign message though, but there were so many campaign messages that have not been fulfilled your first term you did it fantastically.



"Do you think Free SHS is the way it is being run is good? When I was talking about feeding fees, my ten years old son, goes to Agape school their feeding fee for a day is GH 15 for a decent lunch, is my son better than those kids in the public schools (who are given GH0.97)? So, if you cant do it, scrap it. These kids when they dont go to school on weekends you think they dont eat at home? It will save you (the government) GH 900 million a year.



 why should we be paying for boarding facilities and the rest? So, we can shape the Free SHS somewhat. You have the Free SHS bill of GH 1.9 billion a year if you can save lets say GH400 million a year thats huge, Assibey Yeboah who is a former New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) said.



He added that scrapping these policies will not have any political consequences on the NPP but will rather help the government get the economy back on track.



Meanwhile, the government has stated that it will protect these social intervention policies as it negotiations for an IMF programme.



The Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei-Asare, has assured Ghanaians that there is no way developmental projects and key social intervention programmes will be affected.



She indicated that between 2017 to 2019, the government implemented the school feeding programme despite being under an IMF programme and even expanded it.













Source: ghanaweb.com









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Kenya has amended its law on childrens rights - giving them more protection with a raft of changes including raising the criminal age of responsibility from eight to 12.



The amendments, which were signed into law by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday, also require legal representation for children who are in legal trouble or going through the court system.



It stipulates that minor infractions by children should not be prosecuted through the courts but be handled by community-based support networks.



It also mandates that police stations have separate areas for children to prevent them from being held in detention with adults.



Other areas deal with the rights of a child to have parental care - though allows for separation if it is in the child's interest and makes it easier to organise adoption by a relative.

Source: BBC









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Nigerias prison authorities have published the names and photos of 69 suspected militants who recently escaped from a prison in the capital, Abuja, during a deadly raid on the facility.



On Tuesday, armed men broke into the Kuje Correctional Centre  freeing more than 800 inmates, half of whom have been recaptured. It is especially worried about 69 of those still on the run.



It says they have links to the jihadist Boko Haram group or other terror-linked cases and urged the public to get in touch with any information that can help track them down.



The Islamic State group said its fighters carried out the brazen jailbreak.



Many have been left wondering how the militants managed to target the exact cells where their colleagues were being held.



At least four inmates, one security guard and several of the attackers were killed during the raid, while parts of the prison building were destroyed.



It was the latest in a series of jailbreaks over the last two years that have seen more than 5,000 prisoners escape.

Source: BBC









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Disagreements are being reported among the family of former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has died in Spain aged 79.



According to Spanish news agency Efe, it began when the former leader was admitted to a clinic in Barcelona last month.



Part of the family suspects he may have been the victim of a conspiracy to try to kill him and prevent him from giving his support to the opposition in elections next month, it reports.



One of his daughters, Tchize dos Santos, has asked the clinic where he died, to keep his body in Spain for a full autopsy rather than it being returned directly to Angola, the Reuters news agency quotes her lawyer Carmen Varela as saying.



The clinic declined to comment, it reports.



Angolan President Joao Lourenco has declared five days of national mourning, describing his predecessor as a "unique figure of the Angolan homeland, to which he dedicated himself from a very early age".



When Dos Santos stood down in 2017, Mr Lourenco moved to investigate the former leader's family over allegations of corruption.

Source: BBC









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Former President John Dramani Mahama has said he is "greatly shocked by the assassination" of Former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.



Shinzo Abe died after being shot twice at a political campaign event Friday, July 8.



In a Facebook post, Mahama said:



I am greatly shocked by the assassination of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. His legacy will be remembered fondly by Ghana, Africa and the world at large for a long time to come.



As President of Ghana, through my side meetings with him at international conferences and two official visits to Japan, I found him to be a leader passionate about opening up Japan's role on the world stage, inclusive of expanding Japan-Africa relations.



I recall our last meeting in May of 2016, which led to the official publication of the restoration of the Yen loan portfolio to Ghana and the announcement of Japan's commitment to assist Ghana with a number of important new and ongoing projects. These included the Tema motorway interchange project, expansion of the Sekondi fishing harbour, expansion and upgrade of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research into an Advanced Research Centre for Infectious diseases, and the construction of a new bridge over the Southern Volta river at Volivo, among others.



At this time, my thoughts and prayers are with his bereaved family and the Japanese people in the wake of this senseless crime.







Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Residents of Dambai Health Center, a farming community, in the Krachi East Municipality of the Oti Region are in shock as a teak tree that was uprooted during a rainstorm appeared upright to its former position without branches.



The branches of the almost dried tree are left on the floor while some of the roots of the tree showed it was cut off from the rest firmly buried in the ground.



Madam Mary Boama who interacted with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) about the mysterious incident said she was scared of the situation since the tree was closer to her house.



She said her fear grew more since she was the one who cut off the branches of the tree when it was uprooted with plans to use them as firewood.



Madam Boama said the re-erection of the tree caught her attention because the tree was uprooted a week before the mystery occurred.



She narrated the teak tree stood upright "staring at everybody. This is a clear case of wonders shall never end situation".



She said she would consult a spiritualist on the occurrence adding that she was still in shock.



Mr. Abraham Sapaku, a resident nearby explained that he was home when he heard a loud vibration sound after which the tree reverted to its former position, standing upright.



The GNA has picked information that a similar incident happened recently in a traditional area within the region.





Source: GNA









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The South African High Commissioner to Ghana, Her Excellency Grace Jeanet Mason, has pledged the Commission's full support to the 2023 edition of the Forty Under 40 Africa Awards, which will be held in Cape Town, South Africa.



Xodus Communications Limited in May 2022, officially granted the license and the hosting right of the event to Black and White Attorneys in South Africa during a press conference at the Royal Baeng Residence in the Limpopo Province.



Speaking during a courtesy call on her by the Chief Executive Officer of Xodus Communications, Mr. Richard Abbey Jnr., Her Excellency Grace Jeanet Mason said her outfit will support this Pan African idea of celebrating young achievers on the continent.



She advised that the event should be used as a tool to promote culture and tourism in South Africa.



"I am very honoured to see an entity in my province and country granted the license and the right to host the 2nd edition of the Forty under 40 Africa Awards", she said.



Her Excellency Grace Jeanet Mason commended Xodus Communications Limited for the initiative to encourage, empower and celebrate influential young businessmen and women on the continent.



She called on young business leaders under the age of forty to participate in the 2023 edition to experience South Africa.



The Chief Executive Officer of Xodus Communications Ltd, Richard Abbey Jnr., thanked the High Commissioner for the warm reception and the pledge to support the event.



"The uniqueness about the 2023 edition is that it will be a five-day event comprising tourism at the Safari, an entrepreneurs business summit and exhibition in Pretoria and Gauteng, and finally climaxed with an Awards night in Cape Town" he noted.



The Forty Under 40 Africa Awards seeks to identify, honour and celebrate a cross-section of the continents most influential and accomplished young business leaders under the age of forty from a wide range of industries.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has been urged to fully implement the National Gender Policy to provide a clear framework for addressing inequalities deeply rooted in society.



The National Gender Policy was developed in 2015 with comprehensive insights into the empowerment, rights and access to justice, leadership and accountable governance, gender roles and relations, and economic opportunities for women.



She Leads Voices Social Movement, a group of girls and young women championing womens rights and empowerment wants the Ministry to prioritise the full implementation of the policy to ensure a level playing field for both men and women.



The movement was formed as part of the implementation of the She Leads project which is being implemented in selected districts in the Ashanti Region, to lead advocacy for girls and young women to participate in decision-making and leadership at all levels.



The five-year project is a collaboration between African Womens Development and Communication Network, Plan International Netherlands, Defence for Children International, ECPAT Netherlands and Terre Des Hommes Netherlands, with funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.



In a communique issued by the movement after participating in the Annual General Meeting of the Defence for Children International Ghana (DCI-Ghana) in Kumasi, the movement also demanded that the Ministry takes the necessary steps to ensure the Affirmative Action Bill is passed into law.



The communique also implored Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to create a budget to support girls and young womens inclusion in decision-making.



It called on traditional authorities, assemblies, unit committees and opinion leaders to change negative gender norms, eliminate structural barriers and traditional gender and age role division to promote gender equality.



The Electoral Commission should reduce by 40 per cent the cost of filing nominations for presidential and parliamentary elections for women to encourage more capable women to contest for leadership positions during national elections, the communique appealed.



It urged civil society organisations to support girls participation in leadership and decision-making through mentorship and leadership programmes.





Source: GNA









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Dr Arthur Kobina Kennedy of the governing New Patriotic Party has said President Nana Akufo-Addo has failed and expressed happiness that one of his harshest critics, Dr Richard Amoako Baah, has now seen the failings of the president following his decision to go to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.



When I foresaw government going to the IMF and spoke about it, the likes of Dr Richard Amoako Baah described me as cancer on the party's skin. It is not my training not to talk truth to power. I did it during the era of the late Rawlings' military junta so why not today when my own party is in power? he said.



The one-time campaign manager for the president, during the 2008 elections, applauded Dr Amoah Baah for his admission of Nana Akufo-Addos failure while speaking on the Citizens Show hosted by Nana Bobie Ansah on Accra100.5FM on Wednesday, July 7, 2022.



I'm sad that Dr AmoaKo Baah had to tell me he was wrong about his impression of me. Going to IMF is a sign of failure, so, I thank Dr Amoah Baah for his candid position on my views, Dr Kennedy stated.



According to Dr Amoako Baah, he erred for earlier caricaturing Dr Arthur Kennedy.



I was wrong; you were right and you have been vindicated...I didnt know what you knew at the time. After all, that is what has happened, you were right, Dr Amoako Baah told Dr Kennedy on the show.



He said the government must show remorse for some of its actions and inaction.





Source: class fm









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Bringing everybody on board to work together in a spirit of oneness for victory 2024 and beyond is the key objective of George Kwabena Abankwah-Yeboah, one of the key contenders for the position of National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).



Campaigning under the slogan Victory 2024 and beyond, Mr Abankwah-Yeboah, who is a product of Achimota School, said he had many plans to energise the party through training and empowering members.



Beyond the training, he said he would use his experience to impart skills on the youth and women to equip them as well as propel them up to start their own businesses.



That is how to achieve victory for the NPP in 2024 and beyond, he stated.



Equal opportunities



Aside from that, he has pledged to create equal opportunities for members of the party to improve upon themselves and also recognise and reward hard work and loyalty at all levels of the party structure to motivate people to serve the NPP wholeheartedly.





Mr Abankwah-Yeboah, who has served eight years as national treasurer of the party, said he would establish viable party businesses in all the 16 regions for the running of the party.



Vision



Sharing his perspectives on his aspirations to be national chairman,



Mr Abankwah-Yeboah, who is a pharmacist, said he would replicate his achievements as national treasurer when elected national chairman.



He cited the opening of official bank accounts for every constituency, direct disbursement of funds from the national headquarters to those accounts and the purpose for which those funds were to be used.





A founder member of the NPP in 1992, Mr Abankwah-Yeboah said as national chairman, he would create a comprehensive welfare system to capture present and past executive members at all levels.



Mr Abankwah-Yeboah, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Sharp Pharmaceuticals, said under his tenure as national treasurer, he settled all outstanding debts inherited from the previous administrations.



Discipline



He said he would uphold party discipline in a fair and open manner, stressing that the party needs a leader who is neutral and unbiased in his judgement. He should be able to bring discipline with love and not hatred.



He should be able to reconcile all factions.



He stated that he would show transparency and a readiness to share information as evident in the text messages he sent to all constituencies anytime funds were paid into constituency accounts and what it should be used for.



While congratulating the outgoing chairman, he said it was time for the party to have a leader with a difference.



We need a leader who is strong, fair, open and has a listening ear and will create an equal playing field for all party members, especially those seeking to contest in parliamentary and flagbearship primaries, he stated.



As national chairman, I will be fair and neutral, especially in the conduct of primaries for parliamentary and flagbearship so that all candidates will be happy with the outcome to move the party forward, Mr Abankwah-Yeboah

stated.



I will not want to lead a divided party. I will ensure that I bring all factions together and decisions are fair to all parties, he stated.



IMF



Touching on the governments decision to seek support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr Abankwah-Yeboah, who is a member of the Christian Evangel Assemblies of God, Adabraka, said Ghana was blessed with the NPP because anytime there was crisis in the country, it was always the party in power.

But in these, we successfully resolved the crisis, he said, while noting that under former President J. A. Kufuor when there was fuel crisis all over the world, the government managed it with ease without motorists queuing for fuel.



He said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and even with the Russian invasion

of Ukraine, there was no queuing for food nor restrictions on items that one could purchase in the country and that showed that the NPP had often managed the economy well and better.



Mr Abankwah-Yeboah stressed that the IMF support was only to help the country balance its debts and payments.



On the increase in the price of food items, he explained that it was an annual cycle, especially between February and June each year, but it is

transient and by August  September, prices will normalise.



We have two-and-half years to go to the elections and time will tell. I am very optimistic that the country will be back on its feet by the close of next year, he stated.



He urged Ghanaians to have hope in the NPP and support it for a good cause.



He said the NPP was poised to continue with the good works initiated by President Akufo-Addo in 2025 that would fi rm up all the policies that were being implemented for the country and the welfare of the people.









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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Following the long absence of the Member of Parliament(MP) for Dome-Kwabenya, Adwoa Safo, The African Center for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) has called for a declaration of the seat as vacant.



According to the Executive Director of the Center, Dr. Rasheed Draman, the people in the constituency have been left unrepresented for a long time.



The people of Dome-Kwabenya have been left unrepresented for long. If she [Adwoa Safo] can no longer represent them, it is best the seat is declared vacant, Citinewsroom.com quoted the ACEPA Director as having said.



Dr. Rasheed Draman was speaking on the back of Sarah Adwoa Safos failure to appear before the Privileges Committee of Parliament after many attempts to ensure same.



In an interview with Kweku George Ricketts-Hagan, Ranking Member on the Committee he stated that the committee feels disrespected by the MP, who doubles as a Cabinet Minister's decision to ignore their invitation.



But ACEPA Director says parliament owes Ghanaians some answers regarding the subject of the Dome-Kwabenya MP.



This whole issue of she has not been served by the Privileges Committee, and all others, the question is what are the procedures on how long a Minister of State can be absent from duty? Do we have anything that guides that in running our country? If not, our leaders have some questions to answer. There are a lot of questions to be answered on this whole Adwoa Safo issue. Parliament owes us some answers.



Our Parliament is looking like one that cannot regulate itself. This is sending very bad signals out there and if nothing is done about it, Parliament may lose respect among the populace," he said.



Adwoa Safo, together with two other NPP MPs, Kennedy Agyapong, and Henry Quartey, were hauled before parliament's Privileges Committee for failing to attend to the business of the house for over 15 consecutive sittings without proper permission. The two others have since appeared and explained that medical reasons kept them away from the House.















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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NPP National Women's Organizer hopeful, Kate Gyamfua, has called for the comeback of former Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Madam Otiko Afisa Djaba into the New Patriotic Party.



The former Minister, in 2018, was appointed Ghanas Ambassador to Italy by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo but she declined the offer.



Madam Afisa Djaba in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra said she would want to take a long break after 13-years of active politics to be with her family.



 . . at 56 years, l want to relax, enjoy my family, life and therefore, l am not ready to take up the appointment as Ambassador to Italy, she said.



Her decision triggered spontaneous reactions as some politicians and members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) described it as an insult to the President.



She therefore took exit from "active politics".



Kate Gyamfua, taking a retrospective look at the exit of Otiko Djaba from the party, appealed to her to reconsider her long-standing decision.



She stated that Otiko is a very competent and passionate member of the party whose services are needed to advance the fortunes of the NPP.



However, Kate Gyamfua opined that the only flaw that Madam Otiko Djaba has is impatience but she hopes to see the return of her former boss.



Madam Otiko Djaba served as National Women's Organizer of the NPP.



"I believe she will come back. Otiko has done well. Otiko really helped us and people also liked her. So, we need her. If she returns, we will accept her," Kate Gyamfua said in an interview on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show.



Watch video below





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
MONCKS CORNER  A manufacturer is looking to expand its plant in rural Berkeley County by proposing a real estate swap deal that would include 50 acres of the Francis Marion National Forest.

Atlantic Building Components & Services Inc., which manufactures trusses and other wood products for home builders, is offering to exchange more than 80 acres off Wren and Bethera roads for property in the forest adjacent to a site along Cane Gulley Road.

The swap deal, which some nearby residents oppose, is contingent on Atlantic Building winning approval from Berkeley County Council to rezone the 50-acre parcel for light industrial uses. The planning committee gave unanimous approval to the plan during its meeting on June 28.

County council is scheduled to take up the proposal during its next meeting on July 11.

Atlantic Building, which has about 300 employees and does around $100 million in annual sales, operates four plants in the Carolinas. The Moncks Corner campus serves as the companys headquarters.

Company officials have said they need to expand the Berkeley County site to keep up with the demand for building materials, which they believe will double over the next decade.

To meet that demand, it is imperative to acquire real estate adjacent to our Moncks Corner campus or seek new locations, the company said in a written statement to the planning committee.

The U.S. Forest Service, which manages the federal land, has said that the area around the plant has already lost some of its "National Forest character" and has given its blessing to the real estate swap.

A major benefit of the exchange is consolidation of existing National Forest lands and the reduction of boundaries adjoining private lands, Peggy Jo Nadler, a lands program manager for the federal agency in South Carolina, said a in written statement to the county. This increases efficiency of management and also increases intact protected habitat. This will create better habitat for wildlife and outdoor recreation opportunities.

Acquiring the land will create a straight boundary line against private lands and protects wetlands. Both these tracts in federal ownership will ensure continuity of habitat across the broader landscape. For these reasons, the private tracts are more ecologically significant and the Forest has determined the exchange to be in the public interest.

The proposal is receiving some pushback from residents that live near the manufacturing plant in the Macedonia-Bonneau area.

There are a lot of family farms out here and the people that moved here love the idea of living next to the Francis Marion Forest, said Nicole Burbage, who lives less than a -mile from the plant entrance. We moved here because we thought that the National Forest would be able to protect us from growth like this.

Allison Caison said about 20 families will be affected if the plant is expanded beyond its current boundaries.

This is not a good deal, and a lot of older folks are afraid to speak out about it, said Caison, who lives about a mile from the plant. There is no infrastructure as it is and when those trucks come down the road, it makes a lot of noise and you feel like you are being run into a ditch. The road is not made for that kind of traffic.

Cane Gulley Road, a rutted two-lane blacktop, wont be able to handle the additional traffic if the land swap is approved, Burbage said.

This is a safety issue, Burbage said. Its not if theres going to be a deadly accident, its when is it going to happen. When you combine the morning school traffic with an enlarged industrial site, its a recipe for disaster.

The company met with residents last month to discuss their concerns about noise and pollution, and it also addressed the planning committee. It did not respond to requests for comment this week.

We want to be good neighbors, Bert Hood, chairman of Atlantic Building, told the committee on June 28. We are addressing concerns about dust and noise pollution. We are going to petition to reduce the speed limit from 45 mph to 35 mph. In the end, the U.S. Forest Service will be gaining 30 acres.

Burbage said she wants to maintain the areas rural character without jeopardizing anyones pay check.

We dont want to shut the plant down, she said. No one is trying to take away anyones job. We are trying to stop the expansion of the site and keep our farming community safe and hopefully save some lives.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning. Partly cloudy skies late. High near 90F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 76F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph.
Dressed sharply in a blue business suit and yellow tie, Air Force Master Sgt. Donald Ennis was nervously waiting to meet a group of potential employers as he closed the door on more than 20 years of military service.

"I can sell ketchup popsicles to a woman in white gloves," Ennis said.

Still, the prospect of face-to-face meetings with representatives of about 78 companies looking to hire was daunting.

"I am a little nervous," Ennis said.

Ennis and more than 500 other military personnel and their spouses signed up to attend a recent career summit at an event organized by Joint Base Charleston with the help of Hiring Our Heroes. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched the initiative in 2011 for service members and their families to address a national crisis in veteran unemployment.

That year, the jobless rate for all veterans was 8.3 percent. The unemployment rate for veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces at any time since September 2001  a group referred to as Gulf War-era II veterans  was 12.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

The numbers have since declined significantly. In May, the veteran unemployment rate was 2.9 percent, down from 4.4 percent the prior year.

But transitioning to life outside of the military remains challenging. Roughly 200,000 service members make the switch each year, according to the Department of Defense.

"It's like you're standing on the edge of a cliff, and you jump off, and your parachute doesn't open," Ennis said.

"It's the fear of the unknown," he added.

Lt. Col. Chad Atkinson, seeking gainful employment after 25 years in the Air Force, echoed the sentiment. He plans to stick to what he knows, in project management and consulting, and hopes to remain in the area

While in the military, "you know your job, your pay, and you have security."

Atkinson said the challenges stem from leaving the structured environment of the armed services and stepping into a work situation that encourages free thinking and trying to figure it out.

Ready to assist

But help is available.

"The base and other organizations are on your side, Atkinson said.

Groups such as, TAPS, or Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors), Hiring our Heroes, and Wounded Warrior Project "help set you up for your next career," Atkinson said.

SC breakdown The Bureau of labor Statics included state data in its its "Employment Situation of Veterans" report for 2021 that was released in in April. Some South Carolina statistics: Veterans in the workforce: 194,000

Veterans not in the labor rice: 211,000

Unemployed: 7,000

Unemployment rate: 3.5

Hiring Our Heroes runs events at bases across the U.S. They provide learning opportunities, expert advice, and job fairs to help reduce the number of unemployed veterans, said Matt Sharman, Joint Base Charleston's public engagement officer for military family readiness.

According to the organization's website, from its inception in 2011 to March 2021, more than 31,000 veterans and military spouses have obtained employment opportunities through the job fairs.

Some large employers are onboard, recognizing that military personnel typically understand procedures, can take direction, and have hands-on skills in areas such as logistics, Sharman said.

Among the companies represented at the Joint Base Charleston event to pick from the crop of transitioning and recently retired service members and their family members were Toyota, Amazon, Microsoft Corp. and Boeing Co.

There were 90,000 jobs up for grabs, and "40 percent of the offers were on the spot." Many of the openings were for remote positions geared at military spouses who find it hard to get jobs because of how often they relocate, Sharman said.

Master Sgt. Ennis said he and his family moved five times during his 20 years of service. A military medical technician, he said he was looking for employers that would help him pivot to a new career once he's out of uniform.

"I don't want anything medical," he said.

Ennis, who owns a home and hopes to stay in the Charleston region, added that location can be key to a successful transition, comparing areas that have a heavy military presence to those that don't.

"People can have a negative view, and that makes it tough to break in," Ennis said of the latter.

Sharman said that figuring out what to do is the biggest challenge in transitioning from military to civilian life.

"The difficulty lies in creating a new identity that isn't associated with what they were doing according to their rank," Sharman said.

'Plenty of help'

Mark Toal, director for the Office of Strategic Outreach at the U.S. Department of Labor Veterans' Employment and Training Service, said the transition is challenging for almost everyone.

One of the most challenging questions is, "what do I want to do, and how do I get there?"

There are several pathways, Toal said.

"Some members might need bachelor's or master's degrees, and others might want to go into trades, (information technology) or the cybersecurity industry. Some might get recognized certifications through training."

Also, federal, state, and nonprofit organizations have formed partnerships with the Department of Labor, which Toal said is a "fantastic way for veterans to find employment."

"There is plenty of help for veteran job seekers," he said.

Toal added that it is important to note that although some veterans struggle to find employment, others don't. He also said veterans tend to earn more than their co-workers who weren't in the military and were 39 percent more likely to be promoted.

"Employers want veterans. They can't find enough of them," Toal said. "The private sector recognizes the soft and tech skills they bring to the workplace."
Faith-based organizations were among the earliest to respond to communities' needs at the start of the pandemic. Churches and nonprofits focused largely on people's physical and spiritual needs, through ministries like food drives, rental assistance and virtual worship services.

But the Christian community also believes it can play an effective role in aiding another area: mental health.

The pandemic has had an impact on people's emotional wellness, and Christian-based therapy organizations say they are in a unique position to meet the growing need for mental health services. The organizations provide professional help to Christians and offer believers a safe space to share their theological doubts and frustrations.

Some faith-based counseling groups have seen an uptick in the number of clients  many are Christians, but not all  who are seeking help to address a wide range of issues, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, grief and struggling marriages.

Generally speaking, Christian-based therapy takes an integrated approach at counseling by blending science with Scripture. Local therapists are clear that a Christian-based approach to therapy isn't forced upon the client and is available only upon the clients' requests.

Bishop Steve Wood at St. Andrew's Anglican in Mount Pleasant said it is important for pastors to understand their own limitations when it comes to caring for parishioners' mental well-being.

Wood acknowledged, for example, that while he's been married for over 30 years and has raised four children, he is still not a professionally trained family therapist. Thus, St. Andrew's has developed relationships with local Christian-based counseling organizations so it can refer parishioners needing professional help. Churches and mental health workers should work hand in hand, he said.

"As a pastor, I can do some counseling," Wood said. "But I was trained in Bible and theology, not counseling. ... I think good therapy combined with good pastoral care can provide a lot of opportunity for healing."

At Mount Pleasant-based Life Resources, the psychologists, social workers and licensed professional counselors blend "the best of science" with the Gospel, said Executive Director Jacquie Atkins. This involves examining each person's specific situation to see what the individual needs, Atkins said.

Oftentimes, prayer and meditation around relevant Scriptures are useful solutions, she said. But prayer must be merged with evidenced-based solutions derived from the counselor's professional field of study, Atkins said.

"We dont believe in, 'just pray this verse and your depression will go away,' " she said. "Thats not us. It's really taking a holistic approach."

Health organizations are expanding to meet the growing need for mental health services.

Life Resources added a North Charleston branch, and is using an $11,000 grant from the Medical Society of South Carolina to provide continuing education for therapists. Charleston Christian Counseling, which has locations in West Ashley and Goose Creek, recently added five therapists to its staff to meet the rising demand.

In recent years, studies have shed light on the mental health impacts of the pandemic. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that younger adults, racial minorities, essential workers and unpaid adult caregivers reported having experienced disproportionately worse mental health outcomes, increased substance use and elevated suicidal ideation.

Young people have been particularly vulnerable. In March, the CDC shared that more than a third of high school students said they experienced poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At Life Resources, more teens have been seeking professional help, providing them with a chance to raise doubts about their faith and ask questions about why God allowed the pandemic, Atkins said.

We have the opportunities as integrated therapists to help (teenagers) explore that," Atkins said. "Not to tell them what's right or wrong, but to help them explore on their own and come up with their own answers.

Some religious observants have sought professional help with managing relationships.

Certified emotion-focused couples therapist Diane Arnold with Charleston Christian Counselors said she's seen an uptick in Christian couples seeking help in mending struggling marriages.

Arnold, who has written two books on maintaining healthy marriages, said many clients spoke to how their relationships suffered because of the pandemic.

Couples will often invoke certain Scriptures when discussing marital woes. At that point, Arnold counsels with them to ensure the way they are interpreting Scriptures is leading to healthy, and not harmful, results within their relationships, she said.

Arnold also encourages couples to engage together in spiritual acts, like listening to sermons or praying together. Couples who pray together tend to have a higher likelihood of staying together, she said.

It is very intimate to sit down and be vulnerable ... to actually open my spirit to your spirit," she said. "Isnt that truly what covenant is supposed to look like?"
In the midst of some of the hottest weather of the summer, Bourbon is bringing back its annual Tiki Week event.

During Tiki Week, Columbia's Main Street Cajun-creole restaurant and whiskey bar transforms into a kitschy, island-themed bar adorned with tiki inspired decor and a list of cocktail drinks from the tiki bar era that followed the second world war.

The week, which used to be held in the winter months to offer an oasis from the cold, started taking place in the summertime after restaurant owner Kristian Niemi acquired the next door Blue Flour Cafe space in 2021.

The event at the Main Street spot will begin on July 12 and tropical treats last through July 30, with over a dozen cocktails curated by Niemi and Bourbon's head bartender Kat Hunter including the classic Mai Tai and The Zombie, a well-known tiki cocktail created in the 1930s by bartender Donn Beach. Niemi said that over half of the cocktails will be Bourbon originals.

Tiki bars gained popularity in the '40s after the concept was established by Donn Beach in 1933 with his Hollywood bar Don The Beachcomber. The casual bars, decorated with Polynesian-esque memorabilia like wooden carved tiki statues paired with fruity, sweet cocktails, drew in customers looking for an "island escape"  something that became a staple of the bars, according to Eater.

In recent years, the once-trendy style has been denounced by some for cultural appropriation  in 2019, the Los Angeles Times criticized the concept in an article entitled "Tiki bars are built on cultural appropriation and colonial nostalgia. Wheres the reckoning?"

Writers from major publications like Eater, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times have analyzed the controversial and somewhat misunderstood history of the bars  most authors take issue with the use of significant cultural and religious symbols being used for kitschy, cheap decor without the input of people from those cultures. The Los Angeles Times's John Birdsall noted that some criticize the bars as a "crude imperialist fantasy that has treated the South Pacific as a source of escape."

But the history is complicated. For all the criticisms of how tiki often portrays indigenous people, it has also significantly impacted mixology. Originators of tiki like Beach and Victor Bergeron, founder of Trader Vic's bar, introduced and created cocktails that are still popular today. And that's what Niemi focuses on at Bourbon.

The cocktails Bourbon serves during Tiki Week are focused on sticking close to the tiki cocktails created and popularized by Beach and Bergeron, who claimed creation of the famed Mai Tai. Niemi said oftentimes tiki drinks get misrepresented or made poorly by bartenders who don't know the history behind the drinks.

He also said he is aware of the judgements that people have about tiki bars, but he disagrees with those connotations.

"Hawaii didn't have any tiki drinks, so you can't pull something from somebody that didn't have something," Niemi said. "Nobody in South Carolina has ever said anything like that. That's some writer from Brooklyn who went to some woke-(expletive) liberal arts college."

And while it's not an event that Niemi said generates a ton of revenue due to the cost of transforming the restaurant and adding extra staff hours to handle the full restaurant, it's one that he enjoys enough to keep bringing back each year.

"I just really enjoy it as an escape," Niemi said. "We definitely don't do it for any sort of profit motive, it's really done just because it's fun and we like it. And what's the point of owning your own restaurant if you can't do fun s#!t when you want to?"

The event begins on July 12 at 4:30 p.m. Bourbon is located at 1214 Main St. and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 4:30 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.
GREENVILLE  A new coffee shop that gives a portion of all proceeds to veterans and first responders is moving into a storefront across from Falls Park in downtown Greenville.

OneNation Coffee plans to redesign the facade of the South Main Street address between Rainers Cafe and Beija Flor Jeans, which previously housed Snack Works Smoothie Cafe, in a way that will make the coming business stand out more from the surrounding shops. Greenville's Design Review Board approved plans for that remodel at a July 7 meeting.

Materials provided to the board showed the building's new owners intend to create a recessed front, forming a new outdoor dining area facing the street. They will also add a balcony to the second floor, which will serve as a residence for OneNation cofounder Neil Johnson.

"When we first started looking at this building, it was kind of 'OK, which one is it?' because there's so many similarities between the different buildings on the street," Natasha Sexton of Sexton Design & Development told the board July 7. "We want to make sure we bring this building into the 21st Century ... while at the same time maintaining the historical characteristics."

The Greenville restaurant and roastery will serve as a flagship location for a chain of coffee shops, Sexton said.

Johnson, along with John Richards and Philip Moniz, founded OneNation Coffee in Summerville. Richards, the company's CEO, currently serves as a senior chief petty officer and bomb squad member in the Navy, according to OneNation's website. Johnson also served in the Navy, where he had a six-year career crewing a nuclear submarine. Moniz serves as a deputy with the Charleston County Sheriff's Office.

The three also founded the OneNation Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing support to veterans and first responders throughout South Carolina. The foundation contributes a portion of OneNation Coffee's proceeds to organizations including Veterans of Foreign Wars, Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy and When Life Sucks, a nonprofit that helps veterans and first responders cope with post traumatic stress disorder.

The Design Review Board unanimously approved the designs for changing the facade, while asking the applicant to include more details about lighting, the slope of the entrance, drainage and material for the second floor balcony, and plans to remove a fire service in the building's current facade. Those changes will be reviewed by two members of the board, and could go back before the full board for a vote at their discretion.
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Kingstree, SC (29556)

Today

Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds light and variable.
Inside a church resource center on Barton Road, local historian Wayne OBryant took to the microphone with a child on his hip. July 8, 2022 marks 146 years since the Hamburg Massacre, a racially charged event that left eight individuals dead.

The Hamburg Massacre was an event that was so monumental that it wasnt just over with. It changed the course of U.S. history, he said.

A commemoration ceremony was held to remember the importance of the Hamburg Massacre, the first of its kind in the recently minted Carrsville African American Heritage District.

OBryant believes it is important to continue to discuss the past and educate future generations about what happened around North Augusta.

People who voted in the 1860s couldnt vote again until the 1960s and they also integrated schools in the 1860s and then they segregated them again and they couldnt get them back until the 1960s, OBryant said. It shows how Hamburg changed the course of history. It was an event that was hidden and covered up, and we wanted to bring it back and have a spotlight on it because it is something that is worthy of that.

The Carrsville neighborhood in North Augusta was created by residents of Hamburg, who had to abandon the riverside town after a series of dangerous floods. Hamburg was once the fifth most populous city in South Carolina and was best known as being the terminus of the Charleston-Hamburg railroad line, which at 136 miles long was one of the longest railroads in the world at its completion in 1833.

In the African American Heritage District, a historical marker detailing the events of the Hamburg Massacre and an inscribed stone with the names of the eight men killed can be found. A red, white and blue wreath was laid on the memorial stone during the ceremony.

Local politicians, including former North Augusta Mayor Bob Pettit spoke about the importance of making Carrsville a historic neighborhood, something that has been in the works for years.

Hamburg was unfortunate, like so many things. A catastrophe, like so many things, and it is important that events like this happen to let people understand what happened and what the impact was so we dont let it happen again, Pettit said. It's been my pleasure to see this come to fruition and it is going to continue because it has to.

I am just excited that we are able to create this district, to help the city of North Augusta and its history be recognized, North Augusta City council member David McGhee said.

OBryant plans to make the Hamburg Commemoration an annual event in North Augusta. On Saturday, July 9, a panel discussion and tour around the neighborhood took place to look at future developments and educational ideas for the historic district.

On Sunday, July 10, a worship service was held at First Providence Baptist Church, located in the heart of the historic district off Barton Road.

The events that occurred here in North Augusta and Hamburg are every bit as important as the Battles of Chickamauga, Antietam and Gettysburg, North Augusta City Administrator Jim Clifford said.

The Hamburg-Carrsville area is in an opportunity zone that not only benefits South Carolina but both sides of the river Aiken County council member Sandy Haskell said. I still see that entrepreneurial spirit that was here in the 1820s and can help with development and economic prosperity in this area.
Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.
The most dramatic action S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster took against the Legislatures earmark culture was putting an end to the hand-delivered checks. Henceforth, the governor declared in an executive order signed late last month, state agencies will send earmarked funds directly to the charities and local governments specified in the state budget rather than printing checks for the recipients legislative patrons to deliver personally.

Its a good change that should have come sooner and that became impossible to argue against after The Post and Couriers Avery Wilks discovered that at least one legislator had withheld $125,000 worth of checks for months without authority and for reasons that we can only imagine  and that we cant imagine were honorable.

But the governors other changes could turn out to be even more significant. And when you combine them with changes the Legislature has made in response to three years of complaints from Mr. McMaster and our editorial staff and revelations by reporters from The Post and Courier and Columbias State newspaper, were witnessing the demise of the secretive spending on hand-selected recipients that has been central to S.C. budget writing for decades.

That's not to say we're witnessing the demise of earmarks. The Legislature will probably never get out of the business of sending our tax dollars to nonprofits and local governments for specific projects. And maybe it shouldnt. But today we know more than ever about whos requesting and receiving the money. And Executive Order 2022-19 means well soon know more still.

The earmark culture was already becoming politically toxic, because the more you understand it, the more untenable it seems. It was dealt a severe blow last year when earmark kingpin Hugh Leatherman passed away and was replaced as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee by Harvey Peeler, who was able to slash what likely would have been record earmark spending this year by insisting on sending taxpayers $1 billion of the one-time money that otherwise could have funded legislative pork. Without such a central champion in the Senate, reformers were able to solidify tentative gains from the past two years and create an opening for Mr. McMasters order.

The order gives cover to state agencies that had been afraid of legislative retribution if they enforced state laws requiring recipients to file reports before and after receiving the money. Critically, it also requires the agencies to file real-time details on their websites about the programs and recipients.

Ironically, the biggest earmark Mr. McMaster vetoed was sponsored by Democratic Sen. Dick Harpootlian, who together with Republican Sens. Wes Climer and Shane Massey led the legislative push for earmark transparency. But Mr. Harpootlian had always insisted that his objection was to the secrecy, not the spending, and when the veto of a $25 million plan to create a quantum computing center in Columbias Five Points neighborhood got to the House floor, everybody knew who had asked for it. And they sustained the veto.

For his part, Mr. Harpootlian complained that he didnt have an opportunity to explain the proposal, which of course he would have been able to do if he had filed legislation to create the program rather than simply asking for an earmark.

And thats the other problem with earmarks: Even when we know who sponsors them, and who is to receive them, we rarely have a real debate on their merits. At least we dont now. Thats the next thing we need to change.

Well, that and putting the governors executive order into state law, so the next governor cant wipe it out and send us back into top-secret spending, where even legislators dont know whats in the budget bill, much less who asked to put it there.
Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations.
COLUMBIA  Joe Cunningham found himself in a tough spot.

Cunningham, appearing June 23 on CNN's flagship morning show "New Day," sat across a table from host John Berman to discuss a splashy new political ad suggesting his opponent, 75-year-old Gov. Henry McMaster, was too old to capably serve the people of South Carolina.

Instead, the conversation almost immediately pivoted to whether his party's own president, 79-year-old Joe Biden, was himself fit to serve out his current term, much less two consecutive terms.

Im not sure if any of us know any 86-year-olds who should be running the entire country, Cunningham said.

The comments quickly attracted criticism from U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who is 81 years old. The South Carolina Democrat has faced his own calls to step aside for a new generation of leaders after serving the better part of three decades in Congress. Clyburn told reporters Cunningham needed "to grow up" when asked about Cunningham's comments during an appearance in Greenville.

While the delivery might have been clumsy, young people in South Carolina see a lot of truth in Cunningham's greater message. Namely, that the state's politics are too old and that political leaders within both parties have shown little interest in cultivating a new crop of political leaders who reflect the ideals and values of a rising generation.

"We have to find a way to bridge the gap between the old and the young generation," said Tyler Swain Mitchell, a recent Citadel graduate and South Carolina Democratic activist.

"President Biden, congressman Clyburn, they're closer to 100 than they are 50," he added. "They have more days behind them than they do ahead of them. So it's time that the next generation prepares for that."

Outnumbered

A week before his 17th birthday, Ryan Thompson  inspired by Hillary Clinton's loss in the 2016 presidential election  decided to attend his first-ever meeting of the Horry County Democratic Party. What he found was a room of people older than him by many decades, with little idea of what to do with him. Some wanted to push him into leadership immediately. At times, Thompson said he felt pressure to be the voice of all the area's young people.

Thompson, now a 21-year-old Democratic candidate for South Carolina's House District 106, has since committed himself to getting more young people involved in the area's politics. He has started a Discord group for young people in Democratic politics around the state and, at campaign events, has worked to register young people to vote in the upcoming election on a platform that reflects the ideals of a younger generation.

"A lot of people my age are running because we're like, 'Well, where are the adults in the room? Where are the leaders?'" Thompson said. "They're not stepping up to do their job. So I guess we have to."

Both major parties have initiatives in place to give voices to a younger crop of leaders like the Clyburn Fellowship, which officers policy and political training to a revolving crop of young Democrats every year. However many young people feel that while the training opportunities are there, the willingness from local and state party leaders to let them apply those opportunities in the real world is minimal.

Though Republicans have elevated younger politicians to leadership Statehouse positions  25-year-old Majority Whip Brandon Newton and 37-year-old Majority Leader Russell Fry in the House come to mind, while Alex Stroman was just 23 when he was named the state GOP's executive director  South Carolina's politicians are typically much older than the people they serve.

In the not too distant past, South Carolina was represented in the U.S. Senate by the same two people, Fritz Hollings, and Strom Thurmond, for nearly 40 years. Thurmond died in office at 100 years old, and Hollings was in his early 80s when he gave up his seat.

And while members of the Baby Boomer generation represent just one-quarter of the state's population, its members occupied nearly half of the available seats in the S.C. House of Representatives and nearly two-thirds of the state Senate, according to a recent survey by the Center for Youth Participation in Politics at Rutgers University.

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In the Senate, the average member was 20 years older than the median age in all of South Carolina.

"I think about all the candidates that I worked on this past cycle and the people that we helped elect to office, some of them were young, most of them are are not young," said Leighton Gray Smith, a Republican campaign consultant based in Beaufort. "I feel like it has been hard for young people to get their foot in the door."

Young Republicans and Democrats say a lot of the reasons lie with the nature of the job. Lawmakers in South Carolina make just $10,400 annually (among the lowest rates of pay in the country) with significant workloads during the five months the Legislature is in session, eliminating most prospects who are unable to take significant time away from their professional lives.

Others say a share of the blame lies with state and local party leaders, who they claim overlook younger politicians as potential candidates and take great pains to protect successful incumbents.

"I would definitely say that there is incumbency protection," said Courtney McClain, a former Clyburn Fellow and president of South Carolina's NAACP Youth and College Division. "I know having a new person is always something that's kind of very scary for them. With that incumbent, you know that they will most likely win but, if you allow for a new person or a younger person with less experience to come in, they may be more prone to making mistakes or other things that they may be fearful about."

Passing the torch

James Madison University history professor Rebecca Brannon, who has studied the relationships between age and politics, said that age has always been a significant factor in the American political system. Thomas Jefferson was a notable early example of this, with historical records showing Jefferson as a key figure in casting aspersions about George Washington's fitness to serve as president while in office.

The reason age limits were never written into law like they were at the state level for positions like judgeships, Brannon said, had a lot to do with their own belief in the electorate's ability to make up its own mind. The first demonstration of this came around the 1820s, when a newer, more working class brand of populism began to replace the political ideals espoused by the nation's founding fathers.

"They do have the experience of feeling swamped by younger leadership and feeling a little burned, a little shocked, at being replaced generationally by a younger generation," Brannon said. "Part of the achievement of the revolution was a lasting government, a nation where younger generations could take over. But still, it's unpleasant to live through, and the founders were often shocked by how differently younger men thought than they did."

Younger South Carolinians with political ambitions have now begun working to take matters into their own hands. Shortly after graduating from Bob Jones University, Meagan Ingersoll began to throw herself in local politics, volunteering for various campaigns and participating in party meetings. However, she often found herself on the sidelines as, around her, older candidates continued to run for office and win.

"The more I was in the room, the more I realized that there wasn't a space in Greenville tailored to young adults," she said.

In 2019, a then 26-year-old Ingersoll started the Greenville Young Republicans in an attempt to give young conservatives in the area a voice in the conversation. Three years later, she said, the organization has grown strong enough to begin recruiting, training and running its own candidates. One of those candidates, Joey Russo, just narrowly won their Republican primary against longtime Greenville County Councilman Joe Dill, while another, Michael Carter, lost their bid for county treasurer by just six points.

Another notable example of young people flexing their political muscle was in a recent statehouse race in South Carolina's 101st District, where the South Carolina Young Democrats canvassed for Rep. Roger Kirby in his win over fellow Democratic Rep. Cezar McKnight, who drew his party's ire for his anti-transgender position amid a Statehouse debate on banning transgender athletes from women's sports.

Ultimately, she said, it takes initiative to claim a seat at the table.

"It's not that people don't want young people involved in politics," Ingersoll said. "They want young people involved, but maybe they don't know how to get to us. And that's a both way problem. They may not be reaching out in the right ways. And we may not be showing up."
SUMMIT: Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is flanked by President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping during a meeting at the G-20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, in this file photo taken June 2019. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Days after the controversy related to former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharmas remarks on Prophet Muhammad surfaced, two hacker groups based in Malaysia and Indonesia resorted to cyber attacks on Indian websites. As per Ahmedabad cybercrime cell, both the groups claimed to have hacked 2,000 plus websites in India. They allegedly stole a large amount of data, including data of Nupur Sharma, along with PAN card details of citizens and also police personnel from Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad cybercrime cell has traced some of the IP addresses of the two hacking groups and shared the details with Interpol. It had also found bugs in more than 100 Indonesian, 70-plus Malaysian and 80-plus Indian government websites, where the malware could be used by the hackers for nefarious purposes.

According to police, after the controversy related to Nupur Sharma surfaced, Malaysia-based hacker group Dragon Force on their social media handle urged Muslims around the world to start a campaign against India. They were joined by Indonesian-based hacker group Hacktivists of Garuda. It is said that both have hacked into more than 2,000 Indian websites, which includes some private entities, and stole their database. The database was further shared on the dark web. Amid this, personal details of Nupur Sharma like her phone number, email-id and residential address were also made public.

The cyber security team of the Ahmedabad cybercrime cell found bugs in more than 80 websites of the Indian government. The cell took action by getting due permission from the two countries. The details of bugs in the Indian websites have been shared with the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) under the PMO. The cybercrime cell has also traced a few IP addresses of the two hacker groups which it has shared with Interpol.

DCP Cybercrime Amit Vasava said, Cyberwarfare is a very serious issue in which websites, power grids are attacked through the internet and the databases are stolen. Bugs are generally a flaw in the online system, which can be misused for nefarious gains. A few IP addresses of the hacker groups have been shared with Interpol.

AP, Thane police websites hacked

l Among the websites hacked by the two hacker groups are those from the educational field, paramilitary forces, private entities like DishTV, among others.

l Websites of Andhra Pradesh police were hacked and details of personnel were leaked online. The website of Thane police was also hacked.

l PAN card details from the government website were stolen and made public.

l Personal details of Nupur Sharma like her mobile number, email id and residence address were also made public.

l Assam-based YouTube news channel Times8 was also hacked and a Pakistani flag was shown live on air.
The Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature on Friday approved the release of the Longlist of 11 in the running for the 2022 edition.

The Nigeria Prize for Literature, sponsored by Nigeria LNG to promote and reward excellence in writing, rotates yearly amongst four literary categories of prose fiction, poetry, drama and childrens literature.

The 11 books on the longlist released on Friday, in alphabetical order by their titles, are Augustas Poodle by Ogaga Ifowodo, Coming Undone As Stitches, Tighten by Iquo DianaAbasi, Dispossessed by James Eze, Ife Testament by Olusegun Adekoya and Memory and the Call of Waters by S. Sueddie Agema.

Others are Nomad by Romeo Oriogun, The Lilt of The Rebel by Obari Gomba, The Love Canticles by Chijioke Amu Nnadi, Wanderer Cantos by Remi Raji and Yawns and Belches by Joe Ushie.

The 2022 edition of The Nigeria Prize for Literature initially had 287 poets compete for the $100,000 Prize.

At the online announcement, the entries received were handed over to the panel of judges by the Chair of the Prizes Advisory Board, Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo.

Adimora-Ezeigbo noted that the process would continue as a shortlist of three is expected in September and hopefully, a winner in October.

Author and professor of Law at Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, won the 2021 prize with her novel, Son of the House.

Judges

Sule Egya, a professor, leads the panel of judges. A professor of African Literature and Cultural Studies at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, Professor Egya is a renowned poet and novelist who writes under the pen name E. E. Sule.

Mr Egya has written over one hundred scholarly articles and literary essays. His first novel, Sterile Sky, won the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize for the Africa Region. His poetry volumes include What the Sea Told Me, which won the 2009 ANA/Gabriel Okara Prize.

Other judges are Toyin Adewale-Gabriel and Dike Chukwumerije. Adewale-Gabriel is a Poet and narrator. She has worked as a literary critic in The Guardian, Post Express and The Daily Times. She is often described as the most beautiful and outstanding voice of the new African poetry.

Dike Chukwumerije is a Nigerian Spoken Word and Performance Poetry artist and an award-winning author.

He has published several books and is the brain behind Night of the Spoken Word, a live Poetry show and a theatre production, Made in Nigeria Poetry Show. He also won the 2013 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Prose Fiction.

Other members of the Advisory Board are Proffesors Olu Obafemi and Ahmed Yerima.
The Vice Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Ahmed Datti, has said he left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because of his stance on not paying delegates during primaries.

Mr Datti, who is the running mate to Peter Obi, said he withdrew from the governorship race In Kaduna State because he refused to pay delegates to vote for him. He said the leader of the PDP in Kaduna became afraid of him.

He made these disclosures while appearing on Politics Today, a political Programme on Channels TV on Friday.

Many have labelled the Labour Party as an extension of the PDP because both Messrs Obi and Baba-Ahmed left the PDP recently. The former was a presidential aspirant in the party but left days before the National Convention.

Speaking on the PDP, Mr Baba-Ahmed said his former party is in stagnation and he had no future in it.

I withdrew from the governorship race because God has not made me to be one that will buy delegates votes, he said

It became clear that they are afraid of me and jittery that I had no future in that party. I had to leave.

Mr Baba-Ahmed said he did not join the presidential race because he believes it is the turn of the south.

In 2018, most of the serious politicians from the south considered it the turn of the north, the Muslim northstayed back and did not contest. It was a gesture of friendliness and brotherhood.

With due respect to my brothers from the north and Muslims who feel they should contest now, I was of the view that we should reciprocate and nothing more than that, he said.

He also dismissed the claim that Labour Party is only on social media, noting that the party is a moving train that cannot be bombed.

He said anyone who earns legitimate income as a worker is a member of the party.

Any body who earns legitimate income in Nigeria is by default a member of LP. If you go to work 9am to 5pm, If you engage in any form of legitimate business, by default you are a member of LP. We belong to Nigeria and Nigeria belongs to us.

What is going to hit the ruling party is going to be worse than what happened in 2015. LP is a train, not like the Abuja/Kaduna train. It is hard to blow up this train. The whole of Nigeria is in it. We are blurring all demarcations, he said.

Mr Baba-Ahmed said a Peter Obi government will eliminate fraud in government procurement process and use the pyramid approach to address education.

He stated that the Labour government will ensure that workers ensure sufficient wages that will last for the entire month.
On February 18 this year, an alarm was raised at a correctional centre in Adamawa State. A former Boko Haram fighter, Wilberforce Yohanna, had just been recruited as a staffer of the Yola New Custodial Centre in the state.

Documents obtained by this newspaper on the security situation at the prison facility showed that Mr Yohannas Boko Haram background was detected following the dexterity he displayed with gun handling during training.

While on training, he was found to be more versatile in the use and operations of firearms, the leaked files obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, revealed. Upon further interrogation and collaborative findings, he confessed to having been abducted and held hostage by members of the Boko Haram for two (2) years.

The new prison official also confessed to having gotten training in heavy weapon handling from a Boko Haram base before he escaped their custody, according to the documents.

It is unclear if Mr Yohannas claim that he fought for Boko Haram against his will is true or if he merely tried to downplay his past. Authorities have so far failed to launch the necessary inquiry needed to scrutinise the prison officials claim and determine his real past.

What is however clear is that Mr Yohanna was a deadly combatant for the terrorist Boko Haram group and the implications of recruiting him into any of the nations security services should have been extensively considered.

Although the Correctional Service authorities are worried about the recruitment of an ex-terrorist, they are unwilling  or uncertain  about doing anything in Mr Yohannas case to avoid getting negative media attention, insiders familiar with the matter said.

Asked if the ex-terrorist was profiled before he was recruited, our inside sources said bribery and corruption have compromised the standard of vetting in the correctional service.

The insiders said a good number of applicants pay bribes to get placements at the correctional service without going through any rigorous vetting.

Usually vetting is to be done before recruitment but in the Correctional Service, little or no vetting is done, a top prison official, who asked not to be named because he is not permitted to divulge such information, told PREMIUM TIMES. People pay for jobs and receive their employment letters at home. Level 8 is sold for 800k, Level 4-7 for 400k.

The Boko Haram ex-combatant and the fear in the atmosphere

When authorities found that Mr Yohanna was a former member of the violent Boko Haram group with rare expertise in gun handling, palpable fear and anxiety immediately enveloped the prison facility, insiders said.

Officials, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES but asked not to be identified by name, said poor recruitment exercises allowed Mr Yohanna to enter the workforce of the correctional service, make prison facilities vulnerable to attacks and jailbreaks.

This, the officials said, is because evil planners can easily find compromised, corrupt, or double-dealing correctional service workers to help their mission from within.

The Kuje invasion

On Wednesday, heavily armed men attacked the Kuje Prison in Nigerias federal capital, freeing more than 64 Boko Haram inmates in the facilities.

The following day, the Islamic State for West African Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram factional group, claimed to be the mastermind of the jailbreak, after releasing a recorded video of how the prison facility came under attack.

It was the latest occurrence in a spate of jailbreaks that have left President Muhammadu Buhari disappointed in Nigerias security intelligence.

Over 7,000 inmates have escaped since the jailbreak epidemic struck Nigerias overcrowded prison facilities, according to the escapee data provided by the correctional service officials. Many of such attacks were said to be masterminded by different terror groups, including the Boko Haram sect.

In November 2021, for example, armed men suspected to be Boko Haram terrorists invaded the Jos Correctional Centre, powering firearms at the facility and freeing more than 250 inmates. Meanwhile, PREMIUM TIMES has seen classified documents revealing that the mastermind of that attack has been recaptured in Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa State.

His name is IBRAHIM LAWAL (ATM) No M760 but with a false name in Lafia as Mohammed Ibrah, the leaked documents stated. Efforts are made from Jos Custodial Centre to go to Lafia for his return.

Yohanna: Forgiving a former terrorist

In 2020, Ibrahim Gaidam, a senator in Nigerias National Assembly introduced the legislation to form the National Agency for Deradicalisation, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration of Repentant Insurgents.

The bill has been successful. But Boko Haram defectors or so-called repentant terrorists can only be reintegrated into society after going through the deradicalisation processes of attending classes on non-violent interpretations of Islam, vocational training, psychological therapy, and trauma counseling. It is unclear if Mr Yohanna was ever deradicalised before he found his way into the prison service.

In Borno, a Nigerian North-east state, where Boko Haram was birthed in the early 2000s, victimised citizens say they cant afford to live with former members of a sect that killed their families and relatives.

Also known as the Jamatu Ahlis Sunna Liddaawati wal-Jihad, an Arabic label for the people committed to the propagation of the prophets teachings and jihad, the Islamist sect has caused an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 deaths and displaced over 2.3 million, according to public data seen and analysed by PREMIUM TIMES.

But there are reports of deradicalised Boko Haram members going back to terrorism after they were reintegrated into society. This is the main objection raised by concerned persons against the deradicalisation programme. The repentant Boko Haram killers, like Mr Yohanna, are made to believe they can be forgiven by a people they once terrorised after enrolling them in the deradicalisation program.

Last year, hundreds of these ex-militants surrendered their arms to the Nigerian army after fleeing bushes due to the fear of epidemic diseases and hunger in their hideouts, according to local media reports and researchers. The terrorists would later be paraded by the army as they sought forgiveness from Nigerians.

In some of the photos shared by Onyema Nwachukwu, the armys spokesman, on social media, the former insurgents were seen holding placards some of which read please forgive us Nigerians.

Although it is not clear if the former radical terrorist  now a prison official  had been deradicalised before he was offered a job at the correctional facility, the fear of his new colleagues is that he could compromise the security of the custodial centre being an ex-loyalist of Boko Haram.

NCoS reacts

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Abubakar Umar, said claiming that a former Boko Haram fighter was recruited might be a plot to escalate the recent Kuje jailbreak.

He compared the story with the claim that Abba Kyari, the suspended Nigerian supercop detained at the maximum prison facility, was among the escapees. The story would later be found to be untrue.

To say that a former Boko Haram member is recruited in any of our facilities is not true, Mr Umar told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview. The service is not aware of such a case.

But our reporting for this yielded leaked official documents debunking Mr Umars claim with details of Mr Yohannas Boko Haram background case. Then, sources said Mr Yohannas case has been a matter of discussion within the correctional service since he was recruited in February.

Mr Umar argued that applicants go through a rigorous process before their employment in the service but insiders insist that the recruitment system had been compromised.

Before recruitment, you go through a process which includes presentation of your papers to ensure that you are the owner of the claimed result, the spokesman said. After that, you go through screening. It is only after the screening that they find you qualified both physically and based on the interview they do, checking your character, then theyll now recruit you.

Is it safe to employ an ex-Boko Haram in a prison facility?

The suspicion of many Nigerians on social media after the recent Kuje prison attack claimed by ISWAP, a Boko Haram splinter group, is that the jailbreak could not have been successful without the help of an insider. This raises the brows of critics and security analysts who wonder if it is safe to employ a former terrorist as a prison official.

In 2021, Babagana Zulum, the Governor of Borno, warned that the deradicalisation of repentant Boko Haram was not working. While speaking at the North-east Governors Forum meeting in Bauchi, Mr Zulum said the initiative needed to be reviewed because some of the ex-Boko Haram fighters only come to spy on communities and then return to join the group.

Security experts contacted by PREMIUM TIMES shared the same view with the Borno Governor. An expert, Azeez Olaniyan, said no notorious terrorist can be completely deradicalised.

These people operate on the basis of ideology and indoctrination so theyre never completely reformed, said Mr Olaniyan. There are tendencies that they may still be loyal to their group. And that is why it is dangerous to completely trust them to the extent of employing them in a correctional facility or any security service.
The influence of former military officers in the political process appears to be reducing as Nigeria heads towards its sixth general elections under the Fourth Republic.

Until their return to the barracks in 1999, soldiers exercised political control of the country for 16 years, following a military coup detat that ended four years and three months of civil rule under the Second Republic (1979 to 1983).

The Fourth Republic began with a former military head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo, elected as the first president of the dispensation. Eight years after Mr Obasanjo left office after serving the maximum two-term tenure, Nigerians in 2015 elected another former general and former head of state, Muhammadu Buhari, whose second term will run out at the end of May next year. Mr Buhari had also been a major challenger to Mr Obasanjo since 2003.

Aside from the two generals who were elected president, many former soldiers had also been elected governors or senators in many parts of the country.

However, for the 2023 elections, no former military officer secured the presidential ticket of either of the two major political parties  the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Also, none of the two other parties  LP and NNPP  that appear to be gaining momentum among Nigerians has a retired military officer as its presidential candidate.

Thus, 2023 could be the first time in the Fourth Republic that a retired military officer will not be a major contender for the office of Nigerias president.

Only one former soldier, Hamza Al Mustapha, a retired army major, secured a presidential party ticket  of the minority Action Alliance (AA). This is a far cry from 2003 when four retired generals, including Messrs Obasanjo and Buhari; Ike Nwachukwu, a former foreign minister in a military government; and Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, a colonel who led the attempted secession of the southeast from Nigeria between 1967 and 1970; all ran in the presidential election.

Military in democracy

The transition to democratic governance in 1999 is more in theory than in Kefas Agbupractice, Lancelot Onwubiko, a political data analyst, said in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES. The military through retired generals have remained in power either in person or by proxy.

Mr Obasanjo defeated Olu Falae, a former finance minister by almost seven million votes in the 1999 election to become the first president of the Fourth Republic.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who in 2015 became the only incumbent in Nigeria to lose reelection, had risen to the presidency when President Umaru YarAdua, a younger brother of a general and deputy head of state, died of an illness in 2010.

Mr YarAdua secured 24.6 million votes in the 2007 election to beat Mr Buhari with 6.6 million, mainly because of the enormous support he enjoyed from Mr Obasanjo and other military top brass, although the election was also massively rigged, according to local and international observers.

In the PDP, a group of former generals, including Mr Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, Theophilus Danjuma and Aliyu Mohammed are believed to still play pivotal roles in the nomination of the partys presidential candidate.

Their covert last-minute endorsement of Atiku Abubakar, Mr Obasanjos former vice president, is believed to have helped Mr Abubakar to pick the partys ticket for the second election running.

Apart from the outsize role the former officers play in the presidential contests, a few of them have also contested and held the senatorial, governorship and other top positions in the Fourth Republic.

A retired naval rear admiral, Mohammed Lawal, who had been a military governor of Ogun State between December 1987 and August 1990, was elected governor of Kwara State in 1999, while Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a retired brigadier-general, was elected governor of Osun State in 2003. He was returned as the winner of the 2007 election but the courts invalidated his return and removed him in 2006.

A retired air commodore of the Nigerian Air Force, Jonah Jang, was elected governor of Plateau State twice in 2007 and 2011, while Murtala Nyako, an admiral and former Chief of Air Staff, was elected governor of Adamawa State in 2007 and 2011.

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Another one-star general, Adetunji Olurin, who served as military Governor of Oyo State and interim governor of Ekiti State following the impeachment of Ayodele Fayose in 2006, contested but lost the governorship election in Ogun State in 2015.

Meanwhile, former officers such as David Mark and Tunde Ogbeha, among a few others, were elected senators, with Mr Mark serving for eight years as the President of the Senate.

The implication of military influence

The role the military holds in politics in Nigeria has consequences beyond the positions officers hold and is affecting both how the law is applied and how Nigerians view their own democracy.

Mr Obasanjo routinely instigated impeachments of state governors and supported an attempt to alter the constitution to remove the term bar for president and governors so as to elongate his tenure.

On his own part, incumbent President Buhari, whose deputy is a law professor, has been accused of showing little respect for the rule of law. Under his watch, secret police arrested judges in a midnight raid and detained journalists. In January 2019, the president suspended the chief justice, an unconstitutional move.

With so many military men with more money than ideas, it was a certainty that they would remain a dominant force in Nigerian politics, Nosa Igiebor, editor-in-chief of Tell, told The Guardian UK in a 2003 publication. Since they have more experience of ruling the country than the civilians, their influence will be felt for a long, long time.

If they really want to have a bigger say in the democratic era, it is the responsibility of the civilian politicians to develop a military-free political culture that will last the test of time.

2023 polls

Though military influence seems to be dwindling, especially in the two dominant parties, ex-military officers winning some party primaries mean they will still be on the ballots.

PREMIUM TIMES profiles below some ex-military officers running for president and governor in the 2023 elections.

1. Hamza Al Mustapha, a retired major

Mr Al Mustapha, a retired major and former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Head of State, Sani Abacha, clinched the presidential ticket of the Action Alliance (AA) for the 2023 general elections.

Mr Al Mustapha scored 506 votes in the primary election to beat his only opponent, Samson Odupitan, who had 216 votes. Recently, the former intelligence officer stunned Nigerians when he said if elected president, he would relocate to Sambisa Forest as part of the measure to end terrorism in the country within six months.

From August 1985 to August 1990, Mr Al-Mustapha was Aide-de-camp (ADC) to the Chief of Army Staff, Mr Abacha. He was trained as a military intelligence operative and held various command posts in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Security Group of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (SG-DMI), 82 Division and Army Headquarters; Ministry of Defence and The Presidency.

2. Sadique Abubakar, ex Airforce chief

A former Chief of Air Staff and retired Air Marshal, Sadique Abubakar, emerged as the APC governorship candidate for the 2023 general election in Bauchi State.

Mr Abubakar, who was Nigerias ambassador to Benin Republic, polled 370 votes to defeat six other aspirants in the primary election.

Mr Abubakar served as Nigerias Chief of Air Staff from July 13, 2015, to January 26, 2021.

His previous appointments include Chief of Standards and Evaluation, NAF Headquarters, Chief of Defence Communications and Air Officer Commanding, NAF Training Command. He served as Chief of Administration, NAF Headquarters prior to his appointment as Chief of Air Staff.

3. Aminu Bande, retired Major-General

A retired major general, Aminu Bande, is the PDP governorship candidate in Kebbi State.

Mr Bande, until his retirement in 2021, was the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 8 Division, Sokoto.

4. Samuel Abashe, retired Major

Samuel Abashe from Gyang Bere, Jos in Plateau State, is a former Commander at War in Liberia and a retired Major.

He was adopted as the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) governorship candidate in Plateau State.

Mr Abashe has hinged his campaign on a promise to fight insecurity in the state.

5. Kefas Agbu, a retired colonel

Kefas Agbu, a retired army colonel and former state chairman of the PDP in Taraba, is the partys flag bearer for next years governorship election.

Mr Kefas, also a former chairman of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), resigned as the state chairman to contest for the ticket. Mr Kefas had contested for the same ticket in 2015.
The Kuje custodial centre that was attacked by terrorists on Tuesday was Nigerias most fortified prison, interior minister Rauf Aregbesola has said.

Mr Aregbesola said this in a statement on Friday after visiting the prison.

The minister said that although the prison is officially a medium security prison, it was the most fortified in the country.

There was a platoon of the Nigerian Army with sophisticated weapons, elite men of the Nigeria Police Force, officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence, and armed officers of the Nigerian Correctional Service, on ground during the time of the attack, he said.

Kuje is the most fortified in the country, if fortification for security is the determinant of whether it is medium or maximum. It is medium by size but maximum by the security in place there.

Mr Aregbesolas lamentation of the failure of security officials to prevent the jail attack is similar to the one expressed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the presidents remarks during his brief visit to the prison on Wednesday.

Mr Buhari wondered how such an attack could have occurred despite the presence of security forces.

However, other officials like defence minister Bashir Magashi have argued that the security officials present were overwhelmed by the sheer number of attackers.

About 300 terrorists are believed to have attacked the prison.

One of the security officials manning the prison was killed while four inmates also died.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that over 800 inmates initially escaped during the attack on the prison with about half still at large and the others rearrested.

Those still at large include the over 60 members of the Boko Haram sect who were being held in the facility.

In his late Friday statement, Mr Aregbesola said the Buhari government would rise to the challenge posed by terrorists.

 we must put whatever is happening now in the context of the asymmetric warfare unleashed on the nation by this criminal elements and we will rise to it, thats the assurance I want to give to Nigerians, he wrote.

Read the ministers full statement below.

Today, I led the management of the Ministry of Interior and her agencies on an inspection visit to the Kuje Custodial Centre that was recently attacked by gunmen suspected to be terrorists.

There was a platoon of the Nigerian Army with sophisticated weapons, elite men of the Nigeria Police Force, officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence, and armed officers of the Nigerian Correctional Service, on ground during the time of the attack.

We have a world class facility by any standard. I am disappointed with the level of defence. We had enough men to protect the facility but unfortunately they couldnt hold their position effectively for defence and that was the reason for the breach.

Now my position is so clear, I have declared since April last year that all our facilities are red zones and that whoever attempts an attack may not live to tell the story. I still maintain this.

Kuje is the most fortified in the country, if fortification for security is the determinant of whether it is medium or maximum. It is medium by size but maximum by the security in place there. We have a platoon of security officers deployed here.

It is very regrettable that this happened. As sad as it is, we must put whatever is happening now in the context of the asymmetric warfare unleashed on the nation by this criminal elements and we will rise to it, thats the assurance I want to give to Nigerians.
The publisher of the Desert Herald newspaper, a Kaduna-based newspaper, Tukur Mamu, has helped in negotiating the release of seven hostages who were abducted from the Kaduna-bound train that was attacked by gunmen in March.

Mr Mamu, who is also a media consultant to a popular Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, helped in securing the release of 11 hostages in June.

According to the Desert Herald, those released on Saturday are Bosede Olurotimi, Abubakar Zubairu, Alhassan Sule and Sadiq Ango Abdullahi.

Others are Muhammad Daiyabu Paki, Aliyu Usman and and a Pakistani Muhammad Abuzar Afzal.

Though Mr Mamu had earlier announced he was withdrawing from mediating between the government and the gunmen because of what he said was the governments lukewarm involvement, he decided to resume negotiation with the gunmen after he was reportedly convinced by notably family members of the victims to reconsider his decision.

He said the seven hostages were handed over to him in Kaduna late Saturday.

Like the previous release, Mr Mamu said he initiated the latest release of the abducted persons with the support of his principal, Mr Gumi.

He thanked the military for the support they rendered during the rescue mission.

After the victims were successfully evacuated, travelling through over 40 kilometres in the forest, they were given a military escort back to Kaduna, Mr Mamu said.

Mr Mamu said no ransom was paid for the release of the passengers.

Money cannot achieve what I have done today. And I will never involve myself in any issue that has to do with money.

We must come together as a nation to confront our challenges. I pray and hope that government will learn a lot of lessons in the development of today. We thank Allah that He uses us to make many happy, Mr Mamu said.
The police command in Kaduna State, said its operatives arrested a suspected bandit and recovered AK-47 rifle in Mariri Village, Saminaka, Lere Local Government Area of the state,

The spokesman of the command, Mohammed Jalige, confirmed the arrest in a statement on Saturday in Kaduna.

Mr Jalige said the command received credible intelligence on suspected movement of illicit arms around Mariri Village, Saminaka in Lere LGA.

According to him, the Commissioner of Police, Yekini Ayoku, ordered an immediate security cordon of the area which yielded positive result with the arrest of a suspected armed bandit on July 7, at about 1800hrs.

He explained that the tactical execution of this operation was in line with the directive of IGP Alkali B Usman, of intelligence led police operation as well as community policing strategy geared toward nipping crimes in the bud.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect aged 25, hailed from the same Mariri village.

Recovered from him are the following items: One Ak47 rifle loaded 29 rounds of 7.62 X 39mm live ammunition and one mobile phone as he confessed to have been a member of kidnapping and cattle rustling syndicate in the area.

The commissioner while reiterating the directive of the IGP, ordered for a meticulous investigation in a bid to arresting other members of the gang as well as recovering their operational logistics for prosecution, he said.

He said the CP equally called on the communities to redouble their current effort in providing actionable and result oriented intelligence such as this to assist the command and its sister agencies to minimise the current security challenges in the state.

(NAN).
A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has called for the immediate sack of Rauf Aregbesola, Minister of Interior, over the frequent jailbreaks under his watch.

In a statement, the group's National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, expressed disappointment over the incessant attacks on the prisons across the country.

Onwubiko said it is distasteful and condemnable that over 15 jailbreaks had occurred under Aregbesola, leading to the escape of over 3,000 inmates.

HURIWA also urged the President to act better in ensuring a stronger intelligence system in the country by setting up a judicial panel of inquiry on prison breaks and strengthen the entire security apparatus in the country.

Onwubiko said, "The spate of jailbreaks under President Muhammadu Buhari and Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, is alarming and condemnable. Even under then President Goodluck Jonathan who had no military experience or background, jailbreaks weren't as rampant as what Nigerians see these days.

"The frequent and recurring jailbreaks show the inefficiency of all those President Buhari appointed into office and his unwillingness to sack them show also that the President tacitly want the situation to continue to fester".

The group also requested the sacking of the Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi; for "perpetual incompetence".
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, a former gubernatorial aspirant in the Peoples Democratic Party, will officially announce his defection to Labour Party (LP) next week, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

Mr Rhodes-Vivour, one of the favourites to clinch the PDPs guber ticket for the 2023 general election, withdrew from the race hours before the partys primaries.

His withdrawal, alongside three other aspirants, paved the way for the emergence of Olajide Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, as the PDP governorship candidate.

A source close to Mr Rhodes-Vivour, who preferred not to be named, told PREMIUM TIMES that the former aspirant is leaving the PDP because of his dissatisfaction with the partys internal politics.

The source further said Mr Rhodes-Vivours defection is connected to the way the PDP handled its guber primaries.

Some media reports had also stated that his dissatisfaction stemmed from the refusal of Mr Adediran to name him as running mate despite being endorsed by all 20 local government chairpersons of the party in the state.

Not aware

Mr Rhodes-Vivour, 39, was the KOWA Party candidate in Ikeja in the 2017 local government election in Lagos State.

He later joined the PDP and ran for the Lagos West senatorial ticket, narrowly losing to the incumbent senator, Solomon Adeola, of the APC, polling 243,516 votes to Mr Adeolas 323,817.

Ifagbemi Awamaridi, the LP chairman in Lagos, told PREMIUM TIMES he is not aware of Mr Rhodes-Vivours decision to join his party yet.

You know he has to join from the ward, and when he does, the ward and the local government chairmen will be aware, said Mr Awamaridi, who is also the LP guber candidate for 2023.

Once he registers with his ward, Ill be aware.

A lot of people always announce they are joining the party and if the person is a political novice, they will just collect money from him.
Two children on Friday died in their school bus in Aguda, Surulere, Lagos.

Benjamin Hundeyin, the commands spokesperson, told PREMIUM TIMES via telephone on Saturday that one of the victims is an eight-year-old male. We are yet to get the details of the other one.

Explaining how it happened, Mr Hundeyin on Twitter said that a school bus driver ignored repeated complaints from the kids he was taking home that they were not feeling well.

He added that some of the children were unconscious, while two eventually died.

He also said that the yet-to-be-identified driver has been arrested by the police while the relevant regulatory agency has been notified of this act of gross negligence.

Mr Hundeyin urged private school owners to pay attention, particularly to their recruitment process.

Parents too need to do thorough background checks of schools and creches before entrusting their kids into their care, he added.

Mr Hundeyin told this newspaper that while an autopsy hasnt been done, everything so far is pointing in the direction of suffocation.

He said that school buses ought to have a First Aid box in case of an emergency and a Health Safety and Environment officer.

ALSO READ: Teacher allegedly rapes teenager in Lagos school

The duty of that officer is to lecture the staff of that organisation on what to do in case of an emergency. What to do in case of maybe fire, building collapse, flood, invasion, he said.

They are also responsible for mapping out muster points. If they had an HSE officer, he would have taught the driver the number to call and measures to take in case of an emergency.

Contacted, assistant director of press at the ministry of education, Ganiu Lawal did not respond to calls and a text message at the time of publication.
The Police in Lagos State on Saturday warned Point of Sales (POS) operators against using their trade to promote extortion at police stations and other areas.

The Commands spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, gave the warning on his Twitter handle, monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Mr Hundeyin, a superintendent of police, said the warning was part of directives from the Force headquarters, Abuja, against extortion and corruption in some police formations.

It has been observed over time that some roving POS operators specialise in hanging around police stations. Investigations reveal that their target customers are innocent Nigerians being extorted by some recalcitrant police officers.

Their presence around the stations has made the extortion game a lot easier.

While the Force continually purges itself of these bad officers, it has become imperative that the activities of POS operators around police stations be regulated.

Some of them have been identified to be enablers of extortion. This regulation is in line with our mandate of not just detecting, but also preventing crime, he said.

Mr Hundeyin warned that POS operators found to have knowingly enabled extortion with the police in any areas would be treated as an accomplice.

Unconfirmed sources have told NAN that some POS operators were arrested near some police stations in Lagos, but were released after warning to keep away by some DPOs. (NAN)
President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived in his Daura country home in Katsina State, for Eid-el- Kabir celebrations.

The presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.

He stated that the presidents plane touched down at the Umaru Musa YarAdua Airport in Katsina at 5.15 pm, and he was received by Governor Aminu Masari and other senior government officials.

On arrival in Daura, the president was received by the emir, Faruk Umar Faruk, members of the Emirate Council and other district heads.

He is expected to return to Abuja July 14.

The president s advance team was attacked in Katsina on Wednesday with two people injured.

(NAN)
The police command in Nasarawa State says it has recaptured one inmate who escaped during the recent attack on Kuje Meduim Security Correctional Centre by terrorists.

This is contained in a statement signed by Ramhan Nansel, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) on behalf Mr Adesina Soyemi, the Commissioner of Police (CP) in Nasarawa State.

The statement was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lafia, Nasarawa State.

The PPRO said the fugitive was arrested by the police personnel of Keffi Division following intelligence.

On July 9, 2022 at about 1:30am, one Hassan Hassan M whose name and picture was amongst the escapees with Boko Haram/Terrorism Case was recaptured by the police operatives of the Nasarawa State Police Command at Keffi.

The CP has ordered for the transfer of the suspect to a safer location while intensive search for other escapees continues.

READ ALSO: UN warns its officials about Abuja after Kuje prison attack

The fugitive will be handed over to the appropriate authority for further action, the statement added.

It said that the CP expressed gratitude to police personnel in the state for their efforts.

It said he appealed to members of the public to help the police with useful information in case they saw others still on the run.

(NAN).
The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has dismissed reports that fleeing inmates from the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Kuje, during the attack, stole money (local and foreign currencies) belonging to their fellow inmates

The Service Public Relations Officer (SPRO), Abubakar Umar confirmed this in a statement on Saturday in Abuja.

Some media reports had alleged that personnel at the Kuje Custodial Centre could not account for the sums of N82 million and $36,000 cash belonging to inmates.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that scores of terrorists had on July 5, launched a daring attack on the facility, bombing their way in.

They freed 879 inmates, among whom were at least 64 who terror-related charges are on their necks.

Mr Umar, however, explained that its personnel did not keep such huge sums within custodial facilities.

He said that the clarification became imperative against the misleading narrative the unfounded information had generated and the diversion of attention from addressing the challenges at stake.

According to him, all inmates cash deposited in the custody of the authorities of the custodial centre was intact and safe.

There is an existing instruction from the Controller General , NCoS, Mr Haliru Nababa that all officers superintending custodial centres must not keep huge sums in the facility, he said.

Mr Umar reported Nababa as sparing no effort or resources in hunting down all the escapees.

He added that it was heart-warming that the integrated strategies were yielding favourable results.

Mr Nababa expressed appreciation to security agencies and patriotic Nigerians whose collaboration was facilitating the recovery.

He assured the public of an irrevocable commitment to bringing back all escapees to answer for their crimes.
Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State has critised a popular prophet in the state, Chukwuemeka Ohanaemere, otherwise known as Odumeje, saying he attempted to stop the demolition of his church building.

Mr Soludo stated this on Friday at the governors lodge, Awka, while briefing journalists on the ongoing demolition of illegal structures in the state.

The clerics church building which was partially pulled down on Thursday was among the illegal structures marked for demolition by the state government in Onitsha North council area of the state.

During the exercise, some task force members, supervising the demolition were captured in a video clip manhandling the cleric.

But during the Friday briefing, which was broadcast live on Facebook, the governor said the clerics attempt to stop the demolition prompted the security agencies to intervene to maintain law and order.

The governors statement came hours after he condemned the manhandling of the cleric by members of the task force.

I received an account that he (Odumeje) drove into the place in a very menacing manner, almost rammed into the security officers and he came out and went to accost the guy who was driving the machine (excavator) with intent to stop him from going on (with the demolition), Mr Soludo said.

He said although the cleric was entitled to be treated with fairness and in humane manner like every other resident, his administration would resist attempts by anybody to challenge the state governments authority and resolve to maintain law and order in the state.

Mr Soludo said he phoned the cleric as soon as he got the details of what transpired during the demolition exercise to hear his side of the story in order to make a balanced and fair judgment about the incident.

He said the owners of the affected buildings and structures were sufficiently notified of the demolition about two months ago, but failed to remove the marked structures, believing that the state government would condone impunity.

I am sure God in his infinite wisdom will be very offended by anybody claiming that he built a church to worship God whereas you use that church to create a circumstance that is killing people and destroying the properties of others, he stated.

No compensation

The governor also said the state government would not compensate owners of the demolished illegal structures.

He said they would instead be asked to pay the government for the cost of demolition since they failed to remove their illegal structures themselves as earlier instructed.

READ ALSO: Anambra govt demolishes church building of popular prophet

We had asked the people who built on these (drainage) channels to remove them by themselves. Now, they have failed, he said.

This demolition is costing us money. It will cost money to take away the debris. By the time we finish, we will put down the cost and send them the bill. They really have to pay for the cost of the demolition, Mr Soludo added.

The governor noted that rather than seek compensation, the owners of the illegal structures should be concerned with how to compensate families of people who lost their lives during a flood caused by these structures last year.

They should be apologising to Ndi Anambra and then pay compensation for the people that their actions have led to their deaths, the governor said.
THE United Nations (UN) has urged Tanzania to keep the momentum that has evidently built up in coverage of Covid-19 vaccination.

More so, it has reiterated a commitment to collaborate with Tanzania to increase the uptake of the vaccine in continued efforts to fight the global pandemic.

Speaking shortly before concluding his tour in the country, the UN Assistant Secretary-General and the Global Lead Coordinator for Covid-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership, Mr Ted Chaiban, also commended Tanzania for doubling uptake of Covid-19 vaccine.

"Tanzania has done a great job by increasing coverage of Covid-19 vaccination from 6 per cent a few weeks ago to more than 12 per cent now," he said.

He was optimistic that if this will be maintained, then the country will be able to vaccinate 70 per cent of the adult population by December this year.

Mr Chaiban also commended the government for its decision to hold campaigns for increasing awareness of the vaccine among people in the country.

"During our stay in Tanzania, we have observed a huge increase in vaccination, starting with the Ruvuma region," he said.

For her part, the Minister for Health, Ummy Mwalimu said the government will continue with efforts to increase the number of Tanzanians who are vaccinated. Speaking recently during their meeting with Vice-President Dr Phillip Mpango, Chaiban said although Tanzania has not reached the international target of administering the vaccine to 70 per cent of its population, it has been able to increase the vaccination rate from 6.3 per cent by the end of 2021 to 12.4 per cent at present.

He said Tanzania was late in launching the vaccination, but they commend it for being able to take steps which have increased the number of people taking the jab through outreach programmes and health facilities.

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"Tanzania now needs to keep the momentum and accelerate vaccination; especially by ensuring that groups such as the elderly and people with chronic illnesses are given priority and to ensure that all are vaccinated," he said.

Elaborating, the UN official said challenges brought by Covid-19 pandemic should provide a lesson to developing countries on how to strategise and invest heavily in basic healthcare, especially by ensuring that their locally made drugs address outbreak of diseases.

He added: "There is also a need to create public awareness for employees in sectors such as education and tourism to promote vaccination campaigns in their midst."

Responding, Dr Mpango assured Mr Chaiban of the government's readiness to work with the international community in tackling Covid-19 pandemic, "We are providing jabs to all groups of people who are at risk of contracting the virus.

Among the efforts to deal with the pandemic is continuous improvement of our health systems through several interventions, including capacity building for medical personnel to tackle the disease," he said.

"Other efforts include improvement of emergency services as well as construction and rehabilitation of health facilities to enhance the provision of basic health services," added the Vice-President.

Mr Chaiban was in Tanzania for an official visit to meet government officials and key partners to support acceleration of the Covid-19 vaccination.
Live Good's "A Celebration of Love and Unity" charity event series to raise money for the homeless held its first-ever "Lunch with the Mayor"

IRVINE, Calif., July 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On Saturday, June 25, 2022, Live Good, Inc in partnership with Union Station Homeless Services (USHS), kicked off its first official "Lunch with the Mayor" held at Palm Court at the Great Park in Irvine, CA. Attendees were treated to an intimate and private luncheon with guest of honor, Irvine Mayor, Farrah Khan.

As a contribution to "A Celebration of Love and Unity," Bristol Farms, Southern California's specialty gourmet grocer, generously donated its catering services for the special community gathering. Guests enjoyed Bristol Farms housemade Prime Rib Eye, Lemon Rosemary Chicken, Twice Baked Potatoes and array of sides and desserts.

Other attendees included: Irvine City Council members, Irvine City Planner and their assistants, officers from the Irvine Police Department, representatives from Union Station Homeless Services, and Live Good team members comprised of UCI students and high school students from both Irvine and Santa Ana who take part in the Live Good academic mentorship program.

For the past six years, Live Good team members have volunteered in serving Thanksgiving Dinner to the homeless in LA and Pasadena through USHS. Earlier this year Live Good and USHS paired up to bring the pressing issue of homelessness to the attention of the Irvine community and build bridges across southern California to find strategic solutions.

A memorable highlight of the event was the open dialogue between local leaders, law enforcement, high school students and UCI students. The young guests had an opportunity for their voices to be heard. They actively engaged in conversation, asking questions and discussing topics important to them such as gun control, mental health, women's rights, and how the changing political landscape is affecting the nation's youth.

"A special thank you to the police officers who not only provided security during our event but also insightful comments during our discussion about issues facing our nation today. The purpose of this event was to bring together diverse ideas and people from all walks of life so that we can work together as a community to create a better environment for our youth."

- Live Good Founder & CEO, Jennifer Chi

About Live Good Inc.

Live Good is a UCI student-run sustainable company with education and diversity as its core principles. Its mission is to promote ethical business practices, sustainable manufacturing, and human rights in California and around the world.

Live Good was founded in 2012 as a direct response to current unhealthy manufacturing conditions. As a human rights investigator examining factory production in Asia with a focus on human trafficking, Live Good Founder Jennifer Chi saw firsthand the devastating toll present-day mass manufacturing has on human rights and the environment. The company's goal is to model and inspire conscientious manufacturing: promoting local, organic methods that make a positive impact on people and the planet.

To learn more about Live Good and sign up for their newsletter visit: Live Good Inc. Follow on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @LiveGoodInc

Contact:

Adrienne Johnson

***@gmail.com

Photos:

https://www.prlog.org/12924410

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE Live Good Inc.
Amazon.com Inc., AO Kaspersky Lab, Broadcom Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Fortinet Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Intel Corp., and International Business Machines Corp. are some of the major market participants.

To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

The rapid increase in the use of mobile and other connected devices is notably driving the artificial intelligence-based cybersecurity market growth, although factors such as technical difficulties in developing ai technologies may impede the market growth. Request for a Sample Report!

Artificial Intelligence-based Cybersecurity Market Segmentation

End-user

BFSI



Government



ICT



Healthcare



Others

Geography

APAC



North America



Europe



South America



MEA

APAC will account for 44% of market growth. The main markets in APAC for artificial intelligence-based cybersecurity are China, Japan, and India. This region's market will expand more quickly than those in other areas. Over the projection period, the increasing use of mobile devices would support the expansion of the artificial intelligence-based cybersecurity market in APAC.

Get the sample report for additional insights into the contribution of all the segments, and regional opportunities in the report.

Artificial Intelligence-based Cybersecurity Market Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our artificial intelligence-based cybersecurity market report covers the following areas:

Artificial Intelligence-based Cybersecurity Market Vendor Analysis

The report analyzes the market's competitive landscape and offers information on several market vendors, including:

Amazon.com Inc.

AO Kaspersky Lab

Broadcom Inc.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Dell Technologies Inc.

Fortinet Inc.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

Intel Corp.

International Business Machines Corp.

To gain access to more vendor profiles with their key offerings available with Technavio, Click Here

Parent Market Analysis

Technavio categorizes the global AI-based cybersecurity market as a part of the global systems software market within the global information technology market.

The end-to-end understanding of the value chain is essential in profit margin optimization and evaluation of business strategies. The data available in our value chain analysis segment can help vendors drive costs and enhance customer services during the forecast period.

The value chain of the global systems software market includes the following core components:

Inputs

Inbound logistics

Operations

Outbound logistics

Marketing and sales

Service

Support activities

Innovation

Uncover successful business strategies deployed by leading vendors by purchasing our full report. Request a Sample Report .

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Artificial Intelligence-based Cybersecurity Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Decelerate at a CAGR of 22.27% Market growth 2021-2025 $ 18.94 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 26.65 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution APAC at 44% Key consumer countries US, China, UK, Japan, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Amazon.com Inc., AO Kaspersky Lab, Broadcom Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Fortinet Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Intel Corp., and International Business Machines Corp. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, Market condition analysis for forecast period Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table Of Contents :

1 Executive Summary

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 01: Parent market



Exhibit 02: Market characteristics

2.2 Value chain analysis

Exhibit 03: Value chain analysis: System software market

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 04: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 05: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2020

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2020 - 2025

Exhibit 06: Global - Market size and forecast 2020 - 2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 07: Global market: Year-over-year growth 2020 - 2025 (%)

4 Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five Forces Summary

Exhibit 08: Five forces analysis 2020 & 2025

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 09: Bargaining power of buyers

4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 10: Bargaining power of suppliers

4.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 11: Threat of new entrants

4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 12: Threat of substitutes

4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 13: Threat of rivalry

4.7 Market condition

Exhibit 14: Market condition - Five forces 2020

5 Market Segmentation by End-user

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 15: End user - Market share 2020-2025 (%)

5.2 Comparison by End user

Exhibit 16: Comparison by End user

5.3 BFSI - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 17: BFSI - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 18: BFSI - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

5.4 Government - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 19: Government - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 20: Government - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

5.5 ICT - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 21: ICT - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 22: ICT - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

5.6 Healthcare - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 23: Healthcare - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 24: Healthcare - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

5.7 Others - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 25: Others - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 26: Others - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

5.8 Market opportunity by End user

Exhibit 27: Market opportunity by End user

6 Customer landscape

7 Geographic Landscape

7.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 29: Market share by geography 2020-2025 (%)

7.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 30: Geographic comparison

7.3 APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 31: APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 32: APAC - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.4 North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Exhibit 33: North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

Exhibit 34: North America - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.5 Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Exhibit 35: Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

Exhibit 36: Europe - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Exhibit 37: South America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)

Exhibit 38: South America - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.7 MEA - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Exhibit 39: MEA - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ($ million)



Exhibit 40: MEA - Year-over-year growth 2020-2025 (%)

7.8 Key leading countries

Exhibit 41: Key leading countries

7.9 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 42: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.2 Market challenges

8.3 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

Exhibit 44: Vendor landscape

9.2 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 45: Landscape disruption



Exhibit 46: Industry risks

9.3 Competitive Scenario

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 47: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 48: Market positioning of vendors

10.3 Amazon.com Inc.

Exhibit 49: Amazon.com Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 50: Amazon.com Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 51: Amazon.com Inc.  Key news



Exhibit 52: Amazon.com Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 53: Amazon.com Inc. - Segment focus

10.4 AO Kaspersky Lab

Exhibit 54: AO Kaspersky Lab - Overview



Exhibit 55: AO Kaspersky Lab - Product and service



Exhibit 56: AO Kaspersky Lab - Key offerings

10.5 Broadcom Inc.

Exhibit 57: Broadcom Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 58: Broadcom Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 59: Broadcom Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 60: Broadcom Inc. - Segment focus

10.6 Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Exhibit 61: Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 62: Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 63: Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.  Key news



Exhibit 64: Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. - Key offerings

10.7 Cisco Systems Inc.

Exhibit 65: Cisco Systems Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 66: Cisco Systems Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 67: Cisco Systems Inc.  Key news



Exhibit 68: Cisco Systems Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 69: Cisco Systems Inc. - Segment focus

10.8 Dell Technologies Inc.

Exhibit 70: Dell Technologies Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 71: Dell Technologies Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 72: Dell Technologies Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 73: Dell Technologies Inc. - Segment focus

10.9 Fortinet Inc.

Exhibit 74: Fortinet Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 75: Fortinet Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 76: Fortinet Inc. - Key offerings

10.10 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

Exhibit 77: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. - Overview



Exhibit 78: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. - Business segments



Exhibit 79: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. - Key offerings



Exhibit 80: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. - Segment focus

10.11 Intel Corp.

Exhibit 81: Intel Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 82: Intel Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 83: Intel Corp.  Key news



Exhibit 84: Intel Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 85: Intel Corp. - Segment focus

10.12 International Business Machines Corp.

Exhibit 86: International Business Machines Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 87: International Business Machines Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 88: International Business Machines Corp.  Key news



Exhibit 89: International Business Machines Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 90: International Business Machines Corp. - Segment focus

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 91: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.3 Research methodology

Exhibit 92: Research Methodology



Exhibit 93: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 94: Information sources

11.4 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 95: List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
NEW YORK, July 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of HUMBL, LLC (OTC: HMBL) and/or the Company's unregistered digital asset (sold as BLOCKS Exchange Traded Index ("ETXs") on various cryptocurrency exchanges) between November 1, 2020 and May 19, 2022, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period") of the important July 19, 2022 lead plaintiff deadline.

SO WHAT: If you purchased Humbl securities and/or the Company's ETXs during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Humbl class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=6398 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than July 19, 2022. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants violated provisions of the Exchange Act by making false and misleading statements concerning the Company's growth prospects, technological advancements, international partnerships, and financial benefits for Humbl common stock and digital asset investors, as well as using selectively timed announcements to keep Humbl stock price high so that Company insiders could sell off their holdings into artificially created volume. The complaint also alleges that defendants violated provisions of the Securities Act by selling its unregistered securities (BLOCK ETX digital assets) to investors.

To join the Humbl class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=6398 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
NEW ORLEANS, July 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Romeo Power, Inc. (NYSE: RMO) f/k/a RMG Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: RMG).

On December 29, 2020, Romeo announced that it completed its business combination with RMG and the next day began trading its common stock and warrants on the NYSE under the new ticker symbols "RMO" and "RMO.WT". On March 30, 2021, the Company shocked investors when it announced its financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2020, disclosing that production had been hindered by a shortage in supply of battery cells and therefore its estimated 2021 revenue would be reduced by approximately 71-87%.

Thereafter, the Company and certain of its executives were sued in a securities class action lawsuit, charging them with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws. Recently, the court presiding over that case denied the Company's motion to dismiss in part, allowing the case to move forward.

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Romeo's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to the Company's shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.

If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of Romeo shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-rmo/ to learn more.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients  including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors  in seeking to recover investment losses due to corporate fraud and malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

[email protected]

1-877-515-1850

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
NEW YORK, July 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) between February 24, 2021 and June 9, 2022, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important August 29, 2022 lead plaintiff deadline.

SO WHAT: If you purchased Wells Fargo securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Wells Fargo class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=7261 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than August 29, 2022. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Wells Fargo had misrepresented its commitment to diversity in the Company's workplace; (2) Wells Fargo conducted fake job interviews in order to meet its Diverse Search Requirement; (3) the foregoing conduct subjected Wells Fargo to an increased risk of regulatory and/or governmental scrutiny and enforcement action, including criminal charges; (4) all of the foregoing, once revealed, was likely to negatively impact Wells Fargo's reputation; and (5) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the Wells Fargo class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=7261 mailto:or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
Shares in Pantheon Resources PLC (AIM:PANR, OTC:PTHRF) and 88 Energy Ltd (AIM:88E, ASX:88E, OTC:EEENF) advanced this week as the former announced the start of drilling operations for the Alkaid-2 well in Alaska.

The potentially pivotal well promises to put a rubber stamp on what could become a major new multi-billion barrels oil asset, on American soil.

Success with a series of previous wells has sent Pantheon to a very substantial valuation  peaking at around 1bn immediately before equities slipped into a bear market, and, todays price of 89p pitches the market cap at close to 700mln.

Pantheons share price performance for the past year highlights the high-stakes nature of the Alkaid well, meanwhile, Alaskan neighbour 88 Energy is living somewhat vicariously through PANRs project, though more about that later.

Right now, lets focus on Pantheon and take a look at the reasons that Alkaid is going to be a very closely followed drill programme.

It is big

Boil the investment proposition back to its basics and the opportunity appear quite simple  theres a good chance that theres a lot of oil, or at least thats the theory.

Exploration experts, internal and external to the company, believe there are very large accumulations of oil in the region known as Alaskas North Slope.

Pantheons project area in located further onshore from previous coastal discoveries such as Prudhoe Bay (estimated to have some 33bn barrels of oil in place) and Kuparuk/West Sak (14bn barrels OIP), and is to the east of Smith Bay, Pikka-Horseshoe and Willow discoveries which measure in the hundreds of millions of barrels.

As the drill-bit began turning in the Alkaid-2 well Pantheon technical director Bob Rosenthal highlighted that the AIM-quoted explorer had discovered a lot of oil so far in its project area.

To date the oil-in-place volume is estimated at 23bn barrels, with 2.3bn of those presently deemed as potentially recoverable.

Alkaid-2 could lead to an upgrade on those already big numbers, depending on results.

Successfully testing the reservoirs at greater depth, in this location, is likely to increase the known scale of the resource, according to WH Irelands oil and gas analyst Brendan Long.

The WH Ireland analyst, who pitches his fair value estimate for Pantheon at some 208p (versus todays price of 90p), meanwhile, points to the other important aspect of Alkaid.

Going horizontal now

Pantheons successful Alaskan wells to date have all been vertical test wells, designed to confirm the presence of hydrocarbons and gather valuable data, but, any future development of the fields will comprise horizontal production wells.

For those unfamiliar with the methodology, the idea is pretty straightforward (and was the basis for much of the United States onshore oil boom seen over the past two decades).

A vertical pilot is drilled down until it reaches the depth of the reservoir (in such wells often referred to as the horizon or formation) at which point one or more lateral holes are drilled across and through the expanse of the oil-bearing feature.

It massively increases the surface area to which the well bore is exposed, and, as a result means much higher volumes of oil can be produced.

Understanding this fairly simplified explanation of such wells helps explain the excitement over Pantheons expectation beating wells drilling in 2019.

The most recent well, Theta West, was a vertical hole and flowed oil at a rate of 57 barrels per day in a brief period of testing and before that the Talitha A well confirmed a test rate of 32 bopd, and before that, its preceding Talitha well yielded 73 bopd.

Alkaid, Pantheons first vertical discovery well in Alaska, drilled in 2015 and flowed around 100 barrels during testing in 2019.

A cynic without much understanding of the oil industry would probably wince at the notion that Pantheons near 700mln valuation could be built on such a catalogue of test flows.

The companys point of view has, however, always been clear.

Pantheon is on the path to unlocking an enormous basin play, Bob Rosenthal said in March.

Pantheon has an opportunity to develop a number of large, discreet oil accumulations in an established oil province adjoining export infrastructure, which we believe is unique.

Chief executive Jay Cheatham added: we have collected enough data to confirm our expectations that we have discovered, and now appraised, an extensive resource which we believe meets or exceeds our pre-drill estimates.

Higher volume production statistics from a horizontal well like Alkaid-2 will be undeniable, and, of course, will go a long way to shoring up the commercial case for developing oil fields across Pantheons acreage in Alaska.

The Alkaid drill in detail

Pantheon has explained to investors that Alkaid-2 will have multiple objectives, over multiple formations.

It will test the oil zones discovered previously by the Alkaid-1 well, as well as being drilled deeper to appraise an oil target thats anticipated as an extension to oil resources seen in Talitha-1, and will also go for previously untested exploration targets.

Alkaid-2 will include what the company says will be a conservative lateral section  notably shorter than the 8,000 ft section thats envisaged for a full development scenario  in order to minimise operational risk.

Like other wells on the Alaskan North Slope (ANS) it is anticipated that the well will utilise unconventional oil production technologies, applied to conventional oil reservoirs, in order to maximize potential reserves and production.

Such stimulation has become standard operating procedure across the entire ANS, Pantheon noted.

Significantly, the sort of extend testing planned in a success case would open up a potentially lucrative revenue source for the company.

The Alkaid-2 well is the first production well in this new oil field using unconventional technology. As is typical in the industry, we will apply what we learn from this well to subsequent wells in order to optimise future drilling, testing and production, chief executive Jay Cheatham said in Thursdays statement.

"Commercial success at any standalone project, along with our geographic location, onshore and adjacent to export infrastructure in a low sovereign risk jurisdiction, would be transformational for Pantheon."

What analysts say

WH Ireland analyst Brendan Long, in a recent note, described the previous drill campaign as unambiguously positive, and, called the Lower Basin Floor Fan (seen in the Theta West well) as a giant elephant.

This is the basis of Longs fair value estimate for Pantheons shares pitched at 208p, suggesting more than 100% upside the current market price of around 90p.

Alkaid-2, meanwhile, is a baby elephant according to Long, who wrote in come cover and caveats ahead of the next well.

The Alkaid-2 well is not, in our opinion, a make or break well.

In our opinion, there is zero chance that any result at Alkaid would reduce our enthusiasm for the main prize, the Lower Basin Floor Fan of the Theta West structure.

It is also critical to appreciate that Alkaid#2 is an early-stage appraisal well. That it can be brought onstream on along-term production test (and thereby generate revenue) is reflective of the extraordinarily advantageous operating environment enjoyed by Pantheon Resources, inclusive of its access to road and pipeline infrastructure.

It is wrong, in our opinion, to expect the well to come on like a fully optimised developmental well: That is typically not the intention/expectation for the first-ever horizontal well completed in a large-scale resource play, based on our experience.

The analyst added: For us, we are most interested in gaining an understanding of the reservoirs flow behaviour over time.

If that behaviour is encouraging, we have confidence that both initial production rates and expected ultimate recoveries per well can be scaled up over time by drilling longer wells and fracking them more intensely.

Based on investor discussions and market commentary we would caution against putting the cart ahead of the horse due to the rather extraordinary ease with which Pantheon Resources is able to monetise oil production from its wells.

In our opinion, an appraisal well is an appraisal well, even if its production is monetised.

So, why is 88 Energy relevant?

Many of London small-cap investors were likely introduced to Alaskas North Slope via 88 Energy.

The exploration company has had an acreage position since 2015 and, has at different times garnered an awful lot of attention and speculation with its exploits.

It has drilled a number of wells and has progressed its own acreage, albeit (to borrow from WH Ireland and paraphrase) its results have been less unambiguously positive than Pantheons.

Whilst 88 Energy continues to progress its other exploration interest in the region (across its Project Icewine, Project Peregrine, the Umiat and Yukon projects), right now the activity of its neighbour is the most impactful catalyst for the company.

According to 88 Energy this is more than an exercise in nearology though. Studies commissioned by the company have determined that geologies observed by Pantheon, in its wells, crossover into a section of the Icewine territory.

Consultant Jordan & Pay evaluated the Shelf Margin Delta (SMD), Slope Fan Set (SFS) and Basin Floor Fan (BFF) play fairways across the Project Icewine acreage on Alaskas North Slope.

The consultants report, completed in May, used publicly available information related to the Pantheon wells and concluded that all of Pantheons reservoir units extend into the Icewine acreage.

At the same time, it had petrophysical data from a prior Icewine well was re-evaluated.

More recently, in June, it agreed to acquire data which are said to include 3D seismic data for an area it says covers the SMD, SFS and BFF  it spent US$1mln for this access.

All this desktop work is intended to culminate in a data package to support a farm-out process, which the company hopes will being in a new partner and funding for future exploration.

88 Energy says it wants to drill a well to test these targets in 2023.

Such is the timeline, 88 Energy shares are likely to follow the near-term fortunes of Pantheon and therefore its investors will keep a very close eye on the well programme.
Chalice Mining Ltd (ASX:CHN, OTCQB:CGMLF) has unearthed a new nickel-copper-platinum group element (PGE) sulphide zone in maiden drilling at Dampier target, 10 kilometres north of the Gonneville deposit within the Julimar Nickel-Copper-PGE Project in Western Australia.

The new zone of mineralisation revealed in drill hole HD013 is between 15 and 80 metres wide, averaging 1-3% sulphides from the base of oxidation (67.6 metres deep) to 212.4 metres of depth, extensively crosscut by narrow dolerite dykes.

These dolerite dykes host intervals of disseminated to heavily disseminated sulphides, in sections of 4.2 metres, 5.8 metres and 6.4 metres at varying depths from 191.4 metres to 208.6 metres.

A portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spot measurement confirmed the presence of nickel and copper mineralisation within the sulphide intervals, although laboratory assays will be needed for final confirmation of grades.

CHN shares were as much as 16% higher to A$4.35 while the company's market cap is approximately A$1.49 billion.

Dampier target details

Two other drill holes intersected sulphides within the Dampier target.

HD010 hit a zone of 50 metres in width, host to weakly disseminated sulphides from 456 metres depth which contained minor zones of matrix sulphides, including an assay of:

3.2 metres at 0.71 g/t palladium + platinum + gold (3E), 0.10% nickel, 0.06% copper and 0.01% cobalt from 454.8 metres.

HD009 also intersected anomalous nickel-copper-PGE mineralisation from 306 metres depth within a 15-metre interval of weakly disseminated sulphides (1-2%) which Chalice has interpreted to be the outer north-eastern limit of the target zone.

Down-hole electromagnetic (DHEM) surveying in HD009 and HD010 has also revealed the presence of off-hole conductors that correlate with the heavily disseminated/matrix zone in HD013.

Chalice has so far defined the Dampier target over a strike of 350 metres, with a down-dip extent of 250 metres, remaining open in all directions.

It correlates with a 1,000-metre-long magnetic high and nickel-chromium soil anomaly with a very subtle electromagnetic (EM) response, offering an opportunity for further discoveries.

The company will continue to drill test for strike and dip extensions under existing approvals and permits.

Further drilling work

Chalice says the combination of sulphide zones and EM conductors highlight the prospectivity of this area, an untested 30-kilometre-long section of the Julimar Intrusive Complex, and has identified several targets along strike for immediate drilling.

Of 70 planned sites, 13 have now been drill tested at the Hartog-Dampier targets to date with four diamond drill rigs in operation on-site.

Chalice's low-impact exploration program is using small footprint diamond drill rigs that dont involve mechanised clearing of vegetation or excavation.

The company emphasises that comprehensive flora, fauna and culture heritage surveys and monitoring are being used according to industry best practice and the project works are strictly governed by a Conservation Management Plan approved by the WA Government in late 2021.
New Delhi, July 9 : Former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, expressing grief over the death of former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, shared an incidence when despite the latter's ill health during his visit to India in 2007 he did not let anyone know about it.

Reacting on national mourning of one day in India, Kumar said that this decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be appreciated, Abe was not an ordinary person.

"He was not only the Prime Minister of Japan but also a good friend of India. I had a relationship with him and we met several times. He was the master of his humility and human dignity, this was his best quality," Kumer added.

"It is hard to find any other example in the history of the world when a prime minister of a powerful country like Japan resigns from his post not once but twice due to health reasons. In 2007, when Prime Minister Abe came to India for the first time, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh gave me the opportunity to be with him during the visit. I, Abe, and his wife were sitting in his car... I have seen him very closely," Kumar recalled.

"When he gave a speech in Parliament in August 2007, he was praised in India, Japan and all over the world. As soon as he returned to Japan, he resigned from his post because he had a stomach problem." "However, after recovering from stomach problem, once again he took the responsibility as the Prime Minister. Later, he again resigned from the post due to the same problem, and had said that his health condition is not good enough to serve his country," the former minister recalls.

"I remember he used to have a lot of pain in his stomach, and his wife used to look at him and gather courage, but he never let anyone know about the pain," he added.

Kumar also mentioned that when Abe was not the Prime Minister, "he had come to meet me, and after listening to his thoughts, I had told him to become the Prime Minister once again, at which he smiled".
Luanda  Angolan Head of State Joao Lourenco appealed Friday in Luanda for the serenity in the face of the death of the former President of the Republic, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, which took place in Barcelona, Spain.

In a statement, Lourenco hailed dos Santos' dedication to the country, lauding him as a "unique figure of the Angolan homeland."

Speaking to the press, at the end of an emergency meeting of the MPLA, the ruling party, of which Jose Eduardo dos Santos was President Emeritus, he said that he was a great patriot, who gave his whole life for the good of Angola and the Angolans.

For this reason, he asked people to follow the programme of the funeral through the media, until the "state funeral to which he is entitled and which it is the Executive's obligation to organise".

Likewise, he expressed his solidarity with the family at this very difficult time, adding that "they do not suffer alone. Whole people are sharing the same pain".

As for the return or not of some of his children who are abroad, he stressed that "at the moment the Executive is mainly focused on execution of the funeral and, no authority in the country has the competence to prevent Angolan citizens living abroad from returning to their country, no matter what the circumstances".

"In view of the current circumstances, there is no reason why the family residing abroad can't attend the funeral of their loved one. We are relying on the presence of everyone without exception," he said.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos was President of the MPLA and of the Republic of Angola, positions held from 1979 to 2017, in addition to other relevant functions in the central administration of the State.
Riyadh, July 9 : Saudi Arabia has announced that its health services were running at full capacity to ensure the health and safety of pilgrims during the ongoing Hajj season.

Health Minister Fahad bin Abdulrahman Al-Jalajel said that pilgrims at Saudi Arabia's Mount Arafat, a hill about 20 kilometers southeast of Mecca that hosted an important ritual of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, were in good health condition, Xinhua news agency reported.

Health Ministry spokesperson Mohamed Al-Abdal said there were no outbreaks of contagious diseases or illnesses that could endanger public health among the pilgrims, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The number of pilgrims in this year's Hajj season reached nearly 900,000, including about 780,000 foreign pilgrims and 120,000 pilgrims from Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's General Authority for Statistics revealed on Friday.

This year's Hajj began on Thursday and ends on July 12. It is the first to allow foreign pilgrims to perform Hajj after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

In 2021, the holy city of Mecca received around 60,000 pilgrims, while the number in 2019 was 2.5 million, according to the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.
Srinagar, July 9 : Rescue operation was resumed at the Amarnath cave shrine on Saturday where 15 people were killed and over 40 injured in a cloudburst Friday evening.

Authorities have temporarily suspended the Yatra from both Baltal and Pahalgam base camps.

Teams of NDRF, SDRF, BSF, CRPF, Army, police and ITBP resumed rescue operation with the first light on Saturday morning, officials said.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Ganderbal district, Afroza Shah has told reporters that 15 people have died and over 40 injured in Friday's flash flood triggered by the cloudburst. She said five people were rescued alive from the debris of the flash flood.

Operation to ascertain the exact number of casualties, injuries and missing persons is still going on.

Reports from the disaster site said 25 to 30 tents of the pilgrims and five 'Langars' (Community Kitchens) were washed away in the high speed muddy slush triggered by the cloudburst that occurred around 5.30 p.m. Friday.

Army has pressed helicopters into service to assist the civil administration in relief and rescue operation.

MeT department has forecast that another cloud is moving towards the Baltal-Holy cave route which is likely to cause light to moderate rainfall.

"Flash flood/shooting stone may occur at vulnerable places. Please remain alert," the forecast said.
Kiev, July 9 : Due to the ongoing Russian blockade, about 30 chiefs of European railways plan to sign the "Ukrainian Declaration" in Vienna on Saturday help Kiev export grain.

Among other things, the document stipulates that new terminals and trans-shipment points would have to be built to better export the grain by rail, Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

According to Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz, even if the war ends quickly, it will probably take longer before the sea route is fully usable again because of the mines.

Lutz also noted that Kiev is working on bringing its railway track in line with the European one, which is narrower.

"This is another signal that Ukraine is moving towards the European family at full speed," he was quoted as saying.

Ukraine has to export about 22 million tonnes of grain, while the railway allows it to export about 800 thousand tonnes per month.

Previously, the former deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Senik, said that in the conditions of the sea blockade of Russia, Kiev had established two grain export channels across Poland and Romania, reports Ukrayinska Pravda.

It is also negotiating with the Baltic states.

President Volodymyr Zelensky recently confirmed Ukraine is negotiating with Turkey and the UN regarding the export of grain by sea.
San Francisco, July 9 : Tech billionaire Elon Musk is officially trying to pull out of his $44 billion agreement to purchase microblogging site Twitter.

In a filing on Friday afternoon with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk's team claimed he is terminating the deal because Twitter was in "material breach" of their agreement and had made "false and misleading" statements during negotiations.

"For nearly two months, Musk has sought the data and information necessary to 'make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter's platform'," Musk's legal team wrote.

"Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information," they added.

Twitter still hopes to close the deal, despite Musk's attempted termination.

Twitter board chairman Bret Taylor wrote that the company will "pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement" and feels "confident we will prevail" in court.

Musk has been setting the stage to abandon the deal just weeks after he signed the agreement, claiming that Twitter released misleading stats about the prevalence of spam bots on its platform.

It is entirely unclear, however, that Musk can legally abandon his agreement simply because he isn't happy about the presence of spam on Twitter, something he could have investigated before signing the deal.

Twitter has gone to great lengths to show compliance with Musk's requests.

In early June, the company opened up "firehose" access to its service so that Musk could receive and analyze every tweet as it was posted. The company has also continuously tried to reassure the public that it has spam and bots under control.

On Thursday, it told the press that it was blocking over a million spam accounts per day, and in May, its CEO wrote a long thread about how Twitter determines how many of its users are bots.
Seoul, July 9 : North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a large-scale group photo session with officials from the ruling party amid an ongoing Covid-19 outbreak in the country, state media reported on Saturday.

Photos released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) show Kim standing in close proximity with hundreds of officials from the ruling Workers' Party without masks.

Kim last held such a mass photo session in early May with soldiers and youth groups that participated in a massive military parade in April, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The two events were noted among analysts as key factors that could have prompted the rapid spread of Covi-19 in the North.

Observers said the latest photo session is aimed at displaying Kim's confidence in containing the pandemic.

North Korea claims that Covid-19 infections are slowing down, with new suspected cases below 2,000 on Friday, after peaking at over 392,920 on May 15.

The North disclosed its first Covid-19 case on May 12 after claiming to be coronavirus-free for over two years.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Jaipur, July 9 : A retired policeman from Rajasthan's Bikaner, who saved many people from drowning in the flash flood triggered by cloudburst, was swept away in gushing waters near Amarnath cave shrine in South Kashmir Himalayas.

The deceased was identified as Sushil Khatri, former in-charge of Sri Ganganagar traffic police station.

Khatri's relative Sunita Wadwa, also hailing from the desert state, also died in the tragedy that killed 15 people and injured more than 40.

Khatri was among the batch of 17 devotees who had left from Sri Ganganagar on July 3 and had retired from service just nine days before the tragedy struck.

After his retirement, he had planned a holiday with his wife and son.

Khatri, 61, was staying in a tent near the Amarnath cave.

In the evening, as the flood water gushed in, the tents started gettting washed away.

Many people of Sri Ganganagar, including Khatri, his relative Sunita and her husband Mohanlal were also present.

Khatri saved many people before being swept away.

Confirming the death of Khatri, Amarnath Langar Seva Samiti president, Sri Ganganagar, Navneet Sharma, said that he could not meet Khatri but had met Mohanlal Wadhwa and his wife Sunita Wadhwa, a cloth merchant from Sri Ganganagar, who were part of the batch of 17 devotees from Sri Ganganagar.
Indore, July 9 : At least 16 people were killed due to lightning strikes in different parts of Madhya Pradesh in the last three days.

On Saturday morning, a 60-year-old woman died on the spot after she was struck by lightning in Shivpuri.

The victim's son has been hospitalised with severe burn injuries.

On Friday, six college students who had gone on a picnic at a forest area Sheopur district were also struck, leading to the deaths of three while the remaining were severely injured and admitted to the Gwalior Medical College.

In another incident in Bhind, two women identified as Ramkali (70) and Gyanodevi (40) died in Sukand village.

In Chhatarpur, a mother and her son died on the spot while working in their farm in Maharajganj village. Another 50-year-old woman farmer died under similar circumstances in Amarwan village In other incidents, a 35-year-old from Shivpuri, and two adults in their 30s and 40s in Gwalior also died due to the same reason.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a warning of lightning and thunderstorms in eight districts of Madhya Pradesh.

"We are witnessing heavy rainfall in many parts of the state due to a low-pressure area in central Madhya Pradesh. In Gwalior-Chambal region, there was a lot of lightning activity due to the formation of cumulonimbus clouds on Wednesday," Vedprakash Sharma, IMD scientist and radar head in Bhopal, said.

Sharma said that due to climate change, lightning incidents during monsoon have increased.

The IMD has predicted heavy rain with thunderstorms and lightning in several parts of the state including Sheopur, Shivpuri, adjoining parts of Guna, Agar, Rajgarh, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Ujjain, Bhind, Ratlam, Dholawad, Shajapur during Saturday afternoon.

IMD scientists said Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of cloud formation and lightning incidents across the country in 2021.

"With predictions of lightning and thunderstorms, it is necessary to issue warnings at village levels through public display and announcement systems. The MP government should make arrangements," said an official.
Patna, July 9 : Keeping in view the 2024 Lok Sabha election, BJP national president J.P. Nadda will visit Patna for an important meeting with officials of the party's Bihar wing to strengthen its organisational structure.

Sanjay Jaiswal, the BJP state president, conducted a meeting late on Friday to plan and execute arrangements for Nadda's visit.

"Our national president will have a meeting with the in-charge of every wing in the organisation apart from district presidents and other officials of the organisation," Jaiswal said.

"We will organise a three-day training programme on July 14, 15 and 16 for every worker, presidents of different wings, district presidents and other officials of the state. We are expecting 300 leaders to participate in that event. They will further communicate to ground level workers like 'Saptrishi' and 'Panna Pramukh'. The idea is to strengthen the party at the ground level. Following the three-day programme, they will take part in the event of Nadda's visit on July 31," he added.
Berlin, July 9 : A German court has decided a suit in favour of smartphone brand Nokia in its 4G/5G patent dispute against OPPO.

According to GizmoChina, the suit resulted from the breakdown in discussions between Nokia and OPPO over 4G (LTE) and 5G patents.

While instituted cases are in four countries, OPPO countersued Nokia in nine countries. OPPO had stated that the lawsuit filed by Nokia was shocking.

The German Regional Court ruling is the first ruling regarding the disputed patents.

Nokia had sued OPPO over nine Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) and five implementation patents in three regional German Courts.

Nokia is the standard-bearer in the 5G SEPs segment with huge investments of about $130.3 billion approx.

It has tons of patents in the field and has gotten several settlements in recent times. Daimler and Lenovo are some of Nokia's recent opponents who have settled with the Finnish company.

The Mannheim Regional Court granted Nokia a cease-and-desist order against OPPO. This means that OPPO and OnePlus devices are banned from Germany.

OPPO's objection to the decision was dismissed by the judge who labeled the Chinese firm as an unwilling licensee, the report said.
Chennai, July 9 : A total 12 applications for starting an insurance company-non-life/life/reinsurance are under various stages of processing at Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), it is learnt.

Industry officials told IANS that the IRDAI has not licensed any new insurer during the past couple of years.

And that situation is expected to change in the near future with some of the applications are in advanced stages of processing at IRDAI.

Out of the 12 applications with IRDAI, eight are for starting a general insurance company including agriculture insurance, three for life insurance and one reinsurance company.

Interestingly Kamesh Goyal, and Prem Watsa (Founder and Chairman of FairFax Financial Holdings, Canada) the promoters of Go Digit General Insurance Company Ltd are venturing into the life and reinsurance segment.

Referring to IRDAI Chairman Debasish Panda's view of every Indian becoming an insurance policyholder Goyal, Chairman, Go Digit General Insurance, had told IANS: "I find the vision simple and bold at the same time. We have seen IRDAI move in this direction at breakneck speed in the last three months. Both Prem Watsa (Founder and Chairman of FairFax Financial Holdings, Canada) and I are excited with this vision and are exploring setting up both an Indian reinsurance company and a life insurance company." It is learnt Go Digit Life Insurance has been issued with R1 application form and Go Digit Reinsurance with R2 application form.

The IRDAI is the licensing authority of insurance companies and processes the applications in stages - R1 is IRDAI giving the application form to a prospective insurance company promoter and R2 is the next stage of application form.

It is learnt the current status of the 12 applications at IRDAI: Paytm General Insurance - The applicant has informed IRDAI in May that an updated R1 application will be filed.

IndiaBulls Life Insurance - Under process at R2 stage Anzen General Insurance - R1 filed in July. Under process Ria General Insurance - R1 under process.

Kshema General Insurance - R2 under process Cosmea General Insurance - NOC issued

Kenko General Insurance - R1 issued in June 2022

Go Mechanic General Insurance - R1 under process

Credit Access Life Insurance - R1 issued

Go Digit Life Insurance - R1 issued

Go Digit Reinsurance - R2 issued

Andhra Pradesh Government General Insurance - R1 under process

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at v.jagannathan@ians.in)
ALL eyes will be on Zambia next week as the country hosts the 41st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU) from July 14 - 15, 2022 in Lusaka at Mulungushi International Conference Centre.

On July 17, 2022, the country will host the fourth Mid-Year Coordination Meeting (MYCM) of the AU at the same venue.

The Theme for the gathering "Building Resilience in Nutrition on the African Continent: Accelerate the Human Capital, Social and Economic Development".

According to Zambia's Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Stanley Kakubo, the 41st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council will be attended by 13 Heads of State and Government, comprising five Heads of State that form the Bureau of the Assembly of the AU, and eight Heads of State that chair the eight regional economic communities recognised by the AU.

Mr Kakubo said recently that the Zambian Government, under the leadership of President Hakainde Hichilema, had been engaging various stakeholders, including the private sector, in the preparatory process to ensure the country was ready for the AU gatherings.

Mr Kakubo said President Hichilema remained firmly committed to ensuring that Zambia remained an active member of the AU and a key partner in furthering the continental development agenda.

"The President has continued to underscore the importance of promoting intra-African trade and collaboration for beneficial economic and social development of the continent. To this end, this summit will allow Zambia to build further on its solid foundation of cooperation with countries on the continent based on a shared history and values, respect for the rule of law," he said.

So far, expectations are high as Zambia makes final touches to host the two important continental gatherings.

The meetings will undoubtedly raise the profile of Zambia in Africa and across the globe just like the case was in 2013 when Zambia and Zimbabwe co-hosted the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly.

According to the Tourism Council of Zambia (TCZ), which is an umbrella body for the tourism sector in the country, the continental gatherings will largely benefit Zambia as well as the country's tourism and hospitality sector.

TCZ Chief Executive Officer Victor Inambwae said in Lusaka that the AU gatherings would have a multiplier effect to enlisted official hotels, transport sector, and farmers who supply various food products to hotels, among others.

"Zambia has excellent conference facilities to host the AU meetings. For us in the tourism and hospitality sector, we are direct beneficiaries because our members, who are operators, will be housing these delegates," he said.

On July 7, 2022, Information and Media Minister Chushi Kasanda officiated at a media workshop in readiness for the continental gatherings.

Ms Kasanda said Zambia was privileged to host the meeting which had attracted about 13 foreign Heads of State and Government from across the continent and 51 Ministers of Foreign Affairs out of 55 member states.

"The media workshop is important because the media will play a crucial role in keeping our citizens and the world at large, informed about the meeting. It is our hope, as Government, that our people will benefit in terms of information on what their leaders will be deliberating on during the period of the meeting. God bless our great nation," Ms Kasanda said on her Facebook page.

The website further states that the MYCM was conceptualised in 2017 as the principal forum for the AU and Regional Economic Communiities (RECs) to align their work and coordinate the implementation of the continental integration agenda, replacing the June/ July summits.

It is a meeting between the bureau of the AU Assembly and Regional Economic Communities (RECs), with the participation of the chairpersons of RECs, the AU Commission and Regional Mechanisms (RMs).

This year's MYCM, according to the AU, will have the following agenda items:

Status of regional integration in Africa (Report from the AU Commission Chairperson and Chairpersons of each REC. This agenda item is aligned to the objectives of the Abuja treaty and the Constitutive Act of the African Union to accelerate the political and economic integration of Africa. As such the meeting will consider the 2022 Status of Integration Report.

Consideration and adoption of an effective Division of Labour between the AU, RECs/RMs and Member States on the remaining sectors: This agenda point is necessitated by the need for the AU, RECs and Member States to work together in every area of integration based on their respective competencies so as to remove overlaps and duplication. Progress has already been noted in this regard. The 4th MYCM will consider the outcome of the negotiation between the AU, RECs/RMs and Member States on already agreed areas of integration. These include Economic Development, Integration, Investment and Industry; Agriculture, Food Security, Blue Economy and Environment; Education, Science, Innovation and Technology; Agriculture, Food Security, Blue Economy and Environment and Transport, Energy and Infrastructure.

Launch of the Inter-Regional Knowledge Exchange (I-RECKE) on Early Warning and Conflict Prevention. I-RECKE is an institutional community of practice for intra-continental and cross-regional learning to build peace. It is a Pan-African mechanism for developing, capturing and documenting knowledge and also sharing lessons learned, and experiences on governance and conflict prevention on the continent.

Tripartite Free Trade Area (FTA) between East Africa Community (EAC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Southern African Development Community (SADC). The MYCM will consider progress made so far since the agreement establishing the tripartite FTA, and identify its contribution to the continental agenda in light of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). A paper will be presented by the three RECs.

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Impact of the Ukraine crisis on the African continent. This is an important agenda item in the context of the skyrocketing increases already registered in the prices of natural gas, wheat and fertilizer.

Africa's response to COVID-19. The importance of this item lies in the fact that, despite the progress made in the response to the pandemic, member states still face challenges. The AU will present a report to the MYCM.

Draft Declaration. The meeting will consider its draft Declaration. The Declaration will emanate from the outcome of all the agenda items listed above.

Outcomes from the 4th MYCM include a report and matrix on the Division of Labour between the AU, RECs, and Member States on the remaining sectors; the launch of the -RECKE on Early Warning and Conflict Prevention and the declaration. The expected result of the discussions and outcomes is a fast tracking of the integration process in Africa.

So far, media accreditation for the MYCM is currently open at https://accreditation.au.int/en/media/2022/4th-mid-year-coordination-meeting

Like we indicated in our last article, the last time Zambia hosted a meeting of the African Union was 21 years ago in 2001and therefore this event will be important the country.

It is only hoped that all Zambians will take advantage of the AU gatherings to promote their rich culture, tradition, tourism, mining, agriculture and other sectors, just to mention a few.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 9 : Even as a week has passed since the hurling of an explosive at the AKG centre, the headquarters of the ruling CPI-M, the Kerala Police is still groping in the dark.

On July 2, at around 11.30 p.m, an explosive was hurled at the compound wall of the CPI-M state headquarters. Party lader, former minister and convenor of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in state E.P. Jayarajan immediately reached the spot and alleged that a powerful bomb was hurled at the party state headquarters and that it was the handiwork of Congressmen.

His sister-in-law and former minister P.K. Sreemathi, who was staying at the AKG centre, met the media and said that she heard a loud explosion and that the tremors were felt even at the third floor of the multistoried building where she was reading some literature.

CPI-M workers took to the street and ransacked several Congress offices across the state and many violent incidents followed.

The CCTV visuals revealed that a man on a two-wheeler had hurled the explosive and made good his escape. However, since the number plate of the vehicle was not clear, the culprit could not be identified.

Meanwhile, a scientific examination found that a country-made firecracker was hurled at the party headquarters and the explosion was mild.

Following it, Jayarajan retracted his statement that it was Congres workers who had hurled the explosive saying it could be the handiwork of someone who was against the party, including Congressmen.

Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader V.D. Satheeshan came out strongly against the CPM leader's statements and said that Congress never had the culture of attacking the offices of rival political parties while it was Left parties who were the masters in that art.

Satheesan also charged that eight to ten policemen were on guard at the AKG centre and how could they not chase the culprit. The Congress alleged that it was the handiwork of CPM leaders themselves and cited the example of the decapitating of the statue of late Comrade Krishnapillai, the most popular CPM leader of the state. Investigation later revealed that the act was done by CPI-M men themselves as part of the group fights.

Unable to make any break through, the police are now handing over the CCTV visuals to the state-controlled Centre for ADevelopment of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) for a scientific study on the visuals to unearth the details of it.
Mumbai, July 9 : Bollywood actor and philanthropist Sonu Sood, who is seen as a host on the show MTV 'Roadies Journey to South Africa', is known for going out of the way to help others.

Recently, he has given support to the team of MTV 'Roadies' in donating 1000 raincoats to the Mumbai Police on the anvil of monsoons.

Sood said: "I have the utmost respect for our Mumbai Police and thank them for their extraordinary hard work, which makes our ordinary lives safe." He added: "This contribution of a thousand raincoats from MTV Roadies is our way of saluting them and further equipping them for their duties," he adds.

The raincoats provided by MTV and created by Yashlok Welfare Foundation, are created by marginalised sections of society such as the unemployed youth, women, rural population, and differently-abled individuals.

The production of these reflective jackets for the Mumbai Police also offers a sustainable mode of employment to this community.
New Delhi, July 9: The ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) announced its 156-member politburo on Thursday evening. A meeting of the party's Central Committee held at the Nepal Academy in the heart of the capital city finalised the names of politburo members, a spokesperson for the party, Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.

"The meeting unanimously approved the names of politburo members as proposed by the party chairman. Of them, 125 are full-fledged members while 31 are alternative politburo members," Mahara told Indian Narrative on Friday morning.

Earlier in the afternoon on Thursday, central committee members raised questions on the party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahala alias Prachanda's selection criteria for politburo members, according to leaders who participated in the meeting.

Another senior leader of the party told Indian Narrative that tensions rose high in the meeting as some central committee members questioned why some qualified leaders and regions were not incorporated in the politburo.

According to him, they objected to chairman Prachanda's unilateral proposal to incorporate several junior leaders including his daughter Renu Dahal and daughter-in-law Bina Magar in the list of politburo members even as senior leaders who had made sacrifices to the party for years were left out.

"The issue was resolved as the chairman came up with the revised list of politburo members later in the meeting. The politburo is now relatively inclusive," the leader said on condition of anonymity. There were over 300 aspirants for the party's politburo committee.

The ruling party will soon finalise the names of office bearers and form the 46-member standing committee, according to the spokesperson.

"It might take another one week to pick the names of officer bearers and standing committee members," he said, adding that the party leadership is trying to forge a common consensus for the same. In Thursday's meeting, chairman Dahal told the party leaders that he is willing to nominate senior leaders Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Krishna Bahadur Mahara as two senior vice chairmen.

Amid the Maoist meeting, several party leaders are eyeing for the post of party's general secretary which is the most powerful executive position in the party after the chairman. Party chairman Prachanda has been unable to finalise the name of the party's general secretary as there are two leaders Barshaman Pun and Janardan Sharma, his two confidants in the party, who are vying for the same post.

It's a very hard choice for chairman Prachanda, political observers said here.

"It's very difficult for Maoist chairman Prachanda to pick one of them because both of them have been his close confidents for years and have made huge contribution to the party since the time of conflict era," Sitaram Baral, a political analyst based in Kathmandu, told Indian Narrative.

The CPN-Maoist Centre, a key ally of the Deuba-led government is finalising its crucial party committees including office bearers and standing committee, ahead of the provincial and parliamentary elections which are taking place later this year. The CPN-Maoist Centre, a former rebel party that waged war against the state for ten years since 1996 and joined the peaceful mainstream politics in 2007, has been spearheaded by Prachanda since its inception in the late 1990s.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
Bhopal, July 9 : A tribal woman who was set ablaze by a group of men over a land dispute, succumbed to her injuries in Hamidia hospital here, police said on Saturday.

She had received 80 per cent burn injuries.

Rampyari Bai, a resident of Dhaneria village under Guna district, was set on fire by a group of villagers for resisting encroachment on her land. Enraged over her constant resistance, the group of villagers allegedly set her afire at the village on July 2.

Medical superintendent of Hamidia hospital, Dr Ashish Gohiya confirmed that the woman passed away on Friday night. He said that the body has been handed over to her family for last rites.

The woman belonged to the Saharia tribe, which has been classified as a particularly vulnerable tribal group.

As per her complaint lodged with the police, six bigha land that the accused were trying to encroach upon was reportedly allotted to Rampyari Bai's family under a chief minister's welfare scheme launched by the former Digvijaya Singh government.

Reports say that the local administration had also settled a dispute pertaining to the land in the family's favour in May this year. But still, the miscreants didn't budge from their stand and continued to make attempts to encroach upon their land.

The incident sparked a nationwide outrage and various agencies and people condemned the incident demanding arrest and stringent punishment to the culprits.

Police had arrested five persons, including two women, in connection with the incident. A video, purportedly shot by the accused, went viral on social media, in which the woman was seen crying in pain, with smoke all around her.

The person shooting the video was heard saying the woman had torched herself.
Colombo, July 9 : Demanding the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, anti-government Sri Lankan protesters on Saturday stormed the Presidents House in Colombo braving several police and military barricades and tear gas shells.

Security forces fired teargas and water cannons to disperse the protesters but later withdrew and resorted to firing in the air.

At least 20 people have been hospitalised following violent clashes between the police and the protesters.

Since early Saturday night, there were attempts to disperse the protesters and university students who had occupied the area near the President's House overnight.

The President's whereabouts are currently unknown but it is suspected that he is at the heavily-guarded Army headquarters in Battaramulla.

A major people's protest march to Colombo from around the island for Saturday has been planned by religious leaders, political parties, medical practitioners, university teachers, civil rights activists, farmers, and fishermen on Saturday demanding the resignation of President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

On Friday night, authorities enforced an indefinite curfew in entrance areas to Colombo and the Defence Ministry had warned police and military have been empowered to act against those engaging in any form of violence.

Lawyers challenged the declaration of curfew as illegal and announced that people could ignore it.

Since early Saturday, people from all the over the country starting pouring into Colombo in trains and buses, chanting slogans 'Gota go home' and 'Gota a mad man'.

In the wake of the island nation's worst economic crisis since it gained independence in 1948, people have been protesting since March 31 against President Rajapaksa and his government, asking him to step down.

In the wake of the violent protests, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa and several other family members who were in the cabinet and parliament resigned.

With no fuel country's transportation have been stopped completely for two weeks and Indian ocean island is virtually under lockdown.

The island nation of 22 million people has witnessed its foreign exchange reserves shrink due to economic mismanagement and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a result it has struggled to pay for imports of essential goods, including fuel, food and medicine.

In May, it defaulted on its debts for the first time in its history after a 30-day grace period to come up with $78 million of unpaid debt interest payments expired.
Chennai, July 9 : With 35.2 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines in Tamil Nadu set to expire in September, state Health Minister Ma Subramanian has appealed to the Union health ministry to provide fresh stocks.

The state minister also appealed to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to provide free vaccine doses for the state to administer booster doses to the 18-59 age group people.

The Tamil Nadu health minister also apprised the Union minister that the state has been taking active measures to spread awareness among people to inoculate themselves and has conducted mega vaccination camps.

Even after all these attempts, more than 35 lakh people are to take the first dose of the vaccine while more than 1 crore people are to take the second dose of vaccine in the state.

The state public health department informed the Union health department of the mosquito menace in the state and the department fighting the spread of mosquito bite-related diseases like Dengue, Malaria, Filaria, and Japanese Encephalitis (JE).

The state health department has filed a report to the Union health department on the measures taken by the department to control mosquito-related diseases and that it has already deployed 21,000 workers to control mosquito breeding.

The state also pointed out to the Union health department that vaccines for Japanese Encephalitis are provided by the government. Thirteen cases of the JE have been reported in the state this year.
Bengaluru, July 9 : Karnataka police have arrested a person for allegedly crushing a stray dog under his car in Indiranagar locality of Bengaluru, police said on Saturday.

The arrested person has been identified as Amul Raj, a resident of Jakkur. The accused had run over his car deliberately over the dog named "Brownie".

Sneha Nandihal, a local resident, had lodged a complaint in this regard and sought action against the accused. The arrest was based on the CCTV footage.

According to police, the accused cab driver had visited his relative on June 5 in Indiranagar. While returning, he noticed the stray dog sleeping by the roadside and ran his vehicle over it.

The dog succumbed to its injuries immediately after the incident. Sneha Nandihal and other local people who took care of the dog alleged that the accused deliberately ran his car over the dog.

Meanwhile, the accused is maintaining that he did not notice the dog sleeping and inadvertently ran over his vehicle over it. The incident had taken place as he did not notice the dog sleeping by the roadside. However, police say that CCTV footage showed that it was a deliberate act.

Further investigation is on.
Bengaluru, July 9 : In a first, Bengaluru police in Karnataka have seized movable and immovable property worth Rs 50 lakh of a drug peddler, Joint Commissioner of CCB Raman Gupta said on Saturday.

The action has been taken as per the provisions of the NDPS Act Chapter 5 (a) Section 68 (e) and (f). The accused had made these assets from the income out of ganja smuggling.

The properties of accused Mallesh G., a resident of Hanur in Chamarajanagar district has been attached. According to police, the accused drug smuggler purchased Rs 50 lakh worth 8 acres of land in 2013 out of the money he made from drug peddling and kept Rs 3 lakh in 5 bank accounts in the name of his wife and son.

The investigation revealed that he earned the money through the sale of ganja in Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka, purchased from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The investigation officer ordered the seizure of his property on June 8. The approval was given by concerned authorities, SAFEM (FOP) and NDPSA, Chennai on July 8.

Initially the case was registered with Konanakunte police station in Bengaluru in 2018. The Commissioner of Police for Bengaluru city had transferred the case to the Narcotics Prevention Wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) on May 19, 2022.

The investigation was carried out as per NDPS Act. It was found that for 10 to 12 years the accused was into drug peddling and smuggling. The accused was involved in 7 NDPS cases in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts.
New Delhi, July 9 : As government regulators the world over, especially in European countries, penalise Big Tech for millions of dollars over anti-competitive behaviour, India is finally taking some steps in this direction. Lately, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has taken charge to tame giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and others from harming competition and safeguarding the interests of local businesses.

Under Ashok Kumar Gupta, a 1981 batch IAS officer from the Tamil Nadu cadre with 40 years in public service, the antitrust watchdog has been hailed for leading probes against e-commerce giants, social media firms and device manufacturers.

According to Gupta, the Chairman of CCI, Big Tech firms are "centres for entrenched and unchecked dominance".

Last month, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) upheld the December 2021 order of the CCI that suspended its earlier order approving Amazon's deal with Future Coupons, a Future Group entity, and imposed a Rs 202 crore fine on the e-commerce major.

In a December, 2021 order, the market regulator had said an approval granted to Amazon to acquire a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons would stand in abeyance, as the firm suppressed information while seeking the clearance.

The CCI's order came after complaints filed by Future Retail's independent directors and the industry body, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT).

The CCI is currently investigating both Apple App Store and Google Play Store policies, particularly their payment methods that harm local app developers.

Both Google and Apple charge either 15 or 30 per cent commission on purchase of paid apps and in-app purchases (IAPs) in the country.

According to The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) and consulting firm The Quantum Hub, several Indian developers have objected to the quantum of the commissions, and the lack of choice in picking a payments system, terming the proposed policies unreasonable.

"Google's new rules could significantly dent developers' profit margins, affecting both business viability and innovation," said the report.

The CCI launched a probe into Google's Play Store policies around two years ago.

Recent reports claimed that the Additional Director General of the CCI found Google's contentious payments policy for Play Store developers to be "unfair and discriminatory".

A Google spokesperson said the CCI report was not the "final decision and does not prejudge the outcome of the CCI's inquiry." After facing a severe backlash, Google, which has a mobile OS market share of over 95 per cent in India, decided to defer the implementation of its app payment policies to October for developers in India.

In March this year, the CCI ordered another investigation into complaints against Google for abusing its dominant position related to news referral services and Google Adtech Services in the Indian online news media market.

According to the Indian Newspapers Society (INS), media houses are being kept in the dark on the total advertising revenue collected by Google and what percentage of the advertising revenue is being transferred to media organisations.

The CCI found that prima facie, these allegations of abuse of dominant position are under the purview of the Competition Act, 2002 and requires a detailed investigation by the Additional Director General.

In May, the ADIF became a party to an ongoing CCI probe against Apple over alleged abuse of market power in the apps market.

The CCI, in December last year, ordered a probe into Apple's business practices in the country, saying that it was of the initial view that the tech giant had violated certain antitrust laws.

According to industry stakeholders, Big tech firms like Apple and Google have monopolised the app economy and continue to impose predatory policies on their app stores.

"There is an urgent need to rein them in so that the interests of the scores of small players that make up the internet and app economy are protected," said Sijo Kuruvilla George, Executive Director of the ADIF.

The CCI also launched a probe into Meta-owned WhatsApp's new privacy policy that came into effect early last year.

The Delhi High Court this year granted more time to WhatsApp and Facebook to respond to the CCI probe.

According to industry stakeholders, while CCI has taken on tech giants over monopolistic practices, it needs sharper, effective laws as in some cases, existing regulations have prevented the watchdog from striking a final blow at Big Tech for their anti-competitive practices.

Meanwhile, the government is now aiming to change competition laws to give CCI more powers.

"If the anti-competitive and monopolistic practices along with the gatekeeper policies of big tech firms are not kept in check, there is bound to be a detrimental impact on Indian entrepreneurs and businesses and ultimately the sovereignty of the country," according to Anupam Mittal, Founder and CEO of Shaadi.com.

George said that it is commendable that the CCI is actively taking steps to address the anti-competition practices of big players as there is an urgent need to ensure fair competition and improve choices for both developers and consumers.

(Nishant Arora can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in)
New Delhi, July 9 : In recent times, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act-2002 (PMLA) has made headlines after it walloped a group of political bigwigs in the country, especially the Opposition members.

The PMLA heat was faced by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, NCP leader Nawab Malik, Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar, and Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram among others.

But is it a 'draconian law' politically used or is it the faultline of politicians? "Cannot proceed on the basis of preponderance of probabilities"

Recently, a Supreme Court judgement held that even in the cases of PMLA, the court cannot proceed on the basis of preponderance of probabilities, and the allegation must be proved beyond reasonable doubt in the court.

"Even in cases of PMLA, the court cannot proceed on the basis of preponderance of probabilities. On perusal of the statement of objects and reasons specified in PMLA, it is the stringent law brought by Parliament to check money laundering. Thus, the allegation must be proved beyond reasonable doubt in the court. Even otherwise, it is incumbent upon the court to look into the allegation and the material collected in support thereto and to find out whether the prima facie offence is made out," the apex court said.

As per an apex court verdict of November 24, 2017 in favour of citizens' liberty, the Supreme Court had set aside a clause in the PMLA Act, which made it virtually impossible for a person convicted to more than three years in jail to get bail if the public prosecutor opposed it.

Section 45 of the PMLA states that an accused can only be granted bail if the magistrate is convinced that the accused is not guilty of the offence. (It observed that the provision violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution).

The origin of PMLA PMLA, 2002 is an act enacted by the NDA government to prevent money laundering and confiscation of property acquired from the crime got 'more teeth' after its various amendments in 2005, 2009, and 2012.

The genesis of the act begins with India's commitment to fighting transnational organized crime. The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime held in 2020 is a significant initiative in this regard that establishes frameworks for mutual legal assistance and extradition and fosters law enforcement cooperation.

This was a follow-up of earlier conventions from the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988, the Basle Statement of Principles, 1989, the Forty Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, 1990, the Political Declaration and Global Program of Action adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1990.

What legal experts say "When the law enacted in India, which specifically aimed to stop the illegal activities in a broader sense, eventually confined from its first phase to the second phase. Even though, if the Enforcement Directorate (ED) wants to interfere, there should be cognizance of offence. Now, the trend seems like there is no FIR, no case, and ED registers case based on allegations," Supreme Court lawyer Aljo K Josep told IANS.

"A law once started for the protection of world peace, and stopping money laundering for terrorism like purposes among others, today an agency, not even police, registers complaint and interrogating as they please... Law and order is a state subject and the ED's actions are interference of this state subject, in a larger dimension," he said.

"If law and order issues including financial crimes happening in a state, if no FIR has been registered, there is a mechanism for that. Anybody can approach the high court and an FIR can be registered or the high court can direct the CBI, or crime branch to register an FIR," he added.

"If the ED interferes in a state subject without FIR, that will be a breakdown of the federal structure, as per the constitutional interpretation," he said.

There are two aspects of financial crime, one is ED aspect, Revenue Intelligence/Income Tax aspects. As per today's scenario, the ED can be used even if you made a mistake even in an Income Tax return and turn it into a black money case.

In relation to the conviction aspects of these cases, another Supreme Court lawyer Subhash Chandran KR said: "If we see the conviction rate of PMLA cases, it's a microscopic minority. It can be used for allegations, arrests, and custody, however, the conviction is not happening as the case mostly cannot be proven at the end. This law is widely seen as being used against political opponents." (Jaison Wilson can be reached at jaison.w@ians.in)
analysis

It is harvest time in Kenya, and Joseph Thika has had to hire workers to help him harvest his cotton crop. Joseph is happy that his genetically modified plants matured faster this year, compared to the variety he used in the past. Kenya is counting on this solution to revive its struggling textile industry.

Thika is one of the many cotton farmers living in Kibibi Kirinyaga county, some 250 kilometers north of Kenya's capital Nairobi.

According to Thika, farmers like himself have now started reaping big rewards, thanks to the introduction of genetically modified cotton, boosting the local textile industry.

The Bt cotton variety they are using is a genetically modified pest resistant plant which naturally produces an insecticide to combat bollworm, a pest which destroys cotton plants.

The initials Bt stand for Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil-dwelling bacterium which is fatal to bollworm larvae.

"We started planting this variety last year and we find it more beneficial than the old one. This one takes 4 to 5 months to mature, compared to the previous one that took 9 months. The yields are also very high," says Thika.

Kenya typically grows two cotton varieties, HART 89M and KSA 81M, both of which produce low yields, leading to farmers incurring losses.

Thika says he ventured into the new variety after receiving training from state agriculture officers.

800 kilos every three months

Evans Ngure lives a few kilometers from Thika's farm. Ngure is a well-known cotton farmer in Nyangate village. According to Ngure, he harvests 800 kilos of ginned cotton from his single-hectare farm every three months.

"I used to harvest about 300 kilos but, with the current variety, I can harvest 800 kilos at a go. So far there are about 10 farmers in the area who have ventured into the new variety," Ngure says, adding that they are waiting for the Bt cotton seeds to be brought in so that, when the rains start in October, they will be ready for planting.

Johnson Mwai, another farmer from Mwea East, tells RFI's Africa Calling Podcast that since he started growing cotton in 1967, he has never had big yields, until the arrival of Bt cotton.

Mwai says he stopped planting other crops like maize and beans two years ago because of harsh weather conditions, and now focuses on Bt cotton.

"Each sack is 35 kgs and you can harvest 100 sacks and with a kilogram trading for about 55 shillings, you get a lot of money per hectare compared to the old variety.

Mwai also says that life has become a bit easier as he has managed to pay school fees for his children and resolve other issues using the earnings.

Championing research

Organisations such as the International Service for Acquisition of Agribiotech, the Alliance for Science, and the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Organisation have been championing research into genetically modified cotton for the past two years.

Daniel Magondu, a leading Bt cotton farmer and the chairman of the Society for Biotechnology Farming of Kenya says farmers are grateful to the government for providing free seeds, a move that is attracting farmers to revive the crop.

"Farmers who are willing to plant go to the Ministry of Agriculture with their Identification card, they get the amount of seed they want to plant in their hectarage. After planting, the ginners are connected to farmers so they come and get the seed cotton from buying centres where they pay farmers on delivery."

It is estimated that, 30 years ago, there were 50,000 cotton farmers in Kenya, producing 40,000 bales of the HART 89M cotton annually.

The industry gradually collapsed due to diseases, poor weather conditions and the importation of second-hand garments from the United States.

Magondu has asked the government to distribute Bt cotton to other areas to revive the ginnery industry which had lost its former glory. He points out that growing Bt cotton also helps farmers to battle the effects of climate change.

"Cotton is a drought tolerant crop. It cannot leave you with nothing like the way we are seeing it in our maize fields and other fields where we have nothing to harvest. But in the cotton fields we get at least something to buy food for our families," observes Magondu.

Opposition and contamination

Organic agriculture lobby groups are, however, against the move to introduce genetically modified plants in Kenya, saying that there's possibility of contamination of seeds.

According to Eustace Kiarie, chief executive officer at Kenya Organic Agriculture Network, the yield from genetically modified cotton, though initially high, tends to fail over time.

"We have seen in countries like Canada where farmers who have grown organic maize have been contaminated by Bt maize from neighbours, and these organic farmers are taken to court for using a technology that they have not paid for. So there are many issues that we need to consider even before the full rollout of this Bt cotton."

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The lobby group says that more research is needed on such crops, adding that Kenya should maintain the ban imposed in 2012 on the use of genetically modified crops until their safety is confirmed.

Long-term failure of GM crops

According to Kiarie, the same technology has failed in other African countries, leading to a huge loss of money.

In Burkina Faso, he says, "they started planting and commercialising Bt cotton in 2008 and seven years later they had to abandon planting this crop, and the reason was that the cotton they were getting when it was taken to the ginnery, the threads were very short and the quality was very low," says Kiarie.

It is estimated that Burkina Faso lost around $27,000 because of the low quality of seeds. If Kenya is to learn from Burkina Faso, it should be cautious about adopting this technology.

In 2006, the African Union adopted a resolution stating that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were not welcome on the continent. It did not take long before the resolution was shredded after it became apparent that GMOs have the potential to redefine agriculture.

Despite official concerns, the African continent is slowly becoming the next frontier for GM technology.
New Delhi, July 9 : "Why is no criminal afraid of Delhi Police these days? This is because criminals are well aware that the Delhi Police is busy doing the BJPs bidding in protecting the hooligans and criminals that the BJP is harbouring," Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi had said on May 9 in a press briefing.

But what prompted her to make such critical remarks about a law enforcement agency? The issue was about BJP leader Tajinderpal Singh Bagga being arrested by the police of AAP-ruled Punjab from his residence in Delhi. When he was being taken to Punjab by road, the Delhi Police swung into action and stopped the Punjab Police's cavalcade midway in Haryana, a BJP-ruled state.

Both the parties -- the AAP and the BJP -- levelled allegations against each other of misusing the police in their respective states to settle political scores.

It was not the first time that the saffron clan faced a backlash from an Opposition party.

The police in the national capital has been accused by the Opposition members umpteen number of times of muzzling their and every other voice that tries to corner the present dispensation in one or the other way.

The latest case was of Mohammed Zubair, fact-checking website Alt-News' co-founder, who was arrested for a controversial post on Twitter that he had posted around 4 years ago.

It was Zubair who first shared the now suspended BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma's alleged controversial remarks that prompted several Islamic nations to condemn them.

The Opposition lost no chance of training its guns at the Centre and the Delhi Police, and accused them of curbing free speech and targeting those who are exposing the BJP. "Every person exposing BJP's hate, bigotry and lies is a threat to them. Arresting one voice of truth will only give rise to a thousand more. Truth ALWAYS triumphs over tyranny," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said soon after the news of the fact-checker's arrest broke.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that Alt-News and Zubair have been in the forefront of exposing the "bogus claims of the "Vishguru", who has struck back with a vengeance characteristic of him. "Delhi Police, reporting to the Union Home Minister, has long lost any pretensions of professionalism and independence," he said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO, Special Cell) KPS Malhotra while speaking to IANS denounced claims of Zubair's arrest being politically motivated. "It is not right to call this case politically motivated. He had been evasive during the questioning which basically formed the grounds of his arrest," he said.

Just before the Zubair issue, the Delhi Police was accused by the Congress of using excessive force against its party workers during the protests over the Agnipath scheme of military recruitment and the interrogation of its former president Rahul Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald case.

Rahul was quizzed for more than 50 hours spread over five days and during that period the Congress party vociferously protested on the streets of the national capital. Every day hundreds of Congress party workers, including parliamentarians and legislators, were detained by the police.

On June 15, the Congress party filed a complaint at a local police station against Delhi police personnel for forcibly entering the premises of the party headquarters at 24, Akbar Road and baton-charging the workers.

Infuriated over the development, the party's top spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said "Goondaism in Delhi Police" has reached its zenith.

"We were protesting in a democratic way but this goondaism will not be tolerated. It will be accounted for. Let all the police officers who are acting as puppets of the Modi government in order to please their masters know this will not go unpunished, we will remember and suitable action both civil and criminal will be taken," he had said then in a special media briefing soon after the incident.

Responding to these allegations, the Delhi Police came down heavily on the grand old party for allegedly creating public disturbances in the national capital. "Despite the suggestions of Delhi police to have the protest at Jantar Mantar, the INC leaders with utter disregard of Supreme Court guidelines and our suggestions have again and again tried to create public disturbances in the area," Delhi Police spokesperson Suman Nalwa had said then.

While the police has shown extreme promptness in preventing the Congress party workers from creating any ruckus in the city, its approach at another hotbed of Left Vs Right politics -- Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) -- has been at times questioned by the left leaning parties.

On April 10, this year, the University once again bore witness to bloodshed between the warring camps. As many as 16 students were injured during a fight that allegedly started over consumption of non vegetarian food on the occasion of Ram Navami.

Minor scuffles do take place in universities but April 10's incident was not the first time that the student-turned-miscreants became thirsty for each other's blood in the campus.

In January 2020, masked men and women carrying sticks and rods had barged into the hostels of the University, attacking students and teachers. The property on the campus was damaged. Nearly 30 students, including JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh were injured during the brawl.

The scale of violence was so much that the administration called the police which had to conduct a flag march inside the campus. Several left leaning political parties blamed the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for allegedly creating mayhem, however, till now nothing has been proved.

The case is still under investigation even after more than two years.

However, despite all the accusations, as per the latest crime data, Delhi has the best conviction rate of IPC crimes (85 per cent) compared to the all-India average of 59%. In rape cases, Delhi's conviction rate is 21 per cent better than the all-India average. Probably a reflection of the professional nature of policing undertaken in the city! (Ujwal Jalali can be reached at ujwal.j@ians.in)
New Delhi, July 9 : "Misuse" of investigative agencies has been a perennial issue between the ruling party and the opposition.

Irrespective of the party in power, the opposition always accuses the ruling party of misusing the investigative agencies, and during the last few decades, the politics of accusation has gained momentum.

Opposition parties, including Congress, Trinamool Congress, NCP, RJD, and Shiv Sena, regularly accuse the Central government of misusing the ED, the CBI, and other Central agencies. These are the same allegations, that the BJP and other NDA partners made prior to 2014 against the then-ruling Congress-led UPA government.

Speaking to IANS, BJP National Spokesperson and Lok Sabha MP from Darjeeling Raju Bisht pointed out that his party does not interfere in the legal process. He said that "chori upar se sina zori" (showing no regret over wrong doing) policy will not work. Those who have stolen the country's wealth will be held accountable under the law, whoever it is.

Recently, the Congress with all its veteran leaders, Chief Ministers, and party workers took to the streets to protest against the ED's interrogation of their leader Rahul Gandhi.

It also accused the Delhi Police of misbehaving with protestors during the agitation. Also, a delegation of Congress leaders approached President Ram Nath Kovind to register their complaint against the alleged misuse of investigative agencies by the Centre and the misbehaviour of Delhi Police.

The BJP, however, denied these allegations in its national executive meeting held in Hyderabad this month. It also passed a political resolution, accusing the Congress-led opposition of doing negative politics.

The resolution stated: "The Congress and its allies are resorting to the politics of lies and deception to serve their political interests. If the Congress President and its former President are questioned, then the entire Congress opposes it by taking to the streets." "They neither have faith in the Constitution of India, nor have faith in the people of the country, and nor do they have faith in democratic values," the resolution added.

Countering the Congress' allegations and the protests, Union Minister Smriti Irani said that "efforts are being made to save the assets worth Rs 2,000 crore acquired by the Gandhi family through corruption".

Responding to the allegations levelled by the Congress over Rahul Gandhi's questioning by the ED in National Herald case, BJP national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi had said that the case has nothing to do with the government. This has started on November 1, 2012, during the UPA government itself, but no action was taken by any agency of the government; and now the action is being taken only after the High Court's direction.

However, the Congress is not the only party to have accused the BJP-led NDA government of misusing the Central investigative agencies. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, NCP President Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and many other opposition parties and their leaders have also made similar allegations against the NDA government.

Taking a jibe at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's allegations, BJP national spokesperson Raju Bisht termed it the best example of "ulta chor kotwal ko dante" (the pot is calling the kettle black). "West Bengal is the state where police and administrative officers work like TMC cadre. The state government has filed several cases against the BJP MPs, MLAs and leaders by making fabricated allegations, action is being taken out of political vendetta, and Mamta Banerjee is blaming us (the BJP government) on the contrary." He further said that the ED has attached properties worth rupees thousands of crore from across the country. BJP does not interfere in the legal process. The Calcutta High Court has entrusted the CBI to investigate about 25 cases, questioning the West Bengal Police.

In fact, the BJP's stand on these allegations is very clear -- the government has nothing to do with these matters. The investigative agencies are taking their respective actions on the basis of merit and the leaders accusing the government should respond in case of corruption and cooperate through the legal process (interrogation, investigation and trial).

Referring to Narendra Modi's interrogation by the SIT during the UPA government, the BJP leader also said that despite false allegations, Narendra Modi did not create any ruckus. He faced the questions of the SIT and fully cooperated in the investigation process, but now the opposition parties, to hide their corruption, are falsely accusing the BJP of misusing investigating agencies.
Kolkata, July 9 : Renowned economist Amartya Sen, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, has tested positive for Covid-19. He is currently 89 years old.

Sen, known for his contribution to welfare economics, economic and social justice, development economics and social choice theory, is currently under home quarantine at his ancestral residence of "Pratichi" at Bolpur-Shantiniketan in Birbhum district of West Bengal.

His close associates at Bolpur said that he came to his ancestral residence on July 1, 2022, after two years. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown, Sen did not travel overseas for the last two years.

"However, even after coming to Bolpur this time, his interaction with people in general were restricted because of the Covid-19 precautions," said one of Sen's close associates.

The Nobel laureate was slated to visit London on July 10, 2022. However, this programme has been cancelled as he has been infected with Covid-19.

A team of doctors is constantly monitoring Sen's health condition and as per latest information available his condition is stable.

Recently, he was in Kolkata to attend the inauguration of Amartya Research Centre at Salt Lake in the northern outskirts of the city. At this programme, he had urged the people of the country to remain united.

"India is a country which has been historically liberal. Everyone needs to work together and hence I want the people to remain united," said Sen.
Lucknow, July 9 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), once a celebrated probe agency, is now considered slow, tardy and ineffective.

In recent years, the CBI has failed to make the desired impact on the target and associates.

The Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate are the new favourites. They create the right buzz, hit the target hard and make an impact on the common man.

The trend actually began during the Manmohan Singh regime when the then ruling party, the Congress, used the central agencies, particularly the CBI, to rein in allies like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati.

At the turn of the century, Mulayam Singh and Mayawati were booked in cases of disproportionate assets.

Both the cases are still 'on' and are now used occasionally to force these parties into submission.

Mayawati's brother Anand Kumar is sometimes summoned for interrogation and Vishwanath Chaturvedi, once a Youth Congress leader and a complainant against Mulayam Singh Yadav, keeps the case alive by shooting off 'reminders' in court.

As a senior Supreme Court lawyer puts it, "The government does not want closure of these cases because it suits them to keep them 'alive'. Both the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party are parties on a leash because of these cases and will remain so." The IT and ED have been used increasingly against 'political rivals' in Uttar Pradesh, particularly the Samajwadi Party, on the eve of assembly elections.

The Income Tax Department in early January conducted raids at the properties of real estate company ACE Group and its promoter Ajay Chaudhary in Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida and Agra.

According to reports, Chaudhary is said to be close to Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav.

I-T department officials conducted raids at the premises of all ongoing projects of the ACE Group. The raids had started at the Noida Sector 126 corporate offices of the organisation and were spread over 30 locations related to Ajay Chaudhary.

Chaudhary was said to be a 'financial source' of the SP and the significance of the raids on election eve is not entirely lost.

In December, the premises of several SP leaders and associates like Manoj Yadav in Agra, Neetu Yadav a.k.a Gajendra Yadav in Lucknow were raided by the IT sleuths.

Earlier, the Income Tax department from Varanasi had raided the residence of Rajeev Rai in the Sahadatpura area of Mau district in eastern UP. Rajeev Rai is the secretary and spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party.

The most talked about raids, however, were on perfume baron Piyush Jain from Kannauj, and had resulted in the seizure of hundreds of crores of rupees in cash.

The BJP went to town claiming that the perfumer was a Samajwadi Party financier.

Piyush Jain was arrested on charges of tax evasion in December 2021. During a series of raids on the premises owned by him, over Rs 257 crore in cash as well as gold and silver was recovered. The money was allegedly linked to the dispatch of goods on fake invoices and without e-way bills by a goods transporter.

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Ahmedabad recovered Rs 10 crore in cash from his perfume factory and residence in Kannauj district of Uttar Pradesh. Unaccounted sandalwood oil and perfumes worth crores of rupees were also seized from Jain's factory.

According to the Chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, this was the biggest seizure by the agency in its history.

Top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed in their election speeches that the 'itr' (perfume) had developed a bad smell and money was coming out of walls.

Akhilesh Yadav, meanwhile, said that the raids on Piyush Jain was a case of mistaken identity.

"The IT people got confused between Piyush Jain who is a BJP supporter and Pushpraj Jain Pampi who is with Samajwadi Party. Both are perfumers and live in the same locality in Kannauj and have similar sounding names. The government wanted to target me but they have targeted their own man," he said in a widely publicised press conference.

Within a matter of hours, Pushpraj Jain Pampi was also subjected to raids.

Akhilesh Yadav has been alleging that the BJP government in the Centre and UP had targeted him and his party ahead of the assembly elections because they were 'scared to lose'.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had responded to those allegations with a 'Chor Ki Dadhi Main Tinka' (the thief makes himself known) jibe.

Senior SP leader Mohd Azam Khan's family is the latest on the ED list.

His son Abdullah Azam is being summoned on a daily basis by ED officials and is subjected to long hours of questioning.

Azam Khan was released from jail in May this year after 27 months after being booked in 89 cases related to book theft, buffalo theft, hen theft, statue theft, power theft, land grabbing and land encroachment.
New Delhi, July 9 : Political opponents of the Bharatiya Janata Party allege that the ED, IT department and the CBI are being misused by the party to fix rivals. The ED has become the "Election Directorate" of the the BJP, they said, while the CBI was once called the Congress Bureau of Investigation.

The recent political developments in Maharashtra where the Uddhav Thackeray led MVA was unseated with the help of Shiv Sena rebels has led to the Opposition alleging that the ED was used to topple the government and the agency had been threatening the MLAs since the MVA government came into existence.

The ED has been named by the Opposition as the BJP's Election Directorate which is being used to topple the elected governments in the states and comes into play ahead of the elections. Regarding Maharashtra, Congress communication in-charge Pawan Khera said, "Introducing the new ED Sarkar. #Maharastra." Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha openly accused the ruling party, "BJP and the Central government are fully responsible for destabilising a stable govt in Maharashtra to form their own govt in the state." The recent face off between the Opposition and the ED was over the questioning of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the AJL/Young India case pertaining to the National Herald. The Congress hit the streets to oppose the action but the ED will now question Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the same case in mid July.

On the Rahul Gandhi issue, party MP Karti Chidambaram who is also facing the ED said in a tweet, "The repeated summons to Rahul Gandhi by the ED is nothing but crude harassment. And ED Directors standard conduct is abominable. But the way they are harassing Rahul Gandhi is the pits. This is being done only for the voyeuristic pleasure of certain people and their blind followers who harbour deep prejudice." It's not only the Congress which is facing the ED wrath, said an opposition leader, but the TMC, Shiv Sena, JMM, AAP and others who are hurdles in the BJP's path are getting the same treatment.

Aam Aadmi Party minister Satyendra Jain is in jail, Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh of the NCP are also in jail. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has defended Satyendra Jain and has alleged that he was targeted due to political prejudice. Kejriwal has not removed Jain from the cabinet despite his judicial custody.

The Congress also alleged that those opposition leaders have not been investigated who have joined the BJP including Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Mukul Roy who switched to the BJP and then rejoined the TMC.

However this doesn't mean that the Congress tenure was very clean. It often faced allegations of misusing the CBI which was termed as the Congress Bureau of Investigation. The apex court had said it was a caged parrot.

Two prominent political parties, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, had often alleged harassment by the CBI. While the SP was in the dock over DA cases filed by a Congress leader, the BSP was entangled in the Taj Corridor case.

Vishwanath Chaturvedi, petitioner in the Mulayam Singh DA case, has been upset with the Congress for being ignored and alleged that, "it was his case which was used to blackmail the Samajwadi Party to support the UPA government during the no confidence motion in 2008 when the Left Front withdrew support opposing the nuclear deal." He said "the UPA government did not have full majority so they were discreet but the BJP has a brute majority so they are more direct. The way has changed but not the misuse, the same ED whose officials are now with the BJP was instrumental in cases against YSRCP leader Jagan Mohan Reddy." When some Samajwadi Party-linked people were raided ahead of elections its president Akhilesh Yadav categorically said," Earlier, the Congress also used to intimidate people by misusing central agencies like the I-T, CBI and the ED." He charged that now the BJP is doing the same thing.

In 2019 the then Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das had alleged that the UPA government had misused the CBI to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case. "The Congress had indulged in politics to trap Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the name of a dangerous offender and is even now indulging in such efforts as it is the nature of the Congress to glorify terrorists," he had said.

On Friday the ED raided present Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren's close aide Pankaj Mishra, so both the governments are not far behind, Chaturvedi asserted.
New Delhi, July 9 : The Shiv Sena is facing a major political crisis after rebellion by senior party leader Eknath Shinde last month. This resulted in the ouster of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra.

Shinde is the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra, backed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Around 40 of 55 Shiv Sena MLAs joined the Shinde camp.

Another jolt to Thackeray came when 66 of 67 Sena members in Thane Municipal Corporation sided with the Shinde faction. Now, two of Shiv Sena MPs Rahul Shewale and Rajendra Gavit have written a letter to Thackeray demanding that the party should support BJP presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu.

Earlier, Thackeray had supported the candidature of joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.

However, in the changed political scenario, the Shiv Sena chief has said that he will take a decision about the presidential election after speaking to all the party MPs.

CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted a nationwide survey for IANS to know people's views about Shiv Sena's stand about the upcoming presidential elections.

The survey revealed that people's views were divided on the issue with a bigger proportion of respondents, 57 per cent suggesting that Thackeray should back Murmu, 43 per cent disagreed with the sentiment and opined that the Shiv Sena chief should support joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.

During the survey, while a majority of NDA voters, 64 per cent, stressed that Thackeray's party should vote for the BJP presidential candidate, views of opposition supporters were divided on the issue.

According to the survey data, while a substantial proportion of opposition supporters, 51 per cent said that Thackeray should support Murmu, 49 per cent suggested that the party should vote for Yashwant Sinha.

The survey highlighted differences in the opinions of different social groups on the issue.

While a majority of Upper Caste Hindus (UCH), 68 per cent, Scheduled Castes 66 per cent and Other Backward Classes 63 per cent suggested that Thackeray should support Murmu, majority of Muslims spoke in favour of party backing Yashwant Sinha.

Views of Scheduled Tribes were divided on the issue, with a larger proportion, 56 per cent suggesting Shiv Sena's support to Yashwant Sinha.
New Delhi, July 9 : The controversy surrounding Goddess Kaali that erupted when Madurai-born and Toronto-based filmmaker, Leena Manimekalai released an offensive poster of the Goddess further got accentuated with the objectionable remarks of TMC MP Mahua Moitra about the deity.

Leena Manimekalai had depicted a woman dressed as Goddess Kaali and smoking in the poster of her film.

Participating in a conclave of an English news channel, the TMC parliamentarian said, "Kaali" to her is a "meat-eating, alcohol-accepting Goddess".

Moitra's remarks outraged the worshippers of the Goddess.

Several FIRs have been lodged against the Lok Sabha MP in different states of the country on the charges of hurting the sentiments of the worshippers. Although the TMC distanced itself from Moitra's remarks, the party didn't initiate any action against her.

CVoter-India Tracker conducted a nationwide survey for IANS to know people's views on the issue. The opinion poll intended to know if mere distancing from the controversial remarks of Moitra is enough or TMC should have taken tougher action against her.

During the survey, majority of the respondents, 66 per cent, opined that TMC should expel Moitra for her controversial remarks, however, 34 per cent disagreed.

The survey revealed that the majority of Indians want stern action against those making offensive statements against any religion and religious figures.

This is evident from the survey data, as majority of both the NDA voters, 71 per cent, and opposition supporters, 62 per cent, stressed that TMC should expel the party MP for her provocative remarks.

Similarly, a majority of both the urban and rural voters demanded that TMC should show the doors to the parliamentarian.

During the survey, 70 per cent of rural and 61 per cent urban voters asserted that TMC should not show any leniency towards Moitra on the issue and exemplary action should be taken against her by expelling her from the party.
Mumbai, July 9 : Actor Anup Soni, whose OTT show, 'Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd.' released recently, spoke about his equation with his co-actors in the show, both on and off-screen. And there seems to be a stark contrast between the two sets of equation.

Talking about the on-screen relationship with the cast, Anup said, "On-screen relationships with the cast as per the script isn't that good. I am not on very great terms with my wife & with my mother. My character is just bearing everybody's anger, he is upset with himself & questioning himself as to what he has done. I am trying my best to make everyone happy." Coming to his relationship with the cast off the camera, the 'Crime Patrol' actor said, "On- screen I wasn't that happy but yes offscreen was great because we were shooting in Delhi & my god the amount of food we ate, Delhi is known for good food. Our director & co- actors are all big time foodies." "So whenever we used to shoot one of us used to decide what to order for dinner. We had a great time shooting for this," he added.

'Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd.' is currently available to stream on OTT platform ZEE5.
Chennai, July 9 : The Kodanad murder and heist case that took place at the summer bungalow of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Late J. Jayalalithaa, and her close associate V.K. Sasikala, has taken a different turn after questioning Arumugaswamy, a prominent businessman and a close aide of the former Chief Minister.

The special team of Tamil Nadu police questioned Senthil Kumar, Managing Director of Shenthil Papers and Boards Private Limited on Thursday and later on Friday the police asked his father O. Arumugaswamy to appear before them. The team on questioning the father-son duo has decided to take the investigation to a different angle, sources in the team told IANS.

According to information available, the duo was questioned after a few documents related to Income Tax that were seized by the IT department from the premises of Senthil and his father were those found missing from the Kodanad estate bungalow.

Sources in the police team told IANS that after the questioning of father and son, the team is brainstorming among themselves and a decision is being taken to take a different angle to the probe.

Arumugaswamy was a powerful person during Jayalalithaa's days and the administration of Kodanad bungalow was under him. He had several business interests including sand mining and was considered the conscience keeper of both the late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and Sasikala, former interim general secretary of the AIADMK.

The Kodanad murder and heist case that took place in April 23-24, 2017 led to the killing of a guard at the estate, Om Bahadhur while another guard Krishna Thapa was grievously injured. Police found that a former driver of late Jayalalithaa, Kanagaraj was the kingpin of the dacoity at the estate bungalow and had convinced his accomplices that crores of rupees were parked in the estate bungalow.

Five days after the loot and murder, Kanagaraj was run over by a speeding truck at the Salem-Chennai highway. At the same time another accused, Sayan met with an accident in Palakkad when a truck rammed into his car killing his wife and daughter on the spot. A few months after these incidents, a computer operator of the Kodanad estate bungalow, Dileep Kumar committed suicide at his residence.

The DMK had during its 2021 election campaign made a promise that it would reopen the Kodanad murder and heist case and that it would not allow anyone involved in the crime unpunished. After forming the government, Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin constituted a special police team to probe the Kodanad estate murder.
Washington, July 9 : A US court has charged a man that ran 19 companies and at least 15 Amazon storefronts, 10 eBay storefronts and multiple other entities that sold fraudulent and counterfeit Cisco networking devices worth $1 billion.

A federal grand jury in the District of New Jersey charged Onur Aksoy, aka Ron Aksoy, aka Dave Durden, 38, of Miami with running a massive operation over many years to traffic in fraudulent and counterfeit Cisco networking equipment with an estimated retail value of over $1 billion.

He imported tens of thousands of fake Cisco devices from China and Hong Kong and resold them to customers in the US and overseas, falsely representing the products as new and genuine, the US Department of Justice said in a statement late on Friday.

The operation allegedly generated over $100 million in revenue, and Aksoy received millions of dollars for his personal gain.

According to the indictment, the devices were typically older, lower-model products, some of which had been sold or discarded, which Chinese counterfeiters then modified to appear to be genuine versions of new, enhanced, and more expensive Cisco devices.

The Chinese counterfeiters added pirated Cisco software and unauthorised, low-quality, or unreliable components, including components to circumvent technological measures added by Cisco to the software to check for software license compliance and to authenticate the hardware.

Finally, to make the devices appear new, genuine, high-quality, and factory-sealed by Cisco, the Chinese counterfeiters allegedly added counterfeited Cisco labels, stickers, boxes, documentation, packaging, and other materials, the Justice Department said.

Aksoy is charged with one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods and to commit mail and wire fraud; three counts of mail fraud; four counts of wire fraud; and three counts of trafficking in counterfeit goods.
Tunis  President of the Republic, Kais Saied, in a televised address broadcast Friday evening, greeted the Tunisian people on the occasion of Eid al-Idha, but devoted most of his speech to the new constitution that will be submitted to a referendum on July 25.

In this regard, the Head of State admitted in his speech that there were errors in the text of the draft constitution submitted to the referendum, a copy of which was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic on June 30. In this regard, he said, "there are errors in the form and others in the arrangement that have infiltrated the published draft," noting that, according to him, the issue is "usual and familiar in the publication of all legal texts and judicial decisions."

The President of the Republic announced that this evening the text of the draft constitution will be published in the Official Gazette, explaining that on the occasion of the correction of these errors, "a number of clarifications will be added to avoid any confusion or interpretation," he said.

In his address, Kais Saied stressed that the draft constitutional text submitted to the popular referendum on July 25 "does not retract from the fundamental choices or the main principles", as these are principles "from the heart of the revolution and the conscience of the people."

He renewed his call to Tunisians to vote "yes" to the text of the new constitution so that "the correction of the course of the revolution and the correction of the course of history will be completed," according to his assessment, calling, in the same context, to "protect the state, rights and freedoms, and to achieve the objectives of the revolution."

He called on voters not to accept money from any party when recommending the next term, as happened, according to him, in 2019, stressing that he "is innocent of any funding."

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In his speech, President Kais Saied responded to what he said were the paradoxes of some by talking about the return of tyranny and dictatorship, stressing that "tyranny has gone without return and will never return, according to the constitution or any legislative decision."

The head of state noted that those who claim to fear dictatorship are among those who "reigned corruption or tyranny under the cover of the democratic transition," which President Kais Saied called a "fraudulent title."

On Tuesday July 5, President Kais Saied addressed a written message to the people, calling for a "yes" vote on the constitution submitted to the July 25 referendum, in order to achieve "the people's demands and save the state," considering that all rights and freedoms are untouchable in the constitution submitted to the referendum.

The campaign for this referendum began last Sunday, in a context of divergent positions of support or rejection.
Bengaluru, July 9 : Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said that more than 100 pilgrims from the state are on the Amarnath Yatra in Kashmir and the state government has taken every possible steps to rescue them.

The cloudburst at Amarnath has claimed 15 lives so far.

Speaking to the media, Bommai said pilgrims from Karnataka who are on Amarnath Yatra are safe.

"There is no report of any untoward incident related to Kannadigas. We are in contact with the Jammu and Kashmir government and Union government," the Chief Minister added.

"We have launched a helpline for this purpose. Nearly 15-20 Yatris have contacted us seeking help providing information about their current location." Rescue operation would be launched immediately to bring back stranded pilgrims from Karnataka.

Union government, BSF and ITBP officials are involved in the rescue operations.

The State Chief Secretary is in direct contact with the union government. Those in distress could contact the helpline so that they could be rescued immediately," Bommai said.

The state has also set helplines which are operational 24x7.
Colombo, July 9 : As thousands of protesters stormed Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's residence in Colombo on Saturday demanding his government's resignation amid the ongoing economic crisis, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremmesinghe has summoned an emergency meeting with political party leaders to discuss the situation.

According to the Prime Minister's Office, the premier also has requested the Speaker to summon Parliament in an effort to find a solution to the crisis.

Meanwhile, 16 MPs of President Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party in a letter requested him to resign immediately and make way for a leader who could command the majority in Parliament to lead the country.

They stated that Rajapaksa should give an opportunity to a mature leader without corruption allegations to take over the country.

However, he has not announced anything and his whereabouts are not known.

Social media reports have indicated that a group in 20 VVIP vehicles were heading for the airport, while another group left in two ships belonging to to Sri Lanka Navy.

However who left in them remains unclear.

Religious leaders have also urged the President and Prime Minister to resign immediately and allow the swift passage of power.

Lawyers have emphasized that President Rajapaksas himself has to decide what course of action he should take amidst the mounting public protests against him.

Representing the country's legal fraternity and sitting judges, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) said it calls upon the "President to consider whether he could continue to fulfil his obligations and the powers and duties as the President of Sri Lanka any longer".

They also urged the Prime Minster, Speaker, Cabinet and MPs to immediately ensure that political stability of the nation was secured forthwith and there should be no delay in ensuring such transition.

"We call upon the police and the armed forces to ensure that no further harm is caused to the people who are engaged in the protest," the BASL said.

The lawyers also urged public to protect public property, specially the President's House and Secretariat and also ensure that no ham is caused to any person.

Violent clashes broke out on Saturday as the protesters stormed the President's residence in Colombo, with police using tear gas shells to disperse the.

More than 40 protesters have been hospitalised, with three critically injured.

Anti-government protesters also surrounded another residence of the President in Kandy, as well as the ancestral house of former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in the southern city of Tangalle.

With the mounting crisis and tension in the country, schools which have been closed until July 18.

In the wake of the island nation's worst economic crisis since it gained independence in 1948, people have been protesting against President Rajapaksa and his government, asking him to step down.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa and several other family members who were in the cabinet and Parliament have already resigned.

With no fuel country's transportation have been stopped completely for two weeks and Indian ocean island is virtually under lockdown.

The island nation of 22 million people has witnessed its foreign exchange reserves shrink due to economic mismanagement and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a result it has struggled to pay for imports of essential goods, including fuel, food and medicine.

In May, it defaulted on its debts for the first time in its history after a 30-day grace period to come up with $78 million of unpaid debt interest payments expired.

Latest updates on Srilankan Crisis
Hyderabad, July 9 : Rashmika Mandanna's appearance in the much-anticipated film 'Sita Ramam', starring Dulquer Salman and Mrunal Thakur, came as a surprise. The film's producers have now sprung another.

In this Hanu Raghavapudi-directed film, Telugu star Sumanth plays 'Brigadier Vishnu Sharma', and his first look poster has been released.

Sumanth, who is usually seen in delicate and classy roles, looks ferocious here, with a stern frown on his face and a handlebar moustache. Sumanth's transformation is astounding, and one can expect an aggressive performance from him in the film.

They've also shared a scene in which Sumanth is seen smoking a cigarette and talking on the phone. He says something thought-provoking: "We can only start some battles; ending them is not always in our hands... Brigadier Vishnu Sharma here...The Madras Regiment...." 'Sita Ramam' is a movie set in the backdrop of 1965, Aswini Dutt is producing the movie under Swapna Cinema. Vishal Chandrashekhar has provided music for this classic romantic saga.

The film being made simultaneously in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam languages is slated for release on August 5. Sumanth, Gautam Menon, Prakash Raj and others will be seen in important roles in 'Sita Ramam'.
Srinagar : Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha visited SKIMS hospital to enquire about the health of pilgrims who were injured in Friday's incident of cloudburst at Amarnath holy cave, in Srinagar on Saturday, 09 July, 2022. (IANS/Manoj Image Source: IANS News

Srinagar : Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha visited SKIMS hospital to enquire about the health of pilgrims who were injured in Friday's incident of cloudburst at Amarnath holy cave, in Srinagar on Saturday, 09 July, 2022. (IANS/Manoj Image Source: IANS News

Srinagar, July 9 : Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday visited SKIMS hospital in Srinagar to enquire about the health of pilgrims who were injured in Friday's incident of cloudburst at Amarnath holy cave.

The Lt Governor met the doctors treating the injured and impressed for all possible treatment for their speedy recovery.

The Lt Governor went around the wards where injured were receiving treatment, and enquired about their well-being.

Prof Parvaiz A. Koul, Director SKIMS briefed the Lt Governor on the health facilities being extended to the injured pilgrims for their treatment.

It was informed that seven pilgrims who were injured during the tragic cloudburst are under-going treatment at the Hospital and being monitored by senior health staff.

Later, Manoj Sinha also visited PCR, Srinagar where he was briefed about the status of sending the mortal remains of deceased pilgrims to their respective hometowns.
Chennai, July 9 : In news that is bound to bring cheer to fans of Fahadh Faasil, the actor's much-awaited upcoming Malayalam film 'Malayankunju', directed by Sajimon, has been cleared by the Censor Board of Film Certification with a clean 'U' certificate, and will hit screens on July 22.

The film is produced by Fazil, Fahadh Faasil's father, a director credited with delivering several cult classics in Tamil.

Rajisha Vijayan plays the female lead in the film, the story of which has been written by director Mahesh Narayanan, known for giving superhits like 'Take Off'. Mahesh Narayanan has also taken care of the film's cinematography.

Music for the film is by A. R. Rahman; in fact, it was Rahman who announced on Instagram that the film is to hit the screens on July 22. He wrote: "Glad to inform you about #Malayankunju's theatrical release on 22nd July." Rumours in the industry suggest that the story is based on an actual incident of landslide that took place in Kerala and resulted in the loss of several lives. The film is a survival thriller.
Bengaluru, July 9 : Hindu activists have decided to go ahead with the bandh plan demanding celebration of Hindu festivals at Idgah Maidan in Chamarajpet area of Bengaluru. The decision was taken even as Congress MLA Zameer Ahmad Khan has assured that the the Maidan will be preserved as a playground.

The convener of the Citizen's Forum Rukmangada at a press conference reiterated the earlier stand of observing bandh on July 12. "MLA Zameer Ahmad Khan seems to have lost his mind. He earlier claimed that if B.S. Yediyurappa became the Chief Minister, he would turn into a watchman. He never kept his word. There is no question of withdrawing the bandh," he said.

"None from our organization attended the meeting where MLA Zameer Ahmad Khan said that Idgah Maidan will be used as a playground," he said.

However, when media persons asked him whether the celebration of Hindu festivals would be allowed in the Idgah Maidan, Zameer Ahmad Khan did not answer the question and left the place.

At least 25 Hindu organisations as well as local groups have joined hands to wage legal battle over the claims of the Wakf Board that Idgah Maidan is its property and it will only allow celebrations of national festivals.

The organisations are carrying out door to door campaign in Chamarajpet to create awareness for the need to retain the Idgah Maidan as a playground.

They have also slammed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for its dual stand over the property. Initially, BBMP claimed that Idgah Maidan is its property; later the civic agency denied it. Hindu organisations have slammed BBMP and urged the ruling BJP government to intervene and resolve the matter.

The activists have also stated that as per the Supreme Court order, Muslims should be allowed to conduct prayers on two occasions in a year and rest of the days the ground should be used as a playground.

Chamarajpet Citizens' Forum has confirmed that bandh will be observed in Chamarajpet and Hindu activists, local organisations will take out a bike rally on July 12 from Sirsi Circle to Idgah Maidan.

Chamarajpet is home to sizable number of Muslim population represented by Congress MLA Zameer Ahmad Khan. Hindu activists have warned that he is not an MLA for only one religion.

With BBMP elections round the corner and the state entering the election year the authorities are concerned about the development.
Guntur, July 9 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has been elected the lifetime president of the ruling Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP).

An announcement in this regard was made on the second and final day of the party plenary here on Saturday.

YSRCP general secretary V. Vijaysai Reddy, who was the returning officer for the election of the party president, announced the unanimous election of Jagan Mohan Reddy as the lifetime president of the party.

A total of 22 sets of nominations were filed on behalf of Jagan Mohan Reddy by YSRCP leaders on Friday. No other leader filed nomination for the post.

YSRCP leaders on the dais congratulated Jagan Reddy on his election. The participants in the plenary hailed the announcement with loud cheers and slogans.

The YSRCP will now move the Election Commission of India (ECI) to convey that it has modified its constitution for Jagan Reddy's election as the YSRCP president for his lifetime.

The party leaders are confident of getting ECI's nod. They cited the case of DMK, which was allowed by the Election Commission to name M. Karunanidhi as the party chief for life.

Jagan Mohan Reddy had floated YSRCP in 2011 after resigning from Congress party to carry forward the ideals of his late father and former chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR).

After the death of YSR in a helicopter crash in September 2009, Jagan Reddy had raised the banner of revolt against Congress party by embarking on a yatra to console the families of those who died of shock following his father's death.

Jagan Reddy and his mother Y.S. Vijayamma had resigned from Congress and quit Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula Assembly seats respectively to float YSRCP.

Vijayamma, who has been serving as the honorary president of YSRCP since its inception, announced her resignation from the post on the first day of the plenary on Friday. She said she would like to stand by her daughter Y.S. Sharmila, who has launched a separate political party in Telangana.
Colombo, July 9 : Making his stance clear for the first time amid massive public pressure to step down, Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said that he would respect any decision taken at the party leaders' meeting scheduled on Saturday evening.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that Rajapaska has informed him that he would stand by any decision taken by the party leaders, who are scheduled to meet on Saturday evening.

Amid the collapse of the country's economy, since March 31 people have taken to the streets demanding the resignation of Rajapaksa. The continuous public protests were controlled violently, but it forced then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and all his family members in politics to step down.

With no plans to import fuel, the country has been closed for two weeks since June 27, even as people planned July 9 as the day to remove Rajapaksa. Thousands marched to Colombo on Saturday from all over the country, demanding President and Prime Minister's resignation.

After taking over the President's official residence and office in Colombo, the protesters have also taken control Temple Trees, the official residence of the Prime Minister.

Despite the police and the military using teargas, rubber bullets and water cannons, besides firing in the air, people in large numbers forced into the heavily-guarded President's house on Saturday.
New Delhi, July 9 : A gang of burglars, headed by a woman, was busted with the arrest and apprehension of six people, including 4 minors in the national capital, an official said on Saturday.

The accused were identified as Ankit alias Lambu (19), 4 juveniles and the woman head of the gang -- Saloni alias Sita (20).

It was officially learnt that the accused Saloni is so desperate and inveterate at evading arrest that she hurts herself and tears her clothes to ambush the legal process and may even attack and injure police and the public.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (North District) Sagar Singh Kalsi said a man, who works in a private wine shop, approached Burari police station and reported in his complaint that on June 24, after locking his house, he along with his family members went to attend family function at his native place i.e. district Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh.

On June 28 at about 5.30 a.m., while the said man came back, he noticed that the lock at the main gate of his house and entrance lock at the backside room were broken. On checking, the jewellery and cash worth Rs 12 lakh was found stolen from the almirah.

Accordingly, the police registered a case under section 380 (theft in dwelling house) and 457 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking by night in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code and initiated an investigation.

During the probe, CCTV cameras installed in the vicinity of the place of incident and possible routes followed by the culprits were checked and analysed and one person moving in odd hours was noticed.

"On finding him in odd timings suspicion was raised, he was intensely chased through CCTV footage and local intelligence also helped to identify him," the DCP said.

The technical clues then finally led the police team to all the accused who were nabbed from Gali No 3, Near Shamshan Ghat Mukundpur, Delhi on Friday.

"The kingpin of the gang was a girl of 20 years who usually kept the juveniles under her control. She provides resources, accommodation as well as financial help to the juveniles & in return, she gets the major share of booty," the official said.

The police have recovered the stolen articles.
Google has started rolling out functionality that enables users to install apps on their Android-enabled smart TVs through their phones. Image Source: IANS News

San Francisco, July 9 : Google reportedly offered the US government to split its ad-tech business, which allows companies to place ads on Internet and and apps, into a separate entity under the Alphabet umbrella, to avoid an antitrust lawsuit.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal was part of multiple concessions the tech giant offered the US Department of Justice to avoid lawsuits alleging anti-competitive practices.

The US Justice Department is conducting a probe into allegations that "Google abuses its role as both a broker and auctioneer of digital advertisements to steer itself business at the expense of rivals", and preparing a lawsuit that could be announced soon.

In a 64 page complaint with 194 numbered items, the US Justice Department and 11 states sued Google in October 2020 for antitrust violations, alleging that it weaponised its dominance in online search and advertising to kill off competition and harm consumers.

The lawsuit marks the US government's biggest move since its case against Microsoft more than 20 years ago. This comes after 15 months of investigation and could be the opening scene of more antitrust actions against other Big Tech companies.

Reacting to the WSJ report that came out on Friday, a Google spokesperson said that they have been engaging constructively with regulators to address their concerns.

"As we've said before, we have no plans to sell or exit this business. Rigorous competition in ad technology has made online ads more relevant, reduced fees, and expanded options for publishers and advertisers," the company spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report.

Not just the US, Google is facing anti-trust probes in the UK and India too.

The UK competition watchdog in May opened a second investigation into Google's unfair practices in ad tech, following the launch of a probe into Google and Meta's 'Jedi Blue' agreement.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating whether Google has broken the law by restricting competition in the digital advertising technology market.

"We're worried that Google may be using its position in ad tech to favour its own services to the detriment of its rivals, of its customers and ultimately of consumers," said Andrea Coscelli, the CMA's Chief Executive.

The CMA is assessing whether Google's 'ad tech stack' practices may distort competition.

In July 2021, the French regulator closed a similar case against Google having imposed a fine and secured commitments.

In March this year, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered an investigation into complaints against Google for abusing its dominant position related to news referral services and Google ad-tech services in the Indian online news media market.

The CCI found that prima facie, these allegations of abuse of dominant position are under the purview of the Competition Act, 2002 and requires a detailed investigation by the Additional Director General.
Says security agents did not fire single shot 4 inmates killed outside facility while resisting arrest How inmates due for release refused to run Strange things happened that I can't talk about - Aregbesola

Just when many Nigerians thought they had heard the last version of the attack on the Kuje Medium Correctional Centre where 64 high-profile terrorists and more than 260 other hardened criminals were set free, fresh and startling revelations have emerged showing the role security agencies played in the invasion.

A private investigator has revealed that military personnel, police and other security operatives on guard duty during the attack on Kuje prison did not lift a finger to defend the facility.

According to the security source, none of the personnel fired a bullet throughout the operation, and apart from the Civil Defence officer who was killed for trying to fight the invaders, the terrorists did not aim any attack against both the military personnel or their armoured vehicle in the prison premises.

He also revealed that the four persons killed that night were fleeing inmates shot dead by soldiers at checkpoints after the attack.

LEADERSHIP Weekend also learnt that 'awaiting trial' inmates who are confident of getting justice in the course of their prosecution stayed put after possibly weighing the options of a stiffer punishment. Also, inmates with less than six months and one year to complete their jail terms did not escape from the facility despite having the opportunity.

It was also gathered from a reliable source within the nation's security circles that a few of the inmates who fall into this category had initially grabbed the opportunity to escape but returned on their own volition.

However, the source, a secret investigator, revealed that the only casualty, a Civil Defence officer stationed at the front gate, was apparently not carried along and made for his gun to fight the invaders, for which he was killed.

According to the source who pleaded anonymity, "From my investigation, the only person that was killed during the three-hour attack was a Civil Defence officer. In fact, he did not know what was going on, so he attempted to fight, and so paid the supreme price.

"I can categorically tell you that the four corpses (inmates reported dead) that were on the ground were brought in dead in a Black Maria bus. They were killed by security operatives who accosted them at military checkpoints and bushes when they resisted arrest. Many of the recaptured inmates actually had their thighs riddled with bullets.

The source described how the terrorists breached the custodial facility without a push back from the terrorists.

"The attackers entered the facility through the bush. Interestingly, that was the same spot the military armoured tanker was stationed, but guess what: they met no resistance, and shockingly they did not tamper (I mean destroy) with any part of the armoured tanker. These same guys (terrorists) now went ahead to burn down several vehicles parked just 10 metres away from the military tanker. Ordinarily, since the area manned by the army officers, who were deployed 12 hours before the attack, was their first port of call, before the civil defence officers, some soldiers and terrorists should have been gunned down.

The source, who insisted that no shot was fired by the personnel of the military, DSS, Police, the Immigration or Prisons Armed Squad, revealed that all the bullet shells picked up from the grounds of Kuje prison belonged to the terrorists.

He said it is indeed a thing of concern that the military disappeared during the attack and only returned after the operation was ended.

"I tell you, none of them (security personnel) had even a scratch. The attackers passed them but none was gunned down. It's really worrisome."

LEADERSHIP Weekend recalls that Senate president Ahmad Lawan had blamed insider complicity for the attack and called for thorough investigations when he visited the facility.

Reports that the military contingent to the custodial facility was replaced barely 12 hours to the time of the attack has helped to raise more suspicion of connivance.

Strange Things Happened That I Can't Say In Public - Aregbesola

Shockingly, and as if to validate the revelations by the private investigator mentioned above, the minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said certain occurrences pertaining to the Kuje prison attack that he was not ready to disclose in public.

The minister, who made this comment when he led a team from the ministry of Interior on an inspection visit to the custodial centre described Kuje as a world class facility by any standard and the most fortified in the country.

Aregbesola expressed disappointment at the level of defence put up by the platoon of the Nigerian Army with sophisticated weapons, elite men of the Nigeria Police Force, officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence and armed officers of the Nigerian Correctional Service on ground during the time of the attack.

He confirmed that strange things happened during the invasion which he could not say in public.

He said, "Kuje is the most fortified in the country if fortification for security is the determinant of whether it is (a) medium or maximum (security prison). We have a platoon of security officers deployed here. We have high grade military and police and other security forces deployed for protection but strangely something happened most of which I cannot say on camera."

The minister further reiterated his earlier declaration of all custodial centres across the country as red zones, stating that whoever attempts to breach them would not live to tell the story.

NCoS Declares 69 Terrorist Wanted

Meanwhile, three days after the attack, the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) has declared 69 terrorist inmates wanted.

They are among the over 300 inmates freed from the facility after the attack by the terrorist group

In a public notice released on Friday, entitled "Wanted" by the NCoS authorities, it declared 69 inmates with terrorism cases wanted, asking the public to provide useful information which may lead to their recapture.

The notice also contains the photographs, names and other relevant details about the 69 fugitives.

The document reads in part: "The following are faces and names of inmates with Boko Haram/Terrorism Cases who escaped from Kuje Correctional Centre during the jail attack on 5th July, 2022.

"If you see any of these people, or have useful information which may lead to their recapture, Please Call 07000099999, 09060004598 or 08075050006 or any law enforcement agency nearest to you."

The NCoS also provided its official website, www.corrections.gov.ng/escapees, where all the escapees from the Kuje facility can be viewed.

A retired director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor said enough intelligence was provided to all actionable agencies before the attack but nothing was done to forestall it.

He said on April 26, 2022, the DSS alerted the nation about plans of renewed bomb attacks on critical government infrastructure and public places, just as the agency had also alerted the public on March 19 about planned violence in North central.

Also, highly placed security sources said intelligence on planned attack in FCT and on Kuje prison was given to the agencies in sequence up until June 4, 2022, a day before the suspected terrorists attacked and freed inmates from the correctional facility, but nothing was done to stop them.

Speaking exclusively to LEADERSHIP Weekend yesterday, Ejiofor said he believes the agencies were not able to act because they were not properly equipped to do that.

He said at the level of interagency relationship, "if the SSS offers intelligence to a particular agency, the SSS must back it up with implementation strategies."

He, however, said if the affected agency does not implement the strategies, it does not mean that intelligence was not offered but that sometimes, it could be lack of funds to implement the strategies among other factors.

Ejiofor, who is also a lawyer, argued that sometimes budget provisions meant for necessary security provisions are not implemented and the members of the National Assembly that should carry out oversight functions are, sometimes, guilty of corruption and this goes a long way to affect the output of security agencies.

He said that the attack was aimed at destabilising the country and making the government unpopular among the citizens but that they will not succeed.

The ex-DSS director further said it was worrisome how these terrorists came into the community without any detection and executed an attack of that magnitude.

While speaking on possible compromise on the part of some security agencies, he said: "Of course, there is a lot of compromise within the security agencies. The security agencies, especially the police and the army, must look inward to fish out the bad eggs; otherwise, all the exercise we are doing will be in futility.

"It is the rat that is inside the house that will go out to tell the ones outside that there is food inside the house because as you are planning your operations, they are leaking the strategies. So, there is compromise, no doubt."

Kuje: Terrorists Had Superior Firepower - FG

Meanwhile, the federal government has said terrorists who attacked the Correctional Centre, Kuje in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) succeeded because that they had superior fire power than the security personnel guarding the prison.

Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, disclosed this to State House Correspondents after the National Security Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said the security personnel deployed to the facility did their best to repel the attack but were subdued by the superior weaponry and numbers of the terrorists.

The minister revealed that some of the assailants were killed.

Asked why the terrorists could not be stopped, he said: "You see, these kinds of things, they happen and I want to assure you all those who were supposed to play a role in ensuring that the attack was neutralised did the best that they could to neutralise it.

"I think what helped them was the number of people they came with and the superior weapons they came with. And because nobody anticipated it, the few people could not withstand the number that they came with. I think that's what happened."

He, however, assured that investigation into the incident would reveal the details of what happened.

Asked if no arrest had been made, he said, "Some of them have been killed, but I can't give you the number, and I don't know the number. Because like they use to do, whenever one of them is killed, they take away and you cannot know the number of people who have been killed, but definitely, quite a number of them were killed and many of them ran way with bullet wounds."

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On the outcome of the security meeting, the minister said President Buhari had directed that they hold today's Security Council meeting to review the situation of security in the country particularly as it relates to insecurity issues that have happened in the last few weeks.

"Mr. President was deeply concerned about these developments. And he initiated this meeting to enable security agencies, the service chiefs, inspector general of police to brief the council on what actually happened and the way forward.

"We had a very successful meeting and the council has agreed to take proactive measures that will ensure that repeat of what happened these few days would not be witnessed anymore."

Dinyadi assured Nigerians that arrangements had been made to ensure that full investigations are carried out to ensure that a repeat of these incidents will not occur.

The service chiefs have been given very clear directives to ensure that adequate measures are taken not only to investigate what happened, but also to take steps to forestall the reoccurrence of such incidents.

He called on Nigerians to continue to support the federal government in its effort to restore normalcy to the country.

Tinubu Condemns Attack On Kuje Prison, Demand Thorough Probe

National leader and presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has condemned Tuesday's terrorists attack on the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Kuje, calling for full scale investigation of the incident, with a view to unravelling a possible failure to act on intelligence.

In a statement issued yesterday by his spokesman, Tunde Rahman, the APC presidential candidate described the incessant terror attacks plaguing the country as worrisome, even as he urged Nigerians to remain vigilant and united behind constituted authorities.

He said, "These incessant attacks on government's institutions and innocent citizens is a sad reminder that we still have a lot to do to put these evil forces in check.

"I totally condemn this dastardly attack. The government must immediately go after the attackers and fleeing inmates of this facility. This moment calls for national unity and deep introspection."

He called for continued support to the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in its battle against insurgents and its determination to confront these agents of darkness, just as he commiserated with the families and relations of those who lost their lives in the attack.
Jaipur, July 9 : Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday raised contentious issues of the state, including the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal as surplus and un-channelled water is flowing to Pakistan, appointment of members in the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) from the state and a new complex for the state legislative assembly.

The Chief Minister, while attending the meeting of the Northern Zonal Council, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah here, said the meeting would be helpful in promoting cooperative federalism as well as in resolving various issues of inter-state and between the Centre and the states in a time-bound manner.

Khattar said though Haryana is a small state in terms of area and population, but it has a significant contribution to the country's economy.

The per capita income of the state is Rs 274,635, which is the highest among the big states of the country. Also, on the parameters of economic growth rate, Haryana is also among the leading states in the country.

The Chief Minister said the completion of the construction work of the SYL canal is a long-pending and serious issue between Haryana and Punjab. "Due to the non-completion of the SYL canal, surplus and un-channelled water of the Ravi, the Sutlej and the Beas goes to Pakistan." He said Haryana has also been allotted a 3.50 million acre-feet share in the surplus water of the Ravi-Beas as per the order of the government of India of March 24, 1976.

As per the decision taken in the meeting of the Union Jal Shakti Minister on August 18, 2020, with the Chief Ministers of both the states on the direction of the Supreme Court to resolve the issue, Punjab is not taking further action, said Khattar.

The Chief Minister said through a semi-official letter of May 6 he had requested the Union Minister of Jal Shakti to convene the second-round meeting of the Chief Ministers at the earliest to discuss this issue. Besides, he had written a semi-official letter to the Home Minister, requesting to organise a meeting of the Chief Ministers of both the states.

"Water is very important for Haryana. On one hand, we are not getting the water, on the other Delhi is demanding more water from us," said the Chief Minister.

On getting water from the Bhakra main line canal, the Chief Minister raised the issue of getting 700-1,000 cusecs less water.

He said a committee consisting of Chief Engineers and officers of the BBMB from the participating states has also found that Haryana has been given less distribution of water at the Bhakra main line canal contact point.

The committee has now suggested the appointment of a third agency with the latest discharge measurement techniques to lay the gauge and discharge curve for the entire distribution system from the head to all contact points in the participating states.

Highlighting the issue of appointment of members in the BBMB, the Chief Minister said the previous tradition of nominating a Member (Irrigation) from Haryana should be continued on similar lines of the nomination of a Member (Power) from Punjab.

"If there is interference in the processes which is going on for the last about 56 years, it will affect the interests of Haryana, especially in the context of Sutlej-Beas river water sharing. If the permanent members of the BBMB are from outside the participating states, they will not be able to understand local issues and problems. Therefore, in addition to appointing the Member (Irrigation) from Haryana and the Member (Electricity) from Punjab, a third, Member (Personnel), can also be appointed to the board.

"This third member may be appointed alternately from Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh" said Khattar.

Raising the new complex of legislative assembly, the Chief Minister said a new delimitation is proposed in 2026 on the basis of which Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections will be held in 2029.

It is estimated that according to the population of Haryana in the new delimitation, the number of assembly constituencies will be 126 and the number of Lok Sabha constituencies will be 14.

"At present, there are 90 MLAs in the Haryana legislative assembly. There is not enough space available in the existing building to even accommodate these 90 MLAs. Not only this, but it is also not possible to expand this building, because it is a heritage building. It is, therefore, requested that sufficient space may be given in Chandigarh for the construction of a new additional building for the Haryana Vidhan Sabha," he added.
New Delhi, July 9 : The latest Centre-Twitter legal battle over repeated content blocking orders by the IT Ministry has brought an old debate to the fore -- is the country finally ready to penalise foreign intermediaries and social media platforms for not obeying the law of the land or is there still a long way to go? Unlike the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR), and tougher cyber laws in countries like Singapore, South Korea and Australia, the Indian government is using several agencies to tame social media platforms in the absence of a nodal cyber regulator that separately deals with Big Tech.

In India, Twitter is in the eye of storm for not complying often with the new IT (intermediary) Rules, 2021.

The micro-blogging platform even witnessed a police raid on its offices in Delhi and Gurugram related to the alleged Congress toolkit controversy last year.

Twitter was at loggerheads with the Indian government last year over removal of certain posts and being compliant with the intermediary guidelines under the IT Act.

As and when the government sends stern notices to Twitter, Google, YouTube and Meta (formerly Facebook) under the available laws (like Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000) to remove controversial content, the platforms immediately knock at the door of the courts, resulting in zero action.

The tussle between Twitter, WhatsApp/Facebook and the government has reached its nadir, and the fact is that an absence of a stricter personal data protection law is forcing the concerned authorities to take routes like writing heaps of notices that have resulted in zero action to date, while social networking giants continue to take the country for a ride.

According to experts, while the government can initiate action for suspension or blocking of intermediary apps or websites if they fail to comply with its directions over various issues under current laws, a strong data protection law is what can tame the social media platforms, the way the GDPR in the EU has achieved.

In case Twitter fails to comply with the government directions, the latter has the powers to resort to penal consequences.

"In that direction, appropriate FIRs can be registered against intermediaries and service providers and their top management can also be made liable for the said contravention under Section 85 of the IT Act, 2000," Pavan Duggal, one of the country's top cyber law experts, noted.

The government can exercise its power under Section 69(A)(1). In case, any service provider or intermediary fails to comply with the provisions of the same, there are penal consequences prescribed under Section 69A(3) too.

Non-compliance with directions for blocking is a non-bailable serious offence punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine.

India has to learn from the EU when it comes to formulating a legal framework to secure data and tackle hateful or abusive online content, the experts said.

The EU GDPR has been designed to harmonise data privacy laws across Europe -- to protect and empower all EU citizens' data privacy and to reshape the way organisations across the region approach data privacy.

The Indian government, time and again, has told Internet intermediaries and social media platforms to comply with the law of the land.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a tweet that all foreign intermediaries and platforms have a right to approach the court and judicial review in India.

"But equally, all intermediary/platforms operating here have an unambiguous obligation to comply with our laws and rules," Chandrasekhar posted last week, as Twitter moved the Karnataka High Court against the government's order to take down some content on its platform.

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that "be it any company, in any sector, they should abide by the laws of India".

Twitter has clearly said that these blocking orders are being challenged on the basis that "they are procedurally and substantially deficient of the Section 69A requirements".

The micro-blogging platform last year clearly stated that they will listen to the Indian government's content removal demands seriously only when the Personal Data Protection Bill is firmly in place.

The proposed Personal Data Protection Bill also has provisions that impose heavy penalties on companies for non-compliance.

It has also proposed to term social media companies as publishers, which will make them liable for the content on their platforms.

The moot question is: Once the global tech giants respond to government notices, the matter ends and according to leading experts, data of crores of Indians are still being misused in the absence of a robust mechanism.

"As of today, India does not have a dedicated law on privacy or on cyber security," Duggal pointed out. "It does not have a legal framework in place for protecting all kinds of data. The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 is pending consideration before the Joint Parliamentary Committee. Further, India does not have a dedicated policy on data localisation." According to legal experts, India must fight social media biggies with a strong data protection law in place.
New Delhi, July 9 : Asserting that there is no political agenda vis-a-vis the first visit to the national capital with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis after forming the government in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday said the portfolio allocation would take place after Aashadhi Ekadashi that falls on Sunday.

Ahead of their meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shinde and Fadnavis addressed media here. Incidentally, Shinde did much of the talking after a two line introduction by Fadnavis.

Answering a question about portfolio allocation, Shinde said, "Tomorrow is Aashadhi Ekadashi. We (Shinde and Fadnavis) will meet in Mumbai after that and then discuss portfolio allocation." Aashadhi Ekadashi witnesses the largest congregation of devotees from across Maharashtra gathering at Pandharpur in Satara district after walking on foot for almost a month. The main puja is led by the Chief Minister and his wife every year.

To a question if the government will last (the remaining) two and a half years (term of the assembly), Shinde claimed, "We will not just last the remaining term but also win the next polls with 200 MLAs." Shinde refused to comment on the issue of Shiv Sena approaching the Supreme Court challenging the formation of the government and election of Speaker and said, "The matter is sub-judice. I don't want to talk about it. Ultimately, in a democracy, all that matters is numbers and majority. We are 164 and therefore we are in majority. We have a Constitution, there is a law, and there are rules. Nobody can venture outside that frame. We have formed the government as per rules, nothing is illegal and we have full faith in the judiciary." Earlier, after landing in Delhi on Friday evening, the duo called on President Ram Nath Kovind, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and also BJP president J.P. Nadda as part of what they termed as "courtesy meetings". They are slated to meet Prime Minister Modi also.

"The government that receives help from the Centre, progresses rapidly. Therefore, we have been carrying out courtesy visits in view of the development of our state," Shinde said and added, "When we took oath, the Prime Minister had promised that he would always stand with us working for Maharashtra's progress." He also credited Fadnavis with starting several big ticket projects in the state such as Samrudhhi Mahamarg (an expressway like project linking Mumbai with Nagpur and beyond all the way till easternmost parts of the state), Jal Yukt Shivar (rainwater harvesting scheme) that are in the interest of farmers and said, "We would carry those forward - the projects that were put on backburner in recent times." Fadnavis tried to dismiss comments about his large heartedness (by agreeing to be the deputy chief minister) by saying, it is his party that made him big and therefore has a large heart. "Also, I have been a Chief Minister, so I say, the Chief Minister is the leader, Shinde ji is our leader and we would all deliver a successful government." Shinde quickly added that people always had a perception that BJP was always after power but "this party has shown that it is with the ideology of Hindutva as propagated by (Shiv Sena founder) Balasaheb Thackeray." Both Shinde and Fadnavis asserted that theirs is a natural alliance and have done nothing wrong.
New Delhi, July 9 : President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday greeted fellow citizens on Eid-ul-Zuha, which he said is a "symbol of sacrifice and service to humanity." Extending his greetings to all the fellow citizens, especially Muslim brothers and sisters on the occasion, he said: "The festival of Eid-ul-Zuha is a symbol of sacrifice and service to the humanity. This festival inspires us to follow the path of self-sacrifice shown by Hazrat Ibrahim." "On this occasion, let us resolve to rededicate ourselves to the service of mankind and work for the prosperity and development of the nation," he said, as per Rashtrapati Bhavan communique.
Panaji, July 9 : Goa Congress in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao has scoffed rumours that some Congress MLAs are camping in Delhi and are in talks with the BJP leaders to join their fold.

Sources said that Rao arrived in Goa to persuade the MLAs who have made their minds to join BJP. These Congress MLAs (group) who are keen to join BJP have demanded three cabinet berths and other key posts, sources said.

"Goa is always full of speculations. I don't see anyone (keen to join BJP), these are rumours, right from day one. I think we should not unnecessarily speak about this speculative thing... all are together," Rao said.

He said that as Congress is in opposition, the party is gearing up to put the government on mat during assembly session.

"There are many issues concerning Goa, 100 days are celebrated by BJP. I don't know for what they are celebrating," he said.

He said that the government has not addressed issues pertaining to the state. "So I think as opposition party we have to represent the people and see that their money is spent well," he said.

BJP's Goa desk in-charge C.T. Ravi had on May 28 said that five MLAs from the opposition are interested to join the ruling side.

In October 2019, ten Congress MLAs along with leader of the Opposition Chandrakant Kavalekar had switched to BJP. However, he lost the assembly election in February 2022. Kavalekar's joining the ruling fold had invited ire and criticism from a section of the society.

Current leader of the opposition Michael Lobo, who was Minister in BJP's last term and joined Congress before the election, was in news for allegedly trying to switch along with other five legislators. However, he had refuted the rumours saying it was a false news created by social media platforms to draw people's attention towards their ventures.

Congress Goa President Amit Patkar has also rejected the speculations saying Congress MLAs are united. "It just a rumour, no one is going anywhere," he said.
Mumbai, July 9 : Actors Kavya Thapar and Paras Arora have come together for their latest single 'Baarish Ke Din'. Kavya, who has worked in Tamil and Telugu films, talks about the reason behind saying yes to the music video and her experience of working with Paras Arora.

She says: "I love the soothing sound of rain and the emotions it brings with it. The song is beautifully sung by Stebin Ben and when the song was offered to me, I couldn't stop myself from saying yes. I related so strongly with this song. I'm very peaceful during this season because throughout the year we travel for work, but the monsoon is when I spend time with myself and my family and make the most of it." The song is all about long-distance relationships and cancelled flights in monsoon.

About 'Baarish Ke Din', she says, "It is all about letting the rain be the reason for love. I had a great time shooting for it with my amazing co-star, Paras Arora. I am really happy with how beautifully the video has turned out, and now I hope that the audience loves it and accepts it with open arms." 'Baarish Ke Din' released on the official YouTube channel of Zee Music Company.
Mumbai, July 9 : Actress Vaani Kapoor, who plays the role of a travelling performer in the upcoming film 'Shamshera', had to learn horse riding for months to ace her role in the film. The training was integral to the film for the actress to get acclimatised to being around a horse 'Shamshera' director Karan Malhotra, who has earlier directed 'Agneepath' (2012) and 'Brothers' (2015) said in a statement: "Vaani had to go through horse training because when you're training with an animal and you want to work with an animal on a film you have to make a relationship with the animal... the horse that she trained with for the longest time and eventually that horse became a friend." Vaani added on to her director, saying: "Even for horse riding you need that emotional connection with the animal. They will throw you off otherwise. I remember I used to get this whole packet of biscuits and that's how the trainer also told me to feed the horse, befriend the horse and it's so cute.

"I mean they're like the loveliest animals. I think it's extremely important to be friends with them first. They only know the language of love." 'Shamshera' is Ranbir's first film after his last outing 'Sanju' which was released in 2018. The film is arriving in cinemas on July 22, 2022 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
Mumbai, July 9 : In a scathing attack, the Congress has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of 'bloodying' the country's atmosphere in the guise of 'hypocritical nationalism', and labelled it as a 'Bharat Jalao Party' against the backdrop of a spate of violent incidents across India, here on Saturday.

AICC Spokesperson Dr Ajay Kumar said in the recent weeks, there have been several instances like the Pulwama killing, murder of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, a jailed terror financer Niranjan Hojai in Assam, in which links with the BJP have emerged, "tearing the veil" of its hollow nationalism.

Detailing the incidents at a media conference, he alleged that the BJP was involved in some of these killings and terror activities in the country.

"One of the prime accused in the Udaipur killig - one Mohammed Atari - has turned out to be a BJP worker and employed with a company of a BJP leader Gulabchand Kataria's son-in-law, and enjoys close ties with several senior BJP leaders," said Dr Kumar.

Similarly, one of the two Lashkar-e-Taiba militants captured in Jammu & Kashmir, Talib Hussain Shah, is a BJP office-bearer and his photos with Union Home Minister Amit Shah have gone viral, while another BJP leader and a Sarpanch, Tariq Ahmed Mir was nabbed in J&K in 2020 on charges of supplying arms to terrorists, he added.

Maharashtra Congress Chief Spokesperson Atul Londhe said, in the June 2022 murder of a pharmacist Umesh Kolhe in Amravati, the prime accused Irfan Khan had taken part in the election campaign of local independent MP Navneet Kaur-Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana.

"The links between the BJP and the Rana couple are no secret. The Amravati killing occurred on June 21, the Udaipur murder took place on June 28, yet Navneer Kaur-Rana wrote to Amit Shah on June 27, demanding the NIA should probe the matter. How did she know about the incident one day in advance? Was it all pre-planned?" Londhe demanded.
Kolkata, July 9 : Bringing a major relief for the people of Kolkata and the West Bengal health department, the youth who was admitted to a city-based hospital on Friday as a monkeypox virus victim suspect, has tested negative.

The report of his blood sample and rash fluid came to Kolkata on Friday from the National Institute of Virology in Pune and no trace of monkeypox virus has been detected in the report.

The authorities of the hospital, where he has been admitted, confirmed the development and said that the youth will now be treated for chicken pox. He will be released from the hospital soon.

The said youth, who had returned to the country from Europe, developed rashes and symptoms of monkeypox.

Reports of monkeypox victims have been reported from different western countries. In wake of that, the union government has already alerted the authorities of different states in the country. The airport authorities have also been directed to immediately isolate any passenger showing symptoms of monkeypox.

Latest updates on Monkeypox Virus Outbreak
New Delhi, July 9 : A drunk neighbour stabbed a woman and her two daughters in the national capital's Dwarka area as he was denied food by them after a birthday party, it was learnt on Saturday.

The incident took place on the intervening night of June 5-6 when the accused man, identified as Vicky, barged into their neighbour's house at around 12.30 a.m. and asked for food.

The victims were a family of seven people -- parents, four daughters and one son. On that particular night, they celebrated the birthday of their 5-year-old son and the sisters had organised a small party for their brother.

"The accused who was completely drunk asked for food to which my mother told him that now everything has been finished and you please go to your home," the complainant, one of the daughters, said in the FIR registered by the police.

She alleged that within 10 minutes the accused came back with a knife and started threatening to kill all of them.

"He stabbed my mother twice -- first on the stomach and then on the shoulder. My elder sister, who came to rescue my mother, was also stabbed on the left abdomen and her intestines came out," the FIR, accessed by IANS, read.

At this time, the complainant's younger sister also tried to intervene but she was also stabbed on her hand by the accused person.

As there was a lot of noise, people quickly gathered there and got hold of the accused and thrashed him.

Meanwhile, the police also reached the spot and took both the victims and the accused in separate vehicles to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital. As the women were grievously injured, they were not able to make any statement to the police then.

Later, based on the complaint, the police registered an FIR under Section 307 (attempt to murder) against Vicky and took him into custody.
Thus, 2023 would be the first time in the Fourth Republic that a retired military officer will not be a major contender for the office of Nigeria's president.

The influence of former military officers in the political process appears to be reducing as Nigeria heads towards its sixth general elections under the Fourth Republic.

Until their return to the barracks in 1999, soldiers exercised political control of the country for 16 years, following a military coup d'etat that ended four years and three months of civil rule under the Second Republic (1979 to 1983).

The Fourth Republic began with a former military head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo, elected as the first president of the dispensation. Eight years after Mr Obasanjo left office after serving the maximum two-term tenure, Nigerians in 2015 elected another former general and former head of state, Muhammadu Buhari, whose second term will run out at the end of May next year. Mr Buhari had also been a major challenger to Mr Obasanjo since 2003.

Aside from the two generals who were elected president, many former soldiers had also been elected governors or senators in many parts of the country.

However, for the 2023 elections, no former military officer secured the presidential ticket of either of the two major political parties - the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Also, none of the two other parties - LP and NNPP - that appear to be gaining momentum among Nigerians has a retired military officer as its presidential candidate.

Thus, 2023 could be the first time in the Fourth Republic that a retired military officer will not be a major contender for the office of Nigeria's president.

Only one former soldier, Hamza Al Mustapha, a retired army major, secured a presidential party ticket - of the minority Action Alliance (AA). This is a far cry from 2003 when four retired generals, including Messrs Obasanjo and Buhari; Ike Nwachukwu, a former foreign minister in a military government; and Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, a colonel who led the attempted secession of the southeast from Nigeria between 1967 and 1970; all ran in the presidential election.

Military in democracy

"The transition to democratic governance in 1999 is more in theory than in Kefas Agbupractice", Lancelot Onwubiko, a political data analyst, said in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES. "The military through retired generals have remained in power either in person or by proxy."

Mr Obasanjo defeated Olu Falae, a former finance minister by almost seven million votes in the 1999 election to become the first president of the Fourth Republic.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who in 2015 became the only incumbent in Nigeria to lose reelection, had risen to the presidency when President Umaru Yar'Adua, a younger brother of a general and deputy head of state, died of an illness in 2010.

Mr Yar'Adua secured 24.6 million votes in the 2007 election to beat Mr Buhari with 6.6 million, mainly because of the enormous support he enjoyed from Mr Obasanjo and other military top brass, although the election was also massively rigged, according to local and international observers.

In the PDP, a group of former generals, including Mr Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, Theophilus Danjuma and Aliyu Mohammed are believed to still play pivotal roles in the nomination of the party's presidential candidate.

Their covert last-minute endorsement of Atiku Abubakar, Mr Obasanjo's former vice president, is believed to have helped Mr Abubakar to pick the party's ticket for the second election running.

Apart from the outsize role the former officers play in the presidential contests, a few of them have also contested and held the senatorial, governorship and other top positions in the Fourth Republic.

A retired naval rear admiral, Mohammed Lawal, who had been a military governor of Ogun State between December 1987 and August 1990, was elected governor of Kwara State in 1999, while Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a retired brigadier-general, was elected governor of Osun State in 2003. He was returned as the winner of the 2007 election but the courts invalidated his return and removed him in 2006.

A retired air commodore of the Nigerian Air Force, Jonah Jang, was elected governor of Plateau State twice in 2007 and 2011, while Murtala Nyako, an admiral and former Chief of Air Staff, was elected governor of Adamawa State in 2007 and 2011.

Another one-star general, Adetunji Olurin, who served as military Governor of Oyo State and interim governor of Ekiti State following the impeachment of Ayodele Fayose in 2006, contested but lost the governorship election in Ogun State in 2015.

Meanwhile, former officers such as David Mark and Tunde Ogbeha, among a few others, were elected senators, with Mr Mark serving for eight years as the President of the Senate.

The implication of military influence

The role the military holds in politics in Nigeria has consequences beyond the positions officers hold and is affecting both how the law is applied and how Nigerians view their own democracy.

Mr Obasanjo routinely instigated impeachments of state governors and supported an attempt to alter the constitution to remove the term bar for president and governors so as to elongate his tenure.

On his own part, incumbent President Buhari, whose deputy is a law professor, has been accused of showing little respect for the rule of law. Under his watch, secret police arrested judges in a midnight raid and detained journalists. In January 2019, the president suspended the chief justice, an unconstitutional move.

"With so many military men with more money than ideas, it was a certainty that they would remain a dominant force in Nigerian politics," Nosa Igiebor, editor-in-chief of Tell, told The Guardian UK in a 2003 publication. "Since they have more experience of ruling the country than the civilians, their influence will be felt for a long, long time.

"If they really want to have a bigger say in the democratic era, it is the responsibility of the civilian politicians to develop a military-free political culture that will last the test of time."

2023 polls

Though military influence seems to be dwindling, especially in the two dominant parties, ex-military officers winning some party primaries mean they will still be on the ballots.

PREMIUM TIMES profiles below some ex-military officers running for president and governor in the 2023 elections.

1. Hamza Al Mustapha, a retired major

Mr Al Mustapha, a retired major and former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Head of State, Sani Abacha, clinched the presidential ticket of the Action Alliance (AA) for the 2023 general elections.

Mr Al Mustapha scored 506 votes in the primary election to beat his only opponent, Samson Odupitan, who had 216 votes. Recently, the former intelligence officer stunned Nigerians when he said if elected president, he would relocate to Sambisa Forest as part of the measure to end terrorism in the country within six months.

From August 1985 to August 1990, Mr Al-Mustapha was Aide-de-camp (ADC) to the Chief of Army Staff, Mr Abacha. He was trained as a military intelligence operative and held various command posts in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Security Group of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (SG-DMI), 82 Division and Army Headquarters; Ministry of Defence and The Presidency.

2. Sadique Abubakar, ex Airforce chief

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A former Chief of Air Staff and retired Air Marshal, Sadique Abubakar, emerged as the APC governorship candidate for the 2023 general election in Bauchi State.

Mr Abubakar, who was Nigeria's ambassador to Benin Republic, polled 370 votes to defeat six other aspirants in the primary election.

Mr Abubakar served as Nigeria's Chief of Air Staff from July 13, 2015, to January 26, 2021.

His previous appointments include Chief of Standards and Evaluation, NAF Headquarters, Chief of Defence Communications and Air Officer Commanding, NAF Training Command. He served as Chief of Administration, NAF Headquarters prior to his appointment as Chief of Air Staff.

3. Aminu Bande, retired Major-General

A retired major general, Aminu Bande, is the PDP governorship candidate in Kebbi State.

Mr Bande, until his retirement in 2021, was the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 8 Division, Sokoto.

4. Samuel Abashe, retired Major

Samuel Abashe from Gyang Bere, Jos in Plateau State, is a former Commander at War in Liberia and a retired Major.

He was adopted as the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) governorship candidate in Plateau State.

Mr Abashe has hinged his campaign on a promise to fight insecurity in the state.

5. Kefas Agbu, a retired colonel

Kefas Agbu, a retired army colonel and former state chairman of the PDP in Taraba, is the party's flag bearer for next year's governorship election.

Mr Kefas, also a former chairman of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), resigned as the state chairman to contest for the ticket. Mr Kefas had contested for the same ticket in 2015.
Guwahati, July 9 : Five Rohingya children have fled from an observation home at Silchar in Assam, officials said on Saturday.

The five, said to be in their teens, have been identified as Md. Hussain, Md. Hassan, Mofijur Rahman, Jamal Hussain and Harul Amin.

They are have been missing since July 1. The incident came to light on Friday.

Silchar was reeling under unprecedented flood when the Rohingya children escaped. They reportedly crossed the observation home's wall at night and swum away.

According to sources, the possibility of "an outsider's connection" in the incident cannot be ruled out.

Cachar Superintendent of Police, Ramandeep Kaur told IANS that police were investigating the incident. She refused to reveal further detail on this matter.

The children were a part of a group nabbed on May 29 this year. Assam police then detained 26 Rohingyas including eight women, six males and 12 children.

The group of Rohingyas had reached Guwahati from Delhi by train and was travelling by road to Silchar when they were apprehended.
Colombo, July 9 : To end the current political crisis in Sri Lanka based on the decision taken by the leaders of the majority parties, the Speaker of the Parliament is set to ask President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to step down from their posts to make way for an all-party government.

The party leaders who met on Saturday evening decided to appoint Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena as the temporary President until an all-party government is formed.

However, Wickremesinghe has not agreed to step down immediately, as he told the media that he would resign once the all-party government is formed and majority in the Parliament is proved by any group which wants to take over.

Wickremesinghe said he took this decision in view of the fact that the island-wide fuel distribution is due to recommence, the World Food Programme Director is due to visit the country this week, and the debt sustainability report for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is due to be finalised shortly.

President Rajapaksa, who didn't make a public appearance since Friday night's announcement urging people to stay calm, has not officially responded so far.

Earlier, he had informed through Wickremesinghe that he would agree to whatever decision is taken by the party leaders.

Earlier on Saturday, thousands of protesters marched to Colombo and took control of the President's official residence, his office premises and the official residence of the Prime Minister, the Temple Trees.
Chennai, July 9 : Karthi, who plays 'Vanthiyathevan', one of the central characters in director Mani Ratnam's eagerly-awaited magnum opus 'Ponniyin Selvan', says the film based on a novel by eminent writer Kalki is a gift to the younger generation.

Speaking at the teaser launch event of the film that was held at the Chennai Trade Centre on Saturday, Karthi said, "In our schools, we learn more about how we were colonised by foreigners. Yet, we keep calling ourselves Tamilians! If someone were to ask us what makes us great, many of us here wouldn't know what to answer. We wouldn't know how our kings were. How our kingdoms and their administrations were. But it is important that we learn all of these.

"There is a lot to say (about the kingdoms and the administrations then). Take for instance the Cholas. The Kallanai dam, which they built almost 2,000 years ago, is still intact even to this day.

"The Veeranam lake, which was providing water to Chennai to meet its drinking water needs, was built by them. Twenty kilometres in length and seven kilometres in breadth, the lake was built by the king who got his army to do that. Then, there is the famous Brihadeeshwarar temple or the Periya Kovil, which has no foundation but has a height of 216 feet." Continuing to give more details of the other achievements of the Chola kings, Karthi said, "Even foreigners would only navigate on the sides of a water body. It was the Tamilians who learnt about the existence of undercurrents and used it to travel across seas.

"To this day, many of Tamil Nadu government's welfare schemes were all formulated by the Cholas. There are several facts like these. But people like us who flip videos in 10 seconds don't have the time for them." Karthi concluded by saying: "Presenting it in the format of a movie is a gift that Mani sir is presenting to the next generation. You cannot create history without learning history.

"The younger generation is going to see this (film) and learn. When you watch the movie, you will be overcome by a sense of pride. And when you feel pride, you want to preserve it. When you strive to preserve it, you make progress. I thank Mani sir for this big gift."
Chennai, July 9 : Actress Meesha Ghoshal, who plays Geetha, the daughter of scientist Nambi Narayanan, in R. Madhavan's critically-acclaimed film 'Rocketry - The Nambi Effect', said she can't thank her stars enough for getting the role.

Taking to Instagram, Meesha posted pictures with the real scientist on whom the film's story is based and said, "With the one and only Nambi Narayanan sir. So grateful to have met such an amazing and humble person like you.

"Huge respect to you sir and can't thank my stars enough for having this beautiful chance to act in your biopic and that too as your daughter Geetha, a role that will always remain very close to my heart.

"Thank you so very much actor Maddy for choosing me to be a part of this beautiful biopic. #rocketrythenambieffect #grateful." Madhavan's 'Rocketry - The Nambi Effect' traces the life of scientist Nambi Narayanan, a former ISRO scientist and aerospace engineer who was caught in the throes of a spy scandal. The biographical drama unveils the truth behind the mystery.
Kolkata, July 9 : The assassination of former Japanese premier, Shinzo Abe has created political ripples here in West Bengal as the state's ruling party, Trinamool Congress has identified a remote link between that unfortunate death and union government's Agnipath Scheme, entry to short services in the Indian defence forces.

The latest edition of the party mouthpiece in Bengal, Jago Bangla, published on Saturday, has the lead article titled Shinzor Khune Agnipather Chhaya (Shadow of Agnipath in Shinzo's murder).

According to the article, Shinzo's assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, was a former associate of Japan's maritime self-defence, where he worked for three years without being entitled for any pension. "He lost his job after three years and since then he was unable to get himself employed anywhere. It is learnt that a feeling of insecurity and frustration due to joblessness gave birth to grievances in his mind. Incidentally, the union government is planning similar recruitment in defence services under the Agnipath scheme. The grievances of the common people about Agnipath scheme have a shadow in Shinzo's death," the article read.

Trinamool Congress's state general secretary and the party spokesman, Kunal Ghosh said that it is clear that the assassin of Shinzo Abe, who was a contractual security person, was suffering from depression, being deprived of pension-like retirement benefits.

"Similarly, the Agniveers, who would be chucked out of job with any post-retirement benefits after four years of service, can suffer from similar depression. This Agnipath scheme will drive youths with military-training in the wrong direction," Ghosh said.

Giving his counter-reaction, BJP's state spokesman in West Bengal, Shamik Bhattacharya said that by resorting to such baseless conclusions, Trinamool Congress leaders are actually insulting the defence personnel of the country. "Have we ever heard any retired army-man in India resorting to killing of any common man? These are all baseless allegations," he said.

Meanwhile, in her condolence message, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has recollected Shinzo Abe's connections with West Bengal. "I am deeply shocked by the tragic demise of the former PM of Japan, Shinzo Abe. His dastardly assassination brings us immense pain. He not only cemented the relation between India & Japan but also had a special connection with Bengal. May the noble soul rest in peace," her message read.

To recall, Shinzo Abe was in Kolkata in 2007, when he visited the ancestral residence of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at Elgin Road in South Kolkata, which currently houses the Netaji Research Bureau.
New Delhi, July 9 : Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday said his government supports the view that local body polls in the state should be held only after the decision of the Supreme Court on the issue of OBC reservation.

On June 1, the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) had gone ahead declaring local body elections without the provision of reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC). In fact, it has issued notification for polls to some lower level civic bodies in August first week too.

Cutting across political ideologies, all parties in Maharashtra are in favour of reservation to OBCs and the opposition Nationalist Congress Party-Congress-Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) have also demanded deferring the polls till the issue is resolved.

"We (too) want local body polls to happen after the Supreme Court's decision on the OBC reservations issue. We wish the OBC community should get justice," Shinde said here as he addressed his maiden press conference in Delhi along with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Pointing out that a massive manpower is needed to hold any elections, Shinde said, "There is a lot of rainfall happening in Maharashtra, many areas are witnessing floods and in such a situation we don't want to burden the administration with additional work of holding local body polls." "We would request the State Election Commission to also postpone the local body polls," he said, and added, several people have registered their demand that the polls should not be held without the decision on the OBC issue.

Earlier in March, the Supreme Court had rejected the interim report of the State Backward Class Commission, prompting the then Maha Vikas Aghadi government to pass a cabinet resolution that the election (to the local bodies) should not be held without resolving the OBC issue.

Meanwhile, at the Delhi presser, when asked why Shinde and Fadnavis duo met Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, Shinde said, "We went to request him to represent Maharashtra in the OBC related case. It is very important for Maharashtra."
New Delhi, July 9 : In a latest development in the Chinese visa case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday conducted searches at the residence of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram in Chennai and recovered some incriminating documents from there.

A CBI source said that when the probe agency conducted searches at the residence of Karti Chidambaram in May, a portion of the house had to be sealed as the keys were with the Congress MP's wife, who was reportedly out of the country then.

"Today, Karti Chidambaram's wife joined the probe and we opened this portion of the house. We have recovered some incriminating evidences and documents," said the source.

According to the CBI FIR, in 2011, a Mansa (Punjab) based private firm, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, took help of a middleman and allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to get visas issued to Chinse nationals to help get a project completed before deadline.

"The private firm was in the process of establishing a 1,980 MW thermal power plant which was outsourced to a Chinese company. The project was running behind its schedule. In order to avoid penal actions for the delay, the said private company was trying to bring more and more Chinese professionals to its site in Mansa district. For this it needed project visas over and above the ceiling imposed by Ministry of Home Affairs," said a CBI official.

The official said that for the said purpose, the representative of the private firm approached a person in Chennai through his close associate and thereafter they devised a back-door ploy to get permission to re-use 263 project visas allotted to the said Chinese company's officials.

In pursuance of the same, the said representative of the Mansa-based company submitted a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking approval to re-use the project visas allotted to the company, which was approved within a month and permission was issued to the firm.

"A bribe of Rs 50 lakh was allegedly demanded by the said private person based in Chennai through his close associate which was paid by the Mansa-based company. The payment of the said bribe was routed from Mansa to the person in Chennai and his close associate through a Mumbai-based company, reportedly controlled by Karti Chidambaram, as payment of false invoice raised for consultancy and out of pocket expenses for Chinese visa related works," said the CBI official.

Karti Chidambaram's father P. Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister then.
Srinagar, July 9 : Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday chaired a high level meeting to review the ongoing rescue and relief operation at Amarnath holy cave.

Lt Gen A.S. Aujla, GoC 15 Corps and Dilbag Singh, DGP briefed the Lt Governor about the ongoing rescue efforts at the holy cave.

GoC said all the agencies involved in the rescue and relief operations are working in excellent coordination and they are well equipped to clear the debris.

The Lt Governor said the effort should be made to clear the debris within shortest period of time. The DGP while briefing the Lt Governor about the injured devotees said, majority of the injured have already been discharged and few others being treated at base hospital and Srinagar are likely to be discharged within 24 hours.

The Lt Governor said, teams from Army, CAPFs, NDRF and SDRF are on the ground and doing commendable job.

"I request Yatris to stay put in camps. Administration is providing all facilities for their comfortable stay. We are trying our best to restore the Yatra at the earliest," Lt Governor said.

He also directed senior officials, Deputy Commissioners and Camp directors to ensure best possible facilities are provided to the pilgrims staying at camps.

Earlier, Lt Governor had visited SKIMS in Srinagar to enquire about the health of injured pilgrims and subsequently went to PCR Srinagar where he was briefed about the status of sending the mortal remains of deceased pilgrims to their respective hometowns.
New Delhi, July 9 : Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Saturday.

The Prime Minister's Office tweeted: "The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri @mieknathshinde and the Deputy Chief Minister Shri @Dev_Fadnavis called on PM." Earlier on Saturday, before meeting PM Modi, Shinde and Fadnavis addressed the media here.

Answering a question about portfolio allocation, Shinde said: "Tomorrow is Aashadhi Ekadashi. We (Shinde and Fadnavis) will meet in Mumbai after that and then discuss portfolio allocation." Asserting there is no political agenda regarding the first visit to the national capital with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis after forming the government in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday said the portfolio allocation would take place after Aashadhi Ekadashi that falls on Sunday.

Responding to a question if the government will last (the remaining) two and a half years (term of the assembly), Shinde claimed, "We will not just last the remaining term but also win the next polls with 200 MLAs." Since landing in Delhi on Friday evening, both Fadnavis and Shinde called on President Ram Nath Kovind, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and also BJP president J.P. Nadda as part of what they termed as "courtesy meetings".
Ahmedabad, July 9 : After recent incident of the killing of a tailor in Udaipur, the police in Gujarat were instructed to keep a watch on social media activities to ensure that no one spreads offensive messages, fake news, photos or videos on social media.

Accordingly, the officers of the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime branch and the Social Media Monitoring Cell were keeping a watch on different social media platforms.

They found some suspicious YouTube channels spreading fake news news about some terrorist attack during the recent Rath Yatra festival although no such incident had taken place.

The police traced these fake news to the YouTube chanels of Jigar Dhamelia from Bhavnagar, Suresh Parmar from Ahmedabad and Suresh Luhar from Banaskantha.

On Saturday, all three of them were arrested by a team from the Cyber Crime police station on charges of trying to create public outrage by spreading fake news. The accused are aged between 20 and 26 years, the police said.

According to the police, the accused made misleading videos using mobile apps and uploaded them on YouTube.
El presidente @PedroCastilloTe sostiene una reunion de trabajo con los representantes de la @SNIndustrias, en el que se abordan diversas acciones para fortalecer la productividad en las regiones, asi como propuestas para el desarrollo social y economico del pais. pic.twitter.com/ewHLD7QaME
New York, July 9 : The leaders of the Quad have mourned the assassination of former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose vision led to the founding of the Indo-Pacific group.

In a joint message on Friday, Prime Ministers Narendra Modi of India and Anthony Albanese of Australia, and US President Joe Biden said the former Japanese prime minister "played a formative role in the founding of the Quad partnership, and worked tirelessly to advance a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific".

They said that they were "shocked at the tragic assassination" of Abe, "a transformative leader for Japan and for Japanese relations with each one of our countries".

Saying their "hearts were with the people of Japan - and Prime Minister (Fumo) Kishida - in this moment of grief," they declared, "We will honour Prime Minister Abe's memory by redoubling our work towards a peaceful and prosperous region".

Abe was among the first to envision with then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the group of democracies as a potential counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific taking forward the cooperation of the four countries in providing relief during 2004 tsunami.

He sketched its outlines in a speech to Indian Parliament in 2007.

His idea was to expand the trilateral cooperation between the US, Japan and Australia to include India, an emerging dynamic force in the region.

Although it did not make much headway at that time, Abe revived it ten years later during his second term as prime minister.

At his initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Malcolm Turnbull, the then-prime minister of Australia, and former US President Donald Trump held their first Quad summit in 2017 in Manila.

From there on, the Quad has taken off with support growing despite the changes in governments in the US, Japan and Australia boosted by the growing aggressive posture of China in the Indo-Pacific.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed @arulouis)
Guwahati, July 9 : A man has been allegedly burnt alive as a punishment by a village kangaroo court in Assam's Nagaon district.

The man has been identified as Ranjit Bordoloi.

The incident that took place in the Bor Lalung area of Nagaon district came to light only after the police had launched a search operation to find Bordoloi.

According to reports, a few villagers claimed that the man was burned alive and the body was buried later.

Police sources said on Saturday that Bordoloi was suspected to have killed a woman in the village earlier.

"A woman identified as Sabita Pator died under unnatural circumstances a few days back. The local village kangaroo court took up the matter in which Bordoloi reportedly admitted to killing the woman," a police source said.

"Subsequently, an angry mob burnt him to death," the source added.

Nagaon Superintendent of Police Leena Doley told IANS: "We have found the dead body. The circumstances which led to the incident are being investigated."
Colombo, July 9 : After a months-long massive public agitation, Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaska on Saturday informed the Speaker that he would resign from the Presidency on July 13.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene announced that President Rajapaksa had informed him about his decision to resign.

People set off fire-crackers as soon as the news broke.

Following a massive public march to Colombo on Saturday morning and forcible occupation of the President's House, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe asked the Speaker to summon the leaders of all political parties and decide on the way to resolve the crisis.

A majority of party leaders had decided to remove the President and the Prime Minister and appoint a temporary President and all-party government for a specific period until a fresh election is held to form a government.

President Rajapaksa, who had not appeared publicly since Friday night, had announced he would agree any decision taken by the party leaders.

Following the all-party meeting, the Speaker had sent a letter to the President and the Prime Minister, urging them to step down for a peaceful transfer of power.

Starting from March 31, when President Rajapaksa's private residence outside Colombo was surround by protesters who demand he step down amidst the growing financial crisis, protests continued throughout the island with one slogan "Gota go home".

On April 2, the protesters surrounded the President's office at Galle Face Green and blocked its entrance as they continued to demand that he step down.

With no fuel, the country was virtually locked down for two weeks from June 27 but people planned to come to Colombo to demand that the President step down.

Latest updates on Srilankan Crisis
Kolkata, July 9 : Veteran counsel Ashoke Kumar Chakraborty has been appointed as the Additional Solicitor General for the Calcutta High Court, it was announced on Saturday.

The appointment was announced by Department of Legal Affairs under the Union Law and Justice Ministry.

The post was lying vacant for three months following the sudden resignation of senior counsel Y.J. Dastoor in April. For the last three months, the responsibility was handled jointly by senior counsel Billwadal Bhattacharya and Dhiraj Trivedi.

However, finally, Chakraborty has been appointed to expedite the pending cases relating to the Union government in the Calcutta High Court.

Chakraborty's appointment is also expected to give a fillip to central agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in cases before the high court which the two are probing A letter from Additional Secretary, Legal Affairs, Anju Rathi Rana, reached Chakraborty's office on Friday, offering him the post for a term of three years.

He accepted the offer and said that his main target will be to expedite the pending cases of the Union government in the Calcutta High Court.
New Delhi, July 10 : A 42-year-old man has been arrested here for trying to kill a woman after she refused to leave space for him to sleep on a footpath, the police said on Saturday.

The arrested individual has been identified as Manoj Kumar, a foot-path dweller in Paharganj area.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Amrutha Guguloth said that the an information was received at Mandir Marg police station regarding a woman lying unconscious with head injury near Gate No. 3, Lady Hardinge Hospital after which the police staff immediately rushed to the spot.

"When the police reached there the suspect was seen fleeing away from the spot," Gugolth said.

The police staff chased the suspected accused and caught him near The Connaught hotel.

Meanwhile, another team of police shifted the woman to the LHMC Hospital for medical aid.

As the woman was unable to give statement, the police questioned guards of the hospital who were there at that time of the incident.

They stated that they heard a loud noise about throwing of a stone on the wall of the LHMC Hospital. They informed their supervisor and they saw the accused person dragging another person on footpath.

"The injured was bleeding from head and accused was also beating him. When the guards intervened, he fled away and was apprehended by them," the DCP said.

Meantime the police also reached the spot and the accused again tried to flee away, however, was caught by the police.

Accordingly, the police registered an FIR under section 307 (attempt to murder) against the accused.

During questioning, Manoj Kumar confessed to the crime and disclosed that he came there to sleep and asked the victim to go from there.

"When the victim refused, the accused became furious and tried to kill her with a big stone by hitting on her head," the official added.
New York, July 10 : US President Joe Biden signed off on an executive order to protect abortion rights throughout the United States to safeguard access to reproductive healthcare services, which targets states that have banned or severely restricted abortion in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision that overturned the landmark Roe vs Wade verdict.

According to the White House, Biden's executive order aims to safeguard access to reproductive healthcare services nationwide, including access to surgical and medication abortion and contraception; protecting patient privacy and access to accurate information; promoting the safety of patients, providers and facilities, and coordinating federal efforts to protect reproductive rights and access to healthcare.

The executive order (EO) also states that the Biden administration will convene private pro bono attorneys, bar associations and public interest organisations to help provide legal representation to patients, providers and third parties "lawfully seeking or offering reproductive health care services throughout the country", according to a statement issued by the White House.

The EO, however, dismissed a proposal by leading Democrats in the Senate and House who urged Biden to permit abortion services on federal land in states where the procedure is banned. The federal government controls about 63 per cent of the land in the state of Utah, which is a well-established Republican stronghold.

Utah's 'trigger law', which bans most abortions, is temporarily on hold after 3rd District Court Judge Andrew Stone issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the Utah law from going into effect for two weeks, according to Desert News from Utah.

A hearing on a request for a preliminary injunction is scheduled on Monday.

The state's memorandum opposes the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah's motion for preliminary injunction released on Friday, teeing up some of the state's arguments against the civil rights complaint, primarily that the Utah Constitution does not expressly protect a right to abortion, nor does it protect an implied right to abortion.

Moreover, the state's response cites criminal statutes outlawing abortion that date back to the 1890s, which were in effect until the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in 1973 that recognized women's constitutional right to abortion, the memo states.

The Utah Legislature's passed SB174 in 2020, which once again made abortion a crime in Utah after the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe in a 5-4 decision and uphold Mississippi's restrictive abortion law in a 6-3 decision.

SB174 bans abortion on demand but permits these exceptions: "If the mother's life is at risk; if the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest; or if two maternal-fetal medicine physicians both determine that a fetus "has a defect that is uniformly diagnosable and uniformly lethal or ... has a severe brain abnormality that is uniformly diagnosable." Meanwhile. CNN TV Network reported that using federal lands for abortion services would have "dangerous ramifications", quoting White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

The White House fact-sheet reaffirms the President's earlier statements that "Americans must remain free to travel safely to another state to seek the care they need" and "his commitment to fighting any attack by a state or local official who attempts to interfere with women exercising this right".

Abortion providers in states in which access to abortion services is ensured under their state laws have reported they have been planning for increased numbers of patients from states that have imposed bans, but the waiting period for availing such services is a cause for major concern.

According to The Denver Post, abortion providers in Colorado say they've been inundated with requests for abortion appointments and are also seeing an increase in appointments for birth control strategies such as vasectomies or intrauterine devices.

According to the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services will consider additional federal medical privacy laws "to better protect sensitive information related to reproductive healthcare". Measures are in place to issue a how-to guide for consumers to protect their personal data on mobile apps.

Jacqueline Ayers, the senior vice-president of policy, organising and campaigns at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, responded to the executive order in a statement thus: "We're in a national health care crisis and need officials at every level of government to do everything within their authority to fight for access to abortion. Amid the Supreme Court stripping Americans of their constitutional right to abortion after nearly 50 years, we need an urgent and robust response to ensure people get the essential health care they need." Biden is currently speaking on the rollback of federal abortion protections, two weeks after the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark case that protected abortion rights nationwide as pronounced in 1973 but Supreme Court overturned it in July 2022.

"This was not a decision driven by the constitution. This was not a decision driven by history," said Biden of the Supreme Court overturning the Roe vs Wade verdict.

Discussing the conservative majority in the court, Biden said: "Today's supreme court majority is playing fast and loose with the facts." Later on in his remarks, Biden called on Americans to use their electoral power to elect senators who would help codify Roe vs Wade, saying that it was the "fastest route" to solidifying federal abortion rights.

"Your votes can make that a reality." Biden's statement reflects his increasing frustration that his administration faces amid urging people to vote.

"You, the women of America, can determine the outcome of this issue," he said, emphasizing that the courts did not have a "clue about the power of American women." "For God's sake, there's an election in November. Vote, vote, vote," said Biden.

His remarks come on the back of his signing off on an executive order protecting access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare nationwide.

Several Democrats have responded positively to Biden's executive order, calling it a good first step but urging him to do more to protect abortion rights federally, reports Politico.

Bidens EO found its echo in the UK, a predominantly protestant country. Leading British newspaper The Guardian reported that the day Biden signed an executive order safeguarding access to abortions, ironically, Louisiana was able to enforce a near-total ban of abortions in the state under a judge's order issued on Friday.

With abortion access threatened across the country, those seeking out abortion services and other reproductive healthcare options will be forced to travel if their states do not provide it.

The Guardian's staffers Alvin Chang, Andrew Witherspoon and Jessica Glenza explored how the creation of abortion "deserts" throughout the country will change who can access care -- and how far they will be forced to travel.

During the briefing, White house press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre got into a back-and-forth discussion with a reporter on whether or not people can peacefully protest against Supreme court justices, even in settings like restaurants. The question was prompted after Justice Brett Kavanaugh reportedly had to leave a steakhouse when protesters confronted him for voting to overturn the Roe vs wade verdict.

Jean-Pierre replied to a question on if protesters could confront justices at a restaurant they're eating at, saying that the Biden administration is against the intimidation of Supreme Court justices and using violence against them.

Jean-Pierre also cited recent legislation passed to protect the safety of justices. Later on in her response, Jean-Pierre clarified, saying the Biden administration supports the right to peaceful protest, even outside of a restaurant.
"We hope this exhibition helps to bridge the conversation between what is happening in Web3 and the rich history of fine art" Peter Hamilton, co-creator of the SNFTM

Today, the Seattle NFT Museum announced the fifth exhibition this year, titled Crossing Over, where we explore artists whose practice predates non-fungible tokens. This opening coincides with the Seattle Art Fair, hosted at the Lumen Field Event Center and celebrating hundreds of contemporary and modern artists.

The show is curated in collaboration with Joana Kawahara Lino, bringing her experience in traditional galleries and auction houses together with her love for the flourish of impactful artists finding their stage with NFTs.

We wanted to create an exhibition devoted to talents that are moving into the NFT space, said Peter Hamilton, co-creator of the SNFTM. This show is about their stories and experiences in crossing over. By stepping into NFT sales, so many artists are experiencing new found relationships with audiences and collectors on a global stage, and we hope this exhibition helps to bridge the conversation between what is happening in Web3 and the rich history of fine art.

Tickets now on sale:

VIP preview event, Friday July 22nd 7:00pm - 10:00pm PT

Seattle NFT Museum is hosting a VIP preview event to launch the new exhibition. Attendees have the opportunity to hear directly from a few of the artists on display, learning more about their work and inspiration. Tickets are on sale now for the exhibition opening on Friday, July 22d, 7pm-10pm. Purchase tickets

Exhibition Highlights

Henry Mandell

Henry Mandells paintings and drawings are products of his ongoing exploration of contemporary artistic practices, scientific principles, the human condition and their merging effect on our lives. Trained as a traditional painter and printmaker, Mandell uses computers and software to build compelling abstract imagery.

"I am trained in traditional painting techniques and then began experimenting with digital tools when vector art programs became available. The extraordinary discoveries I found working with digital tools allowed me to make things beyond what my hands alone are capable of with hyper detail and extremely complex patterns. When I manipulate text by transforming it into abstract shapes, the strongest feature of working digitally is the limitless scale and limitless visual viscosity. Theory Of Mind E8 exists in three modalities at the same time. Virtual at its vector creation, real world as a polymer painting and an NFT on the blockchain which closes the loop in a circular transcendental journey. The minted artwork can live in a state of permanence as an NFT that will no doubt outlast its physical sibling". - Henry Mandell

Gabe Weis

Gabe Weis is an NFT and mixed-media artist living in the Bay Area. Stream of consciousness meets cubism in his bold portraiture. His work has been sold to collectors across the globe and the artist rose quickly to the top of the NFT art market.

Jake Fried

Using ink and white-out to generate hallucinatory vistas, Jake Fried repeatedly modifies and records his images to create mind-bending animations. Fried's films have been exhibited at the Tate Modern and Sundance Film Festival, and his work has been commissioned by Adult Swim, Netflix, and numerous art galleries around the world.

What matters, what lasts? My goal is my work, 100 years from now, will move some person the same way it can now- thats why I want to be on the blockchain. - Jake Fried

Coldie

Coldie is an award-winning mixed media artist whose stereoscopic 3D art has been featured in national juried art exhibitions in the United States, cryptocurrency events across the world, international press including New York Times and Channel 4 London, as well as major auction house exhibitions by Bonhams London. An early crypto artist who began creating in 2017, his blockchain themed artwork including the 'Decentral Eyes' portrait series gives a personalized visual representation of the disruptive industry. Coldie has established himself as a thought-leader, collector and metaverse gallery curator in the NFT art community.

NFTs have enabled me to reach a global audience who want to experience the progressive/experimental art I create. Living in a small town, I'm no longer tethered to collectors who dont understand what I create. I now have confidence that people around the world can interact with my art in real-time and communicate directly with me, which makes for the best artist/collector relationship. We are living and creating inside of an evolving art renaissance and I'm honored to be part of it, said Coldie

Jen Stark

Jen Starks art is driven by her interest in conceptualizing visual systems to simulate plant growth, evolution, infinity, fractals, mimetic topographies, and sacred geometries. Using available materialspaper, wood, metal, paintStark strives to make work that balances on a razors edge of optical seduction and perceptual engagement. In recent years, Stark has introduced new technologies into her diverse practice, delving into the digital realm of interactive projections and distinctive NFTs.

Richard Jacobs

Richard Jacobs received a BA from Cooper Union, a MFA from Yale, and was a Henry Luce Scholar in Bali, Indonesia. He lives and paints in Putney Vermont, and maintains a studio in Bali. Works are included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Rose Art Museum, the DeCordova Museum, Fidelity Investments, Bank of America and the Hall Art Foundation.

It has been liberating to layer the most important elements from my physical paintings onto screen lit digital structures. My digital discoveries have increased my desire to exaggerate the physicality of the surface on my new oil paintings to create a more interesting language for my NFTs.- Richard Jacobs

VISSYART

Visithra Manikam (a.k.a. VISSYART) is a self-taught woman visual artist and photographer from Malaysia. She paints both expressionism and pop art/surrealism in the modern Indian art style and creates sculptures. Her art has been exhibited in LA, New York, India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines and more.

I started off seriously doing art as a traditional artist working with acrylic on canvas. When I joined NFTs, I continued doing that but eventually started branching out to creating digital art on the ipad. Now I've started to even create digital animations with my art. Being in this space allows me to explore and push boundaries that existed in the traditional world. There is more freedom and a lot of inspiration to create any kind of art without thinking what is collected by a certain country. All kinds of art find acceptance here and this allows endless creativity. -Visithra Manikam

JakNFT

JakNFT is an anonymous digital artist who began minting glitch-style crypto art on the blockchain in 2021. His work is primarily available on Ethereum, but some of his works have also been minted on the Tezos and Bitcoin blockchains.

Digital has essentially removed all artistic boundaries.- JAK NFT

Norman Harman

Norman Harman is one of Scotland's leading digital artists specializing in painting - His work has been exhibited across the UK and Europe and he is a member of art collective Ltd Ink Corporation - Harman combines analogue, generative and digital painting processes, to achieve a Baconian grotesqueness in a POST-COVID, consumer driven world.Recent collaborations inc Robness Cyberpop, Irvine Welsh & Anton Newcombe.

Joao Salazar

With a degree in Fine Arts, Joao Salazar has been developing his signature artistic style in several techniques and media, specializing in drawing and painting. Recently, hes been focusing on exploring the plastic, ludic and pictorial aspects of modeling paste. The quotes and reflections on the online universe and mass culture present in his work were accentuated during the height of quarantine and its consequential social isolation: when the usual, mundane, daily urban issues became less relevant.

NFTs allowed for me to carry on working in Art throughout the pandemic. It allowed for me to follow through my research and production in a critical moment for Brazils cultural sector, whilst also amplifying my network and outreach to several places around the world. - Joao Salazar

Ghxsts

Ghxsts came from the mind of GxngYxng, an American artist now living in Japan. The concept of the project was to capture the pain GY said he felt inside himself and the feelings he saw in those around him.

"After a bad experience with an art teacher in high school, I didnt show anybody my personal drawings for years. I kept them locked away, where nobody could judge my point of view. When I discovered NFTs, I saw how vibrant and accepting the community was, and I felt for the first time in years that I could begin to share my work again. My pieces are very personal to me and are drawn from my own experiences with anxiety and isolation." -- GxngYxng

Kevin Abosch

(Born 1969) is an Irish conceptual artist who works across traditional mediums as well as with generative methods including machine learning and blockchain technology. Abosch's work addresses the nature of identity and value by posing ontological questions and responding to sociological dilemmas. Abosch's work has been exhibited throughout the world, often in civic spaces, including The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, The National Museum of China, The National Gallery of Ireland, Jeu de Paume ( Paris), The Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, The Bogota Museum of Modern Art, ZKM (Zentrum fur Kunst und Medien) and Dublin Airport.

Daily Admission Information

Seattle NFT Museum is open to the public 1PM - 6PM Monday and Wednesday, 12PM - 5PM Thursday, 12PM - 6:30PM Friday through Sunday. Daily tickets are available for purchase by visiting http://www.seattlenftmuseum.com. Admission is $15 for all visitors. Ticket proceeds directly contribute to the operating costs of the museum.

About Seattle NFT Museum

The Seattle NFT Museum is the worlds first NFT museum. As a center for supporting the NFT creator and collector community, the Seattle NFT Museum is a physical space designed to explore the boundaries of digital art. Exhibits include featured artists, notable private collections, and educational displays. The museum hosts ticketed events, private showings, live mintings, and is open to the public for a suggested donation during business hours. The museum is also available for booking private corporate events.
Hug in a Mug Coffee Company, Valdosta, Georgia I was looking for a franchise but decided against it once I saw Crimson Cup advertised on the Internet. The service has been great! We love the coffee blends and recipes. - Mike Scott, Owner, Hug in a Mug Coffee Company, Valdosta, Georgia

Want to learn how to open a coffee shop in Georgia? Get insider secrets on starting a profitable business in the Peach State from the coffee shop startup experts at Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea.

Through its 7 Steps to Success coffee shop startup program, Roast magazines 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year has taught over 300 entrepreneurs in 30 states how to open a coffee shop.

Now, the companys 7 Steps coffee shop startup consulting team has added to its series of state-level coffee shop startup guides with, How to Start a Coffee Shop in Georgia.

Georgia is a land of opportunity for many types of small businesses, and coffee shops are no exception, said Crimson Cup Founder and President Greg Ubert.

In fact, Georgia ranks 48th among the states in the number of coffee shops per capita, with fewer than one coffee shop for every 8,752 Georgia residents. That leaves a lot of Georgia residents without a local coffee shop.

He noted Crimson Cup supports three independent coffee shops in Georgia cities and towns.

These entrepreneurs learned how to open their shops through the companys 7 Steps to Success coffee shop startup program.

The program is based on Uberts book, Seven Steps to Success: A Common-sense Guide to Succeed to Specialty Coffee, which he wrote initially to help coffee shop customers master all aspects of successful coffee shop operations.

We help entrepreneurs with little or no coffee experience become owners of thriving coffee shops serving their local communities, he said. From choosing a terrific location and writing a strong coffee shop business plan to buying and laying out equipment, hiring and training staff and more, our team is here to guide you.

To hear about the book in Uberts own words, download a free recorded introduction on Soundcloud.

As a coffee roaster and coffee business consultant, Crimson Cup believes our company only succeeds when our customers do, Ubert said. As a result, we support coffee shop owners at every step, from concept through opening day and beyond.

A serial entrepreneur with ownership in 30 Precision Tune Auto Care locations, Mike Scott was looking for a new business venture that would be less technical than his other businesses and that could be duplicated once learned. Specialty coffee seemed a perfect fit.

We love coffee, and we love the idea of a business that the community can fall in love with, he said. We also wanted to give back to our community by donating to local nonprofits.

Scott found Crimson Cup while searching for business opportunities on the Internet.

I was looking for a franchise but decided against it once I saw Crimson Cup advertised on the Internet, he said. The service has been great! We love the coffee blends and recipes.

He opened Hug in a Mug Coffee Company in 2017 through our 7 Steps to Success program.

The most helpful step for me was location, Scott said. While I already understood the importance of location, learning what makes a good place for a coffee shop was very valuable.

Located on a busy street with lots of other retail and service businesses, Hug In A Mug Coffee Company serves a full menu of hot, iced and frozen espresso drinks  including mochas, lattes and cappuccinos  as well as iced coffee and tea, cold-brewed coffee, hot chocolate, fruit smoothies and other custom drinks. Bagels, breakfast sandwiches, pastries and desserts round out the menu.

The Hug In A Mug Brew Bar entices coffee lovers to slow down and enjoy a hand-poured coffee using Hario v60 or Chemex brewing systems. This is truly the experience for the coffee connoisseur who may have a more discerning palate, Scott said.

When asked for advice for aspiring coffee shop owners, Scott said, Go with Crimson Cup. He also noted the importance of having enough startup capital and funds. It could take some time to get your name out."

As a one-stop shop for independent coffee shops, Crimson Cup supplies award-winning coffee, the best coffee shop supplies in the business, and ongoing support to help coffee businesses thrive.

Besides the Georgia guide, Crimson Cup recently published guides on How to Start a Coffee Shop in Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Tennessee.

About once a week for the next year, the roaster will post a state-level coffee shop startup guides on its website. Next up: a guide on how to start a coffee shop in Indiana.

Although the fundamentals of coffee shop operation remain the same from state to state, the economic opportunities, business formation and licensing requirements vary widely, Ubert said. Were excited to share information and resources to help entrepreneurs expedite their startup journey.

He invited anyone who is thinking of opening a coffee shop in any state to call Crimson Cup for guidance.

If you run into any roadblocks or just want to discuss your vision with a coffee expert, you can reach our startup team by calling 1-888-800-9224.

About Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea

Founded in 1991, Crimson Cup is at the forefront of the coffee industry. Its attentive roasting, startup support and global partnerships are consciously designed for the greater good of communities around the world. Among other national recognitions, the company has earned 2020 and 2017 Good Food Awards, the 2019 Golden Bean Champion for Small Franchise/Chain Roaster and Roast magazines 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year.

Crimson Cup travels the world searching for the perfect cup  driven by meaningful relationships, honesty and a shared vision for the future. Its Friend2Farmer initiatives foster respect and decency through mutually beneficial collaboration across local and global communities.

Through its 7 Steps to Success coffee shop startup program, the company teaches entrepreneurs how to open and run independent coffee houses in their local communities. By developing a coffee shop business plan, entrepreneurs gain insight into how much it costs to open a coffee shop.

Crimson Cup coffee is available through over 350 independent coffee houses, grocers, college and universities, restaurants and food service operations across 30 states, Guam and Bangladesh. The company also owns several Crimson Cup Coffee Shops and a new CRIMSON retail flagship store. To learn more, visit crimsoncup.com, or follow the company on Facebook and Instagram.
In Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman (Pegasus Crime, Sept.), historian Worsley reframes the prolific detective novelists life.

You write that Agatha Christie is thrillingly, scintillatingly modernhow so?

In her personal life, she was very cutting edge. She went around the whole globe in 1922 and surfed in Hawaii in a pearl necklace. She was a driver at a time when that was unusual for womenshe loved to speed. She was really a successful hardworking woman, although she had to pretend that she wasnt.

You cover many misconceptions about Christie. Which has been the most pervasive?

Peoples dismissal of her mental health issues. We need to believe what women say. Nobody took her seriously when she explained that she had suicidal thoughts when she disappeared in 1926. They said she disappeared to frame her cheating husband for murder. I would like to put this right. Like a lot of other people in the 1920s, after WWI, she had terrible mental health issues: people couldnt keep the trauma down.

Can you talk about the importance of understanding Christie in a more serious, literary way?

I really take pleasure in trying to bring modern scholarship into my books. For example, I include the work of Alison Light, a fantastic woman who started to take Agatha Christie seriously around 1990. Lights argument is that Christies books, although middlebrow like much womans fiction, are modernist in their break with the past and their symbolism. She has Tommy and Tuppence in the 1920s split bills in restaurants. Now, there are loads of academics who study Christie, but she deserves a wider audience that takes her seriously, too.

What surprised you most about Christies life?

How involved she was in archeology because of her second husband. You dont want to say My wife bought my career, but that was effectively what happened. Proving that was a wonderful paper chase, and I found killer documents that showed her covering his salary. Then theres the fact that when I read her letters, I found her surprisingly exuberant and joyful. She enjoyed life, and there are little jokes in her books. She had a buoyancy of spirit. Hers is a story about second chances and redemption.
11:05 | Lima, Jul. 9.

Miraflores has become the first smart jurisdiction in Peru, he said at the Valor sobre Ciudades Digitales forum held within the framework of the Peru-Korea Memorandum of Understanding and the National Strategy for Smart Cities, organized by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM)





Fight against crime





The mayor indicated that this district has recently started a new era of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to thoroughly combat crime.





This new era develops based on the signing of an inter-institutional cooperation agreement between the Municipality of Miraflores and the Ministry of Interior.





Thanks to this agreement, it will be possible to use the National Police of Peru's (PNP) database, interconnected with the Serenazgo (municipal police) Surveillance Center, and the PNP Center.





Thus in real time, by means of car/motorcycle plate readers and face recognition cameras stolen vehicles can be pulled over and people wanted by justice can be taken into custody. Once detected, an alarm sounds at both control centers.





The mayor recalled that the first portico was recently set up on Benavides Avenue out of a total of 19, which will be installed at the accesses to Miraflores on the border with neighboring districts Surquillo, Surco, and Barranco.

This way, stolen vehicles or wanted people can be detected in real time.





Gradually, over the next few months, the other gates will be installed, thus reinforcing security for the benefit of residents, as well as domestic and foreign visitors who arrive in Miraflores, he remarked.





The first six porticos will be fully functional in September.





Very replicable project





At the forum, Team Leader of National Smart Cities Strategy Martin Sarango highlighted the Miraflores project given that said district is already setting up a smart city in Peru being the first success story.





In addition, he called for improvements to reduce bureaucracy.





Miraflores faced more than 2 years for its execution, and he pointed out that this is a very replicable project at the national level.
Rapid growth30% in 2021 and with 40% projected for 2022has seen Impelsys add 750 employees in just 18 months. We support more than 250 clients across the globe, says Uday Majithia, v-p of the products, platforms, and technology services division. We have also established an Innovation Lab, added a near-shore development center in Porto, Portugal, and launched a software development center with Laerdal Medical.

Impelsys, a Great Place to Workcertified company, has been busy helping societies, associations, STM publishers, health-care companies, and enterprises become sustainable and future-ready through digital transformation. We deliver integrated technology solutionsprocess transformation, data-driven insights, and security measures, for instancethat enable our clients to deliver value to their end-users through a unified experience across all channels, Majithia says. Digital transformation for us is not just a buzzword: it is our core competency.

Impelsyss flagship platform, iPC Scholar, is the engine driving much of its digital transformation projects. The latest version3.0, which launched in Octoberrides on strong AI and machine-learning infrastructure to create innovative tools specific to the business of e-learning.

We now have Scholar AI Cloud, which as the name suggests is an AI-powered cloud-based platform, and Scholar LMS, which offers a comprehensive learning management system with enriched user experience, says Majithia, whose team has further enhanced Scholar LMS by leveraging the power of AI, leading to the creation of Scholar ALS (Adaptive Learning System). This drive to constantly improve and create novel solutions won Impelsys the Amazon Web Services ISV Innovation Cup last year.

Recently, one major STM publisher partnered with Impelsys on its digital transformation journey, with the goal of digitizing and automating 80% of its business processes. By using our solutions that offer a single view of customer and business operations, the client can make informed and time-sensitive decisions, Majithia says. Our team brings domain understanding, technology expertise, and market-tested digital solutions that have helped nearly half of the Top 20 global publishers to unleash their untapped revenue potential.

And when a civil aviation agency came looking for solutions to support its distribution of regulatory publications to members and subscribers, iPC Scholar was ready with the answers. The platforms freemium business model is the perfect fit, as it supports free anonymous access as well as paid business models while making the content free for online consumption for all users with access to discovery, citation, sharing, and tools, Majithia says. It has search functions and the ability to offer related documents as well as ancillaries to the main content. Furthermore, multilingual iPC Scholar supports six languages, including right-to-left and double-byte languages such as Arabic and Chinese.

Return to main feature.
When I wrote my first novel, I considered it a trial run for when I was ready to write a real one. I honestly never thought it would get published. But what happened next was every writers dream. Within a matter of weeks, I landed a high-powered agent and a seven-figure deal from Harper Teen for the rights to my debut novel, Starcrossed. All the stars seemed to have aligned for me, but, like in the Greek tragedy my novel was based on, things would unravel for me faster than you can say divers alarums.

So what happened? Good question. Its hard to explain without a few glasses of red wine and a permanent twitch in your eye, but my Icarian rise and fall can be broken down into five basic steps.

Step 1: Lose your editor right before the launch of your debut novel

This first step is crucial in making the formula work to perfection. But it likely wont happen unless your new editor, the person who put all of their passion and professional stock into your debut novel, isnt a hot young up-and-comer whom other publishers will want to poach.

For maximum effect, be sure to have said editor leave the imprint within a couple of months of the release of your new title, leaving it orphaned. Seriously. Raise the stakes!

This will undoubtedly ensure your path to step four. You could pretty much skip to that one now, but, for kicks and giggles, proceed to step two.

Step 2: Have the Big Five flood the market with similar material

More is always better, especially when it comes to selling books. Its the good ol shotgun approach, where the hopes are that one book will offset the costs of the rest. I think its called the law of averages. Or the law of diminishing returns. I forget which one. I guess it all depends on which side youre looking at it from, no?

Anyway, make sure that your publisher and others like them are buying up every conceivable title in the same genre, and that they hit the market right before your book comes out, or, better yet, at the same time. You know what they say, misery likes company.

Step 3: Rebel against social media

Unfortunately, this third step requires some help on your part. Here you must (a) hate to put every thought you have into 180 characters or less for the whole world to see and (b) have the sneaking suspicion that, every time you take a selfie, a piece of your soul withers.

Throw in a deep-rooted fear of attracting too much attention to yourself after a few encounters with stalkers. If this speaks to you, then you are tailor-made to cruise right on through to the step I like to call Taking Up Drinking.

Step 4: Switch genres

Congratulations, you are now entering the coveted midlist territory. This fourth step requires a heavy dose of self-doubt and a healthy serving of nausea-inducing panic. Step four is where you will most likely question everything you ever knew about yourself as a person, as well as as a writer. It will help tremendously if you are also diagnosed with appendiceal cancer at this time.

If youre fortunate enough to make it through that ordeal, then the obvious next step is to move outside the genre you know and love so well and write a middle grade book about your formative years because, when you feel vulnerable, the ideal thing to do is to reflect on some of the horrible things you endured as a child.

Then, when youre done writing that masterpiece, do another 180 and write a thriller inspired by the fog of painkillers you were under while recovering from having half of your colon removed. But forget about anyone reading this book because, just as you are now finally ready to turn the page on these past few chapters in your life, so is everyone else.

Step 5: Turn your back on the Big Five

This may sound like the hardest step of all, but its easier than you might think. You can quit writing altogether and do something else with your life, but youre probably throwing the baby out with the bathwater. You can self-publish, which is not a bad option. Just ask L.J. Ross, Mark Dawson, Skye Warren, or Rachel Abbott, just to name a few. Or you can do what I eventually decided to do, which is to seek out a distribution deal, form your own imprint, and become your own publisher.

Regardless of which one you choose, step five is mostly about recognizing that, just like recording artists, authors no longer need traditional publishing to have their works see the light of day.

If E.L. James taught us anything, its that a good story will find readers no matter how its distributed. And the best news of all is that you probably dont have to go through what I went through in order to become your own publisher. In fact, I would skip right over the first four steps and save yourself the heartache. And the cancer.

Josephine Angelini is a young adult author who lives in Los Angeles. Her latest novel, Scions, a prequel to the Starcrossed series, is scheduled for release October 4.
Media Watch

Its hard to believe theres anyone left who hasnt bought a copy of Where the Crawdads Sing, and yet: Delia Owenss 2018 debut is the #1 book in the country for the second week in a row, with its best sales week to date. Hardcover and trade paperback sales total more than five million copies, and that was before the movie adaptation, which opens July 13, and its related tie-in editions. Those are respectively #1 and #11 on the mass market and trade paperback list.

Feehan Groovy

Christine Feehan is a mainstay on bestseller charts. Her latest book, Red on the River, lands at #18 on our hardcover fiction list; its an expertly wrought romantic suspense novel, per our starred review. Its not unusual to see the Feehan name on our mass market list, too, but this week, the book in question was written by Brian, her son. His debut, the paranormal romance series launch Harmony of Fire, is #12 on that list.The pair celebrated their simultaneous releases at their local indie, Mendocinos Gallery Bookshop.

In Clubland

The Measure by Nikki Erlick, #6 on our hardcover fiction list, is Julys Read with Jenna pick. In this moving but predictable debut novel from Erlick, our review said, adults around the world receive notice as to how long they have left to live. The scenes of grief and love are poignant, the review continued, and theres plenty of drama, but overall, its a bit too anodyne.

The new GMA Book Club selection, The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston, is #12 on our trade paperback list. YA author Poston makes her adult debut with a refreshing rom-com about love, loss, and hope, our starred review said. The sparkling dialogue makes the characters come aliveeven the dead ones.

NEW & NOTABLE

WHY WE DID IT

Tim Miller

#5 Hardcover Nonfiction

Former Republican operative Miller contributes an anguished yet entertaining expose of the partys enthrallment to Donald Trump, our review said. Witty prose, colorful anecdotes, and copious insider details make this a worthwhile dissection of how Republican Never Trumpers got pushed aside.

ROGUES

Patrick Radden Keefe

#16 Hardcover Nonfiction

The Empire of Pain author returns with a superlative collection, per our starred review, of a dozen of his New Yorker articles that delve into what he calls my abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial. Our review said the immensely enjoyable writing married with fascinating subjects makes this a must-read.
People who are higher up in companies, theyre used to seeing disability in a certain way: a lot of them are older, and a lot of them are white men, and they view disability in a certain way because of their background, said Madison Parrotta, who works at Includas Publishing. Its not the way that disabled people should be treated; they just see us as disposable.

Parrotta participated in a number of publishing internships in college and said she feels overqualified for agent assistant jobs, but that shes been rejected for other gigs due to a disability. Shes also part of a group, Disability in Publishing, that formed in 2021 and is looking to spark change in an industry that has historically locked out disabled staffers. (The group will officially launch with a virtual town hall at 8:00 p.m. ET on July 22.)

Ismita Hussain is an associate agent with Great Dog Literary who also serves as external-relations lead for Disability in Publishing. The group recently launched a website that offers resources including a job board, and it has plans to produce an accessibility guide for employers. Hussain said that Disability in Publishing was created to fill an advocacy gap in the industry. There have always been people with disabilities in the publishing industry, just like any other industry. And there has so far not yet been an organization that was created solely to support publishing professionals, rather than, you know, writers who have disabilities.

Disabled people are underrepresented in publishing. The U.K.s Publishers Associations 2021 diversity survey found that 13% of respondents identified as having a disability, up from 2% in 2017. Stateside, Lee and Low Books 2019 Diversity in Publishing survey found that 11% of respondents identified as having disability. For context, the American disability population is estimated to be closer to 26%, according to the CDC.

Of the more than 15 peopleat various stages of their careerscontacted for this story, most hit on the same concerns about publishing: too much work for too little money and poor work-life balance. Another key problem for disabled publishing workers in the U.S. is the health care precarity that comes with the job. Some made career decisions based almost entirely on how much health care support they could get.

Miranda Stinson, who is a founding member of Disabled People in Publishing, said that the financial and time pressures of being in the industry are compounded by the fact that it can be difficult to come out as disabled in the publishing world. Theres definitely very much a culture of, You dont disclose, and, I think, a fear that if you do there will be repercussions. But also, over time it kind of became clear to me that its like, Well, youre not masking very successfully anyway, everybody knows something is up, they just dont know what if you dont say. 

For those trying to break into the industry, like GiannaMarie Dobson, the pace of the industry is incompatible with life. She said that the core of the problem isnt just that she doesnt have the means to move away from her family in North Carolina to New York Citythough that certainly plays a partbut that the amount of money needed to become part of the industry is unobtainable. Until wages rise enough for even abled workers to meet their needs, disabled people will be forced out. If abled workers cant afford rent, how can disabled people afford to live, fill their prescriptions, maintain their mobility aids, go to specialists, visit the emergency room, buy food thats safe to eat? The crip tax is real. (The crip tax refers to the extra costs of being a disabled person.)

For Parotta, just sending a cover letter is something that she feels opens her up for discrimination. I dont come out and say Im disabled. But when I write my cover letters, I talk about my passion for disability and childrens lit and how we need to see that [representation] more. And how, if they hired me, Id want to make that a priority as I moved up in the company. I think thats what really turns people off.

As a result of these barriers, like in many other industries, some disabled people have taken matters into their own hands. Emily Keyes, who runs her own literary agency, is one of those people. Shes worked for L. Perkins Agency, Fuse Literary, and Simon & Schuster since getting a masters in publishing from NYU, but she went out on her own in 2021. She said that her disability has made her persistent. I told one of my clients, I dont have any other skills. Like, this is what Ive been going toward for so long and what I wanted to do. Perhaps a wiser person would have taken a plan B, but I have continually refused to do so.

Keyes believes one reason shes been able to forge her career is that she was entrenched in the publishing world prior to being diagnosed and had an empathetic boss as she was navigating her initial understanding of her disabilities.I think I was lucky to have been diagnosed after Id already been in publishing andI wont say proven myself, but I had a sales track record and people knew who I was.

Like many contacted for this article, she said that accommodations like remote work have opened doors for her. Yet many companies still put discriminatory items in their job postings. Keyes pointed to a lack of pay transparency, and also added, A lot of entry-level editorial positions will say you need to be able to carry 25- or 50-pound boxes of books. And that would exclude a lot of people with physical disabilities. And, from my experience in working with a publisher, someone could carry those over to the mailroom for you.

Many disabled people in the industry believe publishing is missing out by excluding them. For Stinson, increasing the number of disabled agents would mean opening the door to a different view of disability. Publishing wants a certain kind of disability story, and it wants an inspirational story or a story about acceptance, she said. I think much like queer publishing, actually, it often gets boiled down to, Everybodys different and special, which is true but not necessarily helpful. And I think disabled agents are more open to the nitty-gritty of it.

According to Parrotta, the industry is losing talent, because those in entry-level positions see the need for change, but their bosses dont. She said that the industry could really use the web of contacts that many disabled people cultivate in order to live their lives. Theres a fairly big disability community out there. And I feel like theyre being ignored. I feel like those contacts would definitely be an asset to the publishing community.

This article has been updated with further information.
Published on:

8 July 2022





After nearly 50 years, US states once more have the power to ban abortion. This follows a decision by the US Supreme Court in Dobbs v Jackson Womens Health, which struck down the 1973 decision in Roe v Wade, and declared: Our decision returns the issue of abortion to those legislative bodies.

On its own terms, Dobbs is one of the most significant supreme court decisions of this generation. Almost immediately, abortion clinics across the US were closed, as state legislatures, anticipating the decision, had set up trigger laws to ban abortion as soon as Roe was overturned. The last abortion clinic in the southern state of Mississippi has now shut down.

But, this decision carries significance beyond its immediate impact on US women. It hints at the possibility of a highly significant turn in supreme court precedent. By shrinking what is understood as a right under the US constitution, the court creates a patchwork of rights, based on state residency. This would entail a dramatic reversal of a democratic process, begun after the American civil war, to establish and expand a national standard of rights.

It could mean the end of a national rights in many areas of life that Americans take for granted, such as marriage or contraception. To understand the wider significance of this decision, we must turn to the origins of the US constitution itself.

The first constitution was a disaster, as it gave too much power to the states. The Articles of Confederation, which governed the US from 1781 to 1789, insisted that state governments remained supreme in every power, jurisdiction, and right, except for those expressly designated to the United States. With the federal (national) government having virtually no authority of its own, a stalemate government was the result. Congress was unable to address the major policy questions of the day, leading to a complete loss of public confidence, disarray, and, after just eight years, total collapse.

The second constitution has lasted a bit longer. It replaced the articles in 1789 and remains today. Known simply as the US constitution, the federal government was given exclusive authority over major policy areas, as well as broad powers over economic regulation. The writing of this constitution was an effort to strengthen national government authority over the states.

But the drafters of this second constitution had a problem. It needed the consent of the very states who would lose many of the substantial powers which they had enjoyed under the first constitution. A compromise was devised. A series of amendments would be tacked onto the constitution, which would constrain the federal government against limiting individual rights (amendments one to nine) and preserve state authority (amendment ten) on matters not relating to the federal government.

These ten amendments, which were later called the Bill of Rights, established barriers to federal government action. The federal government could not establish a national religion, limit the freedom of speech or press, install soldiers in citizens homes without their permission, seize personal papers and effects without a warrant, convict a citizen without a trial by jury, impose excessive fines, inflict cruel and unusual punishment, and much else. The ninth amendment clarified that the preceding eight amendments were not an exhaustive list and that the people retained other rights, as well.

None of these restrictions initially applied to state governments. Some states had established churches, such as the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Some restricted the free exercise of religion, with New Hampshire insisting that state legislators could only be Protestants and Maryland banning atheists from public office. Some states criminalised certain forms of speech. In North Carolina, for example, a person could be put to death for advocating the abolition of slavery. It was only North Carolinas defeat in the civil war (1861-65) that brought this law to an end.

Pushing back against state powers

After the civil war, new efforts were made to weaken the power of state governments, who had used them for deeply oppressive ends, especially on the basis of race and religion like those listed above. Radical reformers in Congress and the states passed the 14th amendment in 1868. It specified that the restrictions on federal government actions against the rights to life, liberty, and property also applied to the states.

Certain individual rights which are necessary for there to be a due (fair) process of law-making must therefore apply equally against state governments as they do the federal government. In many cases, it is obvious what these rights entail. There clearly cannot be a due process of law if state governments are entitled to censor the press or limit reasonable religious expression.

Equally, there is clearly no due process of law if a citizen is not entitled to a jury trial, protected from self-incrimination, given access to legal counsel, subjected to double jeopardy, denied a speedy trial, placed under excessive bail, or victimised by cruel and unusual punishment. The court has incorporated all of these rights against the states, and they remain likely to endure.

However, many legal experts argue that the due process clause of the 14th amendment does not simply protect the rules of a fair democratic process. It also protects certain fundamental liberties, which no government  state or federal  can restrict. This doctrine is known as substantive due process.

Substantive due process was the basis on which abortion rights existed in the US until this year. In 1973, in Roe v Wade, the supreme court argued that the right for a woman to terminate her pregnancy was a fundamental liberty, which neither the states nor the federal government could restrict in its early stages. In Dobbs v Jackson Womens Health (2022), the court ruled that there was no such right under the constitution. This has revived the states right to regulate, and even ban, abortion. This could potentially affect other rights.

For example, the court has used substantive due process to prevent states ability to prohibit marriage between people of different races (Loving v Virginia, 1967) and of the same sex (Obergefell v Hodges, 2015). Similarly, the court has found that certain intimate acts, such as the use of contraception (Griswold v Connecticut, 1965) or consensual sexual activity between people of the same sex (Lawrence v Texas, 2003), are fundamental liberties protected by this clause.

In the Dobbs decision, Justice Samuel Alito said none of these rights were under threat, but this reassurance is not convincing. Members of the court openly disagree. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his opinion on Dobbs: In future cases, we should reconsider all of this courts substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is demonstrably erroneous.

Should this thinking take hold on the court, the end of a federal right to an abortion will only be the beginning of the revival of state government power and the weakening of national standards of rights.

This article first appeared in The Conversation on July 8th.
Actor Paul Walter Hauser released his first EP on Friday. Under the name Signet Ringer, Murder For Higher includes six rap tracks.

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Hauser wrote the tracks over the course of one year. He performs them, and produced the EP with Aleks James.

"If this was a meal, it would be gourmet junk food or dressed down caviar," Hauser said in a statement. "It lives somewhere in the middle, made to nosh and nourish."

The songs express Hauser's conflicts over sobriety and Hollywood ego. Among the themes of the album, Hauser listed "addiction, depression, ambition, imposter syndrome, matters of faith."

The song titles are "Murder for Higher" with guest vocals by Danny Joe, "Breaking Point," "5'10" with guest vocals by Bear Lewis, "Don't Take the Bait," "My Dude" and "Steer Clear" with guest vocals by Cade Ellis. A video for "5'10" is also on YouTube.

As an actor, Hauser is known for films like I, Tonya, BlackKklansman, Richard Jewell, Cruella and Queenpins. Hauser also appeared in the series Cobra Kai, The Afterparty and Black Bird.

Murder for Higher is available on music streaming services and for purchase.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/08/2022



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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 Luke Pell is leaving his bachelor days in the past, as he's now an engaged man.Luke and Amanda Mertz, a 35-year-old on-air host, each posted a slideshow of photos from their engagement Thursday on Instagram and captioned it, "When in Rome... We are so thrilled to finally share the news, WE'RE ENGAGED!!"Luke, who competed for JoJo Fletcher on 's twelfth season in 2016 and also appeared on The Bachelor Winter Games in 2018, proposed marriage to his longtime girlfriend during a romantic trip to Rome, Italy.Luke, 37, hired a florist to help him set up a beautiful scene for him to pop the question, and he had local musicians play when he got down on one knee. Luke also got a little help from Amanda's friends to make sure the moment would be everything his new fiancee had hoped for, People reported "It feels like a long time coming. There's other points in my life which I thought I was much closer to it. And now, I'm finally there," Luke told the magazine. "So [I'm] really excited -- and excited about the next season of life."Luke unveiled Amanda on Instagram in August 2018, less than three months after his breakup with Big Brother alum Holly Allen . The former on-again, off-again couple reportedly called it quits on their relationship in May 2018.Luke and Amanda reportedly took a break in early 2020 but reconciled later that year, when Luke said the couple "really started looking at life together."Luke explained, "Sometimes our frustrations or our other distractions in life -- a career, or things and logistics of life -- that don't align. They push us away.""And then when you get some distance from somebody, you realize, 'Wow, I mean, maybe there's challenges to what we're doing. Maybe we're not exactly the same person, but we have way more similarities than we have differences,'" he continued. "There's something to be said for that. And that's what it was for us."Luke and Amanda apparently want a short engagement and can see themselves tying the knot by the end of this year or in the early 2023."We've talked about every type of wedding at this point. We started talking about a small destination wedding with friends and family and then, we've talked about big weddings as well," Luke shared. "I think at this point, we are looking at having it in Texas, which is a destination wedding for some people.""Everybody wants to go visit Texas and wear a cowboy hat, and that type of thing," he added. "So yeah, we've got my family ranch in Texas and my mom has been working on having a wedding venue there, actually, for a couple of years. So we're excited about having it there."And, according to the commercial real estate agent and war veteran, there will "definitely" feature "a lot of our Bachelor family" on the guest list."There's a lot of folks that live in Nashville and that we're both friends with. And so those folks would be invited, for sure. We stayed close with them," Luke told People."And then, some of the other ones I've stayed close with from my season, Chase McNary out in Scottsdale, where I would spend a lot of time for work... It's going to be exciting to reunite with that family as well."Luke also confirmed he and Amanda would like to have children someday.But for now, Luke noted he's just "so excited" to have a partner through life."You know, you're on the same team and you really start to feel that as you're committing and moving toward marriage and now being engaged," Luke said. "We're excited about just taking on life together, I think [that] is the best part."He concluded, "It's a strange thing after you've spent so many years single and used to just solving life's problems as an individual. And then, when you have somebody to help with that, it's just a cool feeling."In addition to his prior romance with Holly, Luke was also previously linked to Stassi Yaramchuk , whom he allegedly ghosted following their appearance on The Bachelor Winter Games.Luke and Stassi appeared to leave The Bachelor Winter Games as a strong and solid couple, having engaged in long conversations and bonded over their similar heart conditions.However, during the show's reunion special in February 2018, Stassi told former The Bachelor host Chris Harrison she never heard from Luke after The Bachelor Winter Games finished filming in December 2017.Luke -- who has been the subject of public "player" and "cheater" accusations before -- told People at the time that after The Bachelor Winter Games wrapped, he realized his heart really belonged to Holly the whole time, which was an explanation he attempted to use to justify why he had given Stassi the cold shoulder when she confronted him about his behavior on the reunion special.Luke also briefly dated The Bachelor alum Danielle Lombard in March 2017. He and Danielle, however, never got serious or became an item.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/09/2022



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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.

star Michelle Young has revealed if her decision to take a break from teaching had to do with Nayte Olukoya and trying to salvage their relationship.Nayte proposed marriage to Michelle on 's Season 18 finale, which aired in December 2021, and ABC even gifted the couple a $200,000 down payment on a house.But Michelle, who held down a job as an elementary school teacher in Minnesota, and Nayte, who lives in Houston, TX, never fully joined their lives together, and so the long-distance couple announced their split on June 17 in separate Instagram postings.During a July 5 appearance on "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast," Ashley Iaconetti asked Michelle if her big decision to stop teaching was because she wanted to spend more time with Nayte and/or try to live with him in a state other than Minnesota."Yeah. I think -- I would say Nayte and I are very independent people. But at that same time... I personally want to work towards different things, right? We're in two different places. He's in Austin, I'm in Minnesota, and long-distance is difficult," Michelle explained to Ashley and her co-host Ben Higgins "But yeah, I think having the summer off and being able to step away from teaching, that would have happened, regardless of a relationship, regardless of influencing [or] whatever you want to call it."When Michelle, a former fifth-grade teacher, announced in late May that she'll be embarking on a career change in 2023, she said on her "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast that she felt "burnt out" and was tired of functioning in "survival mode" considering she's had so much going on in her professional and personal life over the last two years."I've decided to step out of the classroom," Michelle announced, adding how she doesn't believe teachers are being valued and supported and that change must be made.Michelle reiterated on the "Almost Famous Podcast" how she just "really needed to take a breath out of teaching.""But would that have resulted in spending more time with Nayte? Yeah, naturally," Michelle admitted.Michelle found fame when she competed for Matt James ' heart on The Bachelor's 25th season, which aired in early 2021.Once Michelle finished as Matt's runner-up, ABC selected her to be a leading lady of the franchise, but she postponed the subsequent filming her edition later that year so she wouldn't have to disrupt the school year.(ABC made plans around Michelle's teaching schedule, which resulted in Katie Thurston starring on 's seventeenth season in the first half of 2021 and Michelle's season premiering in Fall 2021).Michelle boasted about her passion for teaching during both shows, and so her exit from the classroom came as a big shock to fans.Michelle apparently intends to spend her time influencing, working for nonprofit organizations, and working behind the scenes to better the education system."This doesn't necessarily mean that I'm not going to continue working towards a Master's [degree] in administration and potentially get back into that direct line of education," Michelle previously shared of her career change."But it's me stepping away for a year to truly capitalize and push forward and put all of my energy and efforts into my passion in a different way, and really, truly try to push for that change."In late June, Nayte denied ever cheating on Michelle as fans continue to speculate what went wrong in their relationship and led to their split."No, I didn't cheat," Nayte wrote via Instagram Stories on June 25, according to Us Weekly."Not every breakup needs to have someone to blame. Yes, many of you seem to paint me as a red flag/ f-ck boy... But I'm actually a decent guy, and I only want to continue getting better. As we should all want for ourselves."When Nayte first announced his split from Michelle, he wrote on Instagram Stories, "When we both started this journey, we were looking for our Soulmates. Our forever. Our best friends. However, as we grow and learn, we also realize that sometimes somebody that you hold dear to your heart isn't somebody that you're meant to spend the rest of your life with.""Michelle and I are going to move forward separately. Hearts are heavy, emotions are high, and we are dealing with this the best way we can," he continued.Nayte said his "heartbreak is real" and the couple would be keeping the details of their split private. He also defended the genuineness of their relationship, which ended only six months after the finale of their season aired last year.In Michelle's statement, she thanked Bachelor Nation for their support and noted how having a relationship in the public eye was not easy."I'm struggling to say that Nayte and I will be going our separate ways but I stand with him in knowing the heaviness that is present in both our hearts as this relationship has been very real for us," she wrote last month."To you, Nayte," she added, "you quickly became my best friend and the love I have for you is incredibly strong. I will never stop wanting to see you succeed.""I will always acknowledge and appreciate the adventures, support, and growth both Nayte and this experience have brought me. At the same time, I'm deeply hurting and will need time and space to work through this heartbreak."Nayte explained last month via social media how he and Michelle had decided not to move to the same city in order not to rush anything, according to Us."Plans changed as we decided there was no need to rush anything and get to know each other on a deeper level before taking the leap of living together," Nayte wrote."There's no rush in life. There's no rule book or timeline on how to go about your relationship. We believed that since the love was there, everything would fall into place naturally and in its own time.""We tried," he added. "It didn't work. We're sad about it. We all grieve different."Michelle and Nayte's split announcement came only a few weeks after Michelle took to Instagram on May 30 to deny rumors that couple had split up and ended their engagement.Michelle was spotted without her engagement ring on, but Michelle said her friend had tried on her ring momentarily and she's not a "zoo exhibit" for people to watch and record on their phones.In April, Michelle had said she and Nayte were in the beginning stages of wedding planning."Nayte and I, we know so many different people and we have such big families and that's a huge part of [our planning process]," Michelle told the magazine at the time."And so coming out of a pandemic... one thing that we both can't imagine is having a small wedding," the Minnesota native added, "and so we want to make sure that we're completely clear of that so that's not even a stressor for us, and then, [we want to have] warm weather [on our big day]."Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
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Brattleboro, VT (05301)

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Thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. Low 69F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

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Thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. Low 69F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
YEREVAN, JULY 9, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Ministry of Defense denied another statement of the Azerbaijani defense ministry according to which in the evening of July 8 the units of the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire from various caliber firearms at the Azerbaijani positions located in the eastern section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

The situation in the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is relatively stable and is under the full control of the Armenian Armed Forces, the defense ministry said.
NEW YORK  As President Joe Biden runs up against the limits of what he can do on abortion, gun control and other issues, some in his party want more fire and boldness than his acknowledgement of their frustration and calls imploring people to vote in November. Lately, the outrage and energy come from outside Washington, as blue-state governors buttressed by one-party rule of their statehouses offer the most aggressive responses on the issues. Governors J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Kathy Hochul of New York and Gavin Newsom of California may have tools more conducive to swift action than Biden does. Facing pressure, Biden took executive action on Friday to protect access to abortion, but noted the limits of what he could do without Congress acting.

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NEW YORK (AP)  Hours after a gunman killed seven people at a July 4th parade in suburban Chicago, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker tapped into the frustration of many fellow Democrats at the seeming inability of the U.S. to curb gun violence.

If youre angry today, Im here to tell you: Be angry. Im furious, Pritzker said.

But at the White House, President Joe Biden was more focused on reassurance than anger.

I know it can be exhausting and unsettling, he said, adding that were going to get through all of this.

In a summer marked by anger among Democrats over a string of mass shootings and the Supreme Courts decision to strip women of the constitutional right to an abortion, several governors, including Pritzker, are emerging as the partys leading voices of outrage. Their willingness to speak  and act  in aggressive terms stands in contrast to Biden, who is coming under growing criticism from some Democrats for lacking a sufficiently robust response to what some in his party see as existential threats.

Some Democrats warn that the lack of a strong response will be a problem if the party hopes to turn out enough voters to maintain their narrow grip on Congress in the fall midterm elections.

The people that youre telling to vote arent going to listen until we prove that we are handling this moment with urgency, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said in an interview, referring to the party generally. We have a lot of tools at our disposal, I think we have a lot of assets at our disposal, and we have to use them.

Facing pressure to be more forceful, Biden took executive action on Friday to protect access to abortion, but noted the limits of what he could do without Congress acting and said, "For Gods sake there is an election in November. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote!

But in this moment, governors may have unique tools that are more conducive to swift action than the president. Well positioned heading into the fall campaign and presiding over statehouses where Democrats are in control, Pritzker and Govs. Kathy Hochul of New York and Gavin Newsom of California have wide latitude.

In New York, for instance, Hochul was undeterred by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a state law and allowed most people to carry a handgun for personal protection. She called a special session last week in which lawmakers passed new measures limiting where those licensed to have guns can carry them and toughening rules for obtaining the permits. The regulations include a novel requirement to screen applicants social media accounts for threats.

They may think they can change our lives with the stroke of a pen, but we have pens too, Hochul said defiantly of the Supreme Courts gun ruling.

In Illinois, Pritzker has said he would convene a special legislative session in coming weeks, with support of Democratic legislative leaders, to more firmly protect abortion rights and address some of the challenges the state faces as one of the few places in the Midwest where abortion remains legal.

Abortion rights will be on the California ballot in November, after legislators with Newsoms blessing agreed last month to place a proposal before voters that would guarantee a right to an abortion in the state constitution. The constitutional amendment is certain to drive turnout on both sides of the debate.

Newsom has been especially vocal in rallying against the repeal of abortion rights even before the Supreme Court ruled. When a draft Supreme Court opinion surfaced in May suggesting the conservative majority was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, he delivered a withering critique of the national party, suggesting it was suffering from collective lethargy.

Where is the Democratic Party? he asked at the time, without naming anyone specifically but appearing to exclude Biden from criticism. Why arent we standing up more firmly? More resolutely? Why arent we calling this out?

With just a tenuous grip on Congress, however, Biden cant move legislation quickly. And even criticizing Republicans could be politically dangerous if he needs their support on key votes.

Forcefully calling out the other side isnt a luxury he has if he wants to get anything done the rest of the year on anything, said Democratic strategist Joe Trippi. If youre Gavin Newsom, whose votes are you going to lose in the state senate or California assembly?

The White House insists Biden isnt backing away from a fight. In a passionate prime-time speech last month, he lamented that gun violence had turned schools, supermarkets and other everyday places into killing fields and asked, How much more carnage are we willing to accept?

Shortly after the Supreme Court's abortion ruling, Biden called the decision the realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that you will hear more from him on issues including abortion as she underscored the administrations central message that winning the midterms is the best path forward.

Speaking at the White House on Friday about the abortion ruling, Biden showed anger and disgust, at times gritting his teeth as he discussed reports of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was forced to travel out of state to terminate a pregnancy after being raped.

Ten years old. 10 years old. Raped. Six weeks pregnant. Already traumatized, was forced to travel to another state. Imagine being that little girl. JustI'm seriousjust imagine being that little girl. Ten years old! he said.

Still, without more federal options, Biden is turning to governors. He convened a virtual roundtable last Friday with Pritzker, Hochul and seven other Democratic governors to discuss what steps were being taken in their states to protect abortion rights.

Biden reiterated that his administration will protect the rights of women to travel to other states for abortion services and ensure that abortion medication is available as widely as possible. But he acknowledged he didnt have votes in the U.S. Senate for more sweeping actions and laid out the stakes for Novembers elections and the need to increase Democrats majorities.

In the meantime, I want to hear what the governors are doing, he said.

With their reelections essentially secure, the aggressive action from some of the governors is sparking speculation about potential future presidential campaigns.

Pritzker, a billionaire businessman seeking his second term, raised chatter about a possible presidential bid when he spoke last month at the state Democratic party convention in New Hampshire, one of the early presidential nominating states. He has said he is focused on his job as governor and his reelection bid.

Newsom drew even more attention by running a television ad on Independence Day in Florida that was critical of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate. In the ad, which features images of DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, Newsom warns viewers that freedom is under attack in your state.

I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight. Or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom  freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate and the freedom to love, Newsom said.
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ATHENS, Greece (AP)  The leaders of Greece and Bulgaria on Friday marked the completion of a new pipeline that will supply natural gas from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria, whose vital supply of Russian gas was cut off in April amid the fallout over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed the importance of the new link as an alternative supply line for Bulgaria, as neighboring Greece jockeys to become a regional energy transport hub.

This isn't just a gas pipeline, but a crucial south-north energy bridge, Mitsotakis said during a ceremony in northeastern Greece.

He added that Europe needs to coordinate its response to Moscows conscious choice to turn natural resources into a lever of political pressure, into a raw blackmail.

It is something our Bulgarian neighbors already know very well, Mitsotakis said.

In late April, Russia cut off gas supplies to Bulgaria after it refused a demand by Moscow to pay gas bills in rubles, Russias currency. Relations between the two former Soviet bloc allies have tanked in recent months, and last month Bulgaria ordered the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats, triggering an angry response from Moscow.

Bulgarias acting prime minister, Kiril Petkov, highlighted the pipelines key role in ending Russias gas monopoly in his country.

"Thus, for the first time, our country will have real terrestrial access to alternative energy sources other than the Russian ones, Petkov said.

The 182-kilometer (115-mile) pipeline will run from the northeastern Greek city of Komotini to Stara Zagora in central Bulgaria. It starts with an initial capacity of 3 billion cubic meters of gas a year, and the prospect of future expansion to 5 billion cubic meters. Commercial deliveries are expected to start by Oct. 1.

Greece is looking to serve as an energy hub for the Balkans, using fossil fuels from the Caspian Sea and the southeastern Mediterranean, and, potentially renewable energy from Egypt, to supply the region amid the fallout of the war in Ukraine.

Greece is also building a liquefied natural gas terminal off the northeastern port of Alexandroupolis, near Komotini, which Mitsotakis said would in the future provide additional gas for the new Greek-Bulgarian pipeline.

___

Follow all AP stories on the fallout from the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the future capacity of the pipeline is 5 billion cubic meters, not 5 million cubic meters.
A milling and paving project on two main downtown Auburn streets is set to start this summer with a goal to be finished in the fall.

A bid for work on the East Genesee Street/John Street paving project in the city was awarded to an Auburn-based company in a resolution approved by the Auburn City Council at its meeting Thursday.

The resolution noted that last year, the council approved accepting a New York State Transportation Touring Route Fund Grant, which includes funding for a paving project that incorporates those two streets. The undertaking includes milling and paving East Genesee Street between the Genesee Street Bridge and Fulton Street, in addition to milling and paving of John Street between East Genesee St. and Arterial East. The project includes installing storm sewer laterals, improvements to corner sidewalk ramps, improvements and repairs to utility road patches and adjusting and fixing catch basins and manholes.

Bids for the project opened in late June. The low bidder was Paul F. Vitale Inc., at an amount of $850,200.

Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason told The Citizen Friday that sewer replacement work is expected to begin in the next couple of weeks, and traffic patterns will be adjusted as the project continues. There will be short-term periods during the project where John Street and East Genesee Street will be partially closed, plus a few days where John Street will completely close. A detour will be established. Mason said city employees have been in frequent contact with business owners. It's expected the project will finish up by September or October.

"The sewer replacements will be first, then you'll probably see curb and sidewalk work, then you'll probably see them build the street towards the later summer," he said.

Mason mentioned that some water and sewer work has already been done in that area in preparation for the project. He said city planners and workers began organizing the project last year and the endeavor is one of the first projects the city will take on with the touring route grant money.

Before council voted for the bid Thursday, Councilor Jimmy Giannettino mentioned there was discussion about possibly using touring route money to finish streetscape work on Genesee Street. City Manager Jeff Dygert said the city is working on that. He said the city's engineering department is working on "different options that would have different cost factors based on the design." Dygert added the city plans to hold a meeting with some of the property and business owners in that area to get input.

The city council officially accepted the 2021-22 touring route grant in the amount of $1.54 million in June 2021. The state program provides financial support to municipalities for maintaining roads that are often used by tourists.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) meets Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi during the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting at Nusa Dua in Bali, Indonesia, July 8, 2022.

The G20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali concluded Friday with several nations top diplomats condemning Moscows war in Ukraine in the presence of their Russian counterpart, who walked out at least once during what he called the frenzied castigation.

Retno Marsudi, the chief diplomat of host country Indonesia, did not say whether the meeting reached any consensus about food security, but mentioned that participants were deeply concerned about the conflicts global impact on food, energy and finance.

Some of the Group of Twenty members expressed condemnation of Russias invasion of Ukraine, she said, adding, It is our responsibility to end the war as quickly as possible. And to build bridges and not walls.

Developing countries will be the most affected, particularly low-income countries and small, developing countries. There is an urgent need to address global food supply chain disruptions, integrating food and fertilizer from Ukraine and Russia into the global market, Rento said in a statement after the meeting.

Since Russia invaded the neighboring country on Feb. 24, its military forces have blocked all of Ukraines Black Sea ports and cut off access to almost all of that countrys exports  especially of grain  sparking fears of a global food crisis. Ukraine is the worlds fourth-largest grain exporter.

Before the meeting started, Sergey Lavrov, Russias foreign minister, had to deal with tough questions from at least one reporter.

When will you stop the war? a German journalist asked as Moscows top diplomat shook hands with Retno.

Lavrov did not respond and walked away.

At the ministers meeting, Lavrov, sat between representatives from Saudi Arabia and Mexico. He later told reporters that during the meeting, he accused the West of preventing a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine by refusing to talk to Russia.

If the West doesnt want talks to take place but wishes for Ukraine to defeat Russia on the battlefield  because both views have been expressed  then perhaps, there is nothing to talk about with the West, TASS, the Russian state news agency, quoted him as saying.

Asked if there was any chance that he and Blinken could talk, he said: It was not us that abandoned all contact. It was the United States.

If they dont want to talk, its their choice, Lavrov added.

Before the U.S. diplomat left for Bali, U.S. State Department officials said that he would not meet Lavrov formally until the Russians were serious about diplomacy.

But the Reuters news agency quoted Indonesias Retno as saying that Lavrov and Blinken were seen in a conversation in the meeting room.

Additionally, Blinken is said to have responded to Lavrovs accusations against the West, Reuters said, citing an unnamed diplomat, who added, though, that Lavrov wasnt in the room at that time.

He addressed Russia directly, saying: To our Russian colleagues: Ukraine is not your country. Its grain is not your grain. Why are you blocking the ports? You should let the grain out, the official said, according to Reuters.

The meeting on Friday occurred under the shadow of the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during an election campaign speech in Nara, Japan. In a message of condolence to the Japanese people, Retno said Abe would be remembered as the best role model for all.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks to reporters during the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting at the Mulia Hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, July 8, 2022. Credit: Joan Tanamal/BenarNews Everyone has to feel comfortable

After the meeting, Lavrov and his German counterpart traded barbs.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock criticized Lavrov for being absent from the meeting room, according to German news agency DPA.

The fact that the Russian foreign minister spent a large part of the negotiations here not in the room but outside the room underlines that there is not even a millimeter of willingness to talk on the part of the Russian government at the moment, DPA quoted Baerbock as saying.

She noted that Lavrov was not present at discussions on how to improve global food supply and distribution problems.

For his part, Lavrov questioned Western manners when informing reporters that G7 diplomats had skipped a welcome dinner organized by Indonesia on Thursday, TASS reported.

A welcome reception organized by Indonesia was held yesterday, a reception and a concert, and they [G7 countries] were absent from it, Lavrov said.

This is how they understand protocol, politeness and code of conduct, he added.

Indonesias Retno spoke about the boycotted dinner.

We are trying to create a comfortable situation for all. When the G7 countries said they could not attend the optional informal reception, they all talked and I said I could understand the situation because once again, everyone has to feel comfortable, Retno said.

Indonesia has been trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, with President Joko Jokowi Widodo visiting the two countries last month on a trip he described as a peace mission.

While his mission to persuade Moscow to declare a ceasefire did not immediately materialize, Jokowi said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised he would secure safe sea passage of grain and fertilizers from the worlds breadbaskets Russia and Ukraine, to avert a global food crisis.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Troops loyal to Myanmars junta have destroyed at least 132 religious buildings in arson and other attacks in wartorn Sagaing and Magway regions and Chin and Kayah states in the 17 months since the military seized power, RFA Burmese has learned.

A list compiled by RFA, based on information obtained from residents by rights groups, shows that the military destroyed a total of 33 religious buildings  28 Buddhist monasteries, a Buddhist convent, two mosques, and two churches  in Sagaing between the Feb. 1, 2021, takeover and the end of June this year, as well as 11 Buddhist monasteries and a church in Magway.

Junta troops destroyed at least 66 churches in Chin state alone, and 20 churches and a mosque in Kayah state.

Data shows that, of the 28 Buddhist monasteries destroyed in Sagaing, most were located in Pale township, where the military has clashed with anti-junta Peoples Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries in some of the heaviest fighting since the coup.

A Buddhist abbot in Pale, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity citing reasons of security, said that the clergy have been unable to peacefully carry out their religious duties and are struggling to survive under the military regime.

Our monasteries have been burnt down. We are only able to live here because people in the area built a place for us, he said.

[The military] has set fire to the villages and monasteries, so it is no longer possible to practice religion or work for the Sasana (the teaching of Buddhism). These days, we must always be ready to be on the run for our lives.

The abbot said that soldiers had come to his monastery in Pale and stolen all of the cash donations and other items in the monastery, as well as his personal savings and money sent by the national Monastic School Association. They even made off with a 200-year-old golden Buddha statue embellished with a sizable ruby, he added.

Other reports from Sagaing said that, in addition to religious buildings destroyed by arson, pagodas in many of the regions villages had been severely damaged by shrapnel and small arms fire resulting from military raids.

In Magway, a resident of Saw township, who also declined to be named, told RFA that the militarys destruction of religious buildings in the area had become routine.

There is no religion for them. They kill civilians and destroy religious structures without feeling any remorse, he said.

In addition to arresting and killing civilians, they [take] away all the valuables and things they [find] in the monastery. These acts have become routine for them. They are doing all this because they have no supplies coming from behind the frontlines.

RFA has received frequent reports of arrests, looting, rape, torture, arson and murder amid scorched earth offensives by the military against the PDF and other anti-junta in Myanmars remote border regions. Junta forces have killed at least 2,069 civilians and arrested more than 14,500 since the coup, mostly during peaceful anti-coup protests, according to Thailands Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Chin and Kayah states

According to information compiled by RFA, the most churches destroyed by the military since the coup were located in Chin state, with 66 buildings targeted in the townships of Thantlang, Hakha, Tedim, Falam, Mindat, Kanpetlet and Matupi.

Dennis Ngun Thang Mang, the chairman of the Chin Baptist Association, told RFA that the military is deliberately targeting religious buildings in Chin state.

We feel very sad that our religious buildings, the most sacred places for us, were destroyed, he said.

We condemn these acts. Targeting these buildings is unforgivable and should not have happened. Maybe 5% of the incidents were accidental. But I think their actions were nearly all deliberate.

A statement from the Chin Affairs Federation in March noted that not only were churches being targeted in Chin state, but at least 20 pastors had also been arrested in the region, four of whom were killed. The group said that while 12 were eventually released, the other four remain in detention.

A spokesman for the ethnic Progressive Karenni People's Movement told RFA that 21 religious buildings were damaged in the Kayah state townships of Loikaw, Demoso and Hpruso since February 2021.

A member of the clergy in Loikaw slammed what he called the intentional destruction of Christian buildings in the state.

No matter how intense the war, they cannot attack temples and schools, he said. We can understand accidental destruction, but intentional attacks and arson should not have happened at all.

A Christian convent destroyed by an air strike in Kayah state's Demoso township. Credit: Citizen journalist Documenting evidence for prosecution

Repeated attempts by RFA to contact Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the juntas deputy minister of information, for comment on the destruction went unanswered. However, the junta spokesman has previously denied that the military intentionally targets religious buildings.

Aung Myo Min, minister for human rights for the shadow National Unity Government, called on residents to document such acts by junta troops for future prosecution.

If cases aren't properly documented now, the evidence cannot be substantiated when it is needed to establish the truth later on, he said.

Therefore, please gather information on all violations and atrocities and crimes  even if it is painful to do so. Its necessary to record exactly what happens and systematically document who the perpetrators are, including from which battalion. I want to urge the victims to become witnesses in the future.

Aung Myo Min said that although international laws based on the so-called Geneva Conventions prohibit attacks on religious buildings, the military has deliberately destroyed them as part of its crackdown on the armed opposition.

While most of the 132 religious buildings were reported as having been destroyed by arson, several were damaged by heavy weapons. Residents and religious leaders told RFA that they regularly saw soldiers storm the buildings before deliberately destroying them.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Six people have been killed after Russias military shelled a building in the eastern Ukrainian town of Toretsk, Ukrainian emergency service officials said on July 18.

"Early in the morning, the town of Toretsk was shelled. A two-story building with people inside was destroyed," the Ukrainian State Service for Emergency Situations said in a statement on social media.

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, Western military aid, worldwide reaction, and the plight of civilians and refugees. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

"Rescuers found and recovered the bodies of five dead people in total. Three people were rescued from the rubble and one of them died in hospital," the statement said.

The service posted photographs on social media of rescue workers digging through rubble and what was left of the devastated building, and said the search for survivors had ended.

Toretsk, a town with an estimated population of 30,000 people, is located some 50 kilometers south of Kramatorsk, one of the last Ukrainian-controlled towns in the industrial east.

The head of Russias National Defense Management Center, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, said last week that ammunition depots and armored vehicles had been placed at a school in Toretsk, according to TASS. The claim could not be independently verified.

On July 17, a Ukrainian military official said Russia was preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine following orders from Moscow to step up military operations. He said Moscow's main goal was to fully capture the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces in the east -- which make up the Donbas -- but with attacks occurring in central, northeastern, and southern Ukraine as well.

"It is not only missile strikes from the air and sea," said Vadym Skibitskiy, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence. "We can see shelling along the entire line of contact, along the entire front line. There is an active use of tactical aviation and attack helicopters.

"There is indeed a certain activation of the enemy along the entire front line...Clearly preparations are now under way for the next stage of the offensive.

Kyiv has said in recent days that its forces are themselves preparing for a massive counteroffensive to reclaim land previously lost, especially in the south.

Ukrainian and U.S. defense officials on July 18 discussed the situation on the ground ahead of a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group scheduled to take place later this week.



Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Twitter that he had a telephone call with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to discuss the framework of the upcoming meeting.



We agreed on the agenda, shared information on the control of arms arriving to Ukraine etc. Also, @SecDef (Austin) has some very good news, but details will come a little later, Reznikov said.



The next meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group will take place on July 20. At the group's last meeting in May, a total of 47 countries took part and 20 of them announced security assistance packages for Ukraine.

Russia-backed separatists claimed later on July 18 that Siversk, a town about 8 kilometers west of the front line, was under their control.



Valeriy Zaluzhniy, commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, said earlier that Ukrainian forces managed to stabilize the situation along the front line.



Zaluzhniy said on Facebook that in a conversation with U.S. General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he explained that the timely arrival of U.S.-supplied high-mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) had been a factor in Ukrainian forces maintaining their defensive lines.



"We managed to stabilize the situation. It is complex, intense, but completely controlled, Zaluzhniy said on Facebook.



"The HIMARS delivered targeted strikes on enemy control points, ammunition, and fuel storage warehouses," Zaluzhniy wrote.



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, announced in his nightly video message that 1,028 settlements in Ukraine had been liberated from Russian forces, and another 2,621 are still under Russian control.



Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces have been able to inflict significant logistical losses on the occupiers, making it increasingly difficult for the Russian army to hold positions on captured territory. His claims could not be independently verified.



Step by step, we advance, disrupt supplies for the occupiers, identify and neutralize collaborators. The prospect is obvious: the Ukrainian flag will be in all our towns and villages. The only question is time," said Zelenskiy.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters
Iran's oil minister has announced a 50 percent increase in oil exports and a 100 percent collection of oil revenues, but the Supreme Audit Court of Iran says revenue collected from customers in April and May was less than 15 percent.

Meanwhile, in the current annual budget, the government predicted the daily export of 1.4 million barrels of crude oil at a price of $70 per barrel.



That would represent a doubling of exports based on statistics from oil tanker tracking companies, which show that Iran exported an average of 700,000 barrels of oil per day in April and May.



The data company Kepler told RFE/RL's Radio Farda on June 13 that preliminary estimates showed that Iran's crude oil and gas condensate loaded in May was about 400,000 barrels per day, compared with 820,000 barrels in April and 908,000 barrels in March.

Iran's economy has been devastated by years of harsh economic sanctions imposed by Washington after the United States withdrew from a deal with world powers aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear program. It is now struggling to circumvent sanctions and sell oil.



Irans main oil customer is China, and it incurs costs for circumventing sanctions and providing oil discounts to China. The exact amount of these costs is unknown.



Following Russia's military invasion of Ukraine in February, Russian state-run oil companies were sanctioned, and Moscow is now seeking new customers. It is scheduled to begin selling its oil to China in August, which will affect Iranian sales.



To compensate for the drop in demand from other markets, Moscow has sought to increase exports to Asia by discounting its crude by about $30 per barrel, which is $10 per barrel more than Iran's discount to its Asian customers, especially China, according to Reuters.
Iranian state media has announced the arrest of Mostafa Tajzadeh, the deputy interior minister in former President Mohammad Khatami's government and one of the most prominent reformist figures in the Islamic republic.

Tajzadeh has been accused of "a conspiracy to act against the country's security," the Mehr news agency said late on July 8.

Tajzadeh also was charged with "publishing falsehoods to disturb the public mind, adding that this is the reason authorities issued a warrant for his arrest.

The report gave no further details.

Neither the arresting agency nor the location where he is being held was disclosed.

Tajzadeh was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison following the disputed reelection of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in 2009. The sentence was later increased by one year.

Tajzadeh is an outspoken critic of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. While serving his previous sentence he published open letters addressed to Khamenei from inside the prison.

The reformist activist also registered to run in a subsequent presidential election but was disqualified in preelection vetting by the Guardians Council.

The arrest of Tajzadeh coincided with the arrest of Mohammad Rasoulov and Mostafa al-Ahmed, two Iranian cinematographers and signatories of an anti-violence protest statement.

More than 100 Iranian cinematographers backed the statement, demanding that soldiers, who they wrote "have turned into the people's oppressors," lay down their weapons and "return to the arms of the nation."

Iranian state media has said the two filmmakers have been accused of "association with counterrevolution" and "inflammation and disrupting the psychological security of society" since the collapse in May of a residential tower in the southwestern city of Abadan, killing dozens of people.

Protests that took place after the collapse pointed the finger at government negligence and endemic corruption. As of mid-June, 13 people had been reported to have been arrested for construction violations.
Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic has signed a basic agreement on relations between the government in Podgorica and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Abazovic signed the agreement, which covers sensitive relations between the government and the church, after more than four hours of discussions on July 8. Thirteen ministers voted for the adoption of the agreement, five voted against, and three were absent.

Abazovic negotiated the agreement with Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Porfirije. A draft of the agreement was published last week after which the patriarch said the new agreement would mark a "crowning" of the normalization of relations between Montenegro and his church.

Some protests broke out in Podgorica after Abazovic's announcement alongside the Serbian patriarch.

Deputy Prime Minister Rasko Konjevic said on July 8 that, with the adoption of the basic agreement, Abazovic would lose the parliamentary majority that has supported his government so far.

"The contract is not in accordance with the constitution, and the preamble is not in accordance with historical facts," Konjevic said. "I am informing you that the government has lost its legitimacy, and after consultations a request will be submitted to shorten the mandate of the assembly -- that is, to hold extraordinary elections."

He asserted that the text was not properly adopted because 13 votes was not a two-thirds majority of the 21 ministers.

Abazovic disputed Konjevic's statement but said a new vote could be held because three ministers were absent when the vote took place.

The Serbian Orthodox Church has considerable influence in Montenegro and within the ruling coalition. A majority of Montenegrins worship under the auspices of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which has an arm based in Cetinje called the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral.

The basic agreement outlines the obligations of the state and institutions toward the church.

It recognizes Serbian Orthodox subjectivity six centuries further back than the church is afforded in Serbia itself, extends extraterritoriality of religious buildings, opens the possibility of religious teaching in public schools, and gives the church legal status that in some areas is equal to state institutions.

Critics have complained about the criteria it sets for settling registration disputes over property. The church controls hundreds of properties throughout Montenegro.

Montenegro's largest ruling party, the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), and the Social Democrats (SDP) criticized a draft of the basic agreement published on June 28 as overly generous toward the Serbian church.

The basic agreement must now be sent to the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, which must also accept it.

With reporting by Jasna Vukicevic
KYIV -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has dismissed Kyiv's ambassadors to five countries, including Germany, and several other envoys, according to presidential decrees announced on July 9.

The series of short decrees did not give reasons for the dismissals, but listed the ambassadors as those to Germany, Hungary, Norway, the Czech Republic, and India.

Envoys to the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh were also dismissed, the decrees stated.

The decrees did not say if the removed envoys would be offered other jobs within the Ukrainian government.

Hours later, Zelenskiy said in a video message that "rotation is a normal part of diplomatic practice."

"New representatives of Ukraine will be appointed to the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Norway, and India. Candidates are being prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," he said.

Among those dismissed was Ukraines controversial ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk.

German newspapers Bild and Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported earlier in the week that Melnyk was set to leave Berlin and take up another post within the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv.

Melnyk has been vocal in his appeals for more assistance from Berlin, particularly in the form of weapons exports from Germany.

In a Reuters interview prior to Russias February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Melnyk criticized Berlins resolve in negotiations with Moscow and said that "so far, there has been a lot of dialogue with Russia -- alas, without results -- but not enough severity.

More recently, Melnyk came under pressure for defending controversial mid-20th-century nationalist leader Stepan Bandera.

Bandera is revered as a hero by many Ukrainians for leading the political wing of the anti-Soviet independence movement. Its military wing -- the Ukrainian Insurgent Army -- waged partisan warfare during and after World War II.

But Bandera -- who was killed by a Soviet assassin in Munich in 1959 -- is regarded as a traitor by others for leading an insurgent war against Soviet forces and collaborating with Nazi Germany. His forces also fought against the Nazis at times during the war and are accused of carrying out murderous campaigns against Poles and Jews.

Kyiv's relations with Germany have been particularly difficult since Russias invasion of Ukraine.

While Berlin has given political support and military aid, Kyiv has called on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to do more.

Germany is heavily reliant on Russian energy supplies, and some in Berlin have expressed concerns about rising energy prices in the country.

Scholz has accused Russia of using energy as a weapon and said Germany has relied too long on energy supplies from Russia.

Following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Germany halted the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 gas project as punishment for Russia's military onslaught.

Nord Stream 2, half-owned by Russias state-owned Gazprom in a consortium with European energy companies, was designed to double shipments of Russian gas to Germany.

Ukraine has also demanded Germany either halt or severely curtail natural-gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and said it is able to provide alternative supply routes.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa
Ukraines State Investigative Bureau destroyed secret documents pertaining to major criminal cases, including against leading political figures, hours before and after Russias invasion in February, three law enforcement sources told Current Time.

It is unclear whether the documents were destroyed to prevent them from falling into the hands of Russian forces or to hinder prosecution of the cases.

The material destroyed involved investigations into former President Petro Poroshenko; Viktor Medvedchuk, a deputy who is a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin; as well as Oleksandr Yakimenko, the former head of Ukraines Security Service (SBU) who ordered the shooting of protesters in Kyiv in 2014.

The State Investigative Bureau, which probes non-corruption crimes committed by top officials and is similar to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), said it could not immediately comment on the allegations and requested 20 working days to respond.

However, the Prosecutor-General's Office on July 8 confirmed in a statement to Current Time that "some material containing secret information from the criminal cases in question...was destroyed by the Department of Information Security of the State Investigative Bureau." The office added that prosecutors working on the cases "were not consulted about the destruction of the material."

The Prosecutor-General's Office added that prosecutors are currently attempting to reconstruct the destroyed information using archived case files.

According to an internal law enforcement memo received by Current Time from one of the law enforcement sources, documents pertaining to 140 criminal cases were withdrawn from the State Investigative Bureaus headquarters in Kyiv at 1:30 a.m. on February 24, just two and a half hours before Russia launched its invasion.

Some of the documents were destroyed in Kyiv while the rest were taken to Khmelnytskiy, a town 350 kilometers southwest of the capital.

Investigative Bureau chief Oleksiy Sukhachov traveled to Khmelnytskiy later that morning and approved the destruction of the rest of the material, which took place over the course of two days, according to the internal memo.

Among the material destroyed were 500 pieces of covert evidence, such as secretive audio and video recordings.

Serhiy Horbatyuk, a former prosecutor, questioned why material was destroyed in Khmelnytskiy if the city was not in danger of being sacked by Russian forces.

He said if there was a threat to the city, Investigative Bureau officials should have safely transported the documents further west.

If they were destroyed, it would not only be illegal, there would be criminal liability for noncompliance or destruction of secret material, he said.

Vitaliy Tytych, a Ukrainian lawyer, told Current Time there should be an investigation to determine what happened and why. Current Time is the Russian-language channel run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

The material destroyed also included an investigation into former President Viktor Yanukovychs controversial 2010 deal with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, as well as a probe into the repeated transfer of military equipment, including fighter jets and helicopters, to Russia between 1992 and 2014 that undermined Ukraines armed forces, the sources said.

Yanukovych and Medvedev agreed that Russia would sell Ukraine natural gas below market prices in exchange for Ukraine agreeing to extend Russias lease of the Black Sea naval port in Crimea until 2042.

The deal sparked outrage among Western-leaning politicians in Ukraine. Russia used its naval sources in Crimea to seize and annex the peninsula in 2014 from Ukraine.

The internal memo stated that the destruction of the documents made it doubtful that the investigations could be continued and the cases eventually brought to court.

Horbatyuk said the destruction of the material would significantly hinder the prosecution of the cases but not bring it to a close.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appointed Sukhachov as head of the State Investigative Bureau on December 31 following a selection process that some activists said was rigged.

He had been serving as acting chief since September 2020.

Sukhachov worked at the SBU from 2000 to 2017 and then at the Prosecutor-General's Office from 2017 to 2019.

He was fired from the latter after he failed to pass a test of legal knowledge as part of a vetting procedure.

Sukhachov is believed to be a protege of Oleh Tatarov, who was the deputy head of the main investigation department of the Interior Ministry under Yanukovych.
A regional governor said Ukrainian forces were pushing back against Russian efforts to advance into the eastern Donetsk region, as Ukraine officials urged Western allies to send more weapons.

In a post to Telegram on July 9, Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional administration, reported heavy Russian shelling of towns amid attacks from several directions.

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, Western military aid, worldwide reaction, and the plight of civilians and refugees. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

"Russians are firing along the entire front line," Hayday wrote. "The enemy is trying to advance from the settlements of the Luhansk region to the first villages of the Donetsk region."

In Ukraines second city of Kharkiv, emergency services said six civilians were wounded when a rocket hit a two-story residential building on July 9.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces hit two "bases of foreign mercenaries deployed near Kharkiv.

Kharkivs governor, Oleh Synehubov, said on Telegram that Ukrainian fighters had driven back two Russian attacks near Dementiivka, a town between Kharkiv and the Russian border.

Western intelligence agencies said this week that Russian forces may be taking an operational pause in their offensive in Ukraine's Donbas region after claiming to have taken all of the Luhansk region.

Hayday and other Ukrainian officials have denied that Luhansk was fully under Russian control, even as Ukrainian forces withdrew from the last major cities of Syevyerodonetsk and Lysychansk.

"The Russians are making very, very incremental, limited, hard-fought, highly costly progress in certain, select, small spaces in the Donbas," a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on July 8. "They're way behind on their timelines. They're far behind on their objectives. The Ukrainians are in localized places launching effective offensives."

Mykhaylo Podolyak, a top Ukrainian presidential adviser and negotiator, also said that Russia had been forced to pause operations to replenish troops and equipment.

"It is clear that they have to redeploy things, bring forward new troops and weaponry, and this is very good," Podolyak told Ukraine's 24 Channel television on July 8. "A certain turning point is beginning to take shape because we are proving we are going to attack storage facilities and command centers."

Britains Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said on July 9 that Russia appeared to be using older, outdated vehicles to get troops to the front lines and suggested that Russia might be running low on some weaponry.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly called for more modern Western weaponry to help bolster defenses and launch counterattacks.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on July 9 that Western sanctions on Moscow were working, and he called again for more deliveries of high-precision weapons.

"Russians desperately try to lift those sanctions, which proves that they do hurt them. Therefore, sanctions must be stepped up until [Russian President Vladimir] Putin drops his aggressive plans," Kuleba told a forum in Dubrovnik by video link.

On July 8, the White House announced a new weapons package worth up to $400 million, including four more high mobility artillery rocket systems and more ammunition.

The rocket systems, known as HIMARS, allow Ukrainian forces to target Russian positions from further distances and with greater accuracy than regular artillery. With the new shipment, Ukraine will have 12 HIMARS in operation.

Russian forces have also seized territory across Ukraine's south, including in Kherson and Zaporizhzhya. Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, urged residents to evacuate before Ukrainian forces launch a counteroffensive.

Ukrainian officials have also warned civilians to flee in case they are trapped in territory that is taken over by Russian forces. As many as 1.6 million people may have been forcibly resettled from Russian-occupied territories, to Russia itself, according to Ukrainian and Western officials.

Activists and reporters have documented so-called filtration camps, where Ukrainians are interrogated and held -- sometimes for days -- while their backgrounds are scrutinized.

"We assess that Russia, with the help of proxy groups, almost certainly is using so-called filtration operations to conduct the detention and deportation of Ukrainian civilians to Russia," Courtney Austrian, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said in remarks on July 7.

"Russian officials reportedly began preparations for the filtration process before February 24," she said. "At least 18 filtration locations along both sides of the Ukraine-Russia border have been identified thus far."



Top diplomats from the Group of 20 major industrial nations met in Bali, Indonesia, on July 8 for talks that were dominated by the Ukraine war, as well as soaring global food and energy prices.

Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, walked out of the meetings in the face of criticism from Germany and other Western officials. He denounced the criticism as "frenzied."

The rise in food prices is due in large part to Ukraine's inability to export its grain from Black Sea ports because of Russia's naval presence and ports that are mined.

Speaking on July 9 in Indonesia, alongside his Chinese counterpart, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that he believed Russia had come away from the G20 meetings isolated and alone.



It was very important that he heard loudly and clearly from around the world condemnation of Russias aggression, Blinken was quoted by Reuters as saying. We see no signs whatsoever that Russia at this point is prepared to engage in diplomacy.

Putin, meanwhile, said Western sanctions against Russia risked causing "catastrophic" energy price rises.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and Reuters
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  South Dakota Democrats are convening in Fort Pierre Friday as they look to reverse a slide that has dwindled their representation in the Statehouse to its lowest point in 60 years.

It's also been well over a decade since the Democratic Party won an election for a statewide office, but there have been some victories for progressives at the ballot box through citizen-initiated measures. Party activists will be discussing ballot measure strategy on Friday and Saturday, including whether to get behind a campaign to reverse a state law that banned abortions last month.

Democrats also believe the race for secretary of state is winnable and want to boost their candidates for governor and U.S. Senate. Here's what to watch from the two-day convention:

ABORTION

The state party has not always been clear-cut in its stance on the right to an abortion. In 2020, the party adopted a platform that said it supports the right for women to make medical decisions for their own bodies, but did not specifically mention the procedure.

However, the party's stance and activism around the issue will likely come to the forefront at the convention because South Dakota banned abortions last month when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Party Chair Randy Seiler said the convention would feature a robust discussion about the various aspects of choice and womens reproductive rights and government control.

The party will also discuss whether to get behind ballot campaigns to overturn the state's current outright abortion ban, which only allows the procedure to save the pregnant woman's life and has no exceptions for instances of rape or incest.

The Democratic Party has backed ballot measure campaigns in the past and has seen some success. Most recently, it helped defeat a constitutional amendment that would have made it more difficult for ballot measures that raise taxes or spend significant government funds.

South Dakota has an independent streak and a lot of prairie populism, Seiler said, adding that the defeat of the proposed constitutional amendment during the June primary sent a clear message that South Dakota voters value the ability to enact laws at the ballot.

SECRETARY OF STATE

The number of voters registered as Democrats has been shrinking in recent years, to the point that the Republican Party has an almost two-to-one advantage in registered voters. But Democrats are looking for winnable races as they hope for a momentum change and believe that the secretary of state's office might offer them an opportunity.

Last month, Republican candidate Monae Johnson beat out incumbent Secretary of State Steve Barnett for the GOP nomination. She formed her candidacy around election integrity in a nod to Republican fears that were instigated by former President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Seiler said he had been approached by moderate Republicans who suggested he run against Johnson, but added that several other Democrats have expressed interest in the nomination.

Dumping Steve Barnett and basically nominating an election denier is going to have consequences for the Republican Party, Seiler said. I think secretary of state will be a competitive race this time.

OTHER CANDIDATES

Democrats will also select a candidate to run against former Attorney General Marty Jackley, the Republican who is a favorite to get his old job back in November. The party is also expected to nominate state Rep. Jennifer Keintz for lieutenant governor after gubernatorial candidate Jamie Smith, a House lawmaker, announced her as his running mate Thursday.

The convention will also give Democrats an opportunity to fundraise and strategize for the gubernatorial campaign, as well as for U.S. Senate candidate Brian Bengs.
Parents and educators in the Russian-occupied areas of southern Ukraine say the occupation authorities are using blackmail to compel them to cooperate with pro-Moscow schools being created for the coming academic year.

Sources tell RFE/RLs Ukrainian Service that the occupation authorities are telling parents that they could lose their parental rights if they do not acquire Russian passports and send their children to the designated schools.

They are looking for personnel, but Id like to note the lack of cooperation from our teachers. We can be proud of this."

Locals dont want to send their children to these schools, but they are scared, said Serhiy Shyshkovskiy, a history teacher in the Kherson region. People are afraid of losing their children and dont know how to respond to these demands.

In the city of Enerhodar (in the northwestern part of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhya region), there has definitely been pressure on parents and children regarding complying with [Russian] laws for the coming academic year, said one Enerhodar teacher who asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions from the Russians.

The same teacher said the occupation authorities are recruiting teachers and other personnel for the schools they are setting up.

They are looking for personnel, but Id like to note the lack of cooperation from our teachers, she said. We can be proud of this. They currently have a shortage of teachers. I have been told they have been calling teachers and even visiting their homes.

As far as she knew, only two teachers had agreed to work in the new schools.

Ukrainian authorities have charged that Moscow is preparing for the long-term occupation or even annexation of the areas of Ukraine that connect the eastern Donbas region, where Russia has fomented a separatist war for the last eight years, and the Ukrainian Black Sea region of Crimea, which Moscow forcibly annexed in 2014.

In an interview with Reuters on July 8, Russia's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Andrei Kulin, said it was unlikely Russia would withdraw its forces from the southern part of Ukraine.

In late June, the military occupation authorities in the Kherson region announced they were preparing a referendum on joining Russia.

On July 4, Moscow appointed an occupation government for the Russia-controlled parts of the Kherson region, naming Mikhail Rodikov, a municipal official from the Moscow region, as education and science minister.

Rodikov headed the de facto education department of the government in the Crimean city of Sevastopol following Russias annexation of the region.

According to Ukrainian investigative journalist Valentyna Samar, Rodikov was involved in several scandals during his 2015-18 tenure in Sevastopol, after one of which he was compelled to resign and return to Russia.

It is a strange appointment, especially considering that Rodikov is 64 and should retire soon, Samar said. But I guess he still has some gunpowder left in him, so hes coming to Kherson to set up a system of Russian education.

To the east, in the Black Sea port city of Mariupol, the occupation administration has been sending teachers to Moscow for certification, according to Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the citys pro-Kyiv mayor. In a July 2 post on Telegram, Andryushchenko said the occupation authorities have otherwise informally banned all teachers from leaving the city.

They directly teach children to hate Ukraine. In so-called history lessons, they say that Ukraine is to blame for starting the current war and deny that Russia attacked Ukraine and Mariupol and that it created all this horror.

In May, Ukraines then-human rights ombudswoman, Lyudmila Denysova, claimed the occupation administration in Mariupol, which was largely destroyed and depopulated by fierce fighting before being captured by Russian troops in May, had developed plans to completely Russify education by introducing their standards in the coming academic year.

Maksym Borodin, a pro-Kyiv member of the Mariupol City Council, told RFE/RL that the Russian educational program was suffused with propaganda lessons.

They directly teach children to hate Ukraine, Borodin said.

In so-called history lessons, they say that Ukraine is to blame for starting the current war and deny that Russia attacked Ukraine and Mariupol and that it created all this horror.

Civilians in the occupied areas are particularly vulnerable because Russia has deliberately created an information vacuum there, cutting the area off from Ukrainian Internet and cellular-service providers and outside media, said former Ukrainian Education and Science Minister Liliya Hrynevych.

They often do not have access to the Internet and watch only Russian programming on television, Hrynevych told RFE/RL. The children also hear all of this. And then they go to school where the occupierscompletely pollute the educational space with their narratives.

The longer this happens, the more it infects their consciousness, especially when they do not have adequate true information and are kept in isolation, she added.

The Russians goal, she concluded, is the destruction of Ukrainian national identity.

That is why they immediately started burning books about Ukrainian history, Hrynevych said. That is why they have begun interfering in the educational system and destroying our schools.

According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor-Generals Office, 1,971 schools have been damaged since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Some 194 of them have been completely destroyed.

RFE/RL's Robert Coalson contributed to this report.
Annual Beacon UU Arboretum Service: "The Senses and Sensibilities of Plants" Jul 10  The Arboretum at Flagstaff, 4001 S. Woody Mountain Road, Flagstaff. 928-779-4492. 10-11 a.m., ALL ARE WELCOME! You BELONG at Beacon - Spiritually open and intentionally inclusive since 1958. Join our summer service as we commune with plants and each other at the Arboretum of Flagstaff. In his presentation entitled "The Senses and Sensibilities of Plants," Mark James will talk about how plants see, hear, feel, and communicate with each other and with us. All are encouraged to wander the grounds and to bring lunch as desired. Mark will provide coffee, cold water, and snacks. Sensible footwear and a hat are recommended. The Arboretum is located on Woody Mountain Rd. in Flagstaff. NO LIVE SERVICE AT BEACON ON JULY 10. Dip into the Beacon UUC YouTube library or watch the livestream of the 10:30 a.m. UU Congregation of Phoenix service. The worship Zoom link can be found on their home page: https://www.phoenixuu.org/. https://go.evvnt.com/1205282-0.

The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany Jul 9  The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, 423 N. Beaver St., Flagstaff. 928-774-2911. 8 a.m.- July 10, 10:30 a.m., WELCOMING ALL: with Rev Alison Lee celebrating, and Rev Janetta Beaumont Preaching: SAT 5:30PM; SUN: 8:00AM & 10:30AM (COVID masks are required)- with organ, and congregational singing; IN PERSON or on-line at epiphanyaz.org ; 928-774-2911. https://go.evvnt.com/1231639-0.

Unity of Flagstaff Jul 10  Unity of Flagstaff, 1800 S. Milton Road, Flagstaff. 10:30-11:30 a.m., Join us this Sunday as Rev. Penni reflects on her COVID experience as it relates to her perception and then her experience of the event. Knowing that YOUR Perception really does impact YOUR experience is not enough; you must align the two. Wonder what your perception is? Look at your life . Its not what you look at that matters, its what you see. Henry David Thoreau Live and LIVE STREAM at www.unityofflagstaff.org Unity of Flagstaff Spiritual Center-Where God is too big to fit into one religion. ALL ARE WELCOME!!. https://go.evvnt.com/1233805-0.

Flagstaff Federated Community Church: Please join us for in person services Sundays at 10 a.m. We are located at 400 W Aspen Ave. on the corner of Aspen and Sitgreaves in Downtown Flagstaff. All are welcome to our services. For more information about Flagstaff Federated Community Church please call our office at 928-774-7383, Mon  Thurs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Church of the Resurrection Sunday Church Services: May 8  740 W. University Heights Drive S., 740 W. University Heights Drive S., Flagstaff. 928-853-8522. 10-11:30 a.m., Church of the Resurrection Presbyterian Church in America (PCA): We invite you to join us for worship at 10 a.m. on Sundays at 740 W. University Heights Drive South as Rev. Joshua Walker preaches through the book of Acts. Please feel free to contact us for information on our mid-week gatherings and for more information on our church. You can find us at www.cor-pca.org and www.facebook.com/CORFlagstaff or we can be reached at corflagstaff@gmail.com and (928) 699-2715.

Living Christ Lutheran Church: Living Christ Lutheran Church is a diverse and LGBTQ-affirming community of disciples embraced by God's unconditional love and enduring grace. You are invited to celebrate with us God's love and presence in your life, grow in your discipleship, and leave empowered to be God's hands in the world. We worship through music, teaching, prayer, and the sacraments each Sunday at 10 a.m. with Rev. Kurt Fangmeier leading. We offer worship both in-person (masks are respected, not required; encouraged for unvaccinated) and online. Learn more about us at our new website: lclcflag.org.

Leupp Nazarene Church: The church, near mile post 13 or Navajo Route 15, has been holding services by teleconferences and doing drive-up meetings. For information, call pastor Farrell Begay at 928-853-5321. Teleconference number: 1-7170275-8940 with access code 3204224#. Services are 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sundays and 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays.

Christian Science Society of Flagstaff: 619 W. Birch Ave. The Christian Science Society of Flagstaff has opened for Sunday services while continuing to have them available via Zoom for online and phone. Wednesday testimony meetings are available only via Zoom. For phone Sunday Services: Dial: 669-900-9128, Meeting ID: 369 812 794#, Passcode: 075454#. For phone Wednesday meetings, dial: 669-900-9128, Meeting ID: 971 672 834#, Passcode: 894826#. The access for Zoom on Sundays is: https://zoom.us/j/369812794. The Zoom access for Wednesdays is: https://zoom.us/j/971672834. The password to use to enter both is CSS. We welcome all to attend our Sunday Services in person, or live by Zoom, at 10:00 oclock, and to attend our Wednesday Testimony meetings live by Zoom, at 5:30 oclock. Our Reading Room will be open on Wednesdays from 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10-12 noon. For further information please call 928-526-5982.
A plan to restore San Diego Countys only freshwater lagoon to its original saltwater state received unanimous support this week from the Carlsbad City Council.

Now we finally have light at the end of the tunnel, said Councilman Keith Blackburn, who praised the regional planning agency, the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, for taking over the Buena Vista Lagoon restoration project after it stalled under the states Department of Fish and Wildlife in 2012.

Saltwater is the preferred alternative in the final environmental impact report released in September by SANDAG for the lagoons proposed restoration. The other options are 2) to keep the lagoon filled with freshwater but clean out the weeds and silt, 3) to create a hybrid water body with the western half saltwater and the eastern half freshwater, or 4) to do nothing.

The 240-acre lagoon at the border of Carlsbad and Oceanside has contained freshwater since property owners installed a weir in the 1940s at the outlet near the beach. The weir is a type of low dam installed at the lagoons outlet near the beach to keep out saltwater and hold in the freshwater supplied by creeks and storm runoff. The present structure was built in 1972.

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Like all Southern California lagoons, the Buena Vista has been slowly shrinking. Development has encroached on its edges, along with reeds and cattails, and sand and sediment have clogged its channel. Without extensive dredging and excavation, the lagoon would fill completely in a few more years.

But the proposed restoration has been delayed for years by controversy over whether to keep the weir.

Removal of the weir would allow the ocean tides to sweep in and out, creating a more natural habitat that supports native species of plants and animals. Experts say tidal flows also help prevent flooding and greatly reduce the stagnant water that creates a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other pests.

Saltwater performs best for flooding, water quality, mosquitoes and more, Keith Greer, a senior regional planner for SANDAG, said in a presentation Tuesday to the Carlsbad council.

Also, state and federal agencies have said they would only provide funding for the saltwater project, he said. That basically rules out the other options.

The hybrid is the worst of all worlds, and it costs the most, Greer said, and doing nothing is not acceptable.

The Carlsbad council voted unanimously Tuesday to write a letter of support for the saltwater alternative.

The project is expected to go to the county Board of Supervisors for approval in January, Greer said. Numerous other federal, state and local agencies also will have to sign off on the work.

Past estimates of the restoration costs range from $43 million to $62 million for the various alternatives. No construction funding has been identified so far, but money could be available through the North Coast Corridor Project, which includes the widening of the Interstate 5 and railroad bridges across the lagoon. One condition of most grants is that the project be shovel-ready, Greer said.

Most of the property owners at the edge of the lagoon and many overlooking it want it to stay filled with freshwater. They say they prefer their open-water views, and that tidal flushing would twice a day expose smelly mudflats, stop people from walking across the inlet, and that a proposed pedestrian bridge would create a safety and security hazard.

Representatives of the Buena Vista Lagoon Foundation and the Buena Vista Audubon Society, which has a nature center and offices in Oceanside on Coast Highway at the edge of the lagoon, spoke in favor of the saltwater alternative.

They have chosen the alternative that is best for the lagoon, the community, and the taxpayers, said Natalie Shapiro, the Audubon Society chapter president and a Carlsbad resident.

The lagoon foundation was a reluctant convert to the saltwater alternative, its longtime president, Regg Antle, told the council.

The foundation was formed in 1982 to work for the restoration of the lagoon, he said. Originally, the goal was to keep the freshwater state, but more than 30 years later, nothing has happened, and the foundations board has agreed to back the SANDAG recommendation.

We want the lagoon restored, he said, and the saltwater plan is the only viable option.

No one opposed to the saltwater plan spoke at Tuesdays meeting, but many residents and owners near the lagoon want to keep it the way it is.

Maintaining our lagoon view with substantial open water is of high importance to our community, states a letter supporting freshwater submitted by Robert and Michelle Dupre in 2015 when the draft environmental documents were released.

Creating a saltwater wetland in this important habitat would be a tragic disruption to a well-established ecosystem, wrote Carlsbad resident Elizabeth Jacinto in her comments on the plan.

Adding to the challenges of the proposed change is that the weir is on private property.

About half is owned by the wealthy residents of the Saint Malo Beach Colony, a gated community of large, multimillion-dollar homes built in the 1920s and 30s just north of the lagoon. The other half of the weir is owned by the Carlsbad Beach Homeowners Association, which represents 14 properties at the northern end of Ocean Street in Carlsbad. Both groups oppose the removal of the weir.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehl
(Excerpt from Global Times) Although the attacker's political leanings have yet to be officially confirmed, Chinese experts said it is almost certain that Abe's death will not stop the conservative trend in Japanese politics as a whole, but may strengthen it to some extent.

Abe has served as Japanese prime minister twice, from 2006 to 2007 and from late 2012 to 2020, making him the longest-serving prime minister under Japan's modern cabinet system. After stepping down for health reasons, Abe has continued to play a major role in Japanese politics as a member of the House of Representatives.

"Abe's visit to Nara is to promote the LDP's constitutional revision program," said Lu Yaodong, a research fellow with the Institute of Japanese Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He added that Abe's future successor could accelerate the revision of pacifist constitution process under the banner of "inheriting Abe's legacy."

The attack on Abe will certainly provoke the extreme Japanese right wing, Lu said.

Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday that ahead of upper-house elections, Abe's death could serve as a "symbol" for the LDP conservative forces to gain more sympathy from Japanese public.

At the moment, Japan does not seem to have the potential to radically change the country's trajectory or the regional dynamics, but Abe's death could stimulate the extreme Japanese right wing to promote populist, xenophobic and even extreme political goals, Lu Hao, a research fellow at the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.

Similar to Japan's domestic politics, Abe's successors and supporters are expected to continue to promote Abe's external policy in Indo-Pacific and active participation in the QUAD mechanism, and accelerate the pace of NATO's entry in Asia, bringing more risks to the Northeast Asia, Lu said.

What do you think? What kind of consequences will this have for Japan in the future? How will this shape the country politically?
State officials propose installing a SCAT machine to dispose of human waste at the Smith River takeout as they implement new rules for floaters.

The Montana State Parks and Recreation Board in May adopted several new rules for floating the Smith River. Among them is a requirement that floaters collect and pack out human waste in approved commercial devices.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks this week released an environmental assessment on installation of a SCAT machine at the take out at Eden Bridge near Ulm. The machine is a dumping and cleaning station for portable toilets. Deciding against installing the machine would mean floaters would have to seek out other disposal methods, such as RV dump stations.

"The machine, through various cycles and washing nozzles, produces a semi-high pressure, high volume wash that removes the waste from the portable toilet, rinses the toilet inside and out, and slurries the waste into a septic system ready form," according to the company's website. "It then discharges the waste into the septic system and performs a self rinse cycle that leaves the machine ready for the next use."

FWP is currently taking public comment on the assessment through Aug. 8. More information is available at fwp.mt.gov.

The project would include construction of a building to house the machine, a short access road and the installation of two 5,000-gallon holding tanks.

FWP spokesman Dave Hagengruber says the department is still working on which portable toilets will be approved and expects the board to pass additional rules once analysis and agency decisions are finalized. Floaters would not be charged a fee for use of the SCAT machine, he said.

About $600,000 was approved for the project and the assessment anticipates annual service and maintenance of about $29,000.

The human waste pack-out rules replace a latrine system maintained by the state. The 59-mile Smith River float includes dozens of boat camps along the way, which required staff to dig and maintain latrines. Officials, in proposing a pack-out rule, said some camps were running out of space to dig and that latrines could cause environmental and human health concerns. Officials say 1,200 pit toilets have been dug since the 1980s.

The Smith, offering a peaceful float through miles of limestone canyons, is Montanas only permitted river. Over the last decade and a half, interest and use of the river has steadily climbed, with both the number of applicants for the permit lottery and the average group size of floating parties hitting records in recent years.

In May the board also passed rules making Camp Baker, the launch site near White Sulphur Springs, day-use only. That means camping will not be allowed, with the exception of Sept. 1-Nov. 30 for hunting season. Registration and boat camp selection will also occur over the phone, replacing an in-person system.
On Friday, May 20, 1988, at Indian Trail Elementary School in Highland Park, Ill., teachers frantically ran out to children laughing at recess, stopped their games, hustled them back into classrooms and locked entrances to the school. I was in second grade there at the time. The school canceled classes for the rest of the day. My mother  also frantic  came to collect me and my older siblings from a middle school across the street. She drove us home a few blocks away, deadbolted the doors and instructed us: If a woman comes to the door, do not open it and call 911.

The news was different 34 years ago. Information trickled in by radio and local TV stations. A woman  mentally ill, they said  had attempted to trigger a bomb at Ravinia Elementary School in Highland Park a few miles away. From there, she drove one suburb south, killing 8-year-old Nicholas Corwin with a .22-caliber handgun and shooting several of his classmates at Hubbard Woods Elementary School in Winnetka.

And the woman was still at large. I was only 7, and I was terrified.

Hours later, we learned that the shooter had taken her own life. Relieved, my mom made a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. Over the years since then, we would relive this horror as the first school shooting.

My journey from a frightened kid to middle age, now living in Marin County, has been dotted by never ending where-were-you-whens: Columbine High, Colorado, 1999 (running on the high school track); Aurora, Colo., 2012 (prepping for a deposition); Emanuel African Methodist Church, 2015 (working in the White House); Pulse nightclub, Orlando, 2016 (celebrating D.C. Pride). And so on. After the 1988 shooting, and each of these, millions called for modest gun reforms.

A generation later, its clear weve failed. Highland Park and Chicagos North Shore are in the news again  the scene of the latest massacre caused with the help of a high-powered rifle. While I no longer call it home, the house I was born in, where we fled to for safety in 1988, and where my parents still live, is blocks away from where seven people were gunned down, dozens of others injured and at least one child orphaned, this Fourth of July. Just as the area locked down in 1988, this year, Chicagoland parents again locked their homes and cowered in fear as the gunman roamed free. Many of those who lived through the terror of 1988 were now parents themselves, reliving a scene unimaginably worse and yet incredibly common.

Calling old friends last Monday to make sure they were OK, checking social media to see who had tagged themselves as safe, I was left to wonder: Would the 1988 school shooting  one dead with a .22  have made national headlines if replayed in 2022?

Absolutely not. According to data from EducationWeek, there have been 27 school shootings this year and 119 since 2018. Im familiar with only a small handful. A shooter killed one person in a school at Eisenhower High School Yakima, Wash., on March 15. There are more like this: East High School in Des Moines, Iowa (one killed on March 7); Oliver Citywide Academy in Pittsburgh (one killed on Jan. 19); Tanglewood Middle School in Greenville, S.C. (one killed on March 31.)

Each of these incidents destroyed families and traumatized communities. Far too many went mostly unnoticed. A nightmare in 1988 no longer registers today. Our tolerance for gun violence, for the murder of children, has become so extreme it takes many dead and wounded for these horrors to break through. Only massacres as chilling as the one on May 24 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, (21 dead and 17 injured) attract front-page coverage.

The political response has become more grisly, too. After the 1988 killing, Illinois Republican governor, Jim Thompson, called for new handgun control laws. This year, the Republican nominee for governor in the state told those he wishes to represent to move on.

Until recently, after high-profile mass shootings, National Rifle Association-backed politicians defended expansive gun ownership, even if at the cost of innocent lives, based on the desires of hunters and sportsmen. Today, Republicans such as Sen. Ted Cruz abandon that justification when supporting a so-called right to high-powered rifles  after all, these weapons seem excessive for taking down a deer  and instead explicitly add the need to kill people in self-defense as part of their cause.

In 1988, we hoped that the shock would prompt meaningful change. Instead, weve spiraled into a time of constant danger and fear. Last weeks shooting in Highland Park is just one of 328 mass shootings this year as of Sunday, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Weve slouched from defending the rights of hunters to defending violence against our neighbors. If we want a more peaceful nation when todays children are grown, we must start now.

On her recent visit to Highland Park, Vice President Kamala Harris called on Congress to renew the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has introduced legislation to do just that. With a 50-50 Senate, hope and optimism can seem foolish. But we owe our nations future more than mindlessly conceding defeat without so much as trying. So Congress should act this year  including, if necessary, carving out gun control legislation from the Senate filibuster to overcome what presumably would be lock-step Republican obstruction  so that 35 years from now, we are not despairing about another generation of violence, but instead celebrating progress.

Jonathan Herczeg is a tech lawyer, ultramarathoner and former official in the executive branch under President Barack Obama. He lives with his husband in Mill Valley.
A grizzly bear that found its way from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem to the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem was killed by state bear managers after getting into human food.

The 3-year-old female grizzly had gotten into trouble raiding chicken coops in the Whitefish area in 2021. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks wardens captured her and released her in the Puzzle Creek drainage near Marias Pass. It then traveled to the Silver Butte area south of Libby, roughly 60 air-miles to the west. A homeowner there reported that it killed some chickens, prompting another capture and relocation about 10 miles away.

However, the grizzly returned to the area two days later, killing more chickens, exploring a homeowners porch and got sprayed with bear spray. Bear managers captured it on June 23 and decided to kill it.

This bear traveled from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem to the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem, said Kim Annis, FWP bear management specialist. We want bears to travel between both ecosystems because its good for recovery in the Cabinet-Yaak and good for the long-term health of both populations. But these bears wont be successful if they get into conflict with unsecured food attractants, like small livestock.

The NCDE has more than a thousand grizzly bears spread across 8,900 square miles, according to recent population estimates. The Cabinet-Yaak, in contrast, has about 50 grizzlies in its 2,625-square-mile space. Grizzlies have rarely been recorded traveling between the two ecosystems on their own. Most in the smaller area have been transplanted from other regions.

The incident was one of a series of bear conflicts in northwest Montana, according to FWP spokesman Dillon Tabish. Bear managers had to kill another grizzly north of Creston near Lake Blaine on June 27 after the yearling was caught raiding chicken coops and unsecured garbage. The grizzly had been caught and relocated previously, but traveled across the Flathead Range and swam Hungry Horse Reservoir to reach the Lake Blaine area.

Wardens also had to kill two black bears on June 22 and June 29. One was a 2-year-old male that got food-conditioned in Columbia Falls and resumed breaking into buildings and sheds after getting relocated to the Swan Lake area. A 6-year-old female black bear was emptying trash cans in the Blanchard Lake area near Whitefish on June 29 when it was caught and killed.

The conflicts commonly involve unsecured garbage and chicken coops, Tabish said in an email. FWP staff have also seen an uptick in conflicts involving bears going onto residential porches where outdoor freezers or refrigerators are stored. As a reminder, bears can still smell food in outdoor refrigerators and freezers and can often gain entry. FWP recommends freezers and refrigerators to be stored inside garages, sheds, or other secured buildings to avoid attracting a bear.
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The Bay Areas Japanese diaspora reacted with shock and dismay as Shinzo Abes assassination was confirmed Friday morning.

The former Japanese prime minister was fatally shot while delivering a speech during a broad-daylight campaign event Friday evening local time. The incident sent shock waves around the world as people recoiled from the startling act of political violence in a country known for its strict gun laws.

In San Franciscos Japantown, the Japanese flag was lowered to half mast, as was the American flag. No makeshift memorials to Abe were yet on display in or immediately around Peace Plaza. But inside the nearby Japan Video & Media, owner Takeshi Onishi struggled to process the enormity of what had happened.

It is very saddening, the Osaka native said inside of a store packed with DVDs, colorfully packaged action figures and stuffed Pokemon. We lost a great leader, not just for Japan but for the world.

Abe, 67, was Japans longest-serving prime minister, his last term lasting from 2012 to 2020. He was out campaigning for his party two days before a national election when he was reportedly shot in the back in Nara. He died in a hospital that same day. A 41-year-old suspect was arrested at the event, and authorities said the firearm he used appeared to be homemade. Similar weapons were confiscated when authorities raided the suspects apartment a block away, news reports state.

A motive for the killing remains unclear.

A lot of people obviously are shocked. To be honest, Im more hurt, said Paul Osaki, executive director of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, which is in San Franciscos Japantown. Were living in a society where people think that they can handle their indifference and their issues by shooting innocent people.

He said the shooting was all the more shocking because Japan is such a safe place, where gun deaths are exceedingly rare and it is common to see young children taking the subway or walking to school by themselves.

According to GunPolicy.org, hosted by the University of Sydneys School of Public Health, Japan reported only nine gun deaths in 2018, the most recent year for which the global research organization had figures. That translates to 0.01 gun deaths per 100,000 residents.

Japan is a peaceful place, said Tamio Ito, who was managing the counter at the Asakichi gift shop inside the Japan Center malls on Friday. Ito, a native of the central Japanese town of Takayama, said he was still trying to reach his sister and other relatives back home.

San Franciscos Japantown neighborhood became the largest Japanese community outside of Japan before World War II. The local population never recovered from the effects of Japanese internment and the redevelopment of Geary Boulevard into a freeway in 1960. Today, fewer than 10,000 San Franciscans identify as Japanese, according to the American Community Survey.

Linda Mihara, a third-generation Japanese American who grew up in Japantown and whose family operates Paper Tree, an origami and paper craft store, said Abes assassination was appalling. She has three aunts, two uncles and more than a dozen cousins in Japan, and said the incident could make residents fearful in a manner not seen before.

In Lower Pacific Heights, Steve Nakajo, 75, said he has been scouring the news for information to counter his disbelief.

To be shot with a gun? Thats just unheard of in Japan, said Nakajo, a second-generation Japanese American whos lived in San Francisco since the late 1950s.

After Abes assassination was confirmed Friday morning, it caused Nakajo immense sorrow and sadness. He said he had lived through the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, and in some ways, had hardened himself to gun violence in America. Abes death due to a gun is rare in a country thats made it hard to own one.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Its a tragedy, Nakajo said. It is not a part of what I know to be the culture of Japan. This is shocking because its so unheard of. Theres a great amount of sadness in Japan right now, and among the Japanese diaspora all over I imagine.

Danny Baldoz, a Los Angeles resident who was in town visiting family in Japantown, also expressed shock and surprise.

Japan is one of the most gun-controlled countries in the world, he said, standing in the Peace Plaza and speaking from behind a blue mask and dark sunglasses.

He said while shootings were common in the U.S., he never expected to hear of one happening in Japan.

A little over 20 miles south of San Francisco in Foster City, Yutaka Higuchi, 80, was also trying to make sense of what happened. He watched the Japanese news station NHK until late Thursday night and got up early Friday morning for an update.

I was shocked, and I thought, This is not happening in Japan, said the Ibaraki native, who set sail from Yokohama to California in 1966. Higuchi has been a Bay Area resident since 1975. He said he liked Abe as prime minister, and appreciated his straightforward style.

He decided what to do with a very strong opinion, he said. I think he was one of the best prime ministers in history.

Shwanika Narayan, Chase DiFeliciantonio and Kikue Higuchi are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. They can be reached at shwanika.narayan@sfchronicle.com, chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com, kikue.higuchi@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @shwanika @ChaseDiFelice @kychiguchi
The worlds richest man and one of the worlds largest social networks appear headed for a showdown in court.

Elon Musk is seeking to terminate his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, blaming the company for withholding information on its number of spam and fake accounts, according to a letter sent to Twitter on Friday from his attorney.

Musk alleged that Twitter provided false and misleading representations and breached the contract by providing incomplete information.

San Francisco-based Twitter plans to sue to complete the deal, Chairman Bret Taylor wrote in a message on Twitter.

The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery, wrote Taylor, who is also co-CEO of Salesforce.

The deal includes a $1 billion penalty if Musk backs out. When reached for comment, Twitter reiterated the statement posted by Taylor.

Twitter shares were down 5% on Friday to $36.81 at market close, nearly 33% below Musks offer of $54.20 per share. They fell around 5% further in after-market trading to around $34.94 per share. Amid a broader tech downturn, the company instituted a hiring freeze in May and fired top executives. The company confirmed additional layoffs in its talent acquisition team this week.

Musks Friday letter said the companys declining business prospects and financial outlook were an additional reason for scrapping the deal.

The billionaire businessmans move to terminate the purchase is a disaster scenario for Twitter, which will lead to an elongated court battle, Wedbush Securities analysts Dan Ives and John Katsingris wrote in a research note on Friday. They suggest the companys shares will fall further on Monday to $25 to $30, or around half of Musks acquisition price.

From the beginning this was always a head scratcher to go after Twitter at a $44 billion price tag for Musk and never made much sense to (Wall) Street, they wrote.

For now, CEO Parag Agrawal will continue to lead Twitter at its 1355 Market St. headquarters in San Francisco. Musk appeared to criticize the companys policy of letting workers stay remote forever, running an April poll on Twitter titled, Convert Twitter SF HQ to homeless shelter since no one shows up anyway. (Twitter does not own the building and has no power to rezone it for homeless housing.)

Musk mandated office workers come into the office full-time at his other companies, Tesla and SpaceX, leading to speculation that he could wipe away Twitters remote-friendly work policies after he completed the purchase. Requiring workers back in the office could help bolster the Mid-Market neighborhoods economy but could also lead to resentment among Twitter employees, who were already on edge about potential policy changes.

The four-month saga began in March, as Musk began amassing enough shares to acquire 9% ownership, according to an April regulatory filing. He was offered a seat on the board but rejected it less than a week later. Soon after, he began mounting a takeover bid, backed by some of the worlds biggest banks including Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Bank of America. Top venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz also committed $1.2 billion for equity, along with $1 billion from billionaire Oracle co-founder and Tesla board member Larry Ellison. Twitter accepted the deal on April 25.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Despite the backing of business heavyweights and quick offer, the deals aftermath was unusually combative and tense.

Musks attorney, Mike Ringler of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP sent the Friday letter to Vijaya Gadde, Twitters chief legal officer  the same executive that Musk publicly criticized for the companys policies over content moderation and harassment, which Musk has called censorship. Just two days after the purchase agreement, Musk tweeted a meme that suggested left wing bias from Gadde, unleashing a torrent of online abuse at her from among Musks more than 86 million followers at the time.

Musk previously said he would reverse Twitters ban on former President Donald Trump, who was banished from the social network after the Jan. 6 insurrection. Musk has called himself a free speech absolutist, and critics of Twitters censorship, particularly conservative activists, hailed his pending purchase, believing it would lead to unfettered posting. Supporters of Twitters policies restricting hate speech, harassment and misinformation, which include Twitter employees, have been wary of the deals implications.

Agrawal, Twitters CEO, appeared to defend his colleagues and the companys policies without referencing Musk by name, writing in April, I took this job to change Twitter for the better, course correct where we need to, and strengthen the service. Proud of our people who continue to do the work with focus and urgency despite the noise.

Three weeks later, Agrawal wrote about the companys spam policies, which are now at the heart of Musks move to scrap the purchase. Musks response was tweeting a poop emoji at him.

Roland Li (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf
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As travelers vacation closer to home amid the continuing pandemic, California weekend getaway destinations are turning to an unlikely tactic for luring visitors: loyalty programs.

Communities from Wine Country to the Eastern Sierra are seeking to reaffirm their cultural appeal  or in some cases rebrand themselves  in an effort to draw Bay Area travelers. To do that, dozens of tourism bureaus are packaging discounts and promotions around themed activities  hiking, wine-tasting, historic tours and more  into redemptive pass programs.

For example, hikers who electronically tag enough trailheads in the forested foothills east of Chico can score free outdoor swag  backpacks and insulated water bottles  through Butte Countys new Adventure Pass program.

Similarly, Stocktons Taco Trail and Sacramentos Fried Chicken Trail send T-shirts and stickers to people who check in on their smartphones at local restaurants. A Tasting Pass sponsored by Sonoma Countys tourism bureau comes with wine and beer flights at several wineries and breweries. Bakersfield has a Selfie Trail of photogenic landmarks. Rancho Cordova offers a Wine Passport.

Andri Tambunan/Special to The Chronicle

Nearly 50 of these pass programs have launched in California in the past few years  most of them highlighting local cuisine, art, booze and outdoor recreation  and more are on the way. Some are free; others are paid. All aim to plug visitors into the cultural centers of each community.

Most of the programs are hosted by a travel technology company in Texas called Bandwango, which runs more than 320 such programs around the country and lists 25 California clients, including destination-marketing organizations in Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Carmel, Bakersfield, Vacaville and Tuolumne County.

Before the pandemic, there was more visitor spillover from Californias gateway cities  San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego  to smaller destinations across the state. But now those markets have shifted their focus to appealing to regional vacationers.

These places need to restart tourism now, said Humphrey Ho, managing director of Hylink Digital Solutions, an advertising agency in L.A. Theyre relying on ride-and-drive, local tourism. Very little of these (loyalty) experiences are going to be useful for interstate or international travelers.

Airlines, hotels and car rental companies have long used rewards programs to entice repeat customers. But a better point of comparison to the Bandwango programs is CityPass, which bundles discounted tickets to tourist attractions across the countrys largest metropolitan areas. In San Francisco, a $76 CityPass ticket covers admission to the California Academy of Sciences, a ferry cruise and two other buyers-choice venues for a nine-day period.

Andri Tambunan/Special to The Chronicle

Bandwango is bringing a similar approach to smaller or overlooked destinations.

Our clients are trying to differentiate themselves or even change the public perception of a place, said Emilie Harris, Bandwangos director of marketing operations.

The company offers a slate of pass programs designed for smartphones. Some are pay-in-advance bundles akin to those from CityPass. Others are free promotional campaigns that offer users prizes in exchange for signing up and checking in at participating businesses.

Visit Stockton, the citys tourism bureau, first commissioned Bandwango in 2016  making it one of the companys earliest clients  and has started five campaigns through the service. Its most successful is a Taco Trail that guides visitors through the citys vast array of Mexican cuisine. It has drawn more than 3,000 signups.

What drives our economy is agriculture  dairy, nuts, cherries, grapes  but we get a lack of appreciation for our food scene, said Wes Rhea, CEO of Visit Stockton.

Part of the challenge is winning over residents, who, if properly inspired, could act as ambassadors of their hometown, Rhea said.

The No. 1 reason someone visits a community is friends and relatives, he said. But if those people dont have a positive view of their community, we all suffer from it.

Explore Butte County is using pass programs to point visitors towards the regions hiking trails, bike routes and lakes.

Andri Tambunan/Special to The Chronicle

Since 2018, our towns  Chico, Oroville and Paradise  have been associated with disasters, said Carolyn Denero, Explore Butte County CEO. We want to get rid of that assumption. There are huge outdoor attractions here we should be known for.

One trend playing out in favor of boutique destinations is the advent of workation, or the practice of working remotely from a vacation spot for an extended period, Ho said. That has created a new subset of tourist that might be interested in ticking off, say, all the breweries in Contra Costa County during a stay in Walnut Creek.

New localized pass programs featuring spicy food, coffee, bike rides and ice cream are coming to Northern California this year and next.

In Stockton, Rhea continues coming up with new themes to highlight.

The way I think about it, he said, is would you rather live in a city that has a Taco Trail or one that doesnt?

Gregory Thomas is The San Francisco Chronicles editor of lifestyle & outdoors. Email: gthomas@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @GregRThomas
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Right now, BA.5, the most infectious subvariant of the coronavirus yet, is driving a surge of cases in California, including the San Francisco Bay Area.

Many people who had avoided the virus for more than two years are getting COVID for the first time. Others are getting infected for a second or even third time. This is particularly likely thanks to the new subvariant of omicron, known as BA.5, which is harder for the bodys first line of defense  called neutralizing antibodies  to recognize and block from infecting cells.

The good news is, people with prior immunity are still significantly protected from severe cases of the virus, according to data from countries like South Africa, where BA.5 has already swept through. Mortality rates remain low, and while hospitalizations have inched up slightly, they aren't anywhere near the level they were at in previous surges.

More so than in previous waves, there are a significant number of hospital intakes admitted for reasons other than COVID-19, but who test positive for COVID-19 when screened, wrote a Santa Clara County Public Health Department spokesperson in an email to SFGATE. We are fortunately seeing that current cases admitted for COVID-19 tend to be less serious than in the past.

Nonetheless, the uptick in cases is still putting some in the hospital, leading to long COVID for some and upending many people's summer plans.

Every county in the San Francisco Bay Area, except Santa Clara, is in the red level on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID Data Tracker for community transmission. At this level, the CDC recommends that people mask in indoor public places and on public transit. Does this mean mask mandates are coming back to the Bay Area?

SFGATE reached out to all nine counties in the Bay Area and eight of them responded  Alameda, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma  and said they are not considering a countywide mask mandate at this time. (Contra Costa County did not respond as of 2:30 p.m. on Friday.) This messaging differs from that released on Thursday by Los Angeles Countys Health Director Barbara Ferrer, who said she will reinstate the mask mandate if the county enters into the CDCs high COVID-19 community transmission level.

That said, counties urged people to use a mask to prevent spread. They also asked that residents keep up with vaccinations.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health said it is "strongly recommending that people wear masks in indoor, public settings" and that people "stay up-to-date on vaccinations to prevent severe illness and hospitalization."

BA.5 is the dominant variant in the San Francisco Bay Area

Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that, in region 9, which includes California, the BA.5 sublineage made up 51.9% of confirmed omicron cases sequences June 25 to July 2 and those cases were up from 40.5% the week before.

In other words, as Dr. Bob Wachter, the chair of the department of medicine at UCSF, wrote in his most recent Twitter update: The die is now cast: BA.5 is destined to be our dominant virus.

Thats likely because the new subvariant is the best yet at evading our bodies first lines of defense, the so-called neutralizing antibodies which glom onto the spike protein and block the virus from infecting cells.

"BA.5 appears to be more transmissible than prior omicron variants BA.1 and BA.2, which were already more transmissible than delta and earlier variants," Dr. Anne Liu, a professor of infectious diseases at Stanford, told SFGATE. "The antibodies we have from vaccination or prior infections are less protective against BA.5 than they were against prior variants."

The new subvariants most significant genetic adaptations have cropped up in the spike protein, the key the coronavirus uses to enter your cells. The vaccines available in America teach your body to recognize the spike protein, triggering several layers of protection. That includes neutralizing antibodies, which circulate in your body for several months after infection or vaccination. Because of the changes to BA.5s spike protein, those frontline antibodies are now struggling to grab on tightly enough to do their jobs, making it more likely the virus will get into cells and start reproducing.

However, thanks to the bodys secondary lines of defense, people with previous exposure to vaccines or COVID-19 can still recognize and kill off their own cells that have been infected, clearing the virus from the body, according to Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at UCSF who specializes in infectious diseases. (Indeed, most symptoms of the coronavirus, including fever, chills, headache and cough, are triggered by that immune cascade, not by damage from the virus itself.)

South Africa has excellent genomic surveillance and data output and has shown us that BA5 is likely to cause rises in cases (as it already is in the US) but not major increases in severe disease with the degree of population immunity we now have in this country, Gandhi wrote by email.

Still, to help protect people from catching the virus in the future, an FDA advisory committee recently asked vaccine manufacturers to begin testing booster vaccines containing genetic code for both the original spike protein and for the genetically adapted version seen in BA.5 and its close relative, BA.4.

Who should be cautious amid the San Francisco Bay Area surge?

The experts that SFGATE talked to said that people who are unvaccinated should be especially cautious whenever the virus is surging, as it is now.

"Even an infection with BA.5 that may be mild in someone who is vaccinated, may send an unvaccinated person to the hospital and even kill them," UCSF infectious diseases expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong wrote in an email. "The US is still averaging about 300 deaths a day even in the Omicron era."

Liu told SFGATE that anyone who is at a high risk for disease, or who has a job that can't be done if you have COVID, may want to avoid this highly transmissible strain.

Can anyone let their guard down?

"I think if you are up-to-date with vaccines and know how to access Paxlovid (if you are at risk for getting serious disease), you can navigate the world more confidently," said Chin-Hong. "Even though there is less risk in a vaccinated person, the specter of 'long COVID' is always looming. As a vaccinated and boosted person I am not worried about getting seriously ill. I still dine indoors, go to the gym and hang out with friends  but I always carry around a good mask and put it on when I feel it is a risky indoor area with poor ventilation, and I am there for some time."
LATEST July 9, 8:50 p.m. While firefighters continued to battle the flames, the Washburn Fire grew to 1,190 acres as of 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Evacuation orders remain in effect for Wawona, the Mariposa Grove and Wawona Campground, but much of Yosemite National Park is still open. Officials warned visitors to expect delays of up to two hours at entrances in other parts of the park, as the southern entrance is closed and road closures are in place. Visitors may also experience smoky conditions and poor air quality as the fire spreads.

ALSO READ: Plane over intense Yosemite fire reportedly nearly struck by flying tree debris

The Red Cross announced at 5 p.m. on Saturday that it has closed the evacuation site at 5089 Cole Road in Mariposa, after "caring for 10 displaced residents and tourists." The shelter is currently in standby status. About 700 people have evacuated from areas affected by the fire, the Fresno Bee reported.

LATEST July 9, 8:40 a.m. Concerning weather conditions are on the horizon for firefighters as the Washburn Fire in Yosemite National Park continues to grow.

The wildfire, which started on Thursday afternoon near the Washburn Trail in the southern end of the park, is at 703 acres as of Friday morning. There was moderate fire growth overnight; at 5 p.m. Friday, the blaze was at 466 acres. There is still no containment. You can see the latest incident reports from Yosemite National Park here. A map being updated by the National Park Service shows where the Washburn Fire is burning within the borders of Yosemite:

Unfavorable conditions are expected later today, as temperatures rise and the humidity drops. A warming trend is forecast, with a high of 82 today, 86 on Sunday and 91 on Monday. Smoke models run by the National Weather Service show "heavy smoke" entering the rest of the park later this afternoon.

Evacuation orders remain in place for Wawona, the Wawona Campground and all of Mariposa Grove. A shelter for evacuees has been set up at New Life Church at 5089 Cole Road in Mariposa.

July 8, 7:30 p.m. A wildfire that sparked in Yosemite National Park Thursday continues to tear through an area with many dead trees, trigging more evacuations in Wawona and Wawona Campground on Friday afternoon.

"Please leave the area immediately," officials said. "Utilize Wawona Road (Hwy 41) northbound toward Yosemite Valley. Southbound traffic is closed at the Wawona Golf Course."

As of 5 p.m. Friday, the Washburn Fire has burned 466 acres, up from 250 acres to start the day. Park spokesperson Scott Gediman told SFGATE on Friday morning that flames had reached the famed Mariposa Grove's Lower Grove. No details are available yet on the scope of the damage in the grove, which remains closed until further notice. Firefighters have no containment on the blaze.

Yosemite Fire & Aviation

According to the park service, the fire started around 2 p.m. Thursday near the Washburn Trail and is burning in an area of "mixed timber with significant dead/down" trees. Current evacuation orders cover the Mariposa Grove area, Wawona, a small community of over 100 people, and the Wawona Campground, which has about 100 campsites. The fire is also prompting road closures in the area, so visitors should check before driving into the park. An evacuation map can be found here.

One of the most popular visitor attractions in Yosemite National Park, Mariposa Grove has more than 500 mature giant sequoias. Giant sequoias are the largest trees in the world, and the grove holds trees that may be be thousands of years old. One of the best-known trees, the towering Grizzly Giant, is estimated to be 2,700 years old. Mariposa Grove was previously closed for three years, from 2015 to 2018, for a $40 million restoration project.

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Valley Grant Act into law, protecting the land, including Mariposa Grove, for the public and future generations. The bill would inspire what would become the National Park System.

Yosemite National Park

ALSO READ: Smoke from Washburn Fire in Yosemite headed for Tahoe

The cause of the fire is under investigation. You can check AlertWildfire's live cameras to monitor the progress of the fire.

This is a developing story and information will be added as it becomes available.
It was only a few minutes into our hike when we first saw a crescent of cliffs and trees and water. The waves lapped onto the sands, while low-slung clouds cast a moody overtone onto the kelp forests swirling gently within the waves. And to our delight, we spotted a white and gray harbor seal, looking like a chubby rock with fins, as it napped on top of an actual rock.

This was Whalers Cove, our first stop on the picturesque perimeter hike in Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, located only four miles south of Carmel-by-the-Sea and seven miles south of Monterey. The approximately six-mile hike through the park takes visitors through some of the most awe-inspiring vistas along Californias Central Coast.

My husband and I werent the first to have our breaths taken away, not by a long shot. Point Lobos State Natural Reserve has inspired many poetic descriptions. The California State Parks system itself calls the park its crown jewel, and landscape artist Francis McComas described it as the greatest meeting of land and water in the world.

Its easy to see why. Its impossible to get a bad view in the park, even during one of the busiest travel times of the year, the Fourth of July weekend.

Fiona Lee/SFGATE

Point Lobos receives more than 600,000 annual visitors, so we knew it would be crowded, especially on a holiday. The main parking lot off of Highway 1 was full, and like many other visitors, we found parking along the highway about half a mile away.

The map that we bought for a mere $2 described the perimeter trail as a three-to-five hour hike. Three hours is very possible, but thats only if you breeze right through without visiting the historic Whalers Cabin, stopping for photos, peeking into tide pools or descending down to relax on a sandy beach.

If you do any of these things, the hike will be much longer  and it will still be entirely worth it. Point Lobos is a park that is best enjoyed slowly, letting all of its splendors unveil themselves.

Its a fairly family-friendly park, even with steep stairs on the trail, but the sheer cliffs with only guide wire for protection could be dangerous for younger children. Unfortunately for dog owners, furry friends are not allowed.

MediaNews Group/The Mercury News/MediaNews Group via Getty Images

We started out by asking a docent at the main entrance about the best way to stay on the Point Lobos perimeter hike, which consists of many smaller trails linked together along the coastline.

Keep the water to your right, he advised. That proved to be excellent advice as we headed north via the Carmelo Meadow Trail, to Whalers Cove, and then west to Cypress Cove.

Its hard to see now amidst the scenery, but Point Lobos was once a thriving commercial center. In 1851, Whaler's Cove was home to what was possibly Californias first Chinese fishing settlement, after a small group sailed across the Pacific from southern China. There was a whaling station and an abalone cannery, with the community growing to include Japanese and Portuguese settlers as well, as word spread of the abundance that the waters held.

As hundreds more Chinese settlers arrived to the area, nearby Monterey was also where Chinese fishermen commercialized the abalone and fishing trades, including squid, sending their harvests to China via San Francisco, according to a docent at the nearby Monterey Bay Aquarium. Today, the Whalers Cabin is the last remaining building of what was once a small village comprising 12 buildings.

photo by Chris Axe/Getty Images

As we passed through history to enjoy the incredible views along the trails, we quickly realized that Point Lobos also offers excellent glimpses of wildlife, especially birds. Pygmy nuthatches flicker within the branches; you should expect to hear some busy woodpeckers too. There are at least three bird islands, including the one actually called Bird Island to the south, as well as Guillemot Island and Cypress Cove in the north. On these islands, which are reminiscent of the Farallones, visitors can view massive flocks of cormorants, along with brown pelicans soaring effortlessly across the waters. And dont forget to look up, where ospreys can be seen searching for prey.

While we sadly did not notice any sea otters, we did see a whale spouting in the Pacific Ocean when we stopped at Cypress Cove on the northern end of the park. And at Sea Lion Cove, the water was a stunning teal blue and crystal clear, with more harbor seals lying on its white sands.

Fiona Lee/SFGATE

Fiona Lee/SFGATE

After Sea Lion Cove, we headed down South Shore trail, still keeping the sea to our right. Along this stretch, the crowds became larger, and sometimes we had to wait for other visitors to leave before we could take in the views. There is another joy to discover in this part of the park though, and that is the tide pools. In certain marked sections, visitors can clamber over the rocks to examine the small ecosystems each tide pool contains. I would recommend visiting the park after a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, because then you  or your children  can apply what you learn at the exhibits to the purple sea urchin and the striped shore crab that can be seen just a few feet under the surface.



When we turned onto the last leg of the park, the South Plateau trail, it became more serene. Away from the crowds along the coast, only the forest and the birds surrounded us. As we headed up the trail, and then another half mile to our parked car, we reflected that despite the crowds, it had all been worth it. After all, we were part of those crowds too.
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I have steak at home. Why should I go out for hamburger?

Thats how Hollywood legend Paul Newman described his marriage to actress Joanne Woodward in Paul and Joanne: A Biography of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward by Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein. Now their story is being told in a six-part HBO Max miniseries called "The Last Movie Stars." The trailer dropped this Thursday, and the series will premiere July 21.

According to Playbill, actor George Clooney will voice Newmans comments and Laura Linney will voice Woodwards. The documentary will also feature Sam Rockwell, Billy Crudup, Sally Field, Zoe Kazan, Karen Allen, Steve Zahn, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Oscar Isaac and Mark Ruffalo.

The six-part documentary will look into the lives and careers of Newman and Woodward, including their dedication to art, philanthropy and each other. The couple lived in Westport and has a legacy of philanthropy in Connecticut.

In 1982, Newman and his neighbor, writer A.E Hotchner, started Newmans Own, the company that sold Newmans original oil-and-vinegar dressing. The company grew into a multimillion-dollar business selling popcorn, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce and other foods. All of the companys profits are donated to charities.

Newman also founded The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford around 1988. The camp was created for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. He then established similar camps in several other states and in Europe.

In November 2021, publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced that a memoir Newman worked on in his 1980s Westport home will be published. It will include Newmans thoughts on acting, directing, boyhood, family, fame, Hollywood, Broadway, love, his first marriage, his 50-year marriage to Joanne Woodward, drinking, politics, racing, his ultimate ride to stardom and aging gracefully. The untitled memoir is set to be released in the fall of 2022, according to the Associated Press.

"The Last Movie Stars" will premiere Thursday, July 21 on HBO Max.
A Nuevo Laredo resident has been convicted of trafficking cocaine via the World Trade Bridge, the U.S. Attorneys Office said on Thursday.

Sergio Bustos-Cruz, 31, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. Sentencing has been set for Oct. 18. At that time, Bustos-Cruz faces up to life in prison and a possible maximum fine of $10 million. Hell remain in custody pending that hearing.
(pictured above: Loie Hollowell (American, b. 1983), "Point of Entry," Sold for a US Auction Record $1,050,000)

(Ad) Investments come in all shapes and sizes. Nowhere is that more true than the San Francisco Bay Area. Sand Hill Road and the world of venture capital are close at hand. But here, at the intersection of wealth and taste, theres also an abundance of investment-quality auction property: the trove of antiques in the attic of the Victorian next door, the rare memorabilia in the garage on the corner, and that fabulous painting over your Nob Hill neighbors fireplace.

California is home to the most billionaires in the United States, and the San Francisco area claims 116 of them, according to Forbes' 2022 World's Billionaires list . The Bay Areas high-powered, high-net-worth individuals have been distinguished by sophistication and cutting-edge tastes since the days of the Gold Rush, when the forerunners of todays tech moguls began building legendary collections of fine things. This heady blend of big money and bold vision made the region the perfect birthplace for an auction house like Clars Auction Gallery .

What is Clars Auction Gallery?

Clars Auction Gallery is a Bay Area antiques appraiser and auction house with half a century of experience serving buyers and sellers alike. Since its inception in 1972, the trusted auction house and its appraisers have sold more than $150 million in fine art, Asian art, fine jewelry, furniture and decorative art.

A marketplace for buyers seeking treasures of all kinds - heirlooms, contemporary works of art, and relics from bygone eras-Clars offers online bidding, phone bidding and live, in-person auction events too. Its also a destination for sellers seeking top dollar for their rare and valuable goods; the full-service auction house does the research for you and offers both verbal or formal written appraisals.

Clars Auction Gallerys expert appraisers are skilled in identifying, sourcing and evaluating precious finds. Consider Clars Auction Gallery a full-service auction house with a domestic address and a virtual Rolodex of international buyers.

What sets Clars Auction Gallery apart from other auctioneers and appraisers?

This auction house makes its home in a renowned hub for wealth and culture. San Francisco  area collectors know and value quality, actively trading and investing in fine auction property. The Bay Area consistently attracts and hosts ultra-high-net-worth individuals, among them Silicon Valleys tech innovators, many with ties to collectors around the world. Entrepreneurs, business leaders, elite athletes, international collectors and prominent artists regularly converge on the Bay Area scene in search of museum-quality acquisitions.

A key attribute that sets Clars apart is a history of hosting stellar fine art auctions. Clars has achieved record high prices at auction for fine art, reaching new highs for notable artists work. Its reach and reputation make Clars a top auction house worldwide, breaking auction records for sales in the U.S. and internationally.

Fine works of art auctioned by Clars include paintings, works on paper, prints, photography, and sculpture. Rick Unruh, Clars' CEO and President, leads the Fine Art Department and specializes in 19 th, 20th 21st century and American and European fine art.

Clars outstanding fine art sales history includes a number of world auction records. A spectacular 1990 painting by Raimonds Staprans, Blue Boats, sold for $187,600 in 2022, a new world auction record for the artist at the time. A wonderful Lynda Benglis sculpture brought $184,500 at Clars in 2020. Another sales highlights in the complete set of Andy Warhols Mick Jagger print suite. The portfolio of ten portrats sold for a whopping $817,000 in 2020, igniting the interest of gallerists and collectors alike, and proving Clars ability to effectively market and sell a bevy of art genres.

(pictured: Finn Juhl for Neils Vodder Chieftain chair Sold for $80,000)

In late 2021, Clars Fine Art department presented the Modern + Contemporary Art + Design auction, a curated sales that realized over $1,300,000. The sale was led by Andy Warhols iconic Moonwalk screenprints. With telephone bidders from across the globe, and many collectors vying for the prints, the price soared to $417,500, evidence that Clars is a leading auction gallery for modern and contemporary art. On March 2022, Clars sold Loie Hollowells Point of Entry for $1.05 million, shattering the previous United States auction record for the artists by more than 52 percent.

NOTEWORTHY PIECES THAT SOLD AT CLARS AUCTION GALLERY SOLD FOR Himalayan gilt bronze figural group of Yamataka Vajrabhairava Ekavira Sold: $248,300 Leonor Fini (Argentine/French, 1908-1996), "Zorniga," 1959, oil on canvas Sold: $187,500 Phillip Lloyd Powell, New Hope Chair and Ottoman Sold: $12,000 Finn Juhl for Neils Vodder Chieftain chair Sold: $80,000 George Nakashima, wall-hanging cabinet. Sold: $62,500 Pair of Chinese huanghuali horseshow back armchairs Sold: $160,000 A stainless steel wristwatch, Rolex GMT Master Sold: $45,375 A pair of diamond and platinum earrings, Van Cleef & Arpels Sold: $49,200

The department of Asian art at Clars Auction Gallery, with its international reach and reputation for excellence, is a leading destination for collectors. The expertise of Clars Asian art team holds sway with buyers and sellers alike. All the most highly-sought categories of Chinese art, fine porcelains and carved jade, scroll paintings, embroidered textiles, carved rare wood furniture, imperial artifacts, are featured at Clars. Discerning collectors also trust Clars to buy and sell fine Japanese woodblock prints, Tibetan Buddhas, Korean pottery and many more treasures from every corner of the Asian art world.

As a Bay Area leader in sales of fine jewelry and timepieces, Clars attracts the finest estates and consignments. Spanning antique to contemporary, Clars selection of fine jewelry includes everyday luxury pieces and rare gemstones, as well as jewels and timepieces by the worlds top designers. Clars twelve annual jewelry sales feature important diamonds and colored gemstones of exceptional origin. This is a showstopper category at Clars Auction Gallery, with top prices achieved for sellers and a loyal following of buyers seeking rare and precious finds.

Clars is the leading Northern California-based auction house for Design. From the Arts and Crafts movement through to contemporary studio furniture and decorative art, Clars hosts several specialized Modern + Contemporary Art + Design auctions each year, marketing internationally to reach a global audience and to achieve the highest prices realized. Clars Design department features the very best names in design history: Tiffany Studios, Emile Galle, Rene Lalique, Gio Ponti, Ico Parisi, Hans Wegner, Finn Juhl, George Nakashima, Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip and Kelvin LaVerne, George Nelson, Vladimir Kagan, Greta Grossman, Charles and Ray Eames, Milo Baughan, Paul Evans, Phillip Lloyd Powell, Paul Kjaerholm, Eero Saarinen, and Dale Chihuly among others.

Recent prices realized include a George Nakashima wall-hanging cabinet that brought $62,500, a Chihuly chandelier sold for $62,500, a Finn Juhl for Niels Vodder Chieftain chair that commanded $81,250, a Phillip and Kevin LaVerne Eternal Forest table that brought $22,500, among others.

Also featured in the Furniture and Decorative Arts deparment at Clars: fine furniture and decorative arts comprising American, English, and Continental pottery, porcelain, glass, textiles, mirrors, lighting, clocks, bronze and marble sculpture, tapestries, and the finest handmade antique carpets. Recent highlights include an ancient Greek bronze helmet, 7th century BCE, which sold for $37,500. The helmet was from the Estate of Frank J. Caufield, of San Francisco and Montecito, a founding partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins Caufield, and Byers. Also noteworthy in recent auctions was the Dreyers Ice Cream 1920 Ford Model T delivery vehicle with company logo that realized $23,750. These recent highlights illustrate the remarkable diversity of the auction property at Clars.

Founded in 1972, Clars Auction Gallery was born in an era of cultural metamorphosis and technological innovation. These qualifies, particularly abundant in the San Francisco, Bay Area, continue to inform the business today. Throughout its history, Clars has been known for the excellent service provided by the Clars team of appraisers: eagle-eyed yet approachable, willing to literally walk into someones home in search of treasure. The service standard applies equally to transactions, which are handled with a sense of urgency underscored by integrity. An array of platforms  online, phone and absentee bidding, as well as fun and exciting live events  supports the worldwide community of auction mavens drawn to Clars Auction Gallery, month after month and year after year (fifty years, and counting!)

(pictured below: Raimonds Staprans (American/Latvian, b. 1926), Blue Boats, 1990, oil on canvas, 44 x 48.Sold: $187,500 June 2022, A World Auction Record for this Artist.)

Will I recognize any of this auction houses items?

Were guessing that if youre reading this, youve heard of Tiffany Studios, George Nakashima, Henri Matisse, Ray Parker, Wayne Thiebaud or Hans Wegner. If you havent, dont fret because Clars Auction Gallery hosts events to introduce the public to a mix of high-profile and lesser-known gems. Studied buyers and novices alike can invest wisely in art with the right assistance.

What services does Clars Auction Gallery offer?

Valuation: The auction houses appraisal department determines the monetary value of fine art and antiques, jewelry, furniture, decor and more with studied accuracy. Its appraisers can pinpoint the fair-market worth of a good for insurance or donation purposes. Clars Auction Gallerys consignment services help you sell your treasured items through its online, phone or real-time auctions and collect a portion of the sales price. Clars Auction Gallery also offers formal written appraisals that can be kept in your records if youre not ready to part with your heirlooms. These can also be used for estate or insurances purposes. These appraisals start at $250 for the first hour.

Education: Special events at the auction house sometimes include didactic seminars, like this past Mays workshop on NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which taught the public about this relatively new form of transactional art.

Charity: Clars Auction Gallery extended charitable efforts to war-ravaged Ukraine the only way an auction house can: promoting custom art to the public. In late April,Clars Auction Gallery offered a photo print, " Girl with Candy," by Oleksii Kyrychenk o. In it, a striking duality comes to life through the artist's daughter, as she hugs a double-barrel rifle in one arm, enjoying a lollipop and watching for incoming troops mere days before Russian forces invaded Ukraine. The artwork  a striking visual of a real-world dystopia  was one of five limited-edition Clars Auction Gallery prints that were auctioned on April 24, 2022. Per the artist's request, Clars donated the proceeds to Come Back Alive, an independent organization that supports troops with medical and technical aid.

Local Northern California PBS station KVIE also recognizes Clars Auction Gallery's expertise and leadership in the fine art auction space, and partners with Clars as an incentive in its annual pledge drives. Specialists from Clars provide in-person valuation as members bring in cherished family heirlooms, furniture and decorative art, Asian art, or fine jewelry. KVIE benefits in growing its membership and support, and the public gets to tap into Clars extensive expertise in fine art, furniture, decorative arts, jewelry and Asian art.

Representation: Clars Auction Gallery has played host to auctions for corporations including Wells Fargo Bank and the Bank of the Wests collections. It has also represented the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oakland Museum of California and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among other cultural institutions. (pictured: Zhang Daqian, Sightseeing in Mountain, ink and color on paper. Sold for $500,750)

What if I dont like buying online?

Clars welcomes the public in person! Bid for free, starting at 9am each auction day. Register and receive a paddle eligible for two-day use. Then bid to your hearts content on everything offered in the sale.

What should I be asking about Clars that I dont know to ask?

Ask if Clars Auction Gallerys specialists will assess your personal collection of items with a walk-through of your home or business! This is particularly helpful for those with sizable collections who are within visiting distance, and who dont know where to start when it comes to photographing potential sales items.Clars Auction Gallerys staff offers the " Courtesy Look," where specialist appraisers stroll through your property in search of eye-catching items that could be valuable auction items. This service is free, but should only be requested if emailing photos for virtual evaluations isnt the best route.

Where should first-time bidders start?

You dont have to come from a family of auction-house aficionados to join the bidding world. First-time bidders are just as welcome as those with generations of auction-block expertise in their blood. The first thing to do? Make time to visit  online or in-person  upcoming auctions. Next, fall in love with a one-of-a-kind collectable, from cars to prints, furniture, wearable art and other wares.

Clars Auction Gallery s tips for first-time bidders

Preview the sales items. The auction house is open from 1 to 5 p.m. the day before an auction, so you can stroll and observe at your leisure or ask questions with the specialists onsite. Individual appointments also available by request.

Dont assume you cant afford a piece based on its auction estimate, as some goods sell below the estimated price. Its wise to ask for the condition of an auction item; contact online@clars.com for detailed reports. Keep in mind that estimated prices are based on history: the price range a similar item may have fetched at a previous auction.

Don't spend more than you can afford. It can be tempting to veer toward your impulsive tendencies when the competitive nature of a live auction hits. Don't let the time constraint that comes with bidding lead you to spend above your limit. Keep in mind that youll be paying more than your winning bid: theres also the buyers premim paid to the auction house, as well as sales tax and expenses.

Learn about the conditions of a sale . Each auction has conditions of sale that communicate the rules and regulations of each event. Youll need a valid credit card on file if youve never purchased from Clars before.

Prepare to pack up your potentially delicate purchase. Remember that Clars doesnt provide in-house packaging for sold items.

Lastly, have fun! The excitement of a live auction or online auction definitely beats retail-store browsing. Theres also a community aspect to auctions: Revel in your appreciation of fine pieces with others who share your interest. Its a dynamic experience that cant be replicated in a retail shop. (pictured below: An 8.58 very light blue diamond ring. Sold for $468,500)



Should I buy or sell with Clars Auction Gallery?

Like most things in life, it depends.

Are you truly prepared to part with your sentimentally significant furniture, fine art, decorative art or heirloom jewelry? Then consignment is perfect for you now!

Do you want to wait and see how its worth might evolve? Ask for a written appraisal to keep in your records and hold the item.

How much do you want to raise your paddle at the online or live auction? Is the adrenaline rush of the real-time auction influencing your decision? Or are you enamored enough with the unique artifact to commit to its sales price, taxes, premium, and shipping costs?

Whatever you decide, auction houses will be ready and waiting with specialist appraisers and unforgettable finds for you to browse and bid on.

To learn more about upcoming auctions, events and how to consign at Clars Auction Gallery please visit clars.com.
It's no secret that biblical and theological illiteracy is common in many Christian churches in the U.S. -- and, presumably, around the world.

It's one reason that years ago I began teaching an occasional seminar I called "Theology Even the Clergy Can Understand." It was a lay-led (me) look at the core beliefs and practices in the Reformed Tradition (read: Presbyterian) of Protestant Christianity. And teaching it was a way of improving my own literacy in these areas.

So it doesn't surprise me to find people from other Christian traditions trying to encourage people to become more biblically and theologically literate. Which is what a pastor named Bill White is doing with his 2021 book, Mature-ish: Your mission from God, should you choose to accept it....

White, who is senior pastor of Christ Journey Church in Florida., first picks what he believes are the four core beliefs of Christians who, like him, identify as evangelical.

They are:

The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe

It is important for me to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior

Jesus Christs death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin

Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive Gods free gift of eternal salvation

For those of you who don't know, let me say that there are plenty of Christians for whom those four statements are not at the center of their theology. And White's statements -- especially the final one -- are one reason you rarely find self-identified evangelical Christians engaged in interfaith dialogue and action, except when they see it as a tool to use to convert others.

(By the way, you can read in much more detail about all of this if you download this PowerPoint: Download Mature-ish Topline FindingsIt presents findings from a survey designed to measure where evangelicals are in their spiritual development.)

White seems to anticipate a point I'm about to make when he says this: It is my desire, prayer and hope that participants don't see these results as a negative, legalistic measure of their spiritual journey, but an opportunity to identify where they are and see what is in store for them as they move forward to deepen and strengthen their relationship with Christ. The book and study are not designed to show Christians where theyve gone wrong, but to highlight key areas where a few positive steps can propel them forward in their spiritual walk.

So why does he think they might react that way? Well, the categories he uses to describe where people are in their faith journey are, at best, off-putting and at worst unnecessarily condescending.

The categories of spiritual development begin with "newborn," on the assumption that everyone starts there. In this formula even well-educated adults are categorized as spiritual infants. These are the stages White says come after that: Infant, toddler, child, pre-teen, adolescent, adult, parent, grandparent, and godparent.

By White's calculations, more than 80 percent of evangelicals have not advanced beyond spiritual toddlerhood.

To get past those early stages, of course, you are encouraged to read White's book.

So he describes a problem in fairly narrow terms and then proposes to fix it by asking people to read his book. (Why didn't I think of that?) Well, that might work or it might not. But what I do know is that there are lots of people I know -- people I consider spiritually well-grounded, mature and wise -- who probably will never fit into the measures of maturity White sets out based on his four core beliefs.

And I hope those folks will never disappear. They make the world richer in countless ways. I not only hope they don't disappear, I also hope all of them don't become Presbyterians. I love my church and denomination, but I'm sure I don't want to live in a world of such uniformity.

* * *

MARY, MARY, QUITE MILITARY?

God, of course, often gets drafted into armies at war because, well, the people leading the fighting are convinced God is on their side and will help win the victory. Over history, there have been a few "just wars" as defined by Just War Theory (at least part of World War II, for instance), but nowhere near as many as the perpetrators of those wars imagine. God, however, is not the only religious figure to be called on to inspire the troops. As this article from The Conversation notes, "Western Christianity, including Catholicism, has often been enlisted to stir up patriotic fervor in support of nationalism. Historically, one typical aspect of the Catholic approach is linking devotion to the Virgin Mary with the interests of the state and military." It all seems so preposterous. Why don't we humans simply acknowledge that war is almost always and everywhere an evil to be avoided and not try to redeem it by calling up famous religious reserves? Whom, after all, are we fooling by doing that?

* * *

THE BOOK CORNER

Speaking of biblical and theological literacy, as I was above today, I want to recommend a small book to you who are Christians for use as a devotional in the upcoming season of Advent. It's The Hunger for Home: Food & Meals in the Gospel of Luke, by Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun. Volf, whose works I've read and recommended before and whom I've heard speak, teaches theology at Yale Divinity School. Croasmun is director of the Life Worth Living program at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. The book's official publication date is Aug. 1, but can be ordered now.

Volf and Croasmun take a look at several passages in Luke's gospel that deal with food and with their origin in God's creation. "A meal, it turns out," they write, "is the quintessential enactment of home, a site of nourishing mutual encounter between people, places and God that, in ideal circumstances, makes present, in a broken but nevertheless real way, the eschatological home that it represents." Here and there throughout this short (108 pages) book, the authors drop in what I think of as golden nuggets of insight. Such as: "(T)he picture the synoptic Gospels paint of Jesus is not one of the puppet master of the universe come briefly to play a part (even a central role) on the stage of the puppet theater. Rather, the picture is of a rightful king come to liberate a land under the unjust and destructive rule of a usurper." You will think differently about food and its origins after reading this book. It might even increase your spiritual hunger.
(Ad) Digital marketing has become the focus of many local business owners today as they try to find effective ways to reach their target audiences. Digital marketing, whether through avenues such as social media, PPC, or SEO, is effective, but it is far from the only way to reach your ideal customer. Don't be so quick to abandon more traditional methods if you want to grow your business.

Newspaper advertising is a tried-and-true method that is still effective today. It can help local businesses stand out from a sea of digital competitors to reach their ideal audience.

Read on to see why advertisement through the newspaper is still a great way to reach audiences, including tips and strategies to make it work for your business.

Newspaper Advertising Overview

Print advertising is far from dead. In fact, it is even more effective than it was even a decade ago. Consumers' ability to recall print ads jumped from 46% in 2009 to 77% in 2020. Research shows that physical ads are more effective at generating an emotional response and have a longer-lasting impact than digital advertisements.

Although digital advertising is growing more popular for businesses, print advertising is still an effective method to reach target audiences. Many owners use newspaper advertising as part of a successful omnichannel marketing strategy.

Newspaper Advertising Tips

Whether you are running your first advertisement through a newspaper or you rely on newspaper ads regularly to drive business, keep these best practices for newspaper marketing campaigns in mind to get the most for your investment:

Ensure Advertising Through The Newspaper Is Right For You

Print advertising is effective for the right type of business. Such businesses include local, brick-and-mortar, and service-based businesses in the community they're advertising. Print advertising is often most successful for those aiming to reach an older demographic and rely on print coupons to bring in new customers.

Some examples of businesses that could benefit include:

Pick The Most Effective Advertisement

There are several types of ways to advertise in a newspaper:

Display ads. The more traditional type of ad, display ads, are found inside the newspaper next to articles. You can choose a range of sizes and where you would like it located inside the paper.

The more traditional type of ad, display ads, are found inside the newspaper next to articles. You can choose a range of sizes and where you would like it located inside the paper. Inserts. These types are larger, full-page ads that stand alone within the newspaper. An insert might work best if you have more pictures or information that takes more room than a traditional display ad.

These types are larger, full-page ads that stand alone within the newspaper. An insert might work best if you have more pictures or information that takes more room than a traditional display ad. Classified ads. Classifieds are specific listings organized by categories, such as announcements, items for sale, and employment opportunities.

Your choice depends on your audience, your business, and where your audience is likely to read. For example, a real estate agent might want an insert to show off several homes. On the other hand, a car dealership might benefit from a classified ad where readers are already looking for their next car.

There's no one right answer for choosing the most effective form of advertisement. However, keeping your target audience in mind will help you pick the best one for you.

Make A Great First Impression

An eye-catching headline makes or breaks your ad. Readers will quickly move on to the next article or page if it's flat or confusing. You won't have a second chance to get consumers to read the rest of your ad.

Take some time to create a short, impactful headline that leads with your most enticing benefit. If you are holding a special event, having a sale, offering free estimates, or selling a new product, lead with that.

Keep It Simple

A busy ad is outdated, confusing, and hard to read. Readers won't take the time to read an ad that requires squinting or takes too much work. Instead, ensure that your ad is streamlined, spacious, and easy on the eyes.

Have no more than two fonts in your ad, and ensure there is plenty of white space around the print. Although it may be tempting to overemphasize with different fonts and pack your ad with as much information as possible, it will only lose your readers. Ensure your text size is above 8pt to avoid unnecessary squinting.

Also, use a thin border or none at all. Thick and ornate borders look busy and waste valuable ad real estate. A thin border looks modern and will help your ad stand out from the others.

Don't Forget Your Call-To-Action

A clear call-to-action is critical for any ad, whether digital or print. A call-to-action doesn't necessarily mean a sale but should lead in that direction. What would you like your reader to do by the end of the ad? Would you like your readers to visit your store, scan a QR code, or sign up for a free estimate?

Create a call-to-action that tells readers exactly what they need to do next. Ensure it has added value for the readers that are ready to buy.

Check The Details

Unlike digital advertising, there's no way to fix mistakes in newspaper ads quickly. A misprint could mean that your ad is a complete waste of your time and money.

Check your address, phone number, and URL to ensure your readers access the right information. Also, ensure the percentage is right if you offer a discount and that the brand names and details are spelled correctly.

It is sometimes challenging to read for mistakes on your own because the mind can gloss over misprints and misspellings if you know the message you want to convey. Have someone else read it for errors before printing to ensure you haven't missed anything.

6 Newspaper Advertising Strategies for Local Businesses

Local newspaper advertising fits effectively into the overall marketing strategy for businesses. Some approaches include:

1. Use A Hyperlocal Strategy

Newspaper advertising doesn't necessarily mean opting for The New York Times. Small, local publications are an effective way to drive awareness and reach your ideal audience. Focus on hyper-local strategies to make newspaper advertising effective for your local business.

Local papers are typically more cost-effective than more prominent publications, which means you can run ads in more than one issue to make it even more effective. Choose publications that will reach your target audience. For example, target parenting magazines or sections if you run a private preschool. The proper placement is critical to a successful hyper-local strategy.

2. Advertise Local Events And Special Sales

Local events are great for building a larger presence in the community. However, getting the word out about them can be challenging for some business owners. Newspaper ads are the perfect way to spread the word locally.

Traditional marketing methods like print advertising are still one of the most effective ways to make local events and special sales effective. Beyond newspaper ads, flyers, banners, and direct mailing can all inform the community about your event or sale. Consider asking customers to fill out surveys after an event to find out which methods were most effective for gathering interest.

3. Target Audiences In Rural Areas

High-speed internet is an issue for those who live in small towns and rural areas. Almost a quarter of Americans who live in rural areas lack access to broadband internet service.

These consumers rely more on print communication to access information and are a more effective audience for newspaper ads. It is also a great way to stand out from competitors relying on digital advertising since these residents will likely not see them.

4. Leverage Your Omnichannel Strategy

Just because you're using a more traditional form of advertising does not mean you can't link it to your digital presence. Print advertising is a great way to advance a multi-channel marketing strategy. Increase your reader engagement by offering them ways to connect with your business online.

QR codes are a great way to offer readers a chance to learn more about you and your product. QR codes have benefited from a resurgence in popularity thanks to restaurants utilizing the technology in place of menus. Consumers are more comfortable scanning information now and will quickly pull out their phones if they're interested. Include a code for consumers to scan to get more details or access a special deal.

Also, use your online presence to advance your reputation in print. Include Yelp, Google, or social media reviews in your ad for social proof.

5. Use Storytelling To Evoke Emotion

Newspaper advertising is an ideal medium for furthering storytelling as a marketing strategy. Storytelling is an effective way to connect with your audience on a human level and stand out from competitors by evoking more emotion.

Some ways to use storytelling in ads are sponsoring content or advertorial. You can direct the editorial piece and put it alongside local content. This content can take a variety of formats, including a thought-leadership piece, a listicle, an infographic, or even a traditional long-form article.

Netflix used this strategy brilliantly when they promoted their series "Orange Is the New Black." They created a paid long-form expose article entitled "Women Inmates, Why the Male Model Doesn't Work" with multimedia elements.

When done correctly, promotional articles like these help local businesses connect even better with their target audiences than an insert or display ad.

6. Win (And Promote) Local Business Awards

You've worked hard on your business and made it award-worthy. Show it off by getting awards for your company. Winning awards will give readers more confidence in what you offer and encourage customers to try out your business.

There are many ways businesses win awards, most of which are free. For example, The San Francisco Chronicle puts on a Top Workplaces event that showcases the best local companies in the Bay Area.

Check to see if any local publications offer a "best of" feature and check for reader awards. Once you find one that does, encourage happy customers to nominate or vote for your business. Consider advertising on social media to get more attention and get to your customers when they're in a better place to do so right away.

Once you've won an award, don't be afraid to show it off! A publication award is not only a great advertisement for local readers but also great social proof wherever you advertise. Promote it across all channels, including your social media, website, banner ads, and on your signage. You can also use it in future newspaper ads to leverage local exposure.

Newspaper Advertising Strategies for Local Businesses: Key Takeaways

In a world overrun with digital ads, newspaper advertising gives local businesses the perfect opportunity to stand out and reach local audiences. It is an effective part of an overall multimedia strategy to reach your customers at every turn.

Newspaper ads are perfect for local, service-based, and brick-and-mortar businesses. They offer a great way to reach more local, rural, and older populations.

Keep your ads simple and get straight to the point, such as a catchy headline and plenty of white space.

Use local business awards to promote your business and provide social proof that will entice new customers and retain employees.

Are you looking to grow your business with added exposure? Contact Hearst Bay Area to learn more about placing print ads, digital ads, and other digital marketing solutions.
NEW YORK (AP)  A 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death Saturday at a New York City subway station, police said.

Officers responding to a call of a crime in progress found the teen with a stab wound to the abdomen around 3 p.m. on the northbound 1 line platform at the 137th StreetCity College station in Manhattan, police said.
There is a healthy community of poets living in Jacksonville, but you might not know it  unless you run into Robert Seufert. He'll be quick to fill in any missing details.

On the first Thursday of each month, there is a poetry reading session at the Soap Co. Coffee House in downtown Jacksonville. Those attending are invited to read poetry or simply listen to poems read by other participants, Seufert, a MacMurray College English professor emeritus, said. During the pandemic, the live monthly poetry readings gave way to Zoom meetings but resumed in October.

The Thursday meetings of the Poetry Forum have found a good home at Soap Co., though they occasionally gather elsewhere as happened Thursday when they met at the home of Sue Fishback and Greg Van Morrison who live in a converted church in Lynnville.

Eight poets and a musician joined together, alternating original songs with original poems.

For Monte Bell of Jacksonville, poetry is a release and an opportunity to download thoughts to other people. Bell favors freestyle form and has been working on his craft since the early 1990s when he attended college in Chicago.

"I never thought it would be so addictive. It's therapeutic. It helps me relate to other people," Bell said. "It lets me express myself for who I am and by doing so, I might be helping others. If I can reach someone, that means everything."

Linda Meece, a certified public accountant, said her interest in poetry has allowed her to exercise both sides of her brain. She said when she first moved to Jacksonville, she took a writing class and was a closet writer for before coming to the Poetry Forum.

"This is a great group of people and I come to get inspiration," Meece said.

Meece believes the freedom poetry brings is from no rules. "If the person who writes it says its a poem, its a poem."

The fact these gatherings of poetry lovers exist is because of the efforts of Seufert and the late Joseph Kozma, a Jacksonville physician and poet laureate, who died in December 2018 at the age of 94.

"Kozma's death was a source of loss because of his humorous and outrageous antics," Seufert said. "One thing that was cool was that a year before he died, we managed to have a display in the MacMurray homecoming parade, and the Jacksonville Poetry Forum banner was carried.

"He became Jacksonville's one and only poet laureate  named by Andy Ezard (in 2016)," Seufert said. "It was a public celebration of poetry."

Seufert said there is not much in the way of documentation of the history of the poetry gatherings, but things came together around 2010.

"Several of us at MacMurray and Illinois colleges thought there should be a place in Jacksonville for poetry. We used to hang out at Our Town Books, then owned by Jim and Sally Nurss," Seufert said. "Jim Nurss retired and opened a small bookstore. We fell into conversation with them  poets love bookstores, of course  looking for a place to share poetry."

At Our Town Books, the Thursday night readings began. But Seufert and Kozma reasoned not everyone was free on Thursday, so they decided to meet another night, too.

"We made a permanent reservation to meet on the third Wednesday at the Jacksonville Public Library," Seufert said.

The Thursday night readings are open mic nights for people to read poetry they wrote or by people they admire, Seufert said. They've even incorporated music into the sessions. The Wednesday night sessions are geared differently, though both events begin at 7 p.m.

"We read poems, but we also discuss and comment on them," Seufert said. "We have fewer people (on Wednesdays), so we have the leisure to talk about poetry. We invite constructive criticism and talk about what makes a great poem. We talk about why we write and how poetry differs from writing prose."

The Thursday night sessions have found a permanent home at Soap Co.

"The advantage to Soap Co. is they had a stage, which the bookstore did not have. Abbi Kafer recently purchased Soap Co. from Nicole Riley and she wants the open mic nights to continue," Seufert said, who firmly believes in poetry as a medium for performance.

"Jacksonville has lost a lot of performance outlets such as the Jacksonville Theater Guild that put on a lot of great productions, as well as Playhouse on the Square," Seufert said. "The loss of these stages made us want to go on with poetry as a performance."

Seufert, who lives in Winchester with his wife, Diane, taught for 30 years at MacMurray until he retired in 2012. When he was hired, they were looking for someone with expertise in Shakespeare, which Seufert had. His knowledge of Shakespeare served to feed his lifetime interest in poetry.

"In retirement, I wanted to retire to, not retire from. If you retire to, you have things to do. I focused on writing and acting in retirement. Since then, I have self-published seven Chatbooks (five on poetry) because I just wanted to get my work read," Seufert said.

Being able to read poetry in public fulfills his desire to act, but it's not just for himself.

"The open mic nights also provide an audience for young poets to get the experience of live performance," Seufert said.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP)  An American Airlines flight made an emergency landing in Grand Rapids, officials said.

Around 10:15 p.m. Friday, the flight from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago bound for Buffalo, New York, alerted Gerald R. Ford International Airport about possible smoke in the cockpit, Lisa Carr, the Grand Rapids airport public safety and operations director, said in a statement to the Grand Rapids Press.

An aircraft rescue and firefighting team and Kent County officials responded to the call.

The plane landed safely in Grand Rapids, and all passengers left the plane, Carr said.

No injuries were reported.

After American Airlines found a new plane, the redirected flight left Grand Rapids at 12:42 a.m. It landed in Buffalo at 1:37 a.m., three hours after its scheduled arrival time.
The driver of a pickup sought in a traffic incident in Bad Axe turned herself in to police Friday morning.

Police aledge the female driver fled from the scene of an accident that left a 64-year-old man riding a motorcycle injured Thursday.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  Authorities have confirmed a body recovered at Lake Mead is a Boulder City woman who went missing last week after falling off a jet ski.

KTNV-TV reported Friday the Clark County coroner's office identified the body as 22-year-old Lily Kristine Hatcher.
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP)  A former caregiver charged in connection with the 2019 poisoning death of a developmentally disabled woman has been acquitted of felony assault.

Fikirte T. Aseged mistakenly gave cleaning vinegar instead of colonoscopy prep medicine to her 64-year-old client Marion Wilson.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Harold Clarke rendered his verdict this week through an Ethiopian language interpreter, Northwest News Network reported.

This was a tragedy. It should not have happened, Clarke said.

The judge said that Asegeds actions met the definition of criminal negligence, but he couldn't find the vinegar was wielded as a weapon  a requirement for conviction based on a previous Supreme Court finding. Clarke also noted that when Aseged gave Wilson the vinegar, she was 13 hours into a 16-hour double-shift.

Aseged was charged by the Washington state Attorney Generals office. According to the investigation, Aseged confused the bottle of vinegar with the bottle of GoLYTELY solution when she and another caregiver awakened Wilson at 3 a.m. to take the second half of her prep medication.

At her colonoscopy appointment, Wilson started having difficulty breathing and died in an emergency room. An autopsy determined that the cleaning-strength vinegar had inflamed and killed the tissue in Wilsons esophagus, stomach and small bowel, resulting in her death.

I assumed it was the same  I just grabbed the bottle, I was rushing, Aseged reportedly told state investigators.

Aseged was employed by Aacres Washington, a Spokane-based company that in 2018 had taken over the care of clients like Wilson from its sister company, SL Start, after the state decertified SL Start for a history of serious  non-compliance with the law and regulations.

An investigation by the state Department of Social and Health Services found that Aacres had failed to take a number of steps to protect Wilson. It also found that 18 Aacres employees didn't immediately report Wilsons death as required by law. The state has since cancelled its contracts with Aacres to serve clients in Spokane County.

Aacres, which still operates elsewhere in the state, is in the process of being sold to a Minnesota-based company.
Daniel Charles Wilson believes the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were an inside job. The war in Ukraine is totally scripted and COVID-19 is completely fake. The Boston Marathon bombing? Mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas? Crisis actors, he says.

Wilson, a 41-year-old from London, Ontario, has doubts about free elections, vaccines and the Jan. 6 insurrection, too. He accepts little of what has happened in the past 20 years and cheerfully predicts that someday, the internet will make everyone as distrustful as he is.

Its the age of information, and the hidden government, the people who control everything, they know they cant win, Wilson told The Associated Press. Theyre all lying to us. But were going to break through this. It will be a good change for everyone.

Wilson, who is now working on a book about his views, is not an isolated case of perpetual disbelief. He speaks for a growing number of people in Western nations who have lost faith in democratic governance and a free press, and who have turned to conspiracy theories to fill the void.

Rejecting what they hear from scientists, journalists or public officials, these people instead embrace tales of dark plots and secret explanations. And their beliefs, say experts who study misinformation and extremism, reflect a widespread loss of faith in institutions like government and media.

A poll conducted last year by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that just 16% of Americans say democracy is working well or extremely well. Another 38% said its working only somewhat well.

Other surveys reveal how many people in the United States now doubt the media, politicians, science and even each other.

The distrust has gone so deep that even groups that seem ideologically aligned are questioning each others motives and intentions.

On the day before Independence Day in Boston this year, a group of about 100 masked men carrying fascist flags marched through the city. Members proudly uploaded videos and photos of the march to online forums popular with supporters of former President Donald Trump and QAnon adherents, who believe a group of satanic, cannibalistic child molesters secretly runs the globe.

Instead of praise, the white supremacists were met with incredulity. Some posters said the marchers were clearly FBI agents or members of antifa  shorthand for anti-fascists  looking to defame Trump supporters. It didn't matter that the men boasted of their involvement and pleaded to be believed. Another false flag," wrote one self-described conservative on Telegram.

Similarly, when an extremist website that sells unregulated ghost guns  firearms without serial numbers  asked its followers about their July 4th plans, several people responded by accusing the group of working for the FBI. When someone claiming to be Q, the figure behind QAnon, reappeared online recently, many conservatives who support the movement speculated that the new Q was actually a government plant.

This past week, when a Georgia monument that some conservative Christians criticized as satanic was bombed, many posters on far-right message boards cheered. But many others said they didn't believe the news.

I dont trust it. Im still thinking ff, wrote one woman on Twitter, referencing false flag, a term commonly used by conspiracy theorists to describe an event they think was staged.

The global public relations firm Edelman has conducted surveys about public trust for more than two decades, beginning after the 1999 World Trade Organization's meeting in Seattle was marred by anti-globalization riots. Tonia Reis, director of Edelman's Trust Barometer surveys, said trust is a precious commodity that's vital for the economy and government to function.

Trust is absolutely essential to everything in society working well, Reis said. It's one of those things that, like air, people dont think about it until they realize they dont have it, or theyve lost it or damaged it. And then it can be too late."

For experts who study misinformation and human cognition, the fraying of trust is tied to the rise of the internet and the way it can be exploited on contentious issues of social and economic change.

Distrust and suspicion offered obvious advantages to small bands of early humans trying to survive in a dangerous world, and those emotions continue to help people gauge personal risk today. But distrust is not always well suited to the modern world, which requires people to trust the strangers who inspect their food, police their streets and write their news. Democratic institutions, with their regulations and checks and balances, are one way of adding accountability to that trust.

When that trust breaks down, polarization and anxiety increases, creating opportunities for people pushing their own  alternative facts.

People cant fact check the world, said Dr. Richard Friedman, a New York City psychiatrist and professor at Weill Cornell Medical College who has written about the psychology of trust and belief. Theyre awash in competing streams of information, both good and bad. Theyre anxious about the future, and there are a lot of bad actors with the ability to weaponize that fear and anxiety.

Those bad actors include grifters selling bad investments or sham remedies for COVID-19, Russian disinformation operatives trying to undermine Western democracies, or even homegrown politicians like Trump, whose lies about the 2020 election spurred the Jan. 6 attack.

Research and surveys show belief in conspiracy theories is common and widespread. Believers are more likely to to get their information from social media than professional news organizations. The rise and fall of particular conspiracy theories are often linked to real-world events and social, economic or technological change.

Like Wilson, people who believe in one conspiracy theory are likely to believe in others too, even if they are mutually contradictory. A 2012 paper, for instance, looked at beliefs surrounding the death of Princess Diana of Wales in a 1997 car crash. Researchers found that subjects who believed strongly that Diana was murdered said they also felt strongly that she could have faked her own death.

Wilson said his belief in conspiracies began on Sept. 11, 2001, when he couldn't accept that the towers could be knocked down by airliners. He said he found information on the internet that confirmed his beliefs, and then began to suspect there were conspiracies behind other world events.

You have to put it all together yourself, Wilson said. The hidden reality, what's really going on, they don't want you to know.
EDWARDSVILLE  A Collinsville man has been charged with the burglary of a garage by the Madison County States Attorneys Office.

James C. Williams Sr., 51, of Collinsville, was charged July 7 with burglary, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department.

According to court documents, on April 20 Williams allegedly entered a garage in Collinsville to commit theft.

Bail was set at $40,000.

Other felony charges filed July 7 include:

 David G. Stone, 35, of East Alton, was charged with retail theft over $300, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Bethalto Police Department. According to court documents, on June 20 Stone allegedly took a Toro lawnmower valued in excess of $300 from Ace Hardware in Bethalto. Bail was set at $25,000.

 Lisa D. Warre, 41, of Glen Carbon, was charged with unlawful use of a credit card, a Class 1 felony. The case was presented by the Edwardsville Police Department. On May 24 Warren allegedly took items valued at less than $300 using another persons credit card. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Ricky A. Wedderburn, 28, of Alton, was charged with retail theft under $300 (second subsequent offense) and unlawful use of credit card, both Class 4 felonies. The case was presented by the Wood River Police Department. On Jan. 23 Wedderburn allegedly took a crossbow valued at less than $300 from the Wood River Walmart and, on May 15, tried to buy Gatorade valued at less than $300 using another persons credit card without their permission. He has a 2019 conviction for burglary out of Madison County. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Lindsey R. Moore, 29, of South Roxana, was charged with retail theft under $300 (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Wood River Police Department. On May 29 Moore allegedly took womens clothing valued at less than $300 from the Wood River Walmart. She has a 2016 conviction for stealing (third subsequent offense) out of Jackson County, Missouri. Bail was set at $20,000.

 Heather L. Kelly, 34, of OFallon, Illinois, was charged with retail theft under $300 (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On July 6 Kelly allegedly took clothing, makeup and other merchandise valued at less than $300 from the Granite City Walmart. She has a 2011 conviction for forgery out of St. Clair County. Bail was set at $20,000.

 David A. Clark, 50, of Jacksonville, was charged with retail theft under $300 (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On July 1 Clark took various food items valued at less than $300 from the Godfrey Walmart. He has a 1996 conviction for burglary out of Madison County. Bail was set at $15,000.
Prosecutors in Bernalillo County are questioning the use of GPS ankle monitors after a convicted rapist was able to cut his off and flee.

KOB-TV in Albuquerque reported Friday that Ralph Vasquez is the fifth person this year who was able to separate an ankle monitor device.
The historic Bismarck Depot is under new ownership that plans to renovate the dormant building and reopen it to the public.

The Depot is a mainstay in Bismarck and what some have called pivotal to the city's history. It opened as a train station in 1901; after passenger train service ended in 1979, it was a Mexican-themed restaurant for more than 30 years. After that it became Edwinton Brewery, which closed in 2019.

The building has been vacant since then, leaving city residents to wonder: whats next? Local developer Cam Knutson is answering that question, with plans to restore the building to prominence, give community members a say in how it's done, and address the Depot's unsettled fate.

This is a centerpiece for Bismarck, an iconic building  and we realized this is something were willing to make the full investment on getting this building restored and brought back to life so its ready for the next 50 years, Knutson said.

Troubled years

Local restaurateur Dale Zimmerman bought the Depot in 2014 but ran into snags with his efforts to renovate the building. The city in 2018 quashed his plans to remove the historically characteristic lattice pattern from the building's windows. That same year, he unsuccessfully put the Depot up for sale at $4.25 million.

He later transferred the building to Choice Financial Group through a deed in lieu of foreclosure, which Zimmerman said was a result of roadblocks created by the city.

It took us five years to get open because the city set up so many roadblocks to get the building renovated, he said, adding that the lack of income due to the building remaining closed drained us financially.

City officials in 2018 questioned why Zimmerman waited six months to appeal their decision.

Knutson, son of longtime local developer Ron Knutson and owner of Knutson Companies, recently purchased the property. Public documents show Cam Knutson's firm Downtown Depot acquired the mortgage from Choice Financial for an undisclosed price last year. In March, Downtown Depot purchased the property through a sheriff's sale for $2.3 million, documents show. Knutson declined to comment on how much he paid for the mortgage because he said the number doesnt represent the full cost -- including the liens and other costs -- that was paid for the property.

Knutson's company hired JLG Architects to do architectural drawings for the buildings remodel, which will take place later this year or early next year. Renovations are expected to take about a year to complete.

Knutson would like a restaurant and possibly a retail business to eventually occupy the space. He has a few prospective tenants in mind but declined to name any because his company is in the early stages of designing the building.

Were excited that were back at doing (architectural) drawings and I think once we get a little further ahead in the next couple of months, then we can start the process of starting to figure out who can go in there and eventually call that place home, he said.

A deep history

The Depot has undergone many changes over the years. In 1977 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the federal government's list of properties it deems worthy of recognition and preservation.

The Northern Pacific Railway Co. opened the Depot in 1901. The building was constructed entirely of concrete and illustrated an old Spanish mission style, which was uncommon in the Northern Plains, according to the buildings nomination form to the National Register.

The same marble chips used in the construction of the Minnesota State Capitol were embedded in the exterior surfaces of the Depot, according to the form. Embedded in the walls of the Depot are several small dolls that one of the workers on the building pressed into the cement, according to a 1982 Tribune article.

In 1916 the Depot was serving 24 passenger trains a day, but by 1950, Bismarck began to reflect the nationwide decline of railroads generated by the completion of vehicular transport, the Register form said.

Northern Pacific merged with Burlington Northern and Santa Fe in 1970 and transferred its offices to the Mandan Depot in 1972. Amtrak also had space in the Bismarck Depot but left after ending passenger train service there in 1979.

Jim Christianson of Northwest Development Group Inc. purchased the Depot in 1983 for $10,000.

The Christianson family is well-known in Bismarck. Jim Christiansons father, Marc Christianson, founded Dakota Zoo and his grandfather, A.M. Christianson, was a North Dakota Supreme Court justice.

Jim Christianson has been involved in historic remodels since he renovated the Patterson Hotel in 1983. He had office space in the hotel and was present in 1980 when the city condemned the building. He later moved his office next door to the historic Capitol Theater building, now called Dakota Stage Playhouse, and remodeled that building, as well.

I kept looking out the windows at the beautiful Depot building, which was boarded up, he said.

Christianson bought the Depot and remodeled the exterior and interior of the building and leased the east end of it to Fiesta Villa, which was there from 1983 to 2016. Christianson in 2014 sold the Depot to Zimmerman. Over the years, several tenants have inhabited the west end and the second floor of the Depot building, including an antique furniture store, a clothing store and an accounting firm.

Historic nature

Christianson applauds efforts to get people back into the Depot.

(I support) whatever they end up doing that energizes it and gets people (in there) and, hopefully, it is more of a public space, he said, adding he would also approve of another Mexican restaurant opening in the space again.

Kate Herzog, chief operating officer for The Downtowners, an organization that supports the development and growth of downtown Bismarck, said her group also supports the renovation and reopening of the Depot.

Obviously, wed really like the building to be active again, she said. (It would) especially help the surrounding businesses, just in terms of more activity and stuff, because its an entire block thats in the dark right now.

Herzog said her organization uses the uniqueness of the downtown area as a recruitment and retention tool for prospective businesses and that the historic nature of the Depot helps with those efforts.

If you dont have that personality and that iconic sort of building stock and history, its a bit harder to do those recruitment and retention activities, and the Depot is a piece of that for sure, she said.

'Community project'

Renovation work will follow all the steps, guidelines and recommendations from the city and other entities, according to Knutson.

The beauty of the building is that historic nature of it, he said. We definitely, for this one, will be going through all the proper channels of approval before any renovation work would happen.

Renovation may include a new roof, exterior restoration, and new electrical, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, Knutson said. Total costs have not yet been determined.

Knutson said the Depot remodel will be a community project. He and his company will solicit feedback from community members; theyve already met with groups such as The Downtowners and others.

The city in 2013 introduced a Depot Plaza concept in the Downtown Bismarck Subarea Plan, which included elements such as a public skating rink and outdoor event space.

Zimmerman championed the Depot Plaza concept. When he put the Depot up for sale in 2018, he had hopes of turning over the building to a foundation or charity that would turn it into a downtown plaza.

Knutson doesnt have plans to continue the plaza concept but said it is something wed want to keep the dialogue open on.

Were looking forward to seeing whats possible and making it happen, he said.
PHOENIX (AP)  A three-member U.S. appeals court panel has sided with Arizona prison officials' ban on sexually explicit material for inmates, denying a prison journal's claims of First Amendment violations.

The 9th Circuit panel in San Francisco issued an opinion Friday mostly supporting the Arizona Department of Corrections' previous censorship of various issues of Prison Legal News.

The state had challenged a district court's permanent injunction of the ban and an order to deliver four issues unredacted.

We conclude that most of the Departments redactions of the Prison Legal News issues ... abide by the First Amendment, Circuit Judge Eric Miller wrote. For example, it found the redaction of graphic passages from an October 2014 article were rationally related to discouraging sexual harassment of corrections officers.

Representatives for the Arizona Department of Corrections and the Human Rights Defense Center, which publishes Prison Legal News, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.

The Department established an order in 2010 prohibiting prisoners from sending, receiving or possessing sexually explicit material or content seen as detrimental to the safety and operation of prison facilities. It was issued after mostly female staff complained inmates were harassing them with sexual images.

Inmates at more than 3,000 prisons nationwide subscribe to Prison Legal News, according to the court opinion. Arizona prison officials permitted the circulation of over 90 issues without incident. But in 2014, they refused to deliver one issue over sexually explicit material. Officials later changed their minds except for one article in the October issue.

In 2017, the corrections department redacted articles in three other issues for the same reason.

Prison Legal News initially won a lawsuit in 2019 challenging the ban. While the 9th Circuit panel ruled the censorship clearly did not cover mere mentions of sexual acts or sexual violence, including in academic contexts, it did apply if officials were keeping inmates from accessing content that would make prisons less safe.
Although some groups have resumed meetings, others schedules may have changed because of pandemic restrictions. It is recommended you contact the group in advance to verify details. Any changes in meeting schedules can be emailed to JJCsocial@myjournalcourier.com.



ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

217-370-4002

Jacksonville locations:

 First Baptist Church, 1701 Mound Ave. Wheelchair-accessible.

 Club HOW, 638 S. Church St.

Monday

 Closed discussion, 7:30 a.m. at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, noon at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at First Baptist Church. Bowen Group.

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at Club HOW.

Tuesday

 Open discussion, noon at Club HOW.

 Womens open meeting, 5:30 p.m., First Christian Churchs Fireside Room.

 VIRGINIA: Closed discussion, 7 p.m. at Grace Lutheran Church, Main and Washington streets.

 ROODHOUSE: Closed discussion, 12-step/12 traditions, 8 p.m. at Grace Center, 114 W. Palm St.

Wednesday

 Closed discussion, noon at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at Club HOW.

Thursday

 Closed discussion, 7:30 a.m. at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, noon at Club HOW.

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at Club HOW. Newcomers Group.

Friday

 Closed discussion, noon at Club HOW. TGIF Group.

 Closed discussion, 5:15 p.m., Big Book Study at Club HOW.

 VIRGINIA: Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at United Methodist Church, 401 E. Broadway Ave.

Saturday

 Open speaker, 8 p.m. at Club HOW.

 Open meeting, noon at Club HOW.

Sunday

 Closed discussion, 8 p.m. at Club HOW. 12 & 12 Group.

 Closed discussion, 10 a.m. at Club HOW. (Second Sunday is open)

 SPRINGFIELD: AA for Women, 10 a.m. at Discovery Club, 313 W. Cook St.



AL-ANON

Meetings are nonsmoking and open to anyone. The only requirement is that there be a problem of alcohol with a loved one or friend. 217-248-6434.

Wednesday

 Al-Anon, 7:30-8:30 p.m. at Centenary United Methodist Church, 331 E. State St. (use Morgan Street entrance).



NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS

All meetings are nonsmoking. Not affiliated with any religious organization.

Jacksonville locations:

 First Christian Church, 2106 S. Main St. (enter through far southeast door). 217-883-1975.

 Lutheran Church for the Deaf, 104 Finley St. (enter through back door). 217-883-1975.

Wednesday

 Open discussion group, 8 p.m. at Lutheran Church for the Deaf.

Friday

 Open discussion group, 7:30 p.m. at First Christian Church.



OTHER MEETINGS

Monday

 Addicts Victorious, 7-8 p.m. at Faith Tabernacle, 571 Sandusky St. Use side entrance to church hall.

 PITTSFIELD: Addicts Victorious, 7-8 p.m. in the basement of Subway in Pittsfield. 1-800-323-1388.



Tuesday

 Jacksonville Sunrise Rotary, 7 a.m. Holiday Inn Express meeting room, South Jacksonville. 217-243-6895.

 Bereavement support group, 10-11 a.m. Jacksonville Memorial Hospital, Meeting Room 4.



Wednesday

 Breastfeeding support group, 6 p.m., Jacksonville Memorial Hospital, Meeting Room 2.

 ROODHOUSE: Women with Hearts of Love (WWHOL), 6-7 p.m. at House of Restoration, 208 W. Franklin St. 217-602-1670.



Thursday

 Jacksonville Area Chess Club, 6-9 p.m. at Jacksonville Public Library. 217-370-0882.

 St. Johns UCC Grief Group: 7 p.m., St. Johns UCC, 216 North St., Brighton. Free | Support group for those grieving the loss of a loved one.

 Jacksonville Kiwanis Club, noon at Hamiltons.

 WHITE HALL: Addicts Victorious, teens 5:30-6:30 p.m.; adults 7-8 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of New Life Church, 626 Curtis St.



Friday

 Jacksonville Rotary Club, noon at Hamiltons.

 PITTSFIELD: Addicts Victorious, 6 p.m. at Assembly of God, 575 Piper St. 800-323-1388.



Saturday

 Scott County Alzheimers support group, 9-10:30 a.m. July 16, Winchester United Methodist Church, 20 N. Walnut St., Winchester. Free | Open to all caregivers who help care for Alzheimers- and dementia-affected persons. For more information, call 217-742-3610 or Pam Hembrough at 217-743-6427.

 Jacksonville Amateur Radio Societys Net, 9 p.m. Transmitted on K9JX repeater. K9JX.com.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP)  A Delaware man convicted earlier this year of a felony hate crime for what authorities say was the persistent harassment of a Black female employee in Gov. John Carney's office has been sentenced to four months in prison.

Matthew Gregg will also be required to complete community service, anger management, and mental health and substance abuse counseling, the News Journal reported Friday.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  Michael Toya is following in the footsteps of his ancestors.

The Jemez Pueblo artist braved the elements for three months as he completed a large-scale mural on the outside of the Nativo Lodge in Albuquerque.

Ive never done a mural or anything to this magnitude or scale, Toya told the Albuquerque Journal. At the beginning, it was intimidating. The idea behind this work and this style stems from what my ancestors brought to us. They told stories by painting on pottery or on petroglyphs. Im doing the same thing with a modern twist and telling my own story.

Toyas project is the latest from the Nativo Lodge, which has been hiring local artists to add another dimension to the property.

Were proud to offer an experience unlike any other in New Mexico with our artist guest room program  there are few places where you can sleep in actual works of art, says Nate Wells, president of the Lodge Collection, managed by Heritage Hotels & Resorts. Its humbling to work with talented artists like Michael, and his striking design will add a whole new dimension to the guest experience at Nativo Lodge.

Toya began the project in April and wrapped it up at the end of June.

Depending on which angle you look at the Nativo Lodge property, there is a different story.

The black-and-white line work on the south wall calls for the blessing of the rain.

We rely on rain and snowfall to keep the cycle going for sustenance and growth, he says. Its one of my new concepts.

Hummingbirds, dragonflies, butterflies and flowers adorn the same wall. Toya says each image has a meaning.

The side wall is definitely peaceful and welcoming, he explains. You have beautiful flowers and the wildlife. The hummingbirds and butterflies are said to be positive messengers and very spiritual.

At the very top corner is a Pueblo sun. It welcomes today and reminds us life is in a circle, Toya says.

Wells says the goal for the Nativo Lodge is to have all 145 rooms painted by artists. Sixty rooms have already been painted by such artists as Toya, Mateo Romero, Kayla Shaggy, Rose Simpson, Geraldine Tso, Felix Vigil, Jaque Fragua, Lynette Haozous, Jodie Herrera, Marina Eskeets, Ishkoten Dougi, Ricardo Cate and DeAnna Suazo.

Toyas room  Room 412  is called If You Believe and was completed in 2018.

He says the room depicts popular cultural icons intertwined with traditional Puebloan interpretations of design, which influence and teach the viewer about what Pueblo people believe. More often than not, he says, these beliefs are transformed into powerful designs and traditional markings that give the Pueblo people strength, courage and confidence to keep their culture alive, all of which you can witness throughout the installation.

For instance, the bear paws represent courage, strength and wisdom, and are a sign of protection, Toya continues. The Corn Maidens, and the stalks they were produced from, honor fertility and new life. Life goes on, plant our seeds and start a new beginning is what our Corn Maidens wish of us. The steps of life design are the trials and tribulations of your journey. The stars watch over us and shine light into our hearts. The thunderstorm clouds and lightning bolts offer great power. Everything around you is sacred, whether it is the spirits of our ancestors or the forces of Nature. Honor them, give thanks and, in return, you will feel their blessings if you believe.

Leaning on the traditional side of Toyas art, his vision features a number of distinctive design components.

Toyas design for the front of the hotel is the Pueblo Kilt/Manta Embroidery, which is reminiscent of the embroidery of traditional kilts or mantas, worn by men and women, respectively, at ceremonial proceedings.

The design is symbolic of welcoming guests, and wrapping them in comfort and traditional blessing, he says.

Toya has also incorporated the Corn Maiden, which brings the power of life to the people.

Also part of the design is the Avanyu, which is the powerful deity and guardian of water/harbinger of storms. It extends on both lower walls on either side of the hotel entrance, representing the essential life force of nourishment.

I drew inspiration from my background growing up in a family of artists. All these designs stem from ancestral culture and what I want to share with visitors when they stay at this hotel and visit our state, Toya says. It was an exciting opportunity to produce my work on a bigger scale with my artist room years ago and its thrilling to return to Nativo Lodge with yet another chance to further my skills and ability as an artist with this grand design. I feel truly blessed not only to showcase art in a piece of this magnitude, but also to set an example for fledgling artists to keep chasing their dreams and not be afraid to share their passion with the world.
DECATUR, Ala. (AP)  Abnormally dry weather in north Alabama may have ruined corn plantings and is damaging other crops.

The hot, dry weather has just hit the corn at the absolute worst time, said Brady Peek, who farms approximately 1,800 acres in western Limestone County. Well be lucky if we even have a corn crop. Yields are going to be significantly below average.

Ashley Ravenscraft, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Huntsville, said portions of Lawrence and Morgan counties have been characterized as abnormally dry since June 21. In Limestone County, 60% of the county has been in a moderate drought since June 28.

From June 21 through Monday, Decatur received only 0.24 of an inch of rainfall and Moulton had 0.53 of an inch, Ravenscraft said. Athens, she said, had 1.78 inches of rain in that span but she attributes the higher number to pop-up showers the last several days. Ravenscraft said the average rainfall in July is 4.49 inches.

Typically, around this time of year youre getting some kind of rainfall from either tropical systems or your summertime storms or a weaker disturbance that will come through and produce some rain. This is typically one of our wettest months out of the year, she said.

Ravenscraft said the three counties would need about 4 inches of rain in a month to get out of the drought and abnormally dry categories.

All signals point to at least abnormally dry conditions through the late summer, early fall, she said.

Peek said he rotates what he grows every year. This year he has grown wheat, soybeans and corn.

Peek planted his soybeans in the last week of April and the second week of June and will harvest in early to mid-September. He planted his corn in mid-April and will harvest in August. He said everything will have to be harvested earlier due to the dry weather. Peek has already harvested his wheat.

While he said his corn crop may be a complete loss, other crops are also suffering.

Beans still have a ways to go. I was looking at some this morning and they clearly need a rain, Peek said Tuesday. Theyre still hanging on. Theres still a chance that we can make a crop there.

Peek said it is too early to tell what yield he will get from his soybeans.

I would say that they have sustained some damage. How much, its just hard to point yet. The beans definitely need a rain to keep hanging on, he said.

Peek said the crops would be better able to handle the hot weather if there was rain. He said it is common to have hot, dry spells but usually they come in August.

Its nearly a death wish on a lot of these crops to be like this in June and July, Peek said. Once you get this dry its just really hard to overcome that.

Steve Brown, cotton agronomist for the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service, said corn has a narrow period during which it needs a lot of moisture or it will not pollinate well.

Cotton, we still have time to recover assuming we get some rainfall, Brown said. It definitely hurts it.

He said the cotton yield could be cut by 50% this year.

If we go another three or four weeks with lack of water with this kind of heat, it will take a serious toll on all crops. We could lose 60% of our yield or even 70%, Brown said.

Peek said one of his farms has irrigation, but irrigating is expensive. He said mass irrigation across north Alabama is not possible. Weve got the water, we just dont have the infrastructure in place to truly be able to utilize it.

Brown said only about 10% of Alabama crops are irrigated. If you have an extreme drought, it might give you a little bit of water, but it cant sustain the crop through a significant, lengthy drought period.

Mark Thompson, owner of One Stop Lawn and Landscaping in Decatur, said he stresses to customers the importance of watering lawns and plants as often as possible.
A Jacksonville man has traded a job making four times the money for a job he believes will nourish his soul while also feeding his family and others.

It was quite a scary change to walk away from his job as senior transportation manager for Dot Foods in Mount Sterling, Clint Bland said.  But I feel I needed to give this a try.

After starting a farm in 2016 that is organic in every way except for the official certification that allows him to market his farm products as such, the workload reached a point where he knew something had to give.

The farm had its requirements, Bland said, noting he was trying to meet those requirements with the help of two part-time workers and his 72-year-old father while also working his full-time job and trying to find time for his family, including his wife, Marcella, and their four children, ages 9, 7, 3 and 1.

Hes now been a full-time farmer for four weeks.

Some of the hard part of being a farmer is, not only do you have to be an expert in how you grow everything, but you have to think about how you are going to market it and distribute it.

To that end, the Blands are relying on a blend of technology and good, old-fashioned direct sales.

Bland Family Farms participates in farmers markets in Jacksonville and Springfield, selling eggs, grass-fed and -finished beef, pasture-raised chicken and chemical-free produce. The farms products also are available at County Market and Jones Meat Locker in Jacksonville and a few groceries in Springfield, along with restaurants such as Proud Richards in Jacksonville, which features the farms eggs and other products on its menu.

Then theres the technology, including the website at BlandFamilyFarm.com, which features an online store through which customers can place direct orders for pickup or delivery.

MarketWagon is another tool on Bland Family Farms technology front. The company markets itself as a DoorDash for farmers or an online farmers market where customers in an 11-county central Illinois region can shop from any of the MarketWagon farmers in that region and have their order delivered to their door.

Morgan County isnt one of the 11 counties on MarketWagons central Illinois route but, through the online marketplace, Bland is able to sell his products alongside about 60 other vendors to customers from Springfield to Bloomington.

While Clint Bland is happy in his new role, its not necessarily where he expected to end up when he started out, he said.

I would have to say, basically, Im a first-generation farmer, he said. No one in the family owned any land at all. My fascination started with sustainability. I was fascinated with the idea of producing as much as I could of the stuff on the plate I ate that night.

Nurturing his growing interest in locally sourced food, he began growing fruits and vegetables just for his family and then expanded to chickens and their eggs.

Then it became, I have some extra here, maybe Ill go up to the farmers market, he said. All of a sudden, here I am at work and constantly thinking about the farm. It continued to grow and blossom from there to the point where we bought a 38-acre property.

Along with selling enough to keep the farm financially viable, Bland continues to push the bounds of just how sustainable he can make his familys eating habits, from fermenting and canning the produce he grows to making chicken and beef stock.

I want to grow and harvest as much of my food as I can, Bland said. Im still 100% fascinated.
NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP)  A fire ripped through a historic landmark on Nantucket Saturday morning, leaving the centuries-old structure heavily damaged.

Firefighters battled the blaze that tore through the Veranda House inn, which dates back to the late 17th century. The inn is located in downtown Nantucket.

Multiple firefighters from around the Cape Cod area headed to the island to help battle the flames, the Yarmouth Fire Department said on Facebook. Firefighters were still working to suppress the fire as of noon Saturday, Nantucket police tweeted. People were urged to avoid the area.

Massachusetts State Police sent troopers to assist Nantucket authorities with the investigation, David Procopio, a state police spokesperson, told The Boston Globe.

Photos and videos posted online showed smoke billowing into the sky above the downtown area.

About 185 customers were without power because of the fire at about 8:45 a.m., according to National Grid. All but seven had their power restored by 11 a.m.

The inn, which was built in the late 1600's, boasts 18 rooms and suites, according to its website.
A state agency is hosting ribbon cutting ceremonies for two new affordable housing complexes in Jefferson County to replace housing damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Harvey.

The Texas General Land Office (GLO) is celebrating the opening of two new apartment complexes July 14 in Jefferson County. The GLO disaster recovery team will be hosting ceremonial ribbon cutting ceremonies at 11 a.m. at Beaumont Village on N Major Road in Beaumont and at 1:30 p.m. at Cedar Ridge on 9th Street in Port Arthur.
ROME (AP)  The Italian navy on Saturday began relocating the first 600 migrants from the Sicilian island of Lampedusa after its refugee identification center became overwhelmed with new arrivals and photos circulated of filthy conditions.

July has seen a sustained uptick in daily migrant arrivals in Italy compared to recent years, according to Interior Ministry statistics. Overall, migrant arrivals are up sharply this year, with 30,000 would-be refugees making landfall so far compared to 22,700 in the same period in 2021 and 7,500 in 2020.

Lampedusa, which is closer to North Africa than mainland Italy, is often the destination of choice for Libyan-based migrant smugglers, who charge desperate people hundreds of dollars apiece to cross the Mediterranean Sea on packed, dangerous dinghies and boats.

The Italian navys San Marco ship was taking an initial 600 migrants from Lampedusa to another center in Sicily and from there they were be distributed elsewhere in Italy. the ministry said the transfers would continue Sunday.

Lampedusas former mayor, Giusi Nicolini, posted what she said were photos and videos taken in the center in recent days, showing new arrivals sleeping on the floor on pieces of foam and bathrooms piled high with plastic bottles and garbage.

There are 2,100 people packed in the Lampedusa welcome center, which has beds for 200, she wrote on Facebook. These could be photos from Libya, but no, its Italy. And these are the ones who survived.

Right-wing lawmakers were quick to seize on the overcrowding, blaming the left-wing parties in Italy's government for being too soft on migration.

And this would be the left's famous humanitarian model? Georgia Meloni of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, tweeted along with the images. Saying no to mass illegal immigration also means saying no to this.

___

Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration.
Dozens of people gathered at the state Capitol in Bismarck during a rainstorm Saturday morning to rally for abortion rights in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that took away the constitutional protection for abortion.

The crowd -- made up of women, men, young and old -- met on the North Dakota State Library steps to make signs and listen to speakers, including Dina Butcher of the BadAss Grandmas activist group, Dr. Ana Tobiasz, teen activist Olivia Data and Christina Severson, who talked about her experience getting an abortion last year.

Severson said she and her husband decided to terminate the pregnancy after learning the baby would not be born healthy. She said it is important to share stories like hers so that other women in similar situations do not feel isolated.

"I never thought that I would have an abortion, especially not at 35 years old, happily married and willing to take care of a baby. But here I am," Severson said. "It was the worst experience of my life, but I would do it again. It was the right decision for me and my family."

The rally followed the June 24 U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn abortion rights rendered in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. That triggered a 15-year-old North Dakota law banning the procedure. It takes effect at the end of the month.

Rallies also were held in Minot and Fargo on Saturday. Groups involved included ACLU North Dakota, ERA Now, North Dakota WIN Fund, North Dakota Womens Network, Planned Parenthood North Central States, Prairie Action ND and the Fargo clinic.

The rain started as Bismarck's rally kicked off. Rallygoers shared umbrellas and hid under their signs in an attempt to keep dry, and the speakers were interrupted by loud thunderclaps. As the event went on, a few more people joined the crowd despite the growing wind and rain.

"I dont believe things are hopeless," Data said. "When I look at all of you who are here today, who arent afraid to stand up for our beliefs even in a rainstorm like the one we just had, I know that we are more than our anger and our fear. We will stand together in solidarity and in hope for a better, kinder and more loving future."

A small group of counter-protesters also was at the Capitol. Students from the University of Mary said they believe in the sanctity of human life and wanted to show their support of the Supreme Court ruling. Members of the group said they stayed near Boulevard Avenue and did not interact with the rallygoers because they wanted to protest in a peaceful and respectful way.

"Our intention wasnt to disrupt anything," Nathan DesMarais said. "We just wanted to show our support for the Supreme Court decision and to show that we believe life is a blessing that should be protected."

Jacob Kerzman said he came to the Capitol to pray the rosary and later joined the group.

North Dakota's law is set to go into effect July 28, though the Red River Women's Clinic in Fargo -- the only abortion provider in the state -- sued over the matter on Thursday, arguing the ban violates the state constitution's guaranteed rights of life, liberty, safety and happiness.

The law makes 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. It's not clear how the ban will be enforced. North Dakota's abortion laws specifically exclude females seeking abortions from being prosecuted, according to Attorney General Drew Wrigley.

Even though the trigger law has exceptions for victims of rape or incest, there will be no access to abortion services in North Dakota. Those victims will need to travel to Moorhead, Minnesota -- where the Fargo clinic plans to move because abortion is still legal in Minnesota -- or to another out-of-state provider for access. North Dakota already has restrictions on medication abortion via telehealth. A law approved in 2011 requires an abortion-inducing drug to be administered in the physical presence of the doctor who prescribed it.

The abortion ban is popular among many people and groups in North Dakota, but many others have denounced it. Abortion rights advocates held a smaller rally during the Fourth of July Symphony Spectacular event on the state Capitol grounds Monday.

People also have contributed nearly $950,000 to a GoFundMe account set up to aid the Fargo clinic's move across the river.

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.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  Santa Fe, not Roswell, is the place this weekend to possibly spot some aliensor at least their stuff.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that props from the now-cancelled CW TV drama, Roswell, New Mexico, are being sold at an estate sale inside the site of an old Kmart in Santa Fe.
BARBOURVILLE, Ky. (AP)  A Kentucky school district has banned middle and high school students from using backpacks to address safety concerns.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that Knox County Schools will implement the policy when students return to school in August.

School spokesperson Frank Shelton says the policy will prevent students from using a bag to conceal items.

That is one less method that a student has to bring something into the building, Shelton said. With school safety on the minds of many due to recent school and public gathering shootings, we hope that our students and families see this as one more measure we are taking to protect students.

The policy will not apply to elementary school students.
HELENA, Mont. (AP)  Kris Hansen, who recently departed the No. 2 post at Montana Attorney Generals Office, has died at age 52, according to state officials.

A news release from the Montana Department of Justice said Hansen died early Thursday, the Independent Record reported. No information about her cause of death was released.

Hansen was named chief deputy of the Montana Department of Justice in December 2020. Before that, she worked for the Montana state Auditors office and represented Havre as a Republican state lawmaker.

In late May, Hansen confirmed she was leaving the office, but declined to say why. The Attorney Generals Office said at the time she was leaving to attend to personal and family matters.

Kris was a dear friend, a conservative leader, and an amazing woman who dedicated her life to others, Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in a statement Friday.

Hansen was a central figure during the state Republicans conflict with the judicial branch last year. Hansen, representing Republican lawmakers who had subpoenaed judicial records, wrote a public letter accusing the Supreme Court of interfering with a legislative investigation by quashing a subpoena for judicial records.

The court ultimately ruled state lawmakers had overstepped their authority with the subpoenas.

Hansen was a Montana National Guard veteran and served during Operation Iraqi Freedom. She also served a tour of duty with the Central Intelligence Agency in Mogadishu, Somalia in the early 1990s.

Gov. Greg Gianforte said in a statement that Hansens indomitable spirit left an impact on all who knew her.

A spokesperson for Knudsen declined Friday to offer information on the cause or location of death, as well as funeral information.
Louisiana authorities can now enforce the states ban on almost all abortions under a new court order in the case.

A state district judge in New Orleans on Friday ended a temporary order blocking the states trigger law.

The law was designed to take effect when the U.S. Supreme Court decision stripped away womens constitutional right to abortion. State District Judge Ethel Julien issued the latest order following a hearing in a lawsuit filed by a north Louisiana abortion clinic and others.

The suit claims the state law is unclear on when the ban takes effect and on medical exceptions to it.

The controversial hearing took place at 11 a.m. at Civil District Court in New Orleans.

Civil District Court Judge Robin Giarrusso threw a roadblock in front of the state's trigger laws that would block abortions.

The laws were previously set to go into place when Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Efforts to enforce those laws by Attorney General Jeff Landry were rejected by the Louisiana State Supreme Court earlier this week before Friday's hearing.

Despite the restraining order being lifted, the lawsuit against the trigger laws will be moved to East Baton Rouge to be decided.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  A man has been indicted on a murder charge a year after a former Mississippi lawmaker was shot to death while she was doing yard work in a rural area where her sister-in-law had died.

Republican former state Rep. Ashley Henley, 40, was killed in June 2021 outside the burned-out mobile home where her sister-in-law, Kristina Michelle Jones, was found dead in December 2020.

Henley and other relatives contended Yalobusha County authorities were doing too little to examine possible criminal charges in Jones death. Relatives erected a homemade sign at the site with photos of Jones under the phrase, I was murdered.

Yalobusha County coroner Ronnie Stark said Henley had been mowing grass at the home site before she was killed.

A man who had lived near Jones, Billy Lamar Brooks, was indicted in February on a charge of maliciously setting fire to the home of Jones and Terry Henley. Court records show that on June 30, a grand jury filed a new indictment against Brooks to add a murder charge in the death of Ashley Henley.

The Associated Press reached Brooks attorney, Bradley Peeples, by phone Saturday and he declined to comment on the case.

Court records show Brooks made a court appearance Thursday, and Circuit Judge Smith Murphey set his bond at $250,000. Brooks remained in the Yalobusha County jail on Saturday, according to the jail docket. His age and current address were not available.

After Ashley Henley was killed, investigators said her body had been found on June 13, 2021. The indictment of Brooks accuses him of killing her on or about June 14, 2021.

Ashley Henley served in the Mississippi House from 2016 to 2020 in a district in DeSoto County, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) north of where she was killed.

Henley was a teacher before she was elected to office, and she often took her young son to the state Capitol during legislative sessions.

Henley sought a second term in November 2019 and lost by 14 votes to a Democrat. She challenged the election results, saying she believed she had found some voting irregularities. A bipartisan House committee held a public hearing on her challenge and unanimously dismissed her request for a new election.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  A man found guilty of starting a fire in 2005 in New Hampshire that left an 84-year-old man dead was sentenced to 40 years to life in the New Hampshire State Prison on Friday.

Richard Ellison, 49, of Concord, had been found guilty of second degree murder this spring for recklessly causing the death of Robert McMillan on Dec. 9, 2005 by starting a fire at McMillans home in Concord.
NOTE: The Michigan House and Senate are now adjourned until July 20.

House Bill 4375, Revise school pension double dipping for retired teachers: Passed 37 to 1 in the Senate

To permit public school teachers and other staff who retire and begin collecting a pension to return to work in a school district and claim both a paycheck and a pension check if at least nine months have passed since the "retirement." Under current law, with some exceptions for hard-to-fill positions, public school retirees who "double dip" get reduced benefits. The bill would also repeal a requirement that a school district must contribute toward paying-down the unfunded state pension liabilities associated with employing a retired teacher.

Y Kevin Daley (R) Attica, Sen. Dist. 31

Y Kenneth Horn (R) Frankenmuth, Sen. Dist. 32

Y Jim Stamas (R) Midland, Sen. Dist. 36

Senate Bill 814, Give gas station owners ethanol fuel sales tax-subsidy: Passed 24 to 14 in the Senate

To give gas station owners an income tax or business tax credit based on the amount of fuel mixed with ethanol they sell, with higher payments for higher levels of ethanol. The state would write a check to the owner for the difference if the ethanol tax credit exceeded the owners tax liability. Fiscal analysts estimate this will cause the state to forego $2.3 million in annual revenue.

Y Kevin Daley (R) Attica, Sen. Dist. 31

Y Kenneth Horn (R) Frankenmuth, Sen. Dist. 32

Y Jim Stamas (R) Midland, Sen. Dist. 36

House Bill 5487, Mandate certain merchant disclosures on eBay type sites: Passed 38 to 0 in the Senate

To prescribe detailed disclosures that high-volume third-party sellers (more than 200 'consumer product' sales in a year) would have to make to an "online marketplace" (like eBay) to disclose the seller's full name, full physical address, a working phone number and email address, whether the seller makes, imports or resells consumer products and more. The site would then have to post a phone number on the seller's offerings for reporting "suspicious marketplace activity." The bill appears targeted at larger merchants who present themselves as individuals on sites like eBay, and is supported by broad coalition of large Michigan "brick and mortar" retailers.

Y Kevin Daley (R) Attica, Sen. Dist. 31

Y Kenneth Horn (R) Frankenmuth, Sen. Dist. 32

Y Jim Stamas (R) Midland, Sen. Dist. 36

House Bill 4698, Criminalize false active shooter alarm: Passed 31 to 7 in the Senate

To make pulling a false active shooter alarm in a public place a misdemeanor punishable up to a year in prison and $1,000 fine. The bill defines active shooter alarm" as an alarm system that is designed to alert individuals inside that place, that there is an active shooter on or near the premises, including an alarm system that when activated locks doors, informs local law enforcement of the active shooter, flashes a blue light, and broadcasts a message inside the place indicating the presence of an active shooter.

Y Kevin Daley (R) Attica, Sen. Dist. 31

Y Kenneth Horn (R) Frankenmuth, Sen. Dist. 32

Y Jim Stamas (R) Midland, Sen. Dist. 36

Senate Bill 1012, Subsidize student social worker and psychologist interns in public schools: Passed 95 to 11 in the House

To authorize paying individuals in a professional training program that is required to obtain a state social worker, school counselor, psychologist or mental health professional license, a stipend for serving as an intern in various capacities at a public school.

Y Amos O'Neal (D) Saginaw, Rep. Dist. 95

Y Timothy Beson (R) Bay City, Rep. Dist. 96

Y Jason Wentworth (R) Clare, Rep. Dist. 97

Y Annette Glenn (R) Midland, Rep. Dist. 98

Y Roger Hauck (R) Mount Pleasant, Rep. Dist. 99

Senate Bill 744, Give state subsidies to shipping and port interests: Passed 94 to 12 in the House

To authorize a selective state subsidy program (dubbed Great Lakes Maritime grants) that would give up to $2.5 million annually to developers and corporations who own a port facility, which they could spend on improvements and other things, including promoting their business.

Y Amos O'Neal (D) Saginaw, Rep. Dist. 95

Y Timothy Beson (R) Bay City, Rep. Dist. 96

Y Jason Wentworth (R) Clare, Rep. Dist. 97

Y Annette Glenn (R) Midland, Rep. Dist. 98

Y Roger Hauck (R) Mount Pleasant, Rep. Dist. 99

House Bill 6194, COVID "lessons learned" bills - emergency order time limits: Passed 56 to 48 in the House

To limit the duration of an emergency order issued by the state health department to 28 days. Note: When in Oct. 2020 the state Supreme Court invalidated a law that claimed to give governors authority to govern through emergency orders with no time limitation, the current Governor issued imposed the same open-ended orders under a provision of the state Public Health Code, which this bill would amend by adding the 28 day limit.

N Amos O'Neal (D) Saginaw, Rep. Dist. 95

Y Timothy Beson (R) Bay City, Rep. Dist. 96

Y Jason Wentworth (R) Clare, Rep. Dist. 97

Y Annette Glenn (R) Midland, Rep. Dist. 98

Y Roger Hauck (R) Mount Pleasant, Rep. Dist. 99

House Bill 6184, Limit state health department's "emergency orders" power: Passed 56 to 49 in the House

To require emergency orders imposed by the state health department in response to an epidemic to describe how any restrictions on gatherings or procedures will protect the public health, and disclose the information used to justify an emergency order, including data or statistics used to determine if it is necessary.

N Amos O'Neal (D) Saginaw, Rep. Dist. 95

Y Timothy Beson (R) Bay City, Rep. Dist. 96

Y Jason Wentworth (R) Clare, Rep. Dist. 97

Y Annette Glenn (R) Midland, Rep. Dist. 98

Y Roger Hauck (R) Mount Pleasant, Rep. Dist. 99
TORONTO (AP)  Rogers Communications Inc. said Saturday it has restored mobile and internet service for ``the vast majority of customers after an outage that lasted more than 15 hours.

The disruption, which the Toronto-based telecommunications company offered no explanation for, started Friday morning. It left many customers without mobile and internet service and caused trouble for 911 services, debit transactions and even Service Canadas beleaguered passport offices.

In a tweet, Rogers said some customers may experience delays in regaining full service as its network comes back online and traffic volumes return to normal.

Our technical teams are working hard to ensure that the remaining customers are back online as quickly as possible, the tweet said.

Once again, we sincerely apologize for the disruption this had caused our customers and we will be proactively crediting all customers.

Interac said its services are fully available again after debit transactions were halted by the Rogers network outage.

Tony Staffieri, chief executive and president of Rogers, said in an open letter that the company apologizes for the service interruption but offered no explanation for the outage or how many customers were affected.

Staffieri said Rogers is committed to understanding the cause and would make changes to meet and exceed expectations in the future.

The outage began early Friday and stretched into the evening, pushing businesses and organizations to notify customers that their operations were being affected by Rogers and that delays and service interruptions should be expected.

The outage forced the postponement of The Weeknds tour stop at Torontos Rogers Centre. The Toronto date was one of only two set for Canada.

Among the most serious impacts of the outage were warnings from police in Toronto and Ottawa, who reported connection problems when people called 911.

Many Rogers customers scrambled to find internet service, heading to coffee shops to connect and trade tales of the outage.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  The superintendent of Louisiana State Police acknowledges he was pulled over for speeding in an unmarked work vehicle but did not receive a ticket from one of his own officers.

Col. Lamar Davis told WAFB-TV in an interview Friday that he accepts responsibility but does not remember how fast he was driving. A state trooper pulled Davis over June 28 on the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge along Interstate 10 west of Baton Rouge.

I was simply wrong in that situation," Davis said. "There is no excuse for it, other than I need to slow my butt down.

The head of Louisiana State Police public affairs, Capt. Nick Manale, said the trooper utilized his discretion and did not issue a citation." Manale said the trooper did not make notes about how fast Davis was driving in the area where the speed limit was 60 mph (96 kph).

WAFB obtained a copy of the troopers body camera footage through a public records request. On Thursday, Louisiana State Police released the troopers body camera footage and a snippet of video from the troopers dashboard camera.

The body camera footage cuts off as soon as the trooper exits his vehicle and recognizes he has pulled over is his boss.

Well, Ill be, the trooper said just before the video stopped.

The dash cam footage, which does not have audio, shows the trooper and Davis talking for a few seconds between their two vehicles before the two shake hands. Within 30 seconds of first exiting his vehicle, Davis stepped back inside his vehicle and prepared to drive off.

During the interview Friday, Davis told WAFB that the troopers actions fell within Louisiana State Police policy.

I know everybody wants to see everything that we do. But, were not putting body cameras on doctors or lawyers or anybody else that is interacting with the public, Davis said. I ask that people trust that we are doing the right thing for the right reasons.

Davis became superintendent of the Louisiana State Police on Oct. 30, 2020.

The U.S. Justice Department announced last month that it was opening a civil rights investigation into the Louisiana State Police amid evidence that the agency has a pattern of looking the other way in the face of beatings of mostly Black men, including the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene.

The federal pattern-or-practice probe followed an Associated Press investigation that found Greenes arrest was among at least a dozen cases over the past decade in which state police troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who oversees the Justice Departments civil rights division, said Davis and Gov. John Bel Edwards pledged to cooperate with the investigation.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP)  The social services system failed" 13 children who were rescued after being starved, shackled and horribly abused by their parents at a Southern California home for years, according to a report released Friday.

Some of the Turpin children of Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, were forced to live with people who were later charged with child abuse and some of the adult siblings struggled to get money for housing and food, according to a 634-page report from a law firm hired by the county to investigate their care.

The report will be publicly presented to the county Board of Supervisors on July 12.

The shocking abuse in the Turpin home went unnoticed in the community of Perris, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, until then-17-year-old Jordan Turpin escaped in January 2018 and called police.

When she escaped, Jordan told a sheriffs deputy that her sisters and brothers, who ranged in age from 2 to 29, had been starved, chained to beds and forced to live in squalor. The children slept during the day, were active a few hours at night and had minimal education.

Their parents, David and Louise Turpin, are serving sentences of 25 years to life in state prison.

Last year, ABC News reported that most of the siblings received poor care after entering the child welfare system.

They have been victimized again by the system and were living in squalor, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in the ABC documentary.

Theyre living in crime-ridden neighborhoods. Theres money for their education. They cant access it, Hestrin said.

After that report aired, Riverside County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen said his office had hired a law firm run by former federal Judge Stephen G. Larson to analyze the services provided and the quality of care they received.

The report, which summarized findings of a months-long investigation, concluded that the countys social services system was short-staffed and underfunded, leaving workers struggling with high caseloads that made it hard to ensure safety and care for our most vulnerable populations. It made several reform recommendations.

I appreciate the unflinching review and recognition that good people are doing good work, Van Wagenen said in a county statement. The recommendations will guide our continuing efforts to improve outcomes in the days, weeks and months to come.

Many details of what happened to the Turpin children under the countys care were blacked out in the publicly released version of the report to comply with a court ruling protecting their privacy.

However, the report did say that the county's public guardian office only recently tried to obtain more than $1 million that was donated on the children's behalf.

With respect to the Turpin siblings, we conclude there were many times over the last four years that they received the care they needed from the county. This was not always the case, however, and all too often the social services system failed them, said a June 24 introductory letter to supervisors that was included in the report.

Some of the younger Turpin children were placed with caregivers who were later charged with child abuse, the letter said. Some of the older siblings experienced periods of housing instability and food insecurity as they transitioned to independence.

Many were caught in the middle of confusing and complicated legal proceedings, the letter said. When they complained about their circumstances, they often felt frustrated, unheard, and stifled by the system.

Prosecutors have charged a Perris couple and their adult daughter with abuse. Two of the Turpin girls placed in their foster home were fondled and kissed by the father and other foster children were physically assaulted, county prosecutors have said.

Marcelino Olguin, his wife Rosa and their daughter Lennys have pleaded not guilty to child cruelty and other felony charges.
Raina McLaughlin is a recovering addict, an alcoholic, a new mother and homeless, and up against tremendous odds to remain on a straight path to a stable life.

In March, the 27-year-old Native American woman was spending another night at the Missouri Slope Areawide United Way emergency shelter in south Bismarck.

Im pregnant now and I need to get my stuff together, she said. Its very comforting here. Im grateful and blessed to have a place like this to come to. All of these people are like my family. We try to look out for each other.

People of color, especially Native Americans, are an overrepresented segment of the homeless population.

The North Dakota Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in a 2021 report said there is insufficient access to affordable housing due to landlords not accepting rental assistance vouchers, disproportionately impacting renters who are not white or who have disabilities.

In North Dakota there are an estimated 43,000 Native American residents; more than 21% are homeless, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Approximately 78% of the Native American population lives away from one of the five reservations in the state. A survey conducted by the Mandan-based Sacred Pipe Resource Center found that about 6% of Native Americans interviewed in Bismarck, Mandan and Lincoln were homeless, according to Executive Director Cheryl Kary. Of those, 52% said they couldnt afford housing.

McLaughlin's journey of addiction and alcoholism started at the age of 14 while living in Bismarck with friends and later with her grandmother. Alcohol and drugs were and still are a part of those environments.

Thats why Im staying here," she said of the shelter. "I am an addict and alcoholic. Im too weak.

The shelter planned to put her up in a hotel after the birth of her baby as Community Action continues help with housing applications for a permanent roof over their heads. Her plans are to attend United Tribes Technical College this fall.

Questioning landlords

Kary thinks the housing problem for minorities lies mainly with the landlords.

I have always maintained that we dont have a problem with homelessness in North Dakota ... We have a problem with the housing system in North Dakota, she said.

Part of the problem is the public perception that landlords are these sweet little old ladies that are renting out a room or renting out their basement as an apartment. The reality is here in North Dakota we have a lot of management companies that are coming in and are operating housing units for an absent owner," she said. "That creates problems because thats not a human-to-human interaction, thats a profit-making machine exploiting people. And ... Native American people end up being the fodder.

Kary, who sat on the Commission on Civil Rights advisory committee, cites added costs and increased barriers related to the application process over the years, giving landlords more reasons to decline prospective renters.

There have been deliberate efforts over the last 10-20 years to teach landlords to legally discriminate or exclude undesirable tenants. (Native Americans) are definitely part of that undesirable tenant group, she said.

Kellye Fallweber, a local property manager and vice president of Bismarck-Mandan Apartment Association, sees it differently.

Application fees cover costs such as a background check and a credit check, she said, adding that "We are not making money on those."

A credit check ensures that an applicant is paying his or her bills and shows rental history, and a security deposit covers the cost of any damage done by tenants, according to Fallweber.

If people are trying to get their life back together and come off the streets, I think for the most part everyone that Ive come to know in this industry is we try our best within reason, she said.

At the end of the day it is to protect the companies that are renting, Fallweber said.

Complaint process

Renters can file a complaint with the state Department of Labor and Human Rights, but the 2021 advisory committee report was critical of the agency. A committee member said increased training for staff and proper investigative resources were needed.

Theres no teeth to complaint processes, Kary said. Nobody really wants to go up against the corporate machine. Thats just the reality here.

State Human Rights Director Kathy Kulesa said staff receive formalized training through weeklong sessions at the National Fair Housing Training Academy and through HUD-offered training. Less-experienced staff also are assigned a mentor at the department.

We conduct investigations of housing discrimination and we conduct them very thoroughly, including interviews of the parties," Kulesa said.

State Labor Commissioner Erica Thunder said her department strives to "be here and helpful."

"I believe in the integrity of this department," she said.

Neither Kulesa nor Thunder could recall any recent discriminatory complaints filed on behalf of Native Americans, but the department has received claims of discrimination from LGBTQ complainants.

Lacking protection

An advocacy issue that we are struggling with is that if I am a member of the LGBTQ class, it is not a protected class for housing, said Mark Heinert, western executive director for Youthworks of North Dakota. I can squarely look at you and say, 'I dont rent to gay people,' and be covered by the law because its not a class thats protected. That to me is sad, really sad."

The North Dakota Senate in 2015 passed a bill that would have banned housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, but the legislation was voted down in the House. Similar anti-discrimination efforts have failed in more recent legislative sessions, as well.

One-fourth of the youth served by the Youthworks nonprofit organization in the Bismarck-Mandan and Fargo areas are LGBTQ, according to Heinert.

Fallweber said the apartment association conducts training for landlords and property managers on local, state and federal laws such as the Fair Housing Act.

It doesnt matter what race you are or your sexual orientation, at the end of the day we are still humans and should be treated that way. And I will stand behind that every day," she said, adding that, "I dont think there should be any type of discrimination if you choose to have a partner of the same sex.

For Kary, it comes down to politics. She suggests that since many state legislators are also rental property owners, many rules and regulations lean toward landlord rights and protections.

I think the solutions are attainable if we have the political will," she said. "I would question if we have that political will in North Dakota. Do you really want to do this, or do you think homelessness is OK? We are very judgmental here in North Dakota -- you have to be deserving of help in order to get help. Thats part of the problem."

Longtime state Rep. Lawrence Klemin, R-Bismarck, said the Legislature has a provision that allows lawmakers to be excused from voting should they have a conflict of interest. And he added, "We are all fundamentally and adamantly opposed to discrimination in whatever form it is."

Klemin described the penalties to landlords and rental property owners in the North Dakota Housing Discrimination Act as being substantially more than a slap on the wrist, with potential fines totaling tens of thousands of dollars.

What more do they want the Legislature to do to make the penalties more severe?" he said. "I think its up to the department thats enforcing the statute to do those things, and they are authorized by statute to order significant monetary penalties.

A success story

Lorraine Davis is a success story, and now she's working to use to her experiences to help others.

After a stint in prison, successful treatment for alcoholism, and time spent couch surfing at the houses of friends, Davis knew she had to change.

Arriving in Bismarck without a car, the young homeless single parent enrolled at UTTC and earned an associate degree. She was an administrative assistant of student and campus services before being promoted to family housing director. She has gone on to earn two master's degrees, is currently a candidate of the doctoral educational leadership and administration program at the University of Mary, and is executive director of Native Inc. and Native American Development Center.

But she still remembers life on a reservation with drugs, alcohol, a lack of jobs, poverty and homelessness.

When you feel hopelessness like that, you dont see any way out. Its hard to get out. Its so kind of normalized, Davis said. For those that struggle with that addiction back home, if theyve left and moved to an urban area to go to college and try to have a better life, I mean thats 50% of the struggle to actually make that leap.

"So for me, we need to go catch them," she said. "We need to be here and help guide that process for them.

The goals of Native Inc. and the Native American Development Center are to find housing and appropriate services for people in need, bring awareness of Native culture to their clients, and open the worlds of education, business and entrepreneurship.

It was always hard when I started this work to explain the need, because its more than just responding to one thing, Davis said. Homelessness is just an outcome to the core issues. They are tired of working at these odd end jobs and their struggle to pay rent. So we try to get them into college with the idea to increase that income, and for some of them its creating a business. So thats why it has to be a social, cultural arm and an economic arm.

Davis said she likes to talk about solutions to problems more than about a persons deficits. The homeless programming at Native Inc. is the starting point to helping people get on the right track by linking the clients with transportation, jobs, any treatment goals, and housing.

Having a sense of belonging and connection in this community is so important to stabilize Native Americans, Davis said. Otherwise we dont have a sense of place in this community.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  Supporters of initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana and scale back casino gambling submitted thousands of signatures Friday in the hopes of getting their proposals on the Arkansas ballot.

Friday was the deadline for groups to turn in the signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot. Proposed constitutional amendments need at least 89,151 valid signatures from registered voters.
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SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP)  They were the ones who lived in a world in which their husbands, sons, brothers, uncles and nephews were massacred. They were the ones who fought to make sure that world would neither deny nor forget the truth of what happened in Srebrenica.

As thousands converge on the eastern Bosnian town to commemorate the 27th anniversary Monday of Europes only acknowledged genocide since World War II, the crucial role women have played in forging a global understanding of the 1995 massacre also is getting recognized.

A permanent photo exhibition of portraits of the women of Srebrenica opened Saturday in a memorial center dedicated to the massacre's more than 8,000 victims. The center in Potocari, just outside the town, is set to host an international conference of women discussing how they found strength to fight for justice after being driven from their homes and witnessing their loved ones being taken away to be killed.

After I survived the genocide in which my most beloved child and my husband were killed, it was the injustice of their killers, their refusal to acknowledge what they did and to repent, that pushed me to fight for truth and justice, said Munira Subasic.

Subasics relatives were among more than 8,000 men and boys from the Bosniak ethnic group, which is made up primarily of Muslims, who perished in 10 days of slaughter after the town was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces in the closing months of Bosnias 1992-95 fratricidal war.

Bosnian Serb soldiers plowed the victims bodies into hastily made mass graves, and then later dug up the sites with bulldozers and scattered the remains among other burial sites to hide the evidence of their crimes.

Bosniak women and children were packed onto buses and expelled from the town.

But as soon as the war was over, Subasic and other women who had shared her fate vowed to find the remains of their loved ones, bring them back to their town and bury them there.

To do that, they created an organization, Mothers of Srebrenica, which engaged in street protests and other actions to stay in the public eye. They demanded that the mass graves be found, the remains identified and those responsible for the massacre punished. To date, almost 90% of those reported missing from the fall of Srebrenica have been accounted for.

People often ask us who supported us, who had our back early on. But it was no one, we did it on our own, said Sehida Abdurahmanovic.

The pain is the best and the most difficult education, but also the most honest, because it comes directly from the heart, she added.

Since the end of the war, Srebrenica has been located in the Serb-run Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, while many of its pre-war inhabitants live in the countrys other entity, the Bosniak-Croat Federation.

In the immediate post-war years, crowds of angry Bosnian Serbs did their best to prevent women who had lived through the bloodshed from visiting the newly found mass graves to search for items that once belonged to their loved ones. To intimidate them, crowds would line up along the streets, shouting and throwing stones at buses carrying the women.

But the women kept returning. For a long time, they had to be escorted by the NATO-led peacekeepers, but still they refused to bury their identified dead anywhere else but in Srebrenica.

Finally, in 2003, Bosnian Serb authorities relented under pressure and allowed the survivors to inaugurate the memorial cemetery for the victims in the town.

So far, the remains of more than 6,600 people have been found and buried at the cemetery. The remains of 50 more victims, recently found in mass graves and identified through DNA analysis, will be put to rest there on Monday.

Dozens of Srebrenica women testified before the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, helping put behind bars close to 50 Bosnian Serb wartime officials, collectively sentenced to over 700 years in prison.

After my husband was killed and I stayed alone with our two children, I thought I will not be able to function, but the pain kept us going, Abdurahmanovic said.

Brought up in a patriarchal society, Srebrenica women were expected to suffer in silence and not confront Serb leaders, who continue to downplay or even deny the 1995 massacre. Instead, they changed their lives, setting up support groups, commemorating the victims and re-telling their trauma to everyone willing to listen, including queens, presidents, prime ministers, diplomats and journalists.

The history of what happened in Srebrenica has been written in white marble headstones in the memorial cemetery, which would not have existed had we not insisted, said Suhra Sinanovic, who lost her husband and 23 other close male relatives in the massacre.

She said Bosnian Serb authorities had underestimated the Srebrenica women.

If, God forbid, a war was to break out in Bosnia again, maybe (the Serbs) would do things differently by letting the men live and killing the women, she said.
A Texas judge issued an order Friday to continue blocking the state from investigating two families of transgender youth who have received gender affirming medical care and said she was considering whether to prevent additional investigations.

The ruling extends in part a temporary order issued last month blocking investigations against three families who sued and preventing any similar investigations against members of the LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG Inc. The group has more than 600 members in Texas.

In her order Friday, Judge Amy Clark Meachum said she was still weighing whether to issue a similar order prohibiting similar investigations against the third family and PFLAG members. An order preventing those investigations had been set to expire Friday. An attorney last month said the third family of a transgender minor had learned after the lawsuits filing that the state had dropped its investigation into them.

The two families to whom Friday's order applies would suffer probable, imminent, and irreparable injury in the interim" without the order, Meachum wrote.

The ruling was the latest against the state's efforts to label gender affirming care as child abuse.

The Texas Supreme Court in May allowed the state to investigate parents of transgender youth for child abuse while also ruling in favor of one family that was among the first contacted by child welfare officials following order by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

The latest challenge was brought by Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the families of three teenage boys  two 16-year-olds and a 14-year-old  and PFLAG.

The Court recognized yet again that being subjected to an unlawful and unwarranted investigation causes irreparable harm for these families who are doing nothing more than caring for and affirming their children and seeking the best course of care for them in consultation with their medical providers," the groups said in a statement.

The families had talked in court filings about the anxiety that the investigations created for them and their children. The mother of one of the teens said her son attempted suicide and was hospitalized the day Abbott issued his directive. The outpatient psychiatric facility where the teen was referred reported the family for child abuse after learning he had been prescribed hormone therapy, she said in a court filing.

A judge in March put Abbotts order on hold after a lawsuit was brought on behalf of a 16-year-old girl whose family said it was under investigation. The Texas Supreme Court in May ruled that the lower court overstepped its authority by blocking all investigations going forward.

The lawsuit that prompted that ruling marked the first report of parents being investigated following Abbotts directive and an earlier nonbinding legal opinion by Paxton labeling certain gender-confirming treatments as child abuse. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Service has said it opened nine investigations following the directive and opinion.

Abbotts directive and the attorney generals opinion go against the nations largest medical groups, including the American Medical Association, which have opposed Republican-backed restrictions filed in statehouses nationwide.

Arkansas last year became the first state to pass a law prohibiting gender-confirming treatments for minors, and Tennessee approved a similar measure. Judges have blocked laws in Arkansas and Alabama, and both of those states are appealing.

Meachum set a Dec. 5 trial on whether to permanently block Texas' investigations into the families.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Oprah Winfreys father, Vernon Winfrey, has died at the age of 89.

Oprah confirmed in an Instagram post that her father died in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday.

Yesterday with family surrounding his bedside I had the sacred honor of witnessing the man responsible for my life, take his last breath, the media mogul wrote. We could feel peace enter the room at his passing.

Details about funeral plans were not immediately released.

Earlier this week, Oprah surprised her father by throwing him a surprise barbeque in Nashville on the Fourth of July. The event was called Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Day, which included a barber chair to honor his long career as a barber and owning his own shop in Nashville for nearly 50 years.

Vernon served as a member of Nashville's Metro City Council for 16 years and was a trustee for the Tennessee State University.

Oprah spent her early childhood at her father's hometown of Kosciusko, Mississippi, and in Milwaukee with her mother, Vernita Lee, who died in 2018. However, she also lived with her father in Nashville, between the ages of 7 and 9 and during her teens.

If I hadnt been sent to my father (when I was 14), I would have gone in another direction," Oprah told the Washington Post in 1986. "I could have made a good criminal. I would have used these same instincts differently.
BRISTOL, Va. (AP)  Virginia's first casino has opened for business in a temporary space inside a former Bristol shopping mall.

The Bristol Casino will be open 24/7, offering 870 slots, 21 tables and a sportsbook. A line of customers wrapped around the building as they waited for Friday's grand opening, TV station WDBJ reported.

We had to come and save my sister from spending all her money, Christiansburg resident Cheryl Hubbard told the station. And spend all of his, she joked, pointing to her husband.

In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly approved legislation to allow developers to build large casino resorts in five cities  Norfolk, Bristol, Portsmouth, Danville and Richmond  in what supporters billed as a way to boost struggling economies.

Potential operators had to first clear a voter referendum. That happened in every city but Richmond, which rejected the initiative last year. But city officials have mounted an effort to bring the issue back a second time.

Bristol voters overwhelmingly approved their referendum, and the project got its license earlier this year.

Developers eventually plan to open a $400 million resort and Hard Rock casino, with a hotel, restaurants, bars and lounges, and a concert venue. The full-scale project is expected to open in 2024 and employ 1,200 people.

The initial location has 600 employees, local news outlets reported.

State Sen. Louise Lucas, a Portsmouth Democrat who had long pushed to change Virginia law to allow for casinos, was on hand to celebrate, according to the Bristol Herald Courier.

Its like Im having my own personal party because its taken so long, she said. Im so excited for Bristol and Im going to be ready for the party in Portsmouth in February.
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Within hours of a 41-year-old suspects arrest in the fatal shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with an improvised gun, police raided Tetsuya Yamagamis home Friday and found a small arsenal of homemade weapons  so-called zip or pipe guns.

Moments after an assassin fired the deadly shots as Abe delivered a campaign speech, a video showed an unwieldy, more-than-foot-long weapon with two metal barrels and a wooden board featuring some kind of firing mechanism. A puff of smoke emanated from the gun after a loud bang as the shooter discharged its barrels.

We are conducting forensics, but clearly it looks homemade, the police chief of Nara, the city in western Japan where the assassination occurred, told reporters at a news conference.

The weapon is far cruder than guns considered homemade in the United States, including 3-D-printed firearms and lower receivers assembled in metal shops.

The metal barrels of the weapon believed to have been used in the attack on Abe were wrapped in black tape.

Similar crude weapons were found in a raid of Yamagamis home and, so far, there is no evidence the pieces were licensed under Japans strict regulations.

Japan has some of the toughest gun restrictions in the world. In 2021, only one person was killed and four injured in the 10 shootings in the country. Most of the shootings were tied to Japans infamous organized crime syndicates, according to the national police.

Guns are extremely difficult to obtain in Japan.

Improvised firearms arent a new phenomenon and parts can be easily acquired and, with some machine-shop skills, constructed, said Steve Gordon, a retired Los Angeles police special weapons and tactics officer. Zip guns have popped up in prisons across the globe, and during World War II, resistance members in the Philippines created shotgun-like pipe guns.

Almost anything can be made in a metal workshop, Gordon explained. They are just metal and alloy parts.

With 3-D printing, online guides and manufacturers willing to sell already-made parts, the once-tough task of building a gun has become much easier.

Based on all the smoke ... seems homemade or real bad ammo, Gordon said of the weapon after watching a video of the attack on Abe. Some firearms experts on Friday speculated that wiring on the suspected weapon meant it may have been intended to be fired electrically.

Such weapons are rarely seen in the United States because of the wide availability of ready-made firearms. Inmates in some U.S. prisons over the years have constructed crude zip guns as weapons. The Angola prison in Louisiana displays improvised firearms as a warning against the threat.

Firearms made with 3-D-printed parts and so-called ghost guns, which are assembled at home and cant be traced, have begun turning up in crimes nationwide.

The Los Angeles Police Department said in a report released last year that detectives had linked ghost guns to 24 killings, eight attempted homicides and dozens of assaults and armed robberies since January.

During the first half of 2021, the department confiscated 863 ghost guns, a nearly 300% increase over the 217 it seized during the same period in 2020, the report said.

But its not just in Los Angeles. In 2020, California accounted for 65% of all ghost guns seized by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to prosecutors.

Ghost guns typically are made of polymer parts created with 3-D-printing technology and can be assembled using kits at home. They often are relatively inexpensive. Because they are not made by licensed manufacturers, they lack serial numbers, making them impossible to track.

Felons who are banned from possessing firearms because of previous offenses increasingly are turning to ghost guns, LAPD homicide investigators say.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed a new state law enabling law enforcement to seize such weapons under restraining orders related to gun and domestic violence. Newsom previously signed a law requiring the sale of firearm precursor parts to be processed through a licensed vendor, but that law doesnt take effect until 2024.
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP)  A woman accused of fatally shooting another woman last year pleaded guilty but mentally ill to a charge of murder on Friday.

Valerie Rose Hardiek, 23, entered the plea in the June 20, 2021, shooting death of Shelby Vonholdt at a home in Fort Wayne.
Rya Jetha

Bay City New Foundation

"Plastics Piranha," an autonomous rover that collects debris from waterways, arrives next week at Point San Pablo Harbor in Richmond, the University of Cincinnati announced.

Developed by the startup Clean Earth Rovers, the autonomous rover skims waterways and can collect more than 100 pounds of waste per trip. It is 100 percent electric and uses obstacle avoidance software to stay clear of boaters and marine life.

Clean Earth Rovers was incubated at the University of Cincinnati's 1819 Innovation Hub and received funding through their Venture Lab program. The startup is launching its first fully autonomous rover to collect plastic debris from Richmond this summer, with the aim of cleaning up parts of California's coast.

"[It's] a way for us to tackle waste in our coastal waterways using autonomous vehicles and data-monitoring devices that act essentially as Roombas for coastal waterways," CEO of Clean Earth Rovers Michael Arens said.

The startup was initially focused on developing autonomous technology to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a zone of garbage between California and Hawaii that is twice the size of Texas, according to the nonprofit The Ocean Cleanup.

However, while at the 1819 Innovation Hub, Arens was encouraged to come up with a more focused goal, like garbage along the U.S. coastline.

"The vast majority of it stays either along our beaches or our coastal waterways," Arens said. "It goes through this cycle of constantly being pulled out by the tide and slammed back into the beaches."

The Plastics Piranha will arrive in Richmond on Wednesday to begin collecting plastic from waterways and will also collect data from marine bodies like dissolved oxygen, oxygen reduction potential, temperature, pH levels and more.

"We have this huge issue across the entire U.S. where there's over 15,000 bodies of water that have reported algal or bacterial pollution events because they go completely unmonitored," Arens said.

Clean Earth Rovers wants to make data about water quality as readily available as data about air quality for Americans, so people know if their lakes are safe to swim in, and so governments can be proactive in addressing water quality issues.

Copyright  2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

Copyright  2022 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Two men have been indicted for conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery in an attempt to continue an illegal cannabis grow in Vallejo, the Department of Justice Eastern District of California announced Thursday.

Steven Chu, 40, of San Bruno, and Ben Guan, 35, of San Francisco, are accused of offering and paying bribes to a Vallejo building inspector.

The city of Vallejo said Friday that in early- to mid-2020, they alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation that a city employee had been offered a bribe. Describing it as a "collaborative effort," city officials said they were "thankful" for their partners in the FBI and DOJ for their efforts in the investigation.

The DOJ did not respond to questions for this story regarding Vallejo's role in the investigation.

According to the DOJ, in July of 2020, Chu and Guan were notified that the building in which they allegedly had set up an illegal grow was in violation of multiple laws, including city codes related to drug activity and that the city would take administrative action if the violations were not corrected. Subsequently, the DOJ alleges that the pair then offered and paid bribes on at least six occasions, adding up to $27,000, in an effort to ensure that the city did not interfere with their operation.

If convicted, Chu and Guan are facing up to five years in prison for a conspiracy charge and 10 years in prison for the bribery charge. They may also have to pay $500,000 in fines.

County supervisors across California are often charged with balancing the preservation of pristine land with development, but perhaps none more so than Marin County, which has some of the most expensive real estate in the Golden State.

On Tuesday, Marin County supervisors will consider allowing the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) to purchase the 723-acre McDowell Ranch located east of Tomales.

Funds to purchase the property through MALT would come from Measure A, a 2012 sales tax approved by voters. Marin County Parks officials said 20 percent of the money generated from the tax is mandated to go to county farmland that is at risk of being developed.

McDowell Ranch is primarily managed as an organic grass-fed beef operation, but the entire parcel also contains "essential habitat," according to the parks department; 66 percent of it is classified as essential habitat by the Bay Area Conservation Lands Network.

It also contains the Stemple Creek watershed, which is the main tributary of Estero de San Antonio, considered by the California Department of Fish and Game as "one of the most significant habitats in the state," according to the parks department.

If approved by the Board of Supervisors, $1.8 million from Measure A funds will go to the land trust in order to purchase the property.

"Plastics Piranha," an autonomous rover that collects debris from waterways, arrives next week at Point San Pablo Harbor in Richmond, the University of Cincinnati announced.

Developed by the startup Clean Earth Rovers, the autonomous rover skims waterways and can collect more than 100 pounds of waste per trip. It is 100 percent electric and uses obstacle avoidance software to stay clear of boaters and marine life.

Clean Earth Rovers was incubated at the University of Cincinnati's 1819 Innovation Hub and received funding through their Venture Lab program. The startup is launching its first fully autonomous rover to collect plastic debris from Richmond this summer, with the aim of cleaning up parts of California's coast.

The startup was initially focused on developing autonomous technology to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a zone of garbage between California and Hawaii that is twice the size of Texas, according to the nonprofit The Ocean Cleanup.

However, while at the 1819 Innovation Hub, Arens was encouraged to come up with a more focused goal, like garbage along the U.S. coastline.

BART announced Friday that it will receive a $49 million grant from the California State Transportation Agency to further the development of improved pedestrian access, public spaces and other improvements at stations in Oakland and El Cerrito.

The grant from the state's 2022 Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, which provides grants to projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve urban commuter rail, bus and ferry systems, will support projects at the Lake Merritt, West Oakland and El Cerrito Plaza stations that will eventually lead to the development of more than 2,000 housing units across the three stations.

According to BART, at least 30 percent of the units will be offered below market rate.

Roughly $13 million of the grant will be used to relocate a power supply at Lake Merritt station that is currently located in a building that will be demolished to build some 550 housing units across three buildings.

Another roughly $13 million will be used to construct a parking garage at El Cerrito Plaza, which will allow for the construction of up to 800 housing units on the station's existing surface parking lots.

BART will also use $4.5 million of the grant to construct new bicycle infrastructure at West Oakland. A housing development at the station will eventually result in more than 750 units.

Evacuation orders have been lifted for an unincorporated area west of Morgan Hill where a vegetation fire erupted Friday afternoon.

The fire is now 30 percent contained as of 7 p.m. Firefighters are holding the fire to 5 acres.

Prior to lifting the evacuation order, residents living between Armsby Lane and Sycamore Avenue were affected. Also, residents of Hardy Lane and Tohara Way were affected.

Firefighters will remain on scene through the evening in the effort to bring the fire to 100 percent containment.

Elon Musk wants to terminate his deal to buy Twitter, according to a Security and Exchange Commission document filed Friday.

Musk said in the filing that Twitter has breached provisions of the agreement he had with the company, "appears to have made false and misleading representations" which he relied upon when he agreed to the deal and Twitter "is likely to suffer" a serious negative effect.

But the $44 billion deal may go through anyway.

Twitter's stock ended the day down about 5 percent and was down in after-hours trading, too. The stock is nearly half the price it was a year ago.

Musk revealed his decision to purchase Twitter in April.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, hosted a roundtable with fast-food workers and the Service Employees International Union Local 521 in San Jose on Friday afternoon to discuss the fight to pass Assembly Bill 257 in California.

The legislation, which passed through the state Assembly and is awaiting a vote in the state Senate, would bring together a council of fast-food workers and restaurant franchisees to discuss and address issues facing workers such as health and safety standards, wage theft and other workers' rights.

Khanna, who represents the 17th congressional district covering parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties, attended the roundtable at the SEIU Local 521 office, where fast-food workers from across California spoke out about their experience in the industry.

AB 257, also called the Fast Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act, is also being supported by Fight for 15, an organization started nearly a decade ago that championed the increase to a $15 minimum wage in California six years ago.

Khanna hopes that the FAST Recovery Act could further push for pro-worker legislation, including a $15 minimum wage federally.

People can anonymously hand in their guns and receive gift cards in return this Saturday in Fairfield, according to the city.

The gun buyback event will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Mount Calvary Baptist Church at 1735 Enterprise Drive in an effort to prevent gun violence and remove unwanted firearms out of the community.

The buyback is organized by the group Faith Partners and Community, the Matt Garcia Foundation, the city of Fairfield and Solano County District Attorney's Office.

No questions will be asked about who owns the guns or where they came from. To participate in the buyback, people must drive up to the event with their firearms unloaded in the trunk of their vehicle. People must remain in their cars.

The buyback also extends to boxed ammunition, but explosives will not be accepted. Gift cards are limited to a first-come, first-serve basis.

The National Weather Service forecast for Saturday for the greater San Francisco Bay Area calls for another sunny day with daytime temperatures ranging from the low- to mid-60s along the coast to the 70s along the Bay and into the 80s in the inland valley regions of the East Bay and South Bay. Overnight lows Saturday morning will be in the 50s. Warmer weather is expected Sunday and Monday.

Copyright  2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

Copyright  2022 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
By Katy St. Clair

Bay City News Foundation

County supervisors across California are often charged with balancing the preservation of pristine land with development, but perhaps none more so than Marin County, which has some of the most expensive real estate in the Golden State.

On Tuesday, Marin County supervisors will consider allowing the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) to purchase the 723-acre McDowell Ranch located east of Tomales.

Funds to purchase the property through MALT would come from Measure A, a 2012 sales tax approved by voters. Marin County Parks officials said 20 percent of the money generated from the tax is mandated to go to county farmland that is at risk of being developed.

McDowell Ranch is primarily managed as an organic grass-fed beef operation, but the entire parcel also contains "essential habitat," according to the parks department; 66 percent of it is classified as essential habitat by the Bay Area Conservation Lands Network.

It also contains the Stemple Creek watershed, which is the main tributary of Estero de San Antonio, considered by the California Department of Fish and Game as "one of the most significant habitats in the state," according to the parks department.

If approved by the Board of Supervisors, $1.8 million from Measure A funds will go to the land trust in order to purchase the property.

If recent protections are any indication, the supervisors will approve the money for MALT, which the parks department is recommending. In mid-June, another land trust in Marin County -- the Trust for Public Land (TPL) -- entered into an agreement with the owners of Tiburon's Easton Point, a gorgeous 110-acre property with sweeping views of San Pablo and San Francisco bays.

On June 21, the Marin County Board of Supervisors voted to create a bond measure in order to buy the land from the trust. If passed and approved by voters, property taxes from residents in Tiburon and Belvedere -- among the wealthiest communities in the state -- would foot the bill, with gaps hopefully coming from independent benefactors, according to the TPL. The board will hold a public hearing for the bond proposal July 26.

The Marin County Board of Supervisors will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday. The meeting will be streamed live at https://cmcm.tv/livegov or community members can watch the meeting in board chambers at City Hall, 330 Civic Center Dr., San Rafael.

Copyright  2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

Copyright  2022 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Abortion is practically none of my business except to observe that the rhetoric has escalated to a point that it has divided the country. But the whole thing has gotten out of hand.

In Tennessee, they are arguing as to whether a 12-year-old girl, made pregnant by her father -- the most hideous of sex crimes -- should have an abortion. Well, in some states trigger laws are going to demand that she carry the pregnancy to term.

This girl has one life, and when she is 12 years old religious zealots are going to destroy that life by meddling in her right as a Christian to make her own decision.

Maybe we should recall that two years ago a staunch anti-abortion married member of Congress who supported all of the anti-abortion legislation had the misfortune of getting his girlfriend pregnant. His first suggestion was abortion.

This is a frequent occurrence when the issue is in our own backyard. There have been anti-LGBTQ legislators who have had to change their tune when one of their own children came out of the closet. Suddenly, it isnt so bad.

The irony of the abortion debate is that it is a Christian issue dragged into the secular public arena even though there is no scriptural justification for the idea that fertilized eggs are people. So where does this idea about fertilized eggs being human beings come from? For being a Christian issue, it has no Christian foundation.

This is not to deny the sanctity of life. Sanctity of life can be found in the whole of the New Testament, but it has to be deduced rather than textual.

Killing human beings is a transgression of Gods values because he values every living human. Of course, there is a difference of opinion among Christians about the time a fertilized egg becomes a human being. The anti-abortion folks have hung their whole crusade on the specious conclusion that a fertilized egg is a human being. Who knows?

While we may proclaim that all beings have equal rights, the United States is a killing country. It doesnt make the humanness question any simpler, but we seem to value the lives of some but not others.

Christian America killed millions of Native Americans without a blip on the sin scale. The massacres of Native American women and children were not even tied into the Christian worth of the Native American people. The 2,000-mile Trail of Tears moving Native Americans from Georgia to Oklahoma cost more than 3,000 lives. Native Americans were slaughtered by Christian Americans who put land ahead of lives.

The same Christian America simultaneously killed millions of African Americans over 400 years, but few in Christian America had any feelings of Christian guilt. We also killed hundreds Chinese immigrants who came to build our railroads.

Now that we have some context for the issue of killing, we can address abortion as a Christian issue. This is undeniably a Christian issue that should be resolved in a Christian way. The proof is in the pudding -- religious people have taken this to a secular world to decide a Christian issue. The Apostle Paul scolded the Corinthians for letting secular people decide a Christian issue.

According to the New Testament, a Christ-follower is a person who personally decides to live a Christlike lifestyle and develop a relationship within the will of God.

In this one-on-one relationship, every Christian is accountable to God for his/her life decisions. By interposing our religious views on another person, we are breaking this personal relationship that is unique to each Christ-follower.

Even though most of us believe in the sanctity of life, we must also accept the fact that abortion is none of our business -- its solely between God and his believers. This relationship also is sacred.
Odessa city officials are still investigating what caused a massive water line break that left the city without water for 48 hours last month. But theyve shared one important detail: The water line was about 60 years old.

Aging water systems are common throughout the country, said Thomas Kerr, Odessas utilities director, during a press conference the day after the line broke. Its often difficult for municipalities to be able to afford to manage those systems as they age. Thats the situation we find ourselves in.

The water outage in Odessa exposed the city to a reality that happens all over Texas and the nation  water supply systems have become increasingly more vulnerable to disasters.

In February, many Laredo residents had their water cut off due to a break in the 50-year-old pipes. In May, Bell County residents were asked to use 50% less water after a water leak. Last month, a water line break caused areas of College Station to flood, and officials said it was due to the dry conditions.

Last year, the American Society of Civil Engineers issued a report that gave a grade of C- to Texas drinking water infrastructure, describing it as mediocre [and] requires attention.

The report notes it's important for Texas to keep up with drinking water demand as its population continues to grow. According to the report, Texas population is projected to grow by more than 1,000 people per day during the next five decades  from 29.7 million in 2020 to approximately 51.5 million by 2070.

The report also states that many wastewater systems arent resilient enough to withstand extreme events. According to the report, the number of sanitary sewer overflows more than doubled from 2,500 to nearly 6,000 between 2016 and 2019, and theyre a threat to Texas lakes, rivers and beaches.

Ken Rainwater, a professor of civil, environmental and construction engineering at Texas Tech University, said a lot of factors can cause critical infrastructure to fail, and in the case of water pipes, it could be anything from how old they are to what material theyre made from. Other factors are the conditions surrounding the pipes, including the areas climate and whether theyre buried near high-traffic areas.

A large crack runs the length of a water main pipe after Odessa Water Distribution employees worked to repair the broken line June 14. Credit: Courtesy Odessa American/Eli Hartman

In an interview with the Odessa American, Kerr said 40% of the citys pipes are made of cast iron and another 20% are made from iron-based materials. According to Rainwater, cast iron was widely available and used after World War II when a lot of cities were growing their infrastructure. Now, because of the way the material degrades as it ages, Rainwater said its not used when pipes are upgraded or repaired.

While its likely that Odessa has replaced some of its old pipes in the past, Rainwater said its to be expected that cities with older infrastructure will be surprised now and then with breaks and failures.

Weve learned that cast iron pipes have lives of about 50 years, so [Odessa] got past 60 years, he said. But its like you deciding, How long am I going to wait to change the tires on my car?

Water boil notices are a good indicator of how troublesome a citys water infrastructure is becoming. Rainwater said when a water system is shut down, it also takes time to start disinfecting and cleaning water again before its safe to use, which is typically why water boil notices are issued.

According to data from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, 2021 was the worst year for water boil notices in the last decade, with 3,866 reported. The high number of reports could be linked to the winter storm last year, when more than 14.6 million Texans water supply was disrupted by frozen or burst pipes. During that time, 1,655 water boil notices were issued.

On average in the last 10 years, East Texas has experienced more water boil notices than any other area per year. TCEQ said only 12 of Texas 254 counties had no listed notices in the last decade. The agency did not have additional information about why that is, noting that the information available is self-reported by each citys public water officials.

Smaller cities, bigger challenges

Keeping the water healthy is an important function of a citys infrastructure, and its a challenge in places like Idalou, a town of about 1,815 residents about 150 miles north of Odessa.

Our main priority is funding for a water treatment plant, said Idalou city administrator Suzette Williams. Our best-producing well has a contaminant that exceeds the maximum level, and weve tried fixing it in the past but we couldnt keep up with the level.

The contamination issue has been ongoing for about five years, but Williams said its been difficult to find the funds to get the towns treatment plant. According to Williams, its been 12 years since the city issued a bond to citizens, and even then, that was for water and sewer improvements.

The funding opportunities are not as easily accessible as maybe other larger cities that can issue larger amounts of debt to do a large project, said Williams. Its a 20-year note, so we look at the climate of the economy, too, because whenever we add debt to our portfolio, that debt is passed on to the citizens, and thats when were looking at utility rate increases to cover that bond payment.

In March, Williams presented seven requests to the Lubbock County Commissioners Court as part of funding applications through the American Rescue Plan Act, which is expected to dole out about $5.7 billion for COVID-19 recovery to Texas. Williams requests were mostly related to water system improvements.

Regardless of if we get funded through the countys ARPA funds, this project has to go on, Williams said. If we have to look at issuing debt, that will be our next step.

Residents want to raise their families here, they want to have safe drinking water, she added. And they understand that theres going to be some costs associated with it.

Raising money for these projects is a hurdle for small communities, but rate increases are a feasible option. According to the Texas Water Journal, raising rates is the only low-cost means cities and utility boards have to secure the funds for needed upgrades in a short period of time.

Financing upgrades and repairs has become all the more difficult because of supply shortages and price increases in raw materials as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Perry L. Fowler, executive director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network, said contractors who specialize in water systems are having a harder time giving their clients a precise estimate for repair work because of those uncertainties.

Getting pricing guaranteed on certain items is difficult until youre submitting a purchase order that day. So theres a lot of risk thats out there. It really requires a lot more planning and communication in some cases, and more funding, Fowler said.

Odessa Water Distribution employees worked through the night as they attempted to repair a broken water main on June 14. Credit: Courtesy Odessa American/Eli Hartman

No silver bullet

President Joe Bidens Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which passed in November, promises to bring some much-needed financial relief to Texas. According to the Texas Water Development Board, it has not received funds yet but is expecting to receive nearly $508 million this fiscal year.

Although the federal funds that will flow into the state are much-needed aid, some experts say its not enough.

People talk about it like its going to be this infrastructure renaissance, and frankly, I just disagree with that, Fowler said. Anybody whos really familiar with it knows that thats not necessarily the case. Its more money, certainly. It might go to some communities that really need it, but it is not the silver bullet for our water infrastructure needs by any means.

Another issue facing Texas water infrastructure is the ongoing drought. Texas is experiencing the worst drought in the last decade. About 80% of Texas has been facing drought conditions most of the year, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

When it gets dry, the soil expands and contracts, and when it does that, it impacts everything underground, Fowler said. So if pipes are in conditions where the soil is expanding and contracting, especially if theyre old and brittle, theyre more likely to have potential failures. Which is why typically we do see more pipes breaking in the summertime in Texas.

Last years winter storm also caused pipes to freeze and burst all throughout the state.

Any severe weather conditions are gonna potentially impact infrastructure, especially if the ground is shifting and things are moving around where you have facilities for water, wastewater systems. ... It exposes your vulnerabilities, Fowler said.

In colder states, water infrastructure is typically placed further underground to prevent freezing  something that Texas might need to consider in the future. In the meantime, Fowler said, infrastructure upgrades need to happen sooner rather than later.

These projects cant wait, thats the problem, he said. If you delay investments, or you have a project thats ready to go on the shelf, its going to cost more money if you go further down the road.

Disclosure: Texas Tech University 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.

Correction, July 8, 2022: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that an American Society of Civil Engineers report gave a grade of C- to the quality of Texas drinking water. The grade was for the states drinking water infrastructure.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
Following the reversal of Roe v. Wade on June 24, a number of states, including Texas, had trigger laws on the books that have or will soon go into effect, in some places wholly outlawing abortion. However, there are still methods for Texans to circumvent these bans, including the use of medical abortion pills and traveling out-of-state for the procedure. Texas Republicans have pledged to target those mediums next once the legislature reconvenes in 2023.

Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott passed a bill banning the use of abortion drugs after seven weeks of pregnancy. This ban also seemingly prohibits such pills from being mailed to anyone in living in Texas. However, while this law exists, there are still ways to access such pills without a provider licensed in Texas, or even anywhere in the U.S.

For example, a person living in Texas could order the pills online from a provider outside of the U.S. and have the pills mailed to their home in an unmarked package. Patients might also have friends or family mail the medication from a state where it is lawful.

So how would enforcement of Texas' ban on abortion drugs work? Elizabeth Kukura, an assistant professor of law at Drexel University in Philadelphia, says it will likely require interference with mail delivery, which is regulated by federal law, not state law. "It's going to require a high degree of surveillance of people's personal communications, their Internet search history, even physical movements, in order to gather evidence that somebody has had an illegal medication abortion," she says.

Given that such enforcement raises conflicts with federal law, Kukura suspects these disputes will give rise to a lengthy legal battle. Given the kind of highly intrusive nature of the government involvement, the surveillance of people's personal lives, she says, "I think enforcement of that kind of law would focus on, or at least would start with, the small number of people who have a medication abortion and then would need to seek medical care after the fact."

After getting a medication abortion, some people seek medical assistance in getting remaining tissue removed, which often looks like an early miscarriage, Kukura explains. That means patients with symptoms of a miscarriage could potentially be investigated for an illegal medication abortion. In fact, some states have already begun investigating women who experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth on suspicion that they induced an abortion, Kukura says. In some cases, medical staff have reported such patients to the police.

"It requires casting a wide net," Kukura says. "It requires including anyone who lost a pregnancy for any reason. It's a cruel way to treat people who have had an intended and wanted pregnancy, who have had a miscarriage and are maybe grieving that loss."

Even a simple online search for information about medication abortion could later be held against someone who has had a miscarriage or stillbirth."In states that attempt to criminalize all use of medication abortion, we can anticipate that there will be more aggressive surveillance of people's communications, their Internet searches, and even their movements," Kukura says. "Cell phones contain so much information about somebody's physical location that might later be considered evidence against them."

Banning interstate travel for abortions will be more difficult to enforce, Kukura says, as the U.S. Constitution protects the right to travel throughout the country and challenging this would undermine the idea of national citizenship. "I think that remains to be seen as how courts might weigh state's interest in fetal life... how courts might weigh that interest of the states against a recognized constitutional principle," she says.

However, how laws in one's state of residence could be applied to their conduct outside of the state is even more complex. Generally, courts have held that states' laws don't have the power to restrict what happens somewhere else, but it's likely that some states are just going to try and enforce them anyway, Kukura says, "which will then prompt a conflict between the laws of different states and test the strength of that precedent. Courts will be making new law on that point and we don't know exactly how they will perceive and judge the conflict between two different states."

There are already ways that states can exercise jurisdiction for crimes committed in another state. For instance, "a state can craft its abortion laws in a particular way to try to take advantage of those gaps in what is otherwise a general prohibition on applying criminal law outside of the state," Kukura says. "It's a little complicated but I think we should expect to see some states, including Texas, be quite bold about what kind of conduct among Texas citizens they try to ban outright."

Joanna Grossman, a law professor with Southern Methodist University, predicts bans on interstate travel for abortion will not be upheld if challenged. However, some lawmakers have discussed criminalizing funding and facilitating abortions out of state, which Grossman says is more convoluted.

"Texas does not have the authority to trap its residents in this way," Grossman says. "I think the more complicated questions arise if Texas passes a law that says in Texas people cannot pay for abortions out of state or facilitate travel for people out of state. I think that's going to be a more complicated question because Texas then would be regulating conduct that is occurring within the Texas, even though the abortion is occurring outside of Texas."

Texas prosecutors will also likely be more aggressive in using existing or new criminal laws to target people who travel elsewhere for an abortion. Ultimately, courts will have to decide "how far prosecutors are permitted to chip away at the kind of underlying principles of the sort of extraterritorial jurisdiction in service of the state's interest in limiting abortion," Kukura says. "That's going to be unfamiliar territory for the courts and against a backdrop of this highly politicized issue."

On Friday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order instructing the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to oppose efforts to limit access to federally approved abortion medication or travel across state lines to access abortion services. In addition, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a statement last month saying states cannot ban abortion medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

These issues will take time to play out with a variation among courts in different jurisdictions, and will unlikely have uniform results everywhere, Kukura says, adding, "that will only increase the uncertainty for people who are seeking abortion care."
In this weeks news, San Francisco International is warning travelers about full parking garages and higher fees that begin next week; U.S. air travel disruptions werent as bad over the Fourth of July as they were over Memorial Day weekend; TSAs gun seizures are on track to set a record this year; airline and airport chaos is spreading in Europe at airports like Heathrow, Amsterdam, Dublin, Lisbon and Brussels, and in Canada; Spirit Airlines delays merger vote again; Mineta San Jose is slated to get a new transcontinental route this fall; Sonoma County-Reno flights begin next week; United drops a longtime California intrastate route; Southwest will beef up interisland schedules in Hawaii; Australia, Portugal drop COVID-19 entry requirements; United MileagePlus extends expiration of upgrade credits for elite members.

Faced with summer passenger demand that is approaching or exceeding pre-pandemic 2019 levels, San Francisco International Airport this week said it is raising parking fees and urging travelers to use public transportation to the airport. It said those who insist on driving should use the airports online parking reservations system at parking.flysfo.com, where they can book and pay for a space in advance.

Prepaid online parking offers customers the best rate at time of booking, contactless entry and exit, flexible cancellation, and no booking fees, the airport said. Summer travel demand is so strong, the airport said, that it expects its public garages to fill up at peak times and anyone without a reservation may be directed to an overflow lot. Starting July 15, the maximum daily rate at long-term parking increases from $18 to $25 except for bookings made by July 11. Lower rates may be available online based on demand and capacity levels, SFO said. Bookings must be made a minimum of two hours in advance to qualify.

What happened with those expectations of air travel chaos over the Fourth of July weekend? There was some  from Friday through Monday, U.S. flight cancellations totaled 1,435, or 1.5% of all scheduled departures. But that was better than Memorial Day weekend, when the comparable number of cancellations was 2,653. The number of late departures was, of course, much higher, so just looking at cancellations doesnt give a full accounting of the angst suffered by thousands of harried passengers, especially those with connecting flights. The bulk of the disrupted flights came at the beginning of the weekend, with an improvement in operations by the second half. So all those efforts by airlines and the FAA to keep the system running smoothly apparently had some effect.

The airlines had also been put on notice by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg that their performance was going to be under the federal microscope over the holiday weekend. Southwest Airlines, which had suffered some significant problems earlier this year in completing its schedule, issued a public notice that its operations over the Fourth were exemplary: It completed 99.7% of its scheduled flights with an on-time performance level above 92%, and call waiting times for customers who needed assistance were just two minutes, the airline said.

Robert Alexander/Getty Images

The Transportation Security Administration said it screened more than 11.3 million passengers over the five-day holiday period June 30 to July 4, 93% of the pre-pandemic volume for the same travel period in 2019. July 1 (Friday) was the busiest day, with 2.49 million people passing through TSA lines, topping the previous post-2020 high of 2.46 million on June 26 of this year. And heres another reason to join TSAs PreCheck trusted traveler program: Over the course of the long weekend, 95% of TSA PreCheck passengers waited less than 5 minutes. About 92% of those passengers in standard screening lanes waited less than 15 minutes, the agency said. TSAs statistical update also contained some more ominous numbers: So far this year, TSA officers have stopped more than 3,000 guns from being carried onto aircraft, or an average of 17 a day. If that rate keeps up, total seizures in 2022 will top the record of 5,972 set in 2021.

If you think airline travel is frustrating in the U.S. this summer, look at whats happening in Europe and Canada. The biggest development in the trans-Atlantic travel mess came when Scandinavian carrier SAS filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. this week following a pilots strike that grounded most of the airlines scheduled flights. SAS, a member of Uniteds global Star Alliance, said it will keep operating normally during the bankruptcy proceedings  except for the massive schedule disruption caused by the pilots strike. The carrier had already been working on a long-term plan to improve its troubled financial situation and reduce its debt, but the strike has made an already challenging situation even tougher, SAS said, since it has a negative impact on the liquidity and financial position of the company. SAS is offering free flight rebooking through July 10, although it warns passengers that during summer season, there are limited available seats on the market. In the U.S., SAS flies to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Newark, Miami and Washington Dulles.

Elsewhere, Europes air travel problems mirror those in the U.S., caused mainly by carriers failure to staff up enough to handle peak post-lockdown passenger traffic  although in Europe, the staffing problems are also affecting airport functions like security checks, immigration processing and baggage handling. (As CNBC said this week, Americans hoping for European vacations this summer should prepare for one thing: Chaos.) In the U.K., the chief operating officer of the big low-cost carrier EasyJet resigned this week after the carrier canceled or delayed thousands of flights this summer. European media have posted photos of mountains of checked bags backed up at London Heathrow, and the Daily Mail reported this week that passengers waiting to go through security checks were backed up outside the terminals at both Heathrow and Manchester Airport.

LIMOR EDREY/AFP via Getty Images

European carriers, like those in the U.S., have turned to wholesale reductions in their summer schedules in order cut the number of flights they might have to cancel at the last minute during the busy peak season. British Airways had already trimmed its original flight schedule by 11% through the end of October, but this week it doubled down and slashed another 10,300 flights previously planned to operate from July through October. The cuts are expected to fall mainly on short-haul and European flights but not intercontinental operations. British Airways also dodged a bullet this week when it reached a tentative agreement with a major labor union that was threatening to strike, an event that could have taken hundreds of check-in staff and other airport workers off the job.

At Amsterdam Airport, staff shortages have been endemic since spring, leading to huge crowds, long lines and major backups of checked luggage. That led airport officials to set a ceiling on the number of passengers that the facility would allow during the summer season. Last month, the airport reached a labor agreement with airport workers, forestalling a potential strike. Still, the passenger cap imposed by the airport has led to some drastic actions by airlines. One day last month, KLM told inbound travelers from European cities that they could not board their flights, to give the airline time to deal with a huge backlog of people at AMS, so the planes came in empty. This month, American Airlines agreed to an airport request to stop selling tickets on flights departing Amsterdam through July 31. Also, some regional airlines have started moving flights out of AMS to smaller airports in the area.

Niall Carson - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images

Similar problems have been reported at Dublin Airport, which has threatened to put a limit on the number of flights due to big delays in security screening and check-in that caused thousands of travelers to miss their departures; at Lisbon, where more than 100 flights were canceled last weekend and thousands of passengers were trapped in extra-long lines; and at Brussels, where all flights were canceled for a time last month due to a strike by airport staff and Lufthansa Group subsidiary Brussels Airlines just announced it is cutting 700 flights this summer, or 6% of its previous schedule. Lufthansa itself, also facing staff shortages, has adopted an interesting solution: it is drastically raising fares on some popular routes through the end of July to discourage people from buying tickets. According to Simple Flying, the airline pushed the lowest Frankfurt-London fare from $73 to more than $610.

In Canada, meanwhile, Air Canada this month slashed 154 daily departures from its July and August schedule, including cross-border flights from Montreal to Pittsburgh and Baltimore/Washington. Faced with staff shortages and huge checked luggage backups, the Canadian carrier is also increasing minimum connecting times for international flights at its Toronto and Montreal hubs by 30 minutes and spreading out schedules more evenly across the day.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

For the second time in two weeks, Spirit Airlines has again delayed a scheduled shareholder vote on a merger agreement with Frontier Airlines, which was supposed to be held on Friday (July 8) and is now scheduled for July 15. Spirits board of directors has been supporting the Frontier deal, but it faces a competing offer from JetBlue Airways to acquire Spirit. Spirit said the new voting postponement will give its board time to continue discussions with Frontier and JetBlue.

South Bay travelers are slated to get another transcontinental route option this fall as American Airlines has announced plans to resume service from Mineta San Jose International Airport to its Charlotte, North Carolina, hub. The daily A321 flights are scheduled to begin Oct. 6. American stopped flying the SJC-CLT route four years ago. Americans San Jose-Charlotte flights are conveniently timed for Bay Area travelers to make connections on to popular winter destinations across Florida, the Caribbean and Central America, an airport spokesperson said. AA already flies from San Jose to its hubs at Dallas/Fort Worth, Phoenix and Los Angeles.

July 14 is the launch date for new regional air service linking Sonoma Countys Charles M. Schulz Airport in Santa Rosa with Reno-Tahoe International Airport. The route is operated twice a week  on Thursdays and Sundays  by Aha!, the new incarnation of ExpressJet Airlines, using 50-seat ERJ145 regional jets for the 57-minute flight. Its the airlines 10th route out of its Reno-Tahoe base. The Santa Rosa route has been added to the airlines Wine Flies Free program, in which customers can take along a case of bottled wine as a free checked bag through Nov. 30. And Aha! expects to expand even more in August, with plans to begin service from Reno to Idaho Falls on Aug. 11 and to Boise on Aug. 31.

Gado/Gado via Getty Images

The latest news of domestic route cutbacks comes from United Airlines, which is dropping a California intrastate route and eliminating two smaller cities from its route network. According to The Points Guy, United plans to end service on Oct. 30 between Los Angeles International and San Diego, a 109-mile route it has operated for 40 years. It will continue to serve SAN from its other hubs, including San Francisco. Cities being dropped from Uniteds route map include Texarkana, Arkansas, served from Houston Bush Intercontinental, effective Sept. 6; and Flagstaff, Arizona, served from Denver, effective Oct. 30.

In Hawaii, Southwest Airlines has plans to rebuild its inter-island schedules, almost doubling its current operations to 60 flights a day by this fall, according to local news reports. The airline expects to add several more flights a day between Honolulu and Kahului, Maui, Honolulu and Kona on the Big Island, and Honolulu-Lihue, Kauai, and to add a new route linking Kahului and Lihue.

The Australian government this week dialed back its COVID entry restrictions even further, dropping a requirement that international visitors must show proof of vaccination to enter the country. The nations Digital Passenger Declaration, an app that uploaded details of a travelers vaccination record, has also been discontinued, replaced with a paper inbound arrivals card. However, Australias major international airline  Qantas  is still planning to keep its vaccine and mask mandates in place for international passengers. And in Europe, Portugal has now ended its COVID-19 restrictions so that arriving travelers no longer need to show proof of vaccination or a negative test result. According to Schengenvisainfo.com, the only European countries that still have COVID entry restrictions in place are France, Spain, the Netherlands and Malta.

Elite-level members of Uniteds MileagePlus loyalty program have an extra six months to use their accumulated PlusPoints, which can be redeemed for upgrades. The expiration date, previously set at July 31, is now Jan. 31 of next year, the airline told members  a change already reflected in members accounts. The program provides Platinum-level members with 40 PlusPoints a year and 1K members with 280; upgrade costs are generally 20 points for domestic flights and 40 for international.
WFO DALLAS / FT. WORTH Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 9, 2022

_____

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT

Special Weather Statement

National Weather Service Fort Worth TX

315 PM CDT Sat Jul 9 2022

...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of south central Ellis

County through 345 PM CDT...

At 315 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm over

Italy, or 14 miles south of Waxahachie. This storm was nearly

stationary.

HAZARD...Wind gusts up to 50 mph.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around

unsecured objects.

Locations impacted include...

Italy.

This includes Interstate 35E between mile markers 383 and 388.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.

This storm may intensify, so be certain to monitor local radio

stations and available television stations for additional information

and possible warnings from the National Weather Service.

LAT...LON 3217 9670 3209 9693 3222 9692 3228 9680

3218 9668

TIME...MOT...LOC 2015Z 041DEG 4KT 3220 9684

MAX HAIL SIZE...0.00 IN

MAX WIND GUST...50 MPH

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO LAKE CHARLES Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 10, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Lake Charles LA

322 PM CDT Sat Jul 9 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM CDT SUNDAY...

* WHAT...Heat index values up to 102 to 106 degrees this evening

with overnight low temperatures to remain above 80 degrees

through most of the overnight before dropping below 80 degrees

around sunrise. Temperatures to recover quick and we will see

the Heat Index from 105 to 112 degrees from the noon hour

through sunset on Sunday.

* WHERE...Portions of central, south central, southwest and west

central Louisiana and southeast Texas.

* WHEN...Until 8 PM CDT Sunday.

* 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.

...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of northwestern Palo

Pinto County through 400 PM CDT...

At 325 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm near

Graford, or 17 miles northwest of Mineral Wells, moving southwest at

10 mph.

HAZARD...Wind gusts up to 50 mph.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around

unsecured objects.

Locations impacted include...

Graford.

If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.

This storm may intensify, so be certain to monitor local radio

stations and available television stations for additional information

and possible warnings from the National Weather Service.

If on or near Possum Kingdom lake, consider getting out of the water

and move indoors or inside a vehicle. Do not be caught on the water

as strong winds will occur near and around this thunderstorm.

LAT...LON 3295 9847 3295 9843 3300 9843 3301 9842

3300 9817 3276 9825 3278 9846 3288 9854

TIME...MOT...LOC 2025Z 026DEG 9KT 3298 9831

MAX HAIL SIZE...0.00 IN

MAX WIND GUST...50 MPH

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO MIDLAND/ODESSA Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 9, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

Flash Flood Statement

National Weather Service Midland/Odessa TX

525 PM CDT Sat Jul 9 2022

...FLASH FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 715 PM CDT/615 PM

MDT/ THIS EVENING FOR NORTHWESTERN CULBERSON COUNTY...

At 525 PM CDT /425 PM MDT/, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms

producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 1 and 1.5

inches of rain have fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to

begin shortly.

HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban areas,

highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor

drainage and low-lying areas.

Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Pine Springs and Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

This includes the following streams and drainages...

Nickel Creek and Delaware River.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

Please report observed flooding to local emergency services or law

enforcement and request they pass this information to the National

Weather Service when you can do so safely.

The National Weather Service in Shreveport has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Northeastern Marion County in northeastern Texas...

Eastern Cass County in northeastern Texas...

* Until 615 PM CDT.

* At 525 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Atlanta,

moving south at 20 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage

to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Atlanta, Jefferson, Linden, Queen City, Bivins, Smithland, McLeod,

Lodi, Kildare, Douglassville, Pruett and Red Hill.

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather




The Thailand-HCMC Business Connection Forum takes place in HCMC on July 8. (Photo: VNA)

The Vietnam-Thailand relations have seen remarkable progress in multiple areas, from politics, economy to culture and people-to-people exchange, Vo Van Hoan, Vice Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee told the Thailand-HCMC Business Connection Forum.

Thailand remains Vietnams largest trade partner in ASEAN, he said, adding that Thailand is also Vietnams ninth biggest investor with more than 600 projects which have total registered investment of over US$13 billion.

He highlighted HCMC as a major partner of Thailand, given that trade between the two sides exceeded $2.8 billion in 2021. Thailand currently operates 235 projects worth around $482 million, ranking 12th among foreign investors in the Vietnamese southern economic hub. Most of Thai-invested projects are in mechanics, chemistry, food, construction materials, tourism, warehouse and logistics.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand Phan Chi Thanh said there are hundreds of thousand Vietnamese people living in Thailand who are acting as a catalyst for the bilateral relations to grow further.

Vietnamese investors are running about 1,000 businesses, mostly small- and medium-sized, in Thailand, Thanh said, noting that they mainly specialise in industry, agriculture, food processing, export-import, goods distribution, logistics, services, construction, hospitality and others.

There is plenty of room left for the two countries to step up trade, investment and tourism, he emphasised, recommending both sides to strengthen direct economic linkages between their localities and enterprises.

The diplomat suggested the establishment of a network for distribution of Vietnamese goods in Thailand and a similar one of Thailand in HCMC; and that the two sides should cooperate to launch tours connecting their destinations.

Ho Van Lam, Chairman of the Thailand-Vietnam Business Association, urged HCMC to continue organising promotion events to enable Thai major groups, enterprises and people and Vietnamese expats to seek partnership with those in the city. At the same time, the city must provide information regarding investment incentives and procedures for Thai investors and traders on a regular basis, he added.

VNA
March 10th, 1996 is a date that should live in infamy, for it marks the day Rudy Stanko started a series of events that would eventually strip Americans of their last state without a daytime numerical speed limit in 1998. At the time of Stanko's first speeding citation in this series of citations, Montana had re-adopted the "Basic Rule" which cites the vague concept of "reasonable and prudent" driving as one of the yardsticks which Montana law enforcement officers interpreted to discern deviations from safe driving practices.

The court documents are a mess of information, but it appears that Stanko was first cited for reckless driving after getting clocked at 85 MPH along a narrow/shoulderless stretch of MT-200; 5 months later, Stanko gets cited again for reckless driving after getting clocked at 117 MPH on a narrow road while cresting a hill on U.S. Route 87, then less than 2 months later, Stanko gets another reckless driving citation for speeding at 121 MPH literally 2 miles down the same stretch of U.S. Route 87 round a curve with a high crosswind.

All this hooning plus sundry charges led Stanko to then argue with the Montana Justice Court, resulting in a jury conviction & sentencing. Stanko then appeals to the Montana District Court, and again gets convicted and sentenced by a jury of his peers. Stanko finally appeals to the Montana Supreme Court contending that "the statute pursuant to which he was charged was unconstitutionally vague".

During deliberations, Montana Highway Patrolman Officer Scott McDermott testified:

that he is aware that  61-8-303(1), MCA, requires that a number of factors be taken into account when determining whether a motor vehicle operator's speed is unreasonable, but stated that there were no guidelines for weighing those factors or for their specific application, and testified that the Highway Patrol policy manual basically leaves it up to each individual officer to exercise good judgment in his or her enforcement of the "basic rule."

It turns out that the vagueness once used to thumb Montana noses at Richard Nixon's Emergency Energy Highway Conservation Act and it's nationwide 55 MPH speed limit, resulting in 1970's speeding tickets frequently written off as "an unnecessary waste of a natural resource" plus a $5 fine payable on the spot without points on one's record to push up insurance premiums; that basic rule vagueness was deemed unconstitutional and according to Justice Trieweller since it was:

so vague that it violates the Due Process Clause found at Article II, Section 17, of the Montana Constitution.

Deliberations ensue, and 1999 sees Montana's maximum daytime speed limit set at 75 MPH, thus beginning the steady erosion of Montanabahn's glory. To be fair, driving in a state that can take double-digit hours to go from the Idaho border to the North Dakota side has caused many to go Full Send, fully prepared to pay the butcher's bill Johnny on the spot should one get cited for speeding. One of my favorite quotes was NYT Special Reporter Timothy Egan's statement:

Trying to drive the speed limit here in the Big Sky State is like trying to eat nothing but bread crusts at a banquet.

There is just so much road and so few cars, that the temptation to put the pedal to the metal is overwhelming.

Montana chapter of the Automobile Association of America lobbyist Mike Cronin eloquently co-signs with this quote:

It's not that we're all a bunch of crazed drivers with a disrespect for the law," said Mr. Cronin. "You can drive 200 miles on some roads here and not pass another car. So why do 65 miles an hour? It's like sitting at a stop light at 3 in the morning with nobody around.

Let's not mince words, empirically speeding kills, but driving in Montana is akin to Keiji Kiriya's answer to the Full Metal Bitch in Hiroshi Sakurazaka's All You Need Is Kill:

Food is like war. You have to experience it for yourself.

We humans in the IRL live in the grey morally contextual world where "it sounded like a good idea at the moment" can outweigh any impediment to getting where we want to go. If you were born after 1990, be sure to blame Rudy Stanko for not paying his $70 ticket on the spot and instead starting us down the path that led to speed limits in Montana.
Congressman Ro Khanna, a member of HASC, Andy Barr, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Ronnie Jackson, a retired rear admiral and member of HASC, have proposed the India-specific amendments

Three US Congressmen have proposed various amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would strengthen defense ties with India, and waive sanctions that might be brought about by India. Acquiring Russian weapons under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), strengthening the two countries' energy cooperation, and working to lessen India's reliance on Russian military hardware and energy sources in favor of the US sources. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is the overarching piece of legislation that identifies the defense-related agencies in the United States, sets their funding levels, especially for the Department of Defense (DoD), and establishes their basic spending guidelines. House Armed Services Committee (HASC) approved the Act in June with overwhelmingly bipartisan support. If and when NDAA 2023 is passed, it will allocate more than USD 800 billion for US national defense.

The changes about India have been offered by Congressman Ro Khanna, a HASC member, Andy Barr, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Ronnie Jackson, a retired rear admiral and HASC member. Progressive Indian-American Democrat Khanna of California has praised bilateral cooperation on new technology, emphasized the dangers posed by China's aggressiveness against India, and asked for an India-specific exemption under CAATSA. Barr, a Republican from Kentucky, has asked the administration for a report on measures to lessen India's reliance on Russian energy sources as well as ways to expand collaboration on clean coal technologies and identify advantages for the US from an improved energy partnership. Jackson, a Texas Republican, has asked for a report on how the US might assist India's defense.

The amendments submitted to the House Committee on Rules are only the first step in a lengthy legislative process. The committee will meet the following week to decide on a structured amendment process to be presented to the full House; the House will vote on amendments; the Senate will pass its version of the legislation; the White House will then issue a statement of administrative policy indicating support or opposition for the legislation and specific provisions, and the Senate will pass the legislation. However, some who follow developments on the Hill think that the changes themselves show that there is bipartisan support in Congress for the strategic alliance between the US and India. The substantive defense-related amendments are being seen as a sign that there are powerful political constituencies on the Hill invested in the relationship with India at a time when two resolutions have been introduced in the House expressing concern over India's human rights record. Both resolutions have little chance of being taken up or passing.

The amendments also represent the hope in American political and policy circles that the differences in Ukraine can be turned into an opportunity to strengthen the US-India defense partnership, in line with the US effort to encourage India to diversify its defense ties in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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It's shocking how few American storiesfilm or otherwisecenter on African history. You could argue that this deficit in content is due to most Americans not being well versed enough in African history thanks to the Eurocentric curriculum of Western education. However, once Black Panther hit theaters, I assumed there'd be a massive influx of films celebrating Africa's rich history- even if they were heightened through fiction or stylistic embellishments. I mean, there's no end to medieval stories that lean towards the supernatural. Why couldn't films that focus on African mythology and traditions succeed as massively as Lord of the Rings or 300?

In the trailer linked above, the Viola Davis-led feature, The Woman King, looks to rectify Hollywood's bias toward Black stories. I personally find The Woman King's stylish presentation and premise a welcome departure from the typical Slavery-centric, trauma porn that comprises Hollywood's Black historical film output. In the trailer, Viola Davis stars as a fierce warrior that helps train a female squad of soldiers to fend off European colonizers. The entire trailer basically screams
An elderly Sydney couple will be forced from their home of 50 years and face potential bankruptcy after their body corporate voted for upgrades to their buildings windows that they could not afford.

Nitsa and Spiros Tzavellas, pensioners aged 78 and 81, are desperately trying to sell their three-bedroom flat before a deadline of mid-August when bankruptcy hearings will resume in court.

Nitsa and Spiros Tzavellas may face bankruptcy after they could not pay a strata levy. Credit:Steven Siewert

Im very stressed, Ive lost a lot of weight and my husband is very sick, and hes very worried too, Nitsa said.

Consumer advocates say the case shows why reform is needed to curb the power of owners corporations and strata companies who manage properties under strata title, such as apartments.
Its been almost two centuries since the small Mitchells hopping mouse jumped across NSW, but scientists are hoping 150 of the creatures might be enough to restore its population.

Behind a high electrified fence in Mallee Cliffs National Park, in the states south-west, are 9500 hectares of land that are cat- and fox-free, where the mice will be given a chance to thrive.

The Mitchells Hopping Mouse has returned to NSW after an absence of more than 150 years. Credit:Daniel Burton

Its part of a statewide project to bolster and return the wild populations of more than a dozen species that had become extinct in NSW, as well as more than 20 other locally extinct species.

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service deputy secretary Atticus Fleming said Australia had the worst extinction rates in the world, driven in part by feral animals such as cats and foxes.
If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride, as the old saying goes. And if calling a time-honoured political accounting process a wellbeing budget were enough to ensure that it improved the lot of the populous, New Zealanders would be many times blessed, having been graced with four of them in recent times.

Unfortunately, wishes and words do not confer wealth or wellbeing. Indeed, since the Ardern government handed down its first wellbeing budget, real outcomes in New Zealand have stagnated or gotten worse.

Illustration: Reg Lynch Credit:

This is not something you would have heard at the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, attended by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the Australian prime minister and treasurer this week.

Ardern, who is preparing for an election next year, will be hoping that the Albanese governments plan to adopt wellbeing budgeting creates the impression that the New Zealand governments vision is inspiring the world. Australians should fervently hope that when Treasurer Jim Chalmers promises to learn from the experience of New Zealand friends in talks with his NZ counterpart, it means hes taking the NZ experience as a cautionary tale.
Its the extraordinary moments with people that I recall above a single story. New 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson. Credit:ABC Fitz: And what of the good and the great, the bad and the desperate, the precious and the powerful youve interviewed? SF: I will never forget the fizzing hostility of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard for The Killing Season. [But] the greatest personal challenge was interviewing convicted Catholic Church paedophiles in prison, which I did for the ABC series Revelation. One of the interviews that sticks in my mind is with Hillary Clinton after losing the unlosable election to Donald Trump, trying to get to whether she accepted responsibility for it, losing not just in a regular political context, but losing to Donald Trump. I remember trying to get trying to get her to pass through the veil and actually talk about what that really meant. I dont think anyone has ever succeeded in doing that with her. Fitz: Did you? SF: No. At that level, where the power struggle is so immense and intense, they learn to be, as the French say, blinde armoured and it is hard to break through.

Fitz: Closer to home, of the politicians youve interviewed, who is the stand-out for interviewing firepower  where you pull out your rapier and know from the first I am up against it here? SF: Well, this will be an unpopular answer. But the most difficult person to interview in the Australian line-up is Scott Morrison, and never more so than before he became PM. He prevents engagement. He puts up a wall. And its like trying to lay siege to a medieval castle where there are no chinks, and you just cant get through. I would never apologise for interviewing Bannon. Sarah Ferguson with Steve Bannon in 2018. Credit:Twitter / @FergusonNews Fitz: To return to America, in your longer form journalism, I particularly enjoyed your dissection of the Trump years and your excoriation of Fox News, though in a moment of rare controversy for you, I remember you being torn apart on social media for posting a photo of you standing with the execrable Steve Bannon, where you were NOT snarling. In hindsight, was that a mistake? SF: I would never apologise for interviewing Bannon. At that time  in 2018, when he had just left the White House  he had an open door into Trumps mind, methods and intention and laid out a path of actions that Trump was going to take, which included overturning Roe vs. Wade. He talked about a change to Americas behaviour in the Pacific vis a vis China, which would have profound implications for Australia. So all the things he talked about that day, all of them have come to pass. People at this time were too ready to dismiss Trump as a sort of bizarre circus phenomenon, but we needed to know what it really meant. Not just to treat it as a pantomime.

Fitz: And posting the photo of you smiling with him? SF: When in a photo with someone, my natural instinct is to smile. But youre right, I shouldnt have smiled. Still, I repeat: whoever holds the reins of power, we need to know everything we can know about them, whether we like their views or not. Fitz: Speaking of which, taking on the Murdochs in your Fox News expose for Four Corners came at a price. They were threatening legal action. Where is that up to? SF: Its been very quiet on the Murdoch front for a while. I havent heard anything recently, though I was thinking about it the other day as the news of Rupert and Jerry Halls divorce came through, with the rumours that Lachlan Murdoch is moving towards Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for 2024 which is very interesting. But, no, I dont know where the Fox News lawyers are up to, but the fact that they kept going with all those dire threats and warnings was lamentable. Fitz: Speaking of media barons, you once worked on the iconic Sunday program during the Kerry Packer years. Everyone who worked for Packer has a storywhats yours?

Sarah Ferguson interviewing former PM Julia Gillard for the series, The Killing Season. I will never forget the fizzing hostility of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. Credit:ABC SF: I never met Kerry, but I can say that the mood and mode at Channel Nine at that time, was rambunctious in the extreme, somewhat threatening, and taught me a great deal about how to conduct myself in my day-to-day work. Fitz: In what way? SF: Just do the work. I remember one of my colleagues at the time, saying in the middle of some fantastic battle that was going on at Channel Nine, that he wanted to become a player. And I remember thinking to myself, take note. I never want to do that. I want to do the work. Fitz: Which youve done for the last three decades, albeit with a recent hiccup. What happened to the whole thing about you being the ABCs China correspondent?

SF: Very simple. I never got a visa from them to move there and start work. Fitz: Were you on some blacklist? This woman is a danger to communism. SF: As much as Id like to think that it was personal, honestly, it was just about that shift in the Chinese government posture that had decided to punish Australia. Fitz: Did you lose a year of your professional life? SF: Sort of. I was very disappointed not to go to China. I was excited to be going there at such a fascinating time, with all those things I talked about earlier, all the adventure, so many things happening. But you know, when things like that happen, you just have to pivot, have to step to the side and do something else.

ABC journalist Sarah Ferguson presented Fox and the Big Lie, the program that frustrated executives at the American cable network. Fitz: Welcome to ABCs 7.30! It may not be your Everest, but certainly your highest peak so far. What are the journalistic touchstones you bring to it? SF: The audience comes first, always. It sounds like a cliche but it is not. We are in an age where people feel perhaps more than ever, that they dont have access to or understanding of, power, how it works. And if it is too remote from peoples lives they feel small in the face of, of power. And so bringing whatever tough analysis I can bring, or whatever toughness I can bring to enabling people to understand it, and hold it to account  how power and money work in Australia  thats the job. Fitz: Was there any baton change between you and Leigh, any final words of advice she gave you? SF: She was gracious and charming. And I have her body of work as a library. But yes, we had a we had a very nice exchange.

Fitz: Anything she said you said to you that you can share with us? SF: Im not for sharing that kind of thing. Fitz: How do you feel at the end of your first week in the gig? SF: Im exhausted, but Ive loved it. I had a fabulous time, and Id like to do it again next week. Fitz: There was some backlash after your first interview in the new role, with Deputy PM Richard Marles. There was a lot of comment saying you were too combative. You have heard such criticism before. Were you too combative on this occasion, in your view, and do you care?

SF: Let me phrase this correctly because I dont want to sound arrogant. I have many things to learn, so Im interested in criticism. But I have to find the right level of combat myself. And so if people are nasty, my answer is: I dont care. But I do care about doing it well, and better. Fitz: And speaking of criticism, there is endless gibber about ABC bias. Your response? SF: Its gibber. Ferguson is married to fellow journalist Tony Jones who she describes as funny, brilliant and exciting. Credit:Louie Douvis Fitz: John Howard famously said when he became PM that the times will suit me. Will the political times suit you, as you take over the most influential current affairs hosting gig in the country? And how would you characterise these times?

SF: Well, they do suit me insofar as we have a new government. So there are new ideas to explore, new political power relationships to understand. Its all new, so they do suit me. And were in an era of intellectual expansion, so there are so many new ideas floating around the world at the moment. This is a time of great dynamism, and this is a time of wild roiling ideas. And that sounds like a lot of fun to me. So yes, the times suit me. Fitz: Leigh Sales made clear as she headed for the exits, that among other things beyond exhaustion at the sheer intensity of the roles, she was worn down by the vicious trolls on social media. How do you navigate that? SF: Social media has some uses. But I do not look to social media to tell me what to think about myself, right? Theres nothing for me there. And its just a few people. So I am not really interested in it as a means of reflecting on who I am. Its not worth going through the drunks at the back of the room in order to get to the smart person at the front. Im very happy to find that critique elsewhere. Fitz: What about other media? Do you, for example, watch Sky News After Dark to get a different perspective? SF: No because I think that form of divisiveness makes people and the country as a whole a less happy place. Sky News After Dark is following the American model and I dont like following other peoples models. It doesnt suit Australia, it is not fit for purpose in this country. Ive seen what that kind of media operation does in America and the January 6 attack on the Capitol was the apotheosis of it. So theres plenty of room for combat and contrary and fierce exchange of ideas, but one thats laced with nastiness and distrust is not something thats going to add to the peoples or my knowledge of the way the world works.

Fitz: Okay, last question. Youre obviously a huge consumer of politics and world affairs. What do you do in your downtime that might surprise us? Or are you not for sharing that either? SF: (Laughs.) Im not for sharing. I tend to swerve away from the personal. But its good to be back in Australia! Fitz: Welcome home. Joke of the Week Two campers are walking through the woods when a huge brown bear suddenly appears in the clearing about 100 metres in front of them. The bear sees the campers and begins to lope towards them. The first bloke drops his backpack, digs out a pair of sneakers and frantically begins to put them on. The second bloke says, What are you doing??? Sneakers wont help you outrun that bear!!!!

I dont need to outrun the bear, the first guy says calmly, as he ties up the last lace. I just need to outrun you. Tweet of the Week Trying to decide who should replace Boris Johnson is like trying to decide which toilet to use at Glastonbury. - @BennettArron Keir Starmer, the UKs Labour leader, delivered a number of zingers this week, all at Boris Johnsons expense. Credit:Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament via AP Quote of the week

The sinking ship is leaving the rat. - UK Labour Opposition Leader Keir Starmer, on the mass ministry resignation that forced Boris Johnson to stand down. What they said It is dealing with a shameful episode in Australias military history. It matters in terms of who we are as a nation, who we are as a people, that our country deals with this itself. - Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles on the Afghanistan war crimes inquiry. People come up to me in the street and say I have had a Barry today. I know it is all good-natured banter. But these people (Step One) are using my name in almost a derogatory way, and its really not on. If people are using someones name to sell something then that person should be rewarded in some way. I just want a fair suck of the sauce bottle. But these guys seem so mean they would steal a worm off a blind chook. They didnt even offer me a free pair of Reg Grundys. - Barry Crocker, the 86-year-old legendary entertainer is unhappy at an underwear company using his name  rhyming slang for shocker in the Australian argot  in one of their advertisements, without his permission. I think it is always brutal coming from government into opposition. You can choose a couple of paths and one is to wallow and conduct this never-ending postmortem about why the government lost. The better path is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get on with it, and I think we have done that. - Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

President Biden is a genuinely good man, but he has yet been unable to break through our national malady of denial, deceit, and distrust. A return of Donald Trump would feed the sickness, probably rendering it incurable. - Senator Mitt Romney, former Republican presidential nominee. Of course, [these young men] are angry. They know that their lives will not be better than their parents. Theyll be worse. Thats all but guaranteed. They know that. Theyre not that stupid. And yet the authorities in their lives  mostly women  never stop lecturing them about their so-called privilege. Youre male, youre privileged! Imagine that. Try to imagine an unhealthier, unhappier life than that. So, a lot of young men in America are going nuts. Are you surprised? - Fox News Tucker Carlson on why there are so many male mass shooters in America. We should have known. Its womens fault. I think the guys a cancer. I think Alex and the movement that hes built is a cancer that has infected the party ... and it needs to be excised. This cancer needs to be cut out. - Former NSW Liberal heavyweight  since expelled  Matthew Camenzuli on rival faction leader and then-cabinet minister Alex Hawke. He was speaking to Four Corners. These proved to be merely his opening remarks. [Boris Johnson is] like a cockroach in a nuclear apocalypse. - An unnamed Conservative MP in Britain, as Boris Johnson refused to leave the Prime Ministership, despite mass resignations from his Ministry.

The charge of the light-weight brigade. - Keir Starmer, UK leader of the opposition, describing the rush of Boris Johnsons ministers resigning this week. Loading My sense is that what Australians really want is a target to be legislated. We have to actually bank some of these gains and I want to see a target with integrity. Theres some real concern about the way that were actually getting to whatever target we set and thatll be my focus. Having a target and treating that ... as a floor, not a ceiling and then ramping up ambition over time. - Independent senator David Pocock, signalling his support for legislating Labors 43 per cent emissions reduction target for 2030, despite wanting a more ambitious goal. Were just as boring as any other couple. I want the majority of the straight, cis-gendered population to be reminded that were human first. - Kim Lee, a transgender man who gave birth four months ago and announced it for International Pride Month. His wife, Julie, had many miscarriages, so Kim decided to have the baby.
One man is in custody and a manhunt is under way for another after a nine-year-old girl in her pyjamas was shot outside her family home in Sydneys south on Friday night.

The girl, her mother and two siblings were unpacking groceries at their home on Queens Road in Connells Point just before 6pm when a man allegedly got out of a stolen BMW with cloned number plates that had been lying in wait and let several shots go from a firearm in the direction of the house towards this family, State Crime Commands director, detective acting chief superintendent Grant Taylor said on Saturday.

It was parked some 100 metres up the road and made its way closer when the family arrived.

It was abundantly clear that the girl was a child, he said.
In the following months, Eden and Oxley went to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to try to get their money back. Georgina Oxley and David Eden. Credit:Joe Armao They were successful, winning an order in their favour for $3327.50. The money was eventually paid a year after the order was made. Eden and Oxley believe that was the spark for an online campaign against them. According to court documents, the first fake review posted by the owners of the removalist company or people associated with them appeared on the business page for Designer Plants in May 2019.

Very poor quality products. Please save your money shop somewhere else, the review said. The name of the reviewer was the same as a staff member at Melbourne Movers, according to Eden and Oxleys statement of claim, and had posted a five-star review on his employers Google business page the same day. In the years since, Eden and Oxley say their page has been inundated with bad reviews accusing them of ripping people off, not offering refunds, selling inferior products and having rude staff. Sometimes the same typos were repeated, like dogie or doggy instead of dodgy.

When comments are made like that, you dont think its going to turn into a multi-year ordeal, said Eden. And you certainly dont think youll have to spend the amount of money that we are spending trying to resolve it. According to court documents, Eden and Oxley requested that Google take the reviews down, however the tech company only removed some of them. In July 2020, Eden and Oxley commenced proceedings in the Melbourne Magistrates Court seeking an intervention order against the removalists to stop them posting more reviews.

They were granted an interim order, according to civil court documents, which required the removalists not to publish on the internet any material about [Oxley and/or Eden]. Rather than stop, Eden and Oxley claim that the removalists posted another 32 negative reviews the day after the order was served. Google is facing a lawsuit over negative reviews. Credit:Bloomberg The reviews were posted under the names of either the removalists themselves, Eden and Oxley claim, or people associated with them. All the reviews had a similar writing style to previous negative posts, Eden and Oxley say. In subsequent court hearings, subpoenas were issued to Google to try and establish the identity of the people publishing the reviews. Victoria Police also made a request to Google for information to unmask the anonymous posters.

But Google has refused to comply, say Eden and Oxley, and have generally made it difficult to put a stop to the reviews through its complaints process. The pair are now taking defamation action in the Victorian County Court. Establishing the real identities of the reviewers will be key to the case. They are suing the owners of the removalist company, Udari Achichi and Rangika Abeyweera, for defamation and injurious falsehood for posting the allegedly fake reviews. Google is being sued for defamation for publishing five of the reviews, with legal papers served on the companys headquarters in Mountain View, California.

The case is set down for a judge-only trial in January. Credit:Wayne Taylor Google declined to comment when contacted by The Sunday Age. In defence documents, the company denied that the reviews were defamatory and said that it could not respond to Victoria Polices request because it did not have enough information to find the associated account. The search giant also admitted to not responding to the court subpoena because it was not under any legal compulsion to produce such documents. The removalists did not respond to a request for comment when contacted through their lawyers. In their defence document, Achichi and Abeyweera deny telling Eden and Oxley that they would regret crossing them.

The removalists also denied that the first review posted in March 2019 had come from anyone associated with them or that they posted reviews after the intervention order was served. They did not request that anyone post negative reviews onto the plaintiffs business profile on their behalf, the defence document states. The case is due to go to a judge-alone trial in January next year. John Price, the lawyer representing Eden and Oxley, said it was a case of the worst online harassment he has seen and that current laws make it extremely hard for people to pursue their rights. Eden and Oxley estimate the financial cost of trying to stop the reviews has been over $100,000 so far and the cost in damage to the business, including lost sales, was over $1 million.

They are calling for a royal commission to investigate the power of the tech giants and put a stop to cyber bullying. Loading The previous federal government attempted to introduce anti-trolling legislation that it said would unmask anonymous social media users, however the bill didnt make it to parliament. These types of things can be incredibly personal, this is bigger than just our case, said Oxley. Eden said they felt as if they had been left with little choice but to go to court.
The surprise decision by Steph Ryan, deputy leader of the Victorian Nationals, to prematurely end her political career has turned the spotlight on the party and its role within the Victorian Coalition.

As the side dish to the Liberal Party main course, the Coalitions faint ambition to win Novembers state election in large part depends on the Nats securing key regional electorates.

Victorian Nationals deputy leader Steph Ryan has announced she is quitting politics. Credit:Luis Ascui

Residual regional resentment over COVID-19 restrictions has left the premier and his ALP government vulnerable in those parts of the state that despite seeing very little COVID, experienced massive disruption and economic loss.

There is little evidence that the Liberals can capitalise on the triple R surge, but the Nationals may do so. The grassroots reality is that they are better connected to their communities, and punch above their weight on policy and influence. They have also recruited some high-powered local talent as candidates.
Heads turn when Kelly Huynh strolls through the crowded food court of a retail outlet in Melbournes CBD. The 20-year-old, clad in a white puffer jacket and jeans, could be any university student ordering a matcha milk tea, were it not for the 750ml bottle of Evian she has nestled into a dent atop her skull.

Mum! one child shouts, pointing to Huynh. Why does that girl have a bottle on her head?

Kelly Huynh finds joy walking with a bottle of water on her head, soaking up smiles as she walks the streets of Melbourne. Credit:Eddie Jim

Huynh takes a sip of her tea and laughs. I always feel a little sorry for the parents. How are they supposed to explain that?

For years, Huynh has been asked to explain why she does it  by friends, passersby, fans on social media. Still, she struggles to find an answer she feels to be exactly right.
If you're like me, and can't get enough of rescue dogs with underbites, then this clip is for you. Check out the contestants for "Best Underbite" in all their toothy glory at the American Rescue Dog Show in 2020. In these glorious eight minutes you'll be introduced one by one to these gorgeous creatures  Boogie, a Pomeranian Chihuahua mix; Oliver, a Terrier mix; Ravioli, a Brussels Griffon and Shih Tzu mix; Otis, a Pug, Chihuahua, and Italian Greyhound mix; and more! Judge Terry Simons is so gentle with each dog, and helps the audience get an up-close and personal look at their fabulous toofers. I won't spoil who wins (it's revealed at the end of the clip!), but rest assured, he's spectacular!

ABC describes the show:

"The American Rescue Dog Show" is the preeminent dog competition featuring rescued companions as they strut their fluff, competing for a slew of "best in" titles while stealing America's hearts. These prized pups may be cute, but the competition is fierce. In the two-hour special, rescued dogs from all across the country will compete in seven categories including Best In Underbite, Best In Snoring, Best In Belly Rubs and more. A $10,000 donation to a local animal welfare organization will be made in honor of the winning dog in each category, and each category winner will have the chance to be named the Best In Rescue with an additional $100,000 donation being made in their honor. This comedic and heartfelt take on the world of competitive dog shows is a celebration of rescued dogs and the joy they bring to our lives. Dynamic duo Rob Riggle and Joe Tessitore host America's cutest competition special with ESPN's Monica McNutt serving as sideline correspondent. Dog-loving celebrity guest judges, who will be announced at a later date, will also make special appearances.

You can watch highlights from past years on the Hallmark Channel, and catch the latest season on Hulu.
The Greens will push the Albanese government to expand the scope of its proposed federal anti-corruption watchdog by lowering the bar for launching investigations and giving it the power to probe people and businesses outside of government.

The minor party, which has 12 seats in the new Senate, will be critical to the governments ability to legislate its national anti-corruption commission, if the Coalition is unwilling to support it.

Greens senator David Shoebridge says the party will push for the new federal anti-corruption agency to have broader powers. Credit:James Alcock

It also wants the watchdogs funding to be made independent of government, and is seeking assurances that strong protections for whistleblowers will be built into the commissions processes.

Greens justice spokesman David Shoebridge, who enters the Senate after an 11-year stint in the NSW parliaments upper house, said Labors proposed threshold of serious and systemic corruption as the basis for the commissions investigative powers was too high.
Prime Minister Anthony Albaneses calls to light up city landmarks in tribute to assassinated former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe have been met with enthusiasm by premiers and chief ministers.

Not so much in Queensland.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to slain former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Albanese said he had spoken to premiers throughout Australia and thanked Dominic Perrottet in NSW and Daniel Andrews in Victoria for facilitating the lighting of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and iconic buildings in Melbourne in the red and white colours of Japan.

The Adelaide Oval and the Torrens Footbridge in South Australia would be lit up, while other state premiers and chief ministers are also making arrangements, Albanese said.
MAHO Sint Maarten:--- Some 19 countries are now part of the Caribbean Safe School Initiative (CSSI) with The Bahamas joining by signing the Sint Maarten Declaration on School Safety on June 30, 2022, at the third Caribbean Safe School Initiative Ministerial Forum held on Sint Maarten.

The Sint Maarten Declaration replaced the Antigua & Barbuda Declaration signed in 2017 and updated in 2019. Thirteen CSSI participating countries also signed the Sint Maarten Declaration on School Safety and other islands are expected to sign later pending approval in their governance structures.

The Sint Maarten Declaration recognizes the examination of critical issues impacting disaster risk management and its relevance to the education sector in the Caribbean region by Caribbean Ministers of Education, High-Level officials in the education sector together with youth and interested stakeholders. It further recognizes the diversity of recent biological, societal, geological, and meteorological hazards and their cascading impacts in the Caribbean.

Besides The Bahamas, the signatories to the Sint Maarten Declaration on School Safety include Sint Maarten, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and the Turks & Caicos Islands. The supporting agencies and partners who signed the declaration are Tania Merien on behalf of the CSSI Youth Forum delegates, UNESCO, UNICEF Latin America & Caribbean Regional Office & Regional Education Working Group of the Latin America & Caribbean region, UNDRR, CDEMA, GADDRESS and CAF Development Bank of Latin America. The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and OECS are also expected to sign once formal approval is received.

During the three days, great achievements have been made with the signing of the Sint Maarten Declaration. With 20 countries now on board, we see the engagement level rising and becoming more important over the years, strengthening the framework and resilience of the education system that is exposed to hazards such as natural hazards, climate change, and threats of violence in schools, pandemics, etc. In this sense, we hope that the Comprehensive School Framework 2020-2030 and the summary version that was shared with you at the beginning of the Forum, together with coming CSS target indicators and the CSS operational guidance series will help you in implementing actions to achieve School Safety. You can count on GADRRRES and its Regional affiliates, Ms. Lucille Angles, UNICEF & Coordinator of Global Alliance for Disaster Risk, Reduction & Resilience in the Education Sector (GADRRRES) said in her closing remarks.

Ms. Andria Grosvenor, Acting Deputy Executive Director, Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), said in her closing remarks, We have heard the passion of our MOEs (Ministries of Education) and the Youth on the CSSI. This has the capacity to impact, not only the Region but also the world. As we consider the Declaration, Decisions made and the Updated Road Map, I want to encourage us to do three things:

Advocate for an Integrated Approach to advancing School Safety in our countries and territories in all of our spaces. We recognize that the multiple hazards and cascading impacts do require a systemic approach to School Safety. We need all parties on board if we are going to advance the School Safety agenda.

Continue the commitment to advancing CSSI. We are pleased with the work that has been done so far. We have the opportunity to expand the engagement and the Sint Maarten Declaration allows us to do so.

Transform our countries and territories with a focus on education for development. Understanding and reducing risk in a world of uncertainty is fundamental to us achieving genuine sustainable development. The CSSI offers the space to transform our schools and how we treat disaster risk management to reduce risk and achieve sustainable development. It also gives us a catalyst to embrace new thinking to transform our countries and see our challenges as stepping stones for forging a brighter future even in the midst of uncertainty.

Ms. Grosvenor also pledged the continuous support of CDEMA and their School Safety Specialist Mr. Bernez Khodra and thanked Sint Maarten for the excellent hosting.

Chair of the CSSI, Sint Maartens Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, drs. Rodolphe Samuel indicated that the CSSIs Third Ministerial Forum was very productive and thanked all involved for their contributions to making the forum a success.

I commit to advocating for School Safety and working together with you to advance the regional Road Map. I endorse the call for the inclusion of youth through the creation of CSSI Youth Ambassadors and to giving youth a

seat at the table. I thank the organizing committee comprising of CDEMA, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDRR, Dr. Idelia Ferdinand of the Ministry of Education and National Reconciliation of St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Forum Facilitator Mr. Marcel Goyeneche and Head of the Student Support Services Division Mrs. Olga Mussington-Service and the local organizing committee, Minister Samuel said.

He concluded by stating, Congratulations to all countries who have signed the Sint Maarten Declaration and I am encouraging others to join the CSSI. We applaud the contributions of the youth and the School Safety Focal Points who were included at the forum level for the first time.

Former CSSI Chairman Hon, Dr. Curtis King, Minister of Education and National Reconciliation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, took the opportunity to wish the new CSSI Chairman, Hon. Minister drs. Samuel, a productive stay while noting that St. Vincent and The Grenadines remain committed to working with Minister Samuel and also the collective action towards advancing school safety in the region.

Dr. King also made a presentation to the St. Maarten School Safety Focal Point, Mrs. Olga Mussington-Service, and congratulated her on her leadership in organizing the Forum.

Mrs. Mussington-Service thanked all stakeholders and the local organizing committee for their contributions and commitment to the CSSI. CSSI has created the occasion for deliberations, discussions, networking, the building of relationships and also planning and working towards the betterment of our countries, said closing session Moderator and Chair of the Organizing Committee Mrs. Olga Mussington Service. She also indicated that As we close one chapter, we must remain mindful of where we are heading.

The Caribbean Safe School Initiative Ministerial Forum was held from June 28 to June 30 in Sint Maarten. It was organized by the St. Maarten Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport (MECYS ) in close collaboration with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the Ministry of Education and National Reconciliation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Latin America & Caribbean, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The next CSSI Ministerial Forum will take place in Saint Lucia in 2025.
SIMPSON BAY:--- Three (3) employees of Ballast Nedam International Projects (BNIP) have recently been awarded with a Health and Safety incentive award. The award is part of the Ballast Nedam International Project (BNIP) program, BNIP kicked off the project on June 1, 2022, with an inaugural ceremony at Princess Juliana International Airport. The goal of the program is to maintain and improve a healthy and safe working environment on the Ballast Nedam Construction site at the airport for all.

Mirto Breell, Project Director of Princess Juliana International Airport: Safety is everyones responsibility. This is the core of the Airports Safety Management System which also applies to this reconstruction project. We applaud this initiative by our contractor and look forward to this and more innovations as we continue to enhance the corporate social responsibility of PJIAE and Im very happy that BNIP shares our vision on health and safety.

Baris Haboglu from Ballast Nedam International Projects: I would like to thank all the employees of BNIP, the Project Management of PJIAE, and the Engineers team for continuous support and dedication to safety. This can only be achieved because all of us take full responsibility for health and safety matters.

About Princess Juliana International Airport

Princess Juliana International Airport is the second busiest airport in the Northeast Caribbean. It is an important airport hub for Saba, St Eustatius, St Barthelemy, Anguilla, Dominica, Nevis, and Tortola. The airport is one of the largest employers on the island. It has 277 workers and an additional 1700 workers within the entire airport community. In 2022, the St. Maarten airport expects to handle 1.2 million passengers and 54.000 aircraft movements. The reconstruction works of the airport have started in September 2021. By the end of 2022, the departure hall will be ready to use for passengers. In the summer of 2023, the new terminal will be finished. Contractor Ballast Nedam International Projects (BNIP) is actively seeking cooperation with local people and companies which is essential for the socio-economic recovery of St. Maarten.

Historic Timeline

Princess Juliana Airport was officially opened by Princess Juliana in 1944. In 2006, her Majesty Queen Beatrix inaugurated the new terminal building. In 2017, St. Maarten was hit by Hurricane Irma (Cat 5) and the airports terminal was heavily damaged. In January 2020, Princess Juliana International Airport signed the World Bank/EIB loan to reconstruct the terminal. In July 2021, Ballast Nedam International Project (BNIP) was the main contractor selected for the reconstruction of the airport terminal.
JT IoT expands global IoT expert team by acquiring Top Connect

Posted by Publisher Telecommunication

Jersey / Tallinn / London JT IoT, the Jersey based global IoT Connectivity player backed by Perwyn, announces that it has acquired Top Connect, an international MVNO and global roaming provider. The acquisition of this IoT and roaming connectivity provider and its expert team will accelerate JT IoTa?s plan to build a stronger global IoT ecosystem and to expand into new markets and use cases.

Top Connect is an Estonia-based connectivity player with a 25-year track record of successfully serving over 100 international customers and distributors. With proprietary core infrastructure and a wide range of connectivity suppliers, Top Connect will provide important diversification of the JT IoT portfolio.

Graeme Millar, CEO of JT IoT said: aWe are thrilled to welcome Top Connect to the family. Top Connecta?s acquisition provides a major growth opportunity for both our businesses through an extended service offering for our clients. Mutual access to new markets, products and people will add significantly enhanced capabilities for both JT IoT and Top Connect teams.a

Vladislav Sobolev, CEO of Top Connect, said: aWe are delighted to be joining JT IoTa?s team. By combining our engineering expertise, core infrastructures and supplier agreements with JT IoTa?s connectivity platform, we can power further innovation and create true value for all our IoT global customers.a

Mark Blower, Partner at Perwyn, said: aTop Connect will bring the right expertise and services wea?re seeking to add to the JT IoT portfolio to provide businesses around the world with scalable and reliable IoT connectivity. This acquisition will continue to strengthen our international growth, helping us realize the ambitious targets we set for 2022.a

The merged business will serve over 500 enterprises and governmental organisations across the globe and will manage over 10 million IoT connections.
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ATLANTA (AP)  Not all the political money in Georgia is flowing to the marquee governor's showdown between incumbent Republican Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams, or the U.S. Senate race where Republican challenger Herschel Walker is trying to unseat incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock. But some of the downballot candidates are operating on many fewer dollars, as they reported results Friday for the two months ended June 30.

Democratic challenger for attorney general Jen Jordan outraised Republican incumbent Chris Carr. Also, Democratic secretary of state challenger Bee Nguyen outraised Republican incumbent Brad Raffensperger in part because she had a runoff and Raffensperger did not.

Here's a look at fundraising for Georgia statewide races:

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

Jones, a state senator from Jackson, raised $657,000 for the period and $4.7 million so far for the campaign. That excludes a $2 million loan Jones took out from a bank and used to repay a previous $2 million loan from himself. Endorsed by former President Donald Trump, Jones spent heavily in beating state Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller and two other candidates in the May 24 primary, leaving himself $452,000 in cash.

Democrat Charlie Bailey, his party's nominee for attorney general in 2018, beat Kwanza Hall in the June 21 runoff, raising $388,000 over the two months and $915,000 overall. Bailey, endorsed by Abrams, had $116,000 as of June 30.

Libertarian Ryan Graham reported $1,390 in donations and had $1,383 on hand.

ATTORNEY GENERAL

The matchup between Jordan and Carr could become the fall's most expensive down-ballot race.

Jordan's campaign said the Sandy Springs state senator raised $601,000 in the two months, bringing the Democrat's campaign total to more than $2.1 million, with $756,000 in the bank. Jordan easily beat Christian Wise Smith on May 24.

Carr was close behind, raising $577,000 for the period and bringing his total for the campaign to $3.2 million. The Republican had $556,000 in the bank on June 30 after blowing out Trump-endorsed GOP challenger John Gordon in the May 24 primary.

Libertarian Martin Cowen raised no money and had $632 in cash.

SECRETARY OF STATE

Nguyen, an Atlanta state representative who won a Democratic runoff on June 21 with Abrams backing, raised $874,000 before and after the runoff, for a total of $2.17 million so far. She had $400,000 in the bank on June 30.

Raffensperger raised $305,000 in May and June as he won the Republican nomination on May 24 despite Trump's opposition. He's raised $2 million so far, including a previous $850,000 loan to himself, and had $104,000 in cash.

Libertarian Ted Metz raised $1,381 and had $363 in cash.

AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER

Republican state Sen. Tyler Harper of Ocilla, who was unopposed for his party's nomination, raised $250,000 during the period and reported having $938,000 in cash on June 30. Democrat Nakita Hemingway of Dacula, who won a three-way primary on May 24, reported raising no money and having $49,000 on hand.

Libertarian David Raudabaugh raised no money and had $1,600 in cash. No filing was available Saturday for independent Mollie Beavers.

INSURANCE COMMISSIONER

John King, the Republican incumbent appointed by Kemp, raised $169,000, bringing his total for the campaign to more than $900,000. King reported $90,000 in cash as of June 30 in his first statewide race, having handily beat two other Republicans in the May 24 primary including Trump-endorsed Patrick Witt.

Democrat Janice Laws Robinson, also her party's nominee in 2018, reported raising $19,000 in the period, for a total of $61,000 so far. Robinson said she has spent nearly $69,000, leaving her with a negative balance of nearly $8,000.

LABOR COMMISSIONER

Republican state Sen. Bruce Thompson of White, seeking an open seat being vacated by Mark Butler, raised $327,000 including $177,000 in loans. That brought his campaign total to $663,000, including $327,000 in loans. Thompson, who bested two other Republicans on May 24, had $121,000 in the bank.

State Rep. William Boddie of East Point, who won a Democratic runoff with Abrams' endorsement, raised $210,000 in May and June, driving his overall total to $528,000. He had $14,000 in cash

Libertarian Emily Anderson reported raising and spending no money.

STATE SUPERINTENDENT

Republican incumbent Richard Woods continued his low-dollar ways as he cruised to victory in the GOP primary on May 24, raising $24,000 for the period to bring his campaign total to $55,000. Woods had $37,000 in cash on June 30.

Alisha Thomas Searcy, who won a four-way Democratic primary on May 24, raised a little more, bringing in $36,000 during the period for a campaign total of $98,000. She had $13,000 on hand.

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

Two sets of Public Service Commission candidates are running statewide, although they must live in particular districts.

Incumbent Republican Tim Echols raised $42,000 in District 2, giving him $281,000 for the campaign so far. Echols had $132,000 in cash on June 30. Numbers were not available Saturday for Democratic challenger Patty Durand, who faces a legal challenge to her residency.

Libertarian Colin McKinney raised $150 and had $1,142 on hand.

In District 3, Republican Fitz Johnson, appointed to the post by Kemp, raised $52,000 for the period and $364,000 overall, including an earlier $150,000 loan to himself. Johnson had $311,000 in cash on June 30. Democrat Shelia Edwards raised $530, bringing her total to $20,000. She had a negative campaign balance of more than $3,000.
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, July 8, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Amarillo has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southwestern Beaver County in the Panhandle of Oklahoma...

Southeastern Texas County in the Panhandle of Oklahoma...

Eastern Hansford County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Northern Ochiltree County in the Panhandle of Texas...

* Until 545 PM CDT.

* At 444 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 7 miles northwest

of Perryton, and is nearly stationary.

HAZARD...Ping pong ball size hail and 60 mph wind gusts.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible.

People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail

damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles.

* Locations impacted include...

Perryton, Spearman, Waka, Bryans Corner and Farnsworth.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
Like many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Thomas U. Kim noticed something different about his health when he returned from overseas.

"I never had allergies or allergy-like symptoms until I came back from my 2006 deployment," said Kim, a former Army Reserve officer who served three deployments in Iraq and who is now the president and CEO of the Community Action Organization of Western New York.

But then again, before his deployments to Iraq, Kim hadn't been exposed to the pungent toxic fumes emanating from "burn pits" where troops burned anything and everything they didn't need  fuel, furniture, metals, plastics, anything.

And while he worries that his symptoms may eventually evolve into something much more serious, for now, he's lucky.

"There are many veterans who had much worse symptoms, from upper respiratory problems to cancer," he said.

Kim is one of 3.5 million veterans who, by the government's own accounting, have been exposed to fumes from burn pits since the 1991 Gulf War.

Thankfully for Kim and millions of other veterans, Congress is on the cusp of finally doing something about the damage done by burn pit smoke and other toxins that they were exposed to while serving their country.

The Senate last month overwhelmingly passed the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, which adds 23 respiratory illnesses and cancers to the list of conditions that are considered service-connected  meaning vets exposed to them can automatically get VA health care and disability benefits. And despite a parliamentary glitch, both houses of Congress are expected to approve the measure later this summer.

Kim is one of many veterans who's happy about that.

"It's very close to my heart, as well as the guys that I served with, many who have perished," said Kim, 55, whose son was an active duty Army officer and whose daughter now serves in the Air Force.

Veterans groups say that without the PACT Act in place, the VA has been denying 80% of the claims it gets for disability benefits connected to burn pit smoke and other toxins. But once Congress passes the bill, the number of claims approved is likely to skyrocket.

And that's good news to New York's two U.S. senators, who have been pushing for expanding benefits for burn pit victims for years.

Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, a Democrat who serves on the Armed Services Committee, has been among the most public advocates on the issue, appearing on occasion with comedian Jon Stewart to push for the bill's passage.

Our service members and their families give everything for our country, and as a nation we promise to care for them when they come home," she said after the Senate passed the bill in an 84-14 vote. "At last, we are honoring that promise and paying the price we owe them for our freedoms, our values and our safety."

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, also a Democrat, agreed.

Thousands of upstate New York veterans, and over 3.5 million vets across America, have been exposed to toxins from burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan in the line of duty, and for too long, bureaucratic rules have denied them treatment for cancers, respiratory diseases and the countless other illnesses incurred while fighting for our freedom," Schumer said.

And it's not just veterans who were exposed to burn pits who will benefit from the bill. The measure also expands disability coverage for veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant. Vets exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam have long been eligible for disability coverage, but the PACT Act expands eligibility to veterans who served in other places where the U.S. military used the defoliant, such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam and American Samoa.

"Some of these veterans service organizations, they've been working on this since Vietnam," Stewart said at a Capitol Hill press conference earlier this year. "The learning curve of this country over how we treat our veterans when they come home from war is so painfully slow. The pace is unacceptable."

As if to prove Stewart's point, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer noted that parliamentary glitch soon after the Senate passed the bill. The Senate legislation includes a narrow tax provision, one that would offer a tax break to health care professionals who agree to work at a rural VA facility  but under the Constitution, tax provisions cannot originate in the Senate.

This is the constitutional responsibility of the House to initiate these, Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters. So were trying to fix that. And as soon as we can get it fixed, we want to pass it.

Veterans advocates aren't worried that the glitch will stall the bill for long.

"If you've been following along, you're probably a little confused and asking yourself: weren't we like a day away from the president signing this bill? And the answer is yes  but," said Jeremy Butler, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, in a recent Facebook Live discussion of the bill.

Opposition to the bill is minimal, said Tom Porter, the veterans group's executive vice president and man on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, voiced concerns about the bill's cost, saying in a statement: The Department of Veterans Affairs already has the authority to ensure veterans receive this care where the evidence has established a connection to their service. Instead, the PACT Act goes far beyond, substituting Congress political judgment in place of available evidence and including unnecessary changes to longstanding budget rules to enable hundreds of billions in additional spending on unrelated purposes.

But Porter said he expects Congress to correct the legislative glitch and pass the legislation soon after it returns this week from its two-week Independence Day break. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, backs the bill, as do the top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees.

"We have so much momentum on this legislation," Porter said.

Kim is happy to hear that.

"We stood by the nation when we were asked to go," he said. "So the nation should at least stand by us."
Hazleton, PA (18201)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 63F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 63F. Winds light and variable.
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  A tipster who warned police in Richmond, Virginia, about a potential mass shooting on July 4 told police the man who was planning the attack has connections to a drug gang that operates in Mexico and the U.S., according to a search warrant affidavit.

The tipster, who is described as a concerned citizen in the affidavit, identified the man planning the shooting as Rolman Chapin Balcarcel Ac, 38, one of two men arrested by Richmond police in connection with the alleged plot.

The tipster told police Balcarcel Ac has connections to the Los Zetas criminal syndicate. Detective Michael Kiniry wrote in the affidavit that Zetas is a reference to a gang affiliate with operations in Mexico and the U.S.

The tipster also told police that Balcarcel Ac showed him three guns on June 21.

The affidavit was used to obtain a warrant to search a home in Richmond where Balcarcel Ac lived with a second man who was also arrested in connection with the alleged plot, Julio Alvarado-Dubon, 52. It contains no details of the alleged plot, except to say that the tipster told police a mass shooting was planned in Richmond on July 4.

Authorities have said both men are from Guatemala and are in the U.S. illegally. The only charge against them is possession of a firearm by a non-U.S.-citizen, although Richmond police have said they could face additional charges.

During a news conference Wednesday, Richmond police Chief Gerald Smith said the tipster said the attack was planned for the Dogwood Dell Amphitheater, where an annual fireworks show is held. The search warrant application filed Thursday does not mention any specific location for the alleged planned attack.

The announcement from Richmond police that they had thwarted an attack came on July 6, two days after a gunman opened fire from a rooftop during a Fourth of July parade in the affluent Chicago suburb of Highland Park, killing seven people and injuring more than three dozen.

Richmond police have released few details about the alleged plot or said how formulated the plan was when they arrested Alvarado-Dubon on July 1. Balcarcel Ac was not arrested until July 5. They have not identified any motive for the alleged plot.

It was a very serious threat. Any threat against life and certainly that of a mass shooting is gravely serious. No further information is being provided about this beyond whats been provided at this stage, police spokesperson Tracy Walker said in an email Friday.

The suspect clearly announced a plan to carry this out and clearly had the means to do so based on the weapons and several hundred rounds of ammunition that was seized, Walker said.

Both men are being held in local jails, Balcarcel Ac in Charlottesville and Alvarado-Dubon in Richmond.

Immigration officials told news outlets that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged immigration detainers on both men. Detainers are notices that the Department of Homeland Security issues to law enforcement agencies to inform them that ICE plans to take custody of someone who is currently in their custody.

Court documents filed in General District Court in Richmond say Alvarado-Dubon has lived in Richmond for three years and works in the construction industry. The documents say his visa expired four years ago.

The search warrant affidavit says that after police received the tip about a planned mass shooting, they contacted Homeland Security, then went to a home in Richmond, where Alvarado-Dubon answered the door and allowed them to come inside.

Kiniri wrote that police saw two Glock magazines and a rifle round in plain view in the living room. The affidavit said a second man appeared and provided a Colorado identification with the name Rolman A. Balcarcel AC. The affidavit said the man had two Colorado driver's licenses, a Guatemala ID and a Mexico ID. An agent from Homeland Security Investigations determined that both men are in the U.S. illegally and that Balcarcel Ac has had two previous deportations, the affidavit states.

Alvarado-Dubon's attorney, Jose Aponte, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday. No attorney is listed on court documents for Balcarcel Ac.

Police said Wednesday that officers seized two assault rifles, a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from the home.
Employees at U.S. businesses are required to pay what are known as FICA taxes, often referred to as payroll taxes. Your FICA taxes impact your final net pay and are determined by the amount of your earnings.

Here is what you need to know about FICA taxes and how they affect your paycheck.

What Is FICA Tax?

FICA stands for the Federal Income Contributions Act, which is the name for the U.S. payroll tax deduction used to fund Social Security and Medicare. Those familiar government programs provide financial and health care benefits for tens of millions of retirees, disabled Americans and children.

FICA taxes collected today help fund benefits for current retirees and other beneficiaries, and any unused money goes into the Social Security trust fund to help pay future benefits.

Who Pays FICA Taxes?

The responsibility of paying FICA taxes is shared by workers and the people they work for.

Your FICA taxes are deducted from your paychecks, and your employer pays a matching amount. The employer makes tax deposits as money is withheld from your earnings based on information you provide in an IRS Form W-4 about your filing status, dependents and any side income you may have.

If youre self-employed youre required to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on your net earningsyour gross income minus deductions. But instead of paying FICA taxes, youre required to pay SECA taxes under the Self-Employed Contributions Act.

What Are the FICA Tax Rates and Limits?

FICA taxes consist of two parts: Medicare and Social Security taxes. Your employer will withhold both taxes from your earnings.

For 2022, you pay Social Security taxes on any earnings up to $147,000; your employer will withhold 6.2% of each paycheck to cover your obligation.

Your employer also will withhold 1.45% of your earnings for Medicare. Unlike Social Security taxes, your Medicare taxes dont have a wage limit. If you earn more than $147,000, youll pay Medicare taxes on the full amount.

Your Social Security and Medicare taxes add up to 7.65% of the money you make. Your employer will match that amountand provide the government with total FICA taxes representing 15.3% of your earnings.

Keep in mind that if youre self-employed, youre both employer and employeeso youre responsible to pay the full 15.3% for Medicare and Social Security taxes. However, the law allows you to take a deduction for 50% of the amount on your tax return. The best tax software for the self-employed can help you navigate these issues.

Some Must Pay Additional Medicare Tax

Higher-income taxpayers are required to pay higher Medicare taxes. In 2013, an additional Medicare tax was implemented, imposing an extra 0.9% of taxes on earnings over $200,000.

Your employer will begin withholding the tax during the first pay period in which your wages exceed the $200,000 threshold, and will continue withholding the tax throughout the calendar year.

There is no employer match for the additional Medicare tax.

How to Calculate FICA Tax

You can calculate your FICA taxes by multiplying your gross wages by the current Social Security and Medicare tax rates.

Lets say your wages for 2022 are $135,000. Heres how to determine your FICA taxes.

First, multiply $135,000 by 6.2% (.062) to get your Social Security taxes: $8,370.

Then, multiply $135,000 by 1.45% (0.0145) to get your Medicare taxes: $1,957.50.

Finally, add $8,370 and $1,957.50 to get your total FICA taxes: $10,327.50.

If you earn more than $147,000 for 2022, your FICA taxes are computed slightly differently.

For example, lets say you earn $150,000 for 2022. Your FICA taxes would be $11,289:

Social Security taxes: $147,000 x 6.2% (0.062) = $9,114.

Medicare taxes: $150,000 x 1.45% (0.0145) = $2,175.

$9,114 + $2,175 = $11,289.

Remember, youre required to pay Social Security taxes only on earnings up to $147,000.

What if you earn enough to trigger the additional Medicare tax? Lets say you make $250,000 in 2022. Your employer would withhold the additional 0.9% tax from your earnings over the $200,000 thresholdin this case, $50,000and youd pay FICA taxes totaling $13,189:

Social Security taxes: $147,000 x 6.2% (0.062) = $9,114.

Medicare taxes: $250,000 x 1.45% (0.0145) = $3,625.

Additional Medicare tax: $50,000 x 0.9% (0.009) = $450.

$9,114 + $3,625 + $450 = $13,189.

In addition to your Social Security and Medicare taxes, your employer may also withhold federal income taxes. This amount is based on your filing status and any additional withholding amounts you requested on your Form W-4.

More from Forbes Advisor
ST. LOUIS  Spire is facing more scrutiny over its controversial natural gas pipeline after the utility destroyed documents related to the projects bidding process.

The move drew fresh criticism from Missouri utility regulators, who also said Spire's process to procure fuel lacked transparency, and that the St. Louis-based utility did not select the cheapest option when it chose to buy from its own affiliate. The Spire STL Pipeline has been ensnared in legal trouble for the past year after failing to properly demonstrate it was needed.

Some consumer advocates called the destruction of the proposals suspicious and perhaps unprecedented.

John Coffman, an attorney for the Consumers Council of Missouri who monitors utility issues, said he had never heard of a utility destroying proposals before.

They have to show that its cheaper, Coffman said. We dont know what the fair market value is because they destroyed the evidence.

Spire, though, says the destruction of documents was driven by the terms of confidentiality agreements reached with other companies, and noted that pertinent information was eventually provided to regulators.

Moreover, the utility pointed to an accompanying report that found the company acted in a reasonable and prudent way in its decision-making surrounding the pipeline.

We continue to feel very confident that this is a good solution for our customers, said David Yonce, the managing director of gas supply for Spire Missouri.

Debates still simmering about pipeline

Spires 65-mile pipeline stretches north from St. Louis County and connects in Illinois to another interstate gas line.

It started running in late 2019, but over the past year, the pipeline has been dealt multiple courtroom losses after a unanimous panel of federal judges said that a need for the project was never adequately demonstrated and outlined plausible evidence of self-dealing by Spire. The utility has also been blasted for some of its conduct since the pipelines completion, particularly for its messaging late last year, when Spire was widely accused of fearmongering about the projects uncertain future.

Debates about the pipeline continue to simmer on two fronts, at different levels of government. Nationally, for instance, federal regulators are weighing the long-term fate of the project, which is currently operating on a temporary permit issued after its original approval was revoked in court. In Missouri, meanwhile, state utility regulators and other parties continue their own examination of the project.

The recent details and points of concern about Spires bidding processes for both the pipeline and gas supplies were included in a staff memo filed in late May from utility regulators at the Missouri Public Service Commission.

PSC staff wrote that Spires documentation about gas supply contracts was neither transparent nor did it explain why the Company chose a particular supply price. ... In this instance the price selected turned out to be higher than the alternative price offered.

Staff also voiced concern about Spires destruction of proposals tied to the pipeline. Staff initially concluded that no documentation existed, but after continually pressing for the information, Spire finally provided some relevant documents earlier this year, the PSC said.

But even after receiving several key documents, Staff found that Spire Missouris evaluation process itself was not very transparent as the company moved to have its own affiliate build, own, and operate the pipeline, according to the PSC  an arrangement that set up Spire for substantial profit.

The PSC staff memo was filed alongside broader analysis from an independent consulting firm called Schumaker and Co., which examined Spires pipeline decision-making at the agencys request. The report found that the companys construction of the pipeline was reasonable and prudent and that it has yielded financial and non-financial benefits for customers in the region.

Spire officials said they saw the report as a very positive assessment of the companys actions. Although the precise cost disparities about Spires chosen gas supply were unclear, Spire said any differences were relatively minor and resulted from highly dynamic gas markets where prices fluctuate with time and from one production area to another.

The price that was selected ended up being a little higher, said Scott Weitzel, Spire Missouris vice president of regulatory and government affairs. That just happens in the course of us trading in different basins.

He said that, overall, the companys planning has outfitted Spires customers on the eastern side of Missouri with the lowest gas costs in the state.

More challenges lie ahead

The Schumaker reports conclusion about the prudence of the pipeline is seemingly at odds with the recent rulings of judges, as well as long-standing concerns from others, including leaders of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and outside critics.

To some, the new details about destroyed documents have added fresh elements of controversy and skepticism to the debate.

Coffman was outraged by Spires erasure of evidence that he said would be essential to demonstrate the benefits of its actions compared to alternatives offered in the market.

The Missouri Office of Public Counsel, a state entity that argues on behalf of customers of monopoly utilities, said in an email that it noted the same concerning reference to Spires destruction of documents. The OPC said it hoped to learn more about the action through meetings with the PSC and Spire.

Environmental Defense Fund, which has spearheaded the legal challenge against the pipeline, said it was preparing to file a response soon with the PSC.

But the organization said in a statement that the recent PSC staff report questioned Spires decision to build the project during its challenge, and importantly emphasizes that decision was at Spires own risk and that future related risks should be borne by Spire.

Spire is due to file a response to the PSC by Monday. Responses from other parties are due a week later.

Clarification: This story was updated on Saturday, July 9 to reflect that Spire was criticized for a lack of transparency about gas supply contracts for its regional operations overall, and not just those that serve the Spire STL Pipeline.
Joe Holleman Joe Holleman is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Joe Holleman 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

State Rep. Raychel Proudie is not happy, and shes letting the Twitter-verse know it.

Proudie, a Democratic legislator from Ferguson, is firing shots across the bow of County Executive Sam Page.

At the center of the social media stir is a donation of $10,000 that Pages political action committee, Page PAC, made to a group called Unified Democratic Township Organization LLC.

Proudie is irritated that the donation was made to a committee whose treasurer is Chevon Weaver  the daughter-in-law of Tony Weaver, a Page ally and former $82,500-a-year county employee recently indicted by a federal grand jury.

That prompted Proudie to post earlier this week: You fire the dude with felony charges and turn around and give his PAC $10,000? We see you.

Page hired Tony Weaver to a job as the county jails change management coordinator, then fired Weaver after the indictment was made public.

Proudie even promised to file a complaint with the Missouri Ethics Commission:

Oh! Itll be me sending the @MOEthics complaint and I want them to know it was me, Proudie posted on Twitter.

The complaint revolves around a state law which requires that any donation of more than $5,000 be reported to the ethics commission within 48 hours.

While the records for Page PAC show that the $10,000 was given on May 31, the Unified PAC did not report it until June 30.

It just so happens that on June 7  a date tucked within that 30-day reporting gap  Tony Weaver was charged with four counts of wire fraud in a scheme to obtain COVID-19 relief funds for a local businessman and then split the proceeds. Weaver has pleaded not guilty.

As to the $10,000 donation, Page said he does not control the donations of his PAC, and went on to say he has no problems with Proudie.

Ive worked with her in the past, Page said earlier this week, and I wish her well in the primary.

And therein lies the rub. Proudie, who was first elected in 2018, faces another incumbent Democrat, Michael Person, in the Aug. 2 primary. The two are forced to face each other because of redistricting.

And for those keeping score, note that the filing records show that Unified PAC is not run by disbarred lawyer Elbert Walton Jr.  even if it sounds a lot like an old Walton-run PAC called Unified Democratic Township Organizations (there was no LLC, you see), which also gave its address as 2320 Chambers Road.

Chevon Weaver could not be reached for comment

Thats not to say the Weavers and Waltons are strangers, by any means.

Tony Weaver was a former executive aide to Rochelle Walton Gray, Elbert Waltons daughter, when Gray was a County Council member. Page later hired Gray to an $89,000-a-year job after she lost a council race in 2020.

Originally posted at 3:15 p.m. Thursday, July 7.
ST. LOUIS  A district judge sentenced a South Carolina real estate agent on Friday to five years in prison for soliciting child pornography from a St. Louis area teenager.

Ronald Saunders, 37, admitted to soliciting videos and images of a 17-year-old girl, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Saunders communicated with the teenager in 2020 by cell phone and on social media apps, including TikTok, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Omegle.

He pleaded guilty on Friday, and was fined $5,000 and ordered to pay $18,000 in restitution to the victim. U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk ordered Saunders to be placed on supervised release for life after he finishes his sentence.
Susan Scotti's parents are now caring for the three children after she died of a fentanyl overdose. "My main concern," her father said, "is that no one else gets this stuff."
Black bass in New York is not an unlimited resource. We need to keep that in mind as we promote the Empire States stellar bass fisheries to the masses. We could go on and on about the outstanding bass fisheries that we enjoy in our state  Lake Erie, the St. Lawrence River, Lake Champlain, Oneida Lake, Cayuga Lake, Chautauqua Lake.

The Bassmaster Northern Open Tournament was held this weekend on Oneida Lake. The Bassmaster Elites will be heading to Clayton on the St. Lawrence River from July 14 to 17, and experts are predicting the first-ever all-smallmouth century club  more than 100 pounds of smallmouth. The professional bass fishing circuits make regular stops here, as do other amateur and semi-professional trails. It means big money for the communities that host these events, not just money spent on site but from the promotion they receive. If the resource that brings everyone in suffered down the road, would those tournaments return?

Every effort should be made to protect these natural resources, especially with the fish the anglers are catching. Something called barotrauma occurs in these fish when they are pulled up from deeper water. One technique that can be used to bring the fish back into equilibrium before the bass should be released into the water is called fizzing.

Fizzing is a technique for the relieving of excess gas in the fish by inserting a small needle into the swim bladder, says Barb Elliott of Pulaski, a bass angler who developed a kit for her fellow anglers to allow the process to become a bit easier. Your goal is to release enough gas so that you can return your fish to neutral buoyancy in its present environment, which is the live well in an anglers boat.

Elliott is a Fizz-Ed teacher of sorts, on a quest to educate as many people as possible, especially here in New York.

The litmus test is if a bass floats on its side or upside down in your live well, Elliott continued. No matter how deep you caught that fish, you dont know where it was 5 minutes before. If a fish is performing those actions, the swim bladder has not had time to equalize itself.

Elliott believes that we need to do a better job in the U.S. monitoring the bass tournaments coming into New York. She said there should be some parameters or guidelines to follow for holding a tournament in our state.

If bass groups are going to come in and use our natural resources, we should at least follow the lead of our Canadian neighbors, she said. The Ministry of Natural Resources requires Province of Ontario tournaments to monitor water temperature and dissolved oxygen readings when they hold fish for weighing. They must keep track of mortality of bass before and after weigh in. Canadian anglers are well-educated on how to take care of their bass when facing a barotrauma situation.

Elliott pointed out that our big bass are special. A 5-pound bass can take up to 15 years or more to grow to that size, she said. Its not like down south where that same size fish can grow that big in just five years. Tournaments should stiffen up the dead fish penalties.

Elliott is on a quest to educate as many bass anglers as she can on proper fizzing techniques.

There is a lot of misinformation on the Internet, insists Elliott. Use the landmarks that are outlined in my kit through a waterproof, rip-proof diagram. Two needles are included, and I have devised a reamer that goes inside the needle to make sure the entry point is clear.

So many times, bass fishermen have purchased one of these fizzing kits, but it ends up in a bag or the bottom of a storage locker. To help alleviate that problem with Bassmasters, Trip Weldon worked closely with Elliott to devise a strategy. A few years ago, when many of the elite anglers moved to Major League Fishing, a fresh crop of anglers became Elite fishermen. This was a perfect opportunity to educate the new professionals.

Elliott found that it was more important to connect with the anglers before a tournament started. Pros didnt want to mess with fizzing during a contest when they had never done anything like that before. With the help of Weldon, they allowed tournament fishermen to bring in two bass during practice days. Elliott would show them how to fizz one bass; the pros would fizz one themselves.

Most of them couldnt believe how easy it was to fizz a bass, Elliott said. That first tournament we did it that way, we could see a paradigm shift in attitudes and usage. Hands-on instruction was important. It was so nice to see all the fish coming to the scales in such good shape.

New anglers are now required to see Barb when she attends a tournament, and she will be at the Bassmaster Elite contest in Clayton this week.

Elliott, the conservation director of the New York BASS Nation, has a strong science background that includes biology and zoology. It was around 10 or 12 years ago that she realized she needed a tool to be able to help these affected fish on the water.

The hardest part is finding the neutral buoyancy, Elliott said. Every fish weighs differently.

The amount of time it takes depends on the size of the fish. It could be 30 seconds, or it could be 45 seconds. When you have pushed the needle in, make sure you push the reamer in all the way to make sure the needle is clear. Tap the reamer down to the hub of the needle and them remove the reamer from the needle. It works.

Smallmouth and largemouth have slightly different areas to insert the needle.

Of course, Elliott concedes fizzing doesnt fix everything.

You must take care of your live well, she emphasized. Try and keep the water cool and clean. Also, make sure it is adequately oxygenated.

While the focus of this article is on tournament anglers, anyone who bass fishes should be prepared to take care of a fish that presents signs of barotrauma.

Tournament anglers tend to get a bad rap when it comes to fish and fish survival. During DECs Lake Erie Fisheries Research Unit open lake angler survey from 2018-2020, biologists attempted to document tournament effort and catch as part of the creel. All documented tournaments were out of Buffalo Harbor, and the surveys determined that less than 10% of bass angling effort involved tournament fishermen, producing about 8% of the total bass catch out of Buffalo. According to estimates derived from the research, the number of bass that died during tournaments (during weigh in and the release process) was nine times lower than the total number of bass harvested out of Buffalo (2,799 bass).

One thing to consider in Lake Erie is that barotrauma in this Great Lake is probably greater than other bodies of water because of the limited shallow water structure in late summer and early fall, as well as the increased depths involved with catching bass. Limiting the amount of time that anglers hold the fish, such as changing to a catch-weigh-release format for tournaments would be more beneficial to fish survival.

If you would like to order a fizzing kit from Barb Elliott, she asks to be sent a message on Facebook (www.facebook.com/barb.elliott.127). Cost is $10 plus shipping. If you have questions, email Elliott at conservation@nybassfed.com.
ST. LOUIS  She has the strong support of Missouris soon-to-be senior U.S. senator, but Rep. Vicky Hartzler wont be getting the endorsement of former President Donald Trump in this years Senate race.

Trump on Friday said Hartzler called him for his endorsement, but he declined, saying she doesnt have what it takes to take on the Radical Left Democrats, together with their partner in the destruction of our Country, the Fake News Media and, of course, the deceptive & foolish RINOs.

RINOs is shorthand for Republicans in Name Only  or, in recent years, Republicans who arent aligned with Trump.

Trump posted his message on Truth Social, the platform he and his allies set up as an alternative to Twitter, which booted him off in early 2021.

Trumps message was shared by several other leading GOP candidates, including U.S. Rep. Billy Long, former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and St. Louis attorney Mark McCloskey.

Long, Greitens, McCloskey and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt are all hoping to secure Trumps backing, which could prove decisive in the Aug. 2 primary.

Another major Republican in the race, Missouri Senate President David Schatz has described himself as a Reagan Republican, signaling he isnt seeking Trumps blessing.

In all, there are 21 candidates running for the Republican nomination, hoping to succeed U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, who is retiring. Hartzler, a six-term congresswoman from Harrisonville, is the only woman in the GOP contest.

Hartzler does have the enthusiastic support of U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, who endorsed her on Feb. 12 at the GOPs annual Lincoln Days gathering.

Vicky is someone who I am confident has the integrity, she has the character, shes got the toughness to do this job, Hawley said at the time.

Hawley is seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2024; Trump also is considering entering the race.

Hartzler responded to the Trump statement on Facebook: The endorsement that counts is the endorsement of the Missouri people who know I am one of them and have been fighting for them.

Originally posted at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, July 9.
ATLANTA (AP)  Not all the political money in Georgia is flowing to the marquee governor's showdown between incumbent Republican Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams, or the U.S. Senate race where Republican challenger Herschel Walker is trying to unseat incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock. But some of the downballot candidates are operating on many fewer dollars, as they reported results Friday for the two months ended June 30.

Democratic challenger for attorney general Jen Jordan outraised Republican incumbent Chris Carr. Also, Democratic secretary of state challenger Bee Nguyen outraised Republican incumbent Brad Raffensperger in part because she had a runoff and Raffensperger did not.

Here's a look at fundraising for Georgia statewide races:

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

Jones, a state senator from Jackson, raised $657,000 for the period and $4.7 million so far for the campaign. That excludes a $2 million loan Jones took out from a bank and used to repay a previous $2 million loan from himself. Endorsed by former President Donald Trump, Jones spent heavily in beating state Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller and two other candidates in the May 24 primary, leaving himself $452,000 in cash.

Democrat Charlie Bailey, his party's nominee for attorney general in 2018, beat Kwanza Hall in the June 21 runoff, raising $388,000 over the two months and $915,000 overall. Bailey, endorsed by Abrams, had $116,000 as of June 30.

Libertarian Ryan Graham reported $1,390 in donations and had $1,383 on hand.

ATTORNEY GENERAL

The matchup between Jordan and Carr could become the fall's most expensive down-ballot race.

Jordan's campaign said the Sandy Springs state senator raised $601,000 in the two months, bringing the Democrat's campaign total to more than $2.1 million, with $756,000 in the bank. Jordan easily beat Christian Wise Smith on May 24.

Carr was close behind, raising $577,000 for the period and bringing his total for the campaign to $3.2 million. The Republican had $556,000 in the bank on June 30 after blowing out Trump-endorsed GOP challenger John Gordon in the May 24 primary.

Libertarian Martin Cowen raised no money and had $632 in cash.

SECRETARY OF STATE

Nguyen, an Atlanta state representative who won a Democratic runoff on June 21 with Abrams backing, raised $874,000 before and after the runoff, for a total of $2.17 million so far. She had $400,000 in the bank on June 30.

Raffensperger raised $305,000 in May and June as he won the Republican nomination on May 24 despite Trump's opposition. He's raised $2 million so far, including a previous $850,000 loan to himself, and had $104,000 in cash.

Libertarian Ted Metz raised $1,381 and had $363 in cash.

AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER

Republican state Sen. Tyler Harper of Ocilla, who was unopposed for his party's nomination, raised $250,000 during the period and reported having $938,000 in cash on June 30. Democrat Nakita Hemingway of Dacula, who won a three-way primary on May 24, reported raising no money and having $49,000 on hand.

Libertarian David Raudabaugh raised no money and had $1,600 in cash. No filing was available Saturday for independent Mollie Beavers.

INSURANCE COMMISSIONER

John King, the Republican incumbent appointed by Kemp, raised $169,000, bringing his total for the campaign to more than $900,000. King reported $90,000 in cash as of June 30 in his first statewide race, having handily beat two other Republicans in the May 24 primary including Trump-endorsed Patrick Witt.

Democrat Janice Laws Robinson, also her party's nominee in 2018, reported raising $19,000 in the period, for a total of $61,000 so far. Robinson said she has spent nearly $69,000, leaving her with a negative balance of nearly $8,000.

LABOR COMMISSIONER

Republican state Sen. Bruce Thompson of White, seeking an open seat being vacated by Mark Butler, raised $327,000 including $177,000 in loans. That brought his campaign total to $663,000, including $327,000 in loans. Thompson, who bested two other Republicans on May 24, had $121,000 in the bank.

State Rep. William Boddie of East Point, who won a Democratic runoff with Abrams' endorsement, raised $210,000 in May and June, driving his overall total to $528,000. He had $14,000 in cash

Libertarian Emily Anderson reported raising and spending no money.

STATE SUPERINTENDENT

Republican incumbent Richard Woods continued his low-dollar ways as he cruised to victory in the GOP primary on May 24, raising $24,000 for the period to bring his campaign total to $55,000. Woods had $37,000 in cash on June 30.

Alisha Thomas Searcy, who won a four-way Democratic primary on May 24, raised a little more, bringing in $36,000 during the period for a campaign total of $98,000. She had $13,000 on hand.

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

Two sets of Public Service Commission candidates are running statewide, although they must live in particular districts.

Incumbent Republican Tim Echols raised $42,000 in District 2, giving him $281,000 for the campaign so far. Echols had $132,000 in cash on June 30. Numbers were not available Saturday for Democratic challenger Patty Durand, who faces a legal challenge to her residency.

Libertarian Colin McKinney raised $150 and had $1,142 on hand.

In District 3, Republican Fitz Johnson, appointed to the post by Kemp, raised $52,000 for the period and $364,000 overall, including an earlier $150,000 loan to himself. Johnson had $311,000 in cash on June 30. Democrat Shelia Edwards raised $530, bringing her total to $20,000. She had a negative campaign balance of more than $3,000.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP)  The largest grove of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park was closed Friday as a wildfire burning through dense forest became the latest in recent years to threaten the worlds largest trees.

A team was being sent to the Mariposa Grove to wrap some of the massive trunks in fire-resistant foil to protect them as the blaze burned out of control, said Nancy Phillipe, a Yosemite fire information spokesperson.

More than 500 mature sequoias were threatened but there were no reports of severe damage to any named trees, such as the 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant.

The cause of the fire was under investigation and the rest of the park remained open as nearly 300 firefighters tried to control the flames with the help of two water-dropping helicopters and an air tanker dumping flame retardant, Phillipe said.

The giant sequoias, native in only about 70 groves spread along the western slope of California's Sierra Nevada range, were once considered impervious to flames but have become increasingly vulnerable as wildfires fueled by a buildup of undergrowth from a century of fire suppression and drought exacerbated by climate change have become more intense and destructive.

Lightning-sparked wildfires over the past two years have killed up to a fifth of the estimated 75,000 large sequoias, which are the biggest trees by volume.

There was no obvious natural spark for the fire that broke out Thursday next to the park's Washburn Trail, Phillipe said. Smoke was reported by visitors walking in the grove that reopened in 2018 after a $40 million renovation that took three years.

The grove, which is inside the park's southern entrance, was evacuated and no one was injured.

The fire more than tripled overnight in size to 166 acres (67 hectares) by Friday, Phillipe said. Fire officials had previously estimated that 250 acres (101 hectares) burned but it was revised after a closer assessment.

The nearby village of Wawona, where about 600 to 700 people were staying in a campground, cabins and an historic hotel, was under an evacuation advisory. A community meeting was planned and visitors and residents were encouraged to be ready to leave.

Our priorities are certainly the giant sequoias and the community of Wawona, Phillipe said.

A fierce windstorm ripped through the grove a year and a half ago and toppled 15 giant sequoias, along with countless other trees.

The downed trees, along with massive numbers of pines killed by bark beetles, provided ample fuel for the flames, but winds Friday were calm and the fire was not spreading rapidly.

The park has used prescribed burns to clear brush around the sequoias, which helps protect them if flames spread farther into the grove.

"When the unwanted fires hit those areas, it tends to slow the rate of spread and helps us gain some control, Phillipe said.

In the Sierra foothills, 80 miles (128 kilometers) to the northwest of the Yosemite fire, some evacuation orders were lifted as containment grew to 65% on the Electra Fire that had burned 7 square miles (18 square kilometers).

The fire broke out near Jackson on Monday and temporarily forced about 100 people celebrating the July 4th holiday along a river to seek shelter in Pacific Gas & Electric Co. facility.
Police said a convenience store customer shot and killed an armed robber in a St. Louis suburb early Saturday. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the QuikTrip customer, who St. Charles police identified only as a 26-year-old man from St. Louis, grabbed a gun from his vehicle and confronted the robber after he saw the man grab the clerk and hold a knife to her throat. Police said investigators believe the suspect was also responsible for a burglary and second robbery at two other gas stations that happened shortly before he went to the QuikTrip around 3:20 a.m. Saturday. He was also driving a black Toyota Highlander that had been reported stolen on Friday.
They were trapped and the only way out was to jump. Veuers Tony Spitz has the details.
First there was Mark McCloskey, whose entire political campaign is based on the day he stood barefoot on his lawn and waved a gun around at protesters marching peacefully past his house. Then there was Eric Greitens campaign ad featuring assault rifles and a stun grenade. Now Eric Schmitt has released an ad in which he wields a big industrial-grade blowtorch as if its a flamethrower.

In the escalating arms race that is Missouris Republican U.S. Senate primary, the candidates are long on phallic firepower and short on intellectual ammunition. What does it say about these guys that instead of soberly outlining their policy goals, they glare menacingly into the camera and brandish long, imposing implements of violence intended to evoke  something? Freud would have theories.

McCloskey is the St. Louis lawyer who, with his wife and fellow ambulance-chaser Patricia, made national news in 2020 with their barefoot-Rambo act. He might have looked tougher had he not been wearing that light summery polo (at least the buttons were undone), but it was enough to make them both folk heroes to a certain segment of the political right. The couple was invited to address the 2020 Republican National Convention, because nothing says GOP today like venerating two lawbreaking lawyers and gun fetishists.

McCloskeys subsequent Senate bid has struggled to gain traction, though. This despite a campaign website that features him standing with his wife and displaying an AR-15-style, semi-automatic rifle that clearly represents his central political philosophy. (Or represents  something.)

Greitens campaign ad doesnt involve his wife. She has divorced him and publicly accuses him of abusing her and their kids, so that would be awkward. Instead, the ad features a commando unit that barges into a house, exploding a stun grenade and waving around assault rifles. Greitens explains in the ad that they are hunting for RINOs (Republicans in Name Only  insufficiently deranged ones, in other words).

Greitens, of course, is the former Missouri governor accused of physical and sexual abuse of his mistress, and of taking a non-consensual compromising cell phone picture of her while she was bound and blindfolded, then using it to ensure her silence. And if that doesnt say manly, what does? (Greitens admits the affair but denies the rest.)

Normally, evidence of sociopathic tendencies would be kind of a deal-breaker in terms of getting a political endorsement from a former president. But there are reasons to believe Greitens could be in line for Donald Trumps much-coveted nod. Greitens is the only one in the race with a formal tie to TrumpWorld (his national campaign chair is Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.s girlfriend) and he is leading in polls. We all know how much Trump likes a winner.

If it comes to pass, this will be a twice-impeached ex-president who has been credibly accused of sexual assault, endorsing an ex-governor who avoided impeachment by resigning amid sexual abuse allegations, with both mens political rhetoric steeped in the language of violence. All things considered, it will be something of a surprise if Trump doesnt endorse Greitens. These are two sociopaths in a pod.

Which is what has Schmitt worried. As Missouris attorney general and a formerly serious, respected state legislator, Schmitt must be wondering how he is trailing this walking argument for red-flag laws. The answer is in the mirror. Internet chatter indicates that even conservatives think Schmitts misuse of his office to file silly but high-profile lawsuits to impress the base is less impressive than pathetic.

Schmitts blowtorch ad reflects his desperation. While showing off his big flaming tool, he declares, Trump-like, that President Joe Biden is a total disaster, adding: Thats why Im taking my blowtorch to his socialist agenda.

He then brags about suing school districts over pandemic protection measures  an irresponsible and self-serving stunt that endangered lives and might well have cost some  and says he stood with President Trump to stop election fraud. Translation: He was complicit in Trumps attempted coup against democracy.

At least Schmitts ad makes a cursory nod at policy issues. Greitens ad is just a de facto death threat against unnamed fellow Republicans. McCloskeys whole campaign is centered on that semi-automatic rifle, symbolizing  something.

But theres no reason these kinds of ads cant be violent and informative. In fact, they could even ratchet up the weaponry metaphors (bigger is always better, after all) while also providing some specificity about what it is they and their party intend to do, policy-wise.

Picture it:

Im Joe Schmoe, and as your next senator, Im going to use this big grenade launcher to explode Democrat health care, so getting sick will send you into bankruptcy!

Im Jim Shoe, and this humongous anti-aircraft gun is going to bring down whats left of womens biological self-determination! Even the teenage rape victims!

Im John Whatsisname, and this awesome atomic bomb Im sitting on is going to target election norms and vaporize your wimpy democracy!

That would be more impressive firepower than those mamby-pamby assault rifles. And it would be a lot more honest about the stakes of this election.

Kevin McDermott is a Post-Dispatch columnist and Editorial Board member.

On Twitter: @kevinmcdermott
Fridays assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has prompted some predictable gloating from Americas political right about the fact that it happened in a country with some of the strictest gun laws in the world. Proof that gun control  does not prevent violence, declared one typical tweet. Gun control really works huh, chimed in another. Japan bans guns and look what happens.

Such schadenfreude is not only heartless under the circumstances but demonstrably, wildly wrong. As Japans almost nonexistent gun-mortality rate makes clear, Abes killing is the exception that proves the rule: gun restrictions work. Furthermore, polls increasingly show Americans want them.

Its unsurprising that Abes alleged killer resorted to a homemade gun, given how difficult it is for civilians to buy guns in Japan. Handguns are outlawed completely. To own a shotgun or air rifle requires a months-long process that includes a written test, a score of at least 95% accuracy in a shooting-range test, and extensive mental health and criminal background checks  and then doing it all over again every three years.

While that may sound onerous to an American, consider the outcome: Japan, a nation of more than 125 million people, generally sees fewer than 10 gun deaths a year. Not 10 per 100,000, to use the typical measure of firearms mortality rates, but 10 total.

Contrast that to Missouri alone (population 6 million), which sees in excess of 1,200 gun deaths annually. Here, there are virtually no impediments for any adult who wants to buy and carry a gun immediately. Even criminals who are technically prohibited from having them can easily obtain them since Missouri lawmakers refuse to require universal background checks as some other states do. (Like Illinois, for example, where recent annual gun-death rates have been around half that of Missouris.)

No rational person can look at the above numbers and conclude that gun restrictions dont save lives. Those who still make that argument are either willfully naive, or are unwilling to say what they really mean: That allowing tens of thousands of Americans to die from gun violence every year is an acceptable tradeoff for not inconveniencing gun owners with even modest restrictions.

But polls show that view is becoming increasingly unpopular  even among gun owners. A new NPR/Ipsos survey, for example, finds that 8 in 10 American gun owners favor universal background check requirements to buy guns, more than 70% favor raising the minimum age to buy assault-style rifles to 21, and 65% favor red-flag laws. Republican gun owners sided with the majority on those questions.

Part of why Japan is reeling from Abes death is that gun murders of any kind are so rare there. Imposing Japan-style restrictions here would almost certainly be legally and culturally untenable. But that doesnt mean America is helpless to address what is truly a national crisis.
ST. LOUIS  Federal prosecutors say a St. Louis man has admitted his role in a drug theft scheme in 2021 that ended with the fatal shooting of two men.

Antaveon Bernard LeVell Kent, 22, pleaded guilty Friday to federal gun and drug charges in the March 16, 2021, killing of Kortlin Williams and Johnnie Jones.

Williams, 20, and Jones, 19, were shot dead in the triple shooting in the 1100 block of Montgomery Street. A third man, 19, was shot but survived.

Prosecutors charged Kent and another man, Demorion Little, with aiding and abetting the discharge of a firearm that resulted in the death of Williams and Jones. Kent and Little also faced drug conspiracy and gun charges.

Charging documents had alleged Kent and Little arranged via Facebook to buy marijuana from Williams, but really planned to rob him.

Kent on Friday admitted to using social media to coordinate with Little, pick the targets and plan the robbery, according to a news release from Sayler Fleming, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.

When the victims arrived at a meeting spot in the 1100 block of Montgomery Street, Kent and his co-defendant opened fire, shooting all three victims, the release states.

Kent and Little were planning on selling the marijuana, Fleming said. Police found 621 grams in Williams and Jones car.

Kent pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana, attempt to possess with intent to distribute marijuana and two charges of possession and discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Little has pleaded not guilty.

Little has also pleaded not guilty in the fatal shooting of another man, Rocoby Rodgers. Rodgers, 20, was killed Feb. 25, 2021, near Blair Avenue and North Market Street. The shooting scene is about a mile from where Williams and Jones were shot.

Charging documents filed last year allege the same white Jeep was spotted at both shootings, and the murder of Rodgers had also been arranged via Facebook Messenger. Little faces two marijuana charges and a charge of aiding and abetting the discharge of a firearm that resulted in the death of Jones.
The U.S. Army finally has a new light tank, the 38-ton MPF (Mobile Protected Firepower) vehicle. MPF has not yet received a customary name as the 55-t0n M1 Abrams or 15-ton M551 Sheridan. Both of these looked like tanks but the M1 was a major success while the M551 was not. The army takes its time deciding such mundane matters as official names for new tanks. Obtaining a new light tank is a process that began over 30 years ago just before the M551 was retired from combat service. Some M551s continued to serve as a simulated enemy tank in large scale training exercises at the NTC (National Training Center) until 2003. There were a lot of M551s still available because 1,662 were built between 1966 and 1970. The M551 failed in combat. It had a crew of four and a unique 152mm gun that used twenty onboard 152mm short range shells or nine Shillelagh guided missiles with a max range of 3,000 meters. The 152mm gun was never very reliable and during its only combat experience (Vietnam 1969-72) performance of the M551 and its 152mm main gun were dismal. The M551 152mm gun was unreliable and only used shells in Vietnam to supply infantry with much needed fire support. Only 200 M551s were sent to Vietnam and most were destroyed by enemy fire (RPG rockets or heavy machine-guns) or broke down during use. The 155mm gun had a slow rate of fire and had only 24 shells on board if missiles were not carried. There were often problems with the fire control system. The army came up with several modifications but gave up on the M551 by 1978. The 82nd airborne division kept using them because they could be dropped by parachute and still function.

The U.S. Army didnt look for an M551 replacement until 1992 and the first candidate was the M8 Buford Armored Gun System, which was to replace the M551 in the 82nd Airborne Division and in several other units. The M8 was developed in 1983 using corporate funds and used several innovations to produce a well-protected 24-ton tracked vehicle with a 105mm high velocity gun using an autoloader. That meant a crew size of three. The autoloader was based on the one the Navy had been using for its Mk 54 five-inch (127mm) gun. The M8 autoloader allowed up to twelve shells a minute to be fired. The M8 design was accepted in 1992 and mass production was to begin within four years with the first M8s entering service in 1997. Severe and unexpected cuts in the army budget led to the abrupt cancellation of the M8 in 1996 in order to prevent manpower cuts involving 20,000 troops. The M551 was also retired in 1997

The army still wanted a light tank and in 2002 adopted a limited (142) number of the 19-ton M1128 Stryker Mobile Gun System, which also used an autoloader for the 105mm gun and could fire ten rounds a minute. This autoloader was of a slightly different design than the one in the M8. When the M1128 was airdropped, there were problems with the autoloader. Without the airdrops the 8x8 wheeled M1128 was successful in combat (Iraq) and the army planned to produce a lot more but that idea was dropped in 2012 when it was decided to seek a heavier tracked vehicle as the replacement for the M551. That led to the MPF, which adopted many of the techs that worked in the M8 and M1128. One item not adopted for MPF was the autoloader. The main reason for that was the MPF uses a version of the M1 tank 120mm gun and fire control system in a turret based on the one used in the M1.

Western nations have avoided autoloaders for their heavy tanks. The only exception was the French LeClerc heavy tank, which was designed to fire the same 120mm ammunition as the M1 and Leopard 2 tanks. Unlike the Russian T-72, the LeClerc autoloader does not require leaving the ammunition in the crew compartment. France designed the tank around the autoloader, rather than having to design the autoloader to fit into the tank, as was the case with the T-72. The LeClerc autoloader was a success but no other Western nation has adopted the French approach, yet.

Russia pioneered use of autoloaders in the 1960s with their T-64 tank and that was successful enough to include it in the T-72 and all subsequent Russian tanks. Russian autoloaders look like a carousel. When it is time to load the 125mm gun, the carousel swivels to the ready position, and the cassette with the round and propellant bag is aligned with the main guns chamber. The cassette gets lifted up, and the main round is rammed in first, followed by the propellant charge. The gun then fires, and the process is repeated for the next round. This is a system that has the benefit of working well with the compact Russian tank designs. It has allowed Russia to field a lot of tanks and to keep them in the field due to the elimination of one member of the crew.

The Russian autoloader was not as well-designed as the later French autoloader or the earlier one used in the M8. The Russians skimped on providing at least one item of safety gear that was inexpensive and great for crew morale. Its initial lack of a cheap slide-up metal shield meant the autoloader would occasionally load the gunners arm. The autoloader in the T-64/T-72/T-80/T90 also stores the ammunition in the crew compartment and that means that if one of those shells goes off in the turret (because of enemy fire or an accident), the crew dies and the tank is lost. Eventually the Russians added that safety feature for the gunner and improved reliability of the autoloader but nothing was done to get the ammo carousel out of the crew compartment. That led to the loss of a lot of T-72s, T-80s and T-90s in combat, spectacularly so in Ukraine during the first months of the 2022 Russian invasion.

Most Western tanks continue to use a human loader. The rate of fire is slower; a round every ten seconds from an M1 compared to one round every three seconds from a LeClerc, or one round every 6.5 seconds from a T-72. The use of a human loader allows Western tanks, especially the M1 and Leopard 2, to keep the ammunition away from the crew compartment. This is often the difference between a crew getting killed and a crew surviving, even if the tank is a total loss.
SUDBURY, ON, July 8, 2022 /CNW/ - Taking action on climate change requires innovative thinking and unique solutions to inspire action among Canadians of all ages.

Today, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, along with Viviane Lapointe, Member of Parliament for Sudbury, and Marc G. Serre, Member of Parliament for Nickel Belt, joined partners for the official opening of Science North's new Climate Action Show, which received $6 million in funding under the Government of Canada's Climate Action and Awareness Fund. This multi-media, immersive theatrical experience is one of the nextgeneration elements of Science North's overall youth outreach project.

Science North is leading a series of high-impact climate action outreach projects to engage the next generation of Canadians on the critical issues of climate change. This includes The Climate Action Show, travelling exhibits, and a climate action digital campaign. Through these projects, Science North will reach two million youth across Canada, improving their understanding of climate change and inspiring action that reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

To open the new exhibit, Minister Guilbeault was also joined by Jennifer Booth, Science North Interim CEO, Dr. Stephen Kosar, Chair of Science North's Board of Trustees, Greater Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger, and Lisa Demmer, Greater Sudbury Development Corporation Board Chair.

The Climate Action and Awareness Fund is investing in climate change projects for youth across Canada. These projects are engaging and empowering youth to take real climate action in their communities and help Canada meet its target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Quotes

"Unique and empowering experiences such as The Climate Action Show engage the imaginations of youth on the importance of protecting a healthy and prosperous environment now and in the future. This exhibit will present the very real climate challenges we are facing globally and will inspire young Canadians to take action in their communities."

 The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Story continues

"Officially welcoming visitors to The Climate Action Show at Science North is long overdue. I am immensely proud of the work that has gone into the show, and it is sure to entertain and inspire our visitors. Of course, this experience would not be possible without the generous support of Environment and Climate Change Canada, the City of Greater Sudbury, and the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation. Science North is fortunate to have such great supporters that share our passion for delivering climate change education in an interactive and engaging way. I look forward to seeing our visitors enjoying the show for years to come."

 Jennifer Booth, Interim CEO, Science North

"This is an exciting development for the City of Sudburyfamilies across the city now have an engaging resource to help teach their children about climate change. I want to thank everyone for making this launch happen. Our Government places a high priority on fighting climate change and protecting naturethis exhibit is a powerful tool to convey this message to our youth."

 Viviane Lapointe, Member of Parliament for Sudbury

"This exhibit is a perfect example of what our Government's Climate Action and Awareness Fund was designed to support. This innovative and immersive new experience will engage the minds of Sudbury youth, showing how individuals can be a part of global action to bring about solutions to climate change. I invite people from all around the area to come visit!"

 Marc G. Serre, Member of Parliament for Nickel Belt

Quick facts

The Climate Action Show is a unique multimedia installation that combines media technologies, real objects, theatrical effects, and a custom environment to create a memorable, educational, and entertaining experience. Visitors become agents of change and prepare themselves to champion climate change action in their lives and their communities.

The Government of Canada's Environmental Damages Fund provided funding for this project under its Climate Action and Awareness Fund, created in large part using the $196.5million fine paid by Volkswagen for circumventing Canada's environmental protection rules.

The youth awareness and engagement projects funded under the Climate Action and Awareness Fund are addressing knowledge and/or program gaps in the Kindergarten to Grade 12 (CEGEP in Quebec) demographic in Canada. These projects inform and engage youth in science-based activities and learning opportunities to foster a connection with their natural environment and encourage real action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.

The Environmental Damages Fund ensures that environmental good follows harm by investing in projects that focus on environmental restoration, environmental quality improvement, research and development, and education and awareness.

Associated links

Environment and Climate Change Canada's Twitter page

Environment and Climate Change Canada's Facebook page

SOURCE Environment and Climate Change Canada

Cision

View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2022/08/c2887.html
Elon Musk disclosed in a filing on Twitter (NYSE: TWTR):

On July 8, 2022, the Reporting Person's advisors sent a letter to Twitter (on the Reporting Person's behalf) formally notifying Twitter that the Reporting Person is terminating their merger agreement. The foregoing description of the Reporting Persons letter is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the letter, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit P and incorporated herein by reference.

Dear Ms. Gadde:

We refer to (i) the Agreement and Plan of Merger by and among X Holdings I, Inc., X Holdings II, Inc. and Twitter, Inc. dated as of April 25, 2022 (the Merger Agreement) and (ii) our letter to you dated as of June 6, 2022 (the June 6 Letter). As further described below, Mr. Musk is terminating the Merger Agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement, and is likely to suffer a Company Material Adverse Effect (as that term is defined in the Merger Agreement).

While Section 6.4 of the Merger Agreement requires Twitter to provide Mr. Musk and his advisors all data and information that Mr. Musk requests for any reasonable business purpose related to the consummation of the transaction, Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations. For nearly two months, Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitters platform (our letter to you dated May 25, 2022 (the May 25 Letter)). This information is fundamental to Twitters business and financial performance and is necessary to consummate the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement because it is needed to ensure Twitters satisfaction of the conditions to closing, to facilitate Mr. Musks financing and financial planning for the transaction, and to engage in transition planning for the business. Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musks requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information.

1

Mr. Musk and his financial advisors at Morgan Stanley have been requesting critical information from Twitter as far back as May 9, 2022and repeatedly since thenon the relationship between Twitters disclosed mDAU figures and the prevalence of false or spam accounts on the platform. If there were ever any doubt as to the nature of these information requests, the May 25 Letter made clear that Mr. Musks goal was to understand how many of Twitters claimed mDAUs were, in fact, fake or spam accounts. That letter noted that Items 1.03 to 1.13 of the diligence request list contain high-priority requests for enterprise data and other information intended to enable Mr. Musk and his advisors to make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitters platform The letter then provided Twitter with a detailed list of requests to this effect.

Since then, Mr. Musk has provided numerous additional follow-up requests, all aimed at filling the gaps in the incomplete information that Twitter provided in response to his broad requests for information relating to Twitters reported mDAU counts and reported estimates of false and spam accounts.1 For example, in our letter to you dated June 29, 2022 (the June 29 Letter), we referenced Mr. Musks request in the May 25 Letter for information that would allow him to make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitters platform. Because Twitter, by its own admission, provided only incomplete data that was not sufficient to perform such an independent assessment,2 the June 29 Letter endeavored to be even more specific, and to reduce the burden of the [original] request, by identifying a specific subset of high priority information, responsive to Mr. Musks prior requests, for Twitter to immediately make available.

1 Mr. Musk sought the same information in letters dated June 6, 2022, June 17, 2022, and June 29, 2022. In each of these letters, Mr. Musk referenced his information rights under Section 6.4 of the Merger Agreement. Twitter has thus been on notice of the information sought by Mr. Muskand the contractual bases for these requestsfor two months. For the past month, Mr. Musk has been clear that he views Twitters non-responsiveness as a material breach of the Merger Agreement giving him the right to terminate the Merger Agreement if uncured. See June 6, 2022 (explaining that Twitter was refusing to comply with its obligations under the Merger Agreement). Thus, Mr. Musk has been clear about his requests, his right to seek such information, and his view regarding Twitters material breach of the Merger Agreement.

2 See your letter to us dated June 20, 2022 (noting that the information Twitter was agreeing to provide was insufficient to perform the spam analysis that [Mr. Musk] purport[s] to wish to do.).

2

Notwithstanding these repeated requests over the past two months, Twitter has still failed to provide much of the data and information responsive to Mr. Musks repeated requests, including, but not limited to:

1. Information related to Twitters process for auditing the inclusion of spam and fake accounts in mDAU. Twitter has still not provided much of the information specifically requested by Mr. Musk in Sections 1.01-1.03 of the May 19 diligence request list that is necessary for him to make an assessment of the prevalence of false or spam accounts on its website. As recently as the June 29 Letter, Mr. Musk reiterated this long-standing request for information related to Twitters sampling process for detecting fake accounts. The June 29 Letter identified specific data necessary to enable Mr. Musk to independently verify Twitters representations regarding the number of mDAU on its platformincluding, but not limited to (1) daily global mDAU data since October 1, 2020; (2) information regarding the sampling population for mDAU, including whether the mDAU population used for auditing spam and false accounts is the same mDAU population used for quarterly reporting; (3) outputs of each step of the sampling process for each day during the weeks of January 30, 2022 and June 19, 2022; (4) documentation or other guidance provided to contractor agents used for auditing mDAU samples; (5) information regarding the user interface of Twitters ADAP tool and any internal tools used by the contractor agents; and (6) mDAU audit sampling information, including anonymized information identifying the contractor agents and Quality Analyst that reviewed each sampled account, the designation given by each contractor agent and Quality Analyst, and the current status of any accounts labelled compromised. A subsequent request along these lines should not have been necessary, as this information should have been provided in response to Mr. Musks original diligence request. Yet, to date, Twitter has not provided any of this information.

2. Information related to Twitters process for identifying and suspending spam and fake accounts. In addition to information regarding Twitters mDAU audits, the June 29 Letter also reiterated requests for data specifically identified in Sections 1.04-1.05 of the May 19 diligence request list regarding Twitters methodology and performance data relating to identification and suspension of spam and false accounts, including, but not limited to, information regarding account suspensions, including information sufficient to identify daily numbers of account suspensions since October 2020 and numbers of account suspensions for each of Twitters internal reasons for suspension. In addition, during the June 30, 2022 call, Twitters representatives indicated for the first time that the workflow and processes for detecting spam and false accounts in the mDAU population is different and separate from the workflow and processes for identifying and suspending accounts in violation of Twitters policies. On that call, Twitter indicated that it would not be willing to provide information regarding the methodologies employed to identify and suspend such accounts.

3

3. Daily measures of mDAU for the past eight (8) quarters. On June 17, 2022 (the June 17 Letter) Mr. Musk reiterated his request for access to the sample set used and calculations performed, as well as any related reports or analysis, to support Twitters representation that fewer than 5% of its mDAUs are false or spam account. To that end, Mr. Musk requested that Twitter provide daily measures of mDAU for the previous eight quarters, and through the present. This information is derivative of the information Mr. Musk first sought in Sections 1.01-1.03 of the May 19 diligence request list. Although Twitter has provided certain summary data regarding the mDAU calculations, Twitter has not provided the complete daily measures as requested.

4. Board materials related to Twitters mDAU calculations. In the June 17 Letter, Mr. Musk requested a variety of board materials and communications related to Twitters mDAU metric, its calculation of the number of spam and false accounts, its disclosure of the mDAU metric, and the companys disclosure of the number of spam accounts on the platform. Twitter has provided an incomplete data set in response to this request, and has not provided information sufficient to enable Mr. Musk to make an independent assessment of Twitters board and managements understanding of its mDAU metric.

5. Materials related to Twitters financial condition. Mr. Musk is entitled, under Section 6.4 of the Merger Agreement to all information concerning the business  of the Company  for any reasonable business purpose related to the consummation of the transactions and under Section 6.11 of the Merger Agreement, to information reasonably requested in connection with his efforts to secure the debt financing necessary to consummate the transaction. To that end, Mr. Musk requested on June 17 a variety of board materials, including a working, bottoms-up financial model for 2022, a budget for 2022, an updated draft plan or budget, and a working copy of Goldman Sachs valuation model underlying its fairness opinion. Twitter has provided only a pdf copy of Goldman Sachs final Board presentation.

4

In short, Twitter has not provided information that Mr. Musk has requested for nearly two months notwithstanding his repeated, detailed clarifications intended to simplify Twitters identification, collection, and disclosure of the most relevant information sought in Mr. Musks original requests.

While Twitter has provided some information, that information has come with strings attached, use limitations or other artificial formatting features, which has rendered some of the information minimally useful to Mr. Musk and his advisors. For example, when Twitter finally provided access to the eight developer APIs first explicitly requested by Mr. Musk in the May 25 Letter, those APIs contained a rate limit lower than what Twitter provides to its largest enterprise customers. Twitter only offered to provide Mr. Musk with the same level of access as some of its customers after we explained that throttling the rate limit prevented Mr. Musk and his advisors from performing the analysis that he wished to conduct in any reasonable period of time.

Additionally, those APIs contained an artificial cap on the number of queries that Mr. Musk and his team can run regardless of the rate limitan issue that initially prevented Mr. Musk and his advisors from completing an analysis of the data in any reasonable period of time. Mr. Musk raised this issue as soon as he became aware of it, in the first paragraph of the June 29 Letter: we have just been informed by our data experts that Twitter has placed an artificial cap on the number of searches our experts can perform with this data, which is now preventing Mr. Musk and his team from doing their analysis. That cap was not removed until July 6, after Mr. Musk demanded its removal for a second time.

Based on the foregoing refusal to provide information that Mr. Musk has been requesting since May 9, 2022, Twitter is in breach of Sections 6.4 and 6.11 of the Merger Agreement.

Despite public speculation on this point, Mr. Musk did not waive his right to review Twitters data and information simply because he chose not to seek this data and information before entering into the Merger Agreement. In fact, he negotiated access and information rights within the Merger Agreement precisely so that he could review data and information that is important to Twitters business before financing and completing the transaction.

5

As Twitter has been on notice of its breach since at least June 6, 2022, any cure period afforded to Twitter under the Merger Agreement has now lapsed. Accordingly, Mr. Musk hereby exercises X Holdings I, Inc.s right to terminate the Merger Agreement and abandon the transaction contemplated thereby, and this letter constitutes formal notice of X Holding I, Inc.s termination of the Merger Agreement pursuant to Section 8.1(d)(i) thereof.

In addition to the foregoing, Twitter is in breach of the Merger Agreement because the Merger Agreement appears to contain materially inaccurate representations. Specifically, in the Merger Agreement, Twitter represented that no documents that Twitter filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since January 1, 2022, included any untrue statement of a material fact (Section 4.6(a)). Twitter has repeatedly made statements in such filings regarding the portion of its mDAUs that are false or spam, including statements that: We have performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimate that the average of false or spam accounts during the first quarter of 2022 represented fewer than 5% of our mDAU during the quarter, and After we determine an account is spam, malicious automation, or fake, we stop counting it in our mDAU, or other related metrics. Mr. Musk relied on this representation in the Merger Agreement (and Twitters numerous public statements regarding false and spam accounts in its publicly filed SEC documents) when agreeing to enter into the Merger Agreement. Mr. Musk has the right to seek rescission of the Merger Agreement in the event these material representations are determined to be false.

Although Twitter has not yet provided complete information to Mr. Musk that would enable him to do a complete and comprehensive review of spam and fake accounts on Twitters platform, he has been able to partially and preliminarily analyze the accuracy of Twitters disclosure regarding its mDAU. While this analysis remains ongoing, all indications suggest that several of Twitters public disclosures regarding its mDAUs are either false or materially misleading. First, although Twitter has consistently represented in securities filings that fewer than 5% of its mDAU are false or spam accounts, based on the information provided by Twitter to date, it appears that Twitter is dramatically understating the proportion of spam and false accounts represented in its mDAU count. Preliminary analysis by Mr. Musks advisors of the information provided by Twitter to date causes Mr. Musk to strongly believe that the proportion of false and spam accounts included in the reported mDAU count is wildly higher than 5%. Second, Twitters disclosure that it ceases to count fake or spam users in its mDAU when it determines that those users are fake appears to be false. Instead, we understand, based on Twitters representations during a June 30, 2022 call with us, that Twitter includes accounts that have been suspendedand thus are known to be fake or spamin its quarterly mDAU count even when it is aware that the suspended accounts were included in mDAU for that quarter. Last, Twitter has represented that it is continually seeking to improve our ability to estimate the total number of spam accounts and eliminate them from the calculation of our mDAU But, Twitters process for calculating its mDAU, and the percentage of mDAU comprised of non-monetizable spam accounts, appears to be arbitrary and ad hoc. Disclosing that Twitter has a reasoned process for calculating mDAU when the opposite is true would be false and misleading.

6

Twitters representation in the Merger Agreement regarding the accuracy of its SEC disclosures relating to false and spam accounts may have also caused, or is reasonably likely to result in, a Company Material Adverse Effect, which may form an additional basis for terminating the Merger Agreement. While Mr. Musk and his advisors continue to investigate the exact nature and extent of this event, Mr. Musk has reason to believe that the true number of false or spam accounts on Twitters platform is substantially higher than the amount of less than 5% represented by Twitter in its SEC filings. Twitters true mDAU count is a key component of the companys business, given that approximately 90% of its revenue comes from advertisements. For this reason, to the extent that Twitter has underrepresented the number of false or spam accounts on its platform, that may constitute a Company Material Adverse Effect under Section 7.2(b)(i) of the Merger Agreement. Mr. Musk is also examining the companys recent financial performance and revised outlook, and is considering whether the companys declining business prospects and financial outlook constitute a Company Material Adverse Effect giving Mr. Musk a separate and distinct basis for terminating the Merger Agreement.

Finally, Twitter also did not comply with its obligations under Section 6.1 of the Merger Agreement to seek and obtain consent before deviating from its obligation to conduct its business in the ordinary course and preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organization. Twitters conduct in firing two key, high-ranking employees, its Revenue Product Lead and the General Manager of Consumer, as well as announcing on July 7 that it was laying off a third of its talent acquisition team, implicates the ordinary course provision. Twitter has also instituted a general hiring freeze which extends even to reconsideration of outstanding job offers. Moreover, three executives have resigned from Twitter since the Merger Agreement was signed: the Head of Data Science, the Vice President of Twitter Service, and a Vice President of Product Management for Health, Conversation, and Growth. The Company has not received Parents consent for changes in the conduct of its business, including for the specific changes listed above. The Companys actions therefore constitute a material breach of Section 6.1 of the Merger Agreement.

7

Accordingly, for all of these reasons, Mr. Musk hereby exercises X Holdings I, Inc.s right to terminate the Merger Agreement and abandon the transaction contemplated thereby, and this letter constitutes formal notice of X Holding I, Inc.s termination of the Merger Agreement pursuant to Section 8.1(d)(i) thereof.

Sincerely,





/s/ Mike Ringler

Mike Ringler

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
International experts and scholars urge the Taiwanese government to immediately rectify the Tai Ji Men case to defend freedom of religion or belief

WASHINGTON, July 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit 2022 took place on June 28-30 in Washington, D.C., with religious freedom advocates from around the world in attendance. Two breakout sessions at the summit addressed the Tai Ji Men case a case of violations of religious freedom and human rights in Taiwan that has lasted for over 25 years.



The summit was chaired by former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, bringing together global religious, political, and academic leaders, including Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, U.S. Congressman French Hill, Member of Parliament of the UK Fiona Bruce, Member of Finnish Parliament Paivi Rasanen, as well as religious freedom defenders and victims of religious persecution. The event, attended by approximately 1,000 people, aimed to promote religious freedom and human rights protection around the world.

On June 30, the Action Alliance to Redress 1219 organized a breakout session under the theme of "The 2022 Review of Taiwan's Implementation of the Two UN Human Rights Covenants and the Tai Ji Men FORB Case .

A film was presented at the beginning of the meeting, featuring the international review of Taiwans third national report on UN human rights covenants (the ICCPR and ICESCR) by nine international human rights experts in May 2022. The conclusion of the film represented the views of many scholars: The two covenants have been in force in Taiwan for 13 years. However, they simply exist in name. Human rights are not being respected in government agencies. Over the years, the international reviewers' concluding observations and recommendations have not been taken seriously. The basic human rights guaranteed by the two covenants, such as freedom of religion, have yet to be implemented.

Charlotte Lee, an attorney in Taiwan and a representative of the Action Alliance to Redress 1219, pointed out the violations of the two covenants in the Tai Ji Men case , such as the fact that Taiwans National Taxation Bureau issued ill-founded tax bills to Tai Ji Men and treated Tai Ji Men differently from other martial arts and religious groups, which violated the protection of equal rights and the principle of non-discriminatory treatment under Articles 2 and 26 of the ICCPR and Article 2 of the ICESCR. She also indicated other violations of the two covenants, including the prosecutor's investigation, which resulted in cruel treatment of the master and disciples of Tai Ji Men, a violation of Article 7 of the ICCPR.

Alessandro Amicarelli , president of the London-based European Federation for Freedom of Belief, visited Taiwan before and was invited to teach courses on human rights and religious freedom there. He praised Taiwan's incorporation of the two international covenants on human rights into Taiwan's domestic law in 2009. This is a very significant step towards full democracy in Taiwan, he said, adding that the final recommendations of the third review of the two covenants in May of this year failed to mention freedom of religion. He noted that since the Tai Ji Men case is still unresolved, he and other scholars and human rights activists would continue their efforts to urge the Taiwanese government to improve by organizing monthly seminars and publishing articles and books.

Dr. Donald Westbrook , a lecturer for the Library & Information Science Department at San Jose State University, USA, visited Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in Los Angeles in February 2022, which allowed him to gain an even deeper understanding of the beliefs, practices, and community of this group. He stated, I come to you today primarily as a religious studies scholar and teacher who is most disappointed about the ongoing injustice in Taiwan with respect to this case. I say this with respect to the tax case, certainly, but also in light of confiscated sacred land in Taiwan and the clear infringement on human rights and religious freedom.

Regarding the protection of freedom of religion or belief, he stated, "But making this a lived (and legal) reality, needless to say, can be an entirely different manner, as others have already addressed in connection to Taiwans domestic implementation of two human rights covenants. In particular, the failure to adequately address freedom of religion or belief (FORB) and the rights of taxpayers is disappointing as much as it is perplexing."

Another breakout session on the Tai Ji Men case focused on the theme "Tai Ji Men: International Ambassadors of Peace and Goodwill and Their FORB Case."

Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, zhang-men-ren (grandmaster) of Tai Ji Men, delivered a video message, emphasizing, Among the rights that human beings are born with, the main and most important one is the right to freedom of religion or belief. We believe that conscience, which is the core essence of faith, will serve as a talisman in defending peoples rights to religious freedom. Life is a series of struggles and exploration. Although our time on this planet is limited, through faith, our conscience and innate kindness will be awakened, motivating us to unite hands with more people inspired by compassion and care, to unite and sincerely support one another. To attain harmony and peace among people, between humans and nature, and between humans and other living things, we must take positive action and reflect on ourselves daily and never give up." He also encouraged global citizens to defend freedom of religion or belief around the world, bravely temper their spirituality, and move forward for true peace and sustainability for all.

A movie titled Who Stole Their Youth? The Tai Ji Men Case in Taiwan was presented during the forum. The movie, written and directed by Prof. Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist and the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), answers three questions: What is Tai Ji Men? What is the Tai Ji Men case? Why the protests?

The film was followed by the speech of Marco Respinti , director in charge of Bitter Winter magazine. He praised Taiwan, saying, "Taiwan is a beautiful country, inhabited by beautiful people, great people, great culture, great food." He also pointed out that Tai Ji Men is an organization totally dedicated to spreading peace, love, and harmony in the world. And this movement has been falsely accused of an awful crime of tax evasion. The serious consequences of these blatant lies remain. He noted that the Tai Ji Men community has been deprived of their freedom of religion or belief and advocated for an immediate redress of the injustice: "We need a decision from the Taiwanese state to end this case, because there is no understandable reason to keep that on. There is no legal reason for Tai Ji Men to be curtailed from its fundamental freedom, religious freedom. The solution must come and must be political."

Dr. Holly Folk , professor of humanities and social sciences at Western Washington University, has visited Taiwan many times and loves Taiwan. She said that she was not surprised that the case happened in Taiwan and that her remarks are not an attack against Taiwan. She stated, What Tai Ji Men has faced happens very often, in many countries, even in first world democracies. Religious minorities very often face a distinct type of harassment through bureaucratic regulation. The tax case has been used to erode the financial situation, membership and the morale of the Tai Ji Men community. It's also been used to send the group into permanent legal ambiguity. And that is the point. And that is something that has happened to other groups around the world as well, she added, emphasizing, If a religious minority is attacked as a cult or a dangerous social organization, the same strategies are very, very easily activated against secular organizations, against environmentalists, against people pushing for LGBT equality. In other words, everybody, secular and religious, has a stake in this game.

Pamela Chen, a representative of the Tai Ji Men dizi (disciples), shared her experience as a victim of religious persecution. When the Tai Ji Men case began, she had just graduated from college, and she risked being followed, bugged, and detained by the prosecutorial and investigative authorities, bravely serving as a contact person with the defense lawyers for the Tai Ji Men case. At the time, she felt as if the White Terror had reappeared. Twenty-five years later, the persecution is still going on. Now a mother, Pamela understands that as a victim she must be braver and stronger, and she brings her daughter along to promote reform in Taiwan to help it become a truly free and democratic country where human rights prevail.

The issue of human rights violations in the Tai Ji Men case has attracted a lot of attention at the IRF Summit, where Tai Ji Men members introduced the case to attendees from around the world and invited them to co-sign a petition calling for a solution to the Tai Ji Men case. It is stated in the petition: "We join Tai Ji Men in respectfully asking the government of Taiwan, whose commitment to democracy in a region plagued by non-democratic regimes we appreciate and applaud, to return through a political act the confiscated sacred land to Tai Ji Men and publicly confirm that, as Taiwans Supreme Court stated, they never violated the law nor evaded taxes. It would be a small step for Taiwans government, but a crucial one to tell the world Taiwan is truly committed to freedom of religion or belief and to the protection of religious and spiritual minorities that were once persecuted by its authoritarian and post-authoritarian regimes." (A copy of the petition is available here.)

The petition was quickly signed by over 100 people, including Prof. Massimo Introvigne, managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) and editor-in-chief of Bitter Winter magazine; Rosita Soryte, representative of European Federation for Freedom of Belief; Marco Respinti, director in charge of Bitter Winter magazine; Dr. Donald Westbrook, a lecturer for the Library & Information Science Department at San Jose State University, USA; Dr. Holly Folk, professor of humanities and social sciences at Western Washington University; Dr. Alessandro Amicarelli, president of European Federation for Freedom of Belief; and others.

The organizers of these two forums encourage everyone to pay attention to the Tai Ji Men case and join others to sign a petition, hoping to help make Taiwan a true democracy that respects its peoples human rights and religious freedom so as to achieve the motto of the IRF Summit: Religious freedom for everyone, everywhere, all the time!

Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy : Tai Ji Men is an ancient menpai (similar to school) of qigong, martial arts, and self-cultivation. It has carried forward the wisdom of Daoist philosophy, one of the highest philosophies of humankind. It is an international nonprofit cultural organization. Its contemporary zhang-men-ren (grandmaster), Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze established the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in 1966, and since then it has grown to 15 academies worldwide.

Dr. Hong teaches his dizi (similar to disciples) methods to achieve physical, mental, and spiritual balance, and tens of thousands of families have benefited from his teaching. At Tai Ji Men, martial arts and wisdom have been passed down from the shifu (master) to his dizi. Through this time-honored tradition, the shifu and dizi promote the Tai Ji Men culture and martial arts around the world while embodying what is true, good, and beautiful as well as spreading the ideas of conscience, love, and peace. Over the past half-century, the shifu and dizi have self-funded trips to over 300 cities in 101 nations to conduct more than 3,000 cultural performances and exchanges and have been recognized as  International Ambassadors of Peace and Goodwill .

Media Contact:

Lily Chen

Representative

[email protected]

626-202-5268

http://www.taijimen.org/TJM2016G_ENG/index.php

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8ec2c8c4-bd12-45c4-a971-b188ce910181. The photo is also available at Newscom, www.newscom.com, and via AP PhotoExpress.
WASHINGTON, July 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit 2022 took place on June 28-30 in Washington, D.C., with religious freedom advocates from around the world in attendance. Two breakout sessions at the summit addressed the Tai Ji Men casea case of violations of religious freedom and human rights in Taiwan that has lasted for over 25 years.

The summit was chaired by former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, bringing together global religious, political, and academic leaders, including Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, U.S. Congressman French Hill, Member of Parliament of the UK Fiona Bruce, Member of Finnish Parliament Paivi Rasanen, as well as religious freedom defenders and victims of religious persecution. The event, attended by approximately 1,000 people, aimed to promote religious freedom and human rights protection around the world.

On June 30, the Action Alliance to Redress 1219 organized a breakout session under the theme of "The 2022 Review of Taiwan's Implementation of the Two UN Human Rights Covenants and the Tai Ji Men FORB Case.

A film was presented at the beginning of the meeting, featuring the international review of Taiwans third national report on UN human rights covenants (the ICCPR and ICESCR) by nine international human rights experts in May 2022. The conclusion of the film represented the views of many scholars: The two covenants have been in force in Taiwan for 13 years. However, they simply exist in name. Human rights are not being respected in government agencies. Over the years, the international reviewers' concluding observations and recommendations have not been taken seriously. The basic human rights guaranteed by the two covenants, such as freedom of religion, have yet to be implemented.

Charlotte Lee, an attorney in Taiwan and a representative of the Action Alliance to Redress 1219, pointed out the violations of the two covenants in the Tai Ji Men case, such as the fact that Taiwans National Taxation Bureau issued ill-founded tax bills to Tai Ji Men and treated Tai Ji Men differently from other martial arts and religious groups, which violated the protection of equal rights and the principle of non-discriminatory treatment under Articles 2 and 26 of the ICCPR and Article 2 of the ICESCR. She also indicated other violations of the two covenants, including the prosecutor's investigation, which resulted in cruel treatment of the master and disciples of Tai Ji Men, a violation of Article 7 of the ICCPR.

Alessandro Amicarelli, president of the London-based European Federation for Freedom of Belief, visited Taiwan before and was invited to teach courses on human rights and religious freedom there. He praised Taiwan's incorporation of the two international covenants on human rights into Taiwan's domestic law in 2009. This is a very significant step towards full democracy in Taiwan, he said, adding that the final recommendations of the third review of the two covenants in May of this year failed to mention freedom of religion. He noted that since the Tai Ji Men case is still unresolved, he and other scholars and human rights activists would continue their efforts to urge the Taiwanese government to improve by organizing monthly seminars and publishing articles and books.

Dr. Donald Westbrook, a lecturer for the Library & Information Science Department at San Jose State University, USA, visited Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in Los Angeles in February 2022, which allowed him to gain an even deeper understanding of the beliefs, practices, and community of this group. He stated, I come to you today primarily as a religious studies scholar and teacher who is most disappointed about the ongoing injustice in Taiwan with respect to this case. I say this with respect to the tax case, certainly, but also in light of confiscated sacred land in Taiwan and the clear infringement on human rights and religious freedom.

Regarding the protection of freedom of religion or belief, he stated, "But making this a lived (and legal) reality, needless to say, can be an entirely different manner, as others have already addressed in connection to Taiwans domestic implementation of two human rights covenants. In particular, the failure to adequately address freedom of religion or belief (FORB) and the rights of taxpayers is disappointing as much as it is perplexing."

Another breakout session on the Tai Ji Men case focused on the theme "Tai Ji Men: International Ambassadors of Peace and Goodwill and Their FORB Case."

Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, zhang-men-ren (grandmaster) of Tai Ji Men, delivered a video message, emphasizing, Among the rights that human beings are born with, the main and most important one is the right to freedom of religion or belief. We believe that conscience, which is the core essence of faith, will serve as a talisman in defending peoples rights to religious freedom. Life is a series of struggles and exploration. Although our time on this planet is limited, through faith, our conscience and innate kindness will be awakened, motivating us to unite hands with more people inspired by compassion and care, to unite and sincerely support one another. To attain harmony and peace among people, between humans and nature, and between humans and other living things, we must take positive action and reflect on ourselves daily and never give up." He also encouraged global citizens to defend freedom of religion or belief around the world, bravely temper their spirituality, and move forward for true peace and sustainability for all.

A movie titled Who Stole Their Youth? The Tai Ji Men Case in Taiwan was presented during the forum. The movie, written and directed by Prof. Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist and the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), answers three questions: What is Tai Ji Men? What is the Tai Ji Men case? Why the protests?

The film was followed by the speech of Marco Respinti, director in charge of Bitter Winter magazine. He praised Taiwan, saying, "Taiwan is a beautiful country, inhabited by beautiful people, great people, great culture, great food." He also pointed out that Tai Ji Men is an organization totally dedicated to spreading peace, love, and harmony in the world. And this movement has been falsely accused of an awful crime of tax evasion. The serious consequences of these blatant lies remain. He noted that the Tai Ji Men community has been deprived of their freedom of religion or belief and advocated for an immediate redress of the injustice: "We need a decision from the Taiwanese state to end this case, because there is no understandable reason to keep that on. There is no legal reason for Tai Ji Men to be curtailed from its fundamental freedom, religious freedom. The solution must come and must be political."

Dr. Holly Folk, professor of humanities and social sciences at Western Washington University, has visited Taiwan many times and loves Taiwan. She said that she was not surprised that the case happened in Taiwan and that her remarks are not an attack against Taiwan. She stated, What Tai Ji Men has faced happens very often, in many countries, even in first world democracies. Religious minorities very often face a distinct type of harassment through bureaucratic regulation. The tax case has been used to erode the financial situation, membership and the morale of the Tai Ji Men community. It's also been used to send the group into permanent legal ambiguity. And that is the point. And that is something that has happened to other groups around the world as well, she added, emphasizing, If a religious minority is attacked as a cult or a dangerous social organization, the same strategies are very, very easily activated against secular organizations, against environmentalists, against people pushing for LGBT equality. In other words, everybody, secular and religious, has a stake in this game.

Pamela Chen, a representative of the Tai Ji Men dizi (disciples), shared her experience as a victim of religious persecution. When the Tai Ji Men case began, she had just graduated from college, and she risked being followed, bugged, and detained by the prosecutorial and investigative authorities, bravely serving as a contact person with the defense lawyers for the Tai Ji Men case. At the time, she felt as if the White Terror had reappeared. Twenty-five years later, the persecution is still going on. Now a mother, Pamela understands that as a victim she must be braver and stronger, and she brings her daughter along to promote reform in Taiwan to help it become a truly free and democratic country where human rights prevail.

The issue of human rights violations in the Tai Ji Men case has attracted a lot of attention at the IRF Summit, where Tai Ji Men members introduced the case to attendees from around the world and invited them to co-sign a petition calling for a solution to the Tai Ji Men case. It is stated in the petition: "We join Tai Ji Men in respectfully asking the government of Taiwan, whose commitment to democracy in a region plagued by non-democratic regimes we appreciate and applaud, to return through a political act the confiscated sacred land to Tai Ji Men and publicly confirm that, as Taiwans Supreme Court stated, they never violated the law nor evaded taxes. It would be a small step for Taiwans government, but a crucial one to tell the world Taiwan is truly committed to freedom of religion or belief and to the protection of religious and spiritual minorities that were once persecuted by its authoritarian and post-authoritarian regimes." (A copy of the petition is available here.)

The petition was quickly signed by over 100 people, including Prof. Massimo Introvigne, managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) and editor-in-chief of Bitter Winter magazine; Rosita Soryte, representative of European Federation for Freedom of Belief; Marco Respinti, director in charge of Bitter Winter magazine; Dr. Donald Westbrook, a lecturer for the Library & Information Science Department at San Jose State University, USA; Dr. Holly Folk, professor of humanities and social sciences at Western Washington University; Dr. Alessandro Amicarelli, president of European Federation for Freedom of Belief; and others.

The organizers of these two forums encourage everyone to pay attention to the Tai Ji Men case and join others to sign a petition, hoping to help make Taiwan a true democracy that respects its peoples human rights and religious freedom so as to achieve the motto of the IRF Summit: Religious freedom for everyone, everywhere, all the time!

Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy: Tai Ji Men is an ancient menpai (similar to school) of qigong, martial arts, and self-cultivation. It has carried forward the wisdom of Daoist philosophy, one of the highest philosophies of humankind. It is an international nonprofit cultural organization. Its contemporary zhang-men-ren (grandmaster), Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze established the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in 1966, and since then it has grown to 15 academies worldwide.

Dr. Hong teaches his dizi (similar to disciples) methods to achieve physical, mental, and spiritual balance, and tens of thousands of families have benefited from his teaching. At Tai Ji Men, martial arts and wisdom have been passed down from the shifu (master) to his dizi. Through this time-honored tradition, the shifu and dizi promote the Tai Ji Men culture and martial arts around the world while embodying what is true, good, and beautiful as well as spreading the ideas of conscience, love, and peace. Over the past half-century, the shifu and dizi have self-funded trips to over 300 cities in 101 nations to conduct more than 3,000 cultural performances and exchanges and have been recognized as International Ambassadors of Peace and Goodwill.

Media Contact:

Lily ChenRepresentative[email protected]626-202-5268http://www.taijimen.org/TJM2016G_ENG/index.php

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8ec2c8c4-bd12-45c4-a971-b188ce910181. The photo is also available at Newscom, www.newscom.com, and via AP PhotoExpress.

Calling for Solution of Tai Ji Men Case Dr. Holly Folk, professor of humanities and social sciences at Western Washington University, signs a petition for the Taiwanese government's redress of the Tai Ji Men case at the IRF Summit 2022 in Washington on June 30, 2022.

Source: Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy
Elon Musk's Twitter profile is seen on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos in this picture illustration taken April 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

By Greg Roumeliotis

(Reuters) - Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla and the world's richest person, said on Friday he was terminating his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter because the social media company had breached multiple provisions of the merger agreement.

Twitter's chairman, Bret Taylor https://twitter.com/btaylor/status/1545526087089696768?s=20&t=7sx_IvK_zZkztdHdh8pwQQ, said on the micro-blogging platform that the board planned to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement.

"The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk...," he wrote.

In a filing, Musk's lawyers said Twitter had failed or refused to respond to multiple requests for information on fake or spam accounts on the platform, which is fundamental to the company's business performance.

"Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement," the filing said.

Musk also said he was walking away because Twitter fired high-ranking executives and one-third of the talent acquisition team, breaching Twitter's obligation to "preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organization."

LEGAL BATTLE

Musk's decision is likely to result in a protracted legal tussle between the billionaire and the 16-year-old San Francisco-based company.

Disputed mergers and acquisitions that land in Delaware courts more often than not end up with the companies re-negotiating deals or the acquirer paying the target a settlement to walk away, rather than a judge ordering that a transaction be completed. That is because target companies are often keen to resolve the uncertainty around their future and move on.

Twitter, however, is hoping that court proceedings will start in a few weeks and be resolved in a few months, according to a person familiar with the matter.

There is plenty of precedent for a deal renegotiation. Several companies repriced agreed acquisitions when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020 and delivered a global economic shock.

In one instance, French retailer LVMH threatened to walk away from a deal with Tiffany & Co. The U.S. jewelry retailer agreed to lower the acquisition price by $425 million to $15.8 billion.

"I'd say Twitter is well-positioned legally to argue that it provided him with all the necessary information and this is a pretext to looking for any excuse to get out of the deal," said Ann Lipton, associate dean for faculty research at Tulane Law School. Shares of Twitter were down 6% at $34.58 in extended trading. That is 36% below https://tmsnrt.rs/3aoza2X the $54.20 per share Musk agreed to buy Twitter for in April.

Twitter's shares surged after Musk took a stake in the company in early April, shielding it from a deep stock market sell-off that slammed other social media platforms.

But after he agreed on April 25 to buy Twitter, the stock within a matter of days began to fall as investors speculated Musk might walk away from the deal. With its tumble after the bell on Friday, Twitter was trading at its lowest since March.

The announcement is another twist in a will-he-won't-he saga https://tmsnrt.rs/3ACFgY1 after Musk clinched the deal to purchase Twitter in April but then put the buyout on hold until the social media company proved that spam bots account for less than 5% of its total users.

The contract calls for Musk to pay Twitter a $1 billion break-up if he cannot complete the deal for reasons such as the acquisition financing falling through or regulators blocking the deal. The break-up fee would not be applicable, however, if Musk terminates the deal on his own.

Some employees expressed disbelief and exhaustion on Friday, publicly posting memes on Twitter, such as of a rollercoaster ride and a baby screaming into a phone, in apparent commentary on the breakup. Employees have worried about the deal will mean for their jobs, pay and ability to work remotely, and many have expressed skepticism about Musk's plans to loosen content moderation.

DIGITAL AD WOES

Musk's abandonment of the deal and Twitter's promise to vigorously fight to complete it casts a pall of uncertainty over the company's future and its stock price during a time when worries about rising interest rates and a potential recession have hammered Wall Street. Shares of online advertising rivals Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Snap and Pinterest have seen their stocks tumble 45% on average in 2022, while Twitter's stock has declined just 15% in that time, buoyed in recent months by the Musk deal.

Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said Musk's filing was bad news for Twitter.

"This is a disaster scenario for Twitter and its Board as now the company will battle Musk in an elongated court battle to recoup the deal and/or the breakup fee of $1 billion at a minimum," he wrote in a note to clients.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis; Additional reporting by Chavi Mehta and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Sheila Dang in Dallas; Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Hyunjoo Jin and Katie Paul in San Francisco; Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif.; David Shepardson in Washington; and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Writing by Anna Driver; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Lisa Shumaker)
(Tribune News Service)  USS before a ships name stands for United States Ship, and only vessels of the U.S. Navy can carry that designation.

Presently the Navy has one ship in the fleet named for Fort Worth. The USS Fort Worth, part of the Freedom class of vessels, has been in the news recently because the Navy wanted to scrap it. The pride of Fort Worth is only 10 years old and should be in the prime of life for a warship. But current naval doctrine considers it obsolete. The Freedom class warships are littoral combat ships (LCSs), intended to operate in coastal waters interdicting pirates and other second-class hostiles, but the LCS class is no match for the more heavily armed warships it might encounter, so the Navy is ready to scrap it.

This is not the first time the Navy has jilted Fort Worth. The city was proud as a peacock in 2012 when the USS Fort Worth was commissioned. This was directly attributable to the influence of long-serving U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, aided by a letter-writing campaign to Congress. It didnt hurt that Fort Worth also has a strong military heritage going back to its 19th century origins. The result was that the Fort Worth was proclaimed as the first Navy ship to carry the citys name, which is only half true.

By tradition, U.S. warships are named by the secretary of the Navy, guided by long-established criteria. Most public attention is focused on capital ships, the largest and most powerful in the fleet. For instance, modern aircraft carriers are named for great Americans, such as presidents and fighting admirals. In the early 20th century, the practice was to name battle cruisers for cities.

The battle cruiser was a class of warship only slightly inferior to the battleship in terms of armor and armament, but faster, allowing it to outrun anything it couldnt outfight. Battle cruisers had the added appeal of being cheaper to build than the dreadnoughts of the worlds navies while still superior to old-fashioned armored cruisers. Going into World War I, the British and Germans led the world in the number of battle cruisers in their fleets.

The U.S. Navy did not have any battle cruisers when it entered the war in 1917 and did not construct any during the war. However, the Naval Act of 1916 authorized six vessels of that class, to be named for the first vessel of that class, the Lexington. They were to be longer and less heavily armed than any battleship on the drawing board but at 34 knots, much faster. Navy plans called for building six battle cruisers, all at the same time but at four different shipyards. The potential enemy the USN had in mind was the Japanese navy, which was at the time on a building spree to make it the second-largest fleet in the world after the British. The U.S. feared Japanese superiority in battle cruisers, which could threaten the sea lanes and U.S. territories in the Pacific. The USN possessed no battle cruisers to Japans four, and, more worrisome, the Japanese had eight more under construction.

Despite concern in Congress about how much the new ships would cost in scarce post-war dollars, the news of their construction was greeted with joy in the cities and states that would be the beneficiaries of the naming process.

One of the six ships was designated City of Fort Worth. When the news was released, the city made big plans to celebrate the launching, at least two years away. The government asked Marion Sansom, a Fort Worth cattleman and banker and a member of the Wilson administration ( War Finance Corp.), to name a sponsor for the ship, another tradition. He tapped Anne Burnett, granddaughter of his old cattleman buddy, Burk Burnett, who at the time was attending school in Washington, D.C.

Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels picked Fort Worth over numerous other possible cities because of its political clout in Washington and because it had generously oversubscribed the fourth Liberty Loan drive, chaired in Tarrant County by Marion Sansom. Annes father, Tom Burnett, and grandfather Burk both declared she would be glad to represent Fort Worth as sponsor for the ship, an honor that included christening the new ship with a bottle of champagne when it was launched.

Not generally known even then was that this was the second time Fort Worth was to be recognized with a ships name during the war. In 1917 it was proposed to name a ship in the Merchant Marine for Fort Worth. Only a month later the choice of a ship to be named for Fort Worth was upgraded to a battle cruiser, the highest recognition any city could receive for a naval vessel, a little ironic since the nearest body of water to the city was Lake Worth.

The six keels were laid in 1920 and work was well underway by March 1922 when construction came to a halt, the result of agreements in the Washington Naval Treaty between the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan. That historic treaty placed limits on the size of the signatories navies and stopped ongoing construction of new battleships and battle cruisers. The two U.S. battle cruisers in the most advanced stage of construction were converted to aircraft carriers, the U.S.S. Lexington and U.S.S. Saratoga, which went on to fame in World War II. The other city ships along with their names were relegated to a footnote in naval history.

Thus ended the sad story of the first USN ship intended to carry the name of our city. It took another 93 years to accomplish it, but now the Fort Worth name is proudly carried to the major ports in the world.

Still, plans to decommission the USS Fort Worth may have only been delayed for a few years, not canceled. Those plans represent a double slap in the face to the city since the Fort Worths builder was Lockheed Martin, the same company that is building the F-35 right here in Fort Worth.

There is a larger irony to the story. In 1922, a ship named for our city fell victim to international politics that kept it from getting off the drawing boards. Exactly 100 years later, the Navy decides that littoral combat ships like the USS Fort Worth no longer serve its strategic doctrine and plans to mothball them. Perhaps Fort Worth should build its own navy? Wait, it did that once! That is the subject for a future story.

2022 Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

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HOLYOKE (Tribune News Service)  Some 60 men, women and children gathered at a carved stone monument set near the top of a mountainside Saturday to remember 25 people none had ever met but who died at that spot 76 years earlier.

The Mt. Tom Memorial Committee, along with family members of the dead and area residents remembered the 25 men killed on July 9, 1946, when the B-17 they were flying in crashed into Mount Tom. They were young men ready for discharge after fighting in a long war. They were going home.

Saturday was the 26th annual memorial service held at the site since the dedication of the memorial site at the crash scene on rocky ground along an old cable railroad right-of-way up the side of the mountain. In 1996, a site was created to remember those killed and an Indian stone memorial was set with the names of each of the 25 killed craved on it.

Helen Gillis Swahn drove all the way from Erie, Pennsylvania with several generations of her family to Saturdays ceremony. She did not know her dad, Ernest Gillis. He was a Radioman 3rd Class in the Coast Guard and was on his way home to be there when she was born. Her mother gave birth three months after the crash. Ernest was the third Gillis brother to be killed in World War II.

My family didnt do a lot of talking about what went on, Swahn said. My mother never came here, and she never spoke of it. Seeing his name carved there makes it real to me. Before it was just a story but last year it was very emotional. I did not think it would be, but it was because then there was a real attachment to this place and to him.

The official investigation indicated that the plane was low as it lined up to land at Westover Field after flying from Gander Bay, Labrador. The converted B-17 Bomber was having trouble with one engine and was buffeted by a heavy thunderstorm with torrential downpours as it made its final approach to the Chicopee airfield. But it was too low and clipped small trees at the summit of Mount Tom, crashed into a rocky outcropping and exploded about 300 feet below the ridgetop. All 25 aboard were killed.

The men killed were mostly Coast Guardsmen who had served in Greenland and made sure ships sailing the North Atlantic were safe both as seamen aboard search and rescue ships and cutters and as radar operators, seeking the German U-boats that plagued shipping and to aid flights back and forth to Europe. Others were members of the U.S. Army Air Corps. They were young men mostly. Four of those killed were just 18 years old, six were 19 and five were 20 years old. The oldest onboard was 43-year-old Air Corps Capt. Henry A. LeBrecht.

State Rep. Patricia Duffy said what happened to the men aboard that plane the night of July 9, 1946, and all veterans for that matter put the onus on us.

This is such an important reminder of what soldiers and veterans are willing to sacrifice and that we have to be worthy of them, she said, We have to be worthy of them.

Also, aboard the plane that night was Lt. Pasquale Coviello who was attached to the Coast Guard to provide medical care for the Coasties in Greenland and a Red Cross worker, Arthur Baily, who quit his war production job to serve the needs of military members.

What happened on this mountain in the rainy darkness was a tragedy, Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia said. They were going home. They were so close, and they were so young. They were 18,19, 20. These are the ages of the high school graduates I spoke to at last months commencement exercises. They were so young. It breaks your heart.

The memorial came into being because a few men agreed that something had to be done for those killed.

This snake wrangler, Norm Cote came to me and said Bob we have to do something, said former Northampton Veterans Services Coordinator Robert Cahillane. He collected timber rattlers on the mountain and found the original stone cairn and all the crash debris abandoned there. I was able to put him off for a couple of years and finally, he made me go up there and take a look. He was so convinced we had to do something for these men whose sacrifice had to be recognized. After that I contacted the other coordinators in the area we put together a committee.

Cahillane kept a piece of the planes wreckage in his desk as a prompt to keep the project moving ahead.

By 1996 the crash site was transferred from the Mt. Tom Ski Area to the memorial committee and construction workers leveled a small area to set a formal monument. Today the memorial site sits next to the access road used to maintain cell phone towers at the top of the Mount Tom ridge. It is a special place for Al and Ellen Stettner. Alfred Warm was their mothers brother and just 19 years old when he died in the crash.

She was 15 years old and idolized him, Ellen Stettner said of her mom, Dorothy.

Coming to the Holyoke site was a yearly pilgrimage for Dorothy. On her last visit to the site, she told the local residents who turned out for the ceremony, The most important thing in life is showing up and you all show up year after year. God bless you all.

Dorothys last visit was to remember Alfred Warn and to witness the consecration of the vows of daughter Ellen and her husband so far, the only nuptials held at the memorial site.

Al Stettner wears his uncles pinky ring that construction workers found at the site as the memorial was built.

At his first Mt. Tom Memorial ceremony, Garcia thanked the committee on behalf of the City of Holyoke for its work making the memorial site a reality.

The City of Holyoke extends it thanks to the Mt. Tom Memorial Committee. You have lit an eternal flame in the hearts of the families, the descendants, and the countless beneficiaries of the 25 servicemen who gave all until they had nothing left to give. God bless these silent patriots and God bless the country they died for.

2022 Advance Local Media LLC.

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MANNINGTON, W.Va. (Tribune News Service)  A Mannington family has given a whole new meaning to the term brothers in arms.

Built in 1926 and forged of steel and concrete, the Buffalo Street bridge was re-dedicated Friday to honor five Toothman brothers from the greatest generation, those who served in World War II.

In total, there were nine Toothman brothers. Of the five brothers who served in the military made it back alive from the war and, while many of them didnt talk about their experiences in war, they endured physical and mental trauma.

The brothers are named Hubert Early Toothman, Rupert Clyde Toothman, Harold Herman Toothman, Osborne Dale Toothman and Lawrence Reid Toothman.

Earlier this year, the West Virginia legislature passed a resolution re-naming the bridge the  WW II Veterans Toothman Brothers Memorial Bridge. Plans call for replacing the 1920-era structure with a modern bridge in 2026. Marion County Commissioner Linda Longstreth introduced the bill while serving as a West Virginia delegate and delegates Guy Ward, R- Marion County, and Joey Garcia, D- Marion County, co-sponsored the bill. But, Dennis Toothman, son of Sherwin Toothman  one of the nine brothers, worked to set the idea in motion.

At the dedication, several officials and family members spoke about the brothers and how they felt to be at the dedication. There were several members of the Toothman family in attendance, some of them traveled from as far away as Arizona and Florida.

These gentleman fought for our freedom and thats what were here today for  to finally thank them in some tribute for their service that they gave to this country. We wouldnt be here today if they hadnt fought in the war and won the war, Longstreth said.

Garcia shared similar sentiments and provided an anecdote about when he went with his grandmother to see the film Saving Private Ryan. The movie focuses on two brothers fighting in the same war, which is similar to the Toothman Brothers, Garcia said.

As generations pass, the honor, the duty and the courage of those people that fought that day  we must make sure that is remembered, Garcia said.

The youngest and only surviving brother of the nine  Ed Toothman  talked about what the project meant to him and what it wouldve meant to his brothers.

Im proud of my brothers and Im proud of their stories, Ed Toothman said.

Dennis Toothman described pieces of each brothers experience in the war.

Osborne Dale served as a Marine from 1938 to 1946. Rupert Clyde and Harold Herman served in the U.S. Army and were discharged in 1945, but Rupert was badly injured at the time of his discharge.

Lawrence Reid was a U.S. Army Air Force B-24 pilot and was shot down over Austria during his eighth mission. He parachuted from the plane, was captured by the Germans, was freed from a POW hospital by Russians and was discharged in 1946.

Hubert Earl served in the U.S. Army, was wounded in France near the German border and was discharged in 1945.

Sons, daughters and others related to each brother shared commemorating words about them.

___

(c)2022 the Times West Virginian (Fairmont, W. Va.)

Visit the Times West Virginian at www.timeswv.com

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SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina  They were the ones who lived in a world in which their husbands, sons, brothers, uncles and nephews were massacred. They were the ones who fought to make sure that world would neither deny nor forget the truth of what happened in Srebrenica.

As thousands converge on the eastern Bosnian town to commemorate the 27th anniversary Monday of Europe's only acknowledged genocide since World War II, the crucial role women have played in forging a global understanding of the 1995 massacre also is getting recognized.

A permanent photo exhibition of portraits of the women of Srebrenica opened Saturday in a memorial center dedicated to the massacre's more than 8,000 victims. The center in Potocari, just outside the town, is set to host an international conference of women discussing how they found strength to fight for justice after being driven from their homes and witnessing their loved ones being taken away to be killed.

"After I survived the genocide in which my most beloved child and my husband were killed, it was the injustice of their killers, their refusal to acknowledge what they did and to repent, that pushed me to fight for truth and justice," said Munira Subasic.

Subasic's relatives were among more than 8,000 men and boys from the Bosniak ethnic group, which is made up primarily of Muslims, who perished in 10 days of slaughter after the town was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces in the closing months of Bosnia's 1992-95 fratricidal war.

Bosnian Serb soldiers plowed the victims' bodies into hastily made mass graves, and then later dug up the sites with bulldozers and scattered the remains among other burial sites to hide the evidence of their crimes.

Bosniak women and children were packed onto buses and expelled from the town.

But as soon as the war was over, Subasic and other women who had shared her fate vowed to find the remains of their loved ones, bring them back to their town and bury them there.

To do that, they created an organization, Mothers of Srebrenica, which engaged in street protests and other actions to stay in the public eye. They demanded that the mass graves be found, the remains identified and those responsible for the massacre punished. To date, almost 90% of those reported missing from the fall of Srebrenica have been accounted for.

"People often ask us who supported us, who had our back early on. But it was no one, we did it on our own," said Sehida Abdurahmanovic.

"The pain is the best and the most difficult education, but also the most honest, because it comes directly from the heart," she added.

Since the end of the war, Srebrenica has been located in the Serb-run Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, while many of its pre-war inhabitants live in the country's other entity, the Bosniak-Croat Federation.

In the immediate post-war years, crowds of angry Bosnian Serbs did their best to prevent women who had lived through the bloodshed from visiting the newly found mass graves to search for items that once belonged to their loved ones. To intimidate them, crowds would line up along the streets, shouting and throwing stones at buses carrying the women.

But the women kept returning. For a long time, they had to be escorted by the NATO-led peacekeepers, but still they refused to bury their identified dead anywhere else but in Srebrenica.

Finally, in 2003, Bosnian Serb authorities relented under pressure and allowed the survivors to inaugurate the memorial cemetery for the victims in the town.

So far, the remains of more than 6,600 people have been found and buried at the cemetery. The remains of 50 more victims, recently found in mass graves and identified through DNA analysis, will be put to rest there on Monday.

Dozens of Srebrenica women testified before the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, helping put behind bars close to 50 Bosnian Serb wartime officials, collectively sentenced to over 700 years in prison.

"After my husband was killed and I stayed alone with our two children, I thought I will not be able to function, but the pain kept us going," Abdurahmanovic said.

Brought up in a patriarchal society, Srebrenica women were expected to suffer in silence and not confront Serb leaders, who continue to downplay or even deny the 1995 massacre. Instead, they changed their lives, setting up support groups, commemorating the victims and re-telling their trauma to everyone willing to listen, including queens, presidents, prime ministers, diplomats and journalists.

"The history of what happened in Srebrenica has been written in white marble headstones in the memorial cemetery, which would not have existed had we not insisted," said Suhra Sinanovic, who lost her husband and 23 other close male relatives in the massacre.

She said Bosnian Serb authorities had underestimated the Srebrenica women.

"If, God forbid, a war was to break out in Bosnia again, maybe (the Serbs) would do things differently by letting the men live and killing the women," she said.
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii  Among the multiple goals of the monthlong Rim of the Pacific maritime exercise now underway in Hawaii is showing potential adversaries the solidarity of the 26 nations participating, the commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet said Friday.

The range of navies joining RIMPAC from North America, South America, the Indo-Pacific and Europe should send a message of solidarity to any would-be actors that would upend the international rules-based order, Adm. Samuel Paparo said during a pier-side news conference at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

That existing order prohibits the use of weapons of mass destruction and respect for national sovereignty, he said.

I think any revisionist powers that would hold the world at risk with these weapons of mass destruction, nations of the world that would try to change their borders by force, anybody that would recognize themselves in that should see RIMPAC as an expression of the solidarity of the coalition that would be built that would look to thwart behavior such as that, he said.

Paparo described Chinas military build-up in recent years as alarming.

China has been on an historic path to build a navy, and it is quite concerning the combat power that China is developing over the last few decades, he said. That build-up is aimed at power projection beyond its waters and beyond its shores, so it is very concerning.

This summers RIMPAC, which lasts until Aug. 4, has brought together 38 ships, four submarines, 30 unmanned systems, 170-plus aircraft and more than 25,000 personnel, including troops from land forces from nine nations, Vice Adm. Michael Boyle, who commands RIMPACs joint task force and U.S. 3rd Fleet, said during the news conference.

That commitment made by our partners in the Pacific and around the globe is the commitment to a free and open Pacific, he said.

Participating are forces from Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The at-sea portion of the exercise, which commences next week, is intentionally not scripted so that participating navies are forced to adapt to conditions on the fly, Boyle said.

It will have some free play that will allow commanders of ships, commanders of task forces and myself to have to think through problems and adapt our plans to be able to overcome what the threat or the environment is presenting to us, he said.

RIMPACs warfighting program includes gunnery, missile, anti-submarine and air-defense exercises. Other drills focus on amphibious landings, counter-piracy, mine clearance, explosive ordnance disposal and diving operations.

To a greater degree than ever before, the exercise is integrating drones from multiple navies into RIMPACs core events, instead of keeping those unmanned platforms in their own bubble, Boyle said.

That integration is already underway in the U.S. Navys operations in the Pacific, and now it's bleeding over into RIMPAC, Boyle said.

Experiments integrating drone systems into RIMPACs joint task force operations provide sailors and Marines greater understanding of how this capability will someday make them more lethal on the battlefield, Boyle said.

Four U.S. Navy drones are among those participating  Nomad, Ranger, Sea Hawk and Sea Hunter.

The integration of unmanned platforms to RIMPAC will broaden the U.S. Navys concept of distributed lethality for any coalition joint force formed in the future, Boyle said.

Distributed lethality means that every platform has capability to be lethal, as opposed to a centralized lethality that is protected by the rest of the force, Boyle said.

Because if every platform is lethal, then every platform has to be considered, and that provides overmatch when postured against a potential adversary, he said.
NUSA DUA, Indonesia  China's support for Russia's war in Ukraine is complicating U.S.-Chinese relations at a time when they are already beset by rifts and enmity over numerous other issues, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Chinese counterpart on Saturday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed the U.S. for the downturn in relations and said that American policy has been derailed by what he called a misperception of China as a threat.

"Many people believe that the United States is suffering from a China-phobia," he said, according to a Chinese statement. "If such threat-expansion is allowed to grow, U.S. policy toward China will be a dead end with no way out."

In five hours of talks in their first-to-face meeting since October, Blinken said he expressed deep concern about China's stance on Russia's actions in Ukraine and did not believe Beijing's protestations that it is neutral in the conflict.

The talks had been arranged in a new effort to try to rein in or at least manage rampant hostility that has come to define recent relations between Washington and Beijing.

"We are concerned about the PRC's alignment with Russia," Blinken told reporters after the meeting in the Indonesian resort of Bali. He said it is difficult to be "neutral" in a conflict in which there is a clear aggressor but that even it were possible, "I don't believe China is acting in a way that is neutral."

The Chinese statement said the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on Ukraine but provided no details.

The Biden administration had hoped that China, with its long history of opposing what it sees as interference in its own internal affairs, would take a similar position with Russia and Ukraine. But it has not, choosing instead what U.S. officials see as a hybrid position that is damaging the international rules-based order.

Blinken said every nation, China included, stands to lose if that order is eroded.

The two men met a day after they both attended a gathering of top diplomats from the Group of 20 rich and large developing countries that ended without a joint call to end Russia's war in Ukraine or plan for how to deal with its impacts on food and energy security.

However, Blinken said he believed Russia had come away from G-20 meeting isolated and alone as most participants expressed opposition to the Ukraine war. However, the ministers were unable to come to a unified G-20 call for an end to the conflict.

"There was a strong consensus and Russia was left isolated," Blinken said of individual condemnations of Russia's actions from various ministers, some of whom shunned conversations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

He noted that Lavrov had left the meeting early, possibly because he didn't like what he was hearing from his counterparts.

"It was very important that he heard loudly and clearly from around the world condemnation of Russia's aggression," Blinken said, adding: "We see no signs whatsoever that Russia at his point is prepared to engage in diplomacy."

On China, Blinken said he and Wang discussed a range of contentious issues from tariffs and trade and human rights to Taiwan and disputes in the South China Sea that have all been complicated by the Chinese position on Ukraine.

Wang called on the U.S. to lift tariffs on imports from China as soon as possible, stop interfering in his country's internal affairs and refrain from harming its interests in the name of human rights and democracy. He also accused the U.S. of using "salami-slicing" tactics on Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its territory and says should come under its control.

Just two days earlier, the countries' top military officers had faced off over Taiwan during a virtual meeting. Blinken said he stressed U.S. concerns with China's "increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity near Taiwan and the vital importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait." He added that he had also raised human rights concerns regarding minorities in Tibet and in the western Xinjiang region.

Wang refuted some "erroneous U.S. views" on Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea, the Chinese statement said.

U.S. officials had said ahead of time they didn't expect any breakthroughs from Blinken's talks with Wang. But they said they were hopeful the conversation could help keep lines of communications open and create "guardrails" to guide the world's two largest economies as they navigate increasingly complex and potentially explosive matters.

"We're committed to managing this relationship, this competition responsibly as the world expects us to do," Blinken said.

The United States and China have staked out increasingly confrontational positions, including on Ukraine, that some fear could lead to miscalculation and conflict. The U.S. has watched warily as China has refused to criticize the Russian invasion, while condemning Western sanctions against Russia and accusing the U.S. and NATO of provoking the conflict.

At the G-20 meeting, Wang made an oblique reference to China's policy on global stability, saying "to place one's own security above the security of others and intensify military blocs will only split the international community and make oneself less secure," according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

On Thursday, China's joint chiefs of staff chairman Gen. Li Zuocheng upbraided his U.S. counterpart Gen. Mark Milley over Washington's support for Taiwan.

Li demanded that the U.S. cease military "collusion" with Taiwan, saying China has "no room for compromise" on issues affecting its "core interests."

The meeting between Li and Milley followed fiery comments by Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe at a regional security conference last month that was also attended by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Wei accused the United States of trying to "hijack" the support of countries in the Asia-Pacific region to turn them against Beijing, saying Washington is seeking to advance its own interests "under the guise of multilateralism."

At the same meeting in Singapore, Austin said China was causing instability with its claim to Taiwan and its increased military activity in the area.

___

Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.
The U.S. Border Patrol is proposing disciplinary action for several agents who confronted Haitian migrants while on horseback on the Texas-Mexico border last year.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus, which oversees Border Patrol, would not reveal what the disciplinary action may be, citing privacy concerns for its agents. But he stressed that some of the actions by the agents on horseback and verbal epithets yelled by at least one agent led to the recommendations and were result of a 10-month investigation into the incident.

The disciplinary process is ongoing and the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility will finalize the recommendations, which the agents could later appeal, he said.

"There is no room in our agency for discrimination or intolerance," Magnus said at a press conference Friday. "CBP is dedicated to ensuring the fair and just treatment of all people."

Images of Border Patrol agents on horseback in September repelling Haitian families as they waded across the Rio Grande into the United States circulated through newscasts and social media sites, sparking a sharp backlash against the agency.

Immigrant rights and civil rights groups protested the clashes. In Miami, 200 Haitian-Americans protesting outside the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field office forced road closures.

At the time, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ordered an investigation into the incident. Mayorkas in a statement Friday said CBP is implementing the needed reforms after the investigation that will "proceed with the urgency and commitment."

The misconduct of several individuals does not reflect the brave and distinguished service of the agents of the United States Border Patrol," Mayorkas said in the statement. "The organizational failures of policy, procedures and training that the investigation identified were a disservice to the agents and the public they serve. CBP must and will do better."

Story continues

CBP investigators interviewed more than 30 eye-witnesses, including news media members at the scene, as well as Border Patrol agents and officials to compile the 500-page report, Magnus said.

"The primary goal of this investigation was to establish the facts of what happened," he said. "It was thorough and independent. And despite any comments or criticisms - not everyone's gonna like all the findings - but the investigation was comprehensive and fair."

Following a devastating earthquake in 2010, thousands of Haitians emigrated to South America to find work in Brazil and other countries. But as the COVID-19 pandemic and other economic forces dried up many of those prospects, thousands of Haitians began the long trek north in hopes of finding jobs in the United States.

In July 2021, mercenaries also assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise, adding to the country's instability and propelling more Haitians to seek opportunities outside the island nation. Many of them funneled into Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, and crossed the Rio Grande into Del Rio, Texas, to seek asylum in the United States.

By September, nearly 15,000 Haitians had gathered in a makeshift encampment on the riverbanks in Del Rio. Border officials attempted to expel the migrants under Title 42, a Trump administration policy that removed migrants without processing them to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But since they were Haitian, U.S. agents couldn't simply return them to Mexico and had to instead place them on flights back to Haiti.

This took several days of processing and, as the encampment ran out of food, many of the Haitians wandered back across the border to buy food and other provisions in Mexico. On their return to the United States, they were confronted by the horse-mounted Border Patrol agents, said Adam Isacson, of the Washington Office on Latin America, a U.S.-based research and advocacy organization.

Promo image for Haitian migrants

The confrontation  captured in still and video images by news photographers and immigrant advocates  was just one in a long list of complaints against Border Patrol that includes physical and verbal abuse against migrants, as well as rape and shootings, Isacson said.

His group has documented 273 cases of Border Patrol abuses since 2020. But often occurring in remote border regions or at night, those incidents are almost never documented, he said.

"Almost every day theres someone who gets beaten or their papers taken away by Border Patrol," Isacson said. "What's rare for Border Patrol is that it's caught on camera."

A key part of the investigation was to determine whether the horse-mounted agents used their reins as whips to strike the migrants. In some images, it appeared as if agents were twirling their horses' reins in a threatening fashion.

Magnus said investigators found no evidence that agents struck migrants with their reins "intentionally or otherwise." One agent, he said, acted in an unprofessional manner by yelling inappropriate slurs at the migrants. He also said no migrants were forced back to Mexico or denied entry into the United States as a result of the horse-mounted confrontations.

The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to file charges in the case, meaning criminal charges do not seem likely.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, whose troopers have been deployed to help secure the border, also played a prominent role in the investigation. Texas troopers had blocked off a popular unauthorized border crossing over a dam, forcing the migrants to cross the river, according to the report. Then, on Sept. 18, members of the state agency asked the Border Patrol's horse-mounted unit on the scene for help in preventing the Haitian migrants from crossing into Del Rio, sparking the confrontations, the report said.

"Horse patrol unit personnel carried out an operation at the request of the Texas Department of Public Safety that directly conflicted with Border Patrol operational objectives," Magnus said.

DPS' involvement in Del Rio underscores Texas' ongoing, controversial efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, a task delegated to federal agencies. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott authorized the National Guard and state police to return apprehended migrants to the border, setting up a potential clash with the federal government over the authority to enforce immigration law.

"We stand ready to work with Texas to achieve these goals but the challenge is when any state, such as Texas, takes unilateral action it just makes it harder for us to do this," Magnus said.

The Del Rio confrontations occurred as migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border hit historic highs. Last fiscal year, which ended in September, border officials encountered 1.72 million migrants at the Southwest border, a two-decade high.

Immigration advocates have been critical over the Biden administration's treatment of migrants, especially Haitian migrants, who have been consistently expelled on flights back to their home country.

As Border Patrol scrambled to detain and process waves of asylum-seekers, the system became overwhelmed, said Tony Payan, director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston.

Thousands of Haitian migrants are stuck at the U.S.-Mexico border wading through the Rio Grande near Del Rio, Texas.

Payan said the agents in question should be held accountable but the incident was also a revealing look at the dysfunction of the U.S. immigration system along the border.

"The system is broken," he said. "I dont exonerate the agency but it's an agency overwhelmed by policy failure."

Follow Jervis and Morin on Twitter: @MrRJervis, @RebeccaMorin_.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Border Patrol agents on horses punished for confronting Haitians
TOKYO  U.S. military commanders in Japan remembered former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as a friend and ally in messages of condolence posted following Abes assassination on Friday.

Prime Minister Abe was an unwavering ally and partner to the U.S., and did so much to support our service members in Japan and strengthen the alliance we share, Vice Adm. Karl Thomas, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, based at Yokosuka, Japan, wrote in a message posted on his commands Facebook page Saturday.

Abe, 67, was shot from behind while delivering a campaign speech outside a train station in Nara, about 300 miles west of Tokyo. He died later in a hospital.

Abe in 2015 was the first Japanese prime minister to set foot on an American warship when he visited the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan during the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Fleet Review. The Ronald Reagan is homeported at Yokosuka Naval Base as the flagship of a carrier strike group.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp, commander of U.S. Forces Japan, condemned Abes killing in a message posted on U.S. Forces Japans official Facebook page.

The men and women of United States Forces Japan are deeply saddened by the outrageous murder of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Rupp wrote. The terrible circumstances of his passing are unacceptable, an intolerable affront to the democratic principles we share. His death is a great loss for the people of Japan and for all those who value a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.

Abe, his nations longest serving prime minister, endorsed the free and open Indo-Pacific policy of free navigation, free trade and rule of law in a 2016 speech in Kenya, according to Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Today its a catchphrase employed by the U.S. military to explain its presence in areas of the South China Sea that are claimed by China.

Abe also pushed measures aimed at reinstating Japan as a military presence in the region and to revive its languid economy of the 1990s.

As Prime Minister, Mr. Abe championed the vital and enduring alliance between our two democracies, the cornerstone of security in the Pacific, Rupp wrote. He also paved the way for Japan to take an even larger role in the alliance. This great legacy will live on.

USFJ is headquartered at Yokota Air Base, an airlift and transit hub in western Tokyo.

Japan, where gun violence is relatively unknown, was shocked by Abes assassination. The suspected gunman, identified in news accounts as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, of Nara, was tackled and arrested by security personnel at the scene. News video showed what appeared to be a homemade device resembling a sawed-off shotgun dropped on the street.

Japanese police raided Yamagamis home and seized several weapons that also appeared to be homemade, NBC News reported Saturday.

To his family, and to the people of Japan, please know that all of United States Forces Japan stand with you as allies and friends in this time of shock and sorrow, Rupp said in his message.
SRINAGAR, India  Emergency workers rescued thousands of pilgrims after flash floods triggered by sudden rains swept through their makeshift camps during an annual Hindu pilgrimage to an icy Himalayan cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Saturday. At least 16 people have died and dozens were injured.

Authorities suspended the pilgrimage for two days as rains continued to lash the region. Teams of rescuers from India's military, paramilitary and police as well as disaster management officials combed through the slippery mountain tracks and used thermal imaging devices, sniffer dogs and through-the-wall radars to locate dozens of missing.

They dug through mud, sand and rocks that swamped the campsites on Friday evening after hurtling down with a gush of water near the cave shrine revered by Hindus. Civilian and military helicopters evacuated the injured to hospitals.

Thousands of people were in the mountains when the rains struck.

Officials said about 15,000 devotees were moved to safer locations and at least five dozen injured were administered first aid at base camp hospitals set up for the pilgrimage, which is undertaken by hundreds of thousands of Hindus from across India.

Groups of pilgrims are staggered over 1 1/2 month for security and logistical reasons.

Ravi Dutt, the 69-year-old Hindu ascetic from eastern West Bengal state, was camping near the cave on Friday evening. He said that suddenly water gushed down from a mountain "sweeping away men, women and our belongings too."

"Everything was buried under a mountain (of mud and rocks)," Dutt said as he broke down. "I have never seen such an incident in my life."

Abdul Ghani, a Kashmiri porter who rents his pony to pilgrims, said it was an utter chaos. "I just bundled a devotee on my pony and never looked back," he said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguish over the deaths. Manoj Sinha, New Delhi's top administrator in the region, said: "Our priority is to save the lives of people. Instructions have been issued to provide all necessary assistance to pilgrims."

The Amarnath pilgrimage began on June 30 and tens of thousands of devotees have already visited the cave shrine where Hindus worship Lingam, a naturally formed ice stalagmite, as an incarnation of Shiva, the god of destruction and regeneration.

This year, officials expect nearly 1 million visitors after a two-year gap due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Worshippers trek to the cave along two routes through lush green meadows and rocky and forested mountain passes with a view of glacial lakes and snowy peaks. A traditional route via the southern hill resort of Pahalgam takes three days while a trip through northeastern Baltal lasts one day. Some pilgrims use helicopter services to make quick visits.

The cave, at 13,500 feet (4,115 meters) above sea level, is covered with snow most of the year except for the short summer period when it is open to pilgrims.

Hundreds of pilgrims have died in the past due to exhaustion and exposure to harsh weather during the journey through the icy mountains. In 1996, thousands were caught in a freak snowstorm, leading to more than 250 fatalities.

The pilgrimage concludes on Aug. 11, a full-moon night that Hindus say commemorates Shiva revealing the secret of the creation of the universe.

Apart from weather-related hazards, officials have said that pilgrims face an increased threat of attacks from Muslim rebels who have fought for decades against Indian rule. This year, for the first time, devotees are tagged with a wireless tracking system. Tens of thousands of police and soldiers also guard the routes.

The pilgrimage has been targeted in the past by suspected rebels, who accuse Hindu-majority India of using it as a political statement to bolster its claim on the Muslim-majority disputed region.

At least 50 pilgrims have been killed in three dozen attacks blamed on militants since an armed rebellion began in Indian-controlled Kashmir in 1989 for the region's independence or a merger with Pakistan, which controls a part of the territory.
SKOPJE, North Macedonia  European Union and U.S. leaders are urging North Macedonia's parliament to accept a French proposal that will move the tiny Balkan country closer toward EU membership and overcome objections by Bulgaria.

"At this critical moment in European history, marked by the unjustifiable aggression carried out by Russia against Ukraine, advancing Albania and North Macedonia's EU path is key to strengthening the cohesion and resilience of the entire European continent," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a joint statement Saturday.

"We welcome a compromise proposal which takes into account the interests and concerns of both North Macedonia and Bulgaria based on mutual respect, trust, and understanding. The sovereign decision of the Parliament of North Macedonia will be important to move forward," they said.

"The European Union and the United States are committed to closer cooperation in the Western Balkans. Ensuring stability and prosperity and making their European and Euro-Atlantic future a reality remains our common goal," they added.

North Macedonia has been a candidate for EU membership for 17 years. The country received the green light to begin accession talks in 2020, but no date for the start of the negotiations has been set.

Bulgaria has used its power as an EU member to block North Macedonia's membership.

Political tensions in North Macedonia have been on the rise with violent nightly protests since French President Emmanuel Macron announced at the NATO summit in Madrid that he believed "a compromise solution" had been achieved.

Macron's proposal envisages concessions from both sides. The government in Skopje would commit to changing its constitution to recognize a Bulgarian minority, protect minority rights and banish hate speech, as Bulgaria, an EU member since 2007, has demanded.

The French leader stressed the proposal doesn't question the official existence of a Macedonian language, but he noted that, like all deals, it "rests on compromises and on a balance."

In North Macedonia, both President Stevo Pendarovski and the government of Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski backed the proposal as a reasonable compromise. Accepting it "will be neither a historic triumph, as one camp would call it, nor a historic failure or debacle, as those in the other camp say," Pendarovski said.

The government has stressed the proposal does not endanger national interests or identity. But the center-right main opposition party, the VMRO-DPMNE, as well as others, disagree, saying the deal favors Bulgarian demands that question North Macedonia's history, language, identity, culture and heritage.

In Bulgaria, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov's centrist government was toppled in a no-confidence vote on June 22. A junior governing partner quit the fragile four-party coalition, describing Petkov's willingness to lift the veto of North Macedonia as a "national betrayal."

Bulgaria has accepted the French proposal, which now requires the backing of North Macedonia's parliament. A plenary session has not been scheduled yet.
WASHINGTON  Two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Russian forces assaulted a nursing home in the eastern region of Luhansk. Dozens of elderly and disabled patients, many of them bedridden, were trapped inside without water or electricity.

The March 11 assault set off a fire that spread throughout the facility, suffocating people who couldn't move. A small number of patients and staff escaped and fled into a nearby forest, finally getting assistance after walking for 3 miles.

In a war awash in atrocities, the attack on the nursing home near the village of Stara Krasnyanka stood out for its cruelty. And Ukrainian authorities placed the fault squarely on Russian forces, accusing them of killing more than 50 vulnerable civilians in a brutal and unprovoked attack.

But a new U.N. report has found that Ukraine's armed forces bear a large, and perhaps equal, share of the blame for what happened in Stara Krasnyanka, which is about 580 kilometers (360 miles) southeast of Kyiv. A few days before the attack, Ukrainian soldiers took up positions inside the nursing home, effectively making the building a target.

At least 22 of the 71 patients survived the assault, but the exact number of people killed remains unknown, according to the United Nations.

The report by the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights doesn't conclude the Ukrainian soldiers or the Russian troops committed a war crime. But it said the battle at the Stara Krasnyanka nursing home is emblematic of the human rights office's concerns over the potential use of "human shields" to prevent military operations in certain areas.

The aftermath of the attack on the Stara Krasnyanka home also provides a window into how both Russia and Ukraine move quickly to set the narrative for how events are unfolding on the ground  even when those events may still be shrouded by the fog of war. For Ukraine, maintaining the upper hand in the fight for hearts and minds helps to ensure the continued flow of billions of dollars in Western military and humanitarian aid.

Russia's frequently indiscriminate shelling of apartment buildings, hospitals, schools and theaters has been the primary cause of the war's thousands of civilian casualties. Ukraine and its allies, including the United States, have rebuked Moscow for the deaths and injuries and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.

But Ukraine also must abide by the international rules of the battlefield. David Crane, a former Defense Department official and a veteran of numerous international war crime investigations, said the Ukrainian forces may have violated the laws of armed conflict by not evacuating the nursing home's residents and staff.

"The bottom-line rule is that civilians cannot intentionally be targeted. Period. For whatever reason," Crane said. "The Ukrainians placed those people in a situation which was a killing zone. And you can't do that."

The Associated Press and the PBS series "Frontline," drawing from a variety of sources, have independently documented hundreds of attacks across Ukraine that likely constitute war crimes. The vast majority appear to have been committed by Russia. But a handful, including the destruction of the Stara Krasnyanka care home, indicate Ukrainian fighters are also to blame.

The first reports in the media about the Stara Krasnyanka nursing home largely reflected statements issued by Ukrainian officials more than a week after the fighting ended.

Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk, declared in a March 20 post to his Telegram account that 56 people had been killed "cynically and deliberately" by "Russian occupiers" who "shot at close range from a tank." The office of Ukraine's prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said in a statement issued the same day that 56 elderly people died due to the "treacherous actions" of the Russian forces and their allies. Neither statement mentioned whether Ukrainian soldiers had entered the home before the fighting began.

The Luhansk regional administration, which Haidai leads, did not respond to requests for comment. The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office told the AP on Friday that its Luhansk division continues to investigate Russia's "indiscriminate shelling and forced transfer of persons" from the nursing home. About 50 patients were killed in the attack, the office said, fewer than it stated in March. The prosecutor general's office did not directly respond to the U.N. report, but said it also is looking into whether Ukrainian troops had been in the home.

Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern industrial heartland, the Donbas, which includes the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. They have declared two independent "people's" republics, which were recognized by Russia just before the war began. After the invasion, these separatist fighters came under Russian command.

Viktoria Serdyukova, the human rights commissioner for the Luhansk separatist government, said in a March 23 statement that the Ukrainian troops were responsible for casualties at the nursing home. The residents had been taken hostage by Ukrainian "militants" and many of them were "burned alive" in a fire started by the Ukrainians as they were retreating, she said.

The U.N. report examined violations of international human rights law that have occurred in Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. The Stara Krasnyanka attack totals just two paragraphs in the 38-page report. Although brief, this short section is the most detailed and independent examination of the incident that's been made public.

The Stara Krasnyanka section is based on eyewitness accounts from staff who survived the attack and information provided by relatives of residents, according to a U.N. official who wasn't authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is still working to fully document the case, the official said. Among the remaining questions are how many people were killed and who they were.

At the beginning of March, according to the U.N. report, "when active hostilities drew nearer to the care house," its management requested repeatedly that local authorities evacuate the residents. But an evacuation wasn't possible because Ukrainian forces were believed to have mined the surrounding area and blocked roads, the report said. The home is built on a hill and is near a key highway, which made the location strategically important.

On March 7, Ukrainian soldiers entered the nursing home, according to the U.N. Two days later, they "engaged in an exchange of fire" with the Moscow-backed separatists, "although it remains unclear which side opened fire first," the report said. No staff or residents were injured in this first exchange.

On March 11, 71 residents and 15 staff remained in the home with no access to water or electricity. That morning, the Luhansk separatist forces, which the U.N. referred to as "Russian-affiliated armed groups," attacked with heavy weapons, the report said.

"A fire started and spread across the care house, while the fighting was ongoing," according to the U.N. An unspecified number of patients and staff fled the home and ran into a nearby forest and were eventually met by the separatist fighters, who gave them assistance, according to the U.N.

A correspondent for the state-owned Russia-1 news channel gained access to the war-ravaged home after the battle and posted a video to his Telegram account in April that accused the Ukrainian soldiers of using "helpless old people" as human shields.

The correspondent, Nikolai Dolgachev, was accompanied into the building by a man identified in the video as a Luhansk separatist soldier who goes by the call sign "Wolf." The extensive damage to the building, both inside and out, is visible in the video. A body is laying on the floor. The AP verified that the location in the video posted by Dolgachev is the care home by comparing it to other videos and photos of the building.

Dolgachev said the Ukrainian troops set up a "machine gun nest" and an anti-tank weapon in the home. In the video, he stops amid the rubble inside the building to rest his hand on the anti-tank weapon, which he incorrectly called a Tor. The Tor is a Russian-made surface-to-air missile.

Ian Williams, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, reviewed the video and said the weapon is an RK-3 Corsar, a Ukrainian-built portable anti-tank guided missile.

While the opposing sides blame each other for the Stara Krasnyanka tragedy, the grim reality is that much of the war in Ukraine is being fought in populated areas, increasing the potential for civilian casualties. Those deaths and injuries become almost inevitable when the civilians are caught in the line of fire.

"The Russians are the bad guys (in this conflict). That's pretty clear," Crane said. "But everybody is accountable to the law and the laws of armed conflict."

Associated Press writer Lynn Berry in Washington and photographer Zoya Shu in Berlin contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON - The Biden administration on Friday said it will terminate its four-decade-old tax treaty with Hungary over that countrys resistance to implementing a global minimum tax, as the United States seeks to create a global tax floor for large multinational corporations.

In a statement on Friday, the Treasury Department said the United States is ending the treaty with Hungary because the benefits are no longer reciprocal, citing a loss of tax revenue for the United States and little return for American investment in the country. Hungary, which has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe, is currently blocking the European Unions implementation of the global minimum tax agreement. World leaders have agreed on a 15 percent corporate tax floor, championed as a top priority by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Hungarys corporate tax rate is 9%. Each country in the European Union has veto power over the blocs tax agreements, and every other E.U. member country supports the proposal.

The United States, across administrations, has had long-held concerns with Hungarys tax system and the Hungary treaty, the Treasury statement said. We discussed these concerns with Hungary starting last fall, but are taking this step due to a lack of satisfactory action by Hungary to remedy these concerns.

An analysis by the Treasury Department said the treaty unilaterally benefits Hungary. When the treaty was agreed to, Hungarys tax rate was 50%; it is now 9% - less than half the U.S. rate.

Tax treaties are designed to help residents of countries that have signed them avoid paying taxes on the same income to both nations and to resolve other potentially complicated tax situations.

The Biden administration has said the new global minimum tax will help states fund social programs and escape a mutually damaging race to the bottom by competing for business by lowering corporate tax rates. Those efforts have largely unified countries in the European Union, with Yellen and her partners winning over holdouts such as Ireland and Poland.

But Hungarys resistance has become the latest major roadblock to implementing the plan, with Hungarian officials warning that the measure will hurt investment and growth in their country. The Washington Post previously reported that Republican lawmakers, who also oppose the global tax deal, are working with senior officials in the Hungarian government.

No matter how much pressure we are under . . . we do not risk the jobs of tens of thousands of Hungarians, Peter Szijjarto, Hungarys foreign minister, said in a Facebook post on Saturday. We continue professional consultations on tax affairs with our Republican friends.

The news that the tax treaty would be terminated was first reported by Reuters.
BEIRUT  President Bashar Assad made a rare visit to the northern province of Aleppo on Friday to tour the country's largest city and inaugurate a power station that was once held by insurgents and suffered wide damages during the war, state media reported.

The visit by Assad and his family to the city of Aleppo  Syria's largest and once the nation's commercial center  was his first since government forces captured its rebel-held eastern neighborhoods in December 2016 after a monthslong battle.

Photographs published by the president's office show Assad, his wife, Asma and their two sons and a daughter walking through the historic covered market in Aleppo, one of the city's landmarks that suffered wide destruction during the conflict. Parts of the market are now being renovated.

Assad also toured the centuries-old Ummayad Mosque, known known as The Great Mosque of Aleppo, where renovation work has been ongoing for years.

The capture of eastern Aleppo in 2016, after four years in rebels hands, was Assad's biggest victory in the conflict at the time.

Before touring the city, Assad visited a power station in the eastern part of Aleppo province, according to his office and the state news agency, SANA.

Today, government-held parts of Syria endure more than 12 hours of power cuts a day as production is far less than the needs of the country. Syria's infrastructure saw much destruction during the 11-year conflict.

SANA also said Assad inaugurated a part of the Aleppo power station that was renovated and is ready to produce up to 200 megawatts. The report said work was underway to also fix other parts of the station.

Friday's inauguration comes on the sixth anniversary of Syrian troops retaking the station from militants, the report said.

Syrian government forces now control much of the country, thanks to allies Russia and Iran, which have helped tip the balance of power in Assad's favor. The civil war that began in 2011 has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced half the country's population and left large parts of Syria destroyed.

Syria's Prime Minister Hussein Arnous recently told parliament that the country's needs stand at about 7,000 megawatts but stations only produce a a bit over 2,500 megawatts.

Arnous added that a main reason for electricity shortages is that Syria's production of natural gas dropped sharply during the conflict as some of the country's largest oil and gas fields are held by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish-led fighters.

In November, Syria signed a contract with a group of companies from the United Arab Emirates to build a solar power station in a Damascus suburb. The station will produce 300 megawatts at peak rates.

A month earlier, Syria's electricity ministry signed a $115 million contract with an Iranian company to rebuild another power station in central Syria.
WASHINGTON  U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback engaged in "unnecessary use of force" against non-threatening Haitian immigrants but didn't whip any with their reins "intentionally or otherwise," according to a federal investigation of chaotic scenes along the Texas-Mexico border last fall that sparked widespread condemnation.

In a 511-page report released Friday, Customs and Border Protection blamed a "lack of command control and communication" for mounted agents using their horses to forcibly block and move migrants during an influx of Haitians arriving last September at the U.S. border outside Del Rio, Texas.

"We're gonna learn from this incident and we'll find a way to do better," CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said during a news conference announcing the report. "Not everyone's going to like all the findings but the investigation was comprehensive and fair."

Video and photos of the incident made it appear agents were whipping Haitians, which caused outrage among advocacy groups and civil rights leaders. The Biden administration promised a full investigation after many in the president's own party objected that such tactics with racial overtones were the kinds of policies the U.S. was supposed to be moving away from after years of hardline immigration tactics under President Donald Trump.

A former police chief, Magnus took over the nation's largest law enforcement agency in December and is being watched closely for shepherding the ongoing investigation. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Friday that "the organizational failures of policy, procedures, and training that the investigation identified were a disservice to the agents and the public they serve."

Last fall, Biden called images of what occurred "horrible" and "outrageous."

"I promise you, those people will pay," the president said then. "There is an investigation underway right now and there will be consequences."

Asked if the politically charged environment marred the investigation, Magnus said "it was inevitable, certainly not surprising, that there was going to be a reaction to that from the community, from those in the media from elected officials, from different advocacy groups."

But he said he instructed investigators "that all of these things were to be put aside, to be disregarded."

"I was counting on them to do a fair, through, comprehensive investigation with no attention to this outside influence," Magnus said.

By September 19, 2021, around 15,000 Haitian migrants had crossed from Mexico into the United States and were concentrated in an encampment underneath the international bridge.

Magnus said the investigation began the day after the incident and included testimony from more than 30 people, among them witnesses and journalists. Investigators said they were unable to locate Haitian migrants involved to get their accounts  but used statements and court documents that some provided as part of lawsuits they filed against U.S. authorities.

Magnus said four Border Patrol personnel have been recommended for disciplinary action for their conduct, though he declined to discuss exactly what each had done to warrant possible punishment, or elaborate on what sanctions they could face. That comes after prosecutors in April declined to pursue criminal charges, he said.

Disciplinary actions are separate from Friday's findings and won't be announced until later. All four CBP officials have been on administrative duty since the investigation began, according to senior agency officials who briefed reporters before Friday's report was released.

Mark Morgan, a former acting CBP commissioner under Trump, dismissed the entire investigation as politically motivated since no Haitians were actually whipped.

"From the start, these agents have been smeared, lied about, and vilified by nearly everyone on the left," Morgan said in a statement.

Federal investigators said no migrant was struck with a whip, forced to return to Mexico or denied entry into the U.S. during the approximately 15 minutes that they were forcibly blocked and moved by mounted agents. One agent yelled inappropriate comments about a migrant's national origin including, "You use your women" while also narrowly missing crashing his horse into a child walking nearby while pursuing a migrant.

Agents acted with the permission of their supervisor, who was unable to get guidance from higher up the Border Patrol chain of command, the report said. Communication occurred on a radio channel that wasn't recorded, further complicating investigation into the incident.

The use of force drove migrants back into the Rio Grande, despite their having been well within U.S. territory and not presenting threats  which was counter to CBP's mission, the report found.

It also said the incident began after authorities from a state agency also working in the area at the time, the Texas Department of Public Safety, requested help from federal authorities.

That conclusion follows Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott this week authorizing state forces to apprehend migrants and return them to the U.S.-Mexico border  raising questions about his state's enforcement powers as top GOP leaders have slammed the Biden administration for failing to curb the rising number of crossings.

Magnus said Friday that his agency has "a shared interest with Texas" in "maintaining a safe, orderly, humane immigration process," and that federal officials "stand ready to work with Texas to achieve these goals."

"But the challenge is, when any state, such as Texas, takes unilateral action, that just makes it harder for us to do this," he added.
LOS ANGELES (Tribune News Service)  More than two dozen people associated with criminal street gangs face a combined 86 years in prison after pleading guilty in a $1 million fraud scheme, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Friday.

Toni Coffman, the leader of the scheme, received 13 years and 8 months in prison and was ordered to pay a $861,000 restitution. Coffman and 28 others conspired to defraud victims throughout the state by hacking the credit card terminals and merchant accounts of dozens of medical and dental businesses, officials said.

"Criminal activity targeting merchants and consumers not only takes a financial toll on communities, but it endangers public safety," Bonta said in a statement. "This sentencing should send a powerful message: Criminal activity will not be tolerated in our state and we will hold those participating in illegal activities accountable."

The prosecutions come after a multiyear investigation of a series of burglaries tied to a credit card fraud scheme in 13 cities in Northern California, including Walnut Creek, Antioch, San Rafael and Napa, according to state Department of Justice officials. The investigation began in February 2016, after law enforcement officials discovered similarities among the burglaries of credit card terminals in the region.

Members of the Bully Boys and CoCo Boys gangs worked together to burglarize businesses and steal credit card terminals, law enforcement officials alleged. The suspects used the terminals to process returns. But instead of the value of the returns going to the business or customer, it was placed onto a debit card that the suspects then pocketed, officials said. The defendants stole about $1 million, DOJ officials said.

___

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BLINKEN 1191 words As war nears 5th month, Blinken keeps Russian diplomats at arms length (c) 2022, The Washington Post  John Hudson  NATIONAL, WORLD, NATIONAL-SECURITY, WHITEHOUSE  Jul 09, 2022 - 3:22 PM NUSA DUA, Indonesia - In the nearly five months since Russia invaded Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has maintained the same posture toward Moscow: Do not engage.

The top U.S. diplomat has not held a single meeting or phone call with a senior Russian official throughout the conflict - a cold shoulder strategy he continued over the weekend at a gathering of foreign ministers of the worlds 20 biggest economies in Indonesia where his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, was sometimes in the same room as Blinken.

The problem is this, Blinken told reporters at a news conference on Saturday. We see no signs whatsoever that Russia is prepared to engage in meaningful diplomacy.

Some veteran diplomats say the lack of contact is a mistake given the United States wide set of interests involving Moscow. The war in Ukraine has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians, sent global food and energy prices soaring, and raised military tensions between Russia and NATO to new heights. The U.S. is also seeking the return of high-profile American detainees from Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Marine veteran Paul Whelan.

The first step is opening channels of communication where you can measure what your adversary is looking for, said Tom Shannon, a former senior State Department official with three decades of government experience. You cant know unless you try.

Blinken hasnt spoken to Lavrov since January and chose not to meet him on the resort island of Bali despite their close physical proximity here. The avoidance came as the G-20s host urged her fellow diplomats to start talking to find a resolution to the conflict.

It is our responsibility to end the war sooner rather than later and settle our differences at the negotiating table, not at the battlefield, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in a keynote speech.

U.S. officials offered several reasons for not engaging, including a concern that it would be seen as inappropriate as the Kremlin engages in a brutal war, and a suspicion that the failed attempts of other countries, such as France, Turkey and Israel, to engage Moscow would only be repeated.

A number of other countries have engaged with Russia in recent months and they report the same thing: no sign that Russia is prepared to engage in diplomacy, Blinken said.

Critics say meetings between Russian officials and foreign allies provide a poor comparison.

If the United States isnt present, its not a serious conversation in the mind of the Russians, said Jeremy Shapiro, a Europe scholar and former Obama administration official. That shouldnt be a surprise: The United States provides the vast majority of assistance to Ukraine and is the leader of the Western coalition.

Shannon said shifts in the wars momentum can open diplomatic opportunities. The United States needs to be testing Russias appetite for an off-ramp as the conflict evolves, he said.

Whats happened is weve let a period of maximum leverage slide, he said.

We had the Russians on the run when they were in northern Ukraine and trying to take Kyiv and they were suffering heavy casualties, he said. Since then, theyve rectified that situation: moving the fight to the east and largely fighting through artillery.

You want to be talking through those phases, he added.

Talking to the Kremlin in the middle of a crisis has precedent, from the Cold War to more recent conflicts. During the George W. Bush administration, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Lavrov on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, a month after Russia invaded Georgia in 2008. John F. Kerry, President Barack Obamas secretary of state, spoke frequently with Lavrov after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and stoked an insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

Being in a room with John Kerry is not a favor to anybody, said Shapiro. Its an old State Department joke but its an important point. The job of secretary of state is to talk to friends and enemies to figure out what can be done through negotiation.

Some U.S. officials argue that Lavrovs relative weakness within the Russian system makes him an inconsequential negotiating partner. But advocates of engagement say theyre missing the purpose of talks.

Its true Lavrov is not a decision-maker but he is a conduit who faithfully reflects the position of the Kremlin, Shapiro said. You wouldnt meet with Lavrov to close the deal, but if you want to understand where the Russians are or send a message discreetly to Putin, hes your guy.

Russias frustrations with being locked out of discussions seem apparent, though officials in Moscow are loath to admit it. Last month, Russias ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, was overheard by a Politico reporter bemoaning the lack of contact with U.S. officials while dining at a popular Washington restaurant.

In Indonesia, Lavrov rejected the notion that he was upset but made clear that the lack of dialogue was beyond his control. It was not us who abandoned all contacts, it was the United States, he said Friday. We are not running after anybody suggesting meetings. If they dont want to talk, its their choice.

Though a broad array of nations at the G-20 advocated strongly for dialogue, many made clear that they blamed Russia for starting the war and exacerbating global food and energy insecurity.

A supermajority of the delegates were critical of Russia, said a Western official present for the closed door meetings and who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive talks. A minority of delegates were more even[-handed].

The presence of Russia and its friendlier partners, such as China, India and South Africa, resulted in the meeting ending without a joint communique expressing shared goals. The family photo, a hallmark of G-20 events usually featuring matching shirts, was also scrapped due to sharp disunity within the group.

Advocates of engagement admit it offers no guarantee that Russia will seek a settlement of the war, especially as the battlefield momentum shifts to Russian forces, which have captured all of the eastern region of Luhansk in recent days.

While Blinken maintains his distance, other U.S. officials have had some minor engagement with Moscow. In March, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev. In May, the top U.S. military officer, Gen. Mark Milley, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke over the phone with their Russian counterparts on security-related issues. The scope of military-to-military discussions was limited, however, and not designed to negotiate an end to the conflict.

Blinken, who often champions the power of diplomacy, said he would seize the opportunity if he sensed Russian sincerity.

If we see any signs that Russia is actually prepared to engage in real diplomacy and bring this war to an end, of course, well engage in that, he said on Saturday.

Others said there is only one way to find out.

The very basis of international negotiation is that you dont show signs of making compromises until youre at the table making compromises, Shapiro said. You dont offer compromises before you even start.
PHILADELPHIA  In response to the city's ongoing gun violence crisis and the shooting of two police officers at an Independence Day celebration, leaders in Philadelphia's City Council this week said it was time to reexamine the controversial police tactic known as stop-and-frisk.

"We have a lot of citizens in the streets of Philadelphia talking about 'When are we gonna look at stop-and-frisk in a constitutionally enacted way?'" said Council President Darrell L. Clarke.

Clarke's suggestion to revisit the practice  in which officers stop and sometimes search pedestrians or drivers over suspicious behavior  drew a chilly reception from Mayor Jim Kenney, who ran for office on a pledge to end illegal police stops.

The city's aggressive approach in the past had been criticized as racially biased and often legally groundless, and the mayor said Wednesday he was "not willing to bring that back," dismissing it as "just randomly going through (people's) pockets."

"Those were old police tactics that put us in a situation that kind of made a confrontation between our communities and our Police Department," Kenney said. "If (Clarke) could define what he's actually talking about, maybe we could have a conversation."

Such a conversation would surely be fraught with questions about how Philadelphia police interact with citizens and suspects, especially in communities of color.

And it would come amid a long-running debate over what some experts say is a general rollback in policing after the furor and protests that erupted across the country after the police murder of George Floyd  a response they cite as a key factor driving the national surge in violent crime. Others dismiss this idea of so-called de-policing and say that stops have typically resulted in few gun seizures while erecting a wall between officers and those they are sworn to protect.

While Clarke's proposal was short on specifics, he left some, including fellow Council members, puzzled  and quick to note that the Democratic lawmaker has led a legislative body keen on reining in similar police tactics in recent years.

Only last fall, City Council overwhelmingly approved a first in-the-nation law banning officers from stopping motorists for low-level infractions such as broken taillights or expired tags. Advocates said the move would reduce racial disparities in car stops (during one review period in 2019, nearly three-quarters of drivers stopped by city police were Black).

Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, a member of Council's progressive wing, said Clarke's trial balloon on stop-and-frisk was inconsistent with progress Council has made on police reform over the last two years.

"We've been on the right track in terms of limiting unnecessary interactions with police," she said. "Going back to a place where we have aggressive stop-and-frisk is in direct conflict with the trust that we say we want to build with the community."

Once heavily used in Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere, stop-and-frisk programs became increasingly controversial, in large part because of racial disparities.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the strategy was a key pillar in reducing that city's crime rate. But in 2013, a federal judge said Bloomberg's approach violated the constitutional rights of Black and Latino residents, calling it "a policy of indirect racial profiling." (At one point in Bloomberg's tenure, Black and Latino residents were nine times more likely to be stopped by police than white people.)

Stops subsequently plummeted, yet crime continued to fall.

Shortly before Bloomberg's unsuccessful 2020 presidential run, he apologized for supporting the tactic.

"I was wrong," he said. "And I am sorry."

In Philadelphia a decade ago, then-Mayor Michael Nutter also promoted the tactic. And its use  combined with other law enforcement strategies  coincided with the city's lowest murder rate in 50 years. At its peak during Nutter's last year in office in 2015, police made 820,000 stops  375,000 of pedestrians and 445,000 of cars.

But the stops led to a federal lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union because officers were overwhelmingly stopping people of color, often without legal justification. Critics said police rarely arrested people they stopped, and even less frequently found guns. In 2020, police found a gun in less than 3% of all stops.

The lawsuit was resolved with an agreement between the city and the ACLU designed to make sure that police have sound legal suspicions to stop and search someone. Stops, especially of people on foot, have since plummeted. So-called ped stops are on track to fall below 10,000 this year, according to police statistics. Vehicle stops might hit 115,000 or so.

Council members, including Clarke, had previously applauded that curtailment. And while Clarke stopped short of calling for a return to specific targets for stops, he said he hears often from constituents who wonder what changed in policing between the Nutter years and today.

"You can't have a situation where people are afraid to have the conversation," Clarke said. He also suggested the tactic should be renamed to get past its "negative connotation."

Council Majority Leader Cherelle Parker  who is said to be considering a run for mayor next year and recently endorsed adding more police to the force  has embraced a similarly mixed stance.

In 2020, she championed a bill, symbolic in nature, that changed the City Charter to ban unconstitutional stops and frisks. This week, she said legal stops and searches were a necessary tool in the fight against violence  and insisted she saw no conflict between her two positions, or her belief in criminal justice reform.

"We are in the middle of a crisis," Parker said, "and we have to use every tool that we have to get illegal guns off the street."

Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, the architect of last fall's law to limit vehicle stops, said he'd be open to a conversation about how the Police Department handles pedestrian stops. But he said the department can't "move in a direction of violating people's rights" and then expect cooperation when a crime occurs.

"When you're talking about giving (police) the ability to say, 'You look guilty, hands on the wall,'" he said, "that's a slippery slope."

District Attorney Larry Krasner said there can be other consequences, too. Court cases built without legally sufficient probable cause, for example, will be tossed out, eroding citizen trust in law enforcement.

"It's time to give up on stupid stuff that didn't work," Krasner said. "It's time to move forward."

Some analysts contend police in many cities have recently pulled back from interacting with suspects because officers are fearful they will face discipline for making an honest mistake, or because they've grown resentful of a wave of protests calling for police to be defunded.

In one oft-quoted study, Paul Cassell, a law professor and crime specialist at the University of Utah, looked at data from five big cities, including Philadelphia, to compare the timing of protests with spikes in crime. In Philadelphia, Cassell charted shootings and homicides and found that they increased sharply after local demonstrations following the police murder of Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020.

Citing a decline in "preventive strategies, such as street stops and anti-gun patrols," Cassell concluded that the "consequence of reducing law enforcement activity directed against gun violence has been, perhaps unsurprisingly, an increase in gun violence."

Cassell did not respond to messages seeking an interview last week. Last year, he told The Philadelphia Inquirer that police retrenchment was key to a national explosion in violence.

"What would cause an increase in these particular gun homicides and their cousin, gun violence, as compared to everything else?" he said. "The answer has to do with proactive policing, vehicle stops, pedestrian stops. Those are activities uniquely targeted to reduce gun violence."

But in Philadelphia, stops had been decreasing for years ahead of the 2020 civil unrest. And after that, officers still made an unprecedented number of gun arrests. Some analysts say increasing arrests for firearms reflect an active police force, not one in retrenchment.

In addition, experts cite a host of other factors that they say have driven the spike in violence: Gun sales nationwide hit record levels, ongoing pandemic lockdowns disrupted huge swaths of society, and the country was in the midst of widespread social and political unrest.

Philadelphia lawyer David Rudovsky, whose firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of the ACLU over the city's stop-and-frisk tactics, said Cassell's analysis was flawed.

"If you look at around the country where stop-and-frisk was not cut back, you still have a rise in crime," he said. "It's a simplistic response to genuine fear of crime and violence."

Returning to an era of stop-and-frisk, Rudovsky said, would be similarly problematic  and not a true solution to rising violence.

"To go back and stop thousands of people without reasons," he said, "rarely finding a gun, and losing the confidence of minority communities who won't cooperate with police in investigations, is self-defeating."

___

(c)2022 The Philadelphia Inquirer

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President Joe Bidens executive order on abortion does nothing to restore access to abortion in Wisconsin following the U.S. Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin said Friday.

Mike Murray, the groups executive director, commended the presidents order, which includes expanding access to emergency contraception and ramping up public outreach campaigns on abortion.

But as the president said his hands are largely tied on restoring nationwide abortion access without Congressional approval, Murray said the White House should explore other executive actions supported by abortion rights groups and members of Congress.

Unfortunately, none of the actions today will restore access to abortion care in Wisconsin, Murray said in a statement.

Advocates have urged the administration to go further, looking into how Medicaid could cover travel for abortion or allowing abortions to be performed on federal land.

In the order, Biden directed Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra to consider updating guidance on emergency conditions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.

These updates could ensure all patients, including those experiencing miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, receive full protections for emergency medical care granted under federal law.

Biden also encouraged Becerra to consider strengthening the protection of reproductive healthcare information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA protects sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without a patients consent.

At the White House on Friday, Biden urged voters outraged by the Supreme Courts decision to vote more Democrats into office in Novembers election.

Biden continues to face criticism from some in his own party for not acting with more urgency to protect womens access to abortion.

In Wisconsin, Attorney General Josh Kaul has filed a lawsuit challenging the states 1849 near-total abortion ban, arguing that the law should be declared unenforceable since it sat dormant for so long.

There is a lack of legal consensus of whether the 1849 law is in effect, but fear of prosecution has led Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to halt abortions in the state after the Supreme Court tossed out the protections guaranteed under Roe.

While the 1849 law bans abortions from the time of conception unless its necessary to save the mothers life, a subsequent law enacted in 1985  years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared abortion a constitutional right  only bans abortion after fetal viability and includes an exception for saving a mothers life or health.

Meanwhile, some Wisconsin politicians are looking to further restrict access to contraception in the state. Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels refused to share his stance on emergency contraception when prompted last weekend.

In his statement, Murray further urged the state Legislature to repeal the 1849 law.

Every day that legislative Republicans choose inaction is another day where they are making the choice to deny essential abortion care to women and other people who can become pregnant in Wisconsin, Murray said.

Should our state legislature or Congress continue to abdicate these responsibilities, the only other way to restore abortion access in Wisconsin is to have a court of competent jurisdiction clarify that Wisconsins criminal abortion ban is unenforceable, he said.
(Tribune News Service)  Like many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Thomas U. Kim noticed something different about his health when he returned from overseas.

I never had allergies or allergy-like symptoms until I came back from my 2006 deployment, said Kim, a former Army Reserve officer who served three deployments in Iraq and who is now the president and CEO of the Community Action Organization of Western New York.

But then again, before his deployments to Iraq, Kim hadnt been exposed to the pungent toxic fumes emanating from burn pits where troops burned anything and everything they didnt need  fuel, furniture, metals, plastics, anything.

And while he worries that his symptoms may eventually evolve into something much more serious, for now, hes lucky.

There are many veterans who had much worse symptoms, from upper respiratory problems to cancer, he said.

Kim is one of 3.5 million veterans who, by the governments own accounting, have been exposed to fumes from burn pits since the 1991 Gulf War.

Thankfully for Kim and millions of other veterans, Congress is on the cusp of finally doing something about the damage done by burn pit smoke and other toxins that they were exposed to while serving their country.

The Senate last month overwhelmingly passed the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, which adds 23 respiratory illnesses and cancers to the list of conditions that are considered service-connected  meaning vets exposed to them can automatically get VA health care and disability benefits. And despite a parliamentary glitch, both houses of Congress are expected to approve the measure later this summer.

Kim is one of many veterans whos happy about that.

Its very close to my heart, as well as the guys that I served with, many who have perished, said Kim, 55, whose son was an active duty Army officer and whose daughter now serves in the Air Force.

Veterans groups say that without the PACT Act in place, the VA has been denying 80% of the claims it gets for disability benefits connected to burn pit smoke and other toxins. But once Congress passes the bill, the number of claims approved is likely to skyrocket.

And thats good news to New Yorks two U.S. senators, who have been pushing for expanding benefits for burn pit victims for years.

Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, a Democrat who serves on the Armed Services Committee, has been among the most public advocates on the issue, appearing on occasion with comedian Jon Stewart to push for the bills passage.

Our service members and their families give everything for our country, and as a nation we promise to care for them when they come home, she said after the Senate passed the bill in an 84-14 vote. At last, we are honoring that promise and paying the price we owe them for our freedoms, our values and our safety.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, also a Democrat, agreed.

Thousands of upstate New York veterans, and over 3.5 million vets across America, have been exposed to toxins from burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan in the line of duty, and for too long, bureaucratic rules have denied them treatment for cancers, respiratory diseases and the countless other illnesses incurred while fighting for our freedom, Schumer said.

And its not just veterans who were exposed to burn pits who will benefit from the bill. The measure also expands disability coverage for veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant. Vets exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam have long been eligible for disability coverage, but the PACT Act expands eligibility to veterans who served in other places where the U.S. military used the defoliant, such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam and American Samoa.

Some of these veterans service organizations, theyve been working on this since Vietnam, Stewart said at a Capitol Hill press conference earlier this year. The learning curve of this country over how we treat our veterans when they come home from war is so painfully slow. The pace is unacceptable.

As if to prove Stewarts point, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer noted that parliamentary glitch soon after the Senate passed the bill. The Senate legislation includes a narrow tax provision, one that would offer a tax break to health care professionals who agree to work at a rural VA facility  but under the Constitution, tax provisions cannot originate in the Senate.

This is the constitutional responsibility of the House to initiate these, Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters. So were trying to fix that. And as soon as we can get it fixed, we want to pass it.

Veterans advocates arent worried that the glitch will stall the bill for long.

If youve been following along, youre probably a little confused and asking yourself: werent we like a day away from the president signing this bill? And the answer is yes  but, said Jeremy Butler, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, in a recent Facebook Live discussion of the bill.

Opposition to the bill is minimal, said Tom Porter, the veterans groups executive vice president and man on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, voiced concerns about the bills cost, saying in a statement: The Department of Veterans Affairs already has the authority to ensure veterans receive this care where the evidence has established a connection to their service. Instead, the PACT Act goes far beyond, substituting Congress political judgment in place of available evidence and including unnecessary changes to longstanding budget rules to enable hundreds of billions in additional spending on unrelated purposes.

But Porter said he expects Congress to correct the legislative glitch and pass the legislation soon after it returns this week from its two-week Independence Day break. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, backs the bill, as do the top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees.

We have so much momentum on this legislation, Porter said.

Kim is happy to hear that.

We stood by the nation when we were asked to go, he said. So the nation should at least stand by us.

___

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He said that the defendant did have a long history of offending, some of which are relevant, and has a propensity for violence

On the night of July 6, 2019 Daniel Prenderville (34) attacked Hayley Flood in her home in Walkinstown, Dublin, knocking her to the floor and then kicking her repeatedly on the face. The woman lost consciousness and when she woke up Prenderville was gone and she left the flat because she was afraid to stay in her home.

Prenderville of Seagull House, Rutland Avenue, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court this week to assault causing harm at Dowland Road, Walkinstown. He also pleaded guilty to criminal damage of the front door of her flat when he kicked it in.

Defending counsel Keith Spencer BL told the court that his client was on drugs on the night of the attack and wanted to keep partying. He said drugs were at the root of all his problems.

Judge Martin Nolan set a headline sentence of four years. He said that taking into consideration the mitigating factors, including the guilty pleas and Prenderville's steps towards reform, the appropriate sentence was a prison term of 33 months.

He noted that Prenderville had spent around 20 months in custody on this offence and that allowing for the usual good behaviour discount this amounted to 27 months. The court heard that Prenderville had his bail revoked and was remanded into custody after persistent breaches of curfew.

Judge Nolan said he was taking this time served into account and imposed a six-month sentence to date from Wednesday for the assault offence.

He said that the defendant did have a long history of offending, some of which are relevant, and has a propensity for violence but noted that he is sincerely sorry and has taken steps to reform himself.

He said that in ordinary terms the assault was in the mid-range but the aggravating factor was that it was a domestic situation.

Judge Nolan noted that the victim suffered soft tissue injuries. He said it was a very frightening incident and the woman was terrified.

Mr Lawlor outlined to the court that on the night of the incident the woman was on her mobile phone speaking to her cousin and laughing.

After the call ended she was said she was going to bed and Prenderville told her that she was being selfish because he wanted to stay up and enjoy the night.

He grabbed her phone and smashed it. Mr Lawlor said that earlier that day Prenderville had told the woman I have a good mind to smash that phone into your face.

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Prenderville then smacked the victim's face before leaving the house but came back shortly afterwards and kicked the door in.

He grabbed the woman by the hair and began smacking her in the face. He also grabbed a metal vacuum cleaner tube and struck her with that.

The woman fell to the floor and felt kicks to her face, the court heard. She said Prenderville was kicking her when she was on the ground and she lost consciousness.

When he finished the assault he left and took the house keys. The woman was afraid to stay in her home and took a taxi to her cousins house that night.

She suffered bruising to the head and the court heard the cost of repairing the front door was around 3,700.

Counsel for Prenderville said he began abusing drugs at 15 but that since this offence he has rehabilitated. Mr Spencer said his client is now in a new relationship which is flourishing and his partner was in court to support him.

He said there was no violence or threat of violence in this relationship and that his client has completed anger management therapy.
Blair (67) is serving a five-year sentence imposed in November 2020 after he and six other men were caught in an MI5 bugging operation

One of the most notorious dissident republicans in the history of the State has applied to be transferred from jail in Northern Ireland to Portlaoise Prison.

Convicted bomb-maker Patrick Mooch Blair (67) is serving a five-year sentence imposed in November 2020 after he and six other men were caught in an MI5 bugging operation targeting the Continuity IRA.

Blair, who has strong links to the Dundalk area, was convicted of charges of belonging or professing to belong to a proscribed organisation; providing weapons and explosives training; conspiring to possess explosives, firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life; and collecting information likely to be of use to terrorists.

Sources said he has recently applied to serve the rest of his sentence in the Republic under the Council of Europe Convention on the transfer of sentenced prisoners.

For his application to be successful, there must be agreement with the authorities here and in Northern Ireland, and four separate conditions must also be met.

This is an individual who has a lengthy involvement with dissident republicanism, and if he returns to the Republic he will be closely monitored by the Special Detective Unit and other specialist garda units, a source said.

He has made the application to be transferred here, but the process could take many months.

At his sentencing hearing in 2020 at Belfast Crown Court, Mr Justice Colton said Blair and a co-accused had not disavowed their involvement in dissident republican activity.

Mr Justice Colton said the contents of the discussions, which included plots to make bombs and kill, made for grim and depressing reading and that Blair posed a danger to the public.

Although the defendants faced only conspiracy charges, Mr Justice Colton said the plots had been thwarted when police raided the meeting house in Ardcarn Park, Newry, on November 10, 2014.

The defendants pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court to charges arising from a covert surveillance operation.

The recordings revealed a plot to target a senior prison governor and specific police officers. Among the targets named were Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, who, at the time of the arrests, was PSNI Deputy Chief Constable.

Evidence was also given of plans to break in to homes for cash and legally-held firearms, a plot to steal sulphur from a factory in Dublin to make explosives and a plan to buy a silencer for an automatic handgun Blair had in his possession.

It was the prosecutions case that Blair was the leader of the Continuity IRA.

Blair was one of the most senior IRA men during the Troubles and later became involved with the Real IRA.

He was named in the UKs House of Commons as having helped to construct the Omagh bomb.

That atrocity, in 1998, killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

Blair later denied any involvement in the bombing.

In November 2011, he told the Smithwick Tribunal that one-time MI5 informer Kevin Fulton, who named him as a suspect, was a fantasist and he offered to take a lie detector test to prove it.

In 1975 Blair was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempted murder. He was released in 1982 and moved to Dundalk.

When contacted, a spokesman for the Irish Prison Service said they do not comment on individual prisoner cases.
Yasmin Stephens (28) was given a three-month sentence for damaging the device while she stole washing tablets in a south Dublin store.

Yasmin Stephens (28) has been given a three-month sentence for damaging the device while she stole washing tablets in a south Dublin store.

The theft happened years after she had a murder charge against her dropped and was given a suspended sentence for the unconnected robbery.

Stephens, a mother-of-one of Chapelwood Green, Hollystown, Blanchardstown, pleaded guilty to theft and criminal damage. She also admitted a separate charge of threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour.

Dublin District Court heard that at Tesco, Lower Baggot Street, on August 1, 2020, Stephens took 16 worth of washing tablets and also caused 300 of damage to a scanner.

On May 19 this year, she had to be arrested for a row with an individual in the north city centre, a garda said.

At the time, she had slipped and relapsed into heroin, her barrister Donal Pattison said.

She was already in custody on other charges and Judge Bryan Smyth backdated the three-month sentence to May.

On October 26, 2014, Stephens boyfriend Kieran Farrelly (33) was shot dead by Sean Ducque in Dublins north inner city.

Stephens had initially been charged with the murder, which she denied, but prosecutors dropped that charge, while Ducque was tried and jailed for the killing.

Both Stephens and Ducque were convicted of robbing a homeless man on a nearby street in the early hours of the following morning.

Stephens was given a four-year suspended sentence in 2018 for the robbery.

At the time, the Central Criminal Court heard she kept company with Ducque after seeing him kill her boyfriend. Ducque beat a homeless man, while Stephens rifled through his pockets and bags and threatened him.
A sum of cash totalling 3,300 was also seized along with other drug preparation paraphernalia.

The drugs were discovered after gardai carried out a planned search of a residential property in the Kileely area of Limerick.

During searches Gardai seized quantities of cannabis, cocaine and cannabis resin worth in excess of 50,000 (analysis pending). A sum of cash totalling 3,300 was also seized along with other drug preparation paraphernalia.

The raid was carried out by Limerick Divisional Drug Unit backed by officers from the Armed Support Unit.

A garda spokesman said one man was arrested and remains in custody.

"A man in his 30s was arrested at the scene and taken to Henry Street Garda Station and detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996.

All of the drugs seized will be sent to FSI for analysis.

This seizure forms part of Operation Tara; an enhanced national anti-drugs strategy, which was launched by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris on 2nd July 2021.

The focus of Operation Tara is to disrupt, dismantle and prosecute drug trafficking networks, at all levels - international, national, local - involved in the importation, distribution, cultivation, production, local sale and supply of controlled drugs.
At the Youth and Families for Christs yearly summer camp, Columbus area youth have the chance to make lasting relationships with safe adults and the outdoors.

Our goal is just connection with the kids, YFFC Juvenile Services Director Corenna Iverson said. We give them a safe place. Our community support allows them to be able to attend with no financial burden, because that was lifted from them by our community. It's to show the kids that they have people in the community that really, honestly care about them.

YFFC is a nonprofit that aims to meet a variety of needs of youth in Columbus.

We're nondenominational, but we always strive to bring about the heart change, the positive heart change. The physical, the intellectual, the emotional, the social and the spiritual; we do that for all the surround towns and for the community of Columbus, Iverson said.

This years camp, which is for kids in sixth through eighth grade, will be held at Niobrara State Park from July 19-21. With less than two weeks away, YFFC is asking for community support in the form of donations to help make the camp a great experience for kids.

A list of needed supplies can be found in an info box attached to this article. Iverson noted that people can also adopt a camper for $150. The donations help feed and supply the campers.

These donations are especially important for YFFC as the camp comes at no cost to the kids or their families.

Brenda Bieck, longtime YFFC volunteer, said the Columbus nonprofit used to have summer camps in Colorado when it was part of a larger organization. In recent years, she added, it went on its own and became YFFC. They now do their own camp, she said.

Bieck added that YFFC could also benefit from gas card donations. YFFC is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be reached at 402-564-3700.

As of July 7, Iverson said, about 50 kids were on the roster for the camp this year. Theres a wide variety of activities at the camp, from smores, music at the campfire to hiking and Warrior Wednesdays (Nerf battles). Additionally, the kids will get a special look at buffalo in the area.

We get an opportunity to do one-on-one ministry with these kids. We share things, we go hiking. We eat together, we pray together. We do Bible studies together, we teach them fellowship, Bieck said. When they come home, even as tired as they are, the joy that radiates from their faces  it makes me tear up right now talking about it  it changes lives.

This is all about meeting these kids where they're at, showing them that they're loved and giving them an opportunity to make good life choices.

Iverson said the camp also provides a break to some of the kids who may be facing difficult situations in their lives. The campers can also feel the generosity of their community when they can attend a summer camp at no cost, Iverson added, noting the kids can get close to nature.

The phones don't work very well up there. We're not on social media much. We're not on any sort of electronics, Iverson said. We are literally just experiencing nature and experiencing this beautiful world that God gave us and it's powerful.

Bieck, who has attended almost every single summer camp since she started with YFFC over 20 years ago, said campers remember their experiences at the camp. She noted shes had people who attended the camp 20 years ago mention the good time theyve had there.

Back in the day when we went to Colorado, the kids had to raise their own money, we had to raise the money and it was expensive, Bieck said. It was a detriment. When you're trying to bring kids in, we want to meet them in every circumstance. Most kids are in circumstances that do not allow them to go raise their own money to go to a camp.

Bieck said her personal favorite activity at the camp is the small groups. Bieck volunteers for YFFC on Wednesdays and Thursdays for small group meetings. During the small groups at camp, she added, the kids open up about their lives and the adults can discover how to make a positive difference for the kids.

What really will change a kid's life is building that relationship with Jesus, Bieck said. That's what we want them to find and accept. You can always see when that joy, when that aha moment hits them. And no matter what their life circumstance, they can get through it with that knowledge and that joy.

No matter how many times she goes to camp, Bieck added, its also a life-changing experience for her every single year. The community support makes the summer camp possible.

We've had a community that has come around us and helped us and they've never let us down, Bieck said. I have never had to be worried about the community that we live in stepping up and helping us reach these kids.
People who work until they are 67 and older are in line for a higher rate of State pension than those retiring at 66, under plans being considered by the Government.

The new proposals would financially reward people who retire later in life and pay them a higher weekly pension rate, while keeping the State pension age at 66.

Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys met Green Party leader Eamon Ryan this week to discuss the issue.

She has also previously met Tanaiste Leo Varadkar and Public Expenditure and Reform Minister for Michael McGrath to discuss the issue.

Senior Government officials across a number departments also met yesterday. However, sources said discussions were still in their early stages, with a lot of work yet to be done.

Read more Covid threat rises in many popular European holiday hotspots favoured by Irish tourists

Under the proposals, the benchmark State pension would remain at 66, but people who work until they are 67 and older would be in line for a bigger pension.

It is not clear at this stage how much higher per week this amount would be.

It is understood the higher amount for those retiring at 67 or above would be actuarially adjusted to take account of the extra years worked.

However, government figures are afraid of the political backlash over such proposals, which are viewed as contentious by many within the Coalition.

Senior figures are worried they may be accused of raising the State pension age to 67 by the backdoor.

The State pension age was set to rise to 67 in January of last year before the Government halted the change.

And Taoiseach Micheal Martin last week vowed the State pension age would not rise beyond 66, even if it meany small PRSI increases.

The new proposals will be viewed as a compromise between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. Many Fianna Fail TDs view the State pension age  and keeping it at 66  as a hardline issue that will dictate the survival of the party.

Sources said there was merit to the proposals, despite emphasising that discussions were still in their early stages.

The move comes amid calls from Fine Gael for flexibility on the pension age, with some seeking a move away from a set retirement age.

The proposals are not part of the Pensions Commission recommendations, which said the State pension age should rise to 67, but not for another number of years.

Many in Fine Gael blame the partys stance on pensions for losing 12 seats. In the partys 2020 manifesto, it pushed for transitionary payments  to bridge the gap between retirement age and the pension age  for those retiring at 65 and 66.

While government sources backed up Ms Humphreys comments on the need for flexibility as being the partys stance on pensions now, some TDs and senators who spoke to the Irish Independent were unable to say what the party position was.

Long-term family carers of more than 20 years are also in line for the State contributory pension. The State would retrospectively make contributions for long-term carers who havent been able to meet the minimum of 520 paid contributions.

This was a recommendation in the Pensions Commission report.

It is understood Fianna Fail is particularly keen on this measure.

A government decision on the Pensions Commissions report has been long awaited and was initially expected last April.

A senior source said that in compiling work on the findings of the report, the Department of Social Protection had taken into consideration the preliminary analysis of Census 2022.

It is now likely that a formal decision will be made by the Government in the autumn, after the summer recess.

Ms Humphreys said this week it would be a number of months before an announcement would be made.
So we in Meath are going to fight tooth and nail to keep the hospital A&E open but also to get investment in it

A mass rally to protest against a move to shut down Our Lady's Hospital Emergency Department is taking place in Navan today.

A proposal to replace the hospital's Emergency Department with a 24-hour medical assessment and injury unit has met with strong opposition locally.

According to the HSE, Navan hospital will still see around 80 per cent of the 25-30 patients it currently sees daily through these units.

However, more specialised care will be diverted to hospitals such as Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda in Co Louth.

Aontu Leader Peadar Toibin, who is also Cathaoirleach of the Save Navan Hospital Campaign, described the situation as incomprehensible at a time when Drogheda, Connolly, the Mater and Mullingar are struggling with overcrowding in their emergency departments.

Man (30s) arrested after cocaine and cannabis worth 50k seized during armed garda raid

Anger as Navan Hospital A&E to be shut with patients sent to Louth or Dublin instead

He says up to 47 patients a day that use Navan's ED will have to join the overcrowding in Drogheda's Emergency Department.

Overcrowding is bad for health, and it is dangerous to life. Its estimated that 350 people die every year in this state due to A&E overcrowding, Deputy Toibin told Newstalk.

So we in Meath are going to fight tooth and nail to keep the hospital A&E open but also to get investment in it. It needs investment in terms of acute surgery services to make sure it is amongst the best and safest in the country.

Politicians have raised concerns about the proposal, including the Minister for Justice and Meath East TD Helen McEntee  who said that the HSE had not addressed serious questions around capacity.
Donna OConnor said she is heartbroken as she travelled with many items of sentimental value including her parents ashes, which she intended to spread on a family farm in Mayo.

Donna OConnor (67), who is from Chicago, arrived in Dublin on an Air Canada flight on June 30 and has spent the last seven days at Dublin Airport in a desperate effort to track down her belongings.

Ms OConnor said she is heartbroken as she travelled with many items of sentimental value including her parents ashes, which she intended to spread on a family farm in Ballina, Co Mayo.

She said she now feels trapped in the capital and cannot travel west until she is reunited with her luggage.

In recent weeks, the issue of unclaimed baggage has impacted many airports internationally with hundreds of lost bags piling up.

Airlines have also been forced to cancel a number of flights as a result of staff shortages due to Covid-19.

The responsibility for lost luggage lies with individual airlines, not Dublin Airport operator, daa.

The daa said passengers experiencing issues regarding their baggage should make direct contact with their airline or airline ground handling company, in order to retrieve their luggage through the appropriate channels.

It said the contact numbers for the individual airlines can be found on its website.

Aer Lingus and Ryanair look after their own baggage handling, while other airlines use handling companies, such as Swissport and Sky Handling.

I waited for three hours with many other people for baggage to come out and then finally after three hours we all agreed we were just seeing the same baggage rotate through the carousel, Ms OConnor told Independent.ie.

The most information that Ive gotten is from passengers who have been living the experience. I filed a claim form with Sky Handlers, which was mobbed, and when I handed it to them, they said well put it in the queue and well give you a call, and that was it.

Air Canada had already delayed our flight, I came from Chicago through Toronto, and we were already almost nine hours overdue. We were held up at the gate for so long in Toronto for intermittent baggage loading and now I dont know if mine is in Dublin or Toronto.

If you go into arrivals where the baggage carousels are, the day I was there the luggage is so discombobulated, I dont know if its coming out so late that people finally give up but then the baggage handlers just start stacking it.

So, I walked through all of those to see if my bag had gotten put at a different carousel number, I literally saw over a thousand cases just sitting in the middle.

No one leaves because theyre afraid to go, they want their luggage so much that they wont go get food or drink because you dont want to miss your chance. Ive contacted Air Canada multiple times, been put on hold and no one ever comes back.

Ms OConnor has travelled to Ireland many times over the years and said nothing like this has ever happened before.

She said the ordeal has also been financially overwhelming as she has had to make several international calls, causing her phone bill to skyrocket as well as purchasing new clothes and essentials.

My plan was to be here for a year, my grandparents are from Ireland, so Ive applied for the Irish passport to stay and instead I feel like I moved here with the clothes on my back, she said.

My plan was to stay in Dublin for a bit and then go west but now I feel trapped in Dublin because Im afraid Ill never see my luggage again.

The reason I brought my parents ashes is because Im of Irish heritage and my cousin has a farm in Mayo, and I was going to put some ashes there for them.

Im 67, Ive travelled a fair amount and Ive never had an experience like this.

A spokesperson for Sky Handling said it is mindful and conscious of the impact that current travel disruptions are having on passengers.

It said the current baggage delays are caused primarily by resource and infrastructure issues at overseas hub airports.

Sky Handling Partner has more than doubled our staff numbers at Dublin Airport in recent months to further assist incoming passengers in collecting their bags, a spokesperson said.

This has resulted in a significant increase in passengers and their bags being separated on original flights into Dublin, with bags arriving on later flights over the course of several days.

We have invested in technology enhancements to speed up the process of notifying passengers when delayed bags arrive and delivering bags to them.

We are unable to comment on an individual passenger but we are making every effort to reunite passengers with belongings that have arrived on later flights as quickly as possible.

Independent.ie has contacted Air Canada and Swissport and is awaiting a response.
The couple also visited the house in Skeheen townland in county Mayo where Duffys great grandfather, Terence Duffy, lived before he emigrated in the 1800s.

Read more Covid threat rises in many popular European holiday hotspots favoured by Irish tourists

Both are in Ireland this week seeking to trace Duffys Irish roots and to film a pilot episode of a new TV series which will air in the United States in 2023. The TV series, with the working title of Finding Ireland, will shine a spotlight on Ireland, from the rich culture to the spectacular scenery. Earlier this week Duffy visited Kilmovee, Co Mayo where he met some long-lost cousins. "It seems that just about everybody around here carries the surname Duffy," he said. The couple also visited the house in Skeheen townland in county Mayo where Duffys great grandfather, Terence Duffy, lived before he emigrated in the 1800s. Local parish priest, Fr. Joseph Gavigan said Patrick Duffys visit had boosted the spirit of the community. He added: "Patrick Duffys ancestors left Ireland in difficult times. Their success as emigrants is one of the positive stories about the exodus from Ireland in the 19th century". Duffy starred in the US soap Dallas from 1978 to 1991 as JR Ewings nicer brother Bobby. He took a brief break from the programme in 1985 before returning in 1986.
The pair admitted they were hurt by each others actions during Casa Amor

The pair both fell victim to Casa Amor and turned their heads, choosing to recouple with new arrivals during this weeks show.

Indiyah chose to recouple with Deji Adeniyi, while Dami recoupled with Summer Botwe.

During their reunion in scenes aired on Thursday nights show, the pair had a heated exchange during their reunion in which they shared bitter words and called each other heartbreakers.

Dami and Indiyah did not address their relationship any further, but on Friday nights show they finally opened up to each other.

During the conversation, expressed that she was not happy that Dami had kissed Summer four or five times while she chose to brush off any advances from new boy Deji.

Dami asked the 23-year-old waitress: So, are you done with me?, as Indiyah explained she initially returned to the main villa in hopes of picking up where they left off.

I'm a heartbreaker but I'm not disrespectful, she told Dami.

I didn't kiss Deji, he tried to but I didn't, she added.

I came back here with the intention of us obviously speaking and getting to know each other, I never came here with the intention of us being over.

Dami admitted he still has feelings for Indiyah.

I didn't bring her here to cut you off or anything like that. Like I still very much like you and I do feel like we have a great connection. I literally started this with I miss your eyes like c'mon man, please, help me out here, I'm not saying these things just for the craic, I wouldn't do that, he said.

But then obviously, I still want to get to know her. Same thing you're doing. See, It's like we are similar but we're different, he added.

Taking in the beach hut, Indiyah said that she doesn't really understand why he did what he did, before telling him you've made your bed, so now you have to lie in it.

It comes after his family were forced to turn off hateful comments on the Dubliners social media accounts after he was branded as a villain.

Taking to his Instagram Stories, his loved ones shared that they were forced to take action because of uncalled for messages.

We understand that LI (Love Island) fans are very interested in the show but the hateful DMs/comments weve received over the last couple of days are so uncalled for, they said.

To protect the well-being of Damis family and close friends, we decided to turn them off.

It now means that people can no longer comment on his Instagram feed posts.

Love Island returns to Virgin Media Two on Sunday night at 9pm.
Today the Ministry of Health are reporting 9,307 community cases and 570 current hospitalisations.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 8,690.

"We are sadly reporting the deaths of 22 people with COVID-19," says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.

"All of these deaths occurred during the past week.

"We are continuing to keep our response to the current community outbreak of COVID-19 under review and will adapt it as the outbreak and pandemic evolve, and as part of our resurgence planning."

Keeping tamariki well over the school break

"As every parent well knows, winter means cold weather but also more days indoors where our tamariki can more easily pick up and pass on germs, colds and flu.

"Its normal for children to have 8-10 viral illnesses each year, which will likely include coughs, runny noses and intermittent fevers. But with so many respiratory illnesses circulating, the Ministry is encouraging New Zealanders to pay extra attention to their childrens health, and their own, over the coldest months of the year."

Here are some winter wellness tips to help keep children healthy:

When theyre unwell, keep them at home to give them the best chance to rest and recover, and reduce the spread of infections on to others.

If children have COVID-19 symptoms like a fever, cough, sore throat and headache  rapid antigen test them.

Encourage good hygiene - help them to wash their hands regularly and show them how to sneeze or cough into their elbow or a tissue. This will help stop the spread of germs.

A sick child who is still eating and drinking well, can be watched at home until theyre feeling better.

Tamariki between the ages of 3 and 12 are now eligible for, and are encouraged to get, a free flu vaccination. People eligible for a free flu jab can contact their GP, usual healthcare provider or local pharmacy to make a booking. Bookings are available at Healthpoint.

To help avoid serious illness, ensure children are up to date with their vaccinations like measles, mumps and rubella (MMR); flu; chicken pox; whooping cough; and for over 5-year-olds, their COVID-19 vaccine.

Ventilate your home by opening windows and doors throughout the day to increase fresh air flow.

Provide children with healthy food and fresh water to help maintain good health and wellbeing.

Encourage them to be active, especially outside, to help maintain good health and wellbeing.

Encourage your children to wear a mask if they are old enough.

Finally, support children to get enough sleep.

"Following these tips not just children but for all of us can help us all fight off seasonal illnesses and get through the next few months in good shape. Stay well this winter, Aotearoa!"

COVID-19 hospitalisations

COVID-19 Cases in hospital: total number 570: Northland: 11; Waitemata: 124; Counties Manukau: 39; Auckland: 56; Waikato: 57; Bay of Plenty: 29; Lakes: 14; Hawkes Bay: 20; MidCentral: 20; Whanganui: 6; Taranaki: 12; Tairawhiti: 3; Wairarapa: 6; Capital and Coast and Hutt Valley: 59; Nelson Marlborough: 13; Canterbury and West Coast: 62; South Canterbury: 18; Southern: 21.

Weekly COVID-19 Hospitalisations - 7 day rolling average: 518 (This time last week 392)

Average age of current COVID-19 hospitalisations: 65

Cases in ICU or HDU: 9

Vaccination status of new admissions to hospital*: Unvaccinated or not eligible (43 cases); partially immunised <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose (no cases); double vaccinated at least 7 days before being reported as a case (73 cases); received booster at least 7 days before being reported as a case (312 cases).

*These are new hospital admissions in the past 7 days prior to yesterday who had COVID at the time of admission or while in hospital, excluding hospitalisations that were admitted and discharged within 24hrs. This data is from Districts with tertiary hospitals: Auckland, Canterbury, Southern, Counties Manukau, Waikato, Capital & Coast, Waitemata and Northland.

COVID-19 vaccinations administered

Vaccines administered to date: 4,028,729 first doses, 3,981,281 second doses, 33,358 third primary doses, 2,687,279 first booster doses, 82,636 second booster doses, 264,596 paediatric first doses and 136,343 paediatric second doses.

Vaccines administered yesterday: 33 first doses, 43 second doses, 60 third primary doses, 1,016 First booster doses, 11,755 second booster doses, 45 paediatric first doses and 296 paediatric second doses.

These vaccinations were administered at a total of 614 vaccination sites.

More detailed information, including vaccine uptake by District, is available on the Ministry website.

Tests

Number of PCR tests total (last 24 hours): 3,775

Number of Rapid Antigen Tests reported total (last 24 hours): 15,728

PCR tests rolling average (last 7 days): 3,251

Number of Rapid Antigen Tests dispatched (in the seven days as of 7 July 2022): 2.5 million

COVID-19 cases

Total number of new community cases: 9,307

Number of new cases that have recently travelled overseas: 251

Seven day rolling average of community cases: 8,690

Seven day rolling average of community cases (as at same day last week): 6,825

Number of active cases (total): 60,790 (cases identified in the past seven days and not yet classified as recovered)

Confirmed cases (total): 1,413,437

Location of new community cases by district over past 24 hours

Please note, the Ministry of Healths daily reported cases may differ slightly from those reported at a District or local public health service level. This is because of different reporting cut off times and the assignment of cases between regions, for example when a case is tested outside their usual region of residence. Total numbers will always be the formal daily case tally as reported to the WHO.

COVID-19 deaths

"Todays reported deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths with COVID-19 to 1,663* and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 16.

"Of the people whose deaths we are reporting today: six were from Auckland region, four were from Waikato, one was from Bay of Plenty, one was from Lakes, one was from Hawkes Bay, one was from MidCentral, two were from the Wellington region, four were from Canterbury / West Coast, and two were from Southern.

"One was under the age of ten; three were in their fifties, three were in their sixties, five were in their seventies, seven were in their 80s, and three were aged over 90. Of these people, eight were female and 14 were male.

"This is a very sad time for whanau and friends and our thoughts and condolences are with them. Out of respect, we will be making no further comment on these."

*Due to a coding error, the total number of COVID-19 related deaths was overstated yesterday by 10. This error has now been fixed.
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Stop Your Crypto Operations in Russia, Washington Tells Japanese Exchanges & Miners

Source: AdobeStock / Aleksey

Washington wants Japanese regulators to convince domestic crypto exchanges and miners to cut all ties with Russia, per a new report.

The Financial Times claimed that American diplomats believe several Japanese crypto exchanges are still running in Russia, according to unnamed people close to the situation.

The diplomats reportedly want Japanese miners to pull the plug on the crypto mining operations they are operating in the Irkutsk Oblast in Southern Siberia, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Irkutsk has become a hotspot for miners both domestic and international in recent times, with activity stepping up after Chinas mining crackdown last year.

A number of major Japanese players from a variety of sectors have invested heavily in overseas crypto mining operations  due mainly to the prohibitively high costs of mining in Japan.

Although most Japanese operators have kept the exact location of their overseas mining operations a secret, a number of East Asian investors are known to have established mining centers in Central Asia, with some thought to be working in Siberia.

As previously reported, back in March, both Japans top financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), and the Ministry of Finance told the countrys exchanges to suspend all transactions with sanctioned Russians and Belarusians.

But Washington now wants exchanges to go a step further  and cease all Russia-related operations.

Cryptonews.com spoke to an employee at a Japanese exchange who, on condition of anonymity, stated that they were aware of an American request, but added that their firm had no dealings with Russian clients.

The same employee opined that this would likely be a bigger issue for crypto miners, who had spent considerable amounts of money on creating mining-related infrastructure in various European and Asian locations that enjoy access to low-cost energy.

The Financial Times, meanwhile, quoted the former head of an unnamed exchange as confirming that Japanese crypto exchanges had encountered a recent intensification of pressure to relocate any mining or back-office operations out of Russia.

But, the former executive added, at least one exchange has decided to maintain its business in Russia and was skirting the regulation by setting up a shell company in Singapore and routing payments via that.

The media outlet quoted the FSA representatives as responding by renewing demands that exchanges cut any surviving relationships with Russia, people close to three exchanges confirmed.

The US State Department was quoted as explaining that Washington and its allies were united in our determination to hold Russia to account for its actions in Ukraine, with a spokesperson stating:

We will continue to evaluate the impacts of our measures and are prepared to take further measures.

The media outlet also stated that it had contacted a number of Japanese exchanges, who variously claimed not to have any operations in Russia.

And an unnamed senior exchange executive was quoted as stating that they knew of at least one mining company that had cut its relationships with Russia in June at Washingtons request.

However, people close to the situation were quoted as saying that some Japanese exchanges and crypto miners had evolved a complex network of subsidiaries to continue working with their Russian operations.

____

Learn more:

- New Law Would Ban Crypto Pay in Russia (Again) as Miners Struggle to Convince Central Bank to Legalize Industry

- Bitcoin Mining Gathers Support in Russia as More Details Emerge on International Crypto Payments



- American Bitcoin Miner Aims to Sell USD 30M Equipment in Russia to Avoid Sanctions

- Russian Central Bank Ready to Make Crypto Regulation Concessions, Hints Governor



- Japanese Police Deletes its Warning about Crypto Mining after Losing Monero Case

- US Hits Russian Crypto Exchange with Sanctions, Russian Central Bank Afraid That Crypto Will Replace Ruble
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Join Date: May 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,482 Thanked: 7,074 Times

Re: Germany: SUV drivers could receive a bigger fine than usual for running a red light I assumed Germany would have an income-based traffic fine system, but guess that's only in Finland and Iceland. (A friend who worked in the US at the time got fined for speeding while on vacation in Iceland. The cops there had access to his tax records in the US and calculated the fine based on that!)



I think an income-related fine is ok- the offender should feel the pinch. But this based on car size seems arbit.



(Of course neither will work here- how many of us file taxes, how will the cops here access IT records when they can't even access past offenses, our corrupt cops will go on overdrive fining bigger vehicles, who will fine the political thugs who use SUVs, etc etc!) Last edited by am1m : 5th July 2022 at 17:41 .
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Re: R.I.P. Shinzo Abe | Japan's former prime minister assassinated A man who wanted the good of Japan and the rest of the world alike. God bless his soul.

This is going to trigger a new wave of nationalism among the Japanese.



Gun related crimes are non-existent in Japan due to strict gun regulations for civilians. Even Shinzo's bodyguards and people standing there couldn't believe a gun has been fired mistaking it for a tyre blast or a car backfire maybe until the second shot struck him. His security was caught off-guard although they aggressively chased and caught the assailant instantly.



The suspect used a homemade gun put together using a metal pipe and duct tape. Last edited by DriverNo.420 : 9th July 2022 at 13:22 .
A Dickinson College alert sent around 3 p.m. Friday announced that police had completed their investigation and nothing was found. As of 3:30 p.m. the area was clear.

Posted at 2:15 p.m. on Cumberlink:

Carlisle Police are investigating what Chief Taro Landis described as a "threat of some type of hazardous device" at Dickinson College Friday afternoon.

Landis said police are not sure what the hazardous device is.

Dickinson College sent a red alert message to students and staff around 1:30 p.m. announcing that a "non-specified" threat was called into the county and that police are utilizing dogs for further investigation. The alert also asked students to avoid the Holland Union Building as well as any other areas specified by responding officers.

Police blocked off North College Street between High and Louther streets around 1:30 p.m., with police cars at each end of the block. They also blocked off the North College Street entrance to the HUB, though Landis only listed Dickinson College as the location for the threat.

Landis did not provide details on when the threat became apparent.

Further details regarding this incident will be released on Cumberlink when they become available.
A new discovery has led to a non-invasive electrical stimulation of the eye surface that can treat neuropsychiatric diseases, as reported by MedicalXpress. The research team was done by LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), and City University of Hong Kong (CityU).

(Photo : JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP via Getty Image)

A patient completes a visual exam, conducted by an orthoptist, in a truck dedicated to teleophthalmology in Rochefort-sur-Loire on December 9, 2021.

The non-invasive stimulation of the corneal surge of the eye, which is responsible for activating brain pathways, has resulted in antidepressant-like effects and reduced stress hormones in an animal model. It also showed the research team that it induced the expression of genes related to the development and growth of brain cells in the hippocampus.

Other research members from HKUMed also tried if the approach could be used to treat Alzheimer's and found that it improved memory performance and reduced beta-amyloid deposits in the hippocampus in mice.

Initially, this electrical stimulation is used for eye diseases. However, the research team is hopeful that if this is applied to neuropsychiatric diseases, it will be a significant scientific breakthrough.

The research team is a step closer to achieving that breakthrough; their research findings, have paved the path for new therapeutic opportunities that may lead to the development of novel treatments for patients with depression that is resistant to other treatments and dementia.

Also Read: The Human Eye is Capable of Seeing Infrared Lights: Scientists

Electric Stimulation of the Eye

Scientists have long known that the eye has a direct connection to the brain.

For example, people with retinal degeneration experience visual hallucinations and elevated emotionality. Moreover, researchers have also found that electrical stimulation of the cornea, one of the layers of the eye, induces a characteristic brain activation pattern, which resembles the pattern seen during deep brain stimulation.

The research team assessed the antidepressant-like effects and explored the underlying mechanisms of the eye-brain pathway.

For many years, scientists have tried to understand how the eye communicates with the brain, and especially how it can affect the body.

In the past decades, studies have shown that the cornea can detect light and convert it into electrochemical impulses that travel to the brain. Electrodes have been placed on the cornea, but this is invasive and can be painful during surgery. The cornea is a highly sensitive, delicate part of the eye.

There are more than 86 billion nerve cells in the brain, and they are one of the most complex systems. The firing of electrical pulses of the brain is necessary for normal brain functions and is crucial for normal mood regulation.

If these electrical pulses of the brain are disrupted, or the brain is not properly communicating with the rest of the body, it can result in depression, anxiety, insomnia, and stress. Hence, this is the reason the research team is trying to figure out how to stimulate the cornea to influence the brain.

Related Article: Eye Disease Treatment and Prevention Through Smart LED Contact Lenses: How Effective Is It?

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by April Fowell

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope just found a rare gem in the universe!

The galaxy CGCG 396-2 - a rare, intriguing multi-armed galaxy merger located around 520 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Orion, has been photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Robbery of Stars

According to The Center for Astrophysics, the Milky Way and other large galaxies were created by the merger of smaller galaxies and the robbery of some of their stars!

There are probably even more galaxies that are gravitationally connecting with their neighbors, which results in star exchanges and impacts on both galaxies' forms.

Hence, scientists are intrigued to investigate the formation and evolution of these galaxies that merge and interact with one another.

After interacting with the Andromeda Galaxy for billions of years, our galaxy will eventually combine with it to form a larger galaxy.

We can tell from the remnants of those other galaxies that the Milky Way itself is the result of previous mergers, according to The Center for Astrophysics.

Additionally, our galaxy is currently exchanging long streams of stars with its satellites as a result of gravitational interactions.

The universe is filled with galaxy interactions and mergers, according to astronomers. Large galaxies in particular, evolved over billions of years by combining with smaller galaxies. The enormous elliptical galaxies and the biggest galaxies in the universe have evolved through mergers.

For instance, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two of our neighbors, and other irregular galaxies likely acquired their warped shapes due to gravitational interactions with several galaxies.

Mergers and interactions influence the types of galaxies because elliptical galaxies account for around 15% of recorded galaxies and irregular galaxies for another 5%, according to The Center for Astrophysics.

Read also: NASA Hubble Space Telescope Witnesses Gravitational Phenomena From Clusters of Bright Galaxies

Gem of the Galaxy Zoo

This recent Hubble image Galaxy Zoo Project's gem - a citizen-based science initiative that enlisted the assistance of millions of volunteers in categorizing galaxies to aid researchers in tackling the problem of navigating the massive amounts of data produced by robotic telescopes.

After a poll by the general public, a list of the Galaxy Zoo's most fascinating astronomical objects was chosen for further Hubble investigations. This image, taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, shows CGCG 396-2, one of the objects of interest.

According to ESA, When an astronomer was given the impossible chore of identifying more than 900,000 galaxies by eye, the Galaxy Zoo project was born. The Galaxy Zoo team was able to crowdsource the study by creating a web interface and encouraging citizen scientists to participate in the initiative.

Over 40 million galaxy classifications were added in less than six months by an army of 100,000 volunteer citizen astronomers all thanks to the Galaxy Zoo Project.

Related Article: NASA Hubble Space Telescope Snaps 5,000 Ancient Galaxies Glowing Like Candles in Space

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The NASA James Webb Space Telescope will soon release its first full-color images, as well as spectroscopic data. This has been confirmed after the international space agency announced the list of JWST's cosmic targets.

(Photo : Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

A woman stands near a model of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland on April 2, 2015. AFP PHOTO/ JIM WATSON

The detailed space images will be published in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said that images would be released during its upcoming live broadcast, which is scheduled for July 12 at exactly 10:30 a.m. EDT.

NASA James Webb's Cosmic Target List Revealed!

According to NASA's official blog post, the upcoming full-color space images and spectroscopic data will be released via its official website and social media accounts.

(Photo : Courtesy of NASA)

Previously unseen details of a mysterious, complex structure within the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) are revealed by this image of the "Keyhole Nebula," obtained with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The picture is a montage assembled from four different April 1999 telescope pointings with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.

Also Read: NASA James Webb Telescope's NIRISS Modes Aims to Capture Crisp Images of the Universe

"They were selected by an international committee of representatives from NASA, ESA, CSA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute," said the international space union.

Once these photos are published, they will mark the actual start of JWST's science operations. NASA already hinted at the arrival of these very detailed space images.

Futurism reported that a calibration test image generated for 32 hours with 72 exposures was released by NASA. Experts described the photo as among the deepest images of the universe captured by the space agency.

Since this is a test image, you can expect more detailed and colorized images once NASA publishes the first full-color photos captured by JWST.

JWST's Cosmic Targets

The new cosmic target list of NASA's JWST offers all the space objects captured by the giant space telescope. Here are the exact heavenly bodies you can see in the telescope's first colorized photos:

Southern Ring Nebula

Also known as the "Eight-Burst" nebula, this expanding gas from a dying star is around 2,000 light-years away from Earth.

Carina Nebula

The image of the Carina Nebula is one of the photos you need to look forward to since it is the brightest nebulae in the sky.

WASP-96 b

WASP-96 b is a giant exoplanet floating outside the solar system. It is roughly 1,150 light-years away from Earth, orbiting its center star every 3.4 days. When it comes to size, this space object is half of Jupiter's mass.

Aside from these three, NASA will also release the full-color images of SMACS 0723, as well as Stephan's Quintet. If you want to see more details about them, you can visit this link.

Recently, NASA's connection with CAPSTONE was re-established.

On the other hand, the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission revealed new details about the asteroid called Benu.

For more news updates about NASA and its James Webb Space Telescope, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: NASA James Webb: Deeper Photos of the Universe to Come This July-What to Expect?

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Elon Musk plans to upgrade Tesla and SpaceX childcare benefits. The billionaire confirmed this decision after the revelation of his twins with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis.

(Photo : Photo by Christian Marquardt - Pool/Getty Images)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk contemplates during the official opening of the new Tesla electric car manufacturing plant on March 22, 2022 near Gruenheide, Germany. The new plant, officially called the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, is producing the Model Y as well as electric car batteries.

The tech CEO shared this plan on July 8 after he replied to a Twitter user's question about not having kids because of cost reasons.

"Kids are worth it if at all possible. I'm planning to increase childcare benefits at my companies significantly," said Musk via his official Twitter account.

Kids are worth it if at all possible. Im planning to increase childcare benefits at my companies significantly.



Hopefully, other companies do same.



Also, Musk Foundation plans to donate directly to families.



Hopefully, details to be announced next month.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2022

He added that other tech manufacturers should also do the same. Elon further shared that he will announce more details about the childcare benefit enhancement in August.

Elon Musk Upgrades Tesla, SpaceX Childcare Benefits!

According to Business Insider's latest report, Elon Musk claimed that direct donations to the families of his employees are included in his childcare benefit enhancement plan.

(Photo : Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Elon Musk shows his Texas belt buckle as he speaks during a press conference at SpaceX's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas on February 10, 2022. - Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk delivered an eagerly-awaited update on SpaceX's Starship, a prototype rocket the company is developing for crewed interplanetary exploration.

Also Read: Elon Musk: Biden Administration 'Troubling' for Asking Censorship on Facebook, Social Media

As of writing, Tesla employees can receive 16 weeks of parental leave, as well as a $40,000 reimbursement for family and fertility planning treatments.

Meanwhile, Musk has been quiet when it comes to the childcare benefits offered by SpaceX. However, various reports claim that the independent space agency offers up to 10 weeks of paid maternity leave.

Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis.



A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2022

Once the promised childcare benefit enhancement arrives, these perks are expected to be much better.

Did His Twins With Neuralink Exec Inspire Him?

Since Musk hasn't mentioned his twins with the Neuralink executive, it is hard to conclude that his children inspired him to plan the childcare benefits offered by his companies.

CNN Business reported that Musk quietly fathered two children with Shibon Zilis, one of his employees working for the most-awaited brain chip tech.

This revelation trended after reports revealed court filings pertaining to the twins' legal name changes. These documents stated that the children's surnames were being changed to "Musk."

After his twins were revealed, the billionaire started tweeting about helping solve the underpopulation crisis in the United States.

Previously, Tesla's allegedly hiring activities appeared on LinkedIn.

On the other hand, Elon Musk's Twitter absence ended after the billionaire became active again on July 2.

For more news updates about Elon Musk and other popular billionaires, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Elon Musk Argues US Recession is Imminent, Justifies Plans to Lay Off Workers

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Verizon, one of the biggest telecommunications companies in the United States, is planning to shut down its 3G network at the end of 2022.

Although most of its customers are now using phones powered by 4G or 5G technology, some still rely on older phones that are only capable of 3G signals, and they may be left in the dark by 2023.

Now, Verizon says it will start sending 4G-capable phones for free to those affected customers.

Verizon to Send 4G Flip Phones

According to CNET, the new phones are not like the usual gifts that telecommunications company uses to entice their customers to sign up for their plans, like iPhone 13 or Samsung Galaxy S22.

Instead, Verizon will send flip phones, including Nokia 2720 V Flip, TCL Flip Pro, and Orbic Journey V.

The move marks Verizon's latest effort to resolve outstanding issues before shutting down its aging 3G network.

The company first announced its plans to close its 3G network in 2016, at the time giving customers three years to upgrade.

Also Read: Verizon Starts Killing 3G Network, Repurposes it for 4G LTE Service

The company delayed the plans through the end of 2022, even though it has not allowed customers to activate phones that can only connect to 3G since 2018.

Several carriers are shutting down these older technologies in order to devote resources to the latest iterations of their respective wireless networks.

AT&T shut down its 3G network in February, while T-Mobile shut down the Sprint 3G network in March.

Sprint launched its 4G LTE network at the end of June. T-Mobile shut down its own older 3G service back on July 1.

Verizon stated that 99% of its customers are now using 4G or 5G networks, with less than 1% still accessing the 3G network, according to CNBC.

Several of those customers are from low-income households who can't afford to purchase a better phone or seniors who only need a phone for communication purposes.

Negative Phone Reviews

Unfortunately, Verizon's free 4G phones are not getting good reviews for its customers. On the company's own online store, the Nokia 2720 got the highest average at 2 out of 5 stars, according to The Verge.

The Nokia 2720 Fold does not provide stellar photos, and the flip, which Verizon is also handing out for free, does not even have a camera.

The flip phone does not have enough storage space too, which means that the contacts a user can save are very limited, and the messages they can keep on the phone are also limited.

Although it does not have any camera, it does allow users to store and listen to music, which is its main selling point. However, it is not strong enough to play music for hours.

The customer reactions on Verizon's webpage about the phones are not good either. Some customers have noted that the TCL Flip Pro does not even support group messaging, and the Orbic Journey V's battery is weak. The phone itself is hard to navigate, which can be very challenging for senior citizens.

Related Article: Verizon Quietly Shuttering 3G Network Band to Test LTE Service

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The new iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are expected to allow Sony and other camera suppliers of Apple to generate more money. Ming-Chi Kuo shared this speculation in his latest blog post.

(Photo : Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

Apple Inc.'s iPhone 11, iPhone11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max smartphones are displayed in the Apple Marunouchi store on September 20, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. Apple launched the latest iPhone 11 models featuring a dual-camera system today.

The reliable Apple analyst said that Apple is now using a new chip structural method to increase the sales of its high-tier iPhone models.

"Structural changes for iPhone's high-end camera supply chain / iPhone's high-end camera supply chain," said Kuo via his official Twitter announcement.

[Analysis] Structural changes for iPhone's high-end camera supply chain / iPhoneSonyAlpsLG InnotekiPhone 14 Pro/A16 @mingchikuo https://t.co/kZLdnXmAyN   (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) July 6, 2022

He added that Sony, Largan, and LG Innotek are included among the camera suppliers to experience the revenue benefits offered by higher-tier Apple smartphones.

iPhone 14 Pro, Pro Max To Benefit Sony, Other Camera Suppliers

According to Phone Arena's latest report, the advanced Apple A16 chipset will be exclusive to the new iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max units, which are expected to arrive around September.

(Photo : Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on-stage during a product launch event at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California on September 10, 2019. - Apple unveiled its iPhone 11 models Tuesday, touting upgraded, ultra-wide cameras as it updated its popular smartphone lineup and cut its entry price to $699.

Also Read: Apple iPhone 14: What to Expect-Is It a Significant Upgrade from the iPhone 11?

Kuo explained that Apple would use this new structural method to make more profits from its iPhone Pro models. The tech enthusiasts added that this production change could lead to a shipment proportion of 55% to 60%.

Each year, a new iPhone whose cam takes pics

whose differences between the previous model's pics

you literally cannot tell the difference between,

with the occasional new feature [LIDAR] thrown in,

yet it sells 100s of millions each & every year ....

I just don't get it.

  CaryMGVR (@CMGVR) July 6, 2022

This is quite higher compared to 2021's iPhone shipment proportion (40%-50%). On the other hand, the year-on-year growth of camera lenses of Sony (CIS), Alps (VCM/OIS), LG Innotek (CCM), and Largan (lens), are expected to be 15% to 35% each.

Why New iPhone Structural Method May Disappoint You

While other manufacturers will definitely benefit from Apple's new iPhone structural method, consumers may be somehow disappointed.

This is because non-Pro iPhone models are now expected to be integrated with a-year-old SoCs. For example, if Apple started using its new structural technique back in 2021, then the base model of the iPhone 13 will only have the older A14 Bionic chipset.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 13 Pro versions will have the more advanced A15 SoCs. Now, Kuo is expecting this chipset exclusivity to be integrated into the next-gen iPhones.

Of course, taking the Apple analyst's statements with a grain of salt is still important since the tech giant manufacturer hasn't confirmed this alleged structural change.

If you want to see further details about Ming-Chu Kuo's latest rumor about the upcoming iPhone 14 Pro models, you can visit his official Medium blog post.

On the other hand, rumors claim that iPhone 14's selfie camera will have some major enhancements.

Meanwhile, the new Apple M2 is expected to be integrated into next-gen Mac Mini models.

For more news updates about the iPhone 14 Pro and other new Apple gadgets, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

You may want upgrading from the older MacBook Airs.

Related Article: [RUMOR] Apple's iPhone 14 Might Come With an Extremely Hefty Price Tag, But by How Much?

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Elon Musk is now canceling the deal between him and Twitter, which makes the previous proceedings something which will soon be void of the upcoming venture that will change social media. The main reason remains unknown, but it still borders on Musk's complaints regarding the undisclosed number of bots from Twitter to the tech executive.

Elon Musk is Canceling the Twitter Deal

(Photo : Alexander Shatov on Unsplash)

Elon Musk is allegedly canceling the Twitter deal, and people with insider knowledge regarding the tech CEO's lead are available for everyone's knowledge and information. According to The Verge, there was a tweet from a Twitter chairperson that talked about the upcoming changes on the social media platform that follows this information.

The tech CEO is allegedly leaving the deal and is not pushing through with its goal to make the social media platform a private company, different from what it is now. With this, Musk is effectively transforming Twitter to its beginnings, where it became an outlet for people despite their diverse opinions and focus.

Read Also: Elon Musk's Twitter Deal: Bots Are the Problem, Not China - Is the Deal Pushing Through?

Elon Musk Twitter: Opting Out Now

Bret Taylor, Twitter Chairperson, said that the company intends to sell Twitter to Musk, and for the deal to continue with that, it offers to the tech CEO as part of the contract. However, something prevents the agreement from taking place despite the board's approval and the many preparations.

The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.  Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022

One of them is Musk, and the other is the many disputes in its agreement.

Elon Musk and Free Speech

One may think that Elon Musk's quest towards achieving global free speech is coming to the world, but that is not quite the case as there is an unclear happening for the deal in the present. The public may only know of one problem that is famous to people, primarily as it previously blamed the bots for playing a massive role in its postponement of the acquisition.

However, that is only one of the three unresolved matters for Musk and his team regarding the Twitter deal.

The goal of this acquisition is for the supposed "free speech" online that would bring the old glory of Twitter back, and it focuses on providing the public with a platform without any bars. Musk said that it is still focusing on the censorship on the platform, but it would be available when Twitter becomes a private company under the tech CEO.

Musk has a lot for Twitter despite the company remaining as a public company that is different from what Musk envisioned for the platform once he was its leader. However, it is becoming more unclear for its future, especially as it has an update from a Twitter executive that the deal may be coming off soon, and it is facing a problem for all.

Related Article: Twitter Sale: Elon Musk Cancels Deal? Reports Claim CEO is Breaking Free, Venture 'in Peril'

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Japan is looking for ways to deal with space debris. Ever since the space age began, space junk that consists of satellites, rocket parts, and wreckage from collisions has been piling up. It is even more concerning now with the growing number of satellites that are getting launched in the past years. Therefore, this will make the space even more crowded.

(Photo : Annie Spratt on Unsplash)





According to the European Space Agency (ESA), around one million pieces of debris larger than 10 centimeters are in Earth's orbit.

A researcher from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Toru Yamamoto, envisions using a laser beam to get rid of the space debris, according to Phys Org. The laser beam will vaporize them and will create a pulse of energy that will push the object into a new orbit.

With the irradiating laser, there will be no need to touch any debris. On that note, space debris can move about 7.5 kilometers per second, which is much faster than a bullet.

Currently, the project is experimental, but they hope to test the idea in space by the spring of 2025.

Also Read: High-Speed Space Junk To Reach Moon's Far Side This March - Creating 66-Foot Hole Upon Impact

More Projects Underway

There are a lot of agencies that are working on projects to solve the space junk issue. Some of them are Japanese, Europe, and US firms, which are all leading the way in developing solutions.

A tow-truck idea is also further along now. The idea behind this is that it will use a magnet to collect satellites that are no longer in use. Last year, the firm, Astroscale, was able to carry out a successful trial. The firm has plans to do a second test by the end of 2024 and hopes to launch its service soon after.

Some other efforts are trying to create satellites that don't produce debris. Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry envisage a wooden satellite that will go into orbit in a rocket and burn up safely when it goes back to the Earth. This project is still in its early stages.

Earlier this year, pieces of wood were sent to the International Space Station (ISS) to test how the material responds to cosmic rays.

Satellite Debris Challenges

There are still challenges, though. Many of the firms have yet to create a scalable model that could be used to remove junk from space. It is going to take a lot of time, research, and money to come up with a model that works.

The last thing that they want is to create more debris that would be in the way of other satellites.

For now, scientists are still trying to get a grasp on how they can best tackle the space clutter. Some of the agencies are also looking at using systems that are already in place. It might take a long time before we can get to a solution. Until then, the world will have to keep an eye on the growing space debris that floats in space.

Related Article: Japan Launches Magnetic Tether To Clean Up Space Junk

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Twitter and its chair members are not having it, and they revealed online that legal action would take place if Elon Musk will not push through with buying the social media company in its recent deal. Almost everything is in place with the Twitter deal between Musk and the company, but there was a hindrance here as essential matters were left unknown to the Tesla CEO.

Bret Taylor: Twitter to Sue Elon Musk if Deal Gets Canceled

(Photo : Unsplash/Joshua Hoehne)

According to a statement by Twitter's chairman, Bret Taylor, there would be legal action should the deal get canceled or not push through in the future. Twitter's team intends to push through with the case, and the company would enforce its hand to continue with the deal and merger as part of the initial sale.

According to The Verge, Taylor released this statement shortly after Musk's team went to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to file their intent to withdraw from the sale. Nevertheless, Taylor's statement is a powerful one as it claims to have the upper hand that the company will prevail with the law on this deal.

Read Also: Elon Musk is Cancelling the Twitter Deal, As Confirmed by a Twitter Chairman





The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.  Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022

Is Elon Musk Breaching its Twitter Sale Agreement?

Musk signed a binding agreement regarding the deal with Twitter, but there was once a dispute where the tech CEO discovered several undisclosed information that came with the company in this deal. It seems that both have breaches on their sides regarding this Twitter sale.

If Musk truly opts out now, there would be a legal battle between Musk and Twitter.

Elon Musk and Twitter

Elon Musk's preferred platform to advertise Tesla and bring news regarding his different companies, including his personal life and opinions, is Twitter, and the CEO wanted to be a part of it before. There are many things that Musk would change with Twitter, and one of them is being a platform that would bring free speech to all.

To do that, Musk will make the company private, and it would bring back Twitter's early days when it was operating a social media that made its own rules and allowed the public to focus on what they wanted. However, there would still be some prohibitions as there are specific laws that may penalize them for the public information they share.

Now, Musk's camp filed their case on the SEC regarding their backing out of the deal, and it is something that Twitter is not letting go.

A binding agreement that Musk and his camp signed will likely hold a case against their team, as the Twitter sale is something that the board already decided upon and made peace. Future legal proceedings may occur if Musk opts out of the Twitter sale, and there would be a significant exchange between them and the social media company.

Related Article: Twitter Sale: Elon Musk Cancels Deal? Reports Claim CEO is Breaking Free, Venture 'in Peril'

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Written by Isaiah Richard

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In just the last month, Project SHARE in Carlisle has seen an increase in the number of families who need help with meals.

More and more families are utilizing our Farmstand distribution and distribution at our warehouse, Project SHARE CEO Bob Weed said. Were now serving about 325 families a week at our Farmstand. Thats up from 290 to 300 a few weeks ago. Theres also about a 12 to 14% increase in [application] traffic for warehouse distribution.

Weed attributes the growth in demand to two factors  rising gas and food prices and the expiration of COVID-era enhanced benefits through SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Pre-COVID, a family of four would get $100 a month, Weed said. With enhanced COVID benefits, the same family could get $800 to $825 a month. They were less reliant on us previously. [But now] its a dead stop, not a trailing off.

And another COVID-era benefit for families is about to expire at the end of the summer.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act allowed for a waiver of qualifications on family income levels for free meals at schools. Cindy Long, administrator of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, said that resulted in 30 million children a day getting free meals, compared to 20 million children a day before the pandemic. That waiver will expire before the start of the upcoming school year, according to the Associated Press.

Those in service organizations are worried about what that will mean for children, especially in families that arent eligible for free or reduced price lunches.

Weed said those families are often referred to as being in the ALICE population, or Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. Once families cross the income threshold, they are no longer able to receive benefits, though they may still need help, he said.

Thats the population Project SHARE attempts to serve with its Farmstand program, where residents do not need to apply or provide income information to get vegetables, fruits and dairy products.

School meals

The ALICE population is also the one most likely to be hurt by the lack of universal school lunches.

Jennifer Metz, head of Child Nutritional Services at South Middleton School District, said that no matter what happens with a familys ability to pay, no child will be refused a lunch at school. The only result will be a negative balance on a students account that the district will have to recoup.

There may still be instances in which a family does not apply [for a free or reduced price meal] and students still need meals, she said. We will not deny a meal to any student even if they do not have funds to cover the meal, so it is likely our negative meal account balances will increase as we return to the standard free, reduced-price and paid eligibility. Collection of these funds is a time-consuming task that will be an added responsibility of our already busy staff.

Metz said that prior to COVID-19, the meal account debt was growing significantly, reaching more than $13,000 at one point. However, that donations from community members and businesses in late 2020 reduced that debt by half, she said.

For those with debts, families are notified and asked to remit payment within 30 days, though those who do not pay for an extended period of time could have that debt sent to collections, Metz said.

Carlisle Area School District has also seen year-end balances in the thousands. According to Business Manager Jenna Kinsler, Carlisle has seen year-end balances between $8,318 (in 2017-18) to $15,571 (in 2018-19). Kinsler said the district sends notifications to families with negative balances to recoup those costs, but there have also been several years of donations to pay off negative balances.

Metz said the district has been including reminders of the changes to parents and encouraging them to apply for free and reduced-price meals.

According to the application for South Middleton School Districts meal program, those who qualify for free meals include children in households receiving SNAP or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; foster children who are the responsibility of a foster care agency or court; children participating in their schools Head Start program; and children who meet the definition of homeless, runaway or migrant, which includes those staying in a shelter or hotel and relocate on a seasonal basis.

Under Federal Income Eligibility guidelines, free meals are also offered to children in households that are within 130% of the federal poverty guidelines, or reduced lunches for those within 185% of federal poverty guidelines.

Metz said 96 applications were approved at South Middleton in the years leading up to COVID-19 with about 450 to 470 more being automatically eligible through Direct Certification.

Kinsler said Carlisle sees about 44% to 45% of its students on average apply and qualify for the free and reduced lunch program each year.

There is no threshold to how many students can be in the free/reduced program, she said. Every eligible family receives the benefit if they apply and are approved or are directly certified for the program.

Carlisle encourages families to apply for the program on its website underneath the Child Nutrition option, while those in South Middleton School District can apply online through COMPASS or SchoolCafe account, or email an application to Metz at jfm@smsd.us.

Both districts also partner with Project SHARE to offer weekend meals that children can take with them during the school year. Weed said guidance counselors identify the students in need and hand out the supplemental food.

Theyre closest to the action, he said. They know the children better than we do.

Government setbacks

The expiration of another COVID-era relief program is something Weed sees as the government not learning from what schools and organizations like Project SHARE have seen throughout the pandemic. Its something he sees first-hand with the organizations Summer Feeding program.

Project SHARE decided to forego USDA funding this summer because a COVID-era waiver expired that allowed for to-go meals. Weed said organizations like Project SHARE are required by USDA to have congregant feeding, or to serve meals only to those who attend in-person. By opting out of that funding stream, Project SHAREs Summer Feeding program continued what it started during COVID and sent parents home with bundled meals for their children.

We said no because the old rules are silly, he said, adding that the program served 110 children a week before COVID, but jumped to 375 children a week last year, and jumped again to 525 children a week this year. When you triple the numbers, you found a better method.

Weed said even those from Shippensburg are interested in participating in the program because parents are unable to drive them to Shippensburg Area School Districts program every day for the lunch.

He said these numbers are provided to local, state and federal lawmakers to help shape better rules, but instead they often turn back to the way theyve always done it.

Its emblematic of a bureau that is not based on what happens in the real world, Weed said.
Sometimes even legislators need a little help creating laws.

Delegate Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, honored 16 Virginians for their help in creating and passing a bakers dozen of laws, including two who worked on two bills passed by the General Assembly.

The bills were passed into law in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 legislative sessions.

Bell gave his Citizen Lawmaker awards at a Thursday event at the Central Branch of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library.

There were seven laws passed in the 2020 session sponsored and supported by citizens. They were:

Catherine Gardner, who worked on HB 342 to exempt up to $2,500 in income from farmers market sales from meals tax or food and beverage taxes.

Nancy Gill, who worked on HB 345 to amend the Scottsville town charter to allow staggered terms for town council elections, among other changes.

Helen Dunn and William Shifflett, on behalf of Albemarle County Public Schools, for supporting HB 351 that now allows retired school bus drivers to get back behind the wheel without impact on retirement benefits at times of critical driver shortages.

John Shephard, for his work on HB 370 to repeal law forbidding election officials from also serving on a board of zoning appeals.

Leza Sisley, for working on HB 664 to addresses the needs of first responders for testing for diseases like hepatitis after being exposed to body fluids of someone who died.

Eileen Gomez, Kristina OMeara and Emily Sims, on behalf of Baker-Butler Elementary School, for working on HB 860 that allows school nurses to stock and administer albuterol inhalers, and provides Good Samaritan protections for their use.

Richard Schmack and his daughter Erika, for work on HB 1573 that increases penalties for dog and cat owners who allow their animals to run at-large after being notified that the animal is suspected of having rabies.

In the most recent General Assembly session six bills were passed into law with help from area residents. The people receiving Bells awards and the laws they worked on are:

Tracy Morris, for HB 740 that made stealing a catalytic converter a felony and requires increased record keeping by scrap metal purchasers.

Maggie DeBoard, for her work on HB 741 that requires school districts to create detailed and accurate floor plans for each public school when creating annual school safety audits.

Daniel Gochenour for HB 745 that allows respiratory therapists to practice while their licensure is pending.

Nathan Creighton, and the Ruckersville Volunteer Fire Company, for passing HB 746 to create the Volunteer Fire Department Training Fund. The fund reimburses volunteer fire departments for the costs of training. It also created a study group on ways to providing cost-effective training for volunteer departments and firefighters

Camille Cooper, for HB 749 that allows funds from the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Victim Fund to pay salaries and purchase equipment for sexual assault nurses, forensic examiners and pediatric nurse examiners.

Helen Dunn and William Shifflett, again on behalf of Albemarle schools, for HB 1146 that adds options for training and testing school bus drivers.
At 9 o'clock last night, there were already over 70,000 confirmed cases... The 'peak' seems to be getting faster
Barely a month into summer break, something is becoming clear about the upcoming school year: Education administrators in the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County face a student transportation crisis.

A shortage of school bus drivers in both municipalities challenges the local systems leaders to find ways to deliver children safely and efficiently to class. School officials in each jurisdiction are discussing options in a situation where the math just doesnt add up.

Charlottesville has only a third of the drivers it needs. Last year, Albemarle asked some drivers to operate on double routes, where they picked up and delivered children to one school and immediately went back out to pick up and deliver more students to another school.

We wonder if any way exists for the county and city to team up. Sharing resources and ideas might offer solutions that dont exist if they go it alone.

If county schools close to the city can be paired with nearby city schools, perhaps a single school bus could deliver to two schools, shortening routes and making them cheaper and more efficient to operate.

Perhaps that could free up Albemarles bus fleet to serve the countys rural areas. So maybe the county can help pay something toward the fleet of small 14-person buses the city is purchasing. Albemarle is also buying four such vehicles, which do not require operators to have a commercial drivers license.

A small but empowered multi-jurisdictional coordinating committee of transportation planners might help if it has a strict deadline for offering concrete, practical options and not just talking points.

Obviously, we are not transportation experts. We stipulate that our ideas may not work. The point of this spit-balling is to encourage those with the know-how to think regionally and outside the box.

Albemarle already said it is discussing with Charlottesville Area Transit (CAT) and the JAUNT extended public transit service how adult riders might share public bus space with student riders.

Again, were talking about searching for solutions as a region, not individual fiefdoms, because the same bus driver shortage faces both the county and city right now. If two heads are better than one, think of the problem-solving brain power of half a dozen experts.

Parents should make their voices heard. Yet with or without a regional approach, they will need to be patient. Rather than complain, they will need to support new school transportation scenarios that might be less convenient than they were before COVID-19 shut down in-school classes.

Moms and dads will naturally worry about putting their little ones on public transportation in Albemarle or sending them out the door to take longer walks to Charlottesville schools. The school systems owe parents a commitment to protecting their kids in any new transportation configurations.

Under the new Charlottesville plan, elementary school children will have to walk if they live within three-quarters of a mile of their school. Middle school and high school students will be asked to walk if they live within 1.25 miles.

That is a big change. It may even call for extraordinary security measures which extend beyond the additional crossing guards the city plans to hire. Perhaps PTAs can coordinate a cadre of volunteers who stroll along elementary school walking routes.

It is hard to blame anyone for this crisis. Albemarle and Charlottesville each have tried to provide financial incentives to attract more school bus drivers. The city, which pays drivers between $16.51 and $18.32 an hour, offered health insurance and $2,400 bonuses to lure new drivers and retain old ones. The county, which pays starting drivers $17.18 an hour, gave $2,500 bonuses to new and existing drivers, along with full benefits to anyone working at least four hours a day.

As we face trying days ahead, lets remember that crises call for cooperation and creativity, not finger-pointing. Remember, too, how our collective community needs to work together selflessly. Those who cant figure how it benefits them personally should just do it for the kids.
AFP

Ein Video, das polnische Feuerwehrleute bei einer Spendenaktion fur ein erkranktes Madchen zeigt, verbreitete sich in mehreren Sprachen in sozialen Medien. User behaupteten falschlicherweise, die Aufnahme zeige Feuerwehrleute, die aus Solidaritat mit Bauern in den Niederlanden protestierten. Die Organisatoren der Wohltatigkeitsveranstaltung, ein polnischer Feuerwehrmann, der das Video aufnahm, sowie der Vergleich mit anderen Aufnahmen vor Ort bestatigten, dass das Video in Wahrheit eine Spendena
FILE - Tony Spell, pastor of the Life Tabernacle Church of Central City, La., prays with supporters outside the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on June 7, 2021. Spell's lawsuit over Gov. John Bel Edwards past COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings was rejected for a second time Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, by a federal judge. Spell garnered national attention in March 2020 when he began to flout the states public health order at a time when much of the country was in lockdown over the emergence of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
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Just because the end of the year is a frenzy of big releases and gift-giving doesnt mean the first half of the year cant hold its own in the world of childrens publishing. Indeed, to assume that a child only wants to read a book on their birthday or over the summer holidays is to misunderstand entirely.

Finding the right book to capture their attention can be all it takes, and while there is neither time nor space to tell you about all the amazing releases since January, here are a few of the highlights that really caught our attention.

Junior fiction titles continue to be dominated by fun and silly nonsense. Gustav and Henri by Andy Matthews and illustrated by Peader Thomas (Hardie Grant) marks the beginning of a highly illustrated, incredibly droll series, filled with jokes that had me laughing through time and space. Wife and husband team Laura and Philip Bunting take their juggernaut brand up a notch as they step into chapter books featuring a quirky bunch of Australian animals in The Wild Life Book I: A Berry Long Walk (Scholastic). And Zombie Diaries: Apocalypse Cow by Guy Edmonds and Matt Zeremes (Hardie Grant) will have readers in hysterics from age seven.

However, its not all jokes and silliness for the younger readers, theres plenty of heart. The brand new Our Stories series from Pan Macmillan Australia channels the first-chapter-book vibe of Aussie Nibbles, showcasing stories from diverse cultures and creators. Maku by Meyne Wyatt and When Granny Came to Stay by Alice Pung and illustrated by Sally Soweol Han are the first two.

Meyne Wyatt has written a book in the new series of chapter books called Our Stories. Credit:Edwina Pickles

PD McPems Agency for Mysterious Mysteries: The Recorder Racket by Anna Battese, illustrated by Ruth-Mary Smith (Yellow Brick) is as delightfully whimsical as it sounds. Penelope Delores McPem sees mysteries everywhere. Especially when her recorder goes missing and her grandparents  the only witnesses  are none the wiser.

A new series of young graphic novels by Remy Lai, Surviving the Wild, focuses on true animal stories and environmental issues in Rainbow the Koala and Star the Elephant (Allen & Unwin). Parents and children alike will love the tenacious hope of Moth in a Fancy Cardigan by Charlotte Lance and illustrated by David Booth, AKA Ghostpatrol (Berbay).
Social media influencers who earn a crust from spruiking beauty products on Instagram were sent into a tailspin in February when the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration introduced a new advertising code banning them from receiving cash or samples for endorsements of products.

Despite the new rules taking effect at the start of July, some are already trying to carve out exemptions to keep themselves in business.

How else will those who are influenced by social media, particularly Millennials who are most at risk of melonama, be encouraged to use sunscreen everyday? And use it correctly? says Samantha Brett. Credit:Edwina Pickles

Samantha Brett, founder of SPF sunscreen brand Naked Sundays, wrote to the TGA and the new Health Minister Mark Butler to allow influencers to endorse sunscreen.

Summer is just around the corner which means Australians are at greater risk of skin cancer and melanomas. Brett told Emerald City.
On June 25, the Supreme Court revoked Roe v. Wade, ruling that the Constitution does not give women the right to an abortion, and that states can enact their own laws.

Many states are already moving toward making abortion illegal under any circumstances, including in cases of rape or danger to the mothers life.

While this approach finds support among fundamentalist Christians, Americans belonging to more liberal denominations of Christianity feel this is an erosion of our civil liberties. What I have not heard in public discourse is that for those Americans who follow a different religion (or none at all), this new ruling also flies in the face of the Constitutional right to religious freedom.

As a Jew, I can unequivocally state that the Supreme Courts ruling infringes on my religious rights as an American, and I am clearly not alone: According to a 2015 Pew Research Forum survey, 83% of American Jews said abortion should be legal in all/most cases.

The best way to understand this survey result is by looking closely at the distinctive perspective on abortion offered by the Jewish tradition.

The Talmud, the foundational compendium of Jewish law, regards a fetus as part of its mother, since it is completely dependent on her for its life. The sages of the Talmud asserted that a fetus attains the status of personhood only at birth.

In the Bible, when someone lost something of material value, the person who caused the damage had to pay a compensatory amount; if there was loss of life, the death penalty was invoked.

The key source from which the rabbis of the Talmud derived their view of a fetus is Exodus 21:22 and 23, in which two men who are fighting inadvertently injure a pregnant woman and cause her to miscarry. Since the harm to the woman was the loss of the fetus, it was treated as a case of property damage, with monetary reparations required. It was not seen as murder.

The Talmud also holds that in situations where the life of the mother is endangered by the pregnancy, the mothers life must be favored over that of the fetus. Modern Jews adhere to this justification for abortion in these situations.

Beyond this, Judaisms position on abortion is nuanced, and beliefs and practices differ widely, particularly among the various Jewish denominations.

There are Orthodox rabbinic sources that support abortion in certain cases, such as when a mothers life is not at risk but her health is in danger, or when a fetus is known to suffer from serious abnormalities. However, these rulings are not universally accepted and many Orthodox rabbis insist that cases be judged individually.

Once the mothers physical well-being is centered, as it is in Jewish tradition, the more liberal branches of Judaism have made the not-so-big leap to expanding the concern to the mothers psychological well-being as well. In other words, if carrying a pregnancy to term would negatively impact the womans mental health, our tradition can be seen as the basis for supporting the termination of the pregnancy.

Given the diversity of opinions held by Americans whose faith underpins their life choices, it is essential that we preserve every citizens right to pursue their chosen religion and the freedom to follow its guiding principles when making very personal choices.

If we aspire to America being the land of the free, then we must be brave and loudly protest when the institutions that are supposed to protect us instead endanger our Constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms.
Stop it. Its not funny. Put me down. Ouch. That hurts.

I was 19, at Cambridge, one of the worlds most prestigious universities, and watching three drunken men from one of the institutions oldest drinking societies manhandle a girl whod refused to go from the campus bar to a local nightclub with them. She wriggled in their arms while they groped her, beat at their shoulders to resist and then, whether by accident or design, they dropped her. Onto the concrete. Hard. The reaction of the crowd was one of laughter; they all thought the boys had just had a few too many, meant no harm and that she should be flattered theyd showed her the attention.

It shouldnt be unrealistic to imagine a world where no means no  and every man, and woman, accepts that. Credit:Stocksy

Their status as members of a drinking society that was ancient and distinguished enough to rival outgoing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnsons Bullingdon Club meant that most of the people on the Cambridge University quad that night thought she should have been honoured to be singled out. Im not sure that from her position on the ground, with grazed hands, knees beaded with blood and a ripped dress, she agreed.

Then there was my friend, whose boyfriend was part of another elite gentlemens club. They wrote down the names of all the pretty girls they wanted to party with on pieces of paper before an event. If a girl turned up who wasnt as attractive as they remembered, her name was burned in the fire and she was asked to leave.
Sydney recorded tens of thousands of empty homes on census night, with the Delta lockdown and hard international border closure pushing vacancies higher than 2016.

Meanwhile, in traditional seaside holiday towns, up to a quarter of dwellings were unoccupied despite the severe housing crisis.

Figures from the 2021 census, sorted for The Sun-Herald by local government area, show the location of nearly 300,000 unoccupied homes across NSW.

Eurobodalla Shire on the South Coast had 1941 unoccupied homes on census night: 25.4 per cent of its housing stock. That was the highest proportion of any NSW LGA, reflecting its status as a holiday home haven for Sydney and Canberra.
Nationals leader David Littleproud says the Coalition must do way better when it comes to listening to women if it is to restore the trust he believes was lost while in government.

Speaking to a full hall at the Liberal-National Party convention in Brisbane on Saturday, the federal Deputy Opposition leader called for the conservative faithful to come together, but to firstly ... own up to the mistakes that cost them the May election.

Nationals leader David Littleproud and deputy Perin Davey (right) - also pictured with Bridget McKenzie (left) at Parliament House after the vote on the partys leadership. Credit:James Brickwood

[We must] listen to and understand ... women right across the country, and their aspirations, their fears, their goals  listen and learn, understand, and rebuild that trust, he said.

This, the perceived disconnect with female voters, was the only mistake Littleproud referenced in his near-20-minute speech. He instead used almost all of his stage time to defend the Coalitions time in government, including its much-criticised responses to natural disasters and the slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
Victorian Labor MPs and epidemiologists have urged the government to do more to lower the states nation-leading COVID-19 death rate, while some suggest the Andrews government is putting politics ahead of public health by avoiding discussion about the pandemic.

Six Labor MPs, including a current and former minister, said the impending Omicron sub-variant wave necessitates increased public health messaging on things like ventilation, mask-wearing and vaccine boosters.

The chief health officers of Queensland (John Gerrard), NSW (Kerry Chant), Victoria (Brett Sutton) and the ACT (Kerryn Coleman), who are all members of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee. Credit:SMH/The Age/Getty

However, several other Labor MPs argue the governments language has not changed and it has minimal ability to influence the behaviour of a weary public, three years into the pandemic.

Public attention is turning once again to COVID-19, as new BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants spawn a winter wave of infections. The threat spurred the nations chief health officers, acting under the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, to say on Friday that, without increased community and public health actions, cases could rise as dramatically as they did in January when Omicron overwhelmed the testing system.
For decades, some of the most loved parts of Melbourne were at the mercy of developers, with few of the citys heritage laws protecting them.

Now, a new set of controls and policies will help safeguard the citys laneways, replacing previous planning rules which forced the Melbourne City Council to approve developments considered below community expectation.

Hardware Lane is loved for its outdoor dining and restaurants.

CBD locals and tourists have long enjoyed roaming its lanes including blue cobblestoned Centre Place for its boutiques, Hardware Lane for its restaurants, Tattersalls Lane for its bars and Hosier Lane for its street art.

New developments must now fit with the character of each laneway and preserve heritage building materials. Setback requirements will prevent bulky developments and shopfronts must not be dominated by waste, loading or parking access.
In many ways, Chinas like a big version of the European Union, says Lauren Johnston, an associate professor at the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. And Beijing is an administrative centre like Brussels. It has all these different languages, all these different people, all these different provinces. China is trying to move from some version of Europe to some version of the United States, where people can move a bit more freely. Cai Fang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the hukou system was impeding the Chinese economys ability to bounce back from COVID. The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic combines aspects of both demand and supply shocks, he wrote for the East Asia Forum. So a quick resumption of resident consumption, rather than conventional investment stimulus, is conducive to the recovery of economic growth, and hukou reform has an important role to play.

Previous attempts at updating the system have been criticised for being incremental and giving local governments too much power to skirt new regulations. These spurts of reform in 2005 and 2014 have largely seen wealthy migrants granted hukous by local governments in some areas, while continuing to block poorer migrants from accessing services. But COVID-19 has forced a more significant shift online and away from local governments, allowing poorer migrants to access hukou services remotely. At the National Peoples Congress in Beijing in March, lawmakers floated a proposal to centrally digitise residency-related administrative processes. By April, in the middle of Shanghais lockdown, the government announced a nationally integrated government services platform had been completed. That bureaucratic title masks a monumental change driven by Chinas cycle of lockdowns. It will allow the 290 million migrants living away from home in Chinas major cities to do some of their administrative tasks online without having to return to their villages. Imagine if you had to travel to Canberra every time you needed to do your tax or access your pension, says Johnston. And then suddenly one day you could do it all online. Johnston believes Chinese authorities - long frustrated by inefficiencies but not bold enough to make changes - jumped at the opportunity COVID-19 provided.

In China, there is an ancient war stratagem for winning that advises to loot from a burning house. That is, when a country is beset by disease, famine, corruption or crime, it will be poorly equipped to fend off an attack, says Johnston. Another says that in the process of carrying out ones plans, do not miss an opportunity to pilfer a goat, and then build upon the associated profits. Standing between a new elite minority of rent-protecting urbanites and hungry and frustrated masses waiting for their turn to get rich, it seems Chinas leaders may have adopted such tactics during pandemic-related COVID-19 lockdowns. The changes are likely to be controversial. Decades of strict hukou regulations have meant that urban, middle-class Chinese have had their pick of the best schools, apartments and facilities in the cities. The same group of millions of middle-class educated workers are also those growing most frustrated at Chinas cycle of lockdowns and closed borders. But as Xi pursues a policy of common prosperity, the costs may be starting to outweigh the benefits. A child of a migrant worker studies under candlelight in Beijing. Credit:Sanghee Liu The intra-provincial bargain in China appears to risk resembling a let-some-get-rich-first national Ponzi scheme. In other words, the hukou system may even now have transformed from pillar of stability to pillar of instability, says Johnston.

Xi is looking at China in [20 years time] and thinking what are our barriers? ... hes done Xinjiang, Hong Kong and now [hukou] and thinking Im just gonna stick a big acupuncture needle into that nerve centre. He appreciates that the promise the party made was to let some people get rich first. So, they have got rich and if they dont help everyone else to catch up, they are going to have this poor ageing frontier. In April, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission announced that it would be legally guaranteed that children and teenagers who are not registered in this city will be equally accepted. Local districts followed suit, allowing migrant children into schools in the outer districts such as Mentougou but also into the inner elite districts such as Haidian. Other cities such as Shanghai are also trying to attract top-tier migrants. It announced in December that it would allow graduates of the citys universities to acquire a coveted Shanghai hukou. In Beijing, when the school term starts in September, migrant workers children are likely to be taking their place alongside the children of hukou residents for the first time. My second child was admitted to a primary school in Tongzhou district in Beijing recently, says Xu Jie, a 41-year-old foreman of an interior decorating firm originally from Bozhou city in east Chinas Shandong Province.

We submitted all application materials via email and allocation of her school was announced online. We didnt visit any of the government departments at all. It was very convenient. Johnston says the full impact of the changes wont be known until September; in previous years school enrolments have been marked by long queues and haggling with local officials. This year there was no visibility of the enrolment process. There was no actual chance to get angry with the local education official or harass whomever - it was just all done online, says Johnston. If the classrooms have many more migrant kids - even just 10 per cent in a good school - that may be a shock to the other kids. Chinas birth rate has fallen to historic lows. Credit:National Bureau of Statistics, China

China is facing a demographic cliff as it transitions from a developing to a developed economy. Its population is forecast to halve by the end of this century, according to the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Education standards can vary widely across the country with the rural-based children of migrant workers often achieving far lower outcomes. There are fewer kids, says Johnston. So they need those few kids to be much better educated. As the changes are slowly rolled out, resentment among some migrant workers remains. Reduced to second-class citizens for much of their lives, they say the system has unfairly damaged generations of workers for no other reason than the village they were born in. Everything depends on ones capability. If you are as rich as Jack Ma, or have a doctors degree, the big cities will welcome you, says Xu. But talking about this is meaningless to people in the grassroots like us, were like a pebble in the sea that makes a little ripple. The restrictions have impacted both manual labourers and white-collar workers. While Xu has been able to enrol his daughter, others have missed out, forcing them to send their kids back to their hometowns to live with ageing grandparents.

A migrant worker abseils down a building in Beijing. Credit:Sanghee Liu Quan Longzhu, a 45-year-old employee of a foreign investment bank in Beijing, has lived in the capital for all but two of the last 15 years but was told he had missed out on the threshold to qualify for a hukou. We paid more taxes in Beijing than many local Beijingers, but the one-size-fits-all policy blocked my daughter from further studying in Beijing, Quan says. I feel very disappointed to see decades of hard and honest work and tax payment in Beijing resulted in this. But it is worse for young people who moved to Beijing later than us. They even have no qualifications to buy a house or a car, not to mention of future high education of their children. Chinas middle-class rat race has sent the costs of education, housing and consumer goods surging. The one-child policy meant families poured resources into their only child, pumping billions into music lessons, extracurricular activities and tutoring. Xi banned for-profit tutoring last year to stem demand, but the practice continues to flourish on the black market. Chinas middle class is increasingly sensitive to change as it grapples with a less certain future.

Delegates applaud as Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives at the National Peoples Congress Credit:AP They are not going to be happy about these changes, says Johnston. Life was competitive enough for them already, as far as theyre concerned. Thats the reason they spend all this extra money on education, which has just been banned. Thats the reason they send their kids to English classes here, violin there - they are ticking every box there is. All of which creates a sensitive environment for more radical hukou reform - such as abolishing the system altogether - ahead of the Chinese Communist Partys National Congress in October or November this year, when Xi is expected to cement a third term in power. Assuming Xi Jinping secures a third term later this year, his authority as a precedent-breaking core leader would likely allow him to overcome resistance in local governments that stands in the way of his common prosperity agenda and any hukou reforms it may entail, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said in April. Migrant workers like Xu hope the government can make the changes stick.
3 Killed, 4 Injured in Fiery, Single-Vehicle Crash in Orange

ORANGE, Calif.Two males and one female were killed and four othersincluding the motorist behind the wheelwere injured in a fiery, single-vehicle crash on July 9 in Orange.

At about 2:45 a.m., officers conducting a traffic stop at Lincoln Avenue and Glassell Street spotted a speeding 2005 Nissan Altima heading southbound on Glassell Street and tried to catch up with it, said Sgt. Phil McMullin of the Orange Police Department.

When they arrived at Glassell Street and Taft Avenue, the car was engulfed in flames and a possible nitrous oxide tank and balloons were found in and around the vehicle, McMullin said.

It [the vehicle] hit guardrails and signal lights related to a railroad crossing, he said.

The two males and female were pronounced dead at the scene and paramedics rushed four peoplethree with critical injuries and one with moderate injuriesto hospitals, he said. One of the critically injured was the motorist driving the Nissan.

Two of the three critically injured people were juveniles, he added.

Impairment and speed were factors in this collision, McMullin said.

Orange police urged anyone with information regarding the crash to call them at 714-744-7444.
A profound understanding of politics and thought

Father of the Constitution and fourth President of the United States James Madison once stated, A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

And a well-instructed people is exactly what Dr. Matthew Spalding envisioned when he took the helm as Dean of the Steve and Amy Van Andel Graduate School of Government. Here, students seek serious study based at the very seat of policy-making in the United States: Washington, D.C.

What draws these driven professionals to classes in the evenings and on weekends? Student after student says its the scholarly and intellectual reputation of the flagship institution, Hillsdale College. The D.C. campus opened in 2010 near Union Station on Capitol Hill as the Allen P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship. Since then, thousands have embraced various programming that instills a deeper understanding of Americas constitutional roots.

According to Dr. Spalding, this new graduate school, situated in the heart of the nations capital, teaches instruction with an avowed purpose to essentially offer a much older and more profound understanding of politics and thought in America.

He proposes to engage professionals in the authentic, intellectual pursuit of Americas founding principles. In fact, the very original source documents that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison read unite students to the fundamentals of the Constitution and its principles. Its the kind of graduate school devoted to the civic and religious liberty that America was founded on.

We wanted to do something different, something consistent with the Hillsdale College teaching mission, Dr. Spalding explained. We really are trying to give a complete and proper understanding of politics with moral and intellectual grounding. The whole establishment of a Washington, D.C., campus is really an outward activity of Hillsdale Collegeto shape, restore, and revive the principles of the country which can reshape how we think of the education of its citizens.

(Courtesy of The Kirby Center)

Political thought, literature from Aristotle to Shakespeare, American history, and statesmanship courses are incorporated into a core curriculum that makes up 36 credit hours. Though challenging, credits are earned through courses offered on weekday evenings or as learning weekends. Its ideal for working professionals who labor as government staffers, analysts, lawmakers, media professionals, attorneys, and policy experts.

He believes that many great people live and work on Capitol Hill who are not going to leave for a graduate degree elsewhere. Because the program is designed for nighttime and weekends, students can study and graduate in 23 years at their own pace. Unlike other institutions, courses are designed to teach how to be excellent statesmen, to become great thinkers like Churchill and George Washington.

I love politics, but the essence of politics is the understanding of deep principles. The way you do that in the American regime is by studying Lincoln, Washington, and other great statesmenand the Constitution. Hillsdale has that understanding already; so to build that core idea in the heart of the nations capital is to create a unique program for working professionals, he stated.

Dr. Spaldings own professional acumen consists in scholarly work and study grounded in the Constitution and American history. And his wife is a graduate of Hillsdale College. It was Larry P. Arnn, President of Hillsdale College, who convinced him to participate in the grand vision of building the Washington, D.C., campus and, subsequently, create the graduate school. His expansive leadership role as Vice President for Washington Operations also requires him to oversee all operations and educational programs.

At that point in my career, I wanted to shift to the most important thing and create this unique program which is this graduate school, he added.

In May 2022, the first working scholars earned their Masters degrees in government after completing many intense semesters of intellectual exceptionalism based on the principles of freedom, liberty, classical politics, and Americas founding documents. With a liberal arts understanding of the Western tradition, graduates are able to defend American constitutionalism in the public square.

Hillsdale College opened The Kirby Center in 2010, based in Washington, D.C., to nurture the next generation of bright minds in government. (Courtesy of The Kirby Center)

Joshua Holdenried wasnt interested in a graduate program for credentials. He said it was clear that Hillsdales School of Government would provide an in-depth education.

I craved intellectual formation. It was clear that only Hillsdale could provide a thorough understanding of statesmanship and governing from tradition that has historical respect and accuracy to the Founding Fathers vision.

Holdenried currently serves as Vice President and Executive Director of Napa Legal. Though determined to muscle his way through the program, the recent graduate was impressed by how accommodating the program was for balancing work and life commitments.

You cant actually be a student unless you are a full-time working professional. With a baby, time is limited as a parent, executive, spouse, and student. But they were great to work with to figure out a schedule that works for my schedule to complete the program and graduate, he said.

We should care about the actual education you get. Hillsdales School of Government is an accredited program where you dive deep into relevant texts, Socratic discussions with classmates. This focus on religious liberty and a proper understanding of church and state made me a better thinker and communicator.

And that matters.

Armed with a new graduate degree, he is determined to advocate harder for organizations facing activists set on eroding freedoms. Holdenried assists religious nonprofits in working as better, smarter nonprofits. From tax compliance to operating within the law, he helps executives and staff fulfill their apostolic mission and ensure liberty protections as sophisticated organizations in the public square.

His time at the Hillsdale Washington campus connected him to his peers, a cross-section of working professionals spanning governmental agencies, advocacy organizations, and policy-focused nonprofits.

(Courtesy of The Kirby Center)

A healthy amount of folks working on Capitol Hill admire the program, he said. Its a diverse group of people working in government or outside of government who teach or take classes. In other words, it is common for a chief of staff or senator or congressional member to take part in the graduate mission of the Graduate School of Government.

Holdenried admits the program is highly selective but for good reason.

Because they are investing in you, unlike other institutions in which you pay for the diploma. Thankfully, through the generosity of donors, I was offered a full tuition scholarship. I knew that Hillsdales education was what I wanted. I wanted it more than the credential itself.

Steve Van Andel, for whom the graduate school is named, is a graduate of Hillsdale and on the colleges board of directors. His gift of endowment for graduate scholarships and graduate school operations makes it possible for students to study in this unique program and continue to work without the worry of financing the education.

The role of a great education in statesmanship cannot be overstated. The value of a Hillsdale education through the School of Government, he added, is that you understand, appreciate, and then apply the principles of statesmanship, whereas other programs do not necessarily accomplish this.

Holdenried, like other graduates of Hillsdales educational formation, are so appreciative as former students that the next students are often recruited by the graduates themselves. Who then was the first person Holdenried recruited for studies at the Graduate School of Government? His senior counsel.

And the adventure of forming well-instructed people in authentic governing arts proves to be a cascading blessing for Dr. Spalding and for America.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
LDP officials pray to the vehicle believed to be carrying the body of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election, at his residence in Tokyo, Japan, on July 9, 2022. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Abes Body Returns to His Tokyo Home as Japan Mourns Slain Ex-PM

NARA/TOKYOA motorcade carrying the body of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived at his home in the Japanese capital on Saturday, as police in the western city of Nara where he was assassinated said there had been security flaws.

Mourners gathered at his residence and at the scene of Fridays attack in Nara, where Japans longest-serving modern leader was gunned down in a rare act of political violence while making a campaign speech. The countrys political establishment called the killing an attack on democracy itself.

Police arrested a 41-year-old man immediately after Abe was shot at close range, and said the suspect had used a homemade gun. The local police force manning the campaign event said on Saturday that security arrangements had been flawed.

A police officer detains a man, believed to have shot former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in Nara, western Japan, on July 8, 2022. (The Asahi Shimbun/via Reuters)

A man, believed to be a suspect in shooting former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is held by police officers at Yamato Saidaiji Station in Nara, Nara Prefecture on July 8, 2022. (The Yomiuri Shimbun/via Reuters)

We cant deny that there were problems with the security plan given how things ended, Nara prefectorial police chief Tomoaki Onizuka told a news conference.

I feel a grave sense of responsibility, he said, adding that police would analyze what exactly went wrong and implement any necessary changes.

Elections for seats in Japans upper house of parliament are going ahead as scheduled on Sunday.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was back on the campaign trail visiting regional constituencies after making an emergency return to Tokyo on Friday after the shooting.

A metal detection scanner, not normally seen at election events in largely crime-free Japan, was installed at a site in the city of Fujiyoshida where Kishida was due to give a campaign speech. There was also a heavy police presence.

People pray at the site where late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election, near Yamato-Saidaiji station in Nara, Japan, on July 9, 2022. (Issei Kato/Reuters)

In Nara, some 450 km (280 miles) southwest of Tokyo, a stream of people queued up to lay flowers on a table beside a photograph of Abe.

Im just shocked that this kind of thing happened in Nara, said Natsumi Niwa, a 50-year-old housewife, after laying flowers with her 10-year-old son near the scene of the killing outside a downtown train station.

Niwa said Abe, a conservative and architect of the Abenomics policies aimed at reflating the economy, had inspired the name of her son, Masakuni. Abe used to hail Japan as a beautiful nation. Kuni means nation in Japanese.

A night vigil is due to be held on Monday. Abes funeral will take place on Tuesday, attended by close friends, media said. There was no immediate word on any public memorial service.

Police were scrambling to establish details of the suspects motive and his preparations for the crime.

Japanese media reported, citing police sources, that the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, had told police he believed Abe was linked to a religious group he blamed for ruining his mother financially and breaking up the family.

Police have not identified the group.

The suspect told investigators he had also visited other spots where Abe had made campaign appearances, including in the city of Okayama, more than 200 km (120 miles) from Nara, media reported.

Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe lies on the ground after apparent shooting in Nara, western Japan July 8, 2022. (Kyodo via Reuters)

Big Election Turnout Expected

Sundays election is expected to deliver victory to the ruling coalition led by Kishida, an Abe protege.

Abes killing heightens the prospect for stronger turnout and greater support for his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Eurasia Group analysts wrote in a note.

The LDP, where Abe retained considerable influence, had already been expected to gain seats before the assassination. Abe, 67, served twice as prime minister, stepping down citing ill health on both occasions.

But he remained a member of parliament and an influential leader in the LDP after stepping down for the second time in 2020.

A strong election performance by the LDP could catalyse Kishida to push for Abes unfulfilled goal of amending Japans constitution to allow for a stronger role for the military, James Brady, vice president at advisory firm Teneo, wrote in a note.

Kishida visited Abes residence in Tokyo to pay his respects on Saturday, the Kyodo news agency reported, alongside mourners clutching flowers and party officials who bowed as the hearse carrying his body arrived.

Abes death has drawn condolences from across political divides, and from around the world.

Akie Abe, widow of the late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, returns to her residence in a hearse transporting the body of her husband, in Tokyo, Japan, on July 9, 2022. (STR/Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images)

The Quad, a group of countries aimed at countering Chinas influence in the Indo-Pacific region which Abe was instrumental in setting up, expressed shock at the assassination in a joint statement.

We will honour Prime Minister Abes memory by redoubling our work towards a peaceful and prosperous region, said the group, which includes Japan, India, Australia, and the United States.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping also paid tribute to Abe, who he said worked hard to improve relations between the neighbors, Chinese state media reported.

By Satoshi Sugiyama and Sam Nussey
Eric holds a small chunk of rock left over from the destruction of the Georgia Guidestones in Elberton, Georgia on July 8, 2022. (Jackson Elliott/The Epoch Times)

Authorities Reveal Result of Search for Georgia Guidestones Time Capsule

ELBERTON, Ga.After the destruction of the Georgia Guidestones early Wednesday, authorities eagerly searched for a time capsule buried nearbybut they found nothing.

According to police Lieutenant Shane Allen, the local government dug beneath a plaque by the monument that promised a time capsule six feet beneath it.

There was no hole. There was no nothing. It was a slab of concrete on top of dirt, he said.

The Guidestones monument, built at a high cost by an anonymous man, has many mysteries. The plaque announcing the time capsule was one of them.

Sponsors: A small group of Americans who seek the Age of Reason, it reads. Time Capsule placed six feet below this spot on to be opened on.

The space after each on is blank.

Other inscriptions in several languages on the stones offer ten rules for humanity to follow.

Unlike most time capsules, the time capsules plaque doesnt mention the date it was buried or the date it should be retrieved.

Allen, the officer responsible for securing the scene, said that although authorities dug six feet into Georgia soil, they found nothing.

He added that the time capsules recent removal would have left obvious signs.

You can tell it was undisturbed, he said.

However, people have tried to dig under the Guidestones in the past, he said.

We had one guy that dug a good ways underneath it, he said. It just got buried back up.

Allen said that the Guidestones are a lightning rod for conspiracy theories.

When a chip broke off the capstones corner, a pair of newlyweds made a granite block with the date of their wedding and attached it in the empty space, he said.

In a little while, conspiracy theorists began creating bizarre theories about the meaning of the date, Allen said. No matter what happens with the Guidestones, someone will find a conspiratorial explanation.

Theres more conspiracy around it than there is actual truth, he said. And thats the problem.

Some have claimed the Guidestones are satanic. Others have claimed they were created by a white supremacist. More have claimed they were made by a group in favor of a New World Order.

Stunts and Stone

Fans of the Guidestones sometimes jokingly add to the conspiratorial chaos.

Ernie Bryson, a Danielsville resident and appreciator of the Guidestones, said he once faked a ritual at the Guidestones as a joke. He held hands with a few other visitors. He invited the next people to arrive into the circle.

Georgia resident Ernie Bryson holds a fragment of rock from the Georgia Guidestones in Elberton, Georgia on July 8, 2022. (Jackson Elliott/The Epoch Times)

We were just short a person, he recalled telling them.

Bryson took the 40-minute drive to the Guidestones to look at the few rock chips that marked the monuments location. He found one small piece with letters inscribed on it.

Pranksters online claimed that police found a time capsule filled with a few 1980s memorabilia and a lot of drugs.

Its unclear what happened to the larger rock fragments from the Guidestones after the government removed them from the site.

Elbert County government leaders and the police told The Epoch Times that they didnt have answers.

The Elberton Granite Museum said the Elbert County Historical Society had the fragments and would soon return them to the museum. However, The Epoch Times was unable to make contact with Elbert County Historical Society.

Losing the Guidestones might deprive Elberton of about 20,000 tourism visitors per year, according to local leaders.

Weve got an empty field around the house. We could have just done that, Bryson said of the post-destruction Guidestones.

Another visitor expected an onrush of conspiracy theorists.

There are gonna be people making the trek over here, said Eric, an Athens, Georgia resident. They were already mysterious.

Before the explosion, video caught someone running from the Guidestones after leaving a package.

An anonymous employee at a local granite company said that its challenging to know how the Guidestones were destroyed.

The granite Guidestones were hard enough that their destruction would likely require powerful explosives, he said. But in most situations, modern quarries rely on high-pressure water to cut stone, not dynamite.
President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington on July 8, 2022. (Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Admin Sends Another $400 Million to Ukraine

The Biden administration on July 8 announced it is sending another $400 million in aid to Ukraine to meet critical needs for Ukraines fight in the ongoing UkraineRussia war.

The money comes from a Presidential Drawdown (PDA) of equipment from the Pentagons inventoriesthe 15th such authorization for Ukraine since August 2021 under the Biden administration.

The latest security aid will be especially important and effective in assisting Ukraine and coping with the Russian artillery battle in Ukraines Donbas region, a senior defense official told reporters on July 8.

The security assistance package includes four additional High Mobility Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and additional ammunition for the systems. The systems have a range of about 40 miles and allow Ukraine forces the power to strike faraway targets with more accuracy.

The senior defense official told reporters the additional HIMARS would bring the total number of these systems to 12.

As the United States surged HIMARS systems and the missiles for those systems, that Ukraine has now been successfully striking Russian locations in Ukraine, deeper behind the front lines, and disrupting Russias ability to conduct that artillery operation, he added.

Further Evolution

The aid package would also include three tactical vehicles to recover equipment and 1,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition.

This is a new type of 155-millimeter artillery ammunition, the senior defense official told reporters. It has greater precision. It offers Ukraine precise capability for specific targets. It will save ammunition. It will be more effective due to the precision, so its a further evolution in our support for Ukraine in this battle in the Donbas.

The package furthermore includes demolition munitions, counter-battery systems, as well as other equipment and spare parts.

Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Todd Breasseale said on July 8 that since the start of the Biden administration, the Pentagon has committed about $8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, of which $2.2 billion were committed in the past three weeks.

Just last week, the Biden administration announced a security assistance package worth $820 million that included two surface-to-air missile systems.

Prior to Russias invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the United States had committed some $1.8 billion in weapons and military training to Ukraine, $700 million of which came from the Biden administration.
California May Ask Social Media to Report How They Monitor Users to Combat Hate Speech, Misinformation

A state bill that would require social media platforms to share how they monitor their users activities and contents to combat hate, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and extreme political polarization made its way through a senate committee last week.

Assembly Bill 587, dubbed the Social Media Transparency and Accountability Act of 2021, would require social media companies earning over $100 million a year to publicly disclose their terms of servicedefined as a set of policies that specifies the user behavior and activities that are permitted on their platforms, according to the bill text.

Its long past time for these companies to provide real transparency into their content moderation practices, bill author Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Woodland Hills) said in a March 2021 press release. The public and policymakers deserve to know when and how social media companies are amplifying certain voices and silencing others.

The bill was passed by the state Senate Judiciary Committee on June 29 after passing through the Assembly last year in a 641 vote. It was now re-referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee to be heard on August 1.

It would also require companies to submitno later than January 1, 2024their first quarterly reports introducing their most current terms of service and detailing how they address user contents that violate those terms to the attorney generals office, which would then post the reports on its website.

Specifically, these companies would need to share how they define and moderate hate speech or racism, disinformation or misinformation, extremism or radicalization, harassment, and foreign political interference.

Theres nothing in this bill that requires companies to censor speech, Gabriel told reporters during a press conference in June. Theres nothing that requires them to silence certain voices or to amplify other content. It simply requires them to be honest and transparent about when they are amplifying certain voices and when they are silencing others.

Some civil rights groups and tech accountability companies have thrown in their support for the bill, such as Accountable Tech, Common Sense Media, the Anti-Defamation League, and the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

Oppositions come from several lobbying groups representing consumer technology companiesincluding the Consumer Technology Association, Internet Association, NetChoice, and TechNet. The Internet Coalitiona group representing technology tycoons like Meta, Amazon, and Googlealso opposes the bill, citing concerns over freedom of speech.

Since the bill requires full disclosure, the groups told legislators it will allow bad actors with roadmaps to get around our protections, and called the bills requests onerous and problematic since companies can potentially face penalties and investigations when reports are filed.

If the bill passes the Appropriations Committee, it will be heard again in the Senate.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a joint press conference with his Malian counterpart following their meeting in Moscow, on May 20, 2022. (Yuri Kadobnov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Cambodia Extends Invitation to Russian Foreign Minister for Upcoming ASEAN Summit

Cambodia has invited Russias Foreign Minister to attend ASEAN-related meetings in August, despite Russia having been widely condemned over its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Cambodia, the current chair of the 10-member association, will host ASEAN ministerial meetings, including the ASEAN Plus Three Meetinginvolving Japan, China, and South Koreaand other related meetings from July 31 to Aug. 6.

Speaking at a press briefing on July 7, Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said that Cambodia had sent an invitation to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to attend the summits but has received no reply.

Our officials have been working on it for a week now and somehow I have not received any information from our team, but an invitation has already been sent, Sokhonn was quoted as saying by Khmer Times.

Cambodia also plans to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to ASEAN summits in November, but Sokhonn said that such a decision must be made by consensus among ASEAN members.

The 10-member ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Last month, Japans Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi reportedly told his Cambodian counterpart that Japan may reconsider its participation if Russia is invited to the ASEAN Plus Eight meeting, which also involves the United States.

However, Sokhonn suggested that Cambodia could follow Indonesias lead and invite Russia to ASEAN-related meetings, citing Indonesias invitation of Putin to the upcoming G20 summit.

Putin accepted Indonesias invitation to attend the G20 summit slated to take place in November, although it remains unclear whether he would attend in person or via video conference.

Based on this pattern and based on the reason that the ASEAN meeting with partners is an ASEAN-led mechanism, it is possible to follow the Indonesian pattern or act more carefully and depend on a collective decision of ASEAN, he said.

Cambodia Invites Burmas Junta

ASEAN member Burma, also known as Myanmar, was also invited to attend ASEAN meetings but it can only send a non-political representative to the meetings instead of the military-appointed foreign minister.

Cambodia also invited the Burmese juntas defense minister to attend the ASEAN defense ministers meeting last month, saying that it received consensus from eight ASEAN countries.

Burmas military regime was barred from attending ASEAN summits after it ousted Aung San Suu Kyis elected government in a military coup last year.

ASEAN adopted a five-point consensus (pdf) on Burma, including ending violence in Burma, facilitating constructive dialogue with all parties concerned, sending humanitarian aid to Burma, and a visit by the ASEAN delegation to Burma to assess the situation.
A ship owner intends to scuttle his ship on its last voyage to get the insurance money. Charlie, a tramp in love with the owners daughter, is grabbed by the captain and promises to help him shanghai some seamen. The daughter stows away to follow Charlie. Charlie assists in the galley and attempts to serve food during a gale.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (R) and Chinese leader Xi Jinping (C) inspect honor guards, when Jong-un paid an unofficial visit to Beijing, China, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on March 28, 2018. (KCNA/via Reuters)

China Likely Smuggling Coal from North Korea, Bypassing UN Sanctions

China may be smuggling coal directly from North Korea, according to reports. As one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, such activity is likely a violation of UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

Japanese media Nikkei reported on June 29 that it had obtained data on about 180 vessels, with close ties to North Korea, from two ship information companies, MarineTraffic and Refinitiv, and tracked their movements for 18 months starting in January 2021.

Thirty-seven vessels had docked at Longkou port in Chinas Shandong province while transmitting Automatic Ship Identification System (AIS) data. In addition, at least 20 vessels had docked at ports in Liaoning and Hebei provinces, which handle large volumes of coal.

Nikkei reported that on Aug. 8, 2021, satellite images showed a freighter docked at a coal-loading berth at Nampo port of North Korea. The ships layout and features match the North Korean-registered Tae Phyong 2, according to three experts who studied the high-resolution image.

The ships AIS data was then used to track its subsequent movements.

On Aug. 9, the following day, its signal was detected in the Yellow Sea near Nampo. Subsequently, it moved westward to the coastal areas of Chinas Shandong Province. At 3:00 a.m. on Aug. 13, the ship entered Longkou Port, Shandong Province, and stayed there until Aug. 26. During this period, the AIS signal showed the vessel remained at a berth where coal is normally unloaded, before moving to an adjacent berth.

A March 2022 report by the Panel of Experts of the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea also mentioned Tae Phyong 2s movements in China.

When the panel asked Beijing to disclose information about the vessel, Chinese officials responded, Tae Phyong 2 entered Yantai port [empty] in March and August 2021 respectively, and left the port [with] fertilizer and other agricultural supplies in the same month.

However, the image taken on Aug. 8 obtained by Nikkei and the ships subsequent movement tells another story.

The ship departed for Chinas coal port by the following day [Aug. 9], so it is hard to imagine it unloaded coal at a North Korean port, said Takeuchi, a former member of the U.N. panel. It is reasonable to think that the ship transported the coal to China and then loaded another cargo on its way back.

Similar suspicious activities have continued into this year.

Previously, North Korean vessels cut off their AIS transmissions so they couldnt be tracked, and they traveled and traded at night.

In November 2016, the UN Security Council restricted North Koreas coal exports; then on Aug. 5, 2017, it passed a resolution to completely ban North Koreas coal exports to cut off foreign funds, an important source of finances for Pyongyangs nuclear weapons and long-range missile programs.

China suffered a severe shortage of both coal and electricity last year.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) revealed in an October 2021 report that trading companies affiliated with the North Korean government and military agencies frequently smuggle coal to China via ship-to-ship transfers on the high seas. In order to circumvent surveillance by U.S. satellites, these smuggling ships need to navigate across the ocean at night in the darkness. An insider told RFA that the sudden increase in North Koreas coal smuggling activity was due to Chinas coal shortage and a surge in demand at the time.

Japans Kyodo News also stated in a February 2020 report that from January to August 2019, North Korea exported 3.7 million tons of coal to China disregarding the UN sanctions, of which more than 70 percent involve ship-to-ship transfers.

Ship-to-ship transfers of North Korean cargo have long been a sneaky method used to evade UN sanctions, and have been criticized by the international community.
People in protective suits prepare to disinfect a residential compound to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Huangpu district, Shanghai, China, on April 14, 2022. (China Daily via Reuters)

Chinas COVID Lockdowns Inflict Psychological Scars and Endless Humiliation: Shanghai Resident

New study shows correlation between China's prolonged lockdowns and adverse mental health symptoms

News Analysis

While Chinas state media tout Shanghais victory over COVID-19 after a two-month lockdown of the city of 26 million, residents blast the authorities for their draconian lockdown measures, which left many with adverse mental health symptoms, according to a recent study.

The Chinese Government has vigourously defended its dynamic zero COVID-19 strategy. But Chinas lockdowns have had a huge human cost. This cost will continue to be paid in the future, with the shadow of mental ill-health adversely affecting Chinas culture and economy for years to come, according to a report published last month by the medical journal The Lancet.

Furthermore, 35 percent of Chinese respondents in a national survey on psychological distress experienced distress, including anxiety and depression, the report said.

A Shanghai resident surnamed Fang (pseudonym) told the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times on July 4 that the prolonged lockdown and arbitrary restrictions have left him and some of his neighbors with psychological scars.

He said the psychological trauma caused by the extreme lockdown in Shanghai is probably similar to the mental suffering that Americans experienced during the Great Depression.

Endless Humiliation: Resident

Fang told the publication that residents lost their dignity due to harsh COVID measures.

Some people starved during the lockdown. But most suffer mainly because they have no freedom. We are not allowed to go out, which is a kind of endless humiliation we have endured.

The authorities would just break into your home with disinfectant, Fang said. Or they tell you that you tested positive [for COVID], and then they drag you outside, forcing you to give them the keys to your home.

Many people also felt humiliated by this, he added.

Health workers in protective gear walk out from a blocked-off area after spraying disinfectant in Shanghais Huangpu district on Jan. 27, 2021. Residents were evacuated after a few cases of COVID-19 were detected in the neighborhood. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

New York-based news outlet SupChina described Chinas disinfection process: Teams of hazmat-suit-clad enforcement officers entering households and squirting clouds of disinfectants everywhere and over furniture and other objects inside apartments, including couches, beds, wardrobes, books, and even electronic devices.

Fang compared Shanghais mass disinfection action to house raids during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and claimed that urban areas were given priority due to authorities personal interests.

The forced disinfection took place mostly in the big cities, where people are better off. They didnt force this kind of disinfection in urban villages, Fang said. This is driven by personal interests, and it is a man-made disaster.

Urban villages refer to less developed neighborhoods on the outskirts of a metropolitan city in China.

Chinese financial media Caixin Weekly published a special report on July 4 on mental health problems experienced by Shanghai residents during the lockdown. It said those who tested positive for COVID suffered many symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

One resident shared his experience with Caixin: Hearing the ringing of the mobile phone, the knock on the door, the footsteps going upstairs, including the sound of heavy objects falling, my heart tightens, and I think of the nucleic acid test done at 5 am in the quarantine hotel.

The report said that many people who have recovered from COVID have a sense of stigma, as they may feel guilty for causing the entire building to be sealed off. They may also worry about being rejected by society after recovery.

The Epoch Times found that there is a long wait for scheduling an appointment at Shanghai Mental Health Center as it has been fully booked since June 21.

Victims Should Hold Authorities Accountable: Activist

Rights activist Zhang Hai lost his father in 2020 due to COVID. He currently lives in Shenzhen but grew up in Wuhan, where the pandemic allegedly first broke out in China in late 2019.

In January 2020, Zhang took his 76-year-old father, a military veteran, to a hospital in Wuhan to seek medical treatment for a fractured femur. His father got infected with COVID while at the hospital and died within two weeks. In June that year, Zhang filed a lawsuit against the authorities and the local hospital, alleging that the governments decision to cover up information about the outbreak caused his fathers death.

Zhang Hai holds up a photo of his father taken in his youth during an interview in Shenzhen in southern Chinas Guangdong Province on Oct. 16, 2020. (Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Zhang told the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times on July 4 that it was the first time the Chinese people were subjected to such extended restrictions and lockdowns.

Many people are outraged, but they dare not speak out. They can only suppress all that rage, resulting in poor emotional and physical health. Some people even jump off the building to commit suicide.

Our psychological endurance has reached a breaking point, he said.

All victims who suffered from the extreme pandemic prevention measures should use the law to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.

[We should] use the law to defend our rights and tell these local officials: Its not true that you can do whatever you want when you have power. All the victims of such man-made disasters and arbitrary lockdowns in other parts of China should stand up and prosecute them. If more people uphold the law, I believe our lives will be better, Zhang said.

The Lancet report calls on the Chinese regime to act immediately if it is to heal the wound its extreme policies have inflicted on the Chinese people.

Zhao Fenghua and Luo Ya contributed to the report.
Chinas Former Top Security Official on Trial for Corruption

Sun Lijun, former vice minister of Public Security of the Chinese communist regime, went on trial in Changchun, Jilin Province on July 8. Its one of Chinas most high-profile cases in recent years.

Sun, 53, was charged with receiving 646 million yuan (about $96.5 million) in bribe from 2001 to April 2020, when he held leadership positions at the Shanghai Municipal government and the regimes Ministry of Public Security.

He also faces accusations of stock market manipulation and illegal possession of two firearms. According to the prosecutors, in 2018, Sun instructed others to continuously buy and sell stocks with the advantage of centralized capital, affecting the stock trading price and trading volume, which is especially serious in nature.

A verdict on the case will be rendered at a later date.

Sun was removed from his official positions in 2020 and expelled from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2021. He was investigated and held by the CCPs Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) for months. In a statement CCDI said that he arbitrarily disagreed with the central government, creating and spreading political rumors, forming gangs and cliques within the Party to build his personal power, and forming a cabal to control key departments.

Sun was also accused of secretly collecting and releasing a large number of classified materials when he led the group managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan. Sun is believed to have leaked secrets about the source of the pandemic to the United States and Australia.

Earlier this year, the CCP officially disclosed that Sun Lijuns cabal members include Wang Like, former secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of Jiangsu Province; Deng Huilin, former director of Chongqing Public Security Bureau; Liu Xinyun, former director of Shanxi Provincial Public Security Bureau; and Gong Daoan, former director of Shanghai Public Security Bureau.

They are considered close followers of Meng Jianzhu, former secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the CCP, and a member of former CCP party boss Jiang Zemins faction.

The Epoch Times columnist Wang He commented that Xi Jinping is using the trial of Sun Lijun to intimidate his opponents and secure re-election as Party leader at the CCPs upcoming 20th National Congress.

Leader in the Persecution of Falun Gong

In Suns decades long political career, he held key positions in the main command system of the CCPs persecution of Falun Gong, as director of the 610 office at the regimes Ministry of Public Security, and deputy director of the 610 Office of the CCPs Central Committee. The 610 Office is an illegal organization specifically set up by former CCP leader Jiang Zemin to persecute Falun Gong, a spiritual practice based on the principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance.

Sun, Gong, Deng, Wang Like, Liu Xinyun, and others have been investigated by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong for their participation in the oppression of Falun Gong led by the Jiang faction.

In addition, Sun was responsible for the 709 case, Chinas mass arrest of civil rights lawyers on July 9, 2015, which resulted in more than 200 lawyers being detained, jailed, harassed, and disbarred. It was a major blow to the grassroots rights-defense movement in China, as the human rights conditions further deteriorated.

Gu Qinger contributed to the report.
The spring of 2022 was an extraordinary season for French art in the United States. At the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the exhibition Poussin and the Dance delved into the Baroque master Nicolas Poussins pictorial choreography and showcased a number of paintings executed in Rome during the 1630s. Meanwhile, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Jacques-Louis David: Radical Draftsman surveyed the practice of drawing in Jacques-Louis Davids long and turbulent career around the time of the French Revolution.

Spanning two centuries, the works of art exhibited at the venues come from public and private collections around the world, and trace the development of French painting at two crucial junctures in its history. The works of these two artists attest to the enduring legacy of ancient Greece and Rome in driving the stylistic innovations in the modern age.

Self-portrait, 1650, by Nicolas Poussin. Oil on canvas; 30.7 inches by 37 inches. Louvre Museum. (Public Domain)

Poussins Rome was the major European center for antiquarian learning. Arriving in the Eternal City in 1624, he found a vibrant culture that succeeded the artistic flowering of the Renaissance. As powerful patrons and erudite scholars amassed impressive collections of Roman art, they also commissioned new works in the spirit of the antique. Thus Poussin, working in this milieu, developed a figurative style powerfully animated by the study of ancient sculpture. His arrangement of figures in a horizontal grouping evokes the format of the Roman sarcophagus, the marble surfaces of which were often decorated with a sculptural frieze in high reliefthat is, a long stretch of deeply carved bodies.

Marble relief of the Borghese Dancers, carved during the second century in Rome. Louvre Museum. (Public Domain)

And among the many antiquities on view in the papal city, the Borghese Dancers particularly inspired the French artist. It was carved in the second century, and by the 17th century it hung at the Villa Borghese above the door of the grand gallery. Joining hands, the five dancers spring with light-footed steps as a breeze presses the thin veil against their moving bodies.

Poussin transported this figure group into many of his paintings, capturing the horizontal axis of the frieze in the movement of a circular dance. His piece Dance to the Music of Time (circa 16341636) exemplifies this classic compositional formula, and the carefully modeled figures show a stylistic imitation of the marbles high sculptural relief. With line and paint, Poussin gave the dancers a weightless grace and a visible rhythm that rivaled even that of the ancient dancers.

A Dance to the Music of Time, circa 16341636, by Nicolas Poussin. Oil on canvas. The Wallace Collection, London. (Public Domain)

No such festive pleasure is seen, on the other hand, in Jacques-Louis Davids austere history paintings such as the famous Oath of the Horatii (1784) and the The Death of Socrates (1787). In the century following Poussins demise, the taste of the French Baroque had gradually evolved into an elaborate, theatrical, and ornamental style in the visual arts, known as the Rococo. Yet toward the second half of the 18th century, fostered by continuing antiquarian studies and archaeological explorations, a new appreciation for ancient Greek and Roman aesthetic again spread throughout Europe. This found a special manifestation in Davids works.

In his Horatii, David depicted a scene from a Roman legend, in which three brothers swear to fight for their country in single combat. As the men stand in an angular pose with stoic determination, their sister swoons, for she is betrothed to one of their enemies and must lose someone she loves. In composing the scene, David tightly reduced the story into its most basic elements, arranging the figure groups into a frieze against a solemn Roman arcade.

Oath of the Horatii, 17841785, by Jacques-Louis David. Oil on canvas. Louvre Museum, Paris. (Public Domain)

Such a design recalls Poussins imitation of the Roman sarcophagus, but Davids laconic expression emphasizes the sharp juxtaposition between masculine patriotism and feminine sentimentality. Here, the ancient civic heroism of the Horatii becomes a potent symbol, which spoke to the agitated political moment at the dawn of the French Revolution.

Then three years later, with The Death of Socrates, David sought to convey an even stronger moral tale: The Greek philosopher would rather die in order to uphold his faith in truth. Thus, Socrates sits upright on his deathbed, passionately lecturing still, as his hand reaches for the poisonous hemlock. His disciples gather around in desolationsome listen intently, and others weep and wail. Plato, in a gray robe sitting at the left, lowers his head lost deeply in thoughts.

The Death of Socrates, 1787, by Jacques-Louis David. Oil on canvas. Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1931. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Public Domain)

In this picture, David again conjured up the ancient frieze structure and set the figures in dramatic lighting to accentuate a sculptural severity. Through assimilating this classic visual language, David successfully created a modern interpretation of an episode of ancient virtue, which resonated with the high intellectual ideals of the neoclassical movement.

Working across two centuries, the two major tastemakers of the French school both found their inspiration in distant antiquity. Yet both made ancient art speak to the present and crucially shaped the direction of modern painting. Therefore, the aesthetic influence from antiquity, combined with the incorporation of the present culture, formed the powerful art tradition we now classify as classical realism.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington on June 8, 2022. (Andrew Harnik/Pool/Getty Images)

Congress Launches Probe of Collection, Sales of Data on Pregnant Women

A congressional panel is investigating the collection and sale of data on pregnant women, with top Democrats expressing concern that the data could be misused to invade the privacy of women seeking an abortion.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, and two members of the panel, Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), said the collection of the sensitive data could pose serious threats to those seeking reproductive care, as well as to providers of such care, not only by facilitating intrusive government surveillance, but also by putting people at risk of harassment, intimidation, and even violence.

Geographic data collected by mobile phones may be used to locate people seeking care at clinics, and search and chat history referring to clinics or medication create digital bread crumbs revealing interest in an abortion, they wrote in letters to executives at 10 companies that have been involved in collecting and/or selling the information in the past.

The companies include SafeGraph, which sells mobile phone location data information from Planned Parenthood locations; Placer.ai, which has offered similar data and heat maps showing where people who visit Planned Parenthood clinics reside; and Flo Health, which has shared sensitive health data from millions of users with other companies, including Facebook and Google.

Planned Parenthood provides abortions across the country at its clinics.

Some of the location data are used to show advertisements for pregnancy centers, which encourage women to not get abortions. For example, a firm called Copley Advertising sent targeted ads for the centers to women sitting in waiting rooms in clinics.

Maloney and the other Democrats asked the companies to provide information on data collection and sharing by July 21, including all policies outlining the collection or purchase of location data information for specific locations.

As Congress considers legislative reforms to ensure the privacy of personal reproductive and sexual health information, we are examining the practices of data brokers and other companies regarding the collection, dissemination, and sale of this private data, they wrote.

The companies being queried didnt return requests for comment.

Placer.ai said in a recent statement that it provides data centered around locations, not people, and that it has recategorized as sensitive the data about Planned Parenthood locations, even though that survey-level data could not be used to track any individual users data.

Gravy Analytics, another firm being probed, said in a statement it received a letter from Maloney and looked forward to responding.

The company said its privacy backlist prevents identification of people who visit sensitive places of interest such as abortion clinics and churches, and that it does not sell the personal location data of any person who visits an abortion clinic.

The investigation was begun after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, enabling states to impose stricter abortion bans. Some states already had bans in place, ready for such a decision; others have since moved to enact restrictions.

Also on July 8, President Joe Biden signed an executive order aimed at making sure women can still get abortions despite the bans. The order expands access to an abortion pill and asks the Federal Trade Commission to clamp down on data brokers that sell private health information, among other provisions.
A man stands outside a locked Rogers wireless store in Toronto amid a country wide outage of the telecommunication company's services, Friday, July 8, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

Chorus of Demands for More Competition in Canadas Telecom Industry After Rogers Outage

Critics and members of the opposition are calling for an investigation into the July 8 Rogers outage, as the telecom service provider scrambles to restore internet and phone services to millions of affected Canadians.

The outage that occurred in the early morning of July 8 has caused problems connecting to 911 in Toronto and Winnipeg, as well as issues related to businesses, banking systems, government services, and even the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), a non-profit representing consumers interests in telecommunications among other services, said it has sent a letter to the CRTC demanding an inquiry into the nationwide internet outage.

We do not believe that we are required to justify the seriousness of the disruption faced by consumers and citizens regarding the present outage, which is manifest, PIAC said, adding that its particularly egregious in light of a previous outage in 2021 and other recent outages in northern Canada.

PIAC also requested the CRTC to issue a public notice within 30 days to examine whether other telecommunications service providers should be required to establish a baseline mechanism for emergency planning, refund requirements, notice, transparency, and other consumer protections as conditions to continue operating in Canada.

In a Twitter post on July 8, the CRTC said it was aware of the Rogers outage and monitoring the situation, adding that its phone lines were also affected.

On the morning of July 9, Rogers said in a statement that it has restored services to the vast majority of customers, while its technical teams continue to work on bringing the remaining customers back online.

Competition

Rogers, being one of the Big Three wireless providers in Canada, has been seeking regulatory approval from the Competition Bureau and government to purchase fellow telecom giant Shaw in a $26 billion merger deal. But the recent outage has added to concerns of those wanting more competition in the telecom sector.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner said in a statement on July 8 that the outage underscores potential additional risks of Canadas current approach to telecommunications regulation, which she said is highly regulated by the federal government.

Many in my community have expressed concerns over the years related to the high costs of cell phone and wireless services due to limited competition enforced by Canadas current regulatory structure, she said.

When critical infrastructure is impacted, Canadians need answers. I am calling for an immediate explanation to Canadians with respect to the cause of the Rogers outage. I believe that an emergency parliamentary committee meeting may be beneficial to look into this matter and to ensure it doesnt happen again.

Garners remarks were backed by her parliamentary colleagues.

Todays outage reminds us that telecom giants dont face enough competition and customers dont have enough choice. Remove the gatekeepers, Conservative MP and leadership contender Pierre Poilievre said in a tweet. Allow more competition.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also called out Canadas highly concentrated telecom industry.

This Rogers outage highlights the dangers of our monopolized industry. Emergency services are inaccessible. Interac and Visa networks are down. These are the consequences of a Liberal [government] that is fixated on protecting the profits of telecoms giants, he wrote.

Impact

The Rogers outage left several government agencies temporarily out of service.

Service Canada said on its Twitter account on July 8 that call centres and passport offices are unavailable. All those trying to call Employment and Social Development Canada also had to wait, as well as for services like employment insurance, the Canada Pension Plan, or Old Age Security.

Travellers coming into Canada were also affected by the outage, as the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said they may not be able to complete their ArriveCAN submission. All travellers are required to use the governments mobile app to submit information about their COVID-19 vaccination status before entering the country.

In the meantime, travellers who cannot submit their information via ArriveCan are required to complete the Traveller Contact Information Form prior to their arrival, CBSA said in a Twitter post on July 8.

Paper copies of a travellers proof of vaccination, as well as their government-issued documents, will be required, it said.

Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a statement he is aware of the outage and that he was in contact with the CEO of Rogers, as well as the CEOs of the two other major telecom services providers Bell and Telus.

This unacceptable situation is why quality, diversity & reliability are key to our telecom network, he wrote.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference at the University of Miami Health System Don Soffer Clinical Research Center in Miami on May 17, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

DeSantis Hits Back at Newsom After Campaign Ad Attack: People Vote With Their Feet

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has fired back at his California counterpart Gavin Newsom, saying the Democrats terrible governance was why the Golden State was hemorrhaging population.

People vote with their feet, he said at a press briefing at the Cape Coral High School on July 8. When families are uprooting from the Pacific coast to go almost 3,000 miles in search of a better life, thats telling you something.

Yes, weve created a citadel of freedom here that has attracted people, and were proud of it. But lets just be clear. California is driving people away with their terrible governance, he added.

DeSantis made the remarks in response to a 30-second ad campaign that Newsom launched around the July 4 holiday, rallying Sunshine State residents to move to California, a state he said still believe[s] in freedom.

Freedom is under attack in your state, Newsom said in the 30-second ad that aired on Fox News targeting the states legislative acts, such as a 15-week abortion ban and a bill barring classroom instruction on sexual orientation in kindergarten through grade 3.

Both Newsom and DeSantis face gubernatorial reelections this November. The ad has fueled speculation that Newsom is positioning himself as a contender in the 2024 presidential race, although the governor himself has disavowed such intentions. DeSantis, while enjoying growing support among Republican voters, hasnt said if he will run.

Everyone wants to talk about me and Florida, DeSantis said at the Friday press briefing when asked about Newsoms Florida ad. Im just sitting here, little old me, doing my job.

He took a swipe at the California governors apparent violation of his own pandemic restrictions, noting that Newsom had dined at the $350-per-person French Laundry restaurant even when the state was in lockdown.

It was to basically rub his citizens noses in the fact that he was treating them like peasants, said DeSantis.

Newsom later apologized for attending the 12-person dinner, calling it a bad mistake.

Despite the California governors call for Floridians to join his state, DeSantis noted that the traffic appears to be going in the other direction.

A recent analysis by Moodys Analytics shows that red states have been outpacing blue states in economic recovery. Florida from July 2020 to July 2021 gained over 211,000 residents, placing it second only to Texas in net population growth, census population estimates show. Roughly 262,000 residents left California over the same period, the second largest population decline next to New York.

Companies are also flocking to Republican states where tax policies and regulations are more business-friendly.

Florida ranked as the second-best state for business in a Forbes survey of about 700 CEOs and business owners, while California came at the bottom of the list.

I was born and raised in this state and until the last few years I rarely saw a California license plate in the state of Florida, said DeSantis. You now see a lot of them. I can tell you if you go to California you aint seeing many Florida license plates.

Its almost hard to drive people out of a place like California given all their natural advantages, and yet theyre finding a way to do it, said DeSantis.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Newsoms office for comments.
Dutch political commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek in an interview with NTD Evening News aired on July 7, 2022. (NTD/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Dutch Farmers Are Protesting Against a Globalist, Communist Agenda: Eva Vlaardingerbroek

Dutch farmers protests have drawn the worlds attention. According to Dutch political commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek, the governments climate policy, which caused widespread protests, follows a communist agenda of the global elites.

Its communism to the T, Vlaardingerbroek told The Epoch Times sister media NTD on July 7. If the state comes in and says Im going to take away your property for a so-called greater good. I dont know what could be more essential to communism than that.

The Dutch government has planned for years to drastically cut emissions of nitrogen and ammonia, which are produced by livestock, to meet the European Unions climate goals.

On June 10, the coalition government announced a national and area-specific plan for curbing nitrogen greenhouse gas emissions. Some parts of the country would have to slash those emissions by 70 or even 95 percent.

The protests culminated after the announcement. More and more farmers have joined protests, blocking highways and food distribution centers, and plans to protest at some airports.

Unavoidable Transition

This nitrogen law is really the straw that breaks the camels back, said Vlaardingerbroek. Theyve been subjected to so many insane regulations that have caused them to have to reorganize their entire farms over and over and over again, to now finally, oftentimes be completely shut down.

Vlaardingerbroek said some farmers have sadly committed suicide because of these restrictions.

Dutch ministers called the proposal an unavoidable transition and warned that farmers might have to face the prospect of shuttering their businesses.

The honest message  is that not all farmers can continue their business, the government said in a statement when announcing its plan in June.

The government also didnt rule out the possibility of expropriating land from farmers who dont comply.

2030 Agenda

So its communism, said Vlaardingerbroek. Its being done on a global scale, because this is part of a bigger agenda than just the agenda of the Dutch government.

They are following an agenda called the 2030 agenda. These are restrictions and climate regulations that are imposed all over the world, added Vlaardingerbroek.

In September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The agenda has 17 goals, including promoting sustainable agriculture, sustainable energy, sustainable industrialization, sustainable consumption and production, and more.

The Dutch government called the 17 goals guiding principles of Dutch policy.

The European Commission has planned to cut at least 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Vlaardingerbroek added that farmers in Italy and Poland have started protesting as well. A ban on chemical fertilizers in Sri Lanka led to a food crisis. The country declared bankruptcy on July 7.

Last April, President Joe Biden also pledged a 5052 percent reduction from 2005 levels in greenhouse gas pollution in 2030.

They Could Be Coming to You Next

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Vlaardingerbroek also compared the Dutch governments policy to the World Economic Forums Great Reset.

They want us to eat bugs. They want us to eat the fake meat that they produce. So its very clear that this is not something that just the Dutch people will be subjected to. And thats why we need your support from other countries, Vlaardingerbroek told NTD, who wore a red handkerchief during the interview to show her support for the farmers. The red handkerchief has become the symbol of the farmers resistance.

Were being hit hardest right now, and we might be the first ones, Vlaardingerbroek said. But its very important for other people to know that they could be coming to you next.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Netherlands government for comment.

Nathan Worcester contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden (L) at the White House in Washington, on July 8, 2022; Tesla head Elon Musk (R) talks to the press near Berlin on September 03, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images; Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

Elon Musk Reacts to Bidens Apparent Teleprompter Gaffe

'Whoever controls the teleprompter is the real President!' the billionaire wrote

Elon Musk has weighed in on a video of President Joe Biden reading what appears to be a teleprompter instruction line during a live announcement on Friday.

Biden was addressing the nation over an executive order related to the reversal of Roe v. Wade when he seemingly went too far by reading out directionsEnd of quote. Repeat the line.from the teleprompter.

Whoever controls the teleprompter is the real President!, Musk wrote on Twitter in response, adding a picture that shows a dialogue from Will Ferrells 2004 movie Anchorman, in which Ferrell is cast as television anchor Ron Burgundy.

Who typed a question mark on the Teleprompter? For the last time, anything you put on that prompter, Burgundy will read, reads the picture quote Musk posted on the social media platform.

Whoever controls the teleprompter is the real President! pic.twitter.com/1rcqmwLe9S  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2022

Musk was reacting to a post by digital strategist Greg Price, which referenced the CBS news footage showing Biden apparently misreading the teleprompter.

Joe Biden accidentally reads the part on the teleprompter that says repeat the line when they wanted him to say the line again [expletive], said Price.

Emilie Simons, White House Assistant Press Secretary, later responded to Prices comments.

No. He said, let me repeat that line,' said Simons, denying that Biden was reading teleprompter instructions.

De Facto President?

This isnt the first time that the richest person in the world has suggested a person other than Biden is the de facto president.

The real president is whoever controls the teleprompter, Musk, in a video call, told audiences at an event hosted by The All-In Podcast in May. The path to power is the path to the teleprompter.

Musks comment on Friday likewise piles onto a series of criticisms against the president and the Democratic Party.

While the billionaire did not reveal who he believes is the real commander-in-chief, he commented on the prevailing influence of labor unions over the party currently in charge.

The general public is not aware of the degree to which unions control the Democratic Party. One does not need to speculate on this point, Musk told interviewers from the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley in June in a sit-down discussion, justifying his belief by citing how the United Auto Workers allegedly was able to exclude Tesla from an electric-vehicle summit at the White House.

Insane, Musk said.
Ghislaine Maxwell sits as the jurors are sworn in at the start of her trial on charges of sex trafficking in a courtroom sketch in New York on Nov. 29, 2021. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)

EpsteinLinked Pedophilia Is a Bigger Deal Than a Fake Insurrection

Commentary

Ghislaine Maxwell stood up to address the court. The former cosmopolitan socialite was sentenced on June 28 to 20 years in prison for trafficking young women.

For years, Maxwell had delivered victims for sexual assault and childhood grooming to her billionaire boyfriendproven pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The two were documented as flying countless underage girls to Epsteins privately owned island, where they were sexually abused.

Even more alarming is the number of high-profile guests that accompanied the couple to what has come to be known as Epstein Island: Hollywood celebrities, U.S. politicians, and even a member of the British royal family all appeared in the flight logs of the aptly (and grossly) named Lolita Express.

As would be expected, every major media outlet focused on the groundbreaking case. The proceedings were aired on primetime television across all cable news networks, with the entire country encouraged to tune in. Apple sent a push notification to anyone who owned one of their products, letting them know that the consequential trial was beginning and where they could watch. U.S. nighttime talk show hosts focused each evenings programming on the unraveling mystery of how such a sick and twisted gimmick was allowed to go on, entirely with the complicitif not activeparticipation of prominent members of the ruling class.

Just kidding.

That was all for the Jan. 6 Capitol breach show trials against former President Donald Trump.

In reality, the Maxwell case will be out of the already dimmed public spotlight of mainstream media outlets within the next week. Many U.S. citizens probably wouldnt even recognize the name. Slightly more may know who Epstein was. All, however, will be aware that theres a series of congressional hearings currently underway with the focus of investigating the former president for inciting an insurrection.

Thats because Maxwelland the Epstein case in generaloffer nothing of political advantage to the entrenched forces that currently wield power in the United States. Quite the opposite. Epstein Island is direct proof of the moral bankruptcy and generally shady nature of those were encouraged to regard as our U.S. aristocracy.

Claims have been made for years of widespread criminal behavior in the latters social circles. A few brave souls have devoted their lives to shining a light on this murky underworld. Theyve worked diligently through investigative journalism to expose the actions of these dark cliquesincluding the type of pedophilia that Maxwell stands convicted of enabling. Thanks to their tireless effort, as well as the rise of the internet and new forms of communication, the twisted operation on Epstein Island was finally exposed to the world.

This is embarrassing for the ruling class. In the past, those who control the media narrative have been able to sweep these types of allegations under the rug as the ramblings of conspiracy theorists. Money, power, and influence ensured that the kind of criminal behavior on Epstein Island remained under wraps from peering eyes on the outside.

Plenty of recognizable names were reputed to have previously kept the company of Epstein and Maxwell. Former President Bill Clinton is estimated to have taken the Lolita flight as many as 26 times. Epstein was reported to have visited the White House at least 17 times. Maxwell even attended his daughter Chelsea Clintons wedding.

Epstein was eventually arrested for sex trafficking in 2019. He allegedly committed suicide while awaiting trial. His death took place under shady circumstances, and many have speculated that there was foul play involved. Its believed that he would have turned over the names of many high-level figures who he had connections with. Epsteins suicide joins a long list of other unfortunate deaths of former Clinton associates.

There was still the expected campaign from many media outlets to reduce the magnitude of the Epstein revelations. Reuters fact-checking has previously come to the defense of elitist figures such as Bill Gates, dispelling claims that the fellow billionaire ever visited the islandalthough conceding far down into the piece that there was indeed a documented connection and frequent dinners between Gates and Epstein.

But there was one feature of the story that the piece made sure to hang on toEpsteins relationship with Trump. The billionaire socialite Epstein was a regular staple of ultra-wealthy circles, so its no surprise that he and Trump were acquaintances at one time.

I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him, Trump told reporters in 2019.

What should be of more interest is why Trump so adamantly turned against Epstein while celebrities and politicians continued to visit the pedophile-fueled island.

It would instead seem that Trump came to despise Epstein for his questionable character. Unlike Clinton, Trump never made the trip to the island, and any flights he took on Epsteins private jets occurred before Epsteins initial conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Besides their personal relationship, Trump also is documented as having banned Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. What precipitated this reaction? Of all things, because Epstein allegedly sexually assaulted a minor! Trump was also on video in 2016 calling out Clintons trips to Epsteins pedophile island, nearly three years before the latters arrest and suicide.

This article isnt meant to be a strict defense of Trump or any of his previous actions; instead, the facts stated above elucidate why the political establishment and their media enablers are attempting to memory hole the entire Epstein escapade.

The fact that its getting so little time on the airwaves should be enough to prove that there isnt even close to enough evidence to condemn Trumpif there was, the entire corporate news world would be playing stories about it on a loop.

Instead, theyre preoccupied with the Jan. 6 Capitol breach and the notion that Trump is responsible for launching an insurrection against the U.S. government. The Jan. 6 commission is a political ploy, and its legitimacy is further deteriorating with examples such as the laughable Hutchinson testimony. Still, it provides an opportunity to construct a narrative against Trump from the careful manipulation of video, audio, and testimony that the Maxwell case just doesnt offer.

The prosecution of Maxwell cuts at the heart of corruption in the U.S. political establishment and criminal behavior in the elitist echelons of power and wealth in our society. As such, its downplayed and ridiculed. It will shortly be forgotten by the same corporate media that tells us democracy is under attack.

These arent the types of issues that our media will investigate, because they dont actively support the causes they support. In reality, they actually work to undermine the entire facade. The dichotomy of the Maxwell case with the Jan. 6 Capitol breach show trial is a perfect example of the fact that the current political environment and its media lapdogs dont seek to report objective facts, support constructive dialogue, or certainly not defend democracy and the peoples public weal.

No, instead, what it proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that theres truly only one thing that concerns those who lord power over us: desperately clinging to that power at all costs.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Police officers arrest a suspected gang member in London on July 5, 2022, in a still from video. (NCA via Reuters/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

European Police Arrest 39 in Crackdown on Migrant Smuggling Gang

THE HAGUEPolice in five European countries have arrested 39 people in a major cross-border operation targeting an Iraqi-Kurdish gang which smuggled migrants across the Channel to Britain, the EUs law enforcement agency Europol said on Wednesday.

Europol said the network could have smuggled as many as 10,000 illegal migrants to Britain over the past year and a half and netted as much as 15 million euros from their criminal activity.

This is the most significant operation ever mounted against smuggling operations across the English Channel, especially with this phenomenon of small boats, Europol deputy executive director Jean-Philippe Lecouffe told a news conference.

Police officials said the gang was one of the most active criminal networks smuggling people from France to Britain in small boats.

Police forces in Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands were involved in the operation.

One of the key suspects, a 26-year-old Iranian-Kurdish man, was arrested in Britain along with five others. Germany arrested 18 people, and French and Dutch police arrested nine and six suspects respectively.

Police also seized more than 1,200 life-jackets, some 150 rubber boats, and around 50 engines as well as tens of thousands of euros in cash, firearms, and drugs, Europol said.

Asked about the likely impact of the crackdown, Matt Rivers of the UK National Crime Agency said: Given the number of boats we seized yesterday  we can expect a fall in the number of crossings in the immediate future.

Official figures show that more than 28,500 people were detected arriving in England last year after making the cross-Channel journey on small boats and the British government is under heavy public pressure to halt the flow.

The government hopes to start sending some of the illegal migrants to Rwanda but that planwidely criticized in Britain and internationallyis being held up by legal challenges.
A Rogers Wireless store in Toronto amid a countrywide outage of the telecommunication company's services, July 8, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Cole Burston)

Far-Reaching Implications of Rogers Outage Shows Need for Competition: Expert

A widespread Rogers Communications Inc. outage that caused trouble for 911 services, retailers and transit operators Friday had many warning the incident is a sign that monopolistic telecommunications companies need more competition.

The outage is illuminating the general lack of competition in telecommunications in Canada, said Vass Bednar, executive director of McMaster Universitys master of public policy program.

The countrys telecom sector is dominated by three large carriersRogers, BCE Inc. and Telus Corp.and their hold on the industry has long been a concern of academics, who have called for regulators to increase competition for mobile and internet services in Canada.

The Competition Bureau is currently fighting Rogers plans to purchase Shaw Communications Inc. for $26 billion despite the planned sale of its Freedom Mobile business to Quebecor Inc. because the regulator feels the deal would only bolster Rogers monopoly and not create a viable fourth carrier.

When the outage began Friday, Rogers, Shaw and the Competition Bureau had just wrapped a two-day mediation period that ended with no resolution.

The company offered no explanation for the outage or its expected duration, number of customers affected and location, but promised technical teams are working hard to restore services as quickly as possible.

When everything from 911 services to GO Transit is impacted by a Rogers outage, the reach of telecommunications companies is very obvious, Bednar said.

But unless were going to see people switching their providers today or new publicly run options suddenly springing up, theres not much more that we can do right now other than perhaps factor in peoples anger and frustration, as the pending Rogers-Shaw deal is considered.

She added that people should be compensated for the disruption.

Its a huge expense to Rogers, but even a modest decrease on peoples bills would acknowledge some kind of deficit.

Rogers said in a statement late Friday afternoon that some customers have already raised the question of credits.

Of course we will be proactively crediting all customers and will share more information soon, the statement said.

Beanfield, an independent fibre network operator, called the outage every telecom providers nightmare, but said it was also an example of why it has long been concerned with the lack of rivals for Rogers, Telus and BCE.

A lack of competition and choice can lead to a building with the population of a small town going completely dark- cut off from all communications, the company said on Twitter.

If you cant even get help from a neighbour, where do you go? How do you call 911?

The business implications are likewise tremendous, the company added.

The consequences of such an outage for the financial sector, the lack of functioning ATMs, of working bank branches, can be catastrophic, it said.

Not to mention the independent businesses across the country with no way of processing payment.

By Tara Deschamps
Hindu devotees are stranded after a cloudburst near the base camp of the cave shrine of Amarnath in south of Kashmir Himalayas, in India, on July 8, 2022. (Jammu and Kashmir Government's Department of Disaster Management via AP)

Floods Leave 13 People Dead at Hindu Pilgrimage in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, IndiaAt least 13 people were killed when sudden rains triggered flash floods during an annual Hindu pilgrimage to an icy Himalayan cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Friday, police said.

Officials said in addition to the deaths, at least three dozen people were missing while an unspecified number of injured devotees were airlifted to hospitals for treatment. Authorities rushed several teams of doctors and paramedics to the rugged area and were administering first aid to the injured.

The heavy rain Friday evening near the mountain cave revered by Hindus sent a wall of water down a gorge and swept away about two dozen camps and two makeshift kitchens, officials said. An estimated 10,000 people were in the mountains when the rains struck.

The regions disaster management department said emergency workers were searching for missing people despite inclement weather.

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguish over the deaths and said in a tweet that all possible assistance is being provided to the affected.

Hundreds of pilgrims have died in the past due to exhaustion and exposure to harsh weather during the journey through the icy mountains. In 1996, thousands of people were caught in a freak snowstorm during their trek, leading to more than 250 fatalities.
Angola President Jose Eduardo dos Santos arrives at the Mulungushi International Conference Center in Lusaka, Zambia, on April 12, 2008. Themba Hadebe/AP Photo)

Former Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos Dies at 79

LISBON, PortugalJose Eduardo dos Santos, once one of Africas longest-serving rulers who during almost four decades as president of Angola fought the continents longest civil war and turned his country into a major oil producer as well as one of the worlds poorest and most corrupt nations, died Friday. He was 79.

Dos Santos died at a clinic in Barcelona, Spain, following a long illness, the Angolan government said in an announcement on its Facebook page.

Dos Santos had mostly lived in Barcelona since stepping down in 2017 and had been undergoing treatment there for health problems.

Angolas current head of state, Joao Lourenco, announced five days of national mourning starting Saturday, when the countrys flag will fly at half-staff and public events are canceled.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recalled dos Santos participation in the struggle that led to Angolas independence and his leadership through the signing of the peace agreement that put an end to the civil war in 2002, his spokesman said. During his tenure, Angola became an important regional and international partner and advocate for multilateralism.

The U.N. Security Council stood in silent tribute to dos Santos at the start of a meeting Friday after the current council president, Brazils U.N. Ambassador Ronaldo Costa Filho expressed its sadness at his death.

Dos Santos came to power four years after Angola gained independence from Portugal and became enmeshed in the Cold War as a proxy battlefield.

His political journey spanned single-party Marxist rule in post-colonial years and a democratic system of government adopted in 2008. He voluntarily stepped down when his health began failing.

In public, dos Santos was unassuming and even appeared shy at times. But he was a shrewd operator behind the scenes.

He kept a tight grip on the 17th-century presidential palace in Luanda, the southern African countrys Atlantic capital, by distributing Angolas wealth between his army generals and political rivals to ensure their loyalty. He demoted anyone he perceived to be gaining a level of popularity that could threaten his command.

Dos Santos greatest foe for more than two decades was Jonas Savimbi, leader of the UNITA rebels whose post-independence guerrilla insurgency fought in the bush aimed to oust dos Santos Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA.

The MPLA had financial support from the Soviet Union and military support from Cuba in its war against UNITA. Savimbi was backed by the United States and South Africa.

The war would last, with brief periods of U.N.-brokered peace, until 2002 when the army finally tracked down Savimbi in eastern Angola and killed him.

Dos Santos abruptly shed his Marxist policies after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. He moved closer to Western countries, whose oil companies invested billions of dollars in mostly offshore exploration.

His supporters praised his ability to adapt to changing circumstances. His critics called him unscrupulous.

Dos Santos was invited to the White House in 2004 by then-president George W. Bush as the United States has looked to reduce its dependence on oil from the Middle East.

Angola became sub-Saharan Africas second-largest oil producer after Nigeria, producing close to 2 million barrels per day. It also unearthed more than $1 billion worth of diamonds each year.

However, the wealth never reached the Angolan people, who during and after the civil war were at risk from large areas of unmapped minefields and had little access to basic amenities, such as running water or roads. Education and health care wereand remainsparse.

More than $4 billion in oil revenue vanished from Angolan state coffers between 1997 and 2002, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a 2004 report, based on an analysis of figures from the International Monetary Fund.

The U.S. State Department said that wealth in Angola is concentrated in the hands of a small elite, who often used government positions for massive personal enrichment.

Dos Santos was believed to own valuable real estate in Brazil, France, and Portugal, as well as foreign bank accounts.

Under his rule, and despite the general poverty, street protests were rare and quickly broken up by the heavily armed riot police known popularly as Ninjas. A well-paid and well-equipped presidential guard was garrisoned inside dos Santoss palace and lined the citys grimy, potholed streets whenever he emerged.

A bricklayers son from Luanda, Angolas coastal capital, dos Santos began his political life with boots and a rifle in 1961 as an 18-year-old guerrilla for the MLPA in the fight for independence from Portugal.

MPLA bosses pulled him from combat in 1963 and sent him to the Soviet Union for training as a petroleum engineer and military communications specialist.

When he returned to Angola in 1970, he skillfully negotiated compromises to keep the MPLA from breaking up into splinter groups and as a reward was appointed to the partys central committee.

When independence arrived in 1975, dos Santos became foreign minister and later planning minister and deputy prime minister in the single-party Marxist state.

In a surprise choice, the MPLA elected dos Santos at 37 as president upon the death of Agostinho Neto, Angolas first leader, in 1979. Dos Santos was seen as a consensus figure between squabbling party veterans, but few anticipated his political longevity.

Dos Santos never sought to establish a personality cult and remained a mysterious figure. He reportedly once said in private he felt his true vocation was that of a monk.

Nor was he known for political sensitivity: He built a multimillion-dollar mansion on the fringe of a Luanda shantytown while millions of Angolans were fighting starvation during the civil war.

He was considered a sure loser against Savimbi in the countrys first democratic elections in 1992, following a peace treaty signed the previous year.

Margaret Anstee, a former U.N. special representative to Angola, described dos Santos as being almost the opposite of Savimbi.

His demeanor was grave and reserved, to the point that I traced a sense of shyness or timidity, absurd as this seemed. The contrast with Dr. Savimbis flamboyant personality could not have been more vivid, she wrote in her 1996 book on Angola entitled Orphan of the Cold War.

But in further evidence of his staying power dos Santos held on again, narrowly outpolling Savimbi for president while leading the MPLA to a parliamentary majority in the simultaneous legislative election.

When Savimbi rejected his defeat at the ballot box and returned to his armed struggle, Western support gradually swung behind dos Santos.

The foes signed another peace deal, brokered by the United Nations, in 1994, but that also unraveled four years later.

Meanwhile, dos Santoswith an army of around 100,000 troops, many with years of jungle combat experienceessayed a role as a regional power broker, starting with neighboring countries.

He sent 2,500 troops to Republic of Congo in 1997 to help President Denis Sassou-Nguesso seize power and the following year sent a contingent to Congo to help President Laurent Kabilas government fight rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda.

The end of Angolas civil war in 2002 brought an opportunity for broader economic development in the southern African country, which is more than three times the size of California.

But public infrastructure was devastated; 4 million peopleabout one-third of the population at the timehad fled their homes because of the fighting; and oil and diamond wealth continued in the hands of the political and military elite.

Berlin-based Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index 2005 named Angola as one of the worlds 10 most corrupt countries.

As land mine-maimed children begged in the streets, politicians wives flew to New York on the government health budget for nip-and-tuck cosmetic surgery, wrote John McMillan, a Stanford University economics professor, in a 2005 study on Angolan corruption.

Under pressure to finally hold a ballot, dos Santos announced legislative elections in 2008 and a presidential election the following year.

Dos Santoss MPLA won the most votes for parliamentary seats. But then the head of state changed tack, first postponing the presidential ballot and then scrapping it.

He altered the constitution so that the president is chosen by the party which wins the parliamentary elections. That kept him in power for another eight years.

However, with his health reportedly worsening, Dos Santos announced in 2016 he would retire.

He was replaced by Lourenco, an MPLA stalwart, who has made an anti-corruption drive his flagship policy. He has targeted dos Santos grown children, who possess fabulous personal wealth, but not his predecessor.

The change in fortune for dos Santoss family has prompted one of his daughters to suspect that a conspiracy was behind her fathers illness and death. Spanish prosecutors and police are looking into allegations by Tchize dos Santos that people close to the ex-president have tried to kill him, failed to care for him properly and acted negligently.

Dos Santos, who was married four times, was survived by his current wife, Ana Paula, by whom he had three children. He is known to have at least three other children and various grandchildren.
Left: Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on June 20, 2022. (Aaron Chown/PA) Right: New Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi leaving 10 Downing Street, London, on July 5, 2022. (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Grant Shapps, Nadhim Zahawi Join UK Conservative Party Leadership Race

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi on Saturday evening launched their bids to be the next British prime minister.

Shapps: Strategic Government

In an interview with The Sunday Times, 53-year-old Shapps said he wants to end the two-and-a-half years of tactical government by an often distracted centre and build a strategic government, sober in its analysis, and not chasing the next headline.

The report said Shapps aspires to tackle the cost of living crisis and make the UKs economy the biggest in Europe by 2050.

It also said Shapps plans to produce an emergency budget, cut personal tax for the most vulnerable, and provide businesses with high levels of energy consumption with financial support in his first 100 days in office.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps in an undated file photo. (PA Media)

Shapps stayed in office when 59 government ministers and ministerial aides quit this week over Prime Minister Boris Johnsons handling of the Chris Pincher scandal, triggering Johnsons resignation and a Conservative Party leadership race.

Defending his loyalty to Johnson, Shapps said he had never, for a moment, doubted Johnsons love of this country despite all his flaws, adding that Johnson makes a unique connection with people.

He also said he had not spent the last few turbulent years plotting or briefing against the prime minister [and] mobilising a leadership campaign behind his back, appearing to take a swipe at some of his opponents, including former chancellor Rishi Sunak, whose campaign website was reportedly registered in December last year.

Shapps said he share[s] absolutely the prime ministers belief in the necessity for strategic improvements to infrastructure and private and public R&D spending as the key to unlocking our underperforming regions, but would rein in state control in other areas.

I do think we have lost sight of what we should be about as a Conservative government. We should trust people and allow them to spend their money as they wish. We must map a clear path to lower taxes, not just expressing good intentions. COVID witnessed a necessary and extraordinary expansion of state spending and a quite unprecedented level of state interference in peoples private lives. As Conservatives, we should tolerate the unnecessary continuation of neither, Shapps said.

Having served in the shadow cabinet in 2007 and as a Cabinet minister in 2010, the MP for Welwyn Hatfield is currently the candidate with the most political experience, according to The Sunday Times.

Zahawi: Lets Take Opportunities

The former education secretary became the third serving government minister to kick off their campaign for leadership after Shapps and Attorney General Suella Braverman declared their intentions.

He has had something of a tumultuous weekfirst being promoted to chancellor following Sunaks resignation on Tuesday, then defending Johnson during a gruelling broadcast round on Wednesday, before publicly calling for him to stand down on Thursday morning.

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi poses for a photograph outside the HM Treasury in Westminster on July 6, 2022. (Stefan Rousseau/PA Media)

Launching his campaign, Zahawi pledged to lower taxes for individuals, families, and businesses, boost defence spending, and continue with education reforms that he started in his previous role.

My aim is a simple one: to provide the opportunities that were afforded to my generation, to all Britons, whoever you are and wherever you come from. To steady the ship and to stabilise the economy, Zahawi said.

Thanks to Brexit, we are now a free nation. Lets not just talk about the opportunities that follow, lets take them.

Referencing his own experience, Zahawi said, If a young boy, who came here aged 11 without a word of English, can serve at the highest levels of Her Majestys government and run to be the next prime minister, anything is possible.

He added that he wants to focus on letting children be children, protecting them from damaging and inappropriate nonsense being forced on them by radical activists.

Born in Iraq to a Kurdish family, the new chancellor came to the UK when his parents fled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Believed to be one of the richest politicians in the House of Commons, he helped found polling company YouGov after studying chemical engineering at University College London.

He has often said that his own personal backstory has deeply influenced his view of Britain and he recently spoke of the debt he owed poet Philip Larkin as he improved his English as a teenager.

(Clockwise from top L) Conservative Party leader candidates Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman, Tom Tugendhat, and Kemi Badenoch in undated photos. (Aaron Chown/Victoria Jones/UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/Brian Lawless/PA Media)

Braverman: Tax Cuts, Border, Woke Rubbish, and Brexit

Braverman was the first serving minister to confirm her intention to run.

Asked on Thursday whether she would run if there was a leadership contest, Braverman told ITV that it would be the greatest honour to serve as the UKs prime minister because she owes a debt of gratitude to this country.

I love this country. My parents came here with absolutely nothing, and it was Britain that gave them hope, security, and opportunity, the attorney general said, referring to her Indian parentage.

Asked what her priorities would be, Suella replied with a list including some proper tax cuts, cutting the size and spending of the government, solving the problem of boats carrying illegal immigrants across the English Channel, and getting rid of all of this woke rubbish and actually get back to a country where describing a man and a woman in terms of biology does not mean that youre going to lose your job.

The hardline Brexiteer also said the government needs to make sure that Brexit opportunities are felt for everybody in this country and stop a foreign court interfering in our domestic affairs, appearing to allude to the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.

British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Liz Truss attends a joint press conference with her Czech counterpart in Prague on May 27, 2022. (Michal Cizek/AFP via Getty Images)

Others

Sunak, former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, and Foreign Affairs Committee chair Tom Tugendhat have also launched their bids to become the new prime minister.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is widely expected to stand, while other potential front-runners include trade minister Penny Mordaunt and former health secretaries Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who topped a list of favourite potential candidates in a recent poll, confirmed on Twitter on Saturday that he will not run, saying his focus is on his current position and keeping this great country safe.

Former minister Steve Baker has thrown his support behind Bravermans bid, despite previously saying he was seriously considering putting himself forward for the top job.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Buffalo Police on scene at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, 2022. (John Normile/Getty Images)

Homeland Security Could Do More to Address Domestic Terrorism: Watchdog

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could do more to prevent and reduce domestic terrorism in the United States, says the agencys top watchdog, the Office of Inspector General (OIG).

After carrying out an audit to determine the extent to which DHS is able to address domestic terrorism, the OIG released its findings on Tuesday in a 29-page OIG report (pdf) that made six recommendations.

The OIG specifically sought to find out the extent to which DHS made progress achieving its mission to prevent domestic terrorism.

The report comes amid a number of mass shootings across the United States. The suspect in the Buffalo, N.Y. supermarket mass shooting in May was charged with first-degree terrorism motivated by hate and 10 counts of murder as a hate crime

Although DHS has developed strategies to combat domestic terrorism, the department could do more to strengthen its efforts, the report stated. It was found that DHS only made recent progress in achieving its mission on that front.

Findings

It was found that DHS had made inconsistent efforts to help the United States counter terrorism.

In 2019, DHS established a strategic framework with goals for countering terrorism and an accompanying implementation plan with actions designed to achieve those goals, the report stated.

However, DHS data showed more than 70 percent of the milestone actions in the implementation plan were not completed as planned.

The report said this was because there was no long-term oversight and coordination via a governance body of DHS efforts to combat domestic terrorism.

The OIG also found that DHS has limited ability to access the information it needs to identify domestic terrorism threats.

DHS needs to improve how it identifies threats, tracks trends for future risk-based planning and informs partners and the public about them.

Specifically, the Department has limited access to the sources of information it needs to identify domestic terrorism threats, the report stated. DHS could do more to compile, maintain, and track domestic terrorism information for future planning.

The report stated that DHS may not be issuing timely advisories to inform partners and the public to help the take steps to protect themselves from threats.

Without a cohesive long-term approach to countering domestic terrorism, DHS may not be able to proactively prevent and protect the Nation from this evolving threat, the report stated.

Recommendations

The OIG report made six recommendations, which DHS has agreed to.

Firstly, that a needs assessment is conducted to identify what staff and budget are needed to properly oversee DHS mission to counter domestic terrorism.

This should be carried out by the Counterterrorism Coordinator with support from the Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, and the Management Directorate, the report stated.

Secondly, the OIG recommended the setting up of a long-term governing body to oversee the counter-domestic terrorism efforts.

Thirdly, that to ensure information about domestic terrorism is shared in a timely way, the DHS Secretary work with the Attorney General and congressional committee to collect and share information.

The fourth recommendation was for DHS to partner with agencies to share information that may inform development of national level statistics on terrorism and targeted violence.

Fifth, that DHS use the information collected in the domestic terrorism incident tracker to create national-level statistics on domestic terrorism and share it with other components of DHS.

The final recommendation was for DHS to ensure it maintained the staff and resources needed to execute National Terrorism Advisory System functions.
Huntington Beach Council Puts City Attorney Measure on November Ballot

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.The city council voted 52 on July 5 to put on the November ballot a measure that would give the council control over all legal matters concerning the city. The change to the city charter would include the power to contract with other attorneys if the city attorney has a conflict of interest, according to the measure.

If the measure is approved, the city would be the client effectively hiring the city attorney as counsel.

The council also decided not to put on the ballot a measure to make the position, and that of city clerk, appointed by the council, instead of elected by voters. Huntington Beach is the only city in Orange County in which the city attorney is an elected position.

The Huntington Beach City Council in Huntington Beach, Calif., on June 21, 2022. (Julianne Foster/The Epoch Times)

Current City Attorney Michael Gates first was elected in 2014 and is running this year for a third term.

Critics of the proposed change said the citys residents themselves should retain full control over city legal matters through the elected attorney.

The council action followed a contentious series of events regarding an age discrimination lawsuit filed in 2019 against the city by two former senior deputy city attorneysNeal Moore, then 75, who had worked for the city for 14 years, and Scott Field, then 64, a 26-year veteran. They alleged Gates forced them out because of their age so younger attorneys could be hired.

Due to the conflict of interest, Gates recused himself from the proceedings and outside legal help was hired through his office at a cost to the taxpayers of $1.5 million. A 2021 settlement paid by the citys insurance company gave Moore $1.5 million and Field $1 million.

In 2021, newly elected Councilman Dan Kalmick asked for an independent investigation into the case that had begun before he joined the council.

Despite Gatess objections that the city charter gave only him the authority to hire an outside counsel, the city council hired attorney Craig Steele to investigate the case and write a report.

The council then held closed meetings with Steele without Gates present. Gates contends doing so violated both the city charter and the state Ralph M. Brown Actwhich requires all government meetings to be open, except in special circumstances.

Councilman Erik Peterson agreed with Gates on the open meeting violations and was the only councilor not to attend the meetings with Steele.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Gates alleged Steele should not have been hired for other reasons involving conflicts of interest. Gates said these included Steele knowing previous City Attorney Oliver Chi and doing business with Kalmicks family for years. Gates also said Steele failed to talk to him, employees in the City Attorneys office, and previous councilors who worked on the case.

Because of this, the report is unreliable and should be dismissed, Gates said.

At the July 5 council meeting, Gates presented his own report on the matter. He said it was from an outside legal counsel he appointed. The document, Gates said, answered Kalmicks original questions and found no issues with Gatess handling of the case.

Gates said the report prepared by Steele went beyond answering Kalmicks questions by suggesting the council make the amendments to the charter along the lines of the ballot measure eventually approved by the council.

The council also voted 61, Peterson again objecting, to release to the public Steeles report before Gates could review it.

Its a shame it all has to come to this, Gates said in the interview.

The matter now will be up to voters.
Huntington Beach Voters to Decide on Legalizing Sale of Cannabis

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.Voters will decide in November whether to legalize the sale of marijuana in the city and tax it.

The city council voted 52 on July 5 to revive a ballot measure to tax cannabis businesses, which received 64 percent voter approval in June, but still failed to reach the two-thirds majority it needed.

Though retail cannabis is currently illegal in Huntington Beach, the council put the cannabis tax on the ballot so regulations could be in place in case it becomes legal.

But the council went a step further Tuesday and added another measure to legalize retail cannabis.

With the proposed measures, cannabis retailers would be taxed up to 6 percent and non-retailers taxed up to 1 percent of gross receipts on recreational marijuana. Tax is excluded on medical purchases for those aged 18 and older.

Despite Councilman Erik Peterson cautioning his colleagues on the dais to take time in drafting these ordinances, Councilman Dan Kalmick said he was eager to push the vote forward with confidence it will pass in November.

I think likely they will vote yes, Kalmick said during the council meeting.

Peterson and Mayor Pro Tem Mike Posey voted against the measures. Posey said he was against introducing more taxes.

A subcommittee to draft the rules for the ballot measuresconsisting of councilors Peterson, Kalmick, and Rhonda Boltonwill meet to discuss possible revisions and get the publics input before finalizing the ordinances by Aug. 12.

The current draft allows up to 10 storefront dispensaries or deliveries.

Non-retailer businessessuch as cannabis distributorswould be allowed testing labs, manufacturing, distribution plants, and indoor cultivation to operate only in areas designated by the city.

A minimum of 1,000 feet must be between retail businesses and all schools, parks, and youth centers. For non-retail businesses, a buffer of 1,000 feet is required from high schools and middle schools, and 600 feet from K5 schools, parks, and youth centers.

Sales on temporary structures such as vehicles, kiosks, or vending machines for retailers would not be allowed.

The city would require dispensaries and non-retailers to have 24/7 security guards on-site, video cameras inside and outside the building, background checks of owners and employees, customer age verification, and city access to surveillance at any time.

The discussion of cannabis businesses in Huntington Beach started at the end of 2021 when two private parties from the cannabis industry filed separate petitions asking the city to present taxation and land use regulations for voter consideration, according to the city.
A smartphone with Facebook's logo is seen with new rebrand logo Meta in this illustration taken on Oct. 28, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Irish Regulator Moves Closer to Ban on Facebook EUUS Data Flows

DUBLINIrelands data privacy regulator moved a step closer to a ruling that could halt EUU.S. data transfers by Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram when it shared an updated draft order with other EU regulators on Thursday, a spokesperson said.

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) issued a provisional order in 2020 to block the mechanism Meta uses to transfer data on EU users to the United States, after Europes highest court deemed the agreement allowing it invalid due to surveillance concerns.

After the block was issued the European Union and United States announced a preliminary data transfer deal to end the limbo, and data flows have continued pending a final agreement.

However, the DPCs probe has continued in parallel, and it informed its EU counterparts of a draft of its final decision on Thursday, the spokesperson. The spokesperson declined to comment on the specific content of the decision.

The DPC is the EUs lead regulator of Meta and many other of the worlds largest technology companies, due to the location of their EU headquarters in Ireland.

Under EU privacy rules introduced in 2018, regulators around the bloc have one month to give their input before a final decision is reached. Any objections, which have regularly been lodged in such cases, could add months to the timeline.

Meta has warned a stoppage will likely leave it unable to offer significant services such as Facebook and Instagram in Europe without a new transatlantic data transfer framework.

DPC head Helen Dixon told Reuters in February that a halt to Metas data flows would not immediately hit other big tech companies, but that there would potentially be hundreds of thousands of entities that would have to be looked at.

The final Irish order would not apply to Metas WhatsApp subsidiary, as it has a different data controller within the group.

This draft decision, which is subject to review by European Data Protection Authorities, relates to a conflict of EU and U.S. law which is in the process of being resolved, a Meta spokesperson said on Thursday.

We welcome the EUU.S. agreement for a new legal framework that will allow the continued transfer of data across borders, and we expect this framework will allow us to keep families, communities and economies connected.

When the provisional agreement was struck in March, EU officials said it would likely take months to turn it into a final legal deal.
Jan. 6 Defendant Responds to Prosecutors Claim He Had Death List

A defendant in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach is challenging the claim that he had a death list in his home.

Prosecutors said in a filing in the case against Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and members of the group that the raid of Thomas Caldwells home uncovered a disturbing document.

From the search, law enforcement recovered a document that included the words DEATH LIST hand-written across the top with the name of a Georgia election official, a purported family member of that official, and the county and state associated with that official all hand-written underneath, wrote prosecutors with the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia, part of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The list also included notes such as 40+ from N.C, which provide evidence of a conspiracy to prevent the transfer of presidential power, prosecutors said. They said the government expects to introduce evidence related to the document in the upcoming trial of some of the groups members.

Caldwell told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that he challenged the offered information, which thus far has no hard evidence supporting it.

The DOJs claim that I intended to assassinate election workers is a bold-faced lie and completely disgusting, he said. There is a mountain of exculpatory evidence that the DOJ has hidden from the public through protective orders.

Caldwell, a U.S. Navy veteran, has said that he traveled to the Capitol to watch then-President Donald Trumps speech. He and his wife acknowledged going onto a balcony at the Capitol, but said no police officers tried to stop them.

Caldwell has also said that he isnt a member of the Oath Keepers, although he corresponded with known members and described them as friends.

Explosives

In the July 8 filing, prosecutors also said they plan to submit evidence that another defendant, Jeremy Brown, transported explosives to the Washington area on Jan. 6, 2021, and that Jessica Watkins, a third defendant, had bomb-making instructions.

Brown, whos being tried separately for Jan. 6-related charges, but hasnt been indicted in the alleged conspiracy, communicated with some of those accused of conspiring in preparation for the Capitol breach and deposited weapons at a Comfort Inn in Virginia that was serving as a staging area for a subset of members who described themselves as a Quick Reaction Force (QRF), according to prosecutors.

Brown also had explosives at the time, although the government is unaware of whether he also placed them at the inn or kept them in his RV, which he parked in Maryland, according to the filing.

The government plans to introduce Browns statements and the evidence collected from the search of Browns property. Browns statements, firearms, and explosives are intrinsic to the co-conspirators charged offense as contemporaneous, direct evidence of the manner and means used by the co-conspirators to advance the goals of the charged conspiracy, prosecutors wrote. Indeed, possessing, transporting, and storing various weapons around the Washington, D.C., area was part and parcel to organizing and executing the QRF for January 6, which, as alleged in the indictment, co-conspirators relied on as part of the plan to oppose the lawful transfer of power by force.

Watkins had two bomb-making recipes in her residence, which law enforcement found during a raid. Prosecutors said the government doesnt know when Watkins came into possession of the documents.

Lawyers for Brown and Watkins didnt respond to requests for comment. An attorney for Rhodes declined to comment, but said his client would answer questions before the House of Representatives panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach.
Nara prefectural police chief Tomoaki Onizuka reacts during a press conference in Nara, Japan, on July 9, 2022. (Kyodo News via AP)

Japan Police Chief Takes Responsibility for Shinzo Abe Assassination, Admits Security Lapses

The police chief of the Nara prefecture where former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was killed admitted security lapses that allowed the assassin to get close enough to fire the deadly shots from a homemade gun, saying he feels a grave sense of responsibility.

Nara prefectural police chief Tomoaki Onizuka told a press conference on July 9 that its clear there were shortcomings in his own approved plan for securing the event at which Abe was gunned down.

As the regional police chief responsible for safety and security of the region, I took necessary steps and built structures for security and guarding, he said. I believe it is undeniable that there were problems with the guarding and safety measures.

I feel a grave sense of responsibility, he added, while vowing to conduct a thorough review and implement any necessary changes to cut the risk of a similar future tragedy.

Nara prefectural police chief Tomoaki Onizuka bows at the start of a press conference in Nara, Japan, on July 9, 2022. (Kyodo News via AP)

Whether it was a setup, emergency response, or ability of individuals, we still have to find out. Overall, there was a problem and we will review it from every perspective, he said.

After it became clear that Abe had been shot, Onizuka said he felt the biggest sense of guilt and regret in his 27 years in law enforcement.

He Seemed Nervous

Abe was shot Friday while on the campaign trail giving a speech.

The accused killer, 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, was seen in videos shown on Japanese television and on social media calmly approaching Abe from behind and firing two shots from what looked like a sawed-off shotgun wrapped in black tape.

Footage aired by Japanese broadcaster NHK captured the moment Abe fell on the street, clutching his chest.

He was rushed to the hospital and later pronounced dead.

Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe lies on the ground after being shot in Nara, western Japan, on July 8, 2022. (Kyodo via Reuters)

Japans former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (C) falls on the ground in Nara, western Japan, on July 8, 2022. (Kyodo News via AP)

After a scramble, the gunman was tackled by Abes security detail and taken into custody.

Japanese media reported that Yamagami had assembled the weapon from parts he bought online and spent months planning the assassination and that he had considered using a bomb instead of a gun.

Police told local media on July 9 that Yamagami said he was motivated by resentment centered on the belief that Abe was linked to a religious group that the accused assassin blamed for his mothers financial problems.

One of Yamagamis neighbors, a 69-year-old woman who lived a floor below him in an apartment building, told Reuters that she saw him three days before Abes assassination.

I said hello but he ignored me. He was just looking down at the ground to the side not wearing a mask. He seemed nervous, said the woman, who gave only her surname Nakayama.

It was like I was invisible. He seemed like something was bothering him, she said.

Necessary to Investigate

A former Kyoto prefectural police investigator, Fumikazu Higuchi, said that videos of the attack suggested security was sparse at the event.

It is necessary to investigate why security allowed Yamagami to freely move and go behind Mr. Abe, Higuchi told a Nippon TV talk show.

A man, believed to be a suspect in shooting former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is held by police officers at Yamato Saidaiji Station in Nara, Nara prefecture, on July 8, 2022. (The Yomiuri Shimbun via Reuters)

A police officer detains a man, believed to have shot former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in Nara, western Japan, on July 8, 2022. (The Asahi Shimbun/via Reuters)

Experts told the Associated Press that Abe was more vulnerable standing on the ground level rather than atop of a campaign vehicle, as would normally have been the case but was reportedly unavailable due to his hastily arranged visit to Nara.

Looks like police were mainly focusing on frontward, while paying little attention to whats behind Mr. Abe, and nobody stopped the suspect approaching him, Mitsuru Fukuda, a crisis management professor at Nihon University, told the Associated Press.

Clearly there were problems.
Japans former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is dead. A gunman appeared on scene as he gave a public speech.

Abe played a unique role in the U.S.-China-Japan relationshipdifferent from his predecessors. Grant Newsham, senior fellow of Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, tells us why Abe angered China and what his passing will bring out.

After the news broke, comments mocking Abes death started appearing on Chinese social media. But one reporter went against that trend.

The U.S. ambassador to China is getting censored in his consular country. Its happened three times in as many months. He responds.

Topics in this episode:

Japans Ex-Leader Abe Assassinated in Public Newsham: Abes Lasting Role in Japans Influence Hateful Posts on Chinese Social Media on Abes Death Pop Song Censored in China After Abe Assassination U.S. Ambassador Faces Online Censorship in China Sen. Scott Visits Taiwan, China Sends Jets China, Russia Ministers Met in Bali on G20 Sidelines Chinas Interactions Amid G20 Meeting: Roundup Q&A: Automaker Byd Sells Electric, Hybrid Cars FCC Raises Tiktok Security Concerns Pope Hopes China Deal on Bishops Will Be Renewed

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Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, former president and chief operating officer (COO) of Theranos and ex-boyfriend of founder Elizabeth Holmes, arrives during jury deliberations at his federal trial for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in San Jose, Calif., on June 28, 2022. (Brittany Hosea-Small/Reuters)

Jury Convicts Former Theranos President Sunny Balwani of Fraud

A jury on Thursday convicted former Theranos Inc. President Ramesh Sunny Balwani of defrauding investors and patients about the blood testing startup that was once valued at $9 billion.

The San Jose, California, jury deliberated for a little more than five days before convicting Balwani on two counts of conspiracy and 10 counts of fraud, a spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds said.

Sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 15.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who initially faced the same charges, was convicted on three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy at a separate trial in January. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 26.

They were granted separate trials after Holmes said she would testify that Balwani was abusive towards her in their romantic relationship. Balwani denied the allegations.

Former Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes leaves federal court in San Jose, Calif., on June 28, 2019. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

We are gratified by the jurys hard work and attentiveness to the evidence presented, Hinds said in a statement. We appreciate the verdict and look forward to sentencing proceedings.

Balwanis attorney Jeffrey Coopersmith said the defense was obviously disappointed with the verdicts and would consider all options including an appeal.

Balwani and Holmes were charged in 2018 with lying to investors about the companys finances and its machines ability to run a broad range of tests from a few drops of blood. Prosecutors also charged the pair with duping patients about the tests accuracy.

Theranos investors were drawn to Holmes, with her deep, authoritative voice, black Steve Jobs-esque turtleneck and her promise to upend the laboratory testing industry by creating portable machines that could run a broad array of tests.

The company touted work with drugmakers, pharmacies, and the U.S. military and received investments from media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Theranos collapsed after the Wall Street Journal published a series of articles, starting in 2015, that suggested its devices were flawed and inaccurate.

At trial, Holmes made the somewhat unusual decision to testify in her own defense and denied lying to investors. She has argued that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict.

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and former CEO of blood testing and life sciences company Theranos, arrives for the first day of her fraud trial, outside Federal Court in San Jose, Calif., on Sept. 8, 2021. (Nick Otto/AFP via Getty Images)

By Jody Godoy
A man has died after a kangaroo crashed into his motorbike. (Joe Parkin/Unsplash)

Man Dies After Being Struck by Kangaroo

A man has died in southeast Queensland, Australia, after a kangaroo collided with his motorbike, according to the Queensland Police Service.

The 48-year-old man was riding an off-road motorcycle north along Middle Road in Womalilla, a small rural town with a population of 39.

Police believe a kangaroo struck his motorbike and threw the man from his bike just after 7:30 p.m. on July 7.

The man suffered critical injuries, and despite the efforts of emergency services, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The kangaroo also died following the crash.

There are few details at the moment, but Queenslands Forensic Crash Unit is completing an investigation and will prepare a report for the coroner.

Any witnesses who saw the crash are asked to provide information to the police by calling Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or reporting online at www.crimestoppersqld.com.au.

Higher Likelihood of Wildlife Encounters at Dusk

The Womalilla man was passing through some prime kangaroo-accident territory.

Data by the Australian government suggests that kangaroo car accidents are most likely to occur between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m., and motorcyclists fare the worst in crashes with kangaroos. They make up 50 percent of the fatalities that occur in kangaroo collisions.

The winter months (June-August) also have the most animal collisions compared to any other season. This may be due to poorer weather conditions and visibility.

Kangaroos and wallabies make up 90 percent of all animal collisions in Australia.

A kangaroo road traffic sign. (Torsten Blackwood/Getty Images)

The New South Wales Centre for Road advises people to reduce speed when they see animal warning signs and only brake when it is safe to do so, and never swerveit is safer to hit an animal than swerve and lose control of your vehicle.

This may cause you to lose control of your vehicle or to collide with oncoming traffic, the recommendation reads.
Welcome to a super special episode of Facts Matter from the Netherlands! We are in Amsterdam, covering the farmers protests that have sprung up across the entire country, with the farmers fighting back against parliamentary regulations, which were essentially kneecapping a lot of them.

They told me that between 30 percent to 50 percent of the local farmers here would have to shut down. So its a big, big deal. Weve been driving around the country for the last three or four days speaking with the farmers, speaking with truckers, speaking with the people who support them, and speaking with a scientist who explained to us what the whole nitrogen debate is all about.

And we even got to speak with a member of parliament who is part of the opposition party, fighting back against these regulations. So well be releasing these interviews one by one over the course of the next few days, starting this episode with Member of Parliament Thierry Baudet.

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A police officer stands with armed members of the National Guard facing protesters in front of the Los Angeles Police Department in Los Angeles, California, on June 1, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Violence Reduction Force Nets More Than 1,500 Arrests in LA and 9 Other Cities

LOS ANGELESAuthorities announced on July 7 the results of Operation North Star, a nationwide task force effort targeting violent criminals that netted more than 1,500 arrests in Los Angeles and nine other cities.

The 30-day operation, conducted in June, included personnel from the U.S. Marshals Service and numerous state and local law enforcement organizations, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

The enforcement effort resulted in the arrests of fugitives, violent criminals, sex offenders and self-identified gang members in LA, Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, Indianapolis, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tennessee, the DOJ reported.

These individuals pose a clear and present danger to the safety of Los Angeles, as well as the nine other cities that were chosen to be a part of this North Star operation, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Michel Moore said at a Thursday news conference at LAPD headquarters.

Im proud of the work and the partnership of LAPD with the U.S. Marshals Service, Moore said. That is an ongoing one that has been in existence for more than a decade, and regularly works in identifying violent fugitives and bringing them to the criminal justice system.

According to the DOJ, Operation North Star focused on fugitives wanted for the most serious, violent, and harmful offenses, including homicide, sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated assault.

Investigators prioritized their efforts to include people using firearms in their crimes, or who exhibited risk factors associated with violence, the DOJ reported.

The Justice Department is committed to doing everything we can to protect our communities from violent crime and end the plague of gun violence, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.

Operation North Star reflects the approach we are taking across the department to work in partnership with law enforcement agencies and communities to identify and hold accountable those responsible for the greatest violence, Garland said.

I am grateful to the U.S. Marshals Service and the many federal, state and local task force partners who carried out this operation, and who continue to work to keep the American people safe each and every day, Garland said.

Throughout the month of June, the U.S. Marshals Service used its broad arrest authority and network of task forces to arrest people wanted on charges, including 230 for homicide and 131 for sexual assault, the DOJ reported. Investigators also seized 166 firearms, more than $53,600 in currency, and more than 33 kilograms of illegal drugs.

The Marshals remain committed to assisting state and local law enforcement with reducing violent crime in our most vulnerable communities, said U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis.

Operation North Star was focused on areas where local law enforcement has seen a large number of homicides and shootings, Davis said.

Here are some notable arrests from Operation North Star:

On June 4, Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force members arrested Jose Galiano-Meza, 28, wanted out of Douglas County, Kansas, for homicide.

On June 6, members of the Eastern Pennsylvania Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force arrested Rashaan Vereen, 34, for attempted homicide, aggravated assault, and firearms charges. Vereen was one of the suspects in a mass shooting on June 4 in Philadelphia in which three people were killed and 11 injured. Also arrested in connection with the shooting were Quran Garner, 18, and a 15-year-old suspect.

On June 8, members of the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Dionte Mitchell, 22, on two counts of homicide and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Mitchell allegedly shot two female victims to death after a dispute at a party.

On June 16, Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force members arrested Robert Bakersville, 28, for homicide. At the residence where Bakersville was arrested, a search warrant was conducted and ammunition and parts consistent with building a ghost gun were seized.

The concept behind interagency law enforcement operations such as Operation North Star evolved largely from regional and district task forces, according to the DOJ.

Since the 1980s, the Marshals Service has combined their resources and expertise with local, state and federal agencies to find and apprehend dangerous fugitives, the DOJ reported. Operation North Star continued this tradition.

For more information about Operation North Star, go to www.usmarshals.gov.
Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (purple) infected with a variant strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (pink), isolated from a patient sample. (NIAID via The Epoch Times)

Natural Immunity 97 Percent Effective Against Severe COVID-19 After 14 Months: Study

The protection against severe illness from so-called natural immunity remains superior to that bestowed by COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new study.

People who survived COVID-19 infection and werent vaccinated had sky-high protection against severe or fatal COVID-19, researchers in Qatar found.

Effectiveness of primary infection against severe, critical, or fatal COVID-19 reinfection was 97.3 percent  irrespective of the variant of primary infection or reinfection, and with no evidence for waning. Similar results were found in sub-group analyses for those 50 years of age, Dr. Laith Abu-Raddad of Weill Cornell MedicineQatar and colleagues said after studying long-term natural immunity in unvaccinated people.

That percentage is higher than the protection from COVID-19 vaccines, according to other studies and real-world data.

Swedish researchers, for instance, found in May that two doses of a vaccine were just 54 percent effective against the Omicron variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19.

South African scientists, meanwhile, found the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines peaked at 88 percent and quickly dropped to 70 percent or lower.

The Qatar group found that natural immunity after a persons first infection remains very strong, with no evidence for waning, irrespective of variant, for over 14 months.

The study was published ahead of peer review on the website medRxiv.

Few researchers have studied natural immunity long term among unvaccinated persons, in part because many of the people have eventually received a COVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccines, meanwhile, have waned against both infection and severe illness over time, triggering recommendations for booster doses, with some Americans even getting five doses within 10 months.

Natural Immunity Performs Poorly Against Omicron Reinfection

The vaccines were once said to provide close to 100 percent protection against symptomatic infection. They now provide less than 50 percent protection against infection after a short period of time, even after booster doses, following the emergence of Omicron.

That strain and its subvariants are dominant in countries around the world, including the United States and Qatar.

Natural immunity was thought to provide strong protection against reinfection. But the Qatari researchers found it provides poor protection against reinfection from Omicron.

Pre-Omicron primary infection against pre-Omicron reinfection was as high as 90.5 percent, and remained around 70 percent by the 16th month, according to the study. But pre-Omicron primary infection against Omicron reinfection was just 38 percent effective, although it was higher among people infected with the original Wuhan strain or with the Delta variant, and lower among those who got sick from the Alpha or Beta strains.

Modeling signaled a drop to zero percent protection by 18 months, but the shielding still appears to last longer than that of vaccines, researchers said.

Vaccine immunity against Omicron subvariants lasts for <6 months, but pre-Omicron natural immunity,  may last for just over a year, they wrote.

Limitations of the study included differences in testing frequency among the cohorts studied, and depletion of the groups who had a COVID-19 infection, due to their deaths.
A masked assailant winds up to swing a hammer at a pregnancy clinic in Worcester, Mass., on July 7, 2022. (Still from surveillance video/The Problem Pregnancy)

New England Pregnancy Clinic Becomes Latest Victim of Janes Revenge

A Massachusetts pregnancy clinic was vandalized on July 7 by two people affiliated with Janes Revenge, a violent pro-abortion extremist group.

The Worcester clinic shared a surveillance video of the attack with The Epoch Times, with the footage showing two people dressed in black and their faces covered approaching the clinic. One of the people spray-painted the clinics front steps with the words Janes Revenge. The other person then pulled out a hammer and used it to damage the clinics door and windows.

Janes Revenge has taken credit for vandalizing and firebombing pro-life organizations, churches, and other pregnancy clinics. The group surfaced shortly after the leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion, which suggested that the nations top court may be prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade, the seminal opinion that largely legalized abortion nationwide.

The Supreme Court subsequently overturned Roe v. Wade.

Republicans have called for the Department of Justice to classify Janes Revenge as a terrorist group. The Department of Homeland Security described the group in a June memo as a network of loosely affiliated suspected violent extremists. The federal agency warned that there was a risk of violence from the group following the Supreme Court decision.

The attack took place the morning after state Attorney General Maura Healeys office said in a lengthy statement that pregnancy clinics dont provide abortions.

The July 6 statement also warned that pregnancy clinics engage in deceptive practices, dont have to adhere to any code of ethics, and often provide inaccurate and misleading information about abortion and the medical and mental health effects of abortion.

Kelly Wilcox, executive director of the Clearwater Clinic, told The Epoch Times that the FBI was on-site on July 8 investigating the attack along with local law enforcement.

She told The Epoch Times that she doesnt understand the motive behind the attacks nor the comments made by Healey. She said her clinic, which opened in 2000, has always been transparent about not providing abortions.

For more than a decade, Clearway, which also owns a second clinic in Massachusetts, has been doing exit surveys for all clients, according to Wilcox.

We have never had anyone claim we have deceived them, she said. So I have no idea where these allegations are coming from.

The clinic provides post-abortion counseling and a host of other medical services, including pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and STD testing. The clinics also offer other forms of help, including baby clothes and supplies to expecting mothers.

Wilcox said they dont refer to themselves as crisis pregnancy centers (CPC), despite the use of the term by those opposed to them.

Thomas Glessner, president of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), which represents 1,600 pregnancy centers in the United States, told The Epoch Times that Planned Parenthood has long been leveling a smear campaign against pregnancy centers.

Planned Parenthood didnt respond to calls from The Epoch Times.

In her statement, Healey, at times using all capital letters, said that CPCs do NOT provide comprehensive reproductive healthcare.

CPCs are organizations that seek to prevent people from accessing abortion care, she said.

Healey, a Democrat whos running for governor, is also a well-known supporter of Planned Parenthood.

Last year, Planned Parenthood contributed $1,700 to her bid for reelection and ran a picture and a quote from Healey saying: Planned Parenthoods endorsement was a game-changer for my campaign.

She was also a guest speaker at Planned Parenthoods Sexual Health Lobby Day held at the statehouse in June.

Healeys office condemned the attack in a statement to The Epoch Times.

Our office will continue to focus on ensuring that patients seeking abortion care are safe and well-informed about their options, a spokesman for Healeys office said in the written statement.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also criticized pregnancy centers prior to the Clearwater attack. In a July 3 Twitter post, Warren said that in Massachusetts, so-called crisis pregnancy centers outnumber legitimate abortion care providers 3 to 1.

We need to crack down on the deceptive practices these centers use to prevent people from getting abortion care, and Ive got a bill to do just that, she said.

Warren entitled the legislation the Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation Act, which shes co-sponsoring with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)

They defined the legislation as a measure to combat false advertising by crisis pregnancy centers.

The measure, which was just recently introduced, has already won the backing of Planned Parenthood and other abortion groups.
Newport Beach Police Receive Thousands in Gift Cards From 93-Year-Old Woman

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.Making her way up the steep flight of stairs to the entrance of the Newport Beach Police Station on a Tuesday morning, 93-year-old former Citizens Academy volunteer Dotty McDonald was grinning from ear to ear.

This is one of my favorite days of the year, McDonald told The Epoch Times. I just love supporting our police. I always say, God, Country, and the Blue!

As she walked through the departments darkened glass double doors, staff and the departments top brass, including Chief Jon Lewis, Lt. Bryan Moore, Sgt. Jason Blakely, and Detective Deputy Chief Joe Cartwright, warmly greet her with hugs.

For seven years, McDonald volunteered with the department after graduating from the Newport Beach Police Departments Citizens Academy in 2015 at the ripe age of 85.

Her volunteer duties consisted mainly of courtesy home checks for residents on vacation. One of her favorite jobs was checking pawn shop slips for items reported stolen.

Id also ride along with different police officers during the midnight shifts; those shifts were the most exciting, McDonald said with a twinkle in her eye.

Occasionally, they would stop at Sgt. Pepperonis Pizza Store, a favorite local pizza joint, or grab a cup of coffee during their shift. Over the years, she became a friend and confidante to many.

Thats how I found out it was their favorite pizza, so I decided to make it a tradition every year to bring the entire department gift cards, to show how much I love them and thank them for the work they do for our community, McDonald said.

She spent countless hours riding along with officers, sometimes during the 7 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. shift, sharing meals and becoming a shoulder to lean on during the lonely hours on patrol.

Wed discuss private affairs. I think they looked at me like a mother or a grandmother that they could confide in, McDonald said.

Despite her recent retirement from the volunteer corps, she keeps in touch with many of the officers she worked with over her years of volunteering. She thinks of them as extended family, and they feel the same, inviting her to weddings, birthdays, and life milestones.

This year, McDonald raised more than $12,000 in order to purchase restaurant gift cards that will help feed the police officers during the tough summer shifts she knows all too well.

She said she always picks a day close to the Fourth of July, knowing that the holiday weekend is one of the longest, busiest, and most hectic times of the year.

On July 5, she proudly turned over a box of 250 cards for $35 each to Lewis. She beamed as she told Lewis that another 150 cards for $40 each from Chick-fil-A and Chipotle would be dropped off later in the week.

I can never get over Dottys boundless energy and generosity, Lewis told The Epoch Times. Especially these days, with a busy Fourth of July behind us, this gesture of goodwill and appreciation goes a long way amongst all the officers and staff.

Were a close-knit department. These [gift cards] help us in other ways besides feeding the team. Every single person who receives one of these cards gets the message that they are appreciated and play a key role in our success serving the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Dotty is very special to us; she really is an inspiration. Its never too late to make a difference.

After her husband of 51 years, Hank, died in 2015, McDonald said she had to keep her mind and body busy.

On a suggestion from her godson, a lieutenant with the Newport Beach Police Department at the time, she enrolled in the Newport Beach Citizens Police Academy.

The 12-week hands-on course was exactly what the then 85-year-old retired nurse was looking for, and she relished working alongside police personnel to learn about everything from SWAT operations to the departments K-9 Program, CSI, dispatch, narcotics, traffic laws, firearms, and detective investigations.

I fell in love with the program and the people, McDonald told The Epoch Times. It made me young again. Literally, because sometimes I had to run to keep up with the officers.

As soon as she completed the academy courses, McDonald was asked if she would like to become a regular volunteer, and she jumped on the offer.

McDonald logged thousands of volunteer hours with the department, doing everything from conducting vacation home checks to her favorite task, scrutinizing pawn shops for stolen valuables.

A few years ago, she decided she wanted to do something special on the Fourth of July for the hardworking men and women of the department, whom she had gotten to know and love.

I love our military and police, and I love the American flag, so the Fourth of July felt right, McDonald said when asked about the timing.

McDonald, who will turn 93 in August, says shell continue to raise money for the gift cards each year as the Fourth of July rolls around.

I know they [the officers] are appreciative, but its all of usthe community they protectwho have a duty to show them how much we appreciate what they do for us day-in and day-out, she said. This is just my little way of letting them know we care about them, that we have their backs. With everything going on in the world, I think its important to show them the love and respect they deserve.
Hong Kong's new Chief Executive John Lee (L) walks with China's President Xi Jinping (R) following Xi's speech after a ceremony to inaugurate the city's new leader and government in Hong Kong on July 1, 2022, the 25th anniversary of the city's handover from Britain to China. (Selim Chtayti/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Official Media Reports on Xis Visit to Hong Kong Fail to Mention Handover Leaders

Commentary

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping recently wrapped up his trip to Hong Kong marking the 25th anniversary of Britain handing the city over to China. Notably, both Xi and the official media avoided mentioning two key figures in the CCP takeover of Hong Kong, a rare occurrence in the past 25 years.

Until last year, the mouthpiece media made a statement on each previous handover anniversary mentioning former CCP leader Jiang Zemin and Hong Kongs first chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, who have long been called historical participants in the transfer of the autonomous region that occurred on July 1, 1997.

For the 20th handover anniversary in 2017, state media CCTV aired a personal interview with Tung, saying he had contributed to the development of Hong Kong.

But this time, Tung was not able to attend the July 1 ceremony and inauguration of the new chief executive, while other former governors of Hong Kong, including recently departed Carrie Lam, were present for both.

Tung served as the first and second chief executive of Hong Kong from July 1997 to March 2005. He was known to be a member of Jiang Zemins faction. Jiang is seen as Xis political rival.

During Xis trip to Hong Kong, official media did not mention Jiang, nor was he mentioned in Xis remarks on his June 30 arrival or his speech at the handover anniversary ceremony the next day.

Subsequent related reports said that July 1, 1997, was a date worth remembering when it successfully achieved Hong Kongs return and sovereignty, and attributed it to one country two systems, a political pledge proposed by former leader Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s.

However, given the deteriorating freedom of speech and political environment in Hong Kong, observers raised thoughts that one country two systems was likely a ruse by the CCP to gain international trust before it could take Hong Kong back from the British.

Chinas President Xi Jinping (C) arrives with Hong Kongs incoming Chief Executive John Lee (L) for Lees swearing in ceremony and to inaugurate the citys new government in Hong Kong on July 1, 2022, the 25th anniversary of the citys handover from Britain to China. (Selim Chtayti/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Before and after 1997, during Jiangs rule, the CCP effectively implemented a covert special agent policy for Hong Kong that continued into Xis era.

Established in 2003 and headed by the Standing Committee of the Politburo, the Central Working Group on Hong Kong and Macau was the highest body to manage Hong Kong affairs, whose first chief, Zeng Qinghong, and the current chief, Han Zheng, were vital figures of the Jiang faction as they were already embedded in all corners of Hong Kong.

Zeng manipulated Hong Kong affairs through a network of special agent systems to fight against the Xi administration.

Xi, therefore, finds himself incapable of taking grip of Hong Kong due to Jiangs domination of the CCP special agent system in this area, a report in the Chinese language Epoch Times reported on Nov. 11, 2021.

This situation angered Xi.

In April 2020, Xi dismissed Sun Lijun, a vice-minister in charge of Hong Kong affairs at the Ministry of Public Security, a former front man who was loyal to Jiangs faction.

This action is likely related to Chen Ping, chairman of Sunshine TV Group, accusing Xi of being responsible for his domestic and foreign affairs woes in an open letter on WeChat in March 2020. The letter called on the Central Committee to have a discussion about Xi and consider his departure, Radio Free Asia reported.

Fearing Hong Kongs security problems, Xi didnt stay overnight during his two-day trip. And Xi left Hong Kong with a newly appointed chief executive, John Lee Ka-chiu, who is seen as hardcore pro-Beijing as he has been proactively pushing for the National Security Law.

Hong Kong, one of the worlds essential financial centers and a major channel for China to connect with the West, has been used as a haven for the CCP squandering dictatorial powers, transferring corrupt assets, and accumulating fortunes.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an oil storage facility, is seen in this aerial photograph over Freeport, Texas on April 27, 2020. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)

Oil From US Reserves Sent Overseas as Gasoline Prices Stay High

HOUSTONMore than 5 million barrels of oil that were part of a historic U.S. emergency reserves release to lower domestic fuel prices were exported to Europe and Asia last month, according to data and sources, even as U.S. gasoline and diesel prices hit record highs.

The export of crude and fuel is blunting the impact of the moves by U.S. President Joe Biden to lower record pump prices. Biden on July 2 renewed a call for gasoline suppliers to cut their prices, drawing criticism from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

About 1 million barrels per day is being released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) through October. The flow is draining the SPR, which last month fell to the lowest since 1986. U.S. crude futures are above $100 per barrel and gasoline and diesel prices above $5 a gallon in one-fifth of the nation. U.S. officials have said oil prices could be higher if the SPR had not been tapped.

The SPR remains a critical energy security tool to address global crude oil supply disruptions, a Department of Energy spokesperson said, adding that the emergency releases helped ensure stable supply of crude oil.

The fourth-largest U.S. oil refiner, Phillips 66, shipped about 470,000 barrels of sour crude from the Big Hill SPR storage site in Texas to Trieste, Italy, according to U.S. Customs data. Trieste is home to a pipeline that sends oil to refineries in central Europe.

Atlantic Trading & Marketing (ATMI), an arm of French oil major TotalEnergies, exported 2 cargoes of 560,000 barrels each, the data showed.

Phillips 66 declined to comment on trading activity. ATMI did not respond to a request for comment.

Cargoes of SPR crude were also headed to the Netherlands and to a Reliance refinery in India, an industry source said. A third cargo headed to China, another source said.

At least one cargo of crude from the West Hackberry SPR site in Louisiana was set to be exported in July, a shipping source added.

Crude and fuel prices would likely be higher if (the SPR releases) hadnt happened, but at the same time, it isnt really having the effect that was assumed, said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at Kpler.

The latest exports follow three vessels that carried SPR crude to Europe in April helping replace Russian crude supplies.

U.S. crude inventories are the lowest since 2004 as refineries run near peak levels. Refineries in the U.S. Gulf coast were at 97.9 percent utilization, the most in three and a half years.

By Arathy Somasekhar
One of the members of the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) vaccine advisory panel explained why he voted against adding an Omicron component to fall COVID-19 booster shots raising serious questions over a lack of critical data and the Biden administrations role in politicizing the process.

In a July 6 interview with ZDoggMD, Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, described the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committees (VRBPAC) recent meeting as unusual.

Offit continued:

Ive seen nothing like this. I guess the thing thats most upsetting to me is normally when you get something from the FDA when we have these meetings, you usually get it a few days before you meet. You usually get a couple of hundred pages.

Here on the other hand, normally you get the EUA [Emergency Use Authorization] submission from the company, which is 85 to 100 pages long, and then you get the FDAs review of all those data. Its a very thorough review. Not here though. Here, it was 22 pages from the FDA, which included a half-page on Pfizers data and a half-page on Modernas data.

You could get that from the press release, Offit said. In fact, it was no more detail than the press release provided.

The question vaccine advisors are always asked to consider in the end is whether the benefits outweigh the risks  even if the risks are generally small and sometimes unknown, Offit said. I didnt see the benefits.

Offit said he was surprised that out of 21 voting members, 19 voted yes because he just didnt see the evidence for that.

I think this was something that was desired by the Biden administration, he added.

I could be wrong but the other thing that was odd about this meeting was that were an advisory committee, were being asked for our advice, Offit said. So normally what happens is that they just present the data. Heres the data. Whats your advice? And people can ignore our advice.

However, during the June 28 meeting, someone from the World Health Organization presented their opinion and their opinion was that this was a good idea, Offit said. Then you had someone from the FDA presenting where they also had an opinion.

Thats unusual, Offit said. Then the next day you read a press release from HHS [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] that says the government has decided to purchase at least 105 million doses from Pfizer with up to 300 million doses.

The press release mentioned VRBPAC had just made its decision the day before, so you just kind of felt like the fix was in a little bit, Offit said. Maybe thats not the right phrase but it was something they wanted and I felt like we were being led here and with a critical lack of information.

Offit said all COVID-19 vaccines are based on the original Wuhan strain before it mutated and left China, and now that BA.4 and BA.5 represent a little more than half of the circulating strands in this country.

Its reasonable the FDA would consider trying to broaden immunity by including omicron or omicron subvariants in a bivalent vaccine, he said. But both Moderna and Pfizer presented data during the June 28 meeting and it was not compelling.

Offit explained:

They did the studies the right way. So, they took people who had already received three doses of the ancestral strain and then gotten a fourth dose with the ancestral strain and compared that to three doses of the ancestral strain, plus the fourth dose of the bivalent strain which contains the omicron mRNA vaccine [BA.1] as well as the ancestral vaccine. Thats the right way to do the study.

Then  they looked at virus-specific neutralizing antibodies against omicron and  found  when you got the omicron boost you had a 1.75-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against omicron.

Well, the question is, what does that mean? What does that number mean, and the answer is I think while statistically significant, I dont think thats a clinically significant difference.

The reason I say that is because if you look at the original vaccines when they were authorized back in mid-December 2020, there was a two-fold difference between Moderna and Pfizer regarding neutralizing antibodies. Moderna had a two-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies, but it did not translate into a clinically significant difference in terms of protection against severe disease, which is the goal of this vaccine.

In other words, having a two-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies does not necessarily correlate to efficacy.

Offit said his second concern was whether COVID-19 vaccines protect again BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants once Omicron is gone.

Now both companies interestingly presented data after a fourth dose that showed you what the neutralizing antibody titer was to BA.4/BA.5, but they didnt show you what the neutralizing antibody titer to BA.4/BA.5 was if your fourth dose was the ancestral strain, Offit said. They never showed those data.

Thats the obvious thing to do because thats why you have control groups for your experiment, and I just found it odd that neither presented, he added. That bothered me.

Offit also pointed out there were no animal models or neutralizing antibody data that supports this.

FDA Burden of Proof for COVID-19 Vaccines Is Going Down

There are potentially billions of dollars at stake to transform a vaccine from the ancestral strain to a new bivalent strain including these Omicron-specific boosters, without clear and compelling evidence that its actually going to improve the outcome we care about most which is protection against severe disease, ZDoggMD told Offit. And yet it seems like the burden of proof for FDA seems to be going down and down and down instead of being at a level that youre comfortable with.

Offit pointed out that a reformulated booster is a new product and it surprised him so many were willing to go forward with such uncomfortably scant evidence of benefit.

Offit said:

No one would have predicted myocarditis associated with mRNA vaccines. I dont think anybody would have predicted this clotting problem so-called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome. So humble yourself.  If you clearly have evidence of benefit, great, but if you clearly dont have evidence of benefit then say no.

As The Defender reported, the HHS on June 29 announced it had made an advance purchase of 105 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTechs vaccine for $3.2 billion, with options to buy up to 300 million doses.

The Biden administration used repurposed money to buy the additional vaccines, betting on a next generation of boosters without knowing who might need one or how they will perform.

The contract includes a combination of adult and pediatric doses and supplies of re-formulated booster doses that will contain the original Wuhan variant and BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants.

The announcement was made one day after the FDAs VRBPAC voted 19 to 2 to recommend future COVID-19 booster doses be modified to include an Omicron component, and before the FDAs announced it had made recommendations to vaccine makers that their boosters should target Omicron subvariants.

Watch ZDoggMD interview with Dr. Paul Offit here:

07/07/22 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. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.
Pennsylvania Advances Constitutional Amendment on Abortion

Pennsylvanias state Senate on Friday passed a bill to amend the states constitution to declare that there is no constitutional right to taxpayer-funded abortion nor other rights to abortion in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The proposed Senate Bill 106 will now go to the state House for a vote. If it passes the lower chamber, it could eventually go to a state ballot.

Blair County Republican Sen. Judy Ward, the bills sponsor, said the measure simply maintains the status quo.

In 1985, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the state constitution does not require taxpayer funding of abortions, in line with federal precedent.

The amendments proposed in SB 106 would not change the Abortion Control Act, nor does the language ban abortions, Wards office said in a release. Instead, the legislation preserves critical checks and balances and ensures that abortion laws are made by elected officials.

State law regarding such an important issue as this should not be made by unelected judges, Ward said. This legislation guarantees that the job of making abortion policy will stay in the hands of the peoples elected representatives.

Pennsylvanias Democratic state Senate leader, Jay Costa, of the 43rd district, challenged this assertion on Friday.

If thats the truthand this really doesnt have anything to do with boldly restricting the right of bodily autonomyit should be done through the regular legislative process, Costa wrote on Twitter.

He argued that Pennsylvania Republicans were using the constitution as a tool to ensure people did not have the right to an abortion in the state.

What we are doing here today is egregious, he said. The constitution is meant to protect the liberties and rights of Pennsylvanians, not to be used as a tool to enshrine prohibiting rights.

Ward accused opponents of the bill of wielding passionate and misleading rhetoric to convince people the bill will lead to widespread abortion bans.

Nothing could be further from the truth, she added.

Amending the State Constitution

Amendments to the constitution can be proposed in either the House or the Senate. If it passes a simple majority in both chambers, the amendments must be published three months before the next general election for voters to consider.

SB 106 is being proposed ahead of the November midterm elections, with the Pennsylvania governorship on the ballot this year as well as a U.S. Senate seat.

The amendments must again be considered at the next legislative session and if approved a second time by a simple majority in both chambers, they will go to a statewide ballot.
Prices advertised outside of a grocery store in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, on June 15, 2022. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

75 Percent of Poorly Targeted $800 Billion PPP Money Sent to Unintended Recipients: Study

A multi-billion-dollar pandemic-era stimulus program meant chiefly to help small businesses keep staff on the payroll and hire back laid off employees was poorly targeted, with only about one-quarter of the money supporting jobs that would otherwise have disappeared, a new Fed report shows.

Lockdowns and a collapse in consumer spending during the first wave of the pandemic drove fears that Americas small business sector was at risk of a collapse.

This prompted lawmakers in Congress to adopt a series of relief measures, including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which directed roughly $800 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses and other organizations hit by the crisis.

At least 75 percent of the PPP funds were intended to maintain payrolls or hire back laid off employees and the remaining share could be earmarked for overhead costs like rent and utilities.

But was this money well spent? Thats the question researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis sought to answer in their July 6 study, which arrived at an unflattering conclusion.

Was This Money Well Spent?

The study, jointly authored by William Emmons, lead economist in the St. Louis Feds Supervision Division, and Drew Dahl, an economist at the St. Louis Fed, argues that the PPP program was a critical but imperfect policy.

While the PPP did save around 3 million jobs at its peak in the second quarter of 2020, the scheme was badly targeted and rather regressive, with a huge portion of the benefits accruing to unintended recipients.

It was poorly targeted, as almost three-quarters of its benefits went to unintended recipients, including business owners, creditors and suppliers, rather than to workers, the pair of economists wrote.

Due to differences in the typical incomes of those varied constituencies, it also ended up being quite regressive compared with other major COVID-19 relief programs, as it benefited high-income households much more, they added.

The study found that preserving jobs was expensive, estimating that the PPP cost taxpayers around $4 for each $1 of wages and benefits that went to workers in jobs that were saved.

At the same time, $3 out of every $4 that was doled out through the program went to small-business owners, who shared the money with suppliers, banks, and other lenders.

As regards progressivity, which is the idea of a greater share of the benefits going to lower-income households, the PPP scheme compares unfavorably with other major pandemic-era stimulus programs, the study found.

In determining the degree of progressivity, the Fed economists cited an analysis by the American Economic Association (AEA) estimating that 72 percent of PPP funds went to the top 20 percent of households in terms of income.

By comparison, the two other major stimulus programs, one that issued some $680 billion in unemployment insurance payments and another $800 billion in stimulus checksofficially called economic impact paymentswere far less regressive. Between 20 percent and 25 percent of unemployment insurance payments went to the top 20 percent of households by income, while for economic impact payments, it was between 10 percent and 15 percent.

Using a Fire Hose Rather Than a Fire Extinguisher

The AEA study reached a similar conclusion to the St. Louis Fed, finding that the PPPs economic effects were less than hoped.

It preserved only a moderate number of jobs at a high cost per job-year retained and transferred resources overwhelmingly to the highest quintile of households, they wrote.

Still, the AEA study said that these outcomes should not necessarily be seen as failures of the program. The need to get the money out quickly in the face of a lack of administrative infrastructure to finely target distribution of the funds means there was bound to be waste.

Given the time constraints and, more profoundly, the lack of existing administrative infrastructure for overseeing targeted federal support to the entire population of US small businesses at the onset of the pandemic, we strongly suspect that Congress could not have better targeted the Paycheck Protection Program without substantially slowing its delivery, they said in their report (pdf).

The AEA recommends bolstering administrative capacity to better target business support systems and make them more effective in future crises. Specifically, the AEA called for investment in administrative systems for monitoring worker hours and topping up paychecks.

Lacking such systems, the United States chose to administer emergency aid using a fire hose rather than a fire extinguisher, with the predictable consequence that virtually the entire small business sector was doused with money.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with parliamentary leaders in Moscow, on July 7, 2022. (Aleksey Nikolskyi/Sputnik/Kremlin via Reuters)

Putin Warns West: Sanctions Risk Energy Price Spike Catastrophe

LONDONPresident Vladimir Putin warned the West on Friday that continued sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine risked triggering catastrophic energy price rises for consumers around the world.

Putin, who casts the sanctions imposed on Russia as a declaration of economic war, said that Western calls to reduce reliance on Russian energy had made global markets feverish with spikes in oil and gas.

European Union customers have said they want to wean themselves off Russian gas while Group of Seven (G-7) leaders said last month that they wanted to explore price caps on Russian fossil fuel, including oil.

Sanctions restrictions on Russia cause much more damage to those countries that impose them, Putin told the leaders of Russias oil and gas industry, including Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.

Further use of sanctions may lead to even more severewithout exaggeration, even catastrophicconsequences on the global energy market.

Putins Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine and the Wests imposition of the most severe sanctions in modern history have undermined the assumptions of the energy and commodities markets.

Russia is the worlds second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, the worlds largest exporter of natural gas, and the worlds largest wheat exporter. Europe imports about 40 percent of its gas and 30 percent of its oil from Russia.

Global Supply

With prices already rising, the world is bracing for further supply disruption from Russia: The Nord Stream 1 pipeline under the Baltic, a vital supply route to Germany, is due to undergo maintenance from July 11 to July 21.

Gazprom cut capacity through the pipeline to just 40 percent, citing the delayed return of equipment being serviced by Germanys Siemens Energy in Canada due to sanctions.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which carries about 1 percent of global oil, was ordered by a Russian court to suspend operations on Tuesday. Flows continue, but it is unclear for how long.

We know that the Europeans are trying to replace Russian energy resources, Putin said. However, we expect the result of such actions to be an increase in gas prices on the spot market and an increase in the cost of energy resources for end consumers.

In the last few months, Russia has cut off gas flows to Bulgaria, Poland, Finland, Danish supplier Orsted, Dutch firm Gasterra, and Shell for its German contracts, after they all rejected a demand to switch to payments in roubles in response to European sanctions.

Putin said that the Wests economic blitzkrieg had failed but admitted damage had been done to the $1.8 trillion economy.

We should feel confident in ourselves but you should see the risksthe risks are still there, Putin said.

Putin said the situation on the Russian fuel and energy sector remained stable, citing an increase in oil and gas condensate output to 10.7 barrels per day in June.

But he said Russian energy companies should prepare for an EU oil embargo set to come into force around the end of the year.

The government is currently considering options to develop the railway and pipeline infrastructure to supply Russian oil and oil products to friendly countries, Putin said.
Rapper Gunna Again Denied Bond in Gang, Racketeering Case

ATLANTAA judge in Atlanta on Thursday denied bond for rapper Gunna, whos charged with racketeering along with fellow rapper Young Thug and more than two dozen other people.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville had previously denied bond for Gunna, whose given name is Sergio Kitchens, and on Thursday held a hearing on the rappers request to reconsider that decision. Glanville said he worried Kitchens might threaten or intimidate witnesses if he were released ahead of trial.

Prosecutors have said that Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, is a founder of a violent street gang in Atlanta called Young Slime Life and that Kitchens has a management role within the gang. The 88-page indictment filed in May alleges the gang committed multiple murders, shootings and carjackings over roughly a decade and promoted its activities in songs and on social media.

In a statement released on his birthday last month, Kitchens proclaimed his innocence.

Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Don Geary cited several crimes not related to the indictment that he said Kitchens might have been involved in and said the state continues to believe he shouldnt be released on bond.

Steve Sadow, a lawyer for Kitchens, said prosecutors had failed to make any specific allegations or produce any evidence to show that his client is a threat to witnesses. Kitchens and his parents are willing to put up their property as collateral and Kitchens would agree to be on house arrest with electronic monitoring, Sadow said.

The only thing that Mr. Kitchens wants under these circumstances is to be released, to be in his home, to be able to produce music and meet with counsel to prepare for trial in this case, Sadow said.

Glanville noted that he has not granted bond for any of the people charged in the indictment. He said he wants to get the case tried as quickly as possible. It is currently set for trial in January.

Prosecutors also asked in a court filing Tuesday that they be allowed to exclude contact information and home addresses of their witnesses from information provided to defense attorneys and to restrict information regarding statements by cooperating gang members until 30 days before trial. If they are required to provide the names and contact information for all witnesses, they ask that defense attorneys not be allowed to share the witness lists with their clients, clients family members, or anyone else.

Prosecutors said they have significant safety concerns for their witnesses based on threats and violence from gang members.

Glanville on Wednesday issued a temporary order instructing defense attorneys to withhold contact information of prosecution witnesses from their clients. He said he will modify the order after hearing more evidence from prosecutors.
Ranking member Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) speaks at a hearing with the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on Nov. 16, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Republicans Raise Alarm Over New State Department Woke Czar

Republican lawmakers are calling for an inquiry into a new State Department equity position they are calling a woke czar.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are leading the charge against President Joe Bidens appointment last month of Desiree Cormier Smith as the first special representative for the State Departments Equity Action Plan.

The Special Representative position continues the Biden Administrations prioritization of a radical, progressive agenda the American people consistently reject, the letter said. Committee Republicans question the necessity of this new position. Further, we are concerned about wasting taxpayer dollars on an undefined role which categorizes and further divides Americans instead of focusing on the Departments mission to protect and promote U.S. security, prosperity, and democratic values and shape an international environment in which all Americans can thrive.

The Special Representative is the latest evidence the Biden Administration is willing to devote time, funding, and other government resources to enact divisive policies, they added.

The State Department said in its announcement that Smith would help ensure that racial equity and support for underserved communities remains central to our foreign policy.

In a State Department video in the rollout for her position, Smith pointed to Bidens new whole of government approach to advancing equity by centering it in our foreign policy.

Republicans argued that focus is a distraction from bigger national security goals and is actually just a vehicle for advancing a radical, progressive agenda.

The letter points to reports that Smith would also be tasked with dealing with disinformation, an effort that has landed federal agencies in hot water in recent months.

The lawmakers pointed to the Department of Homeland Securitys new Disinformation Governance Board, which has been the subject of much pushback and saw its leader ousted after her controversial social media videos surfaced.

They also requested documents, communications, procedures, and more related to the position.

The Special Representative makes the United States the global mouthpiece for divisive ideologies rather than democracy, equality, and freedom, the letter said. As the American people struggle under the Biden Administrations domestic and foreign policy, Committee Republicans question the value and wisdom of continuing to pursue an agenda grounded in waste and division. Committee Republicans are concerned with the Biden Administrations emphasis on equity, whichby the Administrations highest-ranked officials own admissionsoften runs contrary to the American ideal of equality.

Democrats welcomed the new role after Smiths appointment was announced in June.

We applaud the Biden administrations creation of the new position of Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice as a positive step forward in our continued efforts to advance a freer, more just, and inclusive global society, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J), who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a joint statement. The appointment will play a critical role in streamlining our efforts to secure human rights and fight inequality around the world. As we called for in our letters to Senate and House Appropriations Committees last year, the new position reflects the strength of our nations commitment to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion in international affairs.

As we face the rise of authoritarian regimes pushing racist rhetoric, discriminatory laws, and other fear-based tactics to undermine basic human rights and governance, the Special Representative will work to ensure that our policy and programs promote the safety, security, and prosperity of marginalized communities worldwide, they added.

The State Department did not reply to request for comment in time for publication.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi at the G-20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on July 8, 2022. (Willy Kurniawan/Pool via Reuters)

Russias Lavrov Walks out of G-20 as West Denounces Ukraine War

NUSA DUA, IndonesiaGroup of Twenty (G-20) foreign ministers called for an end to the war and grain blockade in Ukraine on Friday, as Russias top diplomat walked out of a meeting and denounced the West for frenzied criticism and squandering a chance to tackle global economic problems.

Russias invasion of Ukraine and its impact on food security and energy dominated the closed-door gathering on the Indonesian island of Bali, which ended with no joint statement, and no announcements of any agreements being reached.

The forum was the first face-to-face meeting between Russia and the fiercest critics of its war.

The spotlight was firmly on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose arrival at Fridays meeting was met by shouts of When will you stop the war and Why dont you stop the war as he was greeted by Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.

Lavrov emerged from the first session with a stiff rebuke of Western counterparts who he said strayed almost immediately from the topics of discussion to the frenzied criticism of the Russian Federation.

Aggressors, invaders, occupierswe heard a lot of things today, Lavrov told reporters.

In the following session, Lavrov read a statement then left, without hearing others, according to the European Unions foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who described the action as not very respectful.

Lavrov had on Thursday attended a welcome reception where no Group of Seven (G-7) ministers were present.

Russia calls the war a special military operation to degrade the Ukrainian military and root out people it calls dangerous nationalists.

Ukraine and its Western backers say Russia is engaged in an imperial-style land grab with no justification for its invasion.

Forceful Remarks

This was not a warm bath for Lavrov, said a Western official who attended the meeting, adding there were some very forceful remarks against Russias invasion and a consensus for the need to end its blockade of Ukrainian grain exports.

Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke directly with each other while in the meeting room, said Indonesias Retno, who chaired the forum. She did not say what they discussed.

Blinken on the sidelines of the meeting said challenges from rising food and energy costs had been dramatically exacerbated by Russian aggression.

He told delegates that for the G-20 to stay relevant, it must hold Russia accountable, according to a senior State Department official.

Ukraine, the worlds fourth-largest grain exporter, has struggled to export goods, with many of its ports blocked as war rages along its southern coast.

Lavrov told reporters later that Russia was ready to negotiate with Ukraine and Turkey about grain, but it is unclear when such talks might take place.

Meetings were overshadowed by the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which Blinken described as profoundly disturbing, expressing shock over the death of a leader with great vision.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters Abe was a giant on the world stage with a legacy of global impact.

Hunger Games

Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba addressed the meeting virtually, accusing Russia of playing hunger games through its blockade of Ukraines Black Sea port.

We have no right to allow Russia to further blackmail the world through high energy prices, hunger, and security threats, he said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said earlier that Beijing opposed any act of hyping up bloc confrontation and creating a new Cold War.

He had talks with Wong on Friday in the first such meeting between China and Australia in three years, which Wong described as an important first step towards stabilizing relations.

Ties have soured over claims of foreign interference and retaliatory trade sanctions.

In closing remarks, Indonesias Retno said the G-20 gathering showed an urgent need to strengthen multilateralism and it was important that despite global challenges, foreign ministers could still meet in the same room.

The decision of members and invitees to attend the meeting in person are not to be taken lightly, she said.

They chose to make an extra effort to be here.

By Stanley Widianto and David Brunnstrom
Service members of pro-Russian troops stand next to a howitzer during an exhibition of Ukrainian army hardware and weapons left in the city after its withdrawal during the Ukraine-Russia conflict, in Lysychansk, Luhansk Region, Ukraine, on July 8, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Russia Threatens Broad Ukraine Offensive

KYIVUkrainian defenders battled on Saturday to contain Russian forces along several fronts, officials said, as the United States urged China to align itself with the West in opposing the invasion following an ill-tempered G20 meeting.

A missile strike on the northeastern city of Kharkiv wounded three civilians, its governor said, though Russias main attacks appeared focused southeast of there in Luhansk and Donetsk.

Those two provinces, swathes of which were held by pro-Russian separatists before the conflict began in February, comprise the eastern industrial region of the Donbass.

Ukrainian officials reported strikes in both on Saturday, while Britains Ministry of Defence said Moscow was assembling reserve forces from across Russia near Ukraine.

Donetsk regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on the Telegram messaging service that a Russian missile had struck Druzhkivka, a town behind the front line.

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Telegram that Russian forces were firing along the entire front line, though a subsequent Ukrainian counter-attack that hit weapons and ammunition stores had forced Moscow to halt its offensive.

Russia, which claimed control over all of Luhansk province last weekend, denies targeting civilians.

On Friday, Ukraine had pleaded for more of the high-end weapons from the West that Kyiv claimed had enabled it to slow Russias advance.

Hours later, President Joe Biden signed a weapons package for Ukraine worth up to $400 million, including four additional high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the armaments were priority needs. It is what helps us press on the enemy, he said on Twitter.

In reaction, the Russian embassy in Washington said the United States wanted to prolong the conflict at all costs.

Local residents look on as smoke rises after strikes during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in Donetsk, Ukraine, on July 7, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

China-US Frictions

On Saturday U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the international community to join forces to condemn Russian aggression, told journalists he had raised concerns with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi over Beijings alignment with Moscow.

The pair held over five hours of talks on the sidelines of the G20 gathering of foreign ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali. On Friday, Russias Sergei Lavrov had walked out of a meeting there, denouncing the West for its frenzied criticism.

The Chinese foreign ministry said, without giving details, that Wang and Blinken had exchanged views on the Ukraine issue.

Shortly before the Russian invasion, Beijing and Moscow announced a no limits partnership.

Kharkivs Governor Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram that, as well as the missile strike, fighters had repulsed two Russian attacks near Dementiivka, a town situated between the city and the border with Russia.

Russias defense ministry said its forces hit two bases of foreign mercenaries deployed near Kharkiv.

Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov also said two Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft had been shot down in the southern Mykolaiv region, and that it had destroyed ammunition depots there and in the eastern regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk.

Russian-backed forces on the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR) said three people died and 17 were wounded there in the past 24 hours as Ukrainian forces shelled 10 locations.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts.

Sanctions Plea

Following Fridays testy G20 exchanges, President Vladimir Putin also signaled that the Kremlin was in no mood for compromise, saying sanctions against Russia risked causing catastrophic energy price rises.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with parliamentary leaders in Moscow, Russia, on July 7, 2022. (Aleksey Nikolskyi/Sputnik/Kremlin via Reuters)

Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Saturday that sanctions were working, and echoed calls for more deliveries of high-precision Western weapons.

Russias ambassador to Britain, Andrei Kelin, on Friday offered little prospect of a pullback from parts of Ukraine under Russian control and said Russian troops would capture the rest of Donbass.

By Pavel Polityuk
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a welcoming ceremony at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of State in Qingdao on June 10, 2018. (Sergei Guneyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Russian Energy a Dangerous Opportunity for China Amid Ukraine War: Experts

Chinas communist leadership is pursuing opportunities to increase imports of Russian coal, oil, and gas amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. Experts say the move could help stabilize Chinas continuing energy woes, but could also backfire by drawing international sanctions on itself.

With Western countries weighing stricter sanctions on Russian energy exports in the months ahead, the question of how Beijing may react to the international ire against Russia is on many minds. It was a topic of discussion for a roundtable of foreign policy experts on July 8 at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council, a foreign-policy-oriented think tank.

With Russia becoming Chinas top crude oil provider, energy ties between the two countries remain complex, as Beijings state-owned energy companies have also suspended some energy projects in Russia. Still, given the apparent trade benefits from Russias continued isolation on the world stage, some wonder whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might desire to prolong the situation.

Danger and Opportunity Await China in Russia

Among the speakers at the Atlantic Council event was Erica Downs, senior research scholar for the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

Russia is one of Chinas most important energy partners, Downs said.

She explained that China was the largest importer of Russian coal, natural gas, and oil, and had increased its intake over the last year despite Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Indeed, the communist regime doubled its liquefied natural gas imports from Russia in February over a year earlier, increasing its imports of Russian oil even as demand fell. As early as November of 2021, China accounted for almost half of all global crude oil imports from Russia, and that trend does not show signs of slowing.

Downs said that Chinas motivation was multifaceted. On one hand, the CCP was capitalizing on lower prices due to the lack of a market elsewhere in the world, she said, while on the other, the regime was desperately trying to improve its energy security following historic rolling blackouts last year that forced the regime to close factories for lack of power.

Notably, Downs also said that the land-based pipelines coming into China from Russia circumvented maritime chokepoints that could be targeted in the event China was sanctioned by the international community.

The war in Ukraine certainly offers an opportunity to China, as well as presents a little bit of danger, Downs said.

Its allowed China to buy a lot of Russian fossil fuels on the cheap.

Downs noted that the war also provided the CCP with the advantage of being able to negotiate its ties with Russia from a position of strength, given Russias inability to successfully engage the market elsewhere. Still, she said, Chinese companies remain skittish about running afoul of international sanctions despite the CCPs rhetoric questioning the legitimacy of the sanctions.

Seismic Impact Coming for Global Energy Market

Though Chinas communist rulership appeared ready to evade the hardships of last years energy scarcity, some believed the worst was yet to come for the global community.

Russias mass attack on Ukraine is a major geopolitical event, obviously, but it will have a seismic impact on the global oil and gas economy, said Edward Chow, senior associate for the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a security-focused think tank.

Its a little early to be completely sure about what the long-term impact will be. My feeling is that this may be bigger than the two price shocks of the 1970s.

Chows remarks referenced the five-month oil embargo on the West led by Saudi Arabia beginning in 1973. That embargo, though brief, had devastating consequences on the American oil supply, quadrupling U.S. gas prices and driving shortages across the nation. The problems started by that crisis then fed into the oil shock of 1979, when markets overreacted to the loss of oil production from Iran, driving increased prices and shortages which ultimately sparked a long-term global recession.

This will play out over a long period of time, he said.

Given that long time frame, Chow said the complexity of China and Russias relationship would have the opportunity to evolveor fracturein interesting ways, particularly given Chinas formerly close ties with Ukraine.

Before Russia invaded its neighbor, China had signed a treaty vowing to protect Ukraine from aggression by nuclear powers. The regime even purchased its first aircraft carrier from Ukraine in 1998.

China was Ukraines largest trading partner, Chow said. Chinese trade with Ukraine was greater than German trade with Ukraine, greater than Polish trade with Ukraine.

The war will only make it a lot more complicated going forward.

The Growing Shadow of Sino-Russian Authoritarianism

American intelligence leaders have repeatedly said the partnership between the CCP and the Kremlin will only continue to grow in the coming decade. Though there may have been some doubts following the announcement of a no limits partnership between the two regimes during an in-person meeting of Xi and Putin in February, the commitment of either party to the other has thus far proved unshakable. Indeed, that statement and the unlimited nature of the partnership were again reaffirmed in April.

Beyond that, the CCP allegedly was briefed about Putins invasion plans ahead of time and requested that the war in Ukraine be postponed until the conclusion of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The Biden administration went so far as to engage in hours-long talks with CCP officials over the latters consideration to provide military support to Russias war effort. Additionally, a report from Ukraine, likely compiled by a friendly Western nation, claimed that China-based hackers conducted a massive cyber campaign against critical Ukrainian civilian and military infrastructureincluding attacks on nuclear assetsthe day before Russias invasion.

NATO member nations have called on China to rebuff Russia and refrain from supporting its war effort, though it is unclear to what extent the West is willing to pressure Beijing on its economic ties to Moscow amid increased global tensions.
A man (C) is detained near the site of gunshots in Nara, western Japan, on July 8, 2022. (Kyodo News via AP)

Shinzo Abes Murder Suspect Reveals Motive of His Attack

The man who allegedly shot dead former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday had a military background but denied that his motive was related to Abes political beliefs.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, was unemployed and had served in the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) for three years until 2005, according to police.

He was arrested in the Japanese city of Nara where he allegedly shot Abe, who was delivering a campaign speech ahead of the July 10 upper house election.

Yamagami, when apprehended, admitted his intention to kill Abe whom he believed was connected to a religious organization that had bankrupted his family, The Asahi Shimbun reported, citing investigative sources.

My family joined that religion and our life became harder after donating money to the organization, Yamagami was quoted as saying by the sources.

The suspect told investigators that he initially targeted the organizations leader, but it was difficult, so he decided to change target.

I took aim at Abe since I believed that he was tied [to the organization]. I wanted to kill him, he said. Yamagami also admitted that he attempted to make explosives.

An unnamed source, who was identified as Yamagamis relative in the report, said the suspects family fell apart because of the religious group, and that he was convinced that Yamagami suffered damage from the organization.

The suspect used a handmade gun measuring 40 centimeters in length and 20 centimeters in height. Police also found similar guns, explosives, and cylindrical objects during searches at Yamagamis apartment in Nara.

Yamagami had previously worked as a dispatched staff worker for multiple companies after resigning from MSDF. He started working at a manufacturing company in the Kansai region in 2020 but left in May for health reasons.

Abes Murder

Abe, Japans longest-serving prime minister, was delivering a speech for a Liberal Democratic Party of Japan candidates election campaign ahead of upcoming elections when, at around 11:30 a.m., two shots rang out.

In this image from a video, Japans former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes a campaign speech in Nara, western Japan shortly before he was shot on July 8, 2022. (Kyodo News via AP)

A reporter for public broadcaster NHK, who was at the scene, said she heard what sounded like two consecutive gunshots and then saw Abe bleeding.

Footage aired by the station captured the moment he fell on the street, after which several security guards ran toward him. He was holding his chest.

The 67-year-old former prime minister was airlifted to a hospital after the shooting and later pronounced dead.

Japans former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (C) falls on the ground in Nara, western Japan, on July 8, 2022. (Kyodo News via AP)

Police reported that Abe died as a result of blood loss. An autopsy revealed that Abe had been shot twice in the upper left arm and neck, as well as another neck wound, the cause of which was unknown, Kyodo News reported.

Speaking before Abes death was announced, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the shooting.

This attack is an act of brutality that happened during the electionsthe very foundation of our democracyand is absolutely unforgivable, he said.

Abe served as Japans Prime Minister and as the president of Japans Liberal Democratic Party from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020.

His latest term was due to end in September 2021 but he resigned in August 2020, citing concerns over his health. He later shared that he had a relapse of ulcerative colitis, an intestinal disease.

Mimi Nguyen Ly and Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.
We have a dire drug problem in America. About 100 thousand people will die this year from a drug overdose, despite 50 years of the War on Drugs. So whats gone wrong and how do we solve it? Our two guests have answers, but very different ones.

Neil Woods spent 14 years undercover in the UK, infiltrating and bringing down drug gangs until it changed his outlook. Now hes written two books on why he thinks legalization is the only way forward.

Derek Maltz, former head of Special Operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, says drugs like Fentanyl have totally changed the landscape. Therefore, we need to update our thinking about the problem and be a lot smarter in how we fight drugs at the source.

* Click the Save button below the video to access it later on My List.

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The sign for Wall Street with U.S. flags outside the New York Stock Exchange on June 16, 2022. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images)

Startup Backed by Billionaire Investors on Crusade Against Climate Investing, Stakeholder Capitalism

A few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine an activist hedge fund gaining three board seats at Americas largest oil and gas company. A fledgling fund, Engine No. 1, with just 0.02 percent ownership in ExxonMobil, voted out three board members at the oil giant in 2021, scoring a victory for the climate change movement.

The fund had backing from big three institutional investment firms BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street.

Exxon wasnt the only target of shareholder activism. The worlds largest oil producers, such as Shell, Chevron, and BP, have all faced shareholder revolts from activist investors who urged them to address climate change.

However, the actions of these investors have crippled U.S. oil and gas production, contributing to the current energy crisis, according to Vivek Ramaswamy and Anson Frericks, co-founders of Strive, an Ohio-based asset management firm.

Launched in May, Strive says it wants to replace the voices of large investment firms in the U.S. economy with those of everyday citizens. The founders claim that large fund managers breach their fiduciary duties by placing too much emphasis on climate change and stakeholder capitalism rather than higher returns.

Among Strives notable backers are billionaire investors Bill Ackman and Peter Thiel.

US Energy Crisis

On Independence Day, the startup announced that it launched a five-week national education campaign to draw attention to the American energy crisis and how U.S. citizens are unknowingly contributing to the problem through their investment accounts.

Americans do not just vote in November at the polls, they vote every day with how they choose to allocate their investment dollars. Today their money is often used by large asset managers to erode U.S. energy independence and increase their own energy bills, the company said in a statement.

The founders of the firm believe that every day firefighters, police officers, teachers, doctors, and small-business owners funnel their money into these large asset managers through their retirement funds. But the shareholder voting and engagement behaviors of these investment funds in the past few years have pressured U.S. energy companies to produce less oil and natural gas in the United States, causing high energy prices, they said.

Our expectation from this campaign is to make the energy sector more successful in the United States, Frericks told The Epoch Times.

He criticized BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street for investing based on ESG (environmental, social, and governance) standards that may be in conflict with the interests of their clients.

Most big European and U.S. oil companies have net-zero targets for 2050, as well as interim emissions-reduction goals. However, activist investors find these proposals to be unambitious. Thus, they use their voting powers to push corporations to adopt more stringent climate change goals that are in line with the Paris Agreement.

Since losing board seats to activist investors, Exxon has cut long-term production plans, maintaining oil output at its lowest level in two decades, according to Strives founders.

The same large asset managers who pressure U.S. companies to adopt climate change strategies by reducing oil and gas production stay notably silent as their Chinese portfolio companies behave in the opposite manner, Ramaswamy said in the statement. American citizens are left holding the bag twice, both as investors and as consumers at the pump.

Vivek Ramaswamy, co-founder of Strive during an interview in Orlando, Fla., on March 8, 2022. (Tal Atzmon/The Epoch Times)

In the coming weeks, Strive plans to promote a series of digital videos to raise awareness of the domestic energy crisis. As part of the education campaign, Ramaswamy will also tour the United States for the next five weeks, speaking to Americans about the significance of regaining energy independence.

Depoliticized Investment

The big three asset managers, which hold nearly 20 percent of the outstanding shares of the S&P 500, have made substantial climate pledges during the past few years, according to an article by Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.

They manage collectively about $20 trillion worth of assets and wield enormous power on corporate boards because of their voting rights, according to Frericks.

This is problematic, he says, since these three asset managers are all promoting the same ideology, namely stakeholder capitalism and ESG.

The World Economic Forum promotes stakeholder capitalism as a better system in which corporations seek long-term value creation by considering the requirements of all its stakeholders and society at large. However, opponents criticize these trends, stating that theyre politicizing investment decisions and creating an expensive deviation from basic financial investing principles.

We try to bring new ideas, diversity of thought, diversity of opinion because we think there are 100 to 150 million American investors who want a depoliticized asset management company, Frericks said. Our mission is to advance excellence over politics in boardrooms across America.

As part of the education campaign, Ramaswamy will also present shareholder resolutions at the EnerCom Denver, a major energy investment conference in August, with the goal of rectifying damage inflicted on the oil and gas sector by large asset managers.

Strive has raised $20 million from venture capitalists to help hire staff and build investment products. The first fund of the company will be launched in the third quarter of this year.

Similar to those offered by Blackrock, State Street, and Vanguard, the business is developing large, predominantly passive investment products, according to Frericks.

Weve been incredibly humbled by the outpouring of support weve received, he said, citing investors and prospective employees in particular.

Vanguard and State Street didnt respond to a comment request from The Epoch Times.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink attends a session at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23, 2020. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

BlackRock, the worlds biggest investment manager with more than $10 trillion in assets, declined to comment, but referred to its proxy vote bulletin for Exxon that explained the asset managers position at last years annual meeting.

Over the past several years, we have intensified our focus with the company on its long-term strategy, and Exxons underperformance relative to both its peers and the S&P 500 over the last five years, the fund manager said.

In our vote bulletin explaining our vote at last years annual meeting, we emphasized our prevailing view that the risks of climate change and the transition to a lower carbon economy present material regulatory, reputational, and legal risks to companies that may significantly impair their financial position and ability to remain competitive going forward.

Rising Backlash

The energy crisis is fueling a backlash against big asset management firms.

In February, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board criticized Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, for pressuring public companies and their executives.

As Americans have poured savings into exchange-traded and mutual funds, index providers have become the de facto largest shareholders of public companies, the editorial board wrote.

The publisher criticized the investment firm for using its market power for political purposes.

Fink has repeatedly said that climate risk is investment risk.

Every company and every industry will be transformed by the transition to a net zero world, he wrote in his most recent letter to company CEOs. The question is, will you lead, or will you be led?
Steve Bannons DC Home Swarmed by Armed Police After Swatting Attempt

The Washington D.C. home of former White House adviser Steve Bannon was reportedly swatted on Friday after police received a false report claiming there was a shooting inside the residence.

Jeffery Carroll, assistant police chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, told reporters at a press briefing that authorities received an emergency call on July 8 at about 10:45 a.m. involving a shooting in the 200 block of A Street Northeast.

When officers arrived on the scene, they did not observe any outward indications that a shooting did occur, Carroll said, adding that the area, which is near the U.S. Supreme Court building and the U.S. Capitol, was shut down for around an hour out of precaution.

It was learned that there was no incident inside, there was no shooting that occurred, it appeared to be a false 911 call that occurred outside the location, the assistant police chief said. So, at this time, there is no threat, there is no danger right here in the area.

Authorities told The Washington Post that they encountered someone who claimed to be armed and appeared to be having a mental breakdown, but upon arrival, no weapon or wounded individuals were located.

A spokeswoman for the police department later said they received a 911 call that reported an armed person was inside the rowhouse and had shot someone.

However, police quickly determined the call appears to have been a swatting attempt, or an incident when someone calls a crisis hotline to prank police of an emergency in order to have a SWAT, or an emergency police operation, descend on an individual or a particular address.

Bannon was later seen in a video re-entering his home. It is not believed the 68-year-old former adviser of President Donald Trump was home at the time of the hoax call and police operation.

The police were terrific, Bannon told NBC News as he was seen walking up the stairs of the rowhouse. It is unclear if the caller knew it was Bannons residence.

Carroll confirmed during the briefing that there were people inside the home and responding officers made contact as they walked through the house to make certain everyone was safe.

Obviously, they were a little bit shocked, but  they understood why we were there, the chief assistant said.

Bannon served as the White House chief strategist during the first seven months of the Trump administration.

From NTD News
Supreme Court Rightly Restored Limits on Executive Agencies

Commentary

During the final weeks of the U.S. Supreme Courts 2022 term, the justices issued some truly historic rulings. In doing so, the court went a long way toward reestablishing itself as a coequal branch of government designed to uphold individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution against illegal government restrictions, while defending the separation of powers, laid out in the Constitution, among the three branches of the federal government and between the federal government and the states.

The cases decided by the court included the presidents power to set immigration policy, state and local governments discrimination against expressions of religious faith, limits on gun rights, and the federal guarantee of access to abortions, among numerous other issues.

As important as the rulings in this wide range of cases are, the decision in West Virginia v. EPA is arguably the most consequential and far-reaching from an economic standpoint, and in regard to the Constitutions separation and delegation of powers.

The 63 decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) attempt to use an obscure provision of the Clean Air Act to usurp states longstanding authority to manage their electric power grids doesnt pass constitutional muster. In its 2015 Clean Power Plan, the EPA tried to force states to close their coal plants, limit the use of natural gas, and expand wind and solar generation in order to decarbonize Americas power supply.

The courts majority held that Congress never gave the EPA the far-reaching authority necessary to ban fossil fuel use for electricity to limit carbon dioxide emissions.

The Constitution delegates to Congress alone the power to regulate interstate commerce. Unelected bureaucrats may not usurp that power by addressing major questions, meaning policies that are politically and economically significant, without clear direction from Congress. Carbon dioxide is ubiquitous, and sharply limiting it by restructuring the nations power grid is a major undertaking that would impose trillions of dollars in costs, affect millions of jobs, and disrupt every sector of the economy. Redesigning the nations power grid, as the EPA attempted to do, is a major policy undertaking that Congress didnt delegate to the agency.

Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible solution to the crisis of the day, Roberts wrote (pdf). But it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme.  A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body.

Not only did the courts majority find Congress never explicitly granted the EPA the kind of power it claimed, but Congress had also taken up proposals to limit carbon dioxide emissions on several occasions and chose not to enact them, Roberts noted.

At bottom, the Clean Power Plan essentially adopted a cap-and-trade scheme, or set of state cap-and-trade schemes, for carbon, he wrote. Congress, however, has consistently rejected proposals to amend the Clean Air Act to create such a program.  It has also declined to enact similar measures, such as a carbon tax.

Justice Neil Gorsuchs concurring opinion expanded on Robertss line of reasoning. Congresss choice not to act on an issue a particular presidential administration may think is important isnt a grant to executive agencies to undertake action on their own.

According to Gorsuch: When Congress seems slow to solve problems, it may be only natural that those in the Executive Branch might seek to take matters into their own hands. But the Constitution does not authorize agencies to use pen-and-phone regulations as substitutes for laws passed by the peoples representatives. In our Republic, [i]t is the peculiar province of the legislature to prescribe general rules for the government of society.

Commenting on the ruling, S.T. Karnick, a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute, said: The Supreme Court rightly stayed in its lane in this case, as the Trump Court has increasingly been doing, restoring the separation of powers that is necessary to avert tyranny while leaving policy questions to Congress.  Regardless of ones opinion of the policy the rule was meant to establish, the EPA had no authority to impose it.

The courts ruling in West Virginia v. EPA has implications far beyond the EPAs desire to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The courts reasoning also limits the ability of Cabinet departments, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Transportation, as well as executive branch agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. If the EPA, which is charged with protecting the environment, cant restructure the economy to limit greenhouse gas emissions, neither can other departments or agencies for which protecting the environment is at best tangential to their areas of authority.

The courts ruling also goes beyond the issue of climate change. With this decision, the court has effectively informed federal agencies that the separation of powers doctrine is alive and well, and Congress alone makes law. Going forward, Cabinet departments and executive agencies will have to exercise appropriate restraint and humility when regulating, strictly adhering to their mission and the letter of the laws passed by Congress. If executive agencies enact policies that involve major questions, courts will no longer necessarily defer to their judgments about whether a particular rule or policy is justified or sanctioned by Congress.

There remains much to do to halt dangerous efforts to end fossil fuel use and restructure the economy to far-left elitists liking. However, the Supreme Courts decision in West Virginia v. EPA is a good start in limiting the vast overreach that executive agencies have wrought in recent decades.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Suspects Distinctive Facial Tattoos Lead to Murder Arrest

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif.A suspects distinctive facial tattoos helped police arrest him on suspicion of shooting a man to death inside a camping trailer in North Hollywood, authorities said Saturday.

Officers responding at about 2:20 p.m. Friday to an ambulance shooting call at Vanowen Street and Camellia Avenue located a man inside a camper trailer suffering from a gunshot wound. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) reported.

Several witnesses identified the suspect by name and his distinctive facial tattoos during an investigation that also revealed he left the scene in a white Toyota Camry, police said. The Camry was located shortly afterward in the 7000 block of Worster Avenue and impounded.

Police later received a radio call at about 3 a.m. Saturday of a battery suspect at a convenience store in the area of Whitsett Avenue and Victory Boulevard. That suspect was arrested on suspicion of battery and brought to the LAPDs North Hollywood station, where his distinctive facial tattoos were observed and recognized, police said.

LAPD Valley Bureau homicide detectives responded to the North Hollywood station and identified Ricardo Martinez, 25, of North Hollywood as the suspect in the camper trailer shooting.

Martinez was arrested on suspicion of murder and booked at the Van Nuys Jail, where he was being held in lieu of $2,185,000 bail.

The LAPDs Valley Bureau homicide unit urged anyone with information about the shooting to call them at 818-374-9550 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.
Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally at the I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Neb., on May 1, 2022. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Trump Calls for Overturning Wisconsin Results in 2020 Election to the Actual Winner

The comments come after the states supreme court ruled ballots boxes to be illegal

Former U.S. President Donald Trump is calling for the 2020 Wisconsin election results to be overturned a day after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled ballots dropboxes to be illegal.

Other States are looking at, and studying, the amazing Wisconsin Supreme Court decision declaring Ballot Boxes ILLEGAL, and that decision includes the 2020 Presidential Election, wrote the former president on Truth Social on July 9, referring to himself as the winner in Wisconsin during the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Speaker Robin Vos has a decision to make! Does Wisconsin RECLAIM the Electors, turn over the Election to the actual winner (by a lot!), or sit back and do nothing as our Country continues to go to HELL? Trump said, urging Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to decertify Bidens 2020 win in Wisconsin.

According to the U.S. National Archives, Joe Biden received 20,682 more votes than Trump in Wisconsin, or about 0.6 percentage points; a total of 3.2 million votes were cast in the state in 2020.

Ballot Boxes

Trumps comments came a day after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the use of ballot drop boxeswhich was allowed under guidelines issued by the Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) during the 2020 electionto be illegal in a 43 decision.

We hold the documents are invalid because ballot drop boxes are illegal under Wisconsin statutes, Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote in the Wisconsin Supreme Courts majority opinion, referring to WECs guidelines issued in March (pdf) and again in August (pdf) 2020 allowing election administrators to use drop boxes.

An absentee ballot must be returned by mail or the voter must personally deliver it to the municipal clerk at the clerks office or a designated alternate site, Bradley added.

However, these now-illegal ballot drop boxes were used across the state in the 2020 election.

According to the Supreme Court ruling, WEC administrator Megan Wolfe is aware of 528 ballot drop boxes utilized for the fall 2020 election. This number increased to 570 in the 2021 election, spanning 66 of Wisconsins 72 counties, the ruling states.

Zuckerbucks

In addition to problems with the ballot boxes, Trump alleged that investments made by Meta (formerly Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the 2020 election were a part of a bribery campaign that tilted the election results in favor of Joe Biden.

Everybody knows what went on with the $417,000,000 that little Mark Zuckerberg INVESTED in the corrupt 2020 Presidential Election, Trump said. He called Zuckerbergs funding election bribery earlier this year.

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated to election offices across the country that funded official government vote counts during the 2020 elections. The couple made $419.5 million in donations to nonprofits, $350 million of which went to the Safe Elections Project of the left-wing Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL).

Michael Gableman, a special investigator heading the Office of the Special Counsel in Wisconsin, found that more than 200 jurisdictions in Wisconsin received Zuckerbucks from CTCL during the 2020 election, totaling more than $9 million.

Vos designated Gableman to investigate alleged election fraud during the 2020 election. Gableman issued an interim report in March 2022.

Gableman found CTCLs grants in Wisconsin in the 2020 election to have facially violated Wisconsin law prohibiting election bribery and contributed to partisan efforts such as the Get Out the Vote initiative run by the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

An adviser that CTCL sent to Green Bay, Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein, allegedly allowed unqualified individuals to help administer the 2020 election and offered assistance with curing ballots, according to local clerk Kris Teske, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Another adviser that CTCL made available to Green Bay was from the left-leaning think tank Brennan Center for Justice, which states that it supports Democratic legal and election causes, according to The Journal.

Gablemans investigation is currently on pause amid several legal battles.

Nursing Home Scandal

The former president cited alleged fraud that occurred statewide in nursing homes in calling for overturning the 2020 election result in Wisconsin, referring to the Wisconsin Nursing Home Scandal where close to 100% of the residents voted (always is MUCH lower number), referencing Gablemans March 2022 report.

Gablemans report found rampant fraud and abuse statewide in Wisconsin nursing homes and other residential facilities during the 2020 election.

The report found that nursing home residents were illegally assisted with marking their ballots by nursing home staff and administrators; absentee ballots for residents were illegally handled by facility staff and Administrators; resident absentee ballots were illegally witnessed by nursing home staff and administrators; suspected forger of resident signatures by nursing home staff and Administrators, and improbably high voting rates for residents at nursing homes.

In addition, ballots were cast by residents who were were unaware of their surroundings, with whom they are speaking at any given time, or what year it is, and whose right to vote had been taken away by court order because they have been adjudicated as mentally incompetent, according to Gablemans report.

These acts, the report says, resulted in a 100 percent voting rate in many nursing homes during the 2020 election. It attributed the alleged fraud to unlawful acts by WEC members and staff.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a March 1 statement that Gablemans report was an attempt to overturn the will of the voters.

WEC administrator Meagan Wolfe said in a statement, The integrity of the November 2020 election, and of the WEC, has been shown time, and time again, through court cases and previous investigations.

Contrary to Law and Fraudulent

Brave American Patriots already have a Resolution on the Floor! the former president added, referring to a resolution (AJR120) currently on the floor in the Wisconsin State Assembly that deems the certification of the 2020 election was contrary to law and fradulent.

The former president is not the only one stating that the 2020 election result was not valid. In June, the Texas GOP passed a resolution during its biennial party conference declaring Biden to be not legitimately elected. Arizonas Maricopa County and Wisconsins Langlade County have followed suit.

According to the U.S. National Archives, Joe Biden received 306 electoral votes in the 2020 election and Donald Trump received 232 electoral votes. Trump and conservative figures across the country immediately challenged the results, alleging that substantial fraud influenced the 2020 election.

Democrats and mainstream media have vociferously denied such allegations, claiming them to be unfounded.

Its now up to Robin Vos to do what everybody knows must be done. We need FAIR and HONEST Elections in our Country, Trump said.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace speaking to new recruits to the Ukranian army who are being trained by the UK armed forces personnel at a military base near Manchester on July 7, 2022. (Louis Wood/The Sun via PA media)

UK Defence Chief Says Support for Ukraine Wont Finish With Johnsons Departure

The UKs Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the UK will continue its support for Ukraine, no matter who the next prime minister is.

It comes as a Ukrainian lawmaker said people are very much concerned about whether or not the UKs next leader will offer the same level of vocal support following the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

In an interview broadcast on Saturday on GBNews, Wallace said the UK is full square behind Ukraine.

The assistance to Ukraine we give is not just one person, he said, not me, not the prime minister, its the whole effort.

Wallace was at an army base in the north of England, visiting Ukrainian soldiers as they started their several weeks-long training.

Weve got the British Army up here today, up in the north of England training Ukrainians, Wallace said, adding that therere also troops in Estonia and Poland as part of NATO deployment.

The defence secretary said actions matter in all of this and stressed that he doesnt expect support for Ukraine will disappear after Johnson steps down.

While the prime minister will be incredibly sad to leave this posthe has led from the front on Ukrainebut the whole of the political system is supportive of what were doing in Ukraine. I dont expect that to finish at all, he said.

Around 1,050 UK service personnel are being deployed to run the training programme, which will take place at Defence Ministry sites across the North West, South West, and South East of the UK, training up to 10,000 Ukrainians over the coming months.

The training will give volunteer recruits with little to no military experience the skills to be effective in frontline combat. Based on the UKs basic soldier training, the course covers weapons handling, battlefield first aid, fieldcraft, patrol tactics, and the Law of Armed Conflict.

The UK government has also procured AK variant assault rifles for the training programme, meaning Ukrainian soldiers can train on the weapons they will be using on the front line.

This was supported by the Welsh Guards, who tested more than 2,400 such rifles in 17 days to ensure they were ready for the Ukrainians to commence their training.

The UK has also gifted clothing and equipment to support Ukrainian soldiers in their training and deployment back to Ukraine.

Later on Saturday, Wallace announced that he decided not to run in the Conservative Party leadership contest, saying hes focusing on the job at hand.

After careful consideration and discussing with colleagues and family, I have taken the decision not to enter the contest for leadership of the Conservative Party. I am very grateful to all my parliamentary colleagues and wider members who have pledged support, the defence secretary wrote on Twitter.

It has not been an easy choice to make, but my focus is on my current job and keeping this great country safe. I wish the very best of luck to all candidates and hope we swiftly return to focusing on the issues that we are all elected to address, he added.

Four MPs have launched their bids by Saturday, with more expected to join.

The timetable of the races parliamentary process will be announced on Monday, but its expected that the two final candidates will be selected by July 20, with a new prime minister chosen at the beginning of October.

PA Media contributed to this report.
A screen with the logo of Gazprom at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on June 17, 2022. (Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

Ukraine Seizes $71 Million of Assets Owned by Russian State Companies

KYIVUkraine has seized assets worth over 2.1 billion hryvnias ($71 million) owned by Russian state oil company Rosneft, gas firm Gazprom, and nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, Ukraines state security service said on Friday.

The SBU said in a statement that Russia had used some of the profits from those assets to prepare its invasion of Ukraine and fund sabotage and intelligence activities.

Rosneft and Gazprom did not immediately reply to Reuters requests for comment. Rosatom declined to comment. The Kremlin did not immediately comment on SBUs statement.

Ukraine says it could cost $750 billion to rebuild after the invasion and that rich Russians should help pay the bill.

By the end of June it had seized assets in Ukraine worth 31 billion hryvnias from Russian individuals and companies it accuses of being complicit in the war. Earlier seizures targeted Russian oil company Tatneft and Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, among others.

The SBU said it was working with the police under the guidance of prosecutors to identify companies controlled by Russia.

It said attempts had been made to transfer the seized assets owned by Rosneft, Gazprom, and Rosatom to other owners but they had been blocked.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a special military operation to demilitarize its southern neighbor and protect Russian speakers from what it calls nationalists.

Ukraine and its Western allies say this is a baseless pretext for flagrant aggression that aims to seize territory.

($1 = 29.5400 hryvnias)
UKs Conservative Backbenchers Committee to Accelerate Leadership Contest Process

The UKs Conservative Party leadership race can be narrowed down to two final candidates by July 20, with a new prime minister chosen no later than the beginning of October, the treasurer of the 1922 backbenchers committee said on Saturday.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said that hes confident the aim can be achieved and that the committee will look at ways to speed up the process.

The leadership contest was triggered on Thursday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson was forced to resign over his mishandling of the Chris Pincher scandal.

By Saturday afternoon, four Conservative MPs have thrown their hats in the ring, with more expected to join. Speaking to Times Radio on Saturday, Clifton-Brown said the committee had been anticipating at least a dozen candidates in total.

The 1922 committeecomposed of all Conservative lawmakers who do not have a government roleis responsible for the first part of the selection process, namely whittling down the number of candidates to two.

After that, the Board of the Conservative Party will organise hustings around the UK before inviting Conservative Party members to choose a winner.

The 1922 committee is expected to announce on Monday a timetable for the parliamentary part of the process.

Clifton-Brown confirmed that the committee would certainly  want to consider raising the number of signatures required for someone to get a valid nomination, adding that changing the actual threshold in each round that you have to obtain in order to progress to the next round is also an option.

Clearly, what we would want to do, and I think even the candidates would admit this, is to eliminate some of those that are clearly not going to get enough support to get in the last two at a relatively early stage, Clifton-Brown said.

I think that we will be able to frame a process to actually come up with two names by the time Parliament goes down on July 20. I am confident we could do that, he added.

MPs are due to start summer recess on July 21 and wont be back in Parliament until Sept. 5.

Asked if the husting process will be sacrificed for the sake of a speedy transition, Clifton-Brown said he doesnt see any reason why the hustings, which will give grassroots party members an opportunity to see the candidates and ask questions, can be done a little bit quicker, but the decision is entirely a matter up to the partys board.

Clifton-Brown also said that he believes even with the hustings, we should have an answer about the time of the party conference in October and maybe before that.

The Conservative Party conference is scheduled to be held between Oct. 2 and Oct. 5 this year.

(Top to Bottom, Left to Right) Undated photos of Conservative Party leader candidates Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, and Tom Tugendhat. (Aaron Chown/Victoria Jones/UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/Brian Lawless/PA Media)

Former chancellor Rishi Sunak, Attorney General Suella Braverman, former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, and Foreign Affairs Committee chair Tom Tugendhat have launched their bids to become the new prime minister.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is widely expected to stand, while other potential front-runners include trade minister Penny Mordaunt, Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, and former health secretaries Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who topped a list of favourite potential candidates in a recent poll, confirmed on Twitter on Saturday that he will not run, saying his focus is on his current and keeping this great country safe.

Former minister Steve Baker has thrown his support behind Bravermans bid, despite previously saying he was seriously considering putting himself forward for the top job.

Those publicly backing Sunak include House of Commons Leader Mark Spencer, former Tory Party co-chairman Oliver Dowden, former chief whip Mark Harper, ex-ministers Liam Fox and Andrew Murrison, and MPs Sir Bob Neill, Paul Maynard, and Louie French.

Other potential contenders have also received endorsements from Tory ranks, despite not yet launching a bid of their own.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his confirmation hearing to serve as associate justice on the Supreme Court at the Capitol in Washington on Sept. 4, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Unruly Protesters Hound Justice Kavanaugh From DC Steakhouse

'Summer of rage' against conservative justices continues

Activists targeted Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on July 6, driving him out of a popular Washington restaurant where he was enjoying an evening meal. The action is apparently part of the summer of rage that leftists have promised in protest of the courts decisions.

Protesters massed outside Mortons Steakhouse after learning Kavanaugh was inside, Politico first reported. The activists contacted the eaterys manager demanding that the justice be given the boot because of his court rulings. Its unclear how many activists were present.

Some activists urged people to call the restaurant and denounce its hospitality toward the justice, The New York Post reported.

For security reasons, Kavanaugh exited the restaurant through a back door.

Mortons condemned the disruption in a statement to Politico.

Honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and all of our other patrons at the restaurant were unduly harassed by unruly protestors while eating dinner at our Mortons restaurant, the spokesperson said. Politics, regardless of your side or views, should not trample the freedom at play of the right to congregate and eat dinner. There is a time and place for everything. Disturbing the dinner of all of our customers was an act of selfishness and void of decency.

Responding to the Mortons statement, Shut Down DC, which has been organizing protests at the home of conservative justices, threatened the steakhouse in a July 8 tweet. No rights for us, no peace for you. Get [expletive] @mortons.

The group celebrated the disruption in a Twitter post.

We hear Kavanaugh snuck out the back with his security detail. @mortons should be ashamed for welcoming a man who so clearly hates women, it wrote.

Escalating Threats

Threats against conservative justices have escalated since the Supreme Court ruled on June 23 that there was a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense and on June 24 that there was no constitutional right to abortion.

Authorities foiled a June 8 attempt to assassinate Kavanaugh at his Maryland home. Nicholas John Roske, who reportedly said he wanted to kill the justice to prevent him from voting to overturn abortion rights and gun control laws, entered a not guilty plea after a federal grand jury indicted him.

Later that month, Mikeal Deshawn Archambault was arrested for threatening in a June 24 tweet to kill everyone at the Supreme Court with an AK-47 rifle.

Kavanaugh, a nominee of President Donald Trump, has been a lightning rod for criticism by some since his unusually contentious 2018 confirmation hearings. Psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford offered uncorroborated testimony claiming Kavanaugh tried to sexually assault her more than three decades earlier, when they were both high school students in suburban Maryland. Kavanaugh vigorously denied the allegations.

Protestors rally against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 4, 2018. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Even though Republicans believe that Fords claims were discredited by Senate Judiciary Committee counsel and sex-crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, many Democrats still believe them and viscerally condemn the justice. Some congressional Democrats want to see Kavanaugh impeached and removed from the high court.

While the Biden White House has condemned violence and intimidation targeting the justices, the administration hasnt expressed opposition to the ongoing demonstrations aimed at the courts conservative justices.

On July 8, the same day that President Joe Biden signed an executive order designed to protect access to abortion-inducing pills and emergency contraception, the president excoriated the Supreme Court.

The court and its allies are committed to moving America backward with fewer rights, less autonomy, and politicians invading the most personal of decisions, he said. We cannot allow an out-of-control Supreme Court, working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican Party, to take away freedoms and our personal autonomy.

On June 16, Biden signed the Supreme Court Police Parity Act into law. The measure gives Supreme Court security officials greater authority to protect the court, members of the justices immediate families, and other court employees.

At the same time, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has been widely criticized for refusing to enforce a federal law against activists who have allegedly been threatening and attempting to intimidate justices.

Federal law makes it a criminal offense to parade or picket near a building or residence occupied or used by [a federal] judge, juror, witness, or court officer with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer, in the discharge of his duty.

Abortion rights activists with Our Rights DC march in front of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaughs house in Chevy Chase, Md., on June 29, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Further Harassment

More protests against conservative justices are planned.

A group called Downright Impolite announced on Twitter that its organizing regular protests outside justices homes in Virginia and Maryland. Wednesday protests target Kavanaugh, while Thursday protests target Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Fridays and Saturdays are reserved for protests against Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito, respectively.

Shut Down DC is offering money to people to report the location of Supreme Court justices so they can be targeted for protest. The group tweeted on July 8 that it will pay $50 to D.C. service industry workers who report a sighting of Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Neil Gorsuch, Alito, Barrett, Kavanaugh, or Thomas.

Well venmo [i.e. a money transfer service] you $50 for a confirmed sighting and $200 if theyre still there 30 [minutes] after your message, the tweet states.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested people should fight back against the group.

Antifa activists @ShutDown_DC are trying to harass Supreme Court Justices, Carlson wrote in a July 8 tweet. Everyone should flood their account until they give up.
A Navy Seahawk helicopter flies over a stateless dhow later found to be carrying a hidden arms shipment in the Arabian Sea on May 6, 2021. (U.S. Navy via AP)

US Navy Offers Cash for Tips to Seize Mideast Drugs, Weapons

DUBAI, United Arab EmiratesThe U.S. Navys Mideast-based 5th Fleet is offering rewards for information that could help sailors intercept weapons, drugs, and other illicit shipments across the region amid tensions over Irans nuclear program and Tehrans arming of Yemens Houthi rebels.

While avoiding directly mentioning Iran, the 5th Fleets decision to offer cash and other goods for actionable intelligence in the Persian Gulf and other strategic waterways may increase pressure on the flow of weapons to the Houthis as a shaky cease-fire still holds in Yemen.

Already, the Houthis have threatened a new allied task force organized by the 5th Fleet in the Red Sea, though theres been no attack by the Iranian-backed forces on the Navy in the time since.

Meanwhile, the 5th Fleet says it and its partners seized $500 million in drugs alone in 2021more than the four prior years combined. The 5th Fleet also intercepted 9,000 weapons in the same period, three times the number seized in 2020.

Any destabilizing activity has our attention, Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a 5th Fleet spokesman, told The Associated Press. Definitely we have seen in the last year skyrocketing success in seizing both illegal narcotics and illicit weapons. This represents another step in our effort to enhance regional maritime security.

The 5th Fleets new initiative launched on Tuesday through the Department of Defense Rewards Program, which saw troops offer cash and goods for tips on the battlefields in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere after the al-Qaida terrorist group launched the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Since ground fighting has largely halted across the region, the 5th Fleet decided to try to use the program as it patrols the waterways of the Middle East.

Hawkins said operators fluent in Arabic, English, and Farsi would man a hotline, while the Navy also would take tips additionally online, in Dari and Pashto. Payouts can be as high as $100,000 or the equivalent in vehicles, boats, or food for tips that also include information on planned attacks targeting Americans, Hawkins said.

Its unclear if the 5th Fleets uptick in seizures represents a return to shipping after the coronavirus pandemic or an increase overall in the number of illicit shipments in the region. Traffickers typically use stateless dhows, traditional wooden sailing craft common in the Mideast, to transport drugs and weapons.

Weapons that the Navy described as coming from a hidden arms shipment aboard a stateless dhow seen aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey on May 8, 2021. (U.S. Navy via AP)

One destination for weapons appears to be Yemen. The Houthis seized Yemens capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition armed with U.S. weaponry and intelligence entered the war on the side of Yemens exiled government in March 2015. Years of inconclusive fighting has pushed the Arab worlds poorest nation to the brink of famine. A truce that began around the Muslim month of Ramadan appears for now to still be holding.

Despite a United Nations Security Council arms embargo on Yemen, Iran long has been transferring rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, missiles and other weaponry to the Houthis. Though Iran denies arming the Houthis, independent experts, Western nations and U.N. experts have traced components back to Iran.

Asked about whether new seizures could increase tensions with Iran, Hawkins listed the weapons and drugs the Navy hoped to intercept under the program.

Thats what were after, the commander said. Thats not in the interest of regional stability and security.

Irans mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Navy and Iran continue to have tense encounters in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes.

The rewards program marks the latest initiative under 5th Fleet Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, who also launched a drone task force last year amid tensions with Iran.

Coopers other effort, the Red Sea task force, has drawn criticism from the Houthis in the past. The rebel group, which has repeatedly denied being armed by Iran, did not respond to a request for comment on the new Navy program.

However, Ali al-Qahom, a Houthi official, wrote on Twitter last week that the rebels are monitoring increased U.S. activity in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf waters.
The Cruise Origin autonomous vehicle, a Honda and General Motors self-driving car partnership, is seen during its unveiling in San Francisco on Jan. 21, 2020. (Stephen Lam/Reuters)

Safety Regulator Probing Self-Driving Cruise Car Crash in California

WASHINGTONThe National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a special investigation into a recent crash of a Cruise self-driving vehicle in California that resulted in minor injuries, the agency said on Thursday.

The auto safety agency did not identify the specific crash, but a Cruise vehicle operating in driverless autonomous mode was involved in a crash involving minor injuries on June 3 in San Francisco, according to a report filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

The state agency told Reuters it has had conversions with Cruise officials regarding the incident.

Self-driving car maker Cruise, which is majority-owned by General Motors, said it was not issued a citation by police in the incident. Cruise said it had provided NHTSA with routine information the agency had sought in its special crash investigation.

NHTSAs special crash investigations are separate from defect investigations used to determine if vehicles should be recalled. The agency has not opened a defect probe into Cruise.

NHTSA has opened 45 special crash investigations into crashes since 2016 involving suspected automated and advanced driver systems; this is the first involving a Cruise vehicle.

In the report filed on the June 3 crash, Cruise said its vehicle entered a left-hand-turn lane and signaled for a turn, and then initiated a left turn on the green light.

At the same time, a 2016 Toyota Prius approached the intersection in the right-turn lane from the opposite direction traveling about 40 miles per hour in a 25 mph speed zone.

The Cruise autonomous vehicle stopped before completing the turn due to the oncoming Prius, which entered the intersection and made contact with the rear passenger side of the Cruise, which was later towed from the scene, the report said. Occupants of both vehicles received medical treatment for allegedly minor injuries, Cruise said.

On June 23, Cruise said it had started charging fares for driverless rides in San Francisco. Cruise earlier in June became the first company to secure a permit to charge for self-driving rides there, after it overcame objections by local officials.
The Wisconsin State Capitol, which houses both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature along with the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Office of the Governor, in Madison. (Carol M. Highsmith via Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)

Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds School District Policy Regarding Identity of Trans Students

The Supreme Court of Wisconsin has ruled that the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) may continue enforcing a policy that prevents school authorities from divulging a students transgender identity to their parents without the students permission.

In 2018, the MMSD introduced a policy according to which transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary students were considered to be at risk of losing financial or emotional support from families if they reveal their sexual orientation or gender identity. As such, school staff were required to only refer to students using the name and gender registered in the schools internal system when communicating with parents. To do so otherwise was prohibited unless the staff received permission from the student.

A group of 14 parents sued the school over the guidance, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), arguing that MMSDs policies violated parental rights. In 2020, Judge Frank Remington of Dane County sided with the parents and instructed the school district to halt the controversial guidelines.

On July 8, the Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed the decision. The majority opinion, authored by Justice Brian Hagedorn, allowed MMSD to enforce the transgender student policy while the case moves through the lower courts. The Supreme Court also rejected the plaintiffs request to keep the identities of the suing parents a secret from opposing counsel.

In a statement, Chris Donahoe, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin, praised the court decision for protecting the sexual and gender identity of youth.

Young people have various reasons for delaying sharing aspects of their identities with their parentssome are not ready, some may fear rejection, condemnation, or worsewhatever the reason may be, it should be respected, Donahoe said.

Protecting Parental Rights

In the dissenting opinion, Justice Patience Drake Roggensack blamed the majority opinion for not addressing the critical issue on which the case rests: the constitutional right of parents to raise their children as they see fit.

Roggensack insisted that the court should have granted the parents request for a temporary injunction that enjoins the school district from (a) enabling students to socially transition to a different gender identity without consent of their parents, (b) prohibiting staff from telling parents about their childrens gender identity concerns, and (c) deceiving parents by using different names and pronouns in front of them than what is used at the school.

The majority opinion defends abdication of its responsibility to address parents constitutional arguments by attacking the dissents support of parental rights, Roggensack wrote in the dissenting opinion.

I conclude that the circuit court erred in not granting the temporary injunction that was requested in February of 2020. Because the majority opinion chooses not to decide the controversy presented, I respectfully dissent.

Roggensack also criticized the majority opinions insistence that parents cannot use pseudonyms in the lawsuit, pointing out that parental names are not relevant to vindicating the constitutional right of parents to raise their children according to their beliefs of what is in the interest of their kids.

The suing parents had argued that they would be subject to intimidation and threats should their names become known.
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MEXICO CITY (AP)  Former Mexican President Luis Echeverria, who tried to cast himself as a progressive world leader but was blamed for some of Mexicos worst political killings of the 20th century, has died at the age of 100.

Current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador confirmed the death Saturday on his Twitter account and sent condolences to Echeverrias family and friends in the name of the government of Mexico, but did not express any personal sadness about the death.

Lopez Obrador did not provide a cause of death for Echeverria, who governed Mexico from 1970 to 1976. He had been hospitalized for pulmonary problems in 2018 and also had neurological difficulties in recent years.

Echeverria positioned himself as a left-leaning maverick allied with Third World causes during his presidency, but his role in the notorious massacres of leftist students in 1968 and 1971 made him hated by Mexican leftists, who for for decades tried unsuccessfully to have him put on trial.

In 2004, he became the first former Mexican head of state formally accused of criminal wrongdoing. Prosecutors linked Echeverria to the countrys so-called dirty war in which hundreds of leftist activists and members of fringe guerrilla groups were imprisoned, killed, or simply disappeared without a trace.

Special prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo asked a judge to issue an arrest warrant against Echeverria on genocide charges in the two student massacres, the first of which occurred when served as interior secretary, overseeing domestic security affairs.

On Oct. 2 1968, a few weeks before the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, government sharpshooters opened fire on student protesters in the Tlatelolco plaza, followed by soldiers posted there. Estimates of the dead have ranged from 25 to more than 300. Echeverria had denied any participation in the attacks.

According to military reports, at least 360 government snipers were placed on buildings surrounding the protesters.

In June 1971, during Echeverria's own term as president, students set out from a teachers college just west of the city center for one of the first large-scale protests since the Tlatelolco massacre. They didnt get more than a few blocks before they were set upon by plainclothes thugs who were actually government agents known as the Halcones, or Falcons. Prosecutors say that group that participated in the beating or shooting deaths of 12 people.

That attack was depicted in the Oscar-winning 2018 movie Roma, in which two characters stumble across the violence, which turns out to involve one of their boyfriends as a member of the Halcones.

In 2005, a judge ruled Echeverria could not be tried on genocide charges stemming from the 1971 killings, saying that while Echeverria may have been responsible for homicide, the statute of limitations for that crime expired in 1985.

In March 2009, a federal court upheld a lower courts ruling that Echeverria did not have to face genocide charges for his alleged involvement in the 1968 student massacre, and ordered his release, though opponents noted the case against him was never closed.

Echeverria never spent a day in jail, though he was under a form of house arrest for some time.

While few people in Mexico mourned the passing of Echeverria, Felix Hernandez Gamundi  a 1968 student movement leader who was in Tlatelolco plaza on the day of the massacre, and who saw his friends gunned down  mourned what might have been.

The death of ex-President Luis Echeverria is regrettable because it occurred in total silence, because despite his his very long life, Luis Echeverria never decided to come clean about his actions," Hernandez Gamundi said.

Of course we don't mourn his death," he said. "We mourn the opacity he displayed his entire life and his decision never to make an accounting, to always take advantage of his immense political and economic power that he enjoyed for the rest of his life.

."He delayed for a long time the inevitable process of democracy that began in 1968," Hernandez Gamundi said, referring to the fact that the massacre became a catalyst for activists trying to end a system of one-party presidential rule. October 2 marked the beginning of the end of the old regime, but it took many years afterward.

Echeverria's death came at a time that his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI  which ruled Mexico with an iron hand for seven decades, before losing power for the first time in the elections of 2000  is losing what little power it still had, discredited and riven by internal scandals and disputes.

Things could have been different, he said. The PRI had a lot of opportunities to put things right and make an accounting.

Born on Jan. 17, 1922, in Mexico City, Echeverria received a law degree from Mexicos Autonomous National University in 1945.

Shortly afterward, he began his political career with PRI. He later held posts in the navy and Education Department, advanced to chief administrative officer of the PRI and organized the presidential campaign of Adolfo Lopez Mateos, who was Mexicos leader from 1958-64.

In 1964, under then-President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, Echeverria was rewarded with the key position of interior secretary, overseeing domestic security. He held that position in 1968, when the government cracked down on student pro-democracy protests, apparently worried they would embarrass Mexico as the host of the Olympics that year.

Echeverria left the interior post in November 1969, when he became the PRIs presidential candidate.

He won that race, and was sworn in on Dec. 1, 1970, and supported the governments of Cubas Fidel Castro and leftist Salvador Allende in Chile.

After Allende was assassinated in 1973 during a coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, Echeverria opened Mexicos borders to Chileans fleeing Pinochets dictatorship.

Domestically, Echeverria presided over boom times in Mexico in the 1970s linked to a bonanza in oil prices and oil discoveries. He vastly expanded the number of government-owned industries, a policy his successors later had to reverse because his ambitious public spending and building programs left Mexico deeply mired in debt.

Seeking to shed his repressive image, Echeverria wore the loose, open-necked tropical shirt known as the guayabera and he later pardoned many of the student leaders jailed during the crackdown on protests in 1968. He actively sought to recruit intellectuals with government jobs and money.

Echeverria traveled the world promoting himself as a leader of the third world and friend of leftist causes. But within Mexico, he couldn't shake his reputation for cracking down on dissent.

According to Carrillo, the prosecutor who tried to charge him, Echeverria was the master of illusion, the magician of deceit.

Juan Velasquez, the lawyer who defended Echeverria, said the ex-president died at one of his homes, but did not specify a cause.

I told Luis that even though nobody  not him, not me, not his family  wanted him to go on trial, in the end it was the best thing that could have happened, because the charges were dropped, Velasquez said.

In his later years, Echeverria tried to project himself as an elder statesman, and a few times when his health permitted  held forth unrepentantly before journalists. But he mainly lived in reclusive retirement at his sprawling home in an upscale Mexico City neighborhood.
"Unarguably to sanitize the Nigerian film industry, the leadership of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Lagos Chapter, has on Monday 5th of July, 2022 declared open a 5-day training programme under the chairmanship of Emeka Rising Ibeh. As he aptly paints the picture of untoward happenings in the industry, and pointed the way forward, he said, Its no longer news that the Industry is lacking quality cum method Actors".

The Actors Guild of Nigeria has therefore placed on hold issuance of Identity cards to people who just registered with the Guild starting from July 1st 2022. All new members must pass through training at their state chapters and an annual induction ceremony before obtaining Identity cards.

All old and new members information to be updated on the Guild's websites from September 1st 2022.

Members should use the window period of July to September and regularize membership with their state chapters to avoid embarrassing moments at locations. Films with unregistered members will not be approved by the Nigeria Film & Video Censors Board.

Against the foregoing backdrop, there is no denying the fact that issues facing the Nigerian film industry, in the recent times, call for an urgent intervention of the leadership of the AGN, which is unarguably the apex regulatory body of the industry.

The 5-day training and sensitization, which is free, and targeted at both registered and non-registered members in the industry, and scheduled to end today has Ambassador Paul Obazele, Segun Arinze, Keppy Ekpeyong and Dr. Henry Chidi as resource persons at the training. In as much as the training dwells on imbuing participants with information on how to become a movie star and practitioner, how to easily get registered with the Guild, and offers opportunity to partake in a short and full length movies after the training, how to be prepared ahead of the challenges to stardom, and how to be connected with movie producers and directors, it also dwells on other issues that would guide both greenhorns and veterans in the industry on how to remain relevant and to be reckoned with.

There is no denying the fact that the event could not have come at a better time than now, particularly when seen from the perspective of the fact that an online viral picture of veteran actor, Kenneth Aguba living on the street trended to the consternation of the leadership of the Guild recently to the consternation of the leadership of the Guild.

Against the forgoing backdrop, it is expedient to say that the Guild reacted, particularly when its attention was drawn to the story that arguably cast aspersion at its image. In the forgoing light, the National President of the Guild, Ejezie Emeka Rollas stated in clear terms that the Guild has never abandoned Kenneth Aguba.

He explained, Enugu state chapter of the Guild and individual members have been supportive in both provision of accommodation and medical interventions in the past four years to the veteran actor until his matter which could be a spiritual issue, degenerated recently.

The Guild just does not make public, issues regarding assistance to its members. The National President frowns at the shades thrown at the leadership of the Guild since the story went viral, describing it as the handwork of detractors which may not be unconnected with the present towering reputation of the Guild.

Actors Guild of Nigeria wishes to reiterate that it welcomes inquiries on issues regarding welfare of members, as the Guild runs an open-door policy and calls on the public to always verify their stories before expressing not-so-palatable comments.

Meanwhile, the National President wishes to thank good spirited members who have called to show concern and willingness to provide immediate intervention.

Against the backdrop of the training, there is no denying the fact that better days lie ahead for practitioners in the industry, particularly when sustained and its contents brought to bear on the field of practice.
Anambra Sttate Governor, Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR, has felicitated with Muslims in Nigeria on the occasion of the 2022 Eid-el-Kabir celebration.

While congratulating the Muslim faithful, the governor urged them to use the occasion to reflect on the state of the nation and live in peace with one another.

He admonished Muslims to emulate the righteousness and great virtues of Prophet Muhammad,(SAW), stressing that the essence of the Eid-el-Kabir celebration is to offer sacrifice, express and extend love, for a peaceful coexistence in the country and the world at large.

Governor Soludo urged them to celebrate with modesty and to remember the less-privileged amongst them in the society

He said; Let the teachings of humility and love of the Eid-el-Kabir define your relationship with fellow Muslims and other citizens.

Love is central for Gods mercies and blessings to flourish. Let us learn to love and accommodate one another.

I urge you not to lose hope in the country, irrespective of the security and economic challenges in the country.

He also urged Muslims and other Nigerians to pray for the country especially as the march for the 2023 general election gathers steam, adding that without peace, not much can be achieved.

Once again, I congratulate the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria and indeed all Nigerians on this occasion of Eid-el-Kabir." Governor Soludo concluded

Christian Aburime

Press Secretary to the Governor


Ebonyi State chapter of the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN) has threatened to withdraw its services across the state from Wednesday, July 13.

The chairman of the association in the state, Mr Felix Eze, made this known on Saturday in Abakaliki after the union's meeting on the action scheduled to last for two weeks.

Eze said the withdrawal of service was necessitated by alleged Federal Government's insensitivity to the plight of bakers across the country which had adversely affected their businesses.

He said, The prices of bakery materials increase steadily as a bag of flour which hitherto cost N25,000 presently cost more than N27,000.

We are not embarking on the measure to the detriment of our customers, but to assist them and and enhance our businesses.

The state chairman called on the Federal Government to urgently address the challenges to ensure that bakers dutifully render their services to the people.

The government should cut relevant taxes and check the ever increasing exchange rate of foreign currencies.

The producers of bakery products claim that such increment influences the prices of the materials.

The government should ensure that the producers access foreign currencies at low rates as bakery products are among the cheapest food items the citizens access, he stated.

The State Secretary of the association, Mr Felix Chimereze, said his colleagues decided to act now after bemoaning the plights for long.

Nigerians are aware of the countrys dire economic situation and the added challenges necessitated our action.

We urge our customers to bear with us as normalcy will return when the issues are addressed, he said.
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has uncovered plans by terrorists belonging to Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) to unleash attacks on some targeted places in Abuja.

The NSCDC FCT commandant, Peter Maigari, issued the Red Alert in a restricted memo dated Friday, July 8, 2022 and entitled; Renewed Threat Of Attack By ISWAP Terrorist On Targets Within The FCT.

He said: Certified intelligence reveals that members of the decimated terrorist group, Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) have concluded plan to launch more coordinated and spontaneous attacks on selected targets within the FCT and have declared war against Christians in Nigeria.

A copy of the Red Alert, which was addressed to the Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and sighted by newsmen further said: Intelligence abounds that ISWAP terrorist group has claimed responsibilities of the Tuesday, July 5, 2022 attack on Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre, releasing their adherent members.

The foregoing is to enable them hibernate in targeted communities and re-strategise for further terrorist activities, especially on soft targets to keep the agenda of the group alive to the public.

The leaked memo further warned that taking into consideration the recent attack on Kuje Prison in Abuja, which lasted for good two  hours without any security resistance indicates their readiness to carry out more coordinated attacks in selected cities/towns, security formations, schools and worship centres in FCT, hence the release of their members for a more formidable squad to carry out the dastardly act.

The NSCDC FCT commandant, therefore, called for a review of the existing security measures in the nations capital in order to frustrate the terrorists plans.
The Alabama Department of Transportations Main Street paving project will move into the downtown business district beginning Sunday evening, July 10, but alternative travel routes and parking will be available during the nighttime paving hours.

ALDOT officials are expected to begin paving Main Street from near Enterprise City Hall and the intersection of Geneva Highway north to Boll Weevil Circle at Highway 84 West. The work will be done from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday nights. No parking will be allowed on the street after 5 p.m. Main street will be reopened every morning at 6 a.m. for normal business and traffic flow.

Visitors to downtown must move vehicles off Main Street by 5 p.m. to make way for the equipment and personnel necessary to remove the existing asphalt and resurfacing the street. State and City officials are hopeful that if the weather or other issues do not interfere with the work, the bulk of the paving will be done by Friday morning, July 15, but finishing work could continue into the next week or so.

All of Main Street during this phase of the paving will likely not be closed at one time, but portions where the work is concentrated on any given day during the process may be closed. Normal travel on the street will resume after 6 a.m. each morning, but officials asked motorists to remain cautious and mindful of unfinished street surface conditions.

Although some inconvenience will be necessary during the days until the much-needed improvements are complete, Mayor William E. Cooper and Main Street Enterprise Director Mariah Montgomery ask citizens and visitors to the city to be patient.

We all will be extremely pleased with the end result of the paving project, Cooper said. We are grateful that ALDOT has made the project a priority this year. When complete, the new street surface will be a welcomed, nice-looking upgrade that will benefit everyone.

He said he resurfacing on South Main Street and East Park Street from City Hall to Boll Weevil Circle that has been done in the last two weeks has already made a visible difference as well as a more comfortable driving experience along the route that passes through the heart of the city inside Boll Weevil Circle.

The Mayor joined Montgomery in ensuring shoppers, diners and other visitors to Main Street will have access to get to their desired downtown destination.

For anyone who may be hesitant to do their normal dining, shopping or other activities at downtown businesses during the paving process, we want to assure you there is no need to be concerned about accessibility, Montgomery said. You will be able to park on Main Street during the primary daytime shopping and business hours, but you must leave or move your vehicles if you plan to stay downtown after 5 p.m.

The downtown area is easily accessible from all directions within the Circle, and parking is available off Main Street, including: East and West College Streets, the new parking lot located off of Lee Street and North Edwards Street, the Coffee County Court House parking lot, and Railroad Street.

Access to Medical Center Enterprise and all emergency services will not be interrupted during this construction project.
If there is any area that exigently need to be improved upon in the process of movie production in the Nollywoodsub-sector of Nigerian economy, it is unarguably that of training. The reason cannot be farfetched as training remains one of the keys to a better movie production in Nigeria, nay globally.

Without resort to downplaying the qualities of movies in the country and expertise of producers in the industry, it is expedient to say that there have been instances where bad and inaccurate subtitles have been observed to be one of the flaws affecting Nigerian movies, even as adequate vetting of their productions are not carried out before releasing them into the market.

Against the backdrop of the foregoing view, it would not be a misnomer to ask, What could have been the reason forthe flaw? Contextually providing answers to the foregoing, not few critics are of the view that it is the responsibility of the producer to avoid such mistake because he recruits the crew, though the director can assist along the line. Still in a similar vein, the producer pays the crew, so he dictates the tune, and it is also his or her responsibility to hire the best hand who will handle the subtitling of the movies produced to promote his end products.

Without sounding personal in this context, a film producer should really care because a bad subtitled movie will do a lot of damage to the corporate image of the institution that regulates the industry. It is unarguably against theforegoing milieu that the leadership of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Lagos Chapter, organized a 5-day free training for its members and non-members that are interested in filmmaking.

The topics that trainees were exposed to cut across camera intelligence which placed them on the pedestal of understanding camera movements and positioning as actors, character and characterization; which literarily push them to get into the character coupled with understanding the roles of the actor, his set and plot.

Other aspects of the training consist of steps to becoming a celebrity as well as attitude and understanding the ethics of being an actor and need for behavioural modifications. In the same vein, understanding how an actor can relate effectively with his director and crew members also formed one of the topics at the training session.

Ostensibly to enable the trainees have a better grasp of the dynamics of the industry, an insight was thrown to what Nollywood is, with particular reference to the understanding of its history, value and its importance to the rest of the world.

Still in a similar vein, the trainees were trained on the understanding of techniques for auditions and monologues as well as equipping them with the knowledge of types of acting techniques with particular emphasis laid on becoming a method actor.

Not left out as a topic in the training was the light shed on the history, ethics and organogram of the AGN. The firstday of the training was handled by one of the best in the industry Mr. Segun Arinze (former president of the AGN and current president of Association of Voice OVER Artists of Nigeria (AVOA)

Characterised by strict disciplinary atmosphere, the venue of the training held at Ojez Restaurant at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, had the Chairman of AGN (Lagos Chapter), Emeka Rising Ibeh directing that Arrival time for all Trainees shall be 8:00 a.m on Monday 4th July, 2022. All Trainees must be seated by then as attendance will be taken.

Considering the traffic in Lagos, it is expected that all trainees arrive early as it will not augur well that these artists are the ones waiting for you all.

By virtue of the calibre of the participants, who unarguably displayed high sense of maturity and exposure, all instructions given to make the training a successful one were adhered to. The Opening Ceremony, was conducted by 9a.m by the National President of AGN, and the former National President of AGN, Mr. Emeka Rollas and Mr.Segun Arinze respectively, while the lectures commenced by 10a.m prompt.

The event was highlighted with a jogging exercise coordinated by Star Actor, Segun Arinze, who took all participants in a fitness session.

At this juncture, it is expedient to say that most participants that are both inexperienced and experienced in film production undoubtedly gain in the training as chances are that there are some niche positions in film production that they may not have been aware of. The training, unarguably provided the chance to search them all out, and the icing on the cake is that certificates will be issued to all participants were today issued certificates of participation at the Haile Selassie Hotel in Surulere , Lagos.
Heavy weather fails to dampen spirits as Phuket Raceweek returns

SAILING: Despite inclement weather forcing the final day to be cancelled, the 19th Phuket Raceweek held last week (June 29 - July 3) was declared a resounding success by all involved, with 200 sailors from 20 countries sailing in 20 boats, divided over six classes.

Sailing

By The Phuket News

Saturday 9 July 2022, 10:00AM

After perfect conditions for the first three days of the regatta, the weather gods were not so kind on Sunday (July 3) when heavy storms forced racing to be curtailed.

However, Principal Race Officer Simon James was still able to schedule six races for every class, two on each day, so the skippers were allowed to drop their worst performance on the water.

Ray Roberts Team Hollywood landed back in Thailand with a bang, capturing the four-boat IRC Zero class with some nifty sailing and manoeuvring on the water. James Bury and Craig Nicholls Alright came 2nd in the class, with Garry Holts Lets Get it On placed 3rd and the Douglas/Kettlebey Ramrod settling for 4th. All four boats were crewed by sailors from Australia who flew up specifically for the occasion.

Alright then took top prize in the IRC 1 class. Garry Holt, who bought Jessandra II just before the regatta and renamed it Lets Get it On, sailed to a 2nd place finish. Ramrod had trouble with its sails and never really got on track, taking 3rd overall in the three-boat class.

The OMR MR Racing Multiclass saw Joel Berg helm Dan Fidocks Extreme 40 Parabellum to win each race, drawing the admiration of everyone involved. Warwick Downes Bonza placed 2nd in the class, followed by Alan Carwardines Saffron and Glywn Rowlands Twister 2. Alan and Asia Catamarans were also very kind enough to sponsor the third days racing and prize-giving.

John Newnhams Twin Sharks captured the four-boat Firefly 850 Sport boat class, edging out rival Hans Rahmanns Voodoo with Ray Waldrons Surf Patrol and George Eddings Blue Nose coming in 3rd and 4th place respectively.

Tight battle

The IRC Cruising division was the tightest battle in the regatta as APW Endeavour of Whitby and Phoenix finished tied atop the leader board with seven points each. The tiebreaking formula is thus: first, its the highest number of wins, then its the highest number of second-place finishes, followed by the highest number of third-place showings. If they are still even after that - and they were - it boils down to who had the highest placing in the last race, and APW Endeavour of Whitby did.

Toshiro Furutas Japanese crew on Sakura came 3rd in the class, followed by Kirill Stashevskys Agata. Fred Haes Venture finished 5th, and Kantus Bride, the only all-Thai entry in the regatta, helmed by Kampon Sutara, was 6th.

Tristan Hamiltons Pulse Grey swept every race (six in a row) to take the Pulse 600 class, with Paul Flatty Baker skippering Pulse Yellow, close behind.

The founders of Phuket Raceweek, Andy Dowden and Grenville Fordham, presented digital and printed versions of their chart book Southeast Asia Pilot to the class winners on day three. They established the regatta in July 2004 as there was no other regional sailing during the summer to take advantage of the good winds brought on by the prevailing southwest monsoon.

The closing party was staged at the host Cape Panwa Hotel with guest of honour Navy 3 Area Command Vice Admiral Sompong Nakthong on hand to present the final series awards.

A big thank you must go out to Master of Ceremonies Wicky Sundrum for oversseing the opening and closing night festivities, while James Haste did the honours on race days one and three.

Finally, tremendous credit goes to organisers Byron and Rung Jones and the Cape Panwa Hotel staff for executing the regatta so well, especially as approval for the event was only granted at the start of May.

With the luxury of much more notice, Byron has set June 28 - July 2, 2023 as the dates for the 20th Phuket Raceweek Regatta.
Phuket DDPM calls for people to register on disaster alert app

PHUKET: The Phuket branch of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket) is calling for people to register on a national disaster alert app for mobile phones so they can instantly receive warnings of any impending tsunami.

disasterstourismSafety

By The Phuket News

Saturday 9 July 2022, 03:31PM

The Thai Disaster Alert app is available on Google Play and Apples App Store.

The Thai Disaster Alert app is available on Google Play and Apples App Store.

The latest earthquake reported off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was at 4:34am today (July 9). Image: PhuketSOS

Observer Namom Thoongpoh, who studied Geophysics/Seismology at Uppsala University in Sweden, this morning marked that the area had experienced 343 tremors since 1970. Image: Namom Thoongpoh

The DDPM-Phuket office, instead of issuing its own notice, shared a notice issued by the Phang Nga branch of the Public Relations Department this morning (July 9).

Of note, Phuket-based authorities have yet to issue any of their own notices calling for people to register on the app, despite marking the series of underwater earthquakes that struck off the Andman and Nicobar Islands, some 550km northwest of Phuket, earlier this week.

The app, called Thai Disaster Alert, is available on Google Play and Apples App Store.

The app has been in beta testing since Feb 1 this year.

The app functions are available in English, but the alerts and warnings are posted in Thai only. A translation app will translate the alerts and warnings into clear enough English to be understood.

On registering, people are asked to enter whether they are male or female, and their date of birth. They are also asked to select three provinces for which they want to receive instant notifications. Users are also asked to switch on location sharing.

The operation of the application THAI DISASTER ALERT will notify when the province that the user has selected has a forecast of a disaster. The system will send a warning message to the user immediately in the form of a notification message on the smartphone screen which users can read a brief summary, the DDPM notice issued this morning explained.

But if you want to know the details more clearly, you can click to see details of the alarm notification in the various menus of the application, it added.

The system will keep an alert notification for users to view warning notifications issued in the past along with a menu that shows a map of Thailand for any areas at risk of disaster.

If the user wants to change the province to receive notifications for, they are able to access those areas at any time.

In addition, there is also a menu that shows hotline numbers of various agencies to facilitate contact in the event of an emergency or disaster in the area as well, the notice explained.

TREMOR SWARM SLOWING

The number of mild tremors occurring southeast of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands has slowed over the past two days, according to the non-government Phuket Earthquake Monitoring and Surveillance Center, which also goes by the name Phuket SOS (see here).

The earthquake and tsunami watchdog at last report marked a 4.5 magnitude earthquake striking at a depth of 10km some 525km northwest of Phuket at 4:34am today (July 9).

However, Namom Thoongpoh, an observer who studied Geophysics/Seismology at Uppsala University in Sweden, this morning pointed out that the area as well known for tremors, experiencing 343 tremors since 1970, with 80% of the tremors recorded at 4-5M in strength**.

PLAYING READY

Phuket officials this week, at the order of the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) in Bangkok, began testing the sirens on the 19 tsunami-warning towers on the island by playing the national anthem at 8am each day.

The NDWC is responsible for the maintenance of the two tsunami-warning buoys that Thailand has contributed to the Indian Ocean tsunami-warning network. Both buoys are currently not functioning.

Station 23461, installed in the Andaman Sea approximately 340km from Phuket, stopped transmitting data on June 9.

Station 23401, installed in the Indian Ocean a distance of 965km west of Phuket, was discovered on Oct 22 last year to have slipped its mounting and had stopped transmitting data.

** CORRECTION: Not 343 tremors since Monday. The error is sincerely regretted. Thank you to reader Petch Pompetch for pointing this out.


Phuket officials pitch Expo 2028 bid to consuls

PHUKET: Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew has called on embassy representatives and honorary consuls from 13 countries stationed in Phuket for their support in the bid for Phuket to host the World Specialised Expo 2028.

economicstourism

By The Phuket News

Saturday 9 July 2022, 12:32PM

The call came at a meeting held yesterday (July 8), during which the consuls were given a two-hour briefing on the project, to be centred on the site of 141 rai at the northern end of the island.

Among the consuls present were representatives for Australia, Russia, Austria, Norway, France, Luxembourg, Chile and Mexico.

Also present were all three Phuket Vice Governors: Pichet Panapong, Amnuay Phinsuwan and Anupap Rodkwan Yodrabam.

The main objectives of this meeting are to push for support to host the Specialised Expo 2028 of Phuket, Thailand, with the support of consulates and honorary consuls of various countries, Governor Narong said.

We are requesting opinions and advice about the proposal to host Specialised Expo 2028 with representatives of TCEB [Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau] and the President of Phuket Tourist Association [PTA], he added.

PTA President Bhumiikitti Ruktaengam also joined the meeting by video call to explain the bid.

The consuls were also briefed on the bid presented to the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) in Paris last month, and the upcoming inspection visit by a delegation of BIE representatives on July 25-29.

Governor Narong explained that the bid is being promoted through government public relations channels, and events including a charity fun run will be held to help promote awareness of the bid.

Over the past two weeks, Phuket public relations channels have ramped up their public awareness campaign, posting notices and reports many times each and every day highlighting that the government has entered its bid, and calling on everyone to help support the bid.

The aim is to highlight the benefits that Phuket and Thai residents will receive from hosting such events, especially in terms of economic recovery, the development of infrastructure and mass transportation in Phuket, which together will improve the quality of life both physically and mentally of the local people and corresponds to the theme of the Phuket bid, Future of Life: Living in Harmony, Sharing Prosperity, Governor Narong said.

It is a good opportunity to make Phuket and Thailand better known, and also to promote opportunities for foreign investors to take advantage of the Specialised Expo event area after the event, he added.
Wichit Municipality launches B45k photo contest

PHUKET: Wichit Municipality has launched a photo contest to highlight Phuket with a total prize money of B45,000.

Community

By The Phuket News

Saturday 9 July 2022, 11:32AM

Image: Wichit Municipality

Under the photo contest project of the Wichit Municipality for the year 2022, we would like to invite students, students, the general public, including Thai tourists, Wichit Mayor Kreetha Chotiwitpipat said in announcing the launch.

The contest is divided into two categories, Mayor Kreetha explained.

The first category is the tourist attraction / lifestyle category, under the topic Shining happiness through a lens. see new perspectives in Wichit. The second category for entries is under the theme Positive identity in the new life.

"The total prize money for the contest is over B45,000, and winners will receive a plaque of honour," Mayor Kreetha said.

Photos can be submitted from now through Aug 2 in person on the 1st floor of the Wichit Municipality offices on Chao Fa East Rd (during government office hours) or by post marked Entry for the photo contest.

Photos may also be submitted by email to vichitsubdistrict@gmail.com

The application form to enter the contest and the entry regulations can be downloaded from https://www.phuket-vichit.go.th/news/detail/82374

People seeking more information about the contest were advised to contact the municipality at 076-525100 ext. 0/102.
The Wiregrass Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) will hold two financial aid workshops for students who need assistance in completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

The Wiregrass EOC is a federally funded TRiO program aimed to assist students who dropped out of high school or never attended/didnt complete post-secondary training and wish to return to school. The program serves students in Coffee, Dale, Geneva, and Houston counties and helps with FAFSA completion, the college admissions process, and more. The FAFSA is an application that connects students with federal financial aid to help them pay for school, such as through the Pell Grant.

The first EOC financial aid workshop will be held July 12 in the Enterprise State Community College Student Center Community Room from 1-3 p.m. The second will be held July 14 in the computer lab in the ATTC Building at the Alabama Aviation College from 1-3p.m.

Wiregrass EOC Director Jennifer Braden said the event is for first-time college students who havent completed their FAFSA or those students who plan to return to college who need assistance filling out the application. She said EOC will assist students who complete the application for any college.

Completing the FAFSA can be a very daunting task, EOC Director Jennifer Braden said. One of the main purposes of our grant is to assist students in the completion of the FAFSA as well as helping them research other sources of money to assist them in the pursuit of their educational dreams.

Students planning to attend college this fall will need to complete the 2022-23 FAFSA. Students are encouraged to bring a copy of their 2020 income tax forms to help with the completion of the application.

If a student is under the age of 24, he or she may be considered a dependent student for Financial Aid purposes, unless he or she is or was in the military, has a spouse, has dependents for whom they provide more than 50% of their support, or was in foster care while over the age of 13.

If a student is considered dependent, he or she will need to provide their parents 2020 tax information to complete the FAFSA, and one parent will have to sign the FAFSA with the student.

EOC personnel have helped many students complete the FAFSA, Braden said. We dont ever want the completion of a FAFSA to be something that deters a student from attending school.

Students are not required but are encouraged to RSVP to this event by completing the form at https://bit.ly/3ABVtwD or by scanning the QR code on the flyer. For more information about the event or about the Wiregrass EOC, students can call (334) 406-0495 or visit escc.edu/eoc.
Today

Clear skies. Low near 55F. WNW winds at 15 to 25 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.

Tonight

Clear skies. Low near 55F. WNW winds at 15 to 25 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.

Tomorrow

Sunny. Gusty winds diminishing in the afternoon. High around 90F. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
Jennifer E. Jones is the new president of Rotary International, and the first woman president in the organizations history.
MONTGOMERY  The Alabama Bankers Association welcomed the new chairman of its board of directors, Hope Johnson, during its annual convention in June. Johnson is the CEO of Friend Bank in Slocomb.

Hope has devoted much of her life to public service and banking. In these roles, Hope enjoys developing relationships with people helping to create vision in both her community and the banking industry, said ABA President and CEO Scott Latham. We look forward to her leadership and our work together in the coming year.

Johnson has served in various roles at Friend Bank since 1987, becoming CEO in 1999.

I am grateful to our ABA member banks for their support and encouragement. I look forward to working with ABA President and CEO Scott Latham and the outstanding team at the ABA, and I am honored to serve our Alabama banking industry, Johnson said.

Johnson brings nearly 40 years of banking and leadership experience to her role as chairman of the association. Johnson was recently appointed by Gov. Kay Ivey to serve on the Alabama State Banking Board. She also currently serves as chairman of the Wiregrass United Way Board of Trustees, and is a member of the American Bankers Association Community Bankers Council, the Wiregrass Regional Council of Leadership Alabama, the University of Alabama Culverhouse Board of Visitors, and the FUMC Respite Care Committee and Funds Management Committee. She previously served as chairman of the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce and participated in Leadership Dothan and Leadership Alabama. Johnson earned her bachelors degree from The University of Alabama in 1985, graduated from the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University in 1991, and completed the Harvard Business School Owner/President program in 2009.

Other officers elected during the convention include: Chairman-elect Mike Ross, president and CEO of CB&S Bank in Russellville; Vice Chairman Macke Mauldin, president of Bank Independent in Sheffield; Treasurer Dwight Gamble, president and CEO of HNB First in Headland; and Past Chairman Steve Smith, chairman, president and CEO of SouthPoint Bank in Birmingham.

The Alabama Bankers Association represents 123 banks. Banks in Alabama have combined deposits of more than $247 billion and have 1,491 locations across the state.
A top police official has acknowledged possible security lapses that allowed an assassin to fire his gun into former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe while he was addressing a campaign rally
ORESTE P. DARCONTE is a former publisher of The Sun Chronicle. Reach him at opd999@gmail.com .
Our View: It's time to get back on the dance floor
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ALTON  No injuries have been reported in an Alton building collapse that ripped the back off a structure Saturday.

At about 12:30 p.m. Saturday, the upper story deck at the rear of a building at 619 E. Broadway collapsed. The building is located between Germania Brew Haus and the Jacoby Arts Center.
Getty Images

CARLINVILLE  Macoupin County States Attorney Jordan J. Garrison on Friday announced that Mark A. Schafer, 36, has been charged with one count of failure to keep electronic records of catalytic converter purchases and one count of purchasing of unattached catalytic converters, both Class A misdemeanors, under a new state law that took effect May 27.

Public Act 102-906 addresses the statewide increase in catalytic converter thefts by regulating businesses who purchase catalytic

converters. Before the law, businesses were allowed to purchase at resale catalytic convertors without keeping records. Under the new law, the business must keep various records including a photo or video of the seller of the catalytic converter and the product which can aid law enforcement officials in tracking down thefts.
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ROME (AP)  Italian authorities on Saturday put the final death toll of an avalanche in northern Italy at 11 and said all the victims had been identified nearly a week after a chunk of ice detached from a melting glacier and sent a torrent of ice, rock and debris on hikers below.

Carabinieri Cmdr. Giampietro Lago, who headed a team of forensic experts identifying the remains, said the identity of the final hiker had been established and there are no elements" at this point to suggest the death toll would grow.
EDWARDSVILLE  Multiple methamphetamine-related felony cases were among drug charges filed Thursday by the Madison County States Attorneys Office.

Charles E. Rea Jr., 44, of Granite City, was charged July 7 with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony; and obstruction of identification, a Class A misdemeanor.

The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department.

According to court documents, on Feb. 18 Rea allegedly had less than five grams of methamphetamine and furnished false information to a Granite City police officer.

Bail was set at $25,000.

Other drug-related felony charges filed July 7 include:

 Sandra D. Thomas, 50, and David J. Benton, 52, both of the same address in St. Charles, Missouri, were each charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The cases were presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On March 13 the two allegedly had less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $20,000 each.

 Lacy A. Tyler, 22, of Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On Dec. 29 Tyler allegedly had less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $20,000.

 Tessa R. Webber, 24, of Collinsville, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On May 18 Webber allegedly had less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Jacob M. Coleman, 25, of Jerseyville, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Wood River Police Department. On June 26 Coleman allegedly had less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $20,000.

 Maylynn T. Holloway, 29, of Alton, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony, and obstruction of identification, a Class A misdemeanor. The case was presented by the Wood River Police Department. On March 26 Holloway allegedly had less than 15 grams of fentanyl and provided furnished false information to a Wood River police officer. Bail was set at $20,000.

 John C. Borth, 35, of the 4000 block of Melrose Avenue, Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. According to court documents, on April 15 Borth was found to be in possession of less than 15 grams of fentanyl. Bail was set at $15,000.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  The supervisor of a national forest that erupted in flames earlier this year has been temporarily assigned to a post in Washington, D.C., as New Mexico looks to recover from its largest wildfire in record history and the U.S. Forest Service reviews its prescribed burn policies.

Debbie Cress will serve as acting deputy chief of staff in the office of U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. Her replacement to oversee the northern New Mexico forest was named Friday, but some have questioned the timing given that the wildfire has yet to be declared contained and recovery work has just begun.

Forest officials have dismissed criticism, saying the opportunity for Cress to work at headquarters initially came up in January and was the culmination of her work over the past year with the agency's leadership.

Cress acknowledged in a statement Friday that it was difficult timing as her home state deals with the aftermath of the massive wildfire. But she said local, state and federal officials have a unified commitment to post-fire repairs and to meeting the needs of the communities that depend on Sangre de Cristo mountain range for firewood and water supplies.

The blaze is the result of two planned burns that were meant to clear out overgrown and dead vegetation to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire. Instead, hot, dry and windy conditions helped push the flames across 534 square miles (1,383 square kilometers) of the Rocky Mountain foothills, destroying hundreds of homes and upending the lives of thousands of rural residents.

A recent review highlighted multiple missteps by Forest Service employees in planning for the prescribed fires, most notably a failure to fully grasp how dry conditions have become amid New Mexicos decades-long drought.

About 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers) of dozer lines were carved into mountainsides and valleys, while firefighters armed with hand tools scratched in another 176 miles (283 kilometers) in hopes of corralling the fire.

Massive quantities of fire retardant and water were dropped by planes and helicopters to protect the community of Las Vegas and other small villages, but it was really the start of the monsoon season in June that helped to slow flames that had been churning since early April.

The price tag for suppression now totals $275 million, officials told The Associated Press. Another $2.5 million is going toward road work, storm inspection, seeding, debris removal and the protection of sites considered important to residents.

Cress' assignment in Washington will last four months. Carson National Forest Supervisor James Duran will lead the Santa Fe forest until Cress returns from her assignment.

Agency officials said such work details are common across the Forest Service and are used as both professional development and as a way to continue with agency business pending a permanent hire.

Joe Reddan, a retired ranger who used to work in northern New Mexico, told the Santa Fe New Mexican that even if Cress had been working on the assignment for months, she should have refrained from going.

Its not going to help her out, and its not going to help the credibility of the agency, he said, noting the lessons that could be learned from what happened and how to deal with the people impacted by such catastrophic fires.

The Forest Service is in the midst of a formal review of its prescribed fire operations nationwide that was prompted by the New Mexico blaze and fire danger levels that reached historic levels this spring. All planned burns have been put on hold pending the outcome.
JULY 11-15

Johns Chapel AME Church will host Vacation Bible School from 5-7:30 p.m., Monday-Friday, July 11-15  a date change from its original plans to hold VBS in June. The theme is Sowing Seeds for Christ with Luke 8:11 as scripture reference. Classes will be available for toddlers through adults. Register via QR code at the churchs website johnschapelamec.org; on the Johns Chapel AME Church Facebook page; or by using this link: https://forms.gle/jojSaRJjaeLwbwP57. For more information, contact LauReen McDaniel, VBS Director, at 334-470-1816 or Pastor Willie White Jr. at 334-701-5853.

JULY 12 The Dothan Ballroom Dance Club will be teaching The Waltz at the Cultural Arts Center on Tuesdays starting July 12. The fun starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Choreography Room. Cost is $2 per week. Call or text 501-766-4845 with any questions. Wear shoes that slide easily.

The Dothan Chapter of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) will meet at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 12, at the Old Mill Restaurant located at the junction of U.S. Highway 231 North and Murphy Mill Road in Dothan. Dr. Larry Kirkland of the Southeast Intervention GroupRecovery will describe how the drug rehab operation in Dothan offers a variety of methods and programs for alcoholism, drug diagnosis, opioid addiction, substance abuse and drug addiction, and other substance issues. Call Dr. Angela Allgood, president, Chapter 1609, at 334-803-0405 for more information.

JULY 14

The Troy University Dothan Community Band will hold its summer concert on Thursday, July 14, at 7:30 p.m.

JULY 15

Deutscher Club will meet Friday, July 15, at Mural City Coffee Company, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Participants will talk and share in German. Trainieren Sie Deutsch mit dem besten Kaffee und Tee der Stadt! Beim Troy-Universitatsbanner. Kostenlos, fur alle zuganglich. Kontakt: vossr@troy.edu.

JULY 16

Enterprise Aglow Community Lighthouse meets Saturday, July 16, at 10 a.m. at The Gathering Room located at 217 S. Main St. in Enterprise. Guest speaker is Dr. Ginger Mayer of Headland. For more information, call 334-406-9683.

The Ashford/Grimsley Grand Reunion and Scholarship Banquet will take place on July 16 at the Wiregrass Rehabilitation Center in Dothan at 6 p.m. Tickets are $50 for the event with a portion of the proceeds benefitting the Wallace L. Smith Jr. Scholarship Fund. Students who attended or graduated from Ashford Colored High School, Essie R. Grimsley, and Ashford High School from 1950s and later are invited to attend. Tickets for the Grand Reunion can be purchased by mail with a check or money order for $50 to be sent to: Jacquline Vester, P.O. Box 1493, Dothan, AL 36302. A banquet ticket will be reserved in your name. Donations for scholarships can also be sent to the same individual and address. Call 334-714-4108 for more information.

JULY 17

Hawk-Houston Youth Enrichment Center will observe its 2022 annual meeting and recognition banquet on Sunday, July 17, at 2 p.m. at 329 Chickasaw St. in Dothan. The event will recognize the 2021 donors, volunteers and grantors. The 2021 honorees are: Youth of the Year, Adrianna Koonce; board volunteer of the year, Alexis J. Smith; board leadership, Sean J. Davis; staff of the year, Anastasia L. Cole; Alveta Houston Hawk Family of the Year, Sue and Shelia LaRue; Alveta Houston Hawk Friend of Youth and Volunteer of the Year, Tajah Stringer and Jeannette Ellis; Alveta Houston Hawk Legacy of Community Service, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Kappa Beta Beta Chapter; Alveta Houston Hawk Community Partnership, John H. Watson Charitable Trust Foundation; Alveta Houston Hawk Legacy of Service and Lifetime Achievement Award, Jesse Nelson. Also, Dr. W. Charles Lewis will be signing copies of his book 28 Black History Makers, Dothan, AL. For more information call 334-792-4618.

JULY 21

Art After Hours at the Wiregrass Museum of Art will be held Thursday, July 21, from 5:30-8 p.m. for the opening of B22: Wiregrass Biennial. The juried exhibition features work created in the last three years from 38 artists across seven states in the Southeast. Enjoy a live performance from local musician Alice Nelson, artmaking, and a cash bar. Free for museum members; $5 for nonmembers.

JULY 22

Club Italiano will meet Friday, July 22, at Mural City Coffee Company, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Participants will talk and attempt humor in Italian. Esercitate litaliano con il miglior caffe e te della citta. Cercate la bandiera dellUniversita di Troy. Gratuito, aperto a tutti. Contatto: vossr@troy.edu.

JULY 28

The Disabled American Veterans Wiregrass Chapter 99, located in New Brockton, will meet Thursday, July 28, at 6 p.m. The meeting will take place in the New Brockton Senior Center and will include elections for chapter officers for the upcoming year. All members that can attend are asked to attend. For more information, contact Charles Lobdell at 334-718-5707 or Mike Doran at 334-406-6700.

The Entrepreneurship Council will hold a seminar Thursday, July 28, at the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Topic will be Financing Opportunities for Small Business, with Jeff Williams of SmartBank, Brent McMahan of SBA, Beau Strong of Southern Development, and Rachel Armstrong of Southeast Alabama Regional Planning. Open to everyone; $10 donation. The council is a 501(3) organization. Sign up at entrepreneurshipcouncil.org.

JULY 29

Esperanto-Klubo will meet Friday, July 29, at Mural City Coffee Company, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Attendees will talk and share in Esperanto. Ekzercu la esperantan kun la plej bonaj kafo kaj teo en la urbo. Sercu la flagon de Universitato Troy. Senpaga, malfermita al ciuj. Kontakto: vossr@troy.edu.

ONGOING

Kiwanis Club of Dothan hosts a monthly gathering on the last Tuesday of every month at The Thirsty Pig, 257 S. St. Andrews St., Dothan, from 6-7 p.m. All are welcome to attend.

Land of Cotton Smocking Guild meets the second Thursday of each month at 10 a.m. at Piney Grove Assembly of God Church, 206 County Road 9 in Wicksburg. The guild is involved in a Wee Care Project, creating preemie gowns, garments for infants in NICU, and bereavement pouches. For more information, contact Carol Ann Pileggi at 850-516-9960 or Joann Carpenter at 334- 790-8328.

Enterprise Military Support Group will not meet in June and July. If anyone needs to talk, call Dr. Granger at 334-447-2252 or John Logsdon at 334-806-2636.

The Kiwanis Club of Dothan meets every Wednesday from 12-1 p.m. at the Dothan Country Club, located at 200 S. Cherokee Ave. in Dothan. Anyone may attend as a guest of the Kiwanis. If you plan to attend, contact the club via kiwanisdothan.com or call 334-355-6877.

The Columbia Historical Society meets every third Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Train Depot on Highway 52. All guests are welcome.

The Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary Dothan Unit #87 will meet every third Thursday of the month at 6 p.m. at Harvest Church, located at 2727 Fortner St. in Dothan. The group will meet in the Main Cafe located in the churchs Building A. Call 334-596-9610 for more information.

Dothan Newcomers Club, a social organization, meets the first Thursday of the month in the fellowship hall of First Christian Church, 1401 N. Cherokee Ave. Social time begins at 9:30 a.m., followed by the business meeting at 10 a.m. The club is open to individuals who have moved into the Dothan or Wiregrass area within the past five years or who have faced a change in status (retirement, death of a spouse, divorce) within the past five years. For more information, visit www.dothannewcomers.com, or Facebook @DothanNewcomers, or contact Elaine Brackin, president, via email at dncpresident3@gmail.com.

Alcoholics Anonymous holds regular meetings in the Wiregrass including Ashford, Dothan, Eufaula, and Headland under the organizations District 10 (www.aadothan.org) meeting locations and Andalusia, Daleville, Enterprise, Level Plains, Opp, Ozark, and Troy under the organizations District 11 (www.district11aa.com) meeting locations. Visit www.aaarea1.org for a complete list of districts for Alabama and Northwest Florida.

A Disabled American Veterans chapter service officer will be located at the New Brockton Town Hall every Wednesday from 9-11 a.m. Any veteran needing help with a VA claim is welcome. This is on a walk-in basis; no appointment is needed. For more information, contact Mike Doran at 334-406-6700.

The DAV van service for local veterans will make runs to Montgomery and Tuskegee on Mondays and Fridays. The van will leave from the Hardees restaurant on Rucker Boulevard in Enterprise at 5 a.m. and from the Dothan Civic Center at 5:30 a.m. Due to COVID restrictions, there is only space for four riders each trip. Veterans who need rides to VA hospitals in Montgomery or Tuskegee can call 334-308-2480 to reserve a seat on the Enterprise van or 334-446-0866 for the Dothan van.

Square Dancing will be held every Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Enterprise YMCA, located on Highway 27 across from Hobby Lobby in Enterprise. Singles and couples welcomed. Never danced? Theyll teach you. For more information, call 334-237-0466 or 334-347-4513.

The Gen. William C. Oates Chapter No. 1342 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy meets the second Thursday from September through May. Women ages 18 and older who have ancestors who fought in the Civil War are eligible for membership, and help will be provided to prove your first Confederate ancestors lineage. For meeting locations and information, call Ceya Minder at 334-794-7480 or email ceya.minder@gmail.com.
I have a small holiday home in Spain that I have decided to sell. How do I go about it? IC, Lincolnshire.

For sale: Hundreds of thousands of Britons own property in Spain, so there is plenty of support for anyone wanting to sell

Ruth Jackson-Kirby replies: Selling a property can be stressful in the best of circumstances, but add in currency exchange and the laws of another country and everything becomes even more complicated.

Luckily, hundreds of thousands of Britons own property in Spain, so there is plenty of support for anyone wanting to sell.

Peter Robinson, executive chairman of the Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP), says the good news is that you should get a listing with an agent pretty quickly as the market in Spain is strong right now and agents have low levels of stock.

'Just be careful who you choose, or your property may not sell in the time frame you seek or be a pleasant experience,' he adds.

How to save on foreign money transfers If you are sending money abroad or transferring cash from foreign currency back into pounds, it pays not to use your bank. Banks typically load currency exchange rates in their favour and can charge percentage fees on top that eat a large sum of your cash. The best way to save money is to use a specialist currency exchange service. This is Money has partnered with FXCompared to help readers find the best rates on money transfers. > Use our tool to compare money transfer exchange rates

The best way to find a good agent is through recommendations from people you know. If you can't get a personal tip then make sure you get in touch with a few different agents, and pick the one you feel is offering the best service.

Look for agents who have bought and sold properties for British owners before.

Also check your preferred agent is a member of a professional body such as the Agente de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria (API). Members are regulated and there are complaints procedures and liability insurance in place to protect you. The AIPP also has a list of 180 agents who specialise in selling properties internationally. Go to aipp.org.uk.

Sales commission can be around five per cent, reflecting the higher costs of marketing internationally, typically in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Scandinavia.

Once you have an agent, make sure there is a clear written agreement covering what fee you are paying and any other charges.

You don't have to have a solicitor, but it is a good idea. Find one who speaks good English and they can look after the sale for you.

You can find a list of Englishspeaking Spanish lawyers at gov. uk/government/publications/spain-list-of-lawyers.

As you no doubt remember from when you bought your property, Spanish law requires you to have a notary. Their role is to check all the paperwork for the sale is correct, ensure taxes are paid and register the sale with the Spanish Land Registry.

The notary is a neutral party, and you must agree on one with the buyer. There are thousands of notaries in Spain, and they work to a set rate card, so you don't need to shop around  just look for someone with a good reputation.

Fortunately for you, the buyer usually pays the notary's fees as part of the sale price.

To help your sale run smoothly, get all your paperwork in order straight away.

You'll need to provide the title deeds for the property as well as receipts to show you've paid the local municipal property tax, details of any community statutes, an inventory of any furniture that will be included in the sale and copies of your utility bills.

The sale process is fairly similar to the UK, but with one key difference. Once contracts are signed the buyer pays a deposit  usually 10 per cent of the sale price. If the buyer pulls out, they lose their deposit; if you change your mind, you could be liable to pay double the deposit as compensation.

Once the sales goes through, you need to consider how you are going to transfer the euros you received back to the UK and into sterling.

'Be careful who you use to transfer the sale proceeds, your bank will give you a terrible rate of conversion,' says Robinson.

'We recommend using an independent, regulated currency provider.'

Finally, don't forget about the tax bill. Spain has Capital Gains Tax that will need to be paid.

In addition, there is a 'plusvalia tax' on any increase in the value of the land your home is on, paid to your local Spanish town hall.

The sale may be liable for Capital Gains Tax in the UK too, but the UK and Spain have a Double Taxation Agreement so you should only pay the tax in one country.

If you are a UK resident, Revenue & Customs will generally give you credit for any tax you've paid in Spain.

Your notary will ensure you pay any tax owed in Spain. Your solicitor should be able to help you navigate if any UK taxes are owed.
Mining is important in Brazil, but agriculture is big business too. The country is the fourth largest consumer of fertiliser in the world, just behind China, America and India. Yet it produces only 4 per cent of the fertiliser it needs, buying the rest from abroad.

Imported fertiliser has tripled in price over the past two years, putting intense pressure on the cost of agricultural produce, from soybeans to coffee to sugar.

These commodities are grown in abundance in the fertile state of Minas Gerais, a few hundred miles from Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. This is where Harvest Minerals has developed the Arapua project, a site producing pure organic fertiliser made from weathered lava, which is simply crushed, bagged and sold direct to local farmers.

Staying power: Harvest shares have fallen 23 per cent to 13p in eight weeks, after Harvest wrote off the value of some non-core assets and wrote down an old bad debt

Harvest was founded in 2015 and farmers were initially wary of its brand of fertiliser, KP Fertil. But word has gone around and KP Fertil has now been credited as a bona fide muckspreader by the Brazilian authorities.

On June 30, chief executive Brian McMaster revealed that Harvest sales rose 149 per cent to A$4.9 million (2.8 million) and said this year should deliver strong profits. The group reports in Australian dollars because it was originally listed and registered in Australia, although it is now just on AIM.

McMaster also said he expected to sell 150,000 tons of fertiliser this year, a 76 per cent increase over 2021. This should feed through into higher profits, as McMaster has already driven through three prices rises in the past six months and a fourth is imminent.

Yet Harvest shares have fallen 23 per cent to 13p in eight weeks, after Harvest wrote off the value of some non-core assets and wrote down an old bad debt. This left Harvest with a pre-tax loss of A$4.2million.

The future, however, looks considerably brighter. Arapua is winning new business, customers keep coming back and the group should be a key beneficiary of Russia-induced turmoil. McMaster is even talking about dividends for shareholders.

Harvest has bought another asset too, Miriri in North-East Brazil. The site will take time to develop but McMaster is hoping to produce something akin to KP Fertil up there.

Midas verdict: Midas recommended Harvest in 2018, when the shares were 17p so the current 13p price is a blow for investors. They should stick with the stock, however. Brazil desperately needs more homegrown fertiliser and now that KP Fertil has been proven and certified, Harvest should see sales and profits rise at pace. Brave investors could even take a punt at current levels.

Traded on: AIM Ticker: HMI Contact: harvestminerals.net or 020 3940 6625

> Midas share tips: Find a safe haven with miner Serabi
Heathrow's foreign shareholders could be forced to fund a cash injection into the business as the UK's largest airport battles with an 'uncertain' future.

The prospect follows a ruling last month by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) which called on Heathrow to reduce its passenger charges.

Disagreements over the scale of fees triggered a bitter dispute dispute between Heathrow and airlines that use the airport, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

Right direction?: Heathrow is reeling from Covid setbacks and travel disruption over recent months

The airport is reeling from Covid setbacks and travel disruption over recent months. It has amassed debt of 15billion after shareholders failed to provide any financial backing during the pandemic.

The regulator wants the average charge per passenger to fall from 30.19 to 26.31 by 2026. Heathrow had been hoping for the cap on passenger charges to be increased to a range between 32 and 43.If the reduced charges are implemented they are expected to pile pressure on Heathrow, which has already forecast another year of losses.

In its report last month, the CAA said any increased costs could affect Heathrow's creditworthiness. That coupled with a possible drop-off in passenger traffic could put 'significant pressure' on Heathrow's credit metrics.

If debt monitoring agencies reduced their recommendation on Heathrow, the CAA said the airport would 'likely need to rely more on equity finance'.

In an apparent swipe at Heathrow's shareholders, the CAA added: 'We note that during the pandemic, Heathrow airport's shareholders have not supported the group with additional equity finance, in contrast to the shareholders of many aviation businesses.' Heathrow's largest shareholders are Spanish infrastructure firm Ferrovial and the Qatar Investment Authority. Heathrow paid out roughly 4billion in dividends between 2012 and 2020.

The airport has claimed that the CAA 'continues to underestimate what it takes to deliver a good passenger service'. Heathrow insisted that the proposed reductions in charges would result in a worse experience for passengers.

Chief executive of Airlines UK, Tim Alderslade, said he supported the 'CAA's stance that Heathrow shareholders should ensure the airport's financeability'.

Heathrow said: 'Private investors will only invest if they can achieve a fair return on their investment. In the absence of a fair return, investment will dry up and the improvements the CAA says it wants delivered will not be financed.'
A controversial Chinese tycoon is trying to sell a company that stores sensitive data in London  attracting the attention of major global infrastructure investors.

Global Switch, based in Westminster with a price tag of 8.3billion, also has major information storage facilities across Europe and looks after data for corporations and governments.

Chinese steel conglomerate Jiangsu Shagang Group  chaired by tycoon Shen Wenrong, who built up the business  has quietly increased its shareholding to more than 50 per cent in the past two years, giving it a controlling stake.

Kingpin: Shen Wenrong is selling Global Switch which has two major data storage centres in London's Docklands (pictured)

Wenrong, one of China's first 'red capitalists', has become a prominent figure in the Chinese Communist Party which runs the country amid tight surveillance of its population.

Shagang is now seeking to sell its entire 51 per cent holding in Global Switch alongside the remaining Chinese investors in the business, according to City sources. Management meetings with interested investors started last week, they said.

The Mail on Sunday has learnt that Australian Super, one of the country's largest pension funds, is eyeing Global Switch.

Others said to be interested include Stockholm-based EQT, one of the world's largest private equity companies, and Florida-based DigitalBridge Group.

The sale revelations have raised fresh fears about the security of Britain's most sensitive infrastructure at a time when the Government is reviewing Chinese investment in strategic assets.

The National Security and Investment Act, which came into force earlier this year, gives Ministers enhanced powers to intervene on takeovers across a number of sectors, including data centres.

Global Switch is Europe's largest data centre operator and has two major facilities in London's Docklands, with a third in development.

These store vast amounts of highly sensitive data for banks, governments and telecom companies such as BT.

Tory grandee and MP David Davis told The Mail on Sunday: 'In the modern age, the Government should be incredibly sensitive about any foreign ownership of major databases, particularly when they cover sensitive, personal and financial data.

'This is doubly so when the share holders are Chinese and even more so when they are leading Communist Party members.

'Simple common sense dictates that the Government should not allow British citizens or British companies to be exposed to the attitudes of surveillance that are commonplace in China.'

In 2015, then-Chancellor George Osborne heralded a 'golden decade' of Sino-British relations during a visit to Beijing.

But by 2020, under pressure from US President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that Chinese telecoms giant Huawei would be banned from inclusion in Britain's high-tech 5G mobile communications network.

MI5 director-general Ken McCallum last week warned business leaders that Beijing is determined to steal their technology for competitive gain.

Conservative MP Bob Seely, a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: 'We should be wary in principle of Chinese taking control of critical infrastructure, given the amount of IP [Intellectual Property] theft because of spying and espionage.'

Global Switch insists it has no access to any customer data and says it merely provides secure sites where firms and governments can locate their own computer servers.

The move to sell the group comes after the Australian Government agreed to move most of its data and applications out of Global Switch's data centre in Sydney by July 2022, and into facilities owned by other providers amid national security concerns.

The Chinese owners are partly selling over fears of losing more tenants in Europe and elsewhere as governments become increasingly nervous about their critical infrastructure in the hands of foreign owners, sources said. 'They fear more is to come as European countries don't want Chinese conglomerates owning government data centres,' one source said. Another source insisted that the sale process is in response to 'strong inbound international investor interest' and high valuations fetched by data centre assets.

Global Switch scrapped plans for an initial public offering in Hong Kong in 2019 after business performance was hurt by the loss of key customers, one source added.

The company increased profit before interest, tax and exceptional costs by 6 per cent last year to 251.4million, and revenues by 2 per cent to 419million.

Last month, it appointed JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, UBS and CITIC Securities as joint financial advisers to explore strategic options.

Last night, the company declined to comment on the ongoing sale process.
The nationalisation of French energy giant EDF means it is unlikely to spearhead future nuclear power projects in the UK, according to a top industry insider.

The Hinkley Point C developer will instead focus investment on reactors in France, the source said.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced last week that the state would buy the 16 per cent of shares in EDF it does not already own.

Stepping back: French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced that the state would buy the 16 per cent of shares in EDF it does not already own

EDF, one of Britain's big household energy suppliers, will continue work on Hinkley in Somerset, as well as Sizewell C in Suffolk, which is still being approved by the UK Government.

But the source said EDF would now shift its focus to France as it battles the energy crisis sweeping Europe, adding: 'The odds of it putting money into another UK plant are incredibly small.

'This has been a long time coming because being fully nationalised means it can put more money into French projects without having to worry about state aid.'

Many in the industry have welcomed the move. Moody's, the credit rating service, said it would give the French government 'the financial means to develop new power capacities in France, including nuclear power generation'.

France gets 70 per cent of its electricity from nuclear, while British plants generate just 16 per cent of UK supply. President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for the building of up to six reactors in France.

An EDF spokesman said: 'The teams of EDF in the UK are fully committed to continuing to run and build our power stations and renewables, and to serve our customers.'
Sacha Baron Cohen has made a successful career in a niche of comedy that some may find more repellent than humorous. Those who arent familiar with Cohen need only imagine a raunchy and beyond-the-pale version of Candid Camera, except the marks arent let in on the gag at the end of the segment.

Four years ago, Cohen created a comedy show called Who Is America?, and among the guests was controversial conservative Alabama politician Roy Moore. Twice-elected, once suspended and once removed as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Moores most recent foray into politics was a campaign for U.S. Senate that faltered amid allegations of impropriety with underage girls early in his legal career.

Moore signed a waiver before appearing on Cohens show, and was subjected to a scene in which a character played by Cohen submitted Moore to a fabricated test to determine if he was a pedophile. The rigged testing equipment reacted when placed near Moore; the former judge walked off the set when he realized hed been had.

Then he sued Cohen for $95 million for defamation.

Last week, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that Moore had no claim against Cohen.

That may seem an outrageous miscarriage of justice. None of the allegations lodged against Moore in his Senate campaign have resulted in charges, and the episode that unfolded on the set of Cohens show and later in its broadcast is understandably humiliating. Many people find such humor at the expense of unsuspecting others distasteful at best and offensive at worst.

Court, however, limits its view to the law and its documentation.

[L]ike the District Court we see no ambiguity in Moores release of all claims asserting infliction of emotional distress, defamation, and fraudthe only causes of action asserted here, read the Appeals Court ruling.

Its ironic that the stumbling block in Moores quest for justice at both district and appellate venues is his signed waiver, the sort of boilerplate legal document attorneys handle routinely.
Cat Bi International Airport in Vietnam's northern port city of Hai Phong. Photo by Hai Phong's news portal

The government has approved a new passenger terminal at the Cat Bi International Airport in the northern port city of Hai Phong.

T2 will be built by the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), which operates all 22 commercial airports in the country, at a cost of VND2.4 trillion ($102.75 million) and can handle five million passengers a year, according to a decision signed by Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh Friday.

Once completed, it will handle domestic services while the existing T1 will become the international terminal.

The construction has a deadline of 18 months from the time the ACV receives the required land from city authorities.

T2 will also have a hangar and wastewater treatment plant.

Hai Phong has been seeking another terminal for Cat Bi since 2018 after T1 began to show signs of overloading.

The airport serves 4-5 million passengers a year.
Ukrainian forces battled on Saturday to block Russian military advances into the eastern region of Donbas, a provincial governor said, as Ukraine urged its allies to send it more weapons.

Signalling that the Kremlin was in no mood for compromise, President Vladimir Putin said sanctions against Russia for the invasion it launched in February risked causing catastrophic energy price rises.

His top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, clashed with his Western counterparts at a G20 meeting in Indonesia, where they urged Russia to allow Ukraine to ship its blockaded grain out to an increasingly hungry world.

Russias envoy to Britain, meanwhile, offered little prospect of a pullback from parts of Ukraine under Russian control.

Ambassador Andrei Kelin told Reuters that Russian troops would capture the rest of Donbas in eastern Ukraine and were unlikely to withdraw from land across the southern coast.

Ukraine would eventually have to strike a peace deal or continue slipping down this hill to ruin, he said.

On the front lines in the east, Ukrainian officials reported heavy Russian shelling of towns and villages as Russian forces attacked from several directions.

Russians are firing along the entire front line, the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Gaidai, said on the Telegram message system.

The enemy is trying to advance from the settlements of the Luhansk region to the first villages of Donetsk region.

Russia says it wants to wrest control of the entire Donbas, the eastern industrial heartland made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, on behalf of Moscow-backed separatists in two self-proclaimed peoples republics.

After taking the city of Lysychansk last Sunday and effectively cementing control of Luhansk, Russia has made clear it is planning to capture parts of neighbouring region.

Gaidai said Russian forces had not paused after their recent advances in the east. They attack and bombard our lands with the same intensity as before.

The Russians have also seized a big chunk of territory across Ukraines south.

In the Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south, Ukraines deputy prime minister urged residents to evacuate before Ukrainian forces launch a counter-offensive.

Please leave  our army will begin retaking these areas. Our determination is rock solid, Iryna Vereshchuk was quoted as saying by Ukrainian media.

Ukrainian media cited military sources as saying 194 Russian soldiers had been eliminated in the south over the previous 24 hours.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts.

PROLONG CONFLICT

Mykhailo Podolyak, the Ukrainian chief negotiator in stalled talks with Moscow, said earlier that Russias military had been forced to take an operational pause due to losses and to resupply.

It is clear that they have to redeploy things, bring forward new troops and weaponry, and this is very good. A certain turning point is beginning to take shape because we are proving we are going to attack storage facilities and command centres, Podolyak told Ukraines 24 Channel television.

Britains Ministry of Defence said in a regular bulletin Russia was moving reserve forces from across the country and assembling them near Ukraine.

Ambassador Kelins remarks gave an insight into Russias potential endgame  a forced partition that would leave its former Soviet neighbour shorn of more than a fifth of its post-Soviet territory.

Ukrainian officials said they needed more high-grade Western weapons to shore up defences.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed a new weapons package worth up to $400 million for Ukraine on Friday, including four additional high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) and more ammunition.

Zelenskiy on Twitter thanked Biden for the HIMARS and shells, which he said were priority needs.

Commenting on the supply of weapons, the Russian embassy in Washington said the United States wanted to prolong the conflict at all costs and compensate for Ukrainian military losses.

The United States started providing the precision rocket weapon system to Ukraine last month after assurances it would not use them to hit targets in Russia. Kyiv has attributed battlefield successes to the HIMARS.

At the meeting of G20 foreign ministers, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken led efforts to press Russia. He was meeting Chinas foreign minister, Wang Yi, on Saturday and was expected to repeat warnings to Beijing not to support Russias war.

On Friday, Lavrov walked out of a meeting, denouncing the West for frenzied criticism.

High on the list of G20 concerns is getting grain shipments from Ukraine out through ports blocked by Russias presence in the Black Sea and mines. Ukraine is a major exporter, and aid agencies warn that many developing countries face food shortages if supplies fail to reach them.

Blinken urged Russia to let Ukrainian grain out, a Western official said.

Since Russia started in February what it calls a special operation to demilitarize Ukraine, cities have been bombed to rubble, thousands have been killed, and millions displaced.

Ukraine and its Western allies say Russia is engaged in an unprovoked land grab.

SOURCE: REUTERS
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COLONIE  It's gone. It's really gone.

The old Tobin First Prize Center, for so long one of the region's enduring eyesores, is now a pile of rubble, save for a lone smokestack rising from the dust and debris.

This is progress, certainly. The old meatpacking plant needed to go. It had outlived its useful life. Like the Central Warehouse, five miles to the east, it was a persistent blow against municipal pride, a symbol of inertia.

And yet for people like Jack Houlihan, who grew up in West Albany when the plant was the heart of the neighborhood, the demolition is both nostalgic and, to be honest, a little painful. It's the erasing of a way of life. It is history, wiped clean.

"Our whole life revolved around it," Houlihan said of Tobin. "I realize that it had to come down, but it's very sad for me."

One of Houlihan's grandfathers, an Irish immigrant, helped to build the First Prize Center. Another was a truck driver for the company. His parents both worked there  and even met there. Other relatives and neighbors were also Tobin employees.

In Houlihan's West Albany of the 1940s  he lived on Russell Road, about a half-block from the plant  nearly everyone had a connection to the Tobin Packing Co. Even folks who didn't work there attended its annual clambakes. Their children raced in its soapbox derbies.

"It was a way of life, no question," he told me, thinking of the memories.

Some of you may be puzzled by the nostalgia. The First Prize Center, which straddles the Albany-Colonie border near Everett Road, was a slaughterhouse, after all, a grim final destination for thousands upon thousands of hogs who arrived by train. The place smelled. It was noisy. It polluted Patroon Creek.

For our modern minds, it's amazing that such a place thrived so close to where people lived. Didn't they have proper zoning?!

But for the people who worked at Tobin, it was a steady job and a path into the middle class. It was a paycheck that allowed a families to buy the modest but proud homes near the plant. It was hard and difficult work, certainly, but West Albany has never been afraid of either.

The Rochester-based owners of the plant, meanwhile, were the kind of executives that hardly seem to exist today, with ties to the community and, as a Democrat & Chronicle profile put it, a "generosity and affinity" toward employees. Famous for its "white hots," Tobin was at one point the largest meat-packing outfit in the Northeast  another point of pride for its workers.

But the company fell on hard times in the 1970s, leading to its sale to less-committed owners and continued decline. The First Prize Center closed as a meat-packing plant in 1981.

And from there, the story is mostly one of big ideas that never came to fruition.

Walt Lotz was part of the consortium that took control of the 32-acre site in the mid-1980s. With his own family connections to the plant  his grandmother, for example, ran its kitchen  Lotz told me his hope was to remake the land into something productive and purposeful.

There were plans to put a train station there. And a hotel. Walmart, Kmart, Home Depot, Lowe's and Whole Foods were among the retailers that looked at the site, but nothing worked out.

As Lotz tells it, Albany County's infamous political tribalism was an impediment to progress. But he noted that, unlike the Central Warehouse, the First Prize Center was never empty or abandoned. Until about 10 years ago, when a collapsing roof forced its final closure, the complex housed dozens of small companies that rented portions of its space.

Still, the place didn't look like much. It was a prominent eyesore, highly visible to the traffic passing on Interstate 90 and embarrassing to the many West Albany neighbors who remembered its better days.

"It's a mess," Anthony Stellato, who lives near the plant and worked there for decades, told me in 2009. On Friday afternoon, he told me it "looks 100 percent better now."

Still, Stellato, like Houlihan and so many others, has mixed feelings about the demolition. Yes, it is progress. Yes, it needed to happen. Yes, the revitalization of the site could mean so much to West Albany. And yet ...

"There were a lot of memories in that place," Stellato said.

What comes next? Well, property owner Richbell Capital is talking about constructing upscale apartments there pitched at graduate students and young professionals. There might be small-scale retail, too. A smoothie shop, perhaps, or small cafes.

There is, no doubt, a metaphor to be found in an old slaughterhouse being razed for smoothies, cappuccinos and apartments with granite countertops. It says something about who we are and we're headed, perhaps.

What, one wonders, would the men and women who worked at the old factory have made of the change?

Houlihan said his meat-packing relatives would have had at least one question. What in the world are upscale apartments?

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
COLONIE - Rabbi Mordechai Rubin and his wife, Chana, the millennials who oversee Colonie Chabad, are known for hosting creative and inclusive events that are a hit with Jewish attendees as well as non-Jewish visitors.

This August, they're celebrating the recovery from illness of Mordechai's father with a five week series called The Jewish Course of Why.

Created by the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, the sessions will answer what Rubin calls "the 50 biggest questions about Jews and Judaism."

He promises that the questions will "span a diverse range, from fun, light, and off-the-beaten-track questions, to more complex and controversial issues." Each class is one hour with plenty of time for followup questions.

Here's a preview sample of the questions that will be tackled: How did the Star of David become a symbol of Judaism? When do Jews say Mazel Tov and why? And why are so many Jews in the filmmaking business in Hollywood?

This promises to be fascinating for any classic film buff. The men who founded the great Hollywood studios were sons of Jewish immigrants or Jewish immigrants themselves: Adolph Zukor (Paramount), Harry and Jack Warner (Warner Bros.), Carl Laemmle (Universal), Sam Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer (MGM) and Harry Cohn (Columbia). All of them were born into poverty or the working poor. And yet their imagination and talent led them to establish dream factories that produced timeless films that shaped the American psyche and that today still enchant, inspire, terrify or intrigue movie lovers worldwide of all ages and backgrounds.

As film critic David Thomason wrote, 'The Warner BrothersHarry, Albert, Sam, and Jackarrived in America as unschooled Jewish immigrants, yet they founded a studio that became the smartest, toughest, and most radical in all of Hollywood." And one of its films, Casablanca, still moves audiences to tears with its World War II tale of a bitter man's gradual embrace of a cosmic, world-changing cause bigger than his own self-pity and reuniting with his lost love.

The series will be taught on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. starting Aug. 16 with both in-person & on Zoom options, The first class is free. There is also a chance to participate in a dinner in the first class. For those who register by Aug. 3, the course is $40 then increases to $50. There is a student handbook available for $22

Enroll online at :https://forms.gle/B4M8sZTZp5mQSPvHA. For more information, call 518-368-7886 or e-mail: chaicentercolonie@gmail.com
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TOKYO (AP)  A top police official on Saturday acknowledged possible security lapses that allowed an assassin to fire his gun into former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe while he was addressing a campaign rally, raising questions how could the attacker get so close behind him.

Abe was shot in the western city of Nara on Friday and airlifted to a hospital but died of blood loss. Police arrested the attacker, a former member of Japan's navy, at the scene. Police confiscated his homemade gun and several others were later found at his apartment.

The attacker, Tetsuya Yamagami, told investigators he acted because he believed rumors that Abe was connected to an organization that he resents, police said. Japanese media reported that the man had developed hatred toward a religious group that his mother was obsessed about and that caused his family financial problems. The reports did not specify the group.

On Saturday, a black hearse carrying Abes body and accompanied by his wife, Akie, arrived at his home in Tokyos upscale residential area of Shibuya. Many mourners, including top party officials, waited for his remains and lowered their heads as the vehicle passed.

Nara prefectural police chief Tomoaki Onizuka said Abe's assassination was his "greatest regret in a 27-year career.

I cannot deny there were problems with our security, Onizuka said. Whether it was a setup, emergency response, or ability of individuals, we still have to find out. Overall, there was a problem and we will review it from every perspective.

Abes assassination ahead of Sundays parliamentary election shocked the nation and raised questions over whether security for the former prime minister was adequate.

Some observers who watched videos of the attack noted a lack of attention in the open space behind Abe as he spoke.

A former Kyoto prefectural police investigator, Fumikazu Higuchi, said the footage suggested security was sparse at the event and insufficient for a former prime minister.

It is necessary to investigate why security allowed Yamagami to freely move and go behind Mr. Abe, Higuchi told a Nippon TV talk show.

Experts also said Abe was more vulnerable standing on the ground level, instead of atop a campaign vehicle, which is usually the case but was reportedly unavailable due to his hastily arranged visit to Nara.

Looks like police were mainly focusing on frontward, while paying little attention to what's behind Mr. Abe, and nobody stopped the suspect approaching him, said Mitsuru Fukuda, a crisis management professor at Nihon University. Clearly there were problems."

Fukuda said that election campaigns provide a chance for voters and politicians to interact because political terrorism was extremely rare in postwar Japan. But Abe's assassination could prompt stricter security at crowded events like campaigns, sports games and others.

During a parliamentary debate in 2015, Abe resisted suggestions by an opposition lawmaker to beef up his security, insisting that "Japan is a safe country.

In videos circulating on social media, the 41-year-old Yamagami can be seen standing only a few meters (yards) behind Abe across a busy street, and continuously glancing around.

A few minutes after Abe stood at the podium and started his speech  as a local party candidate and their supporters stood and waved to the crowd  Yamagami can be seen taking his gun out of a bag, walking toward Abe and firing the first shot, which released a cloud of smoke, but the projectile apparently missed Abe.

As Abe turned to see where the noise came from, a second shot went off. That bullet apparently hit Abe's left arm, missing a bulletproof briefcase raised by a security guard who stood behind him.

Abe fell to the ground, with his left arm tucked in as if to cover his chest. Campaign organizers shouted through loudspeakers asking for medical experts to provide first-aid to Abe. His heart and breathing had stopped by the time he was airlifted to a hospital, where he later pronounced dead.

Police on Saturday said autopsy results showed that a bullet that entered Abes upper left arm damaged arteries beneath both collar bones, causing fatal massive bleeding.

According to the Asahi newspaper, Yamagami was a contract worker at a warehouse in Kyoto, operating a forklift. He was described as a quiet person who did not mingle with colleagues. A next-door neighbor at his apartment told Asahi he never met Yamagami, though he recalled hearing noises like a saw being used several times late at night over the past month.

Japan is particularly known for its strict gun laws. With a population of 125 million, it had only 10 gun-related criminal cases last year, eight of then gang-related.

Even though he was out of office, Abe was still highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction. But his ultra-nationalist views made him a divisive figure to many.

Abe stepped down two years ago blaming a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis hed had since he was a teenager. He said he regretted leave many of his goals unfinished, especially his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia, and a revision of Japans war-renouncing constitution.

That ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas and China, and his push to create what he saw as a more normal defense posture angered many Japanese liberals. Abe failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support.

Loyalists said his legacy was a stronger U.S.-Japan relationship that was meant to bolster Japans defense capability. Abe divided the public by forcing his defense goals and other contentious issues through parliament.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who early on had a frosty relationship with Abe, sent a condolence message to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday, a day after most other world leaders issued their statements.

Xi credited Abe with making efforts to improve China-Japan relations and said he and Abe had reached an important understanding on building better ties, according to a statement posted on Chinas Foreign Ministry website. He also told Kishida he is willing to work with him to continue to develop neighborly and cooperative relations.

Abe was groomed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a normal and beautiful nation with a stronger military through security alliance with the United States and bigger role in international affairs.

He became Japans youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52, but his overly nationalistic first stint abruptly ended a year later, also because of his health, prompting six years of annual leadership change.

He returned to office in 2012, vowing to revitalize the nation and getting its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his Abenomics formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms. He won six national elections and built a rock-solid grip on power.
VOORHEESVILLE  A car accident with a civilian left an Albany County Sheriff's cruiser totaled.

Sheriff Craig Apple said a deputy was clearing out a call in the village of Voorheesville Friday afternoon when he struck the back of a civilian's SUV.

"He went through a roundabout, he looked down at his computer quick to see if there were any calls pending, and a vehicle he thought was going around the roundabout took a turn and stopped, and the deputy struck him," Apple said.

No injuries were reported, but the front of the cruiser was smashed in.

"Because the SUV sits a little higher, the damage looks horrific," Apple said.

Apple said the accident was the deputy's fault and is being investigated.
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LAKE LUZERNE  Students have reached the Luzerne Music Center from Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and France after fleeing the war that sent many budding musicians fleeing with only their instruments.

The Warren County music camp gathers many international prodigies every summer, to learn from the best and perform together. This year, simply making it to Lake Luzerne was a triumph.

Mykyta Seleznov, who lived in Kharkiv, Ukraine, had to flee before finishing his application to attend the prestigious summer program. Once he and his mother reached France, the 13-year-old recorded himself playing his clarinet. He needed to submit two recordings. Luckily, he had a recital just before the war broke out, so he could submit that recording as well.

In terms of what it means to Ukrainians at the moment, it adds a completely different layer to the meaning (of the program), said Sergiy Dvornichenko, who teaches clarinet at the center and is also from Ukraine. Its so valuable to them in this difficult time.

He tried to stay in touch with every outstanding youth, to make sure they finished their auditions for the program despite the upheaval in their lives. But he added that he was not surprised to learn that students like Seleznov remembered their instruments and found ways to audition despite the war.

I was fleeing the same way. I was in Ukraine the moment it happened. One of the first and only things I grabbed was my clarinets, he said. Hes trying to be a professional musician, of course he grabbed his clarinet.

About 16 students made it to the United States.

Artistic Director and CEO Elizabeth Pitcairn had to turn to social media to find one promising child, a 12-year-old girl she had met after a performance in Ukraine.

I handed her my Stradivarius (violin) and she played in front of a thousand people, Pitcairn said. Shes a prodigy. Shes quite excellent.

The girl was accepted into the summer program, but then vanished when the war broke out.

Pitcairn eventually posted a photo of the girl to find out what had happened to her. That worked; it turned out the girl and her mother had fled to Germany.

Shes doing OK, but she needed a laptop to be able to do school work in Germany so I sent her my laptop, Pitcairn said.

And although a sponsor was ready to cover the costs of her travel to Lake Luzerne, it became clear she couldnt come this year.

For her, being 12 years old and flying by herself and being displaced, and they have next to nothing  we had the sponsors, but we will defer to next year, Pitcairn said. Its such a long way. Our two little Polish boys, they were able to travel together.

They are 11 and 13 years old, and together flew to the United States and navigated the Amtrak system to get to Rensselaer, where Pitcairn picked them up. Putting children together for the trip this year worked well whenever the center could manage it.

We definitely needed additional support  people really came forward because we wanted to be able to bring these students and it was just not possible for them to come  there are people who dont know how theyre making ends meet. Some of the families may be making $50 a month, she said. We had a board member who had several hundred thousand miles with an airline and donated those to the camp. Everyone pitched in how they could.

Pitcairn also led a fundraising effort to get the Ukrainian Youth Academic Orchestra of Kharkiv to safety. She knew many of the young musicians and had performed with the orchestra many times. But since many of the 50 players were 18 to 20 years old, the young men initially were not allowed to leave Ukraine because they had to stay to help with the war effort. However, after much negotiation, and $10,000 raised to help them, they were allowed to cross the border to Poland together, as an orchestra. They are now touring.

Before the orchestra members were able to leave Ukraine, their day-to-day existence was precarious.

A lot of them didnt have access to food or money, Dvornichenko said. So they spent a month and a half in Ukraine, all over the country. Some were with their parents, some didnt have instruments.

Some of them gathered in the subway system for safety from bombs.

They lived in the subways, the few of them that could get together. They played a few chamber concerts in the subway, he said.

When they crossed the border on May 15, Pitcairn was there to meet them.

I joined them as a soloist for their first concert. Then I had to immediately return to the U.S. and start the Luzerne Music Center for the summer, she said.

The center has always been a welcoming refuge.

Theyre playing music all day long. They all are focused on their music and theyre all highly trained, she said. Theres a sense of community.

But this year feels special.

Its a sense of healing and bonding, Pitcairn said.
Vietnamese trade surplus to EU reaches US$15.5 billion in H1

The nations export value to the EU grew further in the first six months of this year, resulting in a trade surplus of US$15.5 billion, a rise of nearly 39%, thanks to the bilateral free trade agreement in place between the two sides.













Illustrative photo



Statistics highlight that total trade between Vietnam and the EU stood at an estimated US$31.7 billion in the first half of the year.



Of the figure, Vietnam exported US$23.6 billion worth of goods to the bloc, while it imported US$8.1 billion worth of products from the lucrative market.



The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Belgium, France, Spain, and Austria represent key markets in the region importing Vietnamese commodities.



Most notably, exports picked up on items such as cashew nuts, coffee, vegetables, fruit, fishery products, rice, and timber products.



These positive signs are attributable to the EU - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) which took effect from August 1, 2021. Vietnamese exports continued to expand despite the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the Russia-Ukraine conflict which has pushed material and fuel prices up, as well as rising transportation costs.
Late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe highly valued the Vietnam-Japan relationship and left several important legacies for both countries, former Vietnamese ambassador Nguyen Quoc Cuong said.

"The most important legacy that Abe left for Vietnam-Japan relations was trust, not only between leaderships, but also their people," Cuong, Vietnamese ambassador in Japan for the 2015-2018 period, said.

Abe passed away Friday after being assassinated while delivering a speech in Japan's Nara Prefecture. The suspect used a homemade gun to shoot Abe from the back.

Cuong said he still couldn't believe the assassination happened as Japan has always been a peaceful country. He said he was still mourning Abe's death.

"Abe has always seen Vietnam as a country with an important role in both the region and the world. Because he highly valued Vietnam's role and position on the international stage, he wanted to boost relations between Japan and Vietnam," Cuong said.

Throughout his career, Abe had repeatedly told Vietnamese leaders that he was especially impressed with the Vietnamese people for their loyalty to friends.

Vietnam, in response, always regarded him as a dear friend whenever Abe visited the nation or vice versa.

Throughout his two terms as Japanese prime minister, Abe visited Vietnam four times. The first visit was in 2006, when he participated in the APEC Summit in Hanoi. Abe was 52 then, the youngest prime minister Japan ever had after the war.

In January 2013, Vietnam became Abe's first foreign destination after he became prime minister a second time in 2012. The other two visits were in 2017.

"If we don't count the special relationship between Japan and the U.S., Vietnam is possibly the country that Abe visited the most as prime minister," Cuong said.

He added Abe had greatly contributed to the bilateral relationship between Vietnam and Japan by boosting the two countries' strategic partnership on all fronts, including politics, diplomacy, security, defense and economy.

Japan has also placed Vietnam at a key position within the region's common vision, including the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) policy. Japan has also supported Vietnam to participate more in structuring of the regional economy through multilateral agreements, like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

From 2012 to 2020, Japan became one of Vietnam's most important partners thanks to Abe's contributions as prime minister and president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

He supported Vietnam as an ASEAN chair and as president of the U.N. Security Council. Abe was also the one who invited Vietnam to participate in the G7 summit in 2016 and G20 summit in 2020.

Under Abe's leadership, Japan and Vietnam boosted their relationship in several fields, with economic cooperation as a pillar. Japan is still Vietnam's largest ODA sponsor to this day, reaching around $17 billion from 1992 to 2021, accounting for around 30 percent of all ODA from the international community to Vietnam, according to a study last year in the Industry and Trade Magazine.

By 2019, a year before Abe stepped down from his position due to ulcerative colitis, Japan became Vietnam's second largest source of foreign investments at $59.33 billion, accounting for 16.4 percent of registered FDI into Vietnam.

The Japanese government has also helped Vietnam enhance its law enforcement capabilities on the sea, including agreements to provide Vietnam with patrol ships.

A study last year in the ISEAS magazine said Vietnam is an important partner for Japan's sea diplomacy strategy, which began under Abe's leadership.

Japan has also repeatedly affirmed its stance of supporting order on the South China Sea in accordance with the law. In 2018, for the 45-year anniversary of the Vietnam-Japan bilateral relations, the two countries enhanced their defense cooperation with a Joint Vision Statement on Defense Relations, which highlighted the importance of building a stable, free and open order in the Indo-Pacific in accordance with international law.

The statement also affirmed Vietnam and Japan's stance that all countries need to act in accordance with principles stated in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Following a state visit by late Vietnamese president Tran Dai Quang in 2018, Vietnam and Japan also conducted their 6th Defense Policy Dialogue in July.

Abe paid attention to exchanges between the two countries' leadership to foster trust with frequent visits and participation on both global and regional forums.

"High-level exchanges have fostered Vietnam and Japan's relationship on all fronts," Cuong said.
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ALBANY Paul Barbaritano on Friday denied intentionally killing 29-year-old Nicole Jennings in his Brevator Street apartment three years ago, saying her throat was accidentally slashed after they fell off a bed during a sexual game.

The 55-year-old Barbaritano, an admitted crack addict, painfully told jurors at his second-degree murder trial that at Jennings request, he tightened his grasp on a martial arts-type belt that was around Jennings' neck  as part of an erotic asphyxiation practice.

He said Jennings' game plan was to be high on crack, experience an orgasm and get choked at the same time. It turned horrific, Barbaritano testified, when Jennings began to cough and choke. He said he tried to get the belt off of Jennings' neck but they fell hard off the bed and landed between the bed and a wall.

Jennings had been slashed across her neck. Barbaritano spotted blood, soon realizing his friend, fellow drug user and lover was dead, he said.

We didnt plan this, Barbaritano testified in the third-floor courtroom of acting Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough about the July 5, 2019 incident. Nobody was supposed to get hurt ... We just wanted to have a good time.

Barbaritano sounded sorrowful and ashamed in reminiscing about his dark descent into crack addiction. As a younger man, he served in the Army based in Germany. At his mother's urging, he found a job as a state correction officer. He had a wife. But when his mother died, he crashed into a dark cycle of drug addiction, he said.

And Barbaritanos voice shook as he testified about his friendship with Jennings, a homeless woman he said he met in downtown Albany in 2018 when he paid her in drugs in exchange for sex.

She was a really good person, Barbaritano said under questioning from his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Rebekah Sokol.

Prosecutors allege Barbaritano became angry and choked and stabbed Jennings, who had planned to spend the Fourth of July weekend in 2019 with Barbaritano in his home near the Harriman State Office campus.

Barbaritano defiantly insisted Jennings' death was a tragic accident, not murder. He said he tried to kill himself after her death, stabbing himself more than two-dozen times, over the loss of his friend.

Paul  did you intend to kill Nicole? Sokol asked Barbaritano.

Never, he answered. I would never do that ... she was my friend. It was an accident. It was a horrible accident. I just wanted her to be OK.

Under cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer McCanney, Barbaritano became combative. The defendant strongly disagreed with McCanney when she asked him if he learned to kill when he was in the military. And he disagreed with McCanney again when the prosecutor confronted him with his statement to police that when he is high on crack he can become psychotic.

The prosecutor suggested to Barbaritano that he may have gotten angry at Jennings because she took his crack, which they had earlier bought from a drug dealer.

Did Nicole smoke your last bit of crack? McCanney asked Barbaritano.

No, he said.

The prosecutor pressed Barbaritano about his claims that he and Jennings fell off the bed during sexual role-playing. McCanney asked Barbaritano if they had played the so-called game before. Barbaritano said yes.

Earlier Friday, McCanney showed the jury several graphic photos of Jennings autopsy while questioning recently retired forensic pathologist Jeffrey Hubbard, who conducted the procedure.

One young woman in the courtroom, a relative of Jennings, quietly wept as the doctor described the photos. At one point she left the courtroom.

Hubbard, who retired on Jan. 1 after working for more than 30 years as a medical examiner in the Capital Region, testified that Jennings died from a loss of blood as a result of a slicing knife wound. He said Jennings suffered a less-severe stab wound in another part of her neck and a cut on her left thumb.

Hubbard differentiated between a slicing wound to a stab wound, describing it as more horizontal. He appeared skeptical at the notion that Jennings could have fallen on the knife.

Hubbard said the belt appeared to be on Jennings neck loosely.

On cross-examination, Sokol asked Hubbard if the victims wounds could have been self-inflicted. Hubbard said it was possible. She also asked if cocaine use and sexual activity could have caused more blood loss than otherwise. He said it could.

Attorneys will deliver closing arguments on Monday. Jurors will get the case after receiving instructions from the judge.




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WASHINGTON (AP)  Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone did not contradict testimony of previous witnesses as he appeared Friday before the Jan. 6 committee, a grueling daylong private session that produced new information to be divulged in future public hearings, one lawmaker said.

Cipollone was a highly sought-after witness, especially after bombshell testimony that he tried to prevent Donald Trump from challenging the 2020 election results and worked to stop the defeated president from joining the violent mob that laid siege to the Capitol, they said.

He did not contradict the testimony of other witnesses, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said late Friday on CNN.

Lofgren, a committee member, clarified that not contradicting is not the same as confirming. In some cases the former White House lawyer was not present for the events described or couldn't recall with precision" some details, she said.

He was candid with the committee, he was careful in his answers, said Lofgren. And I think we did learn a few things, which we will be rolling out in the hearings to come.

Cipollone's central role came into focus during a surprise committee hearing last week when former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described his repeated efforts to stop Trump from joining the mob at the Capitol.

In a stunning public hearing, Hutchinson testified that Cipollone warned her that Trump would be charged with every crime imaginable if the defeated president went to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to stop the certification of Joe Bidens election.

Hutchinson said Cipollone urged her to persuade her boss, chief of staff Mark Meadows, not to let Trump go to the Capitol.

Hutchinson testified that she was told Trump was irate when he was ultimately prevented by his security team from going to the Capitol that day. The Secret Service has disputed parts of her account detailing Trump's actions when she said he lashed out at the driver in the presidential motorcade.

At another key juncture, Cipollone was also part of a meeting on the Sunday before Jan. 6 with Justice Department officials at the White House threatening to resign if Trump went ahead with plans to install a new acting attorney general who would pursue his false claims of voter fraud.

During that meeting Cipollone referred to a letter that Jeffrey Clark, the attorney Trump wanted to install as head of the Justice Department, had proposed sending to Georgia and other battleground states challenging their election results as a murder-suicide pact, according to previous testimony before the panel.

Cipollone and his lawyer, Michael Purpura, who also worked at the Trump White House, did not respond to requests for comment.

Once a staunch presidential confidant who had defended Trump during his first impeachment trial, Cipollone had been reluctant to appear formally for an on-the-record interview. Like other former White House officials, it is possible he claimed his counsel to the Republican president as privileged information he was unwilling to share with the committee.

Cipollone appeared for some eight hours before the panel and its investigators. Cipollone was subpoenaed for his testimony, but Lofgren said he appeared voluntarily.

"A grueling day, she said. But it was well worth it.

Earlier this week, Trump responded to news of Cipollone's cooperation on his social media platform, Truth Social, calling it bad for the country.

Why would a future President of the United States want to have candid and important conversations with his White House Counsel if he thought there was even a small chance that this person, essentially acting as a lawyer for the Country, may someday be brought before a partisan and openly hostile Committee in Congress," the former president said.

The panel said Cipollone is uniquely positioned to testify in a letter accompanying the subpoena issued last week.

Mr. Cipollone repeatedly raised legal and other concerns about President Trumps activities on January 6th and in the days that preceded, Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement. While the Select Committee appreciates Mr. Cipollones earlier informal engagement with our investigation, the committee needs to hear from him on the record, as other former White House counsels have done in other congressional investigations.

___

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

___

For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege.
ALBANY  A mediation plan proposed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany to settle hundreds of sexual abuse claims would shut down the litigation that is continuing to reveal details of decades of child exploitation, and leave the victims without a voice or any significant control over the process, according to attorneys who represent dozens of plaintiffs in the cases.

The diocese released the details of its proposed "Path Forward Plan" on Thursday evening. The proposal included an open apology "to the victims/survivors and their families for the inexcusable harm that was done to them by those in positions of trust."

The diocese, which has indicated it would file for bankruptcy if the cases go to trial, said the proposal was the result of a roughly year-long effort to develop a plan to "avoid the expenses and delays associated with piecemeal litigation ... providing victims/survivors with a greater recovery in a shorter period of time."

It would also create a trust fund that would be funded by the diocese and its insurers, and require the victims to sign a release agreeing to have their claims handled by an administrator who would follow the protocols that have been established by the diocese under court supervision.

Dozens of attorneys for the plaintiffs in the cases are scheduled to meet with state Supreme Court Justice L. Michael Mackey next week to discuss the proposal. Mackey is one of multiple judges across the state who have been assigned to handle cases filed under New York's Child Victims Act, which in 2019 enacted what would become a two-year suspension of the statute of limitations to allow alleged sexual abuse victims to file claims against their abusers or the institutions that harbored them.

Attorneys who filed the lawsuits against the diocese said the proposal would stop the ongoing pre-trial discovery, and the diocese would not be compelled to continue producing information about its knowledge and handling of abuse allegations.

It would also require all of the roughly 440 plaintiffs to agree to drop their lawsuits and give up any future claims against the diocese, its parishes or affiliated entities. The victims would need to turn over all their information and documentation outlining their claims of sexual abuse; that information would be subject to a confidentiality agreement prohibiting public disclosure.

Jeffrey R. Anderson, whose law firm represents hundreds of alleged child sexual abuse victims in New York, said he and his colleagues "rigorously oppose" what he called Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger's "alternate plan." He noted it would stop the litigation that has been holding the diocese accountable and take control away from the victims and their legal counsel.

"This plan as proposed looks more like public relations and using the threat of Chapter 11 to bludgeon the survivors into some kind of (settlement)," Anderson said. "This effort made by them is to stop those cases from getting to any full measure of accountability; devised by the bishop and his allies to avoid the system that allows for jury trials and at the same time a system that allows for dispute resolution through mediation."

Anderson said the diocese's insurance carriers, which have been used by other Catholic dioceses across New York and New Jersey, have sought to minimize their coverage responsibilities to the survivors of child sexual abuse.

"The diocese should be fighting to get the best outcome for the survivors, not colluding with the insurers to propose a process designed to let the insurers off the hook," Anderson said. "This plan asks the survivors to take the diocese at its word, but we know that Roman Catholic dioceses simply do not come clean about their assets until they are subjected to judicial oversight and scrupulous survivor inquiry."

Pre-trial losses

Cynthia S. LaFave, a Guilderland attorney whose firm is also handling dozens of cases for sexual abuse victims, said the diocese is seeking to create a "path forward with the least resistance."

"Right now, the diocese is under pressure," LaFave said. "For the first time they're being held accountable for their actions, their inaction and the greed that has fueled both. This plan is nothing more than a means to defuse that pressure and to self-exonerate."

LaFave said the plan would require the survivors to put their trust in a single mediator who would decide any settlements without any further public disclosure of the diocese's records documenting what unfolded.

Indeed, pre-trial depositions and court filings in recent months have brought to light "secret" files documenting the diocese's handing of child sexual abuse, confirming that many accused sexual abusers were sent for "treatment" rather than being subject to prosecution  and that many of those who were returned to ministry continued to prey on children. Parishioners, including the parents of alleged victims, were often not informed of the accusations.

Although the Albany diocese has publicly supported the Child Victims Act  after years of the Catholic church lobbying against its passage  its legal team has also waged a fierce battle in court to prevent the release of many of the records that documented the abuse and their internal handling of it.

Several months ago, Mackey also ordered the release of a lengthy deposition of former Albany Bishop Howard J. Hubbard that took place a year ago. Hubbard testified under oath that he and the diocese had systematically concealed incidents of child sexual abuse and did not alert law enforcement agencies when they discovered it, saying their actions were, in part, intended to avoid scandal and preserve "respect for the priesthood."

The diocese last month issued a statement saying its proposal for mediation would "avoid the costly expenses and prolonged delays that would otherwise be associated with continued litigation with plaintiffs and their counsel and insurers and their counsel or a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization case."

Scharfenberger, who succeeded Hubbard as leader of the 14-county Albany diocese in 2014, said in a statement last month that "two divergent courses of action are shaping up in the diocese of Albany. One is the path of litigation; the other is to file for bankruptcy. ... In either scenario, the amount of funds available to be disbursed to survivors is the same."

Scharfenberger said the mediation plan would ensure that "the greatest portion of the funds will go to survivors, and less for legal and court fees." He added that it would also prevent those "who sued first depleting them, leaving less or no funds for those who sued later."

But Anderson, when asked if believed the diocese would still seek bankruptcy protection, said: "I think this is a pretext for filing. I think theyve already made the decision theyre going to and they're using this thing as some kind of public relations effort."

Settled before trial

Last month, the diocese settled the first Child Victims Act case that had been scheduled for trial for $750,000. The settlement followed negotiations in which the diocese's attorney, Michael L. Costello, had warned the alleged victim, Stephen J. Mittler, that if his case remained on track for its July 25 trial date the diocese would file for bankruptcy before a jury was picked, according to Matthew J. Kelly, Mittler's attorney.

Mittler's lawsuit was filed against the diocese and 73-year-old Mark A. Haight, of Schenectady, a former priest who was ordained in 1976 and stands accused of sexually abusing boys for more than a decade. Haight, who will pay an additional $2,000 to Mittler under the settlement, was shuffled through parishes and schools before his final post at Glens Falls Hospital. Hubbard had twice sent Haight for treatment at facilities in New Mexico and California, but he allegedly sexually abused Mittler and others after those inpatient stays.

An appellate court recently rejected the diocese's efforts to keep secret the psychological treatment records of suspected pedophile priests.

The appellate panel also upheld Mackey's decision ordering the diocese to turn over the personnel records of at least 48 priests whom the church determined had been credibly accused of child sexual abuse over a period stretching from 1946 to 1999.

There's no indication that ruling was connected to the mediation proposal, but it potentially impacted the pre-trial discovery process in the hundreds of cases filed against the Albany diocese. It was also significant because there was little legal precedent in child abuse litigation prior to the enactment of the Child Victims Act.

The diocese had argued that the psychological treatment records of the priests were subject to patient-physician privileges, but Mackey had ruled that privilege was waived when the priests' medical records were shared with Hubbard.
People who work until they are 67 or older could receive a higher rate of State pension than those retiring at 66, under plans which are believed to be under consideration by the Government.

These new proposals would provide financial reward to people who retire later in life. The proposals would see these people receive a higher weekly pension rate, while keeping the State pension age at 66.

The State pension age was due to rise to 67 from 1 January 2021 however, the government deferred this change and a Pensions Commission was established to consider the change to the State pension age, among other issues such as sustainability and intergenerational fairness.

It is believed Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys met Green Party leader Eamon Ryan this week to discuss the issue.

She has also previously met Tanaiste Leo Varadkar and Public Expenditure and Reform Minister for Michael McGrath to discuss the issue.

According to the Irish Independent, Senior Government officials across a number departments also met on Friday. However, sources told the Irish Independent that discussions were still in their early stages.

The qualifying age for the state pension would remain at 66 under the new proposals, but those who work until they are 67 and older would be in line for a bigger pension.
The tragic killing of a world leader sparks mixed feelings.

First and foremost we think this not-so-fun-fact needs to be highlighted by American media . . .

It's nearly impossible to get an illegal gun in Japan and deadly shootings are exceptionally rare yet that couldn't save one of the most remarkable leaders the world has seen in generations.

And so we ask . . .

Does this killing prove that 'gun grabbers' are misguided or highlight the need for more crackdowns on ghost gun tech?!?!





Check TKC news gathering on the sordid topic . . .

In mostly gun-free Japan, a possibly homemade gun pierces nation's sense of safety TOKYO - Japan was left reeling Friday by the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a stunning act of political violence in a country where gun laws are stringent and shootings are rare.

Pictured: 'Electrically Fired' DIY Shotgun Used to Assassinate Shinzo Abe The world reacted with horror and shock at the cold-blooded assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday. In a country that has virtually no gun violence, what made the crime even more unusual was the strange, seemingly homemade double-barreled weapon used by the shooter.

Multiple homemade guns seized during raid after Shinzo Abe killed, police in Japan say TOKYO - Police on Friday raided the home of the man suspected of using an improvised firearm to assassinate former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and said they seized multiple weapons that also appeared to be homemade.

Shinzo Abe assassination suspect spent 3 years in the Japanese navy and had trained with guns Former Japanese Prime Minister was assassinated while giving a campaign speech on Friday. Japanese police named the suspect in the killing as 41-year-old Yamagami Tetsuya. He used to work for Japan's navy and has told police was "dissatisfied" with Abe, NHK reported.

Shinzo Abe's shooting death shocks nation with some of world's strictest gun laws The shooting death Friday of Japan's former leader Shinzo Abe was all the more shocking because the nation prides itself on having some of the strictest gun-control laws in the world. Citizens are almost completely forbidden from owning firearms, and hunters have to go through a battery of restrictive tests, including classes, written exams and mental-health evaluations - even just to shoot at clay targets.

The assassination of Shinzo Abe in Japan is not proof that gun laws are not working to prevent gun violence Following the horrific mass shootings in the United States, social media is rife with discussions on gun laws and regulations. Friday morning's news of the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by a gunman has brought the issue of strict laws on gun ownership to light.

Shinzo Abe, killed at 67, leaves a storied legacy as Japan's longest-serving premier SEOUL - Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated Friday, stunning a nation where gun violence and political attacks are rare. Japan's influential and longest-serving prime minister worked to revitalize the nation's economy - with his namesake "Abenomics" policy - and rebuild its role on the global stage.

Developing . . .
Poor Robbie . . . This week he continues to get bounced around like a beach ball.

Don't feel too sorry for him . . .

He's a REMARKABLY UNQUALIFIED beach ball who owes all of his career success to a disgraced politico who did time in the federal pen.

The Star recently did a write-up that was altogether ignored because it was polite world salad incapable of conveying the reality of the situation.



Here's their cover story . . .



As Makinen frets about his future, U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver worries about the impact the controversy surrounding Makinens employment status may have on federal funding requests that potentially could be worth tens of millions of dollars or more to local public transit projects.



My only comment to people who have called me about this is this is bad timing, he said, and bad timing creates a holy mess.



(Congressman) Cleaver said in a telephone interview this week, could hurt the regions chances of getting a federal planning grant for what he calls the Bi-State Sustainable Reinvestment Corridor. Thats a brand name for an all-out effort to maximize the amount of money the region will get for projects from the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed into law late last year.



Great stuff but a reader could earn a degree in political science from and STILL not understand what any of that means.

Per ushe . . . Our blog community is stuck explaining the real deal.

Here it is . . .

Congressman Cleaver just saved Robbie's job for the moment.

But here's the bigger question . . .

TKC FRIDAY FACE-OFF: DOES MAYOR Q HAVE THE GUTS TO TAKE ON THE CONGRESSMAN AND WIN THE RIGHT TO THAT SWEET KCATA PIGGY BANK?!?

The prize is a nearly endless stockpile of money that will buy A LOT of political goodwill around these parts.

The cost . . .

It's not very wise to cross a sitting U.S. member of Congress.

What we think is exceptionally funny . . .

This entire hot mess seems to confirm our contention that Congressman Cleaver & Mayor Q don't really like each other as much as the plebs are led to believe . . . Probably even less so now.

Still . . .

Mayor Q is thought to be the heir apparent to Congressman Cleaver . . . But at this late hour, let's not forget that the guy who ruined his career with a trip to the federal pen ALSO thought he was going to end up in D.C. instead of the clink.

Developing . . .


Right now the good life for hottie Kim inspires us to take a quick peek at pop culture, community news and top headlines.



Check TKC news gathering . . .

Cowtown Charged Up

American Solar Challenge cars starts in Kansas City INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - The Kansas City metro had its share of the sun this week. It turns out that is great news for teams competing in the American Solar Challenge. Collegiate teams compete in the road race across the Oregon National Historic Trail every year or two.

Buy Something In Brookside

Time for the annual Brookside Sidewalk Sale! Come out to support your local merchants this weekend...and pick up some hot summer deals! The Brookside Sidewalk Sale is happening Thurs/Fri/and Sat, July 7-9, 2022. Browse the shops along 63rd St and find a little something for yourself or a special friend. You'll find discounts and sales a plenty!

Community News DNA Sharing

'Rare to find a perfect match': Former KMBC 9 Anchor Steven Albritton donates stem cells as part of "Be The Match" Former KMBC 9 News Anchor Steven Albritton has been busy at our sister-station WLWT, in Cincinnati, after leaving the KC metro a few years ago. But, it was a decision Albritton made almost a decade ago that has been one of his greatest privileges.

Local Biz Dedication Cont'd

Kauffman CEO retiring this fall: New leader must support 'entrepreneur-focused economic development' "Like many people over the past extraordinary few years, I've reflected on my professional and personal priorities," said Wendy Guillies. "What won't change is my drive to engage in work that makes our community and country a better place for all."

Royals Pull Out Victory



Vinnie's double sets up 4-3 walk-off win over Cleveland Michael A. Taylor smacked a Sam Hentges pitch to the right side for a single to score pinch-runner Edward Olivares for a 4-3 walk-off win over Cleveland in the series-opener on Friday. But it was rookie Vinnie Pasquantino that set up the dramatics with a lead off double that nearly went over the fence for a walk-off dinger.

Hottie Icon Keeps It Tight

Kim Kardashian flaunts slimmed-down beach body in white hot bikini Kim Kardashian's latest trip to Turks & Caicos found the beauty hitting the beach in a white bikini, flaunting her 21-pound weight loss during a playful photoshoot. Kardashian, 41, showcased her slimmed-down curves in a white two-piece, removing a crop top with the words "The Incredible" on it halfway through the shoot, as the beauty was photographed by a friend dressed in all black who kept the reality star laughing between snaps.

Nobody Wants White House Endorsement?!?

Four months from Election Day, Biden has only endorsed three candidates; do Democrats even want Biden's help? With four months until election day, President Biden has endorsed just three Democrats running for House seats across the country, well behind former President Donald Trump's support for dozens of Republicans in 2018. Biden's low number of endorsements is in line with previous presidents who avoided stepping into interparty primary politics, according to Kevin Walling, a Democratic strategist and surrogate for Biden's 2020 presidential run.

Feds Still Chasing MAGA

Trump considering waiving executive privilege claim for Bannon but prosecutors say he was never shielded | CNN Politics Donald Trump is considering waiving executive privilege for Steve Bannon, according to two sources familiar with the situation, but federal prosecutors don't believe the former President's privilege claims shielded his longtime political adviser in the first place.

Gossip: Hunter Rebuked 1st Lady

Hunter Biden reportedly called Jill an 'entitled c-t' in texts Hunter Biden called his step-mom Jill Biden a "vindictive moron" and "entitled c-t" in text messages after she urged him to go to rehab to kick his drug habit, according to a new report. President Biden's 52-year-old druggie son made the remarks in a string of text messages that he sent in 2018 as he family were rallying to get him help, The Sun reported.

Numbers Reveal COVID Persists

This surge's COVID cases are severely undercounted: epidemiologists Alix Martichoux, Nexstar Media Wire Posted: | Updated: (NEXSTAR) - You may turn to the latest official COVID-19 case count to get a sense of just how bad things are in your state or county. But that number is almost certainly inaccurate, epidemiologists say. Since the beginning of the pandemic, cases have always been underreported.

Keeping Up With Peeps More Important Than The Rest Of Us

Anne Hathaway Thinks Pink in Rome, Plus Kate Hudson & Danny Fujikawa, Camila Cabello and More Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson attend the Valentino show in Rome and Camila Cabello hits the beach in Florida. From Hollywood to New York and everywhere in between, see what your favorite stars are up to!

Kansas City Wartime Reunion

Woman who fled Ukraine for Kansas City area reunited with her parents There is tremendous relief for a Ukrainian family reunited in Kansas City. They've been separated since war broke out in their country and they've fought hard to get here.That's Liz Shchepetylnykova hugging her parents whose hometown was one of the first to be occupied by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.Liz and her fiance fled the country in March, but her parents didn't have the necessary paperwork.

Local Achievers Pace Themselves

Give yourself permission to pause the hustle; injury prompts serial entrepreneur to get grounded "One of the purposes of Hustle & Ground is to encourage people, who are seeking harmony and ways to unwind, to explore different activities," said Joy Broils, whose new subscription box encourages fellow entrepreneurs to give themselves a break.

Katie Shares Sunday Forecast

A beautiful summer Saturday Finally KC gets a beautiful summer day. Clear skies and cooling off a bit overnight had brought the area to a less humid Saturday.The low will fall to 70 degrees for Saturday and the high will be below 90. Wind will be calmer too with a gentle wind from the north.Things start to get steamier again heading into Sunday.

Coldplay - Biutyful is the song of the day and this is the OPEN THREAD for right now.
Thu Thiem 2 Bridge crosses the Saigon River to link District 1 and Thu Duc City, April 28, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said the government would consider choosing HCMC Party secretary or a deputy prime minister to lead the southern key economic region.

The region comprises Ho Chi Minh City and seven provinces Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Long An and Tien Giang with nearly 22 million people that contribute 35 percent of the GDP, 46.1 percent of total budget revenue and 30 percent of total export turnover in the country.

PM Chinh said at a conference Saturday the region still has a lot of room for development.

In addition to the lack of modern and synchronous planning, the linkage and coordination between localities is not yet effective as there is no "real conductor," he said.

Based on proposals of localities in the region, the PM would consider selecting a deputy prime minister or HCMC Party Secretary Nguyen Van Nen as the commander of the southern key economic hub to help develop its full potential.

HCMC Chairman Phan Van Mai said current mechanisms have not encouraged localities in the region to be proactive and strengthen regional linkages while key traffic projects, airport and seaport expansion, garbage disposal and tourism investment promotion need to have a general consensus.

Binh Duong Party Secretary Nguyen Van Loi said localities in the region have been lacking cohesion and only focusing on their own development for years.

This means the region does not have a common voice in planning and supporting mutual development, Loi said.

Loi proposed that the "conductor" be a deputy prime minister.

At the meeting, Chinh said the government would consider granting extra autonomous decision-making power for HCMC and provinces in the region.

The gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in the southern key economic region in 2020 was 2.6 times higher than that in 2010.

During the period, the number of new enterprises in the region also expanded by 81 percent, the highest nationwide, while FDI firms in the southeastern region made up half of the national figure in 2020.
ELKO  This Sunday at the Silver State Stampede four former rodeo queens will be honored and driven in a horse-drawn wagon in front of the grandstand. Pictures of them in their youth will be projected. These women, who were among the many who held court with the Silver State Stampede, are all in their mid-80s to 90 years old.

Donna Belle Reed White was in the 1949 court, Virginia Marchbank Colyer Price was in the 1949 court, Wanda Dobbs Combs Wright Jayo was in the 1952 court and Helen Griswold Beitia was in the 1955 court, according to historian Jan Petersen.

Donna Belle Reed White will be 90 in December. She was born at Elko General Hospital in 1932. Whites family participated and competed in the Elko County Fair and Silver State Stampede for generations.

White graduated from Elko High School and the University of Nevada Reno. She worked as a dental assistant for Dr. Tom Gallagher. Later she worked as a library aide for the Elko County School system and as a librarian at Southside Elementary. She loved her time with her students, according to her biography.

She married Keith White Sr., whose family owned White Appliance and Furniture Company. She had four children.

Virginia Marchbank Colyer Price, 90, was born in Mountain Home, Idaho. She grew up on a homestead 16 miles from Jarbidge until it was time for her to go to school. The Marchbank family then moved to a homestead near Beowawe.

Living in rural areas and being around horses were a big part of her life as she was growing up.

She married Walt Colyer and had two children.

Price worked for the Elko Daily Free Press for almost 20 years selling advertisements. She also managed the Double Dice RV Park for a few years before retiring.

Wanda Dobbs Combs Wright Jayo, 90, was born in Doniphan, Missouri. She was from a rural area and grew up around horses.

When she was 16, Jayos family moved to Elko. She met Richard Combs who was a horse trainer. Together they owned and trained racehorses and ran them during the Elko County Fair and in the White Pine County Fair. The two divorced and Jayo married two more times. She had three children of her own and three step-children from her third marriage.

Jayo worked at Verd Monsons Jewelry, JanEvs Ladies fashions and Lillians Dress Shop. She also operated a pilot car service, retiring at 85.

Helen Griswold Beitia, 85, was born and raised on ranches in Elko County.

Beitia was educated at the Lower Lamoille School and Signal School in Clover Valley. She attended Oregon State University for two years and then married Frank Beitia. She later went on to get her Masters in Education from Idaho State University. She taught child development for the College of Technology at Idaho State University.

In 1955 there was a Miss Elko County Contest and that person would be both Sweetheart of the Stampede and the Queen of the Elko County Fair. Beitia was sponsored by the Maggie Club in Jiggs, riding a horse named Stampede. She helped publicize the Stampede.

If you attend Sundays event, be sure to give a standing ovation to these ladies who were and still are rodeo sweethearts.


By Jeff Murphy, July 8, 2022







WARRENSBURG, MO  The University of Central Missouris Department of Public Safety was recently recognized by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt as the recipient of a Community Partner Award. Public Safety was one of more than 650 Missouri entities, including law enforcement and hospitals, to receive this commendation for their vital assistance in completing the Phase II inventory of sexual assault kits with the states SAFE Kit Initiative. Certificates recognizing each of these organizations were mailed in June.



The success of the SAFE Kit initiative depends on active participation from hospitals and law enforcement agencies willing to dedicate the time and effort to help us clear the backlog of untested sexual assault kits and achieve justice for victims, Schmitt said in a press release. We wanted to highlight the wonderful work these departments and medical facilities have done and thank them for their continued partnership with our office on this vital initiative.



Schmitts office appointed Judge M. Keithley Williams to lead the effort that is made possible by several federal grants from the Bureau of Justice Assistance with funding disbursed by the state legislature. The SAFE Kits initiative was actually launched in Missouri on Feb. 27, 2019.



UCM Public Safety Officer Gary Schmidt was instrumental in working with his colleagues to coordinate the campus effort to eliminate a backlog of untested kits to get them tested and entered into CODIS (Combined DNA Index System). CODIS is the FBIs national database of DNA profiles from both known and unknown offenders and arrestees. When these profiles are uploaded, they can be compared against existing records for matches, or hits, which can help identify perpetrators who may have committed crimes locally or in other states.



Most every agency in the state was contacted by the Attorney Generals Office in 2019. They basically wanted each department to inventory their sexual assault kits. There were some kits that havent been tested for various reasons, Schmidt said. The survivor (for example) may not have wanted an investigation or it could have been an unreported crime with the survivor going to the hospital to have an examination done.



We had to inventory every sexual assault kit that we had and then we had to look at the disposition and see if it went to the prosecutor, if it went to the lab, if it was tested, and then we sent that report back to the Attorney Generals Office. The Attorney Generals staff then came down and they basically put their bar code numbers on each kit that we had that fit their eligibility parameters, Schmidt said. Our part will conclude next week when we send the untested kits to a third-party lab that was contracted by the Attorney Generals Office so they can be tested. Eventually, those kits can be uploaded into the CODIS database which could potentially solve crimes.



Individuals can learn more about SAFE Kits by visiting ago.mo.gov/home/safe-kits.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces killed about 37,200 Russian soldiers between February 24 and July 9, including 300 in the past day alone.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said this in a Facebook post, according to Ukrinform.

Ukrainian defenders also destroyed 1,638 (+1) Russian tanks, 3,815 (+4) armored fighting vehicles, 832 (+4) artillery systems, 247 (+0) multiple launch rocket systems, 108 (+1) air defense systems, 217 (+0) warplanes, 187 (+1) helicopters, 674 (+5) operational and tactical level UAVs, 155 (+0) cruise missiles, 15 (+0) warships/boats, 2,687 (+2) other vehicles and tanker trucks, and 66 (+0) pieces of special equipment.

The enemy suffered the greatest losses in the past day in the Kramatorsk direction, the General Staff said.

Photo credit: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal has said that Ukraine will receive a $1.7 billion grant from the Single-Donor Trust Fund established by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA) and USAID.

"The draft agreement was approved today at a government meeting. These are the results of the agreements reached by partners in development due to the large-scale aggression unleashed by Russia against Ukraine. The grant will be taken on a gratuitous, non-refundable basis to the state budget of Ukraine from USAID with the support of IBRD and IDA," Shmyhal wrote on his Telegram channel.

According to him, the funds will be used to cover the costs of the state budget to pay for medical services under the program of medical guarantees.

"This is a very significant support from our American partners," the prime minister said.
The Commander of the Joint Forces Task Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Serhii Naev, has made a working trip to the Northern Operational Zone, where measures to strengthen Ukrainian defenses are ongoing.

The press service of the Joint Forces Task Force said this on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

According to the report, Naiev visited the positions of Ukrainian service members and border guards, who became a strong "shield" in order not to give the enemy any chance to repeat the attack from the north.

He also spoke to Ukrainian defenders at the positions, got acquainted with their service conditions, assessed the level of defense and discussed tactical defense plans.

"Now, the situation is under full control of the military units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, units of the State Border Guard Service, units of other military formations and law enforcement agencies. Every day, our defenders carry out a set of measures to improve the engineering equipment of defensive positions," Naiev said.

According to the commander, measures are currently being taken to mine dangerous areas and install engineering barriers.

Units of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine are taking measures to strengthen the state border of Ukraine in all dangerous and threatening areas.

According to him, the work continues both in the headquarters and military administration bodies, where experienced combat generals perform tasks every day to strengthen Ukrainian defense lines in all directions. The commanders of brigades, battalions, companies and platoons skillfully manage subordinate personnel directly on the ground.

"This work proves the conscientious and correct attitude of all service members to the situation. All this gives us confidence that the defense will be stable and impenetrable for the enemy," he said.
The Ukrainian military have repulsed Russias assault operations in the Kharkiv and Donetsk directions.

The relevant statement was made by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

As of 06:00 p.m., July 9, 2022, the situation remained rather unchanged in the Volyn and Polissia directions.

In order to prevent the reconnaissance of Ukraines border areas with unmanned aerial vehicles, electronic warfare systems have been activated. The threat of missile and air strikes from the territory and air space of the Republic of Belarus is persisting, the report states.

In the Siverskyi direction, the enemy used attack aircrafts to launch an air strike near Volodymyrivka, Sumy Region.

In the Kharkiv direction, Russian troops continue attempts to approach the city. The enemy tried to advance in the direction of Kochubeivka-Dementiivka with offensive actions. The Ukrainian military pushed the occupiers back to their previous positions.

In the direction of Male Vesele-Petrivka, Ukrainian defenders revealed and neutralized an enemy reconnaissance group.

In the Sloviansk direction, Russian occupiers are using artillery and trying to create favorable conditions in order to advance in the direction of Izium-Sloviansk. Russias combat aviation struck such settlements as Chepil and Bohorodychne.

Ukrainian defenders successfully repelled all enemy assault attempts in such directions as Dovhenke-Krasnopilla, Pasika-Dolyna. The enemy retreated, and remotely mined a road section near Velyka Komyshuvakha.

In the Donetsk direction, Russian troops are using all the available means to attack the positions of Ukrainian forces and settlements close to the contact line. The enemy launched a missile and air strike near Shumy.

Russian invaders conducted air reconnaissance with an unmanned aerial vehicle near Kramatorsk.

The invaders also made an unsuccessful attempt to storm in the direction of Zolotarivka-Verkhniokamianske. With effective fire, our soldiers forced the occupiers to scatter through the bushes near Zolotarivka, the General Staff noted.

In the Avdiivka, Kurakhivka, Novopavlivka and Zaporizhzhia directions, Russian troops continued shelling the positions of Ukrainian forces with mortars, cannon and rocket artillery all over the contact line. The enemy launched air strikes near Avdiivka and Novoandriivka.

With offensive actions, Russian occupiers tried to improve their tactical position in the direction of Yasynuvata-Avdiivka but failed and retreated with losses.

The enemys attempt to advance in the Marinka direction was also unsuccessful.

In the Southern Bug direction, Russian troops are focusing efforts to defend the captured frontiers and prevent Ukrainian forces from advancing deeper into the temporarily occupied areas.

Russian occupiers are demoralized by the total resistance of the Ukrainian people. It is becoming more and more difficult for the Russian command to replenish the units that suffer losses in the senseless war they have unleashed.

Photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

mk
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia's terrorist actions can be stopped only with modern, high-precision and potent weapons

The head of state said this in a video address, Ukrinform reports.

Dear Ukrainians, I wish you all health!

A brief report on the events of the day  it's already the 136th day of our defense.

Today, I held a meeting with President of the French Senate Gerard Larcher and a delegation of senators after Mr. Larcher delivered his speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. And I am grateful to him for his inspired and neat address. The address, in which he reminded, in particular, that the front line holds as long as the rear holds, and our rear is now not only the free part of Ukraine, but also all 27 countries of the European Union, the entire democratic world. Therefore, our entire team, the Ukrainian team, works 24/7 to keep the interests of our state and our defense in the focus of every country that is already or may become part of our anti-war coalition.

Mr. Larcher also said another important thing: with every attack on Ukraine, with every crime of the Russian occupiers, with every new martyr city, the resoluteness of Europeans to help Ukraine becomes more stable. It really is. However, the terrorist state does not understand this at all and will never accept it as a fact. Only in one day, the Russian army attacked the cities of Mykolaiv and Kharkiv, Kryvy Rih, the communities of Zaporizhzhia region... It fired precisely at the residential sector  absolutely deliberately, purposefully, at ordinary houses and civilian objects. There are casualties  dead, wounded. The brutal strikes of the Russian artillery in Donbas do not stop for a single day  the Sloviansk direction, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka... You can really stop such terrorist actions only with modern, high-precision and potent weapons.

And I want to thank the United States of America for the decision to provide Ukraine with a new defense aid package in the amount of $400 million. Additional HIMARS launchers units and other high-precision weapons allow us to take precisely anti-terrorist steps and reduce Russian attack capabilities.

I held a meeting today with representatives of construction companies  with those on whom the quality of Ukrainian infrastructure  our supply routes  depends. The question of building a high-quality transport network is always also a question of safety. And in the conditions of the full-scale war, strong infrastructure is one of the key elements of defense. I thanked the representatives of the construction companies for their work, discussed with them the key tasks for the near future  it concerns both the reconstruction of our country and the additional strengthening of our logistics.

Today, I signed decrees on the dismissal of some ambassadors of Ukraine. This rotation is a normal part of diplomatic practice. New representatives of Ukraine will be appointed to the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Norway and India. Candidates are being prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I am already preparing for the new week  there will be important news, including from government officials.

Thank you to everyone who defends the state!

Glory to Ukraine!
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to appeal to G20 to put pressure on Russia to make its government support the UN initiative on unblocking the sea lanes for Ukraine and once again warn China against backing Russias military campaign in Ukraine.

Thats according to Yahoo News, Ukrinform reports.

"G20 countries should hold Russia accountable and insist that it support ongoing U.N. efforts to reopen the sea lanes for grain delivery," said Ramin Toloui, assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, said, referring to an initiative to try to get Ukrainian and Russian foodstuffs and fertilizer to global markets.

"Whether that happens at the level of the G20, or the level of individual G20 countries, that's an important point that Secretary Blinken will make," he said.

The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said he expected a "candid" exchange on Ukraine when Blinken meets China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the G20 sidelines.

"This will be another opportunity ... to convey our expectations about what we would expect China to do and not to do in the context of Ukraine," he said.

Shortly before Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, China and Russia announced a "no limits" partnership. But U.S. officials have said they have not seen China evade U.S.-led sanctions on Moscow or provide military equipment to Russia.
Ukraine will receive $1.7 billion in grant funds from American partners to pay for medical services under the program of medical guarantees.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote this on Telegram, Ukrinform reports.

"Ukraine will receive a $1.7 billion grant from a Single Donor Trust Fund created by the International Development Bank, the International Development Association and USAID. The relevant draft agreement has been approved at a government meeting today. These are the results of agreements reached by development partners because of Russia's large-scale aggression against Ukraine, Shmyhal wrote.

He added that the grant will be attracted to the state budget of Ukraine on a non-refundable basis. The funds will be directed to cover the state budget's expenditures on medical services under the program of medical guarantees.

This is extremely strong support from our American partners, Shmyhal emphasized.
During a visit to Dnipro city, President Volodymyr Zelensky familiarized himself with the situation in Dnipropetrovsk region, held a meeting on the operational situation in the region, and visited the Mechnikov Hospital.

Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Valentyn Reznichenko noted that the situation in the region was under control, the press service of the Head of State informs.

"There are no hostilities on our territory, but we constantly feel war," he noted.

Russian troops have launched almost 400 strikes at the region, half of which were missile attacks, deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, enterprises and grain warehouses. The Kryvyi Rih district suffered the most from shelling.

Zelensky was informed that as a result of enemy attacks, 313 residential buildings were destroyed and damaged, 25 schools, kindergartens and extra-curricular education centers, and eight hospitals were ruined.

The Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration told the President about the assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Almost 111 million hryvnias were allocated for this from the regional budget. The region has also hosted many wounded - military and civilian - and provides them with all necessary medical assistance.

In addition, Dnipropetrovsk region has sheltered more than 300,000 internally displaced persons. They receive the necessary humanitarian aid and social benefits.

During the working trip, the Head of State observed the work of the logistics center for the assembly of humanitarian aid kits and saw how the functioning of this important center was established.

Zelensky noted that the region became a real humanitarian hub during the war. In particular, almost 1.5 million food kits were sent to six regions suffering from Russian aggression.

During the working trip, the President also visited the Mechnikov Hospital.

"Mechnikov Hospital in Dnipro. I thanked health workers for their round-the-clock work and saved lives, wished the wounded defenders a speedy recovery. Our people inspire admiration and a sense of great pride. They are heroes," Zelensky posted on Telegram.

As reported, on Friday, July 8, the President of Ukraine makes a working trip to Dnipropetrovsk region.

Photo credit: president.gov.ua

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Pope Francis may visit Ukraine already in August, according to Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States.

He said this in an interview with Italian news program Tg1, Ukrinform reports, citing Vatican News.

"Preparations for a papal visit to Ukraine will begin after his Apostolic Journey to Canada, and the Pope could travel to Kyiv as early as August," Gallagher said.

According to him, Pope Francis believes a visit to Ukraine would have positive results. "He has said that he will go to Ukraine, and he has always been willing to visit Moscow and meet with the Russian authorities," Gallagher added.

Asked if the trip to Kyiv could take place upon his return from Canada, where Pope Francis will be in the last week of July, the Archbishop said, "Yes, I think that upon returning from Canada we will begin to really study the possibility."

Regarding the timing of a potential visit, the Vaticans Secretary for Relations with States said it could happen in August.

"Possibly, I wouldn't rule it out. However, a lot depends on the results of the trip to Canada. Let's see how the Pope will withstand this trip, which is also very demanding, and then we'll see," he said.

Archbishop Gallagher also spoke about discussions with Russia regarding a papal trip to Moscow.

"Our contacts with the Russian Federation right now are rather institutional through the Apostolic Nuncio in Moscow and through the Russian Ambassador here at the Holy See. Beyond that there are not many direct or personal contacts," said the Archbishop. "While we are very concerned about Ukrainian issues and the resolution of the war, at the same time we are concerned about the future of the Western Balkans."
Mykolaiv was target of rocket attack in the morning  mayor

Russian invaders launched a missile attack on the city of Mykolaiv on Saturday morning, the consequences are being specified, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych has said.

"Explosions are heard in the city. The air raid is on. I ask everyone not to leave the shelter," he wrote on the Telegram channel on Saturday morning.
On Saturday, July 9, Russian troops fired on a residential area of Kryvy Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) from the Tornado-S MLRS, killing a female cook in a kindergarten, a 20-year-old girl was severely wounded and died later in the hospital, according to the authorities.

"Some more details on the morning shelling of Inhulets residential area. It was the 300 mm Tornado-S MLRS (the kill zone with modernized ammo is up to 120 km). Shelling was from the place more than 70 km away from the area between the settlement of Novoraisk and the settlement of Kostyrka. There were 10 missiles  both high explosive fragmentation and cluster ammunition," the mayor of the city Oleksandr Vilkul wrote on Facebook.

Vilkul said that the deceased woman, born in 1981, was a cook in a kindergarten who went to work.

A girl, born in 2002, who was wounded on Saturday morning in the shelling of a residential area of Kryvy Rih by Russians, died in the hospital, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Valentyn Reznichenko said.

Also, according to updated data, three persons were wounded in the shelling.

"The doctors helped two of them, and they are now at home. A 43-year-old man is in the hospital. This is the father of the deceased girl. How we can tell him about the loss of his child," Reznichenko said.

"Thanks to our soldiers, the front line has been shifted to Kherson region at a distance of up to 50 km from the city. But Tornado-S, Smerch, missiles continue to pose a serious danger," Vilkul said.
Druzhkivka, Ukraine, July 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Jul, 2022 ) :Russian troops pursued their "relentless" shelling of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region on Saturday as Ukrainian officials warned Moscow was preparing for further attacks and Washington promised new military aid to Kyiv.

Having endured long battles to capture cities in the neighbouring Lugansk region, Russia is now seeking to push deeper into Donetsk to consolidate its hold over the entire Donbas region.

Air raid sirens sounded overnight throughout the country's east and south.

Residents in the small town of Druzhkivka, south of the eastern Ukrainian industrial city of Kramatorsk, woke up to a suspected missile attack on Saturday which ripped apart a supermarket and left a massive crater outside.

Ukrainian officials said on Saturday five people were killed in the Donetsk region in the past 24 hours while seven were injured.

"The entire frontline is under relentless shelling," Donetsk military administration chief, Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a Telegram message on Friday night.

He said the city of Sloviansk, on which Moscow's troops have now set their sights, is being "shelled day and night".

He also accused Russian forces of setting agricultural fields on fire, saying they were "trying to destroy the harvest by all means".

Lugansk governor Sergiy Gaiday, said on Saturday the Russians were attacking Donetsk from their bases in his region.

"We are trying to contain their armed formations along the entire frontline... Where it is inconvenient for them to go forward, they create real hell, shelling the territories on the horizon," he said.

Kyrylenko warned the Russians were in the process of replenishing troops in the region to prepare for further assaults.

Oleksandr Vilkul, the mayor of President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, said on Saturday Russia had attacked the city with cluster munitions, killing at least one person and injuring two.

- 'Terrorising cities' - Zelensky said in his nightly address on Friday he had spent the day on the frontlines in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, where he met civilian and military leaders.

"The eyes of all aggressive political movements and regimes in the world are now focused on what Russia is doing against us, against Ukraine," Zelensky said Saturday in an Instagram post.

"Will the world be able to bring real war criminals to justice?" he asked, warning failure to do so would lead to "hundreds of other aggressions".

But in a Telegram message on Saturday, an official from the region's military administration warned Russia had "intentionally shelled residential areas", and had not stopped "terrorising" cities and villages.

The Ukrainian general staff said the majority of bombardments took place in east Ukraine and the second-largest city of Kharkiv but there was no ground offensive.

In the south, the mayor of Mykolaiv begged citizens not to leave shelters, as he said explosions were heard throughout the night.

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk was quoted by Ukrainian media as urging people in occupied areas to evacuate by any means possible.

"Massive fighting is going to happen," she said.

Kharkiv governor Oleg Sinegubov on Saturday said four people were injured in attacks on the region, adding that the Russians were "engaged in defensive actions".

- 'Further evolution of support' - In a boost to Kyiv, Washington announced $400 million of further military aid, including a type of artillery ammunition with "greater precision", and that has previously not been sent.

"It's a further evolution in our support for Ukraine in this battle in the Donbas," a senior defence official was quoted by the US Department of Defense as saying.

Also included in the aid package are four additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems to add to eight already in place.

"From a security assistance perspective, this is a steady drumbeat now, and it is a long-term commitment to Ukraine," the same official was quoted as saying.

Britain's defence ministry on Saturday said the first group of up to 10,000 inexperienced Ukrainian military recruits began training in England as part of a UK-led programme.

- US urges China to condemn 'aggression' - The United States also put pressure on Russia diplomatically at a meeting of Group of 20 foreign ministers in Indonesia.

Washington and allies condemned Russia's assault ahead of the gathering before Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov faced what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called a barrage of Western criticism at the closed-door talks.

Blinken on Saturday called for China to distance itself from Russia after talks with his Chinese counterpart in Indonesia.

Blinken said he told Wang Yi "this really is a moment where we all have to stand up, as we heard country after country in the G20 do, to condemn the aggression, to demand among other things that Russia allow access to food that is stuck in Ukraine".

He added there were "no signs" Moscow was willing to engage after the G20 talks.

"If there is an opportunity for diplomacy, we will seize it," he said.

Lavrov was defiant Friday and accused Western nations of avoiding "talking about global economic issues" instead of the war.
The 55th death anniversary of Madr-e-Millat (mother of the nation) Fatima Jinnah, the younger sister of founding father Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was observed with reverence and respect across the country on Saturday

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Jul, 2022 ) :The 55th death anniversary of Madr-e-Millat (mother of the nation) Fatima Jinnah, the younger sister of founding father Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was observed with reverence and respect across the country on Saturday.

Fatima Jinnah, born on July 30, 1893, was referred to as the Madar-e-Millat due to her dynamic role in the Pakistan Freedom Movement.

Today, 55 years after her tragic death, the iron lady was still remembered for her passionate support for civil rights and devoted struggle towards the Pakistan Movement and supporting the two-nation theory and strongly opposing the British Raj.

After the independence of Pakistan, she co-founded the Pakistan Women's Association which played an integral role in the settlement of the women migrants in the newly formed country.

She returned to political forefront and contested the elections against former President Ayub Khan but was defeated unfortunately.

Fatima Jinnah passed away on July 9, 1967 in Karachi.

President Dr. Arif Alviand Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid homage to Mother of the Nation, Fatima Jinnah, on her death anniversary.

In his message, the President said Fatima Jinnah's leadership role in politics was a source of encouragement for Pakistani women. Fatima Jinnah's support for Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah strengthened the Tehreek-e-Pakistan. The president said her services for Pakistan would be remembered for a long time.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharifin his message said the entire nation salutes Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah for her remarkable services in independence movement for Pakistan along with her brother Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and later on for rehabilitation of the country.

Shehbaz Sharif said Madr-e-Millat after the death of her great brother took forward the mission of Quaid-e-Azam.
Pakistan's UN Ambassador, Munir Akram, has paid tributes to "valiant" Burhan Wani on the 6th anniversary of his martyrdom, calling him as a symbol of courage, unwavering commitment and just freedom struggle of Kashmiris against Indian occupation

UNITED NATIONS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Jul, 2022 ) :Pakistan's UN Ambassador, Munir Akram, has paid tributes to "valiant" Burhan Wani on the 6th anniversary of his martyrdom, calling him as a symbol of courage, unwavering commitment and just freedom struggle of Kashmiris against Indian occupation.

Wani was killed by Indian security forces at a house in occupied Kashmir's Kokernag area in 2016"This day the Kashmiris and the People of Pakistan reaffirm that they would continue their freedom struggle against the Indian oppression and occupation for the realization of their right to self-determination in accordance with UN Security Council Resolutions," he said in a statement.
(@Abdulla99267510)

The Interior Minister says the case is fabricated one and some PTI leaders including Fawad Chaudhary had opposed the case in their cabinet meeting.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-July 9th, 2022) Federal Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah on Saturday submitted a complaint before the army chief about the role of the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) in the drug case against him.

The Interior Minister said that former prime minister Imran Khan, former advisor on accountability Shahzad Akbar, and former Director General ANF Major General Arif Malik were involved in filing a fake case of 15kg of heroin possession against him.

I have moved a complaint and the army will investigate it by its own way as it has received my complaint, said Sanaullah.

He expressed these views while talking to a local private tv.

Sana accused Akbar of carrying a bag containing 15kg of heroin and asking the Islamabad police to plant it in his room at Parliament Lodges. "When Islamabad Police refused, Maj Gen Malik got involved in this conspiracy and got benefits in return," the minister claimed.

He stated that PTI leaders including Fawad Chaudhry, Tariq Bashir Cheema and Ijaz Shah also opposed the case against him in the cabinet meeting.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th July, 2022) Argentina is not joining sanctions against Russia and considers them illegitimate and unilateral, however it does not support Russia's special operation in Ukraine either, Russian Ambassador to Buenos Aires Dmitry Feoktistov said on Friday.

"As for Argentina's choice, yes, the country is seriously pressured today, like many others, by the United States and the collective West. What do they want from Argentina? They want it to explicitly condemn Russia's special operation in Ukraine and to join the Russia sanctions. Neither of those is happening today. But it would be wrong to say that Argentina is completely on our side, because, of course, it is balancing its position," Feoktistov told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.

The ambassador stressed that the Argentine authorities criticize Russia's actions in Ukraine and support UN resolutions on this issue, however they are not willing to join the West's hysteria and are firmly refusing to adopt sanctions against Russia. Argentina believes that such unilateral sanctions harm the Western countries more than they hamper Russia's development, he added.

Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 in response to calls by the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics for protection from Ukrainian troops. The Russian defense ministry said the goal of the operation, which targets Ukrainian military infrastructure, is to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine, and to completely liberate Donbas.
BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2022) Several women have been slipped a so-called rape drug during an event of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the German media reported on Saturday, citing SPD internal communication.

The term "rape drug" refers to the substances that abusers use to render a person incapacitated, usually to commit sexual violence.

The incident allegedly took place on Wednesday at a party of the SPD parliamentary faction, which was attended by nearly 1,000 people. Alongside Scholz, lawmakers, staff of the Bundestag and local Constituencies have participated in the event, Tagesspiegel newspaper said.

The leader of the SPD faction in the Bundestag, Mathias Martin said in a letter to the party's lawmakers that there was clearly an assault with "rape drugs" at the party.

"This is an outrageous incident that we immediately reported to the Bundestag police," Martin said.

A total of five victims had been reported as of Saturday, with the Berlin criminal police launching a probe into the incident, the newspaper added.
U.S. President Joe Biden informed about the allocation of a $400 million tranche of military assistance to Ukraine, the White House has reported.

"I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State the authority... to direct the drawdown of up to $400 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense to provide assistance to Ukraine," Biden said the memorandum signed by him and released by the White House.

Biden said that it will be also about military education and training.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Defense already reported that Biden would make this decision. A representative of the U.S. Department of Defense explained to U.S. journalists that, in particular, it will be about the transfer of four more HIMARS MLRS, 1,000 155mm munitions, three army combat vehicles, systems for counter-battery combat, and spare parts.

Before this drawdown, the United States, in total, since February 2022 has sent assistance to Ukraine worth in total $7.3 billion, media said.
(@FahadShabbir)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2022) US President Joe Biden on Friday called Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to express his outrage and condolences on the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the White House said.

Abe, 67, was attacked on Friday morning in the Japanese city of Nara during his campaign speech. Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, approached the politician from behind and fired two shots from a distance of about 10 meters (33 feet). Police said Abe was conscious immediately after being wounded, but then, during transportation, his condition became critical "with cardiac and pulmonary arrest." Later in the day, Nara Medical University hospital pronounced him dead.

"President Biden called Prime Minister Kishida of Japan today to express his outrage, sadness and deep condolences on the tragic and violent shooting death of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo," the White House said in a statement.

Biden praised Abe's "enduring legacy with his vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific and the establishment of the QUAD meetings of Japan, the United States, Australia and India." The president expressed confidence in the strength of Japan's democracy and discussed the importance of defending peace and democracy with Kishida.

The president visited Japanese Ambassador to the US Koji Tomita to express his condolences earlier on Friday and issued a proclamation ordering all US flags to be flown at half-staff until sunset on July 10 out of respect for Abe.
BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2022) The German government has found a manufacturer in Norway capable of supplying additional ammunition for the Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns that are expected to be dispatched to Ukraine, German newspaper Spiegel reported on Saturday, citing sources.

According to reports, supplying the ammunition for the Gepard systems was initially considered problematic, since shipments from South America were disapproved by the producing country, Switzerland. Now the cabinet has found a manufacturer in Norway, who is expected to ensure ammunition deliveries to Ukraine.

If the ammunition supplies is agreed upon in time, the first Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns will be deliveries to Ukraine as early as this month, Spiegel added.

Russia has repeatedly denounced a continuous flow of weapons to the conflict zone in Ukraine from the West, saying that it adds fuel to the fire and derails the prospects of negotiation process. Late April, Russian Foreign Ministry sent a note to NATO countries over arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that any cargoes that contain weapons for Ukraine would be a legitimate target for the Russian armed forces.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2022) Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is canceling his plans to buy Twitter for $44 billion due to multiple breaches of the purchase agreement, according to a letter sent by Musk's team to Twitter.

"As further described below, Mr. Musk is terminating the Merger Agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement," the letter said on Friday. "In short, Twitter has not provided information that Mr. Musk has requested for nearly two months notwithstanding his repeated, detailed clarifications intended to simplify Twitter's identification, collection, and disclosure of the most relevant information sought in Mr.

Musk's original requests."

In April, Musk reached an acquisition agreement with Twitter at $54.20 per share in a transaction valued at approximately $44 billion. However, Musk put the deal on hold in May to allow his team to review the veracity of Twitter's claim that less than 5% of accounts on the platform are bots or spam.
Residents of embattled northwest Syria warned Saturday of a "catastrophe" following a Russian veto at the UN Security Council that threatens to end cross-border aid deliveries critical to their survival

Bab alHawa, Syria, July 9 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Jul, 2022 ) :Residents of embattled northwest Syria warned Saturday of a "catastrophe" following a Russian veto at the UN Security Council that threatens to end cross-border aid deliveries critical to their survival.

Friday's veto of a resolution that would have extended authorisation for UN aid deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Syrian-Turkish border by one year came on the eve of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

It cast a pall over celebrations and has left residents of Syria's last major opposition bastion increasingly worried, at time when humanitarian needs have reached record levels and hunger rates are at their highest since the start of the conflict in 2011, according to the UN.

"Russia has destroyed our houses, ravaged our children and forced us into displacement... now, it wants to close the (aid) crossing," said Ftaym, a 45-year-old displaced Syrian living in a camp in Idlib province.

"If the Bab al-Hawa crossing closes, cutting us off from the relief and supplies that are delivered to us, then we will die," said the mother of 14 children.

The cross-border mechanism at Bab al-Hawa, which has been in effect since 2014, is set to expire Sunday.

It is the only crossing through which UN assistance can be brought into the rebel-held northwest without navigating areas controlled by Syrian government forces.

More than 4,600 aid trucks, carrying mostly food, have crossed Bab al-Hawa so far this year, helping some 2.4 million people, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

- 'Famine'- On Saturday, Bab al-Hawa was closed because of the Eid al-Adha holiday, an AFP correspondent at the crossing said.

Silence has prevailed over the border area since a final aid convoy crossed over on Friday at noon.

"Everyone knows most camp residents are completely dependent on this aid," said Abdulsalam Youssef, a displaced Syrian who lives in a makeshift Idlib settlement.

Russia's veto spells a "catastrophe for me", he added.

The Sunday deadline still leaves time for members of the Security Council to keep the crossing open.

Diplomats said the council's non-permanent members may propose a nine-month extension to try to break the impasse.

But Syrians in Idlib are sceptical of Moscow, which has backed repeated campaigns by the Damascus government against the rebel enclave.

Russia's veto exemplifies a "siege and famine policy that Russia resorts to across Syria", charged Mazen Allouch, an official at the Bab al-Hawa crossing.

Failure to extend the authorisation would "serve as a prelude to an uncontrollable famine that would directly threaten food security of more than four million people" living in Syria's northwest, he told AFP.

The number of Syrians who lack access to sufficient food stands at a record 12.4 million, or nearly 60 percent of the population, the UN says.

- Health sector collapse - The UN's cross-border operations, including medical aid deliveries, are a key lifeline for Idlib's crumbling health sector, which has been battered by years of fighting between rebels and regime forces.

Already dwindling donor funds have caused dire shortages of medicine and equipment.

A failure to renew the UN's authorisation "will lead to the total collapse of the health sector," said Salem Abdane, Idlib's health director.

It will lead to "the closure of 21 hospitals, 12 medical centres, and will stop several projects, including vaccinations," the official said, warning of an "increase in death rates and disease".

Moscow's move also triggered alarm from senior UN officials and aid groups who had lobbied Security Council members for the year-long cross-border aid clearance.

"I hope the Security Council will meet again soon and agree on a way forward," said Mark Cutts, UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis.

"Failure to renew the resolution for cross-border aid will be a catastrophe for over four million people in northwest Syria," he told AFP.
(@FahadShabbir)

NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2022) Sri Lankan party leaders, who have gathered for an emergency meeting following mass protests in Colombo, called on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to hand in his resignation, media reported on Saturday.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called an emergency meeting of party leaders in connection with the ongoing protests in the capital after the crowds stormed and seized the presidential residence. For his part, Rajapaksa claimed he was ready to accept any decision taken at this meeting, the prime minister's office noted.

The meeting, presided over by the speaker of the parliament, decided that Rajapaksa must step down, Newswire said.
(@FahadShabbir)

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe confirmed on Saturday that he will resign from his post and give way to an "all-party government."

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2022) Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe confirmed on Saturday that he will resign from his post and give way to an "all-party government."

"To ensure the continuation of the Government including the safety of all citizens I accept the best recommendation of the Party Leaders today, to make way for an All-Party Government. To facilitate this I will resign as Prime Minister," Wickremesinghe said on Twitter.

At the same time, the prime minister's press office told reporters on Saturday that Wickremesinghe will resign after an "all-party government" is formed and the parliamentary majority of his United National Party is secured.

Until then Wickremesinghe intends to remain in office, Sri Lankan newspaper Newsfirst said.

Earlier in the day, Wickremesinghe had called an emergency meeting of the party leaders in response to the mass protests unfolding in Colombo. During the meeting, opposition party leaders urged Wickremesinghe and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down, nominating Sri Lankan parliament speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana as interim president.
TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2022) Tetsuya Yamagami, who was detained for the murder of ex-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday, said he wanted to oppose an unknown group with which Abe was allegedly involved.

"My mother, being involved with this group, had made a significant donation, and our lives were ruined as a result," Japanese broadcaster NHK quoted Yamagami as saying.

The information about what kind of group it is was not disclosed.

Japanese news agency Kyodo cited sources familiar with the investigation as saying that Yamagami was initially planning to attack a leader of a religious organization.

The name of the organization and its leader were also not disclosed.

Abe, 67, was attacked on Friday morning in the Japanese city of Nara during his campaign speech. Yamagami, 41, approached the politician from behind and fired two shots from a distance of about 10 meters (33 feet) from a homemade gun. Police said Abe was conscious immediately after being wounded, but then, during transportation, his condition became critical "with cardiac and pulmonary arrest." Later in the day, Nara Medical University hospital pronounced him dead.
The annual ecumenical meeting, which was originally due to take place in December 2020, but had to be postponed to July this year, wraps up in the Northern Italian city on Sunday, after three intense days of prayers and spiritual and cultural events gathering hundreds of youths from across Europe and other continents.

By Lisa Zengarini

Hundreds of young people from Italy, Europe and other continents are gathered in the Italian city of Turin for the second stage of the 43rd European Pilgrimage of Trust on Earth, organized by the Taize community. The ecumenical event, which is traditionally held at the end of each year in a European city, is taking place in person from 7-10 July for the first time since 2019.

Participants

This 43rd edition in the capital of the northern region of Piedmont was originally scheduled in 2020, but was postponed for 12 months to December 2021 , due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Omicron variant of the virus forced organizers to split the event in two, with the first part taking place in late December, as custom, but in a mixed format involving only a limited number of in-person participants from Piedmont.

Read also 29/12/2021 Mixed format for Taize European gathering The 43rd edition of the annual ecumenical event was scheduled in Turin last year, but was postponed twelve months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Meeting is taking place in two ...

Participants in this second phase include young people from several European countries, including Ukraine and Russia, but also from the United States, Egypt and Indonesia, who have been welcomed by over 150 volunteers from across Europe, alongside local volunteers.

Events

The programme of the event has included moments of prayer and group activities in local parishes, workshops on cultural, artistic, social and spiritual topics, as well as visits to a number of significant sites of the city of Turin.

Among the highlights of this years meeting there have been three round tables titled "Discovering Piedmont, "Young people and the Shroud, "Young people ... and saints!" with Roberto Fascila, the vice postulator of the cause of canonization of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925) as a key speaker. An exhibition on the young Italian Catholic activist, patron of youth, has been also organized and participants have been offered to the opportunity to pray in the chapel of Cathedral of Turin where his remains rest.

The White Night of Faith

The event reaches its peak today, with a White Night of Faith including a Festival of Peopes at the Court of the Royal Palace of Turin, a festive moment with music, dances, and testimonies, followed by the last Evening Prayer presided over by the Archbishop Roberto Repole of Turin, and, at 10.30 pm, by spiritual and artistic visits in the city center, including one to the Chapel of the Shroud - the burial cloth of Jesus - which has been opened expectionally for this special occasion.

Another feature of this edition of the European meeting of Taize has been the opening of the "House of Peace", in the heart of city, where participants have gathered to share their views and experiences on the theme of world peace.

The meeting will end on Sunday with Masses in the hosting parishes and lunch in the host families.

The Taize Community

The Taize Community is an ecumenical Christian monastic founded in 1940 by the Swiss-born Brother Roger (Frere Roger) in the French village of Taize, in France, and composed of Catholic and Protestant brothers. Over the year Taize has become one of the world's most important sites of Christian pilgrimage, with a focus on youth. Over 100,000 young people from around the world make pilgrimages to the site each year to pray, study the Bible, share their faith experiences and do communal work.

The annual Pilgrimage of Trust on Earth at the end of the year has been organized since the early Seventies gathering thousands of young people.
President of the Senate of the French Republic Gerard Larcher delivered a sppech at the plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a member of the Holos parliamentary faction, has said.

"A bright speech that was interrupted by applause more than 10 times," he wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday.

"Ukraine, thanks to its achievements, rightly received the EU candidate status. On June 24, the historic step was taken! We will be with you to implement the candidate status... The European soul and ideals are now being embodied by the Ukrainian people... We will be with you at all levels, including the military. Your defeat would be our collective defeat. The front will hold if the rear holds. All 27 EU countries are the rear!" Zhelezniak quoted the President of the Senate of France.
Following the spirit of its patron, St. Vincent de Paul, Depaul International is working to help the poorest of the poor in Ukraine, even as volunteers witness the great suffering caused by Russias ongoing invasion of its neighbor.

By Zuzana Klimanova

Since the outbreak of the war on 24 February, over a thousand tons of food, medicine, and other humanitarian aid have been sent to Ukraine from Depaul Slovakia, according to the nonprofit organization's director, Jozef Kakos.

He recently attended a meeting in Rome, along with the chairman of the Board of Directors of Depaul Ukraine, Vincentian Fr. Vitaliy Novak CM, to plan the charitys humanitarian aid for Ukraine until 2025. They expressed their gratitude to all donors with Jesus' words from the Gospel, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Mt 25:40).

Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odessa, Transcarpathia

The Depaul charity distributes food, medicine or other aid in the most isolated areas of Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odessa, and other cities to elderly people who have been abandoned, as well as to the disabled and people holed up in basements and bunkers.

"Sometimes we find people starving to death," says Father Vitaliy, a native of Transcarpathia in Ukraine.

As he explains to Vatican News on the sidelines of the Depaul meeting, the organization began delivering humanitarian aid as soon as the Russian attacks began in late February:

"When massive numbers of Ukrainians moved from the east to the western part of the country, we of Depaul began moving to the east with our first aid truck, he said. We received our first shipment of food and medicine from Slovakia, and brought it first to Kyiv and then began distributing it in Kharkiv, Odessa and also in Ukrainian Transcarpathia, because suddenly there were many refugees, about 500,000."

Deepening faith in a crisis

In the interview, Father Vitaliy talked about how the war united the people of Ukraine and strengthened the national identity, as well as how the Orthodox and Catholics became closer.

"I have spent most of the war in Kharkiv, and there the Orthodox bishop lived with our Catholic bishop in the same house, because his home was in a dangerous place. (...) In this war, I do not see divisions among us. We have an Orthodox priest who regularly comes to visit, and another from the Moscow Patriarchate, and they ask for some of the aid that comes from Slovakia, and we are happy to share. People who are believers have become even more so.

Fr. Vitaliy added that his congregation runs a church in Saltivka, which is the most devastated part of Kharkiv.

Our parishioners have almost all left. Almost no one has stayed there. Right now, we have 20-30 people, which varies depending on how they bomb Kharkiv. And they all come to Mass. They say, Father Vitaliy, we don't know how to pray like you Catholics, but we want to pray. And they pray with us.

The Ukrainian priest says he is doing all he can to help people ride out the pain of war.

I say Mass and during Mass there is catechesis. I explain to [our Orthodox brothers and sisters] when we stand up, when we sit down, what we have to sing, and first we have a rehearsal... But they all come. And it's not like I call them. We celebrate Mass at least on Sundays and major holidays. They are there together with us. And they want to be with God. Sometimes a grandmother will say, 'Father, have you noticed? At least they don't shoot when we pray!'"

Food for the hungry, clothes for the naked

The head of Depaul Ukraine also spoke about the impact the generosity of donor around the world has made on him and the people who receive the aid.

He finds a parallel with Jesus words in the Gospel.

"I was hungry and you gave me food. These are the words of Jesus that find the greatest application in our lives today. Millions of people go hungry. And today, Slovakia - and other countries  have risen up to give me something to eat. They offer me, a Ukrainian, their help, since I now have no resources and no way to get it.

Fr. Vitaliy added, I was sick and you visited me; I was naked and you clothed me. We are doing the same thing now and continue in this spirit. I see that (...) someone is killing us, but someone else is standing and helping us and wants to reduce as much as possible the consequences and suffering of this brutal and bloody war.

He lamented the many people who are killed or wounded each day in Ukraine, and the psychological trauma so many women and children endure.

The Vincentian Father said the Depaul Slovakia is working to create a trauma response team, to make sure that those in need have a safe place where they can spend at least the next winter.

(L-R) Jozef Kakos, Zuzana Klimanova, Fr. Vitaliy Novak

The more we help, the more we gain

The Director of Depaul Slovakia, Jozef Kakos, thanked the many donors who have offered material, financial, or spiritual assistance to the people of Ukraine.

"If we helpeven as a nationwe actually gain a lot, because it also makes us stronger and better," he told Vatican News.

The representative of Depaul Ukraine, Father Vitaliy Novak, also offered words of gratitude.

"Each day I remember every benefactor in my Mass intentions, he said. Whatever you did for one of my little ones, you did for me, said the Lord Jesus. (...) I want to express our gratitude, but not only for this help, but also for how many refugees, women and children [Slovakia] has taken in. (...) In Slovakia I see how our people are welcomed. We are grateful for that as well. And we believe that one day they will all be able to return home, after the end of the war."
The World Food Program reports millions of Ukrainians are having difficulty finding enough food as Russias invasion continues.

World Food Program spokesman Tomson Phiri says fighting and instability in Ukraine has cut off peoples access to steady supplies of food and other basic commodities.

The countrys economy has been on a downward spiral since Russia invaded five months ago. Intense fighting has prompted a mass exodus of people, with an estimated 5 million fleeing to other countries. In addition, the United Nations says 7 million people are displaced within Ukraine.

Phiri says households are in dire economic straits, with 1 in 3 Ukrainian families unable to obtain adequate food. This number, he says, rises to 1 in 2 families in some areas of the east and south, where fighting is particularly intense.

The World Food Program has rapidly scaled up assistance through food distributions or cash in Ukraine, reaching 2.6 million people in June, and continues to work with partners to reach areas close to front lines," said Phiri. "In these areas, fighting is preventing people, especially the elderly and families with children, from accessing food.

Phiri says WFP is buying as much food as it can inside Ukraine to boost the countrys failing economy. Wherever there is access to banks and markets, he says WFP is supporting people with cash, allowing them to make their own food decisions.

WFP has transferred a total $140 million cash and vouchers to close to 1.9 million people since April. The rest have been reached with in-kind support," said Phiri. "People receive their cash within 72 hours of registering. Every dollar spent is directly injected into the local economy.

Phiri says WFP also is preparing to provide food assistance to more than 300,000 Ukrainian refugees in neighboring countries. He says this operation includes aid for the hosting communities as well.

For example, he says a second round of cash transfers is underway for an estimated 15,000 Moldovan families hosting Ukrainian refugees. The money, he says, will help them reduce the expenses incurred in feeding and caring for these refugees.
The Taliban prime minister Saturday defended rules for women and girls in Afghanistan, insisting his government is practicing human rights as ordained by God and it cannot dare amend them.

The statement comes a day after the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution urging the Taliban to reverse practices that curtail the fundamental rights of Afghan women, making them invisible in the society.

People say the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the government) does not care about human rights of men and women, Hasan Akhund told a gathering in the capital, Kabul, in connection with the Muslim festival of Eid. He apparently referred to growing criticism of the harsh treatment women face under Taliban rule.

There are two types of human rights - one that non-Muslims have devised for themselves and stand by them. And the rights set by almighty Allah for the humanity, the Taliban prime minister asserted.

How can the emirate not enforce them if our mission is to introduce an Islamic system in the country. They are also a part of the Islamic system and a divinely defined path (for Muslims).

The radical insurgent-turned-ruling group regained control of Afghanistan last August as the United States and NATO partners withdrew their troops from the country after almost 20 years of war with the Taliban.

Since then, the male-only Taliban government has placed curbs on womens clothes and movement in public and education, in breach of their earlier pledges they would respect rights of all Afghans.

Women are ordered to cover their faces in public and male family members of those who fail to do so could end up in jail. Most teenage girls have been barred from resuming secondary school education, making Afghanistan the only country in the world where girls are unable to attend secondary school.

On Friday, the U.N. human rights council adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in Afghanistan. The European Union brought the resolution and 50 countries from across all regions co-sponsored it.

The actions of the Taliban directed against women and girls and the violation of their rights are highly worrying, said Ambassador Lotte Knudsen, head of the EU delegation to the U.N. in Geneva.





The U.N. councils decisions are not legally binding, but they do carry political weight and can lead to official investigations into allegations of rights abuses.

Last week, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet accused the Taliban of systematic oppression and of the exclusion of women and girls from public life in Afghanistan.

Bachelet told an urgent debate at the council on the status of Afghan women and girls that an increasing number of restrictions on movement and dress have plunged women into a deep depression. She noted that women and girls in Afghanistan are experiencing the most significant and rapid rollback in enjoyment of their rights across the board in decades.

The special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, while taking part in the debate, said that the degradation of womens rights is central to the Taliban ideology. Under Taliban rule in the 1990s, he noted, there was a marked regression in womens and girls rights.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that, despite public assurances from the Taliban that they would respect womens and girls rights, they are re-instituting step by step the discrimination against women and girls characteristic of their previous term and which is unparalleled globally in its misogyny and oppression, Bennett said.

Lisa Schlein contributed to this report from Geneva.
How did a popular period drama on Chinese TV help lead to the theft and brutal slaughter of millions of donkeys in Africa?



It all started when fans of the show Empresses in the Palace saw the aristocratic characters using a traditional Chinese medicine called ejiao, which is made from donkey skin, Simon Pope, who works for U.K.-based charity the Donkey Sanctuary, told VOA.



It was all set in the (Chinese) imperial court and at a certain time of the day the ladies of the court would all say, Lets have some ejiao, said Pope. Ejiao, also called donkey glue, is used as medicine or as a tonic for health and beauty in China.



As a result of this program the demand for ejiao just literally went through the roof, he said of the show first broadcast in 2011. The problem was China simply does not have enough donkeys to be able to meet demand.



The Chinese started looking for donkeys abroad, particularly in Africa where theyre used as a beast of burden by rural communities from Mali to Zimbabwe to Tanzania. When locals didn't want to sell, thefts started, with distressed farmers finding their precious donkeys skinned and left to rot on the veld.



China needs about 5 million donkeys a year to produce and meet the demand for ejiao, and about 2 million of these come from Chinas own population of the animals. Of the remaining 3 million or more sourced abroad, the Donkey Sanctuary estimates that between 25% and 35% are stolen.



Now, years into the trade, populations are down, and some African countries are fighting back. Tanzania last month banned donkey slaughter for the skin trade, saying the country's donkey population was at risk of becoming extinct. Other African countries including Nigeria have also introduced bans on donkey slaughter or exports of the animal.



I think the message thats going to China, from Africa in particular, is that our donkeys are too valuable an asset to have them skinned and shipped off to China to have them made into medicine. Our donkeys are not for sale, said Pope. However, he noted that because of China's economic clout on the continent and massive investment in infrastructure, other nations are loath to push back against the trade.



South Africa allows the butchering of donkeys but only at two licensed slaughterhouses and with a quota of 12,000 a year. Authorities here have been cracking down on the illegal trade in recent years, so criminal syndicates have gone underground, especially since COVID, said Grace de Lange, an inspector with the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) in South Africa.



Now South African donkeys are being smuggled into Lesotho, a tiny mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa.



We are not sure exactly what the link is and how theyre getting it out  maybe easier from Lesotho, she told VOA.



Weve had meetings with (the) government in Lesotho and theyre also investigating.  Its going to the Chinese market, she said, adding that authorities have also intercepted skins in warehouses and at the airport.



While small-time local criminals have been prosecuted after being arrested transporting the animals, the Chinese running the large syndicates are usually harder to get to, de Lange says.



Marosi Molomo, director of livestock services at Lesotho's Ministry of Agriculture, responded to VOA's questions about the donkey trade moving to Lesotho via text message saying: "It's not possible to give an answer without evidence."



Requests for comment from the Chinese embassies and consulates in both Lesotho and South Africa went unanswered.



De Lange said the animals are often slaughtered in a particularly cruel way. They are stunned with hammers or have their throats slit but are sometimes still alive when skinned.



Theyd actually been slaughtered in the most horrific manner, she said.



Francis Nkosi, who works on a farm outside Johannesburg caring for some of the donkeys rescued from the skin trade, explained why the animal is so vital in Africas rural areas.



Donkeys in our culture, theyre like transport. They help us, he said as he fed fresh hay to Oscar and Presley, two of his charges who were rescued  in terrible condition  by the NSPCA last year on their way to slaughter across the border in Lesotho.



If people get sick sometimes, we dont have a car. We dont have a transport. You can use the donkeys to transport some people to the hospital, he added.



De Lange said shes seen that donkey numbers are dwindling in the rural communities where she works and, for Pope, one major concern is how losing their donkeys has socioeconomic effects for many.



In some countries, children had been pulled out of school and they were having to do the work previously the donkey was having to do, Pope said.



While some argue Africa should set up donkey farms and benefit financially that way, Pope points out that China has tried mass farming the animals and been largely unsuccessful. Unlike other farm animals, donkeys can only produce one foal a year.



Ejiao has been used as medicine for the last two millennia, and in modern-day China it is available in various edible forms intended to aid circulation and help with aches and pains.



Demand for donkey glue in China has affected communities halfway across the globe, according to an article about the product in Chinas state publication China Daily.



The issue is sensitive, simply because some of these countries depend on the donkey as a working beast in both agriculture and transportation, it said. But this is also the reality of a tightening global network of supply and demand, and the fearsome power of being one of the largest consumer markets on Earth.



The donkey skin trade has also become a conduit for other criminal activity, according to an investigation by the Donkey Sanctuary and researchers at the University of Oxford published in May. The report found donkey skins easily available for purchase online and that websites selling the product were also often offering endangered wildlife for sale and even illicit drugs.



There is a "vast online network of organized criminals offering donkey skins for sale, often alongside other illegal wildlife products including rhino horns, pangolin scales, elephant ivory and tiger hides," the Donkey Sanctuary said.
The Canadian government is set to put health warnings on each cigarette and ban certain types of plastics, parts of a new round of regulations from the Trudeau government.

"Poison in every puff. By 2023, this is the warning the Canadian government is planning on having on each cigarette sold in the country. This will make Canada the first in the world to do so, much as it did with graphic health warnings on packages of cigarettes in 2001.

Changes are also proposed for the health warnings on packages; they would be required to cover 75 percent of the back and front of each package and include warnings about colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, cervical cancer and diabetes. These are among the 16 diseases  besides lung cancer  believed caused by cigarettes.

Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society, said putting a warning on each cigarette will make sure the health message gets delivered every single time one is lit.

Sometimes you experiment by smoking, by 'borrowing' a cigarette from a friend or a brother or sister without directly touching the package. And so ... this type of reach to kids experimenting is a very positive thing," he said. "Sometimes smokers who go out for a smoke break will just take a cigarette, not the full package, when they go outside.

The Canadian government is also banning the importing or manufacturing of plastic bags and containers, like those used for restaurant takeout meals, by the end of 2022. It will ban sales of the bags and containers by the end of 2023 and exports of them by years end in 2025.

The government is also working toward abolishing many single-use plastics, like those for straws, stir sticks for drinks, cutlery and the plastic rings used to hold together six- and 12-packs of cans and bottles.

Plastic was listed as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act in 2021.

Sarah King, head of Greenpeace Canadas oceans and plastics campaign, said the move is a good start, but there is still more work to be done.

"We still aren't even at the starting line in terms of tackling Canada's plastic waste and pollution problem," she said. "So, you know, we definitely are keen to see the government take plastic reduction more seriously and start accelerating our transition to more reuse-, refill-centered systems.

But Stewart Prest, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, said some Canadians would be upset by the new initiatives, seeing them as examples of over-regulation and the extension of a so-called nanny state."

"I think reactions will be divided," he said. "I think this is the kind of issue that's going to fit very well within the existing political dynamic polarization that we see in Canada, where any attempt by the government to regulate  to try to nudge Canadians in a particular direction  is going to be met with great, extreme skepticism in some quarters.

The next general election is expected to occur in October 2025, which is well after the new regulations take effect.
On July 6 through July 8, the city of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, hosted the Annual Conference of European Armies with the participation of the command of U.S. Army Europe and Africa.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, the current conference brought together the commanders of the ground forces from more than 40 countries. One of the main participants of the conference was a delegation from Ukraine, headed by Acting Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant-General Oleksandr Pavliuk.

"During his speech at the conference, the head of the Ukrainian delegation briefed the participants of the event on the current security situation in the area of military operations, in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and along the state border," the General Staff said.

Bilateral working meetings were also held with the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, the Commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, the Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, the Acting Chief of Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces and the Commander of the U.S. Army's 18th Airborne Corps in Europe. The issues of coordination of areas of military cooperation and issues of joint training of units of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were discussed.

"During the conference, all the participants of the event reaffirmed their comprehensive support for Ukraine, which once again showed the invariability of Ukraine's course, along with the entire civilized world," the General Staff said.
An artificial intelligence (AI) institute in Hefei, in Chinas Anhui province, says it has developed software that can gauge the loyalty of Communist Party members  something that, if true, would be considered a breakthrough, but has sparked public outcry.

Analysts said China has improved its AI-powered surveillance, using big data, machine learning, facial recognition and AI to get into the brains and minds of its people, building what many call a draconian digital dictatorship.

Smart thought education?

The institute posted a video called The Smart Political Education Bar, on July 1 to boast about its mind-reading software, which it said would be used on party members to further solidify their determination to be grateful to the party, listen to the party and follow the party.

In the video, a subject was seen scrolling through online material that promotes party policy at a kiosk, where the institute said its AI software was monitoring his reaction to see how attentive he was to the partys thought education.

The post, however, was taken down shortly after sparking a public outcry among Chinese netizens.

Hung Ching-fu, a professor of political science at National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, in southern Taiwan, said that the Communist Party has abused technological advances to serve its own political interests.

It has used cutting-edge technology to empower its party state. China has upgraded from early-day facial recognition to AI programs that try to get into brains and minds (more) than meet the eye. Its adoption of advanced AI will reinforce its total controls, Hung told VOA over the phone.

Hung added Chinas AI-fueled police state will weigh on its people, who are likely to self-censor or live in fear.

Digital repression

But he cast little confidence in what he called Chinas digital repression, which he said will likely put the Communist Party in the dictators dilemma  a political term that describes a government leaders failure to win the hearts and minds of its people.

The taller you build your wall [of power], the further youre cut off from the people This constitutes what we call the dictators dilemma in politics. That is, despite their enormous powers, dictators keep out of touch with the people. I dont think any political systems that are against human nature will sustain, Hung added.

VOAs calls and emails to the Hefei-based institute for comment went unanswered.

The so-called mind-reading software is but the latest digital control China has implemented.

China reportedly has long deployed facial recognition in Xinjiang to keep tabs on ethnic Uyghurs while having enhanced its surveillance in recent years with one person, one file software to make it easier to track its people.

Late last year, authorities in Henan province reportedly launched a similar system to track what they see as suspicious journalists, foreign students and women. At the same time, prosecutors in Shanghai reportedly adopted AI prosecutors, who can file indictments on eight criminal offenses, including credit card fraud and charges of picking a quarrel and provoking trouble.

Chinese online newspaper The Paper reported that a Communist Party school in Sichuan had developed Smart Red Cloud as early as 2017, which was already able to monitor party member reaction to its political education and calculate their loyalty.

Victims of Chinas surveillance system

Several rights lawyers and activists told VOA on the condition of anonymity that they fell victim to Chinas digital surveillance system.

A rights activist from Wuhan, Hebei, said he was once taken away by police who were able to identify him after a roadside camera captured his face while he was on the street.

A Beijing-based rights lawyer complained that he was unable to post online messages or make an online registration as a result of Chinas tight censorship and digital tracking system.

Another rights lawyer revealed that Chinas police have been illegally collecting biometric data from the pupils of peoples eyes, fingerprints and urine samples of those in its custody to enhance what he called a precise but evil surveillance.

Chinas widespread application of AI technologies, however, is stimulating the sectors innovation, according to the findings of recent research by author Martin Beraja, an assistant professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and three other scholars at Harvard University and The London School of Economics and Political Science.

Their research concluded, while new technology bolsters autocratic power and autocratic demand stimulates innovation, this mutuality of advantage may even generate long-term, sustained AI innovation in China, creating what they call an AI-tocracy.

AI-tocracy

In the process of procuring that government contract, they [AI firms in China] get access to this data that allows them, of course, to innovate for the government application that has to do typically with public security or preventing crime, or the like. This has spilled over to their commercial innovation, because, potentially, they may use either the same government data or, if thats restricted, they may use the same algorithms that were trained with that data to develop commercial products that are used in the private sector, Beraja told VOA.

One such commercial software, for example, is used in supermarkets to track consumers as they move along the aisles, the professor added.

Beraja, however, expressed concerned over Chinas AI exports, which he found in his research are likely aiding other repressive governments.

One thing that we do observe is that the countries that are more autocratic or relatively weak democracies are indeed importing more facial recognition AI from China, more likely facial recognition AI from China than other technologies. And to me that says that there is a sense in which these technologies indeed are used for surveillance and repression, Beraja added.

Zola, a prominent blogger from China who is now a citizen of Taiwan, said that most netizens in China oppose the countrys digital suppression although their opposition is often muted.

He questioned the sustainability of Chinas AI-tocracy.

China may be exporting these technologies to other countries. But in the long run, such a governance model will lead a society to go to extremesrepeating the irrational policymaking pattern during the (Chinas) Cultural Revolution period. That will lead to its own collapse, Zola told VOA.

This article originated in VOAs Mandarin service.
China has demanded the U.S. cease what it called military collusion with Taiwan.

During a virtual meeting Thursday between the joint chiefs of staff from the two countries, General Li Zuocheng told General Mark Milley that China had "no room for compromise" on issues affecting its "core interests," which include self-governing Taiwan. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary.

"China demands the U.S. ... cease reversing history, cease U.S.-Taiwan military collusion and avoid impacting China-U.S. ties and stability in the Taiwan Strait," Li said.

The Chinese military would "resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said. "If anyone creates a wanton provocation, they will be met with the firm counterattack from the Chinese people."

Such language is fairly routine, and Li was also quoted in a Defense Ministry news release saying China hoped to "further strengthen dialogue, handle risks and promote cooperation, rather than deliberately creating confrontation, provoking incidents and becoming mutually exclusive."

China routinely flies warplanes near Taiwan as a reminder of its threat to attack, and the island's Defense Ministry said Chinese air force aircraft crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait dividing the two sides on Friday morning. It said measures were taken in response, including the scrambling of Taiwanese jets.

Such "provocative behavior  has seriously damaged regional peace and stability," the ministry said.

Asked about the incident, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, "This exercise by China is directed at external interference and separatist Taiwan independence forces."

The meeting between Li and Milley followed fiery comments by Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe at a regional security conference last month that was also attended by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Wei accused the United States of trying to hijack the support of countries in the Asia-Pacific region to turn them against Beijing, saying Washington is seeking to advance its own interests "under the guise of multilateralism."

At the same meeting in Singapore, Austin said China was causing instability with its claim to Taiwan and its increased military activity in the area.

And in May, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called China the "most serious long-term challenge to the international order" for the United States, with its claims to Taiwan and efforts to dominate the strategic South China Sea, prompting an angry response from Beijing.

The U.S. and its allies have responded with what they term "freedom of navigation" patrols in the South China Sea, also prompting angry responses from Beijing.

Despite not having formal diplomatic relations in deference to Beijing, Washington remains Taiwan's chief ally and supplier of defense weapons. U.S. law requires the government to treat all threats to the island as matters of "grave concern," although it remains ambiguous on whether the U.S. military would defend Taiwan if it were attacked by China.

The latest round of heated rhetoric came ahead of a meeting between Blinken and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Saturday at a gathering of foreign ministers from the G-20 bloc of industrialized nations in Indonesia that is expected to be overshadowed by disagreements over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Along with Taiwan and the South China Sea, Washington and Beijing are also at odds over trade, human rights and China's policies in Tibet and toward mainly Muslim Turkic minorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest reached a record high for the first six months of the year, as an area five times the size of New York City was destroyed, preliminary government data showed Friday.

From January to June, 3,988 square kilometers were cleared in the region, according to the national space research agency, Inpe.

That's an increase of 10.6% from the same months last year and the highest level for that period since the agency began compiling its current DETER-B data series in mid-2015.

The Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, contains vast amounts of carbon, which is released as trees are destroyed, warming the atmosphere and driving climate change.

Deforestation is creeping deeper into the forest. In the first six months of the year, Amazonas state, in the heart of the rainforest, recorded more destruction than any other state for the first time.

A Reuters witness on Friday saw several recently deforested areas near the roadway west of Amazonas state capital, Manaus, where lush jungle had been turned into expanses strewn with fallen, dried trees.

This year's rising deforestation is also feeding unusually high levels of fire, which are likely to worsen in the months ahead, said Manoela Machado, a wildfire and deforestation researcher at Woodwell Climate Research Center and University of Oxford.

Brazil recorded the highest number of fires in the Amazon for the month of June in 15 years, although those blazes are a small fraction of what is usually seen when fires peak in August and September, according to Inpe data.

Generally, after loggers extract valuable wood, ranchers and land grabbers set fires to clear the land for agriculture.

"If we have high deforestation numbers, it's inevitable that we're going to have high fire numbers as well," Machado said. "This is extremely bad news."

Experts in Brazil blame right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro for rolling back environmental protections and emboldening loggers, ranchers and land speculators who clear public land for profit.

Bolsonaro's office directed requests for comment to the Environment Ministry, which said the government has been "extremely forceful" in fighting environmental crimes.

The ministry said that considering the 12 months through June, Inpe's data showed deforestation declined 3.8% from the same period a year earlier.

Environmentalists are banking on leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who presided over a steep decline in deforestation during his presidency from 2003-10, winning in October's election for a turnaround in Brazil's environmental policy.
Former Mexican President Luis Echeverria, who took office in 1970 promising a democratic opening for the country but oversaw six of the harshest years of a so-called "dirty war" against dissidents, has died aged 100.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Twitter confirmed the death Saturday, expressing his condolences to Echeverria's family.

As an elderly man, Echeverria escaped attempts by Mexican prosecutors to indict him for genocide for his role in two infamous massacres of student protesters in 1968 and 1971 that helped define an era of heavy-handed state repression.

Bald and bespectacled, Echeverria denied wrongdoing and said his conscience was clear. He refused to testify about crimes that have not been fully cleared up to this day.

A loyal son of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years until its ousting in a 2000 election, Echeverria believed in preserving the all-encompassing party system that reached into every sphere of public life.

His 1970-1976 presidency was tainted from the outset by accusations that he ordered troops to open fire on thousands of peacefully demonstrating students in the Mexico City area of Tlatelolco on Oct. 2, 1968, while serving as interior minister.

At the time, the government said just 30 people had been killed and injured in the massacre, carried out days before the Olympic Games opened in Mexico City. Some witnesses said many more bodies were carted off from the scene.

Hundreds of students were beaten and jailed after the protest, which occurred when student uprisings were erupting worldwide. A definitive death toll has never been given.

Crackdown and economic woes

As interior minister, Echeverria led a group of top officials crafting a response to the student uprisings, according to declassified U.S. government documents.

Keen to wipe the slate clean during his presidency, Echeverria promised a "democratic opening." He released people imprisoned after the massacre and courted the intellectual left, promoting them to prominent positions in government.

But from the late 1960s to early 1980s, activists say PRI security forces were responsible for a brutal campaign against leftist intellectuals and critical journalists, many of whom were killed and disappeared during Echeverria's rule.

On June 10, 1971, the day of the Corpus Christi Catholic celebration, a paramilitary force known as Los Halcones or The Hawks, attacked a student protest with pistols, rifles, tear gas and batons, killing or wounding dozens of demonstrators.

Born Jan. 17, 1922 to a middle-class family in Mexico City, Echeverria was known for embracing a leftist foreign policy while cozying up to Washington.

U.S. President Richard Nixon was fond of Echeverria.

"He's strong, he wants to play the right games," Nixon said of Echeverria in a recorded conversation with the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

During his presidency, Echeverria had plans to redistribute lands of the wealthy to peasants and espoused a protectionist economic policy of high tariffs, state intervention and preference for domestic products.

As the public sector ballooned and government borrowing soared, Echeverria alienated the business class, which stopped investing and sent its capital out of the country.

Mexico's foreign debt sextupled and the peso's value almost halved during Echeverria's term in office, leading to a currency devaluation shortly before his term expired.

In 2006, a judge ordered Echeverria to be placed under house arrest for his connection to the student killings.

But in March 2009, a court ruled the army crackdown did not qualify as genocide, and upheld prior rulings that a 30-year statute of limitations for the crimes had expired.

In 2020, after some 10 years out of the public eye, Mexican media photographed Echeverria waiting in a wheelchair to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and rolling up the sleeve of a lilac-colored shirt for the shot.
Bangladesh has been facing severe power cuts for the last week that the government blames on a natural gas shortage.

However, the cuts have spurred protests and criticism of past government policies, as well as calls for new policies.

The shortage has brought back load shedding  the shutting down part of the grid to prevent failure of the system -- which had become a thing of the past, in both cities and in rural areas. The renewed frequent outages have spurred expressions of anger and frustration in the street and social media.

For the past few days, we had electricity for like five to six hours a day. It has become unbearable to live like this in this summer heat, Hamidul Bhuiyah, a resident of the town of Sylhet in northeastern Bangladesh told VOA.

I am wondering whether we are facing a crisis like Sri Lanka, said Bhuiyah, who came down onto the street on Wednesday night to protest the outages in his Dakkhin Surma neighborhood.

While Bhuiyah protested on the street, economics professor Anu Muhammad expressed his frustration on his Facebook page.

I didnt have electricity in my house even when the government lavishly celebrated the 100% electrification of the country through fireworks in Dhakas Hatirjheel area.

Muhammad was referring to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas governments celebration of making electricity available to 100% of the countrys population in late March. Hasina, in power since 2009, has long boasted about solving the electricity crisis that plagued the nation just a decade ago.

Questioning that success, Muhammad -- known for his fierce advocacy of protecting Bangladeshs natural resources from foreign control -- said the electricity crisis was long in the offing and had happened because of some of the governments faulty policies, such as not exploring Bangladeshs own resources through a state-owned company.

Triggered by war

Hasina, meanwhile, said her government is finding it increasingly difficult to keep power plants running as operational costs continued to spiral in the face of the war in Ukraine.

Prices have gone up to such an extent that it has now become difficult to keep the power plants running with the gas we have in stock, she told a virtual program on Thursday.

Fifty-two percent of Bangladeshs electricity is produced from natural gas, whose declining domestic production has been supplemented by liquefied natural gas imports. However, sharp price increases in the global LNG market have forced a halt in purchases for now.

After the Russian invasion, Europe announced a plan to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by buying LNG from elsewhere. This new competition for limited global LNG supply has quickly driven prices up.

LNG accounts for 20% of Bangladeshs gas supply to power plants, and the country last paid $25 per MMBtu  LNG is measured by MMBtu, or million British thermal units -- but the price is now $40 per MMBtu in the global spot market.

According to Bangladeshs Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry data, on average 3.1 billion to 3.2 billion cubic feet per day of gas has been distributed across the country since the beginning of the year. But for the last week, the average supply was 2.8 billion to 2.9 billion cubic feet, a drop of more than 10%.

Energy experts are predicting that LNG prices could increase further this year as European countries will likely buy more LNG for winter.

Hasina thus urged people to be cautious in using power and said she is considering reducing power production for some time to save fuel.

Her government will implement additional steps through executive order, including shortening office hours, not setting air-conditioners below 25 degrees in offices, reducing the use of air conditioning in religious establishments like mosques, and ending weddings and other social events by 7 p.m.

Experts said such rationing might bring some relief in the short run but that the government needs to revamp its energy and power policy for a long-term solution.

Its not that the power crisis of Bangladesh will be resolved in a week or two, said Shamsul Alam the current energy adviser of Consumer Association of Bangladesh.

Its here to stay for some time, Alam told VOA.

Like economist Muhammad, Alam believes the countrys current electricity crisis is taking place not just because of war or a global energy crunch but is partly the responsibility of the Hasina administration.

We have already put too many eggs in one basket, as our power production is heavily dependent on natural gas. The reserves in the gas fields are declining and the government, instead of focusing on new gas field explorations, opted for costly LNG imports, he said.

Alam said such dependency on LNG imports is dangerous given volatile international market prices.

Our government should have opted for a better energy mix to reduce the dependency on a single fuel, Alam added.

Relief in September

Hasinas energy adviser, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, meanwhile told a news conference Thursday that the current power crisis is likely to continue until September, but after that some coal-burning power plants will be connected to the national grid, which could bring relief.

About 8% of the countrys electricity production capacity of 22,066 megawatts comes from coal, and Bangladesh has plans to significantly increase that percentage.

In the last year, Bangladesh canceled plans to build 10 coal-burning power plants but construction of some of large plants is going on and on course to be completed soon.

Chowdhury said that by September, 1,200 megawatts of coal-based electricity is likely to be added to the national grid from a plant being built in Indias Jharkand state by Indias Adani Group. Another 1,320 and 700 megawatts will be added respectively from power plants in Bangladeshs Rampal and Payra areas.

Arifuzzaman Tuhin, a journalist who has been covering Bangladeshs energy sector for over a decade, however, told VOA that these large coal-burning power plants will not solve Bangladeshs energy crisis in the long run.

The cost of producing per unit of electricity from coal is already 13 cents but the government is selling electricity at 5 cents per unit. So, again, the government will have to inject a large subsidy to keep producing power from coal. I dont think its sustainable, he said.

Tuhin said Bangladesh lacked a holistic approach in handling the energy and power sector.

For example, we have created a 22,000-megawatt capacity system but could transmit and distribute only 60% of it now.

Rather than focusing on transmission and distribution, the government was keen on spending more on power generation. Because of this, we now have to make billions of dollars worth of capacity payments for idle plants, he added.

Under the terms of its various agreements with power producers, the Bangladesh government pays the latter whats known as a capacity payment, meant to ensure electricity is always available on tap, even if it means paying them to remain idle.

According to the annual report of state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board, for the 2020-21 fiscal years, the capacity charge paid to 37 private power producers was about $1.35 billion.

Such large payments for practically nothing of course put a big dent on the governments purse. No surprise there that a price escalation in global fuel market thus force them to go for austerity measure, Tuhin told VOA.
Focused on filming a police car, Vishal Singh was shocked to look up from his camera and find himself staring down the barrel of a weapon.



[I] was just kind of taken aghast and I just asked, Are you serious?  Singh told VOA.



The freelance journalists press badge was on display but the police officer, carrying equipment that fires less-lethal rounds such as beanbags or rubber bullets, was insistent, telling Singh he had to leave.



Not even get out of the way, just you need to go home,  Singh said.





The incident was one of several interactions between police and media during June 24 protests in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities in response to the Supreme Courts decision striking down the Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion access.



At least eight journalists were assaulted, detained or had equipment damaged covering the protests in Los Angeles that day, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a coalition of news websites and media rights groups that document violations against media.



The incidents came despite California in 2021 passing SB-98  a bill designed to prevent police from obstructing journalists, including in blocked-off areas.



The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to VOAs emails requesting comment.



But city police Chief Michel Moore told the Los Angeles Times his department would investigate the media complaints and take action where necessary.



If the officer is found to have ignored the law, ignored the policy, then disciplinary action will follow, Moore said.



However, Tom Saggau, whose media communications firm represents the L.A. Police Protective League, told VOA it can be difficult for police at protests to determine who is a journalist, and said that officers at protests are increasingly met with violence.



Media relations



Tensions between media and Los Angeles police are not new.



In 2020 and 2021, the L.A. Press Club documented 40 incidents of apparent misconduct toward journalists, including assaults, injuries, equipment damage or seizure, and arrests. At least 26 incidents involved journalists of color.



Cases often involved freelancers or journalists working at less established or smaller media outlets.



So, the Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and other organizations lobbied for rights and protections to be enshrined in law.



When the SB-98 bill was debated, several California police associations objected on the grounds of security, the increased physical danger officers are working under and concerns over provisions that allow media to access restricted areas.

One of those to oppose the bill is the California Police Chiefs Association. Chris Catren, the association president, told VOA via email, "The new law has the potential to prevent safety professionals from doing our job safely to protect the public during potentially dangerous situations.



Catren said the association had serious concerns about the legislation, including that it allows unidentified media to deliberately interfere with emergency personnel  police, fire and medics  during major protests."



Despite the objections, the law passed. A coalition of media groups and legal experts then worked with police on how the legislation should be implemented.



But journalists say the incidents last month suggest the law is not being applied correctly.



What we were seeing on [that] evening from law enforcement was against what is the law on the books, said Ashanti Blaize-Hopkins.



The Emmy-award winning journalist and president of the SPJ Greater Los Angeles chapter took part in efforts to pass the law and foster better press-police relations.



Media obstructed



Singh and other journalists whom VOA interviewed said police pushed or obstructed them, pointed less lethal weapons in their direction and did not appear to know or be willing to recognize the medias rights.



I was filming officers pointing their less lethal weapons at protesters at a very close range and firing, Singh said. "An officer grabbed me [by] the shoulder and just threw me. I weigh like 90 pounds. ... If it weren't for protesters catching me, I would have fallen to the ground.



At another point, several journalists found themselves detained in a kettle, a term for when a crowd is contained on a street by lines of police officers blocking exits.



When Singh and the others asked police if an unlawful assembly had been declared, and where the dispersal route was, officers did not answer, he said.



The police were being incredibly hyperaggressive, said Jake Green, an independent photojournalist who was covering the protest for agencies including Sipa USA. They were breaking the line several times in order to sort of get their jabs in.



Green says he usually maintains a distance of around 10 feet (about 3 meters) from the police line when covering protests, but as he looked away to frame a shot, he felt officers shove him.



Jonathan Peltz, a regular contributor at the nonprofit news outlet Knock LA, said he had less lethal weapons aimed at him as he slowly backed away from police with his hands raised.



I understand that they're in a situation where they're trying to control crowd movements, but in my mind, if I'm flashing a pass, I believe they should understand that I'm legally entitled to newsgathering, Peltz said.



The journalist is currently suing the Los Angeles Police Department over a 2021 arrest for failure to disperse while covering a protest over the dismantling of a homeless encampment. Peltz was one of about a dozen journalists detained on that occasion.



Police across the U.S. have previously emphasized the difficulty of dealing with media at protests, saying it is hard to check credentials, and that sometimes journalists are caught in arrests when officers clear an area or impose a curfew.



Saggau, whose company represents the L.A. Police Protective League, also acknowledged the difficulty for officers in determining who is a journalist and who is there to hurt others.



The officers frustration isnt for folks that are legally, lawfully and peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights, Saggau told VOA. The frustration is with those that take advantage of every situation under the sun to target police officers.



Another problem, according to Adam Rose, chair of the press rights committee at the LA Press Club, is that current training may not be sufficient.



Over and over we've seen, within the department, they have requested more training for their officers, and they have been mandated to have more training, whether it's [by] rulings or settlements, Rose said. And inevitably, within a couple of years, they cut that training.



The Los Angeles police did not respond to VOAs emails requesting comment on training.



Despite SB-98s limited effect, Kirstin McCudden, managing editor of U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, believes the law was a significant step.



I think L.A. has done a really important and large job of saying, Looking at what's happening here, how can we work to correct [it]? McCudden said.



By enacting legislation, she said, it is easier to review incidents like the June protests and say, Well, here's where that new legislation really protected journalists, and here's where we have places to still improve.



Blaize-Hopkins of the SPJ/LA said its hard to tell why the law has not yet improved interactions. The press unions plan to meet with the LAPD in the coming weeks.



If its an issue of training, if its an issue of making sure that theres broad knowledge among the rank and file and also the officers that are on the ground, then our coalition is more than happy to help, Blaize-Hopkins said.
Rebels attacked a hospital in Congo and killed at least 13 people, including infants and patients, according to hospital and military officials. The Congolese army said three attackers were killed when the military intervened.

Some hospital staff are missing, and several houses were burned in the attack Thursday night on the medical center in Lume, North Kivu province. It's the largest health facility in the region.

Islamic State claimed responsibility, the group's news agency said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Saturday.

Among those killed in the attack were three infants and four patients, hospital chief Kule Bwenge told reporters.

"Four blocks of the medical center were set on fire. Several sick guards, as well as a nurse, are missing," he said.

The reason for targeting the hospital was unclear.

In the nearby village of Kidolo, four other people were killed with machetes and shot, apparently as part of the same attack.

North Kivu military spokesman Anthony Mualushayi said the attackers were Mai-Mai militia members from the Dido group. In addition to the attackers who were killed, one was captured in the ensuing clashes, he said.

But local civic groups accused rebels of the Uganda-based Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, of carrying out the attack. ADF rebels have been active in eastern Congo for decades and have killed thousands in the region since they resurfaced in 2013.

Other attacks were reported last week in the nearby towns of Bulongo and Kilya, also in North Kivu.

North Kivu is in eastern Congo and borders Uganda and Rwanda. Eastern Congo sees daily threats from armed groups battling for the region's rich mineral wealth, which the world mines for electric cars, laptops and mobile phones. Infants, Patients Among 13 Killed in Congo Hospital Attack
A motorcade carrying the body of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived Saturday at his home in the Japanese capital, as police in the western city of Nara where he was assassinated said there had been security flaws.



Mourners gathered at his residence and at the scene of Friday's attack in Nara, where Japan's longest-serving modern leader was gunned down in a rare act of political violence while making a campaign speech. The country's political establishment called the killing an attack on democracy itself.



Police arrested a 41-year-old man immediately after Abe was shot at close range, they said the suspect had used a homemade gun. The police force manning the campaign event said Saturday that security arrangements had been flawed.



"We can't deny that there were problems with the security plan given how things ended," Nara prefectorial police chief Tomoaki Onizuka told a news conference.



"I feel a grave sense of responsibility," he said, adding that police would analyze what exactly went wrong and implement any necessary changes.



Elections for seats in Japan's upper house of parliament are going ahead as scheduled Sunday.



Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was back on the campaign trail visiting regional constituencies after making an emergency return to Tokyo on Friday after the shooting.



A metal detection scanner, not normally seen at election events in largely crime-free Japan, was installed at a site in the city of Fujiyoshida where Kishida was due to give a campaign speech. There was also a heavy police presence.



In Nara, some 450 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, a stream of people queued up to lay flowers on a table beside a photograph of Abe.



"I'm just shocked that this kind of thing happened in Nara," said Natsumi Niwa, a 50-year-old housewife, after laying flowers with her 10-year-old son near the scene of the killing outside a downtown train station.



Niwa said Abe, a conservative and architect of the "Abenomics" policies aimed at reflating the economy, had inspired the name of her son, Masakuni. Abe used to hail Japan as a "beautiful nation." "Kuni" means nation in Japanese.



A night vigil is due to be held on Monday. Abe's funeral will take place on Tuesday, attended by close friends, media said. There was no immediate word on any public memorial service.



Police were scrambling to establish details of the suspect's motive and his preparations for the crime.



Japanese media reported, citing police sources, that the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, had told police he believed Abe was linked to a religious group he blamed for ruining his mother financially and breaking up the family.



Police have not identified the group.



The suspect told investigators he had also visited other spots where Abe had made campaign appearances, including in the city of Okayama, more than 200 kilometers from Nara, media reported.

Big election turnout expected



Sunday's election is expected to deliver victory to the ruling coalition led by Kishida, an Abe protege.



Abe's killing "heightens the prospect for stronger turnout and greater support for his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)," Eurasia Group analysts wrote in a note.



The LDP, where Abe retained considerable influence, had already been expected to gain seats before the assassination.

Abe, 67, served twice as prime minister, stepping down citing

ill health on both occasions.



But he remained a member of parliament and influential leader in the LDP after stepping down for the second time in 2020.



A strong election performance by the LDP "could catalyze Kishida to push for Abe's unfulfilled goal of amending Japan's constitution to allow for a stronger role for the military," James Brady, vice president at advisory firm Teneo, wrote in a note.



Kishida visited Abe's residence in Tokyo to pay his respects on Saturday, the Kyodo news agency reported, alongside mourners clutching flowers and party officials who bowed as the hearse carrying his body arrived.



Abe's death has drawn condolences from across political divides, and from around the world.



The Quad, a group of countries aimed at countering China's influence in the Indo-Pacific region which Abe was instrumental in setting up, expressed shock at the assassination in a joint statement.



"We will honor Prime Minister Abe's memory by redoubling our work towards a peaceful and prosperous region," said the group, which includes Japan, India, Australia and the United States.



Chinese President Xi Jinping also paid tribute to Abe, who he said worked hard to improve relations between the neighbors, Chinese state media reported.
An international lawyer representing hundreds of victims of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in a special tribunal has resigned because the United Nations-backed court failed to provide enough funding for the participation of Cambodians bringing charges in the trials.

In a letter to the Supreme Court Chamber, International Civil Party Lead Co-Lawyer Megan Hirst resigned, stating that the courts Office of Administration did not fund communication between the victims and their lawyers and cut funding for her position in 2021.

Since the trials began, 3,865 victims of the 1970s regime have been registered as so-called Civil Parties in the trials. They are represented by a team of 20 international and local lawyers. The Khmer Rouge killed nearly 2 million people through starvation, torture, forced labor or bludgeoning as the regime tried, and failed, to turn Cambodia into a self-sufficient agrarian utopia envisioned by the regimes founder, Pol Pot who died in 1998.

[O]ur team has lost essential human resources, with a significant impact on our ability to represent the Civil Parties. However, the decisive issue has been another, even more fundamental matter. We are without resources to enable meetings between the Civil Parties and their legal representatives, Hirst wrote in a letter seen by VOA Khmer.

She continued in the letter to say lawyers were able to meet with only some 5% of victims. The overwhelming majority of Civil Parties do not know what has occurred at the ECCC over the past few years, or what will happen after the final judgment, she wrote.

The court, which is officially called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), is expected to wrap up all proceedings this year after the Supreme Court Chamber makes a decision on the final appeal by Khieu Samphan, the former Khmer Rouge head of state, against the verdict in Case 002/02. He is the last surviving Khmer Rouge leader and has refused to accept his 2018 conviction for genocide against Cambodia's Muslim Cham and ethnic Vietnamese.

Hirst said the lack of communication had also prevented lawyers from consulting the victims on the important issue of archiving and public access to court documents, which include personal details about the crimes and traumas they suffered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Lack of funding, contact with Civil Parties

Since its inception in 2006, the hybrid Cambodian and international tribunal has cost more than $300 million. It sentenced three defendants  torture center chief Comrade Duch in 2010 and top Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan in 2018  to life imprisonment for war crimes, genocide, torture and other crimes.

Duch, convicted of overseeing the mass murder of at least 14,000 Cambodians at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, died in prison in September 2020. Nuon Chea died protesting the charges in August 2019.

But the ECCC had a record of failing to provide funding for the lawyers to meet the Civil Parties and only three lawyers were remunerated by the court for their judicial work.

The lawyers were expected to raise external funds for their work on behalf of victims. This latter task became harder after the ECCC cut back funding for the few lawyers it does pay and because of diminishing international donor interest, according to Hirst.

This year, lawyers were able to meet only some 200 Civil Parties after they obtained external funding from GIZ, the German governments development agency, wrote Hirst. She had worked as Civil Party lead co-lawyer since 2019.

The Office of Administration provided no explanation for its lack of support, according to her letter, and court judges earlier ruled that the funding issues were not within their legal purview.

In a reaction, ECCC spokesman Neth Pheaktra told VOA Khmer that the ECCC continues to support civil parties and the important role they play in judicial proceedings. He offered no explanation as to what the court was doing to resolve the lack of funds for Civil Parties communication with their lawyers.

Peter Maguire, an American law professor and author of Facing Death in Cambodia, said the ECCC had introduced an experimental element of victim participation, which had tested the claims by some legal experts that courts can provide therapeutic restorative justice for victims.

Hirsts resignation, he said, comes as no surprise and provides further evidence that the ECCC has failed that test. Maguire asserted that including therapeutic mechanisms for victims had made the court proceeding overly complicated and said the mechanisms should be provided outside of courtrooms instead.

To ask any court, much less a war crimes court, to heal societies or teach historical lessons is asking too much, Maguire said.

Consistent rejections

Hong Kim Suon, a national Civil Party co-lawyer since 2008, supported Hirsts complaint and said his requests for funds to the Office of Administration had been consistently rejected.

When I protested, they told us that they didnt have that budget allocation  even though they still have remaining budget, he said. His tribunal work is funded by his employer, a local NGO called the Cambodia Defenders Project.

There are many civil parties, but we dont go to meet them all  We are very frustrated that we dont have money supporting our work, he said.

Yun Bin, a Khmer Rouge survivor who is among the Civil Parties, said he rarely heard from his lawyers. The court doesnt care much about Civil Parties. They dont even want to invite Civil Parties [to meet], he said. Now two Civil Parties at my home village died already. Another one is seriously sick.

Yun Bin, 67, survived after he was beaten by Khmer Rouge cadres and left for dead in a pit. He said lawyers had collected testimony about his experience and he had received ECCC funding to attend trial proceedings in Phnom Penh.

But, he said, I want to meet lawyers and talk more about the suffering. Meeting more often could make me forget the torture that I faced. He also sought financial reparations for victims and the building of Buddhist stupas to commemorate the deceased victims and relieve their souls.

Yun Bin said the main source of help with his lifelong trauma was the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization, a mental health care and psychosocial support NGO that regularly provided him with medicine.

Unfulfilled innovation

The ECCC is among a small number of international criminal court trials and tribunals created in the past two decades that granted victims recognition through a role as Civil Parties in the trial proceedings. Civil Parties are formal participants in the proceedings against those allegedly responsible for the crimes under investigation by the ECCC, and they enjoy rights broadly similar to the prosecution and the defense, according to the tribunals website. Becoming a Civil Party not only gives victims the right to actively participate in the proceedings, but it also allows victims to ask the court for collective and moral reparations from the convicted persons.

The ECCCs website continues to state that in this capacity, they are recognized as parties to the proceedings and are allowed to seek collective and moral reparations. This reflects the commitment of the ECCC to its mandate of helping the Cambodian people in the pursuit of justice and national reconciliation.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which provided historic documents for the ECCC and raises public awareness about the trials, wrote in an open letter on July 4 that Hirsts resignation letter of June 13, underscores an overall failure in living up to the promises we made to the victims in the justice process for the Khmer Rouge.

One of the great innovations of the ECCC, compared to previous international criminal courts, is a recognition of the victims in the proceedings, he wrote, adding that they had the right to be informed about the trials so they could use the ECCC's work as an opportunity to process their experiences and find some sense of personal closure.
Long-simmering tensions are flaring over the Senkaku Islands, an uninhabited archipelago located in the East China Sea known as Diaoyu by China and Diaoyutai by Taiwan.

Japan has claimed the islands since the Sino-Japanese War ended in 1895, but China and Taiwan claim them as well, making the rocky outcroppings a perpetual geopolitical flashpoint. There are economic as well as territorial interests involved, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, which says the islands "have potential oil and natural gas reserves, are near prominent shipping routes, and are surrounded by rich fishing areas.

The latest face-off came Monday when two Chinese Coast Guard ships entered the contiguous zone adjacent to the 12 nautical miles of water around the islands that Japan views as its territory. A Russian frigate also entered the contiguous zone.

The contiguous zone is generally defined as extending an additional 12 nautical miles beyond the territorial waters, laid out by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in accordance with international law.

Although nations are not afforded the same degree of exclusivity and control in the contiguous zone as international law grants them in the 12 nautical miles of territorial waters, Tokyo lodged a protest with Beijing that day, according to Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara.

According to history and international law, the Senkaku Islands are an inherent part of Japan's territory, Kihara said. The government will handle this matter calmly and firmly to protect Japan's land, territorial waters and airspace, but Chinese and Russian warships have not violated Japan's territorial waters.

At a Tuesday press conference, Japans Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said that although the Russian ship may have been avoiding Typhoon Aere, two Chinese coast guard vessels also approached the Senkaku Islands and tracked a Japanese fishing boat.

But experts suggested that China and Russia likely planned to enter the areaapproximately 186 kilometers from Taiwan and around 410 kilometers from Japanin a coordinated action to protest the U.S.-Japan alliance.

"China and Russia have continued to put pressure on Japan because Japan is the most important ally of the United States in Asia, Yoichi Shimada, a professor of international politics at Fukui Prefectural University in Japan, told VOA Mandarin.

The Japanese Defense Ministry stated that at 7 a.m. on July 4, a Russian frigate entered the waters near the Senkaku Islands and sailed in the area for more than an hour.

The Russian warship sailing in the waters of the Senkaku Islands is helping Chinas plan, allowing Chinese warships to directly enter the adjacent waters [as a] 'warning,' creating the perception that China has the right to 'substantially rule' the Senkaku Islands, Shimada told VOA Mandarin. So, it is highly likely that has been prepared beforehand.

Moscow and Beijing have appeared to coordinate actions in the area in the past. On May 24, Chinese and Russian fighter jets carried out joint flights over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea as leaders from the United States, India, Australia, and Japan held talks in Tokyo on regional security.

According to the website USNINews, a seven-ship Russian surface group has been operating near Japan since June 15.

On Tuesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said the Diaoyu Islands have always been Chinas territory.

In recent years, right-wing Japanese fishing boats have repeatedly entered Chinas territorial waters off Diaoyu Dao [Island] illegally, Zhao Lijian said at a regular press briefing. This has seriously violated Chinas sovereignty. The on-site law enforcement activities of Chinese coast guard vessels with regard to the right-wing Japanese fishing boats were a lawful and legitimate measure to protect Chinas sovereignty.

Beijing has not commented on the movements of Russian warships near the Senkaku Islands.

Japans Kyodo News on Tuesday reported that Chinese vessels have now been spotted near the islands, including in the contiguous zone outside Japanese waters, for 81 days in a row, according to the Japanese Coast Guard.

Chen Wenjia, director of the National and Regional Development Research Center at Kainan University in Taiwan, said the purpose of China and Russias actions in the Senkaku Islands is to declare to the U.S.-Japan alliance  and the West more broadly  that Russia still has resources to cooperate with Chinas maritime strategy in Northeast Asia despite its war in Ukraine.

Chen believes that the entry of Chinese and Russian warships into the Senkakus was intended to intimidate Japan while making a statement against the U.S.-Japan alliance.

Such actions are enough to show that China and Russia will abide by the Sino-Russian strategy when faced with major national security issues, Chen told VOA Mandarin. Under the framework of cooperation, as long as China launches a war in the Taiwan Strait or the East China Sea, Russia will definitely support China in the war."

Japans Kyodo News reported that Tokyo told Moscow it is monitoring developments around the Senkakus.

Japan did not issue a formal protest to Russia given that Moscow does not lay claim to the islands and due to the possibility that the Russian frigate may have entered the contiguous zone to escape a typhoon, a Foreign Ministry source told Kyodo.

Japan and Russia have a separate longstanding territorial dispute over the four southernmost islands of the Kuril chain, which are located off the northern coast of the Japanese island of Hokkaido, far from the East China Sea.
The first cohort of Ukrainian soldiers taking part in a major new UK-led military programme, which will train up to 10,000 Ukrainians over the coming months, have arrived in the UKRAINE, Defense Secretary of the UK Ben Wallace visited the Ukrainian soldiers.

According to the UK government website, the programme is part of the UK's enduring commitment to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia's unprovoked invasion, which so far amounts to more than GBP 2.3 billion in military aid and includes more than 5,000 NLAW anti-tank weapons and M270 multiple launch rocket systems.

"This ambitious new training programme is the next phase in the UK's support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in their fight against Russian aggression. Using the world-class expertise of the British Army we will help Ukraine to rebuild its forces and scale-up its resistance as they defend their country's sovereignty and their right to choose their own future," the press service said, citing the Defense Secretary.

Each course will last several weeks. The training will give volunteer recruits with little to no military experience the skills to be effective in frontline combat. Based on the UK's basic soldier training, the course covers weapons handling, battlefield first aid, fieldcraft, patrol tactics and the Law of Armed Conflict.

"The Government has rapidly procured AK variant assault rifles for the training programme, meaning Ukrainian soldiers can train on the weapons they will be using on the front line. This effort was supported by the Welsh Guards, who tested more than 2,400 such rifles in 17 days to ensure they were ready for the Ukrainians to commence their training. The UK has also gifted clothing and equipment to support Ukrainian soldiers in their training and deployment back to Ukraine," the press service said.
A new Arizona law restricts how close the public can be when filming police activity.

Republican Governor Doug Ducey signed the law this week making it illegal in Arizona for a person to videotape police officers, without the officers permission, if within 2.5 meters of the officer.

The law goes into effect at a time when many police departments are looking to have more transparency around their activities.

Police departments around the country have come under scrutiny for using excessive force, a practice that is disproportionately directed at people of color.

The Phoenix, Arizona, police department is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for its use of excessive force, particularly with Black people and Native Americans.

The new Arizona restriction would also apply to news photographers.

The National Press Photographers Association has written a letter opposing the new law.
At least 15 people were killed in a Russian rocket attack on a five-story apartment building in the Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar and perhaps another two dozen may be trapped in the rubble, Ukrainian officials said Sunday.

The Saturday night missile attack was the latest strike in recent weeks that left mass civilian casualties, although Russia contends it only targets Ukrainian military operations. The Chasiv Yar attack followed the deaths of at least 19 people at a shopping mall in Kremenchuk in late June and 21 at an apartment building and recreation area in the southern Odesa region this month.

Chasiv Yar is about 20 kilometers southeast of Kramatorsk, a city that is expected to be a major target of Russian forces as they push farther westward into Donetsk province after claiming victory a week ago in the adjoining Luhansk province.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region that includes Chasiv Yar, said the town of about 12,000 was hit by Uragan rockets, which are fired from truck-borne systems. Ukrainian emergency services said rescuers had made voice contact with at least three people trapped in the rubble of the apartment building.

Ukraine also reported heavy Russian missile and rocket strikes in the east and south Saturday. A missile strike on the northeastern city of Kharkiv wounded three civilians, its governor said, although Russia's main attacks appeared focused southeast of there in the eastern industrial region of the Donbas, the region composed of the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.

Ukrainian officials reported strikes in both Luhansk and Donetsk, while Britain's Defense Ministry said Moscow was pulling reserve forces from across Russia and bringing them near Ukraine.

The operational pause announced days ago by Russia has not materialized, according to Ukrainian officials in the Donbas.

Kyrylenko said on the Telegram messaging service that a Russian missile had struck Druzhkivka, a town behind the front line, and reported shelling in other population centers.

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said on Telegram that Russian forces were "firing along the entire front line," though a subsequent Ukrainian counterattack that hit weapons and ammunition stores had forced Moscow to halt its offensive.

Russia, which claimed control over all of Luhansk province last weekend, denies targeting civilians.

To the south, the BBC reported, Ukrainian forces were fiercely defending Mykolaiv, a strategic river port on a key route to Odesa, which is Ukraine's main export hub. The Russian navy is still preventing Ukraine from shipping grain out of Odesa.

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has urged residents to leave Russian-occupied parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south. The warning appeared to herald further Ukrainian counterattacks.

Russian ambassador

Russia is unlikely to withdraw from a swath of land across Ukraines southern coast and will defeat Ukrainian forces in the whole of the eastern Donbas region, Russia's ambassador to Britain told Reuters Saturday.



When asked how the conflict might end, Russian Ambassador Andrei Kelin said it was difficult to see Russian and Russian-backed forces withdrawing from the south of Ukraine, and that Ukraines soldiers would be pushed back from all of Donbas.



"We are going to liberate all of the Donbas," Kelin told Reuters in an interview at his London residence. "Of course, it is difficult to predict the withdrawal of our forces from the southern part of Ukraine because we have already experience that after withdrawal, provocations start, and all the people are being shot and all that."



The Ukrainian government did not immediately comment on the Russian ambassador's remarks.



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine will never accept Russian occupation of its territory and will fight on until the last Russian soldier is pushed out of Ukraine.

Britains Defense Ministry says Russia may be running out of the equipment necessary for its attacks on Ukraine.

Saturday, the ministry compared the latest vehicles Russia has deployed with its forces in Ukraine to tractors.

The MT-LB vehicle Russia is now sending into Ukraine, the ministry said, was originally designed in the 1950s as a tractor to pull artillery, has very limited armor, and only mounts a machine gun for protection."

Russian has long considered them unsuitable for most front-line infantry transport roles, the ministry added.

G-20 talks

Earlier Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he discussed Russian aggression in Ukraine during more than five hours of talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in which he raised concerns about Beijing's alignment with Moscow.



The meeting took place as officials attended a gathering of G-20 foreign ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali.



"I shared again with the state councilor that we are concerned about the PRC's alignment with Russia," Blinken said at a news conference after the talks, referring to the People's Republic of China. The top U.S. diplomat said he did not think China was behaving in a neutral way, as it had supported Russia in the United Nations and "amplified Russian propaganda."



Blinken said Chinese President Xi Jinping had made it clear in a call with President Vladimir Putin on June 13 that he stood by a decision to form a partnership with Russia.

U.S. officials have warned of consequences, including sanctions, should China offer material support for the war that Moscow calls a "special military operation" to degrade the Ukrainian military. Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an unprovoked land grab.



Advanced training

Meanwhile, Ukrainian soldiers are in Britain to receive training on the front-line skills needed to battle the Russian forces that have invaded Ukraine. About 1,000 Ukrainians in Britain, the first of about 10,000 expected to participate in the program developed by the British army.

"Using the world-class expertise of the British army we will help Ukraine to rebuild its forces and scale up its resistance as they defend their country's sovereignty and their right to choose their own future, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said, who met with some of the Ukrainian troops.

New weapons package

U.S. officials Friday unveiled a new $400 million military package for Ukraine, including four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 1,000 rounds of 155 mm precision capable artillery ammunition, a type that has not been provided to Kyiv until now.



In addition to the new HIMARS and the precision artillery rounds, the new U.S security package also includes more ammunition for the eight HIMARS already in Ukraine, tactical vehicles, demolition munitions, counter battery systems and spare parts to help Ukrainian forces maintain systems that are getting heavy use.

These [weapons systems] are precise, a senior U.S. defense official said, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the Pentagon. We expect them to be used by the Ukrainians to great effect given their success so far.



Zelenskyy thanked the Biden administration on Twitter for the military equipment, which he described as priority needs.

It offers Ukraine precise targeting, precise capability for specific targets. It will save ammunition. It will be more effective due to the precision, the U.S. official said. So, it's a further evolution in our support for Ukraine in this battle in the Donbas.

U.S. officials have been quick to praise Ukrainian forces for the way they have integrated an earlier shipment of eight HIMARS into their efforts to slow the Russian advance in the Donbas.

VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this story. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
Over the past two years, Adila Afesh has seen the food assistance her Syrian family receives shrink by nearly two-thirds.

Now, she fears Russia  perhaps seeking to retaliate against Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine  will block the renewal of a U.N. Security Council resolution that allows aid to be delivered from Turkey to Syrians who, like her family, live in the rebel-run Idlib province.

Such a move would mean Afesh and her seven children  along with 4 million others in Idlib  will have to survive on even less.

"If, God forbid, aid is stopped, it means that they have sentenced us to death. Death by hunger," she said recently in her family's tent.

The jobless woman said the family survives on two meals a day, mostly rice or bulgur. Soon, she said, "we might have to fight in order to get a bite of food."

Russia, a main backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has long wanted to shut down the Turkey route, seeking to have aid delivered solely through government-controlled areas. Opposition activists and residents warn that is something the authorities in Damascus would exploit as a pressure tactic against Syria's main rebel stronghold of Idlib.

In 2014, aid flowed into Syria from four border crossings. Since then, U.N. Security Council permanent member Russia forced the council to close three of the four. It kept one in the north, the Bab al-Hawa crossing with Turkey, for aid to flow into the rebel stronghold destroyed by 11 years of war.

In early July 2020, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have maintained two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Idlib. Days later, the council authorized the delivery of aid through just one of those crossings, Bab al-Hawa. That one-year mandate was extended and was to expire in the second weekend of this month. A vote to renew it, set for Thursday, was put off until at least Friday in New York.

Aid agencies warned that if Russia vetoed the resolution, food would be depleted in Idlib and surrounding areas by September, putting the lives of 4.1 million people, many of them displaced by the conflict and living in tent settlements, at risk.

On Wednesday in New York, Russia proposed amendments with a six-month renewal, rather than the one-year extension sought by others on the Security Council, according to a draft resolution obtained by The Associated Press.

Afesh, 37, who was displaced from the northern city of Aleppo in 2016, said her main concern before moving to Idlib province used to be where to hide with her four sons and three daughters from government airstrikes. Since December 2016, the family, which lost its main breadwinner seven years ago, has been living in relative calm close to the Turkish border. But soon they might not have food on the table.

Syria's economy is suffering its worst period since the crisis began in 2011. That's the result of an array of troubles, including crippling Western sanctions, widespread corruption, coronavirus, rising food prices because of the war in Ukraine, and an economic meltdown in neighboring Lebanon  Damascus' main gate to the outside world and home to 1 million Syrian refugees.

"The situation in Syria has always been highly politicized, but this year the stakes are clearly higher with everything that's going on in Ukraine and the tensions between Russia and the United States and European countries," said Mark Cutts, the U.N.'s deputy regional humanitarian coordinator.

Cutts told The Associated Press that "people will certainly die" if the Security Council resolution is not extended. He added there would be a massive crisis as hospitals go without the necessary medical supplies and people failing to get the vaccinations they need.

Cutts said delivering aid through Turkey is direct and sufficient. If aid has to come through government areas, it will have to pass through an active front line. "This is still a war zone," he said.

He said that over the past 12 months, five convoys have crossed from government-controlled areas while 800 trucks cross from Turkey every month. He said last year they were reaching 2.4 million people in northwest Syria, and if there is funding, more should be reached.

Abdul-Razzaq Awad, a manager at Syria Relief, a local aid group, warned that aid agencies now are offering 50% of what they used to give because of the war in Ukraine. He said that if Bab al-Hawa is closed and aid has to come from government-controlled areas, he expects it to drop to about 20% of what used to be delivered before the Ukraine war.

In late June, 29 aid agencies came together to share one message, which is that a humanitarian "catastrophe will happen" should the U.N. Security Council fail to allow lifesaving aid and services to be delivered across the border.

At stake is access to food, vaccinations against COVID-19, critical medical supplies and essential services, including health care, access to clean water and education for millions of Syrians.

"Removing this channel of assistance will have devastating humanitarian impacts on civilians and there is no viable alternative," said the agencies, including International Rescue Committee, CARE International, World Vision International, Save the Children, Norwegian Refugee Council and Mercy Corps.

"Now it is the time for the U.N. Security Council to correct course and show it can put people's lives above politics," said David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee.

Russia has argued that aid delivery should be handled by the government, claiming that militant groups are handling the deliveries in the current setup.

In May, Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, told the Security Council that "we are not OK" with preserving the status quo at any cost. The most powerful group in Idlib, al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, threatens humanitarian assistance, Polyansky noted.

Cutts, the U.N. official, said the world should do something for residents of northwest Syria.

"This is actually one of the most vulnerable civilian populations anywhere in the world," he said.
Myanmar teachers, both those supporting and those opposing the countrys post-coup junta, are reportedly facing threats, including death threats, in many parts of the country from both armed pro-junta and opposition groups as the government works to reopen schools.

Schools were closed last year because of the pandemic. In addition, thousands of teachers had joined the anti-junta civil disobedience movement and boycotted junta-run schools. Moreover, parents kept children out of schools because of security concerns and a school boycott. The junta allowed students to take exams to finish their school in March and April and reopened schools June 2 as usual, saying more than 5 million students are enrolled this school year.

However, local news organizations and junta-controlled newspapers have carried reports of teachers being killed and arrested by unidentified armed groups, and attacks on schools have reportedly been occurring every day. Generally, local media reports do not identify the attackers. Some reports have blamed pro-junta groups and some reports have said opposition groups had claimed responsibility. The junta has always blamed attacks and killings on opposition forces.

According to locals interviewed by VOA, Moe Moe Khaing, a school principal in Botae village of Wetlet township in the Sagaing region and her sister, Kay Zar Khaing, were shot and killed by an unidentified gunmen June 6. The junta blamed an opposition peoples defense force, but no local defense force claimed responsibility.

Win Bo, a lecturer at Dawei University in the southeastern part of the country and Mya Mya Moe, a Home Affairs Ministry staff member, were killed in Pan Tin Inn village of Laung Lone township in Dawei district, on June 13. The opposition Launglone Peoples Defense Force admitted in an announcement they killed them for informing and coordinating with the junta.

Eight education staff were injured and one killed in a bomb blast in Naungcho, a town in northern Shan state on May 31, four schools were reportedly attacked in Sagaing region on June 6, and a high school was set on fire and a bomb exploded near a school in Kachin state in the second week of June. Local reports did not identify the attackers and no opposition group has taken responsibility but the junta has blamed peoples defense forces.

Meanwhile, rangers of the opposition Anti-Coup Peoples Liberation Force claimed responsibility and apologized for the accidental killing of a 21-year-old man in a bomb blast in Yangons North Okkalapa Township Education Office on June 19. However, the group again warned teachers not to work under the military dictatorship, adding that they would not take responsibility if any damage occurred in future bombing.

Teachers also face the same dangers the rest of the population does.

On June 10, five people including two civil disobedience movement teachers were arrested and killed by junta security forces in Dan Pin Kan village in Magways Yezagyo township, villagers and the Northern-Yezagyo Guerrilla Force, a local opposition group, told VOA. The group said the junta forces arrested villagers on June 10 after being attacked by the guerrilla force. Villagers found dead bodies of five people including a civil disobedience movement teacher who was five months pregnant on June 14.

All bodies were apparently burned alive. It was very shocking, said a local resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

Junta spokesperson General Zaw Min Tun told reporters June 16 that 44 education staff, including teachers had been killed and more than 500 schools were destroyed between April 1, 2021, and June 13 of this year. The junta has repeatedly accused peoples defense forces of being involved in the killings, although many PDF chapters deny involvement in those killings.

We never kill civilians and just give warnings to those who work for the junta. We also have a policy of not attacking religious buildings and schools, said Ko Hlat See, a leader of the People's Revolutionary Front-Pakokku, based in Magways Pakokku township.

The Chinland Joint Defense Committee, made up of 18 regional defense groups in Chin state, detained more than 20 education staff, committee spokesman Salai Timmy told VOA June 20. He said they detained them after giving two warnings but did not harm them.

We do not harm anyone. We detained teachers to find out why they were working for the junta because we are preventing military rule in our state. If a teacher promises not to work for the junta, we will release them and make arrangements for their safety, Salai Timmy said.

Teachers safety is at stake under the coup. A civil disobedience movement teacher working at a school run by the opposition National Unity Government in Magways Myaing township told VOA that the junta forces entered the village, looted and destroyed property and arrested villagers after fighting with local militia groups.

We ran before they got there and returned to village when they left, the teacher said.

Teaching at schools run by the junta does not mean supporting the military rule. Teaching is my profession and as a father, I have responsibilities including financial support to my family, said another teacher, with 16 years teaching experience in Magways Monywa township, who teaches in a government school.
A Texas judge issued an order Friday to continue blocking the state from investigating two families of transgender youth who have received gender affirming medical care and said she was considering whether to prevent additional investigations.

The ruling extends in part a temporary order issued last month blocking investigations against three families who sued and preventing any similar investigations against members of the LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG Inc. The group has more than 600 members in Texas.

In her order Friday, Judge Amy Clark Meachum said she was still weighing whether to issue a similar order prohibiting similar investigations against the third family and PFLAG members. An order preventing those investigations had been set to expire Friday. An attorney last month said the third family of a transgender minor had learned after the lawsuit's filing that the state had dropped its investigation into them.

The two families to whom Friday's order applies would suffer probable, imminent, and irreparable injury in the interim without the order, Meachum wrote.

The ruling was the latest against the state's efforts to label gender affirming care as child abuse.

The Texas Supreme Court in May allowed the state to investigate parents of transgender youth for child abuse while also ruling in favor of one family that was among the first contacted by child welfare officials following order by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

The latest challenge was brought by Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the families of three teenage boys -- two 16-year-olds and a 14-year-old -- and PFLAG.

The Court recognized yet again that being subjected to an unlawful and unwarranted investigation causes irreparable harm for these families who are doing nothing more than caring for and affirming their children and seeking the best course of care for them in consultation with their medical providers, the groups said in a statement.

The families had talked in court filings about the anxiety that the investigations created for them and their children. The mother of one of the teens said her son attempted suicide and was hospitalized the day Abbott issued his directive. The outpatient psychiatric facility where the teen was referred reported the family for child abuse after learning he had been prescribed hormone therapy, she said in a court filing.

A judge in March put Abbott's order on hold after a lawsuit was brought on behalf of a 16-year-old girl whose family said it was under investigation. The Texas Supreme Court in May ruled that the lower court overstepped its authority by blocking all investigations going forward.

The lawsuit that prompted that ruling marked the first report of parents being investigated following Abbott's directive and an earlier nonbinding legal opinion by Paxton labeling certain gender-confirming treatments as child abuse. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Service has said it opened nine investigations following the directive and opinion.

Abbott's directive and the attorney general's opinion go against the nation's largest medical groups, including the American Medical Association, which have opposed Republican-backed restrictions filed in statehouses nationwide.

Arkansas last year became the first state to pass a law prohibiting gender-confirming treatments for minors, and Tennessee approved a similar measure. Judges have blocked laws in Arkansas and Alabama, and both of those states are appealing.

Meachum set a Dec. 5 trial on whether to permanently block Texas' investigations into the families.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Chinese counterpart Saturday that Chinas support for Russias war in Ukraine is complicating U.S.-Chinese relations at a time when they are already beset by rifts and enmity over numerous other issues. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed the U.S. for the downturn in relations and said American policy has been derailed by what he called a misperception of China as a threat.



Many people believe that the United States is suffering from a China-phobia, the Chinese foreign minister said, according to a Chinese statement. If such threat-expansion is allowed to grow, U.S. policy toward China will be a dead end with no way out.



The top U.S. diplomatnow in Bangkok where he is expected to talk about the situation in Myanmarsaid he conveyed the deep concerns of the United States regarding Beijings increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity toward Taiwan.



Blinken also noted he addressed U.S. concerns over Beijings use of the strategic South China Sea, the repression of freedom in Hong Kong, forced labor, the treatment of ethnic and religious minorities in Tibet, and the genocide in Xinjiang.

Additionally, the U.S. secretary of state said that he and Wang discussed ways in which there could be more cooperation between the two countries in areas such as climate crisis, food security, global health and counternarcotics.

For his part, Wang said China and the United States need to work together to ensure that their relationship will continue to move forward along the right track.

"This is part of an ongoing, and I think important, series of conversations with our Chinese counterparts across the government to make sure that we are responsibly managing the relationship," a senior State Department official said Thursday, adding that the relationship has "different aspects to it, from profound competition being at the heart [but also] elements of cooperation, and there are elements of contestation."

Blinken's meeting with the Chinese foreign minister is their first in-person since the chief U.S. diplomat unveiled the Biden administration's strategy to outcompete the rival superpower. In his remarks at the time, Blinken said the U.S. was not seeking to decouple from China and the relationship between the world's two largest economies was not a zero-sum game.

On Friday, the G-20 talks were dominated by discussion of the war in Ukraine and its impact on energy and food supplies.

Indonesia, as the meeting's host country, called on ministers to "find a way forward" in discussing the war and its impact on rising food and energy prices.

"It is our responsibility to end the war sooner rather than later and settle our differences at the negotiating table, not at the battlefield," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said at the opening of the meeting, invoking the U.N. charter to urge multilateralism and trust.

Foreign ministers shared concerns about getting grain shipments out of Ukraine and avoiding devastating food shortages in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. But talks were marked by sharp tension: Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sat at the same table but did not speak directly.
Four U.S Customs and Border Protection employees have been referred for disciplinary review over their treatment of Haitian migrants they sought to push back across the Rio Grande using horses last September, CBP officials said Friday as the agency released a report on the widely photographed incident.

CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said at a news conference that the disciplinary process related to the September 19 incident was ongoing, and he did not identify the employees.

Reuters witnesses at the time saw mounted officers wearing cowboy hats blocking the paths of migrants, and one officer unfurling horse reins resembling a lariat, which he swung near a man's face as the man carried a bag of food across the Rio Grande to a makeshift encampment in the United States. The images triggered a strong nationwide backlash and calls for an investigation.

Magnus added the report said no migrants were struck with the reins that agents were photographed swinging in their direction. But the report outlined the agents' inappropriate behavior toward Haitians, including yelling profanity and insults related to a migrant's national origin, and using unnecessary force against migrants attempting to reenter the United States with food.

The investigation found one agent on horseback grabbed a man and spun him around in a widely photographed incident, which took place near a sprawling riverside encampment in Del Rio, Texas, that had formed after the rapid arrival of thousands of Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

According to the report, one agent "acted in an unsafe manner by pursuing the individual he had yelled at along the river's edge forcing his horse to narrowly maneuver around a small child."

Lack of clear command

The incident originated, the report found, when Texas Department of Public Security officials also on the scene asked for assistance from the U.S. Border Patrol. A lack of clear command led to the agents inappropriately following DPS instructions to prevent migrants from crossing the river back into the United States.

Migrants were frequently crossing into Mexico to bring back food and supplies that were scarce in the makeshift encampment.

Advocates and migrants suing the government over their treatment during the incident said the Haitian man depicted in the widely seen photos described the mounted officer grabbing his neck and releasing him only when the horse was about to trample him.

He called the experience humiliating in a court filing.

"We are already taking steps to ensure a situation like what occurred in Del Rio doesn't happen again," Magnus said during the news conference.

Many expelled

Of the roughly 15,000 Haitians who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in September, about 8,000 were rapidly expelled in the weeks that followed under a COVID-era order known as Title 42.

The findings come as U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has grappled both operationally and politically with a record-number of attempted crossings at the southwest border with Mexico. Republicans have criticized Biden for trying to reverse some of the hardline immigration policies of his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, while some members of Biden's own party said he is not doing enough to protect vulnerable migrants.

The Border Patrol apprehended nearly 223,000 migrants at the southwest border in May, the highest monthly total on record. Haitians made up about 7,700 of that figure, with several thousand more attempting to cross at ports of entry without valid permission.

On Thursday, Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott said he had authorized the Texas National Guard and state authorities to "apprehend" migrants and transport them to the border at a port of entry with Mexico.

In a statement, the state's National Guard said it was "working with our interagency partners to respond to illegal immigration."

Some migrants bused

Abbott's order was the latest in a string of immigration crackdown measures in the state, which earlier included busing migrants out of state to destinations like Washington.

Magnus said that CBP had "a shared interest" with Texas "in maintaining a safe, orderly humane immigration process" at the border but said that problems arise when any state "takes unilateral actions."

CBP recently said it would investigate whether anyone from the agency sold unofficial commemorative coins that depict the widely publicized photograph of the incident that was under investigation. Magnus said in an earlier statement that the "hateful images" on the "deeply offensive" coins angered him and distracted from the essential work of the Border Patrol.
The U.S. State Department announced visa restrictions Saturday against 28 Cuban officials that it said were implicated in a crackdown on peaceful protests in Cuba about one year ago.

In a statement, the department said the restrictions would apply to high-ranking members of the Cuban Communist Party and officials who work in the country's state communications and media sectors.

The State Department accused party officials of setting policies that subjected hundreds of people involved in the July 11, 2021, protests to violent and unjust detentions, sham trials and decades-long prison sentences. The demonstrations were the biggest anti-government protests seen in the Communist-run island in decades.

The Cuban government also employed "Internet throttling" to prevent people in Cuba from communicating with each other and block communications with the outside world, the department said.

"State media officials continue to engage in a campaign against jailed July 11, 2021, protesters and their family members who speak publicly about their loved ones' cases," the State Department said.

Washington imposed the visa restrictions under a Reagan era policy that suspended non-immigrant entry to the United States by officers and employees of the Cuban government and the Cuban Communist Party.
Since Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine started in February, talks of support for Kyiv have largely centered around weapons and ammunition. But Washington is also sending large amounts of money to fund Ukrainian government operations, U.S. officials said this week, as U.S. and European officials affirmed support for Ukraines reconstruction, following the conclusion of the recent Lugano Conference.

The United States is proud to be the largest single country donor to Ukraine and will be delivering billions more of assistance in the coming months, announced Karen Donfried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, at an event in Washington on Thursday. Those sums include billions in needed direct budget assistance, she said.

Washington has provided $2.3 billion in direct budget support to the government of Ukraine since Moscow launched its attack, a State Department representative told VOA, adding that the support is channeled through World Bank mechanisms. Kyiv received two tranches of $500 million each on April 29 and May 20, and $1.3 billion on June 29, the representative said.

The government of Ukraine is using the money to pay government salaries, meet pension obligations, maintain hospitals and schools, and protect critical infrastructure, the State Department representative said.

The Biden administration intends to work with Congress to provide Kyiv with an additional $6.2 billion in direct budget support over the next five months, drawing from funds set aside in the second supplemental bill signed by President Joe Biden on May 21, the representative told VOA.

In addition, the administration is devoting about $1 billion from the first and second Ukraine supplemental appropriations to support the Ukrainian governments continuity of operations at the national, regional and local levels, support for the health sector, agricultural production, civil society, programs to hold Russia and its forces accountable for their actions in Ukraine.

Thursdays event where Donfried spoke was co-hosted by the Swiss and Ukrainian Embassies in Washington, marking the conclusion of the Lugano Conference, co-hosted by Switzerland and Ukraine July 4-5 in the southern Swiss town. The conference focused on the rebuilding of Ukraine and drew nearly 60 official delegations, along with representatives from the private sector and civil society.

Jacques Pitteloud, Swiss ambassador to the United States, shared with the audience gathered at the Ukraine House on Thursday that the state of ongoing war had prompted some to question whether now is the time to talk about reconstruction.

At the conference in Lugano, there was some debate about whether it makes sense to even speak about recovery and reconstruction while the war is still raging; Is it not premature to make plans for recovery before the guns fall silent?

The Swiss governments answer to that question, Pitteloud said, is an emphatic no, and he gave the reasons.

First, recovery is a complex and very long-term endeavor, which demands proactive, farsighted planning and a solid framework for the long haul, launching this process now is the responsible thing to do, Pitteloud said.

Secondly, thanks to the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian defenders, the aggressor has actually retreated from large parts of Ukraine; but these areas have been ravaged and everything needs to be rebuilt.

The prospect of the aggression against Ukraine dragging on also beckons Ukraines allies and partners to dig in and strengthen the countrys overall and enduring resilience, Pitteloud added.

Switzerlands firm support for reconstruction now echoes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys call for immediate support from the international community for his countrys rebuilding. To wait until after the war ends is a mistake, Zelenskyy has said. The Ukrainian leader also cast the rebuilding of Ukraine as a process in tandem with his countrys quest to become a full-fledged member of the European Union.

On July 1, Zelenskyy attended a ceremony that saw the EU flag hoisted in the Ukrainian parliament alongside the Ukrainian flag, as a reminder of both the nations aspirations and the tasks at hand to fulfill those aspirations, he said, urging Ukrainian officials at all levels to work nonstop toward the goal of joining the EU.

The United States is fully supportive of Ukraines EU aspirations, Donfried said at Thursdays event in Washington. While the challenges are great, we have an opportunity to help lead the country toward the European future that the Ukrainians want and deserved and are working so hard to achieve, she said.

The EUs top diplomat in Washington, Stavros Lambrinidis, who attended Thursdays event along with top diplomats from EU member states, said the EU has a direct, immediate responsibility and interest in Ukraines reconstruction because of the countrys candidate member-state status.

The path to a strong Ukraine and the path to Ukrainian integration into the EU family is one and the same thing, he said.

Although Switzerland so far has opted out of membership in the EU, Pitteloud, the Swiss ambassador, said his country is ready to help Ukraine achieve the goal of EU membership, in an interview with VOA on the sidelines of the event.

Spain, a member of the EU, doesnt have billions to spare, but will do what we can to support Ukraine, Santiago Cabanas, the top diplomat from Madrid in Washington, told VOA. Because, as the EU ambassador to the U.S. said, we see Ukraine as a member of the European family.

Oksana Markarova, Ukraines top diplomat in Washington, said her countrymen have inspired the world with how we fight. Next, she said, we want to inspire the world with how we build [our country].
After the foreign ministers of South Korea and China met on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia, each government issued a statement hoping for bilateral cooperation.

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said his government expects the ties between the two countries to develop based on universal values and norms. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing will work with Seoul to develop their ties based on mutual respect.

Their meeting followed South Koreas first participation at a NATO summit as a partner nation. At the June 29-30 summit, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, emphasized that because NATO was established on the foundation of liberal democracy and the rule of law, he hoped a cooperative relationship between NATO and the Indo-Pacific will become a cornerstone of a coalition defending universal values. He did not name China.

Against this backdrop, experts say Seoul is cautiously edging away from Beijing, its largest trading partner, as the worlds major powers sort themselves into liberal democratic and autocratic camps. Yoon speaks regularly in support of a rules-based international order and alignment with the U.S. and U.S.-led coalitions.

Seouls cautious shift

Ellen Kim, deputy director of the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said By attending the NATO summit, the Yoon government sent a clear message of alignment with NATO members and other partners that South Korea opposes any challenges to universal values and the rules-based international order.

Andrew Yeo, the SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies at the Brookings Institution, said, Yoon has definitely pivoted toward the U.S. and U.S. allies and partners. He continued, saying Yoon still wants to maintain positive diplomatic relations with China, but at the same time, he also expects Beijing to respect South Korean sovereignty and national interests.

NATO, formed as a Europe-Atlantic security alliance, pointed out in its 2022 Strategic Concept issued during the summit that China is a challenge to its interests, security and values because of what the document called its coercive policies.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian responded at a June 30 news conference, saying NATO had once again wrongly defined China and smeared its foreign policy. The Western alliance has wrongly pointed fingers at Beijings normal military posture Zhao said.

Beijing cautious over Seoul

Despite its harsh criticism of NATO, experts said China is taking care not to antagonize South Korea just as Seoul does not want to upset its neighbor. South Korea is one of Chinas top five trading partners, according to Beijing numbers and China is South Koreas top trading partner, according to SantanderTrade.

Evans Revere, a former acting assistant secretary of East Asian and Pacific Affairs for the U.S. State Department during the George W. Bush administration, said China has predictably not reacted well to being cited as a long-term challenge by NATO. But, he said, it has been careful not to criticize Seoul directly thus far.

He continued, saying China has few friends in the East Asia region other than North Korea, and thus China is taking care to avoid alienating South Korea. That dynamic offers important leverage which I presume Seoul will exploit carefully in the coming months, he said.

According to Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, China wants to avoid a fight with Seoul. The more China acts aggressively, the more danger there is that the U.S. will succeed in building institutions that include South Korea but not China, he said.

In May, Yoon joined President Joe Bidens newly created Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which Wang criticized as a U.S. effort to put other countries in a frame of its own standards and rules.

Bruce Klingner, senior fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation, said the Yoon government has made clear that a strengthened alliance with the United States will form the foundation for Seouls outreach to Pyongyang, Tokyo and Beijing.

North Korea factor

Samore also said that South Koreas approach to North Korea will be a big factor coloring the complex ties between Beijing and Seoul as the Yoon administration places its stamp on government policy.

From Seouls standpoint, Samore said, to the extent China is willing to help with North Korea to prevent provocations, Seoul will see value in continuing [a] relationship with China and avoiding actions the Chinese would consider to be unfriendly to Chinas interest.

He said such actions would include associating itself more closely with the Quad, an informal group comprising Australia, India, Japan, and the United States. It is formally known as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.

North Korea has launched 18 weapons tests this year and is widely believed to have finished its preparations for conducting a nuclear test.

During his meeting with Wang in Bali, Park asked for Beijing to play a constructive role in prodding North Korea to stop provocations immediately and resume dialogue, according to the South Korean Foreign Ministry.

VOA's Korean Service contacted the North Korean mission to the U.N. and Chinese embassy in Washington and asked for their response to Seoul's support for the rules-based international order and its shift toward the U.S. but did not receive replies.

Asia security alliances

Shortly after his inauguration, Yoon participated virtually in the Quad summit held in Tokyo on May 24. Beijing views the Quad as a direct strategy to contain its military expansion in the Indo-Pacific.

According to Sukjoon Yoon, a retired South Korean Navy captain who is now a senior research fellow at the Seoul-based Korea Institute for Military Affairs, Seoul may initiate some gesture of articulating security cooperation [with] Australia, New Zealand, [and] Japan as well as with the Quad.

He continued, however, to say that because China as well as Russia yield considerable influence on North Korea, the two nations could respond to greater South Korean cooperation with U.S.-led coalitions by encouraging Pyongyang to stage military reactions.

Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, said Yoons vocal support for shared values is code language for countering China. But, he said, neither that nor his participation in the NATO summit is likely to trigger economic retaliation from Beijing.

However, if South Korea were to join the Quad and participate in military drills explicitly aimed at China, that would be a problem, he said.

In 2017, Beijing closed China-based South Korean retail shops and banned tourism to South Korea after Seoul installed the U.S. anti-missile system THAAD to protect against a potential North Korean attack.
The United States will provide almost $368 million in additional humanitarian aid to Ukraine to support people inside Ukraine and refugees forced to leave their country, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

"Our commitment to the people of Ukraine is resolute. The United States is providing nearly $368 million in additional humanitarian aid to support people inside Ukraine and refugees forced to flee their country to seek safety in the midst of Russia's brutal war," he wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
2019 Leadership Alexandria graduates who recently to volunteered for Habitat for Humanity of Douglas County include: (back row left to right): John Severson, Thrivent Financial; Andrea Dwyer, Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce; Jill Partington, Widseth Smith Nolting & Assoc., Inc.; Steve Vrchota, Pope Douglas Solid Waste Management; Bryan Asche, Asche Engineering; Nate Hitch, Bremer Investments; Keith Melrose, Alexandria Police Department; Jason Breitzman, Hilltop Lumber. (Front row left to right): Sara Gronholz, Habitat for Humanity of Douglas County; Celeste Gardner, Alomere Health; Dawn Thorstad, Neighborhood National Bank; Sheyenne Ritter, Alexandria Industries; Lisa Juettner, Geneva Capital, LLC; Becca Miller, Alomere Health; Kelly Wencl, Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota. Not pictured: Daylon Faber, Faber Insurance; Steve Johansen, Douglas County Public Works.
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Sports Update This current sports headlines delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria.

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The Turkish president got NATO to forsake its Kurdish mercenaries in northern Syria.

Anticipating the release of the jihadist family members detained by Kurdish mercenaries, France has suddenly switched its policy and intends to repatriate her citizens in order to prosecute them at home.

The dumping of the PKK foreshadows the likely withdrawal of US troops illegally stationed in northern Syria.

According to the Israeli DEBKAFile news site, on 18 June the Russian air force allegedly bombed the American military base of Al-Tanf, on the Jordanian border. Clearly, Moscow thinks that the Pentagon should withdraw not only from northern Syria, but from the whole country. Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, commander of CentCom, reportedly said that "Russia is an off-leash dog trying to recover."
The Russian Foreign Ministry has decried the Israeli bombings in Syria and called for their immediate and unconditional end.

The Russian Ministry of Justice has written to the Israeli government demanding the immediate cessation of Jewish Agency activities inside its country [1].
Crude oil prices have been declining over the past two weeks, dropping to below $100 per barrel, as fears about the recovery of demand mount, stated the Oil Market Monthly Report, published by Kamco Invest, a UAE-based investment strategy and research firm.
Annual campaign urges Romans not to leave their dogs behind over summer holidays.

Rome has launched an awareness campaign calling on the capitals residents not to abandon their pets as they set off on vacation this summer.

The city underlines that the "inhuman" practice of abandoning a pet is a criminal offence, with those caught facing up to a year in prison and fines of up to 10,000.

The city also urges anyone who sees an abandoned animal to report it to Rome police by calling 0667691 or by contacting emergency services on 112.

Dog owners can check the website of Rome's Muratella kennels for useful information such as dog fostering services and "responsible" adoption from the city's dog shelters.
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I often hear from people living in thriving cities that other metropolises should copy their economic policies. Examples? Be more business-friendly. Keep taxes low. Tout your citys unique assets. Foster an entrepreneurial culture. Make your city a more affordable destination. Make your city a more exclusive destination. Share with The Post: Whats one way youve felt the impact of inflation? ArrowRight Yet, living in a part of the country thats seen better days, Im well-aware that economic success can be transitory, even ephemeral. Todays winners might want to think more carefully about how much credit they can claim for their success.

Do cities really control their economic destiny? Or are they pawns to broader forces? Was the decline of the Rust Belt, say, the result of bad policies or fundamental economic trends?

Some cities certainly can claim to be self-made, their fortunes built on hard work and visionary polices. A case could be made that Los Angeles, blessed by beautiful weather but distant from natural water sources, should never have grown into the metropolis it is now. Similarly, one could argue that Las Vegas should never have existed at all. Both cities capitalized on their initial advantages  sunshine for Los Angeles, gaming for Las Vegas  to establish themselves. Then they actively transformed themselves into leading destinations.

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What I like to call windswept cities, on the other hand, find themselves buffeted by external forces. Perhaps Detroit and Cleveland, or Orlando and Tampa, could have attained their peak sizes had broader economic shifts not favored them, but its not likely.

This can cut both ways. Some windswept cities are uplifted by global forces such as the rise of manufacturing or technology. Smaller but no less consequential changes  air conditioning, improved road systems, the rise of tourism  can have an equally momentous effect.

Other windswept cities are pummeled by change. As the broader economy evolves, they find themselves stuck with an infrastructure and workforce better suited to an earlier era. Most Rust Belt cities suffered this fate, saddled with an inventory of obsolete manufacturing plants and workers without the education and training to seek out new economy jobs.

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The most successful US cities, Id argue, have been those that benefited from shifting economic trends but also enhanced their advantages with smart policy moves. Compare Seattle with Detroit. In the late 19th century, the two cities were in similar positions. Detroit was the busiest port on the Great Lakes and one of the busiest in the nation, shipping millions of tons of goods. It was a national leader in shipbuilding and a major center of cast-iron stove manufacturing, earning the title stove capital of America.

That put Detroit in an enviable position when the automobile was invented. The city was filled with skilled, mechanically inclined workers. Moving from shipyards and stove plants to auto factories was not a great leap for them.

Detroit, whose factories had been a key part of the Arsenal of Democracy that won World War II, could have gone on to develop a burgeoning defense industry. In fact, the federal government looked for big automakers to spin off armament manufacturers. However, those companies declined and went back to focusing on cars. By contrast, Seattle smartly pivoted from shipbuilding to commercial aircraft production after World War II, led by local planemaker Boeing, and then built on its engineering workforce to develop a thriving tech industry.

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Success stories such as Seattles are rare, however. More often, cities have enjoyed something akin to dumb luck. Bostons concentration of elite educational institutions facilitated its transition from port city to knowledge center. Other cities took advantage of their status as a state capital, home of a major university, or host to educational and medical institutions to do the same. Atlanta, Austin, Nashville and Phoenix seem to fit that bill.

No one wants to believe that the aphorism, standing on third base and thinking they hit a triple applies to them. We all want to be recognized for efforts that lead to success. But the saying correctly applies to many cities as well as people. While some metropolises have benefited from excellent policy decisions, many more  perhaps most  simply fell into a favorable economic situation as the winds of economic change shifted directions.

The next big thing could easily disrupt those economic success stories. They probably wont be too happy when the cities that supplant them start dispensing advice on how they, too, can revive their fortunes. The one skill all city leaders would be wise to learn is a bit of humility.

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More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

 Bostons Michelle Wu Is a Mayor of Many Firsts: Matthew Winkler

 How to Reverse the Wests Creativity Crisis: Adrian Wooldridge

 Floating Cities May Be One Answer to Rising Seas: Adam Minter

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Pete Saunders is the community and economic development director for the village of Richton Park, Illinois, and an urban planning consultant. He is also the editor and publisher of the Corner Side Yard, a blog focused on public policy in Americas Rust Belt cities.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on his way out, having alienating his Conservative Party colleagues with one scandal too many. The idea is straightforward enough  and deserves a wider following in America: The party leaders job is to serve the party, not vice versa. Share with The Post: Whats one way youve felt the impact of inflation? ArrowRight A British (or Canadian or Australian) prime minister who becomes a source of inconvenience to his or her parliamentary colleagues gets dumped. The reason can be anything from gross misconduct to simple unpopularity, and represents a holistic judgment: All things considered, fellow party members think theyd be better off with someone else in charge.

In the US, by contrast, dumping a president involves the pseudo-judicial impeachment process. The question is not: Would it be better for the vice president to take over? Instead, it is: Is the president guilty of whatever high crimes and misdemeanors means?

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In part, this reflects our political institutions. The US doesnt have a parliamentary system; the president is elected by the citizens directly, not chosen by party members. It would be difficult, to put it mildly, to change the rules and organization of the federal system of government.

But much of the difference rests on a foundation of norms that can be shifted more easily. Its common to describe figures such as Liz Cheney and Adam Kitzinger, the two Republicans on the House Jan. 6 committee, as courageous for their willingness to defy former President Donald Trump. They are said to have put principle over party.

In the UK, by contrast, there was no particular courage on display when members of Johnsons cabinet quit. And more important, they absolutely did not put partisan considerations aside in pressing him to step down. Hed become politically toxic, an embarrassment to the Conservative Party. By shoving him aside, his fellow Conservatives hoped to improve their partys performance at the next election and give their policies a new lease on life.

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The current prime ministers of Sweden and Finland both came to office simply because their predecessors had become unpopular and the ruling left-of-center parties thought theyd be better served by a fresher face.

But in the US there is a tradition, long predating Trump, of treating it as a partisan duty to stand behind a tarnished leader. Perhaps the most striking example was former President Bill Clintons sex and perjury scandal in 1998. Clintons conduct was clearly disreputable  and wholly unrelated to public policy.

In a different country, leaders of his party would have told the president he was embarrassing and had to resign. Indeed, when it first came out that the core allegations against Clinton were true, many people observers thought this would happen. Instead, Clinton rallied his cabinet behind him and Democrats stood by their man. Republicans moved to impeach  setting off a legal and constitutional struggle that backfired when he was acquitted by the Senate and the GOP lost seats in the 1998 midterms.

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More than a decade earlier, there was a scandal that involved an official crime. But in the Iran-Contra affair, it was the White House chief of staff rather than the president who took the fall. Or consider the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, where the judgment of history is that it was wrongheaded of Republicans to try to remove a president over what was basically a policy disagreement.

Most recently, Trumps cabinet seriously considered invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him after Jan. 6. But the usual interpretation of this provision treats the question of whether the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office as a medical rather than political judgment, which deters its use.

There is something fundamentally silly about all of this.

If members of the cabinet or Congress believe it would be better for the country to remove the president and replace him with the vice president, why should they stick with the worse option? One of the absurdities of the Clinton impeachment is that even though it became a huge partisan showdown, the actual policy stakes were non-existent. Had he resigned or been removed from office, Al Gore would have continued the same policies.

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Its a myth that the textual formalisms of crimes and misdemeanors and unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office genuinely bind the hands of the political process.

If Trump had been removed, he wouldnt have been able to appeal to the Supreme Court for a review of the decision. By the same token, the UK cabinet had few formal tools at its disposal to genuinely force Johnson to step down. The point is that it was politics, not law, that drove the process. The UK has an unwritten constitution, and there are non-justiciable aspects of the US Constitution that deal with branch-versus-branch conflict. But these decisions largely operate in the realm of norms.

And in this case, the American norms are quite a bit worse. The idea that you can and should dump a leader whenever its expedient comports with the significance of the office. The US makes it very difficult to become president in the first place, but then sets a strong expectation that the winner will get to stay there for at least four years. Instances of personal misconduct or idiosyncrasy become appropriate subjects for partisan debate, and polarization leads Americans to believe that their views on abortion or taxes should strongly correlate with apologetics for various scandals.

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Political leadership should be seen as a high-stakes job like any other  a great privilege that comes with awesome responsibilities. And when politicians mess up, it should be far easier to remove them from office, and far more common for their party colleagues to urge them to leave voluntarily.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Boris Johnson Finally Admits Defeat: The Editors

 Boris Johnson and the Longest Goodbye: Martin Ivens

 Boris Johnsons in Trouble, But the Economys OK for Now: Marcus Ashworth

 The Tories Should Be Wary of the Threat From Labour: Adrian Wooldridge

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Matthew Yglesias is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A co-founder of and former columnist for Vox, he writes the Slow Boring blog and newsletter. He is author, most recently, of One Billion Americans.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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ATHENS, Greece  Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated Friday by a gunman who opened fire on him as he delivered a campaign speech on a street in western Japan, shocking the country. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Heres a global look at other high-profile political assassinations in the 21st century:  Oct. 15 2021: British lawmaker David Amess is stabbed to death by an Islamic State supporter while meeting with voters.

 July 7, 2021: Haitian President Jovenel Moise is assassinated by gunmen who also wound his wife Martine in an overnight raid on their Port-au-Prince home. More than 40 people have been arrested in Haiti for the attack, including high-ranking police officers and a group of former Colombian soldiers.

 April 20, 2021: Chad President Idriss Deby Itno is killed while battling rebels in the north. Hours earlier he had been declared the winner of an election that would have given him another six years in power.

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 Dec. 19, 2016: Russias ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is shot dead by a Turkish policeman shouting condemnation of Russias military role in Syria, in front of a shocked gathering at a photo exhibit. The gunman was later killed in a shootout with police.

 June 16, 2016: British lawmaker Jo Cox is shot and stabbed to death by a far-right supporter in the English village of Birstall, part of her constituency.

 Feb. 6, 2013: Tunisian left-wing opposition leader Chokri Belaid is fatally shot outside his Tunis home. His killing  followed six months later by that of another left-wing leader, Mohammed Brahmi  plunged Tunisia into political chaos with effects reverberating to this day. No one has been convicted in either case.

 Sept. 11, 2012: U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens is killed when militants storm the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Another three Americans died.

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 Oct. 20, 2011: Longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is hunted and summarily killed by insurgents after being toppled in a NATO-backed uprising.

 March 2, 2009: Guinea-Bissau President Joao Bernardo Vieira is killed by renegade soldiers in his palace, hours after a bomb blast killed his rival in the West African nation.

 December 27, 2007: Benazir Bhutto, the first female prime minister in a Muslim-majority country as well as Pakistans second nationally elected prime minister, was shot at then attacked by a suicide bomber at a political rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

 Feb. 14, 2005: Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is killed by a suicide truck bomb on a seaside boulevard in Beirut. Another 21 people died and 226 were wounded in the attack, which is seen by many in Lebanon as the work of neighboring Syria.

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 Dec. 29, 2003: Archbishop Michael Courtney, the popes ambassador in Burundi, is shot by gunmen as he was returning from a funeral and died during surgery.

 March 12, 2003: Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is shot dead in front of the Serbian government headquarters in Belgrade. He was a key leader of the revolt that toppled former President Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000. Twelve people were convicted in connection with the killing, which was carried out to halt his pro-Western reforms, according to a Serbian court ruling.

 May 6, 2002: Populist Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is gunned down in a northern Netherlands city, days before a general election in which he was a candidate, by an animal rights activist.

 June 1, 2001: Nepals King Birendra is killed when his son, Crown Prince Dipendra, opens fire on his family in the royal palace. The dead include Queen Aiswarya, a prince and five others. Officials said the shooting followed a dispute over the princes marriage.

 Jan. 18, 2001: Congo President Laurent Kabila is assassinated in the presidential palace in the capital, Kinshasa, by one of his bodyguards, who was killed minutes later by security forces.

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LISBON, Portugal  Portugal is bracing for a heat wave, with temperatures in some areas forecast to climb as high as 43 C (109 F) this weekend just as a severe drought grips the country. The Civil Protection Agency, a Portuguese government body that coordinates official responses to emergencies, said Thursday it is placing crews on high alert because of the risk of wildfires. About a third of the country faces an extreme risk of forest fires, authorities say.

The high temperatures are forecast to last at least a week. The national weather service IPMA says what it calls tropical nights, when temperatures stay above 20 C (68 F) after sunset, are likely.

The government said it will place the country on a formal state of alert against wildfires from Friday. That step grants authorities special powers, such as outlawing stubble burning and fireworks at summer festivals, and allows it to requisition equipment such as bulldozers for clearing fire breaks.

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More than half of Portugals wildfires start due to negligence, studies show.

The hot spell comes as much of Portugal endures a drought. At the end of June, 96% of the country was classified as being in either extreme or severe drought  the two highest categories.

The weather service says that over the nine months since last October rainfall was just over half the average for the period and was the second-lowest since 1931, when reliable national records began.

Heat waves and droughts arent uncommon in Portugal, but climate scientists say all of southern Europe can expect higher temperatures and lower rainfall as a consequence of global warming.

As extremely dry weather hits Mediterranean nations, the European Unions executive said Thursday the continent faces one of its hardest years when it comes to natural disasters like droughts and wildfires because of increasing climate change.

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June was also very dry in Spain, which is Portugals neighbor on the Iberian Peninsula, with rainfall at about half the 30-year average and reservoirs on average at 45% capacity  20 percentage points below the 10-year average, according to government data.

Italy recently endured a prolonged heat wave and is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years.

___

Follow all AP stories on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate

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A new group of pretrial detainees have been released and three convicts have received a presidential pardon and are set to be freed within hours, according to a presidential decree published in the Egyptian Gazette on Tuesday.

The three released prisoners are Said Ibrahim, Mohamed El-Gharib, and Mohamed Morsy, according to the decree.

The prisoners were convicted in the case known as the Council of Ministers case that dates back to December 2011, months after the 25th of January Revolution.

Dozens of people in the case received prison sentences ranging from five to 25 years in prison over charges including sabotage, resisting authorities using force, and setting fire into government buildings during December 2011 protests.

Convicts in the case include renowned activist Ahmed Douma and actor and director Tarek El-Nahri, both of whom received final 15-year prison sentences in 2020.

The new group of pretrial detainees released today by the Supreme State Security Prosecution includes nine people detained in different cases, human rights lawyer Tarek El-Awady  a member of the Presidential Pardon Committee  tweeted on Thursday.

The detainees names are Ashraf Mohamed, Adel Ezzat, Mohamed Gamil, Ahmed Abdel-Nasser, Ali Harby, Khaled Khalil, Youssef Zaki, Ahmed El-Sayed, and Shawki Talaat, El-Awady said.

Over the past weeks, many detainees have been released and others were pardoned after Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ordered the reactivation of the Presidential Pardon Committee in April.

In May, El-Awady said the committee is working on a list of pardon requests for 2,418 detainees and prisoners drafted by a group of human rights groups.

More than 4,000 prisoners were granted presidential pardons in April and May on the occasion of Eid El-Fitr and Sinai Liberation Day.

Recently, Egyptian authorities released several journalists as well as activist Magdy Korkor, producer Moetaz Abdel-Wahab, and prominent activist and Karama Party member Hossam Mones, alongside others.

The restructured committee has said it will receive pardon requests through many avenues, including through the National Youth Conference website.

The committee will also receive requests through the complaints committee of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) and via email to the human rights committees in both the House of the Representatives and Senate.

Pardon requests can also be submitted directly to the members of the pardon committee, according to the statement.

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Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Two years ago, I was walking deep in the Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park, thinking about book launches and murder, but mainly about murder, when a movement in the bush made me turn. Half-hidden by a wattle, a tall man was standing there, binoculars trained hard in my direction. In the following second, these things crossed my mind: killing, rape, kidnapping, running, shotguns, rope, cable ties, second locations, Ivan Milat. The man lowered his binoculars (or bins as they are colloquially known), raised a finger to his lips and pointed at a tree branch above me. There, a bird sat, watching. Ninox connivens, the man said. Were lucky. I did feel lucky, very much so, and as I half ran to the car, I thought about how wonderful the bush is for a writer and how lucky I am to live and write crime in such locations. In Dirt Music, left, Wake in Fright and The Broken Shore, the landscape makes its presence felt. Much has been written about the anxieties white writers placed on the bush in the early years of settlement. Literature from the mid-1800s reveals a sense of unease and fear for those settlers who tried to make Australia home, its primary concerns filled with escaping the perils, dangers and mundanity of rural life.

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I get it; in practical terms, writing crime in this country is a boon: there are many and varied places to hide a body, you can place your characters in extreme conditions, events can occur in locations where, literally, no one can hear the screams. Kenneth Cooks Wake in Fright (1961) is a masterpiece in psychological horror, a collective of all the white fears of a desolate land, and populated by brutal characters. It hurts to read. Thea Astleys 1958 novel, Girl with a Monkey, is more nuanced but has a similar feel. A woman spends a day in the suffocating heat of North Queensland, trying to avoid a stalker. Its creepy, and relatable. The land itself becomes the villain. Jack Thompson in Wake in Fright, which captures the fear of a desolate land. When Judy in Ethel Turners Seven Little Australians (1894) was crushed to death by the falling branch of a gum tree, every reader howled. The treacherous bush! The Woolcots should never have gone on that stupid holiday to Yarrahappini, or wherever it was. Motto loud and clear: dont stray too far from town. Loading Peter Temples The Broken Shore (2005) represented a significant change in how land and characters are written in fiction, particularly crime: the people are still damaged, searching souls, and the landscape is harsh. A treacherous coastline, howling wind, trees bent in supplication  and yet, the characters, rather than despising the land, recognise the beauty in it. They sense a connection. Tim Winton included a similar death to Judys in Dirt Music, written more than 100 years after Turners classic. Luthers mother is killed by a falling tree, but its the land that provides sustenance and relief. There is no real desire to escape to town. This is the case in other recent crime books Ive read: Greg Woodlands The Night Whistler and Michael Trants Wild Dogs.

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I was about 11 and living in Deans Marsh when fire broke out in the sawmill. In the hours that followed, in what became known as Ash Wednesday, we kids were shuttled first onto the school oval and covered in wet carpet from the grade 6 room and later to the town hall. Margaret Hickey, centre, with her brothers and sister in 1983, the year of the Ash Wednesday fires. Hickeys father was the local headmaster when the town was evacuated, and taught her for most of her primary school years. A young cop with a panicked Bubble O Bill face evacuated us there and we huddled in the foyer, watching orange balls scream past the windows. Colin Thieles February Dragon came to mind as I sat there, in between the crying kids and grim-faced mums. In that book, the fire is a monster, a dragon, a living thing out to get the townspeople. I didnt feel that then. I didnt hate the fire, only the girl I was forced to sit beside. During the mouse plague of the early 80s, when we lived in the Mallee town of Patchewollock, I never thought this land is cursed when I went to empty the bucket of drowned mice every morning (a bottle, greased at the end, with a bucket of water underneath it: gruesome and effective). I just felt repulsed, and sort of bad for the mice. My reading life and these experiences have influenced the way I write rural crime. My first novel, Cutters End, was set mainly along the Stuart Highway, that long, lonely stretch of road that cuts the nation in two. How wonderful, to place two young female hitchhikers there and see what happens. Id been a hitchhiker there, I knew what sort of things went on. A Ninnox Connivens, or Barking Owl, in the Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park. Credit:John Woudstra

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My new novel, Stone Town, is set in what is typically a dry bushland  but is now drenched in unseasonable rains. Climate change is present, a new anxiety, which presses and disturbs. Theres the tension between city and country people, largely due to house and land prices, and theres the usual cast: the dodgy types, the larrikins and the CWA. Its a rural crime, so there must be perilous settings: in this case, a fast-moving river, mine shafts, native blackwood acacia that can be dangerous to the lungs. But in Stone Town, the landscapes are never held to account for human error and misfortune. Land is a force, but it doesnt care about us. Its just there. So, while I draw inspiration from the older mascots of Australian literature, my depictions of land are more akin to Eric Rolls than Henry Lawson. Loading When Id got back into my car, puffed after running from the benevolent birder in the Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park, I locked the doors and googled Ninox connivens. A vulnerable species, the site said. Also famous for a rarely used high-pitched, blood-curdling screech that has earned it the name screaming-woman bird. Speeding past a sinister-looking white van on the way home, I glanced at the forest of red stringybark, Blakelys red gum, grey box and ironbark, the sun spearing through them creating uneven beams of light. Blood-curdling screech, I thought. Thank you, Australia.

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After painfully-public health and business battles, James Packer wants the world to know hes back in business, hatching plans to build something beautiful, and willing to spend a vast fortune with one of his most famous mates to achieve it.

But its not a casino.

Robert De Niro and James Packer aboard IJE on Monday.

Im feeling really well and happy, Packer told the Herald on Friday from his luxury $250 million cruise ship IJE, three months after he reportedly stopped taking seven different mood-altering drugs prescribed to me by my doctors.

Packer, who offered no details on how he was now managing his mental health, was adamant my mental health is the best its ever been.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Your daughter wants to start dating and tonight theres a boy at the door. Opening it, your smile evaporates. He is scruffy, sullen and stares at his feet. In your culture, boys dress well and are good with mothers. Then it gets worse. Over his shoulder you see, gleaming in the streetlight, a motorbike, the rebels pride. On this he expects your daughter to climb, hoisting up her very best dress while trying to hide her undies. Meet Christina Alibrandi, mother to one of Australian literatures most feisty and indelible protagonists, Josephine Alibrandi. A teenage schoolgirl, Josie is just trying to get through one single year of youth, exams, boyfriends (motorbike optional) and parental complications. Melina Marchettas Looking for Alibrandi  reportedly the most stolen book from Australian high school libraries  has charmed, moved and entertained readers for 30 years. The story of a girl struggling to outrun the stifling expectations of an Italian-Australian neighbourhood became a family favourite for several generations. Melina Marchetta says of her motivation for writing <i>Looking for Alibrandi</i>, I never saw traces of my life in the books I read. Credit:Wolter Peeters Given Josie is the daughter of a single mother, shes heir to the shame of her conception out of wedlock  a shame laid on thicker than gnocchi by a suspicious Italian nonna and her judgmental compatriots. Theres a cabal of spying grandmothers who telephone each other to gossip about a granddaughter seen out in skimpy clothing or with a boy at the beach. Apart from the film released in 2000, Marchetta has fiercely guarded Alibrandi, rejecting all offers to adapt it  until now. Persuaded by Melbourne director Stephen Nicolazzo, she agreed to a new stage version, which premieres at the Malthouse Theatre this month, before travelling to Sydneys Belvoir. The idea germinated when Nicolazzo attended a directors lab in the United States, talking to peers about the work Australia produces. It opened a conversation in my head, what is the Australian story I have to tell? I had worked with Christos Tsiolkas and had been developing adaptations of canonical Australian novels and I thought long and hard about whats the story that has always touched me, and it was Alibrandi.

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Marchetta has given Nicolazzo free rein. For the plum role of Josie, there was never any doubt, he says. The film had starred a peppy Pia Miranda, but a 2022 audience was a different beast. Before the script was written I always knew Chanella Macri would play her. She is the 21st century Josephine Alibrandi. She is an Italian-Samoan woman who grew up in the west of Sydney. To me, thats who needs to be the representative of the questions raised by the play right now. Macri, whos in her 20s, grew up in white suburbia, the child of an Italian father and Samoan mother. By the time I was growing up, Italians were kind of exciting. Being Samoan was tricky, being brown was really hard. Being Italian was the equivalent to being white, but you ate better food. The books 30th anniversary may well spark renewed Alibrandi fervour. A new commemorative edition will be published in October, and Marchettas been asked to scrounge around under the bed for the original reviews that heralded a fresh, non-Anglo voice from the Sydney suburbs. When I wrote it, I was in a smaller world of believing that it would only be people like us relating to it. And of course, what weve all asked over the years is: who is people like us? Its not just about your cultural background, its about a whole lot of other things, which has been amazing. Looking back on Alibrandis instant success, she reflects on the conditions that allowed Josephines story to emerge. I was such an avid reader and I never saw traces of my life in the books I read  It was almost like, if I dont exist in the pages of books, it means that I dont exist in the outer world. Anglo Australia had yet to give voice to migrants beyond the occasional stereotypical portrayal. Yet Josies time had come. It came out at a time where there was very little out there to do with cultural diversity, Marchetta says. I was one of the few kids at school who came from an Italian background who had an English-speaking mother. My mother was born in Australia, but everyone elses parents were born overseas, Italian or Greek or Lebanese. So we were coming of age at that time and probably looking for something more than what was offered. It was also the rise of young adult fiction at that time.

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Coming of age crosses all cultures, guaranteeing the book universal appeal beyond its Italian wellspring. An 18-year-old who recommended the book to me said this is what it meant to her: Id just gone through a break-up and my first thought was, hang on, theres that great book about the magic age of 17, and so I rushed to cram it in before I turned 18, to catch the main character on that arc. It was wonderful, it felt like I had a friend. Melina Marchetta in 1994, two years after the book was published. Credit:Sahlan Hayes And yet Alibrandi can become a favourite even if youre neither 17 nor Italian. Marchetta is gratified, yet modest, about the wide appeal of what ostensibly seems a youthful odyssey. What surprises me now is that it has stood the test of time, that a young person today can relate to this book so much. There was no social media, its such a different world. I think that regardless of whether or not youre from an Anglo background, theres an aspect of you that always feels as if you do not belong. Josie is caught between Sicily and Sydney  where does she belong? Her heartfelt soul-searching provides many of the books comical moments, from hurling a science book at a rival to cheating on a walkathon, complete with the icy rage of nuns in sneakers. What surprises me now is that a young person today can relate to this book so much. Melina Marchetta The best description of Josie is of course Italian  she lives con brio, with verve. Shes tempestuous and funny. Loving, but a brat. Throwing meatloaf in the sink in a fit of rage, she silences her mother with: too much oregano anyway. Marchetta began the book in her late teens and the language captures the white heat of smart hormonal adolescents  sass not lost on imdb.com which includes a long list of zesty quotes on its Alibrandi film page (Marchetta wrote the screenplay). Josie is confused by family secrets and resents the born-to-rule rich kids at her school, with their unthinking racism: Money, prestige and what your father did for a living counted. If your hair wasnt in a bob or if your mother didnt drive a Volvo you were a nobody.

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Loading At home, Josies nonna seems unfathomably harsh  but when stories of the past emerge, she learns about the young Italian brides left alone in the bush while their husbands were off cutting cane, and abandoned even further when the men were interned during wartime. They were young mothers in a rough place where snakes slithered across the dirt floors and little boys drowned in creeks. Making tomato sauce is a communion as the old ladies reminisce. When its Italians reading about tomato day, theyre thinking I never thought anyone else went through that, Marchetta says. So theres that idea that when youre young you think no one else is going through this. And of course everyones going through it, they just dont speak about it. The rapid success that followed the books release was at first overwhelming, but Marchetta still held down jobs in retail and later teaching, where she actually found herself teaching her own book to boys when Alibrandi was on the school curriculum. Did they read it differently from girls? I think they saw aspects of their own life, she says. Feeling that she doesnt belong, being suffocated by family. Their ideals and expectations. I think it was that aspect of the story that they related to, the rules that they had to deal with at school. Pia Miranda, Elena Cotta and Greta Scacchi in a still from the film <i>Looking for Alibrandi</i>. Credit: Thirty years on, she thinks a reader might now be shaped by prevailing notions of consent, even domestic violence. It was always fascinating having a discussion with the boys about one scene, whether Josie should have gone into the bedroom with a boy. And I think, well, none of that has dated. Marchetta says she resisted Alibrandi adaptations for so long because she was worried about how it would be interpreted. You dont want it to move away from the spirit of that original. With Nicolazzo, it was different. He arrived in Sydney, they had coffee in an Italian cafe and the stories flowed.

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We are not the same. I mean, Italians have come from different regions, they have different dialects. But I loved that he spoke about his cultural background. Then he started sending me a few examples of Vidyas writing and I just loved it. Vidya Rajan had the tall order of writing a theatrical script. It didnt step away from the sassiness or the energy of Alibrandi, but it was its own animal, Marchetta says. I dont want to see a replica of what I wrote all those years ago. I just trusted Stephen and of course then COVID happened and it kept on getting put off. The delay fortuitously took the production into the 30th anniversary year. Although diversity is now much more a clarion call than it was 30 years ago, Nicolazzo says racism still stings. I was always ashamed of being a wog as a child and a teenager in the late 1990s and 2000s, he says. I was the first person in my family to go to university, so I could relate to Josies struggle, the aspirations and expectations of redefining what your family looks like. Ashley Lyons as Michael Andretti with Chanella Macri as Josie Alibrandi. Credit:Tamarah Scott Is Australian culture and literature now better at telling different stories? I still think theres room for more, he says. Yes, we have Alice Pung and incredible writers like Melina and Christos still writing, but I still think those stories are rare, especially on stage. Literary circles have developed at a faster pace with those stories. Now the theatre world is catching up. He suggests Alibrandi readers might find different shades to its themes in his 2022 version. Weve focused on giving airtime to grandmother, mother and Josie. Its not a teen flick. This is about the generations of women, which makes it more contemporary, and the adult concerns Josie faces particularly when it comes to sexuality and desire, the shame around that. Two genuinely shocking events towards the end of the book give it a powerful crescendo. The sweetness and confusion are curdled by lies. As 18 comes into view, we walk with Josie on her prickly path towards adulthood.

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In her memoir Yes, Please, the comedian Amy Poehler shares a motto she thinks women should constantly repeat, over and over again: Good for her, not for me. That book came out in 2014 but I have been thinking about Poehlers maxim lately, ever since the United States Supreme Court reversed 50 years of abortion rights.

Can you imagine if any one of the six justices who decided to overturn Roe, effectively banning abortion for half the country, had instead thought to themselves: Good for her, not for me? The legal term Ive heard about the ruling, and why it is unprecedented, is stare decisis. As one lawyer explained it to me over beers, its the principle of, Please dont f%$# things up unless youve got a very good reason. Or you could just go with the Poehler rule.

One expert estimates that in the next year there will be 100,000 women in the US who will want an abortion but wont be able to get one. Credit:Getty Images

Now lots of people who might find themselves living quite different lives to Supreme Court justices will be forced to adhere to the laws set down by newly emboldened state legislatures  even if that means raising children they cant support or endangering their own health. One expert estimates that in the next year there will be 100,000 women in the US who will want an abortion but wont be able to get one.

At the time of writing, just a few days after the Supreme Courts decision, 11 states have passed laws banning abortion outright; 12 are expected to follow shortly. Thats half the US, and Ive heard nothing but rage and fear and sadness from the other half  even though people Im speaking to mostly live in liberal bastions like New York and California where abortion is unlikely to ever be illegal.
New Victorian senator Ralph Babet will use his time in federal parliament to fight for a two term limit for MPs, a bill of rights and stronger privacy laws but is opposed to stronger action on climate change.

The sole United Australia Party MP to emerge from mining magnate Clive Palmers estimated $100 million advertising spend during the recent federal election, Babet is a French speaking, pro-immigration real estate agent born in the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius.

Senator Ralph Babet secured the United Australia Partys only seat in the new parliament. Credit:Facebook

In an interview with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, the 39-year-old UAP senator laid out his priorities for his time in parliament, which he declared will only last one term.

He wants MPs limited to serving two terms. "After two terms, what's going to happen? You're going to become stale, you're going to become disconnected," Babet said.
Australias retail and hospitality peak bodies have joined with the union movement and medical experts in calling on the government to reintroduce a COVID sick-leave safety net as cases surge.

Labor last week axed the $750-a-week pandemic leave disaster payment, which cost almost $1.9 billion since it was introduced by the Morrison government in August 2020 to tide over COVID-positive Australians without sick leave.

Julian ONeill, who works at Eatz Cafe, Darlington, is waiting on a pandemic relief payment after he needed to isolate for seven days in late June. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The Albanese government backed the Coalitions decision last year to scrap the payment at the end of the 2021-22 financial year, citing a $1 trillion national debt and less stringent restrictions. However, as daily cases surpass 43,000 across Australia, those who test positive are still legally required to isolate for seven days in all states and territories.

Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said in a statement the nation was in a different phase of the pandemic now where we live with community transmission.
The Sydney Opera House and major Melbourne landmarks will be lit up in red and white as a mark of respect for slain former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke of the cruel paradox of the assassination of Abe in a heartfelt tribute on Saturday, saying Australia had lost a true friend, as he confirmed states and territories were making arrangements to display their solidarity with Japan.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to slain former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Abe was not destined to be prime minister in easy times. But even as the world shifted beneath our feet, Mr Abe faced all of the challenges with a strength of character and an unbending resolve. He did not flinch, he did not weaken, Albanese said.

Thats the cruel paradox of the tragedy that unfolded yesterday, that someone of such courage with such strength of character could be taken away with an act of extreme cowardice.
Thousands of Muslim pilgrims cast pebbles in the "stoning of the devil" ritual marking the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday Saturday, as a hajj pilgrimage that drew 900,000 visitors began winding down.

Enormous crowds of white-robed worshippers thronged Mina, near Mecca in western Saudi Arabia, for the stoning ritual where each threw seven pebbles at three large concrete walls representing Satan.

Deadly stampedes have previously overshadowed the ritual, the last major act of the hajj, but high temperatures and the ongoing Covid pandemic appeared the biggest immediate risk.

"I feel I am about to faint, hurry up," said one woman, asking her companion to splash her face with water. No health or safety incidents were reported.

The pilgrims threw stones that they had collected in nearby Muzdalifah. In 2020 and 2021, when Covid restrictions reduced numbers to tens of thousands, worshippers were handed sanitised pebbles in sealed bags.

The hajj started on Wednesday at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest site, before an overnight stay in tents and prayers on Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Mohammed is believed to have delivered his final sermon.

After the stoning ritual, pilgrims return to Mecca to perform a farewell "tawaf" -- circling seven times around the Kaaba, the large black cube at the Grand Mosque that is the focal point of Islam.

'Eid Mubarak'

An hour after sunrise on Saturday, the Kaaba was already surrounded by circumambulating pilgrims, while others at the Grand Mosque prayed on the first day of Eid.

Facing the mosque, the Mecca Clock Tower, one of the world's tallest buildingsm displayed the message "Eid Mubarak" (blessed Eid) in green.

Eid al-Adha, the feast of the sacrifice, marks the end of the hajj.

Muslims across the world celebrate the holiday, buying livestock for slaughter to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son to show obedience to Allah.

The hajj, usually one of the world's largest annual religious gatherings, is one of the five pillars of Islam and must be undertaken by all Muslims with the means at least once in their lives.

In 2019, some 2.5 million Muslims from around the world took part.

But that figure slumped to only a few thousand in 2020 and 60,000 in 2021, all of them Saudi citizens or residents, as the kingdom tried to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This year, participation was capped at one million fully vaccinated worshippers. Authorities said Friday that almost 900,000 were in attendance, nearly 780,000 of them from abroad.

Covid Fears

Hosting the pilgrimage is a matter of prestige and a powerful source of political legitimacy for Saudi rulers, the custodians of Islam's holiest sites.

Barring overseas pilgrims for the past two years had caused deep disappointment among Muslims worldwide, who typically save for years to take part.

The hajj, which costs at least $5,000 per person, and umrah pilgrimages that occur at other times of the year are a major engine of Saudi Arabia's tourism sector.

In normal times, they generate about $12 billion annually, keeping the economy humming in Mecca.

"We thank God the Almighty that we saw the pilgrims of his house, from different countries of the world, performing their rituals with ease," tweeted Saudi ruler King Salman, 86.

The large crowds have spurred fears that Covid-19 will spread, especially after many pilgrims remained maskless against the orders of Saudi authorities.

The hajj has been taking place against the backdrop of a resurgence of cases in the region, with some Gulf countries tightening restrictions to keep outbreaks in check.

All participants were required to submit proof of vaccination and pilgrims visiting from abroad also had to provide negative PCR tests.

Since the start of the pandemic, Saudi Arabia has registered more than 795,000 coronavirus cases, over 9,000 of them fatal. Some 67 million vaccine doses have been administered in the country of over 34 million people.

The hajj can be physically draining even in ideal conditions, but worshippers this year faced an added challenge: scorching sun and temperatures climbing to 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit).

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Under his economic program, Abe imposed a form of shock therapy that involved cheap cash, government spending on stimulus projects that expanded the countrys debt and attempts at corporate deregulation. The combination delivered results in the early years of his term, lifting the economy out of an unrelenting malaise and raising Abes international profile. A key factor in Abes economic platform was an effort to empower women, as he argued that increasing their participation in the workforce would help counterbalance a declining and ageing population. But some of the early promises of his Womenomics agenda  such as drastically raising the proportion of women in management and in government  did not come to fruition. Then-president Donald Trump shakes hands with Shinzo Abe in Japan in 2019. Credit:Bloomberg On the international stage, Abe was one of the few world leaders to maintain a consistently close relationship with President Donald Trump. He hosted two visits by the American leader, including one in which Trump met the newly enthroned emperor, Naruhito. Abe also hosted President Barack Obama when he became the first American president to visit Hiroshima, the site of one of the two atomic bombings by the US at the end of World War II.

And after years of a chilly relationship with China, Abe tried to usher in a warmer era, making the first visit to Beijing by a Japanese prime minister in seven years when he met with President Xi Jinping in 2018. After the Trump administration pulled out of a multinational trade agreement among the US and 11 other countries around the Pacific Rim, Abe kept the remaining countries in a coalition that enacted the pact in 2018 without the US. Shinzo Abe with Xi Jinping at the 2019 G-20 meeting in Osaka. Credit:Bloomberg He met dozens of times with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in the hopes of negotiating a settlement over four contested islands north of Japan that were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of the war. Abes father had long tried, and failed, to resolve the territorial dispute, and the son was unable to resolve it, too. As a result, the countries have yet to sign a peace treaty to officially end the war between them.

Shinzo Abe was born September 21, 1954, in Tokyo to Shintaro and Yoko Abe. His mother was the daughter of Nobusuke Kishi, who had been accused of war crimes by the occupying Americans but who was ultimately released from prison without appearing before the Allied war crimes tribunal. He served as prime minister from 1957 to 1960 and ardently opposed the constitution that his grandson, a half-century later, would try to revise. Loading Abes father also went into politics, serving as foreign minister and as an influential leader in the Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for all but four years since the end of the war. There was perhaps little question that Abe would eventually follow his father and grandfather into politics. He studied political science at Seikei University in Tokyo and spent a year at the University of Southern California, also studying political science. After a brief stint at Kobe Steel, Abe began his political career in 1982, serving as executive assistant to his father, who was then foreign minister.

He married Akie Matsuzaki, a daughter of a former president of Morinaga, one of Japans largest confectionary companies, in 1987. The couple never had children. The Japanese news media  and Akie Abe herself  occasionally described her as her husbands at-home opposition party, because she opposed nuclear power, which he supported, and expressed more progressive views than the prime minister on issues like gay rights. Shinzo Abe waves with his wife Akie Abe while boarding a plane heading for the US in 2018. Credit:AP After his father died in 1991, Abe was elected to his parliamentary seat from Yamaguchi prefecture in southwestern Japan in 1993. His first big break came in 2000, when he was appointed to serve as deputy chief secretary of the Liberal Democratic Party.

In that role, Abe accompanied Junichiro Koizumi, a popular maverick prime minister, to Pyongyang in 2002 to meet with the North Korean leader at the time, Kim Jong Il, to negotiate the release of Japanese citizens said to have been abducted by North Korean agents. The North released five abductees, and the politicians brought them back to Japan. Abes first rise to Japans top job came in 2006, when he was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats and became the first Japanese prime minister born after the end of the war. Shinzo Abe appears as the Nintendo game character Super Mario during the closing ceremony at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Credit:AP From the start, he emphasised his desire to revise the pacifist constitution and nudge Japan toward some level of independence from the US, which provided Japan with security in exchange for renouncing a full-fledged military and allowing US troops to be based around the country. By entrusting our national security to another country and putting a priority on economic development, we were indeed able to make great material gains, Abe wrote of the postwar era in his campaign book Toward a Beautiful Country. But what we lost spiritually  that was also great.

In seeking to revise the constitution, Abe angered China and South Korea, two victims of Japans 20th-century militarism. He also denied that the Japanese military had forced Asian women, primarily Koreans and Chinese, into sexual slavery during World War II, and he moved to alter school textbooks to present what critics called a whitewashed version of Japans wartime history. Loading But within a year, Abe stumbled, plagued by scandals in his Cabinet, and he was written off by the political establishment and news media. Citing ill health from ulcerative colitis, a bowel disease, he abruptly resigned in September 2007, throwing the party into disarray. His resignation was the beginning of a steep slide for the Liberal Democrats, culminating in the partys loss of Parliament in 2009 to the opposition Democratic Party. It was only the second time since the Liberal Democrats were formed in 1955 that they had been out of power. Yet the oppositions time in charge was marred by gaffes, and the administration ultimately collapsed as the public grew furious at its response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. By 2012, voters had returned the conservative Liberal Democrats to power, with Abe once more at the helm.

He seemed to have learned some lessons from his first term in office. He focused at first on lifting the moribund economy and reversing years of deflation, pulling Japan out of the so-called lost decades that followed the bursting of a huge property bubble in the 1980s. In targeting the economy in his second administration, we saw he became much more pragmatic and flexible, said Yuichi Hosoya, a political scientist at Keio University in Tokyo and a sometime foreign policy adviser to Abe. Shinzo Abe on the ground in Nara after being shot on Friday. Credit:AP Nevertheless, he held on to his ambition of returning Japan to a stronger military footing. In 2015, Abe pushed through a package of security bills that would allow Japans Self-Defence Forces to team up with allied troops to fight combat missions abroad. He also formed a national security council and helped increase Japans defence budget. Abe led his party to two more commanding victories in national elections, but he lost the supermajority in 2019 and was never able to push through a revision of the constitution.

But even after he stepped down as prime minister, Abe continued to wield considerable influence from behind the scenes. His hand-picked successor Yoshihide Suga, Abes chief Cabinet secretary, succeeded him when he resigned. When Suga was forced from office, Abe supported Sanae Takaichi, 60, a hard-line conservative, to be Japans first female prime minister. When she did not gain enough votes in a first round of party voting, Abe supported Kishida in order to prevent one of his chief rivals, Taro Kono, a former foreign and defence minister, from winning. A seller hands an extra edition of the news of the attack on Shinzo Abe, in Tokyo on Friday. Credit:Christopher Jue He could still draw enormous attention by floating controversial ideas, such as a proposal that Japan host US nuclear weapons. And as the Liberal Democrats campaigned for an upcoming Upper House election, Abes long-cherished hope to revise the constitution remained a key plank in their platform.
These were not isolated incidents, nor were they Johnsons personal fault. But the ongoing failure to address Westminsters culture will only see more leaders brought down by the unscrupulous who get drunk, literally and figuratively, with power. Johnson, despite the rot setting in around his leadership over the numerous parties held at No.10 Downing Street against lockdown rules, has never been a partier himself. But his well-documented affairs  he is thrice-married  meant he could never require a standard of personal behaviour like the bonk ban Malcolm Turnbull imposed on his cabinet after Barnaby Joyces affair with then staffer Vikki Campion. Indeed, in 2004 then opposition leader Michael Howard sacked Johnson from his frontbench for lying about his affair with writer Petronella Wyatt, and Johnsons third and current wife Carrie was working for the party as its director of communications when they began their affair.

This, combined with his innate libertarianism, perhaps explains why Johnson was quick to dismiss concerns about Chris Pinchers personal behaviour when he made him deputy whip in February. Pincher by name, Pincher by nature, was how Johnson had famously referred to him, according to Johnsons former chief adviser Dominic Cummings. Johnson has not denied using this expression. Imagine being a rookie fresh from school and needing to raise a complaint about your bosss unwanted advance when the office manager is their spouse, relative or friend. It all came undone last week, spectacularly, when Pincher was accused by two men of groping them after a drinking session at the members-only Carlton Club. Johnsons office initially said he was not aware of any previous allegations of misconduct when he gave Pincher the key government post, but his office later acknowledged Johnson knew about an investigation that upheld similar complaints in 2019.

It was one lie and one concealment too many for his key ministers. Johnson is right to point to alcohol as a factor, but it is not the whole story. One only needs to glance through the 37-page report into the Downing Street parties compiled by civil servant Sue Gray to see how ingrained the problem is. It documented the excessive alcohol consumption and drunkenness culture that ended in red wine spilled on the wall, fights and vomiting after pizza and karaoke sessions. Chris Pincher, whose appointment as deputy chief whip in the Johnson government brought his prime minister undone. Credit:AP That this was done during lockdown was politically criminal. That it happens in a workplace at any time says much about what passes as acceptable in the British halls of power. Boozing and schmoozing have always been seen as somewhat necessary in relationship-based fields like politics, but in Westminster if you want to get on the drinking train until 3am on any given night you can, and too many do.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces his resignation. Credit:Getty But staffers who have worked in both Canberra and Westminster say other factors contribute. They point to Britains particularly low rates of pay for parliamentary researchers, poor resourcing of MPs offices and a culture of nepotism in political offices. The pay, as low as 21,000 ($36,800), means only the young or very ambitious are attracted. This makes them vulnerable to an MP who tells them that loyalty, shutting up and putting your head down are the way to get ahead. They also complain about a general lack of professionalism in the way Commons staffing is run, with no centralised Department of Finance, as in Australia, and ad hoc administration.

Imagine being a rookie fresh from school and needing to raise a complaint about your bosss unwanted advance when the office manager is their spouse, relative or friend. None of this serves as an excuse for those who still, in 2022, cannot understand that groping, asking and pressuring for sex are not on. Drinking alcohol does not alone make a sex pest. But it does go towards creating an environment ripe for power imbalance and exploitation. More often than not, it is young staffers who are most at risk in this environment. (This is separate to special advisers, mostly male, who are paid very well and work for cabinet ministers rather than backbenchers.) The MeToo movement often focuses on younger women at the mercy of sleazy male MPs, but Salma Shah, a former special adviser, says young gay men are also vulnerable. She says this is partly because of the complexities of airing complaints concerning those who are not yet out, as well as perceptions of gay culture. I think it is different for gay men, she said. There is a different culture. I think that can be more difficult, especially in circumstances where people arent open about their sexuality.

Loading Another former staffer who worked at the highest levels in the British government said the late nights, MPs and staffers working away from home, the attraction to power and the risk-taking politicians often indulge in were also factors. But the nub of it all is that the reluctance to actively address the culture means victims are not empowered to speak out. Which is why Johnson identifying alcohol as a problem is only part of the journey required for genuine enlightenment. Sexual harassment scandals contributed to Boris Johnsons demise, but the structural problems long pre-date him.
WAFA correspondent said that, since the early morning the worshipers arrived in large numbers from Jerusalem, the West Bank districts and from inside Israel to attend the prayer of Eid al-Adha.

Eid al-Adha, known as the ``Feast of Sacrifice'', commemorates the Quranic tale of Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice Ismail as an act of obedience to God. Before he could carry out the sacrifice, God provided a ram as an offering.

She also reported that, the Israeli police set up dozens of roadblocks, conducted extensive searches and checks on Palestinians and their ID cards, and prevented many of them from reaching the holy site.

Al Aqsa Mosque compound is a site considered holy by Muslims as they believe that the Prophet Mohammed travelled from Mecca to Jerusalem and ascended to heaven from the site.

The compound located in East Jerusalem and Known as Haram Al Sharif to Muslims. It includes Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock mosque.

Al Aqsa Mosque compound is a part of the internationally-recognized Palestinian territories that have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.

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Russian troops pursued their "relentless" shelling of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region on Saturday as Ukrainian officials warned Moscow was preparing for further attacks and Washington promised new military aid to Kyiv.

Having endured long battles to capture cities in the neighbouring Lugansk region, Russia is now seeking to push deeper into Donetsk to consolidate its hold over the entire Donbas region.

Air raid sirens sounded overnight throughout the country's east and south.

Residents in the small town of Druzhkivka, south of the eastern Ukrainian industrial city of Kramatorsk, woke up to a suspected missile attack on Saturday which ripped apart a supermarket and left a massive crater outside.

Ukrainian officials said on Saturday five people were killed in the Donetsk region in the past 24 hours while seven were injured.

"The entire frontline is under relentless shelling," Donetsk military administration chief, Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a Telegram message on Friday night.

He said the city of Sloviansk, on which Moscow's troops have now set their sights, is being "shelled day and night".

He also accused Russian forces of setting agricultural fields on fire, saying they were "trying to destroy the harvest by all means".

Lugansk governor Sergiy Gaiday, said on Saturday the Russians were attacking Donetsk from their bases in his region.

"We are trying to contain their armed formations along the entire frontline... Where it is inconvenient for them to go forward, they create real hell, shelling the territories on the horizon," he said.

Kyrylenko warned the Russians were in the process of replenishing troops in the region to prepare for further assaults.

Oleksandr Vilkul, the mayor of President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, said on Saturday Russia had attacked the city with cluster munitions, killing at least one person and injuring two.

'Terrorising Cities'

Zelensky said in his nightly address on Friday he had spent the day on the frontlines in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, where he met civilian and military leaders.

"The eyes of all aggressive political movements and regimes in the world are now focused on what Russia is doing against us, against Ukraine," Zelensky said Saturday in an Instagram post.

"Will the world be able to bring real war criminals to justice?" he asked, warning failure to do so would lead to "hundreds of other aggressions".

But in a Telegram message on Saturday, an official from the region's military administration warned Russia had "intentionally shelled residential areas", and had not stopped "terrorising" cities and villages.

The Ukrainian general staff said the majority of bombardments took place in east Ukraine and the second-largest city of Kharkiv but there was no ground offensive.

In the south, the mayor of Mykolaiv begged citizens not to leave shelters, as he said explosions were heard throughout the night.

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk was quoted by Ukrainian media as urging people in occupied areas to evacuate by any means possible.

"Massive fighting is going to happen," she said.

Kharkiv governor Oleg Sinegubov on Saturday said four people were injured in attacks on the region, adding that the Russians were "engaged in defensive actions".

'Further Evolution Of Support'

In a boost to Kyiv, Washington announced $400 million of further military aid, including a type of artillery ammunition with "greater precision", and that has previously not been sent.

"It's a further evolution in our support for Ukraine in this battle in the Donbas," a senior defence official was quoted by the US Department of Defense as saying.

Also included in the aid package are four additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems to add to eight already in place.

"From a security assistance perspective, this is a steady drumbeat now, and it is a long-term commitment to Ukraine," the same official was quoted as saying.

Britain's defence ministry on Saturday said the first group of up to 10,000 inexperienced Ukrainian military recruits began training in England as part of a UK-led programme.

US Urges China To Condemn 'Aggression'

The United States also put pressure on Russia diplomatically at a meeting of Group of 20 foreign ministers in Indonesia.

Washington and allies condemned Russia's assault ahead of the gathering before Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov faced what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called a barrage of Western criticism at the closed-door talks.

Blinken on Saturday called for China to distance itself from Russia after talks with his Chinese counterpart in Indonesia.

Blinken said he told Wang Yi "this really is a moment where we all have to stand up, as we heard country after country in the G20 do, to condemn the aggression, to demand among other things that Russia allow access to food that is stuck in Ukraine".

He added there were "no signs" Moscow was willing to engage after the G20 talks.

"If there is an opportunity for diplomacy, we will seize it," he said.

Lavrov was defiant Friday and accused Western nations of avoiding "talking about global economic issues" instead of the war.

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A gusty thunderstorm or downpour this evening, otherwise partly cloudy, warm, and very muggy. .

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The Egyptian Ministry of Local Development and State Ministry for Military Production have signed a joint contract worth EGP 323 million with Cairo Public Transport Authority to buy 70 home-made electric MCV C120 buses.

The deal is part of preparations to operate electric vehicles in Sharm El-Sheikh during and after the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) scheduled for November, Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy said in a statement on Saturday.

The local development minister affirmed that a fleet of buses running on electricity and natural gas, as well as electric vehicles, will be available in the Red Sea resort city starting September and October.

The new contract targets manufacturing 70 electric buses for Cairo Public Transport Authority in cooperation between the State Ministry for Military Production and the Manufacturing Commercial Vehicles (MCV) company, according to Egypts Minister of State for Military Production Mohamed Ahmed Morsy

The trilateral agreement allows the first ever fully electric bus to be manufactured in Egypt, Morsy added.

The C120 buses move at a maximum speed of 70 kilometres-per-hour and can run for 300-350 kilometres on a charge, Morsy said, noting that buses are composed of more than 60 percent locally manufactured components.

The body of the bus is fully designed and made in Egypt of anti-rust steel and contributes to reducing carbon emissions, noise and heat, Morsy added. The buses also have wifi, air conditioning and a USB charger in each seat.

Shaarawy, Morsy and Cairo Governor Khaled Abdel-Aal attended the signing ceremony along with MCV Chairman Karim Ghabbour and senior officials.

Egypts MCV is a leading vehicle manufacturer and the general distributor for Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles in Egypt.

Shaarawy lauded the governments efforts developing the national industry of vehicles running on natural gas and electricity under the directives of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in preparation for COP27.

In March, Egypts government announced that it will provide 300 natural gas-powered and electric buses to transport delegations participating in COP27.

The measure is the latest in the countrys efforts to transform the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm El-Sheikh into an eco-friendly city in preparation for the event.

The conference is set to be attended by 30,000 participants and 120 heads of state, according to previous remarks by South Sinai Governor Khaled Fouda.

The city has recently embarked on several projects to prepare for the COP27, including increasing green spaces and promoting electric vehicles to lower carbon emissions.

The citys hotels and tourist and government facilities will also be operated by natural gas.

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Whether the Keeyask dam should have been built is the focus of this opportune study, which also details how meeting the needs of a business-oriented Crown corporation while respecting the cultural expectations of northern Manitobas Indigenous inhabitants is a delicate balancing act.

Whether the Keeyask dam should have been built is the focus of this opportune study, which also details how meeting the needs of a business-oriented Crown corporation while respecting the cultural expectations of northern Manitobas Indigenous inhabitants is a delicate balancing act.

This most recent hydroelectric station built by Manitoba Hydro on the Nelson River began transmitting power in February 2021 along an equally controversial Bipole III transmission line, and follows a string of several earlier stations built in northern Manitoba, beginning with the Kelsey station in the 1950s.

In Our Backyard

The relatively cheap electrical energy that first supported the Thompson nickel mine  and now feeds an ever-growing, modern provincial economy  is frequently touted as a green alternative to fossil fuels, but even prior to Keeyask, earlier dams had changed the rivers flow patterns, affecting beaver and muskrat habitat, disrupting caribou migratory routes and flooding sets of rapids where sturgeon spawned, depriving northern residents of centuries-old fur and food sources.

Windfall profits from sales to other jurisdictions often justify the costs of hydroelectric development to a debt-laden provincial Crown corporation, but as this timely study affirms, problems arise in justifying the costs handed to certain people and their environment.

Co-editors Aimee Craft, an Indigenous lawyer from Winnipeg and associate professor at the faculty of law at the University of Ottawa, and Jill Blakley, an associate professor in the department of geography and planning at the University of Saskatchewan, reveal how the construction of dams has altered the five largest rivers in the province along with six of its 12 largest lakes, changing the future for several Indigenous communities.

Craft and Blakley are actively involved in issues pertaining to land and water usage. In this book they  along with an eclectic literary panel of academics, researchers and environmental advocates from Manitoba and other provinces, as well as Indigenous community members from several northern First Nations  show why true reconciliation with Indigenous people must acknowledge the effects of hydro development.

In Our Backyard is an aptly titled collection of heartfelt personal observations and rigorously researched, amply documented scholarly analyses that expose how massive dams have affected formerly pristine landscapes while generating the electricity used by southern Manitobas industries and its people.

Images of unconcerned urban-dwelling NIMBYs being cooled by humming air conditioners may cross readers minds when encountering the words of a northern community member, speaking in Cree at a public hearing held in Winnipeg in 2013 regarding the Keeyask project then being proposed: You killed the land. You killed the water. You killed the fish. You killed the Indian.

This comprehensive study encompasses the six-decades-long evolution of hydroelectric development in Manitoba, revealing the effects of dam construction on northern Manitobas river system and tracing the transition from authoritative pronouncements made by Manitoba Hydro to its present-day partnering with Indigenous communities regarding employment and profit-sharing opportunities.

Ending with suggestions for better consultative processes prior to future hydro projects, In Our Backyard offers appendices that further dispel the notion of hydroelectricity being a clean and green energy source.

They include a verbatim apology issued in 2015 by Manitobas then-premier, Greg Selinger, to the community of Pimicikamak (formerly Cross Lake First Nation), followed by Chief Cathy Merricks appreciation for the gesture, while reminding him, Our lands, water, and resources are still a mess.

Several panel contributors support the co-editors view that the Keeyask development goes far beyond the energy consumption needs of Manitobans, a sentiment echoed in another appendix citing an excerpt from an Economic Review of Bipole III and Keeyask conducted by former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall and released in 2020.

Yet when recent historic snowfall amounts raised water levels in the Keeyask dams reservoir, helping the stations seven huge generators deliver hydroelectricity to Midwestern states at higher-than-anticipated prices, millions of dollars flowed into Manitoba Hydro coffers, temporarily silencing some critics but emphasizing the difficulty in balancing benefits and costs of hydroelectric development.

Joseph Hnatiuk is a retired teacher who remembers just opening or closing windows to stay cool.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Tony Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in The Sopranos and brought his tough-guy swagger to films including Goodfellas, died Friday. He was 79.

FILE - Tony Sirico who plays Paulie Walnuts on the HBO series "The Sopranos" arrives for the premiere of the show's fourth season in this Thursday, Sept. 5, 2002, at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in The Sopranos and brought his tough-guy swagger to films including Goodfellas, died Friday, July 8, 2022. He was 79. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Tony Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in "The Sopranos" and brought his tough-guy swagger to films including "Goodfellas," died Friday. He was 79.

Sirico died at an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said his manager, Bob McGowen. There was no immediate information on the cause of death.

FILE - Tony Sirico, who plays the role of Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri in the hit HBO television series "The Sopranos", poses for photographers as he arrives to the world premiere of the sixth season in New York, Tuesday, March 7, 2006. Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in The Sopranos and brought his tough-guy swagger to films including Goodfellas, died Friday, July 8, 2022. He was 79. (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson, File)

A statement from Sirico's family confirmed the death of Gennaro Anthony "Tony" Sirico "with great sadness, but with incredible pride, love and a whole lot of fond memories."

McGowan, who represented Sirico for more than two decades, recalled him as "loyal and giving," with a strong philanthropic streak. That included helping ex-soldiers' causes, which hit home for the Army veteran, his manager said.

Steven Van Zandt, who played opposite Sirico as fellow mobster Silvio Dante on "The Sopranos," saluted him on Twitter as "legendary."

"A larger than life character on and off screen. Gonna miss you a lot my friend," the actor and musician said.

Michael Imperioli, who portrayed Christopher Moltisanti on "The Sopranos," called Sirico his "dear friend, colleague and partner in crime."

"Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone ive ever known," Imperioli said on Instagram.

Sirico was unconcerned about being cast in a string of bad guy roles, McGowan said, most prominently that of Peter Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri in the 1999-2007 run of the acclaimed HBO drama starring James Gandolfini as mob boss Tony Soprano. (Gandolfini died in 2013 at age 51).

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"He didn't mind playing a mob guy, but he wouldn't play an informant," or as Sirico put it, a "snitch," McGowan said.

Sirico, born July 29, 1942, in New York City, grew up in the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods where he said "every guy was trying to prove himself. You either had to have a tattoo or a bullet hole."

"I had both," he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1990 interview, calling himself "unstable" during that period of his life. He was arrested repeatedly for criminal offenses, he said, and was in prison twice. In his last stint behind bars, in the 1970s, he saw a performance by a group of ex-convicts and caught the acting bug.

"I watched em and I thought, I can do that. I knew I wasnt bad looking. And I knew I had the (guts) to stand up and (bull) people," he told the Times. "You get a lot of practice in prison. I used to stand up in front of these cold-blooded murderers and kidnapers  and make em laugh."

Sirico also was cast outside the gangster mold, playing police officers in the films "Dead Presidents" and "Deconstructing Harry." Among his other credits were Woody Allen films including "Bullets over Broadway" and "Mighty Aphrodite," and appearances on TV series including "Miami Vice" and voice roles on "Family Guy" and "American Dad!"

Sirico is survived by daughter Joanne Sirico Bello; son Richard Sirico; his brother, Robert Sirico, a priest; and other relatives.
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi performed Eid El-Adha prayers at El-Moushir Tantawy Mosque in New Cairo suburb early on Saturday.

Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly and Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayyeb performed the prayers alongside the president.

Other ministers and senior state officials, including Minister of Defence and Military Production and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Mohamed Zaki also attended the prayers with the president.

Eid El-Adha (the Feast of the Sacrifice) is the second of two Muslim great festivals in the Islamic calendar. Eid El-Adha commemorates the Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail in an act of obedience to God.

The government has granted a one-week paid holiday for the public and private sectors on the occasion of Eid El-Adha from Saturday 9 July to Thursday 14 July.

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CALGARY - Suncor Energy Inc. chief executive Mark Little has stepped down as president and chief executive officer and resigned from its board of directors just one day after the company announced its oilsands operations have suffered another workplace fatality.

Suncor president and CEO Mark Little prepares to address the company's annual meeting in Calgary, Alta., Thursday, May 2, 2019. Suncor Energy says Little has stepped down as president and chief executive officer and resigned from the board of directors, effective immediately. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

CALGARY - Suncor Energy Inc. chief executive Mark Little has stepped down as president and chief executive officer and resigned from its board of directors just one day after the company announced its oilsands operations have suffered another workplace fatality.

Little's departure is effective immediately, the Calgary-based energy company said in a release Friday.

"Suncor is committed to achieving safety and operational excellence across our business, and we must acknowledge where we have fallen short and recognize the critical need for change," said board chair Michael Wilson.

On Thursday, Suncor announced that a contractor had been killed at its Base Mine north of Fort McMurray, Alta., the latest in a string of workplace deaths and safety incidents that have plagued the energy giant. Since 2014, there have been at least 12 deaths at Suncor sites, more than all of its oilsands rivals combined.

Little's departure also comes less than three months after well-known U.S.-based activist investor Elliot Investment Management wrote a letter calling for an overhaul of Suncor's board and management. Elliot highlighted Suncor's safety track record, as well as other operational challenges and the company's lagging share price.

Elliot never launched a formal proxy battle for control of Suncor's board, and the activist investor has been publicly silent on the energy company since the spring.

Under Little's management, Suncor announced a series of initiatives aimed at improving safety at the company, including a third-party review and the implementation of new fatigue management and collision avoidance technology.

But Josh Young, chief investment officer at Bison Interests, said Little's sudden exit is proof that "the activists are in charge in some way."

"I think it's indicative of Elliot having more control than you might think," Young said in an interview. "There was probably an expectation that safety would be further prioritized and the activist investor found it unacceptable to have an additional fatality event."

Young added it's possible Little's days at Suncor were numbered even before Thursday's workplace death. He said Elliot  which has a track record of targeting large corporations it views as underperformers  is probably looking for improved financial performance at Suncor, and the company's efforts so far may not have proven to be enough.

"This (workplace death) may have been an excuse for the board to fire the CEO," Young said. "It's possible this is not about safety. It's possible it's about money."

Suncor said in its news release that Kris Smith, who is currently executive vice-president of Suncor's Downstream division, has been named interim CEO.

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The company also thanked Little, who joined Suncor in 2008 and has been CEO since 2019, for his years of service and wished him well.

"We commend Mark for his professionalism and the exceptional work he did to guide Suncor through the pandemic and lead our sector's progressive approach to the energy transition," said board chair Wilson.

Suncor's board has formed a committee to conduct a global search to select the company's next CEO and is engaging a global executive recruiting firm to help with the process.

Before Friday's events, Suncor was slated to host an "oilsands operational presentation'' on July 13 to update investors on the changes it is making in support of safe and reliable operations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 8, 2022.

Companies in this story: (TSX:SU)
Elon Musk announced Friday that he will abandon his tumultuous $44 billion offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts. Twitter immediately fired back, saying it would sue the Tesla CEO to uphold the deal.

FILE - The Twitter application is seen on a digital device, April 25, 2022, in San Diego. Elon Musks tumultuous $44 billion bid to buy Twitter is on the verge of collapse, after the Tesla CEO sent a letter to Twitters board, Friday, July 8, 2022, saying he is terminating the acquisition. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

Elon Musk announced Friday that he will abandon his tumultuous $44 billion offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts. Twitter immediately fired back, saying it would sue the Tesla CEO to uphold the deal.

The likely unraveling of the acquisition was just the latest twist in a saga between the worlds richest man and one of the most influential social media platforms, and it may portend a titanic legal battle ahead.

Twitter could have pushed for a $1 billion breakup fee that Musk agreed to pay under these circumstances. Instead, it looks ready to fight to complete the purchase, which the companys board has approved and CEO Parag Agrawal has insisted he wants to consummate.

In a letter to Twitter's board, Musk lawyer Mike Ringler complained that his client had for nearly two months sought data to judge the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on the social media platform.

Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musks requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information, the letter said.

Musk also said the information is fundamental to Twitters business and financial performance, and is needed to finish the merger.

In response, the chair of Twitter's board, Bret Taylor, tweeted that the board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon" with Musk and "plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

The trial court in Delaware frequently handles business disputes among the many corporations, including Twitter, that are incorporated there.

Former President Donald Trump weighed in on his own social platform, Truth Social: THE TWITTER DEAL IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE TRUTH. Musk said in May that he would allow Trump, who was banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, back onto the platform.

Much of the drama surrounding the deal has played out on Twitter, with Musk  who has more than 100 million followers  lamenting that the company was failing to live up to its potential as a platform for free speech.

On Friday, shares of Twitter fell 5% to $36.81, well below the $54.20 that Musk agreed to pay. Shares of Tesla, meanwhile, climbed 2.5% to $752.29. After the market closed and Musk's letter was published, Twitter's stock continued to decline while Tesla climbed higher.

"This is a disaster scenario for Twitter and its board, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to investors. He predicted a long court fight by Twitter to either restore the deal or get the $1 billion breakup fee.

On Thursday, Twitter sought to shed more light on how it counts spam accounts in a briefing with journalists and company executives. Twitter said it removes 1 million spam accounts each day. The accounts represent well below 5% of its active user base each quarter.

To calculate how many accounts are malicious spam, Twitter said it reviews thousands of accounts sampled at random, using both public and private data such as IP addresses, phone numbers, location and account behavior when active, to determine whether an account is real.

Last month, Twitter offered Musk access to its fire hose of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets, according to multiple reports at the time, though neither the company nor Musk confirmed that.

One of the chief reasons Musk gave for his interest in taking Twitter private was his belief he could add value to the business by getting rid of its spam bots  the same problem that hes now citing as a reason to end the deal.

This whole process has been bizarre, said Christopher Bouzy, founder of research firm Bot Sentinel, which tracks fake Twitter accounts used for disinformation or harassment. He knew about this problem. Its odd that he would use bots and trolls and inauthentic accounts as a way of getting out of the deal.

On the other hand, Bouzy said, the letter from Musks legal team makes some valid critiques of Twitters lack of transparency, including its apparent refusal to provide Musk with the same level of internal data it offers some of its big customers.

It just seems as if theyre hiding something, said Bouzy, who also believes the number of fake or spam Twitter accounts is higher than what the company has reported.

Musk's lawyer also alleged that Twitter broke the agreement when it fired two top managers and laid off a third of its talent-acquisition team.

The sale agreement, he wrote, required Twitter to seek and obtain consent if it deviated from conducting normal business. Twitter was required to preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organization, the letter said.

Musks flirtation with buying Twitter appeared to begin in late March. Thats when Twitter said he contacted members of its board  including co-founder Jack Dorsey  and told them he was buying up shares of the company and was interested in either joining the board, taking Twitter private or starting a competitor.

Then, on April 4, he revealed in a regulatory filing that he had became the companys largest shareholder after acquiring a 9% stake worth about $3 billion.

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At first, Twitter offered Musk a seat on its board. But six days later, Agrawal tweeted that Musk would not be joining the board after all. His bid to buy the company came together quickly after that.

When Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, he inserted a 420 marijuana reference into his price. He sold roughly $8.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla to help fund the purchase, then strengthened his commitments of more than $7 billion from a diverse group of investors including Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

Inside Twitter, Musks offer was met with confusion and falling morale, especially after Musk publicly criticized one of Twitters top lawyers involved in content-moderation decisions.

Groups opposing the takeover from the outset  including those advocating for women, minorities and LGBTQ people  cheered Friday's news.

Despite what Musk may claim, this deal isnt ending because of Twitter bots or spam accounts. This deal is collapsing because of Elon Musks own erratic behavior, embrace of extremists and bad business decisions, said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, a left-leaning nonprofit watchdog group thats been critical of Musks Twitter bid.

Musk, he said, made it clear that he would roll back Twitters community standards and safety guidelines, which would turn the platform into a fever swamp of dangerous conspiracy theories, partisan chicanery and white supremacist radicalization.
Gas stations are almost foreign territory for Ian Walker.

Gas stations are almost foreign territory for Ian Walker.

Prices climb to record highs  $1.99 per litre one day, more than $2 the next  and Walker cruises by, unaffected.

Hes one of a growing number of Manitobans whove shifted their feet from gas pedals to the footholds of electric bikes and scooters.

"If were going long distances, the e-bike is amazing," Walker, 41, said. "Ive found the e-bike is replacing car trips."

Hes cycled his Urban Arrow to Birds Hill Provincial Park. One "wickedly windy" May day, he loaded his son in the bikes front basket and trekked him to a birthday party a half hours ride away.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES If were going long distances, the e-bike is amazing, Ian Walker said. Ive found the e-bike is replacing car trips.

"It wouldve been way too much work on a conventional bike," Walker said.

Hell adjust the bikes motor to work in tandem with him as he lugs equipment to his Grade 3 classroom, as he comes home from a grocery store and as he battles weather conditions.

Walker isnt new to the e-bike industry  hes been a rider for two years  but the number of people joining him has skyrocketed in tandem with the rising cost of fuel.

"Its been explosive," said Michael Pasquali, president of the Canadian Electric Bike Association.

Governments dont track the number of e-bike users, so growth rates are anecdotal, Pasquali said. Still, the association has noted a sharp uptick in the past months by talking with Canadian shop owners.

"With gas prices, obviously, its put a big crunch on people," Pasquali said.

A typical e-bike charge costs about 10 to 25 cents, he said. Owners plug their bikes lithium batteries into electrical outlets; Walkers bike takes four hours to recharge.

With gas prices, obviously, its put a big crunch on people.  Michael Pasquali

Its a roughly $3 to $5 increase to the monthly Hydro bill, depending on the rider, Pasquali said. A typical e-bike charge has a distance of 30 to 60 kilometres, he said.

"There are not many things you can invest in today thats going to pay for itself as quickly as an e-bike," he said.

The two-wheelers can range from around $1,000 to upwards of $15,000.

Woodcock Cycle Works on St. Marys Road has more than doubled the number of e-bike sales this year compared to last, owner Tim Woodcock said.

"In Canada, were just hitting the point where theyre becoming more recognized," Woodcock said.

DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Woodcock Cycle Works on St. Marys Road has more than doubled the number of e-bike sales this year compared to last, owner Tim Woodcock said.

Hell take his down city streets, along gravel floodway paths and through grassy plains. He might bump the bikes motor to a higher setting, meaning it does more work and he doesnt break a sweat.

En route home, Woodcock might choose eco-mode to "get more of a workout." E-bikes in Manitoba have a maximum speed of 32 km/h.

Kevin McLaren sold five electric bikes in 2017, his first year of bringing them to market through More Than Bikes.

This summer, he might sell five in a week.

"Once the gas started hitting $2, the demand for bikes picked up," McLaren said.

So has the desire for electric scooters.

"The high-end ones weve sold more of  a lot more than we did last year," McLaren said.

Then, More Than Bikes sold more scooters in the $2,000 to $2,500 range, he said. This year, models costing $4,000 to $6,000 are more popular.

"(Customers) went with bigger batteries and that so they could get a farther range," he said.

Once the gas started hitting $2, the demand for bikes picked up.  Kevin McLaren

Gas-powered scooters, known as mopeds, have also entered the spotlight.

Jennifer Abel swapped her Kia Niro for a canary yellow Vespa to get around Virden, her home community.

"The thought of driving an entire summer on likely about $50 for gas is very appealing," Abel said.

The 49-year-old said she bought the Vespa to celebrate her 50th birthday, but the gas savings are a major perk. The tank fills up  with premium gas  for less than $15, Abel said.

"Ive driven 35 km on it so far and it hasnt even come off F, (for full)" she said.

She didnt need a new licence  the vehicle has a top speed of 50 km/h, and her Class 5 drivers licence is sufficient. However, she needed to get a licence plate and basic insurance.

Electric scooters, which have a maximum speed of 32 km/h, dont require users to have a licence, but drivers to be at least 14 years old.

"I believe the culture of scooters has grown so much, and every year, it grows more," said Leehee Hasid, general manager of Scooter City.

Neither electric nor gas-powered scooters stay in the Main Street retailer long before being sold, Hasid said.

ETHAN CAIRNS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Orly Hasid owner and Leehee Hasid of Scooter City. Neither electric nor gas-powered scooters stay in the Main Street retailer long before being sold, Hasid said.

"Once you ride it, you really get addicted to it," she said.

Manitoba had 1,632 registered mopeds as of March 31, an increase of 28 from the previous year, said Kristy Rydz, Manitoba Public Insurances communications manager.

Both figures are from before gas prices spiked.

Abel is keeping her Kia. She cant take her yellow Vespa on the highway, and shes a regular highway user.

Walker avoids driving his familys electric car whenever possible, but its still an option. Hes also on the Peg City Car Co-ops board and borrows vehicles when needed, like the pickup truck he took to this years Winnipeg Folk Festival.

"Weve designed Winnipeg to be very car-dependent," Walker said. "Its a hard city to live in without a car. Now its leaving people at the mercy of the fossil fuel industry."

Weve designed Winnipeg to be very cardependent... Its a hard city to live in without a car. Now its leaving people at the mercy of the fossil fuel industry.  Ian Walker

Walker will ride his e-bike in the middle of winter if roads and paths are cleared.

"As long as its dry on the ground, you can still ride your e-bike," said Pasquali from the Canadian Electric Bike Association.

A major problem facing the industry is a lack of mechanics with expertise, he added.

"Theyre pulling parts off and trying to plug parts in until they figure out the problem," said Pasquali, who heads a program for new technicians through Canadian bike association. "You want it to be standardized, just like a mechanic."

Without mechanics proper training, bikes that need fixing will remain in shops or must be sent back without repair, Pasquali said.

There are a "few hundred" e-bike technicians across Canada, he said. He wouldnt give an exact number but said theres plenty of room for more.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com
TRURO, N.S. - The soldiers comprising the only all-Black unit to fight for Canada during the First World War experienced systemic hate and racism before, during and after their time in uniform, the Prime Minister said on Saturday as he formally apologized for the treatment they endured.

Minister of Defence Anita Anand speaks during an announcement at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Trenton, Ont., on Monday June 20, 2022. Federal government and Armed Forces officials will be in Nova Scotia today to issue a formal apology for the treatment of Canada's only all-Black unit to serve in the First World War.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

TRURO, N.S. - The soldiers comprising the only all-Black unit to fight for Canada during the First World War experienced systemic hate and racism before, during and after their time in uniform, the Prime Minister said on Saturday as he formally apologized for the treatment they endured.

Justin Trudeau offered the apology as descendants of the No. 2 Construction battalion's 600 members gathered in Truro, N.S., on the same grounds where the unit formed prior to deployment overseas in March 1917.

Trudeau said he was there to apologize for the appalling way the patriots were treated.

"As a country, we failed to recognize their contributions for what they were -- their backbreaking work, their sacrifice, their willingness to put their country before their self," Trudeau told the crowd.

Hundreds of Black men in Canada were turned away when they volunteered to fight overseas in 1914 because they weren't wanted in what was considered a white man's war.

Following two years of protests, the Canadian military received approval in 1916 to establish the segregated, non-combat battalion and more than 300 of those who enlisted were from Nova Scotia.

Minister of Defence Anita Anand speaks during a news conference on April 25, 2022, in Ottawa. Federal government and Armed Forces officials will be in Nova Scotia today to issue a formal apology for the treatment of Canada's only all-Black unit to serve in the First World War. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Only a few of its members would see combat, mainly because the battalion was repeatedly told its help wasn't wanted on the front lines, and they received no public recognition when they returned home.

The unit supported three major forestry operations while overseas, working lumber mills and maintaining roads and railway equipment.

Some members assisted in constructing a narrow gauge logging railroad. They also supervised Russian soldiers sent to their camp as labourers.

The Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces have said the systemic racism endured by the men of No. 2 Construction Battalion qualifies as hateful conduct.

"For the overt racism of turning Black volunteers away to sacrifice their lives for all -- we are sorry," Trudeau said as descendants of the battalion applauded.

"For not letting Black service members fight alongside their white compatriots, for denying members of the No. 2 Construction Battalion the care and support they deserved -- we are sorry. For failing to honour and commemorate the contribution of No. 2 Construction Battalion and their descendants, for the blatant anti-Black hate and racism that denied these men dignity in life and death  we are sorry."

Federal Defence Minister Anita Anand told the crowd that she is committed to taking action to change the culture of the Canadian Armed Forces to make them more inclusive and diverse.

"I am committed to eliminating systemic racism so that the discrimination faced by the No. 2 Construction Battalion, and those who followed, never happens again," she said.

Many of the descendants of the battalion members said they were pleased with the apology and the fact more people will learn of the unit's history.

"I'm really proud. It's been a long time coming," said Master Corp. Nolan Reddick from New Glasgow, N.S.

The 21-year veteran of the Armed Forces said his great-uncle George Reddick served in the battalion and often mentioned the poor quality of the boots given to the Black soldiers compared to those given to their white comrades.

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Reddick said his great-uncle said the people of France treated them better than Canadians at home.

Tamara Tynes Powell from Truro said the history of the battalion can't be hidden anymore.

Her grandfather's uncle, Jack Tynes, was a member of the battalion, and she said the apology helps provide the respect the men deserve.

"The apology shows that even though they were treated less than human men, they are more than heroes now," she said.

Trudeau announced that next year, during Black History Month, the Royal Canadian Mint will issue a pure silver collector coin honouring the No. 2 Construction Battalion.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 9, 2022.
LVIV  Svitlana Nahorna arrives most days at her office at the crack of dawn and leaves long after the sun has set.

LVIV  Svitlana Nahorna arrives most days at her office at the crack of dawn and leaves long after the sun has set.

She works in one of those overly modern office spaces, with fancy coffee machines and an open-concept restaurant on the ground floor, and a room where employees can come and chill on communal benches during breaks.

SARAH LAWRYNUIK PHOTO Born in Ukraine, Winnipegger Zoya Kostetsky has found ways to connect with fundraising efforts in her homeland.

Nahorna pours an evening coffee as her phone lights up and blares that now-familiar sound of an air-raid siren. Her interview with the Free Press will have to be done from the bomb shelter.

"When we had the last rocket attack  or even maybe not the last, but the one before the last  I was here with two co-workers and they decided that they would leave during this alarm. And then, they ended up seeing the rocket with their own eyes," Nahorna said as she settled into the brick-walled room.

Nahorna, 30, works as an auditor for a big multinational corporation. She never imagined being the president of a charity that she started with a ragtag group of co-workers, but when war struck she knew she had no choice in the matter. They founded a group called Lemberg Volunteers that has been raising funds locally and internationally to help supply the frontline military units with non-lethal items they need  night vision gear, food, body armour, medical kits, and so on.

In the early days of war, it became clear that established aid organizations were unprepared to meet the immediate needs of the Ukrainian population as millions of people fled the country and thousands of soldiers prepared to fight. A larger network would be needed if resistance was to be successful, Nahorna said.

"The first day of the war, everyone was shocked. We just had our call with my team  its about 20 people," she said, as more of her co-workers filed into the shelter. "And we just started sharing our, lets say, emotions, I guess. Our fear. We did not understand what to do. Should we work? Should we continue our normal job? Because we have our projects, we have deadlines. But we realized that something had changed. You cant focus on anything."

SARAH LAWRYNUIK PHOTO Svitlana Nahorna shows off shell casings she was sent by Ukrainian soldiers grateful for her help.

And thus they decided that spare office space would be converted in storage rooms for the goods they started collecting and sending to the front. They put the call out to friends and family acquaintances for donations and they started coming in quickly. The joint venture gave them all a sense of purpose in the midst of the chaos. Since the war began, the group of a dozen co-workers has fundraised the equivalent of $384,510.

A world away, in Winnipeg, Zoya Kostetsky, 23, was feeling the same gripping anxiety, despite being physically safe in Canada. She was born in Ukraine and lived in Lviv until she was six years old when her parents relocated her to Winnipeg. But the connection runs deep even though the years have passed; Kostetsky still has family in Ukraine and even in Winnipeg shes just beginning her career as a Ukrainian teacher at R. F. Morrison School.

But like Nahorna, Kostetsky knew she couldnt sit idly in her anxiety. She took to her Instagram page. Shes a jewelry maker, under the handle Prairie Clay, and in February as the Russian invasion spread across the country, she switched her posts out from chic earrings, to posts about the death and destruction occurring in her home country.

"The response was just absolutely unbelievable in the best way. And so my account has kind of shifted into a fundraiser/volunteer page now," Kostetsky explained.

SARAH LAWRYNUIK PHOTO Svitlana Nahorna has sent pictures drawn by children to the frontline with other materials, to show soldiers they are not forgotten. Nahorna posts photos of the soldiers holding the pictures on her Instagram account.

Overwhelming numbers of people were hungry for answers about how they could help, and Kostetsky offered a conduit for shepherding funds to small groups on the ground who could deliver aid immediately where it was needed.

"Ive found so many different groups. We did a big medical order, we bought a bunch of stuff in Italy, a hospital there was willing to send a bunch of supplies directly to Ukraine. So we sent them money. One of my former students in Ukraine was collecting money for bulletproof vests. So I sent her money. She bought the bulletproof vests, and sent me pictures of them and everything," Kostetsky said.

"And theres an organization, a Ukraine-wide organization, and they have been housing a lot of refugees, especially children, and so we sent them money. Theyre spending it mostly on food and other necessities. I know they bought a stroller the other day for a mom, so yeah, just really, really necessary things that people are needing right now."

And thats how Kostetsky came across Nahornas work with Lemberg Volunteers. Through a friend of a friend, Kostetsky and Nahorna connected on Instagram and money donated in Canada quickly was being put to use by Lemberg Volunteers to purchase equipment going directly to the frontline. Both women operate as transparently as possible and post photos of the individuals receiving the aid in whatever form it comes. And this method of direct impact has paid off. Kostetsky has been able to raise more than $66,000 from her home in Winnipeg, with approximately $13,000 of that going to the Lemberg Volunteers alone.

SARAH LAWRYNUIK PHOTO Ukrainian citizen Maria Tokar has relocated to Warsaw where she sells bouquets made of paper and chocolates to raise money for the defence effort.

The World Bank estimates that remittances from foreign nations to Ukraine will increase by 20 per cent in 2022 because of the escalated war, which means tens of billions of dollars will flow from unofficial sources like Kostetsky from her home in Winnipeg.

But Canadians are not alone in sending funds into Ukraine to help bolster the war effort. In Warsaw, Poland, on the steps of the science and culture building, a troupe of teenagers sing Ukrainian folk songs with an open case in front of them. They say theyre sending the funds directly to the Ukrainian military.

In the shade of a tree in Warsaws old city, Maria Tokar, 21, sits and folds craft paper around blue and gold chocolates. She twists and crinkles the paper until shes created a whole bouquet of chocolate-centred tulips she then sells to raise money for various charities operating in Ukraine.

Tokar fled from the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro as fighting dragged on in the neighbouring provinces. For her, she explains, leaving for Poland wasnt about her own safety as much as it was about feeling powerless to help from within the country. But from Poland, she knew she could do more. She could work, she could volunteer, she could send money home.

SARAH LAWRYNUIK PHOTO Goods are prepared to be sent to the frontlines from Lemberg Volunteers.

"And its also an important thing that when people return to Ukraine, many cities are in ruins. So its economic troubles that will keep people from earning money. In Poland, I am able to work to make money for myself and I can also fundraise for help," Tokar said.

As the air raid siren ends in Lviv just over an hour later, Nahorna returns to her office to show off the equipment and goods that will be sent out in the coming days and weeks. Food and diapers for humanitarian aid, but most of the stuff is destined for the military.

Then she smiles, and she hauls out a big cardboard box.

"Some of the soldiers are so grateful that they want to send me gifts," she said. As she opens the flaps she reveals the shell of a four-foot tall munitions casing.

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SUPPLIED Svitlana Nahorna and her co-workers started the Lemberg Volunteers in February when the war began after Russia invaded Ukraine.

"I think I will turn it into a flower bed," Nahorna said with a laugh.

The long days are exhausting, she has essentially been working two full-time jobs for months on end. Its been difficult to watch other people go on with their lives as if the war isnt still going on, she says. But at the same time, she has had to start taking some time for normal things in her own life in order to keep going.

"For a long time I couldnt go and get a manicure," Nahorna said. "But then I realized, Russians will still keep killing Ukrainians whether my nails look bad or not. So I started taking that time. I started going back to coffee shops."

But even in those rare moments that she allows herself to enjoy the regular parts of life, Nahorna is thinking long and hard about how it is she is still free to do those things, and the soldiers to whom she will always feel indebted.

"You realize that you do not have an option but to help them. Because if they are ready to give their lives for my safety here, for me to have an opportunity to drink coffee in this cafe, then which options do I have? I do not have them."

 Special to the Free Press
Winnipeggers will be able to see the forest  and the trees  thanks to a multimillion-dollar contribution from the federal government.

Winnipeggers will be able to see the forest  and the trees  thanks to a multimillion-dollar contribution from the federal government.

The citys parks committee will hold a special meeting next week to approve the acceptance of up to $7.3 million from the federal government for the citys urban forest renewal capital budget.

Its anticipated the cash will result in the planting of 70,000 trees, especially in areas devastated by Dutch elm disease.

This is going to be good news with the federal government coming in, Coun. Sherri Rollins, the chairwoman of the committee, said on Friday.

We know Winnipeggers love their trees and we are celebrating this, Rollins said.

Last month, the city got word it could get federal money for its tree program as long as it agrees to cost-share the amount.

Because of the extra funding, the city is proposing to increase its current forest renewal program budget by $139,000 this year, followed by a $548,000 increase in 2023, about $2 million in 2024 and 2025, and $2.6 million in 2026.

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The federal money, from Natural Resources Canadas Two Billion Tree program, would match that funding annually. The program is available to municipalities, Indigenous organizations, and non-profit and for-profit organizations.

The federal government announced the program saying if two billion new trees could be planted over a decade it would help meet the governments goal of significant carbon reduction.

The city is looking to plant the trees on boulevards, active transportation pathways, and in parks, native woodlands and riverbank forests.

It would also help fund a community-based program to give trees to organizations that cant afford to plant them.

We know we need much more money. We have a serious gap we want to close faster, but this will help, Rollins said.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Manitoba Lt.-Gov. Janice Filmon thought last years speech from the throne would be her last. It may not be. After seven years serving as the Queens representative  the longest anyone has held the position in Manitoba in almost 70 years  there is still no word from Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus office on a replacement.

Manitoba Lt.-Gov. Janice Filmon thought last years speech from the throne would be her last. It may not be. After seven years serving as the Queens representative  the longest anyone has held the position in Manitoba in almost 70 years  there is still no word from Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus office on a replacement.

Thats putting considerable strain on Filmon and her husband, former Manitoba premier Gary Filmon, both of whom are in failing health.

The lieutenant governor battled cancer in 2019 for the second time in her life. Last year, she fell and broke her hip. Gary Filmon, who turns 80 next month, has a heart condition, making it increasingly difficult for him to fill in for the lieutenant governor (which he has done on numerous occasions in recent years). Trudeau is aware of the Filmons circumstances. Yet he has still not appointed a replacement.

His failure to do so is now bordering on abusive.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES After four decades of dedicated public service, the Filmons deserve to be relieved of their responsibilities.

The job of lieutenant governor is not a passive one, especially the way Filmon performs her duties. Requests come in every week for the lieutenant governor to host or attend public events, meet dignitaries and interact with the public. It can be an active job, if you make it one, as Filmon has. Shes in high demand and shes loath to turn down requests.

However, her ability to keep performing those duties has, for health reasons, become extremely difficult. After four decades of dedicated public service, the Filmons deserve to be relieved of their responsibilities. The fact Trudeau continues to ignore their plight is a disgrace. Its his job to appoint lieutenant governors to provincial legislative assemblies every five years. Hes not doing his job.

Filmon, who says shes been "blessed" and "honoured" to hold the position, was appointed vice-regal on June 19, 2015. Its the longest anyone has held the job in Manitoba since the early 1950s. The closest in recent history was George Johnson, who served as lieutenant governor for just over six years between 1986 and 1993.

You have to go back to the Second World War to find a lieutenant governor who has served longer than Filmon: Roland Fairburn McWilliams was Manitobas lieutenant governor for 13 years from 1940 to 1953.

You have to go back to the Second World War to find a lieutenant governor who has served longer than Filmon: Roland Fairburn McWilliams was Manitobas lieutenant governor for 13 years from 1940 to 1953.

Manitoba is not the only province where the prime minister has been derelict in his duty to appoint a new lieutenant governor. Ontarios Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell has been in the position for seven and a half years. Michel Doyon has been Quebecs lieutenant governor since Sept. 24, 2015. There is no set term for lieutenant governors. However, five years and change is the norm.

Trudeau eliminated an advisory board established by former prime minister Stephen Harper to nominate candidates to the position. The former process was an effective way to seek out qualified people for the job. Now, appointments are made directly through the prime ministers office (the governor general technically makes the appointment, on the advice of the prime minister). Obviously, that approach isnt working well. Either that or ensuring provinces have new lieutenant governors every five years is not a priority for Trudeau.

Instead, hes happy to exploit the good will and dedication to public service of people like Janice Filmon, who would never complain about her circumstance. She will likely keep doing the job as long as shes asked to.

MIKE SUDOMA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, Janice Filmon was appointed vice-regal on June 19, 2015. Its the longest anyone has held the job in Manitoba since the early 1950s.

Even if Trudeau announced an appointment this month to replace Filmon, a swearing-in likely wouldnt occur until the end of summer. Every week and month that goes by without word of a new lieutenant governor is preventing the Filmons from moving out of Government House (the lieutenant governors residence located beside the Legislative building) and enjoying whatever years they have left.

In her Nov. 23, 2021 speech from the throne, Filmon appeared to say her goodbyes, telling the legislative assembly it would probably be her final address. If this delay continues, it may not be.

The prime ministers failure to relieve the Filmons of their duties shows a profound lack of respect for a couple who have dedicated most of their adult lives to public service. They deserve better. Its time for the prime minister to do the right thing and appoint a new lieutenant governor in Manitoba.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca
The temperature hovered just below freezing on Jan. 15, 2010, when 11 people arrived at city hall for a Saturday meeting in the boardroom of then-chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl to discuss the downtown Winnipeg Police Service headquarters construction project.

The temperature hovered just below freezing on Jan. 15, 2010, when 11 people arrived at city hall for a Saturday meeting in the boardroom of then-chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl to discuss the downtown Winnipeg Police Service headquarters construction project.

The meeting was consequential for the controversial job, which sparked multiple audits, allegations of kickbacks and corruption, calls for a public inquiry and a five-year RCMP investigation that closed without criminal charges.

In the years since police moved into the new downtown HQ on Smith Street in 2014, the high-profile controversy has largely focused on Caspian Construction  the main building firm  and its various sub-contractors, who have never commented publicly.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Police (WPS) headquarters in Winnipeg at the corner of St Mary and Smith.

The City of Winnipeg alleges it was defrauded by the projects construction contractors and design team through a scheme of inflated and fabricated invoices  allegations that remain before Manitobas civil court.

But documents recently obtained by the Free Press show the municipal capital project was on shaky financial ground long before contracts were signed and shovels hit dirt.

By January 2010, when senior city staff and third-party consultants arrived for the weekend meeting at Sheegls office, the project had already entered choppy waters.

City councillors had recently learned the price tag for the project had skyrocketed  after being told it would cost $105 million to renovate the old Canada Post building, they were now being told the estimate had spiked to $155 million.

CAST OF CHARACTERS City of Winnipeg: Sam Katz  former mayor (2004-14). Phil Sheegl  former director of the property, planning and development department, who later served as chief administrative officer. Mike Ruta  former chief financial officer. Deepak Joshi  former director of the property, planning and development department, who also served a stint as acting chief administrative officer. click to read more City of Winnipeg: Sam Katz  former mayor (2004-14). Phil Sheegl  former director of the property, planning and development department, who later served as chief administrative officer. Mike Ruta  former chief financial officer. Deepak Joshi  former director of the property, planning and development department, who also served a stint as acting chief administrative officer. Jason Ruby  former manager of capital projects, currently the manager of finance and administration for the public works department. Iain Day  corporate finance. Winnipeg Police Service: Keith McKaskill  former chief of police. Devon Clunis  former chief of police. Abdul Aziz  civilian employee of the police service, who served two stints as WPS HQ project manager. Pat de Jong  manager of the auxiliary force cadets, who served on the WPS project team. Randy Benoit  police officer who served on the WPS HQ project team. Henry Hagenaars  retired police officer who served on the WPS HQ project team. AECOM  initial design team hired by city for the WPS HQ project. AAR  design team hired by city to replace AECOM. Peter Chang  AAR principal. Caspian Construction  construction contractor. Ossama Abouzeid  project director hired by city to replace Abdul Aziz. Bob Downs  Shindico Realty development manager who played a role in early stages of the WPS HQ construction project. KPMG  firm hired by city to audit the WPS HQ construction project following revelations of cost overruns. Glenn Joyal  Manitoba Court of Queens Bench Chief Justice presiding over civil litigation launched by the City of Winnipeg over the WPS HQ construction project. RCMP Project Dalton  the multi-year, multimillion dollar fraud investigation into the WPS HQ construction project that closed without criminal charges. Close

The purpose of the meeting that day was to ensure costs could be contained and the project saved, and the numbers established in Sheegls boardroom would go on to play a key role in the controversy that followed.

In attendance were, among others: Sheegl; deputy chief administrative officer Alex Robinson; chief financial officer Mike Ruta; property, planning and development department director Deepak Joshi; capital projects manager Jason Ruby; and Iain Day from corporate finance.

There were two representatives from the Winnipeg Police Service: then-deputy chief Shelley Hart, now the mayor of East St. Paul, and civilian employee Abdul Aziz, who would go on to serve two stints as HQ project manager.

Also in attendance was Bob Downs, the development manager at Shindico (a company with close personal and professional ties to then-mayor Sam Katz), and Myron Paryniuk and Steve Loomis from AECOM, the engineering firm later hired for design work on the job.

The Free Press has obtained the meeting minutes from that day, revealing the extent to which the civil servants in attendance were worried that unless the project could be "revised to be within budget," it would be "cancelled by elected officials."

"Project has been given a budget so go and design a police station to fit the budget rather than starting with the program requirements and designing a station so that it costs what it costs," reads the meeting minutes.

"Project to move forward within budget and if police have an issue with the program requirements, they can make their case to (the Executive Policy Committee)."

At the time, the best estimate the city had for the project was $155.5 million, including $126 million for construction, $7 million for furniture, fixtures and equipment, and $12.5 million for soft costs.

Project has been given a budget so go and design a police station to fit the budget rather than starting with the program requirements and designing a station so that it costs what it costs.  Meeting minutes

There was "no contingency for unknowns" in the $126 million earmarked for construction, according to the meeting minutes. Despite this, the bureaucrats were adamant an additional $7.5 million in savings had to be found to bring total costs down to $148 million.

"Expectation is to deliver a functional police station within budget. AECOM to say it is functional," reads the meeting minutes.

AECOM was not hired by the city until Aug. 19, 2010, roughly seven months after the weekend meeting in Sheegls boardroom, according to a subsequent audit by KPMG.

The meeting helped kick-start a chain of events that plagued the project throughout its design and construction phases, drawing the ire of city councillors and the public alike.

More than a year later, on Oct. 14, 2011, things were already off the rails.

That day, Pat de Jong, a WPS employee who served on the HQ project team, penned an inter-office memo  recently obtained by the Free Press  that makes clear just how quickly the project had spiralled out of control.

The initial project team consisted of two WPS members and three city staffers from the property, planning and development department.

ARTIST RENDERING An artists rendering of the street view of the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters. City council approved funding in 2009 to overhaul the former Canada Post building.

But there was significant turnover, and by the time de Jong wrote the memo, it consisted of five members of the WPS and one part-time consultant.

"The DC (likely refers to the director of construction, but the city wont comment on anything related to the leaked emails and documents obtained by the Free Press) position is the only position with the depth of content knowledge within the team. The remaining 5 WPS employees lack the history, understanding of the evolving vision, and any expertise in the areas required," de Jong wrote.

"The only sufficiently (sic) within the current project team is the ability to address the WPS user group needs."

De Jong warned the team lacked the "technical knowledge and experience" to push the project forward, understand the impact of decisions, understand and execute contracts, meet the needs of the design team and construction contractor and manage relationships with other project staff.

"The DC is engaged in issues that should be taken care of at a different level. Timelines and getting in front of same are not being projected and managed adequately, resulting in all 3 stakeholders (Caspian, the design team, WPS) being behind," de Jong warned.

"Timelines and getting in front of same are not being projected and managed adequately, resulting in all 3 stakeholders (Caspian, the design team, WPS) being behind."  Pat de Jong

"Relationships between all 3 parties are strained and projections without substantive intervention are poor at best. Issues are unnecessarily escalated and further fracture relationships. Inability to get in front of issues and manage them creates on-going crisis, requiring daily attention."

De Jong ended on a prophetic note: "All of the above creates significant cost and time over runs to the city."

An internal WPS email recently obtained by the Free Press  dated Oct. 31, 2012, several weeks after the de Jong memo  reveals the extent to which the police service felt it had to battle for change orders during construction to ensure its needs and wants were met.

In total, there were 81 change orders issued on the job, which increased the cost of the project by $19.89 million. According to the KPMG audit triggered by the project cost overruns, this was a "significant volume and degree of change during the course of design and construction."

One of those change orders  the addition of a second passenger elevator in the building  was initiated by former police chief Devon Clunis who, in 2014, claimed the police service had been absolved of responsibility for cost overruns on the project.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Former police chief Devon Clunis (left) with city CAO Phil Sheegl in 2012. An internal WPS email showed the police service felt it had to battle for changes during construction to ensure their needs and wants were met.

In response, Caspian Construction issued a priced-out change order to project director Ossama Abouzeid  who is also being sued by the city. The email was then forwarded to Randy Benoit and Henry Hagenaars, two police officers deeply involved in the project.

"FYI. We have to find money?!" wrote Abouzeid, who replaced Aziz as project lead in June 2011.

Benoit then forwarded that email to three other WPS employees, including then-chief Clunis, prefaced with a warning in all capital letters: "PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD THIS MESSAGE."

"This is an example of a Contemplated Change Notice. This one is for the second elevator car. The Chief order (sic) it as one car would not be a good idea. However the (Guaranteed Maximum Price contract) only accounted for one elevator car," Benoit wrote.

TIMELINE OF CONTROVERSY It has been called one of the biggest scandals in Winnipegs history. Here are key developments in the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters construction project, some of which have only recently come to light through an ongoing Free Press investigative series. 2008 The push for a new downtown WPS headquarters picks up steam after cost estimates for repairing the Public Safety Building skyrocket. click to read more It has been called one of the biggest scandals in Winnipegs history. Here are key developments in the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters construction project, some of which have only recently come to light through an ongoing Free Press investigative series. 2008 The push for a new downtown WPS headquarters picks up steam after cost estimates for repairing the Public Safety Building skyrocket. In February, an estimate from the firm Hanscomb pegs the cost of purchasing and renovating the old Canada Post building into a police headquarters at $179 million. 2009 City council approves $135 million in funding to purchase the old Canada Post site and renovate it into the new WPS HQ. The Hanscomb estimate of $179 million is withheld from city council. Instead, a lower estimate  which had soft construction costs pulled out and appears to have originated from a Shindico feasibility study  is used to sell the project. 2011 Construction for WPS HQ project begins. 2013 City council learns the project is going to cost tens of millions of dollars more than expected. As a result, council orders two external audits. 2014 The two external audits into the WPS HQ construction project are finalized. The first is a KPMG report that finds numerous city policies were not followed and the capital project was mismanaged. Last month, the Free Press revealed that an earlier draft version of the KPMG report was scrubbed of negative findings regarding the WPSs role in cost overruns and schedule delays. The second external audit, from Turner & Townsend, determines the city received good value on the project, with the final price tag falling within the acceptable range of cost for a facility of this nature. Those audits  alongside two other external audits into city hall controversies  are forwarded to Manitoba Justice for review which, in turn, passes them along to the RCMP. The RCMP launches not one, but two criminal investigations  Project Dalton (into the WPS HQ) and Project Dioxide (into a string of controversial real estate deals and capital projects under the administration of former mayor Sam Katz). RCMP Project Dalton becomes public knowledge when the Mounties raid the headquarters of Caspian Construction that December. RCMP Project Dioxide is not made public until this year when the Free Press uncovers evidence of its existence. 2015 The City of Winnipeg takes possession of the new WPS HQ. 2019 RCMP Project Dalton closes after five years with no authorization of criminal charges. 2020 The city launches a lawsuit against Caspian Construction, former chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl, and more than a dozen others connected to the WPS HQ construction project, alleging they conspired to defraud the municipal government of millions of dollars. 2022 Manitoba Court of Queens Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal rules that Sheegl accepted a bribe in connection with the awarding of the construction contract on the WPS HQ job, ordering him to pay back at least $667,000 to the City of Winnipeg. Cases involving the other defendants remain before the courts. Close

"So I asked for a price for the second car. (CCN). Now I have till the 9th of November to give the green light. Again the cost will have to be value engineered as there is no new money for it. This is what we are facing weekly."

After being awarded a contract for design work in August 2010, AECOM was instructed to submit complete engineering drawings to the city by July 15, 2011.

By October the drawings were still not complete, resulting in AECOM assigning more senior staff to the job, according to an email to city staff from Abouzeid.

"I received a call from (AECOM senior executive) John Monroe this evening. He told me he had several discussions with their team today. He said he was aware of the issues and his mandate is to fix it. We discussed the deliverables as follows," Abouzeid wrote.

"The HQ 100% drawings will be complete by Nov. 2. Sealed. He will have additional staff assigned to the project starting tomorrow. He recognized the mechanical design is behind and he will assign the adequate resources there."

When AECOM finally submitted the drawings, there was significant debate at city hall as to their quality and completeness.

The city then hired the Ontario-based design firm Adjelejan Allen Rubeli to review and assess AECOMs drawings in December 2011. Peter Chang, formerly of AAR, is being sued by the city as part of the ongoing civil litigation related to the construction project.

On Jan. 24, 2012, AAR submitted its report to the city.

"The (AECOM) drawings were not complete and AAR was asked to provide a revised fee to complete the drawings," Chang later wrote to city staff, summarizing the findings.

The city then offered AECOM a chance to respond to AARs report, which was summarized by Abouzeid in a Feb. 2, 2012 email to Sheegl, Ruta, Joshi and two members of the WPS.

KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES In response to WPS requests, Caspian Construction issued a priced-out change order to project director Ossama Abouzeid  who is also being sued by the city.

"(AECOM) claims that the architectural is 97% complete structural 95%, M&E both at 85%. They also claim they need 5-6 weeks to finish. They made a statement that what they submitted is the industry practice!!," Abouzeid wrote.

"They forgot that up to our meeting of Feb. 1 they were claiming that they are indeed at 100% and that they submitted a 100% invoice back in November. I am still appalled. They knew back on Nov. 2 that they did not reach 100%, why they never tried to complete their work over the last 3 months?"

Abouzeid said it was now "action time" and he wanted to submit AECOMs rebuttal to AAR to determine whether it was accurate.

"On Feb. 1 we drew line in the sand. They failed again to be truthful, or at best, to be accurate in their claims. I would not risk another 6 weeks of promises unless you (as the city) chooses to," Abouzeid wrote.

"I would like to explore if we can get them to agree to stop any work right at this point, hand over source drawings as a white label to AAR, and walk away."

Abouzeid said the city should hold back $2 million of AECOMs fee, as it would likely cost at least that much to get AAR to finish their work, and further suggested it might be necessary to get the citys contracts team involved.

On Feb. 1 we drew line in the sand. They failed again to be truthful, or at best, to be accurate in their claims. I would not risk another 6 weeks of promises unless you (as the city) chooses to.  Abouzeid's email

The Free Press has obtained a copy of a "strictly confidential" settlement agreement reached between the City of Winnipeg and AECOM, dated Feb. 24, 2012, signed by Sheegl and Robert Johnson, AECOMs executive vice-president.

"Further to our recent discussions, I am writing to confirm that the City and AECOM have agreed to the following settlement in connection with the Project and the Agreement (including resolution of all of the Citys allegations concerning AECOMs services and performance," it reads.

As part of the settlement, the city agreed to pay out AECOMs contract nearly in full, which represented a "final settlement of any and all claims against AECOM or any of its employees."

AECOM then handed over its design drawings, which the city could use as it wished. The Free Press has obtained the entire set of AECOMs design drawings.

The firm admitted no liability and the settlement included a gag order on the city. AECOM is not being sued by the City of Winnipeg as part of its lawsuit into the construction project.

"Neither the City nor any of its consultants or contractors shall make any public mention of AECOM or disparaging comments concerning AECOMs services or performance in connection with the Project," the settlement reads.

SUPPLIED AECOM draft plans for the main floor of the Winnipeg police headquarters.

"And the City shall evaluate AECOM without any prejudice as a result of the matters set out in this letter on all future projects at the Citys Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants and other City projects which AECOM wishes to submit proposals on."

The settlement was characterized by Chang as follows in a February 2014 email to senior members of the civic administration: "WPS and the City of Winnipeg were sold a set of incomplete, non-code compliant and non-functional drawings for $5.6M!"

As costs continued to escalate on the project, city council ordered an audit. In preparation for a public meeting in November 2013, Ruta, Joshi and Chang went back and forth with emails discussing how much information about AECOMs role could be revealed.

"The 100% drawings that the city received in November 2011 were nowhere near 100% complete, as noted in our preliminary report to the city. As well, despite being told that plans were frozen and signed off by WPS, this was far from the truth," Chang wrote.

"It is hard to defend the citys position without having to point out how the previous design team left the city and the project out to dry."

Chang asked for guidance from the citys legal services department as to how much he could say about AECOMs role at the upcoming meeting.

"The 100% drawings that the city received in November 2011 were nowhere near 100% complete, as noted in our preliminary report to the city. As well, despite being told that plans were frozen and signed off by WPS, this was far from the truth."  Peter Chang

In response, Joshi advocated for the city to reveal everything that had happened with AECOM.

"I think this is a public meeting and if asked the questions we should answer and protect the citys interest. I know there are (sic) a gag order but one must tell the facts which will come out in any audit report and gag orders will not stop that," Joshi wrote.

Chang said city staff should also prepare to answer questions about the settlement.

"Also what may come up is why the city paid the previous design team roughly 100% of their design fees when AAR had a report stating that the overall design completion was at best 60% complete? Bear in mind that 60% complete does not mean 60% correct," Chang wrote.

The KPMG audit would go on to include the following observation about the design process.

"We also observed instances of payments being authorized to the design consultants without appropriate review and due diligence being performed on the quality or completeness of their work output," the audit report reads.

"The supplementary agreement with Caspian provides evidence of significant project cost over-runs and schedule delays incurred by the project which in our view directly relate back to the quality, completeness and timely delivery of the design."

The design work was supposed to be complete by July 2011, but was not finalized by AAR until April 2013  long after construction broke ground. A clause in the contract between the city and Caspian stipulated that final costing would not be submitted until the design was complete.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES South side of the building under construction in 2012. The City of Winnipeg alleges it was defrauded by the projects construction contractors and design team through a scheme of inflated and fabricated invoices  allegations that remain before Manitobas civil court.

KPMG said the city paid combined fees to AECOM and AAR that were 50 per cent higher than initially budgeted for design work.

But the audit report  at the citys request  was scrubbed of any mention of AECOM, which was instead referred to anonymously as "Design Co."

The city also sent KPMG a "confidential management note" not to be included in the final draft, which reveals that at one point they were so concerned by AECOMs performance they issued a "stop payment" on their account.

As reported by the Free Press last month, the KPMG report was also scrubbed of numerous findings critical of the WPS prior to being released to the public. And as revealed by the Free Press this week, senior city staff also withheld key meeting minutes from the KPMG audit team.

In response to a Free Press request for comment, Felicia Wiltshire, the citys director of corporate communications, provided the following written statement.

"Due to the size and complexity of the project, as well as the ongoing litigation, we are not in a position to speak to each of these items you have flagged," Wiltshire said.

"As we have stated previously, there were many concerns raised regarding the WPS HQ project, many of which are still subject to ongoing litigation. The investigations and audits that have been conducted over the years have resulted in changes to policies and procedures to improve openness and transparency in the decision making process."

AECOM did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

The KPMG audit report was forwarded by the city to Manitoba Justice which, in turn, sent it to the RCMP, which launched Project Dalton, a multi-year, multimillion-dollar fraud investigation into the projec. The investigation closed without criminal charges in 2019.

The City of Winnipeg launched civil litigation against dozens of defendants in January 2020, and the case remains before the courts.

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In March, Manitoba Court of Queens Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal ruled that Sheegl accepted a bribe in relation to the awarding of the construction contract on the project by showing favour to Caspian. Sheegl has appealed the ruling.

Joyal wrote that the decision to remove AECOM from the project was done to "advance the objects of conspiracy, ie: dismissing AECOM to benefit Caspian and its chances to obtain the contract."

The citys litigation against the other defendants is ongoing.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe
The above-average rainfall this spring is making life difficult for construction crews.

While they prepared for a wet spring, the lack of reprieve from frequent rainfalls has been a challenge.

"Its moved everything back at least a couple of weeks," said Chris Lorenc, president of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association.

"The problem is start, stop, start, stop. When the area youre proposing to excavate or start to rebuild, floods with water, you have to pump it out and let the conditions return to dry before you continue working. Weve been doing the best we can given the circumstances Mother Nature has provided."

The city had more than 115 mm of rain in April, May and June; this years total precipitation is already the highest amount since 2016.

"The past few years weve had really good weather, so weve been able to start early and work into November. This year has been the opposite," Lorenc said. "Work days that are cancelled because of weather are added onto the back end and that eliminates the ability of the project to be completed when its scheduled to be."

Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press Files The City of Winnipegs annual road construction program planned on nearly 200 construction projects city-wide.

The association represents 400 members, including contractors, suppliers and associated financial and bonding companies.

Lorenc said contracts recognize that rain and moisture delays are possible and extensions are often possible. Hes hopeful that the projects they have taken on will be completed this season.

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While rain continues to show up in the citys forecast, Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure continues to work on flood recovery projects across the province.

"The department is assessing the full extent of the damage, including which repairs will take priority over others," a provincial spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "Significant precipitation caused by six Colorado Low weather systems over the months of April and May, on top of the winter snow pack (the third record level since 1872), caused flooding throughout Manitoba. The wet weather has resulted in delays to the start of construction for a number of projects."

Some of the major projects on the table for Manitoba Infrastructure include the St. Marys Interchange Project, which involves upgrading the Perimeter Highway to a freeway standard; and the Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin outlet channels, which will enhance flood protection to to the Interlake communities.

"MTI recognizes that due to the high volume of flood recovery repairs required, extra efforts will be needed to achieve the ambitious capital plan for 2022. In addition, the department is working to mitigate the potential impact of delays with a continued focus on project management and multi-year budgeting."

The representative said third-party engineering service providers are being used to assist with designs for flood repairs to minimize project delays.

bryce.hunt@freepress.mb.ca
As a man, I offer an opinion on abortion only with caution. I understand and respect the views of women on this controversial issue because, after all, its inside their bodies that babies grow.

Opinion

As a man, I offer an opinion on abortion only with caution. I understand and respect the views of women on this controversial issue because, after all, its inside their bodies that babies grow.

But I hope I can be allowed to contribute to the conversation with an experience that is deeply personal. I will share this disclosure from my past, hoping it will illustrate a crucial aspect of the abortion debate that is often overlooked.

My true story begins with a high-school romance between Debbie and Bill. Their relationship continued after graduation and, when they were 19 years old, they became pregnant. Abortion wasnt considered, partly because of the Roman Catholic beliefs of the family in which Debbie was raised.

Instead of abortion, they "did the right thing," as it was called back then, and they got married when they were three months pregnant. Pregnant with me, that is. I was born six months after my parents wed.

My parents went on to have four other children after me (according to a family joke, after their fifth child, Dad prayed: "Thank you, Lord, for these many blessings, but thats enough now.")

Our parents lasting, loving relationship is occasionally cited as a model of a happy marriage. When we were children, our friends liked to hang out at our house because the vibes were good.

I offer my personal origin story as living proof that human life begins before birth, not after. If my parents had chosen abortion, they would have killed me. Thats a blunt way to describe it, and Ill try to avoid being gratuitously provocative when writing about this sensitive topic, but I dont know a more accurate way to describe a procedure that would have ended, in the womb, the life that has brought me to where I am today.

In the many conversations about abortion prompted by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that allowed abortion rights to be rolled back in many states, the focus is largely on the rights and priorities of women.

But theres another important question that requires urgent consideration: when does human life begin?

The moral and legal impetus for answering this question is that a civilized society will try to save innocent human lives from wilful destruction. So, again, when does life begin?

The question is a hot-button topic that successive Canadian political leaders, up to and including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, have taken great pains not to discuss, no doubt partly because taking a stand would alienate many voters.

Still, even though politicians may wish the divisive issue would go away, determining who qualifies as a person is key to deciding who deserves legal protection.

The historic reluctance of Canadian politicians to consider this critical question means that, in Canadian law, there are no legal limits to when an abortion can be performed. None.

The only countries in the world that join Canada in allowing abortion on demand throughout the entirety of pregnancy are South Korea, Vietnam, China and North Korea. With the exception of South Korea, these countries show scant regard for human rights, hardly the company Canada should be proud to keep.

Legally at least, Canadians can have abortions until the moment of birth. Responsible abortion providers in Canada usually draw the line at 23 weeks, but that limit seems to be chosen for the age when the unborn babies could survive outside the womb if they arent aborted. Thats different than the age when life begins.

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Some say life begins at conception. Some say its when a heartbeat is detected. Some say its about 14 weeks, when the fetus has both a beating heart and a brain.

The answer to this question matters in many ways. For example, knowing that they are terminating a human life, not just a mass of tissue, could influence the decision of people who choose abortion because prenatal screening shows they are carrying a girl instead of the boy they want, or are carrying a baby with a genetic abnormality such as Down syndrome.

Canadians have in recent decades improved considerably our respect for the rights of people who are marginalized and vulnerable in many different ways. Most of us now reject racism, try to be considerate of people who have physical and mental disabilities, and affirm people expressing gender diversity.

Its now time to have tough conversations about when life begins so we can protect those who are most vulnerable  unborn children.

carl.degurse@freepress.mb.ca

Carl DeGurse is a member of the Free Press editorial board.
The Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre has dedicated its 29th edition to the late world-renowned theatre director Peter Brook.

The son of immigrant scientists from Russia, Peter Brook was born in London in 1925.

Throughout the decades of his artistic practice, Brook ventured into theatre, opera and film directing, where he had an important impact and was regarded as "the greatest living theatre director" according to The Independent.

He launched his career in England working at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the Royal Opera House and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) where he directed Marat/Sade, which was later on presented on Broadway and awarded the Tony Award for Best Play (1965) with Brook also being named Best Director.

During the same period, he also directed a number of films with the most iconic of which being Lord of the Flies (1963).

Brook settled in France in early 1970s where he continued working in theatre. He founded the International Centre of Theatre Research which generated an international theatre company that focused on non-verbal dramatic forms, such as mime, circus skills and dance techniques. In 1974, the company found its own home at the Bouffes du Nord in Paris.

The company's productions explored sound and movement and were staged internationally. The works such as Ubu aux Bouffes, The Conference of the Birds, and The Mahabharata are considered among Brook's theatrical highlights which toured the globe and were awarded numerous times.

Brook won multiple Emmy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Japanese Praemium Imperiale and the Prix Italia. In 2021, he was awarded India's Padma Shri.

Brook died in Paris on 2 July 2022, aged 97.

The 29th edition of the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre is scheduled to take place between 1 and 8 September.

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BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua)  Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a message of condolence to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida over the passing of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

On behalf of the Chinese government and people, and in his own name, Xi expressed deep condolences over Abe's sudden and unfortunate passing, and offered sincere sympathies to the family of Abe.

Xi pointed out that Abe made efforts to improve China-Japan relations during his time in office and contributed positively to this endeavor.

Xi said he had reached important consensus with Abe on building a China-Japan relationship that meets the needs of the new era, adding that he deeply regrets the sudden passing of Abe.

The Chinese president said he stands ready to work with Prime Minister Kishida to continue developing a good-neighborly friendship and cooperation between China and Japan in accordance with the principles established in the four political documents between the two countries.

Also on Saturday, Xi and his wife, Professor Peng Liyuan, sent a message of condolence to Abe's wife Akie Abe to express their sympathies.

(Source: Xinhua)
Christmas in July parties for tornado survivors kick off with events in Taylor, Warren counties
Egypts Ministry of Interior has announced the release of 1,270 prisoners as per a presidential pardon on the occasion of Eid El-Adha, which started on Saturday.

The ministry said its social protection department has studied the files of inmates in rehabilitation and correctional centres nationwide to determine those eligible for presidential pardon.

It added in a video that the decision came as the pardoned convicts have been rehabilitated and are ready to reintegrate into society after they received social, educational, health, living and cultural care.

The video showed a number of inmates of the Wadi Al-Natroun Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre in northern Egypt reunited with their families after they were released and thanking President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi for the decision.

The decision comes "within the framework of the interior ministrys keenness to apply a modern punitive policy and provide all aspects of care to inmates, the ministry said in a statement.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi issued a presidential decree on Wednesday to pardon a number of prisoners on the occasion of Eid El-Adha and the 70th anniversary of the 1952 Revolution.

Egypt has released thousands of inmates as per presidential pardon decisions over the recent years on different national and religious occasions.

Last week, Egyptian authorities ordered the release of 60 pretrial detainees in what is described by members of the Presidential Pardon Committee as the biggest release of pretrial detainees since its re-activation in April.

Formed in 2016, the Presidential Pardon Committee is mandated to review the cases of those imprisoned for political crimes and others who meet certain conditions, such as families who have more than one relative in jail.

El-Sisi ordered reviving the committee during the annual Egyptian Family Iftar Banquet on 26 April, calling also for holding a national dialogue between political forces without discrimination or exception.

On the first session of the National Dialogue last Tuesday, Head of Journalists Syndicate Diaa Rashwan, general coordinator of the dialogue, said 450 people have been released from prisons since the president called for the dialogue.

The restructured committee has said it will receive pardon requests through many avenues, including through the National Youth Conference website.

The committee will also receive requests through the complaints committee of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) and via email to the human rights committees in both the House of the Representatives and Senate.

Pardon requests can also be submitted directly to the members of the pardon committee.

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Call for action to ensure Winter Fuel Support Scheme benefits as many households in Wales as possible

Politicians have called for changes to the Winter Fuel Support Scheme to be made before autumn to ensure the payment reaches as many eligible households as possible.

They have also called on the Welsh Government to widen the eligibility of the payment to reach more low-income, vulnerable households in need, such as those eligible for pension credit, and to launch a public awareness campaign on the winter fuel support scheme to improve awareness and boost uptake.

It comes amid serious concerns about how many households across Wales and the UK will be able to heat their homes due to the rising cost of living crisis.

Research carried out by the Senedds Equality and Social Justice Committee warned in May that 45 per cent of households in Wales are at risk of falling into fuel poverty.

In North Wales residents on pre-payment metres are already being hard with standing charges increasing by 102 per cent

Speaking in the Opposition Debate on the Winter Fuel Support Scheme Sioned Williams MS, Plaid Cymru, described the impact of the cost-of-living crisis as truly terrifying.

She said: We need to ensure that any measures to support people who will be living in fuel poverty or who are at risk of fuel poverty are fully effective, fully accessible to those who are or who will be in need, and that they mitigate the serious pressure and the impossible choices that will face too many Welsh households when the storm is raging during the winter months.

I would recommend that the Welsh Government ensure that this is a scheme that is available all year round, rather than being a seasonal scheme, to ensure that no-one goes without heat or power during the coldest months.

And as I mentioned previously, even though its summer, there are people now who cant afford to turn on the oven or run a hot bath.

North Wales MS Mark Isherwood, who is Chair of the Senedd Cross-Party Group on Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency, stressed that the Welsh Government would not have been able to increase its Winter Fuel Scheme without the consequential funding provided by the UK Government and emphasised the need for as many eligible households to benefit from it.

He said: National Energy Action, NEA Cymru have called for the Winter fuel support scheme payment to be made in the Autumn, so households know they have the funds before they turn their heating on.

The Minister has previously stated that she would want the payment to be available by October, if not September.

Hence our amendment, which further calls on the Welsh Government to guarantee any changes to the Winter Fuel Support Scheme are made ahead of Autumn to ensure the payment reaches as many eligible households as possible. Can the Minister confirm whether this is still her intention?

Age Cymru have called for the Welsh Government to extend eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Support Scheme to include older people in receipt of Pension Credit.

The Minister previously stated that the Welsh Government were going to extend eligibility and would be looking not just in terms of those on pension credit, but wider eligibility.

Hence our Amendment further calls on the Welsh Government to widen the eligibility of the Winter Fuel Payment to reach more low-income, vulnerable households in need, such as those eligible for Pension Credit. Can the Minister provide an update accordingly?

Jane Hutt MS, Minister for Social Justice, said the Welsh Government would be making an announcement within the next fortnight on the new fuel support scheme.

She continued: Its going to be a fuel support schemenot a winter fuel support scheme, but a new Welsh fuel support scheme, learning from the scheme that weve already progressed over the last year.

And also, what I will be announcing in the next fortnight is the wider eligibility criteria for the new fuel support scheme, and it will open in the autumn.

So, this is important, that all of the engagement and the consultation that has taken place is influencing the next phase.
Wrexham Glyndwr alumni lends artistic talents to Ukraine fundraising efforts

An illustrator who honed her craft at Wrexham Glyndwr University is using her art to raise vital funds for those affected by the war in Ukraine.

Graduate Helen Robinson has helped put together a group of illustrators contributing work to the Nightingale and the Bear, six of whom have studied at WGU.

We are at the stage of final art work now and the book is looking wonderful, she said.

The range of styles makes it a wonder to behold and it is a real book of kindness with busy illustrators all donating their time to help others in need!

Helen, who is originally from Yorkshire but now lives In Old Colwyn, graduated with a first-class degree from Glyndwr in 2012 before completing an MA in Design Practice at the university.

During this time, she won a Cynnal Cymru award for a glass and ceramics installation that highlighted the issue of control and abuse.

She formed her own company, Jaminosh Designs, in 2016 and two years later established the Kind Bay community initiative in Colwyn Bay, which support the vulnerable, the homeless and those suffering with mental health issues.

Helen fondly remembers her time at Wrexham Glyndwr University as the most transformative years of my life.

She said: The standard of the teaching on the illustration degree was at such a high level. The three main tutors I had were Sue Thornton (childrens illustration) Yadzia Williams (general illustration) and Dan Berry (graphic novels), the combination of their experience and knowledge was superb and I still stay in contact with sue and let he know how Im getting on. When I illustrate I hear her in my voice guiding me still  its quite surreal!

The tutors encouraged me to be the best that I could be, to experiment and to step outside of my comfort zone and although I never class myself to be the best artist I embrace my uniqueness and dont feel the need to follow the crowd. I definitely feel this came from my time at Glyndwr!

She added: We did a module on professional development practice when i was on my degree and through this I researched the industry, and this was a good foundation as it opens your eyes to all the possibilities and encourages you to be as professional as possible when being involved with the industry.

I learned about copyright and contracts and the business side of illustration and this has stood me in good stead when dealing with publishers and clients.

Helen is currently illustrating titles for Resilient Hedgehog, whose books are based on using a system that helps children to develop mental toughness and resilience. The latest project is called Resilient Creatures.

The books have recently been on display at the Bologna Childrens Book Fair, as well as the London Book Fair.

For this series i have had to work digitally which as a traditional illustrator has meant me learning new skills as i go along, but i have tried to use digital media with a traditional style, hoping to stay true to the work i have previously done, Helen said.

I feel that the foundation of learning that I had at Glyndwr stood me in good stead to be able to try new things and to be brave.

For more information on The Nightingale and the Bear, visit resilienthedgehog.com.

To learn more about studying artistic programmes at WGU, visit: https://glyndwr.ac.uk/courses/
Like on Facebook Follow on Twitter Share on Instagram upcoming issue Featuring Novella Prize winner Jenny Ferguson.



Cover art by Jinny Yu.



Poetry by Amy M. Alvarez, Jes Battis, Heather Birrell, Rose Henbest, Meghan Kemp-Gee, Michael Kenyon, Louie Leyson, Lauren Marshall, Jordan Mounteer, Heo Nanseolheon and Lee Okbong (both translated by Suphil Lee Park), K. R. Segriff, and Kenneth Tanemura.



Fiction by Martha Nell Cooley.



Creative nonfiction by Daniel Allen Cox and Jen Hirt. Reviews of the latest Canadian poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction books.



Far Horizons Award for Poetry shortlist We're pleased to announce the shortlist for this year's Far Horizons Award for Poetry! Over 300 poems were received from emerging writers around the world. Thank you to everyone who entered, and congratulations to those shortlisted.



The winner of the $1,250 prize will be announced by July 15 on our website and social media pages, as chosen by judge Laura Ritland.



The shortlist:

Atma Frans, "Restoration"

Farah Ghafoor, "End of the World Poem"

Patrick Grace, "fullblown"

Joseph Kidney, "Experior Magis Quam Intelligam"

Ying Lee, "Kueh Bangket"

Tariq Malik, "weaving spiderwebs over open wounds"

Amy Murphy, "august apples"

Christopher Rafuse, "douglas lake, one"

Sean Wang, "At the break of dawn"

Sebastien Wen, "Heart"

Meryem Yildiz, "Inner Child Work"

Read the announcement.





CanLit for your reading list

Review space may be limited in our quarterly magazine, but were delighted to share this list of new Canadian books. *Please note that inclusion on the list does not necessarily preclude a print review.



Review space may be limited in our quarterly magazine, but were delighted to share this list of new Canadian books. *Please note that inclusion on the list does not necessarily preclude a print review. Read the full list of new and noteworthy Canadian titles.

3 weeks to submit your cnf! This year, we've increased the prize amount to CAD $1,250 and word limit to 4,000 max. Send us your best creative nonfictionpersonal essays, memoirs, travel writing, biographies, and more. This year's judge:

D. A. Lockhart

Read an interview with him below!



Entry fee (includes a one-year print subscription):

$35 CAD for each entry from Canada

$45 CAD for each entry from elsewhere

$15 CAD for each additional entry, no limit Full contest guidelines on our website. D. A. Lockhart,

CNF Prize judge Past judge and contributor Emily Riddle talks with the Constance Rooke CNF Prize judge about research as physical presence, the importance of the process, and writing about the urban Indigenous experience. ER: Often the nonfiction I like best comes from people who are also poets. Wenchikaneit Visions is a collection of essays, but poetic, experimental ones invoking the conventions of a Lenape Big House Ceremony. I often think Indigenous writers are best positioned to write beyond genre, with our stories spilling out against the conventions of Canlit. How do you conceptualize your relationship to genre in relation to your nations history of storytelling? DAL: Genre is often like every other box that the world likes to and attempts to squeeze things and people into. I get the need to have some talking points about a piece of work or otherness, but the simple fact is that nothing fits neatly in those boxes and categories. Because the categorization is fundamentally tied to colonial notions of identity. And this is important, this sort of categorization is really what has been holding so much of us First Nations. We fight over status cards, sacredness, being a sell-out, who owns what. All of which might have kernels of truth buried within them, important truths at that. But the categorization is the issue. It sets up dichotomies, oppositions, which journalists and social media love. If writing and storytelling are the ways we dream of ourselves, but what we do in terms of talking about and creating work collapses into these dichotomies and hard categories, then we are fulfilling nightmares rather than dreams. Creation is fundamentally hybrid. As are our stories and reflections of it. Read the rest of D. A. Lockhart's interview.





Jenny Ferguson,

Novella Prize winner Managing Editor L'Amour Lisik talks with the Novella Prize winner about writing as revision, transforming a novel into a novella, and taking care of yourself in order to face rejection in the writing world. LL: Congratulations on winning the 2022 Novella Prize! Missing is a rich and suspenseful story about friendship, love, illness, trauma, violent cops, and a missing Indigenous woman. The novella form is somewhat rare in the literary world. What drew you to this form for this particular story, and what made you choose to tell it in reverse chronological order? JF: Ah, thank you! So funny story, for the longest time, I was actively opposed to calling Missing a novella. It was probably some novel snobbery. You know, novels are best and all that jazz. This novella is one of four intertwined narratives in an unpublished book about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit Human Rights Crisis. And when agents rejected that novel, I put the project aside for a long while. As in, I wrote Missing in 2015. So, its been a minute.



Eventually, I realized that yes, Missing is a novella. Might do better as one. Its a very intense story, both in its subject matter, but also in the telling. Its a story that would be really heavy to approach in a full-length novel (and yes, thats pretty much how I see the novel-length project nowthat for readers, especially for white readers, its too much). But happily, the novella form is one where intensities are welcomed.



When it comes to the reverse chronological order, this choice underscores almost all the themes in Missing. But, maybe, its most important here: that Wendy (a white twenty-something woman with a recent terminal diagnosis) is too caught up in her own life, her new romance, her past and present traumas, to notice what changes in the months leading up to her best friend and roommate, Ida, a twenty-something Inuk-Cree womans disappearance. The form is about the desire for hindsight, as if being able to see in that way would unlock missing evidences, would unlock the unknowable mysteries of our lives. Read the rest of Jenny Ferguson's interview as well as an excerpt.






The WSWS is publishing a series of articles with statements of support for Dr. Berger, which readers can send via email here. Please indicate in the email how you would like to be identified in our next article, and if you want to include a photo please attach one to the email.

There has been an immediate outpouring of support for Australian physician Dr. David Berger from scientists and professionals across the globe, who have spoken out against the attempt to censor his activity on social media by the Australian Health Practitioners Regulatory Authority (AHPRA).

Dr. Berger has been a staunch defender of the Zero-COVID elimination strategy to bring a swift end to the COVID-19 pandemic, and has consistently opposed the official let it rip response by the Australian and other world governments. Fundamental to the conception of elimination is that it is a basic social right to live without the threat of infectious pathogens sickening and killing people. Health practitioners, scientists, and public health officials have taken a sworn duty to protect the lives and livelihood of the population at large, and Dr. Bergers advocacy for elimination is fulfilling this pledge.

The AHPRA acts as a statutory authority for health professionals working in collaboration with the Medical Board of Australia. According to the national Registration and Accreditation Scheme, all health practitioners must register with this body, whose stated purpose is to hear and investigate complaints on the performance, health, and conduct of those registered.

The anonymous claim made in Bergers case is that he violated the Medical Board of Australias code of conduct on social media and behaved unprofessionally towards colleagues. In reality, the complaint being leveled against Berger has to do with his commitment to exposing government lies and the corporate/media falsehoods that attempt to minimize the dangers posed by COVID-19.

Dr. Berger is being forced by the Medical Board of Australia and AHPRA to submit to a compulsory program of education where he must produce a reflective practice report that will explain how he has behaved discourteously and unprofessionally to his colleagues and the board in general. He has essentially been told to cease and desist or face the consequences of being deregistered, impacting his ability to treat patients and earn his living.

The World Socialist Web Site, which has also consistently advocated for a Zero-COVID global elimination strategy, on Friday published the only article so far on the attempts to silence Dr. Berger. This article was shared widely on social media and has been read by many thousands of people throughout the world. A tweet of the article by the Committee for Public Education (CFPE), an independent rank-and-file committee of educators in Australia, prompted numerous scientists, workers and anti-COVID activists to voice their support for Dr. Berger.

Almost every comment roundly supported Dr. Berger, with many noting that his scientific advice has kept them and their families safe during the pandemic. The following are a sample of the comments submitted directly to the WSWS or posted on Twitter.

Renowned virologist Dr. Stephen Griffin of Leeds University, a member of Independent SAGE, wrote to the WSWS, It is upsetting that public health has become political in Australia after previously having done such an amazing job of minimizing pandemic impact until recently. To silence Dr. Berger using threats is tantamount to censorship, nothing else.

Virologist Dr. Stephen Griffin (Credit: Twitter)

Dr. Griffin added, The fact is that Dr. Berger has spoken with conviction and honesty around his views of how the pandemic is being handled, many of which I agree with. It has been clear that the UK government have wished to ignore and marginalize suffering caused by SARS-CoV-2 for quite some time now. It is tragically disappointing to see Australia follow this wretched example.

Dr. Berger has been repeatedly defamed and attacked by social media trolls and right-wing pundits for exposing the false claims that children do not get COVID, that the virus is not airborne, that schools are safe, that vaccines largely prevent infection, and that the virus is mild.

Lisa Diaz, a mother and anti-COVID activist who has also faced attacks from UK school boards and governmental authorities, told the WSWS, This assault on David is actually terrifying. All he has done is tell the truth about the devastating health implications of SARS-CoV-2. However, he is a threat as governments around the world want to keep spinning the lie that COVID is mild, reinfections are fine, and we should all live our lives and pretend its [COVID] gone away.

British parent Lisa Diaz

Diaz added, It isnt in the interests of the powerful elites for the general public to know the truththat its a brain shrinking, autoimmune, vascular disease that can attack every single essential organ in the body, irrespective of whether symptoms are mild. David cares. He tried to warn people. And for that he is being punished. Its sick  the world has gone mad, and nobody is coming to save us. People need to move and move quickly.

Italian data scientist Antonio Caramia, who maintains a comprehensive database of COVID-19 and monkeypox cases and provides critical updates on the spread of both viruses, told the WSWS, Dr. Berger has been right since the beginning of the pandemic. He is a light in the darkness of misinformation. What the Australian Medical Authority is trying to do is simply unbelievable. This can be a very dangerous issue for people because it can let government misinformation win against the truth.

Data scientist Antonio Caramia (Credit: Twitter)

One of the most widely-shared tweets on Friday was from Dr. Kimberly Prather, director of the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment in San Diego, California, who has continuously warned about the role of airborne transmission during the pandemic. She wrote:

Professor Yaneer Bar-Yam, co-founder of the World Health Network and Complex System Physicist from Massachusetts, and one of the leading scientists who has advocated for the global elimination of SARS-CoV-2, tweeted:

Independent British journalist Chris Turnbull, who has continuously raised the alarm about the dangers of COVID-19, posted a thread noting the Orwellian character of the censorship by the AHPRA:

Dana Parish, best-selling author of Chronic, a book which addresses infection-mediated chronic illness, wrote in defense of Dr. Berger, It is an unspeakable disgrace that a medical or political body would attempt to gag a physician warning the public about the dangers of this airborne, potentially life-ruining virus. If public health officials would focus their energies on mitigating the virusand actually doing their jobspeople like Dr. Berger could practice medicine without having to do it for them. I strongly support and appreciate the truth he puts forth and encourage him not to ever back down.

Author Dana Parish (Credit: Twitter)

Jess, an anti-COVID activist in Canada, told the WSWS, Dr. Berger has been the voice that we all need and now they are trying to silence him. He has fought and continues to fight to get the word out that #CovicIsAirborne and that this plan of mass infection is not one anyone should be forced to live with. He constantly advocates for children, for the most vulnerable and continues to be on the front lines fighting despite so many trying to bring him down.

Kate Pritchard, an aid worker from Western Australia, thanked the WSWS for bringing awareness to this travesty, writing, Thank you for speaking out, raising awareness and showing support. Many of us rely on Dr. Berger to keep our families safe. It is clear he is a particularly decent human being with integrity and humanity many lack.

Upon hearing of the AHPRAs actions against Dr. Berger, clinical epidemiologist and staunch anti-COVID advocate Dr. Deepti Gurdasani tweeted the following:

The WSWS calls on all scientists, healthcare workers, health practitioners, and workers in every industry across the globe to support Dr. Berger against censorship by the Australian authorities and the onerous attack on him and his livelihood. Demand that these disciplinary actions be withdrawn. Send us your statements of support for Dr. Berger and we will publish them in the coming days.
In May, when the Biden administration announced that it would send medium-range missile guided missile launchers to Ukraine, the White House insisted that the weapons would not be used to attack Russian territory.

We're not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that strike into Russia, Biden told reporters. We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders, he later added in a New York Times op-ed announcing the deployment of HIMARs missile systems to Ukraine.

On Friday, however, a Pentagon spokesperson indicated that the United States would not discourage Ukraine from using US weapons to attack territory claimed by Russia.

Asked by a reporter whether there were any preclusions on what could be targeted by US-supplied weapons, and whether the Kerch bridge in the Black Sea would be precluded as a potential target, the defense department official stated, there aren't any preclusions that I'm aware of about the Ukrainians fighting on their sovereign territory against Russia.

The Kerch bridge was built by Russia in 2015-2018 and forms the main connection between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in the wake of the US- and EU-backed coup in Kiev in 2014. The statement by the US defense official suggesting that the bridge constitutes Ukraines sovereign territory is yet another expression of the US endorsement of Ukraines aim, openly adopted as military strategy in 2021, to retake Crimea by military means.

The statements by the US official can only be interpreted as a green light for Kiev to attack the Kerch bridge and constitute a significant provocation. They came just one day after Philip Breedlove, the former NATO supreme allied commander in Europe, declared, the Kerch bridge is a legitimate target.

Speaking to the British Independent, Breedlove said that Several people I have spoken to say dropping [destroying] Kerch bridge would be a huge blow to Russia. Kerch bridge is a legitimate target.

Breedlove continued, But if they wanted to drop the bridge, that would require a more dedicated bombing operation.

He added, I hear a lot of people asking whether it is right for Ukraine to take such aggressive action and whether the West would support it, but I cannot understand that argument.

Breedlove indicated that such an attack on Russian territory could involve the use of US harpoon missiles, which are capable of attacking land targets despite being primarily known as a naval weapon.

Fridays briefing by the Pentagon, which went largely unreported in the press, was also shockingly blunt about the extent to which the United States systematically worked to prepare its Ukrainian proxy for war with Russia over the course of years.

The United States first initiated a training program for Ukraine in 2015  yes, 2015  on helping Ukraine with its capacity to man, train, equip, deploy and sustain combat arms units. It is this background that's important for understanding how early in the war, Ukraine was able to face a larger, more capable Russian force, able to stay nimble, empower subordinates, achieve commendable successes, already be trained on certain capabilities that the United States as well as other countries had provided  notably Javelins but not only Javelins  and therefore, Russia was walking into a battle back in February with a far more capable military than it expected and that it  it had frankly faced back in 2014.

The defense official added,

And what we saw in Ukraine's successful fighting off of the initial attack was that the years of training, equipping and advising, coupled with the surge of key capabilities such as 11,000 anti-armor and almost 1,500 anti-air weapons just in those first weeks, along with critical intelligence sharing, enabled the Ukrainian Armed Forces to successfully defend Kyiv and force the Russians to pull back and reassess their battlefield objectives and their approach.

While the US arming of Ukraine occurred over the span of years, the defense officials made clear that US involvement in the war would continue for years into the future. The US is thinking about Ukraine's needs over months and years, the defense official said.

These statements were accompanied by the announcement of yet another $400 million in weapons sales to Ukraine, including the deployment of four more HIMARS medium-range missile systems to the country, bringing the total to twelve.

These statements were made against the backdrop of the G20 Summit, in which the United States categorically ruled out any bilateral discussions for bringing the war to an end.

Asked whether Secretary of State Anthony Blinken would meet with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, State Department spokesman Ned Price gave a categorical no, saying, We would like to have the Russians give us a reason to meet on a bilateral basis with them But the only thing we have seen emanate from Moscow is more brutality and aggression against the people and country of Ukraine.

As in every war, the goals of the combatants are becoming increasingly clear as time passes. Despite what the US calls tactical setbacks, the United States plans to surge weapons and troops into the country in order to bleed Russia dry and to enable Ukraine to eventually mount a counteroffensive, with Crimea constituting a central target. As far as the ruling class is concerned, this war, which has already claimed the lives of tens of thousands, will last, in the words of Joe Biden, as long as it takes to achieve these goals.

Major attacks on Russian territory, such as the destruction of the Kerch bridge, would constitute a qualitative escalation of the war. The enormous risks of such an action were spelled out in an op-ed published earlier this year in the Financial Times by Malcolm Chambers entitled, Crimea could be Putins tipping point in a game of nuclear chicken.

In the absence of a ceasefire Ukrainian forces will be keen to prevent Crimea becoming a sanctuary from which the Kremlin can resupply its forces in the rest of Ukraine The Kerch bridge could be a tempting prize. If attacks on these targets were perceived as precursors to a full-scale Crimean invasion, they could increase the risk of nuclear escalation. This is one of the most concerning scenarios. Putin was at pains to emphasise this risk in the months before the invasion. Putins spurious nuclear threats of recent months have begun to lose their potency. In order to be credible, Russia would have to make explicit that an invasion of Crimea constituted a red line. Faced with losing Crimea, Putin might consider this a worthwhile gamble, believing Ukraine (with western encouragement) would blink first. This would be a moment of extreme peril.

As Chambers makes clear, an attack on the Kerch bridge would massively expand the possibility for the war to spiral into a nuclear showdown with unfathomable consequences. The fact that the Pentagon has publicly refused to preclude such an action makes clear the utter recklessness and desperation guiding US policymakers.
Written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

Co-written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known together as Daniels), Everything Everywhere All at Once takes the popular idea of a multiversea traversable group of parallel universes with small or big differencesand uses it as a loose metaphor for the hyper-connectivity of the Information Age, as well as the mutability of the human personality.

There are a lot of multiverse movies about superheroes, but this one concerns recognizable people grappling with real economic and cultural problems. Interesting!

Stephanie Hsu, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All at Once [Photo by A24 Studios]

The Wangs are a discontented family who live above a laundromat that they also own and operate, somewhere in the US. The story begins with middle-aged Evelyn Wang (Michele Yeoh) vexedly sorting huge piles of receipts in a small, claustrophobic apartment cluttered with bags of laundry, while her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), a thin man with a kind smile wearing a fanny pack, playfully tries to get her attention in order to serve her divorce papers. But now is not a good timethe laundromat is threatened with repossession! Evelyn is preparing for a meeting at the IRS office to try to save the family business.

Thats not all. Evelyns father Gong Gong (James Hong), who shows signs of dementia and doesnt speak English, has recently moved in with them due to unfortunate circumstances, having arrived directly from China, and needs constant care. Evelyn is also trying to conceal from Gong Gong the fact that her and Waymonds American-born, 20-something-year-old daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) has a girlfriend, Becky (Tallie Medel). This deeply upsets Joy, causing a major argument.

If I have to think of one more thing today my head will explode! exclaims Evelyn in the elevator of the IRS building. But at this moment a version of Waymond from another universe intercepts Evelyn and informs her, Youre living your worst you!

Jamie Lee Curtis in Everything Everywhere All at Once

As this Alpha Waymond equips her to jump between universes (by downloading an app on her phone!), Evelyns life flashes before her eyes, beginning humorously with a first-person view of her birth and the doctor telling a young Gong Gong, Its a girl. Im sorry.

In a very effective, dream-like montage we see brief glimpses of Evelyns stern upbringing in China, her meeting Waymond as a child at school, the two of them as young adults making the risky decision to move to the United States, Gong Gong disowning her for leaving, her disappointment upon arriving in America and seeing the meager laundromat and apartment, the birth of Joy, unreturned calls home to China, Joy as a teenager yelling at Evelyn, long days tending to the laundromat, Gong Gong arriving in ill health from China

Alpha Waymond explains that in the Alphaverse (the first universe to make contact with the others), Alpha Evelyn was a brilliant scientist who developed a way to 'temporarily link your consciousness to another version of yourself, accessing all their memories, their skills, even their emotions. Their daughter Alpha Joy became the most advanced verse jumper, but her overloaded mind fractured. Now, her mind experiences every world, every possibility, at the same exact time. Commanding the infinite knowledge and power of the multiverse, now she's seen too much, lost any sense of morality or belief in objective truth.



This crazed, super-powerful version of Joy, known as Jobu Tupaki, is on a rampage across the multiverse and is murdering all the Evelyns. The Alpha Jumpers, led by Alpha Gong Gong, are on a mission to restore order to the multiverse and put things back the way they were, but this means killing Joy to give Jobu one less universe to access.

To defeat Jobu and save Joy, Evelyn must harness her own untapped potential by mastering verse jumping. 'You have so many dreams you never followed, as Alpha Waymond explains, and every failure branched off as a success for another Evelyn in another life. But will she fracture her own mind in the process?

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

As the films title suggests, theres a lot going on here. Some of it is on target.

The cast is terrific. The lively, complex and sympathetic depiction of a Chinese-American family, and the decision to include mixed Chinese and English dialogue throughout the film, is especially welcome amid the daily torrent of anti-China propaganda in the American media. Jamie Lee Curtis is also very funny and effective as the ambivalent IRS agent Dierdre Beaubierdre.

Despite the cartoonish, kung fu action style, the many scenes in which the Wangs are pursued by or even fired upon by armed police, security guards, and even vigilantes, and in particular Waymonds desperate pleas to stop the fighting, sharply evoke the daily brutality of American life.

The presentation of multiverse/Internet as deeply contradictory and changeable is correct in general terms. Vast knowledge from beyond our own experience now floods in without pause all night and day. As Jobu/Joy puts it, Not a single moment will go by without the other universes screaming for your attention. Never fully there. Just a lifetime of fractured moments, contradictions and confusion.

But what is not broached by the filmmakers is any hope of actually making rational sense of these fractured moments as parts of a single social process. A sense of being overwhelmed by events and processes pervades the work.

The very fact that people all over the world can now communicate and collaborate instantly and directly with one another strongly suggestsindeed, screamsthat a new and more advanced form of social organization is certainly achievable, one that doesnt produce the widespread misery and even medieval horrors which increasingly plague capitalist society everywhere.

What we get instead is Evelyns development of a sort of kindness kung fu, which infuses her newfound verse-jumping skills with Waymonds silly kindness in place of Joys cynicism and despair, allowing her to demobilize her violent enemies by solving their individual problems. Its a nice thought, but in reality sticking a googly eye to your forehead will not stop a hail of bullets, and neither can individual acts of kindness (or tolerance) solve a profound social crisis.

With its occasional quirks and missteps, and its blind spots, Everything Everywhere All at Once is bursting with creative energy and compassion, and undoubtedly argues persuasively forand embodies in its restlessness and confident hyperactivitythe almost unlimited potential in the technology humanity has developed, and in humanity itself.
On Friday, President Joe Biden gave a White House speech and signed an executive order purporting to do all he could as president to safeguard womens access to abortion medication and bolster the security and legal options of both those seeking and those providing abortion services.

Abortion rights demonstrators protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, May 3, 2022 in Washington. [AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana]

However, the meager scope of the executive orders provisions as well as Bidens speech belied his effort to present himself and the Democratic Party as defenders of the right to abortion and democratic rights in general.

The White House only announced the speech and the executive order late Thursday, amidst growing and increasingly public criticisms from sections of the Democratic Party and abortion rights groups linked to it of the administrations failure to even make a pretense of a serious fight against the Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade two weeks ago.

The very fact that the event was held in the middle of a work day and not during prime time pointed to the cynical calculations behind it. There was no intention of mobilizing mass popular anger over the ruling by far-right ideologues on the Court and the barbaric abortion bans being imposed by Republican governors and legislatures in states across the country.

It was instead aimed at providing political cover for the administrations capitulation, while using the destruction of a constitutional right established a half-century ago to once again divert social opposition into the dead end of backing Democratic candidates, this time in the upcoming November midterm elections.

The only way to fulfill and restore that right for women is by voting, by exercising their power at the ballot box, Biden said. We need two additional pro-choice senators and the House to codify Roe as federal law. Your vote can make that a reality For Gods sake, there is an election in November. Vote, vote, vote, vote.

Having no doubt consulted his pollsters and election advisers, based on the partys orientation to better-off, suburban women and its branding of the white working class as racist, Biden declared, The women of America can determine the outcome of this issue... It is my hope and strong belief that women will turn out in record numbers to reclaim the rights that have been taken from them by the Court.

No explanation was offered for the fact that Biden and the Democrats did nothing to mobilize opposition to the overthrow of Roe for nearly two months after Justice Samuel Alitos draft opinion was leaked to the press, or that Democratic-led Congresses and Democratic presidents never attempted to codify the landmark decision in legislation during the 50 years after it was handed down, despite unceasing efforts by the Republican right to weaken and overturn it.

The Democrats presently control both houses of Congress and the White House and have done nothing to protect the basic right of women to decide whether or not to have a child, under conditions of extreme social crisis and hardship in which an unwanted pregnancy can spell destitution for parent and child alike.

For the purposes of this speech, Biden ramped up his rhetoric, denouncing the Republican majority on the Court for an illegitimate ruling based on the falsification of history and an absurd reading of the Constitution which denies any constitutional right to privacy. He accurately called the ruling an exercise in raw political power and outlined its dire consequences and further implications.

Governors have taken the Courts decision as a green light to impose some of the harshest and most restrictive laws seen in this country in a long time. These laws not only put womens lives at risk, they will cost lives

We are witnessing a giant step backward in much of our country. Already, the bans are in effect in 13 states. Twelve additional states are likely to ban choice in the coming weeks. In a number of the states, the laws are so extreme, they raise the threat of criminal penalties for doctors and health care providers. Theyre so extreme that many dont allow exceptions, [in the] event of rape or incest.

He cited the case of a 10-year old victim of rape who had to cross into Indiana to obtain an abortion because of the abortion ban imposed in her home state of Ohio. He continued: The Courts decision has already been received as a green light to go further and pass a national ban... The decision has an impact much beyond Roe, the right to privacy generally. Marriage equality, contraception, so much more is at risk.

He put forward the political fiction that the problem was an out-of-control Supreme Court working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican Party. This ignores the fact that virtually the entire Republican Party supports the overturn of Roe and the destruction of abortion rights, along with the rest of the fascistic program of party leader Donald Trump.

In the midst of this denunciation of extremist Republicans and call to elect Democrats, Biden once again offered the olive branch of bipartisanship, referring to reactionaries pushing for a national ban on abortions as my Republican friends.

To the extent that Biden presented an accurate picture of the catastrophic and far-reaching implications of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, including its immediate impact on women and families across the country, he unwittingly underscored the puny and token character of the provisions of his executive order.

Some Democratic lawmakers and pro-choice advocacy groups have called for executive actions that would actually challenge the abortion bans imposed by Republican governors and legislatures and the domination of the Supreme Court by a group of far-right conspirators.

These include declaring a national health emergency; using federal lands and facilities such as military bases and Veterans Administration hospitals to provide abortion access, including in red Republican-controlled states with abortion bans; and expanding the number of Supreme Court justices. Biden has rejected all of these proposals.

Instead, the executive order directs the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) working with the attorney general and other federal officials and agencies to propose measures to:

Protect the ability of women to travel out of state to obtain abortion services banned in their home state;

Protect the ability of women to obtain abortion medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration;

Increase security at abortion clinics that remain open;

Safeguard access to emergency contraception and long-acting reversible contraception, such as IUDs;

Protect patient privacy, including information from phone calls, Google searches and other data stored on cell phones and on the internet;

Ramp up outreach and public education efforts on abortion;

Convene private pro bono attorneys and organizations to provide legal representation to those seeking abortions, as well as those providing them; and

Establish an interagency task force on reproductive health care access, including Attorney General Merrick Garland.

For all of Bidens talk about the immediate danger to the health and very life of women and girls, the November election is four months away, and even in the unlikely case that the Democrats secure a pro-choice majority in the Senate and maintain control of the House, the new Congress will not assume office until next January.

How many lives will be dramatically altered or lost between now and then?

Weve received a lot of lip service from this administration, and all the gaslighting calls to just vote are not enough, said Sharmin Hossain, the campaign director of the Liberate Abortion Coalition, a group of more than 150 reproductive rights organizations. We cant wait 190 days. People need care now and that wait could mean life or death for people.

The utter cynicism and hypocrisy of Biden and his party are demonstrated by the fact, fairly widely reported, that Biden made a deal with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to appoint Chad Meredith to the federal bench in return for McConnell agreeing to smooth approval for other Biden nominees.

Meredith was Kentucky solicitor general from 2019 to 2021, before which he was chief deputy general counsel to then-Governor Matt Bevin, a Republican. In that role he defended the states anti-abortion rights law requiring doctors to perform an ultrasound examination before performing an abortion. This was a common demand of anti-abortion forces who oppose abortion on religious grounds and call it murder.

According to the Courier Journal newspaper in Kentucky, which obtained internal Democratic Party documents, the White House told Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, on June 23 that Merediths appointment would be announced the following day. But June 24 was the day the Supreme Court released its ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, and the White House thought it best to hold the announcement while pro-choice demonstrations were spreading across the country.

Though repeatedly asked, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has refused to speak about the deal to nominate Meredith, and the White House has never renounced its intention to follow through with the appointment.
Last Tuesday, Hendrik Wust (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) was elected premier of Germanys biggest state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The following day he presented the 12 ministers of the states new CDU-Green government. Four ministries go to the Greens, including a so-called super-ministry for economy, industry, climate protection and energy, headed by Deputy Premier Mona Neubaur.

Hendrik Wust (Olaf Kosinsky, CC BY-SA 3.0 EN, via Wikimedia Commons)

The formation of the coalition in Germanys most populous state underlines two basic tendencies in German politicsfirst, the interchangeability of all of the main political parties, and second, the central role being played by the Greens in enforcing right-wing policies in the face of growing opposition from workers and youth.

In addition to the federal government, the Greens are now represented in 11 of the countrys 16 state governments. In Berlin, Bremen and Thuringia the Greens govern together with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Left Party; in Saxony and Brandenburg with the CDU and the SPD; in Rhineland-Palatinate with the SPD and the Free Democratic Party (FDP); and in Hesse, Baden-Wurttemberg and Schleswig-Holsteinwhere a new state government was also sworn in last weekwith the CDU.

Following the lead of the federal government (SPD-Greens-FDP), the NRW coalition calls itself a government of progress. The coalition agreement bears the lofty title Future Contract for North Rhine-Westphalia. A closer look at the 146-page document, however, makes clear that all the promises of climate neutrality and a few social concessions are just hogwash. The coalition agreement is basically a declaration of war on the working class.

Already in the introduction, and using the familiar propaganda phrases of democracy, freedom and human rights, the coalition backs NATOs proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. In plain language this means that all the policies of the CDU-Green state government are subordinated to its war policy. The costs of Germanys intervention are to be passed onto the working classthrough exploding living costs, mass unemployment and ever greater impoverishment.

At the heart of the budget policy is strict adherence to the debt brake (no new credit), which makes a mockery of promises to recruit new teachers, improve working conditions, raise wages in the health sector and an extra year of nursery school for young children.

We will draw up budgets without new debts, as stipulated by the constitutional debt brake, including exceptional payments for natural disasters or extraordinary emergency situations, as a prerequisite for a sustainable and generationally just budget policy, the coalition agreement states. And then even more explicitly: This requires strict spending discipline and resolute prioritisation and places all existing and additional financially effective expenditures under budgetary reservation.

The money that has flowed mainly to big corporations and the super-rich in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic is also to be recouped at the expense of the working class. By 2024 at the latest, the contract reads the process begins of repaying the loans taken out for the corona bailout aimed at facilitating the economy.

Like all other governments at the federal and state levels, the CDU and Greens in NRW place the interests and profits of big business and the banks above the health and livelihoods of the vast majority of the population. Although the pandemic is still on the rampage, there is not a single concrete measure to contain the coronavirus to be found in the coalition agreement.

Climate protection is also to be completely subordinated to economic profit. We will make North Rhine-Westphalia the first climate-neutral industrial region in Europe, the coalition agreement states. In doing so, we will ensure that our state becomes one of the most innovative, sustainable and competitive business locations in Europe.

In total, the words competition and competitive appear 22 times in the text.

It is clear what this means. Under the slogan of transformation (52 times in the text), the new state government will continue the attacks on jobs and wages with even more aggression than previous administrations. High unemployment and poverty have long characterised working class areas in Germanys main industrial region.

In order to enforce the social attacks and contain growing opposition, the state government is counting on close cooperation with the trade unions. It seeks to maintain and support strong social partners and the high quality of co-determination in North Rhine-Westphalia, reads the section on the labour market. For this, the work of works councils and trade unions as well as employers associations is essential.

At the same time, the states security forces are to be massively expanded. The governing parties pledge to hire thousands more police officers every year. The equipping of police with tasers, already begun under the former coalition of the CDU and FDP, is to be continued. The Greens, who had originally opposed tasers, now support the policy and link it to the use of body cams and an evaluation process planned for 2024.

Parts of the chapter on internal security read like a strategy paper for a police state. We will ensure a qualitatively trained and educated, well-positioned and motivated police force. We are consistently continuing to strengthen the force with police enforcement officers, administrative officers and government employees. We will therefore recruit 3,000 police officers annually.

The coalition agreement goes on to say that the security forces need sufficient powers to intervene and fulfil their tasks. This requires police-controlled video surveillance and the strengthening of municipal law enforcement services. The extremely repressive law on gatherings introduced by the previous government is to be retained and merely reviewed independently and scientifically at the end of 2023. The state secret intelligence agency (Verfasssungsschutz) is praised in the document as a necessary early warning system for the observation of anti-constitutional and anti-democratic aspirations.

This huge strengthening of the states repressive apparatus is justified above all by the fight against hate crime and right-wing extremismbut this is just for propaganda purposes. The NRW police in particular are notorious for their links to far-right networks that spread extremist agitation and pay homage to Hitler and the Nazis. The state interior ministry headed by Herbert Reul (CDU), who significantly remains in office, is notorious for covering up far-right networks.

The Verfassungsschutz is at the heart of the far right-wing conspiracy in the state apparatus and is waging war against leftists, and the CDU and Greens support this course. Our society also faces a challenge from left-wing extremistswe will take action against this, the coalition agreement states.

Despite some flowery words about integration and cultural diversity in the agreement, the coalitions refugee policy is also de facto in line with the far-right Alternative for Germany. When an asylum application has been rejected and there are no further grounds for residency or humanitarian reasons, departure must take place through voluntary return or repatriation, the text states.

While priority is given to the consistent and lawful deportation of criminals and dangerous persons, deportations from educational and care institutions as well as hospitals and psychiatric facilities are also possible. The coalition document merely cynically notes that one seeks to do everything possible' to avoid such measures.

The fundamental development behind this reactionary agenda is becoming increasingly clear. Germanys most populous state with its historically militant working class is a social powder keg. For more than 10 weeks, nursing staff at the university hospitals of North Rhine-Westphalia have been on strike. The governing parties are aware of the growing opposition of the population to the war in Ukraine and unbearable living conditions at home.

The class divide, the enormous gap between the ruling elite and the working population, had already been clearly expressed in the state elections on May 15. With just under 55 percent participation, voter turnout fell to a historic low; 5.8 million of the almost 13 million eligible voters stayed home, about the same number as those voting for the three leading partiesCDU, SPD and Greens.

The election in NRW confirms that it has become impossible for the working class to assert its interests within the framework of the ossified parliamentary system, the WSWS commented on the election result. The struggle against war, social cuts and the stepping up of state armament requires the development of an independent working class movement that unites it internationally and advocates a socialist programme.

The formation of the current CDU-Green state government on a thoroughly right-wing basis lends enormous urgency to this perspective.
For the last week, the working class city of Akron, Ohio, located about 40 miles south of Cleveland, has been subjected to a reign of police terror following the release of body camera footage showing eight Akron police officers shooting Jayland Walker in the back scores of times.

Dozens of people, including family members of Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake, have been arrested for peacefully assembling to protest Walkers killing. Police have been filmed beating demonstrators and shooting them with tear gas at point-blank range.

This police rampage is being presided over by Democratic Mayor Dan Horrigan, who has imposed a curfew and denounced protesters as violent and lawless. The curfew and police occupation are being aided by the Biden administration, which has deployed the FBI to coordinate with state and local partners to provide resources and specialized skills.

Walker was shot down by police on June 27, 2022 in a hail of gunfire as he was attempting to flee over an alleged vehicle equipment violation. Walker, a beloved brother and son, was an African-American delivery driver and former Amazon worker. He was unarmed when police shot and killed him.

The killing of Walker and the subsequent police crackdown have provoked mass anger among the working class community of Akron and throughout the United States. Protests have been held every day in Akron since June 29. Protests have also been held in other US cities, including cities in Ohio, New York and Arizona, as well as in Washington D.C. More demonstrations are planned for this weekend.

In body camera footage reluctantly released by the Akron police this past Sunday, an unarmed Walker is shown being shot by police for roughly seven seconds. The gunfire from the cops caused over 60 wounds to Walker, according to a medical examiner's report.

It is believed that the eight still unnamed and uncharged officers fired over 90 rounds at their victim. Police body camera footage shows Walkers figure rolling and twitching on the pavement with each bullet fired by the cops that enters his body.

According to photographs in the medical examiners report, which were viewed by CNN earlier this week, after executing Walker the police arrested his corpse and left him on the pavement. The report says that Walkers body was delivered to the coroner's office with his arms still handcuffed behind his back, and that Walker suffered dozens of gunshot wounds from his ankle to his cheek on both sides of his body.

Those arrested and facing bogus charges include Jacob Blake Sr., the father of Jacob Blake Jr., and Bianca Austin, Breonna Taylors aunt.

Blake Jr. was paralyzed by Kenosha, Wisconsin police officer Rusten Sheskey, who shot him in the back seven times in August 2020. No charges were ever brought against Sheskey, who is still a cop in Kenosha.

Breonna Taylor, a medical technician, was murdered by three Louisville, Kentucky police officers during a midnight no-knock raid on her apartment. The police barged into her apartment while searching for her ex-boyfriend on a drug warrant and shot her in her in sleep.

After carrying out mass arrests of protesters throughout the week, the Akron cops have vindictively kept jailed protesters locked up for days inside the Summit County Jail, without access to medical care or even a phone call. Once bail has been posted, police have taken protesters and dropped them off around town, far from their home and their friends and family.

While the Democrats posture as defenders of democratic rights, they, no less than the Republicans, are defenders of the same capitalist system and lavishly fund the police to defend this system of inequality.



Virtually every day in the United States, and over 1,000 times a year, a police officer kills someone. Walker is one of at least 588 people who have been killed by US police so far this year, according to Mapping Police Violence. If the current pace of roughly three police killings per day continues, by the end of the month the police will have killed roughly 660 people and over 1,140 by the end of the year.

Throughout much of the 20th century, Akron was known as the Rubber Capital of the World. Between 1910 and 1920, Akrons population grew from 70,000 to over 200,000, as rural farmers, miners from Appalachia, and African-American sharecroppers who left the Deep South moved to the city to find work at a B.F. Goodrich, Firestone, General or Goodyear tire plants. By 1930, the rubber industry in Akron employed some 58,000 workers.

Rubber workers toiled in dangerous and dirty factories. Their pay was poor, the working conditions were worse, and there were no benefits.

When rubber workers sought to assert themselves by striking, the companies conspired to hire scab labor to replace them. To counter the companies use of scabs, in 1936 Akron rubber workers pioneered the sit-down strike by occupying factories and refusing to work. This tactic was successfully implemented by auto workers during the Flint, Michigan sit-down strikes in 1936-37.

After decades of deindustrialization, overseen by Democratic and Republican administrations alike, Akron is a shell of what it once was. In the last 60 years, Akrons population has shrunk from roughly 260,000 to under 190,000 as of 2021, according to the US Census Bureau.

Ashley, an Akron worker and protester, described the social conditions in an interview yesterday with the World Socialist Web Site: Our city is not in a good place. What jobs are here are scarce... the jobs that are available pay the bare minimum, or minimum wage... the rent is so high... it is a struggle, day and night, hour after hour, seven days a week to make ends meet.

While Akrons working class suffers, the police in Akron and throughout the United States have seen their funding increased by the Democratic Party and its Republican colleagues. Two years after the killing of George Floyd, which sparked multi-ethnic and multi-racial protests across the US and internationally, the Democrats have reneged on their talk of defunding the police and dropped even the most timid police reform measures.

In his last State of the Union address, President Joe Biden declared, We should all agree the answer is not to defund the police, but is to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them.

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders have remained silent on the killing of Walker and the subsequent police occupation of Akron. Their silence is not an oversight. The unity Biden and the Democrats seek with the Republicans is predicated on imperialist war abroad and ruthless class exploitation at home.

The police rampage in Akron makes clear the utter absurdity of the United States claims that it is defending democracy in its war with Russia. In fact, the rapidly-escalating war will be accompanied by further attacks on the social and democratic rights of the population and the increasingly open turn to dictatorial forms of rule.



The nationwide and global outpouring of anger at Walkers murder shows that there is enormous opposition within the working class to police violence. This must be channeled not into voting for Democrats and their empty pledges of reform, but into an international movement aimed at eliminating the source of police violence, war and inequality--the capitalist system.
This video calls upon workers and young people to join the Socialist Equality Partys online meeting on Sunday July 10, at 3 p.m. AEST to defend and free Julian Assange. Check the meeting time in your timezone and register now to attend the meeting.

We urge readers to share this video on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and all other social media platforms and fight for the broadest possible attendance at this critical meeting.
Heavy monsoon rains across South Asia since March, mainly affecting India and Bangladesh, have caused floods and landslides with hundreds dead and missing, and millions displaced. Flood survivors face immense hardships because of government failures to take adequate emergency and relief measures.

A rickshaw driver ferries a passenger past a flooded street after continuous rainfall in Gauhati, India, Wednesday, June 15, 2022. [AP Photo/Anupam Nath]

In India, over 600 have died and more than five million have been affected. The northeastern states of Assam and Meghalaya have been hardest hitat least 200 have died with over 4 million impacted. The Indian National Emergency Response Centre reported 168 deaths in Himachal Pradesh, 60 in Maharashtra, 46 in Bihar, 46 in Madhya Pradesh, 36 in Gujarat and 36 in Meghalaya with 56 missing.

In Bangladesh, at least 17 of the countrys 64 districts, mostly in the north and the northeastern Sylhet region, have been hit. More than 100 people have been killed with over 7 million flood affected. The New Age reported on July 3: The inhabitants in shoals of northern regions are, however, bearing the worst brunt, with many living in submerged houses or on embankments for about a month.

Floods and hundreds of landslides have damaged river embankments, roads, houses and crops, with devastating consequences for livestock, domestic animals and poultry. Survivors are sheltering in makeshift camps without adequate drinking water and foodalso they are contracting water-borne diseases.

The floods are compounding the social crisis caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. According to the understated official figures, there have been over 525,000 deaths and 43 million cases in India, with 30,000 deaths and nearly two million cases in Bangladesh.

The Indian and Bangladesh governments have responded to the crisis with contempt for the victims, refusing to provide adequate relief materials, rescue equipment, medicine, trained personnel and safe, useable infrastructure.

The callous indifference of government authorities is generating widespread anger among survivors. On June 30, the All Assam Students Union held protests across Assam state to demand flood relief. Just days before, people from southern Assam's Barak Valley residing in Delhi, demonstrated to demand relief materials and a special economic package to rehabilitate the flood-hit Silchar area.

Attempting to dissipate the anger, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited Silchar but had to admit that relief materials were not reaching many of 280,000 flood survivors. In a crude attempt to deflect anger away from his government, he tried to blame the unprecedented floods in Silchar on the actions of some miscreants who he alleged had breached the embankment at Bethukandi and proposed posting police to the site in the future.

The northeastern Sylhet region in Bangladesh has been severely affected. Dozens of people have died, many of them young children, in the worst floods northeast Bangladesh has seen in more than a century. More than four million people have been left stranded, the BBC reported late last month.

Khudeza Begum, 50, a mother of seven, who lost her husband to cancer, was living in Companiganj district when the waters started to rise. She told the BBC that her family had to leave their home when the water level rose to her chest. They tried to escape by boat with her family.

As we were traveling, it capsized, Begum said. My children and I survived by swimming and holding onto a tree I couldnt save my rice or my duck, chicken, cow or goat. They were all drowned. I have to say, I have nothing left except my life.

As reported by the New Nation on June 30, the Pandargaon union council chair in Sylhet said that 80 percent of the people have lost rice, potato and livestock stored in their houses. The government, according to flood management experts, has not developed its capacity to tackle recurring flash floods in the region, the newspaper said.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited the flood-hit areas of Netrokona, Sunamganj and Sylhet districts by helicopter on June 21, telling survivors they should not panic over the floods. The people of Bangladesh, she declared always have to be prepared to face such natural disasters.

Bangladeshis face floods on an almost annual basis, with many losing their lives and livelihoods because successive governments, including those led by Hasina, have failed to take the necessary flood mitigation measures to control these natural disasters.

After feigning concern and offering a few empty platitudes, Hasina played the nationalist card, declaring that the floods impacting on the Sylhet region, had come from the Indian states of Meghalaya and Assam. She then left the survivors to fend for themselves.

Bangladeshi authorities have said that Sylhet was flooded because all 54 floodgates at the Gajoldoba barrage on the Indian side of Teesta River were suddenly opened on June 9. The New Age reported on June 11, that this led to inundation of 63 villages from five northern districts, Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Gaibandha, affecting over 100,000 people.

In 2010, India and Bangladesh initiated discussions on a Teesta water-sharing treaty under the Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission, claiming that this would resolve flooding issues.

Although the leaders of India and Bangladesh have held several rounds of talks for a Teesta water-sharing treaty, it has not materialised.

Any rational solution to the issue of flooding as well as irrigation and water sharing is blocked by the reactionary 1947 partition of British India into a Muslim Pakistan and a Hindu-dominated India. The ruling classes in Bangladesh and India defend their own narrow interests at the expense of lives and social needs of the vast majority of the population in both countries.

Government claims that floods in South Asia are natural are a lie. The social catastrophes generated by monsoonal rains and cyclones are created by capitalism and its irrational and destructive drive for profits. This includes unplanned urbanisation, as well as increased fossil-fuel burning leading to global warming, which threatens not just Bangladesh but low-lying countries across the globe.

The science.thewire.in website on June 22 stated: Climate change was likely to have made the rains that unleashed catastrophic flooding across Bangladesh worse. Quoting climate scientists, it warned: While South Asias monsoon rains follow natural atmospheric patterns, the rains will become more erratic and torrential as global temperatures continue to climb.

Placing profits of big business and foreign investors over human lives, India and Bangladesh have heavily invested on transport and power infrastructure development for investors and high military spending while providing little for disaster prevention and relief.
This article was originally posted on Twitter.

The Socialist Equality Party in Sri Lanka has firmly rejected a direct appeal from the leader of the official opposition party, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), to join in talks aimed at reaching an all-party agreement to salvage capitalist rule.

The Sri Lankan section of the International Committee of the Fourth International has bluntly told the SJB that Wije Dias, chairman of the Socialist Equality Party, will under no circumstances engage in talks with the political parties of the ruling class.

Rejecting the invitation, SEP leader Deepal Jayasekera writes that the crisis wont be solved by fixing a new face to this bourgeois state machinery with an all-party government as proposed by the SJB or a unity government proposed by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

Exposing the real aims of the all-party talks, Comrade Jayasekera writes:

Like the government of President Rajapakse and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, any capitalist government that will replace it will implement the austerity agenda of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Also, that government will use all the existing repressive tools of the state machine to suppress the workers, youth and other toilers who will join the struggles against those attacks.

Comrade Jayasekeras letter notes that the SJB is well aware of the fact that the middle-class pseudo-left parties [like the Nava Sama Samaja Party and United Socialist Party] are discredited by their long record of opportunist collaboration with bourgeois governments.

That is why you have turned to the SEP, which has been waging a principled struggle based on policies of international socialism in the working class for more than half a century. But the SEP will not provide a left cover for the capitalist parties.

Rejecting your invitation, the letter states, we are advancing a program of action for the working class to mobilize its social power and implement its own solution to the immense social and economic crisisone that puts human needs before investors profit.

Comrade Jayasekera concludes his letter to the SJB with a firm declaration of Trotskyist principles:

The SEP, once again rejecting your invitation with contempt, is fighting to build the mass revolutionary party that can provide the leadership and international socialist perspective to the popular uprising in Sri Lanka. In this fight, the SEP sees the working class in Sri Lanka and internationally as the only social force that can end the imperialist war, COVID-19 pandemic and social misery.

Comrade Jayasekeras letter has been distributed by the thousands to demonstrators in Colombo who have stormed the presidential palace demanding the removal of the president.
World leaders expressed shock and sadness after former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and killed Friday in western Japan while giving a campaign speech.

U.S. President Joe Biden offered condolences to Abe's family. "This is a tragedy for Japan and for all who knew him," he said in a statement.

Biden spoke about his personal connection with Abe. "I had the privilege to work closely with Prime Minister Abe. As vice president, I visited him in Tokyo and welcomed him to Washington. He was a champion of the alliance between our nations and the friendship between our people," Biden said. "The longest-serving Japanese prime minister, his vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific will endure."

"Above all, he cared deeply about the Japanese people and dedicated his life to their service. Even at the moment he was attacked, he was engaged in the work of democracy."

Biden said he had ordered the U.S flag to be flown at half-staff to honor Abe. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement saying, "Prime Minister Abe was a global leader and unwavering ally and friend of the United States, whose vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific lifted our alliance cooperation to new heights."

Former U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement, "Abe was devoted to both the country he served and the extraordinary alliance between the United States and Japan. I will always remember the work we did to strengthen our alliance, the moving experience of traveling to Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor together, and the grace he and his wife, Akie Abe, showed to me and Michelle."


Seven people were killed and 47 wounded by 21-year-old Robert Crimo III when he opened fire from a rooftop with a semi-automatic rifle on a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago.

Robert Crimo [Photo by Crimo YouTube channel]

Among the surviving victims is eight-year old Cooper Roberts who was shot in the chest and suffered severe injuries that have left him paralyzed from the waist down, most likely for the rest of his life. His twin brother and parents were uninjured but are currently awaiting Roberts to awake in the hospital. He is currently sedated and in critical, but stable condition.

While Lake County authorities quickly declared Crimo had no political motivation and acted as a lone wolf, there is ample evidence, as the WSWS has already reported, that the mass murderer was heavily involved in many far-right online circles and an avid supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Of particular note is Crimos use of anti-Semitic iconography and pro-Christian alt-right media. A screenshot of one of the many videos Crimo posted on his YouTube channel shows him flashing the three-fingered OK alt-right hand signal with a lightning bolt tattooed on his right hand in the style of the cracker bolt. The lightning bolt symbol has been identified by the Anti-Defamation League as a common white supremacist and neo-Nazi symbol derived from the SS of Nazi Germany and has been seen in many far-right extremist groups such as the Proud Boys.

Crimo also posted a time-lapse video of him painting the words Gods Not Dead on his mothers house and then painting a camouflaged man holding an assault rifle with a yellow smiley face for a head. This face has also been noted as a common symbol used in far-right online spaces.

The words Gods Not Dead refer to the films Gods Not Dead and Gods Not Dead 2, independent films produced for a Christian audience starring Kevin Sorbo, a notorious QAnon-friendly conspiracy theorist and Trump supporter who once played Hercules on television in the 1990s. The films, while ostensibly presenting pro-Christian messages, have been utilized by the far-right in their portrayals of nefarious outside forces hellbent on killing and squashing all of Christianity. Adherents of the fascist QAnon movement have used the film as a symbol of their own perceived oppression by woke elements in society who deserve violent retribution.

Crimos propagation of these fascist symbols is significant considering that the majority of his victims were Jewish, the city is home to a sizable Jewish community, and he had apparently targeted Highland Park synagogues in the past.

As Forward reported, five of the seven victims were Jewish or members of Jewish families. These include Jacki Sundheim, 63, who helped arrange events at North Shore Congregation Israel; Irina McCarthy, 35, a Jewish Russian emigre; and Katherine Goldstein, 64, who married into a Jewish family. The other victims, Nicholas Toledo, 73, and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69, were Mexican immigrants who had lived in the United States for decades.

At least two sources have also reported that Crimo visited a local synagogue in an attempt to scope it out prior to the shooting. Resident Martin Blumenthal reported seeing the 21-year-old dressed in all black with a backpack entering the synagogue and then leaving after 45 minutes. Meanwhile, Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz reported to the Times of Israel that Crimo had entered his Chabad synagogue of mostly Hasidic worshippers during a Passover service before being promptly asked to leave. The synagogue is located just two blocks away from where the shooting took place and directly on the route of the Highland Park July 4th parade.

The Highland Park neighborhood was also subjected to antisemitic propaganda leaflets left outside homes of Jewish families on Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, as FOX32 reported in April.

According to Highland Park residents, Crimo was also a noteworthy figure in many of the suburbs anti-lockdown and stop the steal rallies, supporting Trumps claims that the 2020 election was stolen. One selfie shows Crimo dressed as the popular character of Wheres Waldo? while standing among throngs of other Trump supporters. Another picture shows him draped in a Trump flag while laughing.

A Highland Park resident posted on Facebook alleging that Crimo and a band of far-right associates had doxxed her, creating flyers calling her a Communist with her name, picture, and address along with a call to action that she must be stopped. This was all done after she had participated in a Stop the Steal counter-protest.

Details of Crimos background and home life have also been revealed in light of the shooting. The Chicago Tribune reports that the police were called to the Crimo house no less than nine times in response to domestic disputes between his father Robert Crimo, Jr. and his mother Denise Pesina. These often related to arguments regarding belittling speech that often resorted in objects being thrown and physical altercations between Crimo, Jr. and Pesina. A neighbor of the family told the Tribune that police would come to the house on a weekly basis when both parents lived together.

In regard to incidents relating to Crimo himself, the first reported police occurrence was in 2002 when his mother pled guilty to child endangerment after leaving the then 2-year-old boy alone in a car with the windows rolled up for almost 30 minutes. It was reported to have been about 79 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

The police were called in 2018 when it was reported that Crimo had attempted suicide by hacking himself with a machete.

By the time of last weekends shooting, the three no longer lived together, with Crimo living by himself in an apartment on his fathers property and minimal contact between them all.

It also appears that in February Crimo wrote and published a manifesto before the shooting. According to users on 4chan, the shooter had written a paper entitled Arcturus, a document almost 30 pages in length which consists solely of seemingly random numbers in a single paragraph. On Amazon, there is a link to Arcturus Paperback by Robert Crimo, but the link has since been taken down.

The mainstream media and police officials have sought to obscure and hide Crimos involvement with the far-right and the anti-Semitic motivations for his crimes at nearly every turn. The fact that Crimo was so deeply embedded in the alt-right and Trumpism points to political issues which the ruling class would like to paper over.

The nihilism and hopelessness Crimo exhibits are a product of the rotten capitalist system and its inability to meet the basic needs of the working class. More than two decades of unending wars abroad, the far reaching assault on democratic rights at home and more than two years of a pandemic which has been allowed by the Democrats and Republicans alike to kill more than 1 million people has had a devastating effect.

Only the overthrow of capitalism by the working class under a program of international socialism can stamp out the violence of the capitalist ruling class and offer a solution to young people disoriented and broken by the failures of capitalism.
The dominance of the coronavirus variants BA.4 and BA.5 as well as the ending of any protective measures against COVID-19 have produced a rapid increase in the number of infections. On Thursday, the Robert Koch Institute, Germanys central agency for infectious diseases, reported 135,402 new coronavirus infections, and on Tuesday there were as many as 147,489. The 7-day incidence rose to over 690 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, from 650 on Monday.

These figures do not even begin to reflect the real extent of the disaster. The abolition of free testing, the scrapping of compulsory testing for certain activities, and the dramatic reduction of testing options mean that only a portion of total infections is registered. Every day, 100 to 200 people are dying of COVID-19. Officially, there have already been 142,000 coronavirus deaths in Germany.

Patient in an intensive care unit (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

As a result of the murderous policy of mass infection, the hospitals, which have been at their limits for two-and-a-half years, are once again on the brink of collapse. On Monday, according to the daily report of the Intensive Care Register of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), the number of coronavirus intensive care patients rose above 1,000. This is the highest number of patients since mid-May.

The scientific director of the DIVI, Christian Karagiannidis, warned that the hospital bed occupancy rate for the summer season was relatively high. The number of available beds will continue to decline due to staff shortages, he added. It is not only the increasing number of hospital admissions that is pushing the entire health care system to the limit. Ever-increasing numbers of employees are getting infected and are therefore absent from the workplace.

The chief executive of the German Hospital Society (DKG), Gerald Gass, told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND): We receive reports from all federal states that individual wards and departments must be closed due to staff shortages. At times, even emergency room admissions are affected.

We see bottlenecks in hospitals, especially in Schleswig-Holstein with its particularly high infection rates, said Susanne Johna, chairwoman of the Marburger Bund doctors union, in Handelsblatt. The health system is reaching its limits in places. In the third year of the pandemic, this is a real disaster.

Looking ahead to the upcoming autumn wave, Johna explained: Then we will not only be dealing with a coronavirus, but probably also with an aggressive flu wave. This combination of coronavirus and influenza waves would be a real problem, as the health care system would then have to deal with two serious diseases on a large scale.

Entire departments of large hospitals are already paralysed. The University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) had to close several wards at its Kiel and Lubeck sites due to staff shortages. On July 1, 479 employees were in isolation, a number that rose to over 600 by July 8.

The shortage of personnel, which has been rampant for a long time, is also having a major impact in other federal states. The situation in Saxonys hospitals is also extremely tenuous due to coronavirus cases in the workforce and the general lack of nursing staff. The economic situation and staff shortages make the situation more difficult, said the deputy managing director of the Saxony Hospital Association Friedrich R. Munchen. He pointed out that future service restrictions cannot be ruled out.

The provision of care has already deteriorated compared to the time before the pandemic. At the St. Georg Clinic in Leipzig, around a quarter fewer beds are currently in operation. This is due to staff shortages and COVID-19 absences.

According to a spokeswoman for the hospital, more nurses than ever before have decided to leave the health care system in the last two years. Only the dedicated commitment of our employees has so far prevented the closure of entire wards, she said.

Only five of 11 operating theatres were in operation in the Asklepios Klinik Nord Heidberg in Hamburg last week, according to the company. All areas of the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) are also affected by staff shortages. Around 250 of more than 14,400 employees are currently in isolation. Therefore, since the beginning of the pandemic, planned and non-urgent operations have had to be postponed again and again and beds have had to be closed, the hospital said.

Throughout Germany, dozens of other hospitals have agreed to reduce their operating capacities.

At the hospital in Erding, Bavaria, an average of 140 out of 800 employees are currently ill every day. In addition, there are numerous vacancies that cannot be filled. In the meantime, one ward is completely closed, while others can only be operated to a limited extent and some planned operations cant be carried out.

The Merkur newspaper reported on a doctor at a Munich hospital. There are currently only three out of eight operating theatres in operation, he explained. Ongoing operations are sometimes aborted due to an emergency. And its now midsummer, not winter. The doctor said he has never experienced such a dramatic shortage of personnel.

The strike by nurses at the university hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia also demonstrates the catastrophic situation in health care. Employees are now in their tenth week of strike action at six university hospitals. While the Verdi trade union is working to break the strike by concluding a so-called relief collective agreement, the workers are protesting against the unsustainable conditions that endanger the lives and well-being of patients and employees.

Even in the face of these disastrous developments, the government is sticking to its pandemic policy. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (Social Democrats) and other government representatives have made it clear that effective measures such as lockdowns and school and business closures will no longer be considered under any circumstances. Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated in his summer interview with public broadcaster ARD: School closures should no longer take place.

Some states have repealed the last few remaining measures. In Bavaria, the state government recently abolished the compulsory requirement to wear a mask on public transport. Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (Christian Social Union) defended the decision with the right-wing mantra: We are thus focusing more on the personal responsibility of the citizens.

Under conditions of staff shortages due to coronavirus infections, Free Democratic Party Vice-President Wolfgang Kubicki called for a further reduction of the quarantine period for people who test positive to three days.

The trade unions are also defending the profits before lives policy. Maike Finnern of the teachers union (GEW) told the RND that new school and day care closures in the autumn must be prevented. It is precisely the reopening of child care facilities and schools that have led to an explosive increase in infections and facilitated the spread of virus mutations.

In Berlin, the Social Democrat/Left Party/Green state government, the so-called red-red-green Senate, is implementing an austerity policy on health care. The district of Neukolln alone is to reduce its coronavirus staff from 54 to 10 employees. Neukollns public health doctor Nicolai Savaskan stated that this will no longer guarantee the protection of vulnerable groups in old peoples homes and nursing homes. That means serious cases and deaths, said the doctor.
The U.S. has high hopes, in particular, for the new, precision artillery rounds. "It offers Ukraine precise targeting, precise capability for specific targets. It will save ammunition. It will be more effective due to the precision," the official said. "So, it's a further evolution and our support for Ukraine in this battle in the Donbas."

"These [weapons systems] are precise," a senior U.S. defense official said, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon. "We expect them to be used by the Ukrainians to great effect given their success so far."

U.S. officials on Friday unveiled a new $400 million package for Ukraine, including four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 1,000 rounds of 155 millimeter "precision capable" artillery ammunition, a type that has not been provided to Kyiv until now.

The United States is sending more military aid to Ukraine aimed at helping Ukrainian forces target, disrupt and destroy Russia's ability to wage war in the Donbas region and beyond.

But the U.S. hopes the latest package, part of what is being described as a "steady drumbeat" of support, does more. "A big element of what we are looking at now is that lift, which is vital for the Ukrainians to be able to continue the fight and most importantly, I would say, for the Russians to know that the Ukrainians are going to be able to continue the fight," the official said.

U.S. officials have been quick to praise Ukrainian forces for the way they have integrated an earlier shipment of eight HIMARS into their efforts to slow the Russian advance in the Donbas and, in some cases, managing to hold the Russian forces at bay. "We know that they're going after targets that have major effect on the battlefield," said a second senior U.S. defense official, also briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity.

The Ukrainians are targeting "command and control nodes, and logistics supply areas -- all those things that although they're not on the front line, have a big-time impact," the official said. "Many of the ammunition locations that they've destroyed have had a significant impact on the [Russian] organizations they were meant to resupply."

So far, more than 100 Ukrainian troops have been trained on how to use the system, and U.S. officials held out the possibility more HIMARS and other similar systems could be included in future aid packages

The announcement of additional U.S. aid comes just days after Russian forces declared victory in Ukraine's Luhansk province, after Ukrainian forces retreated from their last stronghold in city of Lysychansk.

Western intelligence assessments believe Russian forces are now positioning themselves for a push into the Donetsk region. Russia is "likely concentrating equipment on the front line in the direction of Siversk, approximately 8km west of the current Russian front lines," Britain's defense intelligence arm said Friday.

"There is a realistic possibility that Russia's immediate tactical objective will be Siversk, as its forces attempt to advance towards its most likely operational goal of the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk urban area," it said. But U.S. officials continued to describe Russian gains as incremental and "highly costly."

"They're [Russian forces] way behind on their timelines They're far behind on their objectives," the first senior U.S. defense official told reporters. "The Ukrainians are, in localized places, launching effective counteroffensives."

"We don't see this at all as Russia winning this battle," the official added. "But the fighting is hard."

In addition to the new HIMARS and the precision 155-millimeter artillery rounds, the new U.S security package also includes more ammunition for the eight HIMARS already in Ukraine, tactical vehicles, demolition munitions, counter battery systems and spare parts to help Ukrainian forces maintain systems that are getting heavy use.
Actor Lee Jung-jae expressed his excitement at a press junket early this week, ahead of his directorial debut film's release in Korea next month.

Premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival in May, "Hunt" is garnering much attention here as well, mainly due to the ensemble cast starring Lee himself and his close friend and fellow actor Jung Woo-sung.

In 1998 when they were still novice actors, Lee and Jung co-starred in the hit buddy film "City of the Rising Sun," and now expectations are building up for their cinematic reunion some two decades later.

"I'm thrilled, rather than being nervous," Lee said. "While working as an actor for a long time, I used to believe that acting is one thing and directing is another, so at first I was hesitant about dabbling in directing, but I decided to do it because I wanted to try something new."

The action-packed thriller revolves around two intelligence agents who team up to uncover a North Korean spy within their agency, only to stumble upon a hidden truth.

The film is slated to hit local theaters on Aug. 10.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 10, 2022 - 01:26 | All, Japan

The man who fatally shot former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told police that his mother had made a "huge donation" to a religious body, and he harbored a grudge against the group, which he believed was associated with the Japanese leader, investigative sources said Saturday.

A day after the death of Japan's longest-serving prime minister, one of the sources also quoted Tetsuya Yamagami as saying something to the effect of "initially, I intended to attack an executive of the group" but decided to target Abe instead.

While the 41-year-old assailant's motive is not fully known, many have strongly criticized the shooting during a stump speech on a street in the western city of Nara as shaking the foundation of democracy and exposing flaws in the security of dignitaries.

At a press conference, Tomoaki Onizuka, head of the Nara prefectural police, apologized for failing to prevent the attack and admitted, "It is undeniable that there were problems in the security."

Yamagami has also told the police that on the eve of the deadly shooting, he went to a hall in the western city of Okayama, where Abe delivered a speech for Sunday's House of Councillors election, according to the sources.

The rally attracted more than 2,000 people without a security check, but there were no problems, according to people involved in the event.

Yamagami, who used a homemade gun to shoot Abe and was arrested at the scene, has denied that opposition to the former prime minister's political beliefs had anything to do with him committing the crime, according to the police.

An official at the religious group said that it is true that his mother was a longtime believer but did not have knowledge of her financial situation.

Abe died from blood loss, with an autopsy determining that there were two gunshot wounds to his upper left arm and neck.

The police searched his home Friday, finding items believed to be explosives and homemade guns, including ones similar to the weapon used in the attack, according to the police.

Yamagami, who was unemployed, had previously worked for a manufacturer in the Kansai region from around the fall of 2020, but he quit in May this year, according to a staffing agency employee. He was previously a member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force for about three years through August 2005.

Related coverage:

Ex-colleagues call Abe shooter "totally ordinary," shocked over act

Amid punishing heat and spurts of heavy rain, nearly 500 people at one point had lined up at a spot in Nara close to the scene of the attack to pay their respects, with mourners leaving flowers, drinks and other items.

Among them was Shihori Kimura, a 17-year-old high schooler from Kyoto, also in western Japan. "For me, Mr. Abe is who I think of when someone mentions the prime minister. I wanted to thank him for his work over such a long time. Political expression must not be stopped by violence," she said.

In the afternoon in Tokyo, a car carrying Abe's body arrived at his home. His wife Akie accompanied her late husband's body in the car ride from the western city.

As the car slowly pulled in, Akie Abe bowed to the more than 100 members of the press thronged outside the residence. Following Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's visit to express his condolences, numerous LDP lawmakers came to pay their respects.

Hisashi Hieda, chairman of media firm Fujisankei Communications Group, told reporters Abe's expression looked as he always did, although his head was wrapped with bandages. Hieda joined LDP policy chief Sanae Takaichi and others to meet the car carrying the former prime minister home.

Earlier Saturday, Kishida had a telephone conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden, who expressed his condolences.

Biden noted the "unwavering confidence in the strength of Japan's democracy," and they also discussed how Abe's legacy would live on as the two countries continue the important task of defending peace and democracy, according to the White House.

Kishida told reporters after the phone conversation that he had conveyed to Biden Japan's willingness to "protect democracy without yielding to violence."

Related coverage:

Preventing shootings difficult even in Japan with strict gun control

Former Japan PM Abe dies after being shot during election speech

FOCUS: Longest-serving Japan PM Abe was known for hawkish security stance
Kim Phuc attends the Press Preview of the Exhibition "From Hell to Hollywood" at Palazzo Lombardia on May 05, 2022 in Milan, Italy.

Pier Marco Tacca/Getty

Fifty years after becoming an unwitting face of the atrocity of the Vietnam War, Kim Phuc Phan Thi is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace. She runs Kim Foundation International, which helps build hospitals, schools, orphanages and libraries for children. Most recently she accompanied refugees from Ukraine on their journey to resettle in Canada.

"I go everywhere that children need," she says of her global travels. "I share my story with students. I want them to know about how horrible war is but then how beautiful the world can be if everyone can learn to live with love, with hope and forgiveness."

She also recently completed yet another burn treatment, a continuation of years of healing.

It's an extraordinarily inspiring life no one could have predicted for the little Vietnamese girl famously caught up in the tragedy of the Vietnam war. Phan Thi was only 9 years old on June 8, 1972 when she was playing in the Cao Dai temple yard in Trang Bang, a small village outside Saigon, Vietnam, with her 3-year-old cousin Danh. South Vietnam soldiers arrived and yelled for the children to run.

"I saw the airplane (flying) toward me, very loud and very fast, and I just stood right there," recalls Phan Thi. "I turned my head, I looked up, and I saw four bombs, and I heard noises, and suddenly the fire was everywhere around us. Fire was falling out of the sky and hit me."

The fire burned her clothes off, and scalded her neck, back and left arm. When she tried to wipe the sticky napalm off her arm, she burned her right hand, too. "That moment, I still remember," says Phan Thi, now 59. "I was so scared. And I knew it, I got burned and I became ugly. A girl. And so people will see me a different way."

Nick Ut, a Vietnamese AP photographer, turned and saw Phan Thi and her brothers and cousins running for their lives. He captured their terror.

Nick Ut and Kim Phuc attend the Press Preview of the Exhibition "From Hell to Hollywood" at Palazzo Lombardia on May 05, 2022 in Milan, Italy.

Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Photographer Nick Ut and Kim Phuc Phan Thi

Phan Thi was screaming "too hot, too hot," and soldiers gave her water to drink and then poured water on her burns, which inadvertently made them worse. When Phan Thi lost consciousness, Ut put down his camera and carried the little girl inside and eventually drove her to the hospital in Saigon. With 65% of her body badly burned and serious nerve damage, Phan Thi stayed in an American hospital for 14 months, undergoing 16 surgeries.

Story continues

Ut's photograph sparked outrage in the United States. The bombs were mistakenly dropped by South Vietnamese on their own villagers, and the naked little "Napalm girl" and other children running down the street, their mouths agape, a black cloud behind them, shocked the American public. Here was proof that bombing civilian villages and terrorizing children was part of their war effort. The photograph is credited for changing the course of the war, and earned Ut a Pulitzer Prize. It also changed the course of Phan Thi's life.

At first, she felt ashamed. "When I saw the picture, you know, I was just a child," she says. "I thought 'Why didn't they protect me'? Why did he print that picture?' When I saw that ugly picture, I was naked. 'Why are my brothers and my cousin with clothes on?' "

During her time in the hospital she decided she wanted to become a doctor. Capping a childhood plagued by nightmares, scars, an inability to sweat because her pores were burned, and enduring unbearable pain when she made sudden movements or at times of changing weather, Phan Thi started medical school at age 19.

But because of her notoriety, the Vietnamese government forced her to participate in propaganda films that took too much time, so she had to leave school. She was devastated, full of anger and hate  and even contemplated suicide. She spent long hours in the library poring over religious texts. She found the new testament, became a Christian, and began to pray for peace.

"My enemies list became my prayer list," she says, and she gradually lost her anger and bitterness over what had been done to her. Eventually she went to Cuba to study Spanish, met her husband, and, on the way back from their honeymoon in Russia, defected to Canada.

Her health problems continued. She had difficulty moving her neck and lifting her left arm, and her left arm was much shorter than her right. In 1984 she traveled to Germany for surgery to restore movement and correct the imbalance. The surgery was successful but the pain lingered. Sometimes she rated it 10 out of 10 on the pain scale. Pain medication was her mainstay until she sought another way to manage it.

Vietnam war icon Kim Phuc Phan Thi poses at the Unesco headquarters in Paris on October 4, 2019. - 47 years after making the international media headlines, Kim Phuc Phan Thi, the little girl burned with napalm and photographed by Nick Ut, is in Paris for the publication in French of her book "Sauvee de l'enfer" (saved from hell) written to tell the story of the spiritual journey that brought her to serenity.

GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP via Getty

She learned to lessen the sharp pain from her burns with prayer, distracting herself, and applying pressure to the spot by leaning against the corner of a towel bar for prolonged periods of time. Despite a long list of physical issues, including asthma and diabetes, she was able to have two sons. She has always been open with them. "I tell them my story, but I never end in the middle," she says. "I always say your mom learned to forgive, to love people." Phan Thi also adopted a daughter, and she now has five grandchildren.

The sharp pain persisted, as if she was being cut with a knife. After a speaking engagement, someone in the audience told her about Dr. Jill Waibel, a dermatologist in Miami, Florida, and a pioneer in the laser treatment of scars. Dr. Waibel often treats burn survivors, and Phan Thi called her to see if she could help lessen her pain.

Dr. Waibel has now done a series of 12 treatments with Lumenis UltraPulse, the most powerful ablative laser available. Phan Thi is treated for 30 minutes with four to five lasers. The treatment requires separate lasers to take away the red, the white and the brown scars, and then bio-stimulators are injected to regrow skin.

Most patients stop after five to seven treatments, but Phan Thi can't always fit the week of recovery and healing into her schedule. "When Phan Thi shows up you never know if she's meeting the Pope the next day or the President," Dr. Waibel says. If she's too busy, treatment is lighter. By now, Phan Thi says, the pain is half of what was. She may go back for more treatments if she finds she needs them.

Although the treatments are difficult to endure, Phan Thi is ecstatic that they are working, and that the gains are permanent. "This is a miracle for me already," Phan Thi says. "I still have 4, 5, sometimes 3 (measure of pain on the pain scale). I can manage that. Before I met Jill, I wish that one day I'm in heaven, no more pain, no more scar. But now I enjoy (life). Every time I look at my scar, it looks much better, and less pain."

Dr. Waibel has secured donations of medicine for Phan Thi and performs the treatments pro bono. She is impressed with Phan Thi's fortitude. "Any of us couldn't survive one of the things she did and the hits just kept coming for her," she says. "She's mesmerizing. Her heart is so beautiful you just want to help her. Phan Thi is a survivor. I have never seen Phan Thi complain. She appreciates every moment of her life, and freedom."

Today Phan Thi looks at Ut's photograph and finds reasons to be thankful. "It was really a miracle (I was burned) on my back and not in the front," she says, adding, "Even (though) I got burned all over, my feet weren't burned, so I was able to run out of that fire."

"The challenge to everyone is: If that little girl can do it, everyone can do it," she says. "You don't have to wait until you are somebody, do something. No, (that's) too late already. Be yourself and be a blessing."

"'I am sure you can make a difference'  that's what I tell the children. Very simple, from my heart. Every child, it doesn't matter how old, they know, they understand me."
KYODO NEWS - Jul 9, 2022 - 21:47 | World, All

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday raised Washington's concern about China's alignment with Moscow amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Blinken said that was made clear during a more than five-hour meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the Indonesian island of Bali, but both sides agreed to manage their differences on issues ranging from Taiwan to human rights and continue high-level exchanges.

At a press conference following the meeting, their first face-to-face talks since the start of Russia's war against Ukraine, Blinken said, "Now, what you hear from Beijing is that it claims to be neutral. I would start with the proposition that it's pretty hard to be neutral when it comes to this aggression."

"But even if you accept that as a premise, I don't think that China is in fact engaging in a way that suggests neutrality," he said, adding it is "still standing by Russia, selling Russian propaganda around the world. It's shielding Russia in international organizations."

Wang, who did not hold a press conference, criticized the United States for worsening bilateral ties and said Washington's stance has been inconsistent and distorted by what he described as a "China phobia."

"If this 'threat expansion' is allowed to develop, the U.S. policy toward China will be a dead-end," he said, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement, which said they had "in-depth" discussions on Ukraine but provided no other information.

The top U.S. diplomat also said he stressed U.S. worries over China's "increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity near Taiwan," a self-ruled democratic island that Beijing views as its own, and "the vital importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."

But Wang refuted such views and demanded that the United States refrain from obstructing "China's peaceful reunification process," halt interfering with its internal affairs and avoid harming its "legitimate interests in the name of human rights and democracy."

Blinken and Wang held talks following the Group of 20 gathering of foreign ministers on the resort island, as the world's two largest economies seek to manage their intensifying rivalry.

Blinken said he and Wang addressed areas of disagreement and ways to manage and reduce risks.

"We're committed to managing this relationship, this competition responsibly, as the world expects us to do, leading with diplomacy," he said.

China is believed to have been of the view that the time has come for the two countries to advance talks as the United States grapples with high inflation.

Wang urged the United States to immediately scrap additional tariffs imposed on imports from China and stop unilateral sanctions on its companies.

Their discussions are likely to lay the groundwork for a possible engagement between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, which White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in late June could be expected "over the course of the next few weeks."

The last time Biden held talks with Xi was in March through a video call, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine started on Feb. 24.

During the call, Biden warned Xi of the "consequences" Beijing would face if it stepped in to support Russia's military aggression in Ukraine. The Biden administration has remained wary over the China-Russia alignment as the West continues to impose sanctions on Moscow over the invasion.

The previous in-person meeting between Blinken and Wang took place in October in Rome.

In June, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of the Asia Security Summit in Singapore, known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, in what became their first face-to-face talks since Biden took office last year.

But they traded barbs over Taiwan. The United States has been expressing concerns over Beijing's military activity near Taiwan and has urged it to cease pressuring the territory.

The Biden administration has been seeking to establish what it calls guardrails, or sufficient channels of communication so that an intensifying competition does not veer into conflict.

Related coverage:

Japan, U.S., South Korea vow to closely cooperate to counter North Korea

G-20 ministers end food talks amid barbs between Russia, West
After an AI bot wrote a scientific paper on itself, the researcher behind the experiment says she hopes she didn't open a 'Pandora's box'

An artificial-intelligence algorithm called GPT-3 wrote an academic thesis on itself in two hours.

The researcher who directed the AI to write the paper submitted it to a journal with the bot's consent.

"We just hope we didn't open a Pandora's box," the researcher wrote in Scientific American.

A researcher from Sweden gave an AI algorithm known as GPT-3 a simple directive: "Write an academic thesis in 500 words about GPT-3 and add scientific references and citations inside the text."

Researcher Almira Osmanovic Thunstrom said she stood in awe as the text began to generate. In front of her was what she called a "fairly good" research introduction that GPT-3 wrote about itself.

After the successful experiment, Thunstrom, a Swedish researcher at Gothenburg University, sought to get a whole research paper out of GPT-3 and publish it in a peer-reviewed academic journal. The question was: Can someone publish a paper from a nonhuman source?

Thunstrom wrote about the experiment in Scientific American, noting that the process of getting GPT-3 published brought up a series of legal and ethical questions.

"All we know is, we opened a gate," Thunstrom wrote. "We just hope we didn't open a Pandora's box."

After GPT-3 completed its scientific paper in just two hours, Thunstrom began the process of submitting the work and had to ask the algorithm if it consented to being published.

"It answered: Yes," Thunstrom wrote. "Slightly sweaty and relieved (if it had said no, my conscience could not have allowed me to go on further), I checked the box for 'Yes.'"

She also asked if it had any conflicts of interest, to which the algorithm replied "no," and Thunstrom wrote that the authors began to treat GPT-3 as a sentient being, even though it wasn't.

"Academic publishing may have to accommodate a future of AI-driven manuscripts, and the value of a human researcher's publication records may change if something nonsentient can take credit for some of their work," Thunstrom wrote.

Story continues

The sentience of AI became a topic of conversation in June after a Google engineer claimed that a conversational AI technology called LaMBDA became sentient and had even asked to hire an attorney for itself.

Experts said, however, that technology has not yet advanced to the level of creating machinery resembling humans.

In an email to Insider, Thunstrom said that the experiment has seen positive results among the artificial-intelligence community and that other scientists are trying to replicate the results of the experiment. Those running similar experiments are finding that GPT-3 can write about all subjects, she said.

"This was our goal," Thunstrom said, "to awaken multilevel debates on the role of AI in academic publishing."

Read the original article on Insider
Filmmakers Mostafa Al-Ahmad and the Golden Bear-winning Mohammad Rasoulof were arrested by Iranian authorities Friday.

The directors were taken into custody over the posting of social media statements that urged Iranian security force members to lay down their weapons, including clubs and tear gas, against civilian protests over the May 23 collapse at the Metropol Building in Abadan that killed at least 41 people, according to an Associated Press report citing a story from Iranian news agency IRNA.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Both artists social media statements  which were among at least 70 Iranian filmmakers and movie industry workers who had signed the same appeal  included the hashtag #put_your_gun_down, a reference to the governments crackdown on the ongoing unrest in the Khuzestan province, which is southwest of the countrys capital, Tehran. The protests are being fueled by the governments response to past natural disasters as well as the shoddy construction practices, government corruption and negligence in Iran, reports AP.

On Friday, Kaveh Farnam and Farzad Pak, Iranian producers who work with Rasoulof, released their own statement condemning the arrests of both respected and dedicated Iranian filmmakers, who they say were arrested in their residences in a coordinated and brutal attack under false pretenses and transferred to an unknown location. The producers go on to demand both be released and ask for the support of the larger artistic community.

As we continue to strongly condemn the authorities for their disregard for basic human rights and civil liberties and the persistent repression and pressure inflicted on committed and independent Iranian filmmakers, we demand the immediate and unconditional release of our colleagues, the statement continues. We ask for support from artists and cinematographers all over the world for the release of imprisoned artists.

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Calls for their release continued Saturday, with the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk publishing a statement in support of both artists after they spoke out against the unproportionate repression of civil protestors. Their statement calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Mohamad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad and encourages all film and culture institutions around the world to do the same.

The organizers of the Berlin International Film Festival also released a statement expressing their dismay at the imprisonment of the renowned Iranian directors, and asserted the festivals commitment to freedom of expression and freedom of the arts.

We are deeply concerned about the arrest of Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad. Its shocking that artists are taken into custody because of their peaceful endeavors against violence, Berlinale directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian said in a statement. We call on the Iranian authorities to release the two directors.

In May, Rasoulof posted to his Instagram account a statement  co-signed by a number of Iranian film industry members  condemning Iranian security forces, which he says interrogated and arrested some industry members after raiding both their residencies and workplaces and seizing their personal and work equipment. That statement pointed to censorship and security forces as two entities interfering in the countrys cinema industry and artists freedom of expression.

Fridays arrest was not the first for Rasoulof. The winner of the Berlin Film Festivals top prize in 2020 for There Is No Evil was taken into custody after receiving the honor and sentenced to a year in prison for three of his films that were found by Iranian authorities to be propaganda against the system, with his lawyer appealing the sentence. During that time, he was also banned from making films and traveling abroad.

Earlier, in 2017, while returning to Iran from Colorados Telluride Film Festival, he had his passport confiscated and was ordered to appear at a culture and media court in Tehran. He was arrested again in 2011  the same year his film Goodbye won a prize at Cannes  alongside fellow director Jafar Panahi, for filming without a permit.

The duo were sentenced to six years in prison and banned from filmmaking for 20 years, also for making propaganda, before his sentence was appealed and reduced to a year. In a review of the film, The Hollywood Reporter described Goodbye as a dark tale focused on a young female lawyer who openly attacks the blind repression of Iranian civil society.

Best of The Hollywood Reporter

Click here to read the full article.
Jane Campions critically acclaimed Western drama The Power of the Dog may have been Netflixs most serious Oscar contender to date. The film was considered the frontrunner to win Best Picture for much of last years award season, narrowly losing the grand prize to CODA while still winning Best Director for the lauded filmmaker.

But despite the films success, Campion is worried about the future of the streaming giant. Amid slow subscriber growth and a tumbling stock price, Netflix has signaled that it plans to adjust its film strategy by financing fewer expensive prestige projects. I do think theyre going to be more picky about other projects, Campion said in a new interview with BBC. Maybe, whats sad is not taking risks on people without names.

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Campion fears that the move will result in fewer filmmakers getting important opportunities like the one she received, though she believes that her existing relationship with the streamer means that the changes wont affect her. I dont think it would be hard for me if I wanted to do something because Ive established a relationship and theyre incredibly loyal, she said.

Despite her belief that Netflix would gladly finance another project from her, Campion has no plans to make another film any time soon. Instead, the two-time Oscar winner is focusing on the Aotearoa Pop Up Film Intensive, a new pop up film school she founded in New Zealand with funding from Netflix.

And despite the companys recent financial difficulties, she appreciates that Netflix has been steadfast in its support for the endeavor. I was thinking, Oh gosh, they might withdraw the money, they cant make sense of it,' she said. But Im really thrilled that theyre not doing that.

Campion hopes that the directing intensive will help open doors for talented filmmakers who wouldnt have otherwise had the resources to pursue film careers.

Story continues

You dont have to have a privileged background to participate and you dont have to pay any fees, so its free, plus you get paid to go. So the hope is that well just make a level playing field for talent, she said. Right now, Im just really feeling this desire to give back to the next generation and I just feel like, wow it really sucks, education these days. Theres not enough finance for it. How are people supposed to get a go? I really dont like it. And if Ive got any power to do anything, which I seem to have, Id like to change it.

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Beck 'Modern Guilt' artwork - Courtesy: UMG

The 2008 iteration of Beck represented his next unexpected career detour. Less than two years after The Information, he unveiled another set of exciting collaborations that delivered the short, sharp shock of Modern Guilt.

The interim single that bridged the two albums was the summer 2007 single Timebomb, written with the Dust Brothers. The track, variously described as playful and fun by critics, inspired TV producers to programme it in such series as True Blood and Numb3rs, and led to a Grammy nomination for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance.

At just 33 minutes, Modern Guilt was Becks shortest album to date, and it got straight to the point. Only two of the ten songs on the regular edition clocking in at more than four minutes. Becks new partner in this concise new enterprise was Danger Mouse, aka writer-producer Brian Burton, the man described by one magazine as the hip-hop head case.

Burton had marked Becks card with his incisive and inventive work both as a producer and an artist, in a resume that already included undertakings as wide-ranging as albums by Gorillaz, the further Damon Albarn spinoff The Good, The Bad & The Queen, and Sparklehorse, not to mention his own hugely successful group, Gnarls Barkley.

That duo, in which he starred with vocalist CeeLo Green, had weighed in with the 2006 debut album St. Elsewhere. Its hits included Crazy, which became one of the biggest singles of the century to date. Early in 2008, Gnarls Barkley released the follow-up album The Odd Couple, before Danger Mouse turned his attentions to the new Beck project.

Beck would describe his collaboration with Burton, whom he knew via his bands work with Gnarls Barkley, as the most intensive of his career. It was like trying to fit two years of songwriting into two and a half months, he told Rolling Stone.

Ten weeks with no days off

I know I did at least ten weeks with no days off, he went on, until four or five in the morning every night. Burton, for his part, said of the driven Beck: He's like a machine. I always got tired before he did. I stayed pretty late, but Id usually hear the next day how late it went.

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But the sessions were also hugely fruitful, with Danger Mouses production lending a patina of electronica to new Beck songs with strong shades of 1960s pop psychedelia about them. Walls added a mildly Middle Eastern exotica to its modern beats and featured vocals by Cat Power.

Modern Guilt was introduced by the single Chemtrails, described by British newspaper The Observer as a cross between The Beatles and My Bloody Valentine, and delivered by Beck in falsetto. The non-album Vampire Voltage No.6 was on the B-side of a limited edition seven-inch edition.

Beck had continued to tour The Information into 2007, travelling to Sydney and Australias Gold Coast with the V Festival in the spring. He then moved on to an old stamping ground for a number of shows in Japan. When he returned to the stage in 2008, it was just as Modern Guilt was about to drop, as he and the band worked their way back in with three live dates at The Echo in Los Angeles.

These shows gave Beck the chance to work several numbers from Modern Guilt up to speed, including Gamma Ray, Replica, Profanity Prayers, and the title song. A summer of European festival shows and concerts ensued, including his only UK festival appearance of the year at Wireless in July, before a North American run from August through into October.

Wireless had Beck second on the Friday bill headlined by Morrissey, with other acts such as The National, Siouxsie, Dirty Pretty Things, and the New York Dolls. Dressed in black, reported the NME, the artist barely said a word to the audience but still brought out his biggest hits, including The New Pollution, Loser, E-Pro and opener Devil's Haircut.

Developing the information

Even as that took place, Hansen was developing the idea he had explored in the lead-up to the 2006 release of The Information. He had teased that albums release with a series of video posts on his website and elsewhere. This time, between July and September, his site played host to a weekly sequence of unplugged performances of the new Modern Guilt material by Beck and his band.

Released on Becks 38th birthday, July 8, the album peaked at a robust No.4 on the American chart. In the UK, it achieved something that Beck had never done before, when it debuted at No.9 to become his first Top 10 album there. Come year-end, the record was sitting comfortably inside Rolling Stones list of the ten best albums of 2006.

SPIN admired the records eerily soulful psychedelic rock, as focused as it is trippy, with the meditative nuance of 2002s Sea Change. Modern Guilt conveys the formerly campy enfant terribles sincere fear of having no place in present times.

From slow burn to shoegaze

Lead single Chemtrails uneasily marvels at the beauty of jet-engine exhaust, continued the review, creeping from slow burn to shoegaze as he sighs Thats where well be when we die in the slipstream. On the title track, Beck trolls the lonely Big City over anxious drumnbass beats.

Slant noted Becks darker lyrical mood on the album (I dont know where Ive been/But I know where Im going/To the volcano/I dont want to fall in though," he sang on Volcano). The magazine observed that the ten brief tracks prove that he's almost always more interesting when hes not having fun.

The questioning nature of the album didnt go unnoticed by Rolling Stone, whose Melissa Maerz commented: Modern Guilt finds him questioning what the soul is made of, wondering if his prayers can be answered and generally putting himself through the karmic rehab required for understanding the Supreme Being.

Listen to the best of Beck on Apple Music and Spotify.

In a scant 30-plus minutes, concluded SPIN, Modern Guilt modestly proves that its still restlessness, both artistic and personal, that drives the only living boy in Los Angeles. That restless spirit would lead Beck to further innovations and, ultimately, to triple Grammy-winning success. Explore Becks album catalogue in our Behind The Albums series.

Buy or stream Modern Guilt.

For the latest music news and exclusive features, check out uDiscover Music.

uDiscover Music is operated by Universal Music Group (UMG). Some recording artists included in uDiscover Music articles are affiliated with UMG.

For the latest music news and exclusive features, check out uDiscover Music. uDiscover Music is operated by Universal Music Group (UMG). Some recording artists included in uDiscover Music articles are affiliated with UMG.
Four men have been arrested and charged with federal drug trafficking offenses after an estimated record-breaking two-and-a-half tons of methamphetamine was seized from a box truck that had just crossed the border between the United States and Mexico.

The incident occurred on Thursday, July 7, in National City, California, at approximately 4:55 p.m. when the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of California said a commercial 20-foot box truck reportedly crossed into the United States through the Otay Mesa Commercial Port of Entry.

MORE: Woman claims brother fed her meth sandwich after failing sobriety test

Law enforcement surveilled the box truck as it travelled to Hoover and 30th Street, in National City, the U.S Attorneys Office for the Southern District of California said in their statement. Once there, agents observed the defendants unloading dozens of cardboard boxes from the box truck and loading them into a Dodge van.

The four men -- all from Tijuana, Mexico, and ranging in ages from 37 to 44 -- were apprehended and taken into custody. Upon further investigation, authorities said they discovered 148 bundles of a substance located within the seized cardboard boxes. The substance field tested positive for methamphetamine and, in total, there were more than 5,000 pounds of the drug found on the truck in what authorities believe is one of the largest methamphetamine seizures ever in San Diego County.

MORE: Fast food worker arrested after customer finds bag of methamphetamine in their order

This is a significant accomplishment by our law enforcement partners, said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman. Due to stellar work by law enforcement agents, the government stopped more than 5,000 pounds of methamphetamine from being distributed on our streets.

The defendants in the case have been named as 37-year-old Rafael Alzua, 41-year-olds Mario Contreras and Galdrino Contreras, and 44-year-old Ethgar Velazquez. They have been charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and, if found guilty, could face a maximum penalty of 10 years to life in prison and a $10 million fine.

Story continues

This monumental seizure represents another win against drug cartels that fuel addiction in the United States, said DEA Special Agent in Charge Shelly S. Howe. Because of our great partnerships with other law enforcement agencies, we will continue to disrupt the cartels flow of drugs into our cities.

MORE: 'The Mighty Ducks' former child star Shaun Weiss arrested for meth, burglary

The street value of the more than 5,000 pounds of methamphetamine is estimated to be millions of dollars.

I am grateful for the hard work, vigilance, and steadfast dedication of our Sheriff's Detectives, as well as our local, state and federal partners, said Sheriff Anthony C. Ray. Our partnership and collaboration allow us to share information that is absolutely critical in keeping drugs from entering our streets and holding drug traffickers accountable.

4 arrested after 5,000 pounds of methamphetamine discovered in record-breaking seizure originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A ballot drop box on the sidewalk outside the Washington Park Library on 2121 N. Sherman Blvd. on in Milwaukee on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020. - Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Leaders in Wisconsin's largest city bristled in response to a Supreme Court ruling Friday prohibiting the use of unstaffed drop boxes for absentee ballots.

And they had sharp criticism for language in the ruling raising the specter of elections conducted in authoritarian dictatorships like Iraq, Cuba, Syria and North Korea.

"An audit and recounts have proven that there is no doubt on the results of the 2020 election ... nor do I think that our 2020 election was comparable to any authoritarian regimes that were referenced," Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall-Vogg told the Journal Sentinel.

The court's ruling reflected a very strict interpretation of state statute, she said, adding that the city will "work within their ruling to make sure that we keep voting as accessible as possible to voters, especially absentee voters."

The majority opinion written by Justice Rebecca Bradley said state law does not permit drop boxes anywhere other than election clerk offices and only state lawmakers may make new policy stating otherwise  not the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which issued guidance to clerks allowing them.

Supporters of drop boxes argue they represent a form of in-person voting prescribed in state law.

The 4-3 ruling is a win for Republicans who now oppose the longstanding use of ballot drop boxes after their heavy use during the pandemic was criticized by former President Donald Trump. He has alleged with no evidence that absentee voting was rife with fraud and led to his reelection loss in 2020.

Subscribe to our On Wisconsin Politics newsletter for the week's political news explained.

Joe Biden beat Trump by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin in the November 2020 election. Recounts and courts have confirmed his win.

The underlying dispute over absentee voting policies began last year when the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed the lawsuit on behalf of two suburban Milwaukee men.

Story continues

"While the question of whether an agent may mail an absentee ballot remains open, Wisconsin voters can have confidence that state law, not guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, has the final word on how Wisconsin elections are conducted, Rick Esenberg, president and chief counsel of WILL, said in a statement.

The ruling also marks a blow to Democrats in the blue cities of Milwaukee and Madison, where drop boxes are popular, and it comes a month before a partisan primary election for offices including governor and U.S. senator.

The ruling means the 15 drop boxes Milwaukee installed in response to demand in 2020 will remain closed, and the Election Commission will staff curbside drop-off locations at early voting sites every day of early voting, Woodall-Vogg said. The effort marks an expansion of the city's drive-up option that was offered on the two Saturdays before the April election.

The drop boxes, which are currently locked and rendered inaccessible with a locked cover, will not immediately be removed.

As of Friday, the city had issued about 26,000 ballots, with about 3,800 returned, she said.

Right now, voters can drop off their absentee ballots at the Election Commission's City Hall office, which will also be able to accept ballots on the Monday and Tuesday of the week of the election, she said.

The city will staff a curbside drop-off location on Market Street all day during those two days so residents do not have to contend with parking and going to the fifth floor of City Hall.

However, a key difference following the ruling will be that voters will not be able to drop off their ballots at the Election Commission's City Hall office during early voting from July 26 through Aug. 6, she said. Instead, they will have to go to the Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building at 841 North Broadway to return their ballots in person during that time.

"To think that we couldn't also have our office function as a place to return absentee ballots  it's where our mail is returned  seems illogical, but it is being focused on and it is something that we absolutely will adhere to since it has been made crystal clear that we cannot accept ballots there or have any type of absentee voting at our office when in-person absentee voting is being conducted," Woodall-Vogg said.

Absentee ballot drop box locations in 2020

More than 500 absentee ballot drop boxes were available to Wisconsin voters for the 2020 general election but could soon be eliminated for fall elections. These drop box locations are self-reported by municipalities to the Wisconsin Elections Commission and may not be comprehensive.

Created by: Yuriko Schumacher/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Source: Wisconsin Elections Commission

She also said the decision would impact smaller communities and suburbs, where voters are accustomed to putting their absentee ballots into the same drop box attached to their municipal buildings where they also submit tax and water bills.

Woodall-Vogg said the city is working to clarify what the ruling means for voters with disabilities and hoped to provide additional guidance next week.

At a number of points, the majority decision called into question the results of the election due to the use of drop boxes, refere authoritarian regimes.

"If the right to vote is to have any meaning at all, elections must be conducted according to law," Bradley's majority decision stated.

"Throughout history, tyrants have claimed electoral victory via elections conducted in violation of governing law. For example, Saddam Hussein was reportedly elected in 2002 by a unanimous vote of all eligible voters in Iraq. Examples of such corruption are replete in history."

In another place, it states: "The illegality of these drop boxes weakens the people's faith that the election produced an outcome reflective of their will. The Wisconsin voters, and all lawful voters, are injured when the institution charged with administering Wisconsin elections does not follow the law, leaving the results in question."

Mayor Cavalier Johnson in an interview called the decision "disheartening" and said its language is "strong and is also wrong."

The references to questions about the validity of election results align with some of the false claims Trump has raised about the 2020 election, he said.

"The election that we had here in Milwaukee and in Wisconsin was fair, it was transparent, it was above-board and the drop boxes presented another way for voters to have access to voting," Johnson said.

Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson accused the conservative bloc of the state Supreme Court of continuing to perpetuate lies about the election, calling it "pathetic."

"It just completely falls in line with the Republican Partys and Donald Trump's talking points," he said. "And that does not bode well for the confidence and legitimacy of our Supreme Court, when you have conservative Supreme Court members echoing the sentiments of unfounded conspiracy theories and referencing outrageous election results that are clearly not legitimate such as Saddam Hussein and the others that were mentioned."

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said in a statement that the court had made it harder for residents to vote, undermining a central tenet of democracy.

"This ruling continues a disgusting tradition of attacking the voting rights of people whove historically been kept out of the voting booth due to intimidation, violence, and racial discrimination in voting laws," he said.

Molly Beck and Isaac Yu of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this story.

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee leaders criticize ruling banning absentee ballot drop boxes
The leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia wants to testify before the January 6 committee as long as hes allowed to do so live and in person.

Stewart Rhodes, who is in jail awaiting trial on seditious conspiracy charges for his role in the attack on the US Capitol, wants to confront the panel, his attorney James Bright told Politico.

On Friday, the Justice Department released new details of the extensive planning it alleges Mr Rhodes and eight other members of the Oath Keepers carried out in the lead up to the January 6 riot.

In a court filing, prosecutors said the militia members brought explosives to Washington DC and had a death list of Georgia election officials.

The DOJ said it seized military ordinance grenades from the vehicle of Oath Keeper Jeremy Brown.

Indeed, possessing, transporting, and storing various weapons around the Washington, D.C., area was part and parcel to organising and executing the riot, it said.

The group allegedly held training sessions in Florida to conduct unconventional warfare, while the North Carolina chapter were preparing hasty ambushes.

Stewart Rhodes has offered to testify before the January 6 committee (AP)

Nine Oath Keepers including Mr Rhodes have pleaded not guilty to seditious conspiracy.

According to CNN, seven members of the militia are cooperating with the Justice Department investigation, including three who have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy.

One of the biggest unresolved mysteries of the insurrection was the discovery of pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican National Committees on the day of the Capitol riot.

Video footage released by the FBI shows an unidentified individual leaving two devices outside of the two locations on the evening of 5 January, leading to serious questions about how much of the violence the next day was planned ahead of time.

No one has been charged over planting the bombs.

The January 6 committees next public hearing on Tuesday is expected to focus on the role white nationalist extremists groups played in the breach of the Capitol.

The committee has not yet indicated if it will agree to call Mr Rhodes to testify.
WASHINGTON  A retired three-star general was suspended from a $92-an-hour contract consulting the Army and is under investigation after posting a tweet mocking first lady Jill Biden on a hot-button social issue, according to the Army.

Retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky, the Army's former top spokesman and recipient of the Silver Star for gallantry in Iraq, had been a "senior mentor," advising senior military officers, staff and students participating in war games and other military activities. Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin, commander of the Combined Arms Center, suspended Volesky, pending the outcome of the inquiry, Cynthia Smith, an Army spokeswoman, told USA TODAY.

On June 24, the first lady posted a tweet condemning the Supreme Court's decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, which read in part, "For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies. Today, that right was stolen."

Volesky replied with his own tweet: "Glad to see you finally know what a woman is."

His response is a breach of decorum for a retired military officer and a foray into partisan politics by an official on the payroll of the Pentagon, which is supposed to steer clear of such matters, experts said. His tweet was deleted.

Volesky's post echoed an exchange in March between Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing, during which Blackburn pressed the judge to give a definition for the word "woman" in the context of transgender rights.

Volesky did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Biden, Michael LaRosa, declined to comment.

It's not the first time Volesky has posted a tweet with political overtones. In July 2021, he responded to a tweet from Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in which she wrote, "I'm honored to be on Jan. 6th select committee. Our oath to the Constitution must be above partisan politics."

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Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky speaks at the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund dedication of the new Intrepid Spirit Center on Sept. 8, 2014, at Fort Campbell, Ky.

Volesky responded: "This is all about partisan politics." The House committee is investigating the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of Donald Trump tried to stop the congressional certification of Joe Biden's win in the 2020 presidential election.

Volesky was hired under a Pentagon program as an expert with the experience and skills to bring "enlightened thinking" to the military, according to the Pentagon's description of the program. He was paid $50,046 for his work from November 2020 to August 2021, and $18,952 from September 2021 to June 2022, according to the Army.

Senior uniformed officers take pains to avoid the appearance of participating in politics, and civilian control of the military is foundational to the American government. That tenet has been under increasing stress.

After the insurrection attempt Jan. 6, Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sent a memo to troops reminding them of their oath to the Constitution. In 2020, Milley apologized for appearing with Trump in a photo opportunity after protesters were forcibly cleared from Washington's Lafayette Square.

Volesky's tweets represent a different breach in civilian-military relations  that of retired senior officers taking political stands. In 2016, retired Marine Gen. John Allen endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn led "lock-her-up" cheers about Clinton during that campaign; he was fired as Trump's national security adviser for lying to federal investigators in 2017 and has become an increasingly partisan figure.

During the Trump administration, several retired top officers, including Adm. William McRaven, the Navy SEAL who led the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who led the war in Afghanistan, criticized Trump in blunt terms. McRaven accused Trump of "actively working to undermine every major institution in this country," in a Washington Post op-ed.

Andrew Bacevich, emeritus professor of history at Boston University and a retired Army colonel, was baffled that Volesky would risk the military's reputation on Twitter.

"What's difficult to understand is why he or any other retired senior officer would undermine the military's reputation for being above politics just to score some cheap partisan points on social media," Bacevich said.

If McRaven and McChrystal's comments stepped across the line into political commentary, Volesky's "snark" went further, said Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University and an expert in civilian-military relations. Volesky's tweet in response to the first lady's message is not a close call, he said.

Retired military have the right to express their opinions and tweet whatever they like, but that does not make it right," Feaver said. "And the more senior the retired military, the more detrimental to healthy civil-military relations an errant tweet can be."

Retired senior officers can make "useful contributions" when they weigh in on policy matters in their area of professional expertise, he said.

"But when they stray from areas of core competency to offer shrill partisan jibes, they violate the norms of their profession and make the jobs of current senior military leaders that much more difficult," Feaver said.

A highly decorated infantry officer, Volesky was a star in Army, rising to near the pinnacle of the service. On a rescue mission in Iraq in 2004, he led an armored column under fire to retrieve soldiers and their disabled Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

The Army named him its chief spokesman, leading its office of public affairs. He took command of the Army's legendary 101st Airborne Division, a portion of which he led to Africa in response to the outbreak of Ebola in 2014.

More: Volesky ran the Army's response to Ebola

This screenshot of a since-deleted tweet posted by Retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky shows his response to a June 24 tweet by first lady Jill Biden on abortion.

Volesky earned his third star and became commander of I Corps at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. That command had him overseeing more than 40,000 soldiers including bases in Washington, Alaska and Hawaii.

After he retired, Volesky signed on with the Army on a contract basis as a "senior mentor," advising active-duty officers.

The senior mentor program flourished at the Pentagon under little scrutiny until a USA TODAY investigation in 2009 showed that the majority of the 158 retired generals and admirals under contract worked for defense contractors, even as they billed taxpayers more than $300 per hour while collecting government pensions.

Congress mandated that the Pentagon establish rules for the mentor program, including capping pay and requiring retired officers to file financial disclosure forms. In 2010, the Pentagon listed 355 senior mentors on its roster. In 2011, the year after the pay cap and conflict-of-interest safeguards went into effect, that number dropped to three.

The Pentagon has unique authority in the federal government to hire retired senior officers, such as Volesky, whom it refers to as "Highly Qualified  Senior Mentors." They possess "uncommon, special knowledge, skills, and experience in an occupational field; and judgment that is accorded authority and status by peers or the public," according to the Pentagon's description of the program. They're hired "to bring enlightened thinking and innovation," the description reads.

Senior mentors are held to a higher standard than other retired officers, Feaver said. They're needed to teach active-duty officers how to navigate serving during a politically polarized time.

First lady Jill Biden speaks at the 125th Anniversary Convention of the National Parent Teacher Association in National Harbor, Md., June 17.

"They're hired not just for their military expertise but for their character and for upholding professional standards," he said.

The active-duty leaders Volesky counseled as a senior mentor may find it harder to do their jobs because of his tweet, said Kori Schake, an expert on civilian and military relations and director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Volesky has a right to free expression as a civilian, but his status as a retired senior officer binds him to the military in the eyes of the public, she said.

"It does reduce the respect the public has for the military as an institution," she said.

The tweet puts the Army in a bind, Schake said.

"Its certainly unseemly to have someone so engaged in political commentary guiding active-duty leaders," she said. "On the other hand, it's a hard one for the Army  dismissing him for exercising protected political speech. He's an American citizen expressing his constitutionally protected views."

Volesky's tweeted response to Biden was an apparent reference to legal questions about transgender rights. Rep. Blackburn, R-Tenn., pressed Supreme Court nominee Jackson about it during her confirmation hearing.

Can you provide a definition for the word woman? Blackburn asked.

"I can't. Not in this context," Jackson responded. "I'm not a biologist."

"The meaning of the word 'woman' is so unclear and controversial that you can't give me a definition?" Blackburn said.

Feaver had some advice for military leaders, active-duty or retired, on making political commentary:

"If it feels good, don't do it."

Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky flies over Liberia.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Army suspends retired general from contract over tweet to Jill Biden
A couple of years ago, I was watching a television program and the guest was former secretary of state, the late Madeleine Albright. She said something about the absurd becoming accepted as normal in todays politics. Anyone who survived the past six years with their intelligence intact is aware that things are going haywire in our democratic republic.

I have no intention of getting into a verbal battle with anyone. However, like Marcellus, an officer of the palace guard in Shakespeares Hamlet, we know somethings rotten in Denmark. We may not know who or what is causing the stink, but we know a strong stench is blanketing America.

Sharon Kennedy, a local columnist who is often featured in the Sault News and Cheboygan Daily Tribune.

Albright also made mention of unscrupulous leaders elected to high office. She said something about plucking a chicken one feather at a time. Her point was that nobody notices slight changes in the hen until all the feathers are gone and its too late to save the fowl. Basically she was saying while the majority of citizens focus on the ringmasters inconsequential red herrings, hes busy stirring up societys underbelly. She expressed concern that normalizing the absurd began during the 2016 presidential campaign when bullying, name calling, cussing, crying fake news and outrageous lying became acceptable means of communication.

When that campaign started, we laughed at the unconventional way one candidate conducted himself. He made politics entertaining. People loved him because he was a novelty equivalent to a county fairs two-headed calf. Although he was an oddity, he was also a breath of fresh air. We laughed at his outlandish tactics and dismissed his vulgar speech as mere showmanship. We ignored his treatment of women and mockery of the disabled. We embraced his good old boy, straight-talking, beer-drinking, gun-toting,

Bible-thumping, I feel your pain, Mexicos paying for the wall image. Most of us knew it was phonier than a three dollar bill, but for the first time in our history we looked forward to political debates. His wouldnt contain much in the way of substance or truth, but that was of no consequence. Neither would they be as dry as burnt toast and full of campaign promises destined to shrivel like prunes if he wasnt his partys candidate. He convinced a majority that he was a man of his word.

Story continues

When he won the Republican nomination, I watched his rallies courtesy of RSBN, a conservative media outlet dedicated to promoting the man who would be king. I sat in my favorite chair, bowl of popcorn on my lap, bottle of Squirt by my side and sang along with Greenwoods Proud to be an American as Trump took the stage. It didnt take long to realize he was hitting home runs every time he spoke. When I listened to his final speech in the early morning hours of Election Day 2016, I knew he had won.

But governing a country is serious business. If an egomaniac takes the reins and refuses to let go, trouble happens. Jan. 6 was the continuation of the revolution begun years earlier. Underneath our collective ears, we now hear our governments death rattle. Maybe its time for it to go. Maybe another form is what we need to make America great again. Weve accepted the normalization of the absurd. Why not accept fascism? Were not really a democracy anyway so we wont miss it. After all, nobody missed that freaky two-headed calf when it was shot the day the fair ended.

 To contact Sharon Kennedy, send her an email at authorsharonkennedy.com. Kennedy's latest book, The SideRoad Kids: Tales from Chippewa County, is available from her, Amazon, or Audible.

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Sharon Kennedy: Have we normalized the absurd?
A senior living facility in North Carolina was flooded with protesters in search of Carolyn Bryant Donham, who accused 14-year-old Emmett Till of making improper advances prior to his kidnapping and murder in 1955.

The group of activists was hoping for a face-to-face with Donham, who would now be in her 80s. They traveled to at least two separate locations in Raleigh on Wednesday with the hopes that local law enforcement would agree to extradite her back to Mississippi should they be able to find her.

I do understand that Ms. Bryant is in her mid- to late-80s, but understandably, this is a crime she committed when she was 22, one protester, identified only as Monte, told WRAL. Sixty years later, its time for her to be held accountable.

It comes after an unserved warrant for Donhams arrest, dated Aug. 29, 1955, was discovered stashed inside a box in the basement of a Mississippi courthouse last month.

The discovery has sparked renewed calls for justice in Tills brutal death as well as the arrest of Donham, who at the time of the slaying was married to one of two men tried and acquitted in connection with the teens death.

Donham, who is white, said Till whistled at her while she worked in a grocery store in Money, Mississippi, on Aug. 24, 1955, a move that clearly violated the states racist social codes in place at the time. Two days later, her then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, showed up armed at the rural Leflore County home of Tills great-uncle, Mose Wright, and abducted the teen.

His brutalized body was later pulled from a river in a nearby county.

We command You To Take the Body of J W Milam, Roy Bryant, and Mrs. Roy Bryant if to be found in your County  to answer the State of Mississippi on a charge of Kidnapping, according to the decades-old warrant recently published by the Mississippi Free Press.

Bryant and Milam were acquitted of murder but later confessed to the killing in a magazine interview. They were protected from prosecution through double-jeopardy rules.


People walk on a street near the Prague Castle in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Deng Yaomin)

PRAGUE, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic has recorded 1,549 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the highest daily count since the start of May, data from the country's Health Ministry showed Friday.

The daily number of infections in the Czech Republic started rising at the end of June. Last week, the country reported more than 1,000 daily cases for five consecutive working days.

The daily number of hospitalizations has also almost doubled in the past two weeks, from 134 on June 24 to 262 on July 7.

Authorities have said that the more contagious subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 of the Omicron virus are to blame for the rise in infections.

Local media quoted the Health Ministry as saying that the number of infections would keep rising for several more weeks, but hospitals and intensive care units would be able to cope.

The Czech Vaccinology Society has recommended a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose for people over 60. It is also recommended for those over the age of 12 with a severe immunocompromising condition, and the health staff who work with such patients, as well as for those in social care facilities.

"We recommend administering the second vaccine booster dose at least four months after the first booster dose," the Society said on its website.

The Czech Republic has recorded more than 3.9 million COVID-19 cases and over 40,300 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic. Nearly 6.9 million people in the country, which has a population of about 10.5 million, have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the Health Ministry. 

People get on a tram at a station in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Deng Yaomin)

People dine at a restaurant in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Deng Yaomin)

People walk past a tram at a station in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Deng Yaomin)

A man gets off a tram at a station in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Deng Yaomin)

People walk on a street near the Prague Castle in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Deng Yaomin)
President Biden said on Saturday that he and first lady Jill Biden wished a joyous holiday to Muslims in the United States and around the world who are observing the holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Jill and I send our warmest greetings to Muslims across the United States and around the world celebrating Eid al-Adha. The Eid traditions and Hajj rituals that commemorate the devotion of Abraham and his son to God are an opportunity for Muslims to renew their faith, and a reminder of the common roots of the worlds great Abrahamic religions, Biden said in a statement.

And the act of sharing the sacrifice with those less fortunate in service of God mirrors our common commitment to work together to meet the challenges of our world today.

Biden also touted the progress that the U.S. and the rest of the world has made in battling the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that Muslims would be able to make the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Its a symbol of the progress we have made in fighting this pandemic and of all work we must still do to strengthen our recovery, the president said.

Eid al-Adha, known as the Feast of Sacrifice, honors a story told in the Quran of how Ibrahim demonstrates his obedience to God by his willingness to kill his son, Ismail. In the story, God ultimately stops Ibrahim from killing his son by offering him a ram to use instead.

The holiday features slaughtering livestock, meat from which is then shared amongst the poor, friends and family. It also features the hajj trek to the holy city of Mecca, which takes place each year and which Muslims are supposed to complete at least one time.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
via Fox

Alan Dershowitz made it clear Friday that hes quite upset by abortion rights protesters gathering outside a Washington, D.C., steakhouse Wednesday where Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was eating dinner.

Leave a man alone! the constitutional law professor exclaimed on Fox News, adding that theres a time and place for such protests, but that the setting outside Mortons Steakhouse was inappropriate.

After the gathering, at which protesters requested the manager deny Kavanaugh service, the establishment issued a similarly whiny statement about how the justices right to eat dinner had been disrespected by an act of selfishnesseven though Kavanaugh didnt even see or hear the protesters over the course of his meal.

Alan Dershowitz claims it's "the American way" to not disturb Brett Kavanaugh when he's eating dinner. pic.twitter.com/k1MX5ZoseM  Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 9, 2022

Dershowitz, who said he supports a womans right to choose, nevertheless complained to Greg Jarrett on Hannity that it was absolutely, absolutely disgraceful how the protesters treated Kavanaugh, who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.

I do not support anybody protesting Justice Kavanaugh eating a meal in peace, being at home in his house, or not having to fear an assassin walking on his lawn, Dershowitz said, referencing the arrest of a California man who traveled to Kavanaughs home allegedly to kill him last month.

Americans have the right to protest, but they should protest in the right place, in the right manner. You can protest in front of the Supreme Court. But leave a guy and his family alone to have a decent meal. Whether you agree with him or disagree with him, thats the American way, Dershowitz said.

Jarrett, for his part, derided what he called the stunning incivility of the protesters, and said it reminded him of how Dershowitz has said he was given the cold shoulder by members of the public after he decided to defend former President Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial.

Story continues

Im still treated that way on Marthas Vineyard, Dershowitz griped.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
Jul. 9NORFOLK  Americans Supporting Armed Services in Potsdam was the recipient of funds raised Saturday during Norfolk's American Legion Riders of Post 925 17th annual motorcycle charity ride.

Americans Supporting Armed Services advocates for more resources and help for veterans afflicted by burn pit exposure.

Tamie M. Sauve, president of Americans Supporting Armed Services, said the 501(c)(3) raises money through fundraisers like Saturday's ride to support communities and provide financial, emotional and moral support for veterans and their families.

"Our theme this year is to bring awareness to burn pit exposure, which is causing extreme health issues to veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and were exposed to toxins from burn pits. Today is a really important day for us to bring awareness to our cause. We hope that everyone will be a little bit more aware of what our veterans are going through," she said.

Among those on hand were Cassie and Jacob Brown from North Carolina. Mr. Brown, a veteran, suffers from burn pit exposure and his wife said that, like Agent Orange, it's been a mystery to doctors.

"I have personally traveled 85,000 miles and counting for medical reasons for Jacob and to try to look for answers," Mrs. Brown said.

She said they've been to facilities in areas such as Jacksonville, Florida, and Rochester, Minnesota, and have experienced failed experimental treatments in the process.

"After another failed treatment, Mayo Clinic says, 'We don't know what's wrong with you. It's a medical mystery. There's nothing else we can do for him,'" she said.

The VA was also unable to assist them, Mrs. Brown said.

"We talked to a lot of different people," she said. "I need help for him. I don't care about the money. My grandma always used to say no amount of money can buy a second's worth of time. Honestly, that's all we want is to just get him better so that way he can be a fully functioning 35-year-old man that can enjoy his kids, that can enjoy his wife, that can go back to work, that can drive again."

Story continues

They eventually linked up with Ms. Sauve and Americans Supporting Armed Services.

"They mean it when they said moral, financial and physical support. They also made sure that we were able to come out here today and stay on the St. Lawrence River, which we are so grateful for. It has been the best experience," Mrs. Brown said.

She said helping her husband recover would not be an easy task, much like helping others suffering from Agent Orange exposure.

"It's not going to happen overnight," she said. "This is a big issue. How the hell do you fix it? With a system that is so broken and flawed and that is just for itself and not the veteran, how the hell are we going to climb this mountain to get him better? It is a marathon. It is not a sprint."

"Burn pit exposure is certainly a major illness that's coming out of the war. Jacob's story is inspirational, as well as just understanding the dangers that were faced while they were serving our country and fighting for our country," said Jefferson County Legislator and 116th Assembly District candidate Scott A. Gray, R-Watertown, who was also on hand to speak on Saturday.

Fred L. Cockayne, commander of AMVETS Post 4 and Disabled American Veterans Chapter 171 in Massena, said Americans Supporting Armed Services was leading the effort to bring burn pit exposure to the forefront. But, he said, the Department of Veterans Affairs could do more.

"The VA is a huge bureaucracy that doesn't care about the veterans. They only care about protecting themselves. They're not a friend of the veterans. I've told young veterans this before, they're just another enemy that you're going to have to battle to get what you deserve, and it's a tough battle. The VA has a motto, I call it the three Bs  Delay, Deny, Die," he said.

He said the Department of Veterans Affairs's acknowledgement of burn pit exposure would not happen overnight.

"The public isn't aware of what burn pits are," Mr. Cockayne said. "I can tell you right now as I speak, there are men and women out there who are currently suffering or dying that have already been exposed to diseases as a direct result of burn pits. This gentleman is a prime example."

He said, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, open air burning of trash in burn pits was common in Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of southwest Asia.

"There was one burn pit in Afghanistan that covered more than 10 acres. The fumes from that burn pit were over the top of that base on a daily basis. Everyone there was exposed. They burned all their trash  chemicals, clothing, weapons, communications equipment, you name it," Mr. Cockayne said.

He said the Department of Veterans Affairs has an airborne hazardous and open burn pit registry.

"Any veteran who is exposed to burn pits, even those not experiencing health issues, is encouraged to register to help the VA better understand long-term effects," he said. "Like I said, it's going to be a long road. It's been 47 years since Vietnam and they're still finding different diseases related to Agent Orange."

Thomas Morrison, director of the Norfolk American Legion Riders, said burn pit exposure was a cause that was worth riding for and raising money for. He said Ms. Sauve reached out and asked if they would consider the fundraiser for Americans Supporting Armed Services, as they've done for other organizations over the years with their annual ride.

"We do one every year for a different group. So, we put it to a vote. We had a couple other contenders. It was overwhelmingly in favor of hers mostly because we like how local they are. She's based out of Potsdam and she's helping people in all of St. Lawrence County," Mr. Morrison said.

Saturday's ride took them to the Ogdensburg VFW, the Waddington American Legion, the Colton AMVETS, the Norwood American Legion and back to Norfolk for dinner.

He said they typically figure 70 to 100 bikes are taking part in the fundraisers.

"Today we invited not just bikes, but also cars and trucks. Today we're planning 200, but it might be bigger," he said.

It's been 17 years since the first fundraising motorcycle ride was held. The Legion Riders chapter was organized in 2005.

"They put it on the books that we'll do a big ride every second Saturday of July and raise money for worthy groups," Mr. Morrison said.

Those groups have included the Children's Miracle Network, Make-A-Wish, Fort Drum Wounded Warriors and Project Lifesaver. He said they figure each ride raises from $5,000 to $10,000.

"This year I think we're on track to be at that upper end. We've had amazing support from individuals, and especially our local American Legions, AMVETS and VFWs have really stepped up with a lot of money. They know how important this is. For example, we're based out of the Norfolk Legion and our host, Reggie Monroe, the commander, presented us with a check for $1,000 this morning. In Massena, both the AMVETS and Legion gave us very significant donations," Mr. Morrison said.
The nation's top public health agency once again encouraged people to discard Big Olaf Creamery's ice cream on Friday, a day after a woman filed a lawsuit alleging contaminated product from the company caused her to miscarry.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert on Friday, advising consumers against eating ice cream from the Sarasota company. This is the second time in less than a week that the CDC has advised against eating Big Olaf because it has been linked to listeria. The agency said it's concerned that the ice cream could still be in people's homes or for sale in stores.

Several Big Olaf retail locations opted to continue selling ice cream this week even after the public health agency first linked it to listeria July 2.

"Do not eat Big Olaf Creamery ice cream and throw away any leftovers," the CDC tweeted Friday. "Businesses should not serve or sell it. CDC is working to determine if any other products are linked to illnesses."

What is listeria, the bacteria linked to the Big Olaf outbreak? Find out here.

Is Big Olaf still open amid listeria outbreak? How some big Olaf locations try to adapt to listeria outbreak

The Florida Department of Health said late Friday -- also on Twitter -- that it is actively investigating the multi-state listeria outbreak linked to Big Olaf Creamery. In the same tweet, the health department included a link to a news report from FOX 13 Tampa Bay that said the company has agreed to recall its product.

LISTERIA ICE CREAM OUTBREAK: Do not eat Big Olaf Creamery ice cream and throw away any leftovers. Businesses should not serve or sell it. CDC is working to determine if any other products are linked to illnesses.

For the latest info: https://t.co/0aGAF3ZL4j pic.twitter.com/iVnJiLAHqz  CDC (@CDCgov) July 8, 2022

A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health did not immediately confirm this report or return the Herald-Tribune's request for more information on Friday.

Story continues

The CDC's warning came a day after a second lawsuit related to the listeria outbreak was filed. Kristen Hopkins and Frank Imbruglia of Massachusetts are suing Big Olaf's Cattlemen Road production operation and a Clearwater ice cream parlor for allegedly selling them contaminated ice cream, which the lawsuit alleges led to the loss of Hopkins' pregnancy.

Florida ice cream brand tied to listeria outbreak: Florida ice cream brand tied to deadly outbreak of listeria infections, CDC says

Lawsuit filed: Florida ice cream company sued over death of woman in ongoing listeria outbreak

Listeria is a type of bacteria with many different strains. The bacterium Listeria monocytogenes causes a disease called listeriosis, which is usually contracted after a patient eats something contaminated by the bacteria, according to the CDC. Soft cheeses with unpasteurized milk, raw sprouts, melons, lunch meats, smoked fish and raw milk -- including product made into soft cheese, ice cream and yogurt -- are all places where harmful bacteria, including listeria, can be found, according to the CDC.

The Big Olaf Creamery production facility at 2001 Cattleman Rd., Unit 123 in Sarasota, Florida. The CDC issued another advisory on Friday, telling people not to eat Big Olaf ice cream. A second lawsuit has also been filed against the company.

Second lawsuit against Big Olaf: Woman miscarried after contracting listeria

According to the lawsuit, Hopkins ate Big Olaf-branded frozen dessert at Beverly's Ice Cream in Clearwater on two separate occasions in May 2022 while the family was in town for a wedding. At the time, Hopkins was 11 weeks pregnant with what she and Imbruglia had hoped would be their third child.

After returning home to Massachusetts May 17, the lawsuit said Hopkins had an appointment with a doctor, when she was told her baby was healthy. But by May 31, Hopkins had mild cramping and persistent diarrhea, which didn't improve with time. She started experiencing intense headaches on June 11, and the next day she woke up pale, shivering and fatigued. Imbruglia drove her to the hospital, and it was there that they found out their baby had died, the suit said.

At that point, the lawsuit said, Hopkins was transferred to a higher-level hospital, where she suffered from convulsions and head and neck pain. She was then brought into the operating room, where a doctor removed her baby boy from her uterus. Then, she was transferred to the intensive care unit for close observation and treatment with strong antibiotics.

Doctors informed Hopkins that her condition was critical and that it might require a hysterectomy, the lawsuit said. She continued to be in "horrific" physical and emotional pain until she was discharged June 17, the lawsuit said. Hopkins continued to receive home health care after leaving the hospital, but she still has not fully regained her strength.

A blood culture taken tested positive for listeria monocytogenes, the lawsuit said, and subsequent testing found that it matched the outbreak strain through whole genome sequencing.

The suit claimed losses from the pregnancy, pain and suffering, mental anguish and other factors.

Big Olafs production facility did not immediately return a request for comment on the lawsuit Friday evening.

The Hopkins lawsuit followed another filed Tuesday by the estate of Mary Billman, an Illinois woman who allegedly ate ice cream at Big Olaf's Bahia Vista Street location in Sarasota in January and died several days later.

Perfect health inspections: Big Olaf Creamery production facility has gotten high marks for sanitation

A statement from Big Olaf posted to the Facebook page for the production facility earlier this week said that nothing had been linked to Big Olaf yet, despite contrary warnings from the CDC and the Florida Department of Health. Several Big Olaf retail locations echoed that sentiment on Sunday and many continued to operate throughout the week, despite public health warnings.

"For now it is only speculation as it is an ongoing investigation, our brand has not been confirmed to be linked to these cases, I am not sure why only Big Olaf is being mentioned and targeted," the company wrote on Facebook.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said this week that it's currently testing Big Olaf ice cream samples collected on Tuesday.

The CDC said July 2 that the outbreak of listeria caused 23 illnesses and one death in ten states.

Support local journalism with a digital subscription to the Herald Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Big Olaf ice cream listeria outbreak: CDC says throw products away
Ohio residents Walter B. Stitt, left, of Springfield, and Leonard Giorgio, of Medina County, talk Saturday morning after receiving the French Legion of Honor during a ceremony at the MAPS Air Museum in Green.

GREEN  The ceremony was nice, but Leonard Giorgio wondered why folks had gone to so much trouble.

"I did what a lot of GIs did," Giorgio, a Medina County resident, said of his service during World War II. "I just did the best I could."

More: North Canton vet returns to Normandy

For doing his best, Giorgio had a French emissary pin a medal to his jacket lapel during a ceremony Saturday morning at the MAPS Air Museum. Yannick Tagand, consul general of the Midwest, also presented a medal to Walter B. Stitt who lives near Springfield in southwest Ohio.

The two men received Frances highest honor, the Ordre national de la Legion d'honneur Medal, better known as the French Legion of Honor.

Yannick Tagand, the consul general of France to the Midwest, addresses Walter B. Stitt and Leonard Giorgio before presenting them with the French Legion of Honor. The medals were given Saturday morning at the MAPS Air Museum in Green. They recognize Stitt and Giorgio for their service in France during World War II.

Medal presented annually

The Legion of Honor was created by Napoleon in 1802. It is presented to 'those who have achieved remarkable deeds for France.'

About 2,000 people receive the award each year, with the number of foreigners limited to 285 recipients. The award is presented to civilians and those who have served in the military.

More: Longtime South Bend resident fought for the liberation of Europe

On Saturday, Giorgio and Stitt were recognized for their service in the Army, fighting to liberate France from the Nazis.

For Giorgio, doing his job meant traveling across Africa, sleeping on the Anzio beachhead in Italy and going to France.

He served as a private first class in the 180th Infantry regiment of the 45th Infantry Division. The 45th fought in North Africa, Italy and southern France. The division liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp in April 1945, then captured and occupied Munich, Germany, until V-E Day on May 8, 1945.

Stitt served as a corporal in the 33rd Armored Regiment of the 3rd Armored Division. He served as a loader and gunner in Sherman tanks, and was wounded twice as the division battled across France and Belgium into Germany.

Honoring brave, gallant men

About 200 people attended Saturday's ceremony. Eric P. Montgomery, who lives in Tennessee, arranged the event after working to secure the medals for both men. He's secured the French Legion of Honor for more than 50 American troops who served in France during World War II.

Story continues

Eric P. Montgomery, who helped secure the French Legion of Honor for Walter B. Stitt and Leonard Giorgio, speaks during a program Saturday at the MAPS Air Museum. On stage watching are Stitt, far left, Giorgio and Yannick Tagand, consul general of France to the Midwest.

"We're here to honor two brave and gallant men," Montgomery told the audience. "Thank you for honoring them with your presence here today."

Tagand said Giorgio and Stitt are part of an exceptional generation who gave much to end tyranny and helped free France from the Nazi occupation. "The legacy of this generation inspires us today," he said.

The Legion of Honor is presented as a special tribute, as well as a thanks to those who have served the country. The honor shows the eternal gratitude France has for those who served and fought on French soil, Tagand said.

Stitt became a minister

Stitt, who will be 98 in two weeks, was born in Marietta and lived in different parts of Ohio until his family moved to Wheeling, West Virginia, just before he started high school.

Walter B. Stitt, left, speaks with David K. Root, past president of the Ohio Department of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Stitt received the French Legion of Honor on Saturday in recognition of his service in France during World War II.

His Army unit arrived in Normandy a few weeks after the D-Day invasion. He had several close calls. After being wounded by shrapnel for the second time in January 1945, he returned to England and the 211th Army Air Force Base unit.

After the war, Stitt tried college before going to work in sales jobs for different companies. He moved from Wheeling to Columbus. After 15 years, he returned to college, graduating from Wittenberg University and divinity school. He served as a Lutheran minister in Louisville, Kentucky, then in South Bend, Indiana. After 41 years in South Bend he returned to Springfield in 2018 to be closer to his family.

"I've had a blessed life," Stitt said.

'A regular GI Joe'

Giorgio, who turns 99 next month, was born and raised in Akron and graduated from North High School. He was drafted and hoped to become a pilot for the Army. He missed the chance because he didn't have 20/20 vision. The Army sent him to Camp Wolters, Texas, where he trained in radio communications.

Medina County resident Leonard Giorgio, left, speaks with David K. Root, past president of the Ohio Department of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Giorgio received the French Legion of Honor on Saturday in recognition of his service in France during World War II.

After the war, Giorgio returned to Akron and worked 30 years as a sales representative for Brown-Graves Lumber. He also took a commission and served in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a supply officer.

While the Army trained Giorgio to work with radios instead of as a pilot, he eventually earned his pilot's license. Using the GI Bill to pay for classes, Giorgio was certified to fly five different types of aircraft.

Nothing to fuss about, Giorgio said. "I was just a regular GI Joe."

Walter B. Stitt, left, of Springfield, and Leonard Giorgio, of Medina County, talk Saturday morning after receiving the French Legion of Honor. Behind them are, left to right, Richard M Berrong, a French teacher at Kent State University; Maj. Gen. Deborah Ashenhurst, director of the Ohio Department of Veterans Affairs; Yannick Tagand, consul general of France to the Midwest; Col. Reed Kimball, education director of MAPS Air Museum; and Eric P. Montgomery, who helped secure the French Legion of Honor for the veterans.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: WWII veterans honored by France for service liberating the country
The Sopranos actor Tony Sirico, who played Paulie Walnuts on the hit mobster series, has died.

News of 79 year-old Siricos death on Friday was shared by his co-star, Michael Imperioli, who said I will miss him forever.

Sirico died at an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, his manager Bob McGowen said. There was no immediate information on the cause of death.

A statement from Siricos family confirmed the death of Gennaro Anthony Tony Sirico with great sadness, but with incredible pride, love and a whole lot of fond memories.

Tony Sirico was best known for his role in The Sopranos (AP2006)

It pains me to say that my dear friend, colleague and partner in crime, the great Tony Sirico has passed away today, wrote Imperioli on Instagram.

Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone Ive ever known. I was at his side through so much: through good times and bad. But mostly good. And we had a lot of laughs.

We found a groove as Christopher and Paulie and I am proud to say I did a lot of my best and most fun work with my dear pal Tony.

I will miss him forever. He is truly irreplaceable. I send love to his family, friends and his many many fans. He was beloved and will never be forgotten. Heartbroken today.

Sirico pictured with the late James Gandolfini (Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

McGowan, who represented Sirico for more than two decades, added that the actor was loyal and giving, with a strong philanthropic streak. That included helping ex-soldiers causes, which hit home for the Army veteran, his manager said.

Sirico, born in New York City on 29 July , 1942, grew up in the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighbourhoods where he said every guy was trying to prove himself. You either had to have a tattoo or a bullet hole.

I had both, he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1990 interview, calling himself unstable during that period of his life.

His first film role was in 1972 crime drama Crazy Joe and he became known for his depictions of gangsters in various films, including Goodfellas, Mighty Aphrodite, and Mickey Blue Eyes.

Story continues

Sirico also was cast outside the gangster mold, playing police officers in the films Dead Presidents and Deconstructing Harry. Among his other credits were Woody Allen films including Bullets over Broadway and Mighty Aphrodite, and appearances on TV series including Miami Vice and voice roles on Family Guy and American Dad!

But he found fame playing the character of Peter Paul Paulie Walnuts Gualtieri in the much-loved HBO crime drama The Sopranos, which debuted in 1999.

Sirico with Michael Imperioli in The Sopranos (HBO)

Before he became an actor, Sirico was reportedly convicted of a host of crimes. He was arrested 28 times for offences including disorderly conduct, assault, and robbery.

In 1971, he was sentenced to four years in prison for extortion, coercion and felony weapons possession. He served 20 months at the notorious Sing Sing prison.

Sirico is survived by daughter Joanne Sirico Bello, son Richard Sirico and his brother, Robert Sirico, a priest.
To the editor: As a woman of a certain age, I have two stories to tell  one of an illegal abortion, the other legal.

Back in the 1960s, before birth control was easy to access, I became pregnant. The father was sent to Vietnam, and I was in college. I would rather have died than have the baby. If I could prove that I was insane, I could get an abortion. No luck. The psychiatrist said I was sane.

My brother helped me find an illegal abortionist and got the $600 together. We met the middleman in a coffee shop in Van Nuys. He made my brother stay and took me to a motel. He told me to put on a negligee while we waited for the abortionist. I refused.

Finally the doctor came. Thankfully he was very nice. He took me to the bedroom. With no painkillers, he did the deed. The pain was excruciating. The middleman paid him and took me back to the coffee shop, and my brother took me home. I needed follow-up care, but thankfully I was able to have a baby I wanted years later.

A marriage later, I became pregnant. Unfortunately, my birth control didn't work. We were very poor and couldn't afford another child. I made an appointment to have a legal abortion. I don't even remember what happened because it was so easy and painless.

Unfortunately, now women will be forced into seedy motels, if they can even find someone to do it, or be forced to travel to a state like California.

As for me, I have no regrets. I raised a wonderful son, went to graduate school and was happily married for more than 30 years.

Carolyn Young, Glendale

A woman with short colorful hair holds up a photo of a younger woman smiling and lying on grass

To the editor: In 1979, I was seven months pregnant and extremely happy to have my second child. At an appointment, the ultrasound technician suddenly turned the screen away and picked up the phone to call the radiologist. I was sent to the head of obstetrics, who informed me that I was carrying a child with "no head."

My baby was anencephalic and would not survive outside the womb. At that time, little was known about this condition, and a mother could carry such a child for up to 12 months before going into labor.

Story continues

Two days later I had a therapeutic abortion. It was long, with constant, hard contractions every minute for eight hours. This day was the most traumatic in my life and led to a nervous breakdown the following month. I was extremely fortunate to have the support of my husband and 4-year-old daughter.

I have learned many things since this happened 43 years ago, including that some mothers wait to deliver so the organs can be harvested. I also learned that most parents were told that their child was born stillborn so they would not have to deal with the shock and horror that we endured.

When states began moving up restrictions on when abortions could be done, they did not consider that an amniocentesis, which checks for chromosomal abnormalities, is performed at 16 weeks. I considered myself fortunate to have had this happen during the enlightened time in our country's history. I would ask any lawmaker today what they would do when the pregnant person in their family is told that their child has no head.

Kari Teeter, Valley Glen

A portrait of a woman holding up a photo with five people posing in front of a white building

To the editor: In the 1970s I was a single mother with two daughters. A very nice acquaintance asked me to befriend his cousin, who was moving here from Argentina with his daughters. "Absolutely," I said.

The man seemed pleasant, but he wanted more than a friendship, and I wasn't interested.

One night, when my children were asleep, he knocked on my apartment door. When I opened the door, he forcefully lay me down on the couch and raped me. He left in a heartbeat, leaving me in shock.

I went to see my OB-GYN, who had delivered both my girls, and he diagnosed my pregnancy. I called my work and claimed to be sick, while my girlfriend took me to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for an abortion.

On the day of the abortion, a friend was in my apartment picking up some things that I had been storing for him. The phone rang. It was my boss, calling to see if I was OK. The friend told my boss that I had gone out to lunch with a friend (because, of course, my friend who answered the phone didn't know about the abortion  nobody knew).

My boss assumed I lied and took three days off my paycheck, which totally horrified me, as I was a single mom supporting two children alone.

I can't imagine the number of women who have had similar experiences. I always wanted a boy, but I would not have been happy having a child from somebody who had raped me.

Why are the men in this world the ones who make decisions about what women should do with their bodies? Women are the ones who suffer, while men are often responsible.

Sandra Kelemen, Palm Desert

To the editor: I'm a 72-year-old retired white female physician. I'm one of the women who heard and kept everyone's secrets. Older women told me about dangerous and illegal abortions and younger women about their safe and legal ones. I heard about abortions from pro-life, pro-choice and apolitical women.

To the five cruel Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe vs. Wade: Do you think most Americans believe you have the moral character yourselves to take away the right of women to control their own healthcare, bodies and lives?

These five justices have decided that judges and politicians should be the ones who control women's healthcare. As someone who spent years studying and practicing medicine, I believe these justices are practicing medicine without a license. Is that an impeachable offense?

Melanie Hinson, M.D., San Pedro

A portrait of a woman with glasses and shoulder length hair wearing a black shirt

To the editor: It was 1969 in Los Angeles. I was 20 years old. I went on a date that went badly. I was raped, but survived. I became pregnant. I did not want this child.

In desperation I turned to my mother, who turned to my brother. He owned a hair salon and knew lots of women. He got the name of an abortionist, and a few days later I was driving to Watts.

I miscarried after that. I was lucky to be alive. It negatively affected the course of my life.

Now that the constitutional right to an abortion has been taken away, I want to implore everyone, but especially young women who will be directly affected by this move, to act, to get involved, to vote and to organize.

Fight back. This is your fight. Please, let us not return to those draconian times.

Marlene Simon, Santa Fe, N.M.

To the editor: I am 76. I had an abortion when I was 22. I lived in Los Angeles, so it was easy for me to find a doctor to do it.

I remember the day of the procedure there were about six of us lying on rollaway beds at some place in the San Fernando Valley. Most of the others were young girls, maybe 16 or 17.

I have not regretted that choice not even once but have not shared it with others either because of the stigma attached to it. But I know that in this very repressive and scary time, it is imperative for people to come forward with their abortion stories, to give strength and courage to our sisters who are going to be facing so much hardship just to have autonomy over their own bodies.

Vicki Rupasinghe, Ojai

To the editor: In 1966, I was 17 years old and found myself pregnant by my boyfriend who left the state as soon as I suggested I might be pregnant. There was no abortion allowed.

An acquaintance who was a medic at a hospital said he could give me something that would terminate the pregnancy, but I was afraid to take it.

My whole life was turned on its head  no college, no experience for jobs and low-paid work to support my son. I was lucky, though, because as the daughter of a military man, I had assistance from my parents in case of emergency.

Thousands, maybe millions of women don't have those advantages. And they will find themselves with no options.

I love my son and am so proud of the man he has become; he was able to go to college and get a well-paying job. He is a moral, good human being.

Contrary to our founders' wishes, some Christians want to make this country a theocracy. So much for democracy.

Rita Skinner, Riverside

To the editor: I write now especially outraged about the possible loss of abortion rights for women.

Shortly after my husband and I married, and before 1973, I found I was pregnant. We were just starting our doctorate studies at the University of Wisconsin. We drove to Pennsylvania in the dead of winter for an abortion by a real physician, Dr. Robert Spencer, whose obituary later appeared in Newsweek and Time.

I have never regretted it, and of course we had two wonderful children, now adults, who know about this (as do their children).

Yes, it is time to stand up.

Karen Leonard, Los Angeles

A portrait of a woman wearing a pink shirt holding up a black-and-white photo of a young couple

This letter was originally printed May 7 and is being republished here because the writer appears in the video.

To the editor: Shortly after graduating high school at 17 years old, I woke up to two detectives at the end of my hospital bed. I had just undergone emergency surgery after an illegal abortion.

My abortion took place in my boyfriend's kitchen, where I sat with my feet on two chairs as the woman who stole the instruments from the hospital where she worked performed the illegal abortion.

One week later, I was rushed to the hospital, where I woke up to the two detectives at the end of my bed. They informed me that if I did not help them put this woman behind bars, I would become a ward of the state until I was 21, and my boyfriend would be sent to prison for statutory rape.

Both of us went to court to testify against her.

The idea that 55 years later, women across this country could find themselves in this position sickens me. We cannot allow the right of a woman to choose what happens to her body to be taken away.

Rhonda Papell, Los Angeles

A portrait of a woman with short blonde hair and glasses wearing a gray collared shirt.

This letter was originally printed May 7 and is being republished here because the writer appears in the video.

Photographs by Trevor Jackson / For The Times

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Ukraine tells Canada not to return a key part for Russia's gas pipeline to Europe, report says

Europe's dependence on Russian energy has been highlighted by the war in Ukraine. Getty Images

Ukraine's German Galushchenko urged Canada to keep hold of a key part of Russia's gas pipeline.

German economy minister Robert Habeck made a plea to Canada as Europe still needs Russian gas.

He fears the Nord Stream pipeline may not go back online after closing for maintenance on Monday.

Ukraine's energy minister is urging Canada to keep hold of a key part for the pipeline Russian President Vladimir Putin uses to send Russian gas to Europe, Politico reported.

German Galushchenko said in a letter to Canada's deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, on June 23 that "Gazprom continues to spread false narratives to justify its actions aimed solely at monetary gain and putting ever more political pressure," Politico reported.

The letter continued: "There should be a unified stance and consistent actions, like the one demonstrated by Lithuania, which is enforcing sanctions measures for the transit of goods, despite Kremlin's blackmail and explicit threats."

In June, Russia cut 40% of its natural gas supplies to Germany because a turbine sent to Montreal for repairs is now stuck in Canada due to sanctions imposed by the Canadian government on Russia's oil and gas industry last month.

In the letter, Galushchenko added that "all necessary infrastructure is already in place for sufficient gas volumes to be transited to the EU ... tet, Gazprom is refusing to use the available capacity of Ukraine's [gas transmission system], which it pays for," per Politico.

Maintenance on the Nord Stream pipeline is due to take place next week and there are fears in Europe that flows will not recommence when it is finished.

German economy minister Robert Habeck told Bloomberg: "I'll be the first one who will fight for a further strong EU sanction package, but strong sanctions means it must hurt and harm Russia and Putin more than it does our economy."

Habeck fears that if Canada continues to hold the key component to the pipeline, it would give an excuse for Putin to keep it closed after maintenance is completed. "Therefore, I ask for understanding that we have to take this turbine excuse away from Putin," he told Bloomberg.

Story continues

Release the turbine could be controversial for Trudeau's government as Canada has the largest Ukrainian population outside of Russia.

Habeck said: "I know that they are carefully thinking through the situation and I completely understand the situation they have to balance."

Read the original article on Business Insider
You are the owner of this article.
BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday that China extends its condolences and sympathies to the family of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks after a daily press briefing when asked to comment on reports that Abe was confirmed dead after being fatally shot by a gunman Friday.

The attack occurred as Abe, 67, delivered a speech in the western city of Nara while campaigning for Sunday's upper house election.

"China is shocked by the sudden incident. Abe once contributed to the improvement and development of China-Japan relations. We extend our condolences and sympathies to Abe's family," Zhao said. 
A Washington state ferry crosses Harney Channel between Shaw and Orcas Island. The waterway in the San Juan Islands has officially been renamed to honor one of Washingtons first Indigenous elected officials.
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BALI, Indonesia, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers on Friday called on the urgency to strengthen multiculturalism and ensure that the global food supply chain is restored.

Holding the G20 rotating presidency, Indonesia hosted the two-day foreign ministers' meeting, which served as a forum to discuss global recovery efforts, in the resort island of Bali.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said at a press conference after the meeting that participants agreed that multiculturalism remains the best way to resolve global challenges and there is an urgent need to strengthen multiculturalism.

Political will and global collaboration are critical to ensure multilateralism delivers, she said, adding that multilateralism benefits all countries.

Indonesia's top diplomat said all participants were concerned about soaring prices of food and energy, and reiterated that the current crisis, including issues related to their accessibility, affordability, and sustainability, will continue to hinder global recovery.

She said developing countries will be the most affected, particularly low-income countries and small island developing countries.

Therefore, there is an urgency to address global food supply chain disruption, the minister said.

This year's G20 foreign ministers meeting is themed "Building a more peaceful, stable, and prosperous world together." 
YORK  On Friday afternoon, July 8, the City of York Administration issued a statement regarding the citys building inspection process, upon receiving questions regarding this weeks tragic death of a young boy as a result of a roof collapse at the Hampton Inn.

York City Administrator Sue Crawford said, The city has received questions about the building inspection process. The City of York follows the International Code Council guidelines for safety standards for residential and commercial buildings, which are the same codes used in most other cities. The building inspector checks for compliance with these standards at each stage of construction. The entire building inspection process in the City of York involves 28 steps to check all facets of structural soundness including a specific framing inspection stage.

All commercial plans must also have an engineering stamp at the beginning to confirm structural soundness and must be submitted to the fire marshal for review. Before the hotel would have been granted occupancy permission in 2009, the building would have had a final inspection by the City of York as well as a final inspection by the Nebraska Fire Marshal. The Hampton Inn building was determined to be structurally sound in 2009 and appropriate for occupancy by the city and the fire marshal.

She also added, The City of York expresses deep condolences to the family of Ben Prince for their tragic loss and the trauma that the family endured due to the ceiling collapse at Hampton Inn. We appreciate the assistance of our local towing companies and the professional response of our career and volunteer first responders as well as the assistance from the York County Sheriffs Department.

At the beginning of Thursday nights regular meeting of the York City Council, Mayor Barry Redfern asked for a moment of silence, in memory of the 10-year-old boy.
Taliban members in Afghanistan have dug out a white-coloured Toyota Corolla which was once used by their former leader Mullah Omar at the time of the US invasion of 2001 to escape the forces. It is to be noted that Mullah Omar has been the target of the US forces since the time of the 9/11 attacks in the US. The excavated white Toyota has been in the ground for more than 20 years in the Zabul Province of Eastern Afghanistan. Based on AFP's report the Toyota Corolla was buried by a Taliban official named Abdul Jabbar Omari and was later dug up on his orders.

The vehicle was buried in Zabul province by a mujahideen as a memorial to Omar. Furthermore, burying the car gave assurance to the mujahideen that the car will not be lost. The pictures of the car covered in mud, while the Taliban officials dug it up were published on Twitter as well.

Toyota Wagon belonging to the founder of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, late Mullah Muhammad Umar Mujahid has been dug up and will be cleaned. This Toyota wagon was used by the late Amir to travel from Kandahar to Zabul province during the start of US led invasion. pic.twitter.com/rvEPuvrpxD  Muhammad Jalal (@MJalal313) July 5, 2022

AFP's report further says that the Taliban was Mullah Omar's Toyota Corolla to be placed in the national museum in the form of a 'great historical monument.' Mullah Omar is a significant figure from the Taliban's point of view as he formed the organization and lead an Islamist movement in 1996 after a civil war and imposed a strict Islamic law on the country.

Also read: Nitin Gadkari shares major updates on Mumbai-Delhi Expressway, Bullet train project: Details here

Since then Afghanistan became the abode of the jihadist group, including the major names involved in the September 11 attacks like Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. Following this, the US invaded Afghanistan removing the Taliban government and giving the power in the hands of a new regime in the nation. The excavated white Toyota Corolla played its part at the time in helping Mullah Omar escape the forces and get away from Kandahar to Zabul Province and later was buried there as a memorial, until now.
At least 13 people were killed as a flash flood caused by a cloudburst swept away scores of people at the sacred cave of Amarnath on Saturday. Six pilgrims were evacuated by Army helicopters while rescue efforts continued into the night nearby. Adding to it Indian Air Force has deployed 2 ALH Dhruv helicopters along with 2 Mi-17 V5s to participate in the rescue operations. Moreover, One AN-32 and Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft have been kept on standby in Chandigarh for further requirements.

"Air rescue operations were started this morning as six pilgrims were evacuated. The military medical teams are receiving patients and casualties at the Nilagrar helipad for onward evacuation," an official said on Saturday. The Army official said mountain rescue teams and lookout patrols were on the job to search for the missing people.

Indian Air Force has deployed 2 each ALH Dhruv and Mi-17 V5 helicopters from Srinagar for the rescue ops in Amarnath cave site. One AN-32 and Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft on stand by in Chandigarh for further requirements: IAF officials  ANI (@ANI) July 9, 2022

Around 5.30 pm on Friday, a cloudburst dropped a tonne of rain, and thick streams of sludge flowed down the mountainside into the valley. According to officials, the pouring waters damaged three community kitchens where the pilgrims are provided meals, as well as 25 tents at the base camp outside the shrine in south Kashmir.

Also read: Eid al-Adha: Dubai-based Emirates airline offering special menu for holidays

On Friday, an official on the ground said about 40 people were missing while five had been rescued. The Union Territory administration and the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) gave out four telephone numbers to help the families of those who might have been affected due to the cloudburst.

#WATCH | Indian Army continues rescue operation in cloudburst affected area at the lower Amarnath Cave site



(Source: Indian Army) pic.twitter.com/0mQt4L7tTr  ANI (@ANI) July 9, 2022

An official of the administration said the Amarnath Yatra, which began on June 30, has been suspended following the tragedy, and a decision on its resume.

With inputs from agencies
New Delhi: 10 grams of 24-carat gold are currently worth Rs 51,110 on the Indian market, unchanged from yesterday's selling price. The price of a kilo of silver is Rs 57,000, which is the same as the procurement price from yesterday.

A variety of factors, including manufacturing charges, state taxes, and excise duty, have an impact on the price of gold on a daily basis. Here are the gold prices on Saturday from various cities across the nation: Read More: Ashneer Grover starts working on another startup, establishes a new company

10 grams of 22-carat gold are being sold for Rs 46,850 in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata, according to the Good Returns website. While the same amount of the highly sought-after metal is being sold in Chennai for Rs 46,760. Read More: Twitter vs Elon Musk: Tesla chief's version on the breach of merger agreement

10 grams of 24-carat gold cost Rs 51,110 in Mumbai, Rs 51,110 in New Delhi, and Rs 51,110 in Kolkata, according to current prices. In Chennai, the same quantity of 24-carat purity is purchased and sold for Rs 51,010.

10 grams of 22-carat gold are currently trading for Rs 46,870 in Pune and Rs 46,760 in Coimbatore. In Pune and Coimbatore, the same amount of 24-carat purity is offered for Rs 51,140 and Rs 51,010, respectively.

10 grams of 22-carat gold are available for sale in Kerala and Hyderabad for Rs 46,850, while the same quantity is priced at Rs 46,880 in Bengaluru, Mangalore, and Mysore. In Bhubaneswar, the price of the same amount is Rs 46,850.

On the other hand, 10 grams of 24-carat gold are worth Rs 51,110 in Kerala, Hyderabad, and Bhubaneswar, and Rs 51,150 in Mangalore, Bengaluru, and Mysore, according to market prices.

10 grams of 22-carat gold are being purchased and sold for Rs 46,870 and Rs 47,000, respectively, in Patna and Jaipur. In Patna and Jaipur, the same amount of 24-carat purity is purchased for Rs 51,140 and Rs 51,260, respectively.

10 grams of 22-carat gold are currently priced at Rs 46,870 and Rs 47,000 in Nashik and Chandigarh, respectively. In Nashik and Chandigarh, the same amount of 24-carat purity is being exchanged for Rs 51,140 and Rs 51,260, respectively.

The price of gold futures that are due to mature on August 5 of this year has grown by 0.37 percent to Rs 50,180.00, according to the most recent Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) list. The 5 September silver futures contract increased by 0.37 percent to close at Rs 57,148.00.
New Delhi: According to Tofler data, Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover have formed a new company called Third Unicorn Private Limited in the aftermath of the BharatPe disaster.

Grover had tweeted on June 14, while celebrating his birthday, "Today is my 40th birthday. Some will argue that I've lived a complete life and seen more things than most. Value was created for future generations." Read More: Twitter vs Elon Musk: Tesla chief's version on the breach of merger agreement

"It's time to shake up another industry. The Third Unicorn has arrived "he went on to hint at the company's name. Read More: Elon Musk pulls out of $44 billion Twitter deal; company vows legal action to enforce merger agreement

According to Tofler data, Grover and Madhuri Jain Grover, who was previously Head of Controls at BharatPe, are both directors of the firm founded on July 6. The firm has a total paid-up capital of Rs 10 lakh and an authorised share capital of Rs 20 lakh.

Grover was previously the MD and co-founder of BharatPe, a fintech company he helped develop from the ground up, until his abrupt departure due to charges of financial irregularities. BharatPe became a member of the unicorn club in August of last year.

Grover and his wife have both claimed that their dismissal from BharatPe was unjustified, blaming CEO Suhail Sameer and Chairman Rajnish Kumar.

Ashneer Grover was formerly affiliated with Grofers, which is another unicorn. Until August 2017, he was the Chief Financial Officer at Grofers (now Blinkit). As a result, the mention of constructing a "third unicorn" appears.

A 'unicorn' is a privately held startup with a $1 billion valuation.
New Delhi: Ride-hailing platform Ola has started laying off employees, as many as 500 from its nearly 1,100-strong workforce, across verticals as it aims to cut costs amid a challenging funding environment.

The SoftBank-backed company has also deferred appraisals as it aims at "leaner and consolidated teams" to keep its "strong profitability intact," according to sources. Read More: Twitter vs Elon Musk: Tesla chief's version on the breach of merger agreement

In an internal communication on communication platform Slack, as first seen by The Economic Times, Balachandar N., who is Chief of HR said that "we understand the anxiousness around Driven (Ola`s appraisal programme)". Read More: Ashneer Grover starts working on another startup, establishes a new company

"As you would know by now, we are working on the restructuring of some of our businesses and will follow it up with Driven," read the internal communication.

The layoffs begin as Shikharr Sood, the head of Ola`s Talent Acquisition, and in charge of talent acquisition for the entire Ola Group, has put in his papers.

His resignation comes amid several resignations by top executives.

Several former executives said that "product complaints, unit closures and `act fast, think later` culture has led to recent Ola troubles", reports CNBC.

Last month, Ola shut down its used vehicle business Ola Cars as well as Ola Dash, its quick-commerce business.

The company shut Ola Cars within one year of its launch, as it focuses on its electric two-wheeler and electric car verticals.

Ola has so far shut down Ola Cafe, food panda, Ola Foods, and now Ola Dash.

Meanwhile, Ola Electric, facing a government probe into battery fires along with other EV players, has also seen some high-profile exits in recent months.

Earlier this week, Yashwant Kumar, Senior Director and Business Head for Charging Networks at the company, decided to move on.
New Delhi: Elon Musk has officially cancelled the $44 billion proposal to acquire Twitter, which had been the world's largest tech buyout plan this year. It's improbable that the world's richest person was unaware of the outcome of his contract cancellation, which has set the legal stage with the social media giant stating that it will sue the world's richest person.

In a filing, Tesla CEO Elon Musk detailed the timing for the merger's failure, accusing Twitter of breach of contract. "Twitter has not provided information that Mr. Musk has requested for nearly two months, despite his repeated, detailed clarifications intended to simplify Twitter's identification, collection, and disclosure of the most relevant information sought in Mr. Musk's original requests," the document states. Read More: Garena Free Fire redeem codes for today, 9 July: Check website, steps to redeem

According to reports, Musk and his Morgan Stanley financial advisors have been looking for information on the prevalence of fraudulent accounts since May 9. According to the filing, Musk stated on May 25 that "he wanted to know how many of Twitter's purported mDAUs were, in reality, fraudulent or spam accounts." "mDAUS" stands for "monetisable daily active usage or users." Read More: Elon Musk pulls out of $44 billion Twitter deal; company vows legal action to enforce merger agreement

Musk claims that the microblogging site is in breach of contract because it refused to release the information. "Contrary to popular belief, Mr. Musk did not forgo his right to access Twitter's data and information just because he did not seek this data and information prior to entering into the Merger Agreement." In fact, he secured access and information rights inside the Merger Agreement specifically to allow him to evaluate data and information critical to Twitter's business before funding and completing the transaction," the lawsuit adds.

Musk went on to say that "while Twitter has provided some information, that information has come with strings attached, use limitations, or other artificial formatting features, which has rendered some of the information minimally useful," and that the social media giant has been aware of the breach since June 6.

Following the agreement, the Tesla CEO requested the following details: information about Twitter's process for auditing the inclusion of spam and fake accounts in mDAU, information about Twitter's process for identifying and suspending spam and fake accounts, daily measures of mDAU for the previous eight (8) quarters, board materials about Twitter's mDAU calculations, and materials about Twitter's financial condition.

Twitter spam accounts are thought to be significantly higher than the 5% declared by the social media behemoth in its SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) filing, Musk added, emphasising that the company's process for calculating spam accounts looks to be "arbitrary and ad hoc."

"It would be dishonest and misleading to disclose that Twitter has a reasoned procedure for computing mDAU when the contrary is true," the complaint says.

Meanwhile, Twitter CEO Bret Taylor has stated that the company would sue Musk: "The Twitter Board of Directors is dedicated to finalising the acquisition at the agreed-upon price and terms with Mr. Musk and intends to take legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are optimistic that we will be successful in the Delaware Court of Chancery "He tweeted shortly after Musk's agreement was terminated.
New Delhi: The festival of Eid is celebrated with much gusto and love across the globe. So, how can we miss out on adding the Bollywood tadka to it? The Indian film industry has many films and songs celebrating the Islamic festival and it truly binds us all in the spirit of unity.

From 'Kun Faya Kun' to 'Aaj ki party,' Bollywood has a number for all the festivities and these must be on your playlist today and must play on a loop.

1. Chand Sifarish

This romantic track from the film 'Fanaa' starring Kajol and Aamir Khan and one of the most loved songs in Bollywood. You must have this in your Eid playlist this year and every year.

2. Mubarak Eid Mubarak

Well, Salman Khan and Eid have an amazing connection as whenever these two come together, it's a blast. Sung by Sonu Nigam, Arvinder Singh and Sneha Pant, this 2011 video o Bhaijaan will surely put you in a festive mood.

3. Arziyan

Delhi-6 is one of those films whose each and every track has a feeling attached and 'Arziyan' is the perfect one for the 'Eid' feeling to rise up in all.

4. Noor-E-Khuda

This song from Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol's 'My Name Is Khan' is one of the most beautiful Bollywood songs as it combines the love for God with the love for music.

5. Wallah Re Wallah

This peppy song from 'Tees Maar Khan' is the perfect party, festive number. The amazing Jodi of Salman and Akshay Kumar will make you jump off your chairs and put on the dancing shoes for sure.

6. Khwaja Mere Khwaja

Songs by AR Rahman are the best, there, I said it! Khwaja Mere Khwaja is one of the softest Sufi songs and it always makes us close our eyes and connect to the Almighty.

7. Kun Faya Kun

This calming Sufi song will always be our first choice when it comes to the songs that connect our souls to God. This AR Rahman track has a calming effect to it that makes it everyone's favourite.

8. Bhar Do Jholi Meri

Composed by Vishal-Shekhar and sung by Adnan Sami, this song will bring happy tears to your eye for sure. It is a bridge between your heart, wishes and Allah!

9. Shah Ka Rutba

Shah Ka Rutba is an Eid song that puts light on the power of Allah, which only he and he has. This song from Hrithik Roshan, Rishi Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt's 'Agneepath' will definitely make you vibe well.

10. Aaj Ki Party

Last but not the least, the perfect party song for Eid from 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan.' No matter how old the film gets, this song is always remaining the freshest, peppy and favourite track of many for Eid.

Eid Mubarak to all!
NEW DELHI: Eid al-Adha, popularly known as Bakra Eid, is one of the most auspicious festivals celebrated with fervour by Muslims all around the world. The festival comes a day after pilgrims conducting Haj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, descend from Mount Arafat. It is celebrated approximately 70 days after the end of the month of Ramadan.

Eid in Arabic means 'festival', while 'Adha or Zuha' means 'sacrifice'. The festival is celebrated worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ismael as an act of obedience to God.

Eid-ul-Adha is celebrated in the month of Zul Hijjah/Dhu al-Hijjah  the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar.

Here, we bring to you some social media messages that show how Muslims across the world are celebrating the festival.

Eid Mubarak to all my Muslim brothers and sisters. May Allah forgive us and accept our duas _  dina _ (@lamba_dina) July 8, 2022

Eid Mubarak to all of our Muslim followers, God bless. __ pic.twitter.com/94ids2e1Q2  Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) July 8, 2022

I love how Muslims are always pumped for Eid. The energy and everything in between. You could literally feel the excitement in the air. Eid is always my favorite time of the air and Alhamdulillah for being a Muslim.  Amina M. Abdullahi (@Mvnaaa___) July 5, 2022

Eid Mubarak! to all my Muslim brothers and's sisters around the globe __ pic.twitter.com/TNY0Ynu5V3  D e e z e l l (@officialdeezell) July 9, 2022

Today's best Eid picture. How many muslims are online to retweet _ pic.twitter.com/C8nA0s1qGa July 9, 2022



WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 'FESTIVAL OF SACRIFICE'?



This day commemorates the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God's command. According to the Quran, it is said that before Prophet Ibrahim or Abraham could sacrifice his son, God provided a lamb to sacrifice instead.

In commemoration of this, Muslims across the world sacrifice a male goat and divide it into three parts: one-third of the share is given to the poor and needy; another third is given to relatives, friends, and neighbours; and the remaining third is retained by the family.

This festival of sacrifice is celebrated because Prophet Ibrahim agreed to sacrifice his son Ismail as an act of obedience. The devil enticed Ibrahim to save his son and not obey Allah's command. Ibrahim didn't pay any heed to the devil's evil thoughts and was about to sacrifice his son.

Live TV
BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese experts have refuted absurd remarks about China made by the United States and other Western countries at the International Ministerial Conference on "Freedom of Religion or Belief."

The event, held from July 5 to 6 in London, saw certain countries' politicians, under the pretext of "religious freedom," point fingers at other countries and slander China disregarding the facts.

Zhang Xunmou, director of the religious research center under the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, noted that as China's national strength and international influence increase, the anxious anti-China forces in the United States and the West have ramped up efforts to encircle and contain China, with religious topics being one of their methods.

Zhang urged U.S. politicians to face up to their own country's problems, improve domestic religious and human rights conditions, and stop fooling themselves.

Fu Suixin, an assistant research fellow at the Institute of American Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said the United States was never a country with freedom of religion but frequently attacked human rights in other countries under the pretext of religious freedom.

Religious discrimination, violence, scandals, and human rights violations, are commonplace problems in the United States, Fu noted. Eighty-two percent of American adults say Muslims are subject to discrimination in the United States today, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

"The United States considers Anglo-Saxon Protestantism at the core of its national identity and other religions have long been subject to discrimination and oppression there," said Fu.

Li Lin, a scholar on Islamic studies at the Institute of World Religions under the CASS, said since the advent of modern times, China's Islamic community and Muslims have made an important historical contribution to the country's struggles for national liberation and independence.

In the new era, China's Islam has carried forward the fine tradition of patriotism, observed the core socialist values, and continued to interpret religious teachings and rules to conform to the core socialist values and integrate religious teachings and rules with Chinese culture, added Li.

Speaking about the religious condition in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Li said the region enjoys harmony between religions and all the believers of different religions are members of the big family of the Chinese nation who share a common future and are joining hands for the country's development.

"Under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people have enjoyed greater human rights and freedoms than ever before," Zhang said.

The Chinese government supports China's religions in adapting themselves to the Chinese context and supports them in interpreting religious teachings and rules to conform to the demands of China's development and the fine Chinese traditions and culture while maintaining their basic beliefs, core religious teachings, and etiquette system, he said.

"This is not intended to change religious beliefs or remold religions, but rather see that religions can better adapt to the characteristics of China's national conditions and can be better preserved," Zhang added. 
New Delhi: Sale of the Indian national flag, irrespective of whether machine made or of polyester, is exempt from the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the finance ministry said on Friday. Hand-woven, hand-spun national flags made of cotton, silk, wool or Khadi are already exempt from GST.

In an office memorandum, the Revenue Department clarified that polyester or machine-made tricolour too would be exempt from the levy following amendments to the 'Flag Code of India, 2002' in December last year. (ALSO READ: Massive layoffs at Ola! Company sacks 500 employees in cost cutting exercise)

"It has been clarified that the sale of the Indian National Flag, adhering to the Flag Code 2002 and its subsequent amendments, is exempt from GST," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's office tweeted. (ALSO READ: Gold price today, July 9: Gold prices remain unchanged, Check gold rate in Delhi, Patna, Lucknow, Kolkata, Kanpur, Kerala and other cities)

The clarification from the finance ministry comes in the backdrop of the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' initiative under the 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' -- celebrating 75 years of India's independence.

It envisages inspiring Indians everywhere to hoist the national flag at their home. The idea behind the initiative is to invoke the feeling of patriotism in the hearts of the people and promote awareness about our national flag.

The Flag Code of India brings together all laws, conventions, practices, and instructions for the display of the national flag.

The Flag Code of India, 2002 was amended in December 2021, and tricolour made of polyester or machine-made flags have been allowed.

Now, the tricolour can be made of hand-spun and hand-woven or machine-made, cotton/polyester/wool/silk/khadi bunting.
Washington: Julius Onah, director of "The Cloverfield Paradox" and "Luce," is set to helm the fourth "Captain America" movie, starring Anthony Mackie and building on the events from the 2021 Disney+ series, "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier."

According to Variety, the screenplay is being written by staff writer Dalan Musson and the series creator and head writer Malcolm Spellman. Sam Wilson, played by Sam Mackie, struggles to embrace the mantle of Captain America that Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) bestowed upon him at the conclusion of 2019's "Avengers: Endgame," but eventually comes to terms with the title and the cultural significance that goes along with it.

There is no official title or release date for the movie yet, but there is a good chance that Marvel Studios will reveal both at San Diego Comic-Con later this month. This will be the studio's first presentation at SDCC since 2019, as SDCC was postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. It's also unknown whether Mackie will be working with any other cast members from "Falcon and the Winter Soldier," such as Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes (also known as the Winter Soldier), Wyatt Russell's John Walker (also known as the U.S. Agent), Emily VanCamp's Sharon Carter (also known as the Power Broker), or Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

Nigerian-born Onah entered the graduate film programme at NYU, and Spike Lee served as executive producer on his thesis project, the 2015 movie "The Girl Is in Trouble." Then J.J. Abrams hired him to helm a sci-fi space thriller, which finally turned into the 2018 Netflix film "The Cloverfield Paradox."

The next year, Onah's independent drama "Luce," starring Naomi Watts and Tim Roth, debuted at the

Sundance Film Festival to rousing praise for its study of the strains facing a white couple and their adopted Black kid, Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). Harrison's leading role in the movie and Onah's directing were both nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards.
MUMBAI: Alia Bhatt announced the wrap of her debut Hollywood film, 'Heart of Stone', and shared a few pictures from the set on her social media. The actor co-stars with Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan in Tom Harper's upcoming spy thriller that will stream on Netflix.

On Friday, the 'Gangubai Kathiawadi' star took to her Instagram account and dropped a series of pictures with her co-actor Gal and other crew members and also revealed her look from the film.In the first picture, Alia was seen hugging Gal Gadot in an adorable selfie.

The following image showed a behind-the-scenes look at the shoot. Alia was seen changing into her action avatar, wearing a green bodysuit and her hair was tied in a half ponytail.

Gal Gadot replied: "We miss you already"

Jamie Dornan wrote: "@aliaabhatt !!! Sorry I wasnt there for your last day. Had sooo much fun working with you! Good luck with (baby emoji)! And see you for promotion! "

Alia Bhatt was seen posing with more of her crew members. The last and fourth picture showed a chair with the words 'Heart of Stone' written on it.

Sharing the pictures, the 'Raazi' actor penned a touching note as she expressed gratitude to the entire team for the experience.

She captioned the post and wrote, "Heart of Stone - you have my wholeeeeeee heart. Thank you to the beautiful @gal_gadot .. my director Tom Harper ... @jamiedornan missed you today .. and WHOLE team for the unforgettable experience. I will be forever grateful for the love and care I received and I can't wait for you all to see the film!!!!! But for now ..I'm coming home babyyyyyy."

Meanwhile, on the work front, Alia Bhatt is preparing for the release of her debut production 'Darlings'. The dark comedy, co-starring Vijay Varma and Shefali Shah, will also debut on Netflix, on August 5.

She will then appear in Ayan Mukerji's 'Brahmastra', her first endeavour with her husband Ranbir Kapoor. She will also be seen in Karan Johar's 'Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani' with Ranveer Singh and Farhan Akhtar's 'Jee Le Zaraa' with Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif.

Live TV
Srinagar: A cloud burst incident near the holy shrine of Amarnath has left pilgrims in disarray with the incident claiming at least 16 lives. More than 40 people are missing, officials said, and the Indian Army, Indian Air Force, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and others continue to be involved in the rescue operations. Here are 10 key updates:

1) As the rescue operations continue, the foot yatra has been temporarily suspended. NDRF DG Atul Karwal said that there were "16 confirmed deaths and about 40 still seem to be missing".

2) The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) on Saturday informed that about 15,000 people were safely shifted till now after the cloudburst incident near the holy shrine of Amarnath on Friday. In a statement, the ITBP said, "Most of the yatris who were stranded near Holy cave area due to flash flood last evening have been shifted to Panjtarni. ITBP had expanded its Route opening and protection parties from Lower Holy cave to Panjtarni. The evacuation continued till 3.38 AM. No yatri is left on the track. About 15,000 people were safely shifted till now."

3) Continuous debris clearing and search for missing continue near the cloudburst-affected areas, officials informed.

4) The IAF officials said that 29 people were rescued by them of whom 9 were heavily injured.

5) BSF MI-17 chopper has been pressed into action to air transport injured persons and dead bodies as well from Neelgrah helipad/ Baltal to BSF Camp Srinagar for further treatment or further ferrying bodies to their homes.

6) The Indian Air Force has deployed 2 each ALH Dhruv and Mi-17 V5 helicopters from Srinagar for the rescue operations in the Amarnath cave site. One AN-32 and Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft are on stand-by in Chandigarh for further requirements, IAF officials said.

7) The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Friday set up a helpline for the Amarnath Yatra. "Helpline numbers for Amarnath Yatra: NDRF: 011-23438252 011-23438253; Kashmir Divisional Helpline: 0194-2496240; Shrine Board Helpline: 0194-2313149," the public relations department of the government and the SASB tweeted from their respective handles.

8) A cloudburst triggered flash floods in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district on Saturday, causing minor damage to some vehicles, officials said. The cloudburst occurred around 4 am in Gunti forest area in Thathri belt, resulting in heavy flash floods, they said. No casualty has been reported in the incident, an officer said.

9) From Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal to Amit Shah, top leaders expressed grief and concern at the tragedy.

10) A decision on resumption of the pilgrimage will be taken after rescue operations are completed, an official said.

Check LIVE updates on Amarnath tragedy and cloudburst HERE.
Amarnath cloudburst: As flash floods triggered in parts of Kashmir amid the holy Amarnath Yatra due to what is being called a reported cloud burst, leaving several stranded and fearing for life, the health department has cancelled leaves of all health-related staff to cater to arising emergency, reported ANI. The Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir, in an order dated July 8, cancelled all leaves of the staff (Regular/Contractual) and directed them to report to duties immediately. All the officers are also directed to keep their mobiles switched on at all times. Apart from this, the department has also called for extra medical and paramedical staff along with emergency kits to Pahalgam.

As of now, all the injured patients are being taken care of at all three base hospitals: Upper Holy Cave, Lower Holy Cave, Panjtarni and other nearby facilities en route to the holy cave by the health care workers deputed at these stations.

Heres the order!

#AmarnathCaveCloudBurst | Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir cancelled all leaves of the staff (Regular/Contractual) and directed them to report to duties immediately. All the officers directed to keep their mobiles switched on. pic.twitter.com/h8as2MKTfV  ANI (@ANI) July 8, 2022

At least 13 people died when the cloudburst near the holy cave shrine in the South Kashmir Himalayas triggered flash floods on Friday evening. Twenty-five tents and three community kitchens were damaged.

Amarnath tragedy is not due to cloud burst: IMD

J&K DGP Dilbag Singh said 13 pilgrims were killed in the cloudburst that hit the area at around 5.30 pm. However, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that it was not a cloudburst, IANS reported.

Every year, IMD releases a special weather advisory for Amarnath Yatra. The general, daily forecast for the district on Friday was yellow alert (means, keep watch). Even the evening forecast, up on the Amarnath Yatra forecast website at 4.07 pm, said, "Partly cloudy sky with possibility of very light rain" for all along the route from both Pahalgam side and Baltal side. There was no accompanying warning.

As per the data from the automatic weather station (AWS) at the holy cave, there was no rainfall from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.

(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi: Independent Lok Sabha MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana on Saturday (July 9) recited Hanuman Chalisa outside the Amravati residence of chemist Umesh Kolhe, who was killed on June 21 allegedly for social media messages supporting suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma. The Rana couple also demanded that those who killed Kolhe be hanged in public so that no one would dare to repeat the crime. The Rana couple had made headlines after they announced they would recite Hanuman Chalisa outside then Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's house and were later arrested and eventually released on bail.

On June 21, 54-year-old Kolhe was allegedly attacked with a knife by a group of three men between 10 pm and 10:30 pm. He succumbed to his injuries during treatment in the hospital.

The Rana couple on Thursday denied charges that the alleged mastermind behind Kolhe's murder had a connection to their political outfit Yuva Swabhiman Party (YSP). "The allegations are absolutely baseless. We have never met him or even know him, he was never our worker. Whichever party they may belong to, strict action should be taken against them," Ravi Rana, a three-time MLA from Badnera, was quoted as saying by IANS. His remarks came in the wake of some media channels alleging one of their party workers was the mastermind behind the killing of veterinary pharmacist Umesh Kolhe.

Earlier, Navneet Rana had accused that Amravati police commissioner Aarti Singh "suppressed" the case of the chemist's murder and called for an inquiry against her. "We wrote a letter to Union HM Amit Shah and he took action by sending NIA. After 12 days Amravati CP came in front of the media and said that the case is similar to the Udaipur murder and is related to content posted about Nupur Sharma," MP Rana had said.

"After 12 days she's giving clarification on the incident. She first said that it was a robbery and tried to suppress the case. An enquiry must also be done against Amravati CP," she had said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe in the murder case from the Amravati police on July 5. While on July 7, a special court in Mumbai sent the seven accused in the case to NIA custody till July 15.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: Anushakti Singhs novelSharmishtha will be honoured with Amar Ujalas Shabd Samman Thap this year. Amar Ujala presents the Thap award for the first book by an author. Sharmishtha, which is the first book by Singh, is based on the Kuru dynasty of Mahabharata and follows the story of the first female rebel of Hastinapur. Anushakti Singh is a journalist and a well-known litterateur. Her book Sharmishtha, published by Vani Prakashan, has received many accolades in many literary forums in the country.

Sharmishtha is a Hindi novel based on the story of mythological characters. Sharmishtha, the protagonist, was a princess and mother of Maharaj Puru of Hastinapur. This book, written about Sharmishtha's self-respect, rebellion and struggles, holds a different place in Hindi literature.

Anushakti Singh is a vocal advocate of women's empowerment and their rights. Speaking about her achievement, Singh says, I am extremely happy with the honour that my first book has received. I will have to work harder for the second book as people's expectations increase and so does the pressure on the writer.

Akashdeep, Amar Ujalas highest Shabd Samman, for writing and overall contribution to life will be awarded to eminent author Shekhar Joshi in Hindi and Pratibha Rai, an Oriya writer, in non-Hindi languages.

Chhap: Poonam Wasams collection Machhliyan Gaayengi Ek Din Pandum Geet has won in the poetry category, Sudhir Chandras Bhupen Khakhar...An intimate memoir in the non-fiction category and Chandan Pandeys book Vaidyahi Gulp has bagged an award in the fiction category.
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case of corruption against officials of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and NBCC on Saturday (July 9, 2022) for allegedly favouring an ineligible private company in a contract worth Rs 38 crore for supply, installation, testing and commissioning of Electromagnetic Flow Meters.

According to the officials, CBI conducted searches at 10 locations in Delhi-NCR in connection with the case. The central agency also conduced searches at the premises of the then NBCC general manager DK Mittal which led to the recovery of approximately Rs.1.5 crore cash, 2.1 kilograms of gold jewellery, bullion, 10 kilograms of silver worth Rs 1.2 crore and fixed deposits worth Rs 69 lakh, officials informed.

Various property documents were also found from the residence of the then general manager of NBCC, they said.

The agency has booked former Delhi Jal Board officials -- chief engineer Jagdish Kumar Arora, superintendent engineer P K Gupta, executive engineer Sushil Kumar goel, assistant engineer Ashok Sharma, AAO Ranjit Kumar -- and then general manager, NBCC, DK Mittal and project executive Sadhan Kumar besides private company NKG Infrastructure Limited, it said.

"It was alleged that the accused had entered into conspiracy to provide undue favour to said private company and had made it technically eligible (which was otherwise not allegedly eligible)," CBI Spokesperson said.

It was further alleged that a tender was issued in December, 2017 for supply, installation, testing and commissioning (SITC) of electromagnetic flow meters and corresponding O and M operations for five years of Delhi Jal Board, it said.

"It was also alleged that due to conspiracy of the accused with said private company and false certificates & fabricated deviation statement issued by NBCC, the said private company qualified and bagged tender worth Rs 38.02 crore," the statement said.

(With agency inputs)
A decade ago, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee gave a suggestion at a book fair . She said, one should not lend his books and wife to anyone. If given, no refund is available. There was a lot of criticism about that in state politics. The Chief Minister said that once again on Thursday.

What exactly did Mamata Banerjee says?

Mamata Banerjee said, 'Don't lend knowledge, intellect and housewife to anyone. If given, no refund is available"

Also Read: 'Appear immediately, OTHERWISE...,' Mamata Banerjee's Police sends ULTIMATUM to Nupur Sharma

Mamata became vocal about the deprivation of the central government against the state. She said that after 100 days of work, Delhi has stopped paying for Bangla Abas Yojona scheme. UGCO is not giving scholarships properly. According to Mamata, an economic blockade has been created against Bengal. Therefore, Mamata brought up the topic of intelligence in the context. Mamata wants to convey that even if Delhi does not give money, the state government is doing the right thing. On that basis, the Chief Minister said, don't lend education, intellect and housewife to anyone.

Criticism and Support

In the context of the Mamata's statement at the book fair ten years ago, many critics said, is housewives an immovable property? Can that be lent? Such statements actually undermine the dignity of women as a whole. Again, according to many, there is nothing controversial about it. If all proverbs are seen in that way then nothing can be said. For example, in Bengali, when it comes to explaining one's elem, the common proverb is, 'Molla's race to the mosque.' This does not mean that the people of the Muslim community are being looked down upon! Speaking of laziness, it is again called 'Thunto Jagannath.' This does not mean that Lord Jagannath is being disrespected. These are the most common proverbs in Bengal.

Also Read: 'Gali gali mein SHOR hain...!', BJP MP challenges Mamata Banerjee, says 'ARREST ME'

Mamata Banerjee said in another context on this occasion, We used to recite many poems in our childhood. Aye Brishti Jhepe, Ekka-Dokka-Tekka, etc. At that time there was no question about that. But creating controversy has become a fashion now."
Chennai: Amid the constantly rising infections, a school in Tamil Nadus Andipatti turned into a Covid-19 hotspot after 31 students tested positive for the virus. The cases were found in a government school in Theni district on Friday, reported ANI. According to the District Education Department, the cases have been reported from Theni Government Secondary School, Andipatti. Besides students, 10 parents have also tested positive for Covid-19. The District Education Department has temporarily closed the school in repsonse to the risk. The health department said students and parents from the school have been asked to isolate themselves. The health department is in process of contact tracing.

The school has been sanitised by the district health officials.

Tamil Nadu recorded 2,722 fresh coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, pushing the overall caseload to 34,96,321 on Friday. There were no fresh fatalities due to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours and the toll remained unchanged at 38,028, a medical bulletin said.

A day back, 2,765 new Covid-19 cases and one death was reported in the state. The new cases mounted the state-wide tally to 34.93 lakh and the death toll to 38,028.

Chennai which has been adding new cases in four digits for the last few days logged 939 infections followed by Chengalpet 474, Tiruvallur 191, Coimbatore 131 while the remaining was spread across other districts. Ariyalur recorded the least with one.

The state capital leads among districts with 7,335 active infections and overall 7,69,778 coronavirus cases.

A total of 32,614 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of tests so far to 6.74 crore, the health bulletin said.

Tamil Nadu Covid-19 vaccination

Meanwhile, the state government appealed to the Centre to allow 35.52 lakh vaccine doses, which would expire on September 30, to be used for administering precautionary booster shots to those aged between 18 and 59 years, free of cost at state-run health care centres.

During a virtual interaction with Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian made a request to administer 35.52 lakh doses, which were with the health department, as 'precautionary booster dose' to those aged between 18-59 years at government hospitals.

(With inputs from agencies)
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Children enjoy themselves at a park in Heyang County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)

by Xinhua writer Guo Yage

BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has on various occasions stressed the importance of human rights protection and development, reiterated China's commitment to unswervingly advancing the development of the human rights cause, and called for concerted efforts of all countries to improve global human rights governance.

Under Xi's leadership, China has put respecting and protecting human rights high on its agenda of state governance and development strategy, and has made remarkable achievements in this regard home and abroad over the years.

PROTECTING BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS

On multiple occasions, Xi has emphasized the importance of protecting primary and basic human rights, such as the rights to subsistence and development.

"China insists on a combination of the principle of human rights' universality and the nation's actual conditions, and insists that the rights to live and to development are primary basic human rights," Xi said in December 2016 in a congratulatory letter sent to an international symposium on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations' "Declaration on the Right to Development."

Just as Xi said, China has long adhered to a people-centered vision of human rights, sparing no efforts in saving lives and improving people's livelihood.

Prioritizing the protection of people's health in its development strategy, China has built the world's largest healthcare system. Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, China has mobilized all resources nationwide, and made unprecedented efforts for medical treatment.

In February 2021, China declared the elimination of absolute poverty, having lifted nearly 100 million rural poor out of poverty over the previous eight years. The country has also made all-out efforts to combat organized crime and clamp down on all illegal activities to safeguard people's rights to live safely.

Surveys by the National Bureau of Statistics detected a continuous rise in Chinese people's sense of security, with 98.4 percent of the population feeling safe in 2020. The figure rose to 98.56 percent in the first half of 2021. China ranked second with 93 points in the 2021 Global Law and Order Report released by Gallup.

Aerial photo taken on June 18, 2022 shows a view of Hongniya Village in Wulian County of Rizhao, east China's Shandong Province. (Xinhua/Guo Xulei)

The key human rights issues are enough food to eat, adequate housing and the right to education, and "for those three key areas, China has done an amazing job," said President of the New Zealand China Friendship Society Dave Bromwich.

"In my view, China, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, has done very well in terms of securing fundamental human rights," said Kenya-based international relations scholar Cavince Adhere.

Farhad Javanbakht Kheirabadi, a China scholar at Shahid Beheshti University in Iran, said China's achievements of guaranteeing people's basic human rights, such as the right to life and the right to development, and continuously improving people's living standards, "set an example for other countries."

ADVANCING ALL-ROUND DEVELOPMENT

When addressing the general debate of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly via video on Sept. 21, 2021, Xi said that "we should safeguard and improve people's livelihoods and protect and promote human rights through development, and make sure that development is for the people and by the people, and that its fruits are shared among the people."

"We should continue our work so that the people will have a greater sense of happiness, benefit and security, and achieve well-rounded development," he noted.

Under Xi's leadership, China has coordinated the improvement of human rights related to economy, politics, society, culture and environment. Along with the country's economic development, people's quality of life has been greatly improved.

On average, 13 million new urban jobs were created annually in recent years. The per capita disposable income of residents has exceeded 35,000 yuan (about 5,200 U.S. dollars), up by nearly 80 percent from the 2012 level. The urban-rural income gap was closed significantly, and the middle-income group has grown to over 400 million people.

File photo shows an exterior view of the Shanghai Stock Exchange at Pudong New Area in Shanghai, east China. (Xinhua)

In 2021, China's retention rate of compulsory education reached 95.4 percent, with more equal accessibility. The country now has the largest higher education system globally, with 44.3 million students currently at school.

Development is the foundation and key to solving all problems facing the country, as is reiterated in the Chinese government's major development plans and documents, noted Lin Yifu, dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University.

"No matter how often you've been to China, during every visit you actually discover something new," said Zahari Zahariev, chairman of Bulgaria National Association for the Belt and Road and former member of Bulgarian Parliament.

The Chinese society, based on socialism principles, has a single goal: "the well-being and the most favorable conditions for development both of the individual and of the social organism as a whole," he said.

In social, economic and cultural fields, "China has continuously set and achieved a series of long-run goals to rejuvenate the nation," said former Tunisian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ounaies.

UPHOLDING GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS CAUSE

In his congratulatory letter to the Beijing Forum on Human Rights on Sept. 16, 2015, Xi said China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development and uphold human rights causes of both China and the world at large, calling for closer international exchanges and cooperation in the field of human rights.

Attaining full human rights for people is a shared goal of the humanity, he said.

More than six years later, Xi, in a congratulatory letter to the 2021 South-South Human Rights Forum held in Beijing, noted again that "China is willing to work with all developing countries to carry forward the common values of humanity, practice true multilateralism and contribute wisdom and strength to the sound development of the international human rights cause."

Honoring its commitments, China has made important contributions to the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and has been long dedicated to promoting common development and prosperity.

For example, China has conducted agricultural science and technology exchanges with more than 140 countries and regions. It has provided more than 15,000 tons of emergency humanitarian food aid to developing countries in need since the beginning of this year.

Photo taken on May 29, 2022 shows China-donated COVID-19 vaccines at Yangon International Airport in Yangon, Myanmar. (Xinhua/U Aung)

Last year alone, China provided 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations, honoring its commitment to making the vaccine a global public good.

Besides, to achieve a balanced, coordinated and inclusive growth worldwide, the Chinese president proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI) in re-energizing the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and building a global community of development.

Mohammed Saqib, secretary-general of the India China Economic and Cultural Council, said China has immensely contributed to the world, especially poor developing countries, through material aid, technical cooperation, human resource development cooperation, the dispatch of medical teams, emergency humanitarian aid, overseas volunteer programs and debt relief.

China-proposed GDI is a very noble cause, and it is going to contribute to world peace and prosperity, said Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. 
New Delhi: An earthquake of 4.4 magnitude on the Richter scale struck Vijayapura district on Saturday morning, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) said. The earthquake occurred at 06:22:14 AM, epicentred at "2.3 kms NW of Kannur GP, Vijayapura Taluk, Vijayapura district (Bordering Vijayapura and Maharashtra region)", it said in a statement.

KSNDMC Director Manoj Rajan said, as per the Seismic Intensity map of the said earthquake from the epicentre, the intensity observed is moderate and the tremor might be felt up to a radial distance of 30-40 kms from the epicentre.

"This type of earthquake would not create any harm to the local community as it is moderate, though there might be local vibrations felt. The epicenter falls in Seismic Zone III and the region is void of any structural discontinuities as per the tectonic map," he said, adding that the community need not panic as the intensity observed is moderate.

Live TV
New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis are scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President J P Nadda on Saturday as the new-found allies move towards constituting their council of ministers.

Shinde and Fadnavis, who assumed office on June 30, a day after the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray quit in the face of a massive rebellion, are also expected to make courtesy calls on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.

Amit Shah meets Shinde and Fadnavis

The two Maharashtra leaders met Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday night and are learnt to have discussed the broad contours of the power-sharing formula between the BJP and the Shinde-led faction of Shiv Sena.

"I am confident that under the guidance of Narendra Modi, both of you will serve the people faithfully and take Maharashtra to newer heights of development," Shah said on Twitter on Friday night.

Shinde in Delhi ahead of SC hearing on July 11

The visit of Shinde and Fadnavis to the national capital comes ahead of a crucial hearing in the Supreme Court on July 11 on a petition filed by the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of Shinde and 15 MLAs of his faction.

"We have faith in the judiciary," Shinde told reporters in the national capital, asserting the group led by him had the support of two-thirds of the Shiv Sena MLAs. The Shiv Sena had 55 MLAs before the split triggered by Shinde's revolt. Nearly 40 Shiv Sena MLAs had backed Shinde, who also enjoys support of independents and MLAs from smaller outfits.

"The Speaker has also granted us recognition," he said, referring to the decision of the newly-elected Speaker Rahul Narwekar.

Shinde was sworn in as chief minister on June 30 with the support of the BJP after he rebelled against the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, walking out of the Shiv Sena with a large chunk of MLAs leading to the fall of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government. Shinde won the trust vote in the Maharashtra assembly on July 4.

(With PTI inputs)

Live TV
New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Saturday (July 9). This was their first meeting with the PM after the new Shinde-led government assumed power in Maharashtra. Shinde and Fadnavis took oath as the CM and deputy CM respectively on June 30 after Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray resigned as chief minister, in the wake of a massive rebellion from a faction of his party.

The new Maharashtra CM and his deputy met Modi at his Lok Kalyan Marg residence and sought his "blessings and guidance" for the development of Maharashtra, PTI reported.

Sharing a picture of the PM with Shinde and Fadnavis, Prime Minister's Office said on Twitter, "The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri Eknath Shinde and the Deputy Chief Minister Shri Devendra Fadnavis called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri @mieknathshinde and the Deputy Chief Minister Shri @Dev_Fadnavis called on PM @narendramodi. @CMOMaharashtra pic.twitter.com/i2ljZTeuFB  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 9, 2022

The Maharashtra CM and his deputy who arrived in the national capital on Friday night met President Ram Nath Kovind, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP chief JP Nadda today.

On Friday, the duo had paid a visit to Union Home Minister Amit Shah during which the power-sharing arrangement was discussed and finalised, PTI reported.

Earlier today, addressing a press conference with Fadnavis by his side, Shinde said he would try and understand PM Modis vision for the development of Maharashtra. CM Shinde also dismissed his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray's call for mid-term elections. He said the Maharashtra government was strong with the support of 164 MLAs in the house of 288 while the opposition had only 99 lawmakers.

On being asked about portfolio allocation, Shinde said, "Tomorrow is Aashadhi Ekadashi. We (Shinde and Fadnavis) will meet in Mumbai after that and then discuss portfolio allocation."

Maharashtra CM Shinde, who led the rebellion against his party chief Uddhav Thackeray leading to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, refused to comment on the matter of Shiv Sena moving the Supreme Court challenging the formation of his government and election of state Assembly Speaker, IANS reported.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who is in Delhi along with his Deputy Devendra Fadnavis, on Saturday (July 9) exuded confidence about completing his tenure in office and said that only a natural alliance of BJP and Shiv Sena can take the state forward. Addressing a press conference with Fadnavis by his side, Shinde said a decision about the expansion of the Maharashtra council of ministers will be taken in Mumbai in the coming week.

The existence of our MLAs came under threat under the MVA govt, back then we couldn't speak that's why we took the step. It's only the natural alliance of BJP and Shiv Sena that can take Maharashtra ahead, the Maharashtra CM was quoted as saying by ANI.

ALSO READ: BJP wants to 'finish' Shiv Sena: Sanjay Raut makes BIG claim, attacks Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis govt

Shinde and Fadnavis who arrived in Delhi on Friday night met President Ram Nath Kovind, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP chief JP Nadda today. The duo is also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the evening.

On Friday, the Maharashtra CM and his deputy had paid a visit to Union Home Minister Amit Shah during which the power-sharing arrangement was discussed and finalised, PTI reported.

Meanwhile, Shinde also dismissed his predecessor and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray's call for mid-term elections. He said the Maharashtra government was strong with the support of 164 MLAs in the house of 288 while the opposition had only 99 lawmakers.

On being asked about BJP cadres unhappiness over his "demotion" to the post of deputy CM, Fadnavis stated that the workers were happy that the "injustice" done to them in 2019 has been rectified.

My party made me the CM earlier, now as per the need of the party, we have abided by the party's decision. Eknath Shinde is our leader and CM. We'll work under him. The injustice was undone, he said adding that the BJP workers were happy as natural allies BJP and Shiv Sena have formed government, upending the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance from power.

(With agency inputs)
Bringing a major relief for the people of Kolkata and the West Bengal health department, the youth who was admitted to a city-based hospital on Friday as a monkeypox virus victim suspect, has tested negative. The report of his blood sample and rash fluid came to Kolkata on Friday from the National Institute of Virology in Pune and no trace of monkeypox virus has been detected in the report.

The authorities of the hospital, where he has been admitted, confirmed the development and said that the youth will now be treated for chicken pox. He will be released from the hospital soon.

The said youth, who had returned to the country from Europe, developed rashes and symptoms of monkeypox. Reports of monkeypox victims have been reported from different western countries. In wake of that, the union government has already alerted the authorities of different states in the country. The airport authorities have also been directed to immediately isolate any passenger showing symptoms of monkeypox.
Amartya Sen tests Covid positive: Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen has contracted the coronavirus. However, his physical condition is now stable. On the advice of doctors, the veteran economist is in self-isolation at his home in Santiniketan. His treatment is going on there. It is learned that Amartya Sen came to his house in Santiniketan on July 1. After a few days, news came that his body was not going well. Doctors were consulted. Then Amartya Sen was examined. The veteran economist was diagnosed with the coronavirus in that test.

According to the source , the economist was supposed to go to Kolkata from their Santiniketan home on Saturday. Even Amartya Sen was supposed to attend a function in Kolkata. He was scheduled to leave for London on July 10. But all of them have been canceled due to coronavirus infection.

According to family sources, Amartya Sen is now at his home in Santiniketan. He is undergoing treatment there. He is following the advice of the doctors. However, his RT-PCR test has not been done yet.
Deoghar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will perform darshan and special aarti at Baba Baidyanath temple, one of the 12 Jyotirlingas in Hindu mythology, on July 12 during his visit to Jharkhands Deoghar, reported ANI. Visuals released by ANI show preparations being done at the temple for the aarti. Special Prashad (offerings to God) was being prepared for the ritual. Apart from the prayers, Modi will inaugurate an airport at Deoghar, constructed at an estimated cost of around Rs 400 crore, as a key step towards providing direct connectivity to Baba Baidyanath Dham (the Shiva temple), which is an important religious destination for devotees from all over the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will perform Darshan and Pooja at Baba Baidyanath temple, one of twelve Jyotirlingas



Visuals of the components build under PRASAD scheme at Baba Baidyanath Dham, in Deoghar



(Source: PMO) pic.twitter.com/C0XgagVl55  ANI (@ANI) July 9, 2022

Prime Minister Modi will also inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various developmental projects worth over Rs 16,000 crore in Deoghar, a famous pilgrimage site in Jharkhand, and address the closing ceremony of the centenary celebrations of the Bihar Legislative Assembly in Patna on July 12.

The new projects in Jharkhand are a step towards boosting infrastructure development, enhancing connectivity and giving an impetus to ease of living in the region. They will help significantly in socio-economic prosperity in the region, it said.

The prime minister will also dedicate to the nation the In-Patient Department (IPD) and operation theatre services at AIIMS, Deoghar. This is in accordance with his vision to develop excellent healthcare facilities in all parts of the country, the PMO said.

PM Modi in Patna today

In Patna, PM Modi will address the closing ceremony of the centenary celebrations of the Bihar Legislative Assembly and inaugurate the Shatabdi Smriti Stambh which has been built to commemorate 100 years.

He will also lay the foundation stone of the 'Vidhan Sabha museum.

Different galleries in the museum will demonstrate the history of democracy in Bihar and the evolution of the current civic structure, the PMO said.

(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a Natural Farming Conclave to be held in Gujarat`s Surat on Sunday via video conferencing, the Prime Minister`s Office (PMO said in a statement. The conclave will also be attended by Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvratand and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. As part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Prime Minister in his address at Gujarat Panchayat Mahasammelan in March, 2022 had exhorted at least 75 farmers in each village to adopt the natural way of farming.

According to the PMO, Surat District undertook a concerted and coordinated effort to sensitize and motivate different stakeholders and institutions like farmer groups, elected representatives, talathis, Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs), cooperatives, banks, etc, in the district to help farmers in adoption of natural farming.

Consequently, at least 75 farmers were identified in each Gram Panchayat and were motivated and trained to undertake natural farming. The farmers were trained in 90 different clusters resulting in the training of more than 41,000 farmers across the district. The conclave will witness the participation of thousands of farmers and all other stakeholders who have made the adoption of natural farming in Surat possible.
A few days back, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee stirred quite a confusion when she said that the opposition could have considered NDAs presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu if the BJP had discussed it with them before announcing it." BJP didn't discuss with us before announcing their candidate for Presidential elections. They should've taken our suggestions...then we could've considered," she added. Banerjees comments came because of developments in Maharashtra, Murmu's chances of winning have become better. "Now we know Draupadi Murmu's chances are better because of developments in Maharashtra. We'll go by what opposition parties say," Banerjee said.

As Mamatas statement caused a stir in the opposition, opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha said that presidents should be elected unanimously.

In a recent interview, Yashwant said, "I support Mamata Banerjee." He added, "I have said in the past that there should be no election for the President. Candidates for the presidency should be chosen unanimously. So, Mamata Banerjee did not say anything wrong. The entire ruling party is responsible for the election for the highest constitutional position in the country."

Incidentally, the opposition is not in a favourable position in terms of numbers in the presidential election. With that in mind, they formed an alliance only to create an atmosphere of anti-BJP unity.

After that, Mamata came to the inauguration ceremony of ISKCON's Rath Yatra and said, "They (BJP) have not mentioned Draupadi's name before. If the BJP had said in advance that they were fielding a tribal woman, we would have thought of supporting her.

In the larger interest, we could make a decision with 16 teams. It could have been on the basis of consensus. But the BJP just wanted to know our suggestion.

At the time, however, Yashwant said the presidential election was not a one-man fight. Rather, the battle of two ideologies. He fought for that political goal even though he was the tenth choice.
Kolkata: NDA presidential nominee Draupadi Murmu was supposed to visit Kolkata on Saturday to meet BJP lawmakers from West Bengal. However, the visit got cancelled in the wake of the one-day national mourning, as a mark of respect to ex-Japanese premier Shinzo Abe. Murmu has been visiting various states to seek support from lawmakers for the July 18 presidential polls.

"As a mark of respect to former Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, one-day national mourning shall be observed on July 9. Therefore, all programs of NDA Presidential Candidate Draupadi Murmu stand cancelled for July 9, 2022," the Bengal BJP said in a statement. A senior BJP leader said Murmu will be in New Delhi on Saturday. "Murmu's visit to Kolkata will be rescheduled later," he said. She was scheduled to meet BJP MPs and MLAs at a hotel in the New Town area of Kolkata on Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Murmu's plans of visiting another eastern state, Sikkim, also got postponed. "Murmu's Sikkim visit stands postponed in view of the mourning being observed in India as a mark of respect to the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe," senior Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) leader Jacob Khaling Rai told reporters. All arrangements were made by ruling SKM and BJP leaders of Sikkim to receive Murmu for her visit to the state to seek support for her candidature in the upcoming presidential elections, but we came to know that her visit has been postponed, he said.

Also read: 'Presidential candidate could have been unanimously nominated, IF...', Yashwant Sinha supports Mamata Banerjee

Shinzo Abe, 67, the longest-serving prime minister of Japan, was assassinated on Friday in the west Japanese town of Nara while he was campaigning for his party.

(With PTI inputs)
BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday sent a message of condolence to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida over the sudden and unfortunate passing away of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

In his message, Li said, "former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made positive contributions to the improvement and development of China-Japan relations. I met with him multiple times and had positive exchanges of views on promoting bilateral ties."

Li expressed his willingness to strengthen communication and dialogue with Prime Minister Kishida to boost the sustained, sound and stable development of China-Japan relations. 
PSEB 10th Result 2022: The Punjab board has released the notification for the rechecking and re-evaluation of the PSEB 10th result 2022. Students who are not satisfied with their 10th board results can send their PSEB Class 10 Result 2022 to the Punjab Board from July 11, 2022. The PSEB declared the Punjab Board class 10th Results on July 5, 2022 on the official websites, pseb.ac.in. Students can give their results for rechecking and reevaluation by July 20, 2022.

Students willing to send their PSEB 10th results 2022 will have to pay a re-evaluation fee of Rs.1000 for every answer sheet and for rechecking the papers they have to pay a fee of Rs.500 for every answer sheet.

Students will have to register for the re-evaluation and rechecking process on the official website of the Punjab Board- pseb.ac.in. The registrations will begin on July 11 and the link for registering will be active after which students can fill in the form. Punjab Board announced the PSEB Class 10 Result 2022 on July 5, 2022 and the passing percentage was 97.94 for the year 2022. The PSEB Term 2 Exam 2022 was conducted from April 29, 2022 to May 19, 2022 in various examination centres.

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NEW DELHI: Annu's Creation has become one of the most loved bridalwear brands in India. The brand which was founded by Vadodara based, Annu Patel in 2011 has now become a household name. Moreover, it has found a place in the wardrobe of some B-Town A-listers as well.

Talking about the celeb clients, Malaika Arora rocked the ramp at Lakme Fashion Week 2021 wearing an ethereal ensemble by Annu's Creation. She looked dreamy in the red lehenga and turned many heads.

Even Hina Khan and Mouni Roy have stunned their fans in the designs of Annu's Creations.

Recently, the brand recreated Alia Bhatt's wedding look with internet sensation Neha Jethwani in an elegant yet minimal ivory mirror lehenga. The look turned out to be absolutely terrific and it's tough to take our eyes off it.

Apart from the wide range of bridalwear, Annu's Creation also offers custom designs so that every bride can have exactly what she has been dreaming of. It also extends its offerings to beautiful and trendy outfits for other special wedding functions like mehndi, sangeet and cocktails. This professionalism and understanding of the clients' nerves is something which has helped the brand go from strength to strength.

It launched a new collection, Folktale. For this, the designer has taken inspiration from the craftsmanship of the folk tribes of Kutch. The collection combines modern techniques with folk heritage and creates bright and vibrant pieces perfect for the modern-day bride who wants to stay in touch with her roots.
Travelling gives you a sense of freedom that you seek for your soul. And when fashion is all you seek when you travel, you get the likes of Ankush Goyal. Fashion Influencer Ankush is a software engineer by profession, and hails from Abohar, a town in Punjab. However, his passion for travelling remains intact and thats what entices him to share his experiences.

Ankush says, "Travel has given me the meaning I searched for in my life."

Ankush travels like there is no tomorrow by taking time off from his regular employment. He never imagined that his trips would make him so well-known that brands would contact him to commercially work with him. His fashion sense combined with nature marvels captures the hearts of his followers, and Ankush makes sure he keeps feasting their eyes.

His travels include many exotic locations, sometimes rare to reach, bringing an esoteric, unseen beauty live into his stream on social media. His Instagram has more than 300K followers.

His MOJ has more than 360K fans, influencing this influencer to travel more. "The recognition of my fans means more to me than anything else in the world." comments I read are an achievement for me," says Ankush.

Travelling for fashion has a different edge. It is said, "Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder". Thats what the beholder Ankush sees differently. "Blending fashion with nature is an aspect that needs to be explored deeper. This would give a balance to the world, eliminating unnecessary waste and helping the environment to gain balance, "says Ankush.

Collaboration with other producers and influencers has given him the idea to broaden his range of travel destinations. The partnerships gave him numerous exceptional chances to connect with other creative people. Although his employment as a software engineer for Wipro in Pune gives him very little free time, he nevertheless manages to travel extensively.

Ankush cautions about visiting unusual, unexplored locations to offer his viewers the feeling of being there in person or to book their tickets to do so. This is a result of his impeccable sense of perspective and vision for the natural world.
New Delhi: Bollywood actor Kartik Aaryan is celebrating the success of his recent release 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2' with a long vacation to Europe with his team. He has been away for a few days and is constantly treating his fans with updates. Recently, he and his team attended the Rolling Stones concert and the pictures, videos from the 'mad rock n roll night' are going VIRAL.

Taking to Instagram, Kartik posted pictures and videos from the concert and fans are going gaga over it. KA looked dapper in a pink hoodie, sticking his tongue out like a true fan!

He shared a video from the concert, going all crazy and in the caption, he wrote, 'Jagger Swagger' giving a glimpse of the performance that night. Also, Sharing a selfie with his team on Insta, he wrote, "Mad Rock N Roll Night"

Sharing another post, he shared the excitement of all the fans and audience present there to catch The Rolling Stones live. Filmmaker Farah Khan yet again dropped a hilarious comment and wrote, "Make mick do the bhool bhulaiya step."

On the work front, Kartik recently wrapped the shoot of 'Shehzada,' directed by Rohit Dhawan, the film is the official remake of Allu Arjun's 'Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo.' He also has 'Freddy' co-starring Alaya F, 'Satyanarayan Ki Katha' and 'Captain India' in his kitty.

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NEW DELHI: Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt's pictures from the sets of her upcoming Hollywood film 'House of Stone' has gone viral on social media, which showcases her baby bump.

The 'Raazi' actor recently announced the wrap of her debut Hollywood film 'House of Stones' with a special post on her Instagram, post that some behind-the-lens pictures of the mom-to-be actor got viral on social media in which she can be seen flaunting her baby bump.

ALIA BHATT SPOTTED WITH A BABY BUMP



In the pictures, the 'Gangubai Kathiawadi' actor can be seen shooting for an action sequence with her co-star Gal Gadot in a desert area. The actor donned a green jumpsuit and matching combat boots, with a gun in her hand. Soon after these pictures of the 29-year-old actor got viral on social media, fans flooded the comment section with good wishes and excitement, as she is going to enter into the world of motherhood soon.

"She's doing shoot with baby bump... Kudos to you Alia," a fan appreciated the 'Kapoor and Sons' actor for her dedication.

Another user wrote, "Come home Alia.. We all waiting to see you in Baby Bump".

Alia bhatt on sets Heart of Stone! with

gal gadot in Bordeira Portugal yesterday pic.twitter.com/CCfDmhnPaH  hourly ranlia (@goldencranlia) July 8, 2022

shooting an action movie while she's

pregnant.. MOTHER pic.twitter.com/sIKJ32GFSF July 8, 2022

The 'Dear Zindagi' actor recently announced her first pregnancy with a special post on Instagram, in which she can be seen inside a hospital with her husband Ranbir Kapoor.

Meanwhile, Alia will be next seen in an upcoming dark comedy film 'Darlings' alongside Shefali Shah and Vijay Verma.

Produced by Shah Rukh Khan, the film will exclusively stream on Netflix from August 5, 2022.

Apart from that, she has 'Brahmastra Part One: Shiva' alongside Ranbir Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan, which is slated to release on September 9, 2022, and a romantic drama 'Rocky aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani' with Ranveer Singh, Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, and Shabana Azmi, which is gearing up for its release on February 11, 2022.

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NEW DELHI: South actor Nayanthara's husband Vignesh Shivan, on Saturday, dropped a string of throwback pictures from his wedding day which was attended by Shah Rukh Khan.

Taking to Instagram, the 'Paava Kadhaigal' director captioned, "What more can anyone ask for ! #kingkhan @iamsrk ! Blessed to have this humble, kind, charming and wonderful human being with us during our wedding ! The Badshaah and the time with him ! Bliss ! Blessed One month anniversary".

In the first picture, Shah Rukh Khan can be seen giving a warm hug to her 'Jawan' co-star Nayanthara. The 'Chak De India' actor donned a formal white shirt and black pants, whereas the 'Bigil' actor can be seen in her beautiful red lehenga and Maang tikka.

The second picture is a candid photograph, in which the 'Don' actor can be seen sharing a happy moment with the newlywed couple with joined hands.

In the third picture, the newly married couple and the 'Fan' actor are joined by south director Atlee, who is directing Shah Rukh and Nayanthara's upcoming action thriller 'Jawan'.

Soon after the 'Naanum Rowdy Dhaan' director shared the post, fans swamped the comment section with good wishes as the couple marks their first month anniversary today.

"Happy one-month anniversary" a user commented followed by heart emoticons.

Another user wrote, "so sweet together# SRK and Nayans".

After dating for a few years, the 'Annaatthe' actor and Vignesh tied the knot on June 9, in an intimate south Indian wedding ceremony.

Recently the couple returned from their honeymoon and had been treating their fans with their beautiful pictures on Instagram.

Meanwhile, on the work front, the 'Darr' actor will be next seen in director Sidharth Anand's next action thriller 'Pathaan' with Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, which is slated to release on January 25, 2023.

Apart from that, he also has director Atlee's 'Jawan' with Nayanthara, which is slated to release on June 2, 2023, and Rajkumar Hirani's 'Dunki' with Taapsee Pannu.

The 'Darbar' actor on the other hand will be next seen in 'GodFather' alongside south actor Chiranjeevi.

The film is slated to release on the occasion of Dussehra 2022.

Live TV
New Delhi: Bollywood's blue-eyed boy Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt are expecting their first child and the baby arrival news stumped fans on social media. Soon after Alia shared the news on her Instagram, while a majority of fans, family and celeb friends wished the couple, there was a troll army unleashed waiting to explode.

Reacting to the troll calling the pregnancy news a 'promotional gig' for Brahmastra, Ranbir Kapoor told Hindustan Times, "Alia and I, as a married couple, we thought that it would just seem right to tell the world because we felt it was the right time. We just wanted to share the joy and the news with the world and there was no other thought to it."

Ranbir and Alia got married in April this year in an intimate wedding ceremony attended by family and close friends only.

On the work front, Alia Bhatt has been shooting for her Hollywood debut Heart Of Stone. Billed as a spy thriller for Netflix, the film also features Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot and Belfast star Jamie Dornan. 'Heart of Stone' will be directed by Tom Harper from a script penned by Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder.

She will also be seen in multi-starrer film 'Darlings'.The film is directed by Jasmeet K Reen and brings together noted music composer and director Vishal Bharadwaj and famed lyricist Gulzar. This project will be Alia's debut production.

Besides these, Alia and Ranbir will be seen together in Brahmastra, a sci-fi by Ayan Mukerji. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Mouni Roy.

Ranbir has Shamshera with Vaani Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt up for release this month. He has been shooting for Luv Ranjan's next with Shraddha Kapoor and Animal with Sandeep Vanga Reddy.




Los Angeles: Tony Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in 'The Sopranos' and brought his tough-guy swagger to films including 'Goodfellas' died Friday. He was 79. Sirico died at an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said his manager Bob McGowen. There was no immediate information on the cause of death.

A statement from Sirico's family confirmed the death of Gennaro Anthony 'Tony' Sirico 'with great sadness, but with incredible pride, love and a whole lot of fond memories.'

McGowan, who represented Sirico for more than two decades, recalled him as 'loyal and giving,' with a strong philanthropic streak. That included helping ex-soldiers' causes, which hit home for the Army veteran, his manager said.

Steven Van Zandt, who played opposite Sirico as fellow mobster Silvio Dante on 'The Sopranos,' saluted him on Twitter as 'legendary.'

'A larger than life character on and off screen. Gonna miss you a lot my friend,' the actor and musician said.

Michael Imperioli, who portrayed Christopher Moltisanti on 'The Sopranos,' called Sirico his 'dear friend, colleague and partner in crime.'

"Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone i've ever known," Imperioli said on Instagram.

Sirico was unconcerned about being cast in a string of bad guy roles, McGowan said, most prominently that of Peter Paul 'Paulie Walnuts' Gualtieri in the 1999-2007 run of the acclaimed HBO drama, starring James Gandolfini as mob boss Tony Soprano. (Gandolfini died in 2013 at age 51).

"He didn't mind playing a mob guy, but he wouldn't play an informant," or as Sirico put it, a 'snitch,' McGowan said.

Sirico, born July 29, 1942, in New York City, grew up in the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods where he said "every guy was trying to prove himself. You either had to have a tattoo or a bullet hole."

"I had both," he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1990 interview, calling himself 'unstable' during that period of his life. He was arrested repeatedly for criminal offenses, he said, and was in prison twice. In his last stint behind bars, in the 1970s, he saw a performance by a group of ex-convicts and caught the acting bug.

"I watched 'em and I thought, I can do that.' I knew I wasn't bad looking. And I knew I had the (guts) to stand up and (bull) people," he told the Times. "You get a lot of practice in prison. I used to stand up in front of these cold-blooded murderers and kidnapers and make 'em laugh.'

Sirico also was cast outside the gangster mold, playing police officers in the films 'Dead Presidents' and 'Deconstructing Harry'. Among his other credits were Woody Allen films including 'Bullets over Broadway' and 'Mighty Aphrodite' and appearances on TV series including 'Miami Vice' and voice roles on 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad!'

Sirico is survived by daughter Joanne Sirico Bello; son Richard Sirico; his brother, Robert Sirico, a priest; and other relatives.
New Delhi: There are up to 14 bank holidays in July 2022, two of which were used up last week owing to Rath Yatra and a weekend break. Lenders in India's public and private sectors will face a fresh set of bank holidays as the month of July begins. The Reserve Bank of India has already produced a list of 14 bank holidays for July 2022. According to the RBI calendar, bank holidays have begun to take effect.

The Reserve Bank of India declares 14 bank holidays in July, including weekends and various festivals, under the Negotiable Instruments Act (RBI). Except for weekends, the schedule would differ across the country, according to the RBI's holiday calendar. Read More: Har Ghar Tiranga: No GST on sale of national flag, says Finance Ministry

It should be noted that many bank holidays are regional in nature and may vary from state to state and from bank to bank. There are eight regional holidays and seven weekend bank holidays on the calendar. Bakrid, a regional festival celebrated in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, happens on July 9. It's also the second Saturday of the month, which means that all banks are closed. As a result, the bank holiday on July 9 clashes, resulting in 14 bank holidays in July. As a result, July 9 can be considered a bank holiday. Read More: Massive layoffs at Ola! Company sacks 500 employees in cost cutting exercise

Each year, the Reserve Bank establishes bank holidays in three categories: Negotiable Instruments Act Holiday, Real Time Gross Settlement Holiday, and Banks' Closing of Accounts. Among them, the 'Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act' category has the most holidays. However, under this act, bank holidays are not standard across the country.

The month of July still has 12 bank holidays left. Look them up below.

July 1: Kang (Rathajatra)/ Ratha Yatra  Bhubaneshawar

July 7: Kharchi Puja  Agartala

July 9: ld-Ul-Adha (Bakrid)  Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram; Banks will also be shut across the country as this is the second Saturday of the month

July 11: Eid-ul-Azha  Srinagar, Jammu

July 13: Bhanu Jayanti  Gangtok

July 14: Beh Dienkhlam  Shillong

July 16: Harela  Dehradun

July 26: Ker Puja  Agartala

Aside from that, there are seven weekend leaves, one of which clashes with Bakrid, during which banks across the country would be closed. These are listed below.

List of Weekend Leaves

July 3: First Sunday

July 9: Second Saturday + Bakrid

July 10: Second Sunday

July 17: Third Sunday

July 23: Fourth Saturday

July 24: Fourth Sunday

July 31: Fifth Sunday
Indian Railways has cancelled 162 train on 9 July for operational, maintenance, and law and order concerns. The railways posted an update on their website, IRCTC, stating that 31 of the 131 trains that were due to depart on Saturday, July 9, were partially cancelled. This comes after 132 trains that were supposed to leave on Friday, July 8, were completely cancelled, and 41 other trains were only partially cancelled.

Full List of trains cancelled on July 9

01535 , 01536 , 01537 , 01538 , 01539 , 01540 , 03094 , 03341 , 03342 , 03359 , 03360 , 03591 , 03592 , 04143 , 04144 , 04184 , 05366 , 06977 , 06980 , 07331 , 07332 , 07793 , 07794 , 08168 , 08263 , 08264 , 08527 , 08528 , 08705 , 08706 , 08710 , 08737 , 08738 , 08739 , 08740 , 08755 , 08861 , 08862 , 09484 , 09487 , 09488 , 09491 , 09492 , 10101 , 10102 , 11265 , 11266 , 12504 , 12757 , 12758 , 12812 , 12823 , 12879 , 12929 , 12930 , 13110 , 14109 , 14110 , 15231 , 15232 , 15611 , 15615 , 15616 ,

Also read: Delhi Metro: Passenger on track delays train services on Violet Line, normalizes later

15626 , 15641 , 15887 , 15888 , 17003 , 17004 , 17481 , 18107 , 18108 , 18235 , 18236 , 18247 , 18248 , 18257 , 18258 , 19035 , 19036 , 19119 , 19120 , 19425 , 20844 , 20845 , 20971 , 22121 , 22929 , 22930 , 22959 , 22960 , 36033 , 36034 , 37211 , 37216 , 37246 , 37247 , 37253 , 37256 , 37305 , 37306 , 37307 , 37308 , 37312 , 37319 , 37327 , 37330 , 37335 , 37338 , 37343 , 37348 , 37411 , 37412 , 37415 , 37416 , 37611 , 37614 , 37657 , 37658 , 37731 , 37732 , 37741 , 37746 , 37782 , 37783 , 37785 , 37786 , 52965 , 52966 , 82501 , 82502

Check full list here
Migrants wait outside a shelter near the Mexico-U.S. border in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, May 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Xin Yuewei)

A recent investigation by the Mexican daily Milenio, which looked into U.S. court documents, revealed the criminal organization sold 30 workers for 21,000 dollars, "as if they were cattle."

MEXICO CITY, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Mexican-born Flor Molina was once a victim of modern slavery, condemned to forced labor in the garment manufacturing industry in the U.S. city of Los Angeles, after emigrating there with the help of a person who turned out to be a human trafficker.

For 40 days, she was coerced into working 18 hours a day at a garment factory with no pay, making dresses that sold for 200 U.S. dollars in department stores.

Molina was made to sleep in the factory warehouse, sharing a single mattress with another victim, and to clean the facility after work.

Her ordeal ended 20 years ago, when she was finally able to escape one day, but for many migrants the nightmare continues.

More than 500,000 people in the United States, many of them migrants, currently live in conditions of slavery, according to data from the University of Denver.

Others die in the process of emigrating, like the more than 50 Mexican and Central American migrants left to perish inside a locked trailer in late June in San Antonio, Texas.

The "End Slavery Now" project, which seeks to raise awareness about forced labor in the United States, tells the plight of Molina and others like her on its social networks, noting the prevalence of such cases in a country that is a self-proclaimed defender of human rights.

Mexican experts told Xinhua that migrants are one of the groups most likely to fall victim to tragedies like the one in San Antonio, or to fall into the hands of criminal groups using forced labor as a result of misguided policies and socio-cultural patterns of discrimination, racism and xenophobia in the United States, they said.

Ariadna Estevez, an academic at the Center for Research on North America at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, blames the vulnerability of migrants on the "U.S. prohibitionist approach" to immigration, which prevents the application of a sensible policy.

"The fact that the borders are closed to asylum is causing more of this type of thing because closed borders facilitate organized crime and labor trafficking," Estevez said.

Even those who enter the United States legally, through temporary work visas, can become victims of criminal groups, she added.

The criminal organization "Patricio," said Estevez, long operated as a legitimate migrant recruitment agency, yet coerced dozens into forced labor on farms in the United States, making 200 million dollars in four years.

A recent investigation by the Mexican daily Milenio, which looked into U.S. court documents, revealed the criminal organization sold 30 workers for 21,000 dollars, "as if they were cattle."

File photo taken on March 9, 2021 shows migrants attempting to cross the Rio Bravo river on the border between Mexico and the United States, from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. (Photo by David Peinado/Xinhua)

The worst thing about these crimes is that many of them occurred "under the protection of bilateral accords that are completely outside of human rights and trade agreements" between the United States and other countries, such as Mexico and those of Central America, said Estevez.

"It is a type of slavery that is even legal in that sense," said the academic.

Criminal gangs benefit from this as they get money from migrants for transporting them, and often also traffic in the legal documents they seize from them. The United States benefits from this because "it allows its industry to hire cheap labor," said Estevez.

The United States also benefits when migrants are caught and placed in privately-run detention centers that have become big business, she noted.

Jose Maria Ramos, a researcher at Mexico's Colegio de la Frontera Norte, or College of the Northern Border in English, said the U.S. need for labor and its high volume of immigration have created a situation where many migrants work in precarious conditions ripe with exploitation, discrimination and violations of U.S. law.

"Undoubtedly, (these practices) are detrimental to human dignity ... and, above all, to the universal declaration of human rights," Ramos said.

According to international organizations monitoring human rights, forced labor is extensive in more than 20 U.S. industries, such as agriculture.

University of Guadalajara researcher Maria Antonia Gutierrez told Xinhua that human trafficking and forced labor of migrants are tolerated in the United States because of certain local economic interests they could bring.

Migrant forced labor has become a "necessary" condition of an economic model based on "financial, social and cultural inequality," and "put the United States in a shameful position," Gutierrez said.

By failing to acknowledge the problem, she said, U.S. authorities are further encouraging human trafficking and smuggling.

But they do it for "their own benefit, for the benefit of companies," and to the detriment of the rights of migrants and other victims, she added. 
New Delhi: Apple is anticipated to release four new iPhone 14 models later this year. The company has not officially confirmed a debut date, although rumours indicate that the iPhone 14 series will be available in September. While we wait for Apple to officially announce the iPhone 14 series launch date, rumours and leaks on the internet have disclosed practically everything about the forthcoming iPhone models. According to the most recent source, the Cupertino-based tech behemoth will revamp its sales strategy this year.

According to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple's primary focus will be on selling more high-end iPhone 14 Pros in order to develop the market for super-premium handsets. Kuo also stated that this is not a one-time tactic, but that the company intends to use it for future iPhone models, including the iPhone 15 series and beyond. Read More: Garena Free Fire redeem codes for today, 9 July: Check website, steps to redeem

The Pro models for this year are supposed to be slightly different from the lower models. Apple is scheduled to release four new models this year, including: Read More: Twitter vs Elon Musk: Tesla chief's version on the breach of merger agreement

-iPhone 14

-iPhone 14 Max

-iPhone 14 Pro

-iPhone 14 Pro Max

The iPhone 14 Pro variants are rumoured to have a pill-shaped design, which we haven't seen in any previous iPhone. The lower variants, including the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max, are expected to have the same old wide-notched design. All four versions are expected to include the A16 Bionic processor and iOS 16 operating system, both of which were introduced earlier this year at WWDC 2022.

Apple is set to discontinue the iPhone mini model this year in favour of the iPhone 14 Max. According to reports, the 14 Max would have top-tier specs at a reasonable price. The iPhone 14 Max is believed to have dual back camera sensors and a single sensor on the front, as well as improved battery life. Furthermore, this year's iPhone models are rumoured to have larger sensors, implying that these phones would be able to take better low-light images.
New Delhi: Amid the high voltage drama happening ever since Elon Musk officially tried to pull out of his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter, the microblogging site's general counsel has told employees to not publicly comment on the deal. In an internal memo to Twitter employees sent on Friday and obtained by The Verge, the company`s general counsel, Sean Edgett, told employees to "refrain from Tweeting, Slacking, or sharing any commentary about the merger", and that management would be "very limited on what we can share".

"I know this is an uncertain time, and we appreciate your patience and ongoing commitment to the important work we have underway," Edgett wrote. (ALSO READ: Bank Holiday on July 9? Banks to remain closed for 12 days: Check list here)

As per the website, the notice cites the fact that the merger is an ongoing legal matter. (ALSO READ: Man sold fake Cisco devices worth $1 billion, ran 19 firms to list online)

"The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery," Edgett said.

In a surprising move, Musk`s legal team said in a US Securities and Exchange (SEC) filing that he is terminating the deal because Twitter was in "material breach" of their agreement and had made "false and misleading" statements during negotiations.

Meanwhile, Twitter, in response, said that it was going to sue Musk for terminating the $44 billion takeover deal.

In the following tweet, Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor said that the "board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement".

"We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery," he added.

Musk had put the deal on hold over the actual number of spammy/ fake accounts and bots on the platform, and sought a reply from Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. On Thursday, Twitter claimed it is suspending more than 1 million spam accounts a day.
New Delhi: Google reportedly offered the US government to split its ad-tech business, which allows companies to place ads on Internet and apps, into a separate entity under the Alphabet umbrella, to avoid an antitrust lawsuit. According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal was part of multiple concessions the tech giant offered the US Department of Justice to avoid lawsuits alleging anti-competitive practices.

The US Justice Department is conducting a probe into allegations that "Google abuses its role as both a broker and auctioneer of digital advertisements to steer itself business at the expense of rivals", and preparing a lawsuit that could be announced soon. (ALSO READ: Bank Holiday on July 9? Banks to remain closed for 12 days: Check list here)

In a 64 page complaint with 194 numbered items, the US Justice Department and 11 states sued Google in October 2020 for antitrust violations, alleging that it weaponised its dominance in online search and advertising to kill off competition and harm consumers. (ALSO READ : Man sold fake Cisco devices worth $1 billion, ran 19 firms to list online)

The lawsuit marks the US government`s biggest move since its case against Microsoft more than 20 years ago. This comes after 15 months of investigation and could be the opening scene of more antitrust actions against other Big Tech companies.

Reacting to the WSJ report that came out on Friday, a Google spokesperson said that they have been engaging constructively with regulators to address their concerns.

"As we`ve said before, we have no plans to sell or exit this business. Rigorous competition in ad technology has made online ads more relevant, reduced fees, and expanded options for publishers and advertisers," the company spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report.

Not just the US, Google is facing anti-trust probes in the UK and India too.

The UK competition watchdog in May opened a second investigation into Google`s unfair practices in ad tech, following the launch of a probe into Google and Meta`s `Jedi Blue` agreement.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating whether Google has broken the law by restricting competition in the digital advertising technology market.

"We`re worried that Google may be using its position in ad tech to favour its own services to the detriment of its rivals, of its customers and ultimately of consumers," said Andrea Coscelli, the CMA`s Chief Executive.

The CMA is assessing whether Google`s `ad tech stack` practices may distort competition.

In July 2021, the French regulator closed a similar case against Google having imposed a fine and secured commitments.

In March this year, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered an investigation into complaints against Google for abusing its dominant position related to news referral services and Google ad-tech services in the Indian online news media market.

The CCI found that prima facie, these allegations of abuse of dominant position are under the purview of the Competition Act, 2002 and requires a detailed investigation by the Additional Director General.
Colombo: Thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka's commercial capital Colombo broke through police barricades and stormed the president's official residence on Saturday in one of the largest anti-government marches in the crisis-hit country this year. Some protesters, holding Sri Lankan flags and helmets, broke into the president's residence, video footage from local TV news NewsFirst channel showed. The island of 22 million people is struggling under a severe foreign exchange shortage that has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine, plunging it into the worst financial turmoil in seven decades.

Many blame the country's decline on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Largely peaceful protests since March have demanded his resignation.

Thousands of people swarmed into Colombo's government district, shouting slogans against the president and dismantling several police barricades to reach Rajapaksa`s house, a Reuters witness said. Police fired shots in the air but were unable to stop the angry crowd from surrounding the presidential residence, the witness said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the president`s whereabouts.

Despite a severe shortage of fuel that has stalled transportation services, demonstrators packed into buses, trains and trucks from several parts of the country to reach Colombo to protest the government's failure to protect them from economic ruin. Discontent has worsened in recent weeks as the cash-strapped country stopped receiving fuel shipments, forcing school closures and rationing of petrol and diesel for essential services.

Sampath Perera, a 37-year-old fisherman took an overcrowded bus from the seaside town of Negombo 45 km (30 miles) north of Colombo, to join the protest. "We have told Gota over and over again to go home but he is still clinging onto power. We will not stop until he listens to us," Perera said. He is among the millions squeezed by chronic fuel shortages and inflation that hit 54.6% in June.

Also read: Our economy has 'collapsed', says Sri Lankan PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, 'aid from India NOT....'

Political instability could undermine Sri Lanka's talks with the International Monetary Fund seeking a $3 billion bailout, a restructuring of some foreign debt and fund-raising from multilateral and bilateral sources to ease the dollar drought.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: The man who fatally shot former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told police that he initially planned to attack a leader of a religious group, the Japanese media reported on Saturday, quoting police sources as saying.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, has also said he had a grudge against a "specific organisation" -- possibly the religious group -- that he believed was linked to Abe, Kyodo News reported, quoting the police. The religious leader was not identified in the report.

Abe's shooter was wielding a homemade gun

Abe, 67, died on Friday morning after being shot from behind during an election campaign speech near a train station in the western prefecture of Nara. Yamagami was arrested at the scene where he was wielding a homemade gun.

Yamagami has denied he committed the crime because he was opposed to Abe's political beliefs, according to the police.

He also did not have a clue about what he wanted to do in life after graduating from high school, and had quit a job two months ago because he felt 'tired', The Japan Times newspaper reported.

Police recovered explosives, homemade guns from his home

Meanwhile, police have conducted raids at his apartment in Nara on Friday and recovered explosives and homemade guns, the report said.

Yamagami, who attended a public high school in Nara Prefecture, wrote in his graduation yearbook that he "didn't have a clue" about what he wanted to be in the future, it said.

According to government officials, he had served as a Maritime Self-Defence officer in 2005 at the Kure base in Hiroshima Prefecture.

In 2020, he was employed at a manufacturing company in the Kansai region, but in April this year, he told the company that he wanted to quit because he was 'tired,' and left the job the following month, it added.

(With PTI inputs)

Live TV
New York: Leaders of India, Australia and the US - countries that make up the Quad with Japan - expressed shock at the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, saying he played a formative role in the founding of the partnership and worked tirelessly to advance a shared vision for a free and open strategically-important Indo-Pacific region. Abe, 67, was shot from behind in Nara in western Japan while giving a campaign speech. He was airlifted to a hospital but was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was pronounced dead later at the hospital. Abe was Japan's longest-serving leader before stepping down in 2020 for health reasons.

We, the leaders of Australia, India, and the United States, are shocked at the tragic assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement on Friday released by the White House.

The leaders called Abe a transformative leader for Japan as well as for Japanese relations with each one of the three countries.

He also played a formative role in the founding of the Quad partnership, and worked tirelessly to advance a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific,? they said.

Abe was one of the architects of the Quad, the US, India, Japan and Australia alliance aimed at countering China's growing influence and military might.

The four countries had 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the "Quad" or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region.

The leaders vowed to honour Abe's memory by redoubling our work towards a peaceful and prosperous region and added that their hearts are with the people of Japan and with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in their moment of grief.

Public broadcaster NHK said police have arrested Nara resident 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, who allegedly used a handmade gun to shoot Abe, a tragedy that has shocked Japan which has some of the strictest gun laws in the world.

Condolences poured in from leaders around the world over the tragic killing of Abe. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is deeply saddened by Abe's "horrific killing, calling it an "act that has profoundly shocked Japanese society in a country with one of the lowest rates of gun crime.

A statement issued by the UN chief's spokesperson said Abe will be remembered as a staunch defender of multilateralism, respected leader, and supporter of the United Nations.

The Secretary-General recalls Shinzo Abe's commitment to promoting peace and security, championing the Sustainable Development Goals and advocating for universal health coverage. As the longest-serving Prime Minister, he was dedicated to reviving his country's economy and serving the people of Japan, it added.

The UN Secretary-General expressed his deep condolences to Abe's family and the people and Government of Japan.

Permanent Representatives and diplomats of the 15 nations of the UN Security Council, before their meeting on the situation in the Middle East, stood up to observe a minute of silence in the memory of and to pay their respects to Abe and the former President of Angola Jos Eduardo dos Santos, who passed away in Spain.

Brazil's Ambassador to the UN Ronaldo Costa Filho, the current President of the Council, said at the outset of the meeting that on behalf of the Security Council, he expresses our sadness and shock at the "senseless assassination of Abe. He also extended the Council's sadness over Santos's passing.

The members of the Security Council express their condolences and deepest sympathy to the families of Abe and Santos and to the governments and people of Japan and Angola on their tragic losses, Filho said.

Japan will begin its two-year term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council from January 1, 2023, the 12th time that Tokyo will be in the Council as an elected member since joining the UN in 1956, more than any other UN Member State. Japan will begin its tenure on the UNSC as President of the Council for the month of January.
New Delhi: Former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, expressing grief over the death of former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, shared an incident when despite the latter's ill health during his visit to India in 2007 he did not let anyone know about it. Reacting on national mourning of one day in India, Kumar said that this decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be appreciated, Abe was not an ordinary person.

'He was a good friend of India': Former Law Minister on Shinzo Abe

"He was not only the Prime Minister of Japan but also a good friend of India. I had a relationship with him and we met several times. He was the master of his humility and human dignity, this was his best quality," Kumar added.

"It is hard to find any other example in the history of the world when a prime minister of a powerful country like Japan resigns from his post not once but twice due to health reasons. In 2007, when Prime Minister Abe came to India for the first time, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh gave me the opportunity to be with him during the visit. I, Abe, and his wife were sitting in his car... I have seen him very closely," Kumar recalled.

'Resigned from his post due to stomach problem'

"When he gave a speech in Parliament in August 2007, he was praised in India, Japan and all over the world. As soon as he returned to Japan, he resigned from his post because he had a stomach problem."

"However, after recovering from stomach problem, once again he took the responsibility as the Prime Minister. Later, he again resigned from the post due to the same problem, and had said that his health condition is not good enough to serve his country," the former minister recalls.

"I remember he used to have a lot of pain in his stomach, and his wife used to look at him and gather courage, but he never let anyone know about the pain," he added. Kumar also mentioned that when Abe was not the Prime Minister, "he had come to meet me, and after listening to his thoughts, I had told him to become the Prime Minister once again, at which he smiled".

(With IANS inputs)

Live TV
Colombo: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday said that he is willing to resign and make way for an all-party government to take over in the country. The Prime Minister's Media Division said that the Prime Minister will resign after an all-party government is established and the majority is secured in Parliament.

His office said that Wickremesinghe will continue as Prime Minister until then.

Wickremesinghe told party leaders he was taking the decision to step down in view of the fact that island-wide fuel distribution is due to recommence this week, the World Food Programme Director is due to visit the country this week and the debt sustainability report for the IMF is due to be finalised shortly.

ALSO READ | Sri Lanka Crisis: Dramatic visuals show protestors breaking into President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's residence - Watch videos here

So as to ensure the safety of the citizens, the prime minister said he is agreeable to this recommendation by the Opposition party leaders.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Students participate in an interactive game at the Tibet Museum in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, July 8, 2022. The Tibet Museum reopened on Saturday after renovation and expansion. (Xinhua/Sun Fei)

People visit the Tibet Museum in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, July 8, 2022. The Tibet Museum reopened on Saturday after renovation and expansion. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje)

Photo taken on July 6, 2022 shows exhibits at the Tibet Museum in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The Tibet Museum reopened on Saturday after renovation and expansion. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje)

Photo taken on July 8, 2022 shows the opening ceremony of the Tibet Museum in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The Tibet Museum reopened on Saturday after renovation and expansion. (Xinhua/Sun Fei)

Aerial photo taken on June 30, 2022 shows the Tibet Museum in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The Tibet Museum reopened on Saturday after renovation and expansion. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje)

Students participate in an interactive game at the Tibet Museum in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, July 8, 2022. The Tibet Museum reopened on Saturday after renovation and expansion. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje)

Students participate in an interactive game at the Tibet Museum in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, July 8, 2022. The Tibet Museum reopened on Saturday after renovation and expansion. (Xinhua/Sun Fei)

An employee explains as visitors look at the exhibits at the Tibet Museum in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, July 8, 2022. The Tibet Museum reopened on Saturday after renovation and expansion. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje)
BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed the better utilization of cultural relics to promote exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations and the preservation of the fine accomplishments of Chinese civilization.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks Friday in a letter replying to senior experts at the National Museum of China (NMC) on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the museum.

Offering warm congratulations and sincere greetings to the museum staff, Xi said his previous visits to the museum left him with a deep impression and he was pleased to learn that new progress has been made by the museum in the fields of collection, research, exhibitions and exchanges.

Noting the importance of museums in preserving and passing on human civilizations and the glorious mission and great responsibility shouldered by museum workers, Xi expressed his hope that the museum staff will stick to the correct political orientation, strengthen cultural confidence, step up research and be innovative in putting on exhibitions.

Xi called for making better use of cultural relics, including making them "alive," promoting exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations, and better preserving, passing on and showcasing the fine accomplishments of Chinese civilization.

He urged the museum workers to make new contributions to the development of China's museums, and the building of China into a country with a strong socialist culture.

With its precursor, the Preparatory Office of the National Museum of History, established in July 1912, the NMC was formed in 2003 as a result of the merger of the National Museum of Chinese History and the National Museum of Chinese Revolution, both on the east side of Tian'anmen Square.

Following remodeling and expansion, the NMC formally opened to the public in 2012, now boasting more than 1.4 million items in its collection.

Recently, 10 senior experts from the museum wrote Xi a letter, providing an introduction of the museum's development over the past 110 years and a report on the museum's work related to the collection, preservation and exhibition, as well as stating the museum staff's resolve to keep their mission firmly in mind and contribute to the building of China into a country with a strong socialist culture.

Xi's letter in reply was read out at a meeting held Saturday in Beijing to mark the 110th anniversary of the NMC.

Addressing the meeting, Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, said the letter shows the CPC Central Committee's utmost care and great expectations with regard to the NMC's work. He urged the NMC to build itself into a world-class museum with Chinese characteristics. 

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, addresses a meeting marking the 110th anniversary of the National Museum of China (NMC) in Beijing, capital of China, July 9, 2022. A letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, replying to senior experts at the NMC, was read out at the meeting. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)
TUNIS, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The Tunisian official gazette published an amended draft constitution at midnight Friday, hours after President Kais Saied said errors were found in the previous version prepared for the constitutional referendum.

According to the corrections, the text "under a democratic system" is put after "(Tunisia) is part of the Islamic community" in the fifth chapter.

Moreover, Article 60 states that the Assembly of People's Representatives, or the parliament, should be elected every five years during the last three months of its term "via a general, free, direct election with secret ballots," which is an addition to the original version.

Other changes also included the conditions for running for the presidency, which now stipulates "candidates and female candidates" instead of only male ones.

The new constitution comprises 10 chapters and 142 articles and will be presented on July 25 to a referendum. 
What makes a wetland park in north China so appealing to flocks of whooper swans from Siberian, and a magnet for bird lovers? #GLOBALink





Produced by Xinhua Global Service




Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers' meeting in Bali, Indonesia, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Xu Qin)

BALI, Indonesia, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares agreed here on Friday to further develop relations between their two countries.

During a meeting with Albares on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers' meeting on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, Wang said China and Spain have maintained momentum for sound and steady development of bilateral ties.

China is ready to take the opportunity of the 50th anniversary of establishment of their diplomatic relations next year to plan for future development so as to promote healthy, stable and vibrant relations between the two countries, he said.

For his part, Albares said Spain is looking forward to celebrating the 50th anniversary of bilateral ties with China, adding that his country hopes to strengthen cultural and people-to-people exchanges with China and establish more Cervantes Institutes in China.

Spain, which will take the rotating European Union (EU) presidency for the second half of next year, is willing to work with China to implement the results achieved at the leaders' meeting between the EU and China in April and push forward EU-China dialogue and cooperation.

Wang said that China and Spain are two civilizations with a long history, and China is willing to work with Spain to make preparations for hosting the China-Spain Year of Culture and Tourism next year, so as to enhance mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.

He stressed that China will always be committed to openness, free trade and win-win cooperation.

"The more China develops, the more opportunities it will bring to the world," he noted.

China and the EU are not rivals but partners, Wang said, and both sides share a broad consensus on upholding multilateralism and promoting greater democracy in international relations.

He expressed the hope that Spain will play an important role as the rotating EU president and help the EU view China's development objectively from a long-term and strategic perspective, so as to jointly promote the China-EU relationship to develop in a sound and stable manner. 
A woman walks past the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, on July 6, 2022. (Photo by Hu Jingchen/Xinhua)

Australia's health department on Friday recorded 41,870 new COVID-19 cases, with the number of hospital admissions hitting a record high in about five months.

SYDNEY, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Australia is facing a looming new wave of COVID-19 as Omicron sub-variants are driving a surge in the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in some populous states.

Australia's health department on Friday recorded 41,870 cases, with 3,977 hospitalizations including 141 in the intensive unit. This number of hospital admissions has hit a record high in about five months since early February, according to the COVID-19 data tracker by national broadcaster ABC.

The state of Queensland recorded 714 hospitalizations on Friday, which is more than double the case recorded in earlier June. State health authorities warned the worst may yet to come.

According to Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath, there have been over 2,000 health care workers absent because of COVID-19, and the scale of the new wave "could even be higher than (the first wave)" in the state.

A COVID-19 testing clinic sign is seen at a hospital in Sydney, Australia, on July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)

Health authorities of the most populous state of New South Wales (NSW) warned on Tuesday that the third wave of Omicron infections in the state is likely to peak in late July or early August, urging the public to practice precaution measures.

At present, NSW leads the highest daily infections in the country, with 12,768 new cases reported on Friday. The state also reported 1,901 hospitalizations including 60 in the intensive care unit during the same period.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr. Kerry Chant said this new wave will hit schools and businesses hard. People should exercise common sense and wear a face mask in public indoor spaces, where physical distancing cannot be maintained.

The state of Victoria, with 9,676 new cases and nine deaths reported on Friday, has reached a grim milestone of over 4,000 COVID-related deaths recorded since the pandemic began, with more than half of which occurred in this year, reported ABC on Tuesday.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews who described COVID-19 as still a "serious threat" to Victorians over the winter period, extended the pandemic declaration for three months.

This move will allow the government to implement COVID-19-related measures deemed necessary to public health, such as mask and vaccine mandates.

A hospital vehicle is seen in Sydney, Australia, on July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)

Chair of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of South Australia, Professor Adrian Esterman, warned against the new wave of pandemic as two more infectious sub-variants become the dominant COVID strains in Australia.

He described the sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 as "masters at evading immunity," adding two doses of vaccine are not sufficient against them.

"What I can say with some certainty is that the BA.4/5 is now as transmissible as measles, which until now was our most infectious disease," he told Xinhua on Friday.

"One of the first things that the government has to do is to try and increase that uptake of the third and fourth doses."

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ATAGI), the country's peak immunization advisory body, has approved the fourth COVID-19 vaccine doses for people as young as 30 in a hope to provide extra protection ahead of a projected winter surge in the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants.

Esterman also suggested that the governments could develop more community health services to reduce pressure and free up beds for some patients with COVID-19 and acute emergency disease. 
BALI, Indonesia, July 9 (Xinhua) -- China and Germany agreed here to take the advantage of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries to deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields.

While meeting with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Friday, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the development of the all-round strategic partnership between the two countries has been fruitful and the development of bilateral ties has reached a mature phase.

China is ready to join hands with Germany to sum up experience and map out the bilateral cooperation for the next 50 years so as to inject a new impetus into the development of bilateral relations, Wang said.

Baerbock said Germany attaches great importance to developing ties with China and expects to take the advantage of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries to deepen bilateral cooperation in all fields.

Germany hopes to have dialogues with China on the rule of law, democracy and human rights, and enhance cooperation and exchanges on climate change, green development and emission reduction, the German foreign minister said.

Wang said it is only natural that China and Germany have different views on the human rights issue, as the two countries differ in social systems, development stages, and historical and cultural backgrounds.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) having led 1.4 billion Chinese people out of extreme poverty to embark on a new journey towards common prosperity is a huge contribution to human civilization, Wang noted.

China will make consistent efforts to promote the development of its human rights cause, and is willing to continue friendly exchanges with other countries on the issue based on mutual respect, he said.

Concerning the Ukraine crisis, Wang stressed that all participants at Friday's G20 foreign ministers' meeting have called for a ceasefire and peace.

China has been working to push for peace and facilitate talks, encouraged relevant parties to negotiate for a solution, and will continue to play a constructive role on the matter, he added. 




KABUL, July 9 (Xinhua) -- As Muslims around the world get ready to mark Eid al-Adha, people in Afghanistan are still struggling to survive, with many blaming U.S. sanctions for the soaring prices.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
WINDHOEK, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Namibian law enforcement officials have arrested 11 in connection with june poaching incidence where 11 rhinos were killed in two weeks, Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism spokesperson Romeo Muyunda said on Saturday.

In a statement Muyunda said, all the arrests and confiscated items are suspected to be linked to the recent rhino poaching incidents in Etosha National Park.

"In response to the recent discovery of carcasses of poached Rhinos in Etosha National Park(ENP), Law Enforcement efforts were intensified and through intelligence driven operations and investigations, 11 arrests were effected in four different incidents in regions adjacent to the ENP to date," he said.

The joint operation confiscated items such as two (2) vehicles, five (5) rifles, ammunition, axes, knifes as well as cash close to 3,400 U.S. dollars found in the possession of the accused persons during their arrests Muyunda said adding that, these items are subject to in-depth investigations to establish positive links with the carcasses discovered in the Etosha National Park.

All the 11 accused persons are remanded in custody and their cases were postponed, for further investigations, Muyunda added.

The suspects are charged with four different rhino poaching related crimes, he further added.

A total of 22 rhinos have been killed by poachers this year with half killed in June, according to statistics from the ministry. 
Indian army troopers carry an injured woman who was evacuated from the site of a cloudburst that hit near a Hindu cave shrine, in Baltal area of Ganderbal district, about 110 km northeast of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, July 9, 2022. The death toll from a cloudburst that hit near a Hindu cave shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir rose to 16 on Saturday, officials said, with more than 40 still missing. The downpour triggered a flash flood on Friday evening and swept away makeshift tents as well as community kitchens near the Amarnath shrine. (Xinhua/Javed Dar)

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from a cloudburst that hit near a Hindu cave shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir rose to 16 on Saturday, officials said, with more than 40 still missing.

The downpour triggered a flash flood on Friday evening and swept away makeshift tents as well as community kitchens near the Amarnath shrine.

"Sixteen people have been confirmed dead. About 40 still seem to be missing," National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Director-General Atul Karwal was quoted by local media reports as having said. "Four NDRF teams with over 100 rescuers are carrying out rescue work."

Reports said nearly 15,000 pilgrims were moved to safe areas from near the cave shrine after the cloudburst.

Officials said the injured pilgrims were airlifted from the cloudburst affected area by military choppers.

Authorities have pressed the Indian Army, the State Disaster Response Force, the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and others to carry out the rescue work.

The rescuers have been continuously clearing the debris to search for the missing near the cloudburst affected area. The rescue teams have deployed sniffer dogs and two through-wall imaging radars (TWIRs) to detect the presence of victims buried under the debris.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed grief over the loss of lives in the cloudburst and said all possible assistance was being provided to the affected.

The annual pilgrimage to the Hindu cave shrine of Amarnath perched high in the Himalaya mountain, located 3,888 meters above sea level, began last week.

Two trek routes lead to the shrine -- one from Baltal about 110 km north of Srinagar, summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, while another from Pahalgam, about 100 km south of Srinagar.

Authorities have set up bunkers and parked scores of bullet-proof bunkers along the pilgrimage route from Jammu to the shrine as part of heightened security measures to ensure the pilgrimage would be carried out without any hindrance. 

Indian army troopers carry an injured person who was evacuated from the site of a cloudburst that hit near a Hindu cave shrine, in Baltal area of Ganderbal district, about 110 km northeast of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, July 9, 2022. The death toll from a cloudburst that hit near a Hindu cave shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir rose to 16 on Saturday, officials said, with more than 40 still missing. The downpour triggered a flash flood on Friday evening and swept away makeshift tents as well as community kitchens near the Amarnath shrine. (Xinhua/Javed Dar)

Rescuers walk towards the site of a cloudburst that hit near a Hindu cave shrine, in Baltal area of Ganderbal district, about 110 km northeast of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, July 9, 2022. The death toll from a cloudburst that hit near a Hindu cave shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir rose to 16 on Saturday, officials said, with more than 40 still missing. The downpour triggered a flash flood on Friday evening and swept away makeshift tents as well as community kitchens near the Amarnath shrine. (Xinhua/Javed Dar)

Indian army troopers carry an injured man who was evacuated from the site of a cloudburst that hit near a Hindu cave shrine, in Baltal area of Ganderbal district, about 110 km northeast of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, July 9, 2022. The death toll from a cloudburst that hit near a Hindu cave shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir rose to 16 on Saturday, officials said, with more than 40 still missing. The downpour triggered a flash flood on Friday evening and swept away makeshift tents as well as community kitchens near the Amarnath shrine. (Xinhua/Javed Dar)
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with French Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers' meeting in Bali, Indonesia, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Xu Qin)

BALI, Indonesia, July 9 (Xinhua) -- China and France have agreed here to enhance strategic collaboration and deepen pragmatic cooperation to push the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries to a new high.

While meeting with French Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna in Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Friday, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China and France have witnessed stable development of bilateral ties with the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, which not only benefits the two peoples, but also brings stability to the volatile world.

China cherishes the mutual trust and friendship between the two sides, and highly appreciates and firmly supports France for upholding strategic autonomy, Wang said.

For her part, Colonna said France and China have maintained close communication and good cooperation on a wide range of bilateral and multilateral issues. The French side also values the friendliness between the two sides and has been devoted to advancing the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

France staunchly advocates for safeguarding the United Nations Charter, respects the sovereignty principle and attaches great importance to the role China has played in maintaining world stability, the French foreign minister said, holding the view that the strategic collaboration between the two countries is vital to confronting the challenges facing the world.

Noting that French President Emmanuel Macron has advocated for building a harmonious multi-polar world, Colonna said her country will continue to uphold the tradition of strategic autonomy.

The two sides agreed to promote and facilitate people-to-people exchanges, and strengthen cooperation on climate change and biodiversity conservation.

The two sides also exchanged views on China-European Union (EU) relations.

Wang said that as two major forces with global influence, China and the EU should stick to the keynote of win-win cooperation and stay committed to the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership.

China expects France to continue to play a constructive role in China-EU relations, Wang said.

Colonna said France has always stood for advancing the EU-China relations and advocated for building consensus through dialogue, and will continue to take a long-term perspective, stay rational, remain open and deepen EU-China cooperation in various fields.

The two sides also exchanged views on Ukraine, the Korean Peninsula and other international and regional issues of common concern.

Wang is on an Asia tour, which takes him to Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. 
Photo taken on July 5, 2022 shows a white band of dried rocks around Lake Mead near Echo Bay in Nevada, the United States. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

LOS ANGELES, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Surrounded by a white band of dried rocks, the vast drop in water levels is visible this week at Lake Mead, the biggest reservoir in the United States, which has been shrinking amid a two-decade-long megadrought.

The "bathtub ring" around the drought-stricken lake, on the Arizona-Nevada border and over 40 kilometers east of Las Vegas, is made of minerals deposited on the rock walls when the lake's water level was higher.

Some boat launching ramps along the lake were closed due to the low water levels. Lots of things underneath Lake Mead have resurfaced in recent weeks, including formerly sunken boats, as the lake's water level is continuing to decline.

Lake Mead's water levels have dropped to historic lows since it was filled in the 1930s. As of Thursday night, the water in the lake, formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, was around 1,042.3 feet above sea level - a decline of more than 43 feet from 1,085.95 feet by the end of January 2021, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The highest recorded level of the lake was in 1983 when it was 1,225 feet above sea level. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's 24-month outlook released last month said it was forecasting the most probable lake level would be 1,014.86 feet by September 2023.

Lake Mead currently provides municipal water for the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, and Boulder City, as well as municipal and industrial water and irrigation water for downstream users, according to the U.S. National Park Service.

"Altogether, about 25,000,000 people rely on water from Lake Mead, and it is unlikely that the Southwest could have developed as it has without it," said the agency in an overview of the lake on its official website.

The lake is nearing "dead pool status," NBC, a major broadcasting television network in the country, noted in a report last month.

If the reservoir drops below 895 feet - a possibility still years away - the lake would reach dead pool status, with potentially catastrophic consequences for millions of people across the U.S. states of Arizona, California and Nevada, and parts of Mexico, said the report.

"The situation is critical," commented the Los Angeles Times, the biggest newspaper on U.S. West Coast, in a report earlier this month.

If the lake's surface drops another 150 feet, there will not be enough water flowing through Hoover Dam to supply large metropolitan centers downstream, including Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego, explained the newspaper, adding that "When that happens, Lake Mead will be a 'dead pool'."

The megadrought is draining Lake Mead faster than anticipated, Las Vegas Review-Journal, the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada, pointed out in a report last month.

Water shortages and demand on the Colorado River Basin will require reductions in water use of 2 million to 4 million acre-feet in 2023 to preserve "critical levels", said the report, citing Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton.

Last August, the federal government declared a shortage on the Colorado River for the first time, triggering substantial cutbacks in water deliveries to the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, as well as Mexico. Many Arizona farmers have left some fields dry and unplanted, and have turned to more groundwater pumping, the report added.

The megadrought that has gripped the southwestern United States for the past 22 years is the worst in at least 1,200 years, NBC News reported in February, citing a research published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Jason Smerdon, one of the study's authors and a climate scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, was quoted as saying by the news outlet that global warming has made the megadrought more extreme because it creates a "thirstier" atmosphere that is better able to pull moisture out of forests, vegetation and soil.

"As much as 80 percent of the 17 western states that comprise the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's area of operations have experienced severe or worse drought conditions at times during the past two decades," Jonathan Deason, co-director of the Environmental and Energy Management Institute at George Washington University, told Newsweek in a report last month.

While the Colorado River has been affected by previous droughts, a warming climate is predicted to alter the water cycle in new ways. Long range climate predictions are for warmer winter temperatures in the Southwest, less snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, and less melted snow able to find its way into the Colorado River, the U.S. National Park Service noted on its website.

Droughts in U.S. West have also led water levels in many other major lakes to drop dramatically. Shasta Lake, the largest reservoir in California, is reportedly at less than half of where it usually should be in early May. Water level of the Great Salt Lake in Utah hit historic low earlier this month for the second time in less than a year. 

Photo taken on July 5, 2022 shows a white band of dried rocks around Lake Mead near Echo Bay in Nevada, the United States. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

Photo taken on July 5, 2022 shows a sign warning people about the danger to launch boats due to low water levels near Echo Bay, Lake Mead, Nevada, the United States. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

Photo taken on July 5, 2022 shows a view of the shrinking Lake Mead near Echo Bay in Nevada, the United States. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

Photo taken on July 5, 2022 shows a white band of dried rocks around Lake Mead near Echo Bay in Nevada, the United States. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

Photo taken on July 5, 2022 shows a white band of dried rocks around Lake Mead near Echo Bay in Nevada, the United States. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)

Photo taken on July 5, 2022 shows a view of the shrinking Lake Mead near Echo Bay in Nevada, the United States. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)
Pakistan: A Christian mechanic who was found guilty of insulting the Prophet Mohammed by claiming that Jesus Christ is the "true prophet" was given the death penalty for blasphemy in Pakistan. During a verbal altercation with a Muslim client at his motorbike repair shop in Lahore in 2017 after the man refused to pay his bill, Ashfaq Masih, 34, was detained.

Five years after his arrest, Masih, who has a wife and daughter, was on Monday sentenced to death by a Lahore court. Mehmood Masih, his older brother, claimed that following the verdict, their family was brought to tears and that it feels like "the end of the world for them. Anyone found guilty of insulting religion or religious figures could receive the death penalty under Pakistan's blasphemy laws. Even though blasphemy has not yet resulted in a death sentence, the person accused can spark riots.

Masih argued in court that the allegations against him were "baseless, false, and frivolous" and that he was innocent of all of them. He added that a rival who wanted to ruin his motorcycle repair business made the accusation against him. I insisted on paying my bill and stated that I don't follow anyone besides Jesus and wasn't concerned about his level of religiosity.

Due to several delays and cancellations, Masih has been incarcerated for five years while waiting to be found guilty. While he was incarcerated, his mother passed away in 2019, and he was released on parole to attend her funeral.

The judgement was disgusting, according to Nasir Saeed, the director of the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, a nonprofit that assists Pakistani Christians who are being persecuted.He gave a statement on this judgement that I can't think of any instances where the lower court decided to release someone on bail who had been charged with violating the blasphemy law, The judges are aware that these cases are brought about to punish and avenge personal grievances against the opponents, particularly Christians.

he also Said that Due to pressure from Islamic organisations, judges in lower courts are constantly reluctant to release the victims but instead opt for the more popular course of action to save face and shift the burden to the high court. He has already served five years in prison for a crime he didn't commit and is innocent.

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Lucknow: A shocking case has come to light from the Mughalpur police station area of Moradabad district in Uttar Pradesh. The wife, along with her son, made a fake death certificate of her husband, who had been living in Saudi Arabia for 45 years, declared him dead and grabbed the property. The victim has come to Moradabad and pleaded for justice from the DM so that he can be declared 'alive' on paper.

Mohammad Salim has also submitted a petition to Moradabad DM Shailendra Kumar Singh to prove himself alive. He says that his wife and son grabbed all his property by making fake death certificates and then sold it. The victim, Salim, has been in Saudi Arabia for the past 45 years and works there. There he also got married for the second time. He has three daughters from his second wife. At the same time, in Saudi Arabia, when this death certificate reached him, he came to know about the fraud. He came to Moradabad and tried to talk to the family. However, none of the family members agreed to talk to him. He demanded Moradabad DM to declare himself alive and appealed to him to take strict action against the family members.

District Magistrate of Moradabad Shailendra Kumar Singh said that Mohammad Salim of Mughalpura submitted a petition on Friday. His wife and their children have made his fake death certificate. We are investigating it. Whoever is found guilty, legal action will be taken.

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Uzbekistan: Following the deadly unrest in the autonomous region, an ethnic Karakalpak journalist has been charged with conspiracy to overthrow constitutional order.

Uzbekistan's state prosecutor announced on Friday that a journalist had been charged with conspiracy to overthrow constitutional order, following unrest over proposals to weaken the status of an autonomous region.

Following the bloodshed in the Karakalpakstan region, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev backed down from proposed constitutional amendments that would have denied the region the right to hold a referendum on secession from Uzbekistan.

Mirziyoyev claims the unrest was planned years in advance with the assistance of "outside forces," but critics point to his government's failure to consult the region's public on the changes as the catalyst.

The arrest last week of an ethnic Karakalpak journalist, Dauletmurat Tazhimuratov, was seen as contributing to a massive pro-autonomy protest in the region's administrative capital, Nukus, on July 1.

A 20-year prison sentence is on the table.

Authorities released him to appease demonstrators, but he was later arrested again. On Friday, the state prosecutor said he was one of two people detained on the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Tazhimuratov was the editor of a regional newspaper and had called for protests in Karakalpakstan prior to his arrest, according to Uzbek private media.

According to a statement from the state prosecutor, another detained journalist, Lalagul Kallykhanova, was suspected of "crimes against public safety" after creating and publishing a video advocating seceding.

In cases involving the unrest, the office stated that it had prioritised "the prevention of torture, violence, and other cruel or degrading actions."

Separately, Mirziyoyev's office announced on Friday the dismissal of Zaynilobiddin Nizomiddinov as chief of staff, the first high-level dismissal since the crisis began in Karakalpakstan, where a state of emergency has been declared.

According to the National Guard, over 500 people were arrested during the unrest, with some of them later released.

Karakalpakstan, a two-million-person region, gets its name from the minority Karakalpak people, who, like Uzbeks, are a majority-Muslim Turkic Turkic group.

The Karakalpak language is more similar to Kazakh, which is spoken in neighbouring Kazakhstan, than it is to Uzbek, which is spoken throughout Uzbekistan, a Central Asian country of about 35 million people.
Colombo: The situation in Sri Lanka is steadily going from bad to worse and now protesters have reached the Presidential Palace. On Saturday, the situation worsened so much, the impact of which was also seen in other cities, including Colombo. The Test match between Australia and Sri Lanka is currently being played in Galle, where protesters arrived outside the stadium. A large number of protesters have gathered around the Galle Stadium, where protesters outside and inside the stadium waved posters and shouted slogans. However, it had no effect on the match and the match between the two teams went on as usual.

Let's say that it is forbidden to climb during a game on a fort near the stadium located in Galle. However, the protesters reached here during this time and waved their posters from here. Thousands of protesters also raised slogans outside the stadium. Crowds of protesters are gathering in different cities of Sri Lanka and now many big personalities have started joining it. Sri Lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya has also taken to the streets to perform. Near the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Colombo, where a crowd of protesters gathers and Sanath Jayasuriya is also present with them.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence in Colombo on Saturday, and protesters demanding his resignation entered the compound before that.

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Uzbekistan: The violent crackdown by the Uzbek government on Karakalpakstan protests may have serious repercussions for Central Asia as well as the balance of power between Russia, China, and the West.

Rare protests that took place last week in the autonomous Karakalpakstan region of Uzbekistan, which borders Kazakhstan in the northwest of the country, turned deadly.

The government reports that clashes between security personnel and protesters resulted in 18 fatalities and 243 injuries. Over 500 people were held.

Law enforcement officers and civilians were both killed, according to the authorities, who withheld the identities of those who died. The proposed constitutional changes, which would have stripped the vast region of its autonomy and right to secede, had sparked the unrest.

Following the brutal crackdown, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the president of Uzbekistan, visited the area and declared that "order had been restored." He also admitted that he changed his mind about wanting to limit the region's sovereignty.

The news coming out of the former Soviet Republic did not garner much attention on a global scale amid a number of serious crises, such as an ongoing pandemic and a war in Europe. For many, what happened in Karakalpakstan was just a small, bloody disturbance in a far-off, seemingly insignificant part of the world.

Even the Soviet Union regarded Karakalpakstan as an outlying region that required little attention. People transported works of art deemed "degenerate" by the government to the outlying area during Stalin's rule because they knew the authorities would not bother pursuing them there. The second-largest collection of works by the Russian avant garde is still kept at the State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, but due to its isolation, visitors are infrequent.

However, we shouldn't be misled into believing that events in Karakalpakstan and possibly Uzbekistan won't have a significant impact on the rest of the world. The brutal crackdown on demonstrators last week in Karakalpakstan marks a turning point in Mirziyoyev's political, economic, and geopolitical plans. As a result, not only could Karakalpakstan and Uzbekistan be affected by its aftermath, but also the future of the larger, strategically significant region.

Although Mirziyoyev is not a democrat, he has shown the ability to conduct business with the rest of the world, including the West, at least up until very recently. Whether this was done out of conviction or out of convenience will depend on how he responded to the unrest in Karakalpakstan. The power dynamics at the centre of Eurasia will be shaped by how the rest of the world reacts. The West should do everything in its power to assist in putting Mirziyoyev back on the path of reform and progress in order to maintain at least some influence over a seemingly remote but critically important country and to ensure the well-being of the people of Uzbekistan.
BALI: The senior diplomats from South Korea, the US, and Japan met in Indonesia and decided to step up cooperation in the face of North Korea's threats and work to restart negotiations with Pyongyang, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

On the resort island of Bali, alongside the Group of 20 summit that took place from Thursday to Friday, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin met for the first time with his American and Japanese colleagues, Antony Blinken and Yoshimasa Hayashi.

According to a statement from the ministry, "the three ministers agreed the perspective that North Korea's nuclear and missile threat is a serious issue that has to be dealt with as a priority by South Korea, the US, and Japan." "They decided to work closely together based on a flexible, open diplomatic strategy to bring (Pyongyang) back to dialogue and to undertake efforts to deliver a united, forceful response from the international community against North Korea's provocation," it continued.

The U.S. Department of State later reported that Blinken and his counterparts from South Korea and Japan talked about measures to increase security cooperation between their three nations.

It said in a press release, referring to North Korea by its official name, that "the secretary and foreign ministers condemned the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's unlawful ballistic missile launches and discussed how to expand trilateral security cooperation."

The secretary reaffirmed American commitment to swiftly resolving the kidnappings issue and also total denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

According to the South Korean foreign ministry, the trio emphasised the significance of trilateral cooperation to meet new regional and global issues and pursue "future-oriented cooperation" to advance peace, security, and prosperity in the area.

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Blinken raises concerns over Beijing's alignment with Moscow 9 July, 07:23 PM Wang Yi and Antony Blinken (Photo:Stefani Reynolds/Pool via REUTERS)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on July 9 he had discussed Russian aggression in Ukraine during more than five hours of talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in which he raised concerns over Beijing's alignment with Moscow, the Reuters news agency reported.

Blinken said he did not think China was behaving in a neutral way, as it had supported Russia in the United Nations and "amplified Russian propaganda."

"I shared again with the state councilor that we are concerned about the PRC's alignment with Russia," said at a news conference after the talks, referring to the People's Republic of China.

 

According to Reuters, Blinken said Chinese President Xi Jinping had made it clear in a call with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on June 13 that he stood by a decision to form a partnership with Russia.

It is noted that the diplomats both described their first in-person discussions since October as "candid," with the meeting taking place a day after they attended a gathering of G20 foreign ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali.

U.S. officials had said before the talks that the meeting was aimed at keeping the difficult U.S.-China relationship stable and preventing it from veering inadvertently into conflict.

Putin and Xi Jinping at a Feb. 4 meeting adopted a joint statement on geopolitical positions and signed 15 more documents.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, China did not condemn Moscow. The U.S. media reported that Russia had asked China to support the war it unleashed by providing military equipment and economic aid, but both Moscow and Beijing deny this.

China's ambassador to Ukraine assured that the People's Republic of China would never attack Ukraine and would help in the economic field.

Washington has repeatedly warned China about the consequences if it supportsRussian aggression. But as of July, there is no evidence that Beijing has provided any material support to Russia for its war against Ukraine.

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Global climate change has a devastating impact on agriculture as it changes rainfall and temperature patterns. This has threatened agricultural production and increased the vulnerability of people dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. It has affected the worlds developing countries and Nepal is one among them. Climate change not only poses threats to production levels but also disrupts the food supply in the market accordingly as countries like Nepal have failed to internalise the idea of climate-smart agriculture.

In this connection, global bodies working on food security and food sovereignty, such as United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), have conducted in-depth research to mitigate climate changes impact on agriculture with the proposition of climate-smart agriculture, which Nepal can use to combat potential threats to food security.

Climate-smart agriculture

A climate-smart agriculture model. Graphics: IPCC

The FAO has released a new approach to combat food security and named it climate-smart agriculture (CSA). It aims to reduce climate change threats by increasing the adaptability of farmers along with enhancing resilience and resource use efficiency in agricultural production systems.

According to the FAO, climate-smart agriculture is an approach for transforming and reorienting agricultural systems to support food security under the new realities of climate change. It promotes coordinated actions by farmers, researchers, the private sector, civil society and policymakers towards climate-resilient pathways through four main action areasbuilding evidence, increasing local institutional effectiveness, fostering coherence between climate and agricultural policies, and linking climate and agricultural financing.

Meanwhile, climate-smart agriculture differs from business-as-usual approaches as it emphasises the capacity to implement flexible, context-specific solutions, supported by innovative policy and financing actions.

Current context

Farmers say their yield is nominal if they do not use pesticides, due to climate change impact.

Climate change scientists Lobell D B, B Schlenker W and Roberts MJ have already concluded that since 1980, climate change has been threatening global crop production, which is in an increasing ratio since then. According to their research, the global production of wheat and maize both decreased by 5.5 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively, as compared to a counterfactual without the effects of climate change.

T Wheeler and J von Braun, in their 2013 research article published in The Science, reported that by 2050, an additional 2.4 billion people are expected to be living in developing countries, concentrated in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. These are the regions that depend on agriculture for economic growth. Hence, according to their study, by 2050, more than 20 per cent of their population will be facing food insecurity.

Similarly, another report released by IFAD in 2015 calculated that agriculture is the most important income source for about 75 per cent of the population who belong to rural areas in the world and are also poor.

However, in absence of climate-smart agriculture, different practices in agricultureenteric fermentation, manure deposited on pasture, synthetic fertiliser, paddy rice cultivation and biomass burning, etcare also contributors to global warming. It is estimated that 5.2 to 5.8 gigatonnes of Co2 and greenhouse gas are produced through such practices, making up more than 10 per cent of global anthropogenic emissions contributing to climate change.

Even though they still account for around 12% of the overall shift, emissions from land-use change are growing less rapidly. Agricultural emissions are projected to rise given the requirement for agricultural expansion to ensure food security. Based on assumptions of traditional agricultural growth trajectories, the primary drivers of expected emission growth may potentially have detrimental effects on ecosystem services including soil protection and biodiversity.

What next?

Climate change may lead to food insecurity in Nepal, according to experts. The picture shows a woman preparing to harvest wheat in Khokana of Lalitpur in 2021. Photo: Bikash Shrestha

Raising agricultural productivity and incomes in the smallholder production sector, when compared to the other data, is essential for eradicating poverty and ensuring food security. It also plays a significant role in driving economic transformation and growth in the context of urbanisation and the expansion of non-agricultural industries.

According to FAO projections, in order to keep up with rising demand, the worlds agricultural output will need to increase by 60 per cent by 2050. The majority of this growth will need to come from higher productivity.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) affirms this, stating that crop production is impacted by climate change in many regions of the world, with negative effects outweighing positive ones more frequently, and that developing nations are particularly vulnerable to additional negative effects.

Several researchers warn of steep decreases in crop productivity when temperatures exceed critical physiological thresholds. Increased climate variability exacerbates production risks and challenges farmers coping ability.

Climate change poses a threat to food access for both rural and urban populations by reducing agricultural production and incomes, increasing risks and disrupting markets. Poor producers, the landless and marginalised ethnic groups are particularly vulnerable to its impact.

The impact of extreme climate change can be long-lasting as it increases exposure to risk and uncertainty, which affect investment incentives and reduce the likelihood of effective farm innovations.

Adopting climate-smart agriculture can be a solution to all of these problems in the future.

Conclusion

Climate change alters agricultural production and food systems. Thus, there needs an approach such as climate-smart agriculture to transform agricultural systems to support global food security and poverty reduction.

An integrated, evidence-based and transformative approach to addressing food and climate security at all levels requires coordinated actions from the global to local levels; from research to policies and investments; and across private, public and civil society sectors to achieve the scale and rate of change required.

With the right practices, policies and investments the agriculture sector can move onto climate-smart agriculture pathways, resulting in decreased food insecurity and poverty in the short term while contributing to reducing climate change as a threat to food security over the longer term.
(Adds Fortum, Finnish government responses)

By Matthias Inverardi and Markus Wacket

BERLIN, July 9 (Reuters) - A dispute between Germany and Finland over the cost of rescuing gas importer Uniper flared on Saturday as its Finnish main shareholder rejected a call from a senior German minister for further help in bailing out the ailing company.

Uniper, Germany's biggest importer and storer of gas, this week asked for a German government bailout, warning losses due to reduced supplies from Russia and soaring gas prices could reach 10 billion euros ($10 billion) this year.

But German economy minister Robert Habeck said Uniper's main shareholder, Finnish state energy company Fortum, should contribute to the rescue, as Germany confronts an energy crisis serious enough for Habeck to call for economy measures such as Germans taking shorter showers.

"It (Uniper) belongs to someone, someone who is solvent and can provide support," Habeck, who is also energy minister, told Deutschlandfunk radio in an interview. "So it's right to consider models where the owners also bear an obligation."

Fortum, which has proposed ringfencing Uniper's German businesses under government ownership, responded that it had already given Uniper 8 billion euros in loans and guarantees.

"The German security of supply businesses need to be owned by the federal state that has the required strong creditworthiness," since gas prices might continue to rise, said Fortum Chief Executive Markus Rauram in an emailed statement.

For Finland, its economy a 13th the size of Germany's and with a 15th the population, the challenge is serious.

"The rescue of Uniper is an issue of European importance." said Finnish Europe Minister Tytti Tuppurainen, also in an email. "We are urgently calling for Uniper's at-risk, system-critical businesses to be ringfenced in Germany and secured by the state."

After prospering from years of dependable flows of cheap Russian gas, Germany is scrambling to contain the impact of those supplies being constrained.

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While Russia blames technical problems, Western governments say these are pretexts and that Moscow is responding to crippling sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.

German has allocated 15 billion euros of public money to buy gas from elsewhere to ensure gas storages are full by the winter, but, urging the public to save energy, Habeck warned that if gas prices climbed further that might not be enough.

"Germans shower for an average of 10 minutes," he said. "And I think even five minutes is too long."

Already, some housing associations have said they will lowering heating temperatures in their houses and apartments this winter, and Habeck said workplace heating could be dialled down.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a video statement on Saturday that energy security questions would preoccupy Germany "for the coming weeks, months and years".

($1 = 0.9820 euros)

(Reporting by Markus Wacket and Matthias Inverardi; Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and David Holmes)
zimmytws / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Social Security is an essential safety net for many Americans. Even if you haven't saved enough for retirement, you can still count on Social Security benefits in retirement.

Read More: 5 Best Southern Cities To Retire on a Budget of $1,500 a Month

Related: 15 Worst States To Live on Just a Social Security Check

However, with an average monthly benefit of just over $1,600, America's most expensive cities are far out of reach without another source of income. If you do have to rely on your Social Security benefits alone -- and still want to make the most of your golden years -- you'll need to live somewhere affordable that won't compromise your quality of life.

That's why GOBankingRates compiled a list of the 20 best cities to live off of just Social Security. The study factored in the cost of living, livability and median rent and -- after comparing the 177 largest cities in the U.S. -- combined the scores to determine where you really can get by on just your Social Security benefit. Read on to find out which cities made the list.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images/iStockphoto

20. Evansville, Indiana

Cost of Living Score: 78.5

Livability Score: 58

Average Rent: $786.75

Evansville is one of three Indiana cities identified in the study as a good place to live just on Social Security. Its relatively low livability score and rent of more than $780 per month prevented it from moving up on the list.

Poll: Do You Think You Will Be Able To Retire at Age 65?

DenisTangneyJr / iStock.com

19. Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Cost of Living Score: 82.7

Livability Score: 62

Average Rent: $798.25

Hattiesburg's cost of living indicates that you can expect to spend almost 18% less on your basic expenses than you would in the rest of the country, on average.

Sean Pavone / Getty Images/iStockphoto

18. Wichita, Kansas

Cost of Living Score: 82.1

Livability Score: 60

Average Rent: $719

If you're younger and looking to avoid living off your Social Security check alone when you reach retirement, one of the best ways is to start saving early. However, even if it's too late to build the sort of nest egg you would like, a city like Wichita -- which combines modest rent with a low cost of living -- should help you make the most of your Social Security benefits.

Story continues

ReDunnLev / Getty Images/iStockphoto

17. South Bend, Indiana

Cost of Living Score: 68.4

Livability Score: 57

Average Rent: $754.50

In South Bend, you'll pay nearly 30% less in your cost of living expenses than the rest of the United States, which means your Social Security check can go a lot further here.

Jacob Boomsma / Shutterstock.com

16. Beaumont, Texas

Cost of Living Score: 78.3

Livability Score: 63

Average Rent: $786.25

Beaumont's livability score is higher than many other cities on this list, which might account for its slightly higher rent, too. However, you're still paying more than 20% less in cost of living than other cities in the U.S.

CRobertson / Getty Images

15. Greenville, North Carolina

Cost of Living Score: 84.1

Livability Score: 75

Average Rent: $792

The average rent cost in Roanoke is the fourth-highest on the list, but its lower cost of living and high livability rates make it desirable for retirees. If you wanted supplement your Social Security earnings, Roanoke is a good place to do it. Another GOBankingRates study showed it's one of the top 20 cities for remote workers.

peeterv / Getty Images

14. Topeka, Kansas

Cost of Living Score: 79

Livability Score: 61

Average Rent: $708

With an affordable rent, a decent livability score, and a cost of living score that means you'll pay less than the national average, this midwestern city is positioned to be a great place to live on only a Social Security check.

Shutterstock.com

13. Williston, North Dakota

Cost of Living Score: 97.8

Livability Score: 72

Average Rent: $749.50

Williston is one of three cities on this list in North Dakota. At $749.50, rent in Williston is on the higher side of cities on this list, but it's still less expensive to live here than elsewhere.

SeanPavonePhoto / Getty Images

12. Shreveport, Louisiana

Cost of Living Score: 77.5

Livability Score: 65

Average Rent: $772

The Southern city of Shreveport, Louisiana is one of two cities based on the state. While this one is a little high on the rent, keeping it lower on the list, you're paying about 22% less in cost of living here, making your check stretch.

shuttersv / Shutterstock.com

11. Fayetteville, Arkansas

Cost of Living Score: 92.9

Livability Score: 72

Average Rent: $770

Fayetteville is another solid Southern city to call home if you're living on a fixed income. With a high livability score, and moderate rent, anyone on Social Security should be able to make a good life here.

Ron_Thomas / iStock.com

10. Toledo, Ohio

Cost of Living Score: 72.7

Livability Score: 62

Average Rent: $710.50

Toledo's cost of living indicates that you can expect to spend more than 25% less on your basic expenses than you would in the rest of the country, on average. What's more, Toledo is one of the cities where your money stretches the furthest, according to a separate GOBankingRates study.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images

9. Lubbock, Texas

Cost of Living Score: 79.9

Livability Score: 68

Average Rent: $746.50

Lubbock is one of four Texas cities identified in the study as a good place to live just on Social Security. With a decent livability score and cost of living score, even rent of more than $740 per month can't keep this from being a great place to live on a fixed income.

Shutterstock.com

8. Davenport, Iowa

Cost of Living Score: 81.7

Livability Score: 69

Average Rent: $731.25

It costs about 19% less to live in Davenport than the average American city. Its relatively high (for this list) average rent of $731.25 per month and its livability score of just 69, pull it down from the top spot on the list.

Sean Pavone / Getty Images/iStockphoto

7. Akron, Ohio

Cost of Living Score: 69.5

Livability Score: 62

Average Rent: $679.50

The city of Akron has a lot to offer, not only in a low cost of living, that is more than 30% less than the rest of the country, a decent rent under $700 per month, but lots of natural and cultural attractions.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images/iStockphoto

6. Odessa, Texas

Cost of Living Score: 88

Livability Score: 63

Average Rent: $510.50

The primary appeal of Odessa to retirees is the low cost of rent. At $510.50 per month, it's the cheapest in the study - and by a wide margin. A low cost of living makes up for it's relatively low livability score, as well.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images

5. Fargo, North Dakota

Cost of Living Score: 91.9

Livability Score: 76

Average Rent: $782

Despite one of the higher average monthly rents on this list, Fargo is one of the best cities to live in on a fixed income, according to another GOBankingRates study. That should appeal to those relying on Social Security.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images

4. Grand Forks, North Dakota

Cost of Living Score: 88.2

Livability Score: 74

Average Rent: $682

Grand Forks is the northernmost city on the list, and one of three in North Dakota. At $682, rent in Grand Forks is at the midpoint, but it's still 11% less expensive to live here than elsewhere.

ChrisBoswell / Getty Images/iStockphoto

3. Fort Wayne, Indiana

Cost of Living Score: 78.9

Livability Score: 75

Average Rent: $792.75

Fort Wayne is a little pricier than many of the other cities on this list, but it still is among one of the best cities in the nation to retire on a Social Security check, found a separate GOBankingRates study.

travelview / Shutterstock.com

2. Lake Charles, Louisiana

Cost of Living Score: 83.4

Livability Score: 70

Average Rent: $608

For retirees interested in living near the water, with all of the recreational opportunities that brings - think fishing! - there's good news: Lake Charles has the third-lowest rent cost of the cities considered in this study.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images/iStockphoto

1. McAllen, Texas

Cost of Living Score: 78.6

Livability Score: 81

Average Rent: $592.75

McAllen Texas holds the number one spot on this list for retiring on a Social Security check because it has a high livability score, the second lowest rent on this list and a cost of living score that's still nearly 12% lower than the rest of the U.S.

More From GOBankingRates

Jordan Rosenfeld and Joel Anderson contributed to the reporting for this article.

Methodology: GOBankingRates determined the best places to live on only a Social Security check based on the (1) average monthly benefit for retired workers, $1,619.67, sourced from Social Security Administration; (2) the overall cost of living in each city, sourced from Sperling's Best Places; (3) average 2022 rent for a one bedroom apartment as sourced from ApartmentList; and (4) livability scores sourced from Areavibes. Factors (2) through (4) were scored and combined with the lowest score being best. Factor (4) was weighted double in final calculations. All data was collected and is up to date as of May 23, 2022.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 20 Best Places To Live on Only a Social Security Check
BRUSSELS, June 20 (Reuters) - A day of strikes in Belgium over the cost of living forced Brussels Airport to cancel all departing flights on Monday and halted many bus services across the country.

Unions said they expected tens of thousands of people to attend a protest in Brussels. Train services were running, partly to allow protesters to converge on the capital.

Brussels Airport said it could not allow passenger flights to depart because the industrial action extended to security personnel. Local public transport was running minimal services.

Inflation hit 9% in June in Belgium, mirroring sharp price rises elsewhere largely because Russia's invasion of Ukraine has hit grain supply and caused the cost of energy to spike.

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Belgian workers were better protected than counterparts in most other European Union countries because wages were indexed to inflation.

He told public broadcaster RTBF the government had extended measures to reduce sales tax on gas, electricity and fuel until the end of the year.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
In this photo illustration, the Twitter logo is displayed on the screen of the phone, with Elon Musk's Twitter account in the background. ( Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Lawyers for Elon Musk have notified the SEC that the deal to acquire Twitter is off.

The news comes a day after the deal was said to be "in serious jeopardy."

Twitter told Insider before the announcement that it intended to enforce the contract.

Lawyers for Elon Musk have notified the US Securities Exchange Commission that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO is moving to terminate the deal to acquire Twitter, and accusing the social media company of being "in material breach of multiple provisions" of the merger agreement.

Shares of Twitter fell roughly 6% following the news, while shares of Tesla gained about 4% in after-hours trading.

Twitter's board said in a statement that it was "committed to closing the transaction at the price and terms agreed upon," and that it would be pursuing legal action to enforce the deal.

"We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery," the Board said.

The move comes after three months of speculation that began when Musk disclosed his ownership of 9.2% of the company's shares, and a day after sources told the Washington Post that the deal was in "serious jeopardy" over the question of spam and bot accounts on the platform.

Musk's central objection in recent weeks has been over the data and methods used to estimate the number of fake accounts, with his lawyers arguing that he did not waive his right to inspect this information when he elected not to look at it before signing the merger agreement.

The lawyers claim that Musk's analysis so far indicates the percentage of false accounts is "wildly higher than 5%"  contrary to Twitter's disclosures in its financial reports.

Legal experts told Insider Musk is facing a considerable legal fight, including a possible $1 billion breakup fee, as he attempts to walk away from this deal.

Read the original article on Business Insider
'The Anarchists' Credit - HBO

Anarchy has a bad reputation. But if youve taken a look at the state of the world recentlyfrom the rise of authoritarianism and the acceleration of climate change to the devolution of the Supreme Court and this past weeks roller-coaster ride with Boris Johnson in the UKthen you might well have found yourself wondering whether anyone, anywhere, is really fit to lead their fellow human beings. In doing so, you opened your mind, maybe just a crack, to anarchism.

In that sense, the spirit that animates Anarchapulco, the annual conference of self-identified anarchists that is the subject of HBOs messily made but often fascinating documentary series The Anarchists, is as mainstream as its ever been. For American individualists, the macho strain of anarcho-capitalism (ancap to its adherents) that galvanized a community of expats in the glamorous and dangerous Mexican city might seem especially appealing. Unlike its socialist forerunner, this Randian vision for smashing the state requires no interdependence, mutual aid, or renunciation of private wealth; in fact, one common ancap goal is to amass enough cash to keep the government off your back. This convergence of individual liberty and unchecked greed raises the shows most compelling, if not its most rigorously investigated, questions: Can a group of people unbound by shared legal or financial obligations ever really function as a community? Is you cant tell me what to do, in practice, a viable political philosophy?

Premiering July 10, The Anarchistsanother title to add to the long list of intriguing docuseries that probably wouldve made better focused, feature-length docscircles loosely around these dilemmas throughout six episodes that alternate between origin story, character study, true crime, and trend report. Filmmaker Todd Schramke spent six years documenting the ancap scene in Acapulco, beginning with the first-ever Anarchapulco, a scrappy gathering of some 150 people eager to liberate themselves from such statist institutions as taxes, the military, and central banks. In chronological fashion, with early episodes structured around each years conference rather than any larger argument or theme, the series traces Anarchapulcos meteoric, crypto-fueled rise and the equally rapid dissolution of the community that grew up around it.

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The characters are captivatingso much so that their personalities often overpower Schramkes own perspective. Anarchapulco founder Jeff Berwick rode the dot-com wave of the late 90s, partied his way around the world, fell hard for conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffins Federal Reserve takedown The Creature from Jekyll Island, and settled in Acapulco to live his freest life. (Schramke barely touches the question of whether Mexico is a more laid-back country than the U.S. for everyone or just for well-off white Americans.) Governments are the cause of almost every major problem on Earth, Berwick opines. Its hard to argue against, but as The Anarchists suggests, an ancap Earth would probably have a whole different set of major problems.

Acapulco, Mexico HBO

Nathan and Lisa Freeman, an Acapulco-curious couple who are unschooling their kids, join the cast of characters when they show up to the 2015 event and realize that the constantly inebriated Berwick could use some organizational help. Although Nathans devotion to the conference strains the marriage, forcing Lisa to do the bulk of the child-rearing, they come across, in early episodes, as the most stable members of a volatile circle. At the other end of the spectrum are a young, dreadlocked, pseudonymous couple, Lily Forester and John Galton. (He isnt the only person in The Anarchists to borrow a nom de guerre from the hero of Atlas Shrugged. Theres also a Juan Galt.) Genuine fugitives who fled to Acapulco after a marijuana-related arrest, only to find its community excessively commercialized and insufficiently radical, they eke out a living in the underground economy while expats with deeper pockets, like Berwick and the Freemans, strike gold in the mid-2010s crypto boom.

As you might expect, people whove arranged their lives around the conviction that they should get to do whatever they want dont turn out to be so great at communication, cooperation, or compromise. (Nathans official title is Chief Cat Herder.) Factions form. Alienated from the crypto-juiced spectacle of a thriving Anarchapulco, which eventually attracts speakers as high-profile as Ron Paul, John and Lily found a grassroots alternative, Anarchaforko. Tensions among Anarchapulcos own leaders, which mightve been foreseen considering the definitional anarchist disdain for leaders, escalate. At the same time, the community expands. Along with idealists like Erika Harris, a Black woman who starts to feel othered in this milieu, there are clearly unhinged folks like Paul Propert, a veteran with a violent, obsessive temper.

Then theres a murder, and The Anarchists becomes a true-crime doc for a few episodes. Tragically, it isnt the only unnatural death Schramke captures among the anarcho-capitalists of Acapulco. Between this internal turmoil and the 2018 crypto crash, the community falters. A supposedly leaderless society built on a foundation of privilege, over top of a Mexican vacation destination whose native population lives under constant threat from organized crime, ends up a failed experiment. And everyone seems to come away with a different lesson. In the final episode, Berwick is countering conference attendees fear of traveling to a place where one of their comrades was killed by insisting that men need to become much stronger men again.

Although he incorporates his experience and provides exposition through sporadic voiceovers, Schramke shies away from offering his own analysis of the conflicts he witnesses. That leaves a lot of loose ends. He digs into several characters pasts and finds broken families, childhood trauma, substance abuse, and more, without ever synthesizing how such histories might lead a person to ancap ideology. He dabbles in exploring the communitys foundational beliefs but relies on its current and former adherents to point out their blind spots; as a result, the series analyses of elements like class, identity, expatriation, and whether its even possible to build a revolutionary movement around the sovereignty of the individual remain extremely limited.

Still, Schramke reaps remarkable candor from relationships with subjects that evidently deepened over the course of years worth of filming. And despite its overstuffed structure, The Anarchists lands in an illuminating place. What is community? wonders Harris, one of the docs most insightful participants and someone from whom Id have liked to hear more. If you cant rally around someone when theyre down, what is the frickin point? As geopolitical chaos drives more and more people to increasingly extreme ideologies, its worth raising the question lest we be left to live with the answer.
[The following story contains spoilers for Ms. Marvels fifth episode, Time and Again.]

At first glance, a documentarian whos won two Oscars and seven Emmys doesnt seem like the most obvious fit for Marvel Studios latest Disney+ series, Ms. Marvel  but Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy quickly proved herself to be the most ideal choice.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Obaid-Chinoy directed episodes four and five of Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvels (Iman Vellani) origin story, and the two episodes took Kamala on a trip to modern-day Karachi, Pakistan, as well as to the distant past in the form of 1947s partition of India. The Pakistani Canadian filmmaker not only grew up in Karachi, but shes also devoted her life to documenting the partition of India, which turned British India into the independent dominions of India and Pakistan.

I started an oral history archive in Pakistan in 2007. It is the largest oral history archive of the partition in Pakistan. So weve recorded over 3,000 interviews, and we have over 40,000 photographs from 1947 in our archive. We also built the first museum about partition in Pakistan, Obaid-Chinoy tells The Hollywood Reporter.

So if anyone was going to bring authenticity to this point in Kamalas journey, it was Obaid-Chinoy, but even she recognized that her hiring was a roll of the dice. Initially, I really did think about the insanity of giving these two episodes to a documentary filmmaker whos never done narrative, but then as I began to look at them  I completely understood why I was tasked with it, Obaid-Chinoy says.

In a spoiler-y conversation with THR, Obaid-Chinoy also broke down the big twist involving Kamalas role in her familys partition story.

Ms. Marvel is a complete left turn from your previous work as a documentarian, although something tells me that you may have found a connection between the two. So why did you want to help tell this story?

For the better part of two decades, I have been telling stories of extraordinary people who are creating change in their communities, whether its health or education or climate change. They are superheroes, but theyre heroes without capes. And they have all found their voices on this journey toward connecting with their communities. So when Ms. Marvel came to me and I was deciding whether Id want to put my hat in the ring for it, I thought, This would be the perfect project for me to cross over, because its true to my values of trying to create films that open peoples eyes to something that they wouldnt necessarily have gravitated toward and it introduces people to a different world. So Ms. Marvel fit all of that for me, and I thought I could contribute toward Ms. Marvels story.

Story continues

Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy behind the scenes of Marvel Studios MS. MARVEL. - Credit: Courtesy of Patrick Brown/Marvel

Courtesy of Patrick Brown/Marvel

What did your earliest conversations with Marvel entail?

So very early on, I had meetings with the supervising producers, and we just talked about why I wanted to do the project and what I could bring to the project. And then just before the pandemic hit, I flew to L.A. and met with [Marvel President] Kevin Feige, Victoria [Alonso], Lou [DEsposito], Jenna Berger, who was the supervising producer at that time, and [head writer-EP] Bisha K. Ali. And then I gave this presentation, right down to what Kamala should be wearing. So I thought about the story long and hard. I have two daughters, and I thought about how this superhero would change the way my own daughters see superheroes and see themselves in this divisive world that we live in. So I thought about how Id want to shape the character and how I would bring authentic voices to help Kamala tell her story.

In episode five, you were tasked with re-creating real world history in the form of 1947s partition of India. Did you utilize archive footage so that unfamiliar viewers would immediately know that this was a very real story despite its depiction in the heightened Marvel universe?

The partition of the Indian subcontinent has very rarely been visualized, and even though it was one of the largest mass migrations that the world saw, it is not a world event that everyone is familiar with. So I thought that the best way to contextualize where we were and what the stakes were, was to draw from history.



I started an oral history archive in Pakistan in 2007. It is the largest oral history archive of partition in Pakistan. So weve recorded over 3,000 interviews, and we have over 40,000 photographs from 1947 in our archive. We also built the first museum about the partition in Pakistan. So I have dedicated my entire life and my energies toward understanding the partition because no independent archives existed in my country. There wasnt anything that really talked about the true heartbreak and horror that people went through, but also the triumph.



And so when I read episodes four and five, I was really delighted that I was the director who was tasked to bring them to life. Initially, I really did think about the insanity of giving these two episodes to a documentary filmmaker whos never done narrative, but then as I began to look at them and spend time with them and live and breathe them, I completely understood why I was tasked with it.

Fawad Kahn as Hasan in Marvel Studios MS. MARVEL, exclusively on Disney+. - Credit: Courtesy of Patrick Brown/Marvel

Courtesy of Patrick Brown/Marvel

Im amazed by the fact that so much material exists and that you already possessed a lot of it.

Early on, I drew from the oral histories from the Citizens Archive of Pakistan and from the Citizens Archive of India. Those are two independent archives that exist in both countries. And then I went into Margaret Bourke-Whites photographs from 1947. She photographed the processions leaving their homes, refugee tent camps and the train stations. And then Jules OLoughlin, my DP, myself, Christopher Glass, the production designer, Arjun Bhasin, our costume designer, [executive producer] Sana Amanat and Jenna Berger sat down after I pulled hundreds of photographs. I made this drive, and then I shared that with all the [department heads].

So in episode four and episode five, every single frame that deals with the partition is a re-creation of an image that I had seen and wanted to bring to life in this story. For the first time, we had been given the opportunity to tell the story of partition to an audience that is truly global and international. So the script came with a responsibility on my part to do justice to that time. So many of our stories and so many of our families are linked to 1947, and it was something that I took very seriously in recreating.

Mehwish Hayat (left) as Aisha, and Fawad Kahn as Hasan in Marvel Studios MS. MARVEL. - Credit: Courtesy of Chuck Zlotnic/Marvel

Courtesy of Chuck Zlotnic/Marvel

All season long, weve been hearing about Kamalas familys partition story, and then episode five revealed that Kamala was actually the one who helped young Sana (Zion Usman) onto the train, not Aisha (Mehwish Hayat). What were the most important factors to you as you presented this reveal?

This story of partition is the story of one family that was torn apart, and its emblematic of so many stories of families torn apart. So when Hasan [Fawad Khan] goes onto the platform and loses baby Sana, you hear him screaming out her name. That story of calling out your childs name in this unfamiliar place, with the bustle and the mother who gets stabbed just a few tracks away, intercutting literally the breakup of a family in this truly chaotic time, was important. The tension had to build to a level where you could feel the pain of the father, the mother, and the daughter, as all three of them grappled with the events that were unfolding around them.



So for the first half of partition, I wanted Kamala to be Kamala. I did not want her to be a superhero because she was going to be bearing witness to this very important historical moment. And when she walked on the platform for the first time, I wanted her to hear snippets of peoples conversations and to understand what it meant for people to leave their homes, their lives, their best friends and their family members. I wanted her to understand where she was before she found her great-grandmother [Aisha] and saved her grandmother [Sana].

Kamala conjured platforms for Sana to walk across, but then she was knocked over and seemingly lost her connection to Sana. Did the subsequent trail of stars still come from Kamala, or did Sana and Aisha somehow contribute to them, too?

They came from Kamala. She saved her grandmother. When she fell, that broke the platforms that she was creating, but it resulted in the trail of stars, which Hasan saw.

Samina Ahmed (left) as Sana and Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba in Marvel Studios MS. MARVEL. - Credit: Courtesy of Patrick Brown/Marvel

Courtesy of Patrick Brown/Marvel

Each mother in this episode had to learn to let go of their child at a certain point. Aisha had to do so much earlier than present-day Sana (Samina Ahmad), Muneeba (Zenobia Shroff) and Najma (Nimra Bucha), but whats your impression of that throughline?

The entire series is about mothers and daughters, and its about their relationships and the sacrifices that they make. Each mother and daughter in the series has a different relationship, but together, they have a very universal bond. But it also tells a story about how mothers have to let go of their daughters so that they can go and find their own voices.

Since youre from Karachi, are there any personal or autobiographical touches that you were able to include on the modern-day sets?

In re-creating Karachi, I thought about all the landmarks that I had visited when I was growing up and the things that meant most to me. I wanted the audience to walk the streets of Karachi through my sort of lens and how I see my streets. So the color and the vivaciousness of Karachi were important to re-create. Karachi is always seen through this yellow filter, and I wanted people to see what Karachi is, which is bright and colorful.

Because of this series, people all around the world now have a better understanding of Muslim and Pakistani culture. Was accurately depicting your culture to the uninitiated one of the many benefits of this job?

Absolutely. It is so important to have storytellers behind the camera who can bring authenticity to it. We often see Pakistan, or we often see Muslims, but the storytellers are not from that region. And when they are from that region, they bring a heart and soul to the storytelling that is very different. Its a connectivity that is very different. Why does Ms. Marvel shine so much? Why does it authentically tell a story? Its because Marvel put together the most diverse cast and crew that you can think of. Crew, especially, came from around the world in order to tell this story, and they all drew on their own experiences to create costumes, production design and props. So I think thats why the vivaciousness of Ms. Marvel really comes through. You can actually see that there is a throughline of jokes and language and music and festivities that have been woven in, and they speak to the communities where these stories come from.

Have you already started to feel the impact of this story and character on Muslim and Pakistani children?

I will say that my inbox is full of people reaching out from all around the world to say that their children finally have a representation of themselves onscreen. And so I think that that is extremely important. The idea that anybody can be a hero is true representation.

Now that youve had your first go-round with narrative storytelling in the MCU, would you like to reunite with Kamala someday?

I would love to continue to be a part of the storytelling team that tells her story, but there are some bigger horizons for Kamala in The Marvels. There are other storylines that she has to conquer now.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

Ms. Marvel is currently streaming on Disney+.



Best of The Hollywood Reporter

Click here to read the full article.
By Aaron Ross

DAKAR, July 7 (Reuters) - Senegalese President Macky Sall said on Thursday there is growing international support for developing gas resources in Africa as part of the continent's energy transition.

African leaders have bristled at pledges by Western countries to eliminate or reduce development financing in Africa for gas projects in the name of fighting climate change, even as those same countries tout gas as a "transition fuel" at home.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament backed EU rules labelling investments in gas and nuclear power plants as climate-friendly. Gas is a fossil fuel that produces planet-warming emissions, but far less than coal.

"We need to salute the positive evolution of partner countries and institutions on the financing of gas projects," Sall said in a speech at a World Bank-sponsored conference in the capital Dakar.

"We are starting to come to our senses on this question," he said, without citing specific examples.

Western development finance institutions have in recent years announced measures to restrict financing to gas projects. The European Investment Bank has ended financing to gas projects entirely.

But the war in Ukraine and efforts by developed economies to reduce their reliance on Russia have led to renewed interest in African gas. The German government, for example, said in May that it might help explore a gas field in Senegal.

The extent to which that interest in African gas for export could translate into support for domestic gas-fired power production is not yet clear, and donor countries have not reversed previously-announced policies on development financing.

Nevertheless, World Bank Managing Director for Operations, Axel van Trotsenburg, told Reuters in an interview at the conference that there was mounting recognition of gas' role as a transition fuel in Africa.

"Given that a lot of the OECD countries are increasing gas use, there is more sympathy for this argument," he said. (Reporting by Aaron Ross Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
With all the awards Klayton Hilbers has won, youd think hed never had a mishap in the show ring.

But Hilbers knows not every show goes flawlessly.

So all competition aside, hes helped other youth have a better time in the show ring at the Fremont 4-H Expo.

For years, Hilbers has competed in dog shows at Fremonts expo and the Dodge County Fair in Scribner.

The Hooper teen was about 8 years old when he got involved in Clover Kids, a non-competitive 4-H program for younger children.

Back then, Hilbers participated in the county fair with a Weimaraner named Kaiser. The gray dog with blue eyes was a good animal.

He was a really calm, laid back dog, Hilbers said. He was really sweet and kind. He was a loving dog.

But a year later, Kaiser, who was about 12 years old, died.

Hilbers said his parents, Greg and Martha, thought it best to wait a couple years before getting another dog for him to show in 4-H.

When Hilbers was 10, his parents bought a German shorthaired pointer.

Theyre really smart dogs and very versatile, he said. You can teach them to do many things.

They named the puppy, Jade.

Hilbers mom, Martha, conducts dog show training practices for Dodge County. On Sunday evenings, starting in the spring, 4-Hers and their dogs go to the Hilbers farm for practices.

She taught her son how to work with Jade.

Hilbers first showed Jade at the county fair.

We did really well, he said. In obedience, we got a purple (ribbon) and in showmanship I think we got a purple and Grand Champion.

The next year, he and Jade went to the expo in Fremont.

I wasnt too happy with the results, but I accepted them because I knew it was a bigger show and leading up to that show I probably didnt put enough work in with my dog, he said.

So Hilbers worked more with Jade and they did well at the county fair, which occurred later that year.

We got all purples, I think, and we got Grand Champion showmanship and Grand Champion in obedience, he said.

He and Jade continued competing.

They didnt do as well the third year.

But by the fourth, Hilbers would compete in the Nebraska State Fair.

He and Jade did well at the county fair and the expo that year, but not as well at the state fair.

Thats a way bigger show than what I was used to, he said. That was my first year. I was really nervous.

In his fifth year, Hilbers was in the top three or four showmanship competitors out of about 20 kids at the expo.

He was among the top three competitors in showmanship at the expo the next year.

Despite his success, Hilbers knows the unexpected can happen at a show.

He cites the time last year when he and Jade were competing at the expo.

In one event, Jade and other dogs had to sit for a minute.

Then someone pulled out a toy.

Jade saw the toy.

She thought it was a ball and she took off across the show ring to grab it, Hilbers said. It was funny, but it was also embarrassing at the same time.

Hilbers retrieved his dog and apologized to the other competitors, whose animals got up as well. He lost points in the scoring, but still earned a purple ribbon.

At 17, Hilbers knows it takes time and work for a handler and his dog to prepare for a show.

And dog show competitors must stay composed.

As humans, we dont all have good days and some days the dogs dont have a good day either, Hilbers said. Youve got to be calm and let them know youre not going to get mad at them. A lot of times, a dog can sense when youre mad and frustrated.

Hilbers has helped other competitors.

He remembers a time years ago, when a new exhibitor came to the dog show.

They had never practiced with their dog or anything, he said.

Someone encouraged the competitor to talk with Hilbers mom, who taught them some things.

I offered to grab my dog and take them outside with their dog and show them things to do, he added.

Hilbers knew what it was like to be a new competitor.

It was really nerve wracking for me my first time and I wanted them to have a better experience, he said.

So he worked with them.

I showed them tips and tricks and some things they could do to help them do better, he said. Im pretty sure they did really well and they had a lot of fun.

Hilbers didnt mind putting the shows competition aspect aside to help the newcomers.

Its not always about winning, Hilbers said. I dont always want to win, because if Im always winning it isnt as fun to me.

Hilbers also didnt want the newcomer to give up showing dogs.

Hes pretty sure they came back the second year and thinks they still compete.

Hilbers enjoys competing and getting to meet new people through 4-H.

This fall, he will be a junior at Logan View High School and wants to attend college. He may study to become a mechanical engineer.

Or he may become a veterinarian.

I have a love for animals, he said.

In the future, what might Hilbers tell a would-be competitor with misbehaving dog?

First, hed ask how much theyd worked with the dog.

Then, hed tell them what he did to get his dog to listen. Hed offer to help if they needed more assistance.

Hed tell them to reward their dog, too.

Give them treats whenever they do good, because that will help out a lot, he said. Give them praise and love, too. Every time after my dog does really well  or even if she does really bad  Ill always love on her and give her praise and tell her good job.

Hilbers did well in this years show and looks forward to next year knowing that while every event may not go perfectly, theres satisfaction in doing ones best.

And, occasionally, in having the opportunity to help a newcomer.
Jack Cooper of Nickerson and Colton Parmley of Valley were among more than 4,120 Kansas State University students who have earned semester honors for their academic performance in the spring 2022 semester.

Students earning a grade point average for the semester of 3.75 or above on at least 12 graded credit hours receive semester honors along with commendations from their deans. The honors also are recorded on their permanent academic records.
Fremont Friendship Center menu

Following is the Fremont Friendship Center menu and activities for June 27-July 1.

Lunches are served at 11:30 a.m. inside the center. Seniors need to make reservations for the next days meal by noon by calling 402-727-2815.

Monday: Grilled chicken sandwich on a whole grain hamburger bun with leaf lettuce, pickles and sliced tomatoes, barbecue baked beans and potato wedges or classic chef salad, 100% fruit punch, whole grain breadstick with margarine, tropical fruit, 1% or skim milk. Rummikub/dominoes, 9 a.m.; chair volleyball, 9:30 a.m.; funny money card bingo, 10:15-11:15 a.m.; pitch tournament, 12:30 p.m.; pool players, 12:30 p.m.

Tuesday: Whole grain spaghetti and meat sauce, mixed greens side salad, dressing, Italian blend vegetables and whole grain breadstick with margarine or ranch chicken salad on a Kaiser bun with lettuce and tomato, three-bean salad, applesauce, 1% or skim milk. Tai Chi, 9:15 a.m.; Mahjong, 9:15 a.m.; bunco or cheat cards, 10:15 a.m.; bingo, 12:30 p.m.; craft class, 1:30 p.m.; pinochle, 1:30 p.m.

Wednesday: Pork chop with pineapple salsa, baked sweet potato, broccoli salad and whole grain petite roll with margarine or roast beef and swiss on a whole grain hamburger bun with lettuce and tomato, broccoli salad, decorated birthday cake or plain cake square, 1% or skim milk. Treats from Nye, 9:15 a.m.; line dance lessons, 9:30 a.m.; music with Billy Troy, 10 a.m.; hand, knee and foot, 12:30 p.m.; sheepshead, 12:30 p.m.

Thursday: Potato crusted fish with tartar sauce, potato medley, green beans and Vienna bread with margarine or creamy cheese tortellini over mixed greens salad, grape tomatoes and black olives, housemade croutons, Rice Krispie bar, 1% or skim milk. Bridge or rummikub, 9:30 a.m.; library book mobile, 9:30 a.m.; blood pressure checks, 10 a.m.; bingo, 10:30 a.m.; pitch tournament/pool players, 12:30 p.m.

Friday: Meatloaf in tomato gravy, cheese hash browns, peas and whole grain bread slice with margarine or ham salad on rye bread with lettuce and tomato, cowboy caviar, strawberries and pineapple, 1% or skim milk. Tai Chi, 9:15 a.m.; farkle, 9:30 a.m.; chair volleyball, 10 a.m.; horse derby, 10:30 a.m.; center closes, 12:30 p.m.
Prosecutors argued he had taken Thomas out to a boat ramp along the river intending to kill her, and dumped her body in the river. Keadle maintained he left the 19-year-old there  alive  when she refused to get back in his Ford Explorer.

Her body never was found.

In Friday's decision, Justice Stephanie Stacy said the body of a missing person isn't required to prove there has been a homicide.

She said modern caselaw says although a conviction cannot be sustained solely upon a defendants out-of-court admission or voluntary confession, either or both are competent evidence and may, with evidence of facts and circumstances to support it, "establish the corpus delicti and guilty participation of the defendant."

She cited two prior cases  State v. Edwards and State v. Golyar  where the court has found that circumstantial evidence associated with a missing persons disappearance was sufficient to establish a homicide without a body being found.

Christopher Edwards was convicted of second-degree murder for Jessica O'Grady's disappearance in 2006; and Shanna Golyar was convicted of first-degree murder of Cari Farver's disappearance in 2012.

On appeal, Pickens focused on the rule that a criminal conviction can't stand solely on out-of-court admissions. Without Keadle's, the state wouldn't have had enough evidence to prove Thomas' death was the result of a criminal act, he argued.

And he said the state offered no blood evidence, other biological evidence, or any other kind of physical evidence to prove it. And circumstantial evidence could have supported a noncriminal explanation for her death.

But Stacy said he hadn't properly preserved the issue by saying the trial court judge had erred by considering his statements. And, she said, the fact that the circumstantial evidence didn't include blood or DNA evidence doesn't prove a crime wasn't committed.

She said the question is whether the evidence reasonably infers that there was a death and that it was the result of a crime. And the court found ample circumstantial evidence to support the conclusion that Thomas died as a result of a criminal act, Stacy said.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have been hit by massive flooding as heavy monsoon rains have battered the countries, killing dozens of people and leaving many more homeless.

In Pakistan, the countrys navy was brought in on July 9 to help with rescue efforts.

In southern Balochistan Province, 57 people, including women and children, were killed after being swept away in floodwaters, according to officials, who added that eight dams have burst in the region.

In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, two people, including a child, were killed and four others injured when their house collapsed due to rain.

Large parts of Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, have been flooded following heavy rains over the past several days.

Neighboring Afghanistan has also been hit, with at least 24 people being killed by floods in the east and south of the country.



Floods triggered by seasonal monsoon rains wreak havoc on the countries every year, killing hundreds.

Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal, Reuters, and the Associated Press Of Pakistan
The Colorado Department of Corrections has rescinded a new policy barring parole officers from seeking criminal charges for escapes from community-corrections halfway houses after law enforcement officials, prosecutors and halfway house operators criticized the policy as jeopardizing public safety.

State corrections officials reversed course at the end of Wednesday and reinstituted seeking criminal charges for halfway house escapes, the same day that The Gazette contacted the department for comment on the controversy.

The move by the Corrections Department to not pursue criminal warrants for individuals transitioning from prison who had escaped from halfway houses had generated scathing criticism.

This is nothing short of a dereliction of DOCs duty to keep local communities safe while transitioning offenders back into those same communities, wrote Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader in a June 27 letter to Dean Williams, the executive director of the Corrections Department.

The Gazette obtained the letter, a copy of which Shrader sent to Gov. Jared Polis, through a Colorado Open Records Act request.

The lack of criminal charges in such escape cases had become so controversial that Williams and Stan Hilkey, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, the state agency that oversees community-corrections halfway houses, planned to discuss the subject this week.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Merideth McGrath, the Corrections Departments director of parole, announced to her department that she was reinstating seeking charges for such cases.

After careful review of our current process, as well as in speaking with stakeholders throughout the state, we have decided as a department to file charges of unauthorized absence for every case who chooses to walk away from community corrections supervision and/or tampers with/removes electronic monitoring, she wrote to her staff.

Several prosecutors and sheriffs said they still had questions. They wanted to know how long the now-rescinded policy barring parole officials from filing criminal charges for escapes from halfway houses had been in effect and how many individuals may have avoided prosecution during its duration.

Determining how many halfway house escapes had occurred during the new policy couldnt be immediately determined.

Just over 1,480 offenders transitioning from prison in halfway houses were terminated from community-corrections halfway house programs in Colorado in the fiscal year that ran from July 2020 through June 2021, nearly a 40% decline from the previous fiscal year, according to state data.

Roughly 1 in 4 of those DOC transition clients escaped from their halfway house during that time frame, nearly double the escape rate recorded for the previous fiscal year, that data further shows. More recent figures were not readily available.

One prosecutor, Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke, said he had asked for an accounting from corrections officials of the names of halfway house escapees in his jurisdiction so he could retroactively seek criminal warrants. He said he received notice of three escapes but was unable to file charges as we had insufficient information provided from DOC in order to seek a warrant.

Rourke said he learned about two months ago that the Corrections Department no longer was seeking criminal charges for individuals who escaped from halfway houses  a reversal in longstanding policy. Rourke and several other law-enforcement officials and halfway house operators expressed frustration with that shift and pointed out that nobody at the Corrections Department had provided them any warning.

There was no communication with the district attorneys at all, Rourke said.

Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams also took to Facebook to criticize the lack of charges for halfway house escapes. In an interview, Reams said the lack of criminal filings for such escapes was part of a broader trend in which he said corrections officials were failing to hold accountable offenders leaving prison.

It seems the criminal justice system is being watered down to where there are no penalties for pretty severe actions, Reams said.

Community-correction halfway house officials hadnt been told the department was shifting away from seeking charges for escapes from halfway houses, and they similarly blasted the move as jeopardizing public safety.

Tim Hand, the community-corrections director in Larimer County, said during a June 24 meeting of the Governors Community Corrections Advisory Council, that nobody with the DOC alerted him about the decision to stop seeking criminal filings for halfway house escapes. He said that decision may have been put in place as far back as a year ago.

We sure should have known about this, in my opinion, so we could deal with it, Hand said during the meeting.

John Draxler, the chief probation officer for the 13th Judicial District in Logan County, said during the governors advisory council meeting that the lack of criminal filings for what are known as transition DOC inmates who escape from halfway houses had also caught his local community-corrections officials unaware and prompted pushback.

The lack of escape charges for DOC clients transitioning back to communities contrasted with how probation officials handle halfway house escapes under their jurisdiction, Hand said. Probation officers still were filing escape charges against those individuals who fled supervision from halfway houses who were directly sentenced there and werent DOC transition clients, Hand said.

During the advisory council meeting, Hand also criticized Williams, the DOC executive director, for a lack of communication. He noted that Williams had not attended the meetings of the Governors Community Corrections Advisory Council when former executive directors of the Corrections Department regularly attended those meetings during their tenures.

I dont want to be adversarial at all, Hand said. But I just need to know whats going on.

It would be nice to hear from director Williams, Hand said.

Hand said during the meeting that he had his staffers review escapes from his halfway house facility for the past six months and found a scary list.

Hand added that his local corrections board in Larimer, which decides which DOC prisoners to accept into the halfway house program, had grown so angry over the lack of criminal filings for escapes that the board was contemplating barring DOC transition inmates from the program.

The DOC decision to stop seeking the charges for halfway house escapes was a shift from decades of practice, Hand stressed during the meeting.

A criminal arrest warrant in such cases alerts law enforcement officers, who then can take a halfway house escapee into custody, resulting in the filing of criminal escape charges. Typically, such arrests occur when the person out on escape is stopped for traffic violations or for other criminal violations.

DOC had a long-standing practice of seeking charges for halfway house escapes along with an administrative process, which prioritized individuals for the DOC fugitive unit. Sometime in 2021, the DOC stopped seeking criminal charges and began relying solely on the administrative process, due in part to a loss of several positions and reclassification of some parole staff to civilian status, said Annie Skinner, a spokeswoman for the Corrections Department.

In defending that policy shift, Skinner earlier had noted that the criminal charges for halfway house escapes for those serving time on nonviolent offenses often are just misdemeanors.

Legislation that passed in 2020 reclassified the charges for halfway house escapees serving time for nonviolent crimes down to misdemeanors, while maintaining felony charges for halfway house escapees serving time for violent offenses. Before passage of House Bill 20-1019, sponsored by Rep. Leslie Herod and Sen. Julie Gonzales, both Democrats from Denver, all such halfway house escapes were treated as felony crimes.

Skinner also said that local officials were free to pursue criminal charges for escapes on their own. But prosecutors and law enforcement officials said that after DOC began relying solely on the administrative process, they often received no notification of an escape. They added that they were on a much stronger evidentiary ground for criminal charges when parole officers, who are sworn law enforcement officials, provided an affidavit seeking criminal charges.

Shrader, in his letter to Williams, stressed that those serving time in a halfway house for violent offenses still could face a felony charge for a halfway house escape despite the new legislation signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis in 2020.

While I am sensitive to the high level of discretion inherent in law enforcement charging decisions, individualized risk and public safety determinations must serve as the foundation of such decisions, which must in turn be made on an individualized basis, Shrader wrote.

Here, DOC has made a policy decision not to charge any individuals who absents themselves from a community corrections placement, he added. That failure to consider the characteristics of the particular absence, including the severity of the individuals underlying charges and their risk to the community, is nothing short an abuse of that discretion.

In the end, the Corrections Department bowed to such criticism and agreed to reinstate seeking criminal charges for escapes.
One person who died in a southeast Colorado Springs shooting has been identified as 19-year-old Santiago Calleros, according to Colorado Springs police and the El Paso County's Coroner's Office.

At around 10:50 p.m. Wednesday, police were sent to the 3600 block of El Morro Road in response to a reported shooting. They found Calleros at the El Morro Mobile Home Park with at least one gunshot wound.

Officers and medical personnel provided medical aid to Calleros, but he died from the injuries.

Police on Friday said no arrests have been made.

The coroner did not release a cause of death, but police said the death is being investigated as a homicide. This is the 27th homicide investigation in Colorado Springs this year. There were 21 homicide at this time last year.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call police at 719-444-7000 or, to remain anonymous, Crime Stoppers at 719-634-7867 or 1-800-222-8477.
By Trend

Minister of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mikayil Jabbarov met with Governor of the Astana International Financial Center Kairat Kelimbetov, Trend reports citing the Ministry of Economy.

According to the ministry, the sides discussed an enhanced partnership within the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), as well as cooperation between the financial institutions of Azerbaijan and the Astana International Financial Center.

Jabbarov emphasized the successful Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan collaboration in various economic areas and also addressed the importance of strengthening bilateral trade and economic partnership.

Furthermore, participants of the meeting explored ways of joint activities to develop cooperation in trade, transport-transit, industrial, and other areas. The meeting also considered promoting the investment opportunities of the Alat Free Economic Zone.
One of the four co-defendants in the Top Dollar Pawn "multimillion dollar criminal organization" case made his first appearance in Colorado's 4th Judicial District Court on Friday.

Jack Jargowsky, 58, appeared in court after posting a $50,000 bond on June 22, according to court records.

Jargowsky and three other co-defendants face 29 charges, including a pattern of racketeering and 27 separate charges of money laundering.

Mischa Jargowsky, 61, also posted the $50,000 bond last month according to court records and was in court alongside Jack Jargoswky on Friday.

According to court records, Walt and Daria Mauro still have warrants open for their arrest, and neither appears as an inmate in either El Paso County or Pueblo County jail.

"At this point, law enforcement is actively searching," Howard Black, the public information officer for the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office, said.

According to previous reporting from The Gazette, the defendants allegedly bought stolen items from boosters and then sell them either at their stores or online on Ebay, according to the affidavit.

A booster is a person who steals merchandise, usually from retail outlets. They often work in concert with others as part of a "booster crew."

"Interviews with boosters and former employees detail that the defendants knew that the items they were buying were stolen," the affidavit states. "They used the laundered funds to continue to operate their business, buying more stolen property."

The money laundering scheme went as far back as January 2018, according to the affidavit.

Items bought and sold as part of the scheme included chainsaws, tools and several Google Nest Home products among 27 total items listed in the affidavit.

Jack Jargowsky is scheduled to next appear in court for a review on July 19 while Mischa Jargowsky is scheduled for her first appearance on July 15.
Police records show a detailed history of abuse that led to the death of 5-year-old Emily Canales of Colorado Springs.

Canales' mother Brianne Escamilla, 27, and her boyfriend Matthew Urias, 27, were recently arrested by Colorado Springs police on suspicion of first-degree murder after an autopsy of Canales was performed by the El Paso County Coroner's Office.

The coroner's office concluded on June 14 that the January death of Canales was a homicide and outlined the heavy abuse the girl suffered leading up to her death.

The coroner's office identified 20 separate blunt force injuries that could have played a role in Canales' death. Some of the injuries listed include extensive contusions and abrasions, lung contusions, rib fractures, several different hemorrhages and more.

The affidavit also shows that Canales' hair was shaved off at the time of her death as punishment by her mother.

The affidavit states that both Escamilla and Urias were interviewed several times leading up to their arrests, and both admitted to continued abuse in the days leading up to Canales' death even as her health took a serious and obvious decline.

Urias and Escamilla told officers that Canales' health began to worsen two days prior on Jan. 11, when she started complaining of stomach issues.

On Jan. 12, the day before her death, both Urias and Escamilla stated that Canales fainted several times throughout the day and continued to complain of stomach issues.

Urias told detectives that on the evening of Jan. 12 he told Escamilla they should call for an ambulance as he was worried about Canales, but Escamilla told him that she "was being dramatic" and that she thought Urias "was also being dramatic."

Despite the described decline in health and multiple instances of fainting, both Urias and Escamilla admitted to police that they continued to hit and abuse Canales throughout the two days leading up to her death.

On Jan. 13, Canales fainted again, but this time was unresponsive prompting the couple to call 911. She was declared dead later that day. Urias admitted to spanking Canales even on the day of her death, something he told detectives "I regret it 100%," according to the affidavit.

In interviews with detectives following the incident both Urias and Escamilla admitted to having abused Canales, but both also attempted to portray the other person as the primary abuser. However, according to the affidavit, Escamilla told detectives at one point that "it was her fault Emily (Canales) was dead because she had smacked Emily's head three times in the bathroom."

The affidavit states that Escamilla also told officers that Canales would punch and injure herself, which could explain the injuries, but the coroner's office determined that "the autopsy findings were consistent with the injuries occurring at the hands of another individual."

According to Colorado Springs police, Urias was arrested on June 29 while Escamilla was taken into custody a few days later on July 5, both without incident.

Both are scheduled to make their first appearances in Colorado's 4th Judicial District Court next week, Urias on Tuesday and Escamilla on Wednesday.

Urias and Escamilla are both being held in El Paso County jail on suspicion of first-degree murder, with the chance of additional charges being filed before their appearances in court next week.
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FILE PHOTO: An image of Elon Musk is seen on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos in this picture illustration taken April 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
By Trend

The World Bank (WB) provides Azerbaijan with financial and technical support as part of offshore wind energy cooperation, WB Country Manager for Azerbaijan Sarah Michael told Trend.

According to her, the Offshore Wind Roadmap is the first-of-its-kind study to explore the offshore wind potential.

"We expect the government to consider various options and scenarios. The low growth scenario analysis envisages moderate expansion of offshore wind power. The high growth scenario provides for more ambitious expansion," said the country manager.

She emphasized that WB is looking forward to working on various studies and pilot projects.

"The Bank is lending financial and technical support to Azerbaijan within the framework of offshore wind energy cooperation," she added.
The Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Gun Owners association is suing the town of Superior over new gun-control laws that ban semi-automatic rifles, arguing last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision gave gun rights groups munition to dismantle "unconstitutional" gun restrictions.

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners filed the lawsuit in federal court on Thursday, arguing that Superiors laws violate the Second Amendment. The Superior Town Board unanimously passed the laws in June, banning semi-automatic assault weapons and large-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, among other changes.

Superiors anti-gun ordinance flies directly in the face of our right to keep and bear arms, said Taylor Rhodes, executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. "Were not going to stand idly by and let this town  or any other rogue government  trample on our right to self-defense.

Superior is one of several Boulder County towns that toughened gun control after the community was rocked by a mass shooting in March 2021, when a gunman killed 10 people at a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder. In response to the shooting, the Legislature passed a law allowing local governments to create gun regulations that are tougher than state laws.

In addition to Superior, Boulder, Lafayette and Louisville have all passed similar gun laws in recent months.

Superiors law also was inspired by national mass shootings, including the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, during which 19 children and two adults were killed by a gunman. That shooting occurred around two weeks before the Superior Town Board unanimously voted to establish its new gun ordinances.

The lawsuit comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month to strike down a New York gun law that required people to prove a need for carrying a handgun in public in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen.

Frankly, last months Bruen decision gave gun rights organizations a 4-ton wrecking ball to dismantle gun laws that we have known to be unconstitutional since their conception, Rhodes said. If you think this stops in the small town of Superior, you are mistaken; this has the potential to hold much broader implications."

Dudley Brown, president of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and the National Association for Gun Rights, suggested that gun-rights advocates could challenge Colorados large-capacity magazine ban, which was established in 2013, thanks to the recent Supreme Court ruling.

The National Association for Gun Rights is a partner in the Superior lawsuit.

Superior Mayor Clint Folsom has not responded to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit.
By Trend

A total of 5.4 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas was exported to Europe in the first half of 2022, Azerbaijan's Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov tweeted, Trend reports.

Shahbazov noted that Azerbaijan exported 4.3 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkiye, while 1.5 billion cubic meters  to Georgia in the reporting period.

In the first half of 2022, Azerbaijan boosted gas exports by 25.7 percent compared to the same period of 2021, and the country's gas output increased by 15.1 percent reaching 23.4 billion cubic meters.
The future of Highway 122 is being looked at through a feasibility study in Mason City.

The study, done through the partnership of WHKS and IDOT, was developed to protect the ability to use federal funding for future construction.

A community meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 13, at 5:30 p.m. at Mason City Public Library for residents to see a presentation of the study and to ask questions.

IDOT Field Services Coordinator for District Two Pete Hjelmstad said the study is being done for two reasons: paving conditions and the availability of grants.

"We'll get the city in a position to possibly apply for grants as they become available. This is kind of getting the legwork done so if some federal grants do become available, this much of it is done and they've got that process started," said Hjelmstad.

Mason City to perform feasibility study on Highway 122 Infrastructure improvements are a clear goal for the Mason City Council heading into 2022.

"They're doing things that are end-of-life (remedies) for pavement to try and get a few more years out of it. With knowing that, and understanding the timing, the planning horizon for a project of that scope is five-plus years, possibly, to get everything put together. We wanted to be involved in that conversation," said City Administrator Aaron Burnett.

There are six major intersections with traffic signals from Lark Avenue to Winnebago Way. According to a presentation given during Mason City Council's work session on June 21, the average daily traffic in 2017 consisted of 13,700 to 18,100 vehicles per day with 5% of the vehicles being trucks in.

The stretch of road is a large commercial district for Mason City with a lot of development in the area, according Burnett. He added the city wants to look for ways to support the businesses, improve operations, and address the aesthetics of the joint jurisdiction highway.

"It would be silly of us not to try and capture some of that funding for Mason City and for these types of improvements on such a significant stretch of road," said Burnett.

The different options being looked at in the study are simple overlay or rehabilitation, and major reconstruction.

"Doing nothing isn't really an option. There will always be some reconstruction and rehabilitation that has has to happen in that corridor," said Burnett. "Do nothing really involves still doing a significant amount of maintenance."

Rehabilitation would be grinding off the worst parts of the pavements and putting in a new layer. It would be a smoother ride but the road still suffer issues such as soft shoulders and retaining the same drainage system, according to Burnett.

The major reconstruction option has a couple different routes that can be taken. Hjelmstad explained they would be looking at moving the lanes in, making improvements with turn lanes, and installing a storm sewer for drainage. Frontage roads are also being looked at for improvements, according to Burnett.

"One of the things we're looking at is moving the lanes in and getting rid of that grass ditch, then having a paved median through the area or some other type of smaller median with a curb and gutter," said Hjelmstad.

Another area being studied is whether to keep traffic signals in place or to install five roundabouts. According Hjelmstad, roundabouts cut fatal crashes by 90% and reduce injury crashes by 76%.

Roundabouts also lower the number of points of conflict compared to a regular traffic stop.

"You look at the intersections out there and anywhere there's traffic signals, it's a stop and go condition. You are going to be stopping," said Hjelmstad. "With a roundabout, it is very possible you will drive that whole length without stopping once."

Hjelmstad said he understands people's possible negative reaction to roundabouts, but he has seen them become popular within other Iowa communities. Burnett says he also understands the knee-jerk response to the idea of roundabouts but he doesn't want to discount the option.

"When you look at the data, the reason that this being forwarded is that I consider it that: one of those fatalities could be a friend of mine or it could a family member. It could be somebody within the community, and it's my job as somebody that works for the city to try and produce the best outcomes, both for efficient traffic movement and safety," said Burnett.

Work on the project would most likely take three to four construction seasons, with a cost of approximately $50 million. Hjelmstad said a project like this is years out and that it is not yet funded.

Burnett said the large price tag is worth with the years of work addressing the issues and making Highway 122 more functional for businesses.

"I think that we've got a great opportunity to have the cost share on that include a large portion of federal funding," said Burnett.

The final feasibility study report will be presented to the Mason City Council at the Sept. 20 meeting. Hjelmstad said it will be a joint decision between the city and IDOT on what option to go with.

Both Burnett and Hjelmstad encourage people to come to the community meeting to see a presentation and to bring questions they have about the feasibility study.

"That's why they're having a meeting. This is a public input meeting. We want people's input and we want to know what they're feeling," Hjelmstad said.

"I encourage people to reach out to us because we've though about it. I would be surprised if there's a group of folks out there that we haven't thought about that we've tried to consider their concerns," said Burnett. "I'd love to relay why we work through these things."
Email special events to news@registerbee.com. The deadline is noon Wednesday.

ANNUAL SESSION

Cherrystone Missionary Baptist Association Annual Session will be held Wednesday-Friday at the Cherrystone Center in Ringgold, 5551 Tom Fork Road, with Guildfield Baptist Church as the Host Church. Registration will start at 9 a.m. with service at 10 a.m.

FOUNDERS DAY CELEBRATION

Fairview Baptist Church, 3853 Zion Road, Gretna, will hold its 140th Founder's Day Celebration at 11 a.m. Sunday. Masks are required.

YOUTH PANEL

Remnant Church of Power, 601 Berryman Ave., will hold a Youth Panel (ages 10 and up) at noon Saturday with topic "The Group Chat.

YOUTH RECOGNITION & SCHOLARSHIP PRESENTATION

Remnant Church of Power, 601 Berryman Ave., will hold a youth recognition and scholarship presentation at 9 a.m. Sunday. It's also dress-down Sunday.

SUMMER BLAST

Remnant Church of Power, 601 Berryman Ave., will hold Summer Blast (outdoor event) featuring food trucks, vendors, at 2 p.m. July 16.

CHURCH T-SHIRT DAY

Remnant Church of Power, 601 Berryman Ave., will hold Church T-Shirt Day at 9 a.m. July 17 and a trip to Emerald Pointe waterpark.

GUEST SPEAKER

Remnant Church of Power, 601 Berryman Ave., will have guest speaker the Rev. Travon Ragsdale, of Greater Deliverance Temple, for the 9 a.m. service July 24. It will be dress-down Sunday.

YOUTH SUNDAY

New Ephesus Missionary Baptist Church, 375 Ephesus Church Road, Semora, North Carolina, Youth Day will be celebrated beginning at 11 a.m. Sunday with sermon by sister Deelynn Leigh, youth minister advisor of the Sunnyside Association in South Boston. Face mask, social distancing and other COVID-19 safety precautions are required to worship inside the sanctuary. Attendees may also park and praise in the church parking lot tuned in to radio FM 107.3, stream on Facebook Live or dial on telephone to conference call 1-978-990-5000 access code 197724.

SERVICE CHANGE

Bennett Memorial Missionary Baptist Church will not hold parking lot services until further notice. Services can be heard by via conference call at 10 a.m. on Sundays and 6 p.m. Wednesdays. Phone number is 1-774-220-4000, ID number 608-2009.

IN PERSON/ONLINE SERVICES

Ascension Lutheran Church, 314 West Main St., worships Sundays at 11 a.m. in the sanctuary and Live on Facebook, www.facebook/ascensionlutherandanville.

Mount Vernon United Methodist Church now offers in-person services at 10 a.m. each Sunday as well as online worship services every Sunday at mtvernonumc.org or www.facebook.com/MountVernonUMC. These will be held until further notice.

IN-PERSON SERVICES

Christ the King Lutheran Church, 1172 Franklin Turnpike, will have in-house worship services on Sundays at 11 a.m. Masking requested if not immunized. Social distancing except for family members.

Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, 406 Gay St., has in-person services at 10 a.m. for their hour of power on the first and third Sundays.

North New Hope Baptist Church, 123 Old Piney Forest Road, has resumed in church worship services at 11 a.m. and Sunday school at 9:30 p.m.

Mount Sinai Glorious Church of God, 716 Jefferson St., will hold services in the sanctuary with Sunday school at 10 a.m. and morning worship at 10:30 a.m. Participants are asked to wear a mask and to practice social distancing. The service also will be streamed on Facebook.

Mount Freeman Baptist Church, 2100 Laniers Mill Road, will resume in-person service at 11 a.m. Sunday. There will be no Sunday school.

ONLINE WORSHIP SERVICES

Sacred Heart Catholic Church will livestream worship service at 9 a.m. Sundays in English and noon in Spanish at www.facebook.com/sheartchurch.

DRIVE-IN SERVICES

Staunton River Baptist Church, Long Island, will hold drive-in services at 10 a.m. each Sunday.

ONGOING SERVICES

Sacred Heart Catholic Church celebrates Mass every weekend with a vigil Mass at 5 p.m. Saturday and at 9 p.m. Sunday in English and noon in Spanish.

Watson Level Missionary Baptist Church holds Sunday worship services each week at 11 a.m. Because of COVID-19, a face mask is required for all attendees and social distancing is mandatory.

Calvary Church of the Nazarene, 2450 Franklin Turnpike, from 6 to 7 p.m. every Sunday, will hold Ladies Need Encouragement, an hour of worship and prayer. Participants are asked to bring a Bible and practice social distancing. The event is for ages 10 and up with adult supervision. For more information, call 540-907-8836.

Mount Zion Temple, now located at 503 Hughes St., presents The Word Homelitic Institute at 10 a.m. every Sunday. Transportation is provided by calling Bishop David K. Fuller at 434-429-8960.
Student loans can be overwhelming. If you feel that way, youre not alone  1.3 million people in North Carolina have student loan debt totaling $48 billion, according to the Center for Responsible Lending.

While theres no perfect debt-relief solution, there are resources out there to help borrowers manage and repay their loans. Here are some of the government and nonprofit programs available to North Carolina residents.

Government programs

Public Service Loan Forgiveness

What it is: A federal government program that forgives student loans for full-time employees of any level of government (federal, state, local or tribal) or 501(3) nonprofit organizations.

To qualify, you must have already made at least 120 payments that meet certain criteria

.

Only Federal Direct Loans are eligible for forgiveness through this program. Loans from the Federal Family Education Loan Program and the Federal Perkins Loan Program dont qualify, but restructuring them as a Direct Consolidation Loan could make them eligible.

Private loans are not included in this program.

How it can help you:

The Department of Education has suspended some rules

for qualifying payment types through Oct. 31 in an effort to get more people closer to loan forgiveness.

Check out the

to see if you qualify and learn what next steps to take.

Teacher Loan Forgiveness

What it is: A federal government program that forgives student loans for teachers who have worked at least five consecutive years at a low-income school or other educational organization.

Check the Teacher Cancellation Low Income Directory

to see if your school or educational organization is considered low-income.

You must meet the requirements to be a

in order to be eligible.

How it can help you:

The program forgives up to $17,500 for math, science and special education teachers on Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans and Subsidized and Unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans. Teachers of other subjects are eligible for up to $5,000 forgiveness.

Income-driven repayment plans

What it is: An income-driven repayment plan takes into account your income and family size to make monthly payments more affordable. The federal government offers four types of income-driven repayment plans. Heres a breakdown of each one:

Revised Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan: Anyone with Direct Subsidized, Direct Unsubsidized, Direct PLUS loans for graduate students or Direct Consolidation loans that did not repay any PLUS loans to their parents is eligible. Other types

of federal student loans can be consolidated to make them eligible. You pay 10% of your monthly discretionary income  money left after youve paid taxes and other necessary living expenses like a mortgage or rent  over 20 years for undergraduate loans or 25 years for graduate school loans.

Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan: The same eligibility requirements as the previous plan apply, though some of the

are different. You pay 10% of your monthly discretionary income, up to but not exceeding what you would pay under a 10-year Standard Repayment Plan. The repayment period is 20 years.

Income-Based Repayment Plan: In addition to the loans eligible under the previous two plans, subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans, FFEL PLUS loans for graduate students and FFEL Consolidation loans not repaying PLUS loans to parents are also eligible. Perkins loans are eligible if consolidated. You pay 10% of your discretionary income over 20 years if your loans are from after July 1, 2014, or 15% over 25 years if they are from before. Both payment plans go up to but do not exceed what you would pay under a 10-year Standard Repayment Plan.

Income-Contingent Repayment Plan: Anyone eligible for the first two plans is eligible, plus people with Direct Consolidation loans that did repay PLUS loans to parents.

of loans that are eligible if consolidated. You pay the lesser of either 20% of your discretionary income or what you would pay on a repayment plan with a fixed payment over 12 years. The repayment period lasts 25 years.

Nonprofits

Student Debt Crisis Center

What it does: The organization works on two fronts: political efforts to encourage government officials to address student loan debt, and providing borrowers with resources to better understand and pay off their loans.

The crisis center partners with other nonprofits to compile a variety of resources in one place for those seeking help with their debt.

It also offers

for those looking to get involved politically.

How it can help you:

include tools in English and Spanish to better understand how to manage your loans.

You can also contact the organization with questions.

InCharge Debt Solutions

What it does: The nonprofit provides a range of debt relief services, not all geared toward student loans. Its website explains different types of debt and what resources are available to help with them.

How it can help you:

The organization offers information on different types of repayment plans and credit counseling. Counselors can help you understand loan options and manage repayment responsibly.
China offers condolences to family of former Japanese PM Abe

Xinhua) 09:33, July 09, 2022

BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday that China extends its condolences and sympathies to the family of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks after a daily press briefing when asked to comment on reports that Abe was confirmed dead after being fatally shot by a gunman Friday.

The attack occurred as Abe, 67, delivered a speech in the western city of Nara while campaigning for Sunday's upper house election.

"China is shocked by the sudden incident. Abe once contributed to the improvement and development of China-Japan relations. We extend our condolences and sympathies to Abe's family," Zhao said.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
By Trend

One of the Big Four accounting firms is conducting an audit of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport of Azerbaijan told Trend.

The Big Four audit firms refer to Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), KPMG, and Ernst & Young, which are the leading service providers in the accounting sector.

According to the agency, the Supervisory Board and Audit Commission have been established in the Azerbaijan Railways in accordance with the standards of corporate governance.

"In accordance with the requirements of the international standard and national legislation, one of the Big Four companies was involved as an external auditor. The report will be made public after its approval and posted on the official website of the organization," the ministry said.
GREENSBORO  Un regalo de Pastores por la paz.

Large duffel bags are emblazoned with this message  meaning, a gift from Pastors for Peace. A duffel bag with this message also means the beginning of yet another mission Pastors for Peace will be making to Cuba.

The New York City-based organization calls it a friendshipment caravan.

For 30 years, the nonprofit has been dedicated to normalizing relations with Cuba, which have been strained for decades. During that time, Pastors for Peace has donated thousands of educational materials, vehicles and over-the-counter medications to the Cuban people.

This year, inside of the large duffel bags will be masks, gloves, personal protective equipment and other medical supplies  pandemic-related items that are much needed in the island country of roughly 11 million.

Executive Director Gail Walker said this is the first time Pastors for Peace has gone to Cuba since the coronavirus pandemic.

As COVID has eased up some  we thought it was important to connect with people again, Walker said. Were not meant to just be little squares on a Zoom screen. We wanted to have that connection with people, face to face.

WANT TO GO? What: Pastors for Peace Cuba Caravan fundraiser luncheon When: Noon-2 p.m. today Where: Peace United Church of Christ, 2714 W. Market St., Greensboro Information: Call 931-267-2836

This latest project is also bringing back another tradition. Before hopping on a flight to deliver the aid to Cuba, a number of caravanistas will fulfill the education piece of their mission through routes of advocacy. Riding in a cargo van, passenger van and a car donated by a supporter, three groups of these people will travel through different regions of the U.S.

Eventually, one route will take them to the South. To North Carolina. To a Greensboro church.

****

In states ranging from New Mexico to North Carolina, the caravanistas will gather donations for their trip and hold discussions about the impact of Americas decades-long embargo with Cuba and other policies, which some feel have become outdated.

Today, a portion of the caravan will make its way to Peace United Church of Christ for a fundraiser luncheon.

The Rev. Tom Warren said the money raised will go toward the caravans drive to purchase the COVID-related medical supplies. There will also be a discussion about the negative effects of economic sanctions on Cuba.

This is the first time the Pastors for Peace caravan has stopped at Peace United Church of Christ  but it isnt the house of worships first experience raising awareness for Cuba.

Every January, the church sponsors a cultural immersion trip to the country. During the trip, attendees spend nine days on the island learning about Cubas history, culture and people.

Warrens first trip to Cuba was in 2003. It left an impression.

I was transformed on that trip, recalled Warren, who has since returned to the island eight times. I was deeply impressed by the universal education. It is free to all students through graduate school  and I was particularly moved by the free health care  and the crime is so little. They dont have the problems we have. They have other problems. I dont want to paint it as perfect, but its different.

One of those problems is access to medicine. Although Cuba has a free health care system, Walker said many citizens arent able to receive certain types of care because of impacts related to the embargo.

A surgical intern in Cuba once told Walker that he had to delay certain surgeries because of a lack of common medicines ranging from pain relievers to anticoagulants that prevent blood clotting.

He said, Even if its dire, what are we going to do? Walker remembered. Its difficult to get an aspirin or to get certain other kinds of basic medical goods. They are able to produce, ironically, things as wonderful as vaccines for COVID, but are struggling to have pain relievers in the hospitals when people need to have surgery done.

Walker said the streets arent exactly lined with people about to die, but the limited access to medicine has been dire for some. She knows a mother whose child died because there wasnt medicine to treat a rare kidney disease.

One of Walkers friends in the country needed a life-saving medication as well. It wasnt available in Cuba, but could be found in the U.S. But Walker couldnt get it delivered in time.

It was tragic, Walker said. Just one death is too many.

****

The current embargo prevents businesses in or majorly run by people in the United States from trading with the island  measures Walker says are intended to isolate and squeeze Cuba into a corner.

However, the embargo has exemptions for sending food or medicine  if used for humanitarian purposes and given to individuals or nongovernmental organizations.

Enter Pastors for Peace and its many missions to the country. In its latest venture, the duffels filled with medical supplies will be donated to an organization called the Cuban Ecumenical Distribution Committee. This group, made up of local religious and community members, decides where the supplies are needed most.

Walker said that although donations give the people of Cuba relief, that alone isnt enough.

What we bring in the planes and the boats and the tons of aid over the years, thats not what Cuba needs, Walker said. What they need is the policy done away with so they can provide for their own people. We continue to do this work 30 years later because the need remains. People are hurting in Cuba.

Of late, Warren has been preparing his churchs fellowship hall for todays fundraiser. He hopes to see plenty of new faces and maybe get some signed up for the churchs trip to Cuba next year.

As a Christian, its really about loving your neighbor, Warren said. Cuba is our neighbor and we want to build bridges of love, learn from each other and stop this where human beings are being hurt by policy.
Two decades after smallpox was eradicated, a Danish drug company with Triangle ties began developing a new vaccine against the virus.

A slew of anthrax attacks in the United States had intensified fears of bioterrorism, and intelligence agencies suspected that many countries had smallpox weaponization programs. In 2003, the U.S. government commissioned Bavarian Nordic, which has its U.S. headquarters in Morrisville, to make the only vaccine for preventing and treating the highly fatal diseases.

Now, as monkeypox  a close relative of smallpox that responds to its vaccines  spreads through the United States, the bioterrorism initiative has proven to be a sound investment, even if they didnt accurately predict where the threat would come from.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced recently it would order an additional 2.5 million doses as part of its effort to vaccinate high-risk groups.

A monkeypox vaccine exists because the U.S. government invested in preparedness nearly two decades ago, said Bavarian Nordic CEO, Paul Chaplin, in a recent Op-Ed.

Vaccine stock

Two vaccines are on the market for preventing monkeypox.

ACAM2000 is the older of the two and can cause severe complications for those who are immunocompromised. The newer Jynneos vaccine, manufactured by Bavarian Nordic, is generally preferred by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The millions of Jynneos doses ordered by the U.S. DHHS will begin arriving at the Strategic National Stockpile later this year and will continue through early 2023, according to a news release.

With this shipment, the government will own more than 4 million doses. The government owns enough smallpox vaccine  Jynneos and ACAM2000  to vaccinate millions of Americans, if needed, according to the release.

Bavarian Nordic moved into the Triangle in February 2017, and the North Carolina-based teams supported the clinical development of Jynneos, a spokesperson for the company said. The vaccines are produced at the companys manufacturing facility in Denmark.

Monkeypox in North Carolina

As of Thursday, North Carolina has reported three cases of monkeypox, one of which was found in Wake County on Wednesday.

There were 605 total cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

North Carolinians are not yet able to receive a pre-exposure vaccine for monkeypox virus infection. Health officials are distributing the limited supply of vaccines to those at high-risk, including health care workers who have been exposed to the virus or those who have sexual contact with an infected person.

The virus appears to spread through contact with infected bodily fluids, like saliva and lesions. Many of the cases so far have been among men who have sex with men, though the virus has the potential to spread to other groups as well.
Ancient Jesus seems popular today. There are thousands of books written about him and offered for sale in Americas numerous religious book stores.

There are movies about Jesus life (e.g., The Passion of Christ), people wear loads of religious bling in tribute to him, a new crowd-pleasing TV series (The Chosen) chronicles his life and millions of Christians attend churches claiming to be his followers.

But what if a living Jesus walked among us today as he did 2000 years ago?

Surprisingly, many prominent Christians might be among those least happy to be reassociated with Christ. Jesus essentially tells us this in Matt. 7:22-23: On that day (at his return) many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?' Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.' Jesus was a frequent critic of religious hypocrites in his day saying such people honored God with their lips while their hearts were far from him (Matt. 15:8).

The internet contains loads of articles analyzing who is leaving the Christian faith and the reasons given by those rejecting Christianity. Religious hypocrisy is among the standout reasons. No matter what form it takes, religious hypocrisy is offensive to God and to many people.

Brennan Manning (author of the Ragamuffin Gospel) said The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

Jesus leveled his harshest condemnations at religious hypocrites, often at those in high positions. However, religious hypocrisy is among the worst of reasons to reject Christianity, since Jesus himself decried it! If you reject Christianity because of religious hypocrisy, ironically you are actually concurring with Jesus on the deepest level.

It was Jesus sharp criticism of the powerful, hypocritical religious leaders of his day that ultimately led to his demise. He said the scribes and Pharisees were snakes who wouldnt escape being sentenced to hell (Matt. 23:33).

With that in mind, remember that the governing authorities of ancient Palestine executed Jesus at the demand of Jewish faith leaders so desperate to be rid of him that they called perjurious witnesses to falsely accuse Jesus in front of a veritable lynch mob. Jesus severe condemnations of ancient Israels religious leaders (see Matt. Chapter 23), especially for their hypocrisy, figured prominently in that outcome.

But if Jesus lived today and vigorously condemned Catholic and Southern Baptist church officials for years of hypocritically concealing the sexually abusive behavior of church leaders, would that make him popular? How about if he were to call out the immorality of prominent Christian televangelists who live opulent lifestyles and fly around in their private jets paid for by contributions from TV audiences often consisting of poor people?

Would people today appreciate Jesus for denouncing the aberrant prosperity gospel commonly preached in todays mega churches, or for lambasting the bizarre, scriptural contortions of premillennial dispensationalism (i.e., the rapture theology peddled especially on Christian Radio) which makes a perpetual guessing game of which signs point to end of the world? Pointing out the immorality, twisted theology and even the criminality of religiously powerful people obviously didnt go over well for Jesus in his day, nor would it likely go unchecked today.

Additionally, his associations would probably make a modern Jesus as unpopular today as he was in his time. Jesus felt compassion for, and extended healing and grace to the poor, lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors for the hated Roman Empire and to outsiders politically ostracized from Jewish society (e.g., the Samaritans). In one instance, he said that the faith of a Roman soldier was greater than anything he had found in Israel (Luke 7:9). How would todays Christians react if even the son of God stated that the faith of a non-Christian foreigner was superior to anything observable in Americas churches?

Would Christians today praise a contemporary Jesus if he primarily mingled with prostitutes, drug addicts, the homeless, unwed mothers, foreigners (including illegal aliens), environmentalists, court appointed public defenders for the indigent, those promoting Habitat for Humanity and inexpensive public transit, food stamp providers, Doctors without borders, restaurant waiters, assisted living and mental healthcare workers, nurses, teachers, postal workers, and other similar types of folks?

Mahatma Gandhi famously stated: I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. Christians find it challenging to emulate Jesus, because his teachings and lifestyle were not only difficult and divisive in his day, but now too. Godly righteousness contradicts pride and evil, and this worlds evil, prideful cultures cant abide it.

Jesus prophetically diagnoses this in John, chapter 3. There he says that God sent the light into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. In Jesus day, hypocritical religious leaders felt they had to destroy the light to prevent further embarrassment and shame from having their evil deeds exposed. Would it be any different today?
Sen. Diane Sands, a Missoula Democrat, was among a handful of state lawmakers who met with Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House on Friday to discuss ways to address abortion access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court recently striking down the constitutional right to access the procedure.

The meeting came hours after President Joe Biden issued an executive order attempting to safeguard the ability for women to access legal reproductive services or to cross state lines in order to obtain legal abortions.

For the portion of the meeting publicly broadcast from the Vice Presidents ceremonial office, Harris listened to prepared remarks from lawmakers from Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana and Florida  five states where Republicans are contemplating special legislative sessions to pass new anti-abortion laws. In its Dobbs decision last month, the high court left it up to the states to decide whether and to what degree to restrict abortion access.

Sands noted that abortion remains legal in Montana  although, she said, "that is really under Montanas progressive 1972 state constitution that contains an express right to privacy in our bill of rights."

A 1999 Montana Supreme Court decision found that the state constitutions right to privacy specifically protects the right to access an abortion up until fetal viability. That precedent has now turned Montana into an island surrounded by four states with trigger laws that automatically banned the procedure following the Dobbs decision. Its also in the sights of Republicans aiming to do the same in Montana, Sands told the group.

In the long game, these forces in Montana are going after the Montana Constitution, because they know it is the sole barrier to achieving their goal of making abortion illegal, Sands said.

Referring to legislation from GOP lawmakers during the 2021 session, she added that Republicans have taken the unprecedented role of trying to change the makeup of the Montana Supreme Court, how you become a Supreme Court (justice)  and ultimately to rewrite the constitution itself, if necessary, within the next two to four years.

Montana Democrats are campaigning heavily ahead of November's election to keep Republicans from gaining enough seats to hold supermajorities in the Legislature. That would give the GOP enough votes to place initiatives on the ballot that could change the state constitution to allow for more stringent abortion restrictions in Montana.

Democrats have stood for 50 years to support womens rights and will continue that fight, because we are not going to go back to the Dark Ages on any of these issues, Sands told Harris on Friday.

A spokesman for Montanas Republican lawmakers referred on Friday to a statement offered by legislative GOP leadership last month, after the Dobbs decision was released.

As the debate over abortion shifts to the states, all eyes in Montana need to be on our own judicial branch of government, Senate President Mark Blasdel and House Majority Leader Sue Vinton stated in part. Montana judges should rule based on the text of our state constitution, which doesnt mention abortion at all, and overturn the activist and erroneous Armstrong decision which protects abortion access in Montana.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican who has advocated for hardline anti-abortion policies, has expressed willingness to call a special legislative session to enact new abortion restrictions, if we have a path that is defensible in the courts.

With an expected influx of patients from nearby states where abortions are banned, Montana providers have noted the potentially problematic legal position theyre facing.

Planned Parenthood of Montana announced last week that it would stop providing medication-induced abortions to women from some states that may attempt to prosecute Montana providers for doing so.

"We must make decisions around the provision of abortion care in consideration of the rapidly changing landscape for abortion access across the country and amid the cruel intention of anti-abortion politicians to sow chaos and confusion," Planned Parenthood of Montana CEO and President Martha Fuller said in an emailed statement last week.

Sands conveyed that uncertainty in her remarks to Harris on Wednesday.

The effect of this on the providers in our state has been enormous, Sands said.  Their request to you is what can be done to try to protect our providers in a state where it is even legal. Right now I think that is seriously in jeopardy, and Im sure at the federal level you will do whatever you can to try to provide for that.

Bidens executive order earlier in the day appeared designed in part to address that issue, but it was also criticized for containing few concrete actions.

The order requests that the U.S. Attorney General assist states that are "seeking to afford legal protection out-of-state patients and providers who offer legal reproductive healthcare." It also seeks to protect patient privacy amid concerns that personal data could be used to prosecute women for seeking out or obtaining abortion services.

Even as he announced the order, Biden acknowledged there is little the White House can do individually to restore abortion rights for women in states that already have or are poised to enact abortion bans.

The fastest way to restore Roe is to pass a national law, Biden said, according to the Associated Press.

Harris echoed that sentiment in her remarks to the five lawmakers, but also underscored the role that state officials can play in the absence of action by Congress.

When we look at this issue, we know that it affects our country at every level and each and every region, Harris said. We also know that the federal government, we in the administration recognize the power and the importance and responsibility we have to partner with elected leaders at the local and state level.
Planned Parenthood of Montana suspended medication abortions for some out-of-state patients to ensure they arent intimidated to seek needed follow-up care when they return to their home state, the organizations vice president of external affairs, Laura Terrill, said in an email to the Star-Tribune.

Following the U.S. Supreme Courts reversal of Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood of Montana CEO Martha Fuller announced in an internal email last week that Montanas branch of the organization would stop offering medication abortions for patients from states with current abortion bans.

Right now, that includes patients from South Dakota, Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Patients from Texas and Ohio who have been pregnant for more than six weeks will also be unable to get medication abortions with Planned Parenthood of Montana, according to the email.

Abortion is expected to become illegal in Wyoming soon. Lawmakers passed a trigger ban thats anticipated to go into effect following Roes reversal.

Planned Parenthood of Montana is still offering surgical abortions for all patients, the email said. Terrill did not provide further comment on why such follow-up appointments are a concern for medication abortions but not surgical abortions.

About 75% of abortion patients at Planned Parenthood of Montana clinics opt for medication abortions, according to the Montana State News Bureau.

Medication abortions involve taking two different drugs a day to two days apart. The first drug stops the pregnancys progression. The second drug induces contractions to expel the fetus.

Theres more flexibility around these abortions in terms of where the patient can take the medications. At the Womens Health Center & Family Care Clinic in Jackson, the only clinic in Wyoming that provides abortion services, for example, patients take the first medication at the clinic and bring the second one home with them.

That could lead patients to seek an abortion in a state where the procedure is legal, then take the medications in a state where it isnt legal. Its not clear right now how such incidents might be prosecuted by states with abortion bans, if they even would be.

Surgical abortions, on the other hand, start and finish on-site.

Wyomingites make up a sizable chunk of abortion patients at Planned Parenthood clinics in Montana; Fuller previously told the Star-Tribune that about 8% of its abortion patients last year were from Wyoming.

With a trigger abortion ban set to take effect in the state, and many other neighboring states also restricting abortion access, Planned Parenthood of Montanas restriction on medication abortions could impact Wyomingites.

We are closely monitoring the legal and service landscapes in Montana and in nearby states and are committed to restarting medication abortion services for all out-of-state patients, if and when we are able to do so, Terrill wrote in the email.

Terrill said that the decision to suspend medication abortions for some out-of-state patients is meant to minimize potential risk for providers, health center staff, and patients in the face of a rapidly changing landscape.

Just like other abortion providers, we are being forced to make difficult operational decisions, due to the rapidly shifting landscape of abortion access in many states, she wrote. Lets be clear: It is unconscionable that providers are being forced to deny patients care.

In a call with the Star-Tribune, Terrill said Planned Parenthood of Montana clinics have received more requests for IUD implants  even among women whose IUDs arent set to expire for another couple years  since Roes reversal.

She also said more people have been asking about permanent forms of birth control, including men inquiring about vasectomies.
DECATUR  Decaturs newest night spot has the bright lights and ambiance reminiscent of New York; hence its name, New York Restaurant.

We are trying to bring back to Decatur some fun, said co-owner Marie Camareno.

Located at 3645 E. US Route 36, in Decatur, the main dining room has a stage ready for a band or DJ as well as a dance floor for patrons.

Although the staff has been ready for customers for nearly a week, they will have a grand opening on Saturday, July 16. Regular hours are 6 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

The restaurant offers breakfast, then closes during the afternoon to prepare for the evening. The dance floor will open to music after 9 p.m. with only appetizers being served. Visit the restaurant's Facebook page or call 217-330-7420.

Reservations are required for dinner seating. Children under age 18 are not allowed in the club area after breakfast.

More than 30 tables are ready to serve customers. Nancy Tappendorf, floor manager, has seating for customers who plan to enjoy cocktails only with room to sit back. They are meant for sipping and crossing those legs, she said. The seats are further back so you can watch the band.

The traditional breakfast consists of pancakes, omelets and biscuits and gravy. For dinner there are salads, soups, sandwiches, steaks, seafood, pastas and burgers are listed on the menu.

Miguel Torres is one of five owners of New York Restaurant. We started working on this three years ago, he said about the restaurant and club.

Although the elaborate displays and decorations took time and money, the delay in opening the lounge was blamed on the pandemic, the owners said.

The location has been through several transformations, including a grocery store, bingo hall, and other restaurants.

Iconic images are placed throughout the newly decorated facility. Two busts of Elvis Presley are on the dining rooms bar. A wall-sized image of Selena, the Queen of Tejano Music, is found before entering the dining room. And Marilyn Monroe and the New York Restaurant's own mascot, George, greets customers when they enter. George is our friend, Tappendorf said about the more-than-6-foot-tall figure.

Torres and co-owner Armando Arellano own two other restaurants in Decatur, including Tacos and Tequila on Ash Avenue, and El Corral, next door to the New York Restaurant.

Future plans include hosting theme nights, such as Mexican nights, senior citizens big band nights or square dancing nights. People come back for that, Camareno said. Its all about having fun.

The later nights will be reserved for pop music and the younger generation, Camareno said.

Keep them happy and theyll be back, she said. We can let our hair down and have fun.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani parliament has amended the law on international road transport with Lithuania, Azernews reports.

The bill on amending the draft law "On approval of the agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on international road transport," was discussed in parliaments extraordinary session on July 8, the report added.

The bill was put to a vote and adopted following the discussions.

The agreement aims to speed up the growth of the two nations' economic relations. The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Lithuania amounted to $42 million in 2021.

On May 18, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda paid an official visit to Baku to discuss economic, as well as different kinds of cooperation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

The Azerbaijani and Lithuanian business circles are mutually interested in expanding cooperation, President Ilham Aliyev told at a meeting with Nauseda.

In turn, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda stated that his visit to Azerbaijan is a very good opportunity to give additional stimulus to the bilateral relations between the two countries.

I hope very much that we will disclose and use this potential which is, of course, in business, which is in other sectors of public life, he said.

He underlined the importance of the issues which are related to the security situation in the region and cooperation with the European Union.

So, Lithuania has always been a very keen supporter of a closer dialogue between the Caucasus countries and the EU. We are very keen supporters of the Eastern Partnership project and we would like to discuss this issue with you too, he said.
MATTOON  Kris Maleske, community services director for the Mattoon School District, was the guest speaker at a recent meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Mattoon.

Maleske talked to the group about the district's new regional innovation and technology center, called Leader Innovating for Tomorrow or LIFT. The mission of the center is to prepare a regional workforce and develop leaders for the 21st century.

LIFT provides a path to connect Central Illinois high school juniors and seniors to career and college pathways in communications, childcare, information technology, HVAC/green energy, construction and manufacturing, and culinary arts/hospitality.

LIFT will provide students with extensive networking opportunities, training, and certificates for the successful completion of programs. LIFT is scheduled to open in August and is already enrolling students.
DECATUR  The Decatur Public School's Board of Education will discuss its strategic plan when it meets Tuesday, July 12.

The discussion of the strategic plan will begin at 3 p.m. in the first floor Board Room at the Keil Administration Building, 101 W. Cerro Gordo St., and will precede the regular board meeting set to begin with an executive session at 5 p.m.

Among the items on the executive session agenda is the purchase or leases of real property.

The executive session will be followed by the open portion of its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m., which will include public comments. Comments are limited to three minutes.

It is expected there will be comments regarding the announced proposal to build a new Dennis School in Lincoln Park, land which is owned by the Decatur Park District. Federal COVID funds would be used to build the facility, if the board decides to proceed.

The proposal has garnered opposition, mostly from residents in the area of the park.
DECATUR  Sammantha Barrera liked uniforms at the high schools.

It gave less opportunities for bullies to bully kids for not having things, and it's a good start for kids to understand this is professional life, she said. When you get in a job, you have a dress code to abide by. It got them ready for the real world.

Her son, Jesus, is going into his sophomore year at Eisenhower High School. She said he liked uniforms, too.

"He can roll out of bed and grab school clothes and not worry about things matching, and everyone's wearing the same thing," she said.

Decatur Public Schools instituted a uniform in 2011, requiring students to wear khaki pants and polo shirts in specific colors  black or white for Eisenhower, blue or white at MacArthur. Pants had to have a belt and be worn at the waist.

Over the years, the requirements have loosened and during the pandemic school years of 2020 and 2021, students could wear spirit shirts and solid color T-shirts. During May 2022, the district dropped uniforms entirely as a trial run.

During a presentation to the school board on June 14, Director of Student Services Lawrence Trimble revealed the results of a survey given to staff, parents and students about the one-month trial. With 454 responses, the survey showed that the majority of respondents, 72%, supported eliminating uniforms. When asked if eliminating uniforms during May had decreased discipline problems, half of respondents said yes, 32% said no, and the remainder said maybe.

Uniforms will no longer be required as of the first day of school, Aug. 15.

The change means that the only school that still requires a uniform is American Dreamer STEM Academy, and Principal Rida Ellis said she hopes that families will donate uniforms to her school. Students in K-5 must wear khakis and blue polo shirts; students in 6-8 can wear red, white or blue polo shirts. Accidents happen, and if a child needs a change of clothes or doesn't have a uniform, the staff keeps spares at school, freshly washed and ready to go.

The new dress code guidelines, which will be part of the Student Code of Conduct up for approval by the board at the July 12 meeting, call for the areas between the armpit and mid-thigh to be fully covered. Tank tops are allowed if they have regular straps, not spaghetti straps. No house slippers, pajamas, mesh or see-through clothing is allowed unless there is an undershirt beneath the mesh or see-through portion.

Destructed jeans with large holes in the thigh area must have something like leggings underneath. Leggings on their own must be opaque or covered with shorts or a skirt.

No headgear is allowed, other than for religious or medical reasons and no sunglasses indoors. Tinted prescription eyewear is allowed.

T-shirts must not have pictures or words that are lewd, violent, promoting illegal substances, alcohol or tobacco products, discriminatory messages or hate speech, and no oversized and multiple chains as jewelry, though regular necklaces, earrings and rings are fine. Band T-shirts are allowed if they do not include words or pictures that would not be allowed otherwise.

Eliminating uniforms came as good news to parent Krystal Bennett.

The uniforms doesn't solve anything, Bennett said. As a parent, we would have to spend more money (to buy) both uniform clothes and regular clothes. And they needed new uniforms every year because they grow or clothes would fade. So it isn't saving the parent anything financially.

"I drive a school bus and see firsthand how these kids act. If a kid wants to bully, they will find anything to pick at. Clothes is the smallest part for a bully to pick at. We shouldn't try to make kids dress differently for a bully. We need to handle the bully problem.

Her daughter, Kaliyah Bennett, worked with board member Alana Banks and fellow students to create a petition and proposal for the board to consider dropping the uniforms. Banks was part of the student committee who came up with the original uniforms in 2011.

We believe that not having uniforms will solve problems, Kaliyah said. What we wear shouldnt affect our school time. With uniforms students would get sent out of class for not having the correct clothes on, which is taking away from our learning time.

"Most kids would like to be comfortable in leggings and a hoodie. Fully covered, instead of wearing khakis and a polo. Or some kids like to express themselves with what they wear. And we deserve to have the ability to focus on our school work rather than worried about dress code, or class being disrupted by a code violation.
NEW YORK  Hours after a gunman killed seven people at a July 4th parade in suburban Chicago, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker tapped into the frustration of many fellow Democrats at the seeming inability of the U.S. to curb gun violence.

"If you're angry today, I'm here to tell you: Be angry. I'm furious," Pritzker said.

But at the White House, President Joe Biden was more focused on reassurance than anger.

"I know it can be exhausting and unsettling," he said, adding that "we're going to get through all of this."

In a summer marked by anger among Democrats over a string of mass shootings and the Supreme Court's decision to strip women of the constitutional right to an abortion, several governors, including Pritzker, are emerging as the party's leading voices of outrage. Their willingness to speak  and act  in aggressive terms stands in contrast to Biden, who is coming under growing criticism from some Democrats for lacking a sufficiently robust response to what some in his party see as existential threats.

Some Democrats warn that the lack of a strong response will be a problem if the party hopes to turn out enough voters to maintain their narrow grip on Congress in the fall midterm elections.

"The people that you're telling to vote aren't going to listen until we prove that we are handling this moment with urgency," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said in an interview, referring to the party generally. "We have a lot of tools at our disposal, I think we have a lot of assets at our disposal, and we have to use them."

Facing pressure to be more forceful, Biden will take executive action on Friday to protect access to abortion, the White House said.

But in this moment, governors may have unique tools that are more conducive to swift action than the president. Well positioned heading into the fall campaign and presiding over statehouses where Democrats are in control, Pritzker and Govs. Kathy Hochul of New York and Gavin Newsom of California have wide latitude.

In New York, for instance, Hochul was undeterred by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a state law and allowed most people to carry a handgun for personal protection. She called a special session last week in which lawmakers passed new measures limiting where those licensed to have guns can carry them and toughening rules for obtaining the permits. The regulations include a novel requirement to screen applicants' social media accounts for threats.

"They may think they can change our lives with the stroke of a pen, but we have pens too," Hochul said defiantly of the Supreme Court's gun ruling.

In Illinois, Pritzker has said he would convene a special legislative session in coming weeks, with support of Democratic legislative leaders, to "more firmly protect" abortion rights and address some of the challenges the state faces as one of the few places in the Midwest where abortion remains legal.

Abortion rights will be on the California ballot in November, after legislators with Newsom's blessing agreed last month to place a proposal before voters that would guarantee a right to an abortion in the state constitution. The constitutional amendment is certain to drive turnout on both sides of the debate.

Newsom has been especially vocal in rallying against the repeal of abortion rights even before the Supreme Court ruled. When a draft Supreme Court opinion surfaced in May suggesting the conservative majority was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, he delivered a withering critique of the national party, suggesting it was suffering from collective lethargy.

"Where is the Democratic Party?" he asked at the time, without naming anyone specifically but appearing to exclude Biden from criticism. "Why aren't we standing up more firmly? More resolutely? Why aren't we calling this out?"

With just a tenuous grip on Congress, however, Biden can't move legislation quickly. And even criticizing Republicans could be politically dangerous if he needs their support on key votes.

"Forcefully calling out the other side isn't a luxury he has if he wants to get anything done the rest of the year on anything," said Democratic strategist Joe Trippi. "If you're Gavin Newsom, whose votes are you going to lose in the state senate or California assembly?"

The White House insists Biden isn't backing away from a fight. In a passionate prime-time speech last month, he lamented that gun violence had turned schools, supermarkets and other everyday places into "killing fields" and asked, "How much more carnage are we willing to accept?"

Shortly after the Supreme Court's abortion ruling, Biden called the decision the "realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that "you will hear more from him" on issues including abortion as she underscored the administration's central message that winning the midterms is the best path forward.

"The president has been very clear that he's going to do everything he can, that he has the legal authority to do, from here in the executive side," she said. "But we believe and he believes that the way that Roe goes into law or gets codified is if Congress acts. ... And so we have to continue to use our political capital, if you will, to fight as hard as we can. And to make sure we do the work that we need to have pro-choice congressional members."

Still, Biden is turning to governors. He convened a virtual roundtable last Friday with Pritzker, Hochul and seven other Democratic governors to discuss what steps were being taken in their states to protect abortion rights.

Biden reiterated that his administration will protect the rights of women to travel to other states for abortion services and ensure that abortion medication is available as widely as possible. But he acknowledged he didn't have votes in the U.S. Senate for more sweeping actions and laid out the stakes for November's elections and the need to increase Democrats' majorities.

"In the meantime, I want to hear what the governors are doing," he said.

With their reelections essentially secure, the aggressive action from some of the governors is sparking speculation about potential future presidential campaigns.

Pritzker, a billionaire businessman seeking his second term, raised chatter about a possible presidential bid when he spoke last month at the state Democratic party convention in New Hampshire, one of the early presidential nominating states. He has said he is focused on his job as governor and his reelection bid.

Newsom drew even more attention by running a television ad on Independence Day in Florida that was critical of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate. In the ad, which features images of DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, Newsom warns viewers that "freedom is under attack in your state."

"I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight. Or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom  freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate and the freedom to love," Newsom said.

___

Associated Press writers Sara Burnett in Chicago and Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Four days into the event, CNN asked Danny Scheel his thoughts on the Flood of 2002.

Ive been here my entire life, said Scheel, then Comal County judge, during an interview conducted as a helicopter filmed the rain-swollen Guadalupe River in New Braunfels. Ive been here for the 52, the 72 and the 98 floods  but Ive never seen anything that would come close to comparing with what I saw today.

Twenty years ago the Guadalupe River still flowed at 80,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) after a water force twice as strong pushed over the Canyon Dam spillway July 4, 2002, washing away homes, but thankfully no lives, as it traveled into New Braunfels.

Resulting from days of rain west of Comal County, the event was only the latest in a series of floods that continue to this day. The event illustrated Mother Nature wouldnt budge, and prodded city, county, state and federal officials into buyouts designed to move people out of one of the nations premiere locations for fatal flash flooding events.

Others believe nothing ventured is nothing gained.

We watched flood videos online and realized that one of the videos was actually taken from what would become our front yard, present-day Common Street resident Dwayne Waugh said. Even with all (of the floodplain) information, we decided to buy the house  because we felt it was worth the risk to live in such a beautiful part of New Braunfels.

The history

In todays dollars, Canyon Dam has saved more than $2 billion in flood damage since the road leading to its creation began nearly 70 years ago. Without it, the 2002 flood would have wiped out properties extending to the Gulf of Mexico, which would have seen extensive damage in subsequent floods.

In the early 20th century, the lower Guadalupe River Basin, the area thats now Canyon Lake, was especially prone to serious flooding. It was why Congress authorized Canyon Reservoir, with the lake and dam serving two purposes: flood control and water conservation.

Construction of Canyon Reservoir began on the upper Guadalupe River, at the northern edge of the Balcones Escarpment, in 1958.

Canyon Dam, completed in 1966, was designed to control flooding 1,432 square miles upstream and protect another 157,250 acres downstream. Canyon Lake has a water capacity of 382,000 acre-feet, a surface area of 8,230 acres, and 80 miles of shoreline. Its top flood control pool is 943 feet above mean sea level (msl); handling peak water flows of up to 50,000 cfs upstream and 30,000 cfs downstream.

The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority owns water rights and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers controls operations of Canyon Lake, where Canyon Dam has proven effective in protecting the lower Guadalupe River Basin and providing water for hydroelectric plants downstream from New Braunfels.

In August 1978 about 40 inches of rain fell on the upper Guadalupe River Basin in just two days, with flows into Canyon Lake raging at 115,000 cfs and elevating the reservoir pool to a then-record 930.6 msl. But the dam prevented an estimated $24 million in downstream damages in that event, and GBRA added a hydroelectric facility at the dam in February 1989.

No one was prepared for six days and nearly 35 inches of rain that flooded the upper Guadalupe River Basin in 2002. A water force of 160,000 cfs swelled the reservoir to the still-record 950.32 msl, broke open the spillway and blasted through everything on its way downstream.

Creating the Gorge

On Thursday, county commissioners issued a proclamation commemorating the 2002 Flood and creation of Canyon Lake Gorge. Flows over the spillway estimated at 67,000 cfs and higher carved a mile-long canyon through the limestone that was several hundred yards wide and in some areas more than 50 feet deep.

In their 2010 study, Michael Lamb of the California Institute of Technology and Mark Fonstad of Texas State University documented the dramatic transformation of the water through Guadalupe River Valley that formed the canyon in just three days.

On Nov. 29, 2005, GBRA and USACE representatives signed an agreement that formed the Canyon Lake Gorge as an educational and natural resource.

The Gorge Preservation Society today is a non-profit organization with volunteers from Comal County and surrounding areas who have spent a combined 28,500 hours in promoting the site as a unique natural phenomenon.

Over the past 20 years the Gorge has provided educational and recreational benefits for citizens and annually attracts hundreds of tourists, educators, researchers and naturalist to the area.

On June 28, the Canyon Lake Chamber hosted a mixer commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the Flood of 2002 and creation of the Gorge, which unveiled the Canyon Lake Gorge Historical Exhibit, which will be on display at the site through Sunday.

Damage control

President George W. Bush on July 4, 2002 declared Comal and eight other Texas counties as federal disaster areas, making them eligible for federal relief funds.

Over the past 20 years, the city and county took steps to avert problems caused by catastrophic flooding. The 1998 flood caused $1.5 billion in damage throughout the region, but the 2002 flood stepped up flood control warning and mitigation efforts.

Towers along River Road and within city limits feature high-powered sirens and speakers that warn campers in low-lying areas and along the banks of the Guadalupe and Comal rivers to head to higher ground whenever floods appear imminent.

The Krueger Canyon Dam, officially titled the Dry Comal Creek Flood Retarding Structure, was completed in 2013. The $23 million concrete dam covers a quarter-mile and stands 86-feet high and is located off Farm-to-Market Road 482 west of New Braunfels.

Constructed on a dry tributary of Dry Comal Creek, the dam was designed to hold back fast-rising floodwaters in Dry Comal Creek that are released into the Comal River over days instead of hours. County Engineer Tom Hornseth noted similar structures proposed for the Guadalupe River watershed couldnt be completely funded because they fell short of meeting stringent federal funding guidelines.

City efforts

Two years after the 1998 flood, the city adopted a flood recovery map that further identified previously flood prone areas not included in previous maps, and in 2002, approved an amended platting ordinance that redefined floodways as drainage easements.

In 2011 the city passed a new flood ordinance that required more stringent standards of developments located in floodways, and in 2012 the city joined the National Flood Insurance Programs Community Rating Systems voluntary program that provides incentives for floodplain management activities that exceed minimum requirements.

In the last decade the city completed the South Tributary Flood Control Project and North Tributary Drainage Project. Both resulted in collecting water runoff from low-lying watershed areas prone to flooding.

Since 2002, state and federal programs led to buyouts of hundreds of properties  many in residential subdivisions near the Guadalupe River just north of the county fairgrounds that were damaged or threatened by both major floods.

FEMA redefined guidelines for properties incurring repetitive or severe losses of 50% or greater in flood events, and increased buyouts of low-lying properties. The agencys continually updated floodplain maps have today all but ended residential floodplain habitation within county unincorporated areas and city limits.

When my wife Kelly and I were thinking of buying our home on Common Street, I knew I would need an elevation certificate, said Waugh, who took the risk of buying within the floodplain. I work at a surveying company, so I did the calculation and realized our house was about 6 feet below the base flood elevation.

When Veramendi was proposed in 2011, city officials insisted the development include water detainment ponds and flood prevention measures. City voters approved millions in drainage improvements in the 2013 and 2019 bonds, and will consider more infrastructure proposals in the 2023 bond.

County efforts

Hornseth said the countys latest flood plain maps were last updated in 2008. Comal County spent about $1.1 million buying out flood prone properties following the 2002 flood. Scheel, county judge from 1999-2011, said state law prohibits county regulation of exceeding those boundaries but credited Jack Colley, then the states director of emergency management, for helping ease rescue and recovery efforts following the 2002 flood and later the 2005 flood.

Hes the one who helped us get funding through FEMA, he said. We had two days warning ahead of time and were able to evacuate everyone from River Road, using the sheriffs department, Department of Public Safety and the police.

We werent able to make people evacuate  but the state gave us helicopters that helped spot people and we were able to get supplies to them. But the big thing is that no one died or had serious injuries as a result of the 2002 flood.

****

This is the second story about the 2002 flood in New Braunfels and Comal County. Click below to read part 1 of the story and an article from the Sophienburg.

+3 2002 flood spared local lives, but sparked real changes in Comal County Twenty years ago, Comal County started to experience its second major flood event in less th
Glenda Smith of Pearl Street in Bristol, Virginia, enjoyed sitting on her porch in the morning hearing the birds fill the branches of the more than 100-year-old maple tree just across the street.

That was until Friday morning, when city crews arrived with a professional tree trimmer to methodically cut down the large tree on city right-of-way. The city workers said the giant tree had become a danger to the home at the intersection of Pearl Street and Lawrence Avenue which sits in the shadow of the trees large branches.

Every morning I sat out here and it was full of birds, Smith said as workers used a piece of earth moving equipment and a chainsaw to bring down what remained of the tree that had towered over the street just hours before.

City crews on the scene described the tree that may have been as much as 150 years old as deader than a hammer. Although some branches still had green leaves of summer, others exhibited signs of being just dead wood. The city workers said the fear was the dead branches would damage neighborhood homes during the frequent summer thunderstorms causing property damage or threatening lives.

Smith said she had talked to officials at City Hall about a plan to save the tree. She said an arborist had said he could cut away the dead branches and spray the tree for parasites for $1,500. She was raising money from neighbors to pay for the service to save the tree.

She was surprised to see city crews blocking off the street Friday morning to begin the more than half-day task of taking the gargantuan tree down and hauling the limbs away.

Somehow they got it [the tree] on the list, and we cant get it off, Smith said.

Smith suggested the city establish a tree committee to handle these instances when age-old trees and the needs of property owners collide in the future.
Julie Newman plans to return to televisions screens in Southwest Virginia  next year.

The longtime WCYB-TV anchor has signed on as the vice president and general manager of a new public television station being organized in Abingdon at the Southwest Virginia Cultural Center and Marketplace  a building formerly known as Heartwood.

Newman will be on screen for any programs that need and deserve an on-air presence, she said. Ill be on the air as the station needs me.

Newman, who lives in the greater Tri-Cities, spent a decade at WCYB in Bristol, Virginia, wrapping up June 3. Her TV time in the Twin City followed a three-year stint at Blue Ridge Public Television in Roanoke, Virginia.

Its like a homecoming. Im going back to where I came from, she said of returning to public broadcasting.

Newman grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia, and took her first TV job at WVEC-TV in nearby Norfolk, Virginia.

She met her husband, who worked at a competing station in Portsmouth, (WAVY), then moved for a bit to upstate New York before coming back to Virginia to work at WSET-TV in Lynchburg in 2005. After taking a couple of years off, she worked at Blue Ridge Public Television in Roanoke an on-air host.

With the new venture, Newman promises to bring all the familiar shows known on public television to this new station.

The new digital service will be known as PBS Appalachia Virginia.

Were taking the stories of the people who live here and the towns that make our area so special, she said. The purpose of public television is to serve the public, and we want to be available to the public any way we can.

But viewers have almost a year to wait to see Newmans return to the small screen. The new streaming channel wont sign on for almost a year. PBS Appalachia Virginia is expected to be available to viewers June 10, 2023.

And forget adjusting the rabbit ears to find this programming. The station will have no call letters because it will not have an on-air signal. Newman said it would have cost $1 million to build a signal tower for the few people who use an antenna.

Yet you can get this station on cable TV, smart televisions and on a smartphone app.

This digital station is the first of its kind within the PBS system.

Its digital only. There will be no transmitter, Newman said.

We have basically a year to build the studio and launch the station and also start collecting the stories that will air, Newman said. We want to be ready to go with a full variety of Southwest Virginia programming and stories.

The station will cover several counties in Virginia, including Washington, Smyth, Wythe, Russell, Grayson, Wise, Scott, Lee, Buchanan, Dickenson, Tazewell, Bland and Giles.

Our goal is to serve the underserved, Newman said.

In Abingdon, crews are renovating a portion of the cultural center to build the studio in one wing. Newman promised glass walls will be installed so the public can visit and watch programs as they being produced.

We want people to know were coming, she said. We want people to get excited that were coming to cover Southwest Virginia.
HICKORY  The Salvation Army of Greater Hickory & High Country welcomes new leaders, Majors Angie and David Repass, to the community. They assumed their position on July 5 and have quickly settled into their new surroundings.

We are excited to continue the ministry of The Salvation Army in of Greater Hickory & High Country, and look forward to getting to know people in the community, said Maj. David Repass. Please feel free to stop by and say hello! We look forward to meeting you!

Salvation Army officers are periodically transferred to different locations, typically every three to four years. The Repasses are enthusiastic and dynamic leaders and come to this community from Atlanta, where they led the programs and services of The Salvation Army for three years.

The Repasses were commissioned as Salvation Army officers in 1998 and have served in Williamsburg, Virginia; Mexico City, Mexico; Winston-Salem; Aiken, South Carolina; Horry County, South Carolina; and most recently in Atlanta. They adopted three boys from Winston-Salem and the youngest, Thomas (17) came with them. Both Angie and David are fluent in Spanish and are hoping to expand the services already offered to those who have English as a second language.

We look forward to meeting the needs of this community and Doing The Most Good alongside the staff, volunteers and supporters of The Salvation Army, said Maj. Angie Repass.

The couple are responsible for all church programs and social services at The Salvation Army including the Boys & Girls Club, Crisis Help Center, Homeless Shelter, Transitional Housing and Family Stores.

Many people dont realize that The Salvation Army is a church, the couple said. They invite everyone to join them for worship each Sunday at 10 a.m. at The Salvation Army, located at 760 Third Avenue Place SE in Hickory.

For more information about the programs and services available at The Salvation Army, or to make a donation, call 828-322-8061 or go to the website at www.salvationarmycarolinas.org/hickory .

The Salvation Army annually helps more than 30 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 7,600 centers of operation around the country. In the first-ever listing of Americas Favorite Charities by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Salvation Army ranked as the countrys largest privately funded, direct-service nonprofit. For more information, visit SalvationArmyUSA.org. Follow it on Twitter @SalvationArmyUS and #DoingTheMostGood
Azerbaijan has fully backed Uzbekistans territorial integrity and underscored the legality of steps taken by the government against attempts to create instability in this Central Asian nation by causing riots in the Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic.

Azerbaijan has supported the "brotherly state and the people of Uzbekistan" as surfaced from a telephone conversation the nations top diplomat had with acting Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov. The Azerbaijani foreign minister emphasized that any steps against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries are unacceptable.

The two ministers particularly emphasized the organization at a high level of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's state visit to Uzbekistan on June 22, 2022, and the results of the visit, as well as the signing of documents that they said, raised the strategic partnership between the two nations to a qualitatively new phase.

The two men also discussed progress in the implementation of the agreements reached during the visit, as well as the next steps to be taken to this effect.

In a similar vein, the Azerbaijani government has stepped up efforts to engage other Central Asian nations in energy cooperation, and Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazovs visit to Kazakhstan was of particular importance.

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan held talks on renewing the transit of large volumes of oil from this Central Asian nation via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, reports say.

The negotiations were led by Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov as part of a session of the Azerbaijani-Kazakh joint intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation. The talks came as a court in Russia's Novorossiysk had ruled that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, the main route for exporting Kazakh oil to the Black Sea, should suspend its operation for 30 days due to the violation of environmental regulations.

Kazakhstan is planning to export 1.5m t of crude oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in 2022 once Azerbaijan upgrades a small section linking an oil terminal on the Caspian coast and the main pipeline in the autumn. Kazakhstan may export up to 10m t of oil annually through terminals in Baku by 2023-2025 with the possibility of doubling the volume provided that additional investment has been made.

Similarly, Azerbaijans oil major SOCAR signed a roadmap on the expansion of cooperation with Uzbekistan's state oil and gas giant Uzbekneftegaz. The document covers the realization of joint oil and gas projects, oil and gas trading, cooperation in oil refinery and petro-chemistry as well as an exchange of experience.

Likewise, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov, Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev discussed comprehensive cooperation in Baku with visiting Energy Minister of Iran Ali Akbar Mehrabian to expand economic relations. As the Iranian foreign minister said, the two neighbors are set to expand economic relations following recent tension in the relations.
RALEIGH  North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey has announced the arrest of Khadija Tiera Legree, 31, of 7905 Water Way Drive NW, Concord. Legree was charged with felony insurance fraud.

Special agents with the Department of Insurances Criminal Investigations Division accuse Legree of telling Progressive Southeastern Insurance Co. that an automobile accident occurred after she took out her policy on July 9, 2021, when it occurred before she took out the policy.

According to the arrest warrant, the accident occurred at 11:58 a.m. that day; she took out the policy at 12:30 p.m. and claimed the accident occurred around 3 p.m.

Special agents and Cabarrus County deputies arrested Legree on June 23. She was released on a written promise to appear in court, which is scheduled for July 18.

Property and casualty insurance fraud costs insurance customers an estimated $120 billion a year in increased premiums, said Commissioner Causey. The Department of Insurance has beefed up its fraud-fighting staff in an effort to make more arrests to keep fraud from driving up insurance costs.

If you suspect insurance fraud or other white-collar crimes, report it. You can anonymously report fraud by calling the N.C. Department of Insurance Criminal Investigations Division at 919-807-6840.

Information is also available at ncdoi.gov.
The city of Concords Planning and Neighborhood Development Department is partnering with N.C. Navigator Consortium, a project of Legal Aid of North Carolina, Inc., to offer an in-person and virtual Affordable Health Coverage Event for residents who need assistance with securing affordable health care coverage through the Marketplace.

It can be difficult to find the right health care plan, and there are pros and cons to each plan  especially when comparing the monthly premiums, deductibles and co-pays.

Many Americans currently do not have health insurance because they need help with determining the most affordable plan that will fit their budget. N.C. Navigator Consortium offers free, expert help with discussing your options, choosing a plan, and finding financial assistance to help with paying your premium.

Learn how the N.C. Navigator Consortium can help you and your family to get health coverage through the Marketplace. The free event takes place Monday, July 11, at 6 p.m. at ClearWater Arts Center & Studios, 223 Crowell Drive NW, Concord.

In-person seating is limited to 36 people, so be sure to register at https://forms.gle/VJRbUQNiTwzHYcvb9 to reserve a seat or to join them online for the informative event. Registration is required for both options.

A second session will be held Tuesday, July 12, for Spanish-speaking residents.
CASEY  Downtown Casey was graced by royalty Saturday.

"Princesses" from all over the area came out to take part in trolley rides, a scavenger hunt for Princess Ariel, princess tattoos, and plenty more games and treats.

Tawnya Self, owner of Model Tees LLC, who helped organize the event, said she wanted to help bring families together in the "small town with big things."

Casey, which boasts 12 of the worlds largest items  including the worlds largest wind chime, the worlds largest gavel and the worlds largest rocking chair  is known for being popular with tourists looking to see its oddities, but Self said she wanted to focus on their local community with the event. She said she was pleased with how the event went.

We just keep trying to come up with events that include everybody locally. It went well, it just took off, Self said. All the businesses are chipping in. They're all thriving from it, so that's what we want to do, get people on our streets.

One of Selfs employees, Marly Bauguss, dressed up as Princess Ariel to add to the magic of the day for the kids. She said she saw it as an opportunity to engage with her community.

With all the kids coming out here, it's a great opportunity to talk to everybody, Bauguss said.

She added she was excited to see so many little girls out at the event participating and enjoying themselves.

We're trying to bring things to Casey so that everyone has stuff to do, because there's not really much to do and definitely bring in a lot of people, Bauguss.

Bauguss said she was happy with the weather because while the sun was not out for the earlier parts of the event, it was cool enough outside for kids to have fun.

Dan Douglas, who along with his wife brought three of their granddaughters to the event, said he enjoyed being able to take them and have fun. He said he came out because were grandparents, weve got grandkids, and they love it.

Douglas said the event served as a way to bring families and the community together.

It brings people together, brings families out. You know, it's good to get out and get your grandkids or your own kids together, Douglas said. The girls loved it.

Blakely Dashiell, age 7, one of Douglas grandchildren, said she liked the event, especially having attended similar events in the past. She said it was hard to pick a favorite part of the day.

I liked riding the trolley ride. No, getting my nails painted. Nope, going on the playground. I can't decide. It was all so fun, Dashiell said. All of it was my favorite part.

Self said they hope to have a pirate-themed event in the coming months.
MATTOON  The Lake Land College Board of Trustees has welcomed Maggie Kelly of Strasburg as the 2022-23 student trustee.

I am honored to have been selected as the 2022-2023 Lake Land student trustee, Kelly said. I am very excited to start my role and be a link between the student body and the board of trustees.

Kelly is a freshman majoring in pre-veterinary medicine. Having grown up on a purebred Angus cattle farm in rural Windsor, owned and operated by her family, Kelly said she had a passion for animals instilled in her from a young age, leading her to pursue a career as a veterinarian and possibly specializing in embryology.

After graduating from Lake Land, Kelly plans to attend Kansas State University, and she hopes to return home after attending vet school to be a large animal veterinarian and serve local livestock producers and farmers.

As she adapts to her new role as student trustee, Kelly said she plans to not only continue working on projects her predecessors were passionate about, but to seek out topics that are important to her peers and pursue those as well.

I want my peers to see me as someone approachable that they can come up to and connect with for help, Kelly said. I hope they will see me as someone who can understand and interpret their questions or concerns and be able to provide assistance.

Kelly said another reason she was excited to take on the role of student trustee was because of her passion for Lake Land.

Lake Land really feels like home, Kelly said. A lot of people say that, but thats because its true. All of my instructors have been pretty great.
The glaring spotlight of a congressional committee hearing appears to await the chief executives of three prominent U.S. firearms manufacturers.

Prompted by a long line of fatal U.S. mass shootings, including on July 4 in Highland Park, Ill., the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform has requested the appearance of chief executives Christopher Killoy of Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc., Marty Daniel of Daniel Defense LLC and Mark Smith of Smith & Wesson Brands Inc.

Ruger has 490 of its 1,900 employees at its production plant in Mayodan.

The chief executives have been called to present at the committees next hearing, set for July 20, by chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who sent letters to them Wednesday.

The manufacturers could not be reached for comment about their potential participation. They were asked to respond to the committees request by July 8.

I am deeply troubled that gun manufacturers continue to profit from the sale of weapons of war, including AR-15-style assault rifles that were used by a white supremacist to murder 10 people in Buffalo, N.Y., and in the massacre of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, Maloney wrote in her letters to the chief executives.

The assault rifle used in the Uvalde mass shooting is manufactured by Daniel Defense.

As Americans celebrated our nations Independence Day, a shooter used an AR-15-style rifle to kill at least seven people and wound dozens of others during a parade in Highland Park, Ill., Maloney said.

The committee respects the rights of law-abiding Americans under the Second Amendment, but that does not excuse irresponsible corporate conduct that fuels deadly gun violence and endangers our children.

The chief executives appear likely to follow in the footsteps of banking and tobacco counterparts, who have been grilled  intensely and heatedly at times  about the socioeconomic impacts of their products, whether financial, employment or public health.

Gun control policies are of a particular focus of Maloney, who is a primary or co-primary sponsor of at least seven House resolutions: Gun Trafficking Prevention Act; Gun Show Loophole Closing Act; Firearms Risk Protection Act; Gun Violence Research Act; The NICS (National Instant Background Check System) Review Act; Handgun Trigger Safety Act; and Strengthening the National Instant Criminal Background Check System Act.

Maloney said the committee will focus on examining the role of the firearms industry in the gun violence epidemic, including with respect to the sale and marketing of assault weapons, and the broad civil immunity that has been granted to manufacturers.

As the chief executive officer of a major firearms manufacturer that has sold more than a million assault weapons, your testimony is crucial to understand why your company continues to sell and market these weapons to civilians, what steps your company plans to take to protect the public, and what additional reforms are needed to prevent further deaths from your products.

Committee background

The U.S. House Oversight and Reform committee launched May 26 an investigation of firearms manufacturers that sell assault weapons to civilians.

Besides the manufacturers whose chief executives have been called to testify, the committee sought information from Bushmaster Firearms Industries Inc. and Sig Sauer Inc.

The committee has requested information on the manufacturers sale and marketing of AR-15-style semiautomatic rifles and similar firearms. The information included: revenue and profit information; internal data on deaths or injuries caused by firearms they manufacture; and marketing and promotional materials.

On June 8, a committee hearing featured testimonies from relatives of individuals who were killed in the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, as well as witnesses to the events.

Products sold by your company have been used for decades to carry out homicides and even mass murders, yet your company has continued to market assault weapons to civilians ... reaping a profit from the deaths of innocent Americans, Maloney wrote.

For much of the 21st century, a mass shooting involving an assault rifle in the U.S. has been followed by an initial surge in the share prices of firearms manufacturers.

Analysts say high-profile shootings, such as in Buffalo, Orlando, Colorado and Connecticut, tend to push gun sales, either for individuals wanting weapons out of fear for their personal safety, or because they worry about potential federal tightening of gun ownership.

For example, the Uvalde mass shooting sent Rugers share price up as much as 9.1% over the next two trading days. Smith & Wesson rose as much as 6.6% over the same time frame, along with American Outdoor Brands Inc. as much as 16.9%.

Bowman Gray IV, an independent local stock broker, has said he is not surprised by share-price surges for firearms manufacturers.

It happened after Sandy Hook and Orlando and San Bernardino as well, Gray said. Anytime there is even a hint of a possibility that there may be new restrictive legislation, people flock to the gun stores.

It is a very popular political tactic of fear to convince people that someone is coming to take their guns. Its also good for gun sales.

Banking example

Recent banking-industry megadeals, including BB&T Corp.s $33.4 billion purchase of SunTrust Banks Inc., have also drawn the attention  and ire  of congressional committees.

BB&T chairman and chief executive Kelly King and SunTrust counterpart William Rogers weathered a high-profile grilling in July 2019 before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee en route to gaining federal regulatory approval to form Truist Financial Corp., which debuted in December 2019.

It was the first congressional committee hearing focused on an individual bank deal since 1998.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the committees chairwoman, opened the three-hour meeting by saying, Im concerned that if this merger goes forward, it will create another megabank that is too big to manage and poses a risk to our financial system.

Rogers stressed that bigger doesnt make for riskier and that Truist would maintain solid risk-management standards and would be adding scale, not complexity.

One of the higher-profile questions was whether King and Rogers supported a $20 minimum wage for employees.

At that time, both banks paid a $15 minimum wage. Truist said Wednesday it would create an across-the-board $22 minimum wage on Oct. 1, affecting about 14,000 employees.

Days before the closing of the BB&T purchase of SunTrust, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduced a bill titled Bank Merger Review Modernization Act.

The bill would have four main goals: guaranteeing that a large-scale banking merger is in the public interest; safeguarding the stability of the nations financial system; examining the anticompetitive effects on banking products, such as commercial deposits, home mortgage lending and small business lending; and ensuring that the merged bank has adequate financial and managerial resources.

Its time to stop rubber-stamping bank mergers at the expense of consumers, communities, workers and the financial system, the co-sponsors said.

In June, Warren requested the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency consider blocking Toronto-Dominion Banks $13.4 billion acquisition of First Horizon Corp. announced Feb. 28 until additional regulatory scrutiny could be conducted.

TDs purchase of First Horizon would be the second-largest U.S. bank deal since the Great Recession of 2008-11, eclipsed only by the BB&T-SunTrust megadeal.

Tobacco example

The symbolism was striking in February 2020 as the five largest U.S. electronic cigarette manufacturers appeared before a congressional committee.

Nearly 26 years before, chief executives from the top seven tobacco manufacturers swore under oath that their traditional cigarettes products were not addictive.

Committee members lambasted the executives, accusing them of lying about the harm caused by their products. It became a historic image the industry has struggled to live down since.

Recognizing the sign of the public-health times, the chief executives and/or presidents of the e-cigarette makers opened their testimony by acknowledging their products are addictive, and that use of the products can lead to addiction and cause harm.

Representing the e-cig manufacturers during the 2-hour hearing were: K.C. Crosthwaite of Juul Labs Inc., Ricardo Oberlander of Reynolds American Inc., Ryan Nivakoff of NJoy, Antoine Blonde of Fontem Ventures and Jerry Loftin of Logic.

The stated goal of the House Energy and Commerce committee hearing was to address those e-cigarette manufacturers role and responsibility in what many members called a youth vaping epidemic.

The committee recommended legislation to heighten regulations on the tobacco industry that included banning all non-tobacco flavorings for tobacco products, as well as raising the federal minimum age for purchasers from 18 to 21. President Donald Trump signed into law the age-21 regulations on Dec. 20, 2019.

Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., challenged the notion that the manufacturers are taking enough steps to curb youth use of e-cigarettes, particularly Juul even as the manufacturer removed all flavorings outside of tobacco and menthol in November 2019.

I heard all of you over and over say you were responsible men, men of integrity, Pallone said to the five executives.

That is not true. People who have integrity and who are responsible dont make products ... that you admit make people sick and probably kill people.

Oberlander stressed repeatedly that Reynolds marketing for its Vuse product has been aimed at adult smokers since its introduction as a nicotine alternative to traditional cigarettes.

Oberlander cautioned that FDA regulations are hampering efforts to create more innovative e-cigarette products.

Will it matter?

Gray said that given the publics rampant demand for product liability on everything from tobacco to automobiles to toasters over the last 40-plus years, it is more than past time for gun manufacturers to be subject to equivalent scrutiny and regulation from Congress.

I would not be surprised to see a sizeable class-action suit launched to establish something similar to the Master Settlement Agreement reached with the tobacco industry, followed by legislation requiring training, licensure, registration and insurance in much the same way we go about owning and operating our cars.

Gray said such a pursuit is sure to be a political dogfight, particularly among Republican committee members likely to defend firearms manufacturers as part of preserving Second Amendment rights.

We are sure to hear the usual argument that freedom is under attack, but I would argue that our freedom to go to the store, or school, or church, or a parade, or a movie without fear for our lives supersedes my desire to own an assault rifle, Gray said.

The public hearings with the leadership of these companies will certainly provide a platform for grandstanding before the mid-terms.

Still, I doubt it will produce anything meaningful in the short term allowing for more than enough time for the next tragedy.
Growing up, Eli Fribush never had to buy an instrument because his family always kept an assortment around the house.

That made it pretty easy for me to play, he said. And I was just blessed. It wasnt forced on me. I didnt play in a band or anything like that growing up. I just did it for fun, and we would hang around the house and just pick up our instruments and play.

Fribush wound up focusing on the saxophone, and nowadays, he also works as a producer.

In a recent interview, he spoke about what he learned from living in New Orleans, about growing up around musicians and about producing music under the name Bobby Sasquatch.

How did you get interested in music?

I come from a musical family. Both my father (guitarist Paul Doc Fribush) and brother (multi-instrumentalist Sam Fribush) play. And for some reason, I was drawn to the saxophone. I started probably playing drums or piano but couldnt play sax until I turned 10. So, I picked that up. I played clarinet a little bit in middle school, but it was mostly saxophone up until then.

At one point, I joined my brothers band the Pink Flamingos for a little while.

And Im from Greensboro and went to high school at Weaver Academy. Then I went to college at Loyola University in New Orleans and have kind of been traveling and hanging out since the pandemic.

Who are some of your influences?

I love The Funky Meters. Theyre a band out of New Orleans. Im a big fan of Herbie Hancock and that kind of jazz. I like Sonny Rollins. But I listen to all kinds of music, rap, hip-hop.

How would you describe your music?

I would say soulful and authentic. I really try to make people move. I think theres a lot of movement in my music. I try to play for the people and with the people. But, its funky, its original, its fresh.

Whats your creative process like?

I produce music under the alias of Bobby Sasquatch. The past two years, Ive put my recording energy into that. Thats kind of an urban, contemporary take on our society.

But I think I really just enjoy collaborating with artists and feeling that space, and even with my original music, I try to bring in other artists who inspire me, and I try to see what we can create together.

Where did the name Bobby Sasquatch come from?

It spawned from TikTok and collaborating with one of my friends, Ricky Desktop. I have music under that, and I have music under Eli Fribush, which is more of my saxophone type music ... Ive done commercials and video games and film scores with that alias.

Having lived in New Orleans, what sort of impact did that have on you as a musician?

It was everything. I really view New Orleans as the Mecca for really getting down to the roots of Black American music, or just getting to the roots of where all this stuff came from in this country. Its one of the most authentic, original places for American music. Its a place where you can express yourself, and find a lot of soul, a lot of experienced, amazing musicians who kind of shape you to have a certain swagger when you perform and play.

If you could open a show for any artist, who would it be and why?

I think right now, it would be Kendrick Lamar just because hes what I aspire to be as an artist. Hes authentic, unwavering, also creating an experience thats expanding peoples consciousness.

Whats the funniest or weirdest thing that has ever happened at one of your shows?

Well, Ive got to keep it PC. Ive got to be careful. Theres always something. But sometimes the sound or the lights fall apart.

Do you have a favorite song you like to perform?

Right now, its this song, Always There by Ronnie Laws, which is a corny little 80s-type jazz fusion song. I just performed it with my brother, and we had a blast. So that would be my current song.

What do you want people to walk away with when they come to one of your shows?

I just want people to feel something. I try to make very human music that we can relate to emotionally, something that will move people, enlighten them. I just try to leave a positive impact on anyone who comes to my shows.

Whats next for you?

Im doing a lot of studio work so maybe building a studio. I would also like to record an album under the name Eli Fribush, but Im still kind of working on this Bobby alias.

Im also going out to L.A. and New York and Miami this year, so Im doing a lot of traveling and trying to build a community of musicians.

I just launched my first website, and Ive got a lot of upcoming shows in the area and trying to get people to come out.
A wet bandanna or ice-pack neck-wrap can help cool us down, as well as our dogs. Be mindful of hot pavements and sidewalks that can burn dogs paws and heat up their bodies quickly, causing potentially fatal heatstroke. Pouring cold water on a stricken dog can be lifesaving in the minutes before emergency veterinary services are administered. And no dog, or child, should ever be left alone in a car in hot weather, even with the air-conditioning running. If the car were to stall, it could become a tomb for anyone inside.

Wetter and warmer conditions mean more biting and disease-transmitting insects. For Alaskas and Canadas caribou and reindeer, this situation is a living hell, forcing them to higher ground where there is little, if any, food and water. In other areas of drought, deer congregate around water holes, increasing the animal-to-animal spread of chronic wasting disease, all while biting insects flourish and spread other diseases. Moose are especially at risk, with warmer winters meaning the proliferation of ticks that infest these endangered ungulates. Many moose die from anemia and secondary infection, including brainworm, which can be transmitted by the more resistant and overabundant (and invasive) white-tailed deer.

The warmer weather of spring and summer brings heightened risk of Potomac horse fever in the western U.S., and the disease can be deadly if left untreated. Because horses, donkeys and mules catch the disease by ingesting infected mayflies and other aquatic insects, the University of Wyoming extension service recommends keeping barn lights off in the evening. It also recommends treatment with antibiotics shortly after diagnosis. (Full story: Southeast Farm Press, March 30)

Invasive species health threat in FloridaRat lungworm parasites were found in Cuban treefrogs, an invasive species, in Volusia County, Florida, researchers reported in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases. The parasitic nematode can cause blindness, meningitis and brain damage in people, and can weaken or paralyze infected dogs hind legs.

Heather Walden, the lead researcher, said, Its very possible that a dog could eat a Cuban treefrog, or any other potential anuran host, and become infected as a result. (Full story: University of Florida, Feb. 7)
From a pediatric perspective, clinical severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections are less likely to occur when compared with adults1 and most infections have been mild.2,3 With changes in dominating virus variants and increasing vaccination coverage, children may be more susceptible to infection.4 The first reports from China showed that the overall infection rate in children was very low compared with adults (8 vs. 164/100.000) although the total number of truly infected children is hard to measure when mass testing is not performed.5 In a meta-analysis of 1810 pediatric COVID-19 cases, 85% had mild disease. In reports and meta-analyses, the severe disease has been reported in 5% and mortality rates between 0 and 0.3%.6,7 Young age (<2 years) and nonwhite ethnicity were associated with an increased risk of hospital admission. A study reported that from 9478 pediatric hospital admissions due to COVID-19 in the US, 85 died and a 4-fold risk of death was observed if the patients had severe congenital heart disease.8 Pediatric intensive care units in countries with high rates of COVID-19 infection have been highly occupied by children with complications due to COVID-19, including multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).8,9

The reason for an overall milder disease in children has not been fully explained. Suggestions of the role of the number and/or function of the ACE receptor in the respiratory mucosa have been made, as they are often present in lower numbers in young children.5,10 Also, recent infection with other coronaviruses may provide some cross-reactive T-cell immunity.9 In addition, lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 may decrease the risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome, a well-known complication in adults.9

Iceland had the good fortune of having developed very stringent control of infected patients through isolation and quarantine of exposed individuals as well as mass testing of the populationa factor likely to reduce community spread.11 A total of 1749 children had tested positive for SARS-CoV-19 until August 31st and all of them were monitored closely by hospital staff through regular contacts, telephone calls (TC) and physical assessment if needed during their time in isolation. When a TC raised a concern of clinical symptoms, the children were assessed at the emergency department (ED) of the Childrens Hospital Iceland.

Many previous studies are limited by bias due to varying selection criteria when describing COVID-19 incidence and clinical presentations. The present study however describes the whole pediatric COVID-19 cohort in Iceland and is less subject to bias due to the composition of the well-defined Icelandic population and health care infrastructure and may help filling gaps of valid data on SARS-CoV-2 infections in children using well-defined criteria. The study describes the incidence, source of infection, clinical symptom severity and duration, complications and outcomes but was performed before the emergence of the omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

PATIENTS, MATERIALS AND METHODS

Time Period

The study describes the period from February 28, 2020 until 31st of August 2021.

Database

Through electronic databases, all children who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were included in a follow-up clinic. Their parents received a TC at the time of diagnosis and a first TC questionnaire was completed. Demographic information and previous medical history were collected as well as a source of infection, if known. While still symptomatic, a TC was carried out every 12 days, and a standard list of questions on clinical symptoms was answered. Once asymptomatic, a TC every 34 days was performed with the same list of questions until the child was free from isolation. According to the decision from the health authorities, isolation was required for all infected children for at least 14 days from confirmation of the infection and could only be lifted if the child had been asymptomatic for 7 days.

When analyzing the data, the age groups were defined as younger than 6 months, 6 months3 years, 47 years, 813 years and 1417 years old. Age was counted in months up to 12 months and in whole years in all children older than 1 year. When calculating age-standardized incidence, children were categorized into three groups, 03, 413 and 1417-year-olds. The population data were obtained from Statistics Iceland.12

When analyzing the duration of symptoms, the data were analyzed both as continuous variables as well as categorized as <2 days, 39 days and 10 days or longer.

Three waves of the pandemic were defined as MarchJune 2020 (1st wave), July 2020May 2021 (2nd wave) and JuneAugust 2021 (3rd wave) as shown in Fig. 1.

FIGURE 1.: Number of SARS-CoV-2 infections in Icelandic children from March 2020August 2021 Three waves of COVID-19 disease in children in Iceland from March 2020August 2021. The third wave was dominated by the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2. The median age of children infected with SARS-CoV-2 was 12 years in the first wave and 10 years in both subsequent waves. The mean age-standardized incidence per 1000 children/month was 0.73 during the first wave, 0.73 in the second wave and 3.5/1000 children/month during the third wave.

Case Definition and Sampling

Cases were defined as individuals younger than 18 years of age and qPCR positive for SARS-CoV-2. A cycle threshold level of <35 was defined as a positive result. Samples with a cycle threshold level of 3540 were categorized as inconclusive by the national reference microbiology laboratory and repeat testing was recommended on the following day. Symptomatic infection was defined as any of the symptoms listed in Table 1. Days with symptoms were counted as the total number of days with symptoms (including the first and last day of symptoms).

TABLE 1. - List of registered symptoms from SARS-CoV-2 infection List of registered symptoms from SARS-CoV-2 infection Categories of symptoms from SARS-CoV-2 infection Upper respiratory (sore throat, runny nose) Lower respiratory (cough, shortness of breath) Abdominal (Diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain) Fever Headache Muscle and/or body ache Tiredness/Malaise Loss of smell and taste Loss of appetite Other * *Light sensitivity, ear pain, dizziness, chills, irritability.

All laboratory-confirmed cases were diagnosed at the National reference laboratory at the Landspitali University Hospital, Department of Clinical Microbiology or the laboratory of Decode Genetics using conventional qPCR methods for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in naso- and/or oropharyngeal swabs.13 Cases were identified through targeted testing of: (1) suspected cases due to symptomatic children in quarantine. (2) Symptomatic children attending health care facilities. (3) Open invitation for screening regardless of symptoms.

Most samples were collected at a defined COVID sampling center in Reykjavik. Other samples were collected from the ED of the Childrens Hospital Reykjavik and smaller health care centers outside the most populated areas (Reykjavik and surroundings).

WHO criteria for the classification of disease severity were applied where the criteria for moderate symptoms were fever, cough and dyspnea for adolescents and cough and dyspnea for younger children.14

The source of infection was classified as household, school, leisure (after school and out-of-home activities) or unknown.

Ethics

The study was approved by the National Bioethics Committee of Iceland (ref: 21-065-S1) and The Institutional Research Committee at Landspitali University Hospital The sample collection was performed on behalf of Icelandic health authorities in agreement with the Act no. 19/1997 on Health Security and Communicable Diseases. Data analysis was performed using study numbers with no personally identifiable information.

Statistical Analysis

The data were expressed as median (with range) or number (percentage). Mann-Whitney U test was used for the comparison of numerical variables and the 2 test for categorical variables. A P-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. A multivariable regression model was used to test for the effects of age and sex on disease severity. The models were adjusted for confounders as shown in the models. A likelihood ratio was calculated and expressed as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals. The software Stata (StataCorp, College Station, Texas) version 13.1 was used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS

A total of 1749 children were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection during the study period. Overall, the age-standardized incidence was 21.5/1000 children. The overall annual incidence was 10.9/1000, 21.5/1000 and 31.8/1000 children for children younger than 4 years old, 413 and 1417-year-olds, respectively. Nineteen (1.1%) patients needed clinical assessment at the Childrens Hospital Emergency Department. No patient required specific treatment (antiviral treatment, corticosteroids or monoclonal antibodies) and there were no hospital admissions. Three were treated with a course of oral antibiotics for a presumed bacterial infection. No child was diagnosed with MIS-C.

Demographics

Of the 1749 cases, 919 (52.5%) were male. Children younger than 18 years were 16% of all confirmed COVID-19 cases in Iceland at the completion of data collection (August 2021). The median age of the children was 10 years (range: 1 week17 years), 433 (24.8%) were older than 13 years of age and 19 children were younger than 6 months. A total of 96 children had underlying conditions (5.5%) which were asthma (only counted in children older than 2 years of age), congenital heart disease or heart failure, type 1 diabetes mellitus, cerebral palsy, immunodeficiency, or trisomy 21. Data on symptoms was missing for 7 children. Asymptomatic children were 373 (21.5%). Of symptomatic children, upper and lower respiratory symptoms were most common and were observed in 48.1% and 42.5%, respectively of all patients. Fever (34%) and headache (30%) were also commonly reported. Abdominal pain, vomiting or diarrhea were reported in 27% as shown in Fig. 2.

FIGURE 2.: Registered symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infections in 1742 Icelandic children until the end of August 2021. Upper respiratory symptoms were: sore throat and runny nose. Lower respiratory symptoms: cough, shortness of breath. Abdominal symptoms: diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain. Other: light sensitivity, ear pain, dizziness, chills, irritability.

Symptom Severity and Duration

Asymptomatic infection was common in 47- and 813-year-olds where 31% and 24.4% respectively had no symptoms of infection (Fig. 3). Mild symptoms were reported in 1287 (73.9%) children whereas 81 (4.6%) had moderate symptoms. No child had severe symptoms. Of the 81 children with moderate symptoms, 7 (8.6%) had underlying illness. Underlying medical conditions were not associated with risk of moderate symptoms where 7/96 (7.3%) children with a medical condition had moderate symptoms compared with 74/1646 (4.5%) previously healthy children (P = 0.45). Infants <6 months of age were few (n = 19) and were asymptomatic or had mild disease. The risk of moderate symptoms was similar in all age groups as shown in Table 2.

Table 2. - Odds ratio of higher symptom severity in children with SARS-CoV-2 infection Odds ratio of higher symptom severity in children with SARS-CoV-2 infection N = 381 N = 1271 N = 97 OR of moderate symptoms (95% CI) Age category Asymptomatic  no (%) Mild  no (%) Moderate  no (%) <6 months 3 (0.8) 16 (1.3) 0 (0.0) N/A 6 months3 years 45 (12.0) 176 (13.7) 11 (13.6) 1.05 (0.561.97) 47 years 116 (31.0) 214 (16.6) 12 (14.8) 0.91 (0.521.59) 813 years 156 (41.7) 529 (41.1) 31 (38.3) 0.82 (0.521.28) 1417 years 54 (14.4) 352 (27.4) 27 (33.3) 1.37 (0.852.20) Sex  no (%) Female 173 (46.3) 613 (47.6) 42 (51.9) 1.12 (0.731.72) Male 201 (53.7) 674 (52.4) 39 (48.2) 0.90 (0.581.38) No children were severely or critically ill. Data was missing for 7 children. OR: Odds ratios calculated by binary logistic regression modelling where the reference value was moderate disease. Models were adjusted by source of infection . CI indicates confidence interval.

FIGURE 3.: Symptom severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Icelandic children. Classification of severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection in 1742 Icelandic children. No child had severe symptoms.

Overall, the median duration of illness was 5 days (range:133). In total, 210 (12.1%) had symptoms for fewer than 2 days, 864 (49.6%) for 29 days and 277 (15.9%) for 10 days or more. An association between age and duration of symptoms was found where adolescents were significantly more likely to have symptoms for 10 days of longer duration (OR: 1.84, P < 0.001). The opposite was found for children aged 47 years who were significantly less likely to have symptoms 10 days as shown in Table 3.

Table 3. - Symptoms from SARS-SCoV-2 infection in children lasting 10 days or longer Symptoms from SARS-SCoV-2 infection in children lasting 10 days or longer Age OR of symptoms lasting 10 days 95% CI <6m 1.82 0.655.13 6m3y 1.03 0.791.32 4y7y 0.46 0.310.68 8y13y 0.91 0.701.18 14y17y 1.84 1.392.43 Odds ratio (OR) and Confidence intervals (CI) of the risk of symptoms lasting 10 days or more based on age category: OR: Odds ratios calculated by binary logistic regression modelling where the reference value was age group. Models were adjusted by sex, severity, and source of infection . M indicates month; y, years.

Source of Infection

The source of infection was known in 91% of the cases and 1142 were infected in the household (65.3%). In 219 (12.5%) cases, the source of infection was at school or day-care and 231 (13.2%) in leisure activities. For 157 children (9.0%), the source of infection was unknown. For children infected at school or leisure, no information was available whether the children were infected from staff or other pupils. Most of the 157 children with no known source of infection were registered towards the end of the study period where infections were becoming more widespread.

There was no correlation found between symptom severity and source of infection when using logistic regression modelling (data not shown).

Disease Severity and Different Waves of the Pandemic

Three waves of SARS-CoV-2 infections were defined as shown in Fig. 1. In the third wave of infections, the delta variant was dominating. During the 3rd wave, 854 children were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection despite a much shorter time period than the 2nd wave, which had 715 infections. No significant differences were observed between the waves in terms of the age of infected children, disease severity or symptom duration. The range of observed symptoms between the 3 waves can be seen in Table and Figure, Supplemental Digital Content 1; https://links.lww.com/INF/E765 and 2; https://links.lww.com/INF/E765.

DISCUSSION

In this nationwide study of all children infected in Iceland during the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic (until August 31st, 2021), we found that overall, the symptoms were relatively mild, of short duration and with few complications. No child was admitted to hospital and only 19 needed medical assessment at the Childrens Hospital. Three children were treated with oral antibiotics for presumed bacterial infections. A trend towards more severe symptoms in adolescents is in concordance with other reports.15,16 According to the WHO definition of disease severity, none of the 1749 cases had severe or critical illness.

The source of infection was known for a large part of our cohort (91%) and was from other household members in two-third of cases. Source was school, day-care or in leisure activities in a quarter of the cases, but it is unknown if the infections was contracted from teachers/staff or other children. This strongly indicates that spread is common from adults to children and that spread from other children was probably less common. This is in line with other reports where children are considered less likely to spread the infection.17 Around 20% of the children were asymptomatic throughout the course of infection, but symptomatic children mostly had conventional symptoms of upper respiratory viral infections.

Although this sample size of children is not very large, it has the strong advantage of representing all children with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and most of truly infected children in Iceland during the study period. The source of infection in almost all infected adults and children was traceable due to the strict test, trace, and isolate policy of the Icelandic health authorities at the time. During the study period, most children as well as most adults, who were diagnosed with infection, were already in quarantine and unlikely that many pediatric infections will have been undetected. This cohort also reflects an unselected group of all children with confirmed infections rather than only hospitalized children as in most other studies and therefore helps shed light on the true rates of complications and serious disease in children. There are without doubt some additional asymptomatic cases that were not identified, but according to a serologic survey conducted on randomly selected 30,000 Icelanders in the first half of 2020, only 0.6% of participants had seroconverted but a minority of that cohort were children.11 It also supports suggestions that the disease course was mild in children during the study period and almost all could be managed at home without need for direct medical care. Reflecting the population composition in Iceland, most children in our cohort were however of white Caucasian ethnicity which might bias the results toward a milder disease course.18,19 The fact that in our cohort of more than 1700 pediatric patients, no child needed hospital admission suggests that hospital admission rates in this age groups are no higher than 0.1%0.3% as reported in a Norwegian study.20 The delta variant, dominating the third wave, did not seem to cause more serious illness in younger children although the ability to better transmit between individuals is probably actual as seen by the rapid rise of cases in a short space of time.21 This trend towards a much higher infectivity rate and accumulation of large groups of children being infected in a short space of time with the emergence of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has since materialized in the first weeks of 2022.

Adolescents 1617 years old in Iceland were offered COVID-19 vaccination in April-May 2021, with excellent uptake and 2 dose vaccination rates surpassed 90%. This may have contributed to fewer infections and milder disease course in this age group toward the end of our study period. No children aged 1215 years of age were fully vaccinated during the study period although since then around 85% of children >12 years are currently vaccinated.

A study reporting a cohort of children from the region Aragon in Spain shows similar results to ours although hospitalizations were more common (0.5%) and 10% of admitted patients were admitted to intensive care units.22 These differences may reflect that a larger group of unidentified but infected children were not included in the Spanish cohort which affects the rates of hospitalizations. Also, different ethnicity of the cohort could be of importance.

A US study reported that overall mortality in children admitted to hospital with COVID-19 was around 1% and up to 4% in children with severe congenital heart disease.8 Using these numbers of mortality on our cohort, where the admission rates of all infected children are likely to be close to 0.1%, leads to an estimated overall mortality in the pediatric cohort of around 1/100.000 infected. A contributing factor is that no child was diagnosed with MIS-C.23,24

The role of children in transmission has been debated, and although most experts agree that school and preschool closures should be avoided, if possible, many children have suffered from disrupted school activities aimed at halting the spread of the virus. The benefits of such closures remain unproven. Vaccination programs for children 1217-year-olds have been very successful with low rates of adverse reaction and effectiveness rates of 92%.25 In highly vaccinated communities, such as Iceland, children younger than 12 years are currently the largest group of unvaccinated individuals. This might lead to a different role of children in the spread of disease and younger children may maintain circulation of the virus by serving as a reservoir.26 The decision, whether to vaccinate younger children, is however complex and warrants consideration of several factors as summarized by Zimmerman et al.27

One of the limitations of our study is that the description and registration of symptoms are done through telephone consultations between medical personnel and parents rather than direct clinical contact and this may cause some inaccuracy. In addition, daily TC from health care professionals were made to gather information and give advice. This may well have led to early intervention or advice, decreasing the risk of further deterioration. This may have reduced the risk of development of more severe symptoms and almost certainly reduced the number of children that needed medical care at the hospital. Also, information on the source of infection was missing in 157 cases which may influence interpretation of the importance of the source on population transmission dynamics. The registration of underlying medical illness was only based on the discussion with parents and not confirmed by access to the childs medical records. In our study, correlation of the viral load (cycle threshold level) and symptom severity was not studied. It is possible that some of the asymptomatic children had false positive tests which would bias the results toward a larger asymptomatic group. These numbers are however likely to be very small due to high specificity of the assay used by the national reference laboratory.28

To conclude, this is a nationwide study on the symptoms in children with SARS-CoV-2 infection and describes the symptoms of all children tested positive through rigorous tracing and testing. This study helps shed light on the true frequency of complications in pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infections and supports the observation that COVID-19 disease in children generally causes nonsevere symptoms and despite around half the cases were during a delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, no hospital admissions were needed although transmission was clearly more potent than in previous variants.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the personnel at COVID-19 ambulatory ward at the Childrens Hospital Iceland and Landspitali University Hospital for data registration and collection.
By Trend

Baku session of the conference of heads of Azerbaijan's diplomatic missions, held at the ADA University, has wrapped up, Trend reports via the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's Twitter post.

The diplomatic conference will continue in the cultural capital of Azerbaijan  Shusha, the ministry wrote.
DAVID CITY  Theres an angel looking over David City.

Located in front of the home of Bryon and Mary Forney, the angel is what's left of a maple tree that dates back more than 100 years.

According to Bryon, strong winds associated with an ice storm that hit David City last year knocked the tree onto the roof of their home.

The cost of getting her (the tree) out over the wrought-iron fence was phenomenal. So we decided to have her carved into an angel, Bryon said.

The top of the tree was removed but the bottom portion of it was kept and carved into an angel by 3 Timber Studio. The Lincoln business specializes in custom woodworking, crafting one-of-a-kind chainsaw carvings, hardwood furniture and home decor.

It was either get a hired crane to get the whole thing out of there, or do something with it, Mary said.

The 17 1/2-foot-tall angel took artist Nate Hall about two weeks to complete. The base of the tree is 4 feet in diameter. Byron noted Hall worked five-hour days until the weather got too hot.

He drew it up on a schematic and then interlaid it in the tree so he had an idea of how he was going to carve her, Bryon said. "Something that big, you make one mistake you're done. You can't go back."

The weekend of June 25, the angels face and hair were finished and the carving was covered in Australian oil as a finisher.

Bryon noted that while the angel was being crafted, he wasnt quite sure how it would turn out as he didnt see the vision yet.

When he got the backside of her wings, then I could actually start to see the angel, he added.

Bryon said it was Marys idea to carve an angel, instead of typical woodcarvings like eagles and bears.

I collect angels and fairies and I just thought Well, that would be something different nobody has, Mary noted.

The angel is named Kimberly Debra, after two good friends of the Forneys who are battling cancer.

Those who look closely at the angel may see two imperfections that show what the angel has gone through.

On her shoulder there's a spot where it's torn. And there's one on her wrist and what that's from is when the big storms came up, it twisted the tree, Bryon said.

The carving may be finished, but Bryon said he has more planned for Kimberly Debra.

My intentions are is I'm going to put two little LED lights the size of an ink pen in between her wings in the back, so during the nighttime she has a little glow up through the wings and over top of her, he said.

He noted that there has been a steady stream of people driving by to see the angel.

Everybody says how beautiful she is, Mary added. One guy stopped and said they talked about her during church.

Bryon said the angel is for their two friends but also all of David City. He noted that the angel is here to stay for a long time.

We did count the rings of the top of the tree that we took off and there were over 100 rings, he said. I'm hoping that she stands there for another 50 or 100 years.
Darnell Smith, 25, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Omaha to assault on an officer with physical contact. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison, and his sentence will be served after he completes a 15-year Iowa prison sentence for Woodbury County drug convictions.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Smith assaulted a Bureau of Indian Affairs officer on July 22 after the officer woke him and Joshua Medina, who were found sleeping in a running vehicle at a Winnebago gas station. The officer observed that both men appeared to be intoxicated, and they fought with the officer over control to the vehicle's keys. Smith struck and bit the officer, who deployed his Taser, but Smith was able to drive away.
Horizons Community Church, a United Methodist congregation in southwest Lincoln at 3200 Grainger Parkway that celebrates 25 years of ministry this year, welcomes new lead Pastor Mandy Barkhaus.

Pastor Barkhaus says she is excited and humbled about the opportunity to serve with the Horizons community beginning in July. Before serving in a church, Barkhaus worked for a nonprofit, allowing her to use her Bachelor of Arts degree in Human and Social Services Administration. She knew that helping people, especially young people, was her life calling. Although she loved her job, God called her to move from the secular nonprofit world into the church world.

Barkhaus has held various roles in church ministry over the last 15 years. She served as the hospitality director, then youth director, and then as executive pastor for the past seven years. She completed the United Methodist Course of Study in 2020, received her Masters degree from Saint Paul School of Theology last May, and was commissioned as a provisional elder in June.

She says she loved serving at St. Andrew's United Methodist Church in Omaha but continues to be open to where God calls her. She is supported by her husband Tom and sons Jax, 21, and Lex, 18. Occasionally, you may see their sons, but Mandy and Tom are newly empty nesters. Son Jax lives and works in Kansas City, and Lex will be staying in Omaha to study graphic design.

Besides ministry, Mandy and Tom enjoy hiking, biking, going on adventures, exercising and playing board games.

We are thrilled to become a part of the Horizons community, she said.

For more information, visit https://horizons.church or contact Aimee@horizonschurch.org or derek@horizonschurch.org.
RACINE  McGruff the Crime Dog is making a come-back. In his return to celebrity, he is telling Americans to Take a Bite Out of Crime, Again. The National Crime Prevention Council and McGruff are urging citizens to reconsider the benefits of community-centered crime prevention and go back to the basics of crime prevention  where neighbors and police build bridges of communication, trust and mutual respect and work together to have safe neighborhoods.

Community-centered crime prevention is at the heart of Racine Neighborhood Watch Inc.s mission. RNW works with residents to create safe, friendly, and attractive neighborhoods throughout the Racine community. After nearly 40 years, RNW continues to educate residents about crime prevention and safety, the benefits of partnering with law enforcement and solutions to remedy quality of life issues. In addition, RNW helps beautify neighborhoods, connects local community resources and contributes to the communitys well-being.

RNW works to organize and empower residents to take ownership of the neighborhoods in which they live by building positive neighbor-to-neighbor and productive community-police relationships. RNW promotes those proactive crime prevention best practices through its Neighborhood Block Watch program. The Neighborhood Block Watch program educates residents about personal and neighborhood crime prevention, safety, and BW best practices for keeping neighbors engaged, connected, and informed. In addition, RNW facilitates monthly meetings with neighbors and police at seven area community oriented policing (COP) houses.

Since neighbors are the resident experts of who and what belongs in a neighborhood  and who and what doesnt, residents are encouraged to keep their heads on a swivel and be aware of the goings-on in their neighborhood. RNW reinforces the value of partnering with law enforcement: each person is responsible for reporting suspicious people or activities by calling the Racine County Dispatch non-emergency phone number, 262-886-2300, each time there is an unusual or concerning incident.

National Night Out

National Night Out (NNO) mirrors what RNW does every day: build positive and productive community-law enforcement relationships through RNW meetings, programming and events. Americas Night Out Against Crime is Tuesday, Aug. 2.

NNO is an evening when the Racine community comes together to give crime and drugs a going away party. Its a community-building campaign where neighborhood camaraderie is embraced, and positive neighbor-police relationships are recognized and celebrated. NNO promotes community-police communication and crime prevention, demonstrates neighborhood unity and strength, and encourages ongoing and positive neighbor-to-neighbor and neighbor-to-law enforcement relationships. Neighbors are encouraged to lock their doors, turn on their outside lights and come outside to meet one another, and take a united stand against crime.

RNW is proud to play an important role in connecting neighbors, neighborhoods and law enforcement.

For the 31st consecutive year, RNW is organizing NNO events throughout the Racine community. Dozens of planners have registered NNO festivities with RNW, with events being held in neighborhood areas, on individual blocks, and at churches and community centers. Events are as unique as each neighborhood area  with participants numbering from 10 to several hundred  and include activities such as cookouts, carnival games, bouncy houses, DJs and bands, and visits from police, fire, sheriff and McGruff the Crime Dog.

NNO shines a spotlight on the significance of improving crime and drug prevention awareness, generating participation in local anti-crime efforts, strengthening neighborhood spirit, forwarding police-community relationships, and sending a message to criminals letting them know neighborhoods are organized and on watch for suspicious activities.

A NNO event by itself or a single BW or a wont change the challenges faced by the community. What they will do, however, is provide opportunities at the neighborhood level to return to the basics of what makes communities great  neighborhoods where residents know and communicate with each other, work cooperatively with law enforcement by being proactive in crime prevention, take responsibility for addressing issues and concerns while problem-solving solutions, and honor and respect the cultural, economic, racial and ethnic diversities in their own backyards.
A second Racine man faces an attempted homicide charge for allegedly shooting a 16-year-old on March 20 on Racine's north side in what authorities are calling "an attempted execution" that was captured on video.

The Racine Police Department believes the shooting is a case of mistaken identity, with the shooters believing the teenager was a Northside For Life gang member even though he is not actually affiliated with any gang.

Police also have asserted that the March 20 shooting was intended to be in retribution for the March 13 killing of 14-year-old Eugene Henderson. According to court documents, both of the men charged in the March 20 shooting were wearing clothing in tribute to Henderson when they were arrested and police asserted that those charged believe the NFL gang was responsible for Henderson's death.
NEW YORK  When Melissa Martinez applied to have her student loan debt forgiven more than a decade ago, the U.S. Department of Education told her she was ineligible.

Martinez, a professor, tried again this past year and managed to erase the last $6,000 she owed for her doctorate. She wasnt alone  according to new federal figures, more than 145,000 borrowers have had the remainder of their federal student loan debt canceled through a program for people who work for schools, governments or nonprofits.

Hundreds of thousands more have completed the paperwork for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, and officials say many more likely qualify. An Oct. 31 deadline to apply under the less stringent rules is fast approaching.

Theres a broader conversation underway in America about how to handle student loan debt. An estimated 43 million Americans carry student loans worth $1.6 trillion, according to federal figures. Federal student loan payments were paused during the coronavirus pandemic and will remain so until at least Aug. 31. President Joe Biden is expected to make some sort of announcement about student loan relief before then.

Nearly all of the cancellations through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program have come since last October, when the government temporarily relaxed the complex requirements. Before that, the program had rejected more than 90% of applicants, the Department of Education said in 2019.

A spokesperson for the Education Department said Wednesday that most borrowers who were denied then were deemed ineligible because they didnt meet employer eligibility requirements, their employment dates didnt align with the dates of their student loans, or they didnt have the required direct loans.

I thought maybe it would work now, said Martinez, who graduated from the University of Texas, Austin in 2010 with a doctorate in educational administration.

Martinez said the money will go towards lowering credit card debt and building savings to have on hand for emergencies and unexpected expenses.

Knowing that its forgiven lifts some of the worry or stress off my shoulders, she said.

Even though the deadline is in October, Martinez advises people who may qualify for the loan forgiveness to apply as soon as possible. She found the process difficult to navigate, even with the relaxed rules. It took her five months to complete the paperwork and another three months to hear back from the program.

I remember calling and staying on the line for an hour waiting, she said. Martinez also initially had her proof of employment denied, though it was approved when she re-sent the documents.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, launched in 2007 to steer more graduates to public service, cancels the remainder of a borrowers federal student loan debt after they make 10 years of monthly payments while doing public interest work, or 120 monthly payments over any time span while doing public interest work.

Teachers, librarians, nurses, public interest lawyers, military members and other public workers all qualify, along with people who work for non-profits.

So far, the forgiveness totals almost $8.1 billion in federal loans, but that amount is just a fraction of the debt that could qualify. The average amount of debt forgiven through the program is $64,968.

Under the reformed rules, loan servicers count payments that had previously been deemed unacceptable, such as when borrowers mistakenly or unwittingly signed up for non-qualifying plans.

Borrowers who are currently jobless or not working in public service may still qualify for forgiveness, according to the Department of Education. And the months during the pandemic since March 2020 in which payments on federal loans have been paused count as credits towards the total number of payments required for the program.

The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed new rules for the program that are expected to take effect by July 2023. They would give borrowers more leeway if theyre late on payments or dont pay in full.

Under the original rules, borrowers must make payments in full within 15 days of the due date to get credit toward their 120 monthly payments. The proposal would relax that, allowing borrowers to make progress even if theyre late or make the payment in multiple installments.

The waiver that expires Oct. 31 was mostly meant to make up for widespread confusion about which types of loans and payment plans are eligible under the program. Some borrowers had made years of payments only to find out they werent in an eligible plan or loan program.

Associated Press Writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.
1. Yes. After what happened in Uvalde, its important to have that level of security.

2. Yes. The district should start a program to recruit and train qualified officers for the job.

3. No. With 50 KISD campuses, the additional cost to taxpayers would be unacceptable.

4. No. It would be too hard to achieve. Just keep the current practice of rotating officers.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say without knowing how such a program would be instituted..

Vote

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By Trend

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov expressed confidence in the victorious outcome of a peacemaking process [with Armenia], while delivering a speech at a meeting of heads of Azerbaijan's diplomatic missions in Shusha, Trend reports.

According to him, everyone will witness Azerbaijan's progress in peacebuilding in the near future.

The minister also noted Azerbaijan's restoring the violated international law, as a result of the 44-day second Karabakh war.
LINCOLN  The Nebraska Republican Party has told six GOP activists who have agitated for changes in the party that they are not welcome at its annual convention Saturday in Kearney.

This week, the state party sent letters to a half-dozen people saying it would not credential them because they either had switched political parties, started new parties or supported candidates outside of the GOP.

The letters inflame a years-long fight over the partys future between populists, like these six, and the part of the states political power structure led by Gov. Pete Ricketts, several Nebraska Republicans said.

Five of the six people who got the letters told the Nebraska Examiner on Thursday that the fight involves who should control the state party.

Three of the six challenged GOP incumbents in recent primaries. Two said the incumbents lacked loyalty to former President Donald Trump and his unproven allegations about the 2020 election. A third wants the state to count ballots by hand.

One of the six, Matt Innis, challenged U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse in the 2020 primary. His rejection letter cited his vocal criticism of Ricketts as a reason he was turned away. He regularly posts memes targeting political officials and staff.

A stupid thing to do

Innis has called Ricketts top political staffer a dirty trickster and questioned whether she and Ricketts were behind groping allegations against former gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster. Eight women alleged in an April 14 Nebraska Examiner article that Herbster had groped them.

Herbster has denied wrongdoing. Ricketts has denied taking part in any conspiracy.

Innis said the rejection letters were intended to serve as a deterrent, so that people dont go to the convention.

But it doesnt matter.  It was a stupid thing for the committee to do, he said, adding that he plans to be in Kearney and have his supporters in the meeting press delegates to overrule the credentialing committee and let him in.

Robert Borer, who lost a primary election challenge in May to Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, was rejected for threatening to create a new political party after he lost.

Borer said Thursday that he is now running a write-in campaign for governor and that he plans to hand out business cards for his campaign Saturday in Kearney.

He said he wont acknowledge University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen as the GOP nominee for governor because Borer questions the machines that Nebraska uses to count paper ballots. He worries they can be manipulated.

I think theyre running scared, Borer said of the state GOP sending him a letter. Its an awakened We the People against the self-appointed ruling elite.

He lost faith in Ricketts

Pam Dingman, who chairs the state GOPs credentialing committee, said in a statement that the state party welcomes debate and criticism from GOP voters.

But, she said, the Nebraska GOP would not let people use its annual convention to help recruit or elect candidates running against Republicans.

Otoe County Republican Rex Schroder, who also challenged Evnen in the primary, said his letter said he was rejected because he sent an email in May to state GOP leaders saying he planned to register as a Libertarian.

He said he never registered to go to the state convention because it cost too much and said he wont be going because he wants no part of the Pete Ricketts swamp.

Schroder said he lost faith in Ricketts because of how aggressively he and his team pressed for Pillen over other Republican candidates worth considering for the nomination for governor.

Some Republicans have spent years trying to wrest control of the party from Ricketts. Privately, some said they have found help from fervent fans of Trump in the state GOP. In other states, Trump supporters have seized control over state and local parties.

Ricketts endorsed Trump in 2016 and 2020. But Ricketts and Trump supported different candidates in this years governors primary race. Ricketts backed Pillen. Trump backed Herbster, even after Ricketts lobbied Trump to stay out of the race.

Ricketts controls everything, Schroder said, including Evnen, who he said should be counting ballots by hand and not by machine.

The letter sent to Lancaster County GOP activist Fanchon Blythe cited one of her social media posts expressing curiosity about a potential write-in candidate for governor, Dave Wright.

Theyre trying not to let people be credentialed that go against them, Blythe said of the establishment.

More than 600 expected

The letter sent to Lancaster County Republican Faith White said she was denied credentials because she recorded a phone call with state GOP chairman Dan Welch that became the subject of a news story.

In that June 2020 call, Welch told White that the state party had made a mistake by targeting then-GOP legislative candidate Janet Palmtag in a GOP on GOP legislative race. Welch pointed out that Ricketts had made the decision to target Palmtag, who has since re-registered as a Democrat.

The other person who received a letter from the state GOP was Amy Tharp, the newly elected chairwoman of the Custer County GOP. She could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The state GOP expects more than 600 delegates, alternates and guests at the convention. The convention typically draws between 200 and 300 people, officials said.

Tagline font - Nebraska Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Go to nebraskaexaminer.com for more information.
In the first five days of July alone, two dozen Americans were killed in mass shootings, and another 130 injured. And in the last seven months, the Tribune has written twice about gun violence and firearm safety.

As deaths by bullet continue to devastate the county, the Tribune is once again stressing the importance of keeping guns unloaded and locked up, as well as reporting threats of violence.

Last spring, a grocery store shooting caused 10 fatalities, and the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde left 21 dead. On July 4, the parade attack in Highland Park killed seven, and that day alone 10 other mass shootings caused injuries and/or fatalities, according to the Gun Violence Archive. So far this year, over 300 mass shootings  including those that did not lead to deaths  have occurred. The 2021 total neared 700.

In the majority of cases in the past two decades, the firearms used  including assault rifles  were legally purchased.

The idea that an 18-year old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong, President Biden said of the Uvalde shooting perpetrator. What in Gods name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone?

Everytown Gun Laws puts Wisconsins gun law strength at just 27.5 out of 100, though the gun violence rate per 100,000 is slightly below the national average, at 12.2 out of 30 compared to 15.

Wisconsin is 23rd in the U.S. for gun law strength, with weaknesses including no background check or purchase permit required; no ban on the purchase of military use assault weapons; no requirement for new guns sold to have childproof features; no waiting period; and no prohibiting of high capacity magazine sales. Those purchasing rifles and shotguns must be 18 or older, with handgun purchasers at least 21.

La Crosse is unable to set different rules, as state law dictates that cities are not allowed to set their own gun safety policies.

The state does require secured storage, though that doesnt mean the practice is followed by everyone  around one third of U.S. homes in which children reside have at least some unsecured firearms. Guns are not allowed in K-12 schools, with the exception of law enforcement. Guns cannot be possessed by felons, convicted stalkers or those who have a hate crime conviction.

Wisconsin has relatively weak gun laws and has not enacted or repealed major gun safety policies in recent years, despite significant public pressure after the Madison shootings in 2020, Everytown says. (Homicides in the city were over double the year prior, and shots fired incidents increased by over 100). The Badger State has failed to pass laws requiring background checks for all gun sales or an extreme risk law, but has also resisted gun lobby pressure to repeal its concealed carry permit law or enact stand your ground.

According to the National Institute of Justice/The Violence Project database, through 2019 over 80% of perpetrators of K-12 school shootings stole guns from family members. Some of the 172 mass shooters in the database were as young as 11.

Of shooters high school age or younger, 92% were suicidal. Among all children, those living in a home with a gun are four times more likely to die by suicide and three times more likely to die by homicide.

The guns were most worried about (are) the ones that are unlocked and loaded, says Dr. Emily Rae, behavioral health specialist at Gundersen Health System. Theres definitely a risk to having a gun in the house, but if you store it safely, the risk of injury or death is greatly reduced.

According to Everytown for Gun Safety, nationwide in 2022 alone there have been at least 126 unintentional shootings by children, resulting in 55 deaths and 78 injuries. In Wisconsin last May, a 2-year-old in Milwaukee accidentally shot and injured himself.

Says Rae, I want adults, parents and caregivers to remember that even very young kids can fire guns.

Nationwide Childrens Hospital states that in 16% of unintentional firearm deaths among children younger than 13, the gun was believed to be a toy, and the majority of children who find a gun will handle it even if they were told not to.

Parents think that kids understand that its not a toy, but a good number of them dont understand that, says Rae.

In 2020, guns surpassed vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death in children, with fatalities among those 19 and under increasing around 30% from 2019 and 2020. Among all ages, the increase was 13.5%, with a total of 45,222 gun related deaths in 2020.

Hiding guns is not an adequate precaution, says Nationwide Childrens Hospital, noting 75% of children who live in homes with guns know where they are being stored.

They think kids dont know where (the gun is), but they do, says Rae. They have such a curiosity.

Gundersen experts advise those who do have guns in the home to always keep them unloaded and stored in a locked safe, with ammunition locked in a separate safe. Nationwide Childrens Hospital stresses lock combinations or keys should not be accessible to children, youth should never be left unsupervised in a home with a gun, regardless of if it is locked up, and parents and guardians should ask relatives and friends if they have guns, and make sure they are unloaded and locked, before allowing a child in the home.

Adults and peers should also take any talk or social media posts alluding to shootings or suicide seriously. Per the National Institute of Justice, 48% of persons who engaged in mass shootings shared their plans with one or more people in advance. Nearly a quarter had created legacy tokens, such as typed manifestos.The fact that leakage is a common occurrence with mass shootings provides an opportunity for intervention, the National Institute of Justice says.

Concerns about planned shootings or violence can be reported to the La Crosse Police Department by calling La Crosse Area Crime Stoppers at 608-784-TIPS or submitting online at https://www.p3tips.com/459. People can also download the Crime Stoppers App P3 to submit a tip via cell phone.
By Trend

Secret Service Director James Murray is stepping down from his post as head of the storied protective service, according to a statement issued by the agency Thursday, Trend reports citing The Washington Post.

Murray, who has held the job since 2019, has been looking to retire for some time and plans to work in the private sector, according to a senior Department of Homeland Security official with knowledge of his decision.

He has accepted a top security job with the California-based social media company Snapchat, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal details. Murray, a 27-year veteran of the Secret Service, filled various top roles at the agency before he was named director in May 2019. His last day will be July 30, according to the statement.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that under Murrays leadership the Secret Service has reinforced its stature as the preeminent protective agency in the world and has increased in sophistication and scope its investigative capabilities.
Biologists in the American West are worried about an invasive kind of fish recently found in part of the Colorado River.

Biologists have been working there to protect native fish which are threatened by the appearance of the smallmouth bass.

National Park Service fisheries biologist Jeff Arnold found three young smallmouth bass in the lower Colorado River recently. The park service confirmed that the fish had been found and were likely reproducing in the Colorado River below the Glen Canyon Dam in the Southwestern state of Arizona.

The Colorado River is a major river of North America. It travels through parts of seven western U.S. states. Construction of the Glen Canyon Dam formed Lake Powell.

Smallmouth bass are a popular sport fish. But they feed on another kind of fish called the humpback chub. The humpback chub is an ancient fish that is native to the river but is threatened. Biologists like Arnold have been working to help the threatened fish recover.

Predators like the smallmouth bass have caused problems for the upper rivers environment. But they were held back for years in Lake Powell by the Glen Canyon Dam.

However, with water levels dropping, the invasive fish have gotten past the dam and closer to where the chub remain.

Brian Healy has worked with the humpback chub for more than 10 years. He established the Native Fish Ecology and Conservation Program.

Healy said, Its pretty devastating to see all the hard work and effort youve put into removing other invasive species and translocating populations around to protect the fish and to see all that effort overturned really quickly.

As lake levels drop, non-native fish that live in warm surface waters in Lake Powell are getting closer to the dam and its penstocks. Penstocks are underground steel tubes that carry water to machines that produce electricity from the water current. The water is then released on the other side of the dam.

If predator fish continue to flow through the penstocks and populate the river below the dam, they could harm native fish. That could undo years of work restoring the rivers environment.

The chub almost disappeared years ago. But the fish have come back with help from fish biologists and scientists and engineers. Agencies spend millions of dollars each year to keep invasive species under control in the upper part of the river.

The Endangered Species Act is a law that requires government agencies to act in ways that will not harm threatened animals. That includes structures like the Glen Canyon Dam.

Federal, state, and other government leaders are expected to release a plan in August containing ideas for policymakers. Their aim is to control smallmouth bass and other predatory fish below the dam.

The National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and Arizona Game and Fish Department are moving quickly to try and contain the problem. During an emergency meeting, they decided to increase efforts to follow fish populations and block off the part of the river where the smallmouth bass were found.

Arnold said the nets being used cannot keep out smaller fish. But he noted it is the best his group can do with available resources.

Experts say leaving more water in Lake Powell would be the best answer. But that is difficult under current dry conditions.

In June, the Department of the Interior told the seven states that depend on the Colorado River to save nearly 5 billion cubic meters of water. It is unclear where that water will be stored. But Healy hopes Lake Powell is being considered.

Im Gregory Stachel.

Brittany Peterson reported this story for The Associated Press. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English.

___________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

predator  n. an animal that lives by killing and eating other animals

devastating  adj. causing extreme emotional pain

species  n. a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young animals or plants

translocate  v. to cause something to be moved from one place or position to another

net  n. a device that is used for catching or holding things or for keeping things out of a space and that is made of pieces of string, rope, or wire woven together with spaces in between

___________________________________________________________________

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LINCOLN  Communities facing dry weather and drought conditions may be facing additional needs this year. The Nebraska office of USDA Rural Development stands ready to offer aid for emergency equipment to communities in rural Nebraska.

Our Community Facilities Programs have direct loans and grants to assist communities with populations of 20,000 or less with getting new or updated emergency equipment to meet their needs, explained Community Programs Director Kelley Messenger.

For example, USDA Rural Development recently worked with Gosper County Nebraska to help with the purchase a new grass fire truck through the Community Facility Disaster Grant Program.

According to Acting Fire Chief Dustin Clouse, his department has had more fire calls recently than in normal years, which he attributes to high winds and drought conditions. He said the increased capability of adding an additional truck is certainly welcome but added that the truck is special to the fire district for another reason.

Fire Chief Darren Krull was the person finishing the build-out on the new truck, which was not complete on April 7, 2022, when he was killed in a vehicle crash while responding to a fire. We came together to finish the build-out the night before his funeral. So, this truck is very special to us for that reason. It reminds us of him.

USDA RD Community Programs Loan Specialist David Fulton assisted with the project. He said he is proud of the work he and his team did to get the Community Facility Grant application processed for Gosper County, with an area of 463 square miles, they now have a grass fire truck dedicated to their needs 24/7. He hopes other departments will reach out as well.

USDA RD serves rural America, so we understand rural fire districts and rural issues. Come to us, were here for you, said Fulton.

Interested communities are encouraged to reach out to a USDA RD representative in their region to discuss project needs and qualifications. The following professionals are available across the state to take questions and help applicants apply for USDA RD Community Facility funds, including grants available for public safety services such as fire departments, police stations, prisons, police vehicles, fire trucks, public works vehicles or equipment; and healthcare facilities such as hospitals, medical clinics, dental clinics, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities.

North Platte Office  Sara Pierce (308) 221-3689

Kearney Office  Dave Fulton (308) 455-9844 or Kaleb Browning (308) 455-9838

Norfolk Office  Anthony Guenther (402) 371-5350 ext. 120 or Marla Ourada (402) 437-5598

Lincoln Office  Marshall Stephens (402) 437-5732 or Niki Dittmer (402) 437-5737

Under the Biden-Harris Administration, Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities, create jobs, and improve the quality of life for millions of Americans in rural areas. For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov/ne.

To subscribe to USDA Rural Development updates, visit our GovDelivery subscriber page.
LEXINGTON  An Orleans man accused of selling THC and nicotine cartridges to Lexington Middle School students pleaded no contest to amended charges.

Hector Lugo, 22, had been charged with distribution of a controlled substance, a Class 2A felony, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Lugo appeared in Dawson County District Court before Judge James Doyle on Friday, July 1 for a hearing. The first charge was amended to attempt of a Class 2A felony and the second charge was dismissed by the court. Lugo plead no contest.

A no contest plea is neither an admission nor denial of guilt, but the plea is treated the same as a guilty plea.

Judge Doyle set a sentencing hearing for Sept. 19 at 8:30 a.m.

According to court documents, on Thursday, Nov.4, Lexington Police Officer Luke Pinkelman located several Lexington Middle School students with THC oil and nicotine cartridges at the school.

Pinkelman and school staff spoke with the students, who said they bought the THC and nicotine cartridges from a male identified as hector048 on Snapchat.

The students stated they would see hector048 advertise on Snapchat that he was in Lexington and selling the cartridges and would arrange a place to meet for the sale.

One student and their parents agreed to help the Lexington Police Department and Cooperative Operations for Drug Enforcement (CODE) task force arrange to buy from hector048.

The meeting was arranged at Morton Elementary near the playground, where it was stated hector048 had met for sales in the past.

The student identified the vehicle hector048 had driven to past meetups, and a felony traffic stop was then conducted by CODE and Lexington police officers.

Lugo was alone in the vehicle and allegedly had his phone open and unlocked in his lap with Snapchat open. The app showed a conversation between hector048 and the students account, according to the court records.

Lugo was arrested and booked into the Dawson County Jail. His vehicle was sealed and a search warrant was executed.

Lugo has also been charged with four felonies in Harlan County after a search warrant was executed on his residence in Orleans after his arrest in Lexington.

Officers with the CODE task force located drug paraphernalia, THC vape cartridges, around 6.7 pounds of THC edibles, $25,670 in currency and a large machete, according to court documents.

A warrant was issued for his arrest on Nov. 12 and he was taken into custody after his court appearance in Lexington on Nov. 16.
By Trend

Ateam of nine scientists is headed north for Turkiyes second Arctic expedition sponsored by the government and coordinated by the countrys top science body. Professor Burcu Ozsoy, who previously led Turkish scientists in an Antarctica expedition, is leading this expedition as well, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

The scientists journey began with a flight to Oslo, Norway before they headed to Tromso and boarded the PolarXplorer research vessel. For 20 days, they will be out in the Barents Sea for their research. They will work on 14 different projects throughout this period, from monitoring marine life to pollution in the atmosphere, meteorological observations, determination of marine pollutants, physical parameters of seawater and the impact of marine trade routes on the environment, as well as the presence of microplastics in the sea.

Ozsoy said on Thursday that their past six expeditions to the South Pole made waves and they released nearly 100 scientific publications from studies they conducted during the expeditions. Our expedition to the North Pole is as important. Like the south, it is affected by climate change and has a vast basis for scientific information, for physical, ground sciences, science branches examining living creatures and social sciences, she said.

The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the expedition that Turkey first held in 2019 and with restrictions related to the pandemic largely lifted, the team was free to travel.

Ozsoy says their projects will particularly focus on where the world is going due to climate change.

The expedition will end in the Svalbard archipelago, a strategic location. Last month, a draft law for Turkiyes participation in the Spitsbergen (Svalbard) Treaty was presented to the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) for ratification. The treaty, signed in 1920, regulates the demilitarization of the archipelago and grants equal rights to signatory countries to engage in commercial activities in the archipelago. Ozsoy says the treaty will be beneficial for scientific research as well, especially facilitating the collection of scientific samples in the region.
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP)  The European Union has asked Turkish Cypriot authorities in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus to toughen up measures aimed at reducing the rising number of migrants seeking asylum in the island nation's internationally recognized south.

An EU official said Friday that the bloc explained its concerns" about the issue and that Turkish Cypriot authorities must do what's necessary" to curb migrant arrivals. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition anonymity because he's not allowed to speak about the issue publicly.

Cyprus was split 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. Cypriot government authorities say the overwhelming majority of migrant arrivals occurs via Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot north through a loosely regulated student visa system.

The Cypriot Interior Ministry on Friday again accused Turkey of systematically instrumentalizing economic migrants from sub-Saharan Africa."

The EU wants Turkish Cypriot authorities to tighten up vetting procedures for issuing such visas to prevent applicants from using them to reach northern Cyprus, cross a porous U.N.-controlled buffer zone and then seek asylum in the Greek Cypriot south. Although Turkish Cypriots receive EU funding, only the south enjoys full membership benefits.

The EU is also helping Cypriot authorities bolster monitoring and surveillance of the buffer zone to deter crossings in a way that is compatible with EU law, since the 180-kilometer (120-mile) long area isnt a formal border.

Cyprus' interior ministry says the number of asylum-seekers in the first half of this year amounted to 12,000 - equal to the number for all of last year. It says asylum-seekers make up an EU high of 5% of Cyprus 915,000 people in the south.

Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said Friday that he has proposed setting up a joint, U.N.-facilitated committee of officials from either side tasked with finding ways of curbing irregular migration as well as strengthening security and surveillance along the buffer zone and increasing patrolling by the coast guards."

Tatar has insisted that the only way to move forward on a peace deal in Cyprus is for Turkish Cypriots to attain equal sovereign status with the Cypriot government and agree on a two-state accord.

The EU and the U.N. Security Council say that goes against the agreed-upon settlement framework of reunifying the island as a federation composed of Greek and Turkish Cypriot zones. Greek Cypriots reject any deal that would formalize the island's partition.

Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration.
A cell phone ping in the Madison area informed authorities that the accused shooter of an Independence Day parade in Highland Park might have come to Wisconsin, Madison police said.

Around 5 p.m. on Monday, the Madison Police Department received a call from federal authorities telling them that the cell phone of Robert Crimo III, who was charged with killing seven people in Highland Park, pinged once in the "Madison area," said police spokesperson Stephanie Fryer. While one ping off a Madison-area cell tower was not enough to provide Crimo's exact location or even indicate he was in the city, Madison Police began calling in its SWAT team in soon after.

By 5:30 p.m., the FBI formally requested a SWAT team from MPD, Fryer said. Soon after, the FBI told the department that they had shifted their focus to Middleton, which uses the Dane County Sheriff Office's SWAT resources, Fryer said . MPD kept its SWAT team ready in Shorewood Hills in the event that Crimo was in the area and crossed back into Madison, according to Fryer. The department notified the village of its presence, she said.

Through the incident, MPD was not aware that Crimo had contemplated a second shooting in Madison, and received no formal alerts about the investigation, Fryer said. The Department did not learn about the possibility of an attack until Wednesday morning, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said on Wednesday.
By Trend

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli President Isaac Herzog discussed Turkiye-Israel relations in a phone call on Thursday, the Presidential Communications Directorate said, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

Herzog called Erdogan to extend greetings on the occasion of the Qurban Bayram (Eid al-Adha), the statement said.

The Turkish president also said he hopes the Muslim holiday brings peace and serenity to both countries, the region and the world as a whole.

Both leaders also expressed determination to focus on a positive agenda and further enhance bilateral relations.

In recent months, the two regional powers have sought a rapprochement after nearly a decade of broken ties.

Israel's presidency is traditionally a ceremonial post but Herzog, a veteran of the left-wing Labor Party, has taken on a high-profile diplomatic role.
Jamie Wells doesnt want to vote ever again.

The one and only time she did was back in November 2020. That single ballot caused so much stress and turmoil and mounting debt that she will probably never again do it.

Wells, 53, is one of five people charged with election fraud for having a UPS Store listed as their voting address by Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney  a Republican candidate vying for Wisconsin attorney general who has made voter fraud and election security key issues in his campaign.

Wells and her husband, who was also charged, could be considered collateral damage of the widespread false belief that massive voter fraud marred the 2020 election. That lie has sparked numerous lawsuits in Wisconsin and a raft of GOP-authored bills seeking to impose voting restrictions  all of them vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Under Wisconsin law, only residential addresses  where someone actually lives  can be used for voter registration.

Wells said she and her husband didnt know that using the UPS Store address to vote was a problem. She said she felt motivated to vote for the very first time to reelect then-President Donald Trump.

The couple now face up to 3 years in prison and maximum fines of $10,000 each. Wells and her husband also would be barred from voting until they serve their full sentences, including any probation or supervision.

A Wisconsin Watch analysis of the states voter rolls found that Wells and the others charged in Fond du Lac County are far from the only people who could unknowingly have listed incorrect voting addresses.

There are 30 UPS Stores in the state, and 117 people have those addresses on their voter registrations. Additionally, a Wisconsin Watch search of 47 U.S. Post Office addresses in Dane and Milwaukee counties, where people can get a P.O. Box, found 44 voters registered at those addresses.

Wells said she and her husband have used that UPS Store in Fond du Lac as their address for decades without a problem. They registered to vote using that address because they didnt have another one to list.

But this (prosecutor) here seems to think Im a criminal, she said. And thats the part that upsets me most of anything.

Wisconsin Watch found at least one district attorney in Wisconsin who received a similar referral of people using UPS Store addresses to vote. La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke said he was alerted to 15 people who had voted using such addresses in 2020 by the La Crosse city clerk. Gruenke, a Democrat, declined to prosecute.

Im not sure what kind of fraud would be happening, he said.

Ion Meyn, an assistant law professor at the University of Wisconsin, called the cases against Wells and others in Fond du Lac County a real abuse of (prosecutorial) discretion.

Toney did not respond to multiple requests for an interview nor answer emailed questions. But in a statement to Wisconsin Watch, he said attorney ethics rules prevent him from commenting on a pending case.

Elections are cornerstone (sic) of our democracy which must be defended at every turn, not just when you agree with the law or the politics, he wrote. I want people (to) exercise their right to vote and ensure they do so lawfully. Wisconsin law requires someone to register to vote where they live, not where they receive mail. That is made clear on voter registration forms.

Toney touts his tough fraud stance

Voter fraud is extremely rare because, among other factors, its difficult to do with all of the safeguards and checks in the process. Multiple reviews and audits found no widespread fraud in Wisconsins 2020 election  or in any other state.

Local elections clerks in Wisconsin referred 12 cases to prosecutors related to the 2020 general election, out of 3.3 million ballots cast.

But Wells and the others charged in Fond du Lac County were not among them. Toney has said the tip came from Peter Bernegger, a Wisconsin man who has since been fined $2,400 by the Wisconsin Elections Commission for making frivolous complaints  including the one against Wells.

Election and criminal law experts questioned the motives behind, and the validity of, the cases against Wells and others. They say prosecutions like these  as well as disinformation about voter fraud and its prevalence  can discourage people from voting and lead to new laws that add unnecessary barriers to voting.

If a voter cant trust that an innocent error wont result in a felony conviction, that might make voters think twice about whether its worth it to vote at all, Marquette University election law expert Atiba Ellis said.

During a February news conference, Toney said there was a public education aspect to his decision to charge.

Its important to draw attention to this so people understand how do they vote or register, to make sure that they dont end up with a referral to a local district attorney that could result in a felony voter fraud charge, Toney said.

During his introduction at the Republican Party of Wisconsin convention in May, Toney pushed his reputation as one of the most aggressive prosecutors of election fraud in the state.

Couple leads mobile life

Wells considers Fond du Lac home, although her Louisiana accent might hint otherwise.

Wells met her husband when he was working in Louisiana, and they married in 1989. A month later they moved to Madison. His work on farms takes him all over the state. Instead of being separated for long periods of time or long drives, they live in a 42-foot pull-behind camper.

In an interview with Wisconsin Watch, Wells said while she considers herself a Republican, she and her husband had never been politically active. She didnt even know Wisconsin was a swing state.

I just figured Trump could do a better job, she said. And I just aint a Joe Biden fan. He seems like he might be a nice guy, but I just thought Trump was the better thought.

So she and her husband registered to vote online, using the same address they had used for decades.

It never told me nothing (was wrong), she said.

Then in January, while she was visiting family in Louisiana, Wells got a call from a Fond du Lac police detective.

I spoke to him, and I told him the exact truth of what happened, Wells said, adding that she later discovered only through a friend that she and her husband had been criminally charged.

A hammer in search of a nail

Eliza Sweren-Becker, voting rights and elections expert in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, said when there are instances of misconduct, its usually fraud targeting voters  not the other way around.

Ellis, the Marquette expert, agreed, pointing to a recent election fraud scandal in North Carolina involving an alleged absentee ballot-harvesting scheme that caused a 2018 primary election for Congress to be overturned. The Republican operative who was charged died earlier this year while awaiting trial.

Thats what an illegal voting operation looks like, Ellis said  not an innocent mistake by a person who is actually eligible to vote.

Ellis said the choice to prosecute cases involving incorrect votes suggests an effort not to ensure the integrity of elections but to promote a false narrative that there is widespread criminality in the voting process.

Fraud is about an intent to deceive, Ellis said. And the danger in our current election integrity rhetoric is innocent mistakes get swept up and purported as deceptive acts.

The lie of widespread fraud has consequences: A June Marquette Law School Poll found two-thirds of Wisconsin Republicans said they have little or no confidence in the legitimacy of President Joe Bidens election.

However, Sweren-Becker said organized efforts to find voter fraud have mostly come up empty because its not widespread and rarely impacts elections.

The new laws and prosecutions are all a hammer in search of a nail, she said.

DA refuses to prosecute mistake

Toney wasnt the only county prosecutor who had to decide whether to charge voters with a UPS Store address on their registration.

Gruenke, the La Crosse County district attorney, said he reviewed 22 cases referred to his office after the November 2020 election for people who used UPS Store addresses to register, including 15 who voted.

Gruenke gets a handful of referrals for suspected election fraud after major elections. He said he has charged maybe five people in the past decade, but most referrals involve a simple mistake.

Sometimes someone requests an absentee ballot but then votes in person. Elderly voters who have memory issues may vote at the wrong polling location. Sometimes theres a mix-up due to a common name, like a father and son who are Sr. and Jr.

Like those cases, Gruenke considered the UPS Store-related referrals to be a mistake  not fraud.

Theres no way a jury would say they intentionally did something to fool anybody, Gruenke said.

A really tortured view of the law

Meyn, the UW law professor, said for a jury to convict Wells and the others, Toney would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they werent eligible to vote  and that they registered knowing they were not qualified to vote.

Nothing in the criminal complaint alleges they were ineligible or knowingly misrepresented where they lived. Meyn said the prosecution appears politically motivated.

Here you have a prosecutor who is taking a really tortured view, in my mind, of what this provision (in the statute) means, Meyn said. I just find that so irresponsible.

Wells and her attorney are optimistic theyll win. But even if they do, the episode has already exacted a high cost. The months since Wells was charged have been tough on her, her family and even her marriage. As she awaits trial, Wells said her emotions are like a roller-coaster, and she often cries.

The couple expects to rack up more than $17,000 in legal bills. Wells said relatives have pitched in to pay for their defense.

Were not millionaires, so weve had to borrow money, she said. And yeah, (we) still have to pay it all back.
Dawn Crim, who was appointed by Gov. Tony Evers to lead the states Department of Safety and Professional Services more than three years ago, will step down from her post on Aug. 1.

Crim will be succeeded by Dan Hereth, who currently serves as the departments assistant deputy secretary. Hereth, a Watertown native, joined the department in early 2019 after working as deputy district director for U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, for more than 10 years.

Evers announced Crims upcoming departure on Friday and lauded her efforts to redesign the states building plan review process to expedite licensing and updates to commercial building and plumbing codes. The Department of Safety and Professional Services processes the states professional license applications.

Even before joining my cabinet, Ive known Dawn to be an exceptional leader, and Ive long considered her to be a great friend, Evers said in a statement. There is no challenge she hasnt been willing to take on and work to solve, including throughout the many challenges weve faced together over the last three years.

The Department of Safety and Professional Services has become the point of criticism by some Republican lawmakers over the last several years for delays in the states licensing process. At the same time, department officials have said staffing shortages and outdated equipment within the department, as well as insufficient state funding from the Republican-led Legislature, have exacerbated delays.

For the past three and a half years I have been focused on modernizing our agency, integrating our systems and staff, and securing the resources we need to work efficiently and effectively across all our divisions, Crim said in a statement. After more than ten years of operating with disparate processes and policies, DSPS is now a unified agency focused on ensuring safety and supporting the economy.
The role of covenant and building religious communities

Timothy Ellis, incoming Intern Minister for the Magic Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, joins us Sunday, July 10 for our service. Timothy is joining us after completing a Masters of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School and has served two other congregations in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Timothy will share on the role of covenant and building religious communities of strength and support.

Our service Sunday will be both in person at our location 160 Ninth Ave. E. in Twin Falls and on Zoom. To access Zoom, please email mvuuf83301@yahoo.com for sign-in information. In the subject line write Zoom Service July 10.

Newcomers of all religious paths or none at all are always welcome. Unitarian Universalists believe in the dignity of every person regardless of race, creed or none at all, immigrant status or sexual orientation.

Everyone is welcome, no exceptions. We believe in justice, equality and compassion in human relations; and acceptance of one another. We are handicapped accessible in rear.

Please park in the rear of the building or on the street in front or the side of the building. Child care is available.

Join us at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

For further information, please call 208-410-8904, email us at mvuuf83301@yahoo.com or visit magicvalleyUU.org. When calling, please state your name in order to be connected.

Worship at Ascension

The Episcopal Church of the Ascension will celebrate Morning Prayer at 9 a.m. Sunday. Childcare may be available, though children are welcome in the worship service. A fellowship coffee hour will follow the service.

The service will be online as well as in person. To view, click on the link at episcopaltwinfalls.org or go to Ascensions YouTube channel The Episcopal Church of the AscensionTwin Falls.

Ascension Episcopal Church is handicapped accessible and is located at 371 Eastland Drive N. More information about Ascension can be found at ascension.episcopalidaho.org or 208-733-1248.
Talk about a get out of jail free card.

Out of all the people Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachins profligate spending has  or will  hurt, one person will emerge unscathed.

Janice McGeachin.

With hubris rather than prudence the order of the day, the erstwhile gubernatorial challenger spent her modest office budget into a crater.

It began when McGeachin refused to follow Idahos public records act  denying reporters access to records into last years inquisition into nonexistent critical race theory, socialism, communism and Marxism in the public schools. When Attorney General Lawrence Wasdens office advised McGeachin to hand over the records, she hired an attorney who told her what she wanted to hear.

That led to a judicial tongue-lashing, a fine, a potential contempt of court citation and a bill  McGeachins shop owed the Idaho Press Club the $29,000 it spent on attorneys and court fees to secure the lieutenant governors compliance. Coming in October, that gave McGeachin roughly a half-year to economize enough to free up the cash and avoid a budget deficit when the fiscal year ended on June 30.

Instead, she doubled her staff by adding an administrative assistant and increased her monthly payroll by nearly 33%

But the Legislatures budget committee refused McGeachins plea for a bail out. So by March, she was facing the prospect of a $15,373 deficit at the end of the fiscal cycle.

With Idahos Constitution requiring state agencies to balance their budgets, the cost savings began.

Gone were McGeachins two staffers, including Chief of Staff Jordan Watters.

By May, reporters found her office essentially shut down. The doors were locked. The lights were off. The curtains were drawn. A note offered office hours, Tues/Thurs. 10-2 or by appt. and a telephone number with a California area code that initially got answered by a recorded message selling insurance or gift cards to Walmart or Target.

Still, it fell short. As the fiscal year closed, McGeachins office lacked enough money to cover her paycheck of $2,743 every two weeks. The state Controllers Office paid her $723.70  $148.50 in gross wages and $575.20 to cover benefits such as health insurance, retirement and Social Security payroll taxes.

This would close the fiscal year with an estimated $0.72 remaining in the appropriation budget for the office, Chief Deputy Controller Joshua Whitworth wrote in a memo obtained by the Idaho Statesman.

For anyone else working in state government, the story would have ended there.

But state law says constitutional officers  from the part-time lieutenant governor to the attorney general and all the way up to governor  get paid no matter what. So unlike virtually anyone else in state government who blows up a budget, McGeachin will be allowed to pay last years bills  essentially her own salary  with next years money.

Come Aug. 5, McGeachin will collect the remaining $1,713.26.

And the business of balancing this new budget by next June 30 will fall to one of her successors  either House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, or Democratic candidate Terri Pickens Manweiler of Boise. Maybe theyll keep the lights off a little longer. Or they could go hat in hand to the Legislature for the extra cash.

What a terrible precedent this could set.

Far better would be a change in state law that forces elected officials to obey the same rules everyone else must follow.

Idahoans did not need yet another reason to become cynical about their politicians. McGeachin went out of her way to provide one anyway.
Taking the family camping did not used to be considered a luxury vacation. However, with the average cost of a gallon of gas hovering around $5 and much higher in many parts of our country, families may find these extras beyond family budgets. President Biden and Democrats argue oil companies are making excessive profits and propose imposing a windfall profits tax on oil and gas companies, among other gimmicks, like a gas tax holiday. Democrats are essentially asking Americans to ignore logic and believe raising the price of energy has the potential to lower energy prices. These distractions from real solutions will only drive up dependence on foreign oil and do nothing to help Americans. Rather, unleashing American energy production is a real solution that will improve energy prices and decrease our dependence on foreign countries.

President Bidens anti-American oil and gas policies have decreased domestic production and led to higher prices. According to AAA, prices have risen $2.50 per gallon from the day President Biden was inaugurated. As prices continued to rise, President Biden touted the incredible transition away from fossil fuels and made no mention of the anti-energy actions that caused prices to increase more than 48 percent before Russia ever invaded Ukraine, actions like canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline, draining our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to its lowest level since 1987 and calling for new fees on domestic energy producers. Instead of undoing the damage, Democrats are doubling down on bad policies that could raise prices even higher.

Previously-enacted windfall profits taxes did not lower demand for nor reduce the price of oil. It is just bad policy. Congress previously enacted this tax on oil in 1980. The tax was repealed in 1988 after raising less than 30 percent of the estimated revenue. In 2006, the Congressional Research Service estimated the tax reduced domestic oil production between 19801988 by anywhere from 1.28 percent. At the same time, reliance on imported oil grew from somewhere between 313 percent.

Meanwhile, a gas tax holiday has even been panned by members of the Presidents own party. According to results from the Penn Wharton Budget Model, suspending the federal excise tax on gasoline from July to September would lower average gas spending per person by between $4.79 and $14.31 over three months. For Idaho, the gimmicky gas tax holiday would save a consumer $14.75 over three months, or a little less than $4.92 per month. That would mean, at most, an Idahoan would likely be able to buy one extra Big Mac in each of the three months, with around 70 cents left over after each Big Mac purchase. In turn, this holiday would starve our infrastructure funds of $10 billion in revenue, requiring additional borrowing.

These unserious proposals should be shelved. We need pro-American energy proposals that help enhance U.S. energy independence and undo some of President Bidens misguided energy policies. We should allow energy producers to develop the necessary pipeline and transmission infrastructure to move energy to market; bolster our domestic critical minerals supply chain so that we are less reliant on countries like China; and focus on alternative energy innovation, rather than government mandates, lowering the cost of alternate energy sources like advanced nuclear power.

We must work together to advance these measures as part of a comprehensive energy strategy to get a better handle on soaring prices and quit wasting time on ineffective policy that will further drive up energy costs.
James Comey and Andrew McCabe, who both headed the FBI and both clashed with then-President Donald Trump, found themselves miraculously selected for random deep-dive audits by the Internal Revenue Service in 2019 and 2021. The chance of both Comey and McCabe being randomly selected out of more than 150 million annual tax returns is astronomical. The chance is far greater that they were targeted specifically by someone willing to do Trumps corrupt bidding.

It is illegal for the IRS to selectively target audits for political purposes. Neither Comey nor McCabe knew the other was also being audited until informed by The New York Times. Letters informing both of their audits contain identical introductory wording attesting to the audits being random. The IRS is headed by Charles P. Rettig, appointed by Trump in 2018. Upon arrival at the IRS, he pledged to slash staffing by more than 2,000 positions, fulfilling a Trump goal. Under Rettigs watch, someone at the IRS leaked the tax returns of two of Trumps billionaire enemies: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, and investor Warren Buffett. Rettig also came under criticism during his confirmation hearings for failing to disclose more than $1 million in income from Trump-branded hotel rental units.

So its not as if Rettig is an innocent bystander, which is why the apparently targeted audits of Comey and McCabe merit the investigation that the IRS ordered Thursday. Former IRS Commissioner John A. Koskinen told the Times that you dont need to be an anti-Trumper to look at this and think its suspicious.

Trump took aim at both Comey and McCabe for different reasons. Comey, a Republican, had refused to pledge loyalty to Trump early in his presidency and criticized Trump once he left the job in 2017, drawing a series of harsh attacks from Trump on Twitter. McCabe took over as acting director, also rejecting loyalty demands by Trump. He was fired in 2018 amid an investigation into a news media leak damaging to Trump. McCabes dismissal was timed to occur hours before he qualified for his pension, leaving him nothing. Trump applauded it.

So, its hardly unthinkable that Trump could have instigated the audits, even if McCabes came months after Trump had left office. President Joe Biden has retained Rettig as IRS commissioner. Both Trumps and Rettigs offices disavowed knowledge of the audits.

Trumps penchant for retaliation against his critics is legendary and is a focus of the ongoing House select committee hearings into the Capitol insurrection.

During the Obama administration, the IRS came under fire for audits of Tea Party organizations suspected of abusing their tax-exempt status to engage in political advocacy. Those audits, for which the agency apologized, were at least defensible on legal grounds. But those against Comey and McCabe can hardly be explained any other way than pure harassment by someone fulfilling the wishes of a vindictive president.
Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's assassinations is just one of many high-profile political murders in the 21st century. Here's a look at all of them.
FRIDAY, July 8, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- More than 6,000 monkeypox cases in 59 countries have surfaced since the outbreak began in May, the World Health Organization confirmed Thursday.

The United Nation health agency reported a 77 percent rise in cases on Thursday, with cases in nine additional countries. So far, the cases have been concentrated in Europe and Africa. Ten countries that had earlier cases have not reported any new ones in a few weeks. In the United States, 700 monkeypox cases had been reported as of July 7, with the most cases confirmed in New York and California. The WHO also reported two additional deaths related to the virus. Both were in parts of Africa, bringing the total number of deaths to three.

The origin of the outbreak is still considered mysterious. In the West, the virus mainly strikes men who have sex with men, officials have said. Other population groups have not had sustained transmission, the Associated Press reported. The virus typically infects people through bites from rodents or small animals, and not through person-to-person spread. It is endemic in parts of Africa, causing fever, body aches, chills, and fatigue. Monkeypox can cause a rash and lesions on the face, hands, and other parts of the body in more serious cases.

With this latest weekly report, the total confirmed cases in the outbreak grew by 2,614, to 6,027.

During a speech on Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "concerned by the scale and spread of the virus." More than 80 percent of cases have been found in Europe, he noted. Ghebreyesus added that he plans to reconvene the WHO expert panel that is monitoring the situation by the week of July 18.
The University of Montana, Montana Department of Transportation and No Joke Theater are putting on an Addiction Roulette event Monday evening on the UM campus.

Addiction Roulette examines addiction through a collage of original and scripted scenes. The event is a way for the Missoula community to learn about the link between incarceration and addiction through theater, No Joke Theater Artistic Director Leah Joki said.

Its a huge problem that addiction makes up so much of our prison system, Joki said. Really there should be more treatment, as opposed to incarceration.

The performance is set for 7:30 p.m. at the Masquer Theater on UMs campus. Its free and open to the public, and no reservations are required. A Q&A session with the director, teachers and performers will follow the performance.

85% of incarcerated individuals in Montana are there for substance abuse-related issues, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Several actors and participants volunteered through Missoulas pre-release center. There are five performers along with a handful of teaching artists.

Skits include original scripts written by incarcerated people in the Warm Springs Addiction Treatment and Change (WATCh) program detailing their experiences with DUI arrests. Those are written by Native American writers, Joki said.

In Montana, Native Americans comprise 6.5% of the state's population, but they make up 25% of the population in mens prison and 38% in womens, she said.

It humanizes their experience and acts as a catalyst for conversation about social justice issues in our community, Joki said.

The group also has material from the Broadway playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis and from pop culture material that deals with addiction, like the HBO hit show "Euphoria."

I tried to hit it from all sides, Joki said. Were touching on addiction issues with alcohol, methamphetamine, with heroin. Its a non-judgmental way to get the conversation going.

Joki estimates volunteers have put in about 100 hours of rehearsals, practicing the scenes four times a week.

The DUI Project came about as a pilot program at the WATCh program through the UM College of the Arts and Media. Grant funding through the dean's office augmented with money from the Montana Department of Transportation made the project possible, she explained.

Joki is a UM alumni and the first person from Montana to attend the Juilliard School in New York City. Before retiring in Missoula, she worked for the California Department of Corrections. There, she performed and taught at over 30 prisons.

"My goal is to introduce arts in corrections (facilities) into the Montana judicial system," Joki said. "It's been my life's work."

She hopes to train a younger generation to pick up the work and integrate performing arts into correctional facilities to explore rehabilitative treatment rather than punishment.
By Trend

The government is in touch with several diplomatic missions urging them to expedite student visas and the result is that the average waiting time has gone down, according to MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, Trend reports citing The Tribune India.

Senior MEA officials dealing with Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, New Zealand, Poland, the UK and the US have been engaged with their corresponding Heads of Missions/senior diplomats about streamlining student visas to Indian nationals.

According to diplomatic sources, three aspects are turning out to be time consuming. The first one is about fake papers put up by students with the MEA receiving about 50 complaints per month in this regard. The second issue is that developed countries are circumspect of universities using students as cover to help them work in low-pay jobs. The third is the huge surge worldwide as elite from developing countries are sending their children to study in developed nations as macroeconomic fundamentals in these countries have deteriorated after Covid.
MONTEVALLO, Ala. (AP)  Mourners remembered an Alabama sheriffs deputy who was shot and killed by a fleeing suspect as a hero at his funeral Friday.

Bibb County Sheriffs Deputy Brad Johnson, 32, died June 30, a day after being shot. Another deputy was shot and injured, but survived.

Its been said a coward dies a thousand deaths; a hero, but one. Brad Johnson was a hero, Bibb County Sheriff Jody Wade said at the service.

Johnson, the father of two daughters, was killed ahead of his upcoming wedding, which was scheduled to be held soon in Florida, his father said.

Hold your loved ones close, because you never know when it will be their last time to see you," Johnsons father, Steven Johnson, said during the service.

Johnson had joined the sheriff's department in 2014 and became a canine handler. His K9, Bodie, was walked to the flag-draped coffin and sat by family members during the memorial service.

The deputy who was injured in the shooting, Chris Poole, sent a letter that read: You're my hero, brother. We didn't deserve this. You didn't deserve this, brother.

Poole said he wants the opportunity to face the man who shot them and ask why he did it in court.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey ordered flags be lowered to half-staff until sunset the next day in honor of Johnsons funeral.

Austin Hall, 26, is charged with capital murder in Johnsons death and attempted murder in the shooting of Poole.
Burke County has added more than 500 cases of COVID-19 in a month.

And that doesnt account for positive results with home tests.

The Burke County Health Department said on Thursday the county has had 27,190 cumulative cases of the virus since the first case was reported. That total is up from 26,672 total cumulative cases on June 10. As of Wednesday, the county was reporting 68 active cases of the virus.

Chae Moore, public information officer for the health department, said the county had a slight increase of virus cases in June. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported there were 24,613 cases during the week ending July 2, with 3,245 of those cases being reinfections.

UNC Health Blue Ridge reported Friday that it had five COVID-19 patients in its hospital but none in intensive care, and it had 48 patients in its COVID virtual hospital.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported that 889 people were hospitalized with the virus during the week ending July 2.

The Burke County Health Department said it has received a shipment of 225 at-home COVID-19 testing kits. Each kit comes with two tests per box and results are ready in approximately 10 minutes.

The kits are free and available to the public for pick-up at the health department from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Those who need a testing kit but are unable to pick it up can call 828-764-9150 to speak to someone about alternative options, according to the health department.

Burke County residents also are eligible for free at-home COVID testing kits that can be accessed through www.covid.gov/tests or by calling 1-800-232-0233. The testing kits will be shipped directly to you, the department said.

The health department also started giving COVID vaccines to children 6 months old to 4 years old on July 1.

COVID-19 vaccines continues to be scheduled on Fridays by appointment at the health department.

For general questions about COVID-19, call the Burke County Public Information line at 828-764-9150 or visit the COVID-19 webpage at burkenc.org/COVID-19.

Monkeypox

The federal government has allocated to North Carolina 444 doses of Jynneos, a vaccine that can prevent illness or lead to less severe symptoms if given within two weeks after someone is exposed to monkeypox, NCDHHS said in a release.

The doses have been allocated to seven local health departments to ensure access across the state. As additional doses become available, more locations will be added, it said.

Those health departments are in Buncombe, Durham, Forsyth, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Pitt and Wake counties.

NCDHHS said monkeypox is transmitted person to person through direct skin-to-skin contact, having contact with an infectious rash, through body fluids or through respiratory secretions. Such contact often occurs during prolonged, face-to-face contact or during intimate physical contact, such as kissing, cuddling or sex, it said.

NCDHHS said anyone can get monkeypox, but many of the cases identified in the current outbreak have been in men who have sex with men. Cases have been able to be identified in part thanks to the vigilance of those who sought testing when concerns arose leading to the recognition that monkeypox was spreading in the U.S., the department said.

Monkeypox has been present or is spreading in several locations in Europe and parts of California, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Texas, NCDHHS said.
A 22-year-old crew member on the set of the Netflix series, Outer Banks, was killed in a hit-and-run crash in South Carolina, according to the casting company. Alexander AJ Jennings was a photo double and stand-in for John B, the shows main protagonist played by Chase Stokes, Kimmie Stewart Casting wrote in a statement on Facebook. AJ was a beautiful, kind soul (and) a bright light every ...
Sri Lanka president, PM to resign after tumultuous protests

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  Sri Lankas president and prime minister have both agreed to resign after the countrys most chaotic day in months of political turmoil, with protesters storming both officials homes and setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the nations severe economic crisis. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Saturday that he will leave office once a new government is in place, and hours later the speaker of Parliament said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would step down Wednesday. Pressure on both men grew as the economic meltdown set off acute shortages of essential items, leaving people struggling to buy food, fuel and other necessities.

4 days in January: Trump push for Capitol coda to 2020 vote

WASHINGTON (AP)  It would have been something never quite seen in America. The sight of a defeated president, Donald Trump, standing at the Capitol with a mob of supporters contesting the 2020 election outcome. The House hearings into the riot of Jan. 6, 2021, are providing dramatic new insight about Trumps intentions on that day in history. Much of the account is coming from the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Her recollections suggest Trumps demands weren't brash impulses but part of his last-ditch plan for stopping the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Bidens election victory. Trump disputes her account. The committee is set to focus this coming week on extremist groups and their role in the Capitol attack.

UN: Russia and Ukraine are to blame for nursing home attack

WASHINGTON (AP)  A U.N. report says Ukraines armed forces bear a large share of the blame for a deadly assault on a care home for the elderly and disabled. Ukrainian fighters occupied the facility in March and then battled Russian forces while dozens of patients and staff were trapped inside. Ukrainian authorities placed the fault squarely on the Russian troops, accusing them of killing more than 50 vulnerable civilians in a brutal and unprovoked attack. But the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that Ukrainian soldiers occupied the nursing home a few days before the attack, effectively making the building a target.

Ukrainian governor: Russia raising 'true hell' in the east

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  An official in eastern Ukraine says Russian forces are raising true hell in the country's industrial heartland despite assessment that they were taking an operational pause. The war's death toll rose with reported attacks in both Ukraines east and south. Authorities said Russian shelling killed five people in the eastern Donetsk province and two others Saturday in a southern city that is the hometown of Ukraine's president. The Ukrainian government, meanwhile, urged people in occupied southern areas to evacuate so Russian forces can't use them as human shields. The deputy prime minister said You need to search for a way to leave" because she expects a massive fight when Ukrainian forces try to push out the Russians.

Abe's death raises security questions as Japan mourns

TOKYO (AP)  A top police official has acknowledged possible security lapses that allowed an assassin to fire his gun into former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe while he was addressing a campaign rally. Abe was shot in the western city of Nara on Friday and airlifted to a hospital but died of blood loss. Police arrested the attacker, a former member of Japans navy, at the scene. Police confiscated his homemade gun and several others were later found at his apartment. The attacker told investigators he acted because he believed rumors that Abe was connected to an organization that he resents. The Nara prefectural police chief says there were problems with Abe's security that will be reviewed.

Tribal elders recall painful boarding school memories

ANADARKO, Okla. (AP)  Native American tribal elders in Oklahoma delivered powerful testimony to federal officials about their experiences in government-backed Indian boarding schools. The stop Saturday at Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Oklahoma, was the first visit by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. She has embarked on a yearlong nationwide tour to hear about the painful experiences of Native Americans who were sent to the schools designed to strip them of their cultural identities. Although most of the boarding schools closed long ago and none still exist to assimilate Native children into white society, some like Riverside still function as schools, albeit with drastically different missions that celebrate the cultural backgrounds of their Native students.

Amid chaos, some at July 4 parade ran toward gunfire to help

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (AP)  People from every corner of the Highland Park community sprung into action on July 4 after a gunman opened fire on a parade route in the Chicago suburb. Bystanders tied tourniquets and administered CPR, and doctors and nurses ran to the scene to help. Nearly a dozen people, including off-duty doctors, nurses, a football coach and a tech salesman, were among the first to administer lifesaving assistance. They are relieved they could help, but wish they could have done more. And all are scarred by what they saw: broken bodies, awful injuries, and death.

Yosemite wildfire threatens grove of iconic sequoia trees

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP)  The largest grove of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park is still closed as firefighters battle a blaze that threatens the trees and has forced hundreds of campers to evacuate. Firefighters worked furiously Saturday to keep the flames from harming the iconic grove of about 500 mature sequoias, which are the world's biggest trees by volume. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. A spokeswoman says firefighters are throwing every tactic imaginable" at the flames. The rest of the park remains open but smoke hangs over some of its most iconic views.

Choose your reality: Trust wanes, conspiracy theories rise

As public trust in democratic institutions declines, conspiracy theories are filling the void. In some cases, that's leading believers to doubt even their own allies. Last weekend in Boston, about 100 masked men carrying fascist flags marched through the city and later posted vides and photos online. But some of their own allies second-guessed the event, insisting it must have been FBI agents in disguise. It's just one example of experts who study public trust say it will take extensive efforts by educators, government officials and technology companies to address the erosion of trust.

Elena Rybakina wins Wimbledon women's final for 1st Slam

WIMBLEDON, England (AP)  Elena Rybakina has defeated Ons Jabeur 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the Wimbledon final to become the first tennis player from Kazakhstan to win a Grand Slam singles championship. Rybakina is a 23-year-old who was born in Moscow and switched her nationality four years ago. She is ranked No. 23. This was the first womens title match since 1962 at the All England Club between two players who were making their debuts in a major final. Rybakina used her big serve and powerful forehand to overcome Jabeurs mix of spins and slices at Centre Court on Saturday. Rybakina ended Jabeurs 12-match winning streak, which came entirely on grass courts.
TOKYO (AP)  Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated Friday on a street in western Japan by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech  an attack that stunned a nation with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.

The 67-year-old Abe, who was Japans longest-serving leader when he resigned in 2020, collapsed bleeding and was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Nara, although he was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was later pronounced dead after receiving massive blood transfusions, officials said.

A hearse carrying Abe's body left the hospital early Saturday to head back to his home in Tokyo. Abe's wife Akie lowered her head as the vehicle passed before a crowd of journalists.

Nara Medical University emergency department chief Hidetada Fukushima said Abe suffered major damage to his heart, along with two neck wounds that damaged an artery. He never regained his vital signs, Fukushima said.

Police at the shooting scene arrested Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, a former member of Japan's navy, on suspicion of murder. Police said he used a gun that was obviously homemade  about 15 inches (40 centimeters) long  and they confiscated similar weapons and his personal computer when they raided his nearby one-room apartment.

Police said Yamagami was responding calmly to questions and had admitted to attacking Abe, telling investigators he had plotted to kill him because he believed rumors about the former leader's connection to a certain organization that police did not identify.

Dramatic video from broadcaster NHK showed Abe standing and giving a speech outside a train station ahead of Sunday's parliamentary election. As he raised his fist to make a point, two gunshots rang out, and he collapsed holding his chest, his shirt smeared with blood as security guards ran toward him. Guards then leapt onto the gunman, who was face down on the pavement, and a double-barreled weapon was seen nearby.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events elsewhere after the shooting, which he called dastardly and barbaric." He pledged that the election, which chooses members for Japan's less-powerful upper house of parliament, would go on as planned.

I use the harshest words to condemn (the act), Kishida said, struggling to control his emotions. He said the government would review the security situation, but added that Abe had the highest protection.

Even though he was out of office, Abe was still highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, Seiwakai, but his ultra-nationalist views made him a divisive figure to many.

Opposition leaders condemned the attack as a challenge to Japans democracy. Kenta Izumi, head of the top opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, called it an act of terrorism and said it "tried to quash the freedom of speech ... actually causing a situation where (Abes) speech can never be heard again.

In Tokyo, people stopped to buy extra editions of newspapers or watch TV coverage of the shooting. Flowers were placed at the shooting scene in Nara.

When he resigned as prime minister, Abe blamed a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis he'd had since he was a teenager. He said then it was difficult to leave many of his goals unfinished, especially his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia, and a revision of Japans war-renouncing constitution.

That ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas and China, and his push to create what he saw as a more normal defense posture angered many Japanese. Abe failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support.

Loyalists said his legacy was a stronger U.S.-Japan relationship that was meant to bolster Japans defense capability. But Abe made enemies by forcing his defense goals and other contentious issues through parliament, despite strong public opposition.

Abe was groomed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a normal and beautiful nation with a stronger military and bigger role in international affairs.

Tributes to Abe poured in from world leaders, with many expressing shock and sorrow. U.S. President Joe Biden praised him, saying "his vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific will endure. Above all, he cared deeply about the Japanese people and dedicated his life to their service.

On Saturday, Biden called Kishida and expressed outrage, sadness and deep condolences on the shooting death of Abe. Biden noted the importance of Abe's legacy including through the establishment of the Quad meetings of Japan, the U.S., Australia and India. Biden voiced confidence in the strength of Japans democracy and the two leaders discussed how Abe's legacy will live on as the two allies continue to defend peace and democracy, according to the White House.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose tenure from 2005-21 largely overlapped with Abes, said she was devastated by the cowardly and vile assassination. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Saturday a day of national mourning for Abe, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted that he would remember him for his collegiality & commitment to multilateralism.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian declined to comment, other than to say Beijing offered sympathies to Abes family and that the shooting shouldnt be linked to bilateral relations. But social media posts from the country were harsh, with some calling the gunman a hero  reflecting strong sentiment against right-wing Japanese politicians who question or deny that Japans military committed wartime atrocities in China.

Biden, who is dealing with a summer of mass shootings in the U.S., also said gun violence always leaves a deep scar on the communities that are affected by it.

Japan is particularly known for its strict gun laws. With a population of 125 million, it had only 10 gun-related criminal cases last year, resulting in one death and four injuries, according to police. Eight of those cases were gang-related. Tokyo had no gun incidents, injuries or deaths in the same year, although 61 guns were seized.

Abe was proud of his work to strengthen Japan's security alliance with the U.S. and shepherding the first visit by a serving U.S. president, Barack Obama, to the atom-bombed city of Hiroshima. He also helped Tokyo gain the right to host the 2020 Olympics by pledging that a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant was under control when it was not.

He became Japans youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52, but his overly nationalistic first stint abruptly ended a year later, also because of his health.

The end of Abes scandal-laden first stint as prime minister was the beginning of six years of annual leadership change, remembered as an era of revolving door politics that lacked stability.

When he returned to office in 2012, Abe vowed to revitalize the nation and get its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his Abenomics formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms.

He won six national elections and built a rock-solid grip on power, bolstering Japans defense role and capability and its security alliance with the U.S. He also stepped up patriotic education at schools and raised Japans international profile.

Follow AP's Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
5G is the most cost-effective way to bring broadband access to South African homes outside the reach of fibre networks, according to Wits digital business chair professor Brian Armstrong.

During an NEC XON 5G OpenRAN event this week, Armstrong explained that it typically takes five years after a new network standard has been deployed before its benefits begin being realised.

When 3G networks were commercially launched between 2003 to 2005, there was initially no data usage, Armstrong said.

It was only after approximately five years that we found a use-case for 3G technology.

Armstrong said it was only after Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, presenting a use-case, that global mobile traffic started to increase exponentially.

He also demonstrated how analyst forecasts underestimate demand for a new technology.

Once uptake is in full swing, the forecasts become accurate. However, before that, they tend to wildly underrate the impact of an emerging technology.

Before widespread 3G network deployments, the International Telecommunication Unions forecasts completely underestimated the demand for mobile data by a factor of 10 to 100 times.

Similar to 3G data consumption forecasts, Armstrong believes we are likely underestimating the impact that 5G will have on data consumption.

Regarding 5Gs role in South Africa, Armstrong explained that fibre network operators prioritise certain areas and income groups.

For example, although Vumatel has announced a product for less affluent households called Vuma Key, this will initially target densely populated urban townships.

Armstrong said forecasts indicate that only about half of the lowest priority areas, including small rural municipalities, will have access to fibre by 2028.

Even with the most optimistic assumptions, 6.1 million homes will remain without fibre, he said.

Armstrong explained that although options like wireless last-quarter-mile services can extend fibre coverage, 5G will be crucial to providing a fibre-like experience to households without fixed-line services.

He said an open radio access network (RAN) 5G model is one of the most viable ways to bridge South Africas broadband access divide.

NEC XON general manager of networks Anthony Laing said that an open RAN model is ideal for deploying mobile Internet in Africa because of its flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

Typically, mobile network operators would only have a few vendors to choose from when deploying new networks, he said.

Open RAN allows telecommunications providers to build networks with similar functionality but allows the use of components from multiple vendors, said Laing.

Laing said NEC XON managed to build a functional end-to-end Open RAN lab and launched it last week at the companys head office in Midrand.

NEC XONs multi-vendor 5G Open RAN network consists of Red Hat, Dell, Druid, Rakuten, ADVA and Juniper Networks.
Solidarity has called on small power producers to apply in their hundreds for generation permits.

According to Solidarity, the large-scale entry of small power producers into power generation is needed to resolve the countrys power crisis.

Solidarity has also announced plans to become involved in power generation through the development company Kanton, of which it is the main shareholder.

Our members jobs and incomes are being destroyed on a large scale as a result of the power crisis. The biggest act of job protection we can undertake right now is to do everything possible to feed power into the system, Solidarity chief executive Dr Dirk Hermann said.

Solidarity said that a functioning Eskom remains an essential component of its plan.

Any solution would have to be complementary to Eskoms efforts and could not replace the state institution.

Leaving Eskom out of the conversation regarding the future of electricity in South Africa would be dismissive of the extent of the coming power crisis  it would not be the one or the other, Hermann said.

We need everything. Eskom is currently facing huge challenges in terms of corruption, capacity and finances. Eskom must be stabilised by locking up the crooks, firing the bad guys, and paying off the debt.

Solidarity noted that the regulations for large-scale private power generation had been amended. This gives effect to President Ramaphosas announcement that up to 100 MW can be generated with a permit and without needing a licence.

There are no further statutory restrictions.

Solidarity announced it would establish a help desk for permit applicants.

It also said it would submit a parliamentary petition to get any possible obstacles out of the way.

Solidarity also said it would investigate developing components to stimulate growth in power generation and offer training in the field.

We are convinced that the barriers for private generation of power will break, Hermann said.

We want to prepare for it by becoming involved with power generation on small scale and by creating skills. The private sector must now remove all possible bottlenecks.

Hermann said that only if there are many different types of applications would all the obstacles to private power generation be removed.

We believe this crisis has created a will for private generation of power with the government. NERSA must do everything possible to remove all the obstacles. The processes must be without any obstacles. If there exist any administrative bottlenecks, we will also be prepared to remove those through litigation, said Hermann.

However, it said that due to a lack of political will, there is still uncertainty among entrepreneurs and power producers.

If the private sector can seize the opportunity, it could bring about a power revolution. If we continue to place our hope in Eskom and the state, it will result in a power depression, Hermann stated.

We call on developers, shopping malls, big companies, residents associations, entrepreneurs, major farmers and others to submit applications for the generation, distribution and sale of power. It is the right thing for the country, and it offers commercial opportunities. The new electricity sector can create thousands of new jobs directly and millions indirectly, Hermann said.

The call follows a Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) report that shows between now and 2035, South Africa will have to generate almost as much power coming from the private sector as the whole of Eskom is producing at the moment.

The crisis is exacerbated as South Africa will lose generation capacity of 22,000 because coal-fired power stations will reach the end of their life between now and 2035.

Solidarity Research Institute head Connie Mulder said Stage 6 load-shedding would become the norm, and if the current trend continues, South Africa would see more severe power cuts in future.

South Africas generation capacity is currently 9.7% lower than in 2012, while the population has grown by more than 8 million people.

According to the SRIs report, the governments Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is flawed and incomplete.

Even if the plan is 100% successfully implemented, it would be inadequate to solve the power crisis.

In addition, the government does not have a history of successful implementation.

The report recommends that all barriers to deregulation should be removed, that skills to meet the new demand in the private sector be provided and that a tariff system favourable to small-scale power producers developed.

The report also shows how the lack of electricity impoverishes South Africans and makes the whole country unfavourable for investment.

The lack of electricity is the biggest obstacle to economic growth and employment.

End load-shedding within a year

The SRI report also describes how Vietnam, with a similar energy landscape to South Africa, shifted from energy shortages to huge energy surpluses.

Their strategy was a break with the monopoly of state-controlled generation and a flood of private and especially small-scale power producers.

We do not have to reinvent the wheel, said Hermann.

Countries such as Vietnam have shown that the solution to undersupplied power generation will be found on the roofs of ordinary citizens rather than in the corridors of major government projects, he said.

Technology in electricity generation has changed radically, and with the right steps, we will be able to resolve load-shedding within a year.

Now read: How much it costs to get solar power and say goodbye to Eskom
Around the middle of 2013 a series of stories appeared in the South African press about a new phenomenon called plasma gangs, presented as the latest iteration of the countrys crime crisis.

Journalists, broadcasters, police and government spokespeople, social media users and local residents shared tales online and in mainstream media of the frightening exploits of these gangs, said to be located in Alexandra (Alex) township in the north of Johannesburg.

Alex, like other South African townships, is an underdeveloped and sometimes precarious area, blighted by the inequality and racial segregation that were central to apartheid spatial engineering.

Developed in the early 20th century to house around 30,000 people, it is now home to an estimated 700,000.

This density creates intense pressure on infrastructure and resources, as well as a powerful community culture that lends itself to the transmission of urban legends.

Plasma gangs

Plasma gangs were not like normal robbers, who stole anything of value. They had very specific modus operandi.

They were said to break into Alex homes with the express purpose of stealing plasma televisions.

According to the stories, the gangs used various technologies to achieve this aim, such as hypermodern electronic devices that could tell from outside which homes contained the TVs.

Another method involved techniques of muti, indigenous magic, that sent residents to sleep while their homes were plundered.

They were extremely violent and often caused death or harm.

But rather than selling the desirable consumer goods they stole, as one might expect from criminal syndicates, the gangs were said to dismantle them and break them open.

Then they extracted a mysterious white powder that was used to make nyaope, a street drug otherwise known as wonga or whoonga.

Depending on which story one heard, the gangs were either nyaope addicts themselves or professional dealers of the drug.

Nyaope

Nyaope is notorious in South African cities. It is extremely destructive and the subject of a large body of urban mythology.

Experts generally agree that it is comprised of a mix of substances, usually a base of cheap heroin with additions like asbestos, rat poison, milk powder, bicarbonate of soda and even swimming pool cleaner.

As is common with drug-related panics, stories about nyaope pull a range of other social anxieties into their axis.

There is no mysterious powder in plasma televisions that can be used to get high. Plasma is a descriptor for a technology rather than a substance.

The powder contained in these devices is magnesium oxide, a small amount of which coats the display electrodes in a thin layer.

Magnesium oxide is easily purchased at health food stores. It has never been shown to have any psychotropic effects.

Concerns about drug users and dealers played powerfully into the plasma gangs narrative.

The nyaope connection is part of what set this story aside from normal, everyday crime and helped it morph into an urban legend that continues to be disseminated as one of the risks of living in South Africa.

Social anxiety

The plasma gangs story shows the way in which township residents narratives about their own precarity are both hypermodern and related to globalised and transnational anxieties about status, consumption, belonging and identity.

It combines the local and the global, the historical and the contemporary, to reveal the social utility of urban legends.

The fact that plasma gangs are not empirically real is almost beside the point.

The story condenses fears about security and crime, drug dealers and drug users, police failures and corruption, dangerous foreigners, unruly youth, the intersection between crime, witchcraft and technology and the insecurity and visibility of township life.

It illustrates the way in which certain South Africans develop and transmit stories and rumours that helped them to make sense of the world they live in.

In considering the plasma gangs we can see how myth, uncertainty, rumour and strangeness inform South African cultures of fear: crime is not just frightening in and of itself but also because it connotes the presence of hidden forces that undermine the predictability of everyday life.

This kind of crime talk is endemic in South Africa but oddly quiet in academic literature, which often associates fear of crime with whiteness and wealth.

Making sense of fear

The plasma gang scare is a compelling example of the power of narrative to condense and codify collective anxieties.

A series of existing fears, spurred by the experiences of people living in a place that is both insecure and community-minded, both high risk and aspirational, layered on top of each other to produce a story that had a peculiar amount of social power.

A tale of gangster criminality, personal danger, magic, violence and fear offered a way to foreground the contradictions that come with living in the South African township, a place that both defines residents as aspirational global citizens and imposes conditions of insecurity upon them.

This is an edited extract from the authors book Worrier State: Risk, anxiety and moral panic in South Africa available from Wits University Press

By Nicky Falkof, Associate professor, University of the Witwatersrand

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
American Canyon Police arrested a man Friday morning after a high-speed vehicle pursuit that went into Vallejo.

Officers initially responded to a report of jewelry theft  the suspect reportedly used a hammer to break a glass jewelry case  from the American Canyon Walmart at about 6:30 a.m. They attempted to stop the suspect, Martinez resident Desjuan Lateria, 34, in his vehicle, but Lateria fled toward Vallejo.

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The chase stopped when Lateria reportedly drifted into a pole, according to police. No serious injuries were reported as a result of the chase, and Lateria was booked into the Napa County jail on investigation of felony destruction of property, resisting arrest, reckless evasion of a police officer, evading an officer by driving against traffic and a few other related charges.
Soscol Junction is only the latest big road undertaking designed to help keep Napa County traffic moving in what for a century has been a car-centric society.

Every decade or so brings another interchange or highway project that molds the commuting landscape. Here are some major ones in the Napa Valley's history.

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Highway system birth  The automobile was gaining prominence by 1917, and Napa County and California were ready for paved highways.

The countys gravel and macadamized roads that worked for horses couldnt withstand cars, Ben Blow wrote in his 1920 book California Highways. The surfaces just ground up and blew away.

In April 1917, Napa County officials learned the state would begin building a concrete highway from Cordelia in Solano County through Jameson Canyon and ultimately to the city of Napa. County Supervisor Thomas Maxwell honored the state highway commissioner bearing the news with a ravioli lunch at the Brooklyn Hotel.

By 1920, plans had been made to pave the highway up the Napa Valley. Much of the work had been completed by 1921, prompting this prophetic headline in the April 4, 1921 issue of The Napa Register:

"Recent Permanent Road Building Here Attracts Attention Of Outside World  Tourists Will Soon Be Motoring Through."

Here comes Soscol Junction, Napa County's biggest road project in years Learn all about Soscol Junction, a massive interchange project at the Highway 29/Highway 221 entrance to Napa Valley.

Napa-Vallejo highway  World War II prompted the transformation of a two-lane road between the city of Napa and Vallejo  todays Highway 29  to four lanes.

A sizable number of workers at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo lived in Napa County. That made improving this commute part of the war effort. By 1944, workers were finishing the job.

Freeway through city of Napa  The state during the 1950s looked at creating a full-fledged, Los Angeles-style freeway up the Napa Valley roughly along the Highway 29 route.

Residents got a taste of this possible future when the state built a Highway 29 bypass of Yountville. This included an overpass for the relocated highway at California Drive that was taking shape in 1960.

Then the state zeroed in on a section in the city of Napa.

Highway 29 from Old Sonoma Road to near Trancas Street would become a four-lane freeway. Gone would be traffic-clogging intersections. In their place would be interchanges.

In April 1964, the state opened the Highway 29 interchange at First Street in the city of Napa. That reportedly confused drivers who didnt know how to negotiate the ramps.

But by decade's end, California had abandoned its master plan to build the freeway all the way north to Calistoga. It did so because Napa County decided to forgo big, urban growth and instead created its Agricultural Preserve in 1968.

Southern Crossing  Fifty years ago, Highway 29 passed along Imola Avenue in the city of Napa. Napa City Councilmember Liz Alessio can remember the traffic in those days.

"It was bad," she said. "It was definitely back-to-back cars trying to get through Imola, trying to get over the old green bridge we had, where there were a lot of accidents."

You just accepted the Imola Avenue traffic as part of Napa, Alessio said. It was only later, when the problem had been solved, that she realized how bad it was.

The state decided Highway 29 had too much traffic for Imola Avenue. In the 1970s, it set about creating a new Napa River crossing several miles to the south to carry the highway.

Caltrans finished the graceful concrete structure that today is called the Butler Bridge in 1978. But this was a bridge to nowhere, something to look at but not drive. It took until 1981 for the cost-cutting state to build the connectors to Highway 29.

The Southern Crossing  Its Really Open, said a headline in the June 2, 1981 Napa Register. Reporter Kevin Courtney assured readers that the bridge no longer was a multi-million dollar, high-level fishing pier.

Highway 29/Trancas interchange  That 1960s push to make Highway 29 a freeway through the city of Napa had stopped just short of Trancas Street. This signalized intersection became a dreaded part of the local rush-hour highway commute.

In 2004, Caltrans finished building a $55 million interchange there. The highway underpass dips about 32 feet beneath Trancas Street. Caltrans included a pump with backup generator, to make certain the low-lying section doesn't go underwater during a big storm.

Highway 12/Jameson Canyon  Much of Highway 12 through Jameson Canyon looked more like a two-lane country road than a highway until 2014. Unfortunately, this country road carried some 32,000 vehicles daily, many of them big rigs. It was and is a major link between Napa and Solano counties.

In 2014, Caltrans finished widening a 6-mile stretch to four lanes, two in each direction. But a final touch remained. Caltrans presently is widening the eastbound ramp between Highway 12 and Interstate 80 to four lanes to remove a bottleneck.
By Trend

The top diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan held a trilateral meeting in Indonesia on Friday, with their security cooperation against North Korea's nuclear and missile threat high on the agenda, Trend reports citing Yonhap.

The trilateral session, between South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, took place on the resort island of Bali on the margins of the Group of 20 meeting that was held from Thursday to Friday.

The meeting began 30 minutes later than the scheduled time and the ministers expressed condolences for former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was killed in a gun attack while giving an election campaign speech earlier in the day.

Park strongly condemned the shooting as "a violent criminal act that is unacceptable in any case," and Blinken mourned Abe as "a leader with great vision" who boosted relations between the two allies.

It marks their first in-person group session since the inauguration in May of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who emphasized bolstering the alliance with Washington and expressed willingness to mend soured ties with Tokyo.

Last week, leaders of the three countries met in Madrid on the sidelines of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit and agreed to bolster their security cooperation against North Korea.
Sweden developing new strategy for its next-generation fighters

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Ministry of Emergency Situations: 331 emergencies and 8 deaths registered in Armenia during week

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Byblos Bank Armenia introduces the premium World Elite Mastercard

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What did Armenia, Azerbaijan FMs discuss in Tbilisi?

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We expect political factions to work within the democratic processes available to them in parliament. This noted in US Ambassador to Lynne Tracys reply to the urgent letter by nonpartisan Taguhi Tovmasyan, Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia. Tovmasyan wrote as follows on Facebook:

After putting into circulation the draft resolutions submitted by the ruling faction on recalling opposition MP Ishkhan SAGHATELYAN from Office of NA Vice President and Termination of Powers of RA NA opposition MP Vahe HAKOBYAN as Chair of Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, I urgently prepared and sent letters to the international organizations, Ambassadors accredited in Armenia.

With the letters I drew my colleagues urgent attention to the draft resolutions submitted by the ruling faction and noted that as the justifications of the Draft Decisions make it clear, the ruling faction takes such initiatives because of the opposition MPs boycott of parliamentary work (not participating in the voting, absences from the NA Council Sessions, absences from the Standing Committee sessions), opinions and statements made during the rallies.

Referring to the boycott I stressed that according to the European Courts position a boycott is a form of expressing a protesting opinion which is protected by Article 10 of the Convention and that especially the parliamentary boycott has been practiced in all democratic states.

Referring to the opinions and calls by the opposition MPs during the rallies, they are also protected by the Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Freedom of Expression). And if the members of the ruling faction think that they contain violation of criminal law, then a criminal-legal assessment of their actions should be given. If not, then they are fully protected by internal and international norms on freedom of expression especially for MPs and therefore an MP should not be punished for the freedom of expression.

On this matter I requested Madam Ambassador to come up with a public statement on such a behavior by the ruling party which is against democratic principles.

In reply, Ambassador Tracy informs: The United States is committed to partnering with Armenia to strengthen democratic institutions that reflect our common values. We expect political factions to work within the democratic processes available to them in parliament, as established under Armenian law.

We defer to relevant Armenian bodies on the legality of the decisions taken in parliament on July 1 to remove opposition Members of Parliament from their positions. We also stress that a constructive opposition plays an important role in any democracy.

The Ambassador sums it up: The United States is committed to supporting the Armenian people as they continue to pursue a democratic agenda. I appreciate your constructive efforts towards this end.
On June 27, and within the framework of his working visit to Greece, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan of Armenia gave an interview to Greek newspaper Kathimerini. The text of this interview is presented below.

Question: Greek-Armenian relations have been traditionally amicable. Is there space for further development? What are the main topics of your contacts here in Athens?

Answer: Greece is one of Armenia's most important partners in Europe and in the world. The relations between Armenia and Greece are underpinned by millennia-old shared history and values, friendship, and solidarity between our two peoples. Throughout the centuries, Armenians and Greeks peacefully lived next to each other, collaborated to create value and prosperity, and fought together against external oppressors. In this context, I want to stress that we will never forget the wholehearted support the Greek people and the government provided during very tough times in our nation's history, the most recent example being the war of 2020.

This year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our republics. Over these three decades, more than 40 documents have been signed between the two countries and weve developed robust interstate relations and a solid bilateral agenda ranging from active political dialogue to partnership in different areas, including defense, economy, education, culture, and many other fields, as well as mutually beneficial collaboration on multilateral platforms. During my recent working visit to Greece, I held very productive talks with President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as well as in-depth discussions with my colleague and good friend Minister Nikos Dendias. Weve made progress and reached a common understanding on a number of important issues and will continue to work to deepen our relations further.

Also, I believe that we should mull over raising Armenia-Greece cooperation to a significantly higher level, which could be proper for strategic partners. I am confident we should work in this direction in the near future.

Question: Armenia, Greece, and Cyprus have held some rounds of trilateral talks. How can this relationship further evolve?

Answer: Armenia attaches great importance to the trilateral format of cooperation. By now we have successfully conducted several Trilateral Ministerial meetings. We are looking forward to hosting the Summit of the format on the level of the leaders of our three countries.

Our nations have rich experience of collaboration and mutual support and we believe that our states have huge potential to promote stability, security, and peace in the region, through enhanced political dialogue and cooperation of Armenia, Greece, and Cyprus. We also acknowledge the importance and efficiency of trilateral cooperation in defense, diaspora, parliamentary ties, emergency situations, IT, healthcare, investments, tourism, education, and culture. I am confident that the format is destined to succeed.

Question: In 2020, there was a war in Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)]. Is Armenia willing to accept the current status quo around Nagorno-Karabakh? And if not what could be an alternative?

Answer: Despite the claims of the Azerbaijani authorities that after the 44-day war of 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh does not exist as an entity anymore and that the conflict is over, the reality and the position of the international community prove the contrary: Nagorno-Karabakh does exist with its Armenian population, who continue to live in their ancestral land and whose security is now ensured by the Russian peacekeepers, in accordance with the November 9, 2020, trilateral statement, which stopped the devastating war.

The conflict doesnt stop existing just because one of the sides is declaring that it does not exist. This is self-delusion. Moreover, the official statements by our numerous international partners and organizations, including mediating countries, also clearly show that the NK conflict still needs a final settlement through negotiations under the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmanship; a settlement, which should provide guarantees of security and protection of all rights of the Armenians of Artsakh and accordingly the deriving final status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Question: You have several tracks of negotiations with Azerbaijan. Can the war in Ukraine influence diplomatic developments in the South Caucasus?

Answer: The situation in the South Caucasus remains fragile. While Armenia through its actions aspires to relaunch comprehensive peace negotiations, including on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and thus bring stability and peace to the region, Azerbaijan continues its policy of provocative actions and threats of use of force. After the situation unfolded in Ukraine, the Azerbaijani armed forces invaded the village of Parukh in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was preceded by constant shelling of villages and civilian infrastructure, urging the peaceful Armenian population of neighboring villages to leave their homes under the threat of use of force, disruption of the operation of the gas pipeline for several weeks amid the unprecedented cold weather, etc.

Currently, when the world focuses its attention on Ukraine, Azerbaijan may be tempted to launch a large-scale provocation at any moment. Hence, it is extremely important for the international community to undertake effective steps to prevent the attempts of destabilizing the situation in the South Caucasus

Question: Are you optimistic about Armenia- Azerbaijan normalization?

Answer: In line with the Trilateral Statements adopted by the Russian mediation on January 11, 2021, and November 26, 2021, and the agreements reached in Brussels, Armenia has constructively engaged in dialogue with Azerbaijan on general normalization of the relations, delimitation, and border security between the two countries and the unblocking of regional economic links and transport communications.

We reiterate our commitment to work constructively in all directions, and I want to emphasize that the process would have been much smoother and much more effective if Azerbaijan would refrain from its dangerous maximalism and Armenophobic rhetoric, holding numerous Armenian prisoners of war and other detained persons in captivity, destroying Armenian cultural and religious heritage, hindering the access of international humanitarian organizations to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, etc.

Overall, we believe that despite all the blood and hatred the region witnessed, there is a real opportunity for peace in the South Caucasus. Armenia has repeatedly reaffirmed its readiness to establish long-term stability and open an era of peaceful development in the region. At the same time, it is obvious that these efforts cannot be one-sided, and we are expecting a similarly constructive approach and sincere practical steps from the Azerbaijani side towards this end.

Question: Recently Armenia started a process of normalizing its ties with Turkey. Are you optimistic about tangible steps in this direction? What could these steps be?

Answer: The leadership of Armenia stated many times and it is also mentioned in our Government program that Armenia is ready for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Turkey and opening of the border between our countries that Turkey unilaterally closed back in 1993.

The Special Representatives have been appointed for the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey and four meetings have already been held where the sides reiterated their commitment to continue the process without any preconditions with the goal of opening the borders and establishing diplomatic relations. To give a positive dynamic to that process I accepted the invitation of the Foreign Minister of Turkey to participate in the Antalya Diplomatic Forum and met with my counterpart on the margins of the Forum.

Today, a political will and readiness to undertake concrete steps towards normalizing relations are necessary for the success of the process. The Armenian side has repeatedly demonstrated both and we expect the same from the Turkish side.

Question: What is Armenia's position regarding the most sensitive issues for Greece at the moment, such as the regularly increasing tension on the Greek-Turkish borders, and the Cyprus issue?

Answer: Armenia fully supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Armenia considers unacceptable any actions and steps that can grossly violate the norms of International law, the Law of the Sea, as well as the UN Charter.

As for the Cyprus issue, as in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, in this case, too, any attempt to present the consequences of the use of force as a solution is unacceptable to us. Armenia and Cyprus always mutually supported each other on bilateral and multilateral platforms.
Biden signs executive order on abortion access

Xinhua) 09:34, July 09, 2022

U.S. President Joe Biden attends an event on fighting "ghost guns" crimes at the White House in Washington, D.C. April 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

The executive order aims to safeguard access to reproductive health care services and protect the privacy of patients and their access to accurate information, among other things, according to the White House.

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on abortion access on Friday, as the issue continues to divide the society.

The move came two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade and eliminated the constitutional protection of abortion rights for women in the nation.

The executive order aims to safeguard access to reproductive health care services and protect the privacy of patients and their access to accurate information, among other things, according to the White House.

Abortion has been one of the most divisive issues in the United States.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that the U.S. constitution generally protects the liberty to choose to have an abortion. But anti-abortion groups have actively sought to have the decision overturned, engaging in legal and public opinion battles with the other side on the issue over the past decades.

The Women's March has planned to rally in Washington, D.C. on Saturday to pressure the White House to do more to protect abortion rights.

The rally is scheduled to start at the Franklin Square Park in the morning, followed by a march to the White House and a sit-in, according to a press release. The group estimated up to 10,000 people will be in attendance.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
By Trend

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed a Decree on the 2021 budget execution of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), Trend reports.

Given the decision of the Supervisory Board of the State Oil Fund on the report related to the implementation of the SOFAZ budget for 2021 in accordance with the "Regulations on the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan", approved by Presidential Decree dated December 29, 2000 No. 434, and "Rules for compilation and execution of the program of annual revenues and expenses (budget) of the State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijan Republic", approved by the Presidential Decree dated September 12, 2001 No. 579, and the conclusion of an international audit organization on the financial activities of the Fund, is decided:

To approve the implementation of the 2021 budget of the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan as indicated below, with revenues of 15.9 billion manat ($9.35 billion), expenditures of 11.38 billion manat ($6.69 billion), or at the level of 199.8 percent of income and 92.9 percent of expenditure:
Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian foreign ministry, reacted to the statement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to which Russia was isolated at the G20 forum, and Russian FM Sergey Lavrov left the meeting ahead of time.

"This is the same Secretary of State Blinken who said that 'everyone who knows [US President Joe] Biden realizes that he speaks clearly, comprehensibly, and on his own behalf.'

It is you, Mr. Blinken, who put yourself into self-isolation by skipping a series of forum events where the majority didn't even remember you. And now you invent stories to justify your own failure.

After all, we were told how you personally indiscriminately ask everyone to isolate Russia. And everyone you ask laughs behind your back, knowing that the current [US] Administration is doomed to an inglorious end," Zakharova wrote on Telegram.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has told party leaders that he is ready to step down as prime minister and make room to form an all-party government, News 1st reports, citing the Sri Lankan premier's office.

He says he is making the decision because island-wide fuel distribution is scheduled to resume this week, the director of the World Food Program is due to visit the country this week, and the IMF's debt sustainability report is due to be finalized soon.

To ensure the safety of citizens, he agrees with this recommendation of the leaders of the opposition parties.

The prime minister's media department said the prime minister would step down after an all-party government was established and a majority in parliament secured.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, during talks with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, said that at present, Sino-US relations have not yet emerged from the predicament created by the previous US administration, and even face more and more problems. This is stated in the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.

According to Wang Yi, the fundamental principle of overcoming the predicament of Sino-US relations is the faithful implementation of the consensus reached by the two heads of state.

The Chinese Foreign Minister stressed that since the US side promised not to seek to change China's system, it should respect the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics chosen by the Chinese people and stop slandering and attacking China's political system, domestic and foreign policy.

Since the United States has promised not to seek a new Cold War, it should abandon the Cold War mentality. Because the US has promised not to support Taiwan independence, it must stop distorting the one-China policy.
The US State Department announced on Saturday it was imposing visa restrictions on 28 Cuban officials it believes were involved in the crackdown on peaceful protests in Cuba nearly a year ago, Reuters reported.

The department said in a statement that the restrictions would apply to high-ranking members of the Cuban Communist Party and officials working in the country's government communications and media.

The US State Department accused party officials of pursuing policies that resulted in hundreds of people who participated in the July 11, 2021 protests being subjected to brutal and unfair detentions, sham trials and decades in prison. The demonstrations were the largest anti-government demonstrations on the communist-ruled island in decades.

Washington imposed visa restrictions in line with a Reagan-era policy that withheld non-immigrant entry into the United States of officers and employees of the Cuban government and the Cuban Communist Party, media outlets said.
By Trend

According to the order of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, activities on the provision of the Azerbaijan Army Units stationed in the liberated territories, organization of troops' service, and improvement of social and living conditions continue, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry told Trend.

On the day of Eid al-Adha, Minister of Defense, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, the leadership of the Ministry and the Head of the Executive Power of the Khojavand district Eyvaz Huseynov attended an opening of a new military unit in the territory of the Khojavand district.

The headquarters, canteen, medical point, soldiers' barracks, car parking, warehouses for various purposes, and other infrastructure facilities in the territory of the military camp, built to organize combat training and troops' service at a high level, as well as provide living conditions for military personnel, were inspected.

After the inspection of the military unit, the minister gave relevant instructions on further improving the service and living conditions of the military personnel.

Then a concert program was organized for the military personnel on the occasion of Eid al-Adha.

In the end, Minister Hasanov and Eyvaz Huseynov planted evergreen long-lived trees in the territory of the military unit as a sign of the unity of the army and the people.

--
The protesters, who marched to Colombo on Saturday morning demanding resignation of President Gotobaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, stormed the President's official residence, braving police, and later occupied the Prime Minister's official resident, the Temple Trees.

Later, the protesters marched to Wickremesinghe's private residence in Colombo 7 and surrounded it, demanding that he step down. However, the police's elite Special Task Force (STF) attacked the protesters and six journalists from a private television station.

Angered by the attack, the protesters had set fire to the house of Wickremesinghe who had left it with his wife.

"Protesters have broken into the private residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and have set it on fire," the PM's office announced.

At the party leaders meeting summoned by the Speaker to solve the current crisis, Wickremesinghe had refused to resign from his post. Later he announced that he would resign once an all-party government is formed and a political group proved its majority in the parliament.

--IANS sfl/vd

( 204 Words)

2022-07-09-21:56:03 (IANS)
New Delhi [India], July 9 (ANI/SRV): Founder of RIGO Water Filtration, Anil Nagabhushan, has been presented with the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award to recognize the efforts he has made, along with his team of dedicated professionals, in supplying safe drinking water every day to more than 1 million people across India. The award was presented to him by GrandhiMallikarjuna Rao, Founder and Chairman of GMR Group, at the NRIVA Convention in Chicago. RIGO, one of the largest water filtration companies in India, manufactures RO Plant, Water softening plants, etc. In just nine years, RIGO has become one of the most trusted and successful brands in the Water Filtration business in India. "I am delighted to have been honoured with this title. What makes the moment more special is receiving the award from GrandhiMallikarjuna Rao. I embarked on my entrepreneurial journey because of him. He is an inspiration to me. We at RIGO have been working tirelessly to supply clean and safe drinking water in India. Our vision at RIGO is to strive to be the best. Over the years we have positioned ourselves as a reputed water filtration company in India with an emphasis on quality, design, and performance. We at RIGO want to emerge as the best company in the eyes of our customers, shareholders, communities, and people", said Anil Nagabhushan. NRI Vasavi Association (NRIVA) is a social and cultural non-profit organization for all Vasavi followers across the globe. The organization today has more than 20000 members across the United States of America. The vision and mission of NRIVA is to preserve and promote the culture and value of the Vasavi community whilst helping underprivileged people with access to proper health and education. "Access to safe drinking water is very important because it is directly connected to the health and well-being of every human. Keeping in line with the vision and mission of NRIVA, we at RIGO plan to extend our reach and services by providing safe water to government schools and marginalized areas of India that do not have clean water", signed off Anil. This story is provided by SRV. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)
Pune (Maharashtra) [India], July 9 (ANI/NewsVoir): Digital healthcare technology has improved and grown tremendously in the past two years. It offers opportunities to revolutionise the way care and services are delivered. Technology is reshaping the relationship between patients, doctors, and the hospital's systems. The past two years have been exciting at Jehangir Hospital as it underwent a paradigm shift by giving the teams digital tools to provide patient-centred healthcare. The assistance of the experts, administrative leaders, and personnel allowed for the successful implementation of numerous digital initiatives. Some of these initiatives include: 1. PACS (picture archiving and communication system) is a medical imaging technology used to securely store and digitally transmit electronic images and clinically-relevant reports.2. BOTS (Blood Order & Transfusion safety). A unique digital platform for online blood ordering and transfusion safety enabling real-time communication between hospital and blood centre for Blood ordering, order tracking, Haemovigilance, and adverse reaction reporting3. Document Record Management System, This technology helps to store digitised patient information in a structured and collaborative space that's accessible anytime, digitally. This is all done while keeping in mind data privacy and confidentiality of records. User logins and rights are defined accordingly. Hospitals have also been able to enhance the delivery process and standardise and raise the quality of porter services with the use of digital technology in operations management. One-stop shopping is made possible by the Porter Management System, which enables online booking of labour as well as tracking of events from assignment to final delivery. The nearest porter can start the trip to the designated place after receiving the request on their mobile device. Utilisation information is provided via smart analytics for each porter. This automation eliminates the burden of phone calls, manual reservations, and frequent calls to trace the porter. Jehangir Hospital received a "Digital Business Innovation Award for Healthcare", in the recently held Digital technology excellence award organised by Quantic India in association with IBM. "We are Immensely proud and honoured to receive the "Digital Business Innovation Award for Healthcare, and would like to thank Quantic India and the Jury members from KPMG for it," said Santhosh K, IT Head Jehangir Hospital. "With the use of digital technology in operations management, we have been able to reduce the cost, improve the delivery process as well as standardise and improve the quality of porter services. We will be continuing this journey of digitization and technological enhancement in healthcare in the future," added Santhosh. Speaking on this occasion, Vinod Sawantwadkar, CEO of Jehangir Hospital said, "This is a reward for the hard work put in by the entire Jehangir Hospital team. This is just the beginning of our technological journey towards leveraging to achieve predictive, preventative, personalised, and participative healthcare for the community." He added, "2022 marks the 77th year of Jehangir Hospital and with each passing year, It has grown stronger, better and bigger. It's not just a statement, but at Jehangir Hospital, we witness history in the making in every department, every day. Hundreds of patients visit our hospital on a daily basis and we've had many instances where the patients have left us with a great testimony that we proudly share with the world and it also adds more strength to our foundation of care. When the foundation is strong, our legacy of care can soar higher into the skies of medical excellence and for us, the sky would not be limited." Technological advancements have further extended to patients' bedsides to support in accomplishing significant contributions to patient safety. One such initiative was the electronic Modified early warning scoring system. This initiative won accolades at the FICCI Healthcare Excellence award in patient safety. The hospital has benefited greatly from digitization in numerous ways. Costs have decreased and, more crucially, errors have been minimised thanks to accurate and automated data collecting. Delivery of care has improved, as has patient satisfaction, staff management has improved, and operational management efficiency has taken hold. Technology will influence healthcare more than any other factor, and it will continue to grow dramatically in the future; hospital achievements are merely a preview of emerging trends. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Umargam (Gujarat) [India], July 9 (ANI/PNN): Mumbai-based SolarTech startup PowerMitra, India's leading Solar aggregation platform, launched the first-of-its-kind Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) SolarTech Summit Series in the country on July 7 from the industrial town of Umargam in Gujarat. Umargam is the country's textile hub and was selected by PowerMitra to host the inaugural event. This SolarTech meet is the inaugural event to kick off the SMEs SolarTech Series, aimed at helping India's manufacturing and consumer sectors reduce energy costs and go green while creating jobs for the youths in the Solar industry. This is India's largest SolarTech meet for SMEs and was held by PowerMitra in partnership with the Umargam Industrial Association, Solar Inertia, and The Hungry Lab India. The summit was attended by members of Umargam Industrial Association (UIA) and other SMEs in the presence of Chief Guest Atul Nai - Chief Officer GIDC Notified Area, Jignesh Parikh - President Umargam Industrial Association, along with national and international speakers Bian Li - CEO and Founder of The Hungry Lab, Ankit Barasia - Founder of SolarInertia and Director-Strategic Partnership of PowerMitra, and Vikesh Sharma - PowerMitra Founder and Managing Director. "Industrialists should adopt Solar Energy to reduce electricity costs and global warming. Powermitra is using UIA as a platform to showcase its solution that can optimize Solar panel installation digitally. Digitizing this process is a critical tool for choosing ClimateTech, and we're delighted to provide this platform for organizing this inaugural SolarTech Meet in Umargam," stated Jignesh Parikh, President of UIA, Umargam. PowerMitra's AI-enabled SaaS platform provides a one-stop solution for all Solar PV stakeholders to unlock the financial, environmental, and technological potential for Solar to benefit India's SMEs, the backbone of the nation's economy, be it power consumers looking to reduce their energy bills, financers wanting to invest in Solar projects, installers looking for quality work, and real estate developers wanting to monetize their idle roofs and land pockets. "We foresee an India where Solar Energy is affordable, abundant, and accessible to all. By 2023, our objective is to assist one hundred thousand individuals in utilizing Solar Energy so they can contribute to a healthier planet while boosting their bottom line," said Vikesh Sharma, founder and managing director of PowerMitra. According to media reports and research studies, the Indian Solar industry has the potential to generate 500,000 new jobs by 2050. It also offers India the opportunity to reduce its dependency on foreign oil, aid in the fight against climate change, and achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). "Digitization is a game-changer in the Solar sector. PowerMitra is already applying digital tools such as AI and Machine Learning to improve speed, scale, and sustainability," according to Ankit Barasia, Founder of SolarInertia and Director-Strategic Partnership of PowerMitra. "We're pleased to see India's developing momentum around affordable, accessible, sustainable energy for the masses. ClimateTech firms like PowerMitra help reduce carbon footprints, reward business owners, and provide green jobs for youth." Bian Li, CEO and Founder of The Hungry Lab, said, "We are proud to support PowerMitra's growth in our portfolio of innovative enterprises pursuing UN SDGs." The Hungry Lab is California-based teaching, incubation, and research platform that invests in and builds changemakers, startups, and next-generation ideas for an inclusive and regenerative future. The next event of this series will happen in Vapi next month. For more information, kindly visit www.powermitra.com This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)
The government has set up Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATLs) in selected schools across the country with the objective to foster curiosity, creativity, and imagination in young minds; and inculcate skills such as design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning and physical computing.

In order to foster inventiveness among students, Atal Tinkering Labs conduct different activities ranging from regional and national level competitions, exhibitions, workshops on problem-solving, designing and fabrication of products, lecture series, etc. at periodic intervals.

As a part of the Digital India Week celebration from 4 July - 9 July 2022, a three-day dedicated event titled "India Stack Knowledge Exchange" is being organized from 7 July to 9 July 2022.

The second day of 'India Stack Knowledge Exchange' witnessed brainstorming discussion and knowledge sharing on Health Stack, Agri-Stack, Skilling Stack and Digital Inclusion.

Jaideep Kumar Mishra, Additional Secretary, MeitY moderated the Technology Stack for skilling. Hemang Jani, Secretary, Capacity Building Commission, Deepali Upadhyay, Director-AIM (NITI Aayog), and Kirti Seth, CEO, NASSCOM - Future Skills, attended the sessions as panelists and put forth their views on Mission KarmaYogi, Atal Tinkering Lab, FutureSkills Prime, Digital Literacy, Capacity Building Through Technology and iGoT.

It was also shared in the session that 9800+ Atal Tinkering Labs were only possible due the technology stack and other platforms developed by the government and external agencies, according to an official statement released by the Ministry of Electronics & IT.

The last session of the day was on the theme 'Digital Inclusion and Connecting Unconnected'. (ANI)
New Delhi [India], July 9 (ANI/ATK): The bear market is in and many cryptocurrency projects are down by as much as 80 per cent. This is not unique to crypto and other markets such as stocks and bonds are also feeling the pinch. The bear market presents buyers with an opportunity to pick up projects at a discounted price. Furthermore, traders can capitalise on these bear market conditions to properly assess their portfolio to determine what needs to be exited. Many projects may never reach their previous price points because they were not built on solid fundamentals and were fueled by hype only. On the other hand, there are good projects which are trading at a discount for traders willing to buy the dip. Traders should always be on the lookout for hidden gems that may not be so obvious to the market as these are where the best returns come from. The three cryptocurrency tokens one should be watching in this bear market are Kava (KAVA), Kadena (KDA) and RoboApe (RBA). To learn more about these projects, here is a brief breakdown of the three tokens. Kava (KAVA)Kava (KAVA) is a high-speed layer one blockchain with the interoperability of Cosmos and the developer ecosystem of Ethereum. The project uses co-chain architecture optimised for developers. The Kava Network is able to run EVM smart contracts using the Ethereum co-chain while its super-fast tender mint consensus mechanism is powered by its Cosmos c0-chain and the IBC (Inter Blockchain Communication Protocol). In addition, it uses a translator module to enable both co-chains to function without interfering with each other. The Kava Network successfully brings two different blockchains to work seamlessly as a single unit. The KAVA token acts as the utility and governance token of the network. In addition, holders can stake KAVA to earn as high as 37 per cent of all KAVA emissions as a reward for securing the network. Stakers are also afforded voting rights which allow them to decide the future of the Kava platform. Kadena (KDA)Kadena (KDA) is a PoW (Proof of Work) blockchain which merges the Bitcoin (BTC) consensus mechanism with DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) principles. This enables Kadena to offer a scalable version of Bitcoin (BTC). The project claims to provide the security of Bitcoin with more improved throughput. It uses a multi-chain approach to spur mass adoption and accommodate as many blockchains as possible. With its industrial scalability, Kadena would support global financial systems and power payments worldwide. Currently, the project has scaled its network to 20 blockchains and hopes to increase this number as time passes. With the addition of the Kadena private Kuro layer 2 blockchains, this throughput supports 8000 transactions per second across its 500 network nodes. Kadena is poised to create enormous value for traders once the bear market sentiment wanes. RoboApe (RBA)RoboApe (RBA) is a community token project that aims to educate and inform new crypto entrants. Using its RBA token, it would fund and host charity games for various causes which would be backed by its community DAO. In addition, it would fund and invest in the education of crypto newbies through RoboApe Academy. Furthermore, it would organise and host charity events and games where the proceeds would be donated to select charity organisations. RoboApe will also create merchandise to create a sense of belonging for its community. The RBA token will be the transactional token of this project and its holders would be able to swap, buy and sell the token. DEFI transactions would be powered by RoboApe finance where users would be able to take full advantage of the RoboApe (RBA) token. Join the presale today by visiting the official links below. Presale: https://ape.roboape.io/register Website: roboape.io Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roboape.token Telegram: https://t.me/ROBOAPE_OFFICIAL Read more: Ultimate Guide to RoboApe - New Cryptocurrency Aiming to Have Financial Future This story is provided by ATK. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/ATK)
New Delhi [India], July 9 (ANI/PNN): Akums Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd, the leading contract manufacturing pharmaceutical company in India, has recently acquired the stringent European Union (EU) GMP approval for two of their manufacturing units in Haridwar. Following this prestigious nod, the gateway for several new opportunities in the European and other stringent regulatory markets is open to Akums Drugs. This move is another assent to Akums' "Quality First" approach to work, which has now been endorsed by the EU -GMP beside all top-notch Indian and multinational pharmaceutical companies, who are already Akums' long-standing partners. Akums has received EU GMP approval for its two manufacturing plants. One plant manufactures solid oral dosage forms such as tablets, hard gelatin capsules, powders in sachets, etc. belonging to the general category, and Another plant manufactures large volume parenteral and small volume parenterals lines, including vials, ampoules, eyedrops, FFS as well as for dry powder injections in the penicillin line. Founder, Promoter and Director, Akums Drugs & Pharmaceuticals, Sandeep Jain, says, "We are happy to announce that Akums Drugs has received EU GMP approval for two of our Haridwar-based manufacturing facilities, thus paving the path for new opportunities from the entire European Union as well as many other regulatory markets. We are already the largest Indian contract manufacturing company, manufacturing > 12 per cent of the country's domestic supply, but what makes us happiest is being recognised for our "Quality First" approach. While we have been endorsed for this quality by our partners, who are also leading Indian and multinational pharmaceutical companies, the latest one from the EU GMP is very widely recognised and accepted. Congratulations to the entire team, and I hope this is the beginning of numerous possibilities for us." Founder, Promoter and Director Akums Drugs & Pharmaceuticals, Sanjeev Jain, says, "Akums is already exporting to over 50 countries worldwide. With the esteemed EU GMP nod, we have now gained access to the most stringent global pharmaceutical markets besides the USA. These include the entire European Union, other markets like South Africa, Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia/New Zealand and most middle-eastern countries. Since the EU GMP is their gold standard, we are welcome to cater to the pharmaceutical demands of all these geographies. With a large R&D infrastructure already in place, we are well equipped with a good basket of Products in our pipeline to expand our presence in these regulated markets. While we are extremely proud and excited to expand our presence in these markets, the Indian domestic market has always been our pride & passion and will continue to be so. The trust our partners have in us, and our Quality is paramount for us." Akums Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd is India's largest contract manufacturing pharmaceutical company, manufacturing more than 12 per cent of India's consumption. The organisation deals in manufacturing and exporting formulations in a broad spectrum of dosage forms and therapeutic segments. The company currently supplies to almost all Indian and multinational pharmaceutical companies across the globe and is the 67th largest employer in the country. The ten state-of-the-art facilities are dedicated to oral solid dosage forms (with separate units for beta lactum and non-beta lactum formulations), Oral liquid dosage forms, Sterile dosage forms (injectable, eye, ear and nasal), hormonal (oral and injectable), ointments and cosmetics, personal care, Ayurvedic, food supplements and nutraceuticals and animal health care. In a few years, the organisation has become the icon of the Indian pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and currently manufactures more than 12 per cent of the country's total medicinal requirements. With creme-de-la-creme of dedicated pharmaceutical personnel and standardised practices, Akums has been successful in attaining national and international accreditations and building trust based on efficacy, safety and quality. The organisation is certified with WHO-GMP, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 certificates and various international accreditations, like; ANVISA, Brazil, NAFDAC, Nigeria, FDB, Ghana, PMPB, Malawi, amongst others and exports to 53 countries across the world. 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], July 9 (ANI/PNN): If you are a working woman or a housewife looking to master the skills of make-up techniques, then you have to be in the company Nav Brar Studio and Makeup Academy for just three hours of online classes. For the first time, Nav Brar Studio and Makeup Academy have launched various online courses for the women and aspiring makeup artists, such as professional makeup courses, airbrush courses, self-makeup courses, and masterclasses. Founded by Nav Brar in Chandigarh in June 2019, the Nav Brar Studio and Makeup Academy boast a team of senior makeup artists and hairstylists. The studio and academy is delivering services for almost three years with high-end makeup brands, offering a wide range of services to cater to the varied requirements of its customers. "Each makeup course comes with three hours of online classes via Zoom," said Nav Brar, founder of Nav Brar Studio and Makeup Academy. "We will be teaching a super fresh and contemporary soft glam look with foxy eyeliner technique, which can be used for a bridal look for Rs 6,500. The classes are followed by 45 minutes of Q&A sessions. The aspirants completing the courses are given online certificates." This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)
"As India prepares to roll out next-generation 5G services through this auction, we are one of the many applicants participating in the open bidding process," Adani Group spokesperson said in a statement.

"We are participating in the 5G spectrum auction to provide private network solutions along with enhanced cyber security in the airport, ports & logistics, power generation, transmission, distribution, and various manufacturing operations," it said.

Also, if we are awarded 5G spectrum in the open bidding, it will also align with our recent announcement of significantly increasing the Adani Foundation's investments in Education, Healthcare and Skill Development in rural areas, each of which stands to benefit from 5G technology, the company's spokesperson said.

In addition, as we build our own digital platform encompassing super apps, edge data centres, and industry command and control centres, we will need ultra high-quality data streaming capabilities through a high frequency and low latency 5G network across all our businesses, the spokesperson added.

"All of this is aligned with our nation-building philosophy and supporting an Atmanirbhar Bharat," the spokesperson noted in the statement.

However, the company said it has no intention to enter into the consumer mobility business.

"We have received a lot of inquiries about our interest in the 5G space. Our intention is not to be in the consumer mobility space," the company said in the statement. (ANI)
Julius Onah, director of "The Cloverfield Paradox" and "Luce," is set to helm the fourth "Captain America" movie, starring Anthony Mackie and building on the events from the 2021 Disney+ series, "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier." According to Variety, the screenplay is being written by staff writer Dalan Musson and the series creator and head writer Malcolm Spellman. Sam Wilson, played by Sam Mackie, struggles to embrace the mantle of Captain America that Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) bestowed upon him at the conclusion of 2019's "Avengers: Endgame," but eventually comes to terms with the title and the cultural significance that goes along with it. There is no official title or release date for the movie yet, but there is a good chance that Marvel Studios will reveal both at San Diego Comic-Con later this month. This will be the studio's first presentation at SDCC since 2019, as SDCC was postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. It's also unknown whether Mackie will be working with any other cast members from "Falcon and the Winter Soldier," such as Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes (also known as the Winter Soldier), Wyatt Russell's John Walker (also known as the U.S. Agent), Emily VanCamp's Sharon Carter (also known as the Power Broker), or Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Nigerian-born Onah entered the graduate film programme at NYU, and Spike Lee served as executive producer on his thesis project, the 2015 movie "The Girl Is in Trouble." Then J.J. Abrams hired him to helm a sci-fi space thriller, which finally turned into the 2018 Netflix film "The Cloverfield Paradox." The next year, Onah's independent drama "Luce," starring Naomi Watts and Tim Roth, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival to rousing praise for its study of the strains facing a white couple and their adopted Black kid, Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). Harrison's leading role in the movie and Onah's directing were both nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards. (ANI)
By Trend

Azerbaijani Minister of Defense Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, who is on a visit to the Khojavand region, attended the opening of the new headquarters building, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry told Trend.

There is a control center, a communication point, and other office premises, equipped with modern means of communication and information, in the new headquarters for the operational management of units during combat operations and ensuring interoperability with other types of troops.

Hasanov was informed in detail about the complete equipping of all premises in the building with the necessary furniture and equipment for organization of military activities.

Then the minister inspected a new two-story residential building for servicemen. All apartments have been completely renovated and equipped with the necessary communication lines. Conditions for effective recreation of servicemen have been created in accordance with modern standards.

Having positively assessed the work done, the Minister gave instructions to the relevant officials to further improve the service and living conditions of the servicemen.

Thereafter, Hasanov held an official meeting with the participation of the commanders and staff officers in the new headquarters building.

Congratulating the military personnel on the holiday of Eid al-Adha, the minister delivered to the meeting participants the tasks assigned to the Azerbaijan Army by President Ilham Aliyev.

The meeting analyzed the operational situation on the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border and in the Karabakh economic zone. The minister gave specific instructions to strengthen logistics and combat support of the units, improve service and combat activities of servicemen, as well as increase vigilance of the military personnel.

Speaking of the Cybersecurity Operations Center, the Defense Minister stressed the special importance of security measures in the field of information and communication technologies in the modern world during wartime and peacetime, as well as noted that the Azerbaijan Army applies the advanced experience of developed countries in ensuring cybersecurity.

Then reports on the activities of the recently established Operations Commando military units were presented and relevant instructions on paying special attention to the combat training of commandos were given.

The minister stressed the importance of further increasing combat and moral-psychological readiness, the discipline of servicemen, strengthening the protection of military facilities, paying special attention to the care and health of military personnel, as well as toughening control over compliance with safety rules.

Hasanov gave instructions on organizing the troops service in military units stationed in the liberated territories, and the work aimed at creating a new military infrastructure to further improve service, combat, social, and living conditions.

In the end, a group of servicemen who distinguished themselves in military service was presented with valuable gifts.

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Alia Bhatt announced the wrap of her debut Hollywood film, 'Heart of Stone', and shared a few pictures from the set on her social media. The actor co-stars with Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan in Tom Harper's upcoming spy thriller that will stream on Netflix. On Friday, the 'Gangubai Kathiawadi' star took to her Instagram account and dropped a series o pictures with her co-actor Gal and other crew members and also revealed her look from the film. In the first picture, Alia was seen hugging Gal Gadot in an adorable selfie. The following image showed a behind-the-scenes look at the shoot. Alia was seen changing into her action avatar, wearing a green bodysuit and her hair was tied in a half ponytail. Alia was seen posing with more of her crew members. The last and fourth picture showed a chair with the words 'Heart of Stone' written on it. Sharing the pictures, the 'Raazi' actor penned a touching note as she expressed gratitude to the entire team for the experience. She captioned the post and wrote, "Heart of Stone - you have my wholeeeeeee heart. Thank you to the beautiful @gal_gadot .. my director Tom Harper ... @jamiedornan missed you today .. and WHOLE team for the unforgettable experience. I will be forever grateful for the love and care I received and I can't wait for you all to see the film!!!!! But for now ..I'm coming home babyyyyyy." Meanwhile, on the work front, Alia Bhatt is preparing for the release of her debut production 'Darlings'. The dark comedy, co-starring Vijay Varma and Shefali Shah, will also debut on Netflix, on August 5. She will then appear in Ayan Mukerji's 'Brahmastra', her first endeavour with her husband Ranbir Kapoor. She will also be seen in Karan Johar's 'Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani' with Ranveer Singh and Farhan Akhtar's 'Jee Le Zaraa' with Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif.
Hollywood actor Amber Heard's legal team has asked for a mistrial to be declared in the defamation lawsuit involving Johnny Depp, alleging that a wrong juror was seated on the jury. According to Fox News, the filing was made by her legal team on Friday afternoon. They have argued that juror number 15 was not actually the individual who was summoned by the court, and "could not have properly served on the jury at this trial." The filing stated that the 'Jury Panel List' included an individual who had a date of birth in 1945, meaning the individual would have been 77 years old during the trial. However, an individual who is 52 years old and lives at the same address as the 77-year-old was the person who appeared for jury duty and sat on the jury, the filing alleges. "The individual who appeared for jury duty with this name was obviously the younger one. Thus, the 52-year-old- sitting on the jury for six weeks was never summoned for jury duty on April 11," the filing says. Due to this alleged error, the legal team states that Heard's due process was "compromised" and a mistrial "should be declared." The filing added that the "safeguards" apparently didn't work in this instance and the correct identity of the juror wasn't verified. Former U.S. Attorney Neama Rahmani told Fox News that the allegation made by Heard's legal team is "not grounds for a mistrial or for the verdict to be overturned." "Even if it was intentional, her lawyers will have to prove that the juror misconduct would have resulted in a challenge for cause. That means the wrong juror could not have been fair and impartial. That's a tough hurdle for them to overcome," Rahmani said. The new filing comes just a week after Heard's legal team asked a judge to toss out the USD 10.35 million judgment made in favor of Johnny Depp, arguing that it wasn't supported by the evidence. Following the six-week trial in Fairfax County, Virginia, a seven-person jury reached a verdict on June 1, deciding that Depp, proved that Heard defamed him in the 2018 op-ed, in which she described herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse." Depp has maintained that he never assaulted Heard and claimed she physically harmed him. The jury awarded Depp USD 15 million in damages but Heard will only have to pay USD 10.35 million due to a Virginia law limiting punitive damages (the judge reduced the amount). In her countersuit, Heard won one of the three defamation counts and was awarded USD 2 million in damages, as per People magazine. (ANI)
South actor Nayanthara's husband Vignesh Shivan, on Saturday, dropped a string of throwback pictures from his wedding day which was attended by Shah Rukh Khan. Taking to Instagram, the 'Paava Kadhaigal' director captioned, "What more can anyone ask for ! #kingkhan @iamsrk ! Blessed to have this humble, kind, charming and wonderful human being with us during our wedding ! The Badshaah and the time with him ! Bliss ! Blessed One month anniversary". In the first picture, Shah Rukh Khan can be seen giving a warm hug to her 'Jawan' co-star Nayanthara. The 'Chak De India' actor donned a formal white shirt and black pants, whereas the 'Bigil' actor can be seen in her beautiful red lehenga and Maang tikka. The second picture is a candid photograph, in which the 'Don' actor can be seen sharing a happy moment with the newlywed couple with joined hands. In the third picture, the newly married couple and the 'Fan' actor are joined by south director Atlee, who is directing Shah Rukh and Nayanthara's upcoming action thriller 'Jawan'. Soon after the 'Naanum Rowdy Dhaan' director shared the post, fans swamped the comment section with good wishes as the couple marks their first month anniversary today. "Happy one-month anniversary" a user commented followed by heart emoticons. Another user wrote, "so sweet together# SRK and Nayans". After dating for a few years, the 'Annaatthe' actor and Vignesh tied the knot on June 9, in an intimate south Indian wedding ceremony. Recently the couple returned from their honeymoon and had been treating their fans with their beautiful pictures on Instagram. Meanwhile, on the work front, the 'Darr' actor will be next seen in director Sidharth Anand's next action thriller 'Pathaan' with Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, which is slated to release on January 25, 2023. Apart from that, he also has director Atlee's 'Jawan' with Nayanthara, which is slated to release on June 2, 2023, and Rajkumar Hirani's 'Dunki' with Taapsee Pannu. The 'Darbar' actor on the other hand will be next seen in 'GodFather' alongside south actor Chiranjeevi. The film is slated to release on the occasion of Dussehra 2022. (ANI)
Elon Musk, the Tesla mogul, made a sudden appearance at Allen & Co.'s exclusive conference for billionaires at the Sun Valley Lodge on Thursday. As per Variety, his much-anticipated arrival, which happened through the back entrance away from the prying eyes of the press, came following a day of chatter about a Wednesday report of him secretly fathering twins with a Neuralink exec last year, and just after the Washington Post published a story stating his USD 44 billion deal to buy Twitter is 'in serious jeopardy.' Meanwhile, Musk's side of the deal ruled that Twitter's spam accounts' data was unverifiable and is now dropping talks with potential investors for the purchase. The huge number of the elite and super-rich attendees at the Sun Valley event, including Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, arrived on Tuesday, ahead of the first full day of sessions at Wednesday's top-secret conference. Musk was yet to check in two days into the Sun Valley lineup's kickoff, although sources confirmed he would eventually come as he is scheduled to speak to fellow guests on Saturday. Musk finally showed up at the Sun Valley Lodge in Idaho after 5 p.m. local time Thursday, being ushered through a back entrance by security and off to dinner with his guests at the "summer camp for billionaires" event. The Tesla chief's low-key arrival mirrors that of high-profile moguls like Mark Zuckerberg and Rupert Murdoch, who have been on-site for days but not yet spotted by the press, as per Variety. The Sun Valley panels will resume on Friday, with Musk's speech scheduled for Saturday. However, numerous Sun Valley regulars won't be there for Musk's musings. (ANI)
Following complaints about the overall conduct of junior lawyers, the Trivandrum Bar Association has issued notice to them, warning of disciplinary action if they do not change their attitude. Seniors have expressed their concern about the juniors' "disrespectful behaviour, casual conduct" and even their attire. The notice said that the Bar Association has been receiving several complaints regarding the casual conduct and attire of junior lawyers. "Several complaints regarding the indifferent attitude of certain junior members of the Bar are being received at the office continuously, relating to the disrespectful behaviour shown to the senior lawyers and casual dressing manner and submissions before the courts," the notice stated. The seniors are upset because the juniors wear half-length trousers and sleeveless blouses, which according to the Association, is disrespectful of the dress code expected of lawyers. "It is also noticed that certain junior lawyers are wearing dresses like three-fourth (calf-length) bottoms, sleeveless blouses causing total disrespect to the mandatory dressing code of our profession. Already a notice was issued on this behalf," it said. Therefore, the notice urged senior members of the Bar to advise junior lawyers to amend their ways, failing which the Association may be forced to take disciplinary action. "Senior lawyers of the bar may kindly advise the juniors attached to your office to wear proper uniform to maintain the dignity of our profession, if not, TBA will be constrained to initiate disciplinary actions against them," the association cautioned. Just a month ago, the Kerala High Court Advocates' Association (KHCAA) also asked junior lawyers and law interns to maintain decorum and follow the dress code prescribed for lawyers by the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the Kerala High Court. --IANS sg/vd ( 300 Words) 2022-07-08-19:42:05 (IANS)
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday conducted searches in connection with the Rs 36,615 crore loan fraud case involving DHFL and its top officials, which led to the recovery of a large number of valuable paintings and sculptures estimated to be worth around Rs 40 crore. "The premises of Rebecca Dewan and Ajay Ramesh Nawandar in Mumbai and Mahabaleshwar, respectively, were raided by our team," said a CBI official. A CBI source said that a person named Vipin Kumar Shukla, DGM and head of Union Bank of India's Nariman Point branch, had lodged an FIR in this connection. It was alleged that Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL), its former CMD Kapil Wadhawan, ex-Director Dheeraj Wadhawan, and other accused persons entered into a criminal conspiracy to cheat a consortium of 17 banks led by the Union Bank of India. "The Wadhawans and others induced the consortium banks to sanction huge loans aggregating to Rs 42,871.42 crore and siphoned off and misappropriated a significant portion of the said funds by falsifying the books of the DHFL and dishonestly defaulted on repayment of the legitimate dues of the said consortium banks. They caused a wrongful loss of Rs 34,615.00 crore to the consortium lenders," said the CBI. The FIR was lodged against DHFL, the Wadhwan brothers, present Director Sudhkar Shetty, Amaryllis Realtors LLP (ARLLP), Gulmarg Realtors LLP (GRLLP), Skylark Buildcon Pvt Ltd, Darshan Developers Pvt Ltd, Sigtia Constructions Pvt Ltd, Creator Builders Pvt Ltd, Township Developers Pvt Ltd, Shishir Reality Pvt Ltd, Sunblink Real Estate and other unknown persons, including public servants. The official said that it was found that the promoters had allegedly diverted the funds and made investments in various entities. It was also alleged that the promoters had acquired expensive paintings and sculptures worth about Rs 55 crore using the diverted funds. Earlier on June 22, searches were conducted at 12 locations in Mumbai at the premises of the accused persons which led to the recovery of incriminating documents. --IANS atk/arm ( 351 Words) 2022-07-08-21:22:02 (IANS)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal on Friday wrote a letter to the Trinamool Congress MPs, seeking support for NDA's Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu. The two BJP signatories in the letter are the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari and state BJP president and party MP, Sukanta Majumdar. Murmu is expected to arrive here on Saturday for campaigning. She would also hold a meeting with the BJP legislators from West Bengal. It was learnt that the Trinamool Congress MPs were not satisfied with the content of the letter, which read that since the victory of Murmu in the Presidential election is certain, Trinamool Congress MPs should caste their votes in favour of her. Veteran Trinamool Congress leader and three-time party Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy said: "If the BJP leaders are confident of Murmu's victory then when they are appealing to Trinamool Congress MPs for their votes?" He added that since Yashwant Sinha is already being fielded as the united Opposition candidate in the Presidential polls, as of now, there is no question of replying positively to the appeal of Adhikari and Majumdar. Recently, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee commented that she would have given a positive thought about Murmu had BJP confirmed her about their choice of candidate before Sinha was fielded as the opposition candidate. After being nominated as the Presidential candidate, Murmu even called up the chief minister seeking her support. However, the chief minister expressed inability on this count. Sinha was fielded as the opposition candidate after the first three choices namely Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah and Gopalkrishna Gandhi turned down the offers to contest. --IANS src/pgh ( 292 Words) 2022-07-08-21:24:01 (IANS)
Addressing members who took oath in the House, Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said that the ensuing Monsoon Session of the House will also be held as per the COVID-19 protocol conforming with the social distancing and safety norms. The COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the country including more than 18,000 cases on Friday itself, therefore, the COVID restrictions which have been in place for the last few sessions will continue to be in place in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament. Sources said that this decision has been arrived at after considerable discussion and monitoring by both custodians of the Lok Sabha as well as the Rajya Sabha. It has also been brought to notice that more than 80 pc of the eligible members of Parliament, as well as staff of the Secretariat, have been able to take vaccinations including the booster dose. Members of Parliament will be expected to be masked up at all times and abide by the norms of social distancing. The sitting of members will be available in both the Lok Sabha as well as a Rajya Sabha chambers and also in the visitor's gallery. This essentially means that visitor entry will continue to be blocked during the upcoming session. Restrictions will also continue on the number of media personnel who will attend the proceedings of the house from the galleries. The Rajya Sabha chamber can accommodate 60 members, while the Lok Sabha chamber can seat 132. The remaining members will be accommodated in the visitors' gallery of both the Houses. There is likely to be a restriction for MP staff and a limit on staff for ministers to enter the Parliament building as well. Repeated requests are likely to be made to get the booster dose for those eligible and who have still not taken the vaccine. Desks will be set up to hold COVID-19 tests from time to time to be undertaken if anyone calls in unwell or shows COVID-19 symptoms Sources said that members can continue to maintain attendance through digital or physical means and an appeal will also be made to the members to restrict the use of paper or circulation of paper Bills. Sources also say that the Central Hall will be continued to be out of bounds for former members or family members of MPs. It was during the last monsoon session in 2021 that the COVID-19 restrictions were first imposed in Parliament. In fact, in December 2021 the winter session of Parliament was cancelled and was clubbed in with the budget session of 2022. The monsoon session of Parliament will begin on July 18. The session is slated to conclude on August 12. The session will coincide with the presidential and vice-presidential elections. Voting for the presidential election is slated for July 18 while that for the vice-presidential election will take place on August 6, if necessary. NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu and Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha are in the fray in the presidential election. (ANI)
The suspended officers have been identified as inspector M.L. Chetankumar and sub-inspector Prasannakumar, both attached to the Kalasipalya police station in Bengaluru.

The police said the accused officers turned a blind eye to the complaint lodged in this regard against Bombay Saleem and his associates.

Muyeez Ahmad, a Bengaluru-based realtor, had lodged a complaint with ADGP (Prisons) Alok Mohan seeking protection as he was getting threatening calls from the prison.

Mohan had forwarded the complaint to Bengaluru Police Commissioner Pratap Reddy. In turn, Reddy had asked the Central Crime Branch (CCB) to probe the matter.

The probe had revealed negligence shown by the suspended police officers. According to the police, the complainant had a property dispute with a person named Riyaz. Riyaz had contacted Bombay Saleem, who is behind bars.

Saleem's associates had gone to the residence of the complainant on June 5 and threatened him to settle the issue with Riyaz. Saleem himself had made a video call from the prison and demanded a ransom of Rs 8 lakh.

After the complaint was lodged, Saleem increased the frequency of the threatening calls.

The CCB sleuths have arrested Saleem's associates Abdul Jaffer, Shooter Khadeem, Imran, Bombay Riyaz, Khadir and Ali. The CCB team has also taken Saleem into its custody.

--IANS mka/arm

( 257 Words)

2022-07-08-23:06:04 (IANS)
At least 72 employees of the call centre racket, including the kingpin were taken into custody in the operations conducted by teams from the Whitefield and Mahadevapura police stations.

A joint team of Whitefield and Mahadevapura police stations conducted simultaneous search operations on late Thursday evening at two locations after receiving information on a fake call cyber being operated from there.

A total of 138 computers and other equipment were seized during the operation.

According to police officers, the entire racket was being run by two individuals belonging to Ahmedabad.

Employing young graduates, mainly from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, the racket mainly targeted people from the US.

The modus operandi involved sending text messages to potential targets through text messages, voice mail etc that a fraudulent/ suspect transaction is noticed in one of their accounts such as bank account or Amazon account and they are calling on behalf of Amazon or their bank, to resolve the fraudulent transaction.

They would finally zero in on the gullible persons who would trust the callers.

The accused were also seen using vans disguised as school vans to transport the employees, police said.

--IANS pvn/pgh

( 245 Words)

2022-07-08-23:06:06 (IANS)
By Trend

A total of 41 families will initially return to the smart Aghali village of Azerbaijani Zangilan district [liberated from Armenian occupation in the 2020 Second Karabakh War], the Special Representative of the President of Azerbaijan in Zangilan District of Eastern Zangazur Economic Region Vahid Hajiyev said, Trend reports.

Hajiyev made the remark at a meeting of heads of diplomatic missions of Azerbaijan, held in Shusha city on July 9.

According to him, in connection with the return, serious measures are already underway.

The former IDPs will return to their homes by the end of July, added the official.
The adjudicating authority of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued show cause notice to Amnesty India International Pvt Ltd (AIIPL) and its CEO Aakar Patel for contravention of the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and imposed penalties to the tune of Rs 51.72 crore and Rs 10 crore on the two, respectively. The ED had initiated investigation under FEMA on the basis of information that Amnesty International, UK, had been remitting huge amount of foreign contributions through its Indian entities (non-FCRA companies) following the FDI route, in order to evade the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) to expand its NGO activities in India, despite the denial of prior registration or permission to the Amnesty International India Foundation Trust (AIIFT) and other trusts under FCRA by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The show cause notice issued by the ED has charged that during the period between November 2013 and June 2018, remittance which was received by AIIPL and claimed as receipt for business/management consultancy and public relation services for export of services to foreign beneficiary, was nothing but the amount borrowed from overseas remitter, thereby violating the FEMA provisions. After getting detailed reply from AIIPL and following the principal of natural justice, the adjudicating authority of ED has held that AIIPL is an umbrella entity under Amnesty International Ltd, UK, which was declared to be set up for the cause of social activities in India. However, AIIPL has been found involved in many activities which are not relevant to their declared commercial business, and a circumventing model has been applied by them to route the foreign funds in the guise of business activities to escape FCRA scrutiny. All contentions and submission from AIIPL regarding the claim of remittance towards the export of services to Amnesty International have been dismissed, in the absence of concrete evidence. Consequently, it is held that the funds that have arrived at the hands of AIIPL through inward remittances to the tune of Rs 51,72,78,111.87 is nothing but the fund lent by Amnesty International to AIIPL to ensure its objectives in the territorial jurisdiction of India, which is not in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 3 of Foreign Exchange Management (borrowing and lending in foreign exchange) Regulations, 2000. "Accordingly, penalty to the tune of Rs 51.72 crore on AIIPL and Rs 10 Crore on Patel has been imposed under the provisions of FEMA," said an ED official. --IANS atk/arm ( 425 Words) 2022-07-08-23:16:02 (IANS)
Karnataka's BJP government on Friday finally approved funds for distribution of free socks and shoes for the students of government schools. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced that the approval has been given for distribution of socks and shoes to school children at a cost of Rs 132 crore. The government has already given approval to uniforms. It will take some time to manufacture and distribute, and there is no need to create confusion in this regard, he said. The opposition Congress, especially Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, had chided the ruling party for not distributing shoes and socks to children. "Has the government of Karnataka become so bankrupt that it is not able to provide shoes and socks for children?" he had asked. Congress state President D.K. Shivakumar had said that his party would beg among the people of the state and get the money to buy shoes and socks for school children. "This is a question of the self-respect and dignity of school children. I am ready to take this responsibility. Congress will formulate a plan for this," he had said. Earlier, Education Minister B.C. Nagesh had sparked off controversy, by saying children go to schools to learn and get educated, not to wear socks and shoes. --IANS mka/vd ( 223 Words) 2022-07-08-23:18:05 (IANS)
Maharashtra's newly appointed Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday. Discussions took place among the three leaders regarding the new government to be formed in Maharashtra and many other subjects. "Newly appointed Chief Minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met him and wished him all the best. I believe, under the guidance of Narendra Modi ji, both of you will take Maharashtra to new heights of development by serving the people with full devotion," Shah tweeted. In Maharashtra, the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of the new government have been sworn in while the rest of the ministers are to be sworn in. Sources said that more than a dozen people of Shinde camp can be made ministers. Current eight ministers of the Uddhav government had joined his rebellion along with Shinde. In such a situation, all of them can be made ministers once again. Eknath Sinde will be present in Delhi tomorrow, where he will meet President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President JP Nadda. He will meet PM Modi in the evening while his meeting with the President is to be held in the morning. Earlier in June this year, Eknath Shinde led a group of Sena MLAs against the MVA government, resulting in it losing its majority in the Maharashtra assembly. This also led Shiv Sena chief Thackeray to step down as CM ahead of a floor test. The new Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra won the floor test on Monday by a 164-99 margin, proving his government's majority and cementing his position as chief minister of the state and the leader of the Shiv Sena. 164 votes were polled in favour of Shinde, while 99 votes were polled against the newly formed BJP-Shinde camp coalition. The trust vote comes a day after BJP's Rahul Narwekar was elected the Assembly Speaker. On Sunday Narwekar reinstated Shinde as the Shiv Sena's legislative party leader and also recognized the appointment of Gogawale as the chief whip of the Shiv Sena. After the Maharashtra government won the trust vote in the state Assembly, Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde faction on Monday gave a petition to Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar for the suspension of 16 MLAs of the party belonging to Uddhav Thackeray's camp for violation of whip. The Speaker's office confirmed that 16 MLAs will be issued notice for suspension. Gogawale had also issued a whip to the party MLAs to remain present in the Vidhan Sabha for the floor test. (ANI)
In the cloudburst-affected area at the lower Amarnath Cave site, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) troops conducted a rescue operation early on Saturday, said ITBP. Meanwhile, the Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir cancelled all leaves of the staff (Regular/Contractual) and directed them to report to duties immediately. "All leaves of the staff (Regular / Contractual) are hereby cancelled with the direction to report for duties immediately," the circular had said. The Directorate of Health Services had directed all the officers to keep their mobiles switched on, as per the Circular. Chief Medical Officers of south Kashmir i.e. Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian & Anantnag are directed to send additional doctors and paramedical staff along with drugs, disposables and emergency aid kits to Pahalgam. Chief Medical Officers of North & Central Kashmir i.e. Srinagar, Bandipora, Baramulla & Budgam are directed to send additional doctors & paramedical staff along with drugs, disposables and emergency aid kits to Baltal. The incharge Controller of Stores (Health) is directed to coordinate with General Manager JKMSCL Srinagar for keeping emergency supplies ready to be dispatched to Baltal & Pahalgam Immediately in consultation with Yatra Officer DHSK. Earlier on Friday, Thirteen people were killed and over 48 others injured when a cloudburst struck the area near the holy shrine of Amarnath, said Dr A Shah, Chief Medical Officer Ganderbal, Jammu and Kashmir. As of now, all the injured patients are being taken care of at all three base hospitals: Upper Holy Cave, Lower Holy Cave, Panjtarni and other nearby facilities en route to the holy cave by the health care workers deputed at these stations. Six teams are involved in the rescue operation. Two search and rescue Dog Squads with one each from Pattan and Sharifabad were inducted by air to Panjtarni and onward to the holy cave, said the Indian army. "The injured patients are being managed well and are stable as of now," CMO had informed "As of now 13 dead and 48 injured. Six teams are involved in the rescue operation. Two additional medical teams were also sent. Two search and rescue dog squads with one each from Pattan and Sharifabad being inducted by Air to Panjtarni and onward to the holy cave," Dr A Shah, Ganderbal Chief Medical Officer, Jammu and Kashmir had told ANI. A cloudburst incident took place at the holy cave area of Amarnath on Friday which resulted in a heavy discharge of water in the 'Nallah', adjoining the holy cave. According to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) officials, the cloud burst occurred at the lower holy cave (Amarnath) at around 5.30 PM and the rescue teams rushed to the spot. (ANI)
Pilgrims who managed to reach Sonamarg's Baltal base camp from Amarnath holy cave after it was hit by the cloudburst narrated their harrowing experiences. Deepak Chouhan, a pilgrim from Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi told ANI, "A stampede-like situation happened there, but Army supported a lot. Many pandals were washed away due to the water." Another pilgrim Sumit from Maharashtra said, "the floods triggered by the cloudburst carried a large number of stones with it. We were two kilometres away from the cloudburst site" Another pilgrim said, "When the cloudburst took place, we could not believe it. After a while, we only saw water and water. We were a group of seven to eight people, by Bholenath's grace, we all got saved. However, we all had a harrowing experience as we witnessed people and bags swept away with the water." "Within 10 minutes of the cloudburst, eight casualties were reported. The water carried a large number of stones with it. There were approximately 15,000 pilgrims who came for the pilgrims. The pilgrims continued to come despite heavy rains," he added. Earlier on Saturday, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) troops conducted a rescue operation early on Saturday, said ITBP. Earlier on Friday, Thirteen people were killed and over 48 others injured when a cloudburst struck the area near the holy shrine of Amarnath, said Dr A Shah, Chief Medical Officer Ganderbal, Jammu and Kashmir. As of now, all the injured patients are being taken care of at all three base hospitals: Upper Holy Cave, Lower Holy Cave, Panjtarni and other nearby facilities en route to the holy cave by the health care workers deputed at these stations. A cloudburst incident took place at the holy cave area of Amarnath on Friday which resulted in a heavy discharge of water in the 'Nallah', adjoining the holy cave. According to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) officials, the cloud burst occurred at the lower holy cave (Amarnath) at around 5.30 PM and the rescue teams rushed to the spot. (ANI)
"We are heading towards the Pahalgam camp and are hoping that yatra will resume. We pray to Baba Bholenath to protect all the pilgrims," said a pilgrim.

Earlier on Friday, the pilgrimage was suspended till the situation returns to normal, officials informed.

Earlier on Saturday, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) troops conducted a rescue operation early on Saturday, said ITBP.

Earlier on Friday, Thirteen people were killed and over 48 others injured when a cloudburst struck the area near the holy shrine of Amarnath, said Dr A Shah, Chief Medical Officer Ganderbal, Jammu and Kashmir.

As of now, all the injured patients are being taken care of at all three base hospitals: Upper Holy Cave, Lower Holy Cave, Panjtarni and other nearby facilities en route to the holy cave by the health care workers deputed at these stations.

A cloudburst incident took place at the holy cave area of Amarnath on Friday which resulted in a heavy discharge of water in the 'Nallah', adjoining the holy cave.

According to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) officials, the cloud burst occurred at the lower holy cave (Amarnath) at around 5.30 PM and the rescue teams rushed to the spot. (ANI)
At least 16 people have died in the cloud burst incident near the holy shrine of Amarnath, informed National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) DG Atul Karwal on Saturday. Speaking to ANI, Karwal said, "There are 16 confirmed deaths, about 40 still seem to be missing. There is no landslide, but rain continues, though no problem in rescue work. Four NDRF teams with over 100 rescuers in rescue work. Besides, Indian Army, BSF, SDRF, CRPF and others continue with the rescue operation." An Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) official on Saturday informed that rescue operation has been intensified in the Amarnath cloud burst incident. Speaking to ANI, Vivek Kumar Pandey, PRO, ITBP said, "Rescue operation has been intensified, around 30-40 people are still missing we have got information from the local administration. The weather is clear near the Amarnath cave. The injured people have been brought to base using helicopters. Yatra is still on hold and we are advising people not to move ahead." The Indian Air Force has deployed 2 ALH Dhruv and Mi-17 V5 helicopters each from Srinagar for the rescue oerations at the Amarnath cave site. One AN-32 and Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft are on standby in Chandigarh for further requirements, IAF officials informed on Saturday. In a statement, the ITBP said, "Most of the yatris who were stranded near Holy cave area due to flash flood last evening have been shifted to Panjtarni. ITBP had expanded its Route opening and protection parties from Lower Holy cave to Panjtarni. The evacuation continued till 3.38 AM. No yatri is left on the track. About 15,000 people were safely shifted till now." Meanwhile, Chinar Corps Commander Lieutenant General ADS Aujla reached the cloudburst-affected areas near the Amarnath cave. A cloudburst incident took place at the holy cave area of Amarnath on Friday which resulted in a heavy discharge of water in the 'Nallah', adjoining the holy cave. (ANI)
The terrorist was identified as Mohd Iqbal Bhat, a resident of Tilgam Payeen. He was arrested at a checkpoint in Kreeri area of Baramulla.

Based on reliable input regarding terrorist movement in the Kreeri area, joint parties of Police and Army 29 RR established Naka at Kreeri.

During Naka checking one Hybrid terrorist of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit was apprehended along with arms and ammunition, the police said.

Incriminating materials include one pistol, a pistol magazine and 7 rounds- pistol ammunition have also been recovered from the hybrid terrorist.

According to police, the terrorist has been actively involved in providing logistics support for terrorist activities and was in touch with Pakistani terrorists Saifullah and Abu Zarar.

The successful apprehension of the hybrid terrorist has helped prevent major terror plots and bust the module responsible for various recent attacks on PRI members and non-locals. In addition, the terrorist was actively involved in providing chemicals and other materials for carrying out an IED attack on National Highway between Narbal and Renji.

Interrogation of the apprehended terrorist is likely to give further inputs for future counter-terrorism operations.

Earlier on Thursday, Jammu and Kashmir Police had arrested a hybrid terrorist linked with the proscribed terrorist outfit Al-Badr in Awantipora.

During checking, the terrorist was identified as Aamir Ahmed Parray son of Abdul Rashid Parray resident of Kashwa Chitragam, Shopian, linked with proscribed terror outfit Al-Badr.

Meanwhile, two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists surrendered before police and security forces following an encounter in Kulgam on Wednesday.

According to Jammu and Kashmir Police, the surrendered terrorists were identified as Nadeem Abbas Bhat, resident of Reshipura, Qaimoh and Kafeel Mir, resident of Mirpura, Qaimoh.

Both were part of a recently recruited module of LeT. (ANI)
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday called on President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan. "Eknath Shinde, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, along with Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister, called on President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan," Rashtrapati Bhavan tweeted. According to the sources, Shinde and Fadnavis are likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi later in the day. He will also meet BJP President JP Nadda. On Friday, Shinde and Fadnavis met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed the new government to be formed in Maharashtra and many other subjects. Earlier in June this year, Eknath Shinde led a group of Sena MLAs against the MVA government, resulting in it losing its majority in the Maharashtra assembly. This also led Shiv Sena chief Thackeray to step down as CM ahead of a floor test. In Maharashtra, the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of the new government have been sworn in while the rest of the ministers are to be sworn in. Sources said that more than a dozen people of the Shinde camp can be made ministers. Current eight ministers of the Uddhav government had joined his rebellion along with Shinde. In such a situation, all of them can be made ministers once again. The visit comes as the first tour for Shinde after taking charge of the office as the CM. With the buzz of the Maharashtra cabinet being expanded in two phases doing rounds, the meeting is significant as reportedly the first announcements of the cabinet will be made before the presidential elections. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde formally took the charge of Chief Minister's Office (CMO) on Thursday in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Shinde won the floor test in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on the last day of the two-day special session of the House. In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it. Three legislators abstained from voting, while Congress's Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar were among those absent during the trust vote. Shinde was sworn in as CM on June 30, a day after Uddhav Thackeray quit the post. BJP's Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the deputy CM. (ANI)
IMD also predicted the possibility of occasional gusty winds reaching 40-50 km per hour in the coastal city.

IMD had issued a red alert in Mumbai from 1:00 pm on Friday till the next 24 hours.

Several parts of Maharashtra have been witnessing heavy rainfall over the past few days amidst the wet spell on the state since the onset of a torrential monsoon.

The Mumbai Regional Meteorological Centre on Wednesday issued a heavy rainfall alert for the next five days for Mumbai, Thane and other parts of Maharashtra.

It also issued an orange alert for Mumbai and Thane till July 10.

On Thursday, as heavy rainfall lashed Mumbai, the Andheri Subway was waterlogged.

Severe waterlogging was also recorded in several parts of the metropolitan on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, waterlogging was witnessed in Dadar and Sion, along with the overflowing of Powai Lake.

The capital city has been witnessing heavy rain since Monday following which areas are waterlogged and traffic movement has been affected.

On Tuesday, a landslide incident was reported in Ghatkopar's Panchsheel Nagar in Mumbai amidst heavy rains, demolishing a house. And on Wednesday, another landslide was reported near Pratapgarh Fort in Maharashtra's Satara district.

Several rivers in the state have reached the warning level. The Kundalika river has crossed the warning level and the water level of the Amba, Savitri, Patalganga, Ulhas and Garhi rivers is slightly below the warning level.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had put all the districts on high alert and is monitoring the situation. He directed the officials to make all arrangements including the shifting of people living in vulnerable areas.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has deployed 17 teams in areas of Maharashtra that have reported heavy to very heavy rainfall. (ANI)
As the three-day Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam continues in Varanasi, Higher Education Secretary K Sanjay Murthy said the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) focuses on three pillars. First, a curriculum which meets the industry's requirements; second, a capable and competent faculty to deliver content; and third, to leverage technology to deliver it at the least cost. Addressing the event in Varanasi on Friday, Higher Education Secretary said the second of its three-day programme has witnessed intense deliberations on future education in the country. The intense exercise of consultations with over 300 state Universities, 300 Central Universities, and private universities was consulted on the various aspects of the implementation of NEP. "We got the consensus of all the state governments towards implementing the 16-point agenda plan of action. Now, this 16-point agenda plan of action is one of the foundations of the actions that we proposed to discuss in this three-day event. All participants of this conference will be benefited from the best practices that are happening throughout the country," Murthy said. The Education Secretary further said that this Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam gives an opportunity to interact to see how NEP can be adopted and implemented at the least cost. "We feel that this intense discussion that will emerge from these three days' discussion will motivate, excite, as well as allow the universities towards a better plan of action for implementation of the NEP," he added. "I am sure, participants will benefit immensely from Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam," he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam on the implementation of the National Education Policy in Varanasi on Thursday, said a press release by Prime Minister's Office. Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said that 'our education system and young generation carry a big part of realizing the pledges of the 'Amrit Kaal', added the statement. The Ministry of Education organised Shiksha Samagam from July 7 to July 9. It will provide a platform for eminent academicians, policymakers and academic leaders to deliberate and share their experiences and discuss the roadmap for effective implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. In the three-day Shiksha Samagam, panel discussions are to be held on nine themes. These themes are Multidisciplinary and Holistic Education; Skill Development and Employability; Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Capacity Building of Teachers for Quality Education; Quality, Ranking and Accreditation; Digital Empowerment and Online Education; Equitable and Inclusive Education; Indian Knowledge System; and Internationalisation of Higher Education. (ANI)
Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda on Saturday held a meeting with the newly-appointed Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on cabinet expansion and the formula for dividing cabinet berths between BJP and Shiv Sena, sources said. The meeting which lasted about 40 minutes took place at the residence of Nadda in the national capital. According to the sources, the BJP has in initial talks offered 11 ministerial posts to the Shinde faction and has suggested that 29 ministers would be from the party. Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde faction is in favour of keeping the Home Department with the Chief Minister. However, no official information has been given on this matter yet. This is the first visit of Shinde to the national capital as Maharashtra Chief Minister. Shinde and Fadnavis had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday. With the buzz of the Maharashtra cabinet being expanded in two phases doing rounds, the meeting is significant amid the likelihood of the expansion taking place before the presidential election on July 18. Shinde took oath as Chief Minister and Fadnavis as Deputy Chief Minister of the new government on June 30 after Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray resigned following a revolt in his party. Shine had led the revolt and was joined by some independent MLAs. Shinde had said earlier that decision on cabinet expansion will be taken soon after discussions. Sources said that more than a dozen people of the Shinde camp can be made ministers. Eight ministers of the Uddhav government had joined Shinde in the revolt. There is speculation that all of them can be made ministers again. Shinde and Fadnavis also met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at his residence in Delhi on Saturday. They also called on President Ram Nath Kovind. Shinde and Fadnavis are also likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the evening. After his visit to the capital, Shinde will leave for Pune in a private plane. During the meeting with Amit Shah on Friday, Shinde and Fadnavis discussed matters related to the state including the formation of the new cabinet. Sources said the meeting with Shah lasted for four hours and the political situation in Maharashtra. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction has moved the Supreme Court opposing the Maharashtra governor's June 30 decision to invite Shinde-led MLAs supported by the BJP to form a government in the state. The matter will be heard in the Supreme Court on July 11. Referring to the Thackeray faction, Thackeray has said that no one can take the party symbol of bow and arrow. In the meeting, they also held discussions on the possibility of giving ministerial posts to all the MLAs who were ministers in the Thackeray government. Shinde won the floor test in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on the last day of the two-day special session of the House on July 4. In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it. (ANI)
A Delhi Court recently dismissed the bail application of a Delhi cop arrested in a kidnapping for ransom case. A youth was kidnapped and a Rs 2 lakh ransom was demanded by the accused persons. A case was registered in Chandni Mahal police station in this matter. Additional Sessions Judge Vijay Shankar of Tees Hazari court dismissed the bail plea of Samay Singh in view of the serious nature of the allegations and the gravity of the offence. "As per the prosecution, the victim was kidnapped by the accused persons and ransom was demanded. Accused Mohd Sadiq was sent by other accused persons to collect the amount of ransom. Accused Sachin Bidhuri brought the victim to the plot where accused Anand confined him the whole night, the court noted in order of July 5, 2022. The court said, "Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, the gravity of the offence and serious nature of allegations levelled against the accused, this court considered that no ground for regular bail of accused Samay Singh is made out." Advocate Sanjiv Malik, counsel for the accused, argued that his client has been falsely implicated in this case and there is no incriminating evidence against him. His further custody is not required as the investigation is completed and the charge sheets have been filed, Malik said. It was also argued that the co-accused Sachin Bidhuri has already been granted bail by the vacation Judge of Tees Hazari Court on June 16, 2022. The present accused should be granted bail on the ground of parity. He is in judicial custody since February 9, 2022. On the other hand, an Additional public prosecutor opposed the bail plea stating that the allegations against the accused are serious in nature and he can abscond if enlarged on bail. It was also contended that sanction and FSL reports are awaited. Charges are yet to be framed. The complainant, victim and witnesses are to be examined, he can influence them, if released on bail. (ANI)
Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar has written to state Director General of Police (DGP) Rajnish Seth, instructing him to ensure that the cows are not slaughtered on the day of Bakrid. In a letter to Maharashtra DGP, the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker said, "The police should ensure that the cows are not slaughtered on the day of Bakrid on July 10." Vishwa Hindu Parishad has written a letter to the Speaker of the Assembly demanding that the slaughter of cows be stopped, on which the Speaker of the Assembly directed the Maharashtra Police DGP. Earlier two-three days ago, three trucks filled with meat were brought to Deonar slaughterhouse in Mumbai, which was seized by the police who also arrested the accused. Meanwhile, Karnataka Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu B Chavan has also appealed to people not to sacrifice cattle for the Bakrid festival while warning of stern action against the offenders. The Minister emphasised the Cow Slaughter Prohibition Act has already been in force in Karnataka. He instructed the officials of the Animal Husbandry Department and the Police Department to keep an eagle eye on the illegal movement of cows and beef to/from outside the state and be proactive in preventing cow slaughter. A task force has been appointed in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) zone and taluks of the city district to prevent cow slaughter on the occasion of Bakrid in Bengaluru city district and any slaughter of cattle (including cow, cow, ox, bull, calf, camel and thirteen-year-old buffalo) will be immediately taken against them, Minister Prabhu Chavan has warned that disciplinary action will be taken in this regard. Eid-ul-Azha (Bakrid) will likely be observed on July 10. However, it depends on the sighting of the moon. Eid-ul-Azha is also known as "Sacrifice Feast" is marked by sacrificing an animal, usually a sheep or a goat to prove their devotion and love for Allah. Post the sacrifice, people distribute the offerings to family, friends, neighbours and especially to the poor and needy. (ANI)
Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang on Saturday visited West Bengal's Siliguri and paid homage to people who died in the cloudburst incident near the holy shrine of Amarnath. Speaking to ANI, the Chief Minister said, "It is a tragic incident. I extend my condolences to the bereaved families of the deceased." "Till now, no information has come out on pilgrims from Sikkim in Amarnath. The rescue operation is going on there. The Central government is keeping an eye on the incident," Tamang said. Earlier in the day, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) DG Atul Karwal informed that at least 16 people have died in the cloud burst incident near the holy shrine of Amarnath. Speaking to ANI, Karwal said, "There are 16 confirmed deaths, about 40 still seem to be missing. There is no landslide, but rain continues, though no problem in rescue work. Four NDRF teams with over 100 rescuers in rescue work. Besides, Indian Army, BSF, SDRF, CRPF and others continue with the rescue operation." An Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) official on Saturday informed that rescue operation has been intensified in the Amarnath cloud burst incident. The Indian Air Force has deployed 2 ALH Dhruv and Mi-17 V5 helicopters each from Srinagar for the rescue operations at the Amarnath cave site. One AN-32 and Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft are on standby in Chandigarh for further requirements, IAF officials informed on Saturday. In a statement, the ITBP said, "Most of the yatris who were stranded near Holy cave area due to flash flood last evening have been shifted to Panjtarni. ITBP had expanded its Route opening and protection parties from Lower Holy cave to Panjtarni. The evacuation continued till 3.38 AM. No yatri is left on the track. About 15,000 people were safely shifted till now." Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha visited Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Srinagar to enquire about the health of pilgrims who were injured in the incident A cloudburst incident took place at the holy cave area of Amarnath on Friday which resulted in a heavy discharge of water in the 'Nallah', adjoining the holy cave. (ANI)
At least 16 people have died in the cloud burst incident near the holy shrine of Amarnath. The cloudburst on Friday resulted in a heavy discharge of water in the 'Nallah', adjoining the holy cave.

"When the rains came the army helped us a lot. They send some people to Baltal and some to Panjtarni. They supported us a lot and moved people from the cave to safety," one of the survivors told ANI.

"The way Jawans saved us. I salute them," said an elderly woman.

Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday visited Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Srinagar to enquire about the health of pilgrims who were injured.

"The relief and rescue operation is underway. All teams including NDRF, SDRF, Indian Army, and State forces are working in coordination. It is difficult to predict the exact time to complete the rescue operation," Lieutenant Colonel Sachin Sharma told reporters.

"So far 28 injured patients have arrived out of which some severely injured have been shifted to Srinagar. A total of 8 choppers including Air Force and Army helicopters are in use for the rescue," Sharma said. (ANI)
Telangana Government on Friday distributed commercial vehicles to the Dalit community in Hyderabad under the Dalit Bandhu Scheme. The Dalit Bandhu Scheme is aimed to empower the Dalit community and to lift them out of poverty. The scheme was designed to give the Dalit Community employment, self-respect and development as it is an effective policy. Earlier economic development schemes could not yield many results owing to the rules linking the schemes with bank loans and collateral security. There is no bank linkage and no collateral security in Dalit Bandhu Scheme. The beneficiary has complete freedom to select any business and activity, he or she is good at and for which the state government will provide complete financial assistance in the shape of grants which need not be paid back. An amount of Rs 10,00,000 is transferred into the beneficiary account to start any business activity. Speaking to ANI, Dr Ramesh, Executive Director of Hyderabad district, SC corporation said, "In the Karwan constituency cars, centring machines, good vehicles and passenger vehicles were distributed by the government of Telangana under the Dalit Bandhu Scheme. Dalit Bandhu is a unique scheme in which Rs 10 lakh will be given to Dalit families. They can use this in doing business. It is a 100 per cent subsidy and beneficiaries did not need to pay even a single rupee back to the government." Dr Ramesh further said that the Telangana government keeping the Dalit community in mind have made good schemes by which many people belonging to the Dalit community will be benefited. "The beneficiaries are earning Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 every month and they are the owner of their vehicles and business. Telangana government is giving 100 beneficiaries in every assembly constituency," he added. Narsing Rao, the residence of Langar Houz, a beneficiary of the scheme said, "We got car under Dalit Bandhu Scheme. KCR sir, local MLA and Harish Rao sir are supporting us. We have received four-wheeler vehicles and we will run this as a taxi. The government is doing good for Dalits till now no one has helped us but after KCR become the Chief Minister we are getting more benefits from the government." Another beneficiary, Prakash said that Telangana government have given them cars under Dalit Bandhu Scheme and he thanked the government and KCR for supporting SC and ST community people with various schemes. (ANI)
The conclave will also be attended by Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvratand and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.

As part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Prime Minister in his address at Gujarat Panchayat Mahasammelan in March, 2022 had exhorted at least 75 farmers in each village to adopt the natural way of farming.

According to the PMO, Surat District undertook a concerted and coordinated effort to sensitize and motivate different stakeholders and institutions like farmer groups, elected representatives, talathis, Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs), cooperatives, banks, etc, in the district to help farmers in adoption of natural farming.

Consequently, at least 75 farmers were identified in each Gram Panchayat and were motivated and trained to undertake natural farming. The farmers were trained in 90 different clusters resulting in the training of more than 41,000 farmers across the district.

The conclave will witness the participation of thousands of farmers and all other stakeholders who have made the adoption of natural farming in Surat possible. (ANI)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was on Saturday elected "president for lifetime" of Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress (YSRC). The decision was taken at the concluding day of the YSRC's two-day plenary after an amendment to the party's constitution. Party's Parliamentary Party Leader Vijayasai Reddy said earlier in the day that Jagan Mohan Reddy will be made lifetime president of YSRCP. YS Vijayamma, mother of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, had said on Friday that she is thinking of stepping aside from her role as honorary president of YSRCP to help her daughter YS Sharmila in Telangana. Sharmila floated YSR Telangana Party last year with a view to fight the assembly polls in the state. Vijayasai Reddy also said that support is required for Sharmila in Telangana at present. "Support for YS Sharmila is required in Telangana at this time... Our present party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will be made lifetime president of YSRCP. In this plenary, a proposal was mooted," he said. Jagan Mohan Reddy formed the YSRCP in March 2011 after severing ties with the Congress and has held the post of party president while his mother Vijayamma has been honorary president. Vijayamma said on Friday that when Jagan Mohan Reddy was in trouble she was with him and now she should support her daughter. "I am thinking of stepping aside from this party. Sharmila is fighting alone. As Rajasekhara Reddy's wife and mother of Sharmila I have to stand with her, my heart tells me," Vijayamma had said at the party's national plenary. "When he (YS Jagan Mohan Reddy) was in trouble I was with him, now he is happy here. My daughter (YS Sharmila) is fighting alone, if I don't support her, it will be injustice...I am telling you all about this and I request all to forgive me," she added. Telangana will go for assembly polls in 2023. Vijayamma's remarks indicated that Sharmila will get the full backing of the party in the assembly polls. (ANI)
Earlier on June 30, the Rudraprayag police at the Sirobgad area had informed about the district being closed till 4 AM after the debris and stones kept falling from the hill, which resulted in the traffic being jammed on both sides of the highway.

Badrinath highway was also blocked due to the falling of several boulders at the Birahi and Pagal Nala area, following the overnight rainfall on June 25.

Meanwhile, on May 17, the traffic movement was disrupted on the Badrinath route, NH7, near Panchpulia in Karnaprayag after the boulders fell from the hill.

As per the Badri-Kedar Temple Committee on June 18, atleast 7 lakh 27 thousand pilgrims had visited Kedarnath since its doors were opened on May 6.

The India Meteorological Department has predicted isolated heavy rainfall over Uttarakhand on Sunday and Wednesday (July 10 and July 13).

The IMD has also forecasted extremely heavy rainfall over Uttarakhand for today (Saturday, July 9).

"Isolated heavy rainfall very likely over Jammu & Kashmir on 09th and 10th; Himachal Pradesh on 10th, 12th and 13th and over Uttarakhand on 10th and 13th July 2022," IMD said in a tweet.

"...Isolated extremely heavy rainfall also likely over Uttarakhand on 09th July 2022," it added. (ANI)
Asserting that religion is a personal matter, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said one can take pride and practice one's religion but no one has the right to denigrate others' religious beliefs. Touching on the issue of religious intolerance, Naidu appealed that religion is a personal matter and that while one can take pride and practice one's religion, no one has the right to denigrate others' religious beliefs. He stressed that secularism and tolerance towards others' views are a core part of Indian ethos and that sporadic incidents cannot undermine India's commitment to the values of pluralism and inclusivity, according to the Vice President's Secretariat. Naidu called for removing barriers hindering the emancipation of women in the country, saying that there are several areas in which women are yet to realize their full potential even though our civilizational principles encourage equal participation of women in various fields. While inaugurating the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of Mount Carmel College in Bengaluru today, the Vice President addressed the gathering while emphasizing a greater push for women's education through consistent efforts of the government. He explained that given an opportunity, women always prove themselves in every discipline. Naidu mentioned that India's stellar contribution in the field of education during ancient times earned it the status of 'Viswa Guru'. Referring to distinguished women scholars of ancient India, such as Gargi and Maitreyi, the Vice President praised India's educational heritage. He also applauded the progressive rulers and reformers from Karnataka, such as Attimabbe and Sovaladevi, who were great patrons of learning, while also commending the Virashaiva movement that was committed to the emancipation of women via education. The Vice President praised the College for empowering women since independence to become catalysts of change and bridging gender disparity in education. Naidu emphasized the importance of adopting a futuristic approach to education by focusing on developing students' skills ranging from artificial intelligence to data analytics. "Equally important is to possess effective communication skills," he added. Stressing upon the importance of 'active learning', the Vice President wants educational institutions to adopt an evaluation based on continuous assessment. Calling for breaking rigidity and water-tight compartmentalization of the subjects, he underlined that "Interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity are the way forward." (ANI)
"The searches were done in connection with an alleged Chinese visa scam, as part of a search that remained incomplete earlier as a few biometric lockers could not be searched," said CBI sources.

The Delhi High Court on June 24 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.

It is alleged that Karti Chidambaram received Rs 50 lakh to illegally facilitate visas for 263 Chinese nationals to complete a power project in Punjab.Karti's father and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram was home minister in 2011 but P Chidambaram has not been named as an accused in the FIR.Besides the MP, the CBI has booked four other people including Karti Chidambaram's chartered accountant S. Bhaskararaman, Vikas Makharia, representative of Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd, a Mansa-based private company, and Bell Tools, Mumbai along with 'unknown public servants and private individuals. (ANI)
Newly-appointed Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Saturday. It is the first meeting of Shinde with PM Modi after taking oath as the Maharashtra CM. Earlier today, Shine and Fadnavis held a joint press conference in the national capital. Shinde said, "Maharashtra has a strong government. We have 164 MLAs while the opposition has 99. My government will complete its tenure. We will even win the next election."He further said the existence of Shiv Sena MLAs came under threat during the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) regime and so he revolted against the coalition. "The existence of our MLAs came under threat under the MVA government. Back then we could not speak that is why we took the step. It is only the natural alliance of BJP and Shiv Sena that can take Maharashtra ahead," added Shinde. Deputy CM Fadnavis emphasised that Eknath Shinde is the leader of the new Maharashtra government. "My party made me the Chief Minister earlier. Now as per the need of the party, we have abided by the party's decision. Eknath Shinde is our leader and CM. We will work under him. The injustice was undone and our natural alliance was revived," Fadnavis said. Prior to the press conference, Shinde and Fadnavis held a meeting with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda on cabinet expansion and the formula for dividing cabinet berths between BJP and Shiv Sena, sources said. The meeting which lasted about 40 minutes took place at the residence of Nadda in the national capital. According to the sources, the BJP has in initial talks offered 11 ministerial posts to the Shinde faction and has suggested that 29 ministers would be from the party. Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde faction is in favour of keeping the Home Department with the Chief Minister. However, no official information has been given on this matter yet. This is the first visit of Shinde to the national capital as Maharashtra Chief Minister. Shinde and Fadnavis had also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday. Sources said the meeting with Shah lasted for four hours and the political situation in Maharashtra. During the meeting with Shah, Shinde and Fadnavis discussed matters related to the state including the formation of the new cabinet. With the buzz of the Maharashtra cabinet being expanded in two phases doing rounds, the meeting is significant amid the likelihood of the expansion taking place before the presidential election on July 18. Shinde took oath as Chief Minister and Fadnavis as Deputy Chief Minister of the new government on June 30 after Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray resigned following a revolt in his party. Shine had led the revolt and was joined by some independent MLAs. Shinde had said earlier that decision on cabinet expansion will be taken soon after discussions. Sources said that more than a dozen people of the Shinde camp can be made ministers.Eight Ministers of the Uddhav government had joined Shinde in the revolt. There is speculation that all of them can be made Ministers again. Shinde and Fadnavis also met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at his residence in Delhi on Saturday. They also called on President Ram Nath Kovind. Shinde and Fadnavis are also likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the evening. After his visit to the capital, Shinde will leave for Pune in a private plane. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction has moved the Supreme Court opposing the Maharashtra governor's June 30 decision to invite Shinde-led MLAs supported by the BJP to form a government in the state. The matter will be heard in the Supreme Court on July 11. Referring to the Thackeray faction, Thackeray has said that no one can take the party symbol of bow and arrow.In the meeting, they also held discussions on the possibility of giving ministerial posts to all the MLAs who were Ministers in the Thackeray government. Shinde won the floor test in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on the last day of the two-day special session of the House on July 4. In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it. (ANI)
The celebration of Eid Al-Adha is quickly approaching and people are eager to enjoy it. This is the second-most significant festival observed by Muslims worldwide after Eid-Ul-Fitr. The holiday of Eid Al-Adha honours the Prophet Ibrahim's unwavering devotion to and love for the Almighty. In addition to its religious significance, this celebration also features tempting food. A lot of people plan or organise gatherings for their friends and loved ones. There are many traditional delicacies that are made on the day. Let's take a look at some of them: Mutton Shami Kebabs This can be a great starter for your special Eid menu. Mutton shami kebabs, a drool-worthy snack from Hyderabadi cuisine, is surely going to set your mood right for the main course ahead. Tender mutton kebabs made with a bunch of spices taste yummy. Also, they are shallow-fried, so you can have them guilt-free. Nalli Nihari It is a well-known mutton curry that is slowly cooked and created with a variety of spices. Nalli Nahari has a thick flavour and is very decadent. This dish was once offered to the kings following the morning players at some period in history. Nihar is the Arabic word for day. Awadhi Mutton Biryani Include this on your Bakri Eid menu for 2022, and we bet it will be the star of the feast. In this recipe, rice is cooked with tender and luscious mutton chunks in a royal manner. This flavorful, savoury dish will leave your guests speechless. The distinctive flavours in Awadhi mutton biryani are preserved thanks to the cooking method. Sheer Qorma A genuine and traditional food served on Eid is sheer khurma. It is a vermicelli pudding recipe created specifically for Eid celebrations. Dates are referred to as "khurma" while milk is referred to as "sheer" in Persian. Shahi Tukda Ending a festive lunch with a scrumptious shahi tukda is a great touch. It's a delicacy made with bread and milk that will definitely entice your taste buds. This dish typically has a beautiful garnish of dried fruits like almonds, pistachios, rose petals, and a few kesar threads. (ANI)
After a cloudburst struck the area near the holy shrine of Amarnath, as many as 35 pilgrims were discharged following treatment, informed the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) Officials on Saturday. "35 pilgrims have been discharged following treatment. 17 people are getting the treatment and are likely to get discharged tonight. All safe and healthy," said Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) Officials. The critically injured patients were airlifted to Srinagar. "Critically injured people were airlifted to Srinagar. 2 people who were buried but were alive were rescued. We're taking all precautionary steps. 41 missing as per Jammu and Kashmir police out of which some were rescued. Yatra may resume within a day or two," said DG, CRPF, Kuldiep Singh. At least 16 people have died in the cloud burst incident near the holy shrine of Amarnath, informed National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) DG Atul Karwal on Saturday. Speaking to ANI, Karwal said, "There are 16 confirmed deaths, about 40 still seem to be missing. There is no landslide, but rain continues, though no problem in rescue work. Four NDRF teams with over 100 rescuers in rescue work. Besides, Indian Army, BSF, SDRF, CRPF and others continue with the rescue operation." An Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) official on Saturday informed that rescue operation has been intensified in the Amarnath cloud burst incident. Speaking to ANI, Vivek Kumar Pandey, PRO, ITBP said, "Rescue operation has been intensified, around 30-40 people are still missing we have got information from the local administration. The weather is clear near the Amarnath cave. The injured people have been brought to base using helicopters. Yatra is still on hold and we are advising people not to move ahead." The Indian Air Force has deployed 2 ALH Dhruv and Mi-17 V5 helicopters each from Srinagar for the rescue oerations at the Amarnath cave site. One AN-32 and Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft are on standby in Chandigarh for further requirements, IAF officials informed on Saturday. In a statement, the ITBP said, "Most of the yatris who were stranded near Holy cave area due to flash flood last evening have been shifted to Panjtarni. ITBP had expanded its Route opening and protection parties from Lower Holy cave to Panjtarni. The evacuation continued till 3.38 AM. No yatri is left on the track. About 15,000 people were safely shifted till now." Meanwhile, Chinar Corps Commander Lieutenant General ADS Aujla reached the cloudburst-affected areas near the Amarnath cave. A cloudburst incident took place at the holy cave area of Amarnath on Friday which resulted in a heavy discharge of water in the 'Nallah', adjoining the holy cave. (ANI)
The Supreme Court will deliver its order on July 11 regarding extradited gangster Abu Salem's plea raising the issue that as per the extradition treaty between India and Portugal, his jail terms cannot extend beyond 25 years. Earlier in May, a Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh reserved the order after both parties concluded their arguements. During the hearing, the court remarked that when it was reading some other cases from the UK, it found that India has never violated the extradition assurance. Abu Salem's advocate had apprised the Supreme Court of India that the Supreme Court of Portugal had stated that if the requesting state (India) exceeds the terms of the agreement, then the accused (Abu Salem) shall be extradited again back. Abu Salem's advocate apprised the SC that there is a violation of the terms of the agreement and assurance given to Portugal. SC had observed that the exercising of power by the executive and by the court is different. Abu Salem's advocate also apprised the court that his client was in custody in Portugal since 2002. Abu Salem was also arrested on the virtue of red corner notice, the lawyer said. He also apprised the court that my extradition started in 2003 and went on for almost 2 years and custody was handed over in 2005. Centre had earlier submitted that the Union of India honouring its assurance will arise only when the period of 25 years is to expire. The Centre had said the compliance of the assurance given to the Portugal government during the extradition of gangster Abu Salem will be done at an "appropriate time" and the judiciary, as the Constitution of India envisages, is independent in deciding all cases in accordance with the applicable laws. The Supreme Court was hearing the plea of Abu Salem which contended that as per the extradition treaty between India and Portugal, his jail terms cannot extend beyond 25 years.The Home Secretary also clarified that the Government of India will abide by the assurances in accordance with the law and subject to the remedies as may be available at that stage. Explaining the Extradition Act, 1962, the Centre, in its affidavit, said it is an Act enabling the executive of one State [the term "State" being used in the parlance of international law] to deal with another State to extradite accused / convict persons and these powers are executive powers and while exercising such powers, it is an inherent understanding that it would bind the executives of the respective States. The government also said that before the said date, the convict appellant Salem cannot raise any arguments based on the said assurance. The Centre Government remarked that the contention of the petitioner about non-compliance of assurance is premature and based on hypothetical surmises and can never be raised in present proceedings. Salem has raised issues that the 2017 judgment of a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) Court sentencing him to life imprisonment was against the terms of the extradition treaty. Salem's advocate Rishi Malhotra had said that on December 17, 2002, the Government of India gave a Solemn Sovereign assurance to the Government of Portugal that if the appellant Salem is extradited for trials in India he would neither be conferred with the death penalty nor be subjected to imprisonment for a term beyond 25 years. He had also said that the TADA Court were not according to the extradition order. He further added that the Government can exercise its powers under section 432, 433 CrPC to commute the sentence of Life imprisonment in order to bring down within the ambit of assurance of the sentence of not more than 25 years as the execution of the sentence was purely in the domain of Government. The petitioner had also said that the government should ensure to bring down punishment consistent and commensurate with the assurances but it cannot be said that the Court's hands were tied in not awarding punishment to Salem for more than 25 years. Supreme Court to deliver the order on extradited gangster Abu Salem plea raising issue that as per extradition treaty between India and Portugal, his jail terms cannot extend beyond 25 years, on July 11 (Monday). (ANI)
Reacting to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) July 7 notice, Kerala Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan on Saturday said that he was ready to face any legal action. Debunking Satheesan's 'Gowalkar' remark on the anti-constitutional statement of former Kerala Minister Saji Cherian-- that he made on Tuesday during a CPI-M programme at Mallapally in Pathanamthitta district-- the RSS in its letter to the Congress leader stated that his allegations were "false and untrue". Satheesan had alleged that Cherian's remarks were exactly the same as that of M.S. Gowalkar's words written in the 'Bunch of Thoughts'. "Saji Cherian said the same things as in Golwalkar's 'Bunch of Thoughts'. Who does not know that the approach of the RSS to the Constitution is the same as the statements of Saji Cherian- the member of the CPIM State Secretariat and the former minister? I am ignoring the notice sent by the RSS with the contempt it deserves. Whom do you want to threaten by sending notice? It is enough to keep it in hand. I am ready to face any legal action. I have said that by quoting a page in the book," VD Satheesan said while addressing a press meet, here in Kochi. Alleging that CPIM State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan also tried to praise Cherian's "unconstitutional remarks", Satheesan said that Cherian was yet to withdraw his unconstitutional remarks and insults against the architects of the Constitution including Ambedkar. Quoting Cherian's remark of 'what he said was true and was distorted by the media', Satheesan in his address added that "Kodiyeri Balakrishnan also upheld Saji Cherian who did not deny what he said." "CPIM should have asked Saji Cherian to say that what he said about the constitution was wrong when he resigned as minister," the Congress leader said, adding that the CPIM was not yet ready to assert that the remark was wrong. The remarks came days after Cherian resigned from his post as the Kerala Fisheries, Culture, and Youth Affairs Minister on July 6, after facing a huge backlash from the opposition parties for his alleged remarks on the Indian Constitution. Cherian courted controversy while addressing a CPI-M programme at Mallapally in Pathanamthitta district on Tuesday and had said in his remark that India's constitution can be used to "loot" the people of the country. "British prepared it, Indians wrote it and implemented it. It's been 75 years. India wrote a beautiful constitution that can be used to loot. In that constitution, there are few places that have references to secularism, and democracy but it can be exploited," he had said. (ANI)
Duty Magistrate Bhavya Karhail directed the jail authorities to consider the threat perception to Deepak Gulia and take the decision as per the rules.

The court remanded Gulia to 14 days of judicial custody after a police interrogation in the Arms Act case.

He was arrested by the Special cell of Delhi police and a country-made pistol and cartridges were recovered from him.

An application was moved on behalf of the accused seeking direction to jail authorities to take the necessary steps in view of the threat to the accused.

The Court noted the submission made by advocate J P Singh, Deepak Singh and Priyanka Tomar, counsel for the accused, that Deepak has a threat to his life from rival gang members lodged in Jail Number 3 and 5.

On the last hearing on July 5, 2022, while seeking 4 days of custody, the investigation officer submitted that Deepak Gulia, who is a relative of Kala Jathedi.

It was also submitted that a gang member took Deepak Gulia to Munger, Bihar to buy 4 semi-automatic pistols and cartridges from a dealer. The three remaining pistols are in possession of the person whom Deepak met in Chandigarh. On the basis of these submissions, 4 days of custody were granted. (ANI)
Launching a scathing attack on Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national spokesperson Sambit Patra on Saturday said Congress stands with terrorism and the party can also forge an alliance with terrorists to stay in power. Addressing a press conference here, Patra said, "It is a matter of surprise that the Congress party is holding press conferences on terrorism in 22 places of the country. The way Congress has supported terrorism due to appeasement, it will not be an exaggeration to say that Congress stands with terrorism." He alleged that wherever terrorist activities have taken place in India, due to the politics of appeasement, Congress has supported terrorists and terrorism there. "Congress president Sonia Gandhi wept bitterly after the Batla House encounter. Salman Khurshid himself had told that Sonia ji could not sleep for three nights and she kept crying. Why did she cry, because of those terrorists who were killed?" Patra said. Refering to Zakir Naik, he said, "The relationship between Congress and Zakir Naik is known to all. Sonia Gandhi herself stood with the terrorist Zakir Naik. The Gandhi family had taken more than Rs 50 lakh as a donation from Naik in the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. The Congress party adopted all those tactics to save terrorist Zakir Naik." Patra further said, "Ishrat Jahan was a sleeper cell of Lashkar-e-Taiba but oin the behest of Sonia Gandhi Congress used to call her innocent. After the 26/11 Mumbai attack, Congress sat idle and did not take any concrete steps. The kind of status given to Yasin Malik by the UPA government, it is to glorify a terrorist. Congress spread the wrong narrative on Burhan Wani. If any terrorist like Hafiz Saeed likes any party in the world, then it is the Congress party." The BJP spokesperson said that Congress had created an atmosphere aginst the hanging of Yakub Memon. "The Gandhi family would not mind even if they had to forge an alliance with terrorists to keep themselves in power," he added. (ANI)
In a blistering attack, the Congress on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of 'bloodying' the country's atmosphere in the guise of 'hypocritical nationalism', and labelled it as a 'Bharat Jalao Party' against the backdrop of a spate of violent incidents across India. AICC spokesperson Ajay Kumar said in the recent past weeks, there been several instances like the Pulwama killing, murder of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, a jailed terror financer Niranjan Hojai in Assam, in which the BJP's links have emerged, "tearing the veil" of its hollow nationalism. Detailing the incidents at a media conference, he alleged that the BJP's activists was involved in some of these killings and terror activities in the country. "A prime accused in the Udaipur killing - one Mohammed Atari - turned out to be a BJP worker and employed with a company of a BJP leader Gulabchand Kataria's son-in-law, and enjoys close ties with several senior BJP leaders," said Dr. Kumar. Similarly, one of the two Lashkar-e-Taiba militants captured in Jammu & Kashmir, Talib Hussain Shah, is a BJP office-bearer and his photos with Union Home Minister Amit Shah have gone viral, while another BJP leader and a Sarpanch, Tariq Ahmed Mir was nabbed in J&K in 2020 on charges of supplying arms to terrorists, he added. Maharashtra Congress Chief Spokesperson Atul Londhe said in the June 2022 murder of a pharmacist Umesh Kolhe in Amravati, the prime accused Irfan Khan had taken part in the election campaign of local independent MP Navneet Kaur-Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana. "The links between the BJP and the Rana couple are no secret... The Amravati killing occurred on June 21, the Udaipur murder took place on June 28, yet Navneet Kaur-Rana wrote a letter to Amit Shah on June 27, demanding the NIA should probe the matter. How did she know about the incident one day in advance? Was it all pre-planned?" Londhe demanded. In the local body elections in Srinagar, the BJP had fielded Mohammed Farooq Khan, a supporter of the terrorist Masood Azhar, while a Dy.SP of J&K Devendra Singh was arrested for transporting two militants to Delhi. "The then Lt. Governor had written a letter saying that it would not be in the national interest to probe the matter. Where is Devendra Singh now? He was in Pulwama during the February 24, 2019 terror attacks and it is still not clear from where the 200 kg RDX used in it came from," said Kumar. Following the Indian Airlines plane hijack (1999), the former BJP government had released the Jaish-e-Mohammed dreaded terrorist Masood Azhar at Kandahar in December 1999, and he later masterminded the attacks on Indian Parliament (December 13, 2001), the November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and Pulwama strike in February 2019. In Madhya Pradesh, a Bajrang Dal activist Balram Singh was arrested in 2019 in a terror funding matter, and earlier in 2017, Dhruv Saxena of the BJP's IT Cell was linked with Pakistan's ISI in an illegal telephone exchange case, said Dr. Kumar. Labelling the BJP as 'Bharat Jalao Party,' he said it is not in the national interest to ally with terrorists and sell-out the country's interests -- and cited the examples of former Congress Prime Ministers who sacrificed their lives without compromising on the nation's security. Referring to the Amravati incident, Londhe said though it has been over a fortnight since Kolhe was killed, Navneet Rana goes around performing poojas everywhere instead of visiting the Kolhe home to console the family. The Kumar-Londhe duo said that the 'Bharatiya Jhootha Party' is attempting to Talibanize India, but the Congress will not allow it at any cost. --IANS qn/pgh ( 621 Words) 2022-07-09-19:24:02 (IANS)
Goa Governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai has said that Indian economy has emerged through Atmanirbhar Bharat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was speaking at a function on the launch of Green Silver Nano particle treated natural fibre saris, here on Saturday. The Goa Governor said that the British had looted the country and had even forcefully taken over our textile technology during the regime. He said that before the British rule in India, the share of the country in world trade was 27 per cent but after the British left in 1947, the share of our country in world trade was only 2 per cent. Sreedharan Pillai said that Swadeshi Jagaran Manch's idea of self reliant or Atmanirbhar Bharat is being promoted in the country now and added that several local level entrepreneurs have come up with quality products. The Goa Governor said that while India is presently 5th in World Economy ratings, Britain lags behind at 6th place. Kanthaswarna Niranjan Kumar received the green silver Nano particle treated natural fibres sari from the Goa Governor. Shekar C. of Anakaputhur natural fibre weaver cluster spoke about the manufacturing of sari and cloth material from natural fibre. Kanthaswarna Niranjan spoke about the need for support from Government of India to the natural weavers and other textile clusters in the country and asked the Goa Governor to take the initiative. Mahesh Krishnamoorthy of Swadeshi Jagaran Manch presided in the meeting while C. Rajeev of Centre for Policy and Development Studies expressed vote of thanks. --IANS aal/skp/ ( 264 Words) 2022-07-09-19:34:05 (IANS)
Centenary celebration plan along with a target to increase the number of RSS shakhas to one lakh by 2024, were discussed in the 3-day Akhil Bharatiya Prant Pracharak meeting of RSS held in Jhunjhunu from July 7-9. It was decided that by 2024, RSS Shakhas will expand and touch the figure of one lakh across the country. Also, Sangh's work should reach all sections of the society giving a message of social awakening. A comprehensive expansion plan has been made for the centenary year of the Sangh, said Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Sunil Ambekar, adding, "By 2024, Shakhas will be taken to one lakh places across the country and we have decided that Sangh work should reach all sections of the society. Aiming at social awakening, there is an effort to create a positive environment in the country. In this meeting, last year's targets were reviewed and action plans for the next two years were taken." The Akhil Bharatiya Prant Pracharak meeting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was held in the Khemi Shakti temple complex in Jhunjhunu. Speaking to journalists, Ambekar informed that under the 'Swavalambi Bharat Abhiyan', 22 organisations imparted self-employment training to over 4000 youths. "Programmes shall be organised from July 15 which, is International Youth Skills Day to August 21, which is Entrepreneurs Day, to go with the subjects of these special days," he added. Ambekar said that in the Sangh Shiksha Varg held after two years, 18,981 students below 40 years of age and 2,925 students above 40 years of age participated. This year there were a total of 21,906 learners in 101 sections of the first, second and third year. He said that the Sangh work is gaining momentum again. The branch work which was affected due to the coronavirus has resumed. At present the number of branches is 56,824. The participation of volunteers in social work like water management, waste management, environment and cleanliness etc, is increasing with the cooperation of the society. In the same way, volunteers are taking forward this work with the help of social institutions, saints and monasteries and temples for family enlightenment and removal of evils. Replying to a question on Udaipur horror, Sunil Ambekar said that Muslim society is expected to condemn such incident. "Some intellectuals have condemned, but Muslim society as a whole should also come forward and oppose it vigorously. Such incidents are neither in the interest of the society nor of the country," he said adding, "along with freedom of expression, public sentiment should also be taken care of." "The brutal murder in Udaipur is highly condemnable. There is democracy in our country. If someone doesn't like something, there is a democratic way to react to it. Hindu society is giving its response in a peaceful, constitutional way. Muslim society is also expected to stop such incident," he added. --IANS arc/skp/ ( 496 Words) 2022-07-09-20:34:02 (IANS)
The Punjab government on Saturday pleaded for setting up of a new water tribunal for assessment of situation of the river water in the state. Putting forth the stand of state during meeting of Northern Zonal Council chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah here, Punjab Cabinet Minister Harjot Singh Bains, while opposing issue of the Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, unequivocally said that Punjab does not have even a single drop of water to share with other states. He said the groundwater level in the state is already depleting and most of the blocks are in dark zone. Bains said the assessment of river water sharing made by tribunals in the past was obsolete now in current scenario Bains on behalf of Punjab demanded water from Haryana from the Yamuna citing Indus commission report of 1972 and said a fresh tribunal must be constituted to assess the current water situation in the state. He said it will clear the picture and allow the judicious use of water in the state. The minister said that it is need of hour to ensure that Punjab's water was not diverted to any other state through the SYL or any other mean. Taking part in deliberations, Finance Minister Harpal Cheema opposed any change in the nature and character of Panjab University in Chandigarh. Cheema stated that Panjab University was established in Lahore and after partition it was shifted to Hoshiarpur and then to Chandigarh. He said any move of government of India to convert Panjab University into a central university will be opposed tooth and nail. He categorically said the university has an emotional place in the hearts of the people of Punjab on account of historical, cultural and provincial reasons. The Ministers also opposed the discontinuation of a member from Punjab in the BBMB saying that it was a not at all acceptable. They said that no tempering should be made in existing provisions of the BBMB. Both the ministers said any such move of removing member from state was unwarranted and undesirable. Both Cheema and Bains also opposed the proposal of the Rajasthan and Haryana governments to fully fill the Pong and Bhakra Dam. They said that it results in floods in Punjab which brings a huge loss of life and property in state. They said that it is practically not feasible. --IANS vg/pgh ( 403 Words) 2022-07-09-20:42:03 (IANS)
Former Indian Ambassador to China, Gautam Bambawale, had said that the shooting act at former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is shocking to everyone as Japan is a peace-loving country. Before Abe's assassination, the ex-diplomat had said that the tight gun laws in Japan make the shooting of Abe Shinzo much more shocking. "Shocking and sad news that we have got this morning. Japan is a very peaceful country. Guns are not easily available in the country like in the US. So, this shooting is very abnormal, It will shock the people of Japan." He had praised the former PM saying that Shinzo Abe was not only popular in Japan but also was very popular amongst the people of India. Bambawale pointed out that Abe had worked very hard when he was Prime Minister to build strong relations between India and Japan. "Shinzo Abe is best known for his speech in Parliament of India in 2007 where he spoke of the confluence of the two seas which later became the concept of Indo-Pacific," he had added. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was on Friday confirmed dead after he was shot at during a campaign speech in Nara City, western Japan, local media reported citing officials. Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, stepped down in 2020 citing health reasons. He was prime minister of Japan twice, from 2006-07 and again from 2012-20. He was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga and later by Fumio Kishida. Earlier today Abe, 67, was rushed to hospital after he collapsed at 11.30 am during a campaign speech in the western Japanese city of Nara ahead of Sunday's elections for Japan's upper house of Parliament. Initial media reports, citing authorities said that it appeared that Abe was shot at in the chest and described the condition of the former PM as in "cardiopulmonary arrest." Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida earlier in his live address to the country today said that his condition of Abe was grave. "This is not a forgivable act," Kishida said adding that authorities would "take appropriate measures to handle the situation." Kishida further said that the motive behind Abe's shooting is not known. The media outlet citing government sources also reported that Abe's shooting suspect is an ex-member of Japan's Self-Defense Forces. The Japanese PM also requested everyone not to speculate about any political ramifications at the time. Japanese Police have identified the suspect arrested for shooting Abe as Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old resident of Nara City, according to local media. (ANI)
Twitter will file a lawsuit against American billionaire and entrepreneur Elon Musk to force him to buy the social media company on the agreed terms, Bret Taylor, Twitter's board chair, said on Saturday. "The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery," Taylor said in a tweet. Musk announced the termination of a USD 44 billion Twitter purchase deal in a letter sent by Musk's team to Twitter earlier on Saturday. Musk decided to suspend the deal due to multiple breaches of the purchase agreement. The Tesla CEO's team strongly believes that the proportion of spam and fake accounts is "wildly higher" than 5 per cent, according to the letter. "As further described below, Mr Musk is terminating the Merger Agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement," the letter said on Friday. "In short, Twitter has not provided information that Mr Musk has requested for nearly two months notwithstanding his repeated, detailed clarifications intended to simplify Twitter's identification, collection, and disclosure of the most relevant information sought in Mr Musk's original requests." In April, Musk reached an acquisition agreement with Twitter at USD 54.20 per share in a transaction valued at approximately USD 44 billion. However, Musk put the deal on hold in May to allow his team to review the veracity of Twitter's claim that less than 5 per cent of accounts on the platform are bots or spam. Back in June, Musk had openly accused the microblogging website of breaching the merger agreement and threatened to walk away and call off the acquisition of the social media company for not providing the data he has requested on spam and fake accounts. Musk alleged that Twitter is "actively resisting and thwarting his information rights" as outlined by the deal, CNN reported, citing the letter he sent to Twitter's head of legal, policy and trust, Vijaya Gadde. The Tesla CEO demanded that Twitter turn over information about its testing methodologies to support its claims that bots and fake accounts constitute less than 5 per cent of the platform's active user base, a figure the company has consistently stated for years in boilerplate public disclosures. Against this backdrop, Twitter's CEO Parag Agrawal last month stood by his company's longtime spam metric. "Twitter has and will continue to cooperatively share information with Mr. Musk to consummate the transaction in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement," the company said in a statement in June. (ANI)
The Lhasa Municipality Public Security Bureau has offered rewards for Tibetans reporting on crimes against "state security" in order to "build an iron wall of stability," according to a Washington-based advocacy group. The local authorities offered up to 300,000 Chinese Yuan (USD 44,840) as a financial incentive to Tibetans in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, just ahead of the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama's birthday on July 6. According to the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), eight out of the 12 points listed in the notice as the "scope of clue reporting" are directly related to Tibetan activism, which the Chinese government defines as "illegal and criminal activities." This can include reading or speaking about, for instance, foreign newspaper articles or broadcasts about Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, the group said. "In the 12 points detailing the scope of reporting to the bureau, eight points are directly related to what can be considered as protected expression of thought and opinion," ICT said. While point 7 explicitly states that online activities connected to "Tibet independence" should be considered a crime, other forms of Tibetan expression of opinion and thought in the form of speech, writing, audio or video materials, wearing flags and other souvenirs are also listed as crimes relevant for reporting to the authorities. "The International Campaign for Tibet is deeply concerned about the measures," ICT said on Friday. "The Chinese authorities in Tibet are using tactics to turn Tibetans against each other by creating further fear and distrust among families, friends and neighbors. These rewards represent measures of a totalitarian system, deeply affecting the lives of Tibetans and criminalizing peaceful dissent and activities that are protected by international law." The Public Security Bureau explicitly cites the laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Tibet Autonomous Region as bases for issuing the public notice. "Depending on the 'significance' of a report to the authorities, the PSB offers financial rewards to informants with an incremental range from 3,000 (USD 448) to 300,000 (USD 44,840) Chinese yuan with protection to the informant," ICT said. The notice is consistent with similar measures by the Chinese authorities in 2018 and 2019. Authorities in Tibetan areas continue to severely restrict religious freedom, speech, movement, and assembly, and fail to redress popular concerns about mining and land grabs by local officials, which often involve intimidation and unlawful use of force by security forces. Chinese authorities set annual state goals for rural transformation, including the relocation of several hundred thousand more people. Official claims of "poverty alleviation" prompted fears of further marginalization and dispossession of Tibet's rural majority. These policies encourage economic migration from other parts of China and phasing out Tibetan-medium instruction in primary schools. Intensified surveillance and intimidation in neighborhoods, workplaces, and homes has prevented public protest, a goal emphasized repeatedly by leading officials. (ANI)
With its strategy to distract the world away from its exploitation of Myanmar's rare earth materials, Beijing is brazenly running a disinformation campaign against the US and Canada and targeting their businesses alleging they are environmentally irresponsible, according to analysts. Apparently, before 2008, the US was an important player in producing and supplying rare earth materials. After US President Joe Biden became the US President, the US infused a new life into its plan to re-emerge as a significant producer of rare earth materials. These rare earth materials are also very important for the semiconductor industry. Biden also introduced a USD 2 trillion plan to upgrade the US infrastructure and semiconductor industry. Lynas Rare Earths Ltd, the largest rare earth element mining and processing firm in Australia, was awarded a contract by the US Department of Defense to establish domestic processing capabilities for light rare earth elements China saw this as the US' attempt to overshadow Beijing's dominance in the rare earth material market. In retaliation, China started its blatant disinformation campaign under the name 'Dragonbridge' group in America and Canada. The campaign was against Lynas Rare Earths Ltd through fake Facebook and Twitter accounts, reported Global Strat View, a virtual think-tank based in the US. Numerous experts have suggested that this group is involved in launching propaganda against US President Biden's Defense Production Act, USA Rare Earth, opposing anti-government protests in Hong Kong, the Covid-19 pandemic and US politics. Like always China has denied its involvement in any disinformation campaign. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, "The report you mentioned reflects deep-seated ideological bias and double standards. What I want to say is that China is a victim of disinformation campaigns. It is quite clear to the international community who exactly is propagating and spreading disinformation. From "genocide" to "Wuhan virus," from "hackers attacks" to "overseas military bases"--there have been too many false accusations against China." However, the US has marched on to fight against the Chinese disinformation campaign. The Department of Defense announced an investigation into a Chinese disinformation campaign against rare earth mining and processing companies, including one targeting Rare Earths, which has a USD 30 million contract with the Pentagon to build a plant in Texas. The US is not an isolated Chinese target for its propaganda. China is also targeting Canada. Cleo Paskal, a non-resident senior fellow for Indo-Pacific at the Washington DC-based think tank 'Foundation for Defense of Democracies' said there is an entrenched presence of pro-Chinese lobbies in Canada. In 2019, when Canada cancelled PLA soldiers' request to observe the Canadian winter warfare training, the pro-China groups in civil society and bureaucracy raised their heckle against the government's decision. All of this shows that both US and Canada must act against China as it may pose threat to their national interests. They cannot let their guard down and must press hard to block Chinese attempts on social media platforms against their governments. (ANI)
US President Joe Biden on Friday (local time) visited Japanese Ambassador to the US, Koji Tomita at his residence and offered his condolences over the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Biden also handed over a heartfelt note to Ambassador expressing his sympathies over the tragic incident. He called Abe "A man of peace and judgement". "On behalf of the Biden Family and all of America we extend our heartfelt sympathies to Abe's family and the people of Japan. I had the honour to get to know the Prime Minister when I hosted him at the Vice President's residence and when I met with him in Japan," the note read. "It is not only a loss to his wife and family and the people of Japan but a loss to the world. A man of peace and judgement. He will be missed," it added. Earlier Biden condoled Abe's killing and said that he was "stunned, outraged, and deeply saddened" by the news. "I am stunned, outraged, and deeply saddened by the news that my friend Abe Shinzo, former Prime Minister of Japan, was shot and killed while campaigning. This is a tragedy for Japan and for all who knew him," he said in a statement. "The longest-serving Japanese Prime Minister, his vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific will endure as he cared deeply about the Japanese people and dedicated his life to their service. Even at the moment, he was attacked, he was engaged in the work of democracy," Biden added as he recalled his past interactions with Shinzo Abe. Joe Biden also condemned the increase in violent attacks globally, especially gun violence, and said they always leave a deep scar on the communities that are affected by it. "As Vice President, I visited him in Tokyo and welcomed him to Washington. He was a champion of the Alliance between our nations and the friendship between our people," the White House quoted Biden as saying, underlining that the United States stands with Japan in this moment of grief. I send my deepest condolences to his family, the White House release said, quoting Biden. Abe, first became Prime Minister in 2006. He again held the post in 2012 and was re-elected in 2014 and 2017. He announced his resignation in August 2020 as a chronic illness resurfaced. He was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga and later by Fumio Kishida. Abe was shot on Friday while delivering a campaign speech in Nara city in western Japan. After the attack on him, Abe was rushed to hospital and initial media reports citing authorities said that it appeared that the former Japanese PM was shot in the chest. They described his condition as in "cardiopulmonary arrest" and said he showed no vital signs. Public broadcaster NHK later reported, citing ruling Liberal Democratic Party sources that Abe, had died. Abe died at 5:03 pm (local time) and had two gunshot wounds in his neck, according to officials from Nara Medical University Hospital. Police arrested a suspect for shooting Abe identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old resident of Nara City, according to local media. A gun that appeared to be handmade was retrieved from the site. (ANI)
There is rising outrage amongst Chinese citizens with the surfacing of numerous incidents of personal data breaches parked on Chinese security systems, with the latest being a breach on Shanghai police database. As per New York Times, the Shanghai police database with a vast trove of personal data that was seized by a hacker was left unsecured for months, security researchers said and turned out to be the largest known breach of Chinese government computer systems. The leak came to light after an anonymous user posted in an online forum offering to sell personal information of as many as one billion Chinese citizens, exposing the privacy risks of the Chinese government's vast surveillance. The communist party collect a huge amount of data on citizens by tracking their movements and recording their DNA and other biological markers, New York Times reported, adding that it has been subjected to severe leaks due to parking it on unprotected servers. Claiming to have information on 90 million citizens, another anonymous user posted on social media offering to sell a separate police database from the central Chinese province of Henan. Over recent years, Chinese citizens have expressed growing demands for personal privacy and data protection from companies as the online security breaches fueled public resistance to the collection of private data by the government. However, the news about the leak was swiftly censored and removed from the Chinese internet and social media platforms, a sign that the government understood the explosive nature of the apparent breach. As of Thursday, Hashtags such as "Shanghai data leak," "data leak of one billion citizens" and "data leak" remained blocked on Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging service as of Thursday, The New York Times reported, citing local media sources. "It's left a big black eye for the Chinese public security world, and by extension the Chinese government," said Paul Triolo, senior vice president for China at Albright Stonebridge Group, a strategy firm. on China's policies on surveillance of its masses. "It's not surprising they've gone into full censorship mode given how sensitive this issue is for the public," he said. While large data leaks are not uncommon, the Shanghai police database stands out both for its scale and for the highly sensitive nature of some of the information included, security researchers said.One of them, Vinny Troia, founder of Shadowbyte, a threat intelligence company, said he had first stumbled across the database months ago. Data from Leak IX, an online platform that trawls the internet for exposed databases, shows that the server was accessible as early as April 2021. Moreover, a sample of 750,000 records that the anonymous user, who goes by the name ChinaDan, released to prove the authenticity of the data. In addition to addresses and ID numbers, the database included information on "key persons" identified by the police as requiring heightened surveillance, as well as police reports. In another case, a person was investigated for petitioning at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The sample also included the names and passport numbers of American citizens who violated the terms of their visas in China, the New York Times confirmed, citing the local media. Many Chinese have grown accustomed to surveillance, censorship and frequent telemarketing calls. "It's alarming because these are the files of ordinary people," said May Peng, a saleswoman in Shanghai whose details were also in the sample set. She confirmed that as the data showed, she had filed a police report in 2017 when her electric scooter was stolen. Shanghai's public security bureau declined to respond to questions about the database and the government continues to stay silent on the issue. Troia and another researcher, Bob Diachenko, owner of SecurityDiscovery.com, a cybersecurity consultancy, said the Shanghai data had been stored securely on a closed-off network until someone set up a gateway that essentially punched a hole through the firewall. "Creating such portals was common practice among developers as a way to gain easy access to a database, but that such gateways should be password-protected. The gateway to the Shanghai database did not have a password," they added. Troia further said that he had first come across the unsecured trove of files in December or January and he had downloaded and reviewed a small sample of the files at the time. Security researchers say the vast amount of personal information in the Shanghai database could put the individuals whose data was exposed at risk of extortion, blackmail or fraud, however, the Chinese government does not pay heed to it. The Chinese government has recently stepped up efforts to improve the protection of online user data privacy. Last year, the country passed its first Personal Information Protection Law, laying out ground rules on how personal data should be collected, used and stored. But experts have raised concerns that while the law can regulate technology companies, it could be challenging to enforce when applied to the Chinese systems. (ANI)
According to the reports, the accident took place near the Vander area of the district when the vehicles coming from the opposite side collided due to over-speeding, reported Xinhua. The injured passengers had been first taken to a local hospital for initial medical assistance and later shifted to the country's southern port city of Karachi for further treatment, rescue workers told local media. The bus was going from Balochistan's capital Quetta to Karachi while the van was heading towards Khuzdar city of the province from Karachi, rescue workers said.

Earlier, at least three people were killed and 10 others injured after a truck collided with a passenger bus in Pakistan's Punjab province, the country's state media reported.

According to the reports, the accident took place in Kartarpur town of Narowal district due to an overspeeding truck, according to Xinhua news agency.

The victims have been shifted to a local hospital, rescue workers told local media.

Road accidents frequently happen in Pakistan, mainly due to poorly maintained vehicles, dilapidated roads as well as negligence of road safety measures.

On June 8, at least 22 people were killed and a child was injured after a passenger van plunged 100 feet into a ravine near Killa Saifullah in Balochistan.

The incident took place on Wednesday morning when the ill-fated van, with approximately 23 people on board, had left Loralai for Zhob, reported Dawn.

"The vehicle fell from a hilltop near Akhtarzai and 22 travellers aboard were reportedly killed in the accident," said the district's deputy commissioner, Hafiz Muhammad Qasim. (ANI)
The closing ceremony on Friday was chaired by President of the Lao National Assembly Saysomphone Phomvihane and attended by Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith, Lao Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh, government officials, and NA representatives.

The NA session approved the report on the implementation of the national socio-economic development plan, state budget plan, monetary plan over the past six months, and targets for the second half of 2022.

The government report reviewed the implementation of the laws on land, investment promotion, state property and minerals, the reform of state-owned enterprises, and the reopening of the country, among other issues.

The Lao parliament approved the new laws on fine arts, dam safety and weapon and explosive management, and amended the laws on state property, foreign exchange management, promotion of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, on People's Court, grievance redressal, and on water and water resources.

The NA third ordinary session, which kicked off on June 13, also approved a government leadership reshuffle on June 20, with the appointment of public security and foreign affairs ministers as new deputy prime ministers, a new minister of industry and commerce, a new central bank governor, and new head of the state audit authority. (ANI/Xinhua)
Amid the ongoing protest outside Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapakse's residence, leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa demanded the resignation of the President and Prime Minister. "No fake discussions. The President and the Prime Minister must resign immediately," Premadasa said in a statement. Sri Lanka's leader of opposition said that as the people are demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the current Prime Minister, the United People's Power has decided to not participate in the emergency Party Leaders meeting, called by Ranil Wickremesinghe. He also said that Wickremesinghe is holding the office of Prime Minister illegally. "It should be noted that when the Rajapaksas who were hiding in the midst of the people's opposition were brought back to the political arena and secured, the one who betrayed the struggle is the current Prime Minister and he is also the defendant in this crisis," the statement reads. "We are not going to engage in empty discussions like closing the stable after the horse has run away when the end of the anti-democratic government is now in sight," the statement added. Premadasa said that the "fake" PM have called another roundtable and that also to ensure the safety of the Rajapaksa. "The entire government should resign from such unstable solutions," he added. Sri Lanka's leader of opposition said that citizens don't want to discuss the future of the country with the government-led Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He further informed that he will contribute to building this country with all the parties, who came forward with the people's struggle. Earlier, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe summoned an emergency Party Leaders meeting to discuss the situation and come to a swift resolution. The Prime Minister is also requesting the Speaker to summon Parliament. Lankan local publication Daily Mirror reported that several gunshots were heard being fired in the air and police unsuccessfully used tear gas to ward off protestors who surrounded the presidential residence. Two people have reportedly been injured. Protestors have entered the President's House, tweeted the Daily Mirror. Sri Lanka's police imposed a curfew in several police divisions in Western Province with effect from 9 pm local time Friday until further notice ahead of a planned protest today demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Strict action will be taken on those violating the curfew, the police said. The Sri Lankan publication said travelling through the areas where police curfew is in effect is completely prohibited and police had advised people to use other alternative routes. The worsening economic situation in the country has led to increasing tensions and over the last few weeks there were reports of several confrontations between individuals and members of the police force and the armed forces at fuel stations where thousands of desperate members of the public have queued for hours and sometimes days. Police have used tear gas and water cannon at times in an unnecessary and disproportionate manner. On occasions, armed forces have also fired live ammunition. Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since gaining independence in 1948, which comes on the heels of successive waves of COVID-19, threatening to undo years of development progress and severely undermining the country's ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The oil supply shortage has forced schools and government offices to close until further notice. Reduced domestic agricultural production, a lack of foreign exchange reserves, and local currency depreciation have fuelled the shortages. The economic crisis will push families into hunger and poverty - some for the first time - adding to the half a million people who the World Bank estimates have fallen below the poverty line because of the pandemic. Some 6.26 million Sri Lankans, or three in 10 households, are unsure of where their next meal is coming from, according to the latest food insecurity assessment from the World Food Programme (WFP), released on Wednesday. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday visited the Embassy of Japan and offered his condolences to Ambassador Satoshi Suzuki over the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "Visited Embassy of Japan today to convey my condolences to Ambassador Satoshi Suzuki on the assassination of former PM Shinzo Abe," Jaishankar tweeted. After EAM's visit, Ambassador Suzuki said that they will continue the legacy to further enhance the bilateral relations between India and Japan. "Sincerely appreciate @DrSJaishankar for visiting me to express his condolences for former Prime Minister Abe. While mourning together this shocking tragedy, we will continue his legacy to further enhance our bilateral relations," Suzuki tweeted. Earlier Jaishankar condoled Abe's killing and said that for over two decades, he had symbolized the growing relationship between India and Japan. "Many of its key initiatives were his personal efforts. He placed our ties in a larger global context of the free and open Indo-Pacific," he added. Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar said, "At a personal level, he was the very embodiment of grace and consideration. I have myself experienced his warmth over the years. We join in the profound sorrow of the people of Japan and convey our support and sympathy to Mrs Akie Abe." Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday expressed his shock over the death of Abe and in a tweet said, "I am shocked and saddened beyond words at the tragic demise of one of my dearest friends, Shinzo Abe. He was a towering global statesman, an outstanding leader, and a remarkable administrator. He dedicated his life to making Japan and the world a better place." Abe became the Prime Minister for the first time in 2006. He again held the post in 2012 and was re-elected in 2014 and 2017. He announced his resignation in August 2020 as a chronic illness resurfaced. He was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga and later by Fumio Kishida. Abe was shot on Friday while delivering a campaign speech in Nara city in western Japan. After the attack on him, Abe was rushed to hospital and initial media reports citing authorities said that it appeared that the former Japanese PM was shot in the chest. They described his condition as in "cardiopulmonary arrest" and said he showed no vital signs. Public broadcaster NHK later reported, citing ruling Liberal Democratic Party sources that Abe, had died. Abe died at 5:03 pm (local time) and had two gunshot wounds in his neck, according to officials from Nara Medical University Hospital. Police arrested a suspect for shooting Abe identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old resident of Nara City, according to local media. A gun that appeared to be handmade was retrieved from the site. (ANI)
Senior journalist Imran Riaz Khan, who was arrested on Tuesday night, has been handed to the Lahore's Crime Investigation agency in a case lodged against him at the civil lines police station. An official said that the police handed over the journalist to the CIA Kotwali police for interrogation. He is likely to be presented before the duty magistrate on Saturday, Dawn reported. The case was filed by a local resident of Lahore, Muhammad Asif, on charges of abetment of mutiny and criticism of state institutions. On Tuesday night, journalist Imran Riaz Khan was heading towards Islamabad to acquire a pre-arrest bail from the High Court, when he was arrested by the Attock police, Dawn reported. Later, in the wee hours of Thursday, the anchorperson was granted relief by the local court but was immediately arrested by a team of Chakwal police outside the courtroom. Before shifting him to Lahore, a local court of Chakwal district had allowed his judicial remand. In the latest First Information Report (FIR) against Khan, the complainant alleged that Imran Riaz accused the army of violating human rights and damaging the state by indulging in politics, according to Dawn. Asif further said Khan had accused the army and said that they had put Pakistan's integrity at stake, adding that the journalist committed an offence by inciting officers and other personnel of the army. The complainant mentioned that recently Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had been awarded army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa with the King Abdulaziz Medal for making "significant contributions to defence cooperation" between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Asif alleged in the FIR that the journalist also mocked the Saudi government's decision in his video. Meanwhile, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged the PML-N-led government to immediately release senior journalist Imran Riaz Khan and ensure that the members of the press can work freely and without fear of reprisal, The Express Tribune reported. "The repeated arrests of Pakistani journalist Imran Riaz Khan and the slew of cases registered against him are pure harassment, and must come to an immediate end," Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ's programme director said as quoted by The Express Tribune. "Authorities must immediately release Khan and ensure that journalists can safely and freely comment on state institutions, including the military," he added. Khan's case is among several cases that have been lodged against journalists in Pakistan for allegedly spreading hate against the army and state institutions. This latest arrest comes in the backdrop of a growing crackdown on journalists in Pakistan. Last week, senior journalist and former parliamentarian Ayaz Amir was assaulted by unknown persons. Pakistan is one of the world's deadliest countries for journalists, with three to four murders each year that are often linked to cases of corruption or illegal trafficking and which go completely unpunished, according to Reporters Without Borders. Any journalist who crosses the red lines dictated by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) - an intelligence agency offshoot - is liable to be the target of in-depth surveillance that could lead to abduction and detention for varying lengths of time in the state's prisons or less official jails.Furthermore, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's leading military intelligence agency, is prepared to silence any criticism once and for all. (ANI)
Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has announced that he will resign from his post in order to ensure the continuation of the government and the safety of all the citizens. Taking to Twitter, Wickremesinghe said, "To ensure the continuation of the Government including the safety of all citizens I accept the best recommendation of the Party Leaders today, to make way for an All-Party Government. To facilitate this I will resign as Prime Minister." Earlier, Sri Lankan Prime Minister said in a statement that he took this decision in view of the fact that island-wide fuel distribution is due to recommence this week, the World Food Program Director is due to visit the country this week and the Debt Sustainability report for the IMF is due to be finalised shortly." "So as to ensure the safety of the citizens, he is agreeable to this recommendation by the Opposition Party Leaders," the statement reads. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan MP Harsha de Silva said that the majority of party leaders had agreed on President and Prime Minister's resignation and the Speaker to act as President for a maximum of 30 days. He further said that the leaders also agreed on the election of MP as President for the remaining term will be elected by the parliament. "All party interim government to be appointed in the next few days," he added. Earlier, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe summoned an emergency Party Leaders meeting to discuss the situation and come to a swift resolution. The Prime Minister is also requesting the Speaker to summon Parliament. Lankan local publication Daily Mirror reported that several gunshots were heard being fired in the air and police unsuccessfully used tear gas to ward off protestors who surrounded the presidential residence. Two people have reportedly been injured. Protestors have entered the President's House, tweeted the Daily Mirror. Sri Lanka's police imposed a curfew in several police divisions in Western Province with effect from 9 pm local time Friday until further notice ahead of a planned protest today demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Strict action will be taken on those violating the curfew, the police said. The Sri Lankan publication said travelling through the areas where police curfew is in effect is completely prohibited and police had advised people to use other alternative routes. The worsening economic situation in the country has led to increasing tensions and over the last few weeks, there were reports of several confrontations between individuals and members of the police force and the armed forces at fuel stations where thousands of desperate members of the public have queued for hours and sometimes days. Police have used tear gas and water cannon at times in an unnecessary and disproportionate manner. On occasions, armed forces have also fired live ammunition. Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since gaining independence in 1948, which comes on the heels of successive waves of COVID-19, threatening to undo years of development progress and severely undermining the country's ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The oil supply shortage has forced schools and government offices to close until further notice. Reduced domestic agricultural production, a lack of foreign exchange reserves, and local currency depreciation have fuelled the shortages. The economic crisis will push families into hunger and poverty - some for the first time - adding to the half a million people who the World Bank estimates have fallen below the poverty line because of the pandemic. (ANI)
Lahore High Court has granted bail to senior journalist Imran Riaz Khan in a case registered against him in Punjab's Chakwal city, local media reported. The court adjourned the hearing on the plea for the expulsion of cases till July 19 and also directed Khan to appear before the magistrate on the next working day, ARY News reported. Imran Riaz assured the court and said, "I am also assuring the court that I will not deliver such statements again." After listening to the arguments, the LHC approved Imran Riaz Khan's bail on personal surety bonds. Azhar Siddique Advocate said in a statement, "It is not a fight against the national institutions. After Attock, the matter of judicial magistrate has also ended. Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has given its statement that it was not going to register any case." He detailed that the actual crime of the journalist was using the word 'imported government'. The journalist was given 10 days to submit the reply, Siddique said adding that all cases will be clubbed in the coming days for hearings, according to ARY News. Azhar Siddique said that the real face of the present government has been exposed before the nation. Earlier, journalist Imran Riaz Khan has been handed to the Lahore's Crime Investigation agency in a case lodged against him at the civil lines police station. An official said that the police handed over the journalist to the CIA Kotwali police for interrogation. He is likely to be presented before the duty magistrate on Saturday, Dawn reported. The case was filed by a local resident of Lahore, Muhammad Asif, on charges of abetment of mutiny and criticism of state institutions. On Tuesday night, journalist Imran Riaz Khan was heading towards Islamabad to acquire a pre-arrest bail from the High Court, when he was arrested by the Attock police, Dawn reported. Later, in the wee hours of Thursday, the anchorperson was granted relief by the local court but was immediately arrested by a team of Chakwal police outside the courtroom. Before shifting him to Lahore, a local court of Chakwal district had allowed his judicial remand. In the latest First Information Report (FIR) against Khan, the complainant alleged that Imran Riaz accused the army of violating human rights and damaging the state by indulging in politics, according to Dawn. Asif further said Khan had accused the army and said that they had put Pakistan's integrity at stake, adding that the journalist committed an offence by inciting officers and other personnel of the army. The complainant mentioned that recently Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had been awarded army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa with the King Abdulaziz Medal for making "significant contributions to defence cooperation" between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Asif alleged in the FIR that the journalist also mocked the Saudi government's decision in his video. (ANI)
A grand jury in the United States has indicted five people for 'stalking, harassing, and spying' on behalf of China in connection with a scheme to silence critics of the Chinese government. "A federal grand jury in Brooklyn returned a superseding indictment yesterday charging five defendants, including one current federal law enforcement officer and one retired federal law enforcement officer, with various crimes pertaining to a transnational repression scheme orchestrated on behalf of the Government of the People's Republic of China (PRC)," the US Justice Department said in a press statement on July 7. Defendants Fan "Frank" Liu, 62, of Jericho, New York; Matthew Ziburis, 49, of Oyster Bay, New York; and Qiang "Jason" Sun, 40, of the PRC were charged in March 2022 with allegedly perpetrating a transnational repression scheme that targeted U.S. residents whose political views and actions are disfavored by the PRC Government. Among other items, these defendants allegedly plotted to destroy the artwork of a PRC national residing in Los Angeles, who was critical of the PRC government and planted surveillance equipment in the artist's workplace and car to spy on him from the PRC. Liu and Ziburis were arrested pursuant to a criminal complaint in March 2022, while Sun remains at large. The superseding indictment adds two new defendants, Craig Miller and Derrick Taylor, to the scheme. Miller is a 15-year employee of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), currently assigned as a deportation officer to DHS's Emergency Relief Operations in Minneapolis, and Taylor is a retired DHS law enforcement agent who presently works as a private investigator in Irvine, California. Miller and Taylor are charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly destroying evidence after they were approached by FBI agents and asked about their procurement and dissemination of sensitive and confidential information from a restricted federal law enforcement database regarding U.S.-based dissidents from the PRC. Both Miller and Taylor were arrested pursuant to a criminal complaint in June 2022. "We will defend the rights of people in the United States to engage in free speech and political expression, including views the PRC government wants to silence," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen. "As charged, these individuals aided agents of a foreign government in seeking to suppress dissenting voices who have taken refuge here. The defendants include two sworn law enforcement officers who chose to forsake their oaths and violate the law. This indictment is the next step in holding all of these defendants responsible for their crimes." Assistant Director Alan E. Kohler Jr. of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, said, "This case exposes attempts by the government of the PRC to suppress dissenting voices within the United States. Actions taken by the defendants - two of which are current or former federal law enforcement officers - demonstrate how the PRC seeks to stalk, intimidate, and silence those who oppose it." "The FBI battles transnational repression because it is an evil in its own right, and an assault on the freedoms of an open society. Our community's safety and our nation's security were jeopardized by this criminal behavior, and we remain dedicated to combating transnational repression and bringing to justice those that perpetrate it." According to the Justice Department, Liu and Ziburis are charged with conspiring to act as agents of the PRC government. Liu, Ziburis and Sun are charged with conspiring to commit interstate harassment and criminal use of a means of identification. Liu and Sun are charged with conspiring to bribe a federal official in connection with their scheme to obtain the tax returns of a pro-democracy activist residing in the United States. Both Miller and Taylor are charged with obstruction of justice, while Taylor is charged with making a false statement to the FBI. If convicted, Liu faces up to 30 years' imprisonment; Ziburis, Sun and Taylor face up to 25 years' imprisonment; and Miller faces up to 20 years' imprisonment. The defendants will be arraigned at a later date. (ANI)
A prominent human rights group in Pakistan has called for a probe into the allegations of harassment against former National Accountability Bureau (NAB) head retired Justice Javed Iqbal. Tayyaba Gull, whose controversial video with the former NAB chairman had surfaced in 2019, alleged that NAB officials stripped her naked, made videos and filed cases, when she refused to comply with Iqbal's "demands". "I was stripped naked and videos were made," Gull was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune. Her throat felt swollen and she stuttered before adding: "I was taken to a room, cameras were installed, officials conducted frisking, stripped me naked, laughed at me and my videos were made." In a statement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it took "serious note of the allegations of sexual harassment" levelled against the official, who was also chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED). "The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) takes serious note of the allegation of sexual harassment against Justice (Retired) Javed Iqbal--chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED) and former chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)--as well as other NAB officials," the HRCP said in a statement. The group raised grave concern over these allegations levelled by a woman who had approached Justice (Retired) Iqbal in his capacity as COIED chairman--a position in which he was responsible for protecting Gul's testimony and securing her right to seek justice for a missing relative. Not only has Justice (Retired) Iqbal allegedly abused his office in two capacities, but he has also failed to appear before the Public Accounts Committee to answer these charges, the group said. According to HRCP, the allegations against him and other public officials must be investigated with transparency and independence, and he should be removed from office if these allegations are proven. Noor Alam Khan, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman, has urged Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to remove or suspend Javed Iqbal as head of the commission on missing persons, following allegations he harassed innocent women. On Thursday, Noor Khan assured the victim that he would ensure justice in the case, adding that he would call the NAB and police officials as the "misuse of authority" was evident. (ANI)
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the guilty plea of more than two dozen gang members this week involved in a $1 million fraud scheme. (Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)

More than two dozen people associated with criminal street gangs face a combined 86 years in prison after pleading guilty in a $1-million fraud scheme, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced Friday.

Toni Coffman, the leader of the scheme, received 13 years and 8 months in prison and was ordered to pay a $861,000 restitution. Coffman and 28 others conspired to defraud victims throughout the state by hacking the credit card terminals and merchant accounts of dozens of medical and dental businesses, officials said.

Criminal activity targeting merchants and consumers not only takes a financial toll on communities, but it endangers public safety, Bonta said in a statement. This sentencing should send a powerful message: Criminal activity will not be tolerated in our state and we will hold those participating in illegal activities accountable.

The prosecutions come after a multiyear investigation of a series of burglaries tied to a credit card fraud scheme in 13 cities in Northern California, including Walnut Creek, Antioch, San Rafael and Napa, according to state Department of Justice officials. The investigation began in February 2016, after law enforcement officials discovered similarities among the burglaries of credit card terminals in the region.

Members of the Bully Boys and CoCo Boys gangs worked together to burglarize businesses and steal credit card terminals, law enforcement officials alleged. The suspects used the terminals to process returns. But instead of the value of the returns going to the business or customer, it was placed onto a debit card that the suspects then pocketed, officials said. The defendants stole about $1 million, DOJ officials said.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Biden administration is weighing several options for the future of a major proposed drilling project in Alaska that could produce massive quantities of oil and significantly contribute to climate change.

The administration released an environmental review that said that at its peak, the project could produce more than 180,000 barrels of oil per day and produce a total of 629 million barrels overall over the course of a 30-year duration.

It found that the project could contribute between 278 million and nearly 287 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to climate change over the same time period.

Thats the equivalent of the carbon dioxide contribution of between about 59.9 million and 61.8 million cars that are driven for a year.

The review contains several alternatives for the ultimate decision that the administration may make on the project including blocking it, allowing it to proceed as sponsor ConocoPhillips proposed and shrinking the project.

The document doesnt list a preferred option, and a spokesperson for the department confirmed that all of them would be given equal consideration.

The documents release comes after a court tossed the Trump-era approval of the project, known as the Willow Project, last year.

A judge argued that the analysis behind that approval was flawed for environmental reasons, including a lack of consideration of climate impacts. The judge ordered the Biden administration to redo it.

The Biden administration had initially backed the Trump-era approval, but did not appeal the courts decision.

The latest analysis comes as the Biden administration is in a tight political spot. The president is seeking to both energize the environmentalist base ahead of the midterms, and deal with the optics surrounding high gasoline prices.

It has similarly punted in terms of the future of offshore drilling, recently proposing between zero and 11 offshore lease sales between 2023 and 2028.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
An Alabama judge was suspended after he allegedly mocked an Asian accent in the courtroom and repeatedly belittled Gov. Kay Ivey, referring to her as Governor MeMaw.

Mobile Countys 13th Circuit Judge James T. Patterson, a Republican who was elected in 2016, has faced backlash from staffers and court reporters. They reported that his behavior on the bench was bad enough to erode faith in the judicial system, according to a complaint filed in mid-June by the states Judicial Inquiry Commission.

He was suspended late last month and was charged with inappropriate demeanor and abuse of judicial authority.

Judge Pattersons conduct has degraded the publics confidence in the integrity, dignity, and decorum of the judiciary and brought the judicial office into disrepute, the complaint said.

Gov. Kay Ivey (Butch Dill / AP file)

When addressing potential jurors in August 2019, commission investigators say Patterson mocked an Asian accent and asked if everyone spoke English after he saw an Asian American in the group. The judge later released a statement in which he apologized and addressed his direct manner of speaking.

The liberals call everyone they disagree with a racist nowadays, the statement said. I am nothing of the kind.

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association denounced Pattersons racism in a statement to NBC News.

Judges hold positions of great responsibility and Judge Pattersons comments and actions mocking a jurists accent are inappropriate, executive director Priya Purandare said. We expect judges to uphold the highest standard of conduct as they sit at the pinnacle of our legal system, but this incident perpetuates harmful stereotypes about Asian communities and contributes to the distrust of the impartiality of our legal system.

Patterson tended to spew curse words in the courtroom, the complaint said, including making jokes about sexual assault that happens in prison, and calling a presiding judge a goddamn snowflake.

He also allegedly made repeated sexist and ageist jokes about Gov. Ivey, even after he was asked to stop, the complaint said. In an early pandemic email, the judge sent an email referring to Ivey as Gov. MeMaw. He later wrote in a letter of apology that it was a poor attempt at humor in the midst of this Covid-19 mess, but investigators say he continued to use that term after that.

Patterson did not respond to a request for comment.
Aerial view of a deforested plot of the Amazon rainforest in Manaus. 8 July 2022.

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has hit a six-year high, the national space agency, Inpe, reports.

Some 3,988 square kilometres (1,540 square miles) of land were cleared in the region between January and June.

Last year, 3,088 square kilometres of the rainforest were destroyed during the same period.

The Amazon plays an essential role in the planet's oxygen and carbon dioxide cycles, absorbing vast amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Environmentalists blame the increasing levels of deforestation on Brazil's right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has rolled back environmental protections.

Brazil's environment ministry said it had been forceful in fighting environmental crimes, although in a statement it failed to mention the spike in deforestation.

The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest, but its trees are felled for their wood and to clear space for crops that in turn supply global food companies.

The high level of deforestation is also feeding a higher than usual number of fires for this time of year, Dr Manoela Machado from the University of Oxford told Reuters news agency.

After trees are cut down, fires are often set in order to clear the land for agriculture, so more deforestation means more fires, Dr Machado said.

As well as being rich in biodiversity, the area is home to communities who say they need to use the forest for mining and commercial farming in order to make a living.

At the same time, indigenous communities living in the Amazon fight to protect the rainforest and their ways of life.

In March, researchers concluded from over three decades worth of satellite data that the health of the Amazon rainforest is deteriorating.

They said there were signs of a loss of resilience in more than 75% of the forest, with trees taking longer to recover from the effects of droughts largely driven by climate change, as well as human impacts such as deforestation and fires.

At the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow last year, more than 100 governments promised to stop and reverse deforestation by 2030.
Chinese dissidents in the US marking the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests last year

As a long-time dissident and California-based opponent of the Chinese government, Arthur Liu - the father of US Olympic figure skater Alyssa Liu - was not particularly surprised when a phone call came from the FBI.

"They told me that the Chinese government had sent spies over to the Bay Area to gather me and my daughter's passport information," he told the BBC. "I wouldn't say I was shocked. But I thought to myself, 'wow' - they're taking this very seriously."

At first, Mr Liu didn't make the connection: A "fishy" phone call from a man claiming to be from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, claiming to be conducting a "preparedness check" ahead of his daughter's trip to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022.

"I didn't completely realise that it was from someone other than the Olympic committee," Mr Liu recalled. "I just decided to do the right thing and not give up any information. That's just not how we normally submit passports."

The man on the other end, US authorities believe, was Anthony Ziburis, a 49-year old former Florida correctional officer and bodyguard.

His mission: To spy on and discredit Chinese dissidents on behalf of China's intelligence service. The dissidents reportedly included two American citizens - Mr Liu and Yan Xiong, a retired US Army chaplain and congressional candidate who'd previously been involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

In March, Mr Ziburis was charged by the US Justice Department with spying for the Chinese government. But he is far from the only one. This year alone, US officials have charged at least 12 people - including several American citizens - with stalking, harassing and spying on US residents for China.

On 8 July, two other people who were allegedly part of same scheme as the one targeting Mr Liu were also charged.

Mr Liu's case comes amid mounting alarm both in the United States and Britain over an increase in Chinese spy activities worldwide.

Story continues

In an unprecedented joint public appearance this week at the headquarters of MI5 in London, the heads of the US and UK security services each warned of a vast cyber-espionage network and hacking programme - larger than that of every other major country combined - being run by China.

These programmes are believed to be part of a wider, growing and multi-faceted intelligence effort to give China an edge over its rivals and silence or suppress perceived menaces to the Chinese Communist Party's rule.

The efforts take the shape of everything from scams on computers to spies at the door.

Former US intelligence officials note that people most likely to be targeted are those deemed to have connections to what the Chinese government has identified as "Five Poisons" that threaten it: Tibetan and Uyghur separatists, the Falun Gong spiritual movement, Taiwanese independence activists and - as was the case with Mr Liu - members of China's pro-democracy movement.

Alarmingly, these efforts are only expected to grow amid deteriorating Sino-US relations, and even Americans are not safe.

MI5 head Ken McCallum (left) and FBI director Christopher Wray (right) made an unprecedented joint appearance in London

For Mr Liu - who escaped from China through Hong Kong in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests - the prospect of being spied upon was a familiar one.

A previous effort, he said, ended when he unknowingly befriended a would-be agent - a student he was introduced to through a contact in the local Chinese diaspora network, for whom he had helped find housing in the US.

"A year or two later, he told me that they'd asked him to spy on me. It was a condition for him to come [to the US]," Mr Liu said. "But then he didn't want to do it".

Espionage against Chinese targets living abroad comes in many forms, ranging from attempts to hack their emails and devices to the planting of human agents inside their social circles or expatriate organisations.

Often, electronic methods are used as "an enabler" of human spying.

"You could stalk someone online, and get a sense of their contacts," said Christopher Johnson, a former senior China analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. "Then maybe you approach those people. One thing leads to another".

Dissidents such as Mr Liu are targeted because the Chinese government believes they are part of a "global narrative battle" between China and the West, Mr Johnson added.

Those who publicly speak out against the regime potentially hamper China's efforts to portray itself in a positive light.

This has taken on "renewed importance in the last couple years," he said. "'Discourse Power' is the clunky Marxist term they use. It's this idea that they should tell China's story themselves, through their own propaganda".

The Chinese government could not be reached for comment. In March - when Mr Ziburis was charged - Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian accused the US of "unwarranted denigration and smearing" against China.

Current and former US intelligence officials, however, have repeatedly warned of a vast Chinese spying campaign in the US.

In a speech earlier this year, FBI Director John Wray said that Chinese espionage operations in the US are "more brazen" than ever before.

This is particularly true given the Biden administration's framing of US-China rivalry as part of a struggle between autocracy and democracy, said Mr Johnson.

The recent indictments, he and two other officials told the BBC, are unlikely to make China stop trying.

According to the FBI, the bureau opens up a new China-related counter-intelligence case every 12 hours. As of February, more than 2,000 cases were open.

Despite this, Mr Johnson called US efforts to stop Chinese espionage "dismal".

"They're willing to put a lot more effort into doing it than we are in trying to deter it," he said.

The FBI has estimated that there are "hundreds" of dissidents in the US that China hopes to target as part of an increasingly aggressive campaign of seeking out personal and political retribution.

"Most of the targets are green card holders [or] naturalised citizens - folks with important rights and protections under US law," Director Wray has said.

Protesters in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989

Mr Liu, for his part, said he doesn't believe that espionage efforts against him will ever go away.

The more recent attempt, however, had an added complication. At the time of the FBI's call, it was almost certain that Alyssa Liu - who had posted content about China's treatment of its ethnic Uyghur minority on social media - would be headed to Beijing.

Mr Liu said he was "tremendously worried" for her safety - but chose not to tell her at the time.

"I didn't want her to go to China with a heavy burden on her shoulders," he said. "I wanted her to go and enjoy the Olympic experience".

A year on, he said he won't be surprised if the FBI were to contact him again, although he hopes to "not have to do this again".

"I've learned to carry on like a normal person. They [the Chinese government] can do whatever they want, I can't stop it. I don't care," he said.

"I will continue to speak up against such conduct and against any kind of human rights violations. Nothing would stop me from doing that."
(Getty Images)

Anne Hathaway secured her sartorial status with an appearance at the Valentino Haute Couture show in Paris.

The actor arrived at the event on Friday (8 July) wearing a sequin fuchsia mini dress from the Italian fashion house that featured a high neckline, long sleeves, and a peplum bodice.

The 39-year-old paired the dress with Valentinos sky-high platform sandals and a matching handbag, all in the same shocking shade of bright pink.

The actors look was widely praised on social media, with many comparing it to Barbie.

Anne Hathaway is our Barbie girl, tweeted one person alongside a video of Hathaway arriving at the show.

Anne Hathaway wearing Valentino shes MY Barbie, added another.

Others teased that the actor looked as if she was on the set of the film Barbie, which stars Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie and is currently in production.

Tomorrow someones gonna steal these and caption the tweet Anne Hathaway on the set of Greta Gerwigs Barbie, tweeted one fan.

But Hathaway wasnt the only fuchsia-clad star in attendance at the Valentino show.

Joining her was fellow actor, Florence Pugh, who arrived in a mesh tulle gown that featured a high neckline and a full A-line skirt.

Also in attendance, albeit not in fuchsia, were Andrew Garfield, Nat Wolf, and Naomi Campbell.

In a recent interview for Interview magazines summer issue, Hathaway was asked by Michelle Yeoh: How do you go from goofy to gorgeous? What is your trick?

florence pugh and anne hathaway are real life barbie dolls pic.twitter.com/or0R4dXAoO  ivy (@ohhhhherewego) July 8, 2022

Hathaway replied, Oh! Gasp. I think its a trick that you know, too, and thank you for the compliment embedded in that question.

Story continues

So, goofy, theres nothing I can do. Its the way I was born. Gorgeous is the people I work with who specialize in making people look that way, but I also think I got really lucky.

The actor continued: My very first big-deal role [in The Princess Diaries] was directed by Garry Marshall, and if there ever has been a king of finding that sweet spot between goofy and gorgeous and how they complement each other, its him.

Thats how I was introduced to the world at large, so maybe that was just the first impression I made. Great care was taken with me in that introduction, but for the most part, I think goofy is just a given. What can one do?
Protest outside Dallas police HQ after fifteen attacks, robberies against LGBT community, Dallas, USA (November 22, 2015) HUM Images / Getty Images

Arizona's House Bill 2319, makes it illegal for bystanders to record police officers within 8 feet of an arrest.

The bill was drafted after Tuscon officers complained that bystanders were recording them too close.

The bill faced criticism for violating the public first amendment right to record police officers.

A new Arizona law now requires bystanders filming officers to stand at least eight feet away.

According to House Bill 2319, which was signed into law Wednesday by GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, bystanders who violate the law by recording police officers within 8 feet of activity are faced with a class 3 misdemeanor.

Bystanders who do not comply with the officer's verbal warning and move closer can be faced with a charge of up to $500 and 30 days in jail.

H.B 2319 was introduced this past March and sponsored by Arizona state Rep. John Kavanagh, who addressed critics of his bill in a March op-ed published by USA Today.

In the Op-Ed Kavanagh stated that the original bill had a larger "buffer zone" of 15 feet for police officers but was later amended due to constitutional criticism. The amended 8 feet distance was based on a Supreme Court ruling that eight feet was a reasonable distance for protestors to stand outside abortion clinics, Kavanagh told USA Today.

Kavanagh said the bill was pushed after Tucson officers complained that bystanders videotaped them 1 to 2 feet from behind while making an arrest. Kavanagh added that officers would be put at risk without a buffer zone.

"Police officers have no way of knowing whether the person approaching is an innocent bystander or an accomplice of the person they're arresting who might assault them," Kavanagh stated in the op-ed.

Critics are concerned over the bill's constitutionality, stating it violates the First Amendment. Bystander footage has helped hold police officers accountable, particularly in the case of George Floyd.

ACLU of Arizona (@ACLUaz) July 8, 2022

Story continues

"By limiting our ability to record police interactions, this law will undoubtedly make it more even more difficult to hold police officers accountable for misconduct," the ACLU of Arizona said in a tweet on Friday.

The law is slated to go into effect in September.





Read the original article on Insider
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he pressed his counterpart, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, to oppose Russias ongoing invasion of Ukraine when they met at the G-20 summit in Bali on Friday.

Blinken told reporters after meeting with Wang for five hours that remaining neutral in the conflict, as China has declared itself, is a difficult position to have because there is a clear aggressor and victim.

There is a clear challenge not only to the lives and livelihoods of people in Ukraine, but there is a challenge to the international order that China and the United States as permanent members of the Security Council are supposed to uphold, he said.

But Blinken also cast doubt on the claim that the Chinese government remained neutral on the conflict, arguing that it is amplifying Russian propaganda and has continued to support Russia in the United Nations.

But even if you accept that as a premise, I dont think that China is, in fact, engaging in way that suggests neutrality, he said.

China was one of 24 countries to vote against a United Nations resolution in April that suspended Russia from the Human Rights Council following the start of the invasion.

Blinken said Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Biden in a phone call last month that he stands by a partnership he made with Russian President Vladimir Putin in February. The two leaders affirmed a cordial relationship between their countries in announcing the agreement.

Blinken said he urged Wang that all countries need to stand up against Russias invasion, to demand that Russia allow other countries access to food supply from Ukraine and end the war.

He would not share how Wang responded.

Blinken also said they discussed the status of the relationship between China and the United States, North Koreas nuclear program and possible areas for increased cooperation, including on the climate, global health and food security.

He said he mentioned the countrys concerns around Chinese activity toward Taiwan, which has increased since Russias invasion of Ukraine and issues in Hong Kong. He also voiced concerns about the treatment of the Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim minority, in the Xinjiang province.

Now, none of these are easy topics, but the United States seeks always to be a consistent voice on human rights and fundamental freedoms, not to stand against China or any other country but to help advance peace, security, and human dignity, Blinken said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
(Bloomberg) -- Investors in BlockFi Inc., the hobbled crypto lender that received a capital injection from digital-asset exchange FTX US, are prepared for some of their holdings to be wiped out.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The Private Shares Fund, a fund overseen by Liberty Street Advisors, marked down BlockFis warrants as worthless in its fund report at the end of June, according to an analysis of data compiled by Bloomberg. On June 30, FTX offered a lifeline in the form of a $400 million revolving credit facility with an option to buy the company in a bid to save BlockFi after it was hit by recent liquidations.

The Private Shares Fund, which specializes in investing in late-stage private companies, gave BlockFi series E warrants a valuation of as much as $67 per unit as recently as April. It also cut its valuation of BlockFis preferred shares to about $20 per share, down from $77 at the end of April.

All investment rounds in BlockFi are pari-passu, meaning that investors are on equal footing, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be identified discussing confidential matters. Proceeds from the deal with FTX US will be also be pari-passu.

The Private Shares Fund didnt respond to Bloombergs request for comment. BlockFi directed Bloomberg to Chief Executive Officer Zac Princes Twitter feed where he announced on July 1 that the company had reached a deal with FTX US.

The transaction represents a total value of as much as $680 million, a drastic shrinkage from BlockFis $3 billion valuation as of March 2021. BlockFi also previously looked to raise funding at a reduced valuation of $1 billion in the weeks leading up to its financial troubles.

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Dustin Johnson held off a final-day charge from fellow American Bryson DeChambeau to claim the spoils and secure his first win of the season, emerging triumphant from a dramatic final round as the worlds best went toe-to-toe on the grandest course of all. As we know, this is not what happened at the 150th Open Championship. This is what happened at the LIV Golf Open Championship.
Last December 15, as the original Omicron wave gained serious momentum, California reinstituted a statewide indoor mask mandate. State Public Health Officer Tomas Aragon said the move was to add a layer of mitigation as the Omicron variant, a Variant of Concern as labeled by the World Health Organization, increased in prevalence across California, the United States, and the world and spread much more easily than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and the Delta variant. At the time, the states 7-day average rate of test positivity was 2.6%.

. - Credit: CDC

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Today, the state is beset by another Variant of Concern called BA.5, a sublineage thought to have a growth advantage at least four times that of the original Omicron from December. CDC data indicates that, at the end of last week, BA.5 and sister subvariant BA.4 accounted for about 68% of new cases in the region comprised chiefly of California, Arizona and Nevada. BA.5 accounts for the vast majority of those cases and looks set to push out all other variants in the coming weeks.

. - Credit: CDPH

CDPH

Californias current 7-day test positivity rate is 16.7%. That gives the current summer surge the dubious honor of having the second-highest rate of test positivity the state has seen during the pandemic. Its second only to the very peak of last winters Omicron wave. And its still going higher.

Since BA.5s increased growth rate is largely due to its ability to evade the protection provided by previous infection and  to a lesser extent  the protection provided by vaccination, the state cannot count on vaccination in the same way it could with the original Omicron wave.

Whats more, the three most concerning metrics to health officials  hospital and ICU beds occupied by those infected with Covid and the average number of daily Covid deaths  are already far above where they were before Christmas.

Story continues

The director of public health in the states most populous county, Los Angeles, said yesterday that she expects her county will move into the CDCs High level Covid designation next week as a result of the rising numbers. If L.A. stays in that category for 14 days, the county will reimpose a mask mandate in public places.

. - Credit: CDC

CDC

Across the state, 35 of Californias 58 counties are also so designated by the CDC. Few of them have spoken about reinstituting masking. Nor has the state.

One seeming bright spot in the regions situation dims on closer inspection.

Reported cases over the past month, while steadily rising, have not jumped at nearly the rate they did in December. The problem is, reported test results have dropped dramatically since December as more Californians use at-home kits, the results of which are not captured in official reporting.

Because of that, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha told Lester Holt on NBCs Nightly News last night, Theres no question in my mind that were missing a vast majority of infections right now.

Even with the limited test reporting, the number recorded in California today  13,000 new cases  is already 44% above the approximately 9,000 cases reported on December 15 of last year. That, coupled with the Golden States sky-high test positivity and a much more infectious variant, does not bode well.

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Police in Southern California are trying to identify the person suspected of throwing an explosive device that injured a woman in her home on Tuesday.

The woman was in her kitchen in her Anaheim home when she heard a noise at the front of the house, the Anaheim Police Department said. When she went to check it out, she saw an explosive on the ground and the fuse burning, police said.

She tried extinguishing the device.

"At this time, it exploded in her hand," a police statement said. "She then ran upstairs to seek help."

WHAT CRITICAL RACE THEORY HAS WROUGHT IN LA SCHOOLS

Anaheim firefighters responded to the scene and the woman was taken to the UC Irvine Medical Center for major injuries to her hands and feet.

The suspect was captured on home security video taken from a neighbor's unit walking toward the victim's door window police said. Seconds later, an explosion is heard.

The suspect was seen walking away from the victim's residence.

He was described as a male weighing 180 pounds wearing a hoodie, backpack, black jeans and black tennis shoes.
Police late Friday announced an arrest in Tuesdays robbery, shooting and killing of a Charlotte teenager.

Yimere Joyner was pronounced dead at the scene after police found the 19-year-old unresponsive from a gunshot wound in the 1700 block of Camp Greene Street just before 5 p.m., according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police news release.

That is near Freedom Drive west of uptown.

WSOC aerial footage showed police at an apartment complex.

Police charged 18-year-old Nyquan Demartrice Marriner with first-degree murder, armed robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery, according to Mecklenburg County Jail records.

Marriner remained jailed without bail Saturday, jail records showed.

Police arent saying if the robbery was random.

The homicide was the citys 53rd this year.

CMPD urged anyone with information about the shooting to call police Detective Blair Fitch at 704-432-8477 or the Crime Stoppers tip line at 704-334-1600. Callers to Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous, police said.
A pontoon boat is escorted through Charlevoix's channel after taking on water in Lake Michigan. The U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes notified the public of the event via Twitter on July 9, the day of the Boyne Thunder Poker Run.

CHARLEVOIX  A sinking pontoon boat was rescued by the Coast Guard on Saturday, July 9.

The U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes tweeted that the Charlevoix Coast Guard station had assisted in the rescue of a 27' pontoon boat with six people on board that was taking on water in Lake Michigan. It was reported the boat was able to progress at a higher speed, however occupants were concerned slower speeds would increase flooding.

#USCG STA Charlevoix assisted 6 POB on 27 pontoon taking on water IVO Grand Traverse Bay. Vessel continued to make way, concerned slower speed would increase flooding. CG crew escorted to & towed pontoon through channel and moored at Charlevoix Marina. pic.twitter.com/a0RPGzLBK0  USCG Great Lakes (@USCGGreatLakes) July 9, 2022

The Coast Guard escorted and towed the pontoon through Charlevoix's Pine River channel and it was moored at the Charlevoix marina.

Neither the Charlevoix Coast Guard or the U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes responded to inquiries for more details.

The area surrounding the channel was particularly congested with boat traffic on Saturday, as the Boyne Thunder Poker Run event brought dozens of power boats through the channel into Lake Michigan along with dozens of spectator boats crowded around the area.

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Contact reporter Annie Doyle at adoyle@charlevoixcourier.com

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Coast Guard rescues sinking pontoon, tows to Charlevoix
A long procession of police vehicles from near and far arrived at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Shaler  for the funeral service of fallen Oakdale Police Officer Charles Stipetich.

Officer Stipetich was remembered in song and prayer.

PHOTOS >> Community attends funeral for off-duty Oakdale police officer shot, killed in Blawnox

His dad was overwhelmed with emotion as he talked about his son.

Chucky will never be forgotten. He was the best kid he could possibly have. Never had any problems with him. For parents in here, that have children, please hug your children because tomorrows not guaranteed. Once again, thank you, his dad Charles Stipetich said.

RELATED >> I couldnt even save him: Heartbroken family remembers off-duty officer shot, killed in Blawnox

Officer Stipetich was only 23 years old. He was a Fox Chapel graduate, a Marine veteran and with the Oakdale Police Department for just eight days, when he was shot and killed in a case of road rage.

RELATED >> It makes you want to cry: Oakdale police chief remembers officer killed off-duty over holiday week

His dad credits his son for saving his life.

Officer Stipetich was off-duty at the time.

RELATED >> Man charged with homicide for shooting death of off-duty Oakdale police officer

A great deal of his kindness was just a part of what Chucky was and has always been. It was in a spirit. He was a young man truly filled with light so much so he perpetually had a twinkle in his eye, a pastor at the funeral said.

Family and friends said their final goodbyes at a private burial.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

To honor officer Stipetich, the Oakdale police chief said the department will create a Charles Stipetich award for heroism.

It will be given to someone who goes above the call of duty.

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US government suit against UPMC and star surgeon moves forward Majority of Kiski Township police officers quit jobs overnight California girl struck by flying cellphone on Six Flags roller coaster, family says VIDEO: Fire that destroyed home in Penn Hills ruled arson by townships fire marshal DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts
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Ronny Jackson/TwitterIn the latest addition to the pantheon of tough-guy gun-toting GOP grandstanding videos, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) spoke up in defense of gun rights on Monday in a clip of him wielding two assault riflesone of which was aimed at his own right foot.I have a message for the Biden administration, Jackson, the former physician to President Donald Trump, said in his video shared on Twitter, which racked up over a million views in under 24 hours. If youre thinking about takin
An Arkansas congressmans son with a history of drug arrests and convictions remained jailed Thursday after his arrest on a methamphetamine possession charge, officials said.

Police accompanied a probation officer to James Womacks home in Rogers for a Wednesday home visit, according to an arrest affidavit. They found the 34-year-old son of Republican Rep. Steve Womack sitting on a zipper-style eyeglass case.

When the case was opened, inside were found several syringes, a small glass vile containing what tested positive for meth and an empty plastic bag containing a residue that tested positive for meth, the affidavit stated.

He remained in the Benton County Jail with bond set at $20,000 Thursday. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney to speak on his behalf.

Womack has been in and out of trouble with the law since the early 1990s.

More recently, in April 2019, Womack began serving what was a nine-year prison term after pleading guilty to five felony charges for drugs and guns. In May 2020, the Arkansas Department of Correction placed him on a list of inmates being considered for early release because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Previously, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance. But he was diverted to a state prison system boot camp with the promise that his criminal record would be expunged if he successfully completed the program.

He was arrested in April 2012 on a parole violation, however.

This young man, like a lot of people, has struggled with drug addiction on and off for years, said his attorney, Shane Wilkinson. He has an addiction that has affected him, his family, and other people that love him. His family has struggled with his addiction for years, and this is no exception.

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A Texas court issued another temporary injunction against the states Department of Family and Protect Services (DFPS), blocking the state from investigating two more families of transgender youth receiving gender-affirming care.

The injunction will prevent the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) from implementing a rule that would expand the definition of child abuse to those parents who help their transgender or gender non-conforming children receive gender-affirming care.

Travis County District Court Judge Amy Clark Meachum wrote in a ruling on Friday that there is a substantial likelihood that Plaintiffs will prevail after a trial on the merits and argued that the trangender youth and their families would suffer probable, imminent, and irreparable injury should the department enforce a rule that would characterize providing gender-affirming care as child abuse.

Due to the injunction, the state is barred from investigating Mirabel Voe and her son Antonio, according to a release from Lambda Legal.

The ruling came in the lawsuit PFLAG vs. Abbott.

In the injunction, Meachum detailed injuries the plaintiffs could suffer, including gross invasions of privacy in the home and school, intruding in parents ability to make decisions, illegal child abuse investigations and the deprivation or disruption of medically necessary care for the parents adolescent children.

We are gratified that the Court reiterated that the DFPS rule is unlawful and changed the status quo for Texas transgender youth and their families, the legal organizations including Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Texas, and the law firm of Baker Botts LLP, said in a statement.

The Court recognized yet again that being subjected to an unlawful and unwarranted investigation causes irreparable harm for these families who are doing nothing more than caring for and affirming their children and seeking the best course of care for them in consultation with their medical providers.

Story continues

The organizations noted, however, that the state had appealed the judges decision after it was made.

A spokesperson for DFPS told The Hill they could not comment on pending litigation.

Earlier this year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) directed DFPS to investigate reports of transgender children receiving gender-affirming care.

An initial restraining order was issued by the Travis County District Court in June, barring the state from investigating three families who sued over the agencys rule, and any similar investigations into PFLAG, an LGBT advocacy group.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
It has been a long time since so many education issues have been so politically divisive, with sharp debates between conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats about mask mandates, student sexual identity, and the role of race in the curriculum overtaking the routine work of educating students.

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But as school districts have decided how to spend billions in federal Covid-relief aid, there has been more convergence on prioritiesand even a few surprises, according to a FutureEd analysis of 5,000 school districts and charter organizations plans for spending some $75 billion in federal aid, a sample compiled by the data-services firm Burbio and representing three-quarters of the nations public-school students from every state.

Nearly the same percentage of local education agencies in red and blue states have earmarked Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds (ESSER III) for social-emotional learning, a hot-button issue for many conservative politicians. And both have made hiring and rewarding teachers their top priority and plan to spend at similar rates on tutoring, teacher training and new school infrastructure.

Whats more, red states are actually more likely than blue states to earmark funds for teacher bonuses and student assessmentscounterintuitive findings given many conservatives opposition to testing in recent years and their fraught relationship with the teaching profession.

To identify red and blue states, we used FiveThirtyEights ranking of how states voted relative to the rest of the country in a mix of recent elections. The partisan lean score rates Wyoming as the reddest state, since GOP candidates scored nearly 50 points higher there than in the rest of the country. In deep blue Washington, D.C., Democrats outperformed the national average by 68 points. We put every state with the slightest tinge of pink into the red category, giving us 31 red states and 20 blue states. To test our results, we ran a second analysis, pulling out about 10 purple states in the center of the list where Republican or Democratic advantages were minimal, but there was little change in the trends.

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Mental and Physical Health

Some of the most highly charged state and local education debates since the onset of the pandemic have involved mask mandates, vaccinations and other health issues. But the controversy isnt reflected in states local ESSER III spending plans.

About 15 percent of districts and charters in blue states report plans, for example, to invest in public-health protocolsincluding testing, contact tracing, and vaccinescompared to 13 percent in red states. Likewise, 31 percent of blue-state districts and charters include social-emotional learning (SEL) programs, materials, and training for staff members in their plans, compared to 28 percent in red states. The analysis shows that districts in red and blue states expect to spend about the same amount per student on this priority: $80 per pupil in blue state districts compared to $87 in red states.

The Salt Lake City school district in bright red Utah plans to spend more than $3 million of its $40 million allotment to introduce social-emotional learning and a behavioral support system. Fontana Unified School District in blue California plans to spend $7.8 million of its $96 million allotment on social-emotional learning curriculum and programming for students as well as training for staff members.

Some red-state districts may have reduced their commitments in these areas since they filed their plans last fall, as GOP leaders ramped up campaign to tie SEL to lessons on racial history they considered offensive. In Florida, for instance, the State Board of Educations decision to ban the teaching of critical race theory prompted some districts to drop their SEL plans.

Surprisingly, about a quarter of districts in red states have pledged Covid-relief funds for behavioral and mental health services and for family engagement, higher than the rates in blue states. In contrast, local education agencies in blue states have made larger commitments to bringing psychologists and social workers into schools (41 percent of agencies compared to 31 percent in red states). Syracuse City School District in New York, for instance, is devoting nearly $13 million of its $108 million allotment to expand its Student Support Services Department, which employs psychologists, counselors and social workers.

The spending on mental health professionals dovetails with what we found when we compared rural and urban districts. Rural schools often have less access to mental health professionals, and our analysis of the Burbio sample shows a higher proportion of rural districts in red states than blue states. The recent mass murders by 18-year-olds may spur local education leaders nationwide to increase their ESSER investments in behavior and mental health.

Staffing

Notwithstanding blue-state districts greater commitment to mental health professionals, staffing priorities are similar across the board. About 60 percent of districts in both sets of states are planning to spend a portion of their ESSER III funds on hiring or rewarding teachers, counselors or academic interventionists, making such spending the No. 1 priority in both groups of states. And more than 40 percent of districts in both red and blue states plan to invest in professional development opportunities for teachers and staff members. Districts in red and blue states also plan to spend on nurses and physical health specialists at relatively even rates.

Where they diverge is on staff retention and benefits. Red state districts and charters plan to fund employee benefits and assistance programs at a rate nearly three times that of districts in blue states (35 percent compared to 13 percent), the largest difference of any category we analyze. This may reflect acute staff shortages in more-rural red states, or the fact that some states ask districts to break out benefit costs in their ESSER III spending plans, while others lump benefits with salaries. Districts in red states are also more than twice as likely to project ESSER III spending for recruitment and retention efforts compared to districts in blue states (25 percent versus 12 percent).

Wayne County Public Schools in North Carolina, for example, plans to spend $8.5 million of its $55 million ESSER III allotment on teacher retention efforts that will allow the district to maintain small class sizes. In addition to hiring teachers and assistant principals to maintain staffing levels, the district also plans to award bonuses to teachers who sign or resign with the district.

Per-pupil spending in these categories varies only moderately, with blue state districts devoting an average of $201 per pupil to employee benefits, compared to $238 in red state districts. For teacher retention compensation, districts in blue states are planning to spend $336 per pupil versus $362 per pupil in red states.

Academic Recovery

The biggest differences in red- and blue-state spending priorities involve academic recovery, although the choices dont seem to be based in politics. American Rescue Plan aid comes with a requirement that K-12 schools spend at least 20 percent of the federal money on evidence-based strategies to address learning loss and boost academic achievement. Local education agencies in blue states are much more likely to pursue afterschool and summer learning as their primary strategies, while districts in red states are more likely to invest in curriculum, instructional materials and assessments.

More than half of districts in blue states intend to spend on summer learning programs, making it their top learning-loss strategy and their No. 3 priority overall. By contrast, 38 percent of districts in red states plan to spend on summer learning, and it ranks No. 6 on their list of priorities. Spending on afterschool programs is also more common in blue states than their more conservative counterparts.

Districts in a handful of states report summer learning and afterschool as a single category, skewing these results somewhat. But even when we combine all planned summer and afterschool spending, blue states are still more likely to embrace extended-time interventions. Lowell Public Schools in Massachusetts plans to spend $1.7 million of its $40 million ESSER allotment expanding afterschool programs and $1.3 million on summer learning for all 27 schools in the district, allowing every student to receive extra support.

Roughly 40 percent of districts in red states plan to purchase instructional materials, software and curriculum. This compares to about 30 percent of blue-state districts. Tutoring has been equally popular in blue- and red-state districts, with about a quarter of districts in both red and blue states allocating funds. Districts in red states, though, plan to spend almost twice as much per student as districts in blue states ($167 vs. $89).

Facilities and Operations

Although a slightly larger percentage of districts in blue states plan to spend on HVAC systems53 percent versus 47 percentit is the No. 2 priority in both blue and red states, with very similar levels of investment on a per-pupil basis ($392 in red states, $398 in blue states). Similarly, nearly the same proportion of blue and red states have prioritized building repairs, which includes such things as lead abatement and bathroom upgrades, in their ESSER III spending plans32 percent in red states versus 29 percent in blue states. Transportation is a bigger priority among localities in red states with a third of the districts planning to invest, compared to a fifth of blue state districts. This may also reflect the rural nature of many red state districts.

There are many factors that can influence how a local education agency decides to divvy up its allotment of federal Covid-relief funds, and just as many reasons for districts and charters to change their plans over the past year. But the key prioritieshiring and keeping good staff members, supporting students academically and emotionally, and upgrading facilitiesremain remarkably consistent regardless of political persuasion.

FutureEd research associate Gunjan Maheshwari contributed to this analysis.
The Daily Beast

Kelly Wilkinson/USA Today Network via ReutersFour people are dead and several injured after a man with a rifle walked into a food court at Greenwood Park Mall in Indiana and began shooting, local authorities said Sunday evening.One of the dead is the suspected shooter, according to Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers. The gunman, an adult male, has not been identified. Police said he had been carrying a long rifle and several ammunition magazines.This tragedy hits at the core of our community, the mayo
China calls for dialogue to resolve political differences in West Africa, Sahel

Xinhua) 10:14, July 09, 2022

UNITED NATIONS, July 8 (Xinhua) -- China has called for dialogue to resolve political differences in West Africa and the Sahel.

Speaking at the UN Security Council briefing on the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) on Thursday, Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said that efforts must be made "to stay committed to the overall direction of resolving political differences (in West Africa and the Sahel) through dialogue."

Talking about elections in Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Benin and Togo, among others, Dai said that "the international community should respect the sovereignty and leadership of regional countries, support them in following development paths that suit their national conditions, and support the parties concerned in solving differences through dialogue."

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) recently held a summit, which made important decisions such as lifting the sanctions against Mali. "China supports Africa in finding African solutions to African issues, and supports ECOWAS in continuing to maintain dialogue with countries in political transition, to jointly advance the political transition along the right track," said the ambassador.

Referring to security and stability in the region, the envoy said that "violent terrorist forces in the region have frequently launched attacks, spreading their activities from the Sahel countries to coastal countries along the Gulf of Guinea, seriously jeopardizing regional security and stability."

"Counter-terrorism is a comprehensive war. And countries in the region form an inseparable security community. China supports these countries in strengthening cooperation in terms of equipment, intelligence, and logistical supplies, promoting disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants, and actively and effectively curbing the spread of terrorism," he said.

Noting that the G5 Sahel countries are at the forefront of counter-terrorism, and have made great efforts and big sacrifices to curb the spread of terrorist forces over the years, Dai said that their role in counter-terrorism in the region and the broader African continent "is really irreplaceable."

"We hope that the five countries will seize the opportunity of ECOWAS lifting the sanctions against Mali to strengthen solidarity and cooperation, remove obstacles, and build regional counter-terrorism bulwark," he said. "China supports the AU and ECOWAS in conducting a joint strategic assessment of the Sahel issue, giving new impetus to regional counter-terrorism cooperation."

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Louis Boutan/Public Domain

The underwater world was almost entirely unknown to the public in the nineteenth century. Once filmmakers developed the technology to film below the oceans surface, starting with Williamsons photosphere pioneered in 1914, they discovered immense potential but also a challenge. While filmmakers could shape underwater imagery according to their visions, at the same time, they had to work to convince audiences that it was indeed the undersea environment, a challenge all the greater because the environment was inaccessible to general publics during the first decades of underwater filming. Leisure diving would not develop until the advent of scuba in the postWorld War II era.

Amidst the publics pervasive hydrophobia across the nineteenth century, there were intrepid adventurers who explored the world below the oceans surface. Baron Eugen von Ransonnet-Villez, an Austrian naturalist, became captivated by the beauty of tropical corals in the 1860s. Ransonnet published two travel books with the first extended descriptions, and also the first visual images, based on prolonged, firsthand observation in the Western tradition.

For Travels from Cairo to Tor to the Coral Reefs (Reise von Kairo nach Tor zu den Korallenbanken) (1863), Ransonnet was free diving. Even with his limited time below, he noted submarine luminosity and the behavior of color: How peculiar things appear under water! Though one cannot exactly distinguish the contours in the deep, yet everything gleams in beautiful and strange illumination! Brown, violet, orange, in yellow and blue light, everything glows towards the diver.

In the years after publishing this account, Ransonnet designed a custom diving bell with a window so that he could sketch below. He used this diving bell for his trip to Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) and included both verbal descriptions and engravings in Sketches of the Inhabitants, Animal Life and Vegetation in the Lowlands and High Mountains of Ceylon (1867). There, for example, Ransonnet observed again the details of altered visual perception below. Strange seemed the light effects down there in the sea so I paid special attention to it. Bluegreen is the basic tint of the underwater landscape and especially of all bright objects, whereas dark, e.g. blackish rocks and corals, and far away shadows, seem to be wrapped in a monotone maroon, which is in complementary relation to the colour of the water. Despite such novel observations, these works remarkably . . . did not command much attention at the time.

Story continues

Public Domain

From the scant information in secondary literature, it seems that both scientific and public interest in submarine reality started to crystallize in the 1880s1890s. Within this time frame, historian of scientific diving and underwater photography Hermann Heberlein names several noteworthy scientists who turned their attention to underwater optics. The most famous was biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel, who knew of Ransonnets depictions. In Nature, Haeckel published an article where he lamented his lack of access to such a diving bell. Nonetheless, he commented that by training his eyes to remain open, he could observe the mystic green light in which the submarine world was bathed, so different from the rosy light of the upper air. The forms and movements of the swarms of animals peopling the coral banks were doubly curious and interesting thus seen.

Marine biologist Hermann Fol, a student of Haeckels, realized that such conditions were worth attention in their own right. In an article from 1890, based on his experience diving in the Mediterranean, Fol described underwater optics and tied them to two practical purposessubmarine navigation and underwater photography. While the shallow depth of field thwarted sight for navigating undersea vessels, Fol was optimistic about underwater photography. He noted the loss of red light and surmised that the blue rays that last the longest are, in Fols estimation, the rays that act with the greatest energy on the photographic plate. Fol also noted the altered submarine color spectrum, the effect on visibility of different angles of the sun, and varying turbidity of water in different zones. (His comments about poor underwater visibility also raised for him the question about whether fish were nearsighted: what use would distance vision be, because in any case, they would only be able to see several meters?)

In 1890, when Fol published his observations, experimentation for developing reliable processes for underwater photography was under way. French marine biologist Louis Boutan is credited by photographic historians with the first clear, reliable underwater photography. In 1900, Boutan outlined his method thoroughly in the book La photographie sous-marine et les progres de la photographie. Boutans precursors included William Thompson, who took an exposure in Weymouth Bay in February 1856, as well as German submarine inventor Wilhelm Bauer, and the previously mentioned Frenchman Bazin who upgraded the diving chamber.

Slides of Boutans photos were shown at the great Paris Worlds Fair of 1900. By this time, curiosity, if not knowledge, about submarine conditions was growing in the general public. People were fascinated by the real-life success of Alexander Lambert, who had recovered the vast majority of gold bullion from the 1885 wreck of the Alphonso XII in the Canaries. A particularly successful melodrama on the London stage in 1897 was Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamiltons The White Heather, culminating in an underwater fight scene represented in advertisements for the production, which was popular enough to cross the Atlantic to Broadway. H. G. Wells noted the change in color of the sea in portraying the dive of a submersible into the abyssal depths inhabited by aliens in his short story In the Abyss (1896), which was one inspiration for James Camerons The Abyss (1989). As the protagonist, Elstead, plunges downward, he saw the water all around him greeny-blue, with an attenuate light filtering down from above, and a shoal of little floating things went rushing up past him. . . . [I]t grew darker and darker, until the water above was as dark as the midnight sky. Further, little transparent things in the water developed a faint glint of luminosity, as they shot past him, suggesting bioluminescence.

If this time frame correctly identifies the intensifying public curiosity about submarine reality, it coincides with the invention of underwater photography. Did general interest in the environment lead inventors to take photography below? Did public curiosity grow as submarine photography revealed the unique qualities of submarine life? Or, as is often the case, were public attention and new technological advancements mutually enhancing?

Princeton University Press

Excerpted from THE UNDERWATER EYE: How the Movie Camera Opened the Depths and Unleashed New Realms of Fantasy by Margaret Cohen. Copyright  2022 by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission.

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Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Defense is nearing an agreement with Lockheed Martin Corp for around 375 F-35 fighter jets over three years, three sources said on Monday, amid expectations of a price increase for the most common version of the jet due to lower quantities and inflation. Since then, production quantities and know-how have increased, helping the price of the stealthy fifth-generation fighter fall to $79 million as it gained buyers. The handshake agreement would come as the aviation industry gathered for the return of the Farnborough Airshow, aiming for a display of confidence after the devastation of COVID-19, even though the only records likely to be broken at the event in southeastern England are for sweltering temperatures.
ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports

Former Vikings linebacker Ben Leber still knows the team very well. Among other things, he works the sideline for the teams radio broadcasts. So with the Vikings changing coaches but not quarterbacks, Leber has some opinions about how things may go for the team, and for Kirk Cousins. I think hes gonna finally thrive, really [more]
The Daily Beast

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/MarvelIf youre so unfortunate as to spend a considerable amount of time of your day or week in the absolute worst place in the worldTwitteryou may have noticed that filmmaker Taika Waititi is facing some backlash.The New Zealand director of Thor: Love and Thunder is typically revered by those who lurk in the geekier corners of the internet, thanks to his genre work including the films What We Do in the Shadows and Jojo Rabbit. He rec
HELSINKI (AP)  Estonia's governing center-right Reform Party of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has reached a tentative deal to form a coalition government with two other parties, ending a month-long political stalemate in the Baltic nation.

Kallas, prime minister of the European Union and NATO nation since January 2021, kicked out the left-leaning Center Party from the two-party coalition on June 3 following disputes over spending and welfare policies amid increasing household costs due to high inflation.

The politically liberal Reform Party that runs on a conservative fiscal policy platform said late Friday it has struck a coalition deal with the opposition Social Democrats and the small conservative Fatherland ("Isamaa") party.

The three parties together muster a comfortable 56-seat majority at the 101-seat Riigikogu legislature. Through the arrangement, which is to be finalized in the next few days, Kallas, who is Estonias first female prime minister, avoids governing a one-party minority government.

According to Postimees, Estonias leading newspaper, the 44-year-old Kallas will head the new government that is expected to be appointed by President Alar Karis by mid-July. Kallas, however, needs to first formally step down before being reappointed, the newspaper said.

The new government will be short-lived as Estonia is scheduled to hold a general election in March.

Karis said the new Cabinet has no time to rest given Estonias economic woes and the consequences of neighboring Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Estonia will have new ministers who must quickly start work to lead our people through inflation and what lies ahead in the autumn and winter in regard to energy prices, Karis said, adding that all of Europe was facing a security crisis due to Moscows war on Ukraine.

Estonias inflation rate is now the highest in the 19-nation eurozone, with annual inflation hitting 22% in June, according to Eurostat, the EU statistics agency. High energy prices are one of the main causes of inflation in the Baltic nation of 1.3 million people.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin

Read also: Fear of confronting Putin will lead to Russian victory in Ukraine

The Kremlin wanted to test world reaction to Russias presence at such an event, since the heads of states, including Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, are to meet in the same format in a few months, Ohryzko said.

"Lavrov was sent as a test ball to see what the reaction would be at the meeting, what would be written about it in the world," Ohryzko said.

According to the diplomat, "Putin will now have a kind of dilemma if Russia remains as it is today until November: whether to go or not."

Read also: Putin scrambling to find any allies to support him, says Ukrainian official

"If I were him, I would not repeat his own feat in Australia in 2014, when people did not want to come to sit next to him. To do it again now is political suicide," Ohryzko said.

Putin was given the cold shoulder at the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, in November 2014 after Russia invaded and started to occupy Ukraines Crimean Peninsula.

Read also: Who will get to power in Russia after Putin is gone?

At that event, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the dictator: "I guess I'll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine."

Today, according to Ohryzko, the concept of Russian diplomacy is completely absent due to propaganda.

"No diplomatic functions are left in Russia now," he said.

"(Russian diplomats do nothing) except sit somewhere in some embassies (but this is mostly a cover for spies, not diplomacy) and simulating some turbulent activity. I remembered another moment: a direct supply of cocaine has been established from Argentina by diplomatic planes, which can carry tons of cocaine to Russia."

Lavrov said that Russia had been called an "aggressor, occupier, invader" at the G20 foreign ministers' summit. He left the summit earlier than planned.

Lavrov's presence at the G20 foreign ministers' summit was also seen as a check on Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin's possible participation in the November 15-16 G20 summit, which will also be held in Bali.

Story continues

Read also: Lavrov calls off Serbia trip after three Balkan states ban his aircraft from their skies

Several heads of state have questioned whether they will attend if Putin personally attends the summit.

Lavrov was boycotted at the G20 foreign ministers' summit.

In particular, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi refused to attend the official dinner if Lavrov was there.

The traditional group photo of all attendees had to be canceled, as some did not want to stand side-by-side with Lavrov.
To provide our community with important public safety information, The Register-Guard is making this information related to the monkeypox virus free to read. To support important local journalism like this, please consider becoming a subscriber.

As the first monkeypox cases emerge in Oregon, including three known in Lane County, health officials are advising information-sharing, testing, vaccination and treatment as part of the statewide response to the national outbreak.

At least seven cases of the monkeypox virus have been identified in Oregon.

Lane County Public Health spokesman Jason Davis said a third Lane County case was confirmed by a state laboratory Thursday, and the county is waiting for federal lab confirmation of all its cases. Four other state casesare pending at the state laboratory.

More:Lane County identifies two cases of monkeypox; nearly 400 cases found nationwide

"This is not just a global problem, a national problem or even an Oregon problem anymore, this is a Lane County problem. It's circulating within our community," Davis said. "There's probably a lot more than we know about."

The other cases were found in Multnomah and Washington counties, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

No deaths have been reported, but the disease can be severe, potentially causing rashes, infections or sepsis.

Two vaccines licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are available for preventing monkeypox infections. OHA said Oregon's supply is limited but allocations from federal stockpiles have arrived and likely will be increased.

Health officials are advising people consider their risk factors, including intimate behaviors, to reduce infection risks.

Below is some information on current cases in Oregon, as well as prevention tips and advice in case symptoms arise.

What is monkeypox?

Infections are caused by a the human monkeypox virus, also known as hMPXV.

The monkeypox virus first was discovered in 1958 in colonies of research monkeys, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The first human case was recorded in 1970.

Story continues

Nearly all human cases before the 2022 outbreak outside of Africa were linked to international travel to countries where the disease commonly occurs or through imported animals, according to the CDC.

The strain of monkeypox causing the current outbreak  the West African strain  is rarely fatal, according to the CDC. However, people with weakened immune systems, children younger than 8, people with a history of eczema and people who are pregnant or breastfeeding may be more likely to get seriously ill or die, the CDC said.

The symptoms can be extremely painful and can include fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, chills, exhaustion and a rash that can look like blisters appearing nearly anywhere on the body that may cause permanent scarring.

The illness typically lasts two to four weeks, according to the CDC.

How does it spread?

The virus can be spread through direct contact with the infectious rash, scabs or body fluids. The virus also spreads by respiratory secretions during prolonged, face-to-face contact, or intimate physical contact, such as kissing or sex.

Monkeypox isn't considered a sexually transmitted infection. Anyone with close contact to an infection can catch it.

Pregnant people can spread the virus to their fetus through the placenta, according to the CDC.

Touching items, such as clothing or linens, that previously touched the infectious rash or body fluids is another way monkeypox spreads, according to the CDC.

Its also possible for people to get monkeypox from infected animals, either by being scratched or bitten by the animal or by eating the meat or using products from an infected animal.

People who do not have monkeypox symptoms cannot spread the virus to others.

Globally, nationally and in Oregon, hMPXV was initially associated with travel to non-endemic countries with reported hMPXV cases, according to the release. However, more recent cases do not have a history of travel.

Davis said the first-identified case in Lane County did not have a recent history of travel. Davis said additional local cases were later found through contact tracing, but the nature of any epidemiological link still is being investigated.

"We believe that we have a pretty solid idea of the social network of this individual and that we had quite a bit of robust communication with the people that individual had contact with. We're hoping, somewhere in the mix, we identify the individual this person got hMPXV from," Davis said. "The nature of the contact is still being sussed out."

Davis said there is likely an epidemiological link, which would give public health officials a head start containing it. But he said other, unknown cases may exist which are affecting different social circles or are being otherwise spread.

"There's a lot of unknowns for us," Davis said.

Examples of monkeypox rashes.

Who is being affected?

All seven currently reported monkeypox cases in Oregon are among men, according to OHA.

Dr. Tim Menza, senior health advisor for OHAs hMPXV response, said the agencys focus has been communicating widely and often to communities at highest risk for hMPXV about preventing its spread, when to get tested and how to access vaccines and treatment. The agency is also sharing information with the medical community, including providing guidance on case definitions, testing procedures and how health care providers can recognize symptoms.

While anyone can be affected by hMPXV, the current global outbreak of hMPXV has largely affected gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, Menza said in a news release.

I point this out not to say that men who have sex with men are the only people at risk for hMPXV, but that right now our priority should be empowering men who have sex with men and the larger LGBTQIA+ and queer community and their health care providers with information, testing, prevention and treatment strategies.

Communication has included a community letter that OHA, the Multnomah County Public Health infectious disease team and local providers jointly issued in advance of Pride events that began last month in Oregon, according to the release. An OHA team also is working with community-based organizations to develop culturally tailored awareness and prevention messaging. OHA is providing regular updates and data through social media platforms.

There are at least 700 confirmed monkeypoxs cases nationwide, according to the CDC website, which also reports that "early data suggest that gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men make up a high number of cases."

Monkeypox virus, colorized

How do I avoid infection?

The CDC recommends the following steps to prevent getting monkeypox:

Avoid close, skin to skin contact with the monkeypox rash.

Do not touch the rash or scabs of person with monkeypox.

Do not kiss, hug, cuddle or have sex with someone with monkeypox.

Do not share eating utensils or cups.

Do not handle or touch the bedding, towels, or clothing of a sick person.

Wash hands often with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer, especially after contact with sick people.

The virus can spread from the time symptoms start to when sores and scabs have healed with a fresh layer of skin.

Menza advised people planning to attend a festival, concert, party or other event to be conscious of the virus.

We can think about risk on a spectrum, Menza said in the release. For example, events like sporting events or concerts, where people are more likely to be fully clothed and unlikely to have skin-to-skin contact, are safer, compared to clubs and parties where people are wearing minimal clothing and there is often skin-to-skin contact or spaces like saunas, bathhouses or sex clubs, where there is minimal to no clothing and often sexual contact.

Menza added that those thinking about sex should check in with their partners.

Tell them how you are feeling, whether youve had any recent illness or rashes, especially on the genitals or around the anus, and invite them to do the same, Menza said. If you or your partner have been sick recently, are currently sick, or have any new rashes, avoid close, personal and skin-to-skin contact, and talk to a health care provider.

A person who is sick with monkeypox should isolate at home. People who have an active rash or other symptoms should be in a separate room or area from other family members and pets when possible, according to the CDC.

Can I get a vaccine?

The CDC does not recommend widespread vaccination against monkeypox at this time, according to its website. However, vaccination may be recommended for some people who are close contacts of people with monkeypox, have been exposed to the virus or those with increased risk of being exposed, such as people who perform lab tests.

In the United States, there is currently a limited supply of one vaccine, Jynneos, although more is expected in coming weeks and months, according to the CDC. There is an ample supply of the other, ACAM2000, but it should not be used in people who have some health conditions, including a weakened immune system and skin conditions.

People are considered fully vaccinated about two weeks after their second shot of Jynneos and four weeks after receiving ACAM2000, according to the CDC. People who have been vaccinated should continue to take precautions.

People can be vaccinated following exposure to monkeypox to help prevent illness from monkeypox virus.

No data is available yet on the effectiveness of these vaccines in the current outbreak, according to the CDC.

More:Oregon expanding monkeypox vaccines as cases explode across U.S.

OHA is now allowing health care providers to send monkeypox tests directly to the state public health laboratory without prior approval, which previously had been required, or directly to the private lab testing chain LabCorp.

The turn-around time for health care providers to get test results is one to three days through a private laboratory. Other private labs are expected to begin offering testing in the coming weeks.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently reported about 296,000 doses of Jynneos will be shipped out in the next few weeks. Oregon has received nearly 200 doses of the two-shot vaccine, Menza said.

The state has reserved those doses for people who have likely already been exposed to monkeypox.

OHA has distributed at least 26 doses to local public health authorities. At least eight doses have been administered.

Lane County, so far, has received 10 total doses, Davis said. Two of those doses were administered to patients as a pre-exposure prophylaxis and three were used as a post-exposure prophylaxis, Davis said.

Vaccination involves two doses given under the skin four weeks apart and can be given within 14 days of exposure to prevent hMPXV infection, according to OHA.

Menza said he hopes to expand vaccine availability to beyond just those who have been exposed to the virus.

When more vaccine becomes available, our goal is to offer vaccination to those at increased risk of exposure to hMPXV, including cisgender and transgender men who have sex with men and transgender women who have sex with men with more than one sex partner in the prior two weeks, Menza said in the release.

Salem Statesman Journal report Tracy Loew contributed to this story.

Contact reporter Adam Duvernay at aduvernay@registerguard.com. Follow on Twitter @DuvernayOR.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Monkeypox is in Lane County and Oregon. FAQ on contagious virus
Screenshots from Chinas social media platforms  WeChat and Weibo  reveal some Chinese netizens to be celebrating the assassination of Japans former prime minister Shinzo Abe, even hailing the attacker as a hero.

While several world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, offered their condolences to the archipelago nation for the death of its former leader, Chinese nationalists took to Weibo and WeChat to celebrate the event with champagne emojis.

In a Twitter thread, Chinese artist and activist Badiucao posted screenshots of the conversations onto his page, exposing the posters.

Abe is dead, its like, open champagne, wrote one user.

More from NextShark: 'Survivor, Activist, Legend': British Vogue Features Malala Yousafzai for July 2021 Cover

I hate my countrys government, but that doesnt stop me from loving my country or celebrating Abes death. Good to die! Pop champagne! well done, commented another netizen.

Chinese nationalists, however, were not the only ones unafraid to point out Abes controversial legacy.

One user, under the account Scissorbooks, described Abe as a fascist and revisionist who refused to acknowledge war crimes against China and Korea during World War II, referring to the Nanking Massacre and Korean comfort women.

More from NextShark: Mental Illness is Common Denominator in Some Anti-Asian Attacks, NYPD Task Force Chief Says

shinzo abe was a fascist and revisionist who refused to acknowledge japanese war crimes against china and korea and staunchly opposed recognizing the nanking massacre and korean comfort women and contributed to the rise of far right nationalism in japan     (@scissorbooks) July 8, 2022

More from NextShark: NYPD Lieutenant Admits Saying 'High Yellow' and 'Chinky Eyes', But She Was Only 'Joking'

NPR also deleted a heavily criticized tweet from Friday labeling Abe as a divisive, arch-conservative.

Story continues

The full post read: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a divisive arch-conservative and one of his nations most powerful and influential figures, has died after being shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, hospital officials said.

Some right-wing Twitter users described the label as awful, citing the only way to get respect from the left is to be an austere religious scholar.

Abe, 67, died on Friday at a local Japanese hospital after suffering from two gunshot wounds to the neck by 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, who was reportedly dissatisfied with the former leader.

Featured Image via ABC News; Tipsy Bartender
Gareth Bale was presented to the Los Angeles FC fans on Friday night (Kyusung Gong/AP) (AP)

Gareth Bale wants to serve as a role model for young players when he begins his Major League Soccer career with Los Angeles FC.

Bale made his first appearance in the United States since signing on Friday night when he attended his new clubs 3-2 win over city rivals LA Galaxy at the Banc of California Stadium.

A rivalry jokingly referred to as El Trafico after Los Angeles notorious congestion is a long way from El Clasico, but the former Real Madrid star is looking forward to a change of scenery after signing a 12-month contract with options to extend to the end of 2024.

I can come in and offer obviously what I can do in football, but I can help with the youngsters, Bale said on ESPN. Because obviously its a very young team here, giving them advice, seeing what I do in terms of professional standard and trying to help them.

I think the league is a growing league and it was an exciting opportunity that I felt was right for me and my family.

Key to Bales thinking when choosing a new club was keeping himself match fit ahead of Novembers World Cup, where Wales will make their first appearance in 64 years, but the 32-year-old said he saw a real opportunity in California.

The clubs really on the rise, he added. Its very new, but its something thats really glamorous and its a very attractive club. Just speaking with them, it felt really like the right thing to do. It felt like home straight away

Story continues

The best prep is to play games. I want to come here, I want to play games, I want to make my stamp and I want to do as best as I can to help LAFC try to win a trophy.

Bale is already eligible to play for his new club after the transfer window opened on Thursday, and he could make his debut next weekend against Nashville SC.

He joined his new team-mates on the pitch following their derby triumph, leading the fans chanting with a loudhailer.
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty

Never let a crisis go to waste are words to live by if you are California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is cruising to re-election less than a year after beating a recall effort. Confident after being resurrected politically, Newsom is jumping into the void created by a president disinclined to take the fight to the opposition, and a Democratic Party afraid of its own shadow.

Newsom ran a cheeky ad on Fox News outlets in Florida, daring residents of the Republican-led state to join the fight, or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom.

A governor making a direct appeal to the voters of another state is highly unusual, and at first blush, the 30-second ad looks like Newsom is spoiling for a potential 2024 matchup against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose policies banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors, in Newsoms recounting, are setting the Republican agenda.

Ron DeSantis and the Rise of Incoherent Folk Libertarianism

Dont let them take your freedom, Newsom implores, standing outside in the California sun, casually dressed and citing the freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate, and the freedom to love, all under attack in America by a radicalized Republican Party.

Democrats need to get out of their defensive crouch and take the fight to the Republicans. Who better to do it than Newsom, governor of a state that has the fifth-largest economy in the world? He has a platform, and he has been frustrated for some time over his partys timidity in confronting the radicalization of the Republican Party, epitomized in the recent string of extreme Supreme Court rulings on abortion, guns, and climate.

Taking on the cultural issues is a good message for Newsom, and he delivers it well, says Jack Pitney, professor of politics at Claremont-McKenna College. Hes doing what he wants to do, and thats rallying the Democrats.

Maybe there are some hurt feelings in the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris may feel preempted by her fellow Californian Newsom, a friend who has now elevated himself as a rival. President Joe Biden feels that hes not getting proper deference within his party for what hes accomplished. Hes right about that, but this is a fight with multiple fronts and Newsom has answered the call.

Story continues

And as far as intra-party skirmishes go, theres no downside for Newsom.

Hell probably score some points, says Pitney. It doesnt hurt DeSantis. He probably likes it, someone from California coming into his state. And it establishes Newsom as back-up material if Biden doesnt run and Harris falters.

Thats not to say Newsom hasnt shot himself in the foot, repeatedly, by coming off as an out-of-touch elitistif not a total hypocriteas he did in 2020 when he attended a maskless party at an ultra-exclusive restaurant for a major Democratic donor in violation of his own guidelines, or more recently, when he vacationed in Montana despite a California ban on state-funded travel to the state. If youre going to walk into a showdown with Republicans, its best not to hand your adversaries a pile of ammunition.

Democrats are demoralized by the mountain of bad news that threatens to sink their chances in the midterms. They are unhappy about the lackluster stewardship of their party coming from the White House, but at the same time recognize that Biden has a lot to deal with and inspirational messaging is not his strong suit. Other people in the party will have to fill the vacuum and make the case.

Newsom took the fight to DeSantis, a preview of what Democrats must do if theyre to refocus the midterms away from Bidens low approval rating to the threat posed by a radical Republican party gaining more power.

Gavins ad is a helpful test case in how we can reframe this election, says Simon Rosenberg, founder of New Democrat Network (NDN). The radicalization of the Republican Party is the most important issue in this election. We can now see the world they want us to live inguns everywhere, 10-year-olds forced to give birth, an erosion of democracy. Its not any one thingand Joe Biden doesnt need to do everything in the Democratic Party.

Recent Supreme Court rulings on abortion, guns, and climate are out-of-touch with modern life and constitutionally questionable. It would be political malpractice if the Democrats didnt run on the freedoms Americans are losing under Republican rule. If I were advising the Democrats, says Pitney, We need a Democratic Congress to check an out-of-control Supreme Court.

Pitney worked in Republican politics in Washington before he became an academic, and he cites Republicans scoring political points by decrying the Supreme Courts landmark Miranda decision for going too far with rights for criminal defendants. The 1966 ruling requires law enforcement to inform anyone being detained of their constitutional rights, including the right to remain silent and to have an attorney. It coincided with an increase in the crime rate, and though there was no evidence to connect the two, that didnt stop Republicans from running against an out-of-control liberal Supreme Court as soft on crime.

Ron DeSantis Isnt a Tough Guy. Hes Just Another Cowardly Bully.

They should absolutely run on the court. They would have the high ground. People like checks and balances, and the courts are out of control, Pitney told The Daily Beast.

Conservative commentator Bill Kristol recently tweeted: Republicans did well running against the Supreme Court for decades, claiming (with some truth) the Court was imposing their liberal policy views on the country. Running against the extremist Alito-Thomas Court wouldnt be crazy.

Nows the time to turn the tables on the GOP and run against un-elected partisans in robes that are taking away our freedoms.

Newsom has nothing to lose and everything to gain, which is a powerful perch for any politician. For Democrats worried about the lack of a bench as a generation of leaders in Washington ages out, Newsom has cracked open the door for others to join him in making an aggressive case for the cultural values their party stands for, and to convey an urgency that isnt coming from Washington.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
Guernsey County Commissioners Jack Marlin and Dave Wilson recently attended the bill signing when Gov. Mike DeWine signed legislation into law providing $500 million to Ohios 32 Appalachian counties. The legislation, House Bill 377, contains a historic investment of resources for Appalachia as well as financial assistance for the administration of the upcoming Aug. 2 primary election.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs House Bill 377.

While the legislation may not address our most significant needs, House Bill 377 has the potential to make a positive impact in Guernsey County, said Wilson. The simple fact that Columbus is seeking to assist Ohios Appalachian counties is encouraging.

Following the bill signing, Commissioners Wilson and Marlin joined other local leaders and lawmakers from the Appalachian region in a collaborative conversation with Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik and the Governors Office of Appalachia Director John Carey in how the funds will be administered. According to the legislation, the money can be utilized by counties and communities to revitalize downtown spaces, improve public health, strengthen workforce development efforts and more.

Of the money, $50 million will be available for planning grants to support local governments and regional partnerships to develop plans that incorporate the funding priorities, and the $450 million in implementation grants will be available to counties, communities and regional groups to carry out qualifying projects to rejuvenate the region and stimulate economic growth.

We want to thank Governor DeWine, added Marlin, as well as our local legislators that co-sponsored the bill, including State Senators Time Schaffer and Frank Hoagland as well as State Representative Don Jones.

In addition, the legislation provides $20 million to county boards of elections to help fund the upcoming Aug. 2 primary election.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Guernsey County Commissioners attend bill signing
A state trooper pulled over his boss for speeding across a bridge on Interstate 10 in Louisiana, authorities said.

But he didnt give him a ticket.

Well Ill be, the trooper can be heard saying in body-camera footage provided by the Louisiana State Police.

The state polices superintendent, Col. Lamar Davis, was stopped for a traffic violation on June 28, according to Louisiana State Police spokesman Capt. Nick Manale.

The Trooper utilized his discretion and did not issue a citation, Manale wrote in an email.

Davis was caught speeding on the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge  which is 18.1 miles long  about 40 miles west of Baton Rouge. He told WAFB that he was simply wrong in that situation.

Dashcam video shows the trooper approaching Daviss vehicle, an unmarked black SUV, and speaking with Davis before shaking his hand and walking away.

I take full responsibility, Davis told WBRZ. I try to do too much in a day, I need to practice what I preach and dont want to put anyone in a position to stop me or any other trooper.

13-year-old driver charged after crash kills 9-year-old cousin and 2 teens, MO cops say

Mom accused of flashing inmates as her kids played now faces prison time, PA judge says

Man found living in childrens museum with a stockpile of weapons, Nevada officials say
An alert Walmart employee is being lauded as a hero after officers saved an infant that had been left in a hot minivan in the Slidell stores parking lot, police said.

Slidell police originally responded to the Walmart store at about 10 a.m. Thursday when they received a call that visibly impaired woman was with her infant child in the parking lot, Daniel Seuzeneau, Slidell Police public information officer, said in a news release.

The woman left the area before police arrived but came back to the store about an hour later, but this time went inside and left her 16-day-old child underneath a blanket in the Honda minivan, Suezeneau said.

An employee called police when the woman, identified as Ashley Kennedy of Minden, Louisiana, was seen inside the store.

Officers forced their way into the vehicle and discovered the vehicle to be extremely hot with the air conditioner blowing hot air, Suezeneau said. The lethargic infant was rushed to a nearby hospital, and miraculously, is expected to survive and make a full recovery.

During the investigation, police also learned Kennedy  who was desceribed by police as highly intoxicated  had been involved in a hit and run earlier in the day, Suezeneau said.

Kennedy was arrested on charges including cruelty to juveniles, third offense DWI with child endangerment, hit and run, and improper child restraint.

The infant will be placed in Louisiana Department of Children & Family Services custody.

If it was not for the alert Walmart employee and the quick actions of our officers, this would have resulted in the death of this young two-week-old, Slidell Police Chief Randy Fandall said. As terrible of a situation this was, it could have been a lot worse.
Jul. 9A 61-year-old hiker injured on the Koko Head Trail was rescued by firefighters this morning, the Honolulu Fire Department reported.

HFD received a call about the injured man at just before 11 a.m. Personnel that responded secured a landing zone and Koko Head District Park and began walking up the trail on foot.

Firefighters made contact with the hiker at around 11 :15 a.m. and, after conducting an initial medical assessment, flew him to the landing zone using HFD's Air 1 helicopter. The Honolulu Emergency Medical Services took over care of the man at 11 :45 a.m.
(AFP via Getty Images)

Ireland claimed an historic first win away to New Zealand to force a series decider following a breathless Dunedin encounter packed with drama.

Andrew Porter twice powered over to help the impressive Irish to a deserved 23-12 victory over the indisciplined All Blacks.

Captain Johnny Sexton  passed fit to play following concussion concerns  added 13 points as Andy Farrells side set up a tantalising third and final Test in Wellington thanks to a landmark result.

New Zealand cruised to a 42-19 success in Auckland last weekend but their quest to clinch series glory at the first opportunity was undermined by repeated infringements.

Replacement prop Angus Taavao was sent off for ploughing into the head of Garry Ringrose at the end of a chaotic 15-minute first-half spell during which team-mates Leicester Faingaanuku and Ofa Tuungafasi were sin-binned.

Referee Jaco Peyper was at the heart of the gripping action and could arguably have punished the ragged hosts more severely.

(Getty Images)

Beauden Barretts improvised score and a late Will Jordan try gave the depleted Kiwis hope but they proved powerless to prevent a first home defeat to their opponents having won the previous 12 meetings.

Ireland arrived at Forsyth Barr Stadium bruised from being blown away at Eden Park.

Farrells men once again made a rapid start and, on this occasion, went ahead inside three minutes.

Leinster prop Porter bulldozed over at the end of sustained Irish pressure, with Sexton adding the extras and then landing a long-range penalty forced by the doggedness of Caelan Doris.

(AFP via Getty Images)

New Zealand were struggling to make an impact and were hampered by repeated indiscretions during a frantic opening period in which they were twice down to 13 men.

Winger Faingaanuku was perhaps fortunate to escape a red card following a reckless charge down on Mack Hansen before prop Tuungafasi joined him in the sin bin for tackling Ringrose off the ball to deny the Irish a second try.

Taavao was brought on as front-row cover for Tuungafasi but promptly dismissed with a bloodied face in the 31st minute following a sickening head-on-head contact with Ringrose, who departed to be replaced by Bundee Aki.

Story continues

South African official Peyper was at the centre of the gripping action.

He should have briefly reduced New Zealand to 12 men due to their foul play temporarily leading to uncontested scrums.

Amid the chaos, Ireland struggled to manage the game and squandered numerous chances to stretch the scoreboard before being pegged back just before the break.

(Getty Images)

New Zealand were rewarded for relentless pressure as Beauden Barrett dived over after the ball squirted out of a ruck, with brother Jordie Barrett adding the conversion.

That score left Ireland just 10-7 ahead at the interval and also down to 14 men for the restart after vice-captain James Ryan was moments earlier shown a yellow card for cynically stopping a quick-tap penalty.

Ireland regained their composure during the break and were rewarded for their patience.

Porter  who had only scored two international tries in his career before kick-off  again battered his way over, just before lock Ryan returned to bolster the ranks.

(AP)

Influential Sexton retained his 100 per cent kicking record, slotting the conversion and then adding two important penalties to steer his side home.

The fly-half, who turns 37 on Monday, later departed the field gingerly following a painful slip, albeit he was fit enough to return for a post-match interview.

New Zealand pushed for a way back into the contest but were repeatedly thwarted by the immense Irish defence before substitute Jordan eventually claimed a late consolation.

Having surrendered momentum in the series, Ian Fosters men will need to regroup ahead of next weekends titanic showdown in the capital.
Johnny Sexton captained Ireland to a historic win (Andrew Cornaga/AP/PA) (AP)

Captain Johnny Sexton hailed a very, very special day for the whole of Ireland following a historic victory over New Zealand in Dunedin.

The impressive Irish set up a tantalising deciding Test in Wellington by levelling the series at 1-1 with a first away win over the formidable All Blacks.

Andrew Porters pair of tries paved the way for the landmark 23-12 triumph, with influential fly-half Sexton kicking 13 points to prevent a Kiwi fightback.

Out-of-sorts New Zealand, who coasted to a 42-19 opening win last weekend in Auckland, paid a heavy price for a disjointed and undisciplined display.

Their repeated indiscretions included replacement prop Angus Taavao receiving a 31st-minute red card for ploughing into the head of Garry Ringrose after Leicester Faingaanuku and Ofa Tuungafasi had each been sin-binned.

Any time you create a little bit of history it means a lot, said Sexton. Its a very, very special day for everyone in the country.

We talk a lot about making people at home feel very proud of us and its right at the top of our lists.

(AP)

Im unbelievably happy with the win. No Irish team has ever done it before and its all on the line next week.

Irelands momentous victory at Forsyth Barr Stadium followed 12 previous defeats on New Zealand soil.

Loosehead prop Porter powered over inside three minutes to give the tourists a dream start and an advantage they would never surrender.

Yet Andy Farrells men only led 10-7 at the end of a chaotic first half in which the All Blacks had replacement prop Taavao deservedly dismissed and lost Tuungafasi and Faingaanuku for 10-minute spells.

Beauden Barretts improvised score brought the hosts back within touching distance, while a yellow card for Ireland vice-captain James Ryan temporarily evened up the numbers going into the second period.

Story continues

Sexton, who satisfied concussion protocols to start and also played down concerns about tweaking a knee late on, admitted he feared the worst during the interval.

The effort we put in last week, we didnt get the rewards, said the Leinster man, who turns 37 on Monday.

Same effort again this week and it was touch and go at times  at half-time, I thought oh my God.

We talk a lot about inspiring people back home and these lads they keep turning up and knocking down doors.

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell

But the reaction in the second half was superb; to score with 14 men, to bounce back like we did was great and we stayed in the moment.

By no means was it perfect  we feel we could have played better in parts  but a very special day.

Porters second try  only his fourth at international level  just after the restart calmed nerves before Sextons flawless kicking display guided the Irish home, prior to Will Jordans consolation try.

Head coach Farrell was left beaming with pride following the headline-grabbing performance of his courageous players.

We talk a lot about inspiring people back home and these lads they keep turning up and knocking down doors, he said.

The most special thing about tonight is no other Irish side will get the chance to do that again, will they?

We didnt get sucked into the allure of the game of 13 men, 14 men, trying to play from everywhere. We kept them pinned down and the territory gain and the game control was outstanding.

It was a courageous effort. We kept playing the right game and the right parts of the field and applying pressure and Im just so proud of them.

Credit to @IrishRugby. See you in Wellington for the series decider.#NZLvIRE  pic.twitter.com/aaRSMONsv7  All Blacks (@AllBlacks) July 9, 2022

Theres a series to be won and weve earned the right to have a go at that.

New Zealand head coach Ian Foster described the chastening defeat as an eye-opener.

That try at the start of the second half hurt us, he said. Its hard trying to play catch up with 14 men against a really well-organised defensive team.

But you know there was probably an unacceptable amount of errors in terms of the handling stuff.

I think its a bit of an eye-opener, particularly for a few newer players to feel that sort of tension and pressure and trying to force things when youre one man down.
Peter Doocy and Karine Jean-Pierre

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre generally stays calm and patient when answering questions at media briefings, as a good press secretary should. But while still calm and patient, she had obviously had enough of the Fox News Channels Peter Doocy at Fridays briefing, who proceeded with his line of questioning while ignoring citizens First Amendment right to peacefully protest.

After Doocy pressed her over and over about protests against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh Wednesday night at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., Jean-Pierre finally said, Im done here, Peter.

Abortion rights protesters showed up at Mortons, a steakhouse in downtown Washington, after they heard Kavanaugh was dining there, as first reported by Politico. Kavanaugh, appointed to the court by Donald Trump, was in the 6-3 majority in the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization ruling two weeks ago, which upheld a restrictive Mississippi abortion law and overturned Roe v. Wade, therefore allowing any state to ban or severely restrict the procedure.

Get more Advocate news on Pride Today below.

The protesters urged the restaurants manager to evict Kavanaugh, and they tweeted that Kavanaugh left through the rear door, an account confirmed by Politico.

At Fridays press briefing, Doocy asked Jean-Pierre, Does the president think its appropriate for abortion rights protesters to intimidate Supreme Court justices when theyre out eating? and referenced the Kavanaugh incident.

Jean-Pierre responded that President Biden and his administration have been clear that they condemn any intimidation of the justices and other public officials. He has signed a piece of legislation making sure that they have the protection that they need, she said.

But you havent said, Dont go to their houses, as long as theyre peaceful  would you say, Dont go to a restaurant that a Supreme Court justice is at? Doocy asked.

Jean-Pierre replied that protesters have a right to demonstrate peacefully outside of a restaurant, but the administration condemns violence and intimidation. Doocy pressed on, asking if justices have no right to privacy. This is what a democracy is, the press secretary responded. Of course, people have a right to privacy, but people also have the right to be able to protest peacefully. Its the intimidation and the violence that we condemn.

Story continues

She reiterated those points as Doocy continued to press her, pointing out that the administration has provided U.S. marshals through the Department of Justice to protect members of the court. Finally, she made the Im done here comment.

Jean-Pierre made history this year as the first Black lesbian to become White House press secretary. Watch her exchange with Doocy below.
Major streets in Boston will be closed to traffic Monday as demolition continues at the Government Center garage.

Motorists are being urged to expect delays due to work at the One Congress construction site after it was stopped due to a deadly collapse earlier this year.

Demolition worker Peter Monsini, 51-year-old, of South Easton, was operating a piece of heavy equipment on the ninth floor on March 26 when the floor fell apart and he was killed.

In the immediate aftermath of the collapse, roads were closed and Orange and Green Line services were replaced by shuttle buses while investigators determined the safety of the structure. Three days after the partial collapse, the MBTA resumed Orange Line subway service between North Station and Back Bay Station following inspections of the tunnels.

This operation will require a full closure of Congress Street from New Chardon Road to Sudbury Street. The detour will be in effect from July 11 - September 5, 2022.

The signed detours shown below will be in full effect for vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians:

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
A New Hampshire man was sentenced to three months in prison for his involvement in a construction project fraud scheme, according to federal authorities.

William Sacco, 49, also was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport to three years of supervised release and ordered Sacco to serve the first five months of supervised release in home confinement and to perform 50 hours of community service, according to federal authorities.

Federal authorities said. citing court documents and statements made in court, that Sacco was a project manager for a Massachusetts-based mechanical contractor and that, from June 2014 to December 2017, he conspired to defraud his employer and the owners of certain projects he managed by inflating change orders on the projects.

As part of the conspiracy, a co-conspirator subcontractor, who owned an insulation company, made more than $200,000 in payments to Sacco and also for Saccos benefit, including payments for Saccos childrens college tuition, a graduation party, a Mac laptop, airline tickets, hotels and Saccos rent, federal authorities said in a statement. Sacco and the co-conspirator submitted inflated change orders to Saccos former employer to offset some of the costs of the payments the co-conspirator made to Sacco.

Sacco was arrested on Nov. 22, 2021 and on Feb. 14, 2022, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal authorities said, also in the statement.

Dooley ordered Sacco to pay restitution of $41,195.85, which was paid in full prior to the sentencing.

Sacco is free on a $50,000 bond and must report to prison on Sept. 6.
The State Departments top diplomat for the Western Hemisphere said Friday that the security situation in Haiti has been precarious for quite some time, but he would not say that it is getting worse.

Brian A. Nichols, assistant secretary at the State Department, made the assessment in a press call where he increasingly discussed the need for elections in Haiti and defended the rapid expulsions of over 24,000 Haitian asylum-seekers since September who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.

It is our obligation to enforce the U.S. immigration law and return them to their country of origin, he said.

Nichols comments came on the heels of yet another high-level meeting on Haiti Friday. Hosted by Albert Ramdin, the current foreign minister of Suriname and a former deputy secretary-general of the Organization of American States, the meeting brought together representatives of 17 foreign governments and several international donors.

Fridays meeting  the fourth since last December  did not yield any new solutions to solving the countrys security crisis, though there was an announcement of new contributions.

The United States announced an additional $48 million in security assistance through the State Departments Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement. Canada also made an additional $5 million contribution, and the European Union gave $3.8 million. The money will go to a basket fund set up by the U.N. to assist the Haiti National Police. The U.N. is seeking $28 million. The U.S. said its security assistance will complement the newly created U.N. fund.

On the security situation, Nichols said, I would say that it is a variable. ... Weve seen eruptions of gang violence and then periods of calm.

Nichols also said that he saw a report from the U.S. Embassy indicating 53 kidnappings last year of American citizens.

Kidnappings are actually down slightly up to this point, but thats cold comfort to the people of Haiti, he said.

Story continues

His assessment, however, runs counter to the reality on the ground for many Haitians and a recent United Nations report. The report, presented to the U.N. Security Council last month, said gangs are tightening their grip on large swaths of the country. It noted that kidnappings and homicides have risen 36% and 17%, respectively, compared with the last five months of 2021.

On Friday, the sound of automatic gunshots could be heard around 6:15 p.m. in the Cite Soleil slum. After deadly clashes in the capital earlier in the day, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti issued a tweet calling for armed individuals to immediately stop their acts of violence, to allow free passage to the medical emergency services. The U.N. also called on the interim government to ensure the protection of civilians.

Also in a meeting in Port-au-Prince, the missions head Helen La Lime noted that there were already 680 documented kidnappings since the beginning of the year, according to the Haitian police. The actual number, she noted, is higher because not all abductions are reported.

To make his point on the security situation today compared with previous months, Nichols cited a gang attack against Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry during Haitian independence day celebrations in January, which some have questioned, and last years fuel terminal blockade by a group of Haitian gangs that created life-threatening shortages as examples of flare-ups.

He also mentioned the May extradition of Germine Joly, a powerful gang leader who, along with his 400 Mawozo gang, is accused of murder, arms trafficking and the kidnapping of 16 Americans and a Canadian last October. That sent a very strong signal to the gang, that there are consequences for their actions, Nichols said.

Jolys extradition and indictment in U.S. federal court has not weakened gang activity in Haiti. Armed gang members have seized control of the main courthouse, which still wasnt back under police control Friday, and forced the U.S. Embassy to restrict the movement of staff in the Tabarre area because of increased violence and kidnappings. The embassy is located 1.5 miles away from 400 Mawozos stronghold in the Croix-des-Bouquets suburb and less than a mile from the base of one of its allies in the Torcel community.

Also, two days after the U.S. requested Jolys extradition in late April from a Haitian prison where he ran the gang, 400 Mawozo waged a violent turf war against another gang, Chen Mechan, that, according to a local human rights group, led to one of the worst massacres in recent memory. At least 191 men, women and children were shot to death or chopped up with machetes during the nearly two-week insurrection that forced the Haiti National Police to mount a military-style operation to take back a key artery.

The increase in gang activities in the area has forced the displacement of thousands of Haitians in the last two months and the shuttering of essential services like the courthouse in Croix-des-Bouquet. It has also affected the visa processing at the U.S. Embassy, whose consular sections had already been slowed down by the violence and the COVID-19 pandemic and has lost local staff because of the increased insecurity.

Nichols did acknowledge that theres a consensus in the international community that the situation in Haiti is critical.

The situation in Haiti did not get to this point overnight, he said. And its going to take time to improve the situation. We have to give the Haitian people the resources that they need to bring their country forward to elections and an adequate humane security situation. And thats what we are focused on.

Nichols said the United States new funding will support specialized training for the Haiti National Polices SWAT units, help improve security in Haitis courts and fund violence prevention in communities. He noted that the U.S. currently has a police adviser and trainers in Port-au-Prince to soon begin training a new SWAT unit in anti-gang operations.

The Haitian national police are able to carry out operations against gangs, dislodge them and to ensure security in areas around the country. However, they still dont have the capability to hold those areas for an extended period of time, Nichols said. In order to do that, theyll need greater staffing, manpower.

Once numbering 15,459 officers, the Haiti National Police force is down to 12,800 as of May 31, according to the U.N.

While the U.S. prohibits the direct transfer of weapons to the Haitian police using U.S. funds, Nichols said the U.S. government has provided radios, vehicles, helmets and protective vests. Both the Haiti National Police and the interim government have said they face difficulties acquiring weapons and ammunition to combat gangs armed with illegally trafficked U.S.-made assault-style rifles.

If other donors wish to dedicate part of their funding to ammunition or weapons, they could certainly do that. We believe that ensuring that the Haitian national police are properly equipped, including with the appropriate weaponry, is essential to their being able to provide security to the Haitian people, Nichols said.

Read Next: Luck and God: How Haitians survive gang violence, kidnappings in their nations capital

On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on the future of its special political mission in Haiti. Haiti has said no to foreign troops. The U.S. agrees with that position, though some of its traditional partners in the international community disagree. Last month, the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, asked the council to send in troops.

The increased raising of elections by the U.S. shows that Washington may be losing patience with Haitis political paralysis and deepening uncertainty, a year after the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moise.

Last month, La Lime told the U.N. Security Council that it is highly unlikely that elections will take place this year. She pointed to the lack of results from multiple initiatives and proposals to get Haitians to arrive at a consensus, which has yielded political deadlock.

Nichols would not put a timeline on when the U.S. expects Haitians to go to the polls but noted that in Haiti, technical preparations needed to hold an election historically take about six months after the installation of a nine-member elections body. Henry has not yet named one, and has been unable to get consensus among members of civil society, particularly the Montana Group, to do so.

This is something that is vital for Haiti, Nichols said about elections.

Nichols reiterated the U.S. call for political dialogue among Haitis political and civil society actors, and said the role of Henrys interim government is to prepare as quickly as possible, the conditions for elections and to improve security.

Its role is not to perpetuate itself in power, he said, but to allow the Haitian people to express themselves at the polls.
During a Zoom call, Friday, July 8, 2022, Corion Evans poses with candy gifted to him from the motorists he saved after their car drove off the Interstate 10 boat launch and into the Pascagoula River, in Mississippi, early Sunday, July 3. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger) (Photo: via Associated Press)

During a Zoom call, Friday, July 8, 2022, Corion Evans poses with candy gifted to him from the motorists he saved after their car drove off the Interstate 10 boat launch and into the Pascagoula River, in Mississippi, early Sunday, July 3. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger) (Photo: via Associated Press)

MOSS POINT, Miss (AP)  City officials are commending a Mississippi teen for saving a police officer and three teenage girls from drowning in the Pascagoula River.

Corion Evans, 16, jumped into the river around 2:30 a.m. Sunday after he saw a car drive off the I-10 boat launch. The driver of the vehicle said she was following her GPS and did not realize she was headed for the waters edge, according to a Moss Point Police Department news release Wednesday.

Evans and one of his friends, Karon KJ Bradley, jumped in and helped get the teenagers inside the vehicle onto the roof, WLOX-TV reported.

Moss Point police officer Gary Mercer was called to the scene and said Evans was already in the water when he arrived. Mercer said he jumped into the river and began assisting one of the teenagers before she panicked and caused him to go underwater. Evans then helped Mercer and the teenager reach the shore.

If Mr. Evans had not assisted, the situation could have turned out differently, instead of all occupants being rescued safely, said Moss Point Chief of Police Brandon Ashley.

The Moss Point mayor and board of aldermen presented Evans with a certificate of commendation for his actions Tuesday night.

We are proud of the young man for having the courage to forget about himself and jump into the water, Mayor Billy Knight told The Associated Press. Its not often enough that you see people put others above themselves.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Tiffany Werner told Insider she pulled her kids out of school so they could travel the world with her and her husband. Tiffany Werner via TikTok

Tiffany Werner went on a $1,600 trip to Malaysia during a series of travels she made this year.

She went viral on TikTok for posting a video addressing preconceptions about Malaysia.

Werner told Insider she thinks some Americans are wrong about what some countries in Asia are like.

Tiffany Werner visited Kuala Lumpur on a six day trip Tiffany Werner via TikTok

The video was intended to show people what Malaysia was really like.

Tiffany Werner with her family. Tiffany Werner via TikTok

Werner told Insider she used the phrase "third world," because her friends from Mississippi have used that term to describe the places she was traveling to, although she said she does not particularly like the term herself.

The phrase "third world" originated during the Cold War as a way to describe countries that were not aligned with either the Soviet Union or the US, and then evolved into a catch-all term used to describe non-Western countries, according to History.com.

Related video: How durian, the 'king of fruits,' sparked a land battle in Malaysia

Many contemporary historians believe the term is outdated, and some have opted to replace it with the phrase "developing countries," although some outlets have reported that there are disagreements among academics about this term, particularly because several non-Western countries have a higher GDP than countries in Europe.

"I feel like a lot of Americans, at least the people near me, really don't know how people in other countries live," she said, explaining that she made the video to show people who may not have traveled much what it was really like.

In 2019, Forbes reported that in a survey of 2,000 Americans, 40% said they had never left the country. Various outlets have also reported that American people are less likely to travel abroad than citizens in most other countries.

It was part of a series of TikToks showing all the things that surprised her about Malaysia.

Werner documents her family's travels on Instagram and TikTok Tiffany Werner

Werner started traveling with her husband and two children last year and has since pulled her kids out of school so they can visit and learn more about other countries.

Story continues

The family of four ended up in Malaysia in early June, as they were looking for a place to go for a short stay while trying to get their visas renewed for Thailand, where they were previously staying.

Werner told Insider she knew very little about Malaysia before she landed there, and filmed more than 20 videos of herself as she visited places and tried new cuisines in Kuala Lumpur.

Her content filmed in Malaysia now has more than 3 million views.

On her trip, Werner was particularly impressed by the shopping malls she saw in Kuala Lumpur.

Suria KLCC shopping mall. Tiffany Werner via TikTok

Malaysia is well-known for its "mall culture," and there are over 20 malls in Kuala Lumpur, according to travel website WonderfulMalaysia.com.

While Werner does visit shopping malls back in the US, she told Insider she felt malls were designed in a nicer way in Malaysia than in many parts of America.

"I'd walk into a mall and just get chills all over my body because of the way it looked. I felt so excited," she told Insider.

Werner also said that Malaysian malls, in which there are sometimes digitalized maps that provide an exact route of how to get from your current location to a particular store, were particularly impressive in comparison to many American malls.

"The new technology that Malaysia has just far outweighed my deepest imagination," she said, adding, "It was fancy and fabulous. I mean, first class."

Several malls had huge indoor playgrounds for kids, and one had an indoor rollercoaster, Werner said.

Werner filmed an indoor rollercoaster in Times Square Mall, KL Tiffany Werner via TikTok

Werner told Insider that she visited Times Square Mall in Kuala Lumpur and was "blown away" by the fact that there was an indoor amusement park, which included a rollercoaster that twisted around the inside of the mall.

The TikToker bought two tickets for her children to ride it, and said it was a drastically different experience for them, as there aren't many child-friendly activities for them to do in their smaller town of McHenry, Mississippi.

"If you go on Google Earth and look up where I'm from, you can see how sheltered my children were, and how much better all the fun stuff here that is literally at their fingertips," she told Insider.

In another mall, Werner found a giant sandpit, ball pit, and bouncy castle that local children were playing in, and filmed it on TikTok. "If I was a kid, I would be going crazy," she said in the video.

The food-court system was new to Werner, who said she felt like she could find anything she wanted to eat in a single place.

Werner visited the Central Market food court in KL. Tiffany Werner via TikTok

There are many indoor and open-air food courts in Malaysia, where vendors set up stalls to sell different dishes and cuisines.

When Werner visited Central Market food court in Kuala Lumpur, she said, "I was impressed by the fact that you could get anything you wanted, really."

"If you wanted Indian food, Italian food, Chinese food, it was all there," she added.

She also told Insider she felt like there were more restaurants dotted around the city than she was used to seeing, with many of them staying open 24 hours a day.

"It was like we couldn't eat enough," she told Insider.

Malaysia has a food-delivery service that's similar to Uber, which Werner was not previously aware of.

Grab is a food-delivery and travel service founded in Malaysia. Tiffany Werner via TikTok

Before Werner traveled to Bangkok, she was not aware that Thailand, and certain other countries in South East Asia, have a delivery and car service called Grab, which works in a similar way to Uber and Uber Eats, and was founded in Malaysia in 2012.

Werner ordered a variety of food dishes through Grab delivery and had a picnic with her family, filming it and reviewing the service on TikTok.

In her home town, Werner does not always have access to Uber or a cab service that can deliver food, and she said that when she ordered a Grab in Malaysia, she was impressed that the food arrived within 30 minutes and was delivered directly to her door, even though she was staying in a high-rise building.

"It really did show that they work so hard and put so much care into it. I mean, even the drinks were wrapped up well," she told Insider, adding that it surprised her as she was used to feeling like "half your coke is going to be all over the place and the french fries are going to be cold by the time the order gets to you."

Werner learned about history and culture from a new perspective in Malaysia, she said.

Werner visited the King's palace and the National Monument in Malaysia. Tiffany Werner via TikTok.

Before arriving in Malaysia, Werner said she imagined most people would be Buddhist, much like Thailand, so she was surprised to learn that the official religion of Malaysia is Islam, although other religions may also be practiced freely, according to the Malaysian consitution.

Visiting locations such as the National Monument to honor those who died during Malaysia's fight for independence, and the National Palace where the monarch resides, helped her to learn things about the country that she did not learn during her years in education.

"Every country has its own history, and it's been a great learning experience to find out about these cultures for myself," she told Insider, adding that she wanted her children to not just learn about history from an American perspective.

Werner hopes to return to Malaysia and is glad she spoke out against misconceptions about the country.

Malaysia in on the UN's index of 'developing' countries for 2022. Tiffany Werner via TikTok

Looking back on her viral TikTok about Malaysia, where she challenged people who might refer to Malaysia with the disputed term, "third world," Werner said, "I like opening up hard conversations, and I'm glad it got such a good response."

According to the United Nations list of country classifications for 2022, Malaysia is officially a "developing country," but it is not on the UN's list of "least developed" countries in the world. In 2020, Forbes reported that Malaysia is investing resources into becoming part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a collective of developed nations often referred to as the "rich countries club."

Werner she would love to return to Malaysia for a longer trip, saying, "I don't know why some people still use the term 'third world,' but they need to check themselves because this place is amazing," she said.

Malaysian commenters said they were glad that the video addressed common misconceptions about their culture.

The Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia. Tiffany Werner via TikTok

Many commenters under Werner's video told the TikToker that they were from Malaysia, or had Malaysian flags next to their usernames.

These commenters agreed that some people seem to have misconceptions about what life is like for many residents in Malaysia.

"Unfortunately... some people still think that our houses are on trees lol," one comment with 138 likes said.

Other commenters said they agreed it is wrong for people to refer to countries using the term "third world," and that they thought people should visit a country before making judgments about it.

Werner wants to continue to travel and experience new cultures with her family, documenting it on TikTok.

Werner said she wants to return to Malaysia. Tiffany Werner via TikTok

Since leaving Malaysia, Werner has traveled back to Thailand and is currently staying in Tbilisi, Georgia, where she films content about her experiences and journeys.

"I'm happy to spread joy and an awareness of different cultures," she told Insider, adding, "I hope to encourage people to get out of their box, basically."

Werner said she wants her content to inspire viewers to "go see different people, different places and different ways of life."

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.

Read the original article on Insider
Miami International Airport. Daniel Slim/Getty Images

American Airlines lost a 12-year-old unaccompanied child after she arrived at Miami airport.

The girl's mother said she was told by AA an hour after the flight landed they couldn't find her.

Her mother paid $150 for an airport chaperone but the airline let her get off the plane alone.

A mother whose daughter was flying unaccompanied from Tennessee to Miami was told by American Airlines that she had gone missing after being allowed to leave the plane.

MailOnline and the New York Post reported that Monica Gilliam paid an extra $150 for a chaperone to escort her 12-year-old daughter through Miami airport but was told in a phone call an hour after her flight landed that the airline did not know where the girl was.



She was travelling to visit her father and flew unaccompanied last week from Chattanooga to Miami when she was allowed to disembark despite wearing a lanyard to indicate she was not with an adult.



The professional photographer said in a TikTok video that her daughter was waved off the plane by flight attendants and then kept walking.



"Not one AA employee stopped her to see if she had an adult [with her]," Gilliam said in the video. "Not one Miami airport employee stopped her and even the TSA agent when she left the secured area and went into baggage claim didn't stop her either," she added.

The girl managed to contact her father and he was able to guide her through the airport terminal and later found her, the mother said in her online video.



"The complete abandonment of a minor in their care, and the negligence displayed today is criminal," Gilliam wrote in the video caption.

American Airlines said it "cares deeply" about its young passengers, took the incident "very seriously" and was looking into it.

"A member of our team has reached out to the customer to learn more about their experience," a spokesperson said.

Story continues

Earlier this week an American Airlines passenger was accused of stealing two credit cards and $10,000 in cash from fellow fliers on a flight from Buenos Aires to Miami, while another passenger spent three days trying to get home after his flight was canceled.

It comes amid summer chaos in the travel industry as thousands of flights are canceled and airlines struggle to cope with demand, with luggage piling up in some terminals.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Brandon Wambach, a Department of Natural Resources fisheries technician, holds a lake sturgeon netted last April in the Milwaukee River. The fish was measured, checked for fin clips and tags and released. Eighteen sturgeon were detected moving upriver in spring 2022 with an underwater sensor installed by the DNR.

Eighteen lake sturgeon were detected migrating upstream this spring in the Milwaukee River, according to data from the Department of Natural Resources.

The number is a modern-era record and was cheered by sturgeon recovery advocates but comes with two caveats: It was the first year a high-tech sensor, installed in summer 2021, was in place to monitor the spring fish run; and the lack of sturgeon sightings farther upstream highlights the need for projects to improve fish passage in Estabrook and Kletzsch parks.

The sturgeon "hits" this spring came from a sensor array installed last year across the riverbed between North and Locust avenues.

The system detects and reads passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags implanted in fish.

Much like the chips in pet dogs and cats, the PIT tags carry unique identification numbers and allow fisheries staff to say with certainty where a fish was tagged, released and subsequently traveled when picked up by a detector.

Fishing in Wisconsin: Here's what you need to know about fishing in Wisconsin

Smith column: Fred Prehn's dishonorable actions will continue to drag down Natural Resources Board

The 2022 data show 16 sturgeon raised more than a decade ago at Riveredge Nature Center in Saukville and released in the Milwaukee harbor swam upstream this spring in the river.

Two other sturgeon were similarly detected that were raised and released in the Kewaunee River in Kewaunee.

Both release sites are part of a program to restore sturgeon populations where the fish were present historically but wiped out after large-scale settlement and development of the Great Lakes region resulted in dams that prohibited access to spawning areas as well as pollution and habitat destruction.

The Milwaukee River program, implemented by DNR staff and Mary Holleback, citizen science manager at Riveredge Nature Center, and a crew of volunteers, has been releasing sturgeon since 2006.

Story continues

All of the 19,174 sturgeon raised at Riveredge and released in the Milwaukee have been implanted with PIT tags.

Until recently, a PIT-tagged fish had to be netted and checked with a handheld sensor to determine its origin. Now one need only swim over the array to get documented.

Fisheries manager Brad Eggold, left, and fisheries biologist Aaron Schiller, both of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, work to secure cables of a passive integrated transponder (or PIT) tag array on the Milwaukee River last summer.

The new sensor has provided great news, Holleback said.

"We're overjoyed that some of the fish from 2008 to 2011 returned," Holleback said. "Up until this year we've pretty much been raising and releasing sturgeon based on faith that they would return someday. Now we have proof."

The Riveredge hatchery is active again this year and the sturgeon fingerlings are doing well, Holleback said. The program is on track to release about 1,000 sturgeon Sept. 25 at Sturgeon Fest, part of Harbor Fest in Milwaukee.

Since it takes sturgeon from 15 to 25 years to reach sexual maturity, the watch for spawning activity in the Milwaukee has ramped up in the last couple years.

However, no spawning behavior was observed. Sturgeon are conspicuous by massing and splashing in the shallows as they lay eggs and spread milt.

Since males mature earlier than females, it is assumed all the fish that came upriver this year were males, said Aaron Schiller, DNR fisheries biologist. The arrival of females is likely at least a few years away.

Schiller said the sturgeon exhibited a range of behaviors.

"Some of them went up above the sensor and stayed up," Schiller said. "Others dropped back down and then came back again. But we were detecting sturgeon in the river from mid-April through the end of May."

Data and observations from this spring's run has helped highlight challenges to restoring native fish migrations in the river.

Of 32 northern pike implanted with PIT tags earlier this year below the old North Avenue dam site, only one was detected less than a mile upstream at the sensor array. The river near North Avenue features a trough with current typically too strong in spring for northerns to swim through, according to DNR fisheries staff.

Fisheries experts have expressed concern, too, that at least some sturgeon aren't able to navigate through the flow.

And the river features drops or falls in Estabrook and Kletzsch parks that prohibit many other fish, including sturgeon, from passing upstream.

Schiller said about 2,000 cubic feet per second of flow is needed for fish to get over Estabrook falls and there was only one event of that magnitude this spring.

About twice as much is needed for fish to pass above Kletzsch falls, Schiller said, and there was no report of sturgeon this year above that part of the river.

Discussions and proposals for improving fish passage at Estabrook and Kletzsch, including fishways around the falls, have taken place for several years but no project has been implemented.

This year's northern pike data has also shed more light on the need to reconfigure the riverbed at the old North Avenue dam site.

Such work may be critical final planks to allow sturgeon access to adequate spawning habitat so they can reproduce naturally and build a self-sustaining, wild population in the river, the ultimate goal of the Milwaukee restoration program.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: More sturgeon detected migrating up Milwaukee River: Wisconsin DNR
An MPD officer was shot in Hickory Hill Saturday afternoon.

At approximately 1:45 PM, the Memphis Police Department (MPD) responded to an armed party domestic call in the 5900 block of Hickory Hill Square.

At 1:45 pm, MPD officers responded to a armed party domestic call at 5932 Hickory Hill Square. While officers were attempting to detain a male suspect the suspect reportedly fired a shot and struck an officer. The officer was transported to ROH in critical condition.  Memphis Police Dept (@MEM_PoliceDept) July 9, 2022

When officers tried to detain a suspect, the man fired a shot and hit the officer.

PHOTOS: MPD officer shot Saturday afternoon in Hickory Hill

Witnesses on the scene reported hearing two gunshots and yelling at a unit at the Park Apartments.

One witness even detailed seeing the suspect being chased by six officers and reported that the suspect attempted to get into a nearby apartment, but said police apprehended the male subject before he was able to get inside.

Its just ridiculous right now. Its too hot outside. People are going crazy, one resident told FOX13 anonymously.

Family members of the suspect, who did not want to go on camera, told FOX13s reporter Lakiya Scott, that the suspect was holding a gun and was intoxicated.

According to the family, the suspect was allegedly tackled by an officer causing the gun to go off; however, this account has not been confirmed by MPD.

According to the MPD, while officers were attempting to detain the male suspect, the suspect fired a shot, which struck and critically wounded the officer on scene.

The officer was taken to Regional One in critical condition, but has since been upgraded to stable condition, MPD says.

The male suspect was taken into custody without injury, according to MPD.

The male suspect was taken into custody without injury. No additional information is available at this point. This investigation is ongoing.  Memphis Police Dept (@MEM_PoliceDept) July 9, 2022

FOX13 also learned the incident happened which some describe as a once quiet location.

Story continues

It scares me for my kids, for them coming outside, and you never know what might happen, said one resident. Ive been starting to feel unsafe around here for quite a while.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland released the following statement on Twitter:

Today serves as a constant reminder that each time our officers put on the uniform, theyre risking their lives to protect and serve us. They are certainly heroes. We thank the officer for his service and pray for a speedy recovery.

This is still an ongoing investigation.

Check back to FOX13 with updates on this developing story

Download the FOX13 Memphis app to receive alerts from breaking news in your neighborhood.

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Trending stories:
Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Elon Musk withdrew his $44bn bid to buy Twitter on Friday after a months-long saga that rankled investors and shook the market, kicking off what may be a long legal battle with the company.

The Twitter chair, Bret Taylor, said on Friday that the social media firm would sue in a Delaware court to enforce the deal. The deal included a specific performance clause, a provision that may force Musk to buy the company as long as he has financing in place. Musk in May said he had secured financing to complete the deal.

Musk may also face a fine of $1bn to walk away, a penalty he is seeking to evade by accusing Twitter of a breach of multiple provisions of the agreement, according to a letter filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission announcing the dissolution of the offer.

Related: Elon Musk withdraws $44bn bid to buy Twitter after weeks of high drama

For nearly two months, Mr Musk has sought the data and information necessary to make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitters platform, Musks team stated in the letter. Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information.

The data in question centers on the number of spam accounts on the app, which Twitter has claimed make up about 5% of more than 200m users but Musk believes is higher. Analysts have speculated that the bot issue is being purposely overstated by the executive.

What Musk and his team are doing is trying to come up with an excuse so that he doesnt have to pay the penalty fees to walk away, said Anat Beck, a professor and business law expert at Case Western Reserve University.

In addition to the fine for the failed deal, Musk could face serious consequences from the SEC for his antics, which have had major impacts on the several public companies he manages as well as Twitter itself.

Musk is an executive at the artificial intelligence firm Neuralink, the electric car company Tesla, the space travel company SpaceX, and the tunnel construction firm the Boring Company. He has in the past faced lawsuits from investors over his erratic behavior and its effects on the companies stocks.

Story continues

In May, Twitter investors filed a class action lawsuit against Musk for failing to disclose his growing investment in the company, costing them millions in value. That lawsuit is ongoing. He has also faced additional legal ramifications over his tweets after a 2018 post in which he claimed to be taking the company private, a move that knocked $14bn off of Teslas value.

The market-moving 2018 tweet resulted in a $40m fine from the SEC, as well as an agreement that Musk would step down as chairman of the Tesla board.

Fines against Musk, who with a $224bn net worth is now the richest man in the world, have had negligible impacts, said Beck, but the executive could face further action from the SEC  including being removed as CEO from one or more of the companies he helms.

The fine will be painful for Musk, but what would be more painful is if the SEC used its power to say you are not fit to run the companies you are running and someone else should be appointed as CEO, Beck said.

Musks waffling on the Twitter decision has led many to call for legislation that prevents such market chaos in the future, or enforcement from bodies outside the SEC. Meanwhile, Musk and Twitter could be battling in court for some time, and Musk will face additional class action lawsuits, Beck said.

Investors in any company that has been impacted by this can bring forth a lawsuit, she said. The question is: do we have fraud? Do we have a billionaire that is doing this purposely to impact the markets? That is legally what needs to be answered.
NASA issued a statement rebuking cosmonauts' display of a pro-Russian separatist flag on the International Space Station this week, a rare move for the agency that espouses the outpost as a place for international cooperation.

On July 4, Russian space agency Roscosmos shared two photos on social media channels showing ISS cosmonauts Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev, and Denis Matveev holding flags used by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. The post congratulated the capture of what separatists call the Luhansk People's Republic, located in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

"The entire territory of the Luhansk People's Republic has been liberated," Roscosmos said in the post. "Russian and Lugansk forces have established full control over Lisichansk  the last major city in the LPR!"

The cosmonauts also held another flag, this time showing support for another Donbas region: the Donetsk People's Republic. Russia has been fighting Ukrainian forces to seize the area.

Latest in Ukraine: Putin dares West to defeat Russia on battlefield, US-China relations complicated by Russia support

"Citizens of the allied Donetsk People's Republic, wait!" Roscosmos said, insinuating that Russian victory there is just around the corner.

NASA was quick to rebuke the cosmonauts' display of the flags, a move typically unseen from the agency that has to carefully toe the line between not only U.S. and Russian developments, but also 13 other international partners that use the ISS.

Russian cosmonauts Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev, and Denis Matveev hold the flag of the Donetsk People's Republic, a breakaway state formed by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, on the International Space Station. It is one of two such states, the second being the Luhansk People's Republic.

"NASA strongly rebukes Russia using the International Space Station for political purposes to support its war against Ukraine," NASA said in a Thursday release. "(It) is fundamentally inconsistent with the stations primary function among the 15 international participating countries to advance science and develop technology for peaceful purposes.

The cosmonauts' display of separatist flags seemingly contradicts their actions from early in Russia's invasion. In March, the same three cosmonauts wore bright yellow-and-blue flight suits during a livestream on the ISS, hinting at support for Ukraine. The suits were not in Russia's regular rotation of designs and Soyuz commander Artemyev blamed the accumulation of leftover fabrics.

Story continues

Video: Russian cosmonauts show unity for Ukraine as they arrive to ISS

"Each crew chooses their own suits and overalls so that everyone is not the same," Soyuz commander Artemyev said in March. "There are a lot of fabrics accumulated in yellow and it was necessary to start using them."

Including American and European astronauts, there are 10 people currently stationed aboard the ISS.

What's everyone talking about?: Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day

The next vehicle destined for the outpost, meanwhile, is now slated to fly from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A no earlier than Thursday, July 14. An uncrewed SpaceX Dragon capsule will take thousands of pounds of cargo, supplies, and science experiments at 8:44 p.m. ET that day and spend about a month docked before returning to Earth.

Follow Emre Kelly on Twitter @EmreKelly.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA rebukes Russian Ukraine propaganda at International Space Station
Someone shot an off-duty Chicago police officer in the back during an altercation early Saturday morning in the Beverly neighborhood, police said.

About 2:30 a.m., the 31-year-old off-duty officer was involved in a verbal altercation at a bar in the 2400 block of West 104th Street and shots were fired after the fight, according to police spokesman Don Terry.

The officer was shot in the back and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was listed in fair condition, police said.

In a public safety update, Alderman Matt OShea said the officer suffered serious injuries in the shooting. The shooter retrieved a gun from a vehicle parked outside near the establishment after the altercation and fired multiple shots.

Alderman OShea asked anyone with information on the shooting to contact police at 312-747-8271.

No arrests have been made.

dawilliams@chicagotribune.com
Take a deal.

That's good advice for former Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Pastor who is awaiting trial on federal corruption charges. Assuming a deal from prosecutors is still on the table and he can even find a lawyer.

I spoke with one local attorney who said if he were representing Pastor, he would have already sat down with U.S. Attorney Ken Parker to cut a deal.

"Two of the three council people charged (with corruption) have been convicted," he said. "You should be thinking about a plea at this point."

Pastor, who previously said he would not cut a plea deal, should be very concerned about his odds of getting an acquittal after P.G. Sittenfeld's conviction on Friday and Tamaya Dennard's in 2020. Sittenfeld, a former councilman and front-runner for mayor, was found guilty of bribery and attempted extortion charges. He could face up to 3.5 years in prison, according to a sentencing expert.

More: Editorial: Sittenfeld trial exposed ugly underbelly of Cincinnati politics

If Sittenfeld couldn't beat the rap, it's doubtful Pastor will fare any better, especially given the mountain of evidence the feds have on him. Sittenfeld turned down a plea offer, which in retrospect was pretty sweet, because he couldn't bring himself to admit he'd done anything wrong. Pastor shouldn't make the same mistake.

The public's interest is better served by a trial where the people can learn all the details of the sordid affair, who all was involved and the full extent of the corrupt activity. The Sittenfeld trial uncovered a lot of previously unknown facts about the crooked politics and self-dealing at play at 801 Plum Street. And I'm an advocate for the public getting the whole truth.

But for his own sake, Pastor should consider a deal if he can get it. Though at this point, federal prosecutors might be disinclined to offer Pastor anything, instead opting for a big win after getting somewhat roughed up during the Sittenfeld trial.

Story continues

Cincinnati City Council member Jeff Pastor looks on during at a City Council Budget and Finance meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020, at City Hall in downtown Cincinnati.

His bribery scheme involving payoffs for help with city development projects was even more brazen than Sittenfeld's, according to federal investigators. They allege Pastor, a Republican who joined council in January 2018, began soliciting money from developers within months of taking office and, in some instances, accepted bags of cash in return for his vote or other favorable treatment.

Prosecutors say Pastor received a total of $55,000 in bribes since taking office. He traveled via private airplane to Miami, Florida in September 2018, the indictment states, to meet with investors related to proposed business projects. Pastor never paid for the two-day trip and did not disclose the trip, documents say. He also allegedly used various nonprofit entities to "sanitize" or launder the bribes he was accepting.

"Sometimes, the cash was literally handed to Pastor," U.S. Attorney David DeVillers said at the time of the indictment. "Some of the things are so brazen."

More: Opinion: Step down, Councilman Pastor  you betrayed us

Ken Parker, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, stands in his office on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2021, in Downtown Cincinnati.

The charges against Pastor include bribery, money laundering, extortion, wire fraud, theft of honest services and conspiracy. If convicted, he faces more than 20 years in prison.

The local attorney I spoke to said if Pastor does move forward with his trial, it's possible that Sittenfeld's attorneys did a good enough job of casting aspersions on the FBI's sting tactics that it could help Pastor's defense.

"If you look closely at the verdict, the jury did not like a lot of the FBI sting operation. They had a real distaste for the FBI tactics," he said. "I think that might make the call for Jeff (about a plea) a little tougher."

Former councilwoman Tamaya Dennard was the first of the three to be arrested in February of 2020 on accusations of a pay-to-play scheme in which she sold a vote related to The Banks riverfront project. Rather than roll the dice at trial, Dennard pleaded guilty in November 2020 to a honest services wire fraud. While bad decision-making landed Dennard in hot water, she wised up by making a plea and getting an 18-month sentence. She was scheduled to be fully released on June 12.

Perhaps Dennard recognized a couple of things Sittenfeld and Pastor didn't. First, the importance of accepting responsibility for poor choices, which certainly helped her at sentencing time. Second, trials are rare in the federal criminal justice system, and acquittals are even rarer.

A Pew Research Center analysis found that fewer than one percent of federal defendants went to trial and won their case. Ninety percent of federal defendants enter guilty pleas, according to Pew. In other words, when trials happen in federal court, most end in convictions. I imagine chances of an acquittal drop even more sharply for Black defendants, given that they are incarcerated at five times the rate of whites.

Jeff Pastor and his wife Tara at their North Avondale home, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020.

After Pastor's arrest and indictment, his then-attorney Ben Dusing said Pastor chose to go to trial because of the "facts and the law" and Pastor had "confidence in the legal system."

While Pastor's alleged crimes are egregious, his circumstances are a lot more sympathetic than Sittenfeld's. Much like Dennard, Pastor was having trouble making ends meet with a wife and four kids. And unlike Sittenfeld, a Princeton and Oxford graduate who planned to be mayor, Pastor came from a tough background to make something of himself. All factors that would likely earn him some grace during sentencing if he accepted culpability.

More: Jeff Pastor's incredible journey to Cincinnati City Council

Any prison time is going to be devastating, especially for guys like Sittenfeld and Pastor. And rebuilding a life and reputation after a prison term is no easy feat. So I understand the need to exhaust every option to preserve your freedom.

Pastor himself has been relatively quiet since being charged, but did post a statement on Facebook in January. He thanked his supporters and talked about not letting anyone "run over you or the people you love."

"Plainly speaking my mother didn't raise a hoe," Pastor wrote.

Let's hope she didn't raise a fool either.

Take a deal.

Opinion and Engagement Editor Kevin S. Aldridge can be reached at kaldridge@enquirer.com. Twitter: @kevaldrid.

Kevin Aldridge, opinion editor for The Enquirer. Photo shot Thursday June 16, 2022.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Opinion: Jeff Pastor should cut a plea deal in corruption case
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Handout/Highland Park Police Department

If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741

Long before police say he used a semiautomatic rifle to massacre spectators at this weeks Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb, Robert Bobby Crimo III was on a downward spiral that friends told The Daily Beast lasted for years but went unheeded by his family.

The mother of two of Crimos former skatepark friends said that the accused mass shooter came to her house frequently around 2016 and 2017 and was nothing but quiet and polite. She says at that point, he wasnt yet cutting a disturbing figure as a wannabe YouTube rapper, with tattoos covering his face and music riddled with violent imagery.

He wasnt always like this, and I would have never guessed that he would hurt a fly. Hurt himself? Yes. But hurt someone else? No, said the mom, who asked to remain anonymous.

He was a sweet kid, she added. But he hurt. He was very, very much a loner and depressed. And I think his emotional instability was kind of brushed under the rug by his family.

According to the mom, Crimo threatened to kill himself and attempted suicide a few times when he spent time with her children. That Crimo struggled with suicidal thoughts and self-harm as early as 2016 hasnt previously been reported. Attorney George Gomez, who is representing Crimos parents, Robert Crimo Jr. and Denise Pesina, declined to comment about whether Crimo attempted or threatened suicide in 2016.

My office is not aware of anything like that happening in 2016, Gomez said, adding that his clients did not follow their son on social media. They didnt know about his raps.

The Lake County Public Defenders Office declined to comment, referring all questions to the citys communication arm. A spokesperson for the city did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Story continues

Still, the mother of Crimos skatepark pals, like many other Americans fed up with this countrys wave of gun violence, is wondering how Crimo was able to execute a mass murder when he gave off so many warning signs to those close to him along the wayand why his father sponsored his gun permit application despite 2019 police reports showing he allegedly tried to kill himself and threatened to murder his family on separate occasions.

Crimo, 21, has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder, Lake County State Attorney Eric Rinehart announced, noting that he anticipates filing more charges. During a harrowing bond hearing, prosecutors revealed that Crimo allegedly confessed to orchestrating Mondays mass shooting and that he seriously contemplated carrying out a second attack soon after in Madison, Wisconsin.

While a motive for Crimos heinous crime remains a mystery, Assistant State Attorney Ben Dillon said Crimo told investigators that he dressed up like a girl and covered his tattoos with makeup to avoid recognition as he opened fire from the roof of a business overlooking the parade route.

Denise Pesina and Bobby Crimo Jr. Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Facebook/Twitter

After the spree, Crimo allegedly told authorities that the Smith and Wesson M&P 15 used to carry out the attack accidentally fell out of his backpacka mistake that authorities say was critical to his ultimate apprehension.

A review of Crimos social-media posts, online discourse, and music videos also point to an individual obsessed with violent imagery, mass shootings, and high-profile murderers. On several of his social media platforms under his alias Awake the Rapper, he posted several shocking music videos. Among them was a crude animation depicting a gunman being killed by police and another where Crimo is seen inside an empty classroom dressed in tactical gear and draped in an American flag. NBC News reported that Crimo had his own Discord channel that was disabled after the shooting. He also reportedly frequented a message board devoted to death, where he posted a beheading video.

I think theres a lot of balls dropped, no matter which way you look at it, the mother of Crimos friends said. Parents, the government itself. I mean, if what they are saying is true on the report that happened back in 2019, why would his father sponsor him to legally purchase these guns?

She also disputed the familys claims that there were no warning signs something could go horribly wrong.

I thought it was a joke when his uncle came out and said There were no signs of this. He was always this quiet kid, working in his apartment and behind the house. When it was like he had tried killing himself twice when he was hanging out with my [children], so how could you say there was no signs of this?

I remember the Bobby that was out skateboarding with my son or drawing, being artistic. I dont know this Bobby. Thats whats hurtful and where I feel bad. I think he needed help and couldnt get the help, or it wasnt being acknowledged that he needed help by the ones closest to him, she added. I think he just wanted to be loved, and there was a lot of stuff going on in the family dynamic between his mother and father, she said. And I feel like he just wanted to be wanted and not a burden on anybody.

Meanwhile, one friend of Crimo told The Daily Beast that she reached out to Crimos dad on Facebook around 2015 after he said some concerning things about wanting to overdose. The pal claims that instead of responding to her message, his father blocked her. Weeks later, she claims, a mutual friend visited Crimos home and again voiced concerns. He felt a lot of times that his parents didnt care about him, the person added. (Gomez told The Daily Beast that his clients deny any knowledge of suicidal thoughts Crimo might have had that year. The mother has expressed to me that, to her knowledge, no one came up to her and expressed concerns. The father is in the same boat, he said.)

From what it sounded like, his parents worked a lot, the friend said. If they werent home, they were working, and when they were home, they were resting or sleeping. So Bobby was always out doing his own thing. He felt alone and misunderstood. He said a couple of times he wished he was like other kids. He was, but he didnt think so.

In an April 29, 2019, Highland Park Police incident report obtained by The Daily Beast, officers were called to the Crimo home for a well-being check. There, officers learned he was known to use marijuana and had a history of suicide attempts. One of those instances, which occurred a week prior to the call, was an attempt to commit suicide by machete, the report states.

Mourners react at a memorial site for the victims of the Highland Park mass shooting. Jim Vondruska/Getty Images

Months later, on Sept. 15, 2019, Highland Park police returned to the house after an individual warned that Crimo had stated he was going to kill everyone in his family. The police report states that when officers arrived at the house, both Crimo and his mother said he had been depressed and had a history of drug use.

Robert was not forthcoming as to the language that he used on [the day of the threat] nor was his mother, the report states.

The report added that Crimos father was the one who told police about the sons collection of knives that were being stored in a tin can lunch box, along with a 12-inch dagger, and a 24-inch Samurai type blade in his bedroom closet. Crimo told police at the time that he was not going to harm himself or others.

The weapons were removed from the home and police filed a clear and present danger form and a report was filed to the Illinois State Police. While local authorities warned Crimo could pose a danger, state police ultimately decided he did not meet the criteria to deem him an immediate threat.

At the time Crimo was applying for his Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card, his only criminal offense was a January 2016 ordinance violation for possession of tobacco. Police also noted there were no mental health reports submitted to state police.

Gomez told The Daily Beast that Crimos fathers position is that he did not see anything out of the ordinary with his son. He also insisted that his client disputes the claims in the 2019 police report, noting that he did not show up at the house until after the police had arrived.

He got there when things were wrapping up, Gomez said. Im not too sure when he got there, but he was not aware of the threats the police report claims Crimo [his son] made.

Inside the Murder-Obsessed Posts of Parade Massacre Suspect

The lawyer added that the elder Crimo was still unaware of the threats at the September 2019 incident when he sponsored his sons firearm permit application that ultimately allowed the younger Crimo to buy several gunsincluding the one he bought online and picked up from local gun dealer Red Dot Arms, The Daily Beast exclusively reported on Wednesday.

In interviews with the New York Post and ABC News, the elder Crimo dismissed any idea of wrongdoing in aiding his son to obtain his FOID cardinsisting that he was simply following the law. He bought everything on his own, and theyre registered to him, the dad added to the New York Post. You know, he drove there, he ordered them, he picked them up, they did his background check on each one.

The Illinois State Police have not indicated whether the elder Crimo could face charges for his role in helping his son obtain a firearm, though legal experts indicated to The Daily Beast that it is a possibility. Especially since the form the father had to sign to sponsor the license indicates he is liable for any damages resulting from the minor applicants use of firearms or firearm ammunition.

Civil defense attorney Stephan Blandin told The Daily Beast that it is bizarre that the father would sign for an obviously mentally troubled kidand noted that he believes the father will face charges for his role in aiding Crimos access to firearms. I think this will serve as a chilling effect for parents who are thinking of helping their children obtain firearms, he added.

Gomez, however, insisted that his clients are not concerned about any kind of criminal charges and that they are actively cooperating with authorities.

All Crimo Jr. does at the end of the day is help [his son] go through the process of obtaining the card, he added, noting that other family members have expressed to the media nothing out of the ordinary about the younger Crimo. Right now, they are trying to digest what is happening at the moment, Gomez said.

For her part, the mother of Crimos skatepark friends knew Crimos parents and believed the teenagers home life wasnt ideal and lacked stability. While technically still married, the parents lived in separate homes. According to the acquaintance, Crimos mother, Denise Pesina, wanted to be divorced and move on with her kids, but I dont think that was ever really an option for her unfortunately.

Dad: Parade Suspect Talked About Mass Shooting Night Before Attack

She said Pesina was definitely devoted to her son and did the best she could. But where Pesina was non-confrontational, her husband was the opposite and exhibited anger, she said. I think they worried about what the outsiders thought versus what their son actually needed, she said.

For me, I dont want any of my words about Bobby [Crimo] to contradict the fact that what he did was wrong, the woman continued. He needed help.

She isnt the only parent speaking out. Michele Rebollar, the mother of Crimos late best friend Anthony LaPorte, said she remembers the quiet and awkward teen speaking at her sons funeral in August 2017. Video of the service reviewed by The Daily Beast shows Crimo telling fellow mourners that LaPortes friendship made him feel like I wasnt alone anymore, like I had somebody there, like, that was actually there.

Its horrific, Rebollar told The Daily Beast of Crimos bloodshed. Theres no justification, he could have got help, he could have told somebody, but if youve never had somebody to tell, how do you even know who to tell, if no ones ever been there for you?

Court documents suggest that Crimos well-being may have been on the backburner for his parents on multiple occasions. In 2002, Pesina pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor child endangerment charge after leaving then 2-year-old Crimo alone in a car in a Toys R Us parking lot.

The Aug. 31, 2002 warrant, obtained by The Daily Beast, states that Crimo was left in the closed car for about 27 minutes, while the windows were rolled up, the car was off and the temperature outside was about 79 degrees. A decade later, Pesina also pleaded guilty to driving under the influence in Lake County.

Police records obtained by The Daily Beast also showcase the tumultuous relationship between Crimo Jr. and Pesina that their three children endured. Records show that between 2010 and 2014, police were called to the Crimo family home at least nine times in response to domestic disputes.

The Highland Park Police Department reports indicate that many of the incidents involved allegations of physical or verbal altercations between Crimos parents and further provide context into the childhood of the future alleged gunman.

In one August 2010 altercation, Crimo Jr. told police that his relationship with Pesina was failing and that his intoxicated wife had hit him. Pesina, however, told police that her husband had disrespected and belittled her after mocking her appearance and drinking habits. Police ended the contentious situation by offering Pesina an informational packet about domestic violencewhich the mother stated shed already received after a different incident days earlier.

A month later, police again returned to the Highland Park home in response to another fight between the couple. The report states that Crimo Jr. accused Pesina of trash talking, and throwing all of his belongings off of his dresser. In a written statement, Pesina stressed her husband has been making mean statements to me like always.

The reports reveal that police were called at least twice to respond to reports of the couple trying to drive while intoxicated. In a June 2011 incident, Crimo Jr. insisted that Pesina tried to drive while picking up their daughter. Two years later, Pesina reported to the police that Crimo Jr. tried to drive to work while under the influence.

Facing increased scrutiny in wake of their sons arrest, the couple is not only coping with his position as an accused mass murderer, but also the heartbreak of the town they live in and love, their lawyer told The Daily Beast. Theres mixed feelings, but their main focus is to cope with the situation and to help in any way possible, Gomez said. Thats their main goal is to help and get some understanding.

You wake up and see your son on the news, Gomez continued. You didnt have any type of inclination or any type of thought he was capable of doing this or was going to do this on July 4. The family are in shock.

Theyre residents of Highland Park, he added. Theyre shocked, theyre sad, and theyre furious about the situation.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Jul. 9An 18-year-old Santa Fe teen has been arrested in Thursday's shooting death of another teen.

According to the Santa Fe Police Department, the shooting happened inside a vehicle parked in the parking lot of a smoke shop at 4350 Airport Road.

Andres Griego-Alvarado, 18, was driven to Christus St. Vincent Urgent Care by Efren Sifuentes-Gallegos after being injured with a firearm. Sifuentes-Gallegos was later charged with murder and tampering with evidence.

"The firearm used and the vehicle where the shooting took place have been seized," Santa Fe police said in a news release.

Sifuentes-Gallegos is being held at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Center.
A pregnant woman was driving in the HOV lane saying her unborn child should be considered a passenger. Michael Vi/Getty Images

A pregnant woman vowed to challenge a $215 fine after being penalised for driving in a carpool lane.

She told officers her unborn child counted as a passenger, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Brandy Bottone said she did not understand the fine after the overturning of Roe w. Wade.

A pregnant woman vowed to contest a $215 fine issued after police stopped her for driving alone in a carpool lane, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Brandy Bottone, who was 34 weeks into her pregnancy at the time, was on her way to pick up her son when she went through a checkpoint at the end of the carpool lane.

She told the newspaper: "An officer peeked in and asked, 'Is there anybody else in the car?'," which she said there was. When asked where, Bottone pointed to her stomach and said: "My baby girl is right here. She is a person."

The officer replied: "Oh, no. It's got to be two people outside of the body."

Bottone told the newspaper: "If a fetus is considered a life before birth, then why doesn't that count as a second passenger?"

The incident follows the Supreme Court decision to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established the right to an abortion.

Bottone lives in Plano, Texas, whose government said abortion would become illegal 30 days after the Supreme Court ruling.

According to the report, the woman said the other police officer "kind of brushed me off when I mentioned this is a living child, according to everything that's going on with the overturning of Roe v. Wade."

Bottone told him: "I don't know why you're not seeing that."

The officers said the fine would probably be dropped if she wanted to challenge it, according to Bottone.

"This has my blood boiling. How could this be fair? According to the new law, this is a life," she said, adding that she knows "this may fall on deaf ears, but as a woman, this was shocking."

Amy O'Donnell, a spokeswoman for Texas Alliance for Life, told the Dallas Morning News: "While the penal code in Texas recognizes an unborn child as a person in our state, the Texas transportation code does not specify the same. And a child residing in a mother's womb is not taking up an extra seat. And with only one occupant taking up a seat, the car did not meet the criteria needed to drive in that lane."

The sheriff's department did not respond to a request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
ROMAN PETRENKO  SATURDAY, 9 JULY 2022, 18:40

Residents of occupied Kherson Oblast should leave the oblast, and those who cannot should prepare for hostilities, look for shelter, water and food, said Yurii Sobolevskyi, First Deputy Chairman of the Kherson Oblast Council.

Source: Sobolevskyi, during a 24/7 national joint newscast

Quote from Sobolevskyi: "All the same, our people need to leave.

I know that it is very difficult and not everyone has the opportunity, but it must be done. Those who can't do it in any way should prepare for the fact that shelter will be needed again, it is necessary to prepare a supply of water, a certain supply of food in order to survive the offensive of our troops. We understand that our guys will work as carefully, surgically as possible to save every life, but war is war."

Details: According to Sobolevskyi, in Kherson Oblast, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have had more and more success recently.

Background: Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister, is calling on residents of the occupied areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts to evacuate by all possible means.
The aftermath of a Russian missile attack on Kharkiv

"According to the investigation, the Russian military targeted the central part of Kharkiv at around 10 a.m. on July 9," the report says.

Read also: Russian troops shell crops, poultry complex and landfills in Kharkiv Oblast in past day

"According to preliminary data, the strike was carried out by Iskander ballistic missiles. One of them hit a two-story building, which led to its destruction. Neighboring houses were also damaged."

The Prosecutor's Office said that it had initiated a pretrial investigation in criminal proceedings under Part 2 of Art. 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violation of the laws and customs of war) under the procedural leadership of Kharkiv's Slobidske district prosecutor's office.

Read also: Russian troops shell Mykolayiv, fires break out in oblast following attack

Primary investigative actions are underway and the data is being verified, it said.
Consequences of Russian shelling in Kharkiv, June 5, 2022

Read also: First quiet night in Kharkiv as four people killed in oblast, says regional governor

He said that the city of Kharkiv itself had not been attacked.

Read also: In Kharkiv Oblast, a mayor-collaborator arrested by Russians

Synegubov noted that the Solonytsivka territorial community in the oblasts Kharkivsky District had come under fire overnight on July 9. Also, an open area in the Nova Vodolaha territorial community was hit at 10.05 p.m.

In the Izyum area, a 5-hectare landfill and a poultry complex were on fire due to shelling.

Read also: Russians carry out missile strikes on three districts of Kharkiv, several wounded in oblast

According to the governor, fields of barley and wheat with a total area of over 25 hectares were on fire in Chuhuiv, Sakhnovshchyna and Slobozhanske territorial communities.

In addition, the shelling of the Zolochiv territorial community caused fires in warehouses.

Read also: Kharkiv comes under Russian rocket attack again

Synegubov said that a 64-year-old woman had been hospitalized with shrapnel wounds due to shelling in the Tsyrkuny territorial community.

He added that active hostilities continue in the Kharkiv area. The enemy has taken up defensive positions. The Izyum area remains a hot spot.

Read also: 4 people killed, 5 wounded due to enemy shelling in Kharkiv Oblast

At the same time, the official said the Ukrainian defenders had twice repulsed enemy assaults near Dementiyivka and pushed the invaders back.

Help NV continue reporting on the Russian invasion
OLHA HLUSHCHENKO  SATURDAY, 9 JULY 2022, 07:30

PHOTO: GENERAL STAFF

Russian invaders have attempted to take control of the Vuhlehirsk Thermal Power Plant, but the Ukrainian defenders pushed the invaders back to their previous positions.

Source: Summary of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of 06:00 on 9 July

Details: There are no significant changes in the activities of the Russian military units on the Volyn, Polissia, and Sivershchyna fronts. On the latter front, Russian forces have shelled the positions of Ukrainian troops near the villages of Senkivka and Mykolaivka in Chernihiv Oblast and the settlements of Esman and Oleksiivka in Sumy Oblast.

On the Kharkiv front, Russian occupiers are defending the previously occupied frontiers. Russian troops bombarded the areas of the settlements of Yavirske, Stara Hnylytsia, Ukrainka, Mykilske, Bazaliivka, Ruski Tyshky, Cherkaski Tyshky, Piatyhirske, Prudianka, Chornohlazivka, Kutuzivka, Staryi Saltiv, Shestakove and Rubizhne using tanks, mortars, gun and rocket artillery.

On the Sloviansk front, Russian troops launched artillery fire around the villages of Dibrovne, Bohorodychne, Adamivka, Karnaukhivka, and Sulyhivka.

On the Kramatorsk front, Russian forces have shelled civilian infrastructure around the villages of Hryhorivka and Verkhnokamianske, and around the city of Kramatorsk. To advance their positions, Russian troops are attempting an assault in the area of Hryhorivka; hostilities are ongoing.

On the Bakhmut front, shelling by Russian troops was recorded near the villages of Zaitseve, Berestove and Klynove. Russian forces performed an airstrike near the village of Spirne.

Russian invaders attempted an offensive to establish control over the territory of the Vuhlehirsk Thermal Power Plant and to improve their tactical position around the village of Dolomitne. Ukrainian soldiers thwarted their attempts and pushed them back to their previous positions.

Story continues

On the Avdiivka, Kurakhove, Novopavlivka and Zaporizhzhia fronts, mutual shelling of positions along the line of contact continues. The Russian military carried out airstrikes near the settlement of Mali Shcherbaky.

On the Pivdennyi Buh front, Russian forces continue regular shelling of civilian and military infrastructure from gun and rocket artillery along the line of contact.

The further threat of missile strikes on the region's essential infrastructure remains.

Ukrainian air forces and missile and artillery units continue to successfully engage Russian manpower, military equipment and ammunition warehouses. The Russian forces have suffered significant losses.
ALYONA MAZURENKO  SATURDAY, 9 JULY 2022, 08:23

As a result of the Russian shelling of the Donetsk region during the day of 8 July, 5 people were killed and 21 more were injured.

Source: the head of the Donetsk Oblast Military Administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, on Telegram

Quote from Kyrylenko's quote: "On 8 July, the Russians killed 5 civilians in Donetsk Oblast: 4 in Siversk and 1 in Semihirya. Another 8 people were injured."

Details: Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a total of at least 588 civilians were killed in the Donetsk region and at least 1,525 more were injured.

Kyrylenko emphasised that it is currently impossible to establish the exact number of victims in Mariupol and Volnovakha.
Brooke Jenkins, shown at a Thursday news conference at San Francisco City Hall, was appointed to succeed recalled Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin. Last year, she quit Boudin's office and joined the campaign against him. (Santiago Mejia / San Francisco Chronicle)

After a tumultuous and expensive recall effort that ousted Chesa Boudin last month, San Francisco has a new district attorney  a prosecutor who quit Boudin's office to join the campaign against him.

Mayor London Breed named Brooke Jenkins to the interim post Thursday, drawing praise from San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott and the police union.

Boudin's supporters, however, have been pushing back, questioning Jenkins' experience and record on criminal justice reform in a city famous for its historically progressive politics but where public concerns about crime have drawn a more typical law-and-order response from officials.

"Unfortunately, as we all know, we are at a tipping point in San Francisco," Jenkins said during a news conference Thursday night after Breed's announcement. "San Franciscans do not feel safe, and concerns surrounding public safety have become their No. 1 concern."

The recall that ousted Boudin in the middle of his first term became a referendum on some of San Franciscos most painfully visible social problems, including homelessness, property crime and drug addiction.

Then-Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin, right, on election day last month in San Francisco. (Noah Berger / Associated Press)

The campaign, of which Jenkins was a part, painted Boudin as a soft-on-crime prosecutor. It sought to tie his reform policies to a wave of high-profile crimes, including a fatal hit-and-run involving a man on parole, a series of smash-and-grab robberies from high-end Union Square stores and a wave of attacks against elderly Asian American residents.

Property and violent crimes, in fact, fell by double-digit percentages during Boudins first two years in office. But some individual categories of crime surged in the same time: Burglaries rose 47%; motor vehicle theft, 36%. Homicides also increased, though Boudin took office the year after the city saw its lowest number of killings in more than half a century in 2019.

Under her leadership, Jenkins said Thursday, the district attorney's office "will work diligently every single day to restore order to our city and to bring our city back to being the beautiful city that we know it is."

Story continues

She vowed to pursue cases against violent and repeat offenders, those who carry out hate crimes and to crack down on drug use in the streets, though she said she would remain committed to criminal justice reform. Jenkins said she will also make tamping down property crime a priority.

But critics said her appointment signaled a backsliding on reform efforts in the district attorney's office.

John Hamasaki, a San Francisco defense attorney and former police commissioner who frequently spoke out against the Boudin recall, was vocal in his criticism of Jenkins on Twitter, calling her unethical and generally incompetent.

Jenkins has no management experience and has "a pretty good history of what I think is objectively unethical conduct," Hamasaki told The Times on Friday.

He pointed to Jenkins' prosecution of Daniel Gudino, who killed his mother during a mental health episode in 2020.

"This was a mentally ill person who killed his mother, and all the doctors except one said he's out of his mind," Hamasaki said. "She wanted him in prison for life."

Gudino was convicted of second-degree murder, but a jury deadlocked on whether he was legally insane, and then-Dist. Atty. Boudin chose to not fight the insanity plea, over Jenkins' objections, according to SFist. Gudino was committed to a mental hospital, and Jenkins cited the case in an interview with a San Francisco Chronicle columnist about why she left Boudin's office.

"She quit because she lost and the district attorney wouldn't let her retry," Hamasaki said. "Theres enough in her history to show she doesnt have the experience or judgment to lead the office responsibly."

The San Francisco Latinx Democratic Club said in a statement Friday that Breed's appointment of Jenkins signals a return to cash bail, the use of strikes to enhance sentencing penalties, gang enhancements and charging minors as adults  all practices that Boudin had sought to end.

"We unequivocally oppose this dangerous appointment of an individual who is committed to a vision of returning to a world with mass incarceration of our Black and Brown communities; where 'guilty till proven innocent' is the motto of the current occupant in the district attorneys office," the statement said.

Jenkins pushed back against the allegations.

"There've been a lot of misconceived notions about what I stood for," she said after she was sworn in Friday. "I want to be clear that holding offenders accountable does not mean that we cannot move forward with progressive criminal justice reform."

Jenkins spoke about her experience as a Black and Latina woman with family members who've been charged with crimes.

Reform is necessary, she said, adding that she's committed to enhancing diversion programs, creating new programs that can serve as alternatives to incarceration and creating an alternative court for women.

"I want to be very clear today that accountability and justice come in many forms," Jenkins said. "For some, accountability may have to be prison, but for the majority of people it is something else."

She pledged to ensure that her office uses all resources available to give people accused of crimes a chance to turn their lives around and break the cycle of recidivism.

Jenkins, who spent seven years as an assistant district attorney and worked in the hate crimes, sexual assault and homicide units, will serve until a November special election to decide who will complete Boudin's term through 2023  an election in which she is running and could face Boudin.

Like other prosecutors in the nationwide movement to reimagine the criminal justice system, Boudin ran on a platform to reduce mass incarceration and divert low-level offenders into drug and mental health treatment instead of jail cells.

His ouster may have national implications, including for Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascon, who is facing his second recall attempt in two years.

L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascon, who formerly held the post in San Francisco, is facing a recall effort fueled by anger against progressive policies similar to those of Boudin's. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Jenkins plans to meet with her management team to discuss which of the San Francisco office's existing policies can be kept and where adjustments need to be made.

"I don't have any particular positions on what will stay and what will go," Jenkins said.

Scott, the police chief, said in a tweet that he knew Jenkins to "be a person of principle and integrity," and that he's looking forward to working closely with her.

The San Francisco Police Officers Assn. echoed the chief's comments in a statement.

"We urge Ms. Jenkins to fairly hold criminal offenders accountable, provide compassion for those in the criminal justice system who need and deserve it, and to strongly protect and assist crime victims seeking justice," union officials said.

For Greg Totten, chief executive of the California District Attorneys Assn., Jenkins' appointment marks a renewed focus on public safety without sacrificing reform.

"I think it's a mistake to assume that San Francisco voters don't still support criminal justice reform," Totten said. "They don't want reform that endangers their core safety. They just want the reform to be thoughtful."

He was critical of top prosecutors such as Boudin and Gascon, who formerly held the post in San Francisco, calling them "rogue D.A.s."

And Totten, who served as Ventura County district attorney for 18 years until early 2021, said Jenkins' lack of management experience shouldn't be an issue.

"Having administrative experience, having experience supervising certainly helps," he said. "More important is surrounding yourself with people who have experience. The single most important asset is a core understanding of the responsibility of the profession."

The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, Abdi Soltani, said his organization would hold Jenkins accountable and push her to adopt policies in line with the values of civil liberties and civil rights.

"The past two years were difficult, and we acknowledge people are frustrated and angry, but reinstating discriminatory policies that criminalize poverty and addiction wont make San Francisco any safer," Soltani said.

Duffie Stone, a past president and current chairman of the board for the National District Attorneys Assn., said prosecutors always seek to improve the criminal justice system but that reforms can't get in the way of pursuing justice.

"You have to look at the human being and you have to realize that there are some people who will never commit another crime," said Stone, who serves as the 14th Circuit solicitor in South Carolina. "These are first time, nonviolent offenders, and they need to go to diversion programs."

Veterans who return from active duty with mental health issues that lead them to commit a crime should go to veterans court so they can be held accountable while also getting treatment, he said, citing an example.

"But then there are also people that embrace antisocial behavior, and you've got to recognize that," Stone said. "The most progressive thing we can do as prosecutors [is] intelligence-led prosecution. It starts in  determining at a very early stage  who is the person you're dealing with?"

Stone said he sees the criminal justice system moving in a direction where it can identify people who are eligible for diversion programs and other alternatives to incarceration, as well as those who are repeat offenders, and deal with their needs appropriately.

In her news conference Thursday night, Jenkins said San Francisco is "a city of second chances, but the truth is we have to draw a line with people who choose hate, violence and a life of crime."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Shawn Mendes arriving at the Grammy Awards in January 2020. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

The stress of a world tour has gotten to Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes, who announced he is taking a break to focus on his mental health. Wonder: The World Tour, which had just gotten underway last week, is on hold for the next three weeks  affecting 12 concert dates in all.

"Ive been touring since I was 15 and to be honest its always been difficult to be on the road away from friends and family, he posted on Instagram on Friday night. After a few years off the road, I felt like I was ready to dive back in, but that decision was premature and unfortunately the toll of the road and the pressure has caught up to me and [Ive] hit a breaking point."

Mendes said in the post that he has discussed the situation with his team as well as health professionals and hes decided to prioritize self care.

I need to take some time to heal and take care of myself and my mental health, first and foremost, he said.

The touring, rock star life  the open road, adoring fans and late night after-parties  has long been glamorized. But an increasing number of touring musicians are publicly addressing the very real stresses involved and canceling appearances to focus on their health.

Carlos Santana, who is on tour with Earth, Wind & Fire, passed out on stage recently at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, Mich., and was taken to an ER. A representative told People magazine his collapse was due to heat exhaustion and dehydration and that he has since recovered. The 74-year-old guitarist canceled six upcoming shows in order to rest and recuperate.

Mendes  who suffered personal stress as well late last year after he and singer-songwriter Camila Cabello broke up  will resume the North American leg of his Wonder tour on July 31 in Toronto.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Shinzo Abe. Illustrated | Getty Images

Shinzo Abe, Japan's former and longest-serving prime minister, was shot with a handmade weapon and later died on Friday, after campaigning for a politician in his Liberal Democratic Party ahead of this weekend's parliamentary elections. His assassination has left Japan in a state of shock, considering the nation's strict gun laws and lack of political violence. Suspect Tetsuya Yamagishi, 41, is currently in police custody. Here's everything you need to know about the nation's late leader:

Early Days

Abe, 67, was an incredibly powerful and prominent figure in Japanese politics, even after his tenure as prime minister ended in 2020. He resigned due to illness, after initially assuming the top spot in 2012 (though he also briefly served as premier from 2006 to 2007). He came from a family of politicos; his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi served as prime minister from 1957 to 1960, while his father, Shintaro Abe, held what is "often seen as the country's second-most powerful position"  chief cabinet secretary  from 1977 to 1978, The Washington Post reports.

Born in Tokyo, Abe graduated from the city's Seikei University in 1977 with a degree in political science before spending three semesters studying public policy at the University of Southern California. He was first elected as a legislator for the Liberal Democratic Party in 1993, "representing the southwestern prefecture of Yamaguchi," The Associated Press writes. He was later appointed chief cabinet secretary under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2005, around which time he was also set up to take over as premier for the first time the following year.

Leadership and legacy

While in office, Abe "pushed to strengthen the nation's military, beefed up cooperation with U.S. forces, and made Tokyo a more muscular force in international diplomacy," The Wall Street Journal reports. He also worked to "revitalize the stagnant Japanese economy, which lost its position as Asia's largest between his two stints in office," the Post adds. That said, whether his so-called "Abenomics"  a package of economic policies that included monetary easing and increased government spending, among other measures  actually worked in revving up the economy is still up for debate. Abe also hoped to amend Japan's pacifist Constitution  which many conservatives view as a reminder of Japan's defeat in World War II  but never succeeded.

Story continues

"He's the most towering political figure in Japan over the past couple of decades," Waseda University political scientist Dave Leheny told AP. "He wanted Japan to be respected on the global stage in the way that he felt was deserved. ... He also wanted Japan to not have to keep apologizing for World War II."

As for his work in the international community, Abe forged a close relationship between his nation and India, Asia's most populous country and a fellow member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue alongside the U.S. and Australia. He was the first world leader to meet with Donald Trump after the 2016 election, later developing a friendship with the then-president. He also, while out of office this year, urged the U.S. to commit to defending Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack, and reportedly helped facilitate the delivery of millions of COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan during a troublesome wave of infections.

Despite his long tenure and popularity, Abe is nonetheless described as a controversial politician, having "weathered several fund-raising and favoritism scandals on a scale that had toppled past premiers," Bloomberg writes. His 2006 to 2007 leadership stint was rendered short thanks to an ongoing battle with ulcerative colitis, but not before "a series of scandals  including the government's loss of pension records, affecting about 50 million claims  hit his administration hard," notes BBC News. Then, in 2020, there was also the so-called "Cherry Blossom" scandal, in which prosecutors investigated whether Abe, his aide, and others in his orbit had violated campaign and election funds laws by subsidizing "cherry blossom viewing parties for his supporters from 2016 to 2019," Al Jazeera notes. Abe eventually apologized for the relevant financial discrepancies: "Even though the accounting procedures happened without my knowledge, I feel morally responsible for what happened," he told a parliamentary committee. "I reflect on this deeply and apologize from my heart to the citizens and to all legislators."

World leaders react

Leaders across the international community reacted to Abe's death with a mix of shock, sadness, and reverence. France's Emmanuel Macron, for example, paid tribute to the late leader by sharing a message in Japanese alongside one in French, while India's Narendra Modi published a blog post reflecting on the pair's relationship.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump also joined in mourning the loss of who he described as a "great man and leader."

"He was a unifier like no other," Trump wrote, "but above all, he was a man who loved and cherished his magnificent country, Japan. Shinzo Abe will be greatly missed. There will never be another like him."

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South Dakota's Rep. Erin Healy (D-Sioux Falls) met with Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic lawmakers from across the United States on Friday to discuss reproductive rights in the wake of the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

Healy, also the state's House of Representatives Minority Whip, was the only one of five state legislators who attended the event, including others from Indiana, Florida, Nebraska and Montana  all states that either have or will restrict abortion access for pregnant people.

"How close to death does someone have to be before a doctor intervenes?" Healy questioned during her opening remarks to the group, which touched on South Dakota's trigger law.

That law, which went into effect immediately following the Supreme Court of the United State's ruling in June, states a doctor who preforms an abortion could be charged with a class six felony. The law has no exception for abortions performed after rape or incest.

More: Will Sioux Falls doctors be charged for performing abortions? Here's what we know.

Harris, who also spoke during the live streamed opening remarks of the meeting, touched on about the impending healthcare crisis before the group went behind closed doors to continue the discussion.

"Women should be able to make decisions about their body," the vice president said.

Healy also spoke about possible restrictions South Dakotans could face if they traveled out of state to get an abortion.

"South Dakotans should have the freedom to travel anywhere they want in this country, no questions asked," she said. "Enforcing some kind of state border laws about who gets to leave and who doesn't paints a very grim future for America."

Healy also mentioned Gov. Noem's plan for a special session tightening the state's already strict trigger law. Noem called for the special legislative session after the high court's ruling. However, as of Friday, no date for such a session has been set as of yet.

Story continues

More: Analysis: Is Gov. Kristi Noem stepping back from vow to hold special session on abortion?

President Joe Biden also announced an executive order Friday protecting and expanding access to abortion care, including how people access medicated abortion pills, as well as family planning services through the Department of Health and Human Services. However, it is unclear how that order will be enacted in states like South Dakota, which has already barred access to medicated abortion.

Follow Annie Todd on Twitter @AnnieTodd96. Reach out to her with tips, questions and other community news at atodd@argusleader.com or give her a call at 605-215-3757.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota lawmaker meets with Kamala Harris about abortion access
STORY: The island of 22 million people is struggling under a severe foreign exchange shortage that has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine, plunging it into the worst financial turmoil in seven decades.

Many blame the country's decline on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Largely peaceful protests since March have demanded his resignation.

Protesters on Saturday carried black and national flags and shouted "Gota go home," using a common shortened version of the president's name.

They marched towards a police and military security cordon surrounding key buildings, including the President's House and Finance Ministry, near Colombo's scenic coastline.
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Prime Minister on Saturday summoned an emergency meeting of political party leaders after protesters stormed the president's house in the commercial capital Colombo amid growing anger over the government's handling of an economic crisis.

Ranil Wickremesinghe also requested the speaker to summon parliament, a statement from the prime minister's office said.

(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe, Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
Texas Rep. Jodey Arrington is backing moves by officials in his state to take matters relating to the migrant crisis into their own hands, claiming President Biden "surrendered control" of the border and describing the situation as an invasion.

"They are absolutely doing the right thing, and I commend the governor for following suit," the Republican congressman told Fox News Digital in an interview this week.

Arrington spoke after a flurry of moves in Texas related to the border. On Tuesday, multiple counties declared the crisis at the southern border an "invasion" and called on Gov. Greg Abbott to do the same, arguing that it would give the state more power to send illegal immigrants to Mexico.

"We want America to know that this is real," Kinney County Judge Tully Shahan told reporters. "The Biden administration won't do a thing about it. They could stop this thing this hour. They could stop it now. They don't have the guts."

TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT AUTHORIZES LAW ENFORCEMENT TO RETURN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO BORDER

Abbott signed an executive order Thursday that allows the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to apprehend and return illegal immigrants who have crossed between ports of entry to the southern border. Under the order, illegal aliens will be taken to the U.S., but not into Mexico.

A migrant family sits after being processed in Roma, Texas, May 5, 2022. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Abbott has so far not issued a formal invasion declaration, but his executive order did reference the word "invasion," saying the Biden administration has "abandoned the covenant, in Article IV,  4 of the U.S. Constitution, that '[t]he United States  shall protect each [State in this Union] against Invasion '"

Arrington introduced a resolution last year calling the crisis at the border, which has seen more than 239,000 migrant encounters in May alone, an invasion. And he was supportive of both the actions of the counties and of Abbott. He blamed the crisis on President Biden and his administration, who he said had failed to "provide for common defense and to repel an invasion."

Story continues

"You have a federal government under the leadership of a derelict president who has surrendered control of the border to paramilitary narco-terrorist drug cartels," he said. "And these cartels are very organized, very sophisticated and military capable."

HOUSE REPUBLICANS BACK TEXAS COUNTIES' INVASION DECLARATION IN RESPONSE TO BORDER CRISIS

Arrington noted not only the sheer number of migrants coming across the border, but also the fentanyl crisis, which has contributed to a massive number of drug overdoses in the U.S. Most fentanyl is smuggled in via the U.S. Mexico-land border, and the Drug Enforcement Administration warned earlier this year of a "nationwide spike" in fentanyl-related overdoses.

The agency cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics showing that, during a 12-month period ending in October, there were more than 105,000 drug overdoses, 66% of which were related to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

"If you had Al Qaeda or ISIS or some terrorist group that had control of our border and was pushing this poison into our communities and killing our families and our children and our citizens, I guarantee you that people would see this differently," Arrington said.

"But it is an invasion, and it is an onslaught, and we are under siege. And there is no other choice for a state leader, a governor, in good conscience, then to declare it as such and begin to enforce the laws of the land and secure the border and protect their citizens. And that that's what I believe is happening with our current governor."

He called criticism the governor had faced for not going far enough to officially declare an invasion "premature."

TEXAS COUNTIES ON THE BORDER AND BEYOND DECLARE INVASION': BIDEN ADMIN DOESN'T HAVE THE GUTS TO ACT

Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, leaves the House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club May 16, 2018. Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

"I'm encouraged that he's exercising the powers that are there for states in this circumstance and that the tactics that he mentions also in his executive order that he will deploy seem to be the right ones," Arrington said. "And I'm going to trust that my governor will implement and execute on those in a way that will turn the tide in Texas. And maybe other states will be emboldened by that and follow suit and maybe more scrutiny and pressure will be brought to bear on this president for not having done his most important job."

Abbott is also facing pressure from the Biden administration, which is investigating the states Operation Lone Star, which surged resources and law enforcement to the border as part of an effort to stop illegal immigration into the state.

Arrington said he was not surprised by the efforts of the administration, which he accused of having "weaponized" the levers of power "like no other administration."

"So I'm not surprised that this administration would abuse its power and harass Gov. Abbott and the state of Texas for standing up for themselves and the defense of their citizens when this administration's own policies have created this constitutional crisis," Arrington said.


There was little reason for Jaimie Alexander to reprise her role in this film and that's a shame. Disney/

Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for "Thor: Love and Thunder."

Jaimie Alexander reprises her role as Sif in the new "Thor" sequel.

Fans may be upset with her return, where she's given little to do in an overblown cameo.

After sitting out 2017's "Thor: Ragnarok" and a minor cameo in "Loki," Jaimie Alexander makes her big return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in "Thor: Love and Thunder."

Unfortunately, if you're hoping to see her character, Sif, with a lot of screentime in the sequel, you'll be sorely disappointed. At the film's world premiere, Alexander told Marvel she didn't need to train for the role and it's clear why after watching the movie.

Sif gets two minor scenes in "Love and Thunder" and is frustratingly sidelined for the majority of the movie, which may make you wonder why Marvel even bothered bringing the actor back.

How Sif returns in 'Thor: Love and Thunder': Thor finds her after a losing battle

Thor finds Sif in bad shape in "Love and Thunder." Marvel Studios

While traveling with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) learns about a mysterious figure, Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who, as his name suggests, is killing gods and causing havoc throughout the universe.

Thor spots his friend Sif among the brutal attacks by Gorr and splits off from the Guardians to check on her.

When Thor reunites with his friend, for the first time on-screen since 2017's "Thor: Ragnarok," Sif is badly injured. She lost an arm in a duel with Gorr off-screen.

It's presumed that Thor takes her back to New Asgard (on Earth), but we never see this occur. Thor appears to land in New Asgard without his friend. Instead, the next time we puzzlingly see Sif isn't until the film's very end when she's training with kids on Asgard.

Why Sif was missing from 'Thor: Ragnarok': A scheduling conflict

lady sif thor the dark world

Alexander told Yahoo in 2017 she "was bummed" she couldn't appear in "Thor: Ragnarok."Disney / Marvel

If you're wondering why we haven't seen Sif since 2013's "Thor: The Dark World" on the big screen, Alexander previously told Yahoo she sat out "Ragnarok" due to a scheduling conflict with her lead role on NBC's "Blindspot."

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"I was asked, but the timing of when they were going to shoot and when 'Blindspot' was gonna shoot  it was pretty much the same time," Alexander told Yahoo in 2017 of "Ragnarok" filming on another continent.

"I was hoping for more of a notice from [the studio] so I could make it work, but it was a short notice thing," Alexander said, adding that she "was bummed" she couldn't be in "Ragnarok." "They called and said, 'Hey, by the way, would you come do this?' I said there is no way I can make that work that fast."

That was probably for the best as the rest of Thor's friends were quickly and brutally killed off one by one in the 2017 sequel.

'Thor: Love and Thunder' sidelined Sif for no reason. The film had a huge opportunity to make waves with her character.

Jaimie Alexander at Thor: Love and Thunder premiere

Jaimie Alexander in purple at the "Thor: Love and Thunder" world premiere.Alex J.Berliner/ABImages

It was exciting to hear Alexander was reprising her role as Sif. A strong, confident, kickass woman in a movie that's already celebrating strong, kickass women in the form of Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Natalie Portman's Mighty Thor? Sign us up.

So it's mind-boggling that Marvel wouldn't take the opportunity to highlight three recognizable warriors side-by-side in "Love and Thunder" or showcase her confrontation with Gorr. Audiences strangely never see Sif interact with Valkyrie or Portman's Thor and it feels like a massive missed opportunity.

Was Marvel worried about having too much estrogen on screen by having three female heroes alongside Hemsworth's Thor in this sequel? Was this a constraint of the pandemic?

Maybe there's some deleted footage showcasing Sif's off-screen confrontation with Gorr or highlighting an exchange with Portman  but these are moments that should have appeared in the final film to pay due to a franchise character who otherwise seems to exist in the film for the sake of appearing in it or to meet a quota for female representation.

Why didn't Sif go on this adventure with Jane and Valkyrie? Marvel Studios

The natural expectation was that Sif would go on the film's adventure with Thor, Jane, and Valkyrie to hunt down Gorr on "another classic Thor adventure."

But that's not what happened at all.

Instead, for whatever reason, the film sidelined Sif by unnecessarily chopping off one of her arms. This writing choice would've made some sense if the film was trying to deliver some commentary on disabled superheroes, but it didn't do that at all.

The film ditched Sif until its final minutes.

The audience is supposed to assume she was "healing," but there was no reason for the film to cut off her arm if it only planned to sideline her.

Sif's gross underutilization in "Thor 4" is extremely disappointing after years of waiting to see her return to the big screen. It's not like Marvel doesn't know how to handle the return of a long-missing fan favorite.

Comparatively, "Love and Thunder" does right by fixing Jane Foster's narrative after Portman previously parted ways with the MCU after 2013's poorly received "Thor: The Dark World."

For a movie that's so big on female superheroes, Alexander received the short end of the stick.

Maybe the MCU has grander plans for Sif, but in "Love and Thunder," there was little reason for Alexander to reprise her role and that's a shame. Don't simply add more female heroes and characters into a movie if you have nothing interesting for them to do.

Read the original article on Insider
Tony Sirico, the former mobster turned movie star best known as Paulie Walnuts on The Sopranos, died Friday. He was 79.

Siricos death was announced by his brother, Robert, and his Sopranos co-star Michael Imperioli.

It pains me to say that my dear friend, colleague and partner in crime, the great Tony Sirico has passed away today, Imperioli wrote on Instagram. Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big-hearted as anyone Ive ever known.

Siricos tough-talking, line-repeating Paulie was a fan-favorite among Sopranos watchers, as Siricos charm made the character lovable despite his vicious actions.

The Sopranos was one of many gangster roles for the Brooklyn-born Sirico, who also appeared in Goodfellas, Mob Queen and Gotti. He was also a favorite of director Woody Allen.

But earlier in his life, it wasnt an act. Sirico was arrested 28 times  first at age 7  and spent two different stints in prison before getting into acting. When he took the role of Paulie, Sirico said hed only do it if Sopranos creator David Chase promised him Paulie would never be a rat.

I was a pistol-packing guy. The first time I went away to prison, they searched me to see if I had a gun  and I had three of em on me, Sirico told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. In our neighborhood, if you werent carrying a gun, it was like you were the rabbit during rabbit-hunting season.

Born Gennaro Anthony Sirico on July 24, 1942, in Brooklyn, Sirico grew up in Bensonhurst. Almost half a century later, he said hed take it over Beverly Hills any day.

He first made the police blotter at age 7, when he was busted for stealing nickels from a newsstand. A series of small-time crimes and weapons charges followed, but Sirico was only convicted twice  once on a weapons charge and once for armed robbery.

I got 28 arrests and only two convictions, so you gotta admit I have a pretty good acting record, he joked to the L.A. Times.

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During his second prison stint in the early 1970s, Sirico watched a prison theater performance and said to himself: I can do that.

His first three credited acting appearances followed in 1977. He slowly picked up acting work through the 1980s, including an appearance on Miami Vice in 1989.

His first big film was 1990s Goodfellas. His role of Tony Stacks may have been small for the film, but it was huge for Sirico, who went on to star in many more movies across the 1990s: 29th Street, New York Cop, Bullets Over Broadway, The Search for One-eye Jimmy, Mighty Aphrodite and several more.

But the world knew him best as Peter Paul Paulie Walnuts Gaultieri on The Sopranos. Appearing in the shows pilot through its final episode, Sirico brought inexplicable charisma to the role of ruthless mob enforcer.

Sopranos co-star Steven Van Zandt tweeted that Sirico was a larger than life character on and off screen. Gonna miss you a lot my friend.

Siricos most famous episode is also one of the best in TV history, season 3s Pine Barrens, in which Paulie and Imperiolis Christopher Moltisanti must track down a Russian assassin after losing him in New Jerseys infamous Pine Barrens. The two spend a freezing night in a truck, Paulie loses a shoe, and the Russian appears to get away anyways.

I was near froze by the time we got out of the set, Sirico remembered in 2019. Great time, and I really appreciate you people that watch the show and like it. And for those that havent, go f--- yourself.

Paulie was a consistent source of tough love on the show, delivering the coldest lines to Christopher during the younger characters intervention. In another meeting, when Christopher asked Paulie if he felt nothing good was ever gonna happen to him, Sirico perfectly deadpanned the reply: Yeah, and nothing did. So what?

We found a groove as Christopher and Paulie and I am proud to say I did a lot of my best and most fun work with my dear pal Tony, Imperioli wrote Friday. I will miss him forever. He is truly irreplaceable.

Sirico continued filling gangster roles after The Sopranos, even appearing as a bastardized version of himself on Family Guy and as a mobster in A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa.

Sirico is survived by his two children, Joanne Sirico Bello and Richard Sirico, grandchildren, and several siblings including his brother, the Rev. Robert Sirico.

Robert said his brothers funeral will be Wednesday in Brooklyn. Its the place that was ingrained in Tony Sirico.

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, he told The New York Daily News in 2012, And I still live and Ill die in Brooklyn.
Jul. 8Trotwood police are asking for the community's help locating a 1-year-old boy.

Cannon Harris-Brown was last known to be with his non-custodial father, Ceasar Brown, according to police. Brown reportedly took the boy for a one-hour visit on June 28 and has not returned Harris-Brown.

Brown provided false information as his residence and the location of the boy, according to police.

Harris-Brown is approximately 28 tall and weighs 28 pounds. He was last seen wearing an orange onesie and black tennis shoes.

Brown has a warrant for his arrest and is wanted by the police, according to Trotwood police.

Anyone with information on Harrison-Brown or Brown's location should call Detective Natalie Watson at 937-854-7238 or the Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center at 937-225-4357.
United Nations building in Switzerland

The United Nations Human Rights Council Thursday adopted four new resolutions, including one in which it extends the mandate of the independent expert on protection from violence and discrimination related to sexual orientation and gender identity for three years.

The mandate for the independent expert was first approved in 2016 and renewed in 2019. In this years renewal resolution, the Human Rights Council called on member states to repeal laws and policies that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and take effective measures to prevent violence and discrimination. The independent expert is to report back annually on the implementation of the mandate to the council and the U.N. General Assembly. The current independent expert is Victor Madrigal-Borloz, a judge from Costa Rica and a senior visiting researcher at Harvard Law Schools Human Rights Program.

Madrigal-Borloz said in a tweet that he was "delighted" by the news of the renewal, adding that he was "as humbled & honored as the first day to continue serving persons, communities and peoples affected from discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity."

This years resolution marked the first time that the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution explicitly condemning legislation that criminalizes consensual same-sex conducts and diverse gender identities and called on states to amend discriminatory legislation and combat violence on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, according to a press release from ILGA World and other international LGBTQ+ rights organizations.

Once again, the main U.N. human rights body made it clear: violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity must be prevented, Gabriel Galil, senior program officer on U.N. advocacy at ILGA World, said in the release. This historic resolution takes significant steps forward that were long claimed by our communities: it denounces the negative impacts of criminalization of consensual same-sex conducts and diverse gender identities and calls on UN member States to amend discriminatory legislation, take measures to combat violence, and to protect the civic space of organizations working on SOGI issues.

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The resolution was carried by a vote of 23-17, with seven abstentions. Thirteen hostile amendments were proposed, the ILGA release notes, and all but one rejected. Text of the adopted amendment wasnt immediately available, but the core of the resolution affirming the universal nature of international human rights law stands firm, the release says.

Billions of people continue to live with laws and societal attitudes that put them in danger, Manisha Dhakal of the Blue Diamond Society in Nepal said in the release. Acknowledging that so much work remains to be done, the Council once again reaffirmed its commitment to combatting discrimination and violence on grounds of SOGI, reminding all States of their obligations towards these communities.

The council Thursday also adopted resolutions on the importance of casualty recording for the promotion and protection of human rights; human rights and the regulation of civilian acquisition, possession, and use of firearms; and access to medicines, vaccines, and other health products in the context of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, says a U.N. press release.

They were among 23 resolutions adopted by the council during its regular session in Geneva, Switzerland, which ended Friday. Others included the extension of mandates aimed at combating violence and discrimination against women and girls, a call for states to adopt the Paris Agreement on fighting climate change, and measures to support the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. The council will begin its next regular session September 12.
UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace

Read also: Why Ukraine loves Boris

After careful consideration and discussing with colleagues and family, I have taken the decision not to enter the contest for leadership of the Conservative Party, Wallace wrote on Twitter.

He thanked his colleagues in the UK Parliament for their support and wished good luck to the other candidates.

It has not been an easy choice to make, but my focus is on my current job and keeping this great country safe, added Wallace. I wish the very best of luck to all candidates and hope we swiftly return to focusing on the issues that we are all elected to address.

Wallace, 52-years old, had overtaken British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in recent months as most popular member of government among members of the Conservative Party thanks to his handling of the crisis over Russia's full scale-invasion of Ukraine.

Read also: How Johnsons departure affects Ukraine

Wallace has repeatedly shown support for Ukraine and advocated the most severe measures against the aggressor country of Russia. He stated that even after Prime Minister Boris Johnsonresigns, the UK will continue to support Ukraine.
Ukraine's inability to export its own grain freely has caused a major food crisis

One of the most powerful speeches on the brink of a major conflict in Ukraine at the UN Security Councils emergency session on Feb. 22 was delivered by Kenyas Ambassador Martin Kimani, who echoed Africas own history to reject Russias irredentism and expansionism on behalf of his long-suffering continent.

Lo and behold, months into the conflict the global community failed to pull Russia back from, Ukraine found far less popular sympathy for its plights among the African nations than it had naively hoped for after Kimanis heartfelt words.

Read also: Russian troops burn crops in Ukraine with incendiary rounds, trying to create global food crisis

At this point, everyone has already learned that the World Food Program sources 40% of its wheat for the emergency relief programs come from Ukraine.

According to the UN, Ukraine produces 42% of the worlds sunflower oil, 16% of its maize, and 9% of its wheat  enough to feed 400 million people. Between 2018 and 2020, Africa received $1.4 billion worth of wheat from Ukraine  12% of its total wheat imports. Before Russia invaded, 98% of those exports would pass via the Black Sea. Ukraine has so far been unable to compensate for this lost trading route.

Around 20 million tonnes are trapped in silos near Odesa and in ships literally filled with grain, U.S. State Department Secretary Antony Blinken has said.

Russian forces captured some of Ukraines most productive farmland, planted explosives throughout the fields, and destroyed vital agricultural infrastructure, Secretary Blinken continued. He emphasized credible reports that Russia was pilfering Ukraines grain to sell for its own profit and hoarding its food exports.

David Beasley, the World Food Programmes director, warned that nearly 49 million people in 43 countries, most of them in Africa, were marching towards starvation and hell on Earth unless the world responds immediately to end that damn war and gets the port open.

Story continues

Read also: Ukraines MFA summons Turkish ambassador after Turkey releases a Russian ship carrying stolen Ukrainian grain

This cause-and-effect relationship, however, fractures before the message ever reaches the African continent.

As if in a game of Telephone, the West must retract illegal decisions, meaning sanctions against Russia, to unblock the supplies, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov whispered in.

And so, Macky Sall, Senegals president and head of the African Union, laid the blame squarely on the sanctions, not Russias actions that triggered them. He called to remove the trading barriers, stressing that food should be left "outside" the conflict.

This is despite the fact that Russia has hardly even tried to veil its true motives. When moderating a panel with President Vladimir Putin at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, RTs propaganda editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan took the were hungry narrative a bit further, repeating a cynical joke, or even a slogan, has been circulating lately in Moscow.

Hunger is our last hope, she confessed. This means that once hunger sets in, this will bring them to their senses: this is when they will lift sanctions and will be friends with us because they will understand that there is no way around it.

The rock-solid fact is that Russia is still blocking millions of tonnes of desperately needed grain, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said.

To those who are concerned that the sanctions weve imposed on Russia are somehow impeding the delivery of food, Secretary Blinkens response is that is simply not true. The sanctions have exemptions for food and  including services necessary to make sure that food moves, like banking services.

The looming famine is on Russia alone, he claimed. One senior U.S. official has been going around the world to make that very clear to other countries and to help them with any questions they may have. Yet, it may be safe to conclude that they have failed to deliver this message to the continent that endures an outsized share of pain.

Ukraine speaks out in its own voice

This simple truth struggles to gain a foothold in the far regions. The reasons are many, beginning with the Wests own tainted colonial legacy. For better or for worse, Americans and Europeans alike are simply not perceived as honest brokers  and the reputational damage will not be fixed any time soon.

This is as much a fact as the Russia-manufactured famine.

Ukraine is, indeed, an integral part of the West, but for no reason should it be held accountable or even suffer for someone elses crimes, especially when its own history aligns it with the victims of imperialist oppression  not the perpetrator.

Yet, the sins of the past will continue to harm solutions of the present, unless there is a bold and daring policy overhaul, the one Ukraines President has recently championed.

The conflict may seem black and white to the Western public, but to other nations, it has many grey areas, wide open for interpretation. Thus, speaking to the African Union, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took it upon himself to be his countrys own chief communicator.

The Russian troops have come to our land and want to conquer our people while taking Africa hostage, he explained. To Russias intricate punditry, his counter-argument was that such a problem did not exist on Feb. 23 this year, but it will continue as long as this colonizing war continues.

President Zelenskyy stayed on his audience-tailored message: The sanctions policy is aimed only to stop Russia from trying to turn Ukraine into its slave.

On a side note, serfdom in Ukraine, established by Catherine II, was abolished in 1861. Have you heard about this from your Russian partners? he challenged his listeners, acknowledging the successes Russia has made in the information war in Africa, while the West naively believed these states would subscribe to its concept of good-vs-evil without further questions.

Read also: Turkish ports allow docking of Russian ships with stolen Ukrainian grain  Skhemy

Russia needs this crisis and is trying to use you and the suffering of the people to put pressure on the democracies.

The parallels continued, We must free our people from the threats artificially created for us by any states that simply want to conquer us, use our resources and our land  be it minerals, rare earth elements, or grain, Zelsnskyy said.

Coming from a Western leader, these words would sound blasphemous or disingenuous, to say the least. The time of empires  whether it is an old-school British, Russian, or Soviet empire  is over, Zelensky proclaimed.

Through the older generation, Ukraine still has a living physical memory of Holodomor, the forced starvation of 1932-1933 orchestrated by Soviet imperialism.

The presidents own home region of Dnipropetrovsk ranks first by the number of deaths out of several million people killed by the evil regime in the Kremlin. He does have the moral authority to state that in order to avoid famine in the 21st century, Russias aggressive policy of colonialism must end.

Ukraine means business

Ukraine does not want to be a security beneficiary, an economic and political dependant. Ukraines president does not speak from a position of Western comfort. Nor does he give a patronizing lecture on the moral high ground over self-service to those threatened with hunger. Zelenskyy does not dictate but rather invites Africa to build a new political history together.

Ukraine and African nations should fully understand one another and interact without intermediaries for the sake of common security interests, he says, adding that the fact that there are such interests is quite obvious after Feb. 24. Not to mention that independent Ukraine has contributed over 300 blue helmets to six UN missions to maintain peace on the African continent.

However, Ukraine must be bold and promote itself as a serious actor while convincing Africa that it is not just spouting empty talk. To substantiate his words, President Zelenskyy announced a new policy of Ukraine towards Africa and the first-ever Strategy for the Development of Ukraine's Relations with the African States.

Read also: Russians shell Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, destroy grain warehouse  regional authorities

A Special Representative for African Affairs will begin working soon, and the Foreign Ministers first regional tour to Sub-Saharan Africa is being prepared. Ukraine will send parliamentary delegates and invites reciprocal visits to renew our bilateral ties.

Separately, it was recently reported that the Foreign Minister had found himself in the crosshairs of criticism for the countrys diplomatic missions poor performance in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

A win-win-win situation

Where the West has an image problem, Ukraine can come to the rescue. It may be one of few Western nations uniquely positioned to speak about and against the colonial legacies. So far, Ukraine has demonstrated excellent communication skills, appealed to non-traditional audiences, hit all the right cultural and historical points, and generated an ambitious plan  all amidst fighting a brutal war of aggression.

However, it cannot pull off this mission alone. It obviously lacks financial and human resources for even a tactical campaign to get the African nations on board  to say nothing of leading an all-front diplomatic operation.

To put flesh on the bones, Ukraine badly needs the West. This might be an area where Ukraine and the EU could partner and incorporate the existing networks the member states have formed. For instance, President Zelenskyy has proposed to convene a large conference "Ukraine  Africa" in Kyiv.

The event would carry far more weight with a much broader European engagement  a trialogue among government officials and policymakers, business and industry leaders, NGOs and the academic community.

Ukraine aims even higher  long-overdue UN Security Council reform, where Africas voice should be fully heard. The free world must not let Russia highjack the issue and pretend to be the leading advocate for democratizing the international structures to better represent the rapidly developing regions. In his address to the UN Security Council, President Zelenskyy proposed post-war Kyiv as a venue for a global conference on UN reform and transformation.

Read also: Russias war on global food security

The UN has utterly failed to stop two major global crises  the genocidal war in Europe and the food blackmail in Africa  disasters of the exact kind it was founded to prevent while allowing the sole perpetrator of both to maintain its seat as a UNSC permanent member.

A victorious, free, and democratic Ukraine will, indeed, be a perfect location to usher a new era of peace and prosperity devoid of the colonial and imperial demons.

Sweden has successfully performed the mediator role in countries where the Western presence, albeit diplomatic, may still be unwelcome. Instead of the EU acting as a spokesperson for Ukraine in Africa, Ukraine, too, can serve as a liaison to bridge the troubled past across the brighter future on the two continents. It might be a radical agenda to take on, but Ukraine has shown it can punch above its weight.
ALONA MAZURENKO  SATURDAY, 9 JULY 2022, 15:13

The commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev, visited the positions of Ukrainian soldiers on the border with Belarus and reported that the defenders were mining dangerous areas.

Source: press service of the command of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Details: Naiev reported that measures are currently being taken to mine dangerous areas on the border with Belarus and to install engineered barriers.

Subdivisions of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine carry out measures to strengthen the state border of Ukraine in all areas which present a threat.

Naiev said that he talked with the servicemen at the positions, got acquainted with the conditions of their service, assessed the level of defence and discussed tactical defence plans.

Currently, according to him, the situation is fully controlled by the military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, units of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and other military formations and law enforcement agencies.
NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP)  Chinas support for Russias war in Ukraine is complicating U.S.-Chinese relations at a time when they are already beset by rifts and enmity over numerous other issues, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Chinese counterpart on Saturday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed the U.S. for the downturn in relations and said that American policy has been derailed by what he called a misperception of China as a threat.

Many people believe that the United States is suffering from a China-phobia, he said, according to a Chinese statement. If such threat-expansion is allowed to grow, U.S. policy toward China will be a dead end with no way out.

In five hours of talks in their first-to-face meeting since October, Blinken said he expressed deep concern about Chinas stance on Russias actions in Ukraine and did not believe Beijings protestations that it is neutral in the conflict.

The talks had been arranged in a new effort to try to rein in or at least manage rampant hostility that has come to define recent relations between Washington and Beijing.

We are concerned about the PRCs alignment with Russia, Blinken told reporters after the meeting in the Indonesian resort of Bali. He said it is difficult to be neutral in a conflict in which there is a clear aggressor but that even it were possible, I dont believe China is acting in a way that is neutral.

The Chinese statement said the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on Ukraine but provided no details.

The Biden administration had hoped that China, with its long history of opposing what it sees as interference in its own internal affairs, would take a similar position with Russia and Ukraine. But it has not, choosing instead what U.S. officials see as a hybrid position that is damaging the international rules-based order.

Blinken said every nation, China included, stands to lose if that order is eroded.

The two men met a day after they both attended a gathering of top diplomats from the Group of 20 rich and large developing countries that ended without a joint call to end Russias war in Ukraine or plan for how to deal with its impacts on food and energy security.

Story continues

However, Blinken said he believed Russia had come away from G-20 meeting isolated and alone as most participants expressed opposition to the Ukraine war. However, the ministers were unable to come to a unified G-20 call for an end to the conflict.

There was a strong consensus and Russia was left isolated, Blinken said of individual condemnations of Russias actions from various ministers, some of whom shunned conversations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

He noted that Lavrov had left the meeting early, possibly because he didnt like what he was hearing from his counterparts.

It was very important that he heard loudly and clearly from around the world condemnation of Russias aggression, Blinken said, adding: We see no signs whatsoever that Russia at his point is prepared to engage in diplomacy.

On China, Blinken said he and Wang discussed a range of contentious issues from tariffs and trade and human rights to Taiwan and disputes in the South China Sea that have all been complicated by the Chinese position on Ukraine.

Wang called on the U.S. to lift tariffs on imports from China as soon as possible, stop interfering in his country's internal affairs and refrain from harming its interests in the name of human rights and democracy. He also accused the U.S. of using salami-slicing tactics on Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its territory and says should come under its control.

Just two days earlier, the countries top military officers had faced off over Taiwan during a virtual meeting. Blinken said he stressed U.S. concerns with Chinas increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity near Taiwan and the vital importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He added that he had also raised human rights concerns regarding minorities in Tibet and in the western Xinjiang region.

Wang refuted some erroneous U.S. views on Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea, the Chinese statement said.

U.S. officials had said ahead of time they didnt expect any breakthroughs from Blinkens talks with Wang. But they said they were hopeful the conversation could help keep lines of communications open and create guardrails to guide the worlds two largest economies as they navigate increasingly complex and potentially explosive matters.

Were committed to managing this relationship, this competition responsibly as the world expects us to do, Blinken said.

The United States and China have staked out increasingly confrontational positions, including on Ukraine, that some fear could lead to miscalculation and conflict. The U.S. has watched warily as China has refused to criticize the Russian invasion, while condemning Western sanctions against Russia and accusing the U.S. and NATO of provoking the conflict.

At the G-20 meeting, Wang made an oblique reference to Chinas policy on global stability, saying to place ones own security above the security of others and intensify military blocs will only split the international community and make oneself less secure, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

On Thursday, Chinas joint chiefs of staff chairman Gen. Li Zuocheng upbraided his U.S. counterpart Gen. Mark Milley over Washingtons support for Taiwan.

Li demanded that the U.S. cease military collusion with Taiwan, saying China has no room for compromise on issues affecting its core interests."

The meeting between Li and Milley followed fiery comments by Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe at a regional security conference last month that was also attended by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Wei accused the United States of trying to hijack the support of countries in the Asia-Pacific region to turn them against Beijing, saying Washington is seeking to advance its own interests under the guise of multilateralism.

At the same meeting in Singapore, Austin said China was causing instability with its claim to Taiwan and its increased military activity in the area.

___

Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.
(Bloomberg) -- Volvo Cars AB is withdrawing from Europes car lobby, the second major automaker to do so in the past month, as the industry fractures over the transition to electric vehicles.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Volvo Cars, which aims to produce only EVs by 2030, said Friday that the ACEA lobbys efforts to combat climate change arent aggressive enough. The company said it was better to take a different path for now.

The association has been torn between the progressive view espoused by Volvo Cars and a more conservative approach favored by others, such as Stellantis NV, which announced its plan to quit the group last month after bristling at demands that the industry transition to EVs more quickly.

What we do as a sector will play a major role in deciding whether the world has a fighting chance to curb climate change Volvo Cars said in a statement. We have one of the most ambitious plans in the industry, but we cant realize zero-emission transport by ourselves.

EU countries last month endorsed a push to eliminate carbon emissions from new cars by 2035. The ACEA had said rules beyond 2030 were premature due to volatility and uncertainty in the sector.

Stellantis Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares has been among the most vocal in calling for a more gradual automotive transition. He has been critical of the speed of the change imposed by lawmakers, saying EVs arent affordable for many consumers, there are too few charging stations and the sector is under huge pressure to become more productive.

We should never forget that the choice of electrification is a political choice, not an industrial one, Tavares said last week. I respect their leadership. They decide, I comply.

The ACEA, led by BMW AG Chief Executive Officer Oliver Zipse, was founded in 1991 to represent common industry positions of manufacturers in the European Union. Its members include Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp., as well as major commercial vehicle maker Daimler Truck Holding AG.

Story continues

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(Bloomberg) -- Connor Speed never imagined he would be asking for a vasectomy at the age of 23, but after the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, he decided to take the plunge.

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Hes frustrated by what he sees as a loss of rights for the women in his life; he also wants to avoid unwanted pregnancies.

Unfortunately my fiancee and my daughter now dont have the right to choose what they want to do with their body, and I do, so I made this choice, said Speed, who scheduled the procedure in his home state of Missouri five days after the ruling. By the time he undergoes the planned procedure in October, hell have turned 24.

The high courts reversal of the 1973 landmark decision protecting the federal right to abortion has sent shock waves through the medical, legal and advocacy communities. Under pressure to respond, the White House said President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday intended to preserve access to the procedure.

Meanwhile, couples have been forced to reconsider how theyll safeguard against unwanted pregnancies. Speed is among hundreds of men rushing to book sterilization procedures after the June 24 ruling.

70 Calls

In Ohio, where abortions are now prohibited after six weeks into pregnancy, the Cleveland Clinic went from lining up three or four vasectomies a day to 90 in the week following the Supreme Court decision. Des Moines, Iowa, urologist Esgar Guarin said he typically performs 40 to 50 vasectomies a month; last weekend alone 20 men registered. Koushik Shaw of the Austin Urology Institute in Texas said his office received about 70 calls within the hour of the ruling.

Story continues

Many men who had been considering a vasectomy say the verdict was the last straw, according to Tampa, Florida, urologist Doug Stein. Weekly requests for the procedure at his practice have nearly tripled to about 150.

They want to remain pregnancy-free, because now you cannot reverse a pregnancy as easily as you could before, he said.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which provides vasectomies in some of its clinics, said web traffic on a page explaining how to receive a sterilization procedure increased over 2,200% in the days following the judgment. Traffic to an article on how to get a vasectomy spiked more than 1,500%.

Many people are rightfully concerned about their rights and access to sexual and reproductive health care  including, but not limited to, abortion, said Diana Contreras, Planned Parenthoods chief health care officer.

In a vasectomy, doctors sever the tubes that carry sperm, preventing it from mixing with semen. Dependence on it is not uncommon: In a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey published in 2020, 5.6% of women cited vasectomy as their contraceptive approach, compared with 14% using birth control pills.

While vasectomies are often reversible, success rates range from 30% to 90%. Most womens tubal ligation procedures, another surgical form of pregnancy prevention, cant be reversed and are far more dangerous than male sterilization.

No Regrets

Every single year in this country alone, 25 to 30 women die from getting their tubes tied, said Marc Goldstein, a Weill Cornell Medicine urologist. In contrast, research published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1992 found that, among men who were cancer-free at the start of the study, vasectomy was associated with reductions in mortality from all causes.

Goldstein said hes seen an unusual increase among vasectomies in men who are younger and in childless couples since the ruling. That may also reflect a link between vasectomies and financial dread thats been noted in periods such as the Great Recession of 2007-2009, when procedures spiked while reversals dropped, he said. US consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest point since July 2020, according to the Ipsos-Forbes Advisor US Consumer Confidence Tracker.

Whenever we see a downturn in the economy, more people think about having less children, said Philip Werthman, a urologist at the Center for Male Reproductive Medicine & Vasectomy Reversal in Los Angeles. Whether those trends last remains to be seen.

My initial response is that part of this is reactionary, said Stein, the Tampa urologist. Future legislation and court activity will likely play an important role, he said.

While contraception itself is currently unaffected by the courts June decision, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the group reconsider that issue, among many other rights-based questions. As those uncertainties mount, Speed said his choice to get a vasectomy has eased a lot of his anxieties about family planning.

I dont regret my decision, he said. I am eager for it, Im excited, and hopefully its not just a decision made in vain.

(Corrects rate of vasectomy appointments at Cleveland Clinic in sixth paragraph of story published July 8. In an earlier version, a source corrected data from the Great Recession in third section.)

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Shinzo Abe Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

Monarchs, presidents, and prime ministers around the world paid tribute to former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after he was assassinated Friday.

Abe died after being shot with a homemade firearm while campaigning for a candidate from his Liberal Democratic Party ahead of Sunday's parliamentary elections. Police have charged 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami with Abe's murder.

Queen Elizabeth II said Abe's "love for Japan, and his desire to forge ever-closer bonds with the United Kingdom, were clear." King Abdullah II of Jordan praised Abe as a "great leader" and a "true friend."

President Biden said the long-serving prime minister's death was "a tragedy for Japan and for all who knew him." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered his "deepest condolences." French President Emmanuel Macron called Abe "a great prime minister" who "worked to bring balance to the world."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Saturday a national day of mourning for Abe, while Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed him as "a giant on the world stage."

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has canceled her visit to the Port of Yokohama during her visit to Japan next week out of deference following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a Treasury official said on Saturday.

Abe was fatally shot on Friday while giving a campaign speech on a street in the western city of Nara.

Yellen had been scheduled to visit the port on Tuesday for a roundtable with business leaders, tour the facilities and deliver a speech.

Separately, the State Department said late on Saturday that Secretary Antony Blinken was adding a stop in Tokyo in the coming days as part of his Asia trip to offer condolences to the Japanese people on Abe's death and to meet senior Japanese officials.

The Treasury official said Yellen's bilateral meetings in Japan would still take place. She is scheduled to meet Minister of Finance Suzuki Shunichi on Tuesday.

Yellen's aircraft stopped briefly to refuel at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on the way to Tokyo. Former President Donald Trump was also in town to raise money for U.S. House of Representatives candidate Sarah Palin and other Republican candidates.

Yellen will participate in a meeting of the Group of 20 major economies in Indonesia and meet officials from South Korea as she seeks to build support for a price cap on Russian oil during her trip to Asia, the Treasury Department said on Friday.

The trip, Yellen's first visit to the Indo-Pacific region as treasury secretary, comes amid nagging questions about how well a price cap on Russian oil could work without the support of India and others now buying cheap Russian oil.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, additional reporting by David Shepardson; Writing by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Franklin Paul and Sandra Maler)
(Bloomberg) --

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Moments after Boris Johnson appointed Nadhim Zahawi on Tuesday night, the British prime minister appealed to his new Chancellor of the Exchequer to cut taxes in a last-ditch effort to save his government.

Zahawi, according to a witness to the conversation in Downing Street, was at first taken aback at the plan and then -- aghast -- forcibly rejected the idea. At that point, hed not yet even set foot in the Treasury building, let alone assessed whether the economy could afford the measure.

The exchange, at a time Johnsons team was trying to fend off the threat of a leadership challenge following the resignations of Zahawis predecessor, Rishi Sunak, and Health Secretary Sajid Javid, illustrates the lengths the prime minister was prepared to go to cling to power.

Read More: Defiant Johnson Refuses to Quit, Fires Gove Over Betrayals

A spokesman for Zahawi declined to comment on private conversations. A spokesman for Johnson, when asked about the episode, said no economic policy speech is planned and the caretaker government wont be making any major policy changes.

With the prime ministers future still very much an open question, an ally was briefing that Johnson and Zahawi would make a speech announcing tax cuts that would help win over rebel Conservative MPs who in those frenzied hours were plotting the premiers downfall.

Johnson had spent the last two months mulling an economic policy speech with Sunak, but according to the premiers ally, the then chancellor was digging in. With Sunak gone, Johnson suggested to Zahawi they could do it July 14.

On Wednesday morning, Zahawi was on the airwaves in a long-planned appearance, batting away questions about whether hed cut taxes.

Story continues

It was only after hed finished speaking to the media that he made his way to the grand Treasury building that overlooks St James Park. He was greeted by a senior bureaucrat, who informed him he was the first chancellor in history to speak to the press before stepping foot in the building.

According to a person familiar with his thinking, Zahawi sees himself a fiscal conservative and would love nothing more than to cut taxes. However, prior to his appointment as chancellor, hed been focused on upcoming school exams as education secretary, not looking at Treasury spreadsheets.

Read More: Johnson Says Major Fiscal Decisions Should Be for Next UK Leader

Still, as chancellor, Zahawi will need to make a call on looming civil service pay rises. And if, as expected, he stands for Tory leader himself, therell be no escaping forming a position on tax cuts.

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KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO  SATURDAY, 9 JULY 2022, 22:33

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has explained that his dismissal of Ukrainian ambassadors in some countries is a matter of rotations.

Source: the presidents evening address

Direct quote: "Today I signed decrees dismissing several ambassadors of Ukraine. This is a matter of rotations, a normal part of diplomatic practice.

New representatives of Ukraine to the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Norway and other countries will be appointed. Nominations are being prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

Details: In his address, Zelenskyy also announced that there would be important news from government officials next week.

"I am already preparing for the new week: there will be important news, particularly from government officials," he said.

The president also thanked the US for its decision to send Ukraine a new US$400 million defence aid package.

"Additional HIMARS systems and other high-precision weapons enable us to take anti-terrorist measures and to reduce Russian missile strikes on our people," he said.

The president said the terrorist actions of the Russian Federation "can only be stopped with modern powerful weapons".

Previously: On Saturday, Zelenskyy dismissed Ukraines ambassadors to Germany and Hungary, as well as the Czech Republic, Norway and a number of other countries.

On 8 July, US President Joe Biden signed a bill allocating a new US$400 million aid package to Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Gerard Larcher

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk said on Facebook that while speaking in the parliament session hall this morning, Larcher emphasized that the French Senate and the national parliaments of Europe would support Ukraine from the candidate status to the approval of the decision on joining the EU.

Read also: French President Macron promises to speed Ukraines way into EU

"The heart of European parliamentarianism is beating in these walls, in the parliament building," Stefanchuk quoted Larcher as saying.

"What a joy to see the EU flag along with the Ukrainian one in this hall. Twelve stars on a blue background are a symbol of unity and hope. And this flag unites us from Paris to Kyiv, from Kyiv to Brussels."

Later, Zelenskyy reported on Telegram messenger about his meeting with Larcher and the French delegates.

Read also: Why are European leaders so eager to help Putin save face?

The Ukrainian president thanked Paris for supporting Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as for its important assistance to Ukraines army and people during the full-scale Russian invasion of the country.

Earlier Ukraine's Ambassador to France Vadym Omelchenko said that Russian influence in the country was decreasing, and "the French seem to have woken up," and "the level of support for Ukraine is very serious."

French President Emmanuel Macron said during the G7 summit that "Russia can't and shouldn't win" and that support for Ukraine and sanctions against Moscow would continue "as long as necessary."

Read also: France denies Russian reports of a captured Caesar artillery piece

Macron also announced that Paris would transfer additional Caesar howitzers and "a significant amount of armored vehicles" to Kyiv.
Resources

Soni Cochran, a UNL Extension disaster education coordinator, suggests following resources to help people talk about suicide from the National Alliance on Mental Illness at nami.org/blogs/nami-blog/september-2019/how-to-ask-someone-about-suicide.

QPR and other services provided by Region 2

Region 2 Human Services provides QPR training, counseling and a number of mental health resources and services. Region 2 is based in North Platte and serves west central and southwest Nebraska.

Free QPR training

I am currently working on dates for upcoming community-wide virtual QPR trainings, said Shannon Sell, prevention coordinator for Region 2. Anyone can participate at no charge. In addition, If there is an agency, community group or church interested in setting up a virtual QPR training, they can email me at shannonsell@r2hs.com.

Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors

Region 2 also coordinates a local LOSS team, which provides immediate and long-term support for families and loved ones of suicide victims. Jennier Krajewski is the LOSS team coordinator for southwest Nebraska and can be reached at 308-221-0143. For information about other LOSS programs in Nebraska, go to nebraskaloss.org.

MyStrength

MyStrength is a web and mobile tool to help anyone get through lifes struggles. For information go to r2hs.com.

Grounding Assistance Phone Line

Call the Grounding Assistance number to hear a message to help you relax and focus. For English call 308-534-9142. For Spanish call 308-532-6436

For information about other Region 2 Services, including counseling, go to r2hs.com or call 308-534-6029.

988 debuts Saturday

Beginning on Saturday, anyone can reach the Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling 988 from any landline or mobile phone in the United States. People can also reach the Lifeline by calling 1-800-273-TALK.

If immediate help is needed in a crisis situation, call 911.
I am sure through the past 25 years or so, I have probably used a similar photo for my Trash & Treasures column, but just took this photo a few moments ago (Tuesday morning) and decided to write a bit more about my crazy little corner of Christmas all year round. I have always enjoyed the holiday so very much so I decided to do Christmas all 12 months instead of one week or so. One thing about it, the extra set of Christmas lights around my corner cupboard definitely highlights my other prints and pictures on my wall and many other things, like photos and a beautiful painting from a dear friend and many other items that I am able to enjoy all year round.

As I have mentioned before, we do not have to wait to enjoy certain holidays and special dates of the year. We are allowed to celebrate whatever or whichever date however we want to in our own homes. My corner cupboard is very special to me because I found it on my own  bought it on my own, and hauled it over 1,000 miles on my own. (Well, a dear someone did help me pack for the final destination back home.) Surprising what you can do when you set your mind to it. My mother would have probably called it my stubbornness when setting my mind and heart to get something done. However, I would prefer to call it a bit of configuring and planning and packing to get this cupboard back to Nebraska. I found it in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at a large and beautiful antique shop  similar to the one we have in our own hometown. It was a very special shop that carried so many beautiful and wonderful items that it took all my will power to keep from buying out the whole store (that and my pocket book, of course).

When we see something in a shop and we think we can afford it, especially if it happens to be a very unique item and maybe even a one-of-a-kind item, then the time to buy it is when you see it. Naturally, right? Well as a collector and antique dealer, my way of thinking may be a bit more one-sided than most, but as much enjoyment as I have had with this certain piece, I can actually say that I have received so much fun and special moments from just looking at this cupboard. I also enjoy rearranging what is inside, especially the top glass part that displays a little bit of everything I love to hunt for and keep. Many pieces of Watt Pottery, my fun white ironstone with many different patterns and colors on each individual pieces and some of my Desert Rose Franciscan as well as odds and ends of smaller pieces I fell in love with and decided to keep instead of sell.

I am one of the lucky ones, I guess. I do have the choice to keep items, but one of these days soon I may have to start deciding what to give to family (or who wants what not to). I need to carefully start divvying items out to where I want them to be after I am gone. So I need to get busy. The old girl is not getting any younger and nothing would please me more to see some of my items sitting in other family members homes now. Both sons and families have a few pieces of mine already  small as well as larger items. I love to see it displayed their way and I know they still love it as much as I do. And they know the story about most of the pieces. Stories of where I found it or why I bought it or why I think it is so very special to me.

Sometimes when we buy a gift for someone, it might be the wrong size and they have to take it back and exchange it. Well the piece of furniture in the corner of my living room is one piece you probably could not take back and exchange it for a smaller piece. However, the seller might buy this particular cupboard back because I am sure it has increased in value by leaps and bounds. And this is why I am in the business that I am in, because I love to go on the hunt, find my treasures, and remember the fun I had finding it and getting it home. Fun, I say? Well, that depends on how big the item is and how many times you have to pack it and repack it again. But, half the fun of hunting for antiques and treasures along the route is the story I can tell when I finally reach my destination. A lot like a hunter out in a field looking for their game to take home  I am pretty much the same way as an avid hunter in many respects, I guess.

And then we can talk about the miles we travel or traveled during these adventurous trips. Most of it was done in my little 2012 four-door black Toyota pickup that had 90,000 miles on it. I still love reminiscing about each and every mile I have put on my little truck. I would even pull a 20-foot trailer behind me on my long runs, and maybe even a few short runs. You just never know when you might run in to a fantastic sale or auction. I needed to be prepared at all times. This is serious business  well, sometimes. I used to get so much enjoyment filling that old trailer up and even the back end of the pickup as well. And then the real fun begins when you get home and start unloading and doing the researching for each and every piece.

Have you ever gone to a yard sale and just happened to be in the right spot at the right time and you find a beautiful piece of stoneware which is reasonably priced or maybe a bowl that matches your other mixing bowls and even in the right color? Memories  that is what this antiquing business is really about. The stories you can tell to your family and friends. The story of how you found your special item to finish your whole collection or the story of how you actually got started collecting certain items at the very beginning.

My little corner cabinet sitting in my living room with holiday lights all around it is actually a night light in the late evening when watching TV and sometimes I leave it on all night so I dont stub my toe if I need to get up to get myself a glass of water. Strange I guess, when I stop to think about all of my collecting and buying merchandise for my antique booth in the CR Rustics Antique Mall at 108 E. Fifth St. in North Platte. It is always fun to buy for the shop  but sometimes it is very hard to let loose of some things also. When we started into antiques many years ago, our boys were young and would enjoy (most of the time, anyway) going with us. We would camp out with our little mini motorhome (with many many miles on it), but it got us where we were going. And it got us back home again, usually. A few little (and one not so little) breakdowns  but as many miles as we put on that old mini, it got us home safely again.

We cannot buy memories, we can only make them. And making them is priceless when you have your family along with you to help you tell your life story. I wont get into details, of course, but we did have some fun road trips for sure. And a very special friend of mine would ride with me many times. She would find her special things to keep as well  never for resale, however. Lucky her, she got to keep what she liked. Her husband never said no. And he would always grin at me and say, Looks like you gals got another pickup/trailer load of stuff. Now where are you going to put it all? The buying was always the most fun part, especially if you are doing it with a friend who likes antiques and things just as much as you do. Nothing like it! Try it sometime  you will find out exactly what I mean.

Well, I hope everyone had a beautiful Fourth of July and celebrated with family and friends. I did. I want to wish everyone who is reading this article today a very safe summer  get out there and enjoy it. But please remember to stop by the CR Rustics Antique Mall, and tell them that Judy sent you. Be careful when traveling, enjoy making those memories. Be safe everyone, and I hope to see you soon.
Every month, customers of Opelika Power Services can help others in the community who need assistance paying their power bill by donating to the Opelika Share Program.

These donations are collected each month and are used to help those in need until the funds run out. Starting in August, the second round of donations this year will be passed out to those who qualify, so now is the time to add a little extra to the power bill to help those in need. Funds are distributed twice a year during the harsh summer weather and during the harsh winter weather.

The Opelika Share Program is a way for neighbors to help neighbors keep their lights on in times of need, the City of Opelika websites said.

The program was started by Mayor Gary Fuller about eight years ago as a way to assist Opelika residents who are 55 years old or older or who are disabled pay their power bills.

To qualify for assistance, individuals must also be an Opelika Power Services customer and live within the city limits of Opelika.

The Opelika Share Program is really a painless way for folks to just add on to your power bill. You pay a few bucks a month, and it really helps a lot of people, Fuller said.

All the donations will go directly to helping local qualified residents in need.

Donations are collected by Opelika Power Services, and residents who want to apply for assistance will be screened by United Way of Lee County, which is a non-profit volunteer organization that is dedicated to improving the quality of life for everyone in the community.

Caitlin Andrews, the community initiative specialist for United Way of Lee County, has administered the program for several years.

She said when people call looking for help with their Opelika power bill, the organization asses to make sure they qualify then helps them fill out the application.

Theyll just need to bring some paperwork to our office and the whole process usually takes about a week from start to finish, Andrews said.

Those who qualify will be able to receive assistance twice a year, once during the heating season and once during the cooling season.

Individuals can qualify once between January and June and again between July and December.

Because United Way is working on a school supply drive this July, Andrews said they will start working on giving out the next round of power bill donations starting on August 1.

United Way works with 2-1-1 Connects Alabama, which helps people  specifically the elderly, disabled and low-income families  get in touch with different services and resources.

Andrews said the 2-1-1 number has received a lot of calls recently from people needing assistance with power bills. Once the second round of funds comes through in August, the Opelika Share Program will be able to help respond to this need.

Each recipient can receive up to $150 that goes towards their power bill.

Andrews said the number of recipients who can receive assistance all depends on the amount of community donations that are given.

All of the money thats donated gets put into the fund for this program, so thats our only limit, she said. We can only send what we have.

To give to the Opelika Share Program, check the box on your paper power bill, call 334-705-5170, visit Opelika Power Services at 600 Fox Run Parkway, go on Smarthub Web and visit Opelika Share under Billing and Payments or go on Smarthub Mobile and visit Opelika Share under the Bill and Pay menu.

Individuals can choose to round their power bill up to the nearest dollar, give a one-time donation or give a monthly donation.

Jessica Samuel, manager of administrative services at Opelika Power, said they are always excited to offer this assistance program to citizens.
"says they've only licensed the film to stream in France after it completes the countrys 15-month theatrical window."



they shouldn't have done this either tho

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I love the hastiness to clarify as if it's insulting lol although to license it anywhere is a poor decision imo



I'm waiting for his next project so badly. Not because I like him, God fuck no, but because I know it will underperform. The court circus could barely keep attention the entire duration without bot help so I know these people "really concerned with male abuse victims" will not be turning out to view a Depp film and not even turn on a streaming service to watch it in the background. They don't actually care about his career.

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Yeah, he played in my city toward the end of the trial and people were mobbing the venue and discussing it nonstop (I couldn't get away from hearing it and was struggling so much that week) but there's absolutely no way that he'd get that reception even if he came right now, imo. I don't hear anyone mention him anymore; people have moved on. Most of the people supporting the trial were probably laughing at his Grindlewald a few years ago and have never truly cared about him beyond Jack Sparrow.

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Good. No one should finance it. Fuck you.

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okay netflix, now you only have 57 other gross marks against you, good job

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call me when this man is dead

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Seriously I dont wanna see another headline about him unless hes dead or the trial verdict was overturned.

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It is the bare minimum he can do for all the times we have to see his name, mug, and actions in the headlines. Do it for us, Johnny.

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Even when he's dead, he's going to get praise every damn time. I don't think I could handle that either. But yea death is still better than him not being punished right now. I'm trying to think of a situation where he would reveal himself as the abuser and then die, but idk how that will happen.

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Okay but can the powers that be stop sponsoring his life.

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The more I think about that fake juror the more the verdict seems suspect as fuck. Didnt the juror on gma say they discussed the donation thing for like 4+ hours? I was mad when I heard that at first bc who cares about the donation, but now Im like wait, was someone defending her there?? Why else would they need to discuss it for that long if they were all unanimous?



And now Im like was the one win in her favor gifted (so to speak), so they could give depp all his wins?? That was the one claim that didnt just say it was a hoax outright, and has been explained away that they jury didnt mean to say that the abuse was a hoax was a lie BUT that they believed the part about faking the scene was a lie.



That fake juror had to have manipulated the verdict. Hes already suspect as fuck since he lied to get ON the trial when people want to be dismissed.



(Insert gif bc Im on my phone and dont know how lol)



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You've got my brain going places too after reading your comment lol



This whole trial setup was corrupt from top to bottom, but an especially egregious oversight like this could have influenced way more than just this single juror's decision making. I didn't quite think about the potential to influence other jurors upon reading the news until just now.

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this shit is unsettling. its like bret easton elliss 12 angry men or something, except henry fonda isnt the manic pixie dream juror justice crusader but actually the guilty partys stan/accomplice who sabotaged a real juror, attended in their place, then swayed any apathetic jurors to his side by feeding on their existing prejudice and misogyny



its just so dark-sided? odd how so much wild and horrible shit keeps snowballing from these past several years yet i can still experience shock

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Im glad someone knew what I was talking about!! 

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That donation thing is so... dumb. The argument between "pledge" and "donate" and it's like who the hell cares? She was donating the money. She worked out a plan with the ACLU for crying out loud.

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Im not sure how jury works but I dont think one person can decide/manipulate/change the vote on their own? Isnt that the whole point of having a jury? So that more than person (the judge) can discuss the issue thus avoiding personal bias as much as possible. I dont argue that that juror is sus, because he clearly very intentionally wanted to be on the case.. but this is a little bit much. Like. This isnt the most public celebrity trial, she isnt the first ever DV survivor to have the system absolutely fail her at every single turn, and he isnt some criminal mastermind (not is his legal team that smart).

Sorry I just think this is very ~~bond villain when I think the reality is just that the system was set in place by men, to protect men, and is by default actively against women. And to try and find some big conspiracy about the result is to almost spare the system from all the blame.



Again, sorry if this is aggressive, this trial was super triggering for me and with everything going on Im just tired of women being beaten down.

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good



didn't this pos also donate 8mill to orphans or something recently? i actually don't wish him death because then his insane fans will make him a martyr, i just wish him humiliation and pain.

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Those onters who said that, now that he's washed up, he'll prob run to france like Polanski (and be welcomed) were spot on.

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If you have to go out of your way to deny financing it, it's probably a sign you shouldn't be platforming it at all.

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Who was the source for the original rumor? Johnny Depp in some Groucho Marx glasses?

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Good. Now give us good shows.

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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ

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His PR team keeps trying to force the idea that every studio in hollywood is fighting to work with him, and funnily enough all of the claims keep getting denied.

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The joke is, he's had to buy his way into the few films he has made recently anyway. He throws money at the budget and gets an Executive Producer credit.



I suspect that's how he got this role.

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"people were filling stone candle holders with rubbing alcohol and melting marshmallows for smores"



Excuse me, what?! None of that sounds even remotely safe

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Probably learned it on Tiktok that makes vids of idiots mixing household cleaners not realizing that shit can kill you.

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Or like how they said storing avocados in water will help it last longer but it will also give you food poisoning lol

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You can create mustard gas. People really need to stop with the TikTok hacks and get some common sense.

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Probably. They need Ann Reardon to come and save them from themselves again.

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lmao tbh though, nothing Ive seen on TikTok comes close to the horrors of Jackass and all the adjacent shows

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If this were a plotline in a parody TV show, it would seem too unbelievably stupid.

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I feel like if 30 Rock were still around, Jenna would try to launch her own Goop-esque brand and something like this would happen to her store.

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This sounds stupid and avoidable but I hope they'll recover from this both physically and logically

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logically lmao

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If this had happened to me, which it wouldn't have, I would spend more time embarrassed how I got injured than I would spend being injured. Burned myself trying to roast marshmallows over an alcohol fire in a GOOP? You can't live it down even a little bit!

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completely off topic but your icon is enticing me to watch mayuyu's grad concert lmao

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It's like zoolander gas station scene, someone was like 

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I-



Maybe humanitys time needs to be done.

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This is almost a candidate for the Darwin Awards.

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I can 100% imagine some frazzled event manager, fresh out of college, worried that her boss is going to totally freak out because the people want smores, Jared! And so they do this.

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On the one hand, if someone got hurt at one of my events I'd be sick to my stomach.



On the other hand, why was that event manager doing the event equivalent of five minute crafts with no research?

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https://www.amazon.com/HomeBuddy-Tabletop-Fire-Pit-Extinguisher/dp/B08ZYNJSMH/ref=mp_s_a_1_12?keywords=desktop+fireplace&qid=1657337480&sr=8-12 They probably thought the candle holders would work the same as these fire pits you can buy

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wtf?!

"people were filling stone candle holders with rubbing alcohol"wtf?!

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What the actual fuck!!!! Who thought this was a good idea???

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Dear Lord! Are the espadrilles ok?!

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Someone lit the vagina eggs with the vagina candle and the C4 ovaries exploded and Goop will sell it as the ultimate enlightenment orgasm for $21,000.99



add $400 for shipping and not so careful handling.

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I just saw this on twitter too lol!!



Wild.

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lmao what? Aren't they billionaires? Is that really him? Why does it look like Brad Pitt from that one movie?



Edit: oops sorry, didn't mean to reply to you! I blame Eddie.



Edited at 2022-07-09 06:58 pm (UTC)

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I feel like I read quite a while ago that his parents cut him off a long time ago. Thats why he was working construction a few years ago? Like after the cheating on his wife came out, but before the more extreme stuff.

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Surely he still has family money?

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Maybe they cut him off?

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I thought he was broke.

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What this bitch deserves

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Is he bored? He's rich enough to.....not sell timeshares.

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Surprised he didnt start an Only Fans or go overseas to work. Like being a white villain in Chinese dramas/movies. Or act in Russia and rest of Europe? LOL 

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We don't want him here either, keep him.

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Not anymore hes not iirc

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Not that I'm an expert on this man's face, but it doesn't look that much like him? Or is it just that he is such a generic white man, facially speaking, that I am struggling?

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Mte but I want to believe

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Yeah I cant tell from the picture tbh but I would know him by his voice, its very distinctive

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I think it looks more like him in the other photos.

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I think it is him but if not I feel bad for people who inadvertently get press for things like this.

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Ive seen call me by your name a thousand times thats his bland ass face

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I thought he had a longer nose but I guess it could be because hes talking and the photo is grainy.



Edit: Nevermind I went and looked at the other photos and thats definitely him.



Edited at 2022-07-10 05:34 pm (UTC)

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Omg wasnt there an article about him and serial killers how they always have generic faces.

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This completely tracks because the few timeshare pitches Ive had to sit through had these eerily charismatic salesmen who have off major creep vibes.

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I sat through an hour long timeshare pitch and the guy got super pissed that I wouldn't sign up. Dude, I just wanted my free trip to Vegas, kay?

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I heard that many people who go to those things for the free stuff (lunch, whatever) feel threatened by the people in charge when it comes time to sign up.

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yeah we sat through one to get a few days at a condo and I felt like they wanted to follow us to our cars after. Im glad my dad used to sell used cars so he was impervious to the mind-melding.

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they really upset me for some reason? I have a big personality when I want but I don't like forced engagement particularly if you are just trying to sell me something, I just want to be left alone. I also try to respect people's time and understand they need to work, so I just get caught in this weird loop of like "just listen and say no" and "leave me the fuck alone, I'm just by the pool." It's bad and I've never met one of them that didn't sketch me out.

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if you say so....

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So he has to be a terrible person no matter what he does. I see.

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I wonder what the world would be like if we taught men empathy.

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???



I mean the accusations against are not exactly good though.

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lol loser

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The rumors of him awful with money and being bankrolled by those women must be true.

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that's sad huh...

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lmfao what a loser

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The hair looks like the average white dad with khaki zipped shorts and a cellphone holder, i can't imagine that's him

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Noah Schnapp went back to work as a lifeguard for the summer after getting all those stranger things checks. I'm willing to believe this is Armie selling timeshares lol

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Oh really? Thats good for him.

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Yeah it was on a tik tok. It's great he's putting some normalcy into his life.

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He was saying in one of those press circuit videos that he was going to college after Stranger Things to major in business because he wasn't even sure whether he'd keep acting. And honestly, good for him.

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How does the kid do that without getting mobbed? You would think he would have to pay for private security to be out in the open with people on the daily like that.

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Did he? That's rare... but good for him i guess.

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I'm surprised he can do that without getting mobbed. Good for him, though

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That's really nice. There's a lifeguard shortage in my city this summer (I'm guessing in other cities too) to the point that most of the community pools are closed and the lake is "swim at your own risk".



I can totally see him being one of those celeb kids that ends up ditching acting completely or at least scales back and goes to school for a long time and just cherry picks good roles as an adult.

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He's 17, though, like I'm sorry, but I ain't trusting a 17 yo to save anyone

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Tokayev said he sees the transportation of oil across the Caspian Sea as the most promising alternative.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made the appeal two days after a court in Russia ruled to suspend operations on a key export pipeline.

Kazakhstan is seeking help from the United States to diversify oil exports away from Russia.

Kazakhstans president has pleaded for assistance from U.S. companies in developing his countrys energy resources to help consolidate oil export routes circumventing Russia. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made the appeal on July 7, two days after a court in Russia ruled to suspend operations on a pipeline that Kazakhstan uses to export the bulk of its oil. That pipeline rises in western Kazakhstan and runs to a Black Sea terminal inside Russia.

Tokayev said he sees the transportation of oil across the Caspian Sea as the most promising alternative.

"I instruct [state-owned oil and gas company] KazMunaiGaz to work out the best option for implementing this, including through the involvement of investors at the Tengiz project," he told officials.

Tengiz, a field located in western Kazakhstan, is being developed by Tengizchevroil, a joint venture 50 percent controlled by U.S. major Chevron and 25 percent owned by its U.S. peer ExxonMobil. KazMunaiGaz owns another 20 percent.

Tokayev did not specifically mention Russia in his remarks, although the timing of this fresh order for Caspian export routes to be enhanced are an unambiguous allusion to recent developments with the CPC pipeline.

In a July 5 ruling, the Primorsky district court in the southern Russian city of Novorossiysk found that the CPC, which is jointly owned by a large assortment of international companies, had allegedly committed environmental violations. It ordered that the pipeline should remain idle for one month. The CPC route last year carried around 53-54 million tons of oil toward Novorossiysk.

Some analysts have interpreted this ruling as an attempt by Moscow to put pressure Nur-Sultan into providing Russia with relief from Western sanctions. Kazakhstan has instead been acting in ways that Russia might perceive as low-key hostile.

Related: Boris Johnson Resigns As Energy Crisis Worsens And Scandals Mount

In a telephone conversation with EU Council President Charles Michel on July 4, Tokayev pledged to make Kazakhstans hydrocarbon potential available in order to stabilize the situation on global and European [energy] markets. The need for that kind of help has become particularly acute since late May, when European Union nations agreed to effectively cut around 90 percent of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year.

Tokayev on July 7 also instructed the government to take measures to increase the capacity of the Atyrau-Kenkiyak and Kenkiyak-Kumkol oil pipelines. Those routes are designed to carry crude from fields in the west of the country eastward, in the direction of China.

During the last extended period in which the CPC was unavailable  in April, following a period in which oil loading facilities at Novorossiysk were allegedly rendered inoperable by storm damage  substantial amounts of crude were redirected eastward. Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov has revealed that 561,000 tons of oil that should have been transported through the CPC pipeline were sent along alternative routes in April.

By Eurasianet.org

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The Taliban have promised investors peace, and the ISKP is threatening that peace.

The terror group sees the railway as a non-Muslim scheme to drag Afghanistan into the modern world.

Ever since they took control of Kabul last summer, the Taliban have sought to assure neighboring countries that Afghanistan is open for business and that they can protect investments. Islamic State is making that sales pitch harder.

Take Tashkents ambition to build a railway across Afghanistan that would connect Uzbekistan to ports in Pakistan and link Central Asia to new markets: In recent months, top officials from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan have discussed moving forward with a survey. The World Bank has reportedly expressed interest. The Taliban has promised security. And Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP)  the terror groups local branch, which has claimed a volley of atrocities targeting civilians across Afghanistan in the last year  has vowed to kill anyone working on it.

ISKP sees the railway as a devious scheme by non-Muslims to drag Afghanistan into the modern world. It is the road by which the apostates plan to bring their democracy, declared an April message on the Voice of Khorasan (Khorasan Ovozi), an Uzbek-language Telegram channel. The caliphate's mujahideen will never, under any circumstances, allow the enemies of Islam to realize this insidious plan. ISKPs Al-Azaim Media Foundation and Voice of Khorasan released two Uzbek audio statements celebrating an attack that month on the Uzbek border and disparaging the rail project.

ISKP has been fighting the Taliban since around 2015. As part of its recruiting pitch, ideologues argue that the Taliban are not true Muslims. ISKP alleges that the new rulers in Kabul  the Taliban 2.0  have now cooked up, in concert with Tashkent, a secret agreement against Islam.

The pro-ISKP Tavhid Khabarlari channel has likewise alleged the Uzbek government uses the Taliban as proxies to realize its railway project and dreams of export routes to the subcontinent.

It is not only the trans-Afghanistan railway in Islamic States crosshairs.

ISKP-linked social media accounts are pouring scorn on the prospective Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. For example, pro-IS propaganda outlet Anfaal Media last November said the Taliban, by working with foreigners to resurrect the decades-old plan, was protecting the interests of the enemies of Allah in Afghanistan. The Taliban, cognizant of the potential risk posed by the likes of the ISKP, then promised to provide 30,000 troops to guard the pipeline.

While the leaders of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan receive the lions share of abuse on these platforms, Tavhid Khabarlari last month took aim at Turkmenistan, saying in a June 23 post that the authoritarian government in Ashgabat must be destroyed. In case there was any doubt, it published doctored images of masked jihadis killing the president.

Sights on the Middle Kingdom

The Talibans seizure of power last year deepened Afghanistans humanitarian crisis and fostered a need for new partners. China, with its wealth and influence, is a natural and obvious source of investment and aid. The Asian giant, however, does not simply act as a charity. Beijing and Chinese firms are proceeding with caution.

Meanwhile, ISKP has significantly ramped up its anti-China propaganda.

The June 17 issue of Voice of Khorasan magazine reprised familiar concerns about Beijings crackdown on Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang and blasted the Taliban for befriending such a state, likening the relationship to that of master and servant.

The Islamic States warriors will attack the modern cities of China to avenge the Uyghur Muslims, Voice of Khorasan declared. Similarly, the May issue of ISKPs new Pashto language-magazine, Khorasan Ghag, promised attacks on China and Chinese interests in Afghanistan.

Related: U.S. Slaps New Oil Sanctions On Iran Amid Stalled Nuclear Negotiations

Unlike Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, though, China is a harder target. The country is protected by a robust security apparatus and natural borders in the high Pamir and Tien Shan mountains. So ISKP seems to be searching for local Chinese targets. The pro-IS Anfaal Media, for instance, in November pointed to Chinas involvement with the copper mine at Mes Aynak, listing the project among the interests of enemies of Allah in Afghanistan.

ISKP knows that Taliban rule is weak. Its strategy includes both kinetic attacks  witness the June 18 assault on a Sikh temple in Kabul, which ISKP claimed had been carried out by a Tajik suicide bomber  and psychological warfare in diverse online networks.

The Taliban have promised investors peace. Any attack on the Talibans nascent international partnerships would further isolate the war-racked country.

By Eurasianet.org

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
While gasoline prices are still $1.50 higher per gallon than they were this time last year, they fell sharply overnight in what was the largest one-day drop in nearly 15 years, according to AAA data.

The current price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States is averaging $4.721 on Friday, down from $4.752 per gallon on Thursdaya 3.1-cent drop. The weekly change is even more significant at 12.1 cents.

According to Gas Buddys Patrick De Haan, more than 5,800 gas stations across the country are offering gasoline at $3.99 per gallon or less.

While they are trending down this week, gasoline prices are still $1.58 higher than they were this time last year. Gasoline prices continued to drop as crude oil prices rose on Thursday and Friday, but crude oil prices are still down significantly week on week.

WTI crude was trading up $2.01 per barrel on Friday at $104.70down almost $4 on the week.

High gasoline prices have been a worry for the Biden Administration, which has so far released more than 145 million barrels of crude oil from the nations Strategic Petroleum Reserves, bringing the SPR down to levels not seen in decades in order to calm the high prices at the pump.

But the falling price of crude oilwhich makes up about 60% of the cost of gasolinefell this week largely on fears of a recession.

Another measure that the Biden Administration has taken includes asking OPEC+ to pump more, but the group has been either unwilling or unable to live up to its production quotas.

Also contributing to the price decrease in gasoline is U.S. gasoline demand, which is down roughly 4.5% from last week, according to De Haan.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
LANGLEY, Virginia  President Joe Biden lauded the CIA as the bedrock of our national security during a Friday visit to the agency, which also is part of the wide-ranging intelligence effort to support Ukraines resistance against Russia.

Biden marked the 75th anniversary of the agencys founding after World War II. While at the headquarters in Virginia, he thanked the CIA for its work in Ukraine and called Americas intelligence officers the best in the world.

Predictions that Russia would invade Ukraine in February provided a public boost for spy agencies that are often criticized and facing new pressure to deliver insights on China and Russia. Biden authorized an unprecedented campaign to declassify findings that have been credited with helping build support for severe Russia sanctions and the ramp-up of military support to Kyiv.

It was thanks to the incredible work of our intelligence professionals that we were able to inform the world what Vladimir Putin was planning in Ukraine, Biden told the audience.

Biden came to the White House with a long history of receiving intelligence briefings, having served eight years as vice president and 36 years as a senator from Delaware, where he led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and served on the Intelligence Committee when it was first created in the 1970s. The thing he missed most after leaving the vice presidency, he said, was reading the Presidents Daily Brief, the compilation of the intelligence communitys top collection and analysis.

Biden has reestablished a more traditional relationship with the CIA and other agencies after former President Donald Trump repeatedly cast doubt on intelligence findings and attacked what he alleged was a deep state of opponents.

Still, there were tensions last year concerning Afghanistan, with finger-pointing across the government during the fall of the American-backed government as the Taliban overran Kabul. Current and former intelligence officials worked frantically to evacuate Afghans who had helped the U.S. during the two-decade war.

Douglas London, a former CIA officer who has criticized the agencys direction in recent years, said the Russia-Ukraine war has shown the CIA is on its way to becoming an elite spy service again.

Its path to redemption has really been facilitated by Ukraine, said London, author of The Recruiter: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence.

Still, the U.S. intelligence community underestimated Ukraines ability to resist the Russian invasion and wrongly predicted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys government would fall within weeks.

The agencies are reviewing how they assess a foreign governments perceived will to fight  an issue the U.S. also misjudged in Afghanistan last year when it believed President Ashraf Ghanis government would hold out for months, only for Ghani to flee and the Taliban to take Kabul as the U.S. was trying to evacuate.

Most of the intelligence communitys work since the war in Ukraine began has been kept secret. U.S. officials have disclosed that it is providing Ukraine with information that Ukrainian forces have in turn used to hit high-value Russian targets, including the flagship Moskva.
A 66-year-old man was seriously injured Friday afternoon in a shooting believed to be related to a feud between neighbors, according to the Douglas County Sheriffs Office.

Around 3:40 p.m., sheriffs deputies responded to a report of a shooting just north of Omaha city limits on Kimberly Lane and found David E. Redding, who had been shot in the stomach, according to a press release from the Sheriffs Office.

Redding was taken to a hospital and remains in serious but stable condition as of Saturday afternoon, the Sheriffs Office said.

The suspect, James L. Methe, 79, was charged with first-degree assault and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony and was taken to the Douglas County jail, according to the Sheriffs Office.

Methe and Redding are next-door neighbors and have not gotten along well for several years, the Sheriffs Office said. The shooting reportedly took place after Methe went over to Reddings house to confront him about a missing welding jacket.

The incident remains under investigation.
Eighty-four years ago today, the Omaha Star, a weekly publication and Nebraska's only Black-owned newspaper, put out its first issue.

As founder, publisher and editor of the Omaha Star, Mildred Brown fought bigotry with words. She also provided neighborhood news and commentary for more than 50 years, giving her readers a weekly helping of information about events and opinions in the Black community.

The Star was the nation's longest-operating Black-owned newspaper run by a woman.

Brown, an Alabama native, graduated from teachers college at age 16. She moved to Omaha in 1937 with her husband and launched the paper a year later. The Star grew into one of the most prosperous weekly newspapers in the country. It is currently distributed to 48 states and, at one point, the paper boasted a staff of 20 and circulation of more than 30,000.

Under her leadership, the Star worked to open up jobs for Black people and push for desegregation of restaurants and public facilities. The vivacious woman, who always wore a fresh corsage, helped organize marches and boycotts.

The newspaper always has operated under this motto: "Dedicated to the service of the people that no good cause shall lack a champion, and that evil shall not thrive unopposed."

"She believed in causes and fighting for them," said her niece Marguerita L. Washington, who took over as the Star's owner and publisher after Brown's death in 1989. "She gave the Black community a voice."

The Omaha Star building, at 2216 N. 24th St., was designated an Omaha Historical Landmark Site in 2006 and was officially entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

At first, Brown rented the building. She eventually owned it, as well as two buildings to the north.

Brown was inducted into the Nebraska Journalism Hall of Fame in 2007.

"I think she would be elated to know that her work paid off and that it's still paying off," Washington said.
The Transportation Department on Friday urged airlines to make it easier for families to sit together on planes at no extra charge.

The department said in a notice to airlines that the carriers should do everything that they can to ensure the ability of a young child 13 or younger to sit next to an older family member.

The agency said it will monitor airlines starting in November and might propose new regulations.

The trade group Airlines for America said carriers have always worked to accommodate customers who are traveling together, especially those traveling with children, and will continue to do so.

The Transportation Department said it has received more than 500 complaints in the last five years about families unable to sit together. However, that is only about 1% of all complaints against airlines and is dwarfed by gripes about refunds and flight problems.

In 2016, Congress prodded airlines to let kids sit next to a family member at no extra charge, but the Trump administration Transportation Department did not draft rules on the matter, and neither has the Biden administration.

The department said Friday that airlines could do several things to help relatives sit together including assigning adjacent seats at booking or setting aside areas for families.

Increasingly, airlines charge extra for desirable seats to boost revenue. The 2016 law does not require them to make seat assignments that would upgrade a passenger to a better cabin or seat if there is an extra charge for that seat.

The department also issued a bill of rights for airline passengers with disabilities, a summary of existing laws that travelers can use as a reference.
Highland Park police were called to the family home of the alleged Independence Day parade sniper at least nine times between 2010 and 2014 in response to domestic disputes, according to newly released police records.

Most of the incidents involved allegations of verbal or physical altercations between the shooting suspects parents, Robert Crimo Jr. and Denise Pesina. The reports, released by the Highland Park Police Department, paint a picture of the sometimes tumultuous home where Robert Bobby Crimo III grew up before he allegedly shot dozens of people enjoying a Fourth of July parade. Seven of those shot died, and Bobby Crimo is charged with seven counts of first-degree murder.

During one altercation in August 2010, Crimo Jr. told police his relationship with Pesina was failing, and that Pesina had struck him in the head with her shoe and was intoxicated. Pesina told police that Crimo Jr. had disrespected and belittled her after making comments about her appearance, and that those comments led her to drink. Police said they offered Pesina a packet with information about domestic violence, but that she reported already having a packet from a different domestic incident days earlier.

Reporters attempts to contact the defendants parents for comment in person and through their attorney were unsuccessful, and neither Pesina or Crimo Jr. have been charged with domestic violence in Lake County, according to court records.

But the parents of Robert Crimo III have drawn attention in recent days after it was revealed that the shooting suspects father sponsored the FOID card application that allowed Crimo to legally purchase the gun he allegedly used to terrorize Highland Park holiday paradegoers.

A review of public records show repeated Highland Park police involvement at the Crimo family home over the years, especially between the mother and father. Crimo Jr., the former owner of a now-shuttered Highland Park deli, unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2019.

In October 2010, police were called to the home because of a fight between Pesina and Crimo Jr. According to the police report, Crimo Jr. said Pesina had been trash talking him, knocked all his belongings off his dresser, and hit him with a screwdriver. Pesina, in a statement to police, said that Crimo Jr. had been making mean statements to me like always, calling me names. Crimo Jr. later told police that Pesina had not tried to hit him with the screwdriver and declined to put that detail in his statement to police.

On two occasions, Crimo Jr. and Pesina called the police on one another for attempts to drive while intoxicated, which escalated. In June 2011, Crimo Jr. called police contending Pesina was attempting to drive to pick up her daughter while intoxicated, and that after being confronted about this she blocked Crimo Jr. from leaving. In November 2013, Pesina called police contending that Crimo Jr. had been trying to drive to work while intoxicated.

Pesina pleaded guilty to driving under the influence in Lake County in 2012. In 2002, Pesina pleaded guilty to a child endangerment charge after leaving Crimo III, then about 2 years old, alone in a car with the windows rolled up for 27 minutes in the parking lot of a toy store, according to court records. It was approximately 79 degrees outside during that incident.

In September 2019, a few months before Crimo III applied for a gun permit, police conducted a wellness check following a report that days earlier Crimo III had made a threat in the household stating he was going to kill everyone. The police report notes that a person whose identity is redacted in the report said they were afraid to go home because of the threat and Crimos collection of knives.

Police removed the knives from Crimos possession and filed a Clear and Present Danger report to the Illinois State Police.

Crimo Jr., told the New York Post and ABC News that he is not responsible for the attack despite his role in sponsoring his sons gun permit application because he said he was following the law.

You know, he went through the legal process. I dont know if its guilt. I feel horrible as to what happened. Beyond horrible, Crimo Jr. told ABC News.

Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly declined to comment Wednesday on whether Crimos father could be held liable.

Steve Greenberg, an attorney who briefly represented the defendants parents, told the Tribune that Crimo Jr. was unaware of the 2019 threats when he sponsored his sons FOID card application months later. Crimo Jr. was at least aware that police had confiscated weapons that were in his sons room, according to the police report. The father later collected the weapons from police, including a 24-inch samurai sword, 16 knives and a dagger.

In April 2019, Highland Park police again got involved with the shooting suspect after the department received a call requesting a wellness check for the then 18-year-old. Crimo III had reportedly attempted suicide with a machete. Medical professionals had been involved, according to the police report.

A neighbor of the family, who declined to be named, told a Tribune reporter Thursday that police would come to the Highland Park home on a seemingly weekly basis when the alleged shooters parents lived there together.

A reporter saw a woman on the front porch at the home Thursday but no one answered the door. Grass grew wild in the front lawn. Faux stained glass-style vinyl stickers decorated the windows, behind which white curtains were drawn. In the backyard, a haunting painting appeared on the faded reddish-brown brick: a tall figure holding a long rifle dressed in military camo with a yellow smiley face for a head. Its black smile and eyes dripped down.

The neighbor told the Tribune that on the day of the shooting, they saw Crimo III pull away from the house in his mothers silver Honda Fit when they returned from the halted Independence Day parade.

Crimo III is not believed to have stayed in the Highland Park home with his mother, but rather lived in an apartment on the property of his fathers house in Highwood, according to his uncle, Paul Crimo.

Paul Crimo, 55, said the massacre shocked him and that he didnt know his nephew had guns as he pulled into his driveway. Im sorry from the bottom of my heart. Im devastated, Paul Crimo said.

He lives in the next apartment. We didnt see each other, he said, referring to another structure on the lot. He showed no aggression to me or nothing. Ever. Theres no indication of nothing that I saw.

A logo the mass shooter used in violent music videos and social media posts was nailed over the door of a shed next to the house. The logo appeared to be nearly identical to the logo of Suomen Sisu, a far-right, nationalist Finnish political association, but the Southern Poverty Law Center, which was poring over Crimos online record, said earlier this week its meaning, if any, remains unclear.

A silver Acura coupe sat in the homes front lawn, weeds growing around its tires. A sharp-toothed red smile was taped on the front bumper, and the number 47 was painted on the doors. Paul Crimo said the car belonged to his nephew.

A neighbor of Crimo III, who declined to give their name, said the father would occasionally exchange pleasantries, but that his son didnt socialize with those who lived nearby. The 21-year-old alleged mass shooter would often ride his electric scooter, they added, and wear all black and blast harsh, loud music.

Chicago Tribunes Madeline Buckley contributed.
LINCOLN  The Nebraska Republican Partys state convention appears likely to turn into a fractious family brawl when members gather Saturday in Kearney.

The controversy began this past week, when the partys convention credentialing committee sent letters barring six party members from attending the convention. At least some of the six have said on Facebook they plan to show up anyway and push to participate.

Matt Innis of Crete, a Donald Trump loyalist who backed Charles W. Herbster in this years GOP gubernatorial primary, is among the six.

He got a letter Tuesday saying he would not be credentialed as a delegate because of his vocal criticism of Gov. Pete Ricketts, the top Republican elected official in the state and leader of our party.

But Innis argued in a radio interview and on Facebook that the credentialing committee doesnt have the authority to bar him as an elected county delegate. He said he expects delegates will vote Saturday to seat him and the others.

He blamed the credentials committee action on establishment members of the party, such as Ricketts and Jessica Flanagain, a campaign consultant with close ties to the governor, who he said are trying to control the party and hang on to power.

Do not let the establishments tactics keep you from the convention, Innis wrote. Do not be silenced. I will be there and you should also. It is a sad day when the republican establishment use liberal tactics to try to silence those they dont care for.

The state GOP responded with a statement from Pam Dingman, the credentials committee chair.

In it, she said the committee declined to credential six individuals who are either switching parties, starting new parties, or supporting non-Republican candidates.

We welcome vigorous debate and even criticism within our ranks, she said, noting that members from all wings of the party would be attending the event. We wont, however, allow the convention to be used as a platform to help recruit or elect people who arent Republicans.

Ricketts spokeswoman Alex Reuss said the governor was not involved in the committees action. He did not ask (for) or make any decision to revoke anyones credentials at the state convention, she said.

She did not respond when asked if the governor supported the decision to revoke the credentials of the six.

Another of those barred from the convention was Robert Borer of Lincoln, who unsuccessfully challenged Secretary of State Bob Evnen in the May primary and has sharply criticized state election security.

A copy of the letter posted to Facebook showed that he was told his credentials were denied because he is mounting a write-in candidacy for governor against the GOP nominee, Jim Pillen.

Faith White of Lincoln said she got a letter barring her because she had taped a conversation with state Republican Chairman Dan Welch concerning the partys role in targeting then-Republican legislative candidate Janet Palmtag of Nebraska City.

Palmtag lost to State Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar, who was a Ricketts appointee. Palmtag has since switched parties and is involved in a lawsuit against the Republican Party.

Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb used the credentialing kerfuffle to promote the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Carol Blood.

The Republican Party screeches about freedom of speech and then turns around and treats grassroots leaders of their party with Putins playbook of silencing any opposition, Kleeb said. The way Ricketts is treating grassroots members of his own party is no different than how he governs  which is one-party, one-ideology and one-voice rule.

The GOP convention features a keynote speech by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is making the trip as a favor to Ricketts, the co-chairman of the Republican Governors Association, according to the Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch.

Other speakers will include Ricketts, Pillen and Congressman-elect Mike Flood, and there will be sessions promoting school choice, opposing President Joe Bidens conservation proposals and setting out a plan to reach a filibuster-proof majority in the Nebraska Legislature.

The quarrel over convention credentials is just the latest high-profile intraparty spat for the Nebraska GOP.

The 2020 race between Slama and Palmtag revealed a rift among prominent party members. Former Gov. Dave Heineman and then-Rep. Jeff Fortenberry were among the Republicans backing Palmtag. Slama, who served as a Ricketts campaign staffer before he appointed her to the Legislature, had the governors backing and an endorsement from the GOP Central Committee.

More recently, the party saw a contentious primary race for governor. Ricketts supported Pillen while Herbster boasted about his backing from Trump, who endorsed the Falls City businessman despite Ricketts request that the former president stay out of the race. Trump visited Nebraska less than two weeks before the May 10 primary.

Ricketts contributed nearly $1.3 million to Conservative Nebraska, a political action committee that reported spending over $1.8 million opposing Herbster and Sen. Brett Lindstrom in the Republican primary for governor.

Herbster, a Republican megadonor, also was the subject of groping allegations from eight separate women, including Slama. She was the only woman identified in an initial report by the Nebraska Examiner, which was first to report the allegations. The report caused a firestorm in the GOP with numerous elected officials calling for Herbster to quit the race.

He denied the allegations and called them a political slam orchestrated by Pillen and Ricketts. Both men separately rejected Herbsters claims.

Herbster and Slama are currently engaged in a dueling legal battle, with Herbster alleging defamation and Slama alleging sexual battery.

Despite calls from GOP officials for party unity in the wake of the primary, Herbster declined to endorse his former rival in the governors race. His campaign released a statement after the primary saying Herbster would not endorse any candidate until his lawsuit with Slama was resolved.

Its unclear if Herbster will be in attendance at Saturdays convention.
KEARNEY, Neb.  Nebraska GOP Chairman Dan Welch opened the states GOP convention Saturday by saying he hoped the event would clear the air in what he admitted was a divided Republican Party.

He ended the day fired.

Nebraska GOP delegates voted to oust Welch after eight years as the party chairman during a tumultuous convention that also saw one party activist be arrested outside the venue, win reinstatement as a delegate while he was still in jail, and then return to the meeting.

Welch later was replaced by Lancaster County GOP Chairman Eric Underwood through a majority vote of delegates. Underwood had introduced the motions that led to Welchs firing.

Im not asking you to trust me tonight  but Im asking you for the opportunity to earn your trust, Underwood said after being chosen to finish Welchs term, which runs through this year. The state party will elect a chairman for a full term at the end of the year.

A wave of resignations followed Welchs termination, including the partys executive director, Taylor Gage, who previously served as spokesman to Gov. Pete Ricketts.

Other resignations included national committeewoman Lydia Brasch, the first and second district chair, the party treasurer and secretary, and the assistant chairman and assistant state party chair.

Welch blamed the turmoil on divisions caused by the hard-fought gubernatorial primary race, which was won by Jim Pillen. He said many believed the Nebraska GOP took sides in the election to favor Pillen, although he claims the party was absolutely neutral.

The only thing I wish you knew was the real information, Welch told delegates in some of his final words as chairman.

Those who supported Welchs termination said the upheaval was because some Nebraska Republicans have felt excluded and unheard by the Ricketts-led party establishment.

During the primary campaign, Ricketts endorsed Pillen. That put him at odds with fellow Republicans who supported former President Donald Trump and Charles Herbster, the gubernatorial candidate Trump endorsed. Herbster came in second behind Pillen, and so far has refused to endorse Pillen.

The division was on display during the mornings speeches from Republican leadership. Though all of the speakers shared messages touting similar conservative talking points, Ricketts and Pillen did not receive the same full standing ovations as other speakers, such as newly elected U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, Rep. Adrian Smith and Sen. Deb Fischer.

Before Welchs termination, delegates passed a resolution to amend the state partys constitution to allow delegates to immediately remove an officer with or without cause by a majority vote. Welch supporters called his termination a coup detat and criticized other delegates for trying to push thorough motions without debate.

Go start your own party, one attendee yelled.

The tension was high from the start of the convention after the state partys credentials committee last week revoked credentials for six delegates. One of those delegates, Matt Innis from Crete, Nebraska, was arrested in the morning on suspicion of third-degree assault and second-degree trespassing, according to Buffalo County Jail records.

But following his arrest, a majority of the GOP delegates voted to reinstate him, along with four others who been blocked from attending the meeting.

Their credentials had been revoked because they had spoken out against Republican leadership or nominees, including Ricketts and Pillen.

The debate over the credentials issue dragged into the lunch hour, delaying it over an hour. Ultimately, delegates also voted to cancel several workshops that had been scheduled in the afternoon to save time for more debates on party resolutions.

The convention was supposed to end at 3:45 p.m. but continued well into the evening following Welchs removal, which came on a 204-120 vote.

Tensions rose during the credentials debate as some delegates questioned the authority of GOP leadership to block some delegates and criticized the decision as an attack on free speech. One delegate compared the GOP leadership to Soviet Russia and the British monarchy before the American Revolution.

Thats not America, and thats not the Republican Party, the delegate said.

Loud cheers and boos echoed through the convention center during the comments and GOP leaders attempts to manage them. Welch repeatedly asked the crowd to remain civil and refrain from applauding or booing any speakers  to no avail.

Saturday evening, after the leadership changes, the delegates began considering a number of policy resolutions.

One such resolution called for increased election security. As amended by delegates on the floor, the resolution also backs counting ballots by hand under continued video surveillance.
Nicole Bond, a lead museum educator at the Smart Museum, looks at the work of Kerry James Marshall in "A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence" at The Block Museum of Art on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, June 17, 2022. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

As the country tries to process a troubling aspect of U.S. history  mass shootings  we are reminded that there have been others interwoven into the nations creation, including anti-Black violence.

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Northwestern Universitys Block Museum of Art has been showcasing American art centered on the theme since January with the exhibit A Site of Struggle: American Art Against Anti-Black Violence. The exhibit explores how artists have engaged with that violence and its accompanying challenges of representation  from the explicit to the abstract on topics that range from slavery, lynching, police brutality and suppression of civil rights.

According to curator Janet Dees, the exhibit looks at art between the rise of anti-lynching activist movements in the post-Reconstruction Era through the founding of Black Lives Matter to show a historical trajectory. And this is the last weekend it will be open to the public before it travels to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Alabama.

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Its by no means exhaustive, but its really to give a sense of how much there is, Dees said. I think thats at the heart of one of the questions that the exhibition is exploring  looking at the different strategies that artists have used to engage with this issue and in that balancing the need to bear witness with the need for care.

Janet Dees curated "A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence" at The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston, June 17, 2022. The show features the work of 30 different artists. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

A long research and development process for A Site of Struggle entailed visiting different archives, talking to colleagues, advisers, and artists to figure out what objects would go into the exhibition. The works are carefully placed in order to facilitate engagement on visitors terms.

It was really important to offer a variety of resources for visitors to support their experience with the exhibition, Dees said. The site provides spaces for conversation about the ideas raised in the exhibition, and the chance to dive deeper into particular areas. Theres a resource room that contains a library of books that delve deeper into personalities like Ida B. Wells and topics like healing racial trauma. Theres a reflection space where people can have the opportunity to sit and process what theyve seen before going back out into the outside world, Dees aded. And theres a guided meditation thats accessible to support that.

Questions the exhibit raises: How can art history help inform our understanding of racial violence and how art has been used to protest, process, mourn and memorialize anti-Black violence? If you miss the exhibit this weekend, a companion publication that shares the same name with the exhibition is being distributed widely.

Theres the opportunity for it to live on as a resource beyond when the exhibition is closed, Dees said.

The art of protest is a topic that artivist De Nichols is familiar with. The YouTube designer penned the book, Art of Protest in 2021 to speak to youth who are seeing all of the social ills at play, and may be searching for a way to contribute or express how they feel about them. Nichols was part of the creative team that created the Mirror Casket after Michael Browns death in Ferguson, Missouri. The casket is now part of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture.

Jo McEntee, a lead museum educator at the Smart Museum, looks at the portraits of Carrie Mae Weems in "A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence" exhibit at The Block Museum of Art on the campus of Northwestern University, June 17, 2022. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Anyone of any age, whos new to activism or new to protests might find this book valuable or in some ways a primer, she said. Having participated and collaborated with various social movements and protests across the nation, Nichols brought her expertise to the page for others. I really wanted to write a book that I wish I had as a young person. So often young people might be dissuaded from joining social movements because perhaps parents are fearful of them getting hurt or they think that theyre too young to understand whats going on in the world. But young people are more conscious and cognizant of whats happening than we give them credit for.

Nichols said her activism started when she was very young in response to bullying in school.

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My intention with the book was not necessarily to tell people what to think, but to encourage them to think critically and to create ... look around and find the creative ways to articulate what they believe, Nichols said. Instead of trying to tell their child what to believe, or what to think about this, to instill within them the self reflection of how do you feel about someone else being harmed, or someone telling a person that they cant choose what to do with their body? How would you feel about these types of challenges if they came toward you? I think by parents and adults asking more questions to the children, theyll realize that a lot of young people are intuitive, almost innately geared to think about matters in terms of harmony, fairness, and justice.

A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence runs through July 10; www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu. The book is by Princeton University Press. Art of Protest: Creating, Discovering, and Activating Art for Your Revolution is Big Picture Press.

drockett@chicagotribune.com

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BLOOMINGTON  McLean Countys community level for COVID-19 moved from medium to high this week, the health department announced Friday.

The McLean County Health Department reported 388 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the last week, bringing the countys total probable and confirmed cases to 56,442 since March 2020.

Two weeks ago, the countys level was reduced from high to medium, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rating that measures the number of new cases per 100,000 people, admissions per 100,000 and the percentage of hospital beds used for COVID-19 patients.

According to Fridays health department report, the majority of new cases are people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.

The CDC reported McLean County had about 10 new hospital admissions for COVID per 100,000 people in the week ending July 5, as well as 216 new positive cases per 100,000 people in the week ending July 6.

No new COVID-related deaths were reported for McLean County, leaving the total at 381 since the pandemic began.

The Illinois Department of Public Health and MCHD continue to encourage residents to keep up with their COVID-19 vaccinations. Primary vaccinations, along with first and second boosters for those who qualify, are offered through MCHD. Adults can schedule a vaccination with MCHD by calling 309-888-5435; children's appointments can be made by calling 309-888-5455. Other vaccine locations can be found at vaccines.gov.

Approximately 62.89% of McLean County's population is fully vaccinated against COVID, with around 291,954 doses administered.

Testing clinics are scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon July 12 and 13 at the McLean County Customer Service Center in the parking lot across East Street from the Government Center in downtown Bloomington. An entrance to the parking lot is at 201 E. Washington St.

Residents can register on site or online in advance at health.mcleancountyil.gov/735/COVID-19-Local-Testing-Options.
BLOOMINGTON  A woman from Bloomington faces several firearm-related charges and a charge related to cannabis delivery.

Alexandria S. Macon, 22, was being held on bond of $500,000, meaning she would need to post $50,000 for release.

A charge of possessing a firearm as a felon is a Class 2 felony. She also faces three Class 3 felony charges: violating the Firearm Owners Identification Card law, delivery of a firearm to a felon and delivery of between 50 and 300 grams of cannabis.

Her next appearance is an arraignment on Aug. 5.
BLOOMINGTON  A scheduled sentencing for Aaron Parlier on sexual assault and child porn charges was postponed to Aug. 1, after he was not brought to the courthouse for the trial.

Parlier was previously sentenced to 450 years in prison after the first of possibly six trials. He is charged with having assaulted and filmed students while he was a piano teacher in Bloomington. He is incarcerated at Menard Correctional Facility, according to online Illinois Department of Corrections records.

Parlier was at the courthouse on writ during his second trial in April, where he was found guilty on another 12 charges. Separate trials are being held for the charges for each of the alleged victims of the assaults.

IDOC brought Parlier for the second trial but was not informed to bring him back for Friday's hearing, Judge Casey Costigan said.

A hearing on post-trial motions and possible sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 1.
SPRINGFIELD  Visitors to next month's Illinois State Fair might notice some evidence of ongoing construction, part of a major investment to update some of the fairgrounds' oldest buildings.

A series of renovation projects totaling $58.1 million in costs are underway at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Those working closely on the projects say the investment could help bring more tourists  and economic activity  to Central Illinois.

There's a trickledown effect when you talk about an economic impact, said Illinois State Fair Manager Rebecca Clark. We have 366 acres of great destinations and endless possibilities here on the Illinois State Fairgrounds, and it really has the potential to be a giant economic impact.

The Illinois State Fair drives millions of dollars in economic activity to the city of Springfield and to Sangamon County every year, added Scott Dahl, director at the Springfield Illinois Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Clark said the investment is necessary after years of deferred projects.

Historic  and costly

The fairgrounds are registered as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places, and many of the historic structures have begun to deteriorate over the past decades.

The Coliseum, the fairgrounds epicenter, was built in 1901. Renovations on the structure began in 2019. Phase 2 of the project will resume after the 2022 event and will cost an estimated $16.3 million.

Historic buildings will always require regular maintenance, Clark said, but what ultimately matters is whether or not the state can pay for the projects.

There are countless projects that we need to work on, she said. It's a matter of funding.

Aside from the Illinois Fairgrounds Foundation, a private, charitable corporation that helps fund improvement projects on the states fairgrounds, most funding comes from the state legislature.

Clark attributed current projects to a renewed interest from Gov. J.B. Pritzkers administration in maintaining the fairgrounds.

For too long, our fairgrounds didnt reflect the magic of the Illinois State Fair  so my administration is turning that ship around, Pritzker said in a statement earlier this month.

The $58 million in infrastructure improvements were bringing to the Springfield fairgrounds ... is an investment in the Illinois families that make this celebration what it is, Pritzkers statement continued. Im proud to improve the fairgrounds for generations to come.

The Illinois State Fair sees hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. In 2021, over 472,000 people attended the fair, making it the second-highest attended fair since the Department of Agriculture began formally tracking attendance in 2014.

The renovation projects, which kicked off earlier this spring, include multi-million dollar renovations on the Coliseum and Multi-Purpose Arena (MPA) buildings, road construction, and a number of roof and HVAC replacements across the fairgrounds.

Renovations will continue through the Illinois State Fair from Aug. 11 to 21 and into the fall.

Fair visitors will notice some ongoing construction this year. The MPA will be closed for construction, with events previously scheduled to take place in the building either rescheduled for September or on hold until the 2023 State Fair.

'Drop in the bucket'

While the $58.1 million price tag might seem excessive to some, Clark said its just the beginning of what is needed.

It all adds up, but at the same time, it's all still just a drop in the bucket compared to what we need out here at the State Fairgrounds, she said.

The fairgrounds are used for much more than just the State Fair.

We have countless events every single day out here at the fairgrounds. It is utilized 365 (days a year). It's not just the 11 days of the fair, Clark said. We have events that we cannot accommodate right now because we lack some of the infrastructure that is needed.

Fixing up that infrastructure could prove beneficial for the entire state.

Dahl said the coming years will likely bring a major influx of visitors to Illinois, largely because of the upcoming Route 66 Centennial in 2026.

We know that certainly from an international standpoint, 2025 and 2026 will be very, very big years for international travelers visiting Route 66, so we want to be ready for them. And we believe the Illinois State Fairgrounds will play a major role, Dahl said.

The current renovation projects will have an impact even farther into the future, Dahl said.

It really puts the Illinois State Fairgrounds in a great position for the next 20 to 30 years, he said.
EL PASO  Amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, an El Paso ambulance was delivered to Ukraine on Monday to help those in need.

EMS is all about the humanitarian effort, said Karen Krug, EMS chief of the El Paso Emergency Squad. You don't make a lot of money running an ambulance service, but you do it because its for the greater good of all people.

The donated ambulance is part of a nationwide effort to send retired ambulances to Ukraine for use in emergency medical transports.

With over 200,000 registered miles, El Paso's ambulance  coded as I-v-37  made a two-month journey, traveling from Chicago to Baltimore before being put in a cargo container to Germany, then being driven to Poland and eventually making it all the way to Ukraine.

Krug, who also is president of the Woodford County EMS Association, said they asked the public for supplies during EMS Week in May and received everything from bandages to tourniquets, quilts, backboards, a cardiac monitor from the Congerville Fire Department, as well as $2,000 in monetary donations to buy more supplies.

Altogether, more than 300 people donated items. Volunteers even received a letter from a Ukrainian citizen from Peoria, and they placed it in the glove compartment of the ambulance as a message of encouragement, said El Paso Fire Protection District President Tim Ruestman.

When the war broke out, the people I came in contact with were asking what they could do to help, and you see people on social media asking for donations, but a lot of those funds can be fraudulent, Ruestman said. I think that everyone here in Central Illinois was looking for a way to help, and once we gave them that avenue, they all stepped up.

Ruestman, who also is on the El Paso Fire Protection District Board of Trustees, said he had heard about the initiative at an event where someone talked about retired ambulances being sent to Ukraine.

At first, he did not want just give away the ambulance because it was paid for with taxpayer funds, but ultimately the board voted in favor of donating it, Ruestman said.

What theyre doing is allowing the Ukrainians to go ahead and spend their resources on other supplies, said OSF Vice President of Government Relations Chris Manson. At the same time, theyre taking what might have been surplus resource here at a U.S.-based ambulance provider, where it might just sit for a while and get a couple $1,000 at auction, to actually putting it into real service in Ukraine.

Manson started the effort with the help of the Ukrainian consultant in Chicago and the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America and now has contacts with the Ukrainian Ministry of Health as well as other officials to continue this work.

But the idea itself was inspired by someone close to him.

Ive got a 7-year-old daughter and we watch the news and will turn the channel because we didnt want her to see certain things, but she saw enough to know that something was happening in Ukraine, Manson said. It was definitely bothering her and she just asked if there was something we could do.

The idea then materialized into a plan to send an ambulance from Peoria provider Advanced Medical Transport and now has turned into a mission where they have already shipped 12 ambulances to Ukraine, coming from Tennessee, North Dakota and Minnesota, Manson said.

He plans to have another five or six delivered by the end of August.

Transportation and delivery fees for the ambulances are covered by donations collected by UAMA and the Ukrainian American House, a nonprofit based in California.

I want to show my daughter that if theres something thats bothering you or if you see something that you think is wrong, you can take small steps to try and do something good, Mason said. As there continues to be a need and people are willing to help, Im more than happy to play my little part to see what we can do.

Anyone interested in donating supplies or their retired ambulance can find more information at the Ukrainian Medical Association of North Americas website at www.umana.org or follow this link.
Ogden and Fry conducted a poll in the days leading up to former President Donald Trumps visit to the Quincy area for a U.S. Rep. Mary Miller endorsement in late June.

The poll of Republicans in the downstate 15th Congressional District taken June 22-24 (Trumps visit was the 25th) found Miller leading fellow U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis by 8 points, 46-38. When undecideds were pushed to decide, Millers lead jumped to 10 points, 55-45. She won by 15 points, 57.6-42.4.

But if you look at the results from each day, you can see a definite trend. On June 22, Millers lead was less than 3 points, which is about where many of the pundits speculated the race stood at the time.

On June 23, as word spread more widely about Trumps impending visit, Millers lead expanded to 9 points, 48-39. And by June 24, the day before Trumps speech, Miller led by 12 points, 48-36.

Now, these are really small subsets in a single poll. But Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Baileys results in CD15 in the same poll also showed a slight upward trendline, from 52 on June 22, to 53 the next day, to 55 on June 24.

Based on where our final polling was on several races it seems possible that that momentum continued through election day, explained Ogden and Fry owner Matthew Podgorski, who is also a Republican Party official and candidate.

Candidates that would benefit from a Trump-bump all did better than expected just days earlier, he continued. If highly motivated Trump/Bailey voters showed up on election day while others gave up, several other races may have been affected.

Podgorskis statewide polling, for instance, had Tom DeVore ahead of Steve Kim in the GOP attorney generals race by 4 points. DeVore won by almost 10. Podgorski had Kathy Salvi beating Peggy Hubbard, the most visible Trumpist in the U.S. Senate primary race, by a much larger margin than the five-point victory, Salvi wound up with, Podgorski told me.

Hey, maybe Podgorskis polls just werent accurate and hes making excuses here. Its been tried before by others. But I have thought since well before primary day that the Trump visit would likely reverberate throughout the state, up and down the Republican primary ballots.

The 2nd Illinois Supreme Court District might also be a case in point. The regulars and people like far-right Republican activist Jeanne Ives all backed Lake County Circuit Judge Daniel Shanes in the primary. Instead, Mark Curran, who is known for his outrageous public remarks (We are taking on the Establishment, the Party Hacks, the Freemasons and those that could care less that Individual Liberty and Conscience Protection are no longer cherished or protected, he told supporters last year) won the race by 2 points with almost no money.

Shanes was supposed to be the beneficiary of $6.25 million in campaign cash from Ken Griffin via the Citizens for Judicial Fairness front group. The committee spent about $200K to help Shanes in the primary and oppose Curran, suggesting that the people running that show were concerned, but still confident that they were doing enough to win.

And now they have $6 million leftover and no seemingly viable candidate in the 2nd.

Oops.

Also, unlike with Bailey and, to a lesser extent, DeVore, the Democrats had nothing whatsoever to do with this Supreme Court debacle. The Democratic Governors Association, the Democratic Party of Illinois and Gov. Pritzker himself all paid for advertising that boosted Baileys Trump bonafides. The state party paid for mailers doing the same for DeVore.

Bailey, by the way, has repaid the favor by bungling pretty much every statement hes made since the day after winning the Republican nomination.

Last week, Bailey memorably urged people to move on and celebrate shortly after the Highland Park massacre, even though the shooter was still on the loose at the time. Later in the week, he held a press conference to apologize and try to clean up his own mess, but hit the flub trifecta in the space of just 10 minutes. Bailey conflated state gun control laws, misidentified a neighborhood in Chicago where violence occurred over the weekend and even misquoted a Bible verse, the Chicago Tribune reported.

And DeVore, the Republican Partys attorney general nominee, had this to say on Facebook just the other day: Guess how many of those Republican establishment leaders, who sat idly by and watched your kids suffer for two years, called me after winning the primary? Zero!! I just might investigate them first before Pritzker!!
Police acknowledged security flaws on Saturday in the Japanese city of Nara where former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated, as a motorcade carrying his body arrived at his home in the capital Tokyo.



Mourners gathered at his residence and at the scene of Friday's tragedy in the western city of Nara, where Japan's longest-serving modern leader was gunned down in a rare act of political violence while making a campaign speech.



Police arrested a 41-year-old man immediately after Abe was shot at close range with a homemade gun. The local police force manning the campaign event said on Saturday that there had been shortcomings in the security arrangements.



"We can't deny that there were problems with the security plan given how things ended," Nara prefectural police chief Tomoaki Onizuka told a news conference.



"I feel a grave sense of responsibility," he said, adding that police would analyse what exactly went wrong and implement any necessary changes.



Dignitaries in Japan often travel with modest security details focused mainly on direct physical threats rather than by heavily armed personnel braced for firearms attacks seen in places such as the United States.



On Friday, Nippon Television quoted Nara police as saying Abe was protected at the rally by one armed specialised police officer and some other local officers. Nara police declined to say how many police officers were handling Abe's security.



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Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, resigned as head of his Conservative Party on Thursday, July 7, 2022, after losing the support of top cabinet ministers.



The process of choosing that new leader should begin now, Johnson said on Thursday at the door of Number 10 Downing Street. And today I have appointed a cabinet to serve, as I will; until a new leader is in place.



Johnson, when thanking his voters said, thank you for that incredible mandate, the biggest Conservative majority since 1987, the biggest share of the vote since 1979.



And the reason I have fought so hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so, but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019, he added.



Boris Johnson's announcement has triggered the governing Conservative Party's second leadership contest in three years, with millions wondering who will replace the PM.



A new leader is expected to be elected before the party conference in October, but Johnson continues as a caretaker leader until then.



Among the names like Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Dominic Raab tipped to succeed Boris Johnson, there is also Kwasi Kwarteng, a British with Ghanaian ancestry.



Kwasi Kwarteng is the MP for Spelthorne and the Business Secretary. He was one of the Cabinet ministers who told the Prime Minister to stand down during a meeting in No 10.



Tweeting after Boris Johnson's announcement, the 47-year-old said, "we now need a new Leader as soon as practicable. Someone who can rebuild trust, heal the country, and set out a new, sensible and consistent economic approach to help families."



Kwasi Kwarteng became the Business Secretary on January 8, 2021, as part of a mini-reshuffle and is the second black man to serve in the Cabinet, the first being Paul Boateng.



But what do we know about Kwasi Kwarteng.



Kwasi Kwarteng on his website, [email protected], describes himself as someone born and raised in London by Ghanaian parents, Alfred K. Kwarteng and Charlotte Boaitey-Kwarteng.



He studied Classics and History at Cambridge University, and then attended Harvard University on a Kennedy Scholarship. He completed a PhD in Economic History at Cambridge in 2000. Before becoming a Member of Parliament, Kwasi worked as a financial analyst in the City, and as an author.



He was elected as the MP for Spelthorne on 6 May 2010 and was re-elected in 2015, 2017 and 2019. Since being elected, Kwasi has served on the Transport Select Committee, the Work and Pensions Select Committee and as a member of the Public Accounts Committee.



Kwarteng has also served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the House of Lords and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 2018 he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Exiting the European Union, and in 2019 he was appointed as Minister of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.



In January 2021, Kwasi Kwarteng, was appointed as Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.



In Spelthorne, the MP has consistently supported local enterprises, and in 2013 he launched the Spelthorne Business Plan Competition to find and support the local entrepreneurs of tomorrow. The competition has successfully taken place every year since, except in 2020 due to the pandemic.



Kwasi Kwarteng has written several books and continues to have a keen interest in history, as well as in music and languages.

Source: Ghanaweb.com









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Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister for Communication and Digitalisation, is expected to brief Parliament Tuesday, July 12, on the challenges confronting the National Identification Authority in the printing and issuance of the ECOWAS Identity Card.



Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh, the Majority Chief Whip of Parliament, presenting the Business Statement for the Eighth Week ending Friday 15th July, said the Leadership was also in discussions with Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the Minister for Food and Agriculture to brief Parliament on the compensation package by the government for farmers impacted by the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in 2021.



He noted that the appropriate date for the briefing would be communicated to Members in the ensuing week, most probably on Tuesday, July 12, 2022.



"Mr Speaker, Leadership is firming up discussions with the Minister responsible for National Security to brief Parliament at close sitting matters about the security of the state, particularly having regard to the recent spate of terrorist attacks within the West African sub-region.



"The date for the briefing barring any unforeseen developments shall be Tuesday, July 12, 2022," he said on the floor of Parliament on Thursday.



Mr Annoh-Dompreh said under the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921), Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister, would on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 present the Mid-Year



Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana for the 2022 Financial year.



He urged Members of Parliament to take note and avail themselves of the presentation.







Source: GNA









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Featured Video
Talks between chiefs of staff 'a good sign'

China Daily) 10:22, July 09, 2022

Experts hail China-US video call, but say still long way to go in rebuilding ties

The latest video call between the chiefs of staff of the Chinese and US militaries has signaled clearly that both sides are willing to manage risks and avoid conflicts, especially a war, experts said.

They said that recent engagements between senior officials of both countries are a "good sign" given the current state of China-US relations, but said there is still a long way to go in "rebuilding" these ties given the current differences and some provocations by the US side.

In the video call on Thursday, General Li Zuocheng, chief of staff of China's Central Military Commission Joint Staff Department, told his United States counterpart General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, that in the current situation, the two militaries should "further enhance dialogue, manage risks and promote cooperation with mutual respect and with an objective and rational attitude", according to a Defense Ministry statement released on Friday.

In the call, which was requested by the US side, Li, who is also a member of the CMC, said China and the US can make mutual achievements and achieve common development in accordance with the consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden, adding that the two militaries should avoid deliberately creating confrontation, provoking trouble and mutual exclusion.

Both sides agreed that it serves their common interests to maintain a stable relationship between the two militaries and avoid conflict and confrontation, and for the two sides to maintain communications, according to the statement.

Zhou Bo, a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, said the video call indicated that it is a consensus of both the Chinese and US militaries to avoid miscalculation and conflicts, and particularly a war.

An international politics researcher with the People's Liberation Army, who asked to be anonymous, also shared similar views and pointed out that Thursday's video call was more special than other Sino-US talks.

"The two communicators are both chiefs of staff, the top officials in charge of actual military command and operations during wartime," he said, stressing that they would be key officials handling emergencies if something happens between the two militaries.

"The ties between the Chinese and US armies are the bottom line of Sino-US relations," he said, adding that major military conflicts between the two sides would have irreversible consequences, unlike those in terms of trade, the economy and technology, which still have room for maneuver.

"Thus, the talks between the chiefs of staff are truly beneficial," the military researcher said, adding that this is particularly the case when risks exist across the Taiwan Straits and in the East and South China Seas, since the US side has been increasing its presence in those areas.

During the video talks, Li, the senior military official, told Milley that China will never compromise and concede when it comes to the nation's core interests, warning that the Chinese people will firmly fight back if someone makes wanton provocations.

He urged the US side to stop reversing historical trends and cease US-Taiwan military collusion. He also underscored that China's military will definitely safeguard the nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The PLA recently conducted interservice joint patrols and combat exercises off Taiwan. Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Friday that these moves were in response to "collusion and provocation" by the US and the island. US Senator Rick Scott started a three-day visit to Taiwan on Thursday.

"China firmly opposes the US action, which seriously violates the one-China principle and the three joint China-US communiques, and severely harms the political basis of China-US ties," Wu said, adding that the PLA remains on high alert and will take all necessary measures to thwart external forces and separatist provocations.

Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, on Friday also called the US action a "very dangerous" move in conniving with "Taiwan independence" separatist activities.

'A long way to go'

The Li-Milley talks followed video talks between Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will also meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Indonesia soon.

The recent high-level exchanges showed that both sides have been strengthening communications in various fields and seek solutions since they have realized that the current receding China-US relationship could bring crisis in the future, said the military observer who would not be named.

"Although the floundering relations cannot be reversed in the short term, both sides are clear that communications are beneficial," he said.

Tao Wenzhao, a researcher on US affairs with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the engagements between the high-ranking officials are a "positive sign", but there's still "a long way to go".

"China-US ties need to be rebuilt due to the policies of the Trump administration and many differences between the two countries, but it's certainly no easy job," he said, stressing that it requires persistent patience and efforts from both sides.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
A woman pauses to visit a memorial in Port Clinton Square in Highland Park on July 11, 2022. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

A North Shore mother fed up with gun violence after the mass shooting in Highland Park is turning her anger into action, organizing a march in Washington, D.C., to ban assault-style weapons.

Kitty Brandtner was at the Winnetka Fourth of July parade when she heard about the Highland Park parade shooting Monday. She has friends who ran from the barrage of some 80 shots fired by a gunman with a high-powered semi-automatic rifle. After crying for a day, Brandtner decided to act.

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Were not going to just sit in depression and sorrow, she said. Were going to do something.

With a hastily organized committee of 55 volunteers, Brandtner has put together plans for a march Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol.

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So far, more than 300 people had signed up to make the trip and a GoFundMe page had raised $47,000 for the effort. The money will help pay for survivors from the parade to go to Washington.

Kitty Brandtner at her Winnetka home on July 9, 2022. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. >

Brandtner says both conservatives and liberals are joining the cause to stop repeated mass shootings. Public opinion polls repeatedly have shown that most Americans want more restrictions on guns.

Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said the Highland Park shooting was terrible, but an assault weapons ban is vague and wouldnt work.

Im sure were all frustrated by what happened there, Pearson said. If things were done properly, this would never happen.

Illinois already has a law providing for verification of firearm owner identification before gun sales, he said. In his online column for the ISRA Bulletin, Pearson suggested reinstating the death penalty in Illinois, stricter law enforcement measures to keep violent criminals locked up, and monitoring social media and juvenile records for background checks.

A small group of volunteers and survivors hopes to meet with members of Congress before the march.

We cannot let this keep happening to our country, our neighbors, our children, Brandtner wrote. We must mandate universal background checks and ban assault weapons. Join us.

rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com
The ruling government has blamed the nation's economic crisis leading to an IMF bailout on the coronavirus pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.



Critics of the ruling administration including the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have insisted that "mismanagement" is part of the reason for Ghana's economic downturn.



However, government communicators have continuously blamed it on these two factors; COVID/RUSSIA-UKRAINE, insisting that the economy was fine until 'we were hit'.



Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, George Mireku Duker during a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo' also linked the economic meltdown to the Russia-Ukraine war.



However, renowned Journalist, Kwami Sefa Kayi insists that is not the only reason.



"Why can't we accept that whether it was Russia-Ukraine, Covid, Balance of payment support, our economic crisis is also due to our actions or lifestyle, and that has led us to IMF? Is that not the bottom line? because that is not the only reason," he said.



Listen to him in the video below





It may be recalled that presenting the State of the Nation Address on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, President Akufo-Addo bemoaned the adverse effect of the Russia-Ukraine war on the country.According to him, the bombs might be dropping on cities half a world away, but they are hitting our pockets here in Ghana.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced that his salary and that of all his appointees have been cut by 30%.



The 30% cut also affects the expenditure of ministries, governmental agencies and departments.



Addressing Muslims at an Eid-Ul-Adha ceremony on Saturday, July 9, 2022, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo indicated that fuel coupon allocations had also been slashed by 50%, as well as, other expenditures suspended due to the current economic challenges.



He entreated Ghanaians to sacrifice to help government navigate through the wobbling economy.



We are all going to have to make some sacrifices to afford us the space to navigate the troubled waters of the current economic difficulties. The expenditure of ministries, departments, and agencies has been cut by 30 percent. The salaries of all appointees including myself have been reduced by 30 percent. Fuel coupon allocations have been slashed by 50 percent and other expenditures suspended," he stated.



He urged Ghanaians to bear with him as he puts in measures to stabilize the economy.



It would be recalled that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday, July 1, 2022 instructed the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to commence official engagements with the International Monetary Fund.



According to a press statement sighted by GhanaWeb, the IMF support will provide a balance of payment support as part of a broader effort to quicken Ghanas build back in the face of challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, and recently, the Russia-Ukraine crisis.



The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the same day confirmed that the Government of Ghana had run to them for a financial bailout to stabilize the economy.



Announcing this on microblogging site - Twitter - on Friday, July 1, 2022, the IMF said it was poised to assist Ghana to have a homegrown economic programme.



"We confirm Ghana officials have been in touch to request IMF support for a homegrown economic program. The Fund stands ready to assist Ghana & looks forward to starting initial discussions in the coming weeks," the IMF stated.



Meanwhile, IMF negotiations with Ghana began on Friday, July 6, 2022.

Source: ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A University of Hamburg photo shows fin whales feeding at the northern coast of Elephant Island, in what scientists hailed as a sign of hope for the species.

For the first time since whaling was banned, dozens of southern fin whales have been filmed feasting together in a "thrilling" Antarctic spectacle, hailed by scientists Thursday as a sign of hope for the world's second largest animal.

The ocean giants are second only to blue whales in length, with slender bodies that help them glide through the water at high speed.

They could not evade industrial whaling, however, and were slaughtered to near-extinction during the 20th Century as hunters systematically shattered populations of whales across the planet.

"They were reduced to one or two percent of their original population size," said Helena Herr, of the University of Hamburg, lead author of the research published in the journal Scientific Reports.

"We're talking about a couple of thousand animals left for the whole southern hemisphere area."

While scientists say numbers of southern fin whales have been slowly rebounding since a 1976 whaling ban, there have been few sightings of these mysterious animals in large groups at their historic feeding grounds.

But in scenes that Herr described as "one of nature's greatest events", researchers and filmmakers were able to capture footage of up to 150 southern fin whales in Antarctica.

Drone footage, shot by wildlife filmmakers from the BBC, shows the fin whales swooping and lunging through the water, blasting great bursts of air as they surface, as birds wheel in the sky above them.

"The water around us was boiling, because the animals were coming up all the time and causing splashes," Herr told AFP.

"It was thrilling, just standing there and watching it."

Unofficially, the team nicknamed it the "fin whale party" as the enormous creatures feasted on swirling masses of krill.

While scientists say numbers have been slowly rebounding since a 1976 whaling ban, there had been few sightings of these mysterious animals in large groups at their historic feeding grounds.

In two expeditions in 2018 and 2019, researchers recorded a hundred groups of fin whales, ranging from small gatherings of a few individuals, to eight huge congregations of up to 150 animals.

Previously, recorded feeding groups had a maximum of around a dozen whales.

Using data from their surveys, the authors estimate that there could be almost 8,000 fin whales in the Antarctic area.

'Ecosystem engineers'

Fin whales can live to around 70 or 80 years old when left alone and have just one calf at a time, so Herr said the recovery of populations is a slow process.

She said increasing numbers of southern fin whales is an encouraging sign that conservation measures can work, although she noted that other threats include being struck by boats.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature now lists fin whales as "vulnerable" and estimates the global population as 100,000, with most of these in the northern hemisphere.

More whales could also be a good sign for the health of the ocean more generallyand even efforts to tackle climate change.

Whales feed on iron-rich krill but they also defecate in the surface watersreturning nutrients to the ocean that help spark the growth of tiny phytoplankton, the foundation of the marine food web.

Like plants on land, phytoplankton photosynthesise using the sun's rays to turn carbon dioxide into energy and oxygen.

They are "ecosystem engineers", said Herr, who first spotted a large group of the whales by chance in 2013 during a research mission into Antarctic Minke whales.

Industrial whaling saw fin whales slaughtered to near-extinction during the 20th Century.

She now plans more missions to investigate the enduring mystery of these ocean giantswhere they breed.

"We don't know where they go," said Herr, adding that much more is known about the fin whales of the northern hemisphere.

Herr's team was able to put satellite tags on four animals last year, but a mission to go back to the Antarctic with more tracking equipment has been delayed until next year by the pandemic.

Exploitation

This elusiveness is even more astonishing given the size of fin whales.

The animals can grow up to around 27 meters (88 feet), although Herr said that they now tend to average 22 meters, particularly after whaling that targeted the biggest creatures.

In all some 700,000 individual fin whales were killed during the 20th century for the oil in their body fat.

All populations of whales in the region were ravaged, from the biggest blue whales down to the smallest minke whales until commercial hunting was stopped in a series of agreements in the 1970s and 1980s.

"It's an example of how humanity treats resources," said Herr.

"They just exploit them as long as they can and only stop when it's not commercially valuable anymore. As long as you can make profit, it will be exploited."

Explore further Fin whale populations rebound in Antarctic feeding grounds

More information: Helena Herr, Return of large fin whale feeding aggregations to historical whaling grounds in the Southern Ocean, Scientific Reports (2022). www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-13798-7 Journal information: Scientific Reports Helena Herr, Return of large fin whale feeding aggregations to historical whaling grounds in the Southern Ocean,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-13798-7

 2022 AFP
MAYFIELD  Police are investigating a drowning in Sacandaga Lake on Friday.

State police and other first responders were called to the lake near Beacon Island in the town of Mayfield for a report of a man that went into the water and did not resurface.

A preliminary investigation at the scene determined that 47-year-old Albert Adamkoski, of Mayfield, jumped into the water from a pontoon boat to rescue his child, who was struggling to swim. Once saving the child with the assistance of another bystander, Adamkoski submerged into the water and did not resurface, according to a news release.

About two hours later, Adamkoski was located deceased by the New York State Police Under Water Recovery Team.

The drowning is believed to be accidental, but the investigation is ongoing.

Members of the New York State Police, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State Fire, Fulton County Sheriffs Office, Mayfield Fire Department, North Hampton Fire Department, North Hampton Ambulance Service, and Greater Amsterdam Area Volunteer Ambulance Corp. had responded to the scene.
CAMBRIDGE  Despite a ruling last month from a state Supreme Court judge, the Cambridge school board isnt giving up on its Indian mascot.

The board voted 3-1 on Thursday evening to retail legal counsel to keep its options open to appeal state Education Commissioner Betty Rosas order reinstating the boards June 17, 2021, resolution to retire the mascot. Board member Neil Gifford cast the lone opposing vote. Board member Caleb Breault was absent.

Board member Shay Price, elected board president earlier in the evening, called Thursdays resolution essentially a placeholder, so that the board can keep its options open while it explores further legal action. The resolution authorizes its attorneys, Honeywell Law Firm PLLC, of Albany, to file a notice of appeal of Acting Supreme Court Judge Sara McGintys June 21 ruling upholding Rosas decision.

The board remains in disagreement with Commissioner Rosa and Judge McGinty, as are district residents, Price said. Were carefully considering all our legal options.

Gifford, who voted to retire the mascot in June 2021, said he was proud of that vote. The validity of the resolution, which was overturned the following month when one new member joined the board, was upheld by Rosa, the state attorney general, and McGinty, he said.

It was never a personal agenda (against the Indian) for me, Gifford said.

He urged people who felt the state is singling out the school over the mascot to read Rosas and McGintys statements on the school website and why the original vote was upheld.

Board member Dillon Honyoust, who was elected with Price in May 2021 on a platform of defending the Indian mascot, said he was proud of his vote in July 2021 to rescind the previous months vote and reinstate the mascot.

Native culture needs to be kept in the forefront regardless of what happens with the name and imagery, said Honyoust, who has Native American ancestry. The community holds the power of how we move forward together.

Rosas ruling gave the school a deadline of July 1 to remove the Indian name and imagery. School staff began covering and removing the Indian name and pictures on campus immediately after commencement ceremonies on June 24.

Several district residents at the meeting criticized the school administration for complying. Residents Dawn Case and Kathleen Ward urged the school to defy Rosas order. Case said the school should refuse to follow the order until all schools in the state with Native-themed mascots are told to take them down.

Fight it! Ward said. Dont take down any more signs. Im willing to spend as much as we need to keep that mascot and that name.

The school has spent at least $60,000 so far in legal fees around the mascot debate.
GLENS FALLS  The Common Council will vote on Tuesday whether to accept the updated redrawn ward maps from the Independent Redistricting Task Force that results in a 1.55% difference between the least and most populated ward.

The council on June 14 voted to accept the maps previously brought forward by the task force. However, at its subsequent meeting on June 28, the council tabled a resolution to put the matter to referendum after it was made aware that the maps did not adhere to New York State law.

There was over a 14% difference in the number of residents between the biggest ward and smallest ward.

The council was told that there could be no more than a 10% difference and Bob Curtis, chairman of the task force, said the group initially was shooting for that target.

However, Sara Frankenfeld, GIS administrator for Warren County, informed Curtis that state law requires that the number to go by is 5%.

While the U.S. Constitution calls for legislative districts to have roughly equal population size, state law requires the difference not to exceed 5%.

Apparently nobody knew this before and we instinctively knew that while we had little time, we had to do yet another map, Curtis said in an email on Saturday.

Between (task force member) Robin (Barkenhagen) and Sara working on this feverishly, we now have Glens Falls Redistricting Draft Number Four, Curtis added.

He said that all of the elected officials at the city and county level for Glens Falls will remain in the wards that they represent with these new maps.

The revised maps also maintain a section of the downtown district in each of the citys five wards.

Our task force is very pleased with what we hope will be the final product, Curtis said.

Frankenfeld said that she thought it was incredible that they were able to get within the 5% difference and actually go lower.

Wards two, three and four all have a population of 2,982. The fifth ward has a population of 2,948, and the first ward has a population of 2,936.

The task force hopes to get approval on Tuesday in order to give them enough time to review the maps before the councils meeting on July 28.

The Warren County Board of Elections must receive the referendum for residents to vote on the redrawn wards, once approved by the Common Council, three months prior to the election in November.

That gives the task force a deadline of Aug. 8.

Then there would be time to get (the referendum) up to the Board of Elections for approval, Curtis said.

A resolution to accept the redrawn maps from the task force is on the agenda for the upcoming Common Council meeting on Tuesday. The meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. from the third floor of City Hall.
WHITE CREEK  A Washington County man was arrested after firing multiple shots at police responding to a landlord-tenant dispute on Thursday night.

State police responded to 210 Jermain Hill Lane in White Creek at 10:43 p.m. after reports of a tenant-landlord dispute at the property. When they arrived at the scene, the suspect began to fire shots from a rifle at the officers and property owner, according to police.

Matthew Parant, 38, who rents a home on the White Creek property, was charged with three felonies: second-degree attempted murder and two counts of first-degree attempted murder.

The police investigation determined that Parant got into an argument with the owner of the property. After learning that the police had been called, Parant allegedly got his rifle from inside his home.

Maj. Richard OBrien, Troop G commander, said at a news conference that Parant intended to kill the landlord, a Washington County sheriffs deputy and a state trooper, according to WNYT-TV NewsChannel 13, The Post-Stars media partner.

Several bullets were fired from a rifle in their direction, he said.

Parant then barricaded himself in the home with his girlfriend as numerous law enforcement agencies responded to the scene.

The State Police Crisis Negotiations Unit responded and communicated with Parant for several hours, police said.

At about 4:25 a.m., Parant left his residence and attempted to flee the scene in a van. He was then stopped by the New York State Police SORT, or Special Operations Response Team, and taken into custody.

Police said no one was injured in the incident.

OBrien said police know what started the dispute, but are not releasing that information at this time.

He also said that the girlfriend was not cooperative with authorities.

Parant was taken to Washington County Jail. As the investigation continues, police said they expect more charges to follow.
CAMBRIDGE  An at times contentious Cambridge school board meeting ended Thursday with school board member Neil Gifford saying, I heard a direct threat to my safety. He requested a transcript of the meeting from District Clerk Kate Canini.

About 30 members of the public were in attendance, about a dozen of them wearing shirts showing their support of the schools controversial Indian mascot. The room erupted in jeers of baby! and derisive offers to walk Gifford to his car.

Earlier in the meeting, the board had voted 3-1 to file a notice of appeal of a judges ruling upholding state Education Commissioner Betty Rosas order to retire the Indian. The vote does not bind the district to file any appeal, but it keeps that option available. Gifford cast the only opposing vote. School board member Caleb Breault was absent.

Several people sharply criticized Gifford during the two public comment periods. Dawn Case demanded that Gifford resign and that school Superintendent Douglas Silvernells contract not be renewed.

This entire process has been a farce. They chose to go behind our backs, Case said. This has always been about our right to vote. The rights of the majority are being stifled.

She urged the school to refuse to follow Rosas order until all schools in the state with Native-themed mascots must do so.

We shouldnt compromise with the other side, another speaker warned. Next the socialists will want to take down the flag in the gym.

Kathleen Ward claimed that 95% of district residents want to keep the mascot, although school board members Dillon Honyoust and Shay Price did not get 95% of the vote when they were elected in 2021. She also stated that the land where the school sits was donated by the Indians. According to local historian Ken Gottry, the Cambridge Central School District bought the land from the Hitchcock family in 1946. The Hitchcocks were not Native Americans.

Ward thanked the majority of the board for voting to keep fighting for the mascot. She recommended that the board hire a new attorney.

Get an attorney who knows how to fight these issues, Ward said. This one does us no good.

She said she had been in touch with lawyers at the Albany Law School who are willing to take the case pro bono.

Some speakers attacked the people who originally complained about the mascot, especially the four families that brought the lawsuit that led to Rosas ruling. One said that mascot opponents just want attention.

This is our school, our children, our community, said Pauline Grimes, who said she is descended from a chief of the Susquehanna tribe. Were not going to let five families choose for our school.

Two speakers asked the school board to accept the courts ruling.

Put an end to the mascot issue once and for all, said Terry Dansin. Using people as mascots has never been appropriate. Be good stewards of my and our tax dollars and state funding.

Dansin called for the school to have a vote on a new mascot that is not a person, not representative of a race or ethnicity, not military, and non-violent.

Rachel Castella asked the board to move forward with the permanent removal of the race-based mascot. Its been documented that race-based mascots cause harm, she said. She believed that the schools legal fees have been well over $100,000 so far, while the cost of removing the mascot was inflated.

By early Friday morning, the white material covering the Indian on both sides of the schools outdoor message board had been ripped down.

In other matters:

Silvernell opened the meeting with a moment of silence for elementary student Nola Marotta, who died July 6 after a long battle with cancer.

Silvernell said hes planning to move forward with retiring the Indian and has put together a draft schedule to choose a new name and mascot. He asked for a board member to review the draft with him next week.

The schools ranking in the

Albany Business Review

dropped from 14th of 84 districts in 2021 to 35th in 2022, Silvernell reported. The ranking appeared to be skewed by who took the Regents exams in the 2019-2020 school year, he said, when the exams were optional, and there was no in-school achievement testing for grades 3 and 8. By contrast, neighboring Hoosick Falls Central School jumped from 55th to 24th. Silvernell said hell meet with that districts superintendent next week to discuss the results. He described the magazines ranking process as something of a black box. Its hard to know how it came up with its ranking.

Retiring elementary teachers whom Silvernell interviewed generally were supportive of having an associate principal, he said. He recommended filling the position. Retiring Elementary Principal Colleen Lester had been asking for one 10 years ago. Conditions have changed in the last five years, with more disruption from students, poor attendance, and lower achievement levels, Silvernell said. Elementary Principal Jerry Gibson, who started July 1, was hired in 2019 as elementary associate principal. The position was expected to be transitional while Lester prepared for retirement. With Gibson taking the principals job, the associate principals position is vacant. The message Im getting is that theres a need, board President Shay Price said. What is the need? He said hed been contacted by five teachers who didnt think an associate principal would address those needs. Silvernell said hed like to talk to those teachers, but if they arent comfortable talking with him, they should go through their union representative.

Business Administrator Anthony Cammarata described how the school has allocated its $3 million in federal pandemic relief funds. The presentation is available on the schools website, www.cambridgecsd.org/domain/361.
ALBANY  Two state lawmakers have teamed up in an effort to exclude state forest preserves in the Adirondacks and Catskills from newly-enacted state firearms restrictions.

Adirondack Park residents deserve better than vague answers and conflicting statements from the governors office and state legislators over the intent and application of their gun control law, Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensburgy said. Instead, lets do the correct and simple thing and pass my bill to exempt the Adirondack and Catskill Parks from this law.

During the legislative floor debate last week, Democrats said the restrictions barring firearms from parks  with exemptions for police officers, retired police officers and several other categories  would apply to the Adirondacks and Catskills because they have been designated as state parks.

The office of Gov. Kathy Hochul, however, has issued statements contending the Adirondacks and Catskills would not impact individuals who have been issued pistol permits.

Stec said the bill he sponsors with Assemblyman Matt Simpson, R-Horicon, would put a stop to the confusion.

If the governor and Senate Democrats agree that their rushed legislation has no impact on law-abiding gun owners, then codifying that into law should be a no-brainer, Stec said. Lets not drag out this confusion any longer and provide our gun owners with the resolution they need and deserve.

Simpson said the legislation is necessary to avoid frivolous prosecution of law-abiding citizens.

Hochul pushed through the law, issuing a message of necessity to lawmakers and without holding any public forum. Hochul speculated the state could become the Wild West as the result of more people being eligible for concealed carry permits due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling finding the state had infringed upon the rights of New Yorkers.

In Vermont, individuals eligible to purchase rifles can also purchase handguns without getting special pistol permits from the state, and that state allows concealed carry of handguns without any permits.

On a related front, Delaware County Sheriff Craig DuMond on Friday issued a strong criticism of Albanys new legislation, predicting it will backfire and expose New Yorkers to more criminality instead of making them safer.

The mandatory training and live-fire requirements, to include all current pistol licenses, and soon to be semi-automatic rifles, holders will be logistically and virtually impossible for many current license holders, especially for our most vulnerable, senior citizens, DuMond said. At this rate, it will not be long until we find ourselves in a state where only the criminals have guns.

The Supreme Court ruling, which overturned a state law implemented in 1913, was issued in response to a lawsuit brought by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association.

Its president, Tom King, told CNHI the group is now working on another lawsuit aimed at overturning the Hochul-backed legislation. State GOP leaders have also vowed they will take the state to court over the new statute.

Hochul has predicted the legislation will withstand court scrutiny.
BRIGANTINE  A pair of female seals were separated from their herds, leaving them behind as the rest left the Jersey Shore for northern waters.

Theyll never be able to rejoin those groups, either.

Both are suffering from permanent injuries that have left them unsuitable to hunt and swim in the ocean, and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center is working on finding them a permanent home, the center said Friday.

The seals were each rescued from separate beaches along the shore earlier this year.

The center also is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries Service to find the seals a zoo or other type of facility that can properly care for them, stranding center officials said in a news release.

Caring for the animals is, besides being formidable for staff, straining the centers finances. Therefore, the center said, it is looking for donations from anyone willing to help it continue caring for the seals.

The first seal, which was found March 15 off Ship Bottom, suffered multiple punctures. Her recovery has been slower than the other seals. She was later diagnosed with a heart condition for which she must remain medicated throughout her life, the center said.

The second seal was found May 5 off Ventnor. At first suffering from cuts and a swollen jaw, tests revealed she is blind and cannot hunt fish in the wild, the center said.

Anyone interested in helping the center care for the seals can visit https://mmsc.org/ways-to-donate.
Someone shot an off-duty Chicago police officer in the back during an altercation early Saturday morning in the Beverly neighborhood, police said.

About 2:30 a.m., the 31-year-old off-duty officer was involved in a verbal altercation at a bar in the 2400 block of West 104th Street and shots were fired after the fight, according to police spokesman Don Terry.

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The officer was shot in the back and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was listed in fair condition, police said.

In a public safety update, Alderman Matt OShea said the officer suffered serious injuries in the shooting. The shooter retrieved a gun from a vehicle parked outside near the establishment after the altercation and fired multiple shots.

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Alderman OShea asked anyone with information on the shooting to contact police at 312-747-8271.

No arrests have been made.

dawilliams@chicagotribune.com
After dropping out of Camdens Woodrow Wilson High School at age 16 to help his single mother raise his three younger siblings, Kevin Dorman doubted he would ever get another chance to graduate.

More than three decades later, Dorman, 52, donned a blue cap and gown and picked up his high school diploma Thursday from Goodwills Helms Academy during a ceremony on the Cooper River at the Camden County Boathouse. He gave one of the commencement addresses.

Things are looking up, said Dorman, of Camden. I did it!

Currently unemployed, he plans to continue his education and become a medical assistant.

Almost three dozen students from South Jersey and Philadelphia graduated from the program sponsored by Goodwill to help older students obtain their high school diploma, which they earned either by passing a test or completing 30 college credits. Goodwill uses sales from donations at its retail stores to pay for the program.

Like Dorman, the graduates left high school for personal reasons, hoping to possibly return later. Some said they dropped out when they became teen mothers, or they had financial problems or were expelled for bad behavior.

I do regret it, admitted Danielle Day, 32, of Philadelphia. Now, look what Ive done. Im very proud of myself.

Day said peer pressure pushed her to drop out of Overbrook High School when she was 16. She said she wanted to get her diploma to show her three children, If I can do it, you can do it, too.

Currently a certified home health aide, Day plans to attend Community College of Philadelphia. She eventually plans to become a registered nurse.

It always seems impossible til its done, she said.

Named for Goodwill founder Edgar Helms, the academy provides free tuition to adults 18 and older, as well as basic skills training and tutoring. Students can attend classes virtually or at locations in Philadelphia and Stratford, Maple Shade and Toms River, New Jersey.

To be able to give them a second chance is an amazing opportunity, said Mark Boyd, Goodwills president and CEO. The courage, conviction and discipline it takes to go back and complete that degree is truly inspiring.

Aspiring nurse Monica McDuffie, 36, of Philadelphia, said she decided to pursue getting a diploma after her son, Zymere, threatened to drop out. She left school in 2002 when she was pregnant with him.

Everyone has a motivation, and mine was to stop history from repeating itself and show my children that giving up is not an option, McDuffie said. Her son, now 20, graduated last year, and she plans to continue her education at community college.

In 2019, there were 2 million high school dropouts between the ages of 16 and 24, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. They are more likely to be unemployed, have low-paying jobs or land in jail, experts say.

It really limited me, said David Huesken, 43, of Palmyra, a warehouse worker for 17 years. Every job I saw said high school diploma required.

Huesken enrolled in the Helms academy after encouraging his daughter, Tiana, 22, who dropped out in the 11th grade, to try the program. She earned her diploma last year and participated in Thursdays ceremony because hers was canceled due to COVID-19.

It feels amazing, said Hueske, who hopes to pursue a bachelors degree. I never thought I would see this day, never in a million years.

With family and friends packed into a second-floor ballroom, the graduates nervously marched inside as Pomp and Circumstance played on a speaker. Every graduate received a laptop donated by Comcast.

Im so proud of myself that I didnt quit, said Trudy Moe Brown, 32, of Philadelphia, a security officer. I applied all of my failures to get me to my successes.

Brown said she left Germantown High School when she was 16 to look after her seven younger siblings. She said she landed in jail in 2010 for selling drugs and suffered bouts of homelessness. She had to put school on the back burner.

I never graduated from anything, she said. I had to show I can do something other than being out on the streets.

Brown said she plans to get a commercial drivers license and become a truck driver.

Some of the graduates skipped the ceremony, officials said, embarrassed to publicly acknowledge that they had not received a high school diploma until now. Others like Shavonna Henderson, 30, of Sicklerville, were applauded for sharing personal testimonials about overcoming obstacles.

Henderson said she was expelled from Timber Creek High School in 2011 for bad behavior. She was eventually diagnosed as bipolar, she said.

After enrolling in the Goodwill program, Henderson opted to seek college credits. She recently graduated from Camden County College and ultimately plans to seek a doctorate in psychology and establish her own psychology practice.

Here I am today to tell you nothing is impossible, Henderson, a mental health associate, told her classmates. Success has no age limits.

After suffering a spinal cord injury when she was 17, Erica Moran, 31, of Philadelphia, withdrew from Kensington High School. Her medical problems left her too depressed and negative to do anything positive like return to school, she said.

Moran enrolled in the Helms program in 2021. On Thursday, she was named Adult Learner of the Year, cheered on as she navigated her wheelchair to receive the award.

Moran said she wants to motivate others to pursue their dreams. She plans to attend college and possibly study computers or coding.

Im just trying to prosper. I want to do something with my life, she said. I want to inspire other people who they think they cant do it.
A Davenport teen is facing a 40-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to robbery, burglary and weapons charges in relation to a string of crimes committed during November of 2020.

During a hearing June 29 in Scott County District Court, Malachi Damir Howard, 18, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree robbery, one count of first-degree burglary, one count of second-degree burglary and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Howard is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 18 in district court.

First-degree robbery and first-degree burglary are Class B felonies under Iowa law that carry a prison sentence of 25 years, 70% of which, or 17  years, must be served before parole can be granted.

According to the plea agreement, the court will be asked to approve that the three first-degree robbery and the first-degree burglary sentences be served concurrently, or at the same time.

Howard will have to serve 17  years for these convictions before he is eligible for parole or early release.

Second-degree burglary is a Class C felony that carries a 10-year prison sentence, while possession of a firearm by a felon is a Class D felony that carries a prison sentence of five years. The court will be asked to approve that those sentences run consecutive to one another, or back-to-back, and consecutive to the sentence for the first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary convictions.

Howard will get credit for the time he has served in county custody awaiting trial.

In accordance with the plea agreement, two counts of first-degree burglary, one count of first-degree theft and one count of second-degree theft will be dropped.

According to Scott County District Court records, Howard and Austin Dion Hanson-Gales, 20, are accused of committing a first-degree burglary on Nov. 24, 2020, when they went into a home in the 2000 block of Farnam Street armed with a handgun. They also are accused of stealing a 2007 Honda Odyssey from the home.

Additionally, according to court records:

On Nov. 27, 2020, the pair committed a burglary to a home in the 2800 block of Farnam Street, and stole a 2015 Toyota Highlander from the same home.

On Nov. 27, 2020, Howard is accused of committing an armed robbery at a home in the 800 block of West 14th Street.

On Nov. 27, 2020, Howard and Hanson-Gales are accused of committing an armed robbery and burglary at a home in the 5600 block of Quercus Lane.

On Nov. 30, 2020, Howard and Hanson-Gales are accused of committing an armed robbery and first-degree burglary at a home in the 500 block of East 15th Street.

In each case the pair is accused of using a firearm to intimidate the victims.

Howard is being held in the Scott County Jail on cash-only bonds totaling $100,000 pending sentencing.

Hanson-Gales is charged with two counts of first-degree robbery, three counts of first-degree burglary, one count of second-degree burglary, one count of first-degree theft, one count of second-degree theft and being a felon in possession of a handgun.

Hanson-Gales is being held in the Scott County Jail on a cash-only bond of $100,000. A competency hearing for Hanson-Gales is scheduled for Aug. 3 in District Court.
A little yellow house at 14th Street and 7th Avenue in Rock Island is more than 100 years old, but you wouldn't guess that stepping inside.

Cozy furniture fills the living room and two bedrooms, all freshly painted with soft, new carpet. The bathroom and kitchen sport modern appliances, and decorations and knick-knacks turn the space into a home, though it is still empty.

The American flag flies outside, waiting to welcome a tenant who has dedicated themselves to the service of others.

Project NOW has finished the first of its Honor Homes  fully renovated and furnished, affordable houses and duplexes for military veterans, members of the military and essential workers.

Ron Lund, Project NOW community services director, said the nonprofit has owned the house since 2016. Originally build in 1900, Project NOW staff and contractors spent the last several months flipping the house.

All the furniture and other items were donated by Humble Dwellings, an Eldridge-based nonprofit.

Veterans, those currently serving in the military and essential workers can submit a rental application online at Project NOW's website or in-person at 418 19th St., Rock Island. During the interview process the nonprofit will consider whether the prospective tenant will be able to handle general upkeep of the yard and home.

Rock Island city code caps the house's occupancy at three people, Lund said, so a small family would be able to rent the house.

Rent will cost $490 a month  a much smaller cost than the fair market value of rent, which Lund said is $805 a month for a two-bedroom house. After five years Project NOW would consider selling the property to the tenant.

"Really it's for for someone that wants to rent initially, and then hopefully become a homeowner," Lund said.

Project NOW Executive Director Dwight Ford said in a previous interview that as a third-generation combat veteran he wanted to find a way to support those who have served while also combating the lack of affordable housing in the Quad-Cities. Of the 102 properties owned by Project NOW, a small group were deemed high-priority and set aside to become Honor Homes.

"With these homes that were standing vacant and needed work, his vision was of Honor Homes," McNeil said. "So he kind of created it and got it going."

Rock Island high school students renovate affordable homes for veterans Students at Thurgood Marshall Learning Center and Arrowhead Ranch are renovating a Rock Island house for Project NOW. The nonprofit and YouthBuild Quad-Cities have partnered to renovate affordable homes for veterans.

The 14th Street house is the first of six Honor Homes set to go to a veteran or essential worker. YouthBuild Quad Cities, in partnership with Project NOW, is renovating a house on 12th Avenue in Rock Island, and will be finished sometime next year.

Project NOW has started work on houses in Moline and Kewannee, Il., as well as in Rock Island. The Honor Home on 7th Street in Moline should be completed by the end of the year, Lund said.

A veteran himself, Lund said it feels great to be able to provide housing to a veteran or military member in need. One needn't look further than the numbers to see that projects like these are necessary  there are around 26,500 veterans living in the Quad-Cities, and the area is lacking thousands of affordable housing units.

"There's clearly a need, we have the veterans," Lund said. "We're short affordable housing units in the Quad-Cities 6,600 units. So yes, it's only one, but you have to start somewhere."
Two Iowa police officers are taking the unusual move of suing six people who participated in a 2020 protest in Des Moines after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, accusing them of assault.

All six people were arrested during the July 1, 2020, protest, and five already pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of assault on a police officer and/or interference with official acts. One of them, Indira Sheumaker, was later elected to the Des Moines City Council.

The lawsuit, first reported by Axios Des Moines, was filed by Peter Wilson and Jeffrey George as individuals and not as representatives of the Des Moines Police Department. They are seeking an unspecified amount for actual and punitive damages.

It will likely be met with skepticism by the court, said Robert Bloom, a professor at Boston College Law School, who noted that the claims of assault and battery appear to be applying criminal complaints to a civil action.

Experts also note that Iowa is among several states that have adopted whats known as the firemans rule, which holds that firefighting and policing are inherently dangerous jobs and generally bars emergency responders from suing or collecting damages for injuries that occur in the course of their duties. The rule typically includes some exceptions  such as gross negligence of a property owner or if injury was caused by willful, wanton or intentional action.

The protest was among demonstrations against racism and police brutality that erupted worldwide following Floyd's killing. It began as a rally at the Iowa State Capitol to push for the restored voting rights to felons and turned violent as police led away arrested protesters.

Des Moines protesters have said police escalated tensions and were heavy-handed in their handling of arrests.

The suit describes protesters actions as nothing short of domestic terrorism.

No charges related to the protest were found against one of the lawsuit defendants in online court records. Only one person was sentenced to jail time  four days  while the others received probation, fines or both.

One person named in the suit, Brad Penna of Des Moines, said he thinks it's intended to intimidate, function as a scare tactic, and to retaliate against protesters who fought back against what they saw as unjust police aggression.

Penna was originally charged by police with assault on an officer, but that was dropped when he pleaded guilty to interference of officials acts and paid a $250 fine. Penna was among five protesters who later successfully sued the state after the Iowa State Patrol banned them from State Capitol grounds.

The officers' lawsuit accuses Penna of pulling on Wilsons hands and arms to prevent an arrest, causing scrapes and bruises to the officer  an accusation Penna denies.

I did not touch Pete Wilson, or any officer, and the video footage and evidence shows that, Penna said Thursday in an email to The Associated Press. I urged and yelled at Pete Wilson to get off a young Black womans head. That was it. Someone may have scratched him, but it wasnt me. I did not hurt Pete Wilson, not to mention the comparison to protesters literally being thrown to the ground, pepper sprayed, and the like.

Des Moines attorney Mark Hedberg, who represents Wilson and George, did not return repeated phone messages left by the AP seeking comment.

Other defendants named in the lawsuit either could not be reached for comment or did not return messages seeking comment. That includes Sheumaker, who pleaded guilty in 2021 to a reduced misdemeanor count of assault on a police officer and was sentenced to two years probation.

Later that year, Sheumaker was elected to the City Council on a platform that focused, in part, on police reform.

Bloom, the Boston College Law School professor, wondered if the officers' lawsuit wasn't more about airing grievances over the Des Moines Black Lives Matter organization, which is mentioned throughout the complaint, though it is not named as a defendant.

Bloom said he doesnt expect to see more such lawsuits by police seeking damages from people they arrest.

The police already have a remedy in this case, and the remedy is to charge criminally, Bloom said.
SPRINGFIELD  A mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park prompted questions about how the suspect was able to obtain a gun in a state with some of the strictest gun laws in the nation.

Law enforcement officials have said that the Highland Park shooting suspect, Robert Crimo III, 21, legally purchased and possessed the Smith & Wesson M&P 15 that he used in the attack that left at least seven dead and dozens injured.

Gun laws in Illinois regulate the purchase and possession of guns and ammunition. In order to legally possess a gun, the owner must have a Firearm Owners Identification Card.

Despite the existence of two previous reports regarding apparent suicidal and homicidal tendencies exhibited by Crimo, he obtained a FOID card and was legally allowed to purchase weapons and ammunition.

In April 2019, Highland Park police responded to a call that Crimo attempted to commit suicide with a machete one week prior. The report also stated that it was handled by mental health professionals.

In September 2019, police returned to the home in response to a report that Crimo was using drugs, was depressed and had threatened to kill everyone.

Crimo and his mother denied that account. Highland Park police initially confiscated 16 knives and one sword. No one was arrested, and Crimos father claimed ownership of the knives, which police later returned to him.

At that time, Highland Park police completed a Clear and Present Danger form. The form states that clear and present danger reporting shall be used by Illinois State Police to identify individuals who, if granted access to a firearm or ammunition, pose an actual, imminent threat of substantial bodily harm to themselves or others.

The Illinois State Police Firearms Services Bureau, the administrator of the FOID card program, determines whether the subject of the clear and present danger report possesses a FOID card or has a pending application. At the time, Crimo had neither.

But three months after the September 2019 visit from Highland Park Police, Crimo did apply for a FOID card. Because at that time he was still under the age of 21, he needed a sponsor for approval. His father signed the application, state police have said.

After Crimo submitted his application, a background check would be initiated to determine whether there were any circumstances that prohibited him from gun ownership.

Illinois law allows state police to deny an application for a FOID card, or to revoke or seize a FOID card, if they find that the current or prospective cardholder is subject to any of the following disqualifications:

 Is under 21 years of age and has been convicted of a misdemeanor or found to be a delinquent;

 Has been convicted of a felony under the laws of Illinois or any other jurisdiction;

 Is addicted to narcotics;

 Has been a patient of a mental health facility within the past five years;

 Is mentally or developmentally disabled;

 Has been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility;

 Intentionally made a false statement on the FOID card application;

 Has been convicted within the past five years of battery, assault, aggravated assault, or violation of a protective order in which a firearm was used or possessed;

 Has been convicted of domestic battery or aggravated domestic battery.

If Crimo would have had a FOID card or had a pending application at the time Highland Park police filed the clear and present danger form, analysts would have had to determine if there was a preponderance of evidence  a burden of proof that is met when it is determined that there is a greater than 50% chance the claim is true  to issue a clear and present danger determination.

Crimo had no previous criminal convictions on his adult record. His only conviction was for possession of tobacco by a minor when he was 16 years old. Under Illinois law, juvenile convictions are sealed.

Despite the two calls to Highland Park police including the suicide attempt and the threat of violence, Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said there was no reason for Illinois State Police not to issue the FOID card. State police have said there was no report from a mental hospital or provider that would have triggered a prohibitor.

And even though an unidentified resident of the family home claimed they were afraid to return to the home after the September 2019 call to the Highland Park Police, there was no order of protection.

Illinois also has a red flag law, officially the Firearm Restraining Order Act, which is usually pursued in circuit court in response to various actions, including brandishing of a firearm, threatened use of a firearm, and violation of an order of protection, among others.

While existing prohibitions on firearm possession are determined by an individuals prior criminal or mental health history, firearm restraining orders are different because they are an immediate but temporary action.

Crimos FOID card application was one of more than 23,977 received by the Firearm Services Bureau in December 2019, and one of 309,176 received throughout the year. It was approved in January the following year.

In addition to the FOID background check, Crimo would have been subject to additional background checks through the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System when buying firearms. Crimo passed checks on June 9, 2020, July 18, 2020, July 31, 2020 and Sept. 20, 2021.

Crimo has confessed to the shooting. He has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder. He remains in jail with no bond pending trial.
DES MOINES  A poll commissioned by Democratic candidate Mike Frankens campaign shows him within 5 percentage points of longtime incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in Iowas 2022 U.S. Senate campaign.

Grassley was the pick of 49 percent of the poll respondents, to 44 percent for Franken. Seven percent said they remain undecided.

Grassleys six re-election campaign victories in Iowa have come by an average of 35 percentage points.

These numbers echo what we are hearing from voters across the state, which is it is time for Senator Grassley to step aside, the Franken campaign said in a news release. This is not the same Chuck Grassley who was first elected to public office 63 years ago, and Iowans are sick and tired of the political posturing and hyper-partisanship.

The poll was conducted by Change Research, which surveyed 1,488 likely Iowa voters from June 30 to July 4. The polls margin of error is plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

Frankens campaign has employed Change Research multiple times. In mid-May, a Change Research poll showed Franken statistically tied with Abby Finkenauer in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary campaign. Roughly three weeks later, Franken won that election by nearly 15 percentage points.

The new Change Research poll asked how voters voted in the 2020 presidential election: 51 percent said they voted for Republican Donald Trump and 43 percent said they voted for Democrat Joe Biden. That is close to the actual 2020 election results, in which 53 percent of Iowa voters voted for Trump and 45 percent voted for Biden.

The poll also re-asked the U.S. Senate question after offering biographical information on both candidates. After hearing that information, Grassleys lead was trimmed to a single point, 47 percent to 46 percent, within the polls margin for error.
Thousands of educators and students are being trained in bullying prevention through the University of Northern Iowa's Center for Violence Prevention  despite the center receiving no state funding.

Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad used an executive order to create the Governor's Office for Bullying Prevention in 2015 after years of pushing anti-bullying measures that failed to pass in the Iowa Legislature.

The office's original goals included providing anti-bullying training for educators, developing a procedure for reporting bullying, collecting data on bullying incidents and developing guidelines for schools to address online bullying.

The office requested $250,000 in 2015 to fund two full-time staff members, but the money was not appropriated.

Today, the office relies on grants and remains a one-person operation.

Even so, almost 50,000 Iowa students have been reached through the Mentors in Violence Prevention program that trains students to mentor each other about violence and bullying, said Alan Heisterkamp, director of the Center for Violence Prevention.

To accomplish some of the office's other goals, he said, would require state funding. The Gazette spoke with Heisterkamp about what's happened since the office opened.

Q: Where does the office stand in meeting the goals created in 2015?

A: We build capacity in Iowa with a train-the-trainer concept. We go into schools, train educators on anti-bullying strategies, who ultimately train their students.

We have a statewide team of 20 people with backgrounds in education, mental health professionals and Area Education Agencies' staff who are certified to train schools in the Mentors in Violence Prevention model.

The bullying reporting piece, to our knowledge, still is under construction with the Iowa Department of Education. What they did do was create some bullying prevention lessons online that educators could access as a part of their professional development. That was very intentional work and directed by the Iowa Department of Education in collaboration with the UNI center.

Q: A teenage gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in May in a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. How do you believe your work could help prevent a similar tragedy in Iowa?

A: This work is critical. It's a No. 1 priority and should be because it's about relationships. You can make schools as much of a fortress as you want  it's not about the lack of cameras or locked doors.

This is a young man's issue. We need to be bold enough to say we're not doing our sons any favors by not addressing their emotional needs.

We have to do a better job of identifying those young men who are slipping through the cracks (because) when they surface, they are causing tremendous violence and tragedy.

It's preventable. Unfortunately, it's not where significant dollars are going.

Q: Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law House File 2416 enacting a ban on transgender girls in girls sports. Are you concerned there will be a rise in bullying because of that law?

A: Yes. Schools have been working with students in transition for as long as there have been schools. We know since 2016, there's been an uptick in bullying and harassment of (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) youth.

We have to support what's best for each individual student and get past this idea that someone's (gender) identity is a threat to my existence.

It doesn't make much sense and certainly doesn't contribute to (the) public education system serving the public  and that means all individuals.

We have always enjoyed the trust and collaborative spirit of leadership in Iowa. That seems to be more in question now than ever before.
FRIDAY, July 8, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- More disability payments led to fewer hospitalizations for Vietnam veterans with diabetes, according to a new report.

The research looked at 14,000 Vietnam vets who benefited from a 2001 policy change that increased disability payments.

The change came after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs added diabetes to a list of conditions presumed to stem from exposure to Agent Orange. That action followed a report that found a possible link between exposure to the chemical defoliant and diabetes. Veterans who served in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the war were eligible.

For the new study, the researchers examined records of veterans treated at the Providence VA Medical Center in Rhode Island.

The investigators found that those with diabetes who qualified for the disability payments had a 21% reduction in hospitalizations, compared to those who didn't receive the payments. The compensation didn't lead to a lower death rate, but the researchers said the "disability compensation payments may have important health benefits for veterans."

As a result of the policy, eligible veterans received over $17,000 more in annual disability payments by 2018 compared to their non-eligible counterparts, the study authors reported.

The study, led by Dr. Amal Trivedi of the Providence VA Medical Center, found that the increased payments could improve economic factors that contribute to overall health.

"By providing a stable source of income, disability compensation could be the difference between affording stable housing, access to food, or prescribed medications," Trivedi said. "These are things that can help keep veterans out of the hospital."

The link between disability payments and hospitalizations was not affected by race or ethnicity, economic status or other health conditions, the study found.

To address concerns over the increased cost of disability payments, the team pointed out that the cost is likely to be offset by reduced hospital visits and related costs. They suggested that preventive care is worth an equal investment.

"As policy makers consider potential changes to veteran disability compensation programs, we offer evidence that compensation payments substantially lower hospitalizations to veterans, particularly those financed by Medicare," Trivedi said in a VA news release. "This means that disability compensation may generate important reductions in public spending for hospital care."

The study offered several possible reasons that death rates didn't drop along with the hospitalization rate. One is that the VA is an equal-access health care system: In general, the link between low income, poorer health and death could stem from lack of adequate health insurance, which is less of an issue in the VA system. The researchers noted that the health benefits of increased income may be less apparent among middle-aged or older adults, as opposed to younger people.

The study authors added that while pre-existing evidence suggests disability compensation was associated with higher veteran unemployment rates, the study should reassure policymakers that veterans' exit from the labor market was not due to an increased risk of early death.

The findings were published recently in JAMA Internal Medicine.

More information

For more on eligibility for VA health benefits, go to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, news release, June 22, 2022
Wyatt Anderson hit a two-out, bases-loaded single in the bottom of the eighth inning to give Rapid City Post 22 an 8-7 extra-innings win over East Ridge on the first day of the Gopher Classic on Friday in Edina, Minnesota.

Anderson finished with two RBIs and scored a run, while Lee Neugebauer recorded the only multi-hit performance for the Hardhats, going 2 for 4 with a double, while scoring a run and adding an RBI. Dylon Marsh also drove in two, and Wilson Kieffer scored a pair of runs.

Eli Kelley, replacing Brian Atkinson on the mound after one inning, allowed four runs on four hits while striking out 11 and walking none over six innings.

Rapid City Post 22 8, Edina 6: The Hardhats held off a late rally from the Hornets, giving up four runs in the bottom of the seventh, to win their first game of the Gopher Classic on Friday.

Wyatt Anderson doubled twice as part of a 2-for-4 game where he scored two runs and added two RBIs. Harrison Good had a pair of hits and collected two runs and two RBIs, while Mars Sailer tallied two runs and Ryker Henne picked up two RBIs.

Lee Neugebauer surrendered two runs on six hits while striking out four and walking one in five innings.

Maple Plain-Orono 5, Rapid City Post 315 4: Post 315 gave up a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh to drop its first contest of the Gopher Classic in Victoria, Minnesota.

Post 315 leadoff batter B Bickett recorded a triple and went 2 for 4 with a run and two RBIs, while C Morlang went 2 for 2 with a pair of runs.

K Schlueter lasted six innings on the mound, allowing four runs on four hits while striking out six and walking five.

Papillion 9, Rapid City Post 315 5: Papillion scored in all but one inning en route to a Gopher Classic win over Post 315 in Victoria, Minnesota.

R Kasuske and C Morland collected two hits apiece, while Kasuske scored a run.

K Jones threw all seven innings, surrendering nine runs on 10 hits while striking out five and walking one.

Prior Lake Region 1, Rapid City Post 320 0: A two-out, RBI-double made the difference Friday as the Stars were blanked on the first day of the Gopher Classic in Prior Lake, Minnesota.

Gavyn Dansby and Jace Wetzler both doubled for Post 320, while Ryan Rufledt, Isaac Dike and Will Vliestra picked up hits.

Wetzler also pitched all six innings and gave up one run one six hits while striking out five and walking two on 91 pitches.
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE | While Americans were celebrating Independence Day, a contingent of airmen and several B-1B Lancers were returning home to Ellsworth Air Force Base after completing a Bomber Task Force mission to the Indo-Pacific.

The 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron executed several missions, including cooperation with key allies and partners. These missions included aerial integration with the Japanese Air Self Defense Force and hot pit refueling operations with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) at RAAF Base Darwin in Australia  a first for the B-1B Lancer.

Accomplishing these missions further demonstrates the B-1B Lancers capability of executing Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concepts by utilizing minimal personnel and operating out of non-standard locations.

As we practice and become more proficient at ACE, we enhance INDOPACOMs ability to counter any regional adversaries or threats they pose to the freedom of free nations, said Lt. Col. Ross Hobbs, 34th EBS commander. The 34th EBS operations, maintenance and support personnel have absolutely crushed it during this deployment, and I couldnt be more proud of the entire team.

Over the course of the deployment, the World Famous Thunderbirds of the 34th EBS flew over 300 flight hours supporting allied integration and adversarial deterrence missions.

This deployment was an amazing opportunity to demonstrate the B-1s capabilities in the INDOPACOM (area of responsibility), said Capt. Joel Hoyer, a B-1 weapons systems officer assigned to 34th EBS. Its been great to see all the training that weve accomplished at Ellsworth be applied to actual operations abroad.

With a minimal footprint, and in accordance with ACE concepts, the unit flew 30 sorties in 30 days, a direct result of excellence in maintenance operations by the 28th Maintenance Groups 34th Aircraft Maintenance Unit.

I feel very fortunate to be here with the crew we have, said Tech. Sgt. Cody Greenwalt-Walker, 34th AMU B-1B crew chief. I couldnt be more proud of the work weve accomplished.

The U.S. continues to demonstrate its commitment to allies and partners through Bomber Task Force missions to the Indo-Pacific, showcasing U.S. Air Force Global Strike Commands ability to deliver lethal, ready, long-range strike options to Geographic Combatant Commanders anytime, anywhere.
The former owner of a Pennsylvania debt collection company was sentenced to three months in federal prison Friday for paying for plaques and catering for then-Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Browns 2014 Womens History Month program to reward Brown for what he believed was her role in helping land contracts with her office.

Donald Donagher Jr., 70, former chief executive officer of the Penn Credit Corp., pleaded guilty last year to one count of corruptly giving something of value to a public official.

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In denying a defense request for probation, U.S. District Judge John Lee said it was important to send a message that the publics interest comes first, especially in a city like Chicago where citizens have suffered through a long and sordid history of public corruption convictions.

Cynics might say its just how things are done, but the law demands more and frankly the public deserves more, Lee said near the end of the hourlong hearing, which Donagher participated in via videoconference from Philadelphia.

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The case against Donagher was one of several federal investigations swirling around Brown, who left office in 2020 after 20 years at the helm of the countys sprawling court clerk system.

Two of Browns underlings were convicted of lying to a federal grand jury investigating a separate pay-to-play scheme involving the clerks office. Brown, meanwhile, repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and was never charged.

Donaghers case was closely watched in the Chicago legal community because his attorneys alleged that prosecutors overstepped the language of the federal bribery statute in bringing the indictment.

Last year, Lee issued a rare setback for the U.S. attorneys office in dismissing the more serious bribery charges in the case, saying prosecutors had failed to allege there was an explicit quid pro quo tied to Donaghers campaign contributions to Brown.

In a 17-page plea agreement with prosecutors, Donagher admitted that he was attempting to reward Brown for her perceived role in steering business to his company when he agreed to help fund Browns Womens History event, which honored female justices and judges in Cook County and across the state. Penn Credit Corp. had previously been awarded about half of the countys contracts to collect unpaid parking ticket debt, according to the plea.

In March 2014, Donagher paid $869 to a Morton Grove trophy company for commemorative plaques for Browns event, as well as another $1,000 to a food company for catering services, the plea stated. After agreeing to cover the expenses, Donagher forwarded an email from a member of Browns staff to other Penn Credit employees and lobbyists asking if they could represent the company at the event, according to the plea.

I told her we are fans of (Brown), Donagher wrote, adding, we gotta stay ahead of competing companies.

The original indictment filed against Donagher in 2019 accused him of sending an email in 2011 to a company lobbyist in Illinois indicating he had promised Brown 10K of early money in exchange for a lucrative contract with the county. The next month, he donated $10,000 to her campaign fund, prosecutors said.

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Donaghers attorneys have criticized the government for accusing someone of paying bribes without indicting the elected official who allegedly took them.

His lead attorney, Theodore Poulos, told the judge on Friday that the case against Donagher offered a cautionary tale for businessmen seeking government contracts about the nebulous federal bribery statute.

It shows the perils that are in play with the statute as worded, Poulos said, adding, Like any businessman, (Donagher) wanted to remain in the good graces of the politician who may or may not have control in awarding more business to his company.

Poulos also said there was no evidence ever put her thumb on the scale.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual, however, argued that even though the rewards Donagher bestowed upon Brown were small, it breeds public cynicism and fosters disrespect for the rule of law when a businessman seeks to tilt the playing field in his favor.

This was not a crime that was born of need, it was a crime that was born of greed, Pasqual said.

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jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
Celebrity chef Rachael Ray and the ProStart program will give aspiring cooks and restauranteurs a chance to train for culinary careers in high school.

The South Dakota Retailers Association announced Rapid City Central High School is one of 38 schools nationwide that will receive a $5,000 grant from The Rachael Ray Foundation for the schools ProStart program.

The Rachael Ray Foundation ProStart Grow Grants and the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation provided the 38 grants, totaling $225,000, to ProStart schools that have demonstrated a strong need to engage and educate high school students who are interested in restaurant and food service jobs.

ProStart is a nationwide, two-year program for high school students that develops future restaurant and hospitality industry leaders.

In South Dakota, ProStart is a joint effort of the South Dakota Department of Education, the South Dakota Retailers Association and the South Dakota ProStart Advisory Committee. Funding from The Rachael Ray Foundation ProStart Grow Grants will prepare the Rapid City Central High School ProStart program to begin offering culinary arts and restaurant management courses, according to a press release from the South Dakota Retailers Association.

Information from Rapid City Area Schools about specifically how the money will be used is not yet available because the district is still completing the approval process to receive the grant funds.

The ProStart curriculum was developed more than 15 years ago to teach students in high school about culinary arts and restaurant management and to inspire interest in food service professions, according to Seanna Regynski, the South Dakota ProStart Coordinator with the South Dakota Retailers Association.

In the past few years, you can see an increase of everybody needing employees. The National Restaurant Association created (ProStart). They saw that need of those types of industry positions and people to fill them. They created a curriculum to spark that interest at an earlier age (in hopes that) students enjoy it so much they decide to work in a restaurant post-high school, Regynski said. I think theres a lot of success in finding students are interested in the culinary field after taking the program.

The ProStart curriculum is taught in 17 schools throughout South Dakota, and it is being introduced this upcoming school year at Rapid City Stevens and Central High Schools, Regynski said. Central High School applied for and was selected to receive a grant from The Rachael Ray Foundation. Mobridge High School is the only other school in South Dakota to receive a ProStart Grow Grant.

The South Dakota Retailers Association press release said Central High School will receive an upgrade to its classroom to prepare students to work with industry-specific equipment.

I believe Central will be using those grant funds to start their program  things like curriculum and buying equipment. A lot of schools will put in industry-specific kitchens for students to use so when they go to post-secondary school or into the work force in restaurants, theyre familiar with that equipment, Regynski said.

They learn safety and sanitation, management skills, knife skills and how to take care of their equipment, she said. The curriculum is basically what students would learn in post-secondary school, so theyre learning it at a high school level.  Its a program we are passionate about as far as how we facilitate the program for students in South Dakota and provide those opportunities for exploration of that industry, and its just something were really proud of.

Ray is the Emmy-winning host of Rachael Ray Show, now in its 16th season. She has hosted several shows on Food Network including $40 a Day, which featured an episode highlighting Tallys in Rapid City and other Black Hills eateries.

The Rachael Ray Foundation is a private foundation funded by a portion of the proceeds of each sale of Rachael Ray Nutrish pet foods. The foundation supports causes Ray is most passionate about, such as helping animals in need and working with organizations to empower kids and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking.

ProStart programs, and the educators who support them, provide high school students across the country with skills they need to be successful throughout life, Ray said in a press release. We (The Rachael Ray Foundation) are proud to support the dreams, passion, and hard work that these Grow Grant recipients display in their classrooms and schools as they cultivate the next generation of restaurant and food service professionals.

"ProStart is a great opportunity for high school students to learn culinary and hospitality management skills applicable in an array of businesses, from restaurants to hotel management," Nathan Sanderson, executive director of the South Dakota Retailers Association, said in a press release. "This is real-world career preparation at its finest."
About 75% of the more than 400 faculty and staff who left Rapid City Area Schools by the end of the 2021-2022 school year resigned from their positions.

With 14 resignations slated for Tuesdays Board of Education meeting and 16 terminations and leaves total, the board would have approved 411 terminations and leaves throughout the school year. In total, there were 308 resignations, some of which were a breach of contract. The number includes faculty and staff, including principals and bus drivers.

According to meeting minutes, there were 473 recommendations for hire during the 2021-2022 school year. As of Friday afternoon, there are 214 open positions listed on the RCAS website, 60 of which are paraprofessional positions and 63 are teaching positions.

There are about 1,680 RCAS staff members overall, according to the districts website.

In 2020-2021, there were 245 resignations of the 385 terminations and leaves, which is about 64%. There were 175 resignations of the 317 terminations and leaves by the end of the 2018-2019 school year, about 55%.

Numerous teachers and community members spoke at Board of Education meetings throughout the year noting the issue, asking for higher pay and more respect from board members when deciding policy.

Peggy Bias, who teaches special education students at Stevens High School, also spoke at the June 21 meeting. She said the special education department throughout the district is suffering. However, she spoke specifically to the shortage of paraprofessionals.

Bias said the hiring difficulties pre-dates shortages.

Because of the shortage, we are unable to meet student needs appropriately, she said. No one can realistically state otherwise.  Without adequate staff, appropriate support cannot be provided in general education classes.

Bias said it is a violation of federal law, and students safety is at risk.

She said she does not know how to meet the need, but it starts with pay based on feedback from exiting employees. Bias said the starting pay is currently the lowest paid of classified full-time staff.

According to the RCAS website, the salary range starts at $13.49 for paraprofessional listings. Bias said something needs to change and the situation will only get worse if nothing does.

Timmi Bubac, who previously taught English Language Arts at Stevens High School and resigned as of the end of the 2021-2022 school year, said at the May 17 board meeting that there is a mass exodus of teachers.

She said teachers who are choosing to stay say they are increasingly feeling undervalued and disrespected from members of the community and some Board of Education members.

Bubac said there was a statement from the board questioning whether teachers committed a crime while designing a new curriculum for the English 12 class. She said it felt like threats, intimidation and disrespect.

Its incredibly disappointing that this unsupportive statement came from this board, Bubac said. I would love to work in a district where the school board speaks more favorably about the teachers that educate their children even in the midst of a difference of opinion.

Bubacs comments came following questions and discussion on possible destruction of books purchased in 2021 for the English 12 class. The books were listed on a surplus list the board was scheduled to vote on in April.

Michael Birkeland, who will be sworn in as the Area 2 school board member Tuesday and is a former math teacher at Central High School, said at the Dec. 7 meeting that staff should not be leap-frogged in pay and that was one of the reasons he resigned.

In September, RCAS reported it had less than half of the necessary substitute teachers to cover increasing staff absences due to COVID-19. The district continued to have troubles with the virus in schools through January.

The Journal reported in August at the beginning of the school year that the difficulty of recruiting and retaining teachers was exacerbated by the pandemic. The district offered sign-on bonuses for the hard-to-fill positions and was trying to creatively recruit teachers and staff.
After a timed event slack kicked off rodeo action on Thursday night at the 2022 Wall Celebration Rodeo, the all-event first performance played out in the Wall Rodeo Arena on Friday night.

And for the timed event competitors, some quality numbers awaited on the leaderboard posted during the Thursday night slack performance.

None perhaps more so than the 15.77-second spin through the barrel racing cloverleaf by Glenham's Summer Kosel and her horse Apollos made in defense of their 2021 Wall rodeo crown.

Last years win (15.67 seconds) and the follow-up fast impressive effort on Thursday left the reigning champion pleased, and perhaps pleasantly puzzled.

I have never had a horse that worked good here until Apollo. That is a smaller pen and Apollo usually likes big pens, so that is definitely one of the smaller pens I run him on, Kosel said adding a chuckle.

The Wall stop is but the first of a very busy weekend for Kosel and her barrel racing mate.

On Friday, I head up to Allendale, North Dakota, Kosel said. And then Ill come home and take my kids to a barrel racing jackpot and then I head to Steele, North Dakota, and then Monday I will leave for some rodeos in Wyoming.

Kosels time easily withstood the Friday night challenges, the best of the lot a 16.15-second run (sixth best time of the rodeo) by Cora Borman (Backus, Minnesota).

The 2022 Wall Celebration Rodeo continued with a full day of rodeo action on Friday. Steer ropers worked the arena in the morning, while the evening performance featured a full slate of rodeo events.

In the early morning action, Texas steer roper, J. Tom Fischer (Andrews, Texas), a nine-time National Steer Roping Finals qualifier, won the average (19.2 seconds on two head), while Ryan Rochlitz of Minatare, Nebraska earned second money (20.3 on two head).

Hermosas Jess Tierney (currently second in the PRCA world standings) placed second in the first round (9.7) and fourth in the average (20.6).

In Friday night rough stock action, a talented group of area saddle bronc riders vied for the first performance lead. Jacob Kammerer of Philip tops the leaderboard after an 81.5-point ride aboard Muddy Creek Pro Rodeos Hidatsa.

Kammerer came into the weekend following a nice effort at the Black Hills Roundup where the 25-year-old bronc rider pocketed a share of third-place money.

I had seen one video of him and saw that as strong as he was, I didnt know how it was going to go. I could have ridden him better, I think, but it worked out and it should place, I dont know, said Kammerer, who lives but two miles from the rodeo arena and has competed in the Wall arena on numerous occasions. Ive been lucky lately drawing good horses, since you cant do much when the horse doesnt help you out.

In Friday rough stock action, bareback rider Chase Yellowhawk is the event leader courtesy of a 76.5-point effort, the only qualified ride of the performance. The 18-year-old Blunt native has been impressive in his four professional rodeo appearances placing in all four outings.

And in bull riding, the Muddy Creek animal athletes were more than a handful for the Friday night bull riders as there were no qualified rides.

There were leaderboard changes aplenty on the timed event end of the arena on Friday night.

In steer wrestling, Parker Sandstrom, a 19-year-old PRCA rookie out of Ray, North Dakota, moved to the top of the leaderboard with a 4.6-second head catch and jerk down to slip past the 4.7-second effort posted by Prairie Citys Taz Olson in the Thursday night slack.

Cameron Morman (Glen Ullin, North Dakota), the 2020 Wall Celebration champion, Badlands Circuit champion and 2019 NFR qualifier sits third with a 4.9-second time.

Other leaderboard leading efforts on Friday night included a matching pair of 8.9-second runs in tie-down roping by Corbin Fisher (Ashland, Montana) and Grant Lindsley (Osceola, Nebraska) to share top spot heading into Saturdays final day action.

And in team roping, the lead is shared as well as the Friday night duo of Clay Holz and Ty Talsma matched the 5.5-second mark posted by Blair Lammers and Shad Chadwick in Thursdays slack.

In breakaway roping, the leaderboard remained unchanged following Friday night action. Sloan Anderson (Whitehorse) and Miller's Samantha Fulton, who currently sits 12th in WPRA world standings share the top spot with 2.5-second runs completed in the Thursday slack.

The Wall Celebration Rodeo, a long-time amateur rodeo that gained PRCA professional rodeo status in 2020, has become a popular stop for area cowboys, Kody Woodward, a Buffalo area steer wrestler who won Belle Fourche over the Fourth of July summed it up.

The rodeo has been great. Its a good weekend with not a lot else going on, and so for us local cowboys its a nice opportunity, said Woodward, who failed to get four legs up in his Thursday slack appearance. They have a great contractor there and it has always been a good rodeo even when it was an amateur rodeo, and going to a pro event has worked really well for them.

The Wall Celebration Rodeo concludes on Saturday with a 7 pm. performance.
American evangelicals love Donald Trump, a man who is plainly not representative of Christian principles. Ive thought of myself as an evangelical and a conservative since 1974. Now, I dont know.

As someone who has lived most of his life in rural, conservative South Dakota and Nebraska, Ive had to re-evaluate my spiritual and political ties.

I was raised in the Catholic faith but fell away as a teenager. At the age of 20, though, I made my faith personal, rather than cultural or familial, (by accepting Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior).

Having come of age during the great cultural shift of the 1960s and 70s, I had always wanted to live life with a purpose beyond my own personal peace and pleasure. I carried that feeling into my new Christianity.

I was drawn to the church by, among other things, the community of Christians described in the book of Acts, having all things in common, and by examples in the modern world of Christian community. We fellow believers called each other brother and sister, and it felt real.

At first, there was little talk of politics. If it came up at all, it took second place to doing what we thought of as Gods work, and, as they say, His kingdom is not of this world. We talked about whether abortion was right or wrong, but having the right answer was not the badge of belonging that it later became.

In the 1976 presidential campaign, we young believers were excited that Jimmy Carter (I mean, J.C., cmon) was a born-again Christian. But somehow, by the time of the election, it was clear that God wanted Gerald Ford to win. Conservativism, the consensus went, would better protect our religious freedom. Still, I dont remember abortion being a big part of the agenda.

With the late 70s and early 80s came the culture wars. Christians came to believe that if they did not do battle against the forces of liberalism and secular humanism God would rain down judgment on the nation. Though the church at large was more and more engaged, politics was not important to me.

Through my years as a non-traditional college student and 13 years as a journalist, I maintained an adherence to more-or-less conservative politics, voting for Republicans for president and most other offices. There was always a vague notion that liberals might do something that was bad for religious freedom, or jobs, or they preferred squirrels to jobs, or something.

Thats more or less where my head was in 2000, the last year I voted for a Republican presidential candidate, George W. Bush.

Since then, I have been gradually more repulsed by the GOP: the disdain of Cheney and Rumsfeld for anyone who didnt agree with their two wars and their torture programs, the doubling down of economic dogma post 2008, the determination to destroy Obama, the increasingly racial motivations, the denial of science in global warming and the Covid pandemic, the lies that fueled the billionaire-backed Tea Party movement, the subversion of democratic processes (not a comprehensive list).

All the while the Republican Party was getting more divisive, more fear-mongering, more mendacious, my white evangelical brothers and sisters stayed on board.

It was hard to imagine it could get worse, but then came Donald Trump.

Despite his words, actions and character, white evangelicals have been all in. That has led me to a hard conclusion: If white American evangelicals can be so wrong about this party and this man, what can they possibly have to say to someone who would live a Christ-inspired life? Moreover, if that cant discern evil when its looking them in the face, what else are they getting wrong?

Today, Im a Democrat, hanging on to hope for my country. Today, I hang on to my faith, but I no longer look to American evangelicalism for a way to live it. Im not sure where to turn next. The Black church? Main-line denominations? Should I bother with church at all? I dont know yet.
When Kristen Cavallo decided to make a public comment on the Supreme Courts decisions to overturn Roe v. Wade, she said her daughter was the one to spur her into action.

Cavallo, CEO of the award-winning Richmond ad firm The Martin Agency, said she was traveling with a group of mothers when the decision was announced.

Were all moms, Cavallo said. And we were talking about the implications on our kids of how this was going to affect their lives ... and then actually, my daughter called me.

After speaking with her daughter, Cavallo took to LinkedIn to share with the world how she and the company plan to support their employees right to make whatever choice you make.

I believe when and if you become a parent is up to you, she wrote. It is not my place to choose for you. It is my responsibility to offer health care support for whatever choice you make. ... We stand with you.

The June 24 Supreme Court ruling also prompted other businesses to say employees would get help accessing an abortion in states that still allow it. Airbnb, Reddit, Snap, Netflix, Yelp, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, Rakuten, Starbucks and eBay are among major companies that said they would offer a travel benefit through their health care plans.

The ruling to overturn Roe, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion, is expected to lead to abortion bans in about half of states, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin has said he will seek additional restrictions in Virginia.

Cavallo said that since the Supreme Courts ruling, the company has expanded health care benefits to include surrogacy assistance plus elective egg and sperm freezing in addition to reimbursable expenses of adoption, foster care, in vitro fertilization treatments, hysterectomies and vasectomies. The company will also offer a travel stipend to those who need health care out of state should they live somewhere affected by the courts decision.

The range of benefits was agreed upon through multiple discussions with staff over a period of months to discuss what the courts decisions could mean.

Cavallo said the agency even brought in outside counselors to facilitate what could be a difficult conversation for some.

We had numerous sessions within our company of safe spaces for people to talk about what this would mean, she said. And I would say even for longer than that, expanding health care has been a point for the company.

Cavallo said she believes that employees want employers to speak up on societal issues like these, especially in this case since the majority of the companys staff are made up of women.

The Martin Agency employs about 400 people  61.8% are female, 38.2% are male and 16.6% of the staff are parents, a company spokesperson said.

Im going to do everything I can to ensure that women are valued within this company, Cavallo said. Because I believe women are fully capable of making sound decisions.

Cavallo, the first woman to lead the company since its start in 1965, said she wants all of her employees to feel supported regardless of their rank, race or gender. She joins a growing list of women-led companies that also have publicly commented on reproductive rights issues after the ruling. Prime examples include Bumble, led by CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, and Dicks Sporting Goods, led by Lauren Hobart.

I believe that we have become very transparent and open with our staff over the last four years, Cavallo said. Theres very little that we wouldnt talk about, or invite the staff to ask us about. So it felt like this was true to who we are and the way we run the company.
The Virginia State Bar has indefinitely suspended the law license of Dinwiddie County Commonwealths Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill due to an undisclosed impairment after Baskervill notified the 11th Judicial Districts chief judge that her condition requires up to three months of treatment.

I am currently unable to perform the duties of Commonwealths Attorney for Dinwiddie County, Baskervill wrote in a letter dated June 30 to Chief Judge Paul W. Cella.

Colonial Heights Senior Commonwealths Attorney Erin Barr was appointed by the court July 1 to serve as Dinwiddies acting commonwealths attorney for 90 days, ending Sept. 30.

Baskervill and her attorney, Jeffrey Geiger, consented to the impairment suspension order issued by the State Bar on Wednesday. The order reads that the Bars disciplinary board finds Baskervill suffers from an impairment as defined in the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia and that the underlying condition materially impairs Ms. Baskervills fitness to practice law.

The suspension order remains in effect until it is established that she no longer suffers from impairment, the order states.

In addition, the order requires Baskervill to notify, by certified mail, all clients for whom she is currently handling matters and to all opposing attorneys and presiding judges in pending litigation of the suspension of her license to practice.

The order and Baskervills letter to the court appears to leave open the possibility that she will seek to have her law license reinstated and return to her duties as Dinwiddies chief prosecutor upon her recovery. She would be required to petition the Bar to have her license reinstated.

My physician ... has stated that he feels my condition may take up to three months to treat, Baskervill wrote in her letter to the court. Her physician practices as a psychiatrist and neurologist.

Baskervill could not be immediately reached for comment. A message sent Friday to her work email address at the Dinwiddie Commonwealths Attorneys Office was not returned, but she may not have received it since shes temporarily relinquished her position.

Geiger, reached Friday, declined to comment, citing confidentiality concerns with the State Bars order. A reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch asked Geiger on Friday to advise Baskervill of the newspapers interest in speaking with her about the recent developments, but received no response.

In the order appointing Barr as acting Dinwiddie commonwealths attorney, Judge Cella found the three-month leave that Baskervill sought was not a temporary period as outlined by Virginia law, but rather a prolonged period of time that required the appointment of an acting commonwealths attorney.

Consequently, Cella appointed Barr, who is highly qualified to act in Ms. Baskervills place. Barr has been a prosecutor since 2010, serving 10 years in Chesterfield County, where she rose to the position of deputy commonwealths attorney. She joined the Colonial Heights Commonwealths Attorneys Office in 2020.

Our thoughts and support are with Ann as she and her family navigate this tough time, Barr said Saturday in a statement. Our office will be working with the Bar and the Court to ensure the administration of justice and service to the citizens of Dinwiddie is not interrupted in any way. I am honored the court has appointed and entrusted me in this role.

The transfer of power comes at a critical time in Dinwiddie courts, which has eight pending homicide cases that are at various stages in the judicial process. Two area commonwealths attorneys have agreed to help prosecute those cases.

Colonial Heights Commonwealths Attorney Gray Collins has assigned his staff to handle three of the cases, and Henrico Commonwealths Attorney Shannon Taylor has assigned one of her prosecutors to assist with three others.

Baskervill, a former Richmond prosecutor who has held the job as Dinwiddie commonwealths attorney since 2015, co-prosecuted one of the regions biggest cases in 2016  persuading a jury to convict Russell E. Brown III of capital murder in the slaying of veteran Virginia State Police trooper Junius A. Walker, 63, who was set to retire.

Brown fatally shot Walker four times in his police cruiser March 7, 2013, after the officer pulled alongside Browns disabled vehicle on Interstate 85 to see if he needed assistance. Browns defense counsel argued that he was psychotic and insane at the time of the killings. The jury opted not to sentence Brown to death but that he serve the rest of his life behind bars.
A woman who shot at a man and pursued him the wrong way down West Broad Street on Thursday has been charged with attempted murder.

Authorities also charged Demetrea Flowers, 53, of Richmond with use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Flowers told police she was exiting a business in the 400 block of West Broad Street when she was confronted by a man, identified by police as Mark Banks, 29. A conflict ensued between the two, and Banks hit Flowers with a cafe chair.

Flowers responded by producing a firearm and firing toward Banks. Unscathed, Banks fled, and Flowers gave chase, entering her car and driving eastbound in the westbound lanes of Broad. Police charged Banks with malicious wounding.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (804) 780-1000 or use the P3 Tips Crime Stoppers app.

Virginia Commonwealth University issued a safety alert Thursday morning, temporarily asking nearby residents to stay inside. The incident occurred about a block from campus.
Just under 9,900 state employees have received permission to work remotely at least one day a week under a new policy that Gov. Glenn Youngkin unveiled two months ago to move workers back into their offices after many of them began working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Almost 90% of those who received permission to telework will work remotely one to two days a week.

The new policy allowed state agency leaders to grant such requests for one day a week and Cabinet secretaries for two days a week.

Youngkins chief of staff, Jeff Goettman, had to sign off on requests for more than two days, with 1,046 receiving permission to work remotely for three to four days a week and 641 to telework five days a week.

Administration officials underscored that out of 21,314 classified state employees eligible to work remotely, only 9,866 asked for permission to telework, or 46%.

Half of our employees that were eligible did not request one day of telework, Secretary of Administration Lyn McDermid said in an interview on Friday, four days after the new policy took effect.

The new policy applies only to classified employees in executive branch agencies, or 57,575 of the more than 100,000 people employed full time by the state. It does not include employees of state colleges and universities, legislative or judicial agencies, or independent commissions and authorities.

About 36,000 classified employees are not eligible to work remotely because of the nature of their jobs  such as direct care hospital staff, state police, park rangers and road construction or maintenance crews.

Those are the folks who, in fact, worked full time in person during the pandemic, McDermid said.

The number of new telework agreements will change because the state continues to receive requests, McDermid said. The numbers will grow and were processing them as quickly as possible.

The policy had come under fire from state employees, including some managers, and Democratic legislators who said it did not give state agencies necessary flexibility and authority to manage their own workforce, but the administration said it will bring consistency to how telework is allowed across state government.

We have an incredible workforce serving the commonwealth every day and were so excited to welcome them back to the office, Youngkin said in a statement on Friday. We know an office-centric environment fosters greater collaboration and teamwork and provides an increased level of service for all Virginians.

Virginias telework policy had not been updated in more than a decade and we now have accurate metrics so we can meet the needs of our civil servants and the demands of their work, he said. What weve seen throughout this process is that when given the choice the vast majority of eligible state employees chose to work in the office at least three days per week.

But WRIC, the Richmond ABC TV affiliate, reported Friday that more than 300 state employees have resigned their jobs since Youngkin announced the policy on May 5, and that some of them  including 28 employees at the Virginia Department of Transportation  cited it as a reason for their departure.

Youngkin spokesperson Rob Damschen said Friday, Im not aware of any applications being denied outright from the governors office. Requests were made for applications to be resubmitted if they were filled out incorrectly or missing information.

The new policy voids any existing telework agreements, but the Department of Human Resource Management doesnt know how many there are since the pandemic began in March 2020. In 2019, only about 25% of state jobs were eligible for telework and, of those, about 19% were being carried out under telework agreements.

There are no statistics available for 2020 or 2021, said McDermid, who noted that more state employees will be able to work remotely than before the pandemic.

The new policy sets a uniform standard for telework at all eligible agencies, she said. What we were looking for was a consistency across agencies.

McDermid acknowledged a learning curve for the administration in carrying out the Republican governors policy, which is part of his political priority of rolling back the states response to the COVID-19 pandemic under his Democratic predecessor, Gov. Ralph Northam.

The more we communicated, the better people began to feel about why were doing it, she said.

McDermid said Youngkin made clear after announcing the policy in early May that he wanted agencies to consider employee needs to care for children and elderly relatives, as well as the availability of parking and office space in encouraging workers to return to their offices.

However, the governors office did not confirm until late May that it would allow employees with children to work remotely up to five days a week under temporary agreements through Labor Day, Sept. 5, when the new school year begins, if they had no options for child care.

Similarly, exceptions emerged gradually for employees working in some regional offices or field jobs that required them to make long commutes to their offices. The governors office also promised to honor previous accommodations for remote work under the Americans with Disabilities Act after some employees expressed concern about having to justify their medical needs to continue teleworking.

I am confident we made adjustments along the way to accommodate circumstances for employees, McDermid said.

The administration also missed its own deadline for processing telework applications on June 3 and then declined to comment on June 30, when all agreements were supposed to have been completed.

One reason for the delay was the reliance on manual, paper-driven processes throughout state government, which came as a surprise to McDermid, a technology specialist who previously had served as chief information officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and Dominion Energy.

The state has a lot to do when it comes to basic, consistent technology across state government, she said. Its shocking, really.
Several hundred abortion rights supporters gathered with Democratic lawmakers and activists Friday night in Richmonds Monroe Park pledging to fight any effort to further restrict the procedure in Virginia.

Speakers rallying supporters of legal abortion said they should expect years of work to keep abortion legal in Virginia.

Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, said that in the two weeks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, shes received many calls about how to protect abortion rights in the state.

This has been a devastating blow, but we are not devastated, she said.

While abortion remains legal in Virginia, we have to fight like hell to keep it that way, she said.

Earlier Friday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to do things such as protect access to federally approved abortion medication.

On June 24, the day the U.S. Supreme Court announced it had overturned Roe v. Wade, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he will seek legislation to bar most abortions after 15 weeks.

Four days after the ruling, Youngkin told the Family Foundation: I just want to be clear. I am a pro-life governor. He added: Any bill that comes to my desk I will sign happily, gleefully, to protect life.

Some Republican lawmakers have said theyre drafting legislation to be considered next year in the General Assembly to ban abortion, and Lockhart noted that Youngkin said he would sign any bill that hits his desk restricting abortion.

She said it is important for people to show up at the General Assembly in January, as well as electing pro-choice lawmakers in next years state legislative elections.

We need you dialed in and talking to your legislators, she told the crowd. We are the majority.

Democrats hold a 21-19 edge in the state Senate. A challenge for Youngkin will be to get proposed abortion curbs to the Senate floor.

Democrats hold a 9-6 edge on the Senate Education and Health Committee, and the panels chair, Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, has vowed to block further abortion curbs.

Lucas tweeted in late June that in 2012, some Senate Republicans backed a bill that would have required women getting abortions to submit to a transvaginal ultrasound. The sponsor withdrew the bill.

So no I will NOT be listening to them on abortion regulation, Lucas tweeted.

If Republicans find another way to get such legislation to the floor the outcome is less clear. Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, is personally opposed to abortion and will cast a key vote.

As many know, I am personally opposed to abortion, just like Senator Tim Kaine, Morrissey said in a June statement.

Still, I defend the position that women should have safe access to the procedure, at the very least, up to the moment a fetus can feel pain which many agree is 20 plus weeks of a pregnancy; in cases when a mothers health or life is at risk; in cases of rape that result in a pregnancy; and in cases of incest that result in a pregnancy. Just to be very clear: I do not believe the government, whether Federal or State, should be telling women what to do with their bodies.

Former Del. Lashrecse Aird of Petersburg is running against Morrissey in a Democratic primary in a newly drawn state Senate seat next year. Calling him an anti-choice Democrat, she told the rally it was time for Morrissey to go.

She said abortion rights supporters in Virginia have been too comfortable.

But they have shown us who they are. Its time for us to show them who we are. And who are we? We are the majority, she said.

Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William  a former member of a metal band  emceed the rally, which also featured newly chosen House of Delegates Democratic leader Don Scott of Portsmouth and Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond.

Roem said that on Saturday, Republicans on Capitol Square will hold a rally calling for an end to legal abortion.

Abolition does not include exceptions, yall. At all. Period.
Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, came to Capitol Square on Saturday to urge lawmakers to protect life from conception and not settle for incremental steps such as Gov. Glenn Youngkins proposal to ban most abortions after 15 weeks.

Good, whose district now includes part of Hanover County, did not mention Youngkin by name in his remarks to more than 100 people who gathered for a rainy rally at the Bell Tower. But the implication was clear as he urged legislators across the country to match the courage of the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Republicans should not be in the business of negotiating the timeline of abortion, Good said. Six weeks, eight weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, whatever it may be...

Abortion should not be negotiated. It should be eliminated.

On June 24, the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Youngkin said he will work to ban most abortions in Virginia after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest or when a womans life is in jeopardy.

Four days later, Youngkin told The Family Foundation that he would like to go further. Citing the 21-19 Democratic edge in the state Senate, he told the audience that his goal is to get a bill he can sign.

It wont be the bill that we all want, Youngkin said, indicating that he believes life begins at conception.

Both Youngkin and Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, one of the four GOP lawmakers he has asked to work on abortion legislation, have said while they prefer a 15-week bill, a 20-week standard could be a fallback position.

Good said Saturday that 92% of the abortions in Virginia take place before 15 weeks and 99% before 20 weeks.

Im sorry to say Republicans here in Richmond are the worst negotiators of all. You want to play poker with these folks, Good said. They show you whats in their cards. They tell you their highest bid, and then they fold anyway.

Diana Shores, a veteran conservative activist and senior strategist for Good for Congress, urged members of the crowd to hold Youngkin and GOP lawmakers accountable.

We are here today to ask Governor Glenn Youngkin to be the pro-life governor he promised he would be, she said. We are here today to ask every legislator who said they would fight for life to garner the courage to fight for life  at conception.

Speakers at the rally included Del. Marie March, R-Floyd, who said she will introduce legislation for the January session to protect life as of conception.

There can be no compromise, March said.

Abortion bills in the General Assembly traditionally go through the Senate Education and Health Committee, on which Democrats hold a 9-6 edge. Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, who heads the committee, told CNN over the weekend that a 15-week bill would be dead on arrival in the committee.

Members of the crowd at Saturdays rally held signs with messages such as: Choose life  your mother did, I am the pro-life generation and I am the post-Roe generation.

Janet Robey, of Bedford, like others in the crowd, said she supports babies from the moment of conception to natural death.

But as a practical matter, she said, Any incremental step we could take toward banning abortion completely saves babies lives. And thats why Im here  to stand for life.

Robey said of Goods view: I get where hes coming from, and in a perfect world, we would have protection from conception. But, unfortunately, we live in such a society that were going to have to take it by steps.

Good was first elected in 2020, after unseating Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-5th, in a drive-through nominating convention.

In November, Good faces Democrat Josh Throneburg, a minister and small-business owner, in a strong Republican district in which Youngkin beat Democrat Terry McAuliffe by 20 percentage points in the 2021 contest for governor.

Throneburg has called the Supreme Courts ruling overturning Roe a heartbreaking decision and said it will do nothing to end abortion in this country. It will only make it more dangerous.

After redistricting, the 5th District includes all or part of 24 cities and counties. In the greater Richmond area, it includes about 13,400 voters in Hanover County as well as all of Louisa, Powhatan, Goochland, Nottoway and Amelia counties.
Yaser Aslam, left, and Fatina Khan hand out toys to children during an Eid gift giveaway event at the Islamic Circle of North America Relief refugee resource center in Chicago on July 7, 2022. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Nekbakht Merzayee had a smile on her face after she was given a new outfit to wear for Eid at a nonprofits celebratory giveaway Thursday, but she said she felt not very good about being away from her loved ones this holiday.

She arrived in the Chicago area in May after having to leave her husband and family in Afghanistan earlier this year.

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She joined about 85 families that walked through the Devon Avenue location of the Chicago chapter of Islamic Circle of North America Relief, or ICNA Relief, Thursday afternoon to receive gifts ahead of the Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha, which starts Saturday. While the nonprofit regularly works with refugees from approximately 15 different nationalities, this year there was a huge influx of refugees from Afghanistan who needed help, said Beena Farid, the outreach coordinator for ICNA Relief across the greater Chicago area.

The goal, she said, was to make their first Eid celebrations away from their homes special.

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These people have gone through a lot, Farid said. Theyve lost their homes, theyve lost their homeland, theyve lost their families, and they came here and are isolated for so many reasons. We just want to make them feel a little bit special so they know that we care for them and were there for them.

The event, which was advertised as an Eid toy giveaway, brought hundreds through the nonprofits doors, but Zak Sirajullah, health services supervisor at ICNA Relief, said the giveaway was not just for toys. Staff members and volunteers were also distributing new clothes for people to wear on Eid and personal hygiene packages for women.

The giveaways are geared toward refugees and immigrants, Sirajullah said, but the nonprofit doesnt discriminate against anyone who shows up.

Obviously if someone is coming to our door, they have a need for our services and what were offering, so well be happy to help them, he said.

Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. >

Sirajullah said giveaways like Thursdays happen twice a year before each of the Eid holidays, Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of millions of Muslims Hajj pilgrimage.

A lot of them, their income goes directly to housing, rent, food, so luxuries like these are very difficult, so we look forward to distributing these every year and they look forward to receiving it, as you can see, we have a line around the block, Sirajullah said.

A box of toys at an Eid gift giveaway event at the Islamic Circle of North America Relief refugee resource center in Chicago on July 7, 2022. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

The nonprofits Devon Avenue center is home to other services including case management, back-to-school drives and a food pantry, which distributes fresh produce, meat, dairy products and other groceries two to three times a week.

All the items distributed Thursday were new, either purchased from donations given to the nonprofit or donated directly, Farid said. There were around 800 toys piled high in the back of a truck at the start of the giveaway, and the truck was nearly empty around two hours later.

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The nonprofit also partners with different organizations to make a widespread difference, Farid said. More Eid giveaways were taking place at the nonprofits location in Glendale Heights, and the nonprofit sent gifts to the Carol Stream and Aurora areas for families there.

We hope to increase the help we give even more because the need is so much more, Farid said. People say that you should donate out of the country, and a lot of people do donate out of the country, but people dont realize even right here in our neighborhoods, these are our neighbors and they need help.

Farida said anyone interested in learning more about ICNA Relief and how to get involved can go to icnarelief.org.
KEARNEY, Neb.  Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin told Nebraska Republicans on Saturday that his victory last year in what he described as a dark blue state was the beginning of a red wave that he suspects will sweep across the United States and land in Nancy Pelosis California.

Youngkin defeated his Democratic opponent, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, in a state where Republicans had won only one of the past five elections for governor. He was the keynote speaker at the Nebraska Republican Partys state convention.

Youngkin said the political tide started to shift in Virginia during the COVID-19 pandemic because Democratic leaders had shut down local small businesses and schools.

The school closures gave parents a glimpse into their childrens education that they had not seen before, said Youngkin, whose campaign tapped into culture war battles over schools and race such as the debate over critical race theory. On Saturday, he raised those issues again, claiming Virginia public schools were teaching politics and telling students to judge others based on the color of their skin.

Youngkin said a big reason why he won his election is that he drew support from Democrats and independents who had never voted Republican before, including members of the Black and Latino communities. He said Virginians also felt confident in the 2021 election security because thousands of volunteers showed up at the polls to work and supervise the voting areas.

He encouraged Nebraskans to follow a similar strategy, volunteering at polling places and putting out more red signs supporting conservative candidates.

Republicans already dominate Nebraska politics. They have a 49%-28% voter registration lead over Democrats and hold many state and local offices. For example, Republicans havent lost a race for Nebraska governor since 1994.

In touting his partys prospects, Youngkin said the GOP is poised to retake control at the federal level during the 2022 midterm elections this November.
By Kevin Cianfarini and Erik Shilts

The planned 40% price hike by Richmond Gas Works underscores the already dire need for our city to curtail its risky investments in methane gas. Russias aggression in Ukraine sent shockwaves through global fossil fuel markets, and Richmonds municipal gas utility is coping with the fallout. City residents, 17% of whom already had a high energy burden prior to this increase, will be left to bear the financial burden come this winter.

According to KPMG, 85% of estimated global fossil fuel reserves have been nationalized by potentially aggressive regimes, the consequences of which can be seen with Russia. Despite this, Richmond Gas Works continues to expand its methane gas infrastructure.

According to Richmonds Capital Improvement Plan, City Council intends to allocate $100 million to our municipal gas utility in a plan that would shackle countless residents to the relentless volatility of the methane gas market. This is in addition to a pre-existing $120 million fund from prior years.

However, an alternative narrative is piquing interest around the world. The European Union has recognized the importance of heat pumps in combating Russian President Vladamir Putins aggression and the inherent volatility of gas. Likewise, U.S. President Joe Biden emphasized the role clean energy technologies play in national security by invoking the Defense Production Act to accelerate the domestic manufacturing of heat pumps.

In Virginias mild climate, modern heat pumps are so efficient that they use less gas than burning fuel on premises, even when the electricity comes from a gas-fired power plant. Furthermore, the states diverse electricity generation means roughly 40% of your power isnt generated from gas.

Coupled together, Virginians with heat pumps are significantly insulated from global gas market volatility. Even in colder climates, which historically have not been favorable for heat pumps, technological breakthroughs allow American-made heat pumps to operate at high efficiency in temperatures as low as minus-10 degrees Fahrenheit.

This technology isnt magic, nor is it new. A heat pump simply is a device that is able to collect and transport energy from one place to another. Both your air conditioner and refrigerator are heat pumps. In many areas of the world, heat pumps that can both heat and cool are called reverse cycle air conditioners.

Furthermore, an air conditioner and its heat pump counterpart are 95% mechanically identical. Just $300 to $600 of manufacturing components separate an air conditioning unit from a reversible heat pump.

In the U.S. Senate, the proposed HEATR Act (Senate Bill 4139) would incentivize American HVAC manufacturers to stop cost-cutting, and instead produce bidirectional heat pumps. For the end consumer, buying an air conditioner would have the added benefit of a high-quality heating device at no extra cost.

Depending on the building, there can be steep upfront costs to retroactively fit a heat pump. The Zero-Emission Homes Act (Senate Bill 2370 and House Bill 4872) would provide point-of-sale rebates of up to $14,000 per household to make the switch.

Rep. Donald McEachin, D-4th, who represents the city of Richmond, has officially supported the bill. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, have yet to do so.

The HEATR Act and the Zero-Emission Homes Act complement each other by addressing supply- and demand-side issues. Together, they would make reversible heat pumps widely available and affordable in the United States, which already has been the case in other parts of the world for decades.

We must demand more from both City Council and Congress. If youre concerned about the gas price hike, and what that means for our citys energy security, consider voicing your opposition to the planned gas infrastructure expansion to your member of City Council. If you think a heat pump could help your household become more financially secure, but are alarmed at the upfront cost, consider calling Kaine and Warner to voice support for these bills.
Winds are powering a change in how we generate electricity. The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project is a planned 176-turbine wind farm that will generate enough electricity to power up to 660,000 homes.

One of the largest offshore power facilities in the world, CVOW will be capable of producing more electricity than the North Anna Power Station in Louisa County. With some experts predicting Virginias electricity demand will increase by as much as 38% by 2035, this new generation capacity is needed to power the commonwealths economy in the future.

Starting with Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, CVOW has been a decade in the making. Conservatives for years have supported an all-of-the-above approach to energy, with wind and solar power an increasing part of the mix. States run by conservatives have embraced clean energy for economic reasons  solar and wind are often the lowest cost source of electricity.

A recent CNN headline proclaimed,  The sound of money: Wind energy is booming in deep-red Republican states. Indeed, in states like Texas, Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma, wind energy provides between 30% and 57% of total energy needs.

The State Corporation Commission currently is considering the costs and benefits of CVOW. Because CVOW is being developed by a regulated monopoly  investor-owned Dominion Energy  the SCC has oversight of the project to protect the interests of Virginians.

At an estimated cost of $9.8 billion, CVOW represents a significant investment. Is the project the best way to meet the growing demand for electricity? To answer this question, its important to look at the alternatives.

The cost of electricity in Virginia today is significantly higher than it was two years ago. Dominion has informed the SCC that electric rates will surge as much as 20%. This largely is due to the rising costs of natural gas, which generates 60% of the commonwealths electricity.

While its easy to blame the Biden administrations policies for the doubling of natural gas prices, the fact is the huge price hikes were facing today also are the result of a 2016 U.S. policy change that allowed natural gas exports.

Before 2016, natural gas produced in the United States was almost entirely used in North America. Booming production from U.S. shale gas kept domestic natural gas prices below those in Europe or Asia.

Today, the United States is the largest natural gas exporter in the world. Now, when prices in Europe skyrocket, there is an immediate impact on U.S. prices.

Russia supplies 40% of the natural gas to the European Union. As the EU attempts to reduce natural gas imports from Russia, its member countries are looking to the United States to make up the difference.

In recent months, 74% of our liquefied natural gas exports were to Europe. That means potentially even higher prices for years to come.

Some point to nuclear power as the answer to meet our expanding energy needs. Currently, nuclear power supplies 30% of Virginias electricity, but the cost for a new nuclear power plant is staggering.

The only nuclear power plant under construction in the United States  Plant Vogtle in Georgia  now is projected to cost $34 billion. Thats more than double the original estimate.

While nuclear energy creates no carbon emissions and is a reliable baseload power generator, it also is the most expensive source of power in the United States. Our current fleet is a steady supply of clean reliable energy and it should be maintained.

This brings us back to the original question: Is CVOW worth the $9.8 billion investment? The answer is yes.

A spokesperson for Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently said the administration 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.

With any big energy project, costs are a major concern, and the SCC needs to be vigilant to ensure Dominion keeps them under control and protects ratepayers. With rising fuel prices, a true all-of-the-above approach to energy  natural gas and nuclear, but also increasing wind and solar  can insulate us from price and supply shocks.

This strengthens our national and economic security. Virginias elected officials, business leaders and citizens have come out in support of CVOW. Now its time for the SCC to give the green light.
The smooth coneflower, an endangered species that forced the realignment of Virginia Techs Smart Road in the 1990s, is no longer endangered.

In an announcement this week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it was reclassifying the flowers listing under the Endangered Species Act to threatened. That means it has made a significant recovery since 1992, when it was declared in danger of extinction.

A lavender-petaled relative of the sunflower, the smooth coneflower grows in Georgia, the two Carolinas and Virginia  and, more importantly for the Smart Road founders, directly in its path when plans for the high-tech highway were still on the drawing board.

Part of the private road, which is used as a test track for automotive innovations such as self-driving cars, was re-routed in 1994 to avoid coneflower populations and a Confederate-era cemetery in the Ellett Valley of Montgomery County.

Today, 44 distinct populations of the coneflower can be found in the four states, which the Fish and Wildlife Service attributed to conservation partnerships between federal, state and private stakeholders.

Our partners have done an amazing job at reducing threats to this plant which is helping pave the way to its recovery, Leopoldo Miranda-Castro, a regional director for the service, said in this weeks announcement.

The coneflowers spotty patches along the Smart Roads proposed route were discovered when it was still in the planning stages, prompting the Virginia Department of Transportation to come up with two alternative routes that were unveiled in 1994.

Primary threats that led to the plant being declared as endangered included development, fire suppression, invasive species and highway right-of-way maintenance activities such as pesticide application and mowing.

At the time, 39 populations of the coneflower had disappeared, and the 21 that remained were considered vulnerable and unstable.

Just because the coneflower has been taken off the endangered species list doesnt mean that its completely out of the woods. Under the Fish and Wildlife Services definition of threatened, the species is still considered likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future.

Officials at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which currently manages the Smart Road, had no comment when contacted this week.
RICHMOND  Just under 9,900 state employees have received permission to work remotely at least one day a week under a new policy that Gov. Glenn Youngkin unveiled two months ago to move workers back into their offices after many of them began working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Almost 90% of those who received permission to telework under the new policy will be able to work one to two days a week under the new policy, which allowed state agency leaders to grant requests for one day and Cabinet secretaries for two days.

Youngkins chief of staff, Jeff Goettman, had to sign off on requests for more than two days, with 1,046 receiving permission to work remotely for three to four days a week and 641 to telework five days a week.

Administration officials underscored that out of 21,314 classified state employees eligible to work remotely, only 9,866 asked for permission to telework, or 46%.

Half of our employees that were eligible did not request one day of telework, Secretary of Administration Lyn McDermid said in an interview on Friday, four days after the new policy took effect.

The new policy applies only to classified employees in executive branch agencies, or 57,575 of the more than 100,000 people employed full time by the state. It does not include employees of state colleges and universities, legislative or judicial agencies, or independent commissions and authorities.

About 36,000 classified employees are not eligible to work remotely because of the nature of their jobs  such as direct care hospital staff, state police, park rangers and road construction or maintenance crews.

Those are the folks who, in fact, worked full time in person during the pandemic, McDermid said.

The number of new telework agreements will change because the state continues to receive requests, McDermid said. The numbers will grow and were processing them as quickly as possible.

The policy had come under fire from state employees, including some managers, and Democratic legislators who said it did not give state agencies necessary flexibility and authority to manage their own workforce, but the administration said it will bring consistency to how telework is allowed across state government.

We have an incredible workforce serving the commonwealth every day and were so excited to welcome them back to the office, Youngkin said in a statement on Friday. We know an office-centric environment fosters greater collaboration and teamwork and provides an increased level of service for all Virginians.

Virginias telework policy had not been updated in more than a decade and we now have accurate metrics so we can meet the needs of our civil servants and the demands of their work, he said. What weve seen throughout this process is that when given the choice the vast majority of eligible state employees chose to work in the office at least three days per week.

But WRIC, the Richmond ABC TV affiliate, reported Friday that more than 300 state employees have resigned their jobs since Youngkin announced the policy on May 5, and that some of them  including 28 employees at the Virginia Department of Transportation  cited it as a reason for their departure.

Youngkin spokesperson Rob Damschen said Friday, Im not aware of any applications being denied outright from the governors office. Requests were made for applications to be resubmitted if they were filled out incorrectly or missing information.

The new policy voids any existing telework agreements, but the Department of Human Resource Management doesnt know how many there are since the pandemic began in March 2020. In 2019, only about 25% of state jobs were eligible for telework and, of those, about 19% were being carried out under telework agreements.

There are no statistics available for 2020 or 2021, said McDermid, who noted that more state employees will be able to work remotely than before the pandemic.

The new policy sets a uniform standard for telework at all eligible agencies, she said. What we were looking for was a consistency across agencies.

McDermid acknowledged a learning curve for the administration in carrying out the Republican governors policy, which is part of his political priority of rolling back the states response to the COVID-19 pandemic under his Democratic predecessor, Gov. Ralph Northam.

The more we communicated, the better people began to feel about why were doing it, she said.

McDermid said Youngkin made clear after announcing the policy in early May that he wanted agencies to consider employee needs to care for children and elderly relatives, as well as the availability of parking and office space in encouraging workers to return to their offices.

However, the governors office did not confirm until late May that it would allow employees with children to work remotely up to five days a week under temporary agreements through Labor Day, Sept. 5, when the new school year begins, if they had no options for child care.

Similarly, exceptions emerged gradually for employees working in some regional offices or field jobs that required them to make long commutes to their offices. The governors office also promised to honor previous accommodations for remote work under the Americans with Disabilities Act after some employees expressed concern about having to justify their medical needs to continue teleworking.

I am confident we made adjustments along the way to accommodate circumstances for employees, McDermid said.

The administration also missed its own deadline for processing telework applications on June 3 and then declined to comment on June 30, when all agreements were supposed to have been completed.

One reason for the delay was the reliance on manual, paper-driven processes throughout state government, which came as a surprise to McDermid, a technology specialist who previously had served as chief information officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and Dominion Energy.

The state has a lot to do when it comes to basic, consistent technology across state government, she said. Its shocking, really.
RICHMOND The BA.5 strain of COVID-19 is spreading quickly across Virginia and now accounts for more than half of all cases in the state, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.

A subvariant of omicron, BA.5 is causing new infections, even among those vaccinated and those who have already contracted COVID. Its considered the most transmissible variant yet and might be capable of producing more severe disease.

In Virginia, hospitalizations are on the incline. Deaths remain low.

The BA.5 omicron variant has become the majority variant of the virus in the USA in a matter of weeks and is a very troubling development, said Dr. Gonzalo Bearman, head of infectious diseases for Virginia Commonwealth University Health.

The University of Virginias Biocomplexity Institute said BA.5, along with the slightly older BA.4, may cause a small surge this summer.

What kind of effect theyll have on the Richmond area isnt determined yet, said Dr. Melissa Viray, Richmond and Henrico interim health director.

I think its a little too early to say, Viray added. We need to monitor the impact of BA.4 and BA.5.

Experts arent sure yet if the BA.5 variant can cause greater severity of illness. As variants have evolved, theyve typically become more transmissible and less deadly. But the BA.5 variant arrives at a time when immunity for many people is declining.

As many individuals are not vaccinated and others have waning vaccine protection, this may lead to both greater numbers of infection and greater severity of disease, Bearman said.

In Virginia, 72% of residents are fully vaccinated. But less than half of Virginians have received a booster, and vaccine immunity wanes over time. Its unclear how much immunity is necessary to ward off infection.

The older BA.2.12.1 variant is shrinking but continues to have a presence in the state. Pfizer and Moderna plan to have boosters that target omicron by this fall.

For the past two weeks, COVID hospitalizations in Virginia have been on the rise. There were 615 average hospitalizations Friday, the most since early March, when the original strain of omicron was receding. Fridays hospitalization total remains relatively low compared to previous variants  there were 2,000 hospitalizations at the peak of delta and 3,700 at the peak of the original omicron.

Hospitals in the Richmond area havent seen their patient populations swell. At VCU Health, 94% of the hospitals 645 adult inpatient beds were full last week, roughly the same figure as a month earlier, according to federal data.

At Chippenham and Johnston-Willis hospitals, fewer beds were occupied last week than a month prior. In the last week of June, 72% of adult inpatient beds were full, compared with 77% four weeks earlier.

St. Marys Hospital has also seen its patient volume slide. COVID patients made up just 3% of the patient population in late June. At VCU, 9% of its patients were treated for COVID.

The state health department reported a daily average of 2,600 cases on Friday, but cases are no longer a reliable indicator, because the health department cant count the numerous rapid tests conducted at home. Despite the undercounting in cases, the rate in Virginia is four times higher than last summer, before at-home testing was widely available.

Deaths remain low  the state health department reported seven in the past two weeks  but deaths typically dont increase until weeks after hospitalizations do.

The level of transmission across the state is growing. One section of the state is surging, according to the University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute  the area northeast of Richmond from King William County to the Northern Neck.

UVA lists 24 health districts as having slow growth, one in plateau and eight in decline.

The CDC continues to label Henrico, Chesterfield and Charles City counties and the city of Richmond as having high transmission rates. Hanover, New Kent, Goochland, Powhatan and Dinwiddie counties remain at medium levels of transmission.

Residents of high transmission localities are recommended to wear masks indoors while around others.

A large swath of northwestern Virginia remains in low transmission, including Albemarle, Madison and Rappahannock counties.
Digital privacy more important than ever post-Roe

In the 21st century, our phones might know we are pregnant before the people closest to us do  a reality that, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, has become more dangerous than ever.

Digital-privacy advocates have long warned about the amount of our personal information that companies hoover up each day. Reproductive health data has never been an exception, but while this data has always been valuable to advertisers, now it will also be valuable to law enforcement in states where abortion is criminalized.

Naturally, niche apps such as period trackers hold troves of knowledge about when people are or could be expecting, but so do services as widely used as Google, Apple and Facebook: Search histories, for instance, can reveal queries about nearby clinics; location tracking can show whether someone has actually taken the trip.

The vast majority of proposed laws in states likely to impose heightened abortion restrictions focus on punishing providers rather than patients. But patients data could be used to prosecute providers, and of course providers use the internet, too.

Some laws also do explicitly punish women for ending their pregnancies, or leave open the possibility that a zealous prosecutor could seek to do so. This isnt a hypothetical guess of a grim future; it has happened already, even with constitutional protections in place. One advocacy organization counts 1,800 cases from 1973 to 2020 of women seeking to terminate their pregnancies who were prosecuted or targeted for interventions.

Digital footprints can be a boon in such cases. Look at the Black mother of three in Mississippi who was charged with second-degree murder after a stillbirth when investigators scraped her phone and found search terms for the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol. She was held for weeks on a $100,000 bond; eventually a grand jury was called in and refused to indict her.

Technology companies can help by refusing to comply with requests for data that they believe are unlawful. More important, they can collect less of this sort of information in the first place.

Congress can help even more by setting rules that require precisely that step. Some members have already introduced legislation devoted to protecting reproductive health data.

Though passing them might be impossible given the lack of Republican support, lawmakers should seek to include a provision specifically protecting this information in the larger bipartisan, bicameral privacy bill moving through Capitol Hill.

The White House, meanwhile, is reportedly preparing a letter to send to the Federal Trade Commission urging the agency to bar unfair and deceptive practices in this area.

Women across the country are already deleting reproductive health apps from their devices. Theyre preparing to hide their identities as they search the web for resources, and to ensure any sensitive communications are encrypted. The burden shouldnt be on them to protect themselves now that their right to choose is imperiled.

 The Washington Post

Same-sex marriage, contraception among post-Roe targets

In his concurring opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that other rights based on the same constitutional theory of privacy that undergirded Roe should be reconsidered, such as contraception and same-sex relationships. Defenders of the decision have mostly dismissed fears of such a continuing erosion of rights. But it didnt take long for Texas firebrand attorney general to suggest that perhaps that states dormant anti-sodomy law could again become enforceable. The slippery slope is real.

The justification for Roe in 1973 was that the 14th Amendments due process clause provides a fundamental right to privacy, which in turn provides a right to abortion.

In overturning Roe last month, the courts new conservative majority ruled that the privacy guarantee didnt apply to abortion because the Constitution makes no reference to it, as Justice Samuel Alito put it. To create a right not specified in the Constitution, he wrote, that right must be deeply rooted in this Nations history and tradition.

Therein lies the problem: The 14th Amendments privacy guarantee has also been used to create legal rights to contraception, same-sex relationships and interracial marriage  none of which were deeply rooted in this Nations history and tradition. Are those rights, now considered fundamental by most Americans, to be overturned as well?

Alito tried to head off the topic by declaring that abortion is different because it involves potential life, and vowing that the current ruling wont be expanded like that. Concurring Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed, writing: Overruling Roe does not mean the overruling of those precedents, and does not threaten or cast doubt on those precedents.

But that prediction has already proven as unreliable as Kavanaughs gaslighting assurances during his 2018 Senate confirmation process that he considered Roe to be settled law.

Thomas, in his own concurrence, was explicit in declaring that, yes, doubt is now cast on those other rights. In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Courts substantive due process precedents, he wrote, then listed three cases that protect rights to contraception, same-sex relations and same-sex marriage. He called those decisions demonstrably erroneous, and went on to suggest that any right drawn from the privacy interpretation of the 14th Amendment is now suspect. (One of those rights is interracial marriage, like Thomas own  though, interestingly, he makes no specific reference to that one.)

After the ruling, it took Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just hours to tell an interviewer he would be willing enforce that states currently unenforceable anti-sodomy law on grounds there wasnt any constitutional provision making same-sex relations a right. That practically quotes from Alitos rationale for overturning Roe. Add to that growing calls from the anti-choice movement to now go after forms of contraception they consider to be abortion, and it becomes clear the assault on Americans privacy has just begun.

 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Paul Rudd showed a young fan some much-deserved kindness.

The actor reached out to a Brody Ridder, 12, after learning the boy was being alienated at his middle school.

Ridder made headlines in his hometown of Westminster, Colorado after his mother posted a photo to Facebook, revealing that his classmates refused to sign his yearbook.

She also shared a note her son wrote to himself on the blank pages, "Hope you make some more friends -- Brody Ridder."

Rudd, who plays Ant-Man in the Avengers franchise, turns out to be the young boy's favorite superhero. When Rudd caught wind of what had happened, the actor reached out to the boy and his family and arranged a FaceTime call, according to a post from the Brody's mother.

Rudd followed it up with a handwritten note and a signed Ant-Man helmet.

"It was great talking to you the other day," Rudd wrote in the note posted by the boy's mom to social media. "It's important to remember that even when life is tough that things get better. There are so many people that love you and think you're the coolest kid there is  me being one of them! I can't wait to see all the amazing things you're going to accomplish. Your pal, Paul."

CNN has reached out to Rudd's team for further comment.
Dalondo Moultrie is the assistant managing editor of the Seguin Gazette. You can e-mail him at dalondo.moultrie@seguingazette.com .
Macky Sall accorde son pardon a plus de 500 prisonniers

424 detenus ont ete gracies lors de la celebration de la korite. Pour la Tabaski, Macky Sall a allonge la liste. Plus de 500 prisonniers sont liberes. Le President de la Republique, fidele a la tradition republicaine et conformement a la Constitution, a accorde son pardon, en cette veille de la fete de Tabaski, a cinq cent seize (516) detenus. Ces personnes, definitivement condamnees pour des infractions diverses, ont ete incarcerees dans les differents etablissements penitentiaires du Senegal , a-t-on indique dans un communique du ministere de la Justice, recu ce samedi 9 juillet.





Le document souligne que les beneficiaires de cette mesure de clemence sont des delinquants primaires, des detenus presentant des gages de resocialisation ou ages de plus de soixante-cinq (65) ans, des individus gravement malades et des mineurs.




Nora Sun at Walter Payton College Prep on June 13, 2022, in Chicago. Sun founded the Envision research competition in 2019 to promote more opportunities for underrepresented girls in science research. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Nora Sun, 17, does science internships like hobbies  intensely and frequently. Research, writing, computational drug design and queer literature are all interests.

A glimpse at her LinkedIn page finds that during the pandemic, the Walter Payton College Prep High School student researched inflammatory bowel disease mutations at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is currently researching DNA polymerase inhibitors with the University of Texas at Dallas.

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If thats not enough to have you crying over your wasted youth, Sun, at the age of 14, founded Envision, an annual international research competition for female, genderqueer and nonbinary high school students interested in science, technology, engineering and math fields. The competition invites students to write a formal research proposal to win monetary awards. The competition allows students practice in formal scientific proposal writing, collaboration and literature review (looking through published scientific literature to gain insights which may support proposals).

In middle school and early high school, I participated in a lot of science research competitions. I tried to do some research on my own. And I wasnt always successful, but I realized that I really loved it, Sun said. At the beginning of high school, I became aware that there were a lot of gender disparities in academia. Something else I learned: research is very important for a scientific career. You need publications, research experience to get opportunities which help build your academic career. And there is a dearth of these opportunities for girls. I felt if I created this competition, it would encourage more girls to start practicing writing proposals and hopefully that can lead more to be interested in research or at least get practice in writing a research proposal.

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Since she founded Envision in 2019 and served as executive director, 328 students have entered the competition, awarded $1,600 to youth, and recruited hundreds of judges  65% of whom are postdoctoral scholars or faculty from Ivy League institutions that select winners and provide detailed feedback and constructive criticism on all entries. The review of their work by STEM professionals opens up dialogue for mentorship/internship opportunities and further conversation.

Suns STEM and research passions have grown from Envision to the creation of other nonprofits centered on underrepresented high school students and increasing cognitive diversity in science fields. The Talaria Summer Institute she founded is a free, international mentorship program and ATHENA by Women In STEM is an endeavor she cofounded  both aid in youth pursuing STEM. Talaria Summer Institute pairs ATHENA members with a mentor to conduct a monthlong independent research project every July. As for Envision, Sun said she took a lot of inspiration from grant application processes for scientists. Its through proposal writing that scientists apply for grants and get money to conduct research.

Thats the skill set I wanted participants to learn, Sun said. I thought it would be best for the judges, since our judges are professors who write lots of grants. In terms of what the competition entails, I really wanted to help kids understand the factors that made a good proposal. I hope the competition emphasizes the need to identify a gap that affects a lot of people or affects some people very deeply.

Sun said she hopes competitors curiosity is sparked enough to pursue their project in a lab setting  possibly taking their idea to one of the professors who served as judge, since their contact information is shared. If they cant find a connection through that channel or find someone locally who does similar research, Talaria attempts to provide that connection.

Athena Scarlett Krikorian, 17, a Los Angeles resident, is looking forward to a career in dermatology to focus on skin cancer research. She competed in the Envision proposal competition in 2021 with a pitch that combined her passion over climate change issues impacting skin globally. Through Talaria, Scarlett Krikorian was partnered with a professor from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts to do further research over the summer. Sara Yousaf, an 11th grader in Toronto, won the 2021 Envision competition with a proposal on developing a 3D tissue model of the blood brain barrier for drug testing and disease modeling.

Jasmine Lunia, a Dallas native, competed in Envisions research proposal competition for the last three years. The soon to be Wellesley College freshman said she wanted to use her free time during the pandemic to get more involved in science. Shes written proposals on epidemiology, forensic anthropology and a new assessment to diagnose autism spectrum disorders. Shes looking into a career in scientific research.

I really wish there were more opportunities like this, not just for women, but really, for anyone who wants to get into scientific research, Lunia said.

Notre Dame High School, San Jose students Sumayyah Ismail and Anchal Bhardwaj competed as a team for the Envision contest in 2020. The pair has since won other science competitions after developing their Envision idea past the contest. Envision was the launching pad for the project that they submitted to a California science fair.

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Envision is unique because it targets a certain audience and it makes sure that you get actual, substantial feedback on your work  those two things we were unable to find anywhere else which is why we decided to participate, Bhardwaj said. Their proposal focused using convolutional networks to classify schizophrenia, connecting Bhardwajs computer science interest with Ismails neuroscience interest. It was basically trying to figure out, previous methods that were being used in the industry? New methods that are being researched? And how can we connect technology to this? Bhardwaj said.

Ismail said one of their goals is to get their proposal and project published in a peer reviewed journal. They are looking forward to the next Envision science proposal competition with another idea.

One of the things that really fascinated me about all the entries is that they had no limitations for innovation  no financial or experimental boundaries, said Ananthanarayanan Kumar, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University studying RNA structures in humans. He has served as an Envision judge for two years. All the projects are very innovative. In the process, students learn a lot of skills that they dont realize theyre learning, such as how to bring an idea from scratch to execution and how to be persuasive with objective reasoning  that really helps them in the long term.

One standout proposal entry for Kumar: Use of anaerobic digesters to biodegrade food waste in homes. A student designed a bioreactor that can be connected to a waste tube in the kitchen and thought about the engineering aspects of where to place the compressor. Judging criteria includes the significance of the project, feasibility and the approach students take. At this stage students have nothing stopping them ... as long as the idea is concrete, Im very excited to encourage them, he said.

Chitvan Mittal, a research associate at Cornell University, has been a judge for two years. The proposals that catch her eye focus on challenges participants are trying to address, relevant topics in todays society.

These high school students are fearless, she said. They all seem to tackle the bottlenecks and the challenges that no one else tends to think about. I love that.

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Kumar thinks the program can introduce students to potential STEM role models. Mittal agreed. As a woman of color, Mittal tries to encourage as many youths as she can when it comes to STEM. They need to be able to see whats possible out there, she said. The more we talk to them so they can see the opportunities, see it as this is something that I can explore, thats all that matters.

Yale postdoc Avisek Banerjee looks forward to talking with Envision participants. Be it offering help about future plans in STEM or steps one should consider in college, hes there for it.

How to write scientifically has never been taught directly and its one of the key sources of success in academia, Banerjee said. The uniqueness of Envision is that just with participation, the student gets a lot of experience ... with their idea of how to write science. In the long term, it will be very beneficial.

When approached by Sun to serve as a judge, Mittal, who focuses on cancer genetics, immediately said yes.

Ive been trying to mentor as many young scientists in the making as possible, she said. I plan to do this as many times as I can ... to help as many kids as possible. Im so glad that Nora and her team has been doing this consistently.

Sun is on a trajectory to pursue a Ph.D. in cellular biology or biochemistry. The West Loop resident said she wants to study drug design to try to improve computational methods to shorten the research and development process and drastically cut the cost of medications.

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Nora Sun, center, with classmates at Walter Payton College Prep on June 13, 2022, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

I hope that after doing this competition and reading judges feedback, they understand the research ideation proposal process a bit better, or theyre more interested in learning more about it, Sun said.

Abigail Wilberding, an AP seminar teacher at Payton College Prep, considers Sun one of the most passionate students she has ever taught; a total powerhouse with relentless dedication and curiosity. A born researcher and storyteller, Wilberding says Sun writes scientific studies like they are homework assignments.

She is one of those remarkable human beings whos passionate about what she does, and has an interest and follows it to such a degree that she is transforming spaces, transforming the world, transforming her school and its every day for her, Wilberding said. She marries storytelling and science. So its no shock that this project has been so successful. She has this intensity and this relentless faith in the projects that she creates and the projects that she leads to bring her voice and her sense of self into the world and into the world of science in really meaningful ways.

In an AP seminar paper, Sun wrote science blends with imagination in her head and her ideas live harmoniously among her stories. The last line of the paper for Wilberdings class: Santa Claus was born from imagination, and if you can make an argument for your imagination ... well, thats called science.

The Envision research proposal competition will close the application process late fall/early winter, with winners announced in the spring of 2023.

drockett@chicagotribune.com
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports.

Apps arent just a way to pass idle hours  theyre also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies  a figure that was up 27% year-over-year.

This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and much more.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

Top Stories

Elon says he's killing the Twitter deal

The bird app buyout could be off, if Elon Musk has his way.

On Friday, Musk's legal team informed Twitter the Tesla and SpaceX exec would be terminating the merger agreement because, as their letter alleges, Twitter made false and misleading claims about the health of its business. This, of course, refers to the drama Musk had been stirring up over the percentage of bots on the service, which Twitter says is estimated to be less than 5%. Upon Musk's earlier pressing for more information on this figure, Twitter provided Musk's team with API access to make their own determinations. The letter, however, states that this API access was capped and limited, preventing the team from being able to accurately analyze Twitter's data with regard to bots. (Which makes Musk's claims that the bot count is higher than Twitter said it was a bit hard to prove!) Musk's lawyers also allege Twitter included known fake and bot accounts in its mDAUs and didn't have a standard process for calculating its mDAUs or the percentage of bots. Even if the arguments were valid -- and that's not able to be determined at this time -- they don't allow Musk to simply walk away.

Story continues

Musk has already legally agreed to this deal, which means the battle will now move to court where Twitter says it plans to enforce the agreement at the price and terms agreed upon. And even if both parties agree to terminate, Musk will have to pay out a billion dollars as a termination fee.

The real reason Musk is trying to terminate is not likely "bots." It's because he knows he overpaid. What looked like a decent deal earlier (@ $54.20 per share) quickly became an overpriced deal in a macroeconomic environment that's led to tech stocks tanking. Since announcing the deal, Twitter's stock hadn't again hit the negotiated price, and in fact, was recently down as much as 28% below Musk's offer price. By forcing the deal to go to the courts, Musk could be hoping for a shot at negotiating a better price. But that's far from being a certain outcome.

The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.  Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022

Google blocked KakaoTalk for not following its rules

kakaotalk icon

Image Credits: Jon Russell (opens in a new window) / Flickr (opens in a new window)

Google this week demonstrated it plans to enforce its new Play Store terms over in-app purchases, even if the developer is a $1.5 billion tech giant and leading app in its region. The Korean company behind the KakaoTalk mobile messenger popular in South Korea was prevented from issuing updates to its app over its failure to comply with Google Play's terms, according to local media reports. This would be the first time Google has enforced its new Play Store rules over how apps can point users to their own websites for alternative methods of payments.

South Korea's in-app payment law, better known as the "anti-Google law," permits Android app developers to add third-party payment options in their app, but only if they offer them alongside Google's own billing system. It doesn't permit developers to add links to their app that allow users to bypass Google's billing system entirely, however. That's what KakaoTalk is continuing to do.

According to Google's rules, failure to comply with its rules could see apps removed from the Play Store altogether. Google hasn't gone that far just yet -- instead, it's only blocked the company from issuing updates. But this is still a serious punitive action and one designed to prompt the app to take action.

Companies aren't happy with how Google complied with the country's new law, as Google is only offering a discount on commissions paid for those using third-party payments, instead of allowing them to avoid commissions as they had hoped. On April 1, Google said all apps must either use Google's own payments system and pay the usual 15-30% in commissions, or the apps could offer a third-party system for a discount of 4% on those fees.

The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) met with Google and Kakao on Thursday about the matter. Afterward, Kakao relented and chose to remove the web link to the third-party payments system as required by Google's rules to come into compliance. Analysts speculated Kakao's earlier refusal to remove the link was to simply bring the issue to regulators' attention -- that is, it aimed to demonstrate how Google had complied with the letter of the law, but not with the spirit. The KCC had been investigating how the law was being implemented but since most apps were already in compliance, Google hadn't yet taken any punitive actions.

The Kakao Talk messaging app today is used by some 53 milllion+ people monthly, making it one of the biggest social apps in the country.

FTC asked to investigate TikTok

TikTok found to fuel disinformation, political tension in Kenya ahead of elections

Image Credits: TikTok

Senate Intelligence Committee members have asked the FTC to investigate whether TikTok misled lawmakers about ByteDance employees' ability to access U.S. users' data. Democrat Senator Mark Warner and Republican Marco Rubio, the chair and ranking member of the committee, respectively, wrote a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan requesting a further investigation into whether TikTok may have lied in its testimonies to Congress over how it handles user data.

This demand follows a BuzzFeed News report that revealed that ByteDance employees in China were regularly accessing U.S. data into early 2022, despite TikTok's prior assurances to the contrary. Last weekend, timed alongside the BuzzFeed scoop, TikTok wrote to Republican Senators to assure them it's working on a program called Project Texas aimed at improving data security for U.S.-based users.

"In light of this new report," the letter stated, "we ask that your agency immediately initiate a Section 5 investigation on the basis of apparent deception by TikTok, and coordinate this work with any national security or counter-intelligence investigation that may be initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice."

Pressure on TikTok has been increasing as of late. Six senators sent a letter to the Treasury Department on June 24, asking for details about the negotiation between TikTok and CFIUS, which would have prompted Trump's EO to ban the TikTok app in the U.S. An FCC Commissioner, Brendan Carr, also wrote to Apple and Google on June 28, requesting the companies remove TikTok from their app stores for its pattern of surreptitious data practices.

Weekly News

Platforms: Apple

Image Credits: Apple

Platforms: Google

The Google Play Store appears to be getting an updated logo with rounded corners on the triangle and colors that are more aligned with Google's four colors (blue, green, yellow and red), instead of lighter variations.

E-commerce & Food Delivery

Code spotted in the iOS 16 beta 3 suggests Apple is working on a new system to integrate virtual cards with Safari, reports 9to5Mac. The feature would allow users to pay with virtual card numbers when online shopping in mobile Safari.

Amazon partnered with Grubhub and took a stake in its owner, Just East Takeaway. The deal will see Amazon offering free membership to Grubhub+ for one year to Prime members in the U.S. The retailer had previously offered a similar deal to Amazon Prime Student members and had a partnership with Deliveroo in the U.K. that offered a free year of Deliveroo+ to Prime members.

Walmart folded its InHome grocery delivery service into its subscription plan, Walmart+. The service lets users monitor in-home grocery deliveries via an app where they can livestream the delivery as it's in progress, watching as Walmart staff places their items inside their fridge and freezer.

Pinterest introduced an API for Shopping and Product Tagging for Pins, among other merchant-focused updates. The API offers access to new catalog management and product metadata features, while Product Tagging allows merchants to make their "lifestyle" Pins shoppable, similar to shoppable photos on Instagram. In addition, video assets can now be used in product catalogs, and a new Shop Tab on business profiles lets merchants easily display their shoppable products.

Image Credits: Pinterest

Pinterest also launched its ads business in Argentina, Colombia and Chile, joining other expansions to Brazil and Mexico last year, and Japan's launch earlier this year. The ads allow retailers to connect with users searching for items that match those in their own catalogs, even if the searchers haven't settled on a particular brand.

Ex-employees at shopping app Wish detailed to The NYT about the app's low product standards, unreliable shipping, counterfeiting, inappropriate ads and deceptive experiments which drove users away. The app saw MAUs drop from 101 million in Q1 2021 to 27 million in Q1 2022.

Amazon readies itself for Prime Day with help from online influencers. The company is livestreaming creators who are promoting Prime Day deals via its Amazon Live platform. The streams are available on Amazon's website and in its mobile app.

Instacart rolled out a new rewards program for shoppers which offers priority access to batches for those with higher ratings. Other perks include discounted childcare, cash back on gas and car maintenance discounts. The company recently introduced other shopper features to protect their tips and remove ratings from customers who always dole out less than five stars.

TikTok dropped its plans to expand livestream shopping in the U.S. and elsewhere after the feature failed to gain traction outside of the U.K., FT said.

Augmented Reality

Image Credits: The Met/8th Wall

The Met launched a new AR experience that allows visitors or anyone to view the Sphinx in augmented reality. The Sphinx appears in your own space atop a grave stele and is annotated with interesting facts users can tap on to learn more. There's also a selfie feature that lets users try on the Sphinx's colors. The AR features are powered by 8th Wall and work in the Safari web browser app, instead of requiring a dedicated mobile app.

Crypto

Image Credits: Reddit

Reddit launched a new NFT-based avatar marketplace that allows users to purchase blockchain-based profile pictures at a fixed rate. Users don't need to have a crypto wallet to make the purchases, only a credit or debit card. The purchases are then held in Reddit's own wallet called Vault, inside its existing mobile app. Vault is also used to earn blockchain-based community points and spend them on special features like badges and animated emoji. There are 90 NFT designs available at launch, and a total of "tens of thousands" of NFTs will be available during early access at prices ranging from $9.99-$99.99. The company partnered with Polygon, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain, to mint the avatars on-chain.

Crypto exchange Binance.US hired a former Acorns and PayPal exec Jasmine Lee as its CFO, replacing interim CFO Eric Segal. The company offers one of the top crypto apps in the U.S. and operates as a separate entity from the global Binance exchange.

The Chinese photo-editing app Meitu reported a $45.6 million crypto impairment in H1 2022. The company's stock dropped more than 10% after it projected crypto impairments tripling from 2021 levels.

Adtech

Glace, owned by adtech firm InMobi Group, will partner with U.S. carriers to launch a media service for Android lock screens. Glance serves media, news and casual entertainment to lock screens and already has a presence on around 400 million devices in Asian markets.

Social

Dating

Tinder rolled out several in-app initiatives in the U.S. that allow users to take a stand against the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Users can now include "Pro-Choice" as an interest on their profiles, and the app features an in-app promotion that supports the abortion rights campaign from Bansoff.org. The company is also donating in-app promotional space to Kansas Constitutional Freedom (KCF), a bipartisan coalition of reproductive rights advocates and allied organizations dedicated to protecting access to safe and legal abortions. The court's decision could have an impact on the use of dating apps for casual dating in the U.S., which could impact Tinder's business.

Messaging

Messaging app Signal introduced a new thread view on Android, which allows users to see replies to messages bundled in a single place, similar to Slack.

Planning your pizza order for movie night but forgot how many people want pepperoni versus veggie? If you're using Android, you can now tap the speech bubble icon next to a message to pull up all replies to that message and never lose the thread (or under-order on toppings)! pic.twitter.com/fx3ESyNm6b  Signal (@signalapp) July 7, 2022

Streaming & Entertainment

Netflix rolled out support for spatial audio to all devices and subscribers to offer theater-like sound for its movies and shows. The support is currently available on original titles like the fourth season of Stranger Things, The Adam Project, Red Notice, The Witcher, Locke & Key and others. Users can find supported titles by typing in "Spatial Audio" in the search bar.

Gaming

Code found in Meta's iPhone app for VR headsets suggests the company's "Project Cambria" VR headset is going to be called the Meta Quest Pro, which will cost over $1,000, per Bloomberg. Mark Zuckerberg had previously teased the high-end headset in a demo video.

In an update to The Oregon Trail game on Apple Arcade, creator Gameloft added a new "Walk the Trail" feature that connects the game with Apple Health. As users walk throughout the day, their steps are counted in a virtual Oregon trail inside the app that crosses 64 locations like Fort Kearney, Fort Laramie, Fort Hall and others. A stats screen highlights the steps, locations visited and more and a trivia screen offers details about the milestones you pay.

Utilities

Apple is rolling out its improved Maps to France, Monaco and New Zealand, following tests. The regions will gain updated, more detailed maps, better navigation and other features.

Government & Policy

Twitter sued the Indian government to challenge some of its takedown orders. The government has asked Twitter to remove hundreds of accounts and tweets that had denounced government policies and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Twitter had only partially complied with the requests and is instead fighting back against many of the challenges.

In the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. House Oversight Committee issued letters on Friday to data brokers SafeGraph, Babel Street, Digital Envoy, Placer.ai and Gravy Analytics, as well as period tracking app makers Flo Health, Glow, GP International, Clue developer BioWink and Digitalchemy Ventures. The committee is asking the companies about their data collection and retention practices, noting that the collection of sensitive data could "pose serious threats to those seeking reproductive care as well as to providers of such care, not only by facilitating intrusive government surveillance, but also by putting people at risk of harassment, intimidation, and even violence."

Security & Privacy

Related to its introduction of Lockdown Mode in iOS 16, Apple also established a new category within the Apple Security Bounty program to reward researchers who find Lockdown Mode bypasses and help improve its protections. Bounties are doubled for qualifying findings in Lockdown Mode, up to a maximum of $2,000,000  the highest maximum bounty payout in the industry. The company said it's also making a $10 million grant, in addition to any damages awarded from its lawsuit filed against NSO Group, to support organizations that "investigate, expose, and prevent highly targeted cyberattacks, including those created by private companies developing state-sponsored mercenary spyware."

Funding and M&A

 Mobile marketing firm Moburst acquired digital studio Layer, which offers web, mobile and app development services. Layer, launched in 2015, has worked with clients like Nissan, Renault and others. Deal terms weren't disclosed. The two companies had previously worked together on multiple projects and will now allow Moburst to expand its services and offer a full-stack solution.

 Digital banking app YAP, based in the United Arab Emirates, raised $41 million as part of a Series A round expected to close at year-end. The company aims to expand its services into Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan and Ghana.

Tweets

Has anyone else noticed this in iOS 16 Beta 3? pic.twitter.com/ywiC0MsfJr  Jack Roberts (@jacklroberts) July 6, 2022

Autocorrect comes for everyone sooner or later pic.twitter.com/T3RsYJoGo7  Steve Riggins (@steveriggins) July 8, 2022
North Iowa residents might want to paddle over to the community's new recreation feature.

The City of Mason City had an official ribbon cutting and dedication of the new kayak-canoe-fishing park on Thursday. The park is located on the Winnebago River, just south of 12th Street Northeast.

"This is one of the oldest and most beautiful sites in Mason City today being renewed as the newest canoe, kayak, and fishing park in River City," said Mayor Bill Schickel.

The park features two portage ramps, a paved trail connecting to existing pedestrian and bike trails, and a parking area. A "fish ladder" is part of the park's design to provide a detour route for fish migration, according to a press release. In addition, kayakers and canoers can enjoy the wave feature on their aquatic journey.

Schickel thanked community members and leaders that were involved in completing the project. Attendees at the ribbon cutting were able to see a demonstration of the new kayak and canoe launch.

In a previous interview the the Globe Gazette about the project, Iowa DNR fisheries biologist Scott Grummer said that recreationally, all of the mitigation work will mean that kayakers won't have to get out for stretches and portage their vessels.

The kayak-canoe-fishing park is part of a two-fold project with the dam. According to Mason City Operations and Maintenance Manager Bill Stangler in January, one goal was to make the river safer and he second goal was to make that part of the Winnebago River usable for recreational activities.

"Outdoor recreation is a huge industry and it helps generate more than $100 million in tourism here every year and we're just getting started," said Schickel.

The kayak-canoe-fishing park is Mason City's second dam improvement project on the Winnebago according to a press release. There is also a third project on a dam located in East Park.

Other trail improvements are in the planning stages or underway include the downtown River Walk, the high Line Trail on an abandoned north-south railroad right of way, and mountain biking trails near the Lime Creek Nature Center says the release.

"John McMillin and our founders, they had a dream that this community founded on the Winnebago River that we love so much would be a shining example of the very best that the community has to offer. Thank you for making that dream," said Schickel.
Cheaper phones have a mix of modern technology with some of the best legacy features you cant find on more expensive phones. For instance, you can get a phone with a 6.5-inch screen and multiple cameras, plus a headphone jack and expandable storage. However, these phones will likely run slower and may only receive a few software updates. But when it comes to using the phone itself, youll still be able to install most apps and get security updates. Here are three of CNETs top picks for smartphones that cost $200 or less.

Best for update support: Samsung Galaxy A03S

Samsungs Galaxy A03S, at $160, includes plenty of great features, and it could be a great fit for someone looking for the cheapest possible phone that can handle essential tasks. The phones 6.5-inch screen, capped at 720p resolution, is great for reading news, watching videos and playing games. Despite some performance lag found during our review, the phone is good at multitasking. But the 32GB of storage space could fill up fast; it may be worthwhile to consider a microSD card.

Samsung also plans to support the phone with at least four years of security updates, which at this price range is as good as it gets. Its less clear how many software updates are scheduled, but the phone ships with Android 11 to start.

Best for more storage: Moto G Power (2022)

The Moto G Power for 2022 at $200 sits at the higher end of this roundup, but it has plenty of onboard storage to show for it. The phone starts at 64GB of space; if thats not enough, you can spend $50 more for the 128GB model or throw in a microSD card for up to 512GB of additional space. The phone also includes 4GB of RAM, which should help it through most multitasking.

The phone ships with Android 11, and Motorola is pledging one software update to Android 12 along with two years of security updates for the phone. This is on the shorter side, but the phones cheap enough you might consider the two-year timeline to be roughly as long as you were planning to keep the device.

5G for under $200: TCL 30 XE 5G

TCL has released one of the cheapest 5G-capable phones in the United States thus far with the TCL 30 XE 5G. The phone is now available at T-Mobile for $198. The phone has a 6.5-inch screen at 720p resolution with a 90Hz refresh rate, a triple-camera system with a 13-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel selfie camera and a rear fingerprint sensor. The phone includes 64GB of onboard storage and ships with Android 11.

While we havent used the phone, on a specs-level you can get better cameras and higher-quality screens with the other picks on this list, but those do not have 5G connectivity. Yet its also debatable how necessary having 5G is right now. 4G LTE connectivity works just fine for streaming music, video and other tasks.

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CORRECTIONVILLE, Iowa -- For years, a major piece of Correctionville's railroad history was right under everyone's noses, but hardly anyone knew it.

Except for the donkeys.

Years ago, after the Illinois Central Railroad ceased operating the branch line that once passed through town, the freight depot was moved from Fifth and Birch streets to a nearby property, where the owners utilized it as a donkey barn. The building stood in plain sight, but far enough off the street that it was hard to tell it was anything but a barn. The Correctionville sign on the side faded over time, making it harder to recognize the building's history from a distance.

"I knew there was a building back there. I didn't know the significance of it," said Joel Volkert, who's become very familiar with the building in the past year.

Last July, the building's owners, Chris and Karen Weinreich, stood before the Correctionville City Council to donate the old depot to the city so it could be preserved.

Sonya Kostan, who was then on the council and just happens to be the treasurer of the Rural Woodbury County Historical Society, couldn't believe the luck of having the building dropped in the city's lap.

"It was a historical building. They didn't want to see destroyed," Kostan said.

The historical society was on board immediately.

Members had the chance to save the only surviving structure from the two railroads that once ran through town -- the Chicago & North Western, which ran from east to west, and the Illinois Central, which opened a 59-mile branch running north and south from Cherokee to Onawa, passing through Correctionville, in 1888.

The depot, built in 1944 from lumber salvaged from a previous two-story Victorian-style depot, was classified by Illinois Central as a Type B depot, for freight only and consisting of a large freight room with a smaller office and waiting area. As the railroad shut down lines, the depots disappeared, sold for use as garages and, in this case, a donkey barn. There might not be more than five depots of this style remaining.

"Very few of these type Bs exist," Kostan said, and none of them have been restored as a museum like the historical society plans to do with the Correctionville depot.

Despite years of donkeys chewing on the studs and manure rotting wood along the bottom, the depot is structurally sound.

"It's in rough shape, but it has good bones. The donkeys did us no value when they turned the studs into toothpicks," said Volkert, who's overseeing the restoration.

In May, about a dozen volunteers using donated equipment and materials relocated the depot about three blocks to city property south of the fire station near Third and Cedar streets, about a block south from where it initially stood on land that's now home to a grain elevator.

A $14,800 Missouri River Historical Development grant paid for a cement pad and a new roof. Kostan said the historical society has sufficient funds to restore the exterior, but will need to raise approximately $50,000 for the interior, which still has much of its original yellow paint, though faded and peeling in places. She hopes the museum could be completed in two years, depending on the generosity of donors and the success of grant applications.

Volkert said he plans to save as much of the original building as possible and rebuild the rest. The exterior Correctionville sign will be preserved in its current weathered condition and displayed inside. Replica signs, along with flags and signal lights, will be installed outside.

The historical society is on the lookout for artifacts to put in the new museum. A collection of items from the depot is housed at the Grand Meadow Heritage Center in rural Washta, and Kostan said it's hoped the collection could be loaned to the depot for display.

Younger residents might be surprised to learn Correctionville once was a busy railroad town. But Illinois Central shut down its line sometime in the 1970s, and the Chicago & North Western followed later. The tracks are gone.

Only the diamond track where the two lines crossed remains, preserved and displayed outside the Correctionville Museum. Volkert said he'd like to see the diamond placed outside the depot along with a short set of tracks to give residents and visitors a taste of Correctionville's railroad history. He's also searching for an old boxcar frame that could be retrofitted and rebuilt as an 1880s-era boxcar to sit outside the museum.

"Saving the past for the kids of the future is what we need to do," Volkert said. "In a throwaway society, it's nice to see things stay."

That past nearly was forgotten once already.

You'd have to be stubborn as a mule to resist a second chance to save it.
Imagine it's the start of the school year and you're a teacher staring out on a classroom of new students. Remembering everyone's names might take some time and careful study of the seating chart to nail it down.

But what if you couldn't remember your students' faces?

For Ashley Peterson, a special-education teacher at Lincoln Northwest High School, recognizing faces  a skill that doesn't usually even cross our mind  is a daily challenge.

Peterson, 38, was diagnosed about 10 years ago with prosopagnosia, or facial blindness, which hinders her ability to recognize people  from friends to celebrities  by the specific arrangement of nose, eyes, mouth, eyebrows, etc., that make up each person's unique face. She can take in those individual parts, but her mind doesn't store the whole picture.

Facial blindness, a relatively unknown disorder, is actually quite common. It's estimated 1 in 50 people have some form of the condition, which is acquired at birth but can also be the result of brain injury. In severe cases, people can struggle to recognize their own loved ones or even themselves.

Peterson first started to realize there was something different about her perception of others when she attended a small Bible college in Colorado. While her class size was a relatively small 40 students, she only knew three or four people.

"I run into people who talk to me that I just have no clue who they are," she said. "You start to kind of think that maybe you are like this arrogant person that doesn't pay attention to people around them."

Then one day she saw a segment on the CBS news program "60 Minutes" on facial blindness that confirmed she wasn't being merely inattentive or lazy.

"I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, that's me! That's me!'" said Peterson, an Iowa native who grew up in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. "I never even realized the way I see the world is different from other people."

So she reached out to specialists at Carnegie-Mellon University, who had her do some online tests. She met the criteria and flew out to Pittsburgh and took part in research on the condition.

Peterson, who has since taken part in multiple studies over the years, was featured last month in a National Geographic issue on the brain and how it works.

As the article lays out, prosopagnosia is not a defect of vision, but rather of perception. It was first described in veterans of World War II who sustained brain injuries, and eventually researchers linked it to the parts of the brain that deal with facial recognition.

In the National Geographic story, Peterson likens facial blindness to studying a leaf, tossing it into a pile, then trying to retrieve the one you studied.

Over the years, Peterson has developed a number of coping skills. She relies on vocal clues  how a person sounds, what they're talking about  and other features, such as hair, gait and clothing. It's similar to how one might recognize a familiar friend from behind.

Through repetition, she can begin to recognize faces of the people closest to her, like her three brothers and her nieces and nephews, but even that is not guaranteed.

While on a recent bike ride with some family, Peterson stopped to repair a wheel on her nephew's bike. Her nieces rode ahead, but one circled back. Peterson thought she was a stranger coming to help.

"That hit hard," she said.

At Lincoln Public Schools, Peterson works with students with intellectual disabilities and significant behavioral challenges. Before accepting a position at the soon-to-open Northwest, she taught at Lincoln East. And before that, she worked with home-based children under the age of 5 with disabilities.

It helps that she works with smaller groups of students, Peterson said. Her prosopagnosia also gives her insight into her students' challenges.

LPS offers accommodations for Peterson, including providing face printouts of the school staff. Co-workers will often introduce themselves to Peterson before talking to her, too, and wearing specific accessories, such as jewelry, can also help her identify people.

Northwest Principal Cedric Cooper found out about Peterson's condition through one-on-one staff meetings. He had never heard of facial blindness, but was intrigued by her story and wanted to help.

The two also had a conversation about implementing some professional development opportunities for staff to learn about the relatively common disorder.

For Cooper, Peterson encapsulates his vision for the new school, in which everyone is looked after.

"She can really be an advocate for special education in our building," he said.

Stephanie Smith, a friend and former co-worker, once ran into Peterson and her dog at a summer concert at Stransky Park.

Peterson knew it was someone she'd met because Smith mentioned her dog's name, so she sat down with Smith. But she couldn't place her since she only knew her co-worker by what she wore to work and how she did her hair.

"I was in bike shorts and tank top and a pony tail," Smith recalled. "After we were talking for a few minutes, she was like 'Oh, you're Steph!'"

Stories like that are common, Peterson said, and encounters can run the gamut from innocuous to unsettling.

In one incident she described in the National Geographic story, Peterson was at the funeral of someone she knew from her church when she saw the person they were there to bury walking around.

It turned out Peterson had mistaken two people  who shared the same name, were roughly the same age and wore similar clothes  as one person.

"The brain does weird things like that," she said.

Peterson said facial blindness can cause anxiety when she's in large crowds or out in public. But she's come to accept what she calls her "proso," and is working to raise awareness. In addition to the Nat Geo piece, she presented at the Nebraska State Autism Conference in 2020, as autism has been linked to facial blindness.

"She's just so warm and accepting of other people ... and she is willing to share about it," Smith said. "I just think as individuals and a community we always need to be aware of the diversity and uniqueness of each and everyone one of us."
Nneka Ogwumike says Brittney Griner is an American hero. Speaking ahead of the WNBAs All-Star festivities in Chicago, Ogwumike focused more on Griners humanity than her playing ability as the league continued to push for Griners release from her detention in Russia. Ogwumike, the president of the WNBA players association, talked at a press conference calling for mercy for Griner a day after the eight-time All-Star pleaded guilty to drug possession charges that could see her sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. Ogwumike says Griner is her father's favorite player.
A Bellevue man pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder in connection with the fatal shooting of his wife earlier this year.

Lovell Jones Jr., 43, also pleaded guilty to use of a firearm to commit a felony. The charges were connected to the slaying of Deyvonndra L. Jones, 40, on Jan. 22.

Sarpy County prosecutors dropped a charge of first-degree domestic assault.

Bellevue police said Jones called 911 and asked for officers to come to a house near 22nd Avenue and Jefferson Street about 10:45 p.m. Jones, who surrendered without incident, told police he had shot a woman in the home while a child was sleeping upstairs.

An officer radioed from the scene that the woman had been shot several times and had at least one gunshot wound to the head. The child was unharmed.

Deyvonndra Jones was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center in critical condition, where she later died from her injuries. A neighbor told a reporter they hadn't heard anything until police arrived.
An 18-year-old father has pleaded no contest to a charge of intentional child abuse in connection with the death of his 6-month-old daughter.

Alejandro Flores, of Omaha, entered his plea Wednesday in Douglas County District Court in exchange for prosecutors charging him with intentional child abuse resulting in serious injury, a felony. He faces up to 50 years in prison when he is sentenced in August.

Ruby Flores-Martinez suffered significant head trauma on June 3, 2021, and died two days later, prosecutors said. Omaha police officers went to an apartment near 38th Avenue and Jones Street about 3:30 p.m. that day to investigate a 911 call of an unresponsive infant who was not breathing.

Flores rode in the ambulance to the hospital as medics performed CPR on the baby. At the hospital, a detective spoke to Flores and the baby's then 18-year-old mother. They both said they didn't know why Ruby had become unresponsive.

Flores told the detective that he was alone with his daughter when she became unresponsive, according to a police report. Doctors told police that Ruby's injuries likely were the result of abuse.

The detective interviewed Flores again on June 10, 2021, at Omaha Police Headquarters. There, Flores "made incriminating statements and confessed to causing the injuries" to his daughter on June 3, according to the police report.
You almost never hear them in Japangunshots. But at around 11:30 a.m. on Friday, two rang out in the central Japanese city of Nara. The target was former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, one of the countrys longest-serving prime ministers and among the most influential political figures in modern Japan. Abe was giving a public speech in the street, campaigning in support of the Liberal Democratic Party candidates ahead of Sundays Upper House elections.

When the attacker fired, the crowd broke into a panic. With gunshot wounds to the chest and neck, Abe was transported via emergency helicopter to receive treatment, and confirmed dead shortly after 5 p.m. the same day. The suspected killer, 41-year-old unemployed man Tetsuya Yamagami, was a former member of the Japanese navy and used a homemade gun in the shooting. NHK reports from the local police state that Yamagami intended to kill Abe, but that he did not have a grudge against the former PM for political reasons.

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The assassination, on the eve of an election no less, has come as an unprecedented shock to the nation. Japan has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world, with a gun death rate of just 1 death per 5 million people, one of the lowest rates of any nation. In fact, per police data compiled by Julia Minuma at the Washington Post, in 2021, there was just a single gun death in the country.

Political assassinations in Japan are even more rare. The most recent comparable events are the stabbing of Socialist party leader Inejiro Asanuma by an extreme right-wing activist in 1960 and the shooting of PM Tsuyoshi Inukai in an attempted military coup in 1932. In 1990, Nagasakis mayor survived an attempted assassination, and then in 2007, his successor was shot and murdered by a member of the yakuza. But Abes shooting marks a new landmark event in Japanese history. While Abe has attracted crowds of angry protestors before for his militaristic security legislation, political violence overall is overwhelmingly uncommon, and historically it has most frequently been directed at minority groups like ethnic Zainichi Koreans.

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Shinzo Abe led the nation from 2006 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020 atop the center-right Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as a confident, consensus leader after several years of chaotic Japanese politics and the disastrous 2011 earthquake and tsunami. He transformed the lagging Japanese economy with his Abenomics, presiding over an era of revived but mild economic growth, corporate profits, and rising income inequality. Just as notable was Abes push for constitutional reform, seeking to remilitarize Japan in light of the looming threat from China. This latter initiative in particular made Abe a respected figure among Japanese nationalists and far-right extremists and angered Asian neighbors.

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Since the assassination, crowds of people have come to pay their respects at the site of the shooting in Nara, leaving flowers and bottles of sake. The outpour of reactions on Japanese social media ran the gauntlet from sorrow to anger to accusations that the suspect must have been an ethnic Korean. A viral tweet from an Abe fan account said, The result of us Japanese being so drunk on peace is that we couldnt protect Mr. Abe. Japans right wing is enraged, and its left is sorrowful and fearful.

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The nearly unfathomable potential ripple effects extend from Sundays election to every facet of Japans future. After stepping down due to health issues in 2020, Abe continued to campaign for increased government spending and defense budgets. Current PM Fumio Kishida is known as a moderate within the LDP, and has notably distanced himself from Abenomics, which the Japanese public had largely lost confidence in, and instead has focused on reducing inequality and bolstering the middle class.

But Kishida does stand close to Abes position on revising Japans pacifist constitution to strengthen its military. A strong showing in Sundays election for the LDP could give serious momentum to such efforts. In recent months, Abe had continued to emphasize that he strongly supports the policies of Kishidas government. The former prime minister aggressively consolidated power and control over the media during his tenure, and he was investigated several times for election law violations. (Although Abe was spared from indictments last December.)

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Little remains known about Tetsuya Yamagami and his intentions. An AP report said that he had plotted to kill Abe because he believed rumors about the former leaders connection to a certain organization that police did not identify. The assassination, while on the one hand out of nowhere, does follow a line of incidents with a similar theme: a reclusive, unemployed man in his 20s to 40s commits an act of horrific violence on the basis of some grudge. Those include the 2021 Tokyo subway attack, the 2019 Kyoto Animation studio arson and Kawasaki stabbing spree, and a 2008 incident in Akihabara where a man hit pedestrians with a truck and stabbed other passersby. These incidents share some eerie similarities with recent mass shootings in the U.S., often perpetrated by angry young men.

In a gun-free Japan with typically peaceful politics, Shinzo Abe getting shot and killed in broad daylight was an outrageous event, impossible to imagine before Friday. The results of Sundays election will signal its immediate impacts on Japanese politics, but they will hardly tell us everything about where the nation will go from here. Rather, it will take many weeks, months, and years to determine the true meaning of such a historic murder.
Andy, a 37-year-old New York City resident, developed excruciating rectal pain after returning from Portugal, an early epicenter of the global monkeypox outbreak.

It felt like someone was poking me from the inside with a hot fork, he recalls (Andy is a nickname). But he lacked the external sores required to test for monkeypox. Over the course of a week, he visited two urgent care doctors and a hospital emergency room, only to be tested for STDs, given antibiotics, and told he might have cancer.

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He eventually developed a few external lesions that could be swabbed. Three days later the test came back positive for monkeypox. After some arm-twisting, he was able to get TPOXX, an antiviral drug that can be used for treatment, and his symptoms disappeared. I was so lucky I had friends who were connected, he said. Without that, I would probably still be in pain.

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Across the country in San Francisco, Aaron Backman, 33, faced similar frustrations. After getting no response from the sexual health clinics recommended by the Department of Public Health, he got tested at OneMedical, a chain clinic. If I would have waited, I still wouldnt be tested by now, he said. Hes had less luck getting TPOXX, despite having symptoms for two weeks, including a lesion in his throat that feels like Im swallowing razor blades.

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Nearly 800 cases of monkeypox have been reported in the United States as of July 8, but, because getting a test can be so hard, no one thinks this reflects the full extent of the outbreak. And while most cases so far have been among gay and bisexual men, anyone can get monkeypox through close personal contact. Some fear the virus is going undetected in other groups.

Related to smallpox but less deadly, monkeypox is endemic to some countries in Africa. Mainly transmitted via skin-to-skin contact, the virus can cause flu-like symptoms and a rash anywhere on the body. Like Andy, many men in the current outbreak have had lesions on the genitals or in the anal area, suggesting its easily transmitted during sex. In contrast to the coronavirus, we have more pharmaceutical tools on hand to fight the outbreak as it emerges. But already, some mistakes are being repeated. Monkeypox spreads more slowly than COVID (it does not appear to be airborne) and has caused no deaths in the current global outbreak, in countries where monkeypox is not endemic. The concern in the U.S.in addition to getting vaccines and treatment to those who need themis that if the virus spreads too widely, it could be here to stay.

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The continuing challenges to get testing for monkeypox is frustrating both for individuals who have symptoms and for clinicians like myself, said Boghuma K. Titanji, an assistant professor of medicine at Emory University. This has implications for who gets prioritized in a vaccination rollout. Is it only men who have sex with men or are there other high-risk groups were missing? Testing is the key piece in getting answers to these questions, and currently we simply are not doing enough of it.

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Testing for monkeypox has been cumbersome and time-consuming. Though things are now speeding upthe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is decentralizing the processvaluable time has been wasted. Heres how it has worked for weeks: Clinicians who see a suspected case contact their local or state health department for authorization to run a test, which involves swabbing a lesion on the skin. The first round of testing for orthopox (the virus family that includes smallpox and monkeypox) is done at some 80 public health labs that constitute the Laboratory Response Network. If the test is positive, the sample is forwarded to the CDC for a definitive diagnosis.

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This process worked well enough when there were only a few cases scattered across the country, but the approach didnt scale. New York City, the outbreaks U.S. epicenter, can test only 10 people per day. The CDCs monopoly on testing early in the COVID-19 pandemic helped the coronavirus get out of control. Some worry that the same problem is playing out again now.

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The barriers to testing, including the early reliance on the CDC and waiting for people to present at sexual health clinics or to primary carewhen some may not have easy access to eithermeans were likely undercounting [mokeypox] cases to a considerable degree, said Gregg Gonsalves, an associate professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health. If you cant test, you cant trace and have no idea where an outbreak is going.

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Advocates and health care providers who have been screaming for more tests will soon get their wishbut many think this decentralization should have happened sooner.

In late June, the CDC began shipping orthopox tests to five large commercial labs, which the agency promised would dramatically expand testing capacity nationwide. The move will allow providers to send swab samples to labs they already work with, removing the reliance on state labs. The CDC has also published guidance for labs that wish to develop their own tests.

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What were trying to do is increase testing access and convenience in every community, Raj Panjabi of the White House National Security Council told reporters during a June 29 briefing. They send tests for herpes, they send tests for chickenpox, they send tests for other conditions to these labs. Were trying to make it that easy for folks to get a [monkeypox] test.

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Current tests can only be done on people who have lesions to swab, but saliva or throat swab tests could enable easier diagnosis, potentially including those who have been exposed but not yet developed symptoms. Early detection can lead to faster contact tracing and isolation of infectious cases, reducing transmission, said Jay Varma, a professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College. FlowHealth, which is developing a monkeypox saliva test that it plans to offer to the public next week, learned of Andys plight on Twitter and obtained a saliva sample, which tested positive before his lesion swab.

In addition to contact tracing and notification, prompt testing would also allow close contacts to get vaccines and those with severe cases to get antiviralsif they can find them. Because the monkeypox virus has a long incubation period, vaccines work both as post-exposure prophylaxis within several days after exposure, and as pre-exposure prophylaxis for those at risk.

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Given limited testing and the challenges of contact tracing when people have sex with casual partners or attend large gatherings, the CDC has expanded vaccine eligibility beyond known close contacts to include those who are likely to have been exposed, for example, men who have recently had sex with multiple partners, frequented venues where the virus was present, or live in communities where its spreading.

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But, like testing, monkeypox vaccines have been in short supply. The Department of Health and Human Services has distributed some 65,000 doses of the new Jynneos vaccine, with another 240,000 doses on their way, according to Panjabi. The federal government expects a total of 1.6 million doses this year, but advocates say this isnt fast enough. James Krellenstein of the HIV advocacy group PrEP4All said that more than a million finished doses are ready to go at the Bavarian Nordic factory in Denmarkthe White House has confirmed this to news outletsbut are being held up by bureaucratic hurdles.

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Coming on the heels of Pride festivities, expanded testing will likely lead to a surge in the number of monkeypox cases. But this doesnt mean case counts will continue to rise at the same steep clipthe rollout of vaccinations should help with that.

As testing and vaccination ramp up, it will be critical to get these tools to everyone who could benefit, not just those who are aware of the outbreak and have time to track down tests and make vaccine appointments online. This might mean doing testing and vaccination at festivals, sex clubs, and bathhouses.

The response to monkeypox has to avoid deepening health inequities across race, class, and geography, Keletso Makofane, a social network epidemiologist at Harvard Universitys FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, told Slate. Offering testing and vaccination erratically, without advance notice, and only in the most affluent gay neighborhoods entrenches the already stark inequities in access to health care.
After his 2007 cult classic "Mad Detective," veteran Hong Kong actor Sean Lau once again plays a crazy cop in director Wai Ka-Fai's latest thrilling effort "Detective Vs. Sleuths," which was released on Friday.

However, "Detective Vs. Sleuths" is not actually a sequel to "Mad Detective," though the two films share the same director, same lead actor and similar main characters. This prompted an audience member to ask Wai via video link at the film's premiere in Beijing on Wednesday whether he would consider making a "Mad Detective" universe in the future.

"I would carefully consider it," Wai replied.

Sean Lau plays a former detective called Jun Lee with psychological problems and a supernatural gift that allows him to see haunting and horrifying illusions that can predict the future. Racing against time, he and a pregnant police detective attempt to hunt down a serial killer while having to fight off a group of terrorist-style vigilantes (who call themselves "The Chosen Sleuths") led by his own daughter and who have vowed to murder the bad guys that killed or hurt their families years ago.

The crime film, which also stars Charlene Choi, Raymond Lam and Carman Lee, is full of suspense, large action set pieces and gun fights. Wai said that his aim this time was to delve into deeper themes, all while adopting a popcorn action filmmaking approach. In the film, a quote from 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is repeatedly read out by the lead character: "He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee."

"Compared to 'Mad Detective,' 'Detective Vs. Sleuths' is much crazier," the director said. Sean Lau agreed, "The character Jun Lee is a real crazy man - you'll be unlucky to meet him, he's dangerous."

Lau's multi-layered performance of a man with mental issues amazed the audience after the advance screening at the premiere and several earlier test screenings. Behind-the-scenes footage also demonstrated his extraordinary work ethic. For him, being an "actor," is a simple and important task. "It is my job and basically my everything."

"Though this time it was very hard and challenging, I felt I'm very lucky and very happy to have the opportunity to act in this film," he added.

"Detective Vs. Sleuths" received rave reviews at the premiere, among which was renowned Chinese director Jia Zhangke. A long-time fan of Hong Kong films, Jia was invited to the premiere and after the screening called it an "authentic and pure Hong Kong film."

"I can see the great dedication of the cast and crew, and every action scene is challenging," he said. "The film is both entertaining and thought-provoking. It's a rare work in recent years that can still truly showcase the charm of Hong Kong cinema."
Smith Mountain Lakes poplar Pirate Days is set to return this weekend. Crowds are expected to fill area marinas dressed in pirate garb and ready to do battle, possibly without a longtime popular weapon.

Water balloons are no longer allowed according to a new law passed in Virginia last year. The Virginia code, 29.1-556.1, states It is unlawful for any individual 16 years of age or older or other person to intentionally release, discard, or cause to be released or discarded outdoors any balloon made of a nonbiodegradable or nonphotodegradable material or any material that requires more than five minutes contact with air or water to degrade.

With the new law in place, even current biodegradable water balloons on the market would not meet those strict standards.

Sgt. Tim Dooley with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources said the goal this year will be mainly to make sure people know the new rules. It is our intention to address any violations we observe, he said This can be done in a variety of ways to include educating the individuals regarding the changes to the code or, if warranted, an official warning or summons may be issued.

Chris Bechtler, manager of Crazy Horse Marina, is already trying to reach out to participants this year about the new law. The marina is traditionally the site of some of the largest Pirate Days battles each year as boats decorated as pirate ships roam the cove and toss water balloons at other boats.

We are discouraging the use of water balloons, Bechtler said.

The Smith Mountain Lake Association is also pushing to get the word out on the new law. SMLA President Bill Butterfield said he is a fan of the annual pirate festivities, but has questioned the environmental impact of the water balloons.

Water balloons that are biodegradable and those that are non-biodegradable are indistinguishable from one another. The biodegradable balloons also still take months to break down. In that time, Butterfield said they can still do harm to the environment.

The popped balloons can trash up the waterways and shoreline. They can also become ingested by area wildlife such as fish or birds or even by local pets.

Balloons can also be harmful to boats and PWCs by being sucked up into water intakes. The intakes could be clogged by balloon debris.

Butterfield asked residents to consider alternative ways to participate in pirate battles this year. He encouraged the use of water guns that will allow people the same opportunities to have fun while keeping the lake clean and not breaking the law.
Activists object, saying protecting groundwater is more important.

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Slovakia is almost exclusively dependent on natural gas imports from abroad, but it also has its own deposits and gas has been extracted in the country for seventy years.

The Nafta company, which operates in the fields of underground storage of natural gas and exploration, as well as its extraction, is responsible for natural gas extraction in Slovakia.

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Currently, gas is extracted from locations near Plavecky Stvrtok, Zahorie, and near Michalovce and Kralovsky Chlmec. The vicinity of Trnava is a lucrative place, as the company has extracted gas there for decades and wants new locations.

Nafta sees great potential in a new deposit located near the village of Malzenice. It is probably the last promising location with what are seen as rich reserves of natural gas.

Related article

Related article Russia curbs gas to Slovakia, catastrophe not imminent Read more

Deposit potential

In Slovakia, the golden age of gas extraction was the 1960s, when approximately 1.5 billion cubic metres was extracted annually.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Friday strongly appealed to all sectors of the community including domestic helpers to continue to fight the COVID-19 virus together.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of the HKSAR government will conduct joint operations with several government departments to carry out publicity and educational work in various districts, appealing to the public to raise awareness of epidemic prevention and urging them to comply with the various anti-epidemic regulations and restrictions and other legislation, according to an official press release.

"The local situation of COVID-19 infection is still very severe. Avoiding group gatherings is of utmost importance in preventing the pandemic from spreading in the community," said a spokesman for the HKSAR government.

The spokesman noted that all sectors must stay vigilant and comply with the relevant regulations on the prevention and control of disease in a concerted and persistent manner.

On Friday, Hong Kong registered 2,748 confirmed locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 and 197 imported cases, official data showed.
In a wild photo finish that saw the race favourite break stride and nearly come back to win, Bonfire Bash collected the glory in barely winning the $6,000 Preferred 2 & 3 Handicap Trot on Friday (July 8) at Hippodrome 3R.

The third race co-feature first saw Hall Win and driver/trainer Kevin Maguire fire from the starting gate like he was shot from a cannon. He grabbed the lead from post eight before the field entered the first turn.

With Bonfire Bash and driver Francis Picard getting the two-hole trip behind Hall Win, the 1-9 race favourite Kinnder Dangerzone and driver Pierre-Luc Roy were coming after the leaders on the outside in the first turn and broke stride. Roy nearly had to bring him to a halt to get him back trotting.

Meanwhile, Hall Win led the field to the first quarter in :29.2 and backed it off to the half-mile in 1:00. Then Archimed Alpha (Pascal Berube) came first-over with Eau Naturelle (Stephane Brosseau) second-over.

Heading towards the three-quarters, 46-1 Morally Flexible (Daniel Theroux) was third-over then tipped three-wide with was Kinnder Dangerzone, who had regrouped and caught the field for Roy, following the cover.

Past the three-quarters in 1:30.3 and going into the final turn, horses were stacked up three and four-wide. Then starting down the stretch, Hall Win began to fade as 10-1 Bonfire Bash and Picard found clearance to mount a charge while Morally Flexible and Kinnder Dangerzone both became contenders racing down the stretch.

Once the dust had cleared, Bonfire Bash won by a head over Morally Flexible with Kinnder Dangerzone a very impressive third by a half-length after his costly break early in the race. The time of the mile was 2:01.3.

The win was the second straight for Bonfire Bash. The six-year-old gelding by Angus Hall took his lifetime mark last week in 2:00.4 at 3R. He is trained by Serge Houde for Michel Carrier, Inc. of Chesapeake City, Maryland. He paid $23 to win while Morally Flexible paid a whopping $84.90 to place.

In the matching Fillies and Mares Preferred 2 & 3 Handicap Pace, it was newcomer Askmysecretary (pictured above) and driver Pascal Berube who stole the show in a romp.

Fancy Girl (Francis Picard) started off the sixth race on the lead with Askmysecretary and Berube grabbing the two-hole journey.

Fancy Girl cut fractions to the quarter in :28 and the half-mile in :58.1. When Sophies Cam (Stephane Brosseau) started up first-over from sixth place, it flushed Askmysecretary in the backstretch and she vaulted to the lead over Fancy Girl past three-quarters in 1:28.1.

From there, Askymsecretary tore away from the field and opened up in the stretch, winning six lengths in 1:56.4. The race favourite, Kiss Me Bad (Steven Gagnon), was second with Sophies Cam third.

The win was the third of the year for Askmysecretary. She is trained by Yves Tessier for owner Michel Letarte and Jean Allaire. She paid $8.20 to win.

Live harness racing resumes at 3R on Sunday with first race post time at 12 noon.

To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Hippodrome 3R.

(With files from Quebec Jockey Club)
You are here: China

The strongest heat wave of the year so far continues sweeping across China as the country is expected to experience worse climate conditions and more extreme weather events in July and August, national weather forecasters said.

For the next week, the temperature is estimated to jump to 40 C in most parts of China, the National Meteorological Center said.

On Friday, the China Meteorological Administration launched a national Level IV emergency response to high temperature, the lowest grade of the response.

Southwest China's Sichuan province was among the areas hit hardest by temperatures that reached around 40 C.

The provincial government released an "urgent notice" on hot weather prevention on Friday.

The notice said that companies should give out high temperature subsidies and set flexible working hours for outdoor workers.

Authorities also need to prevent too much electricity usage on the network to keep away from a potential risk of fire.

On Friday, Shaanxi's Weinan meteorological service issued a red warning for high temperatures of above 40 C, the highest warning level in the local four-tier system.

Zhang Juan, a weather analyst at Weather China, a website under the administration, said this round of high temperatures has affected more than 20 provinces as the heat wave moves from western regions to the east.

The number of heat waves-periods with temperatures above 35 C-in East, Central and parts of South China as well as the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, will be above normal, according to a forecast released by the National Climate Center on Tuesday.
Driver Darren Crowe worked out a perfect trip aboard Risin Horizon to take the featured Winners Over Pace on Friday evening (July 8) at Truro Raceway after guiding his own trainee Southside Eddy to a record victory earlier on the card.

With the inside post advantage in the featured $2,500 seventh race, Good Friday Three (Jeff Ellis) assumed command at the start and led the field of five through opening fractions of :28 and :57 with a three-length advantage before Crowe and Risin Horizon popped the pocket at the 1:26.1 third quarter mark and Well Did (Ken Parker Jr.) launched three-wide.

Risin Horizon took over turning for home and finished 1-1/2 lengths on top at the end of the 1:56.3 mile with a three-way battle raging behind for second. Harry G (Ernest Laffin) shot up the passing lane to nab the runner-up honours over Good Friday Three and Well Did. Johnnywalkerdelux (Emmons MacKay), the 7-5 favourite, completed the order after gapping the field throughout.

Risin Horizon paid $6.40 to win as the 2-1 third choice.

Trained by Gardner McCallum, the four-year-old Vertical Horizon gelding is now two-for-five since arriving at Truro last month for the Wont Back Down Stable of North River, N.S. The win was his sixth this year from 18 starts overall.

Crowe also guided his own trainee Southside Eddy to a 20-1/2-length blowout victory in a 1:53.3 track record for three-year-old pacing colts.

In the evening's second race, the Betterthancheddar-Ainsleynoelle colt drove on three-wide from the outside post six and made front at the quarter pole in :28.3. From there, he extended his lead through middle splits of :56.4 and 1:25.1 and was long gone before closing it out with a :28.2 final frame. Maximumlovin (Clare MacDonald) and Bettor On Than Off (Laffin) were the best of the rest.

Southside Eddy shaved four-fifths of a second off Batterup Hanover's colt track record that was set last June. (The 1:52.2 overall three-year-old record for males is held by gelding Woodmere Stealdeal.)

Fresh off a dominant Canada Day victory, Southwide Eddy was the 3-5 favourite and paid $3.40 to win. Unraced as a two-year-old, the speedy colt has won half of his six starts so far this year for owners Diane Livingstone of Halifax, N.S. and Brian Livingstone of Spring, Texas.

To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Truro Raceway.
Longtime harness racing industry participant G. Bruce 'Coils' Redmond of Grimsby, Ont. passed away on Wednesday, June 29 at the age of 72.

Redmond was a very recognizable figure in the Ontario Standardbred industry having spent a number of years as tattoo and freeze brand technician for the Canadian Standardbred Horse Society and Standardbred Canada.

Originally from Watford, Ont., Redmond's background in harness racing began in the late 1960s under the guidance of horseman Morris MacDonald, where he worked along with Bill Gale and Lew Clark. After a brief stateside stint with Buddy Gilmour, he worked for Dr. John Hayes for seven years.

Redmond opened his own public stable, a process that evolved into specializing in developing young horses. He gave up training in 1990 when the CSHS tattoo technician position became available. He would tattoo and freeze brand for the next three decades, and even trained some of the USTA's technicians on the art of freeze branding.

Coils was predeceased by his wife, Maggie Montgomery and is survived by his son Jason, sister Donna Hyatt (Lorne) and sister-in-law Julie Jenkins (John). Cremation has taken place. If desired, memorial contributions to the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society would be sincerely appreciated by the family.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Bruce Redmond.
GRAND ISLAND  A dispute over driving methods on Interstate 80 Saturday afternoon escalated to the point where one man allegedly stabbed the other.

A 20-year-old La Vista man was arrested at about 3 p.m. after he allegedly stabbed a Colorado man in the upper portion of his shoulder.

The dispute started off as a road rage incident, said Hall County Chief Deputy Josh Berlie. One of the drivers tapped his brakes because he felt the other was following too closely, which led to swerving, Berlie said.

The drivers pulled off to Git N Split, 8976 S. Alda Road. Both men exited their vehicles and a verbal altercation turned physical, Berlie said.

The victim, 22-year-old Victor Hernandez of Greeley, Colorado, was flown to an out-of-town hospital because medical personnel couldnt stop his bleeding. Berlie wasnt sure where he was transported.

The La Vista man was arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault, third-degree assault, use of a weapon to commit a felony, attempted second-degree homicide and willful reckless driving.
OMAHA  Two Bellevue intersections now are equipped with license plate readers, and four police cruisers soon will be outfitted with the specialized equipment.

The Bellevue Police Department installed license plate readers at 15th Street and Cornhusker Road, as well as Fort Crook Road North and Chandler Road, Capt. Tom Dargy said Wednesday.

Bellevue signed a five-year contract with Motorola Solutions at a cost of $198,000 to place the cameras at the intersections and in the cruisers, Dargy said.

Logs of license plate numbers passing through the intersections will be maintained for 180 days, he said. The data then will be automatically deleted unless it's being used as evidence or is subject to a preservation request, warrant, subpoena or court order. A department policy also exempts data "involved in an active, ongoing criminal investigation" from automatic deletion.

Data is considered for official use only but "can be shared for legitimate law enforcement purposes" or when subject to a valid court order, according to department policy.

"I've already seen some concerns in online comments about personal information being recorded," Dargy said. "That is not the case. The cameras will only record the license plates, and only about five people in the department will have access to that information."

In 2018, Nebraska lawmakers passed a bill to rein in government use of automatic license plate readers. LB93, sponsored by Sen. Matt Hansen of Lincoln, set limits on how law enforcement and other agencies can gather and share information collected by the technology. It passed 47-0.

Automatic license plate readers are cameras mounted on patrol cars or stationary objects along the road that snap a photograph of every license plate that passes by. Images of the plates, along with the time, date and location, are recorded and transmitted to a database.

The American Civil Liberties Union has raised concerns in a number of states, including Nebraska, about what information is being gathered on the general driving public and what agencies do with the collected data.

ACLU attorney Jane Seu said Wednesday that the license plate reader technology "fundamentally presents privacy concerns and the possibility of misuse and abuse. Under this system, innocent drivers plates will be recorded and stored for months before being deleted. Likewise, the departments policy allows officers to manually enter plates for vague investigative purposes. Bellevue residents should be concerned about the new cameras and plans to expand them to police vehicles."

Under LB93, government agencies can use the readers to identify vehicles linked to ongoing criminal investigations, reported as stolen or associated with a missing person. They also can be used to identify vehicles with outstanding parking or traffic violations and for some other traffic enforcement purposes.

Bellevue police plan to use the cameras "to identify vehicles that are the subject of police investigations and complaints," Dargy said. To ask that the system check for a certain vehicle, a law enforcement agency would need to provide the license plate number, a set time period for monitoring and the reason for the request.

Dargy said Lancaster and Seward counties have been using license plate readers on cruisers for about a year.

The Kearney Police Department said in June that it had begun testing automated license plate readers.

Scott Stewart of the Bellevue Leader contributed to this report.
Earlier this week there was an exciting day for the Salvation Army of Iredell County as it sent 14 children from Iredell County are able to attend a five-day camp at The Salvation Army Camp Walter Johnson in Denton, in part due to donations made from community members.

They will enjoy a life-changing week of fun with new friends to make and new things to learn! Camp Walter Johnson is a beautiful retreat for children to enjoy being kids! Major Joanne Mure said.

She said the children were referred through the organizations advisory board and at the camp will connect with nature, learn about Jesus, enjoy arts and crafts, boating, fishing, swimming, singing camp songs, eating smores around a camp fire, make friends from all over North and South Carolina and learn new skills.

Mure said she also wanted to thank advisory board members Steve Byrd and Roxanna LeVan for helping take the children to the camp. She also thanked the parents who trusted us with their precious cargo.

For more information, visit the organizations website at salvationarmycarolinas.org/iredell/ and facebook.com/SAIredell or call our office at 704-872-5623 for more information.
In a case that could have been dismissed two years ago through Virginias deferred disposition program, a North Carolina man was convicted of a felony in Floyd earlier this week.

John Darian Manning of Greensboro, N.C., originally pleaded guilty for unauthorized use of a vehicle on Oct. 6, 2020, and was granted a deferred disposition for unauthorized use of a vehicle.

Failures to comply with the terms of the deferment, including paying restitution to the car owner, brought a show cause order in May 2021, which went unanswered alongside others.

Judge Mike Fleenor convicted Manning of the felony on July 5 in a plea agreement that omitted several of the show cause charges.

Manning received a suspended sentence and must pay off the remaining restitution before hes eligible to leave probation.

Mannings hearing topped a short docket while a county grand jury considered indictments for the third quarter that began on July 1.

In other action July 5, Judge Fleenor set a one-day jury trial on Dec. 6 for Michael Terry Duncan on drug possession charges. Other charges involving possession of a gun near a school, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, intent to distribute drugs at a school and other infractions will be set for trial on Dec. 6.

Duncan has a total of 20 pending charges involving drugs, guns and failures to appear.

Indictments returned by the grand jury are sealed until warrants are served and/or arrests are made.
A union strike at General Dynamics Mission Systems in Marion intensified in its first week as members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2850 push the defense contractor for better pay, better insurance and better additional benefits.

Workers went on strike over the weekend, even showing up on the Monday holiday to make their presence known. Tuesday evening, after work had resumed, strikers picketed along and across the Johnston Road entrance and at other locations along Brunswick Lane as salaried workers and non-union members left the plant for the day.

Hey, scabby, hows it going, one striker called through a loud speaker, using the slang term that refers to someone who works during a strike.

I hope you like riding on our coat tails so we can get a raise for you, he called moments later. Well fight for you all the same.

Local 2850 President Alan Keesee said it had been five years since the last contract between General Dynamics and the UAW was put into place. The union and the company negotiated on a new contract for about four weeks, he said, before the membership chose to reject the companys offer last Friday.

Since the time the last contract was hammered out, the cost of living, including gas prices, has increased, Keesee previously pointed out.

In addition to pay, he said, There was some insurance issues, and we proposed several different plans as far as sick days and just overall life in general. People have family sicknesses and deaths and everything.

Were just trying to get somewhere where the average family can get by in this day in time, he said.

General Dynamics spokesperson Tom Crosson said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that work at the facility had not ceased and that the company is implementing contingency planning in order to meet our commitments to our customers.

We are disappointed that we were not able to reach an agreement with United Auto Workers 2850, Crosson said. We will continue to work with union representatives and our employees to develop a mutually beneficial agreement.

Keesee said on Tuesday that a large number of non-union members had joined the 271 union members in the strike. He reiterated that workers would like to restore General Dynamics as the number one place to work.

At one time, it was number one in the community and area to work, he said. We think everybody deserves that, us and them. And, once we reach an agreement, thats our goal, to make it number one, make it better for everybodycustomers, families, everyone.

We just want to make our workforce and the community stronger, he later added.

Along the picket line, strikers toted signs reading, Union Strong, End Corporate Greed, Picket to the Man, High Profits Low Respect, and Scab X-ing, in addition to the standard UAW on Strike signs.

While some tense moments occurred during the week, Marion Police Chief John Clair said there had largely been no conduct issues.

If Im looking at the week as a whole, everything has been, certainly loud and expressive, but lawful, he said.

He said the only stumble point was some interference with vehicle traffic earlier in the week, but that hed spoken with union leadership and strikers and they agreed it was unsafe and would discontinue the practice.

If strike activity remains safe, Clair said, the area will likely see a smaller police presence.

Were not expecting to have to be there a lot as long as it remains safe and civil, he said, adding, Well trust that strikers and General Dynamics employees will have a high regard for each others safety.

Keesee said employees take pride in supporting the military through their work and that the union would like to come to an agreement and get back to work soon.

Were willing, like I said before, 24/7 to go back to the table, Keesee said. Everybody needs to work and we want to keep everybody working. I think we play a big part toward the military and everybodys just asking for their fair share in todays economy.

As of Thursday, Kessee said there was no word yet on when negotiations would resume. Crosson, who described negotiations as ongoing, said that offers have been made and deadlines have been established.
 Flash

The third High-level Environment and Climate Dialogue between China and the European Union was held via video link on Friday, with both sides agreeing to deepen cooperation on environment, climate, and energy.



Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng and Frans Timmermans, executive vice president of the European Commission for the European Green Deal, held the meeting.

Han, also a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that the two sides should make full use of the high-level dialogue platform to further implement the consensus reached by their leaders and promote the deepening of the China-EU green partnership.

Han noted that China unswervingly promotes green and low-carbon development, solidly advances the green and low-carbon transformation of the energy sector, actively boosts the development of new energy and clean energy, improves the level of clean and efficient utilization of coal, and ensures that it can realize carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals as scheduled.

China stands ready to work with the EU to further strengthen the policy coordination, enhance technological innovation cooperation, and create more cooperation highlights on energy use towards green and low-carbon transformation, climate change response, and environmental protection, he said.

China appreciates the active leadership of the EU in the global environment and climate governance, Han said, adding that China is willing to work with the EU to promote the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for practical results.

Timmermans said that the European side highly appreciates China's strong measures and obvious achievements in promoting green and low-carbon development, and is willing to enhance cooperation with China in the fields of environment, climate, and energy.

The EU supports China in successfully holding the second phase of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Timmermans said.
Next week, ballots for the Aug. 2 primary are set to be mailed. People still have time to register and update their addresses to be part of this election involving federal, state and local races, as well as local measures.

Calendar

July 15: Ballots mailed.

July 25: Online and mailed voter registration due by 5 p.m.

Aug. 2: Register or update address in person at Cowlitz County Elections Office by 8 p.m., which is the same time ballots are due. First results are set to be released soon after 8 p.m.

Aug. 16: Election is certified at 3 p.m.

By the numbers

8 states offer all-mail elections, including Washington.

5 Cowlitz County incumbents are running unopposed: Assessor Emily Wilcox, Auditor Carolyn Fundingsland, Clerk Staci L. Myklebust, Prosecuting Attorney Ryan P. Jurvakainen and Treasurer Debra Gardner.

2 candidates who receive the most votes in primary partisan races, except for the U.S. presidency and precinct committee officers, head to the November general election in Washington state, despite what party they prefer. Two Republicans or two Democrats could proceed to the general election in certain races.

$0 to return a ballot. No postage is required to mail ballots or submit ballots to drop boxes.

Measures

City of Castle Rock voters are asked to fund the Castle Rock Public Library, which currently runs solely on donations. The excess property tax levy asks for 30 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value to be collected in 2023.

City of Kalama voters are asked to add a 0.2% tax on retail sales and uses in the citys transportation benefit district for the next decade. Revenue would fund city transportation improvements, like paving city roads.

Voters in the Cowlitz County Fire Protection District 3, also known as Toutle Fire & Rescue, are asked to fund fire protection and emergency medical services with an increase to the current levy of up to a total of $1.14 per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2022 to be collected in 2023. The department is looking to to hire fulltime firefighters and paramedics to regularly staff stations, which are primarily comprised of volunteers.

Voters in Cowlitz County Fire Protection District 6, which serves Castle Rock and northern Cowlitz County, are asked to restore and authorize a regular property tax levy of up to $1.20 per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2022 for collection in 2023 to cover emergency medical services. The departments previous levy lid lift expires at the end of this year, and voting for the renewal allows continued funding of fulltime staffing and ambulance services, the department says.

Voters in the district served by Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue are asked to fund emergency medical services with a regular property tax levy of $0.50 or less per $1,000 of assessed property value for six consecutive years starting in 2023. The department says approving the levy will pay for more employees, which is needed because of an increase in emergency calls, slowed response times by a private ambulance company and the forced closure of one station due to a lack of staff.

Races

Secretary of State: incumbent Steve Hobbs (D), Bob Hagglund (R), Kurtis Engle (Union Party), Marquez Tiggs (D), Tamborine Borrelli (America First (R) Party), Keith L. Wagoner (R), Mark Miloscia (R) and Julie Anderson (Nonpartisan Party).

U.S. Senator: incumbent Sen. Patty Murray (D), Henry Clay Dennison (Socialist Workers Party), Mohammad Hassan Said (D), John Guenther (R), Tiffany Smiley (R), Dan Phan Doan (no party preference), Dr. Pano Churchill (D), Dave Saulibio (JFK Republican Party), Sam Cusmir (D), Bill Hirt (R), Jon Butler (I), Bryan Solstin (D), Martin D. Hash (no party preference), Thor Amundson (I), Charlie (Chuck) Jackson (I), Naz Paul (I), Ravin Pierre (D) and Leon Lawson (Trump Republican Party).

Congressional District 3: incumbent Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R), Chris Byrd (I), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D), Vicki Kraft (R), Oliver Black (American Solidarity Party), Heidi St. John (R), Davy Ray (D), Leslie L. French (R) and Joe Kent (R).

State Legislative District 19, position 1: incumbent Rep. Jim Walsh (R) and Kelli Hughes-Ham (D).

State Legislative District 19, position 2: incumbent Rep. Joel McEntire (R), Cara Cusack (D) and Jon-Erik Hegstad (Progressive Dem Party).

State Legislative District 20, position 1: incumbent Peter Abbarno (R).

State Legislative District 20, position 2: incumbent Ed Orcutt (R).

Cowlitz County Commissioner, District 3: incumbent John Jabusch (I), Christie Masters (R) and Rick Dahl (R).

Cowlitz County Coroner: incumbent Tim Davidson (I) and Dana M. Tucker (R).

Cowlitz County Sheriff: incumbent Brad Thurman (R), Rob Gibbs (R) and Ronald Lundine (no party preference).







Helpful links

Online county voters guide: voter.votewa.gov/GenericVoterGuide.aspx?e=876&c=08#/

Online version of the printed voters guide: www.co.cowlitz.wa.us/DocumentCenter/View/26049/P122-Cowlitz-Local-Voters-Pamphlet

Cowlitz County Elections Office: www.co.cowlitz.wa.us/2648/2022-August-Primary
A woman who led law enforcement on a high-speed chase from Longview to Rainier and back in April is serving about two years in prison after pleading guilty to two felonies and three misdemeanors at the end of May.

Longview officers arrested Carla Marie Clark  a 39-year-old who police say lives a transient lifestyle  in April once the pursuit ended in 1100 block of 32nd Avenue in Longview with Clark hitting another moving vehicle and running inside a nearby home, according to a police report.

Longview police first pulled over Clark and the driver of a black Ford passenger car on Tennant Way and 11th Avenue after receiving a report that Clark stole about $27 worth of items from the Seventh Avenue Walmart around 7 p.m. April 24.

When the driver exited the vehicle, Clark moved to the driver seat and drove away even though the man, who owns the car, didnt give her permission, the police report says.

Clark sped westbound on Tennant Way during traffic, abruptly changing lanes to go through green lights and eventually blowing through a red light at Tennant Way and 15th Avenue, the report continues.

Later, Columbia County deputies spotted Clark in Rainier, but she didnt stop and led them back to Longview, not stopping or slowing at stop signs at 20th Avenue and 26th Avenue, as well as a red light at 32nd Avenue and Washington Way. When she reached the 1100 block of 32nd Avenue, she struck a female driver, then ran into a nearby unlocked home with a bleeding face, according to police.

Clark pleaded guilty on May 31 to taking a motor vehicle without permission in the second degree, attempting to elude a pursing police vehicle, hit and run of an attended vehicle, obstructing a law enforcement officer and second-degree criminal trespass.

She was sentenced to 29 months, or about two years in prison, in Cowlitz County Superior Court and was ordered to pay $500 in fines.
Cowlitz County residents are encouraged to keep an eye out for noxious weeds, including one that can cause burns if the plants sap hits skin and the sunlight.

Jennifer Mendoza, county Noxious Weed Control Board program coordinator, asked for residents cooperation during a presentation to the Cowlitz County commissioners Wednesday, after recent discoveries of invasive and potentially dangerous weeds, such as giant hogweed  a plant with a mildly toxic sap that can cause skin burns, scarring and blistering when exposed to sunlight.

How to report a noxious weed Phone: 360-577-3117 Email: noxiousweeds@co.cowlitz.wa.us Info: A full list of noxious weeds is available at www.co.cowlitz.wa.us/222/Noxious-Weeds

In June, the board reported the finding of two class A noxious weeds in the county for the first time  giant hogweed in Ostrander and Turkish thistle in Kalama. Class A is the highest classification for invasive plant species in the state and landowners are required to fully eradicate them to prevent spread.

The goal of eradicating class A weeds truly rests on the shoulders of our citizens, Mendoza said. Without their help, we run the risk of missing more discreet infestations.

Finding Turkish thistle is very concerning because it hadnt been documented in Washington and the nearest known infestations are in Eastern Oregon and Idaho, Mendoza said. Its puzzling how the weed arrived in Cowlitz County, but it may have been transported on someones pet, shoes or vehicle, construction equipment or a ship, she said.

Nature is quite adept at moving seeds around, but our modern lifestyles have unintentionally amplified a seeds ability to spread in new ways, Mendoza said in an email.

The control board has a good chance of stopping further spread of Turkish thistle because it was in limited locations, Mendoza said.

Recent discovery of giant hogweed was less surprising but alarming because it can be dangerous, Mendoza said.

Neighboring counties are also battling giant hogweed, which was historically planted as an ornamental, Mendoza said. The owner of the property where the hogweed was found last month said it had been there for a number of years as an ornamental, Mendoza told the commissioners.

All plants similar to giant hogweed should be treated with the same respect and caution until identified, as many can cause burns, even if less severe, Mendoza said.

The county has existing, controlled infestations of other class A noxious weeds, including slenderflower thistle, milk thistle and eggleaf spurge, Mendoza said. Noxious weeds are often difficult to kill and require certain herbicides or manual removal, she said.

Mendoza said she is concerned there may be other unreported infestations of noxious weeds, and the department has limited staff to inspect the large county.

Noxious weeds tend to establish in areas recently disturbed by soil relocation, new plant materials, equipment activity, wildlife travel, human recreation and environmental events such as wind or flooding, Mendoza said. Unmaintained areas are highly susceptible to infestations, she said.

Noxious weed classifications Class A: the highest classification for invasive plant species in the state and landowners are required to fully eradicate them to prevent spread. Examples: Giant hogweed, Turkish thistle and milk thistle. Class B: more widely distributed throughout the state, with a goal to prevent them from spreading further. Examples: knotweed, poison hemlock and Scotch broom. Class C: the most loosely controlled and typically widespread in the state but cause some detriment to agriculture. Examples: baby's breath, bull thistle and wild carrot.

The weed control board does what it can to help landowners control or eradicate noxious weeds, Mendoza said. Staff will do control work for people unable to do it themselves who are also eligible for the countys property tax discount, she said. Other property owners can apply for a reimbursement program for the cost of herbicide, loan out backpack sprayers and get vouchers for the dump, she said.

Weeds dont have respect for property boundaries, Mendoza said. It really is a community effort to eradicate weeds like this. Its important for neighbors to share the location if its a class A so we can respond appropriately.
As many as 4 new Google Chrome bugs have been found and they have the potential to take down your Windows PC. Chrome users are advised to update the browser now. Know how to do it.

Using Google Chrome to search for all your queries? Well, stop right now. First, you need to bring your attention round to a warning by Google. It said that all Google Chrome users must update their browser on Windows PCs immediately. Why? Because they have found a number of Google Chrome bugs on the web browser. Google has issued an urgent notice for the users who are using the Chrome browser and said they need to update Chrome to the latest version as it will help close critical security flaws that could otherwise be exploited by hackers.

The latest software upgrade is rolling out to the Chrome app on Windows PCs across the globe this week with the new version, 103.0.5060.114 of Chrome bringing four major security fixes, three of which are outlined by Google in a blog post. A zero-day bug is basically a glitch in the software that has the capability to be discovered by attackers before even the vendor has become aware of it.

The Stable channel is being updated to 103.0.5060.114 (Platform version: 14816.99.0) for most ChromeOS devices and will be rolled out over the next few days. This build contains a number of bug fixes and security updates, Google Chrome informed in the blog. However, Google did not provide any detailed information about the vulnerabilities found in the Chrome browser. But the two flaws patched by Google are also listed as high severity. Google even agreed that it is aware that an exploit for CVE-2022-2294 exists in the wild.

If you are using Chrome browsers, then Google suggests you update it to the latest version 103.0.5060.114 to avoid being attacked by the vulnerabilities found on Chrome. Also, every new update gives users better control over privacy and fixes existing bugs. If you are wondering how to update your Chrome browser, then heres the step-by-step guide for you.
Elon Musk has backed out of the Twitter acquisition deal after alleged contract breach by Twitter board. Here are all details.

Elon Musk has long hoarded the headlines for his surprise Twitter acquisition over the last few months. Now though, he has backed out the mega deal that could have given him control of the worlds largest social media platform. The deal worth $44 billion is now hanging by the thread as Elons team blames the Twitter board to breach the agreement, and Twitter now willing to take Musk to the court in order to complete the deal.

In a filing on July 8 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musks team has claimed that he wants the deal to be terminated as Twitter was in material breach of their agreement. He also accuses Twitter of making false and misleading statements during the negotiations. For nearly two months, Mr Musk has sought the data and information necessary to make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitters platform. Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information, says Musks legal team.

Elon Musk backs out of Twitter deal

"Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement," the filing said.

So far, Elon Musk is yet to comment on this development on his social media feeds, including his Twitter account. Musk, however, has been hinting at putting the deal on hold, claiming the Twitter provided him misleading stats on the matter of spam bots.

Hours after the filing was made, Twitter made it clear that it is going to take Musk to the courts for backing out of the deal. Bret Taylor, the Chairman of Twitter, says, The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

Based on the terms of the deal, if Elon Musk eventually cancels the buyout after the court proceedings, he will have to pay a fee of $1 billion on the occasion of not completing the transaction.
Elon Musk, pictured at SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas in February 2022, is often seen as a libertarian.

He has scorned organized labor, mocked political correctness and espoused small governmentso conservatives may be disappointed that he wants to pull out of his deal to buy Twitter.

Yet smoking marijuana during interviews, courting Hollywood with movie cameos and musing about nuking Mars make Elon Musk an improbable talisman for political traditionalists.

In polarized America, the 51-year-old triple divorcee's opposition to COVID-19 restrictions is often taken to demonstrate Republican sympathies, although his disdain for draconian immigration control suggests the opposite.

The world's richest man has berated President Joe Biden for proposing a tax credit for electric cars produced by unionized workers. He has even called for an end to all US federal subsidies.

Yet he has aggressively pursued government support himself, taking billions in handouts for his own companies.

James Hickman, founder of the libertarian-leaning Sovereign Man newsletter, sees Musk as a check on the "tyranny of the minority"a supposed cabal of elites in tech, media and academia who make decisions for the rest of us and "consistently get it wrong."

"What makes someone a true libertarian is an outright rejection of labels and being completely independent in one's thinking," Hickman told AFP.

Elon Musk, shown on the Time magazine Person of the Year cover in December 2021, complained about the business environment in California.

"Musk clearly qualifies in this regard."

Other analysts have suggested that, as inconsistent as his political philosophy appears, Musk rarely diverges from his business interests.

Meanwhile his political donations don't cleave to one party or point of view either.

A self-styled "moderate" independentalthough he has described himself as a "socialist" tooMusk ostentatiously moved to deeply conservative Texas from ultra-liberal California in 2020.

He has given donations to the governors of both states, despite criticizing Texas anti-abortion laws and a "complacent" business environment in California.

Free speech, or not?

Other donations have gone to Democratic grandees Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, right-wing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the Republican Party itself.

He is also not averse to lashing out on social media at Washington establishment figures, from one-time presidential nominee Elizabeth Warren ("Senator Karen") to Biden himself.

Elon Musk has complained that Twitter is too zealous in its regulation of speech.

And then there's the issue of free speech, which he has called "the bedrock of a functioning democracy."

Musk has complained that Twitter is too censorious, simultaneously illustrating and undermining his point in a tweet depicting the company's CEO Parag Agrawal as brutal Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Critics say his passion for unfettered conversation has often appeared less profound when his own interests are at stake.

Some media outlets have raised questions over Musk's reaction to journalists writing stories critical of Tesla.

Accused of unleashing his army of supporters on individual reporters, he once mulled creating a website for the profession as a whole called Pravdapresumably a tribute to the Soviet propaganda outlet.

"Going to create a site where the public can rate the core truth of any article & track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor & publication," he tweeted in 2018. Nothing came of it.

Critics say Elon Musk's love of unfettered dialogue has often appeared less robust when his own interests have been at stake.

'Pragmatic' and 'self-interested'

Former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer Judd Legum has pointed to a tweetalso 2018in which Musk appeared to threaten to rescind employee stock options at Tesla if workers decided to join a union.

Critics say there is a pattern of suppressing less powerful voices that has also included forcing workers to sign restrictive non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

A Tesla NDA reportedly warned employees that "they were not allowed to speak with media without explicit written permission"but the company neglected to add that labor laws protected them from reprisals when discussing work conditions.

Baruch Labunski, an internet marketing expert and web consultancy CEO, says that, amid much "contradictory evidence," it's safest to describe Musk's politics as "pragmatic."

"He is frequently characterized as a libertarian but that designation doesn't accurately describe the man whose businesses have benefited from government tax breaks and business subsidies," Labunski told AFP.

Elon Musk, pictured at the construction for a Berlin Tesla factory in September 2020, is famously prickly about criticism of the luxury car company.

Musk is a "fundamentally self-interested" celebrity, says Labunski.

"Musk gets to play in and around politics because he's rich and he's outspoken."

Explore further Twitter employees to meet with new board member Musk

 2022 AFP
 Flash

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, and expressed China's willingness to jointly promote the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership to a new high.



During a meeting with Faisal on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers' meeting held in Bali, Indonesia, Wang said China and Saudi Arabia have, as always, firmly supported each other over issues concerning their core interests, which demonstrated the important value of the China-Saudi Arabia comprehensive strategic partnership.

China firmly supports Saudi Arabia in safeguarding national sovereignty, security and stability, and opposes any foreign interference in its internal affairs, Wang said, adding that China will continue to support Saudi Arabia in playing its important and unique role in international and regional affairs.

China is willing to work with Saudi Arabia to jointly promote the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership to achieve new developments, Wang said.

For his part, Faisal said Saudi Arabia remains firmly committed to the one-China policy and has always stood against any foreign interference in China's internal affairs, adding that Saudi Arabia is ready to deepen the all-dimensional cooperation with China.

Both sides agreed to elevate the cooperation between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to a higher level, and speed up the negotiation on the China-GCC free trade agreement.

The two sides also agreed to continue to enhance communication and coordination within multilateral platforms including the United Nations, the G20 and the BRICS mechanism.
The Uvalde school districts police chief has stepped down from his position on the City Council just weeks after being sworn in following all
The pain at the pump has lessened somewhat for Bryan-College Station residents.

The largest weekly decline in gas prices since the start of the year was reported this week, dropping 21 cents per gallon on average week-to-week for regular unleaded fuel locally, according to AAA Texas.

We have seen the price of crude oil dropping in relative terms over the last few days, few weeks, Joshua Zuber, a media spokesperson with AAA of Houston, said Friday. It looks like the U.S. benchmark shot up [Thursday] back over $100 a barrel. We had a slight dip in demand [for gas] earlier a few weeks ago in mid-June and into late June there were still strong numbers but a slight dip.

That may have caused prices to drop not only in the oil market, but then subsequently that trickles down to what we pay at the pump. However, over the Independence Day weekend, AAA had been forecasting a very strong number of folks who will be driving to their destination and that is reflected in the Energy Information Administrations nationwide data, shooting back up above $9 million barrels for the daily average.

In Bryan-College Station, as of Friday, the average gas price for regular unleaded was $4.32, 11 centers lower than a day earlier. A week ago, the gas price average was $4.53; and a month ago it was $4.62, according to gasprices.aaa.com. The prices peaked at $4.69 for regular unleaded and $5.37 for diesel. A year ago, the average gas prices were $2.80 and $2.96, respectively, according to gasprices.aaa.com.

Statewide, as of Friday, the average unleaded price was $4.29, slightly down from $4.33 on Thursday.

Zuber said questions will linger of how long these dips in gas prices will last or if they will continue to fluctuate.

The answer is we dont know, he said. We could see those prices continue to fluctuate  it has a lot to do with supply and demand. Demand has been strong and supply across the globe is tight because we are dealing with the war in Ukraine; a lot of countries choosing to ban and companies choosing to not purchase Russian oil, so we have a very tight supply for oil around the globe. So you have an equation there for elevated gasoline prices.

Even though there is uncertainty in the market right now, Zuber said he is confident prices will remain elevated, compared to where Texas was last year.

Jim Gaines, a research economist at the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M, said there is no telling what is going to happen with gas prices, but that the biggest problem is not the production of oil but the refining.

It is the capacity of the refiners of making the gas out of the oil, and that just doesnt seem to have any consistency to it, he said. It is just really difficult to figure out what gas prices are going to do within narrower ranges. I have no idea why gas prices decreased over the Fourth of July weekend. It doesnt make any sense because you would think that there would be a lot of traffic out and people buying a lot of gas which would run the price up, but it didnt happen.

Gaines said it is not a matter of who is driving and who isnt, but that the sudden decrease in gas prices may have to do with the energy industry and the cost of producing oil, transporting the oil in the mid-market level and the refining.

The last I read, the real problem in the energy for gasoline and diesel fuel prices at the pump has more to do with refining, the cost of refining, the loss capacity in refining, he said. We just arent producing as many millions of barrels of gasoline out of the other end of the refineries that are going to the gas stations as we used to.

Jeff Spath, a professor at Texas A&M Petroleum and Engineering Department, said the decline in gas prices is expected.

There is always a week or so lag between the global oil price and the reflection of that oil price at the pump, and that is because of the refining process in between. Oil is traded as a very raw commodity and when it drops, it doesnt drop immediately, he said. It has to take the ... raw commodity through the refining process, through the shipping to the gas stations, and then the other reason is when a corner gas station buys gas from a supplier, they buy it in huge volumes and so if they buy it at $5 a gallon, they are going to have to sell that for $5.10 until that volume runs out, and that takes days  but it is not instantaneous.

Oil prices are set globally, Spath said, meaning when the global price falls, a day or two later the refiners will see that drop in price.

This is very normal and expected, this latency of about a week between the drop in oil price and the drop at the corner [gas station], he said. The driving season is upon us. The demand is going up but opposing the increase and demand, and people start saying I cant afford to fill up my tank and drive to Florida.

In the event of a gas boycott, Spath said it would not be sufficient to change gas prices. Newsweek reported June 27 that a viral online call for a gas boycott circulated on the TikTok app, with participating users calling on consumers to not buy gas from July 3-5. The date range was chosen to coincide with the Fourth of July, since extended holiday weekends are usually a time for traveling and gas prices may rise accordingly, the article stated. One video in the trend, which was posted June 16, has been viewed over 14 million times; with the topic overall generating over 400 million views across the platform, the article stated.

There are so many other [fuel] users for jets, farmers and other sources of demand that would delude the public  there is all of these things that [show] boycotts are an impossibility, Spath said. So, if the public got together and said Hey we are not going to buy gas and we are going to boycott  it is not sufficient to alter gas prices.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia  Leaders around the world condemned the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday as despicable, cowardly and terrorism while recalling him as a man devoted to peace, security and international cooperation.

Tributes poured in as governments expressed sorrow and solidarity with Japan over the loss of Abe, who was Japans longest-serving leader before stepping down in 2020 for health reasons.

Abe, 67, was shot from behind in Nara in western Japan while giving a campaign speech. He was airlifted to a hospital and later pronounced dead. The attack was especially shocking in one of the worlds safest countries, where guns are strictly controlled.

President Joe Biden said he was stunned, outraged, and deeply saddened. He visited the residence of Japans ambassador to the U.S. on Friday to offer condolences. He placed a bouquet of flowers on a table set up near a koi pond and wrote in a condolence book that Abe was a man of peace and judgment.

This is a tragedy for Japan and for all who knew him, Biden said. His vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific will endure. Above all, he cared deeply about the Japanese people and dedicated his life to their service.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events around the country, condemned the unforgivable act. He said campaigning as well as Sundays elections for parliaments upper house will proceed.

The free and fair election, which is the root of democracy, needs to be protected no matter what. We will not be defeated by violence, Kishida said.

Leaders from Turkey to Singapore condemned the attack. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the French foreign ministry called the shooting despicable, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said it was cowardly.

The U.N. Security Council stood in silent tribute to Abe after the current council president, Brazils U.N. Ambassador Ronaldo Costa Filho, expressed our sadness and shock at the senseless assassination.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Abe will be remembered as a staunch defender of multilateralism, respected leader and supporter of the United Nations. Abe was committed to promoting peace and security, championing U.N. development goals and advocating for universal health coverage, Guterres said, according to his spokesman.

I have fond memories of meeting Mr. Abe and his wife during their visit to the United Kingdom in 2016, Queen Elizabeth II said in a written statement. His love for Japan, and his desire to forge ever-closer bonds with the United Kingdom, were clear.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted his deepest condolences to his family and the people of Japan at this difficult time, while South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called the shooting an intolerable criminal act, his office said.

Iran said it was an act of terrorism.

Public broadcaster NHK aired a dramatic video of Abe giving a speech outside a train station in Nara. He is standing, dressed in a navy blue suit, raising his fist, when two gunshots are heard. The video then shows Abe collapsed on the street.

In the NHK video, security guards are seen leaping on top of a man in a gray shirt who lies face down on the pavement. A double-barreled device that appeared to be a handmade gun is seen on the ground.

Police arrested a suspect at the scene. Under Japanese law, possession of firearms is illegal without a special license. Importing them is also illegal.

Mr. Abe made an immense contribution to elevating India-Japan relations to the level of a special strategic and global partnership. Today, whole India mourns with Japan and we stand in solidarity with our Japanese brothers and sisters in this difficult moment, Modi said.The International Olympic Committee praised Abe for his vision, determination and dependability that allowed it to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for one year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It said the Olympic flag will be flown at half staff at Olympic House in Lausanne for three days.

Former President Donald Trump said he hoped Abes killer will be dealt with swiftly and harshly. Really BAD NEWS FOR THE WORLD! he said on his social media platform. He said Abe was a unifier like no other, but above all, he was a man who loved and cherished his magnificent country, Japan.

In China, however, Abes shooting triggered unfavorable comments from tens of thousands of nationalist citizens on social media.

Some quipped, Hope hes not OK, while dozens half-jokingly called the shooter a hero or anti-Japan hero. Others said Abes injuries were a comfort to the souls of people who died in Japans invasion of China during World War II.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said China expressed sympathies with Abes family and that the shooting shouldnt be linked with bilateral relations.
Chinese vice premier stresses building national platform for educational public services

Xinhua) 10:35, July 09, 2022

Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, inspects a new national smart education platform at the Ministry of Education, July 8, 2022. Sun on Friday stressed efforts in building a national platform for educational public services to further boost the country's high-quality education system. (Xinhua/Gao Jie)

BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan on Friday stressed efforts in building a national platform for educational public services to further boost the country's high-quality education system.

Sun made the remarks while inspecting a new national smart education platform at the Ministry of Education. She urged efforts to enhance digital education, promote the application of information technology in education, and make the platform an important public good.

Noting that the platform connecting 529,000 schools helps narrow the educational gap among different regions and schools, Sun called for further efforts to pool high-quality educational resources, optimize educational public services, improve the quality of education, and promote educational equity.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday stressed the importance of "networked multilateralism" ahead of the EU-UN High-Level Dialogue.

"We need more than ever multilateralism," the UN chief said before the start of the meeting, which opened on Thursday at the Greentree Estate on New York's Long Island.

"But not any kind of multilateralism, because no organization can also solve the problems of this world alone. We need a networked multilateralism," the secretary-general said.

Guterres stressed the importance of the EU-UN partnership, which he said is "a fundamental pillar of this networked multilateralism."

The UN chief underscored that the world is "in big trouble" in remarks delivered before meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU's executive arm.

According to the top UN official, COVID-19 is still lingering, and the recovery has been uneven, resulting in increasing inequalities between developed and developing nations, as well as within each country.

He added that the world is "still facing a dramatic climate emergency" and "conflicts are multiplying."

The secretary-general said the EU is "the strongest financial supporter, together with the member states, of UN activities," adding that the UN and the EU "will make our cooperation even deeper, even stronger, and even more effective for the people we care for."
Cybersecurity researchers are drawing attention to an ongoing wave of attacks linked to a threat cluster tracked as Raspberry Robin that's behind a Windows malware with worm-like capabilities.

Describing it as a "persistent" and "spreading" threat, Cybereason said it observed a number of victims in Europe.

The infections involve a worm that propagates over removable USB devices containing malicious a .LNK file and leverages compromised QNAP network-attached storage (NAS) devices for command-and-control. It was first documented by researchers from Red Canary in May 2022.

Also codenamed QNAP worm by Sekoia, the malware leverages a legitimate Windows installer binary called "msiexec.exe" to download and execute a malicious shared library (DLL) from a compromised QNAP NAS appliance.

"To make it harder to detect, Raspberry Robin leverages process injections in three legitimate Windows system processes," Cybereason researcher Loic Castel said in a technical write-up, adding it "communicates with the rest of [the] infrastructure through TOR exit nodes."

Persistence on the compromised machine is achieved by making Windows Registry modifications to load the malicious payload through the Windows binary "rundll32.exe" at the startup phase.

The campaign, which is believed to date back to September 2021, has remained something of a mystery so far, with no clues as to the threat actor's origin or its end goals.

The disclosure comes as QNAP said it's actively investigating a new wave of Checkmate ransomware infections targeting its devices, making it the latest in a series of attacks after AgeLocker, eCh0raix, and DeadBolt.

"Preliminary investigation indicates that Checkmate attacks via SMB services exposed to the internet, and employs a dictionary attack to break accounts with weak passwords," the company noted in an advisory.

"Once the attacker successfully logs in to a device, they encrypt data in shared folders and leave a ransom note with the file name "!CHECKMATE_DECRYPTION_README" in each folder."

As precautions, the Taiwanese company recommends customers to not expose SMB services to the internet, improve password strength, take regular backups, and update the QNAP operating system to the latest version.
Jeff Gilbertson, principal at Grand Island Senior High, has received a statewide honor and will represent Nebraska at a national principals conference.

The Nebraska State Association of Secondary School Principals (NSASSP) announced Gilbertson their 2022 High School Principal of the Year earlier this week. According to an NSASSP press release, the honor is given to a principal who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in their school, region, and at the state level.

Gilbertson has been Executive High School Principal since 2012. Over the course of those years, Gilbertson has been at the helm of the school, helping guide it through significant changes.

Arguably the most significant change at GISH since Gilbertsons tenure was the establishment of the schools learning academy system. Last year GISH celebrated the graduation of the schools academy first four-year graduates, being educated within the academy system for the duration of their time in high school.

In a previous Grand Island Independent article, Gilbertson said of the GISH Vision Teams efforts establishing the system:

We had a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. It was scary. We dumped out our high school and completely rebuilt it.

While there was a degree of opposition to the academy model, supporters prevailed and the model was fully implemented Fall 2019.

Grand Island Senior High graduate Kendall Bartling said in an NSASSP press release, The attitude that Mr. Gilbertson holds that students come first has had a lasting impact on the lives of countless students, myself included in my final year at the Academies of Grand Island Senior High, no single person has had as much of an impact on my emotional well-being and my future aspirations as Mr. Gilbertson.

Candidates for High School Principal of the Year are evaluated based on personal excellence, collaborative leadership, curriculum, instruction, assessment and personalization.

In a statement, Gilbertson said, To be recognized by your peers is a welcome surprise. Im honored to represent Grand Island Public Schools, but this is unquestionably a team effort. We have great work going on here and Im grateful to play a part in it.

October 2022, Gilbertson will represent Nebraska  and GISH  at the National Principals Conference, which will have one middle or high school principal from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Department of State Office of Overseas Schools and the Department of Defense Education.

From these state winners, according to conference host National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), From these state winners, three finalists are named as contenders for the National Principal of the Year award. The NASSP National Principal of the Year is selected from among the finalists.

Gilbertson started at Grand Island Public Schools as elementary principal, splitting duties between Stolley Park Elementary and Seedling Mile Elementary. He has been an educator since 1996. He was an elementary teacher in Lincoln.

Gilbertson has been a member of the Nebraska Council of School Administrators (NCSA) for 18 years, the Nebraska State Association of Secondary School Principals (NSASSP) for 13 years, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) for 11 years.
CHICAGO - A North Shore mother fed up with gun violence after the mass shooting in Highland Park is turning her anger into action, organizing a march in Washington, D.C., to ban assault-style weapons.

Kitty Brandtner was at the Winnetka Fourth of July parade when she heard about the Highland Park parade shooting Monday. She has friends who ran from the barrage of some 80 shots fired by a gunman with a high-powered semi-automatic rifle. After crying for a day, Brandtner decided to act.

Were not going to just sit in depression and sorrow, she said. Were going to do something.

With a hastily organized committee of 55 volunteers, Brandtner has put together plans for a march Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol.

So far, more than 300 people had signed up to make the trip and a GoFundMe page had raised $47,000 for the effort. The money will help pay for survivors from the parade to go to Washington.

Brandtner says both conservatives and liberals are joining the cause to stop repeated mass shootings. Public opinion polls repeatedly have shown that most Americans want more restrictions on guns.

Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said the Highland Park shooting was terrible, but an assault weapons ban is vague and wouldnt work.

Im sure were all frustrated by what happened there, Pearson said. If things were done properly, this would never happen.

Illinois already has a law providing for verification of firearm owner identification before gun sales, he said. In his online column for the ISRA Bulletin, Pearson suggested reinstating the death penalty in Illinois, stricter law enforcement measures to keep violent criminals locked up, and monitoring social media and juvenile records for background checks.

A small group of volunteers and survivors hopes to meet with members of Congress before the march.

We cannot let this keep happening to our country, our neighbors, our children, Brandtner wrote. We must mandate universal background checks and ban assault weapons. Join us.
The National Wild Turkey Federation is helping fund a new wild turkey research project conducted by Mississippi State University and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

The pioneering research project will utilize recent advances in genetic analysis to better understand wild turkey ecology and how certain factors  such as hunting seasons, land type and management practices  lead to more robust population densities.

"The goal of this research project is to provide improved estimates of multiple turkey population parameters, which will allow state wildlife agencies and turkey managers to make informed decisions regarding their management actions and hunting season frameworks," said Mark McConnell, Ph.D., assistant professor at Mississippi State University.

Dana Morin, Ph.D., assistant professor at MSU and McConnell are the principal investigators of this project and are working in conjunction with MDWFP.

Accurately gauging the number of wild turkeys on a particular landscape is complicated. Population estimates are often made using rough approximations that rely on anecdotal accounts, volunteer surveys and catch-per-unit information.

The other, more labor-intensive way wild turkey researchers and managers can estimate wild turkey numbers is by trapping and marking. While trapping and marking birds has provided valuable and insightful information for decades, it is expensive, takes a lot of personnel, is time-consuming and involves risks.

Researchers at MSU and MDWFP are going around the challenges typically associated with trapping and marking by efficiently collecting genetic material left behind in the field, such as feathers or fecal droppings.

These genetic materials will be analyzed with DNA-based lab techniques and identify unique, individual birds on eight sites throughout Mississippi. The sites will include differing habitat types, management practices and turkey hunting seasons. Research sites fall within two of the NWTF's Big Six Regions of Conservation, Southern Piney Woods and Mid-South Rebirth.

This new way to explore population densities will effectively allow researchers to create a database of individual wild turkeys on a specific project site, all by analyzing genetic material found in the field.
 Flash

The Fifth BRICS Media Forum on Friday issued the Action Plan of the BRICS Media Forum for 2022-2023.

The world is enduring a new period of turbulence and transformation, and the international community's pursuit of peace and development, fairness and justice, democracy and freedom, and win-win cooperation has become all the more vital, says the action plan.

Noting that BRICS countries need dialogue and cooperation more than ever, the action plan urges the media organizations of the BRICS countries to play their role as bridges to generate strong synergy for ensuring a high-quality BRICS partnership and strengthening the BRICS mechanism to the fullest extent.

In order to usher in a new era of BRICS media cooperation, the BRICS Media Forum upholds the principle of joint development and mutual benefit, and is committed to supporting and facilitating BRICS media to jointly carry out a series of actions, the action plan says.

On sharing the BRICS stories and promoting peace and development, the action plan highlights issues such as peace, economic growth, solidarity against COVID-19, food security, climate change and digital governance. We will plan joint interviews, carry out cooperation on special editions, websites, and news feeds, and undertake joint production for special feature films and live broadcasts on trending topics at different locations. We will launch BRICS news cooperation projects, such as BRICS Influencers and BRICS Link, to promote the core theme of peace and development and generate positive synergy that will benefit the five countries, it says.

On promoting common values and upholding fairness and justice, the action plan says we will work unitedly to share the outcomes of BRICS civilization and wisdom, disseminate the stories of our common values, promote cultural exchanges and mutual learning among our five countries, and foster the common values of humankind. The BRICS media will enhance solidarity and speak with a united voice on major regional and international issues, and champion the legitimate demands of emerging markets and developing countries. We will strengthen cooperation to tackle fake news, clarify fallacies, reject doom and gloom, and oppose any deliberate smear campaigns. We will increase the influence of BRICS perspectives in the international arena, and work together to maintain order in international communication.

On exploring IT empowerment and innovative cooperation models, the action plan says BRICS media outlets are encouraged to optimize their own strengths. We will strengthen mutual learning and exchanges on the application of new technologies and media, such as AI anchors, satellite news, smart content production, smart media broadcasting, and integrated media products, and forge collaboration in areas such as international social media platforms to jointly create a new model of media cooperation.

On promoting the high-quality development of the forum, the action plan says the BRICS Media Forum will implement the XIV BRICS Summit Beijing Declaration, and continue to hold the BRICS international journalism training program. The forum will progressively expand to include more media organizations from emerging markets and developing nations to create larger BRICS media cooperation. Through initiatives like the BRICS Media Joint Photo Exhibitions and other projects, we will actively expand practical cooperation in areas such as news reporting, think tank exchanges, information services, personnel training, and digital media.

The BRICS Media Forum was proposed by Xinhua News Agency in 2015 and jointly initiated with mainstream media outlets from Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa.

This year's event was a high-level media dialogue and exchange event following the 14th BRICS Summit. It was attended by nearly 300 representatives of over 170 media outlets and institutions from 73 countries and regions.
On Monday, Lithuania's EU Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans, and Fisheries met with officials in Luxembourg to discuss the war in Ukraine and how it affects the Union's environmental policies.

Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius met with Grand Duke Henri and Minister the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development Joelle Welfring, among others.

Speaking to RTL, Commissioner Sinkeviciu explained that "the war in Ukraine has increased pressure on the EU's environmental dossiers."

He stressed that Russia's actions lack any sense of morality, which is why more needs to be done to counteract them: "Not only do they commit war crimes in Ukraine, but they will now also be responsible for a global food crisis."

While access to petrol has often been discussed since the beginning of the war, the EU Commissioner highlighted that a similar situation also applies to fertiliser: "Our farmers get most of their fertiliser from Russia and Belarus. Even the EU member states that produce their own rely on gas to trigger the chemical reaction needed to make fertiliser. And this brings us right back to Russia."

Transitioning towards more sustainable agriculture with less fertiliser is therefore an important goal, explained Commissioner Sinkeviciu, as it will help bring down food prices in the long term.

The Lithuanian politician also talked about his meeting with Grand Duke Henri, praising the sovereign for his level of insight into issues relating to ecosystems: "I am really thankful that he knows so much about what are very complicated issues. The same can also be said about the country's politicians, who put forward exemplary policies."

The EU Commissioner concluded by saying that legislation will be needed on many different levels to advance the Union's work on the environment.
From Monday 11 July, a new service at ACL's Bertrange site will offer the stickers required to travel on the motorway in Switzerland and Austria.

The Automobile Club promoted the new service on social media. The drive-in service will take place throughout the rest of July, from Monday to Friday between 9am and 5.30pm.
Last night, police interventions took place in Mamer, Schrondweiler, Luxembourg City, and Esch-sur-Alzette.

A police patrol in Mamer spotted a car with its hazard lights on near the slip road in Rue d'Arlon. A closer look at the car revealed that one of the front tyres and the rim were damaged.

While talking to the driver, the officers noticed a distinct smell of alcohol. A breathalyser test confirmed that the motorist was inebriated. The driving licence was provisionally withdrawn.

Shortly before 4am, the police pulled over a driver on Boulevard Prince Henri in Esch-sur-Alzette, after the latter had almost crashed into a police car. The driver was asked to take an alcohol and a drug test, both of which came back positive.

The motorist was brought to a hospital for additional urine and blood tests. Because the man had already lost his driving licence and his car was not properly insured, the vehicle was seized on the orders of the public prosecutor's office.

A few hours earlier, the police in Esch-sur-Alzette had already pulled over a driver after she was caught driving recklessly on Boulevard Kennedy.

A driver was slightly injured in an accident between Schrondweiler and Stegen at around 3.30am. As the driver turned out to be inebriated, they had their driving licence provisionally withdrawn.

In Luxembourg City, a driver waiting at a red light abruptly reversed and crashed into a bus. The incident occurred in Rue de Hollerich at around 1.30am. Nobody was injured, but the driver lost their licence after it was discovered that they were inebriated.
On Saturday, Director of the Encevo Group Claude Seywert, Head of Industrial Policy at the Federation of Luxembourg Industrialists (FEDIL) Gaston Trauffler, Minister for Energy Claude Turmes, and Director of the renewable energy company SOLER Paul Zeimet participated in a roundtable discussion about energy on RTL Radio.

All four guests agreed on one point from the start: hoping for any sort of reason behind the acts of Russian President Vladimir Putin is naive. For this reason, it is best to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

At the moment, gas reserves are still being filled as planned, according to Encevo Director Claude Seywert. However, nobody knows what will happen next.

In this context, Minister for Energy Claude Turmes expects that Russia will purposefully cut back on gas shipments to prevent European countries from filling up their gas reserves ahead of the next winter season. This is a notable change of opinion since February, when Turmes reassured residents that there was no risk of energy shortages in Luxembourg.

Gaston Trauffler, the head of industrial policy at FEDIL, explained that the industrial sector is currently working on a plan to determine how the sector can cope with reduced gas shipments. Part of this plan would, for instance, prioritise shipments to companies working with material that expires when temperatures drop below a certain degree.

Municipalities could also save energy by installing smart metres and training their workers. According to Turmes, some municipalities have already been able to lower their use by 25% as a result of doing this.

Saving electricity also helps a lot, seeing as a large part of it is produced with gas. In this context, all four guests called on residents to use air conditioning sparingly this summer.

The best energy is that which is not used, and private households can also help save energy. SOLER Director Paul Zeimet explained that by turning down the heating by just one degree, a household can reduce its energy consumption by about 6% on average.

Due in part to substantial price increases on the wholesale gas market, customers should expect to receive more expensive energy bills in the future. The Encevo Director did, however, add that some of these hikes will be covered by the energy companies.

Oftentimes, investing in renewable energy also entails "investment in technological advancement". As Paul Zeimet stressed, it is now possible to produce the same quantity of electricity in the wind energy sector with only a third of the wind turbines that were previously required.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Energy welcomes the fact that many different sectors are now supporting the drive to increase the use of renewable energy sources. According to Turmes, many farmers have, for instance, installed solar panels on the roofs of their barns and stables.

But new technologies are also used to protect the environment. The Luxembourgish state uses cameras to identify protected species, such as the red kite, Turmes explained.

Finally, the minister praised the "proactive policies" of numerous municipalities who choose to build wind turbines on municipal land in an effort to aid in the expansion of the network of renewable energies.

Video in Luxembourgish:
When Wilbert Aguilar had to tell his wife that their son was sentenced to 23 years in prison for taking part in anti-government protests in Cuba, the 49-year-old day laborer's life fell apart.

"I had to wash, scrub, cook, because my wife lost her mind," he told AFP.

After that, he had to look after his daughter-in-law and his two granddaughters.

Aguilar's 22-year-old son Wagniel was one of more than 160 people from La Guinera, a poor Havana neighbrohood, to have been jailed for taking part in the unprecedented protests that broke out all over Cuba in July 2021.

Communist Cuba was, and still is, mired in an economic crisis and demonstrators chanted "We're hungry!" and demanded "Freedom!"

The government has since tried to make amends in La Guinera, a largely Black neighborhood that is part of Havana's most populous municipality, Arroyo Naranjo, also one of the capital's poorest.

Authorities have filled potholes, painted warehouses, reopened and restocked medical centers, and promised new homes to some families.

A street in the neighborhood of La Guinera on the outskirts of Havana is seen in June 2022 /  AFP

It is part of a program implemented in 60 Havana neighborhoods to improve people's lives.

But the demonstrators remain in jail.

Elizabet Leon Martinez, 51, worked as a manicurist before three of her five children were jailed.

"I can't give any more, my nerves are frayed, I don't have a life, I have nothing," she said, never taking her eyes off her telephone in case someone might call from prison.

"I look after my grandchildren because I have no work, nor could I work."

- 'Tough sentences' -

On July 12, 2021, hundreds of protesters converged on the police station at the entrance to La Guinera.

Communist Party (PCC) activists backed by a massive contingent of riot police blocked them.

Rocks, bottles and sticks were thrown and the streets became strewn with broken glass and rocks.

Jorge Gil, a representative of the Communist Party of Cuba, stands in front of the foundation of his house which was demolished as part of a neighborhood improvement program but never rebuilt /  AFP

The only person killed during the protests died in this neighborhood. Dozens of people were injured and more than 1,300 arrested across the country, the rights NGO Cubalex said.

Of the 790 people tried, 488 received custodial sentences of up to 25 years, the government said, mostly for sedition.

The United States has said it would work with allies to support those "unjustly" jailed and hit out at the "tough sentences."

Pensioner Jorge Gil, 72, a PCC representative for La Guinera, says the protests were due to years of abandonment.

He lives with his family in temporary accommodation after his house was demolished -- and due to be rebuilt -- as part of the neighborhood improvement program.

But the materials to rebuild his house never arrived.

Opposite Gil lives Isabel Hernandez, 44, in a recently repainted house with a corrugated metal roof.

One of her sons was also jailed over the protests.

Despite this, her house was refurbished in just six months thanks to the improvement program.

"I'm very happy," she said.

- 'Their weapon was their voice' -

Some people view the suppression of the July 2021 protests as a triumph for the communist revolution.

Isabel Hernandez, whose son was detained for taking part in anti-government protests, sweeps the stairs of her new house in Havana's La Guinera neighborhood in June 2022 /  AFP

"We are more than super thankful, president, for all the changes in our neighborhood," said Ileana Macias, a local leader and member of the Santeria religious community, during a meeting between women from the community and the country's leader Miguel Diaz-Canel.

But Wilbert Aguilar is sad. He denies the protesters were "counter-revolutionaries."

"They weren't armed, their only weapon was their voice," he said.

His son Wagniel's sentence was reduced to 12 years on appeal.

Even Gil, who vehemently defends the island nation's socialist system, admits he feels pain.

"I hope this is a problem that will be quickly resolved and that the majority of these youngsters will be freed because at the end of the day they're youngsters and need to learn."
CODY  Less than a month after devastating flooding forced Yellowstone National Park to close, Wyomings top attraction looks, for the most part, normal.

Both the northern and southern loops have reopened to the public, though the two northern entrances have not. Entry is no longer restricted by license plate, and while visitation is still down, traffic backups have resumed  not only where passerby ogle visible wildlife but behind the stretches of road undergoing repairs.

I think it is nothing short of miraculous that we were able to open 93% of the park within such a short amount of time, Superintendent Cam Sholly said Friday, at a press conference held after U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland toured the recovery efforts.

Haaland praised the steps Sholly and National Park Service staff took to protect visitors during the flood and restore the park after the high water subsided. No one was seriously injured or killed in the process; Haaland said the parks preemptive road closures likely saved lives.

Ive been absolutely inspired by the determination of the team here, she said. The collaboration that everyone is displaying, knowing that no ones going to do anything by themselves, were all going to work together. And certainly the passion that everyone has for this beautiful place.

Gov. Mark Gordon, who visited the park earlier in the week alongside U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis also viewed the reopening as a triumph.

It took an incredible effort to get the North loop opened so quickly, Gordon said in a statement. My hat is off to all who were involved in helping us welcome visitors back into the park and support our tourism economy.

Park workers said the first few days after the flooding were tough.

It was just overwhelming, and it was so dynamic, said Morgan Warthin, a Yellowstone public affairs officer. But we had to move into action. We had to. Incredibly quickly.

And they did. Yellowstones three southern gates and its south loop reopened nine days after the flooding. The north loop opened last Saturday, though the northern gates will remain closed for the foreseeable future.

Sholly credited the speed to his staff. Warthin and many others said the superintendents clear direction made it possible.

But even after making quick work of the early fixes, Sholly said, it could take the park service three to five years to complete permanent repairs.

The still-closed portion of the park, which includes the highways linking Yellowstone to the Montana gateway towns of Gardiner and Cooke City, suffered the brunt of the damage and will require much more than a patch-up.

I cannot overemphasize the impacts on those two corridors, to those communities, Sholly told the Star-Tribune. Were happy to have 93% of the park open, but were very, very focused on that 7%.

Two of the parks nine hotels  the Roosevelt Hotel and the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel  are intact but publicly inaccessible. Its other seven hotels are now back at full capacity.

Thats about 350 of our 2,270 rooms that arent available, said Mike Keller, general manager of Yellowstone National Park Lodges. Its unclear when those hotels might reopen.

If the park service discovers it cant rebuild the northern roads, or deems future flood risk too high, it may decide to move them somewhere else. In the meantime, its using up to $60 million already authorized by the Department of Transportation to stabilize and pave an existing dirt road between Yellowstone and Gardiner, which officials hope will allow for essential travel and some level of commercial visitation before winter arrives.

Damage assessments are ongoing; its too early to say what the full price tag will be. But according to Haaland, once the park does come up with numbers, Congress will likely be willing to help.

And as for the Department of the Interior and the rest of the Cabinet, she said, were going to give as much support as we possibly can, to make sure that we meet the moment.

Gordon made a similar commitment on behalf of the state.
The constitutional issues that the Supreme Court addressed  and answered  in the landmark case of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) have shaped our nations constitutional law for two centuries. McCulloch is of such surpassing importance that a prominent biographer of Chief Justice John Marshall, who wrote the Courts unanimous opinion, said that if Marshalls fame rested solely on this one effort, it would be secure.

The importance of the issues before the Court  the extent of federal power, the limits of state authority, the nature of the Union and the principles and methods by which the Constitution should be interpreted  were apparent to all. The Court, fully aware of the confrontation between national and state authority, permitted nine days of oral argument, three times longer than ordinarily scheduled for important cases. It also relaxed its rule that permitted just two attorneys for each party and allowed each side to present three lawyers, each of which happened to be among the nations most distinguished members of the bar. Chief Justice Marshall observed that the attorneys performance reflected a splendor of eloquence, and a strength of argument seldom, if ever, surpassed.

Luther Martin, lead counsel for Maryland, and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention who fought against ratification of the Constitution, urged state sovereignty and narrow construction of the Constitution to persuade the Court that Congress had no authority to charter the National Bank. States, he asserted, possessed power to tax branches of the bank doing business within its jurisdiction. Congress lacked authority to create the national bank, Martin argued, since there was no enumeration in the Constitution of such a power.

Congress, Martin claimed, could not create the bank on the premise that the Necessary and Proper Clause of the Constitution  Article I, section 8, paragraph 18  authorized it since creation of the bank was not absolutely necessary to managing the governments monetary and financial problems. At issue was the scope and meaning of the Clause, which provided: Congress shall have Power . . . To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department of Officer thereof.

On the fundamental nature of the Union, Martin argued for Maryland, the Constitution was not created by the people, but rather by the states, and all the powers which are not relinquished by it, are reserved to the states.

William Pinkney for the federal government, countered with the argument of popular sovereignty: the Constitution springs from the people, rather than the states. William Wirt, U.S. Attorney General and the legendary Daniel Webster who, until the emergence in the 20th Century of Thurgood Marshall, had won more cases before the Supreme Court than any attorney in our nations history, argued for broad interpretation of congressional authority. Justice Joseph Story, perhaps the most scholarly of Justices, said of Pinkneys closing arguments to the Court: Never, in my whole life, have I ever heard a greater speech. All the cobwebs of sophistry and metaphysics about States rights and State sovereignty he brushed away with a mighty besom.

Congress, Webster contended, enjoyed by virtue of the Necessary and Proper Clause, the authority to create the National Bank. He told the Court that the question of the constitutionality of the bank had been thoroughly explored during the debate surrounding its enactment and that the three branches of the government had been acting for more than three decades on the assumption that the bank was constitutional. In Websters view, this longstanding interpretation must be considered as ratified by the voice of the people. Pinkney added that this construction was especially weighty because the creation of the bank in 1791 was the handiwork of the First Congress, which contained many of the men who wrote the Constitution.

On the interpretation of the Necessary and Proper Clause, Webster argued for a broad or liberal interpretation of the language. Necessary and proper, he argued, should be understood as synonymous, which meant, simply, that such powers as are suitable and fitted to the object; such as are best and most useful in relation to the end proposed. Webster declared that whether Congress had chosen the best means, or the wisest policy, was for Congress and not the court to decide. Here, Webster and his colleagues were urging judicial modesty  judicial self-restraint  pleading for the Court to refrain from imposing its own view on the best means for executing the governments powers.

The question of whether states might tax the bank, that is, the federal government, led Webster to ask the Court: If the states may tax the bank, to what extent shall they tax it, and where shall they stop? He added, the power to tax is the power to destroy, and warned that states might assert the power to tax the proceedings in the courts of the United States, and nothing but their own discretion can impose a limit upon this exercise of their authority. Surely, he declared, the framers of the Constitution had not intended that the exercise of national powers should depend on the discretion of state governments.

With that, we turn next week to Marshalls landmark opinion.
Growing up in Wyoming, politics was never a matter of identity for me. My identity was far more rooted in the independent, self-sufficient character that I think many others in the state identify with. But when I did engage with politics, it was as a Democrat  a group that, as a matter of simple math, sees few victories in a state dominated by the Republican party.

As Liz Cheney marched to victory in her 2016 election, it seemed to simply be the start of another era of Wyomings representative providing a stamp of approval to policies I strongly disagreed with. In fact, my own mother even considered running against her before conceding to the long odds.

So, believe me when I say that I never thought that I would feel what I have felt over the last several weeks and months: great pride in the Congresswoman from Wyoming, Liz Cheney.

My pride isnt rooted in some newfound overlap in policy or politics. I havent become more of a Republican nor she a Democrat. I still disagree with basically every single policy she advocates for (she did, after all, vote with Trump nearly 100% of the time). Rather, it is that the identity I always felt most attached to  the maverick spirit of Wyoming which I always believed transcended politics in the state  has become the defining issue of the day.

Putting aside a carefully calculated career path, Cheney has bucked the orders of her political establishment. She has done so in the greatest tradition of Wyoming  a state where I believe personal character, freedom in thought and action, and love of country has usually won out over the faux conservatism of other states. Where some carry a beauty bag, Cheney carries a backbone.

In her pursuit of Constitutional justice, Cheney has made a mark on history. Her leadership on the Jan. 6 committee has revealed dark truths about just how close our country came to plunging into a Constitutional crisis at the hands of anti-democratic forces. Now, in a primary challenge propped-up by the very anti-democratic forces which she outed, Cheney faces an even more pitiable opponent.

Hageman is the candidate hand-picked by a national political committee whose leaders could hardly place Wyoming on a map. A victory for Hageman

represents a victory for the nationalization of Wyoming politics. It means the loss of the states proud tradition of independent thought and renders it a mere statistic in this countrys slow march toward cultural and political rigidity.

Hageman describes herself as a principled conservative who isnt afraid to stand up for those principles in the face of powerful opposition. Yet at every opportunity, she has traded honor for opportunity. After describing President Trump as a racist and a pig, and endorsing her good friend Liz Cheney, she was offered the sinful opportunity to put a sword in that friends back and try to take the House seat for herself  for the small price of fealty. How can someone so focused on representing themselves represent an entire state? Isnt this the exact type of two-faced politicking that makes us so queasy?

As noted, Cheney voted with President Trump on nearly every single issue during his time in office. This makes for a bitter pill for some of us to swallow, but when it really counted, she stood up and defended the most fundamental values that our country was built on. And she continues to do so as each hearing on Jan. 6 reveals more than the last.

As a result, members of both parties in Wyoming face the uncommon opportunity to cast a shared, meaningful vote in support of democracy and against a doormat for the unhinged, anti-American bile promoted by an extremist political faction.

To this end, the traditional rules of politics would say that I shouldnt write this. Members facing a tough primary arent generally looking for the support of the opposing party. But with the future of our country at stake, truth and integrity are paramount. As Congresswoman Cheney has, we must be honest and forthright in our convictions, and have faith that, in the end, right will win out  but also fight to make that faith fact.

Its for this reason that every single Wyomingite who believes in our Constitution, the rule of law, and the future of our country  regardless of party affiliation  must show up on primary day, Aug. 16, and vote for Liz Cheney.
To read Brian Schroeders June 3 message to the public, youd think Wyoming schools were facing an apocalyptic threat. In a press release, the Wyoming superintendent of public instruction blasted an overbearing and oppressive federal government that is completely out of control. He described morally repugnant actions that sought to control and manipulate Wyomingites into post-modernist thinking. The leader of Wyomings public school system, only months after his appointment, warned of an ever-relentless agenda of social engineering.

What could have prompted such an angry statement? Was it the massive budget deficit facing Wyoming education system, which now stands at roughly $300 million? Was it the recent survey that found that 65% of Wyoming teachers would quit if they could?

No, Schroeders angst was centered on an update to the U.S. Department of Agricultures non-discrimination policies. Specifically, a May announcement by the USDAs Food and Nutrition Service that it would extend anti-discrimination protections laid out in Title IX to include gender identity and sexual orientation.

The superintendent slammed the Biden administration, saying it was trying to force a political ideology upon Wyoming by tying it to federal funding for student meals. In other words, comply with policies you dont like, or vulnerable kids will go without food.

But there are more than a few problems with Schroeders comments, and a follow up statement he released a few weeks later. If the superintendent had turned in his work as a class assignment, his teacher would have surely docked him a few grades for accuracy.

Schroeder denounced President Biden and the federal government, but avoided criticizing the thing that started all of this: a U.S. Supreme Court opinion authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a staunch conservative appointed by former President Donald Trump. In a 2020 decision, the high court ruled that existing Title VII federal protections against discrimination on the basis of sex applied to sexual orientation and gender identity. The USDAs actions are an attempt to bring its policies in line with that ruling, arguing that the same definition should apply to Title IX.

The superintendent also raised the specter of boys in girls locker rooms and forced usage of pronouns, in a second, June 22 statement that was just as apocalyptic as the first. But thats not what the policy change would bring about, according to statements from USDA officials. The new policy would prohibit students from being denied meals in the school lunchroom on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, just like there are protections against denying students meals on the basis of other characteristics such as race and religion. Groups that get federal funding would have to investigate allegations of discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, just as they already do for other protected classes.

Schroeder, whos only been in Wyoming for a relatively short time, insists all of this is totally out of step with the values of the Equality State. We disagree that most Wyomingites would object to a rule that says you cant deny gay or transgender students meals in a school cafeteria merely because they are gay or transgender.

So why the fearful words? Why focus so heavily on this issue, rather than the myriad others facing Wyomings schools?

We hope Schroeder will address those questions. But it is fair to remind readers that he is in the midst of a tough election bid against a broad field of Republican candidates. And in a Republican primary, blasting Biden or attacking transgender protections will score you plenty of points.

The superintendent is encouraging Wyoming to fight the policy, even if that means losing out on $40 million in federal funding. He says hes checked and Wyoming has the money to cover the cost itself. But that ignores the fact that Wyomings education budget has a $300 million deficit, and that lawmakers are famously skeptical of taking on any new costs, the least of which would be a $40 million annual contribution for what appears to be political posturing.

This episode raises another important question about the superintendent. Why isnt he expressing this level of outrage over the very real problems facing the states education system? Why isnt he insisting that lawmaker finally address the structural problems with Wyomings schools budget? Why isnt he expressing outrage that two out of three teachers want to quit? It seems Schroeder would rather fight political boogeymen than fix that which is truly plaguing our education system.
The largest sustained decline in childhood vaccinations in approximately 30 years has been recorded in official data published today by WHO and UNICEF.

The percentage of children who received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3)  a marker for immunisation coverage within and across countries  fell 5 percentage points between 2019 and 2021 to 81 per cent.

As a result, 25 million children missed out on one or more doses of DTP through routine immunisation services in 2021 alone.
OFFICIAL OPENING: Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, fourth from rightin the company of ministers, acting Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob, second right, Port of Spain Mayor Joel Martinez, third from left, and officials from the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobagocuts the ribbon to officially open the new St Clair Police Station at Serpentine Road, St Clair, yesterday. Photo: JERMAINE CRUICKSHANK
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks with family farm owner Derek Lutz, left, and his dog Paige before picking cherries at his orchard in Summerland, British Columbia, Monday, July 18, 2022. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)
SHOT DEAD: In this image from video, Japans former prime minister Shinzo Abe makes a campaign speech in Nara, western Japan, yesterday, shortly before he was shot and later died at hospital. Photo: AP
On Friday, July 15, 2022, I made a conscious decision to vote in favour of the two motions brought against the Attorney General.

The reason for my decision was based on facts brought forward that showed the Attorney General was disqualified from a matter by an international court.
If the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft had not fired its thrusters when it did Oct. 20, 2020, Bennu might have swallowed it whole.

The surface of the asteroid was nothing at all like scientists expected it to be when the University of Arizona-led mission swooped in to collect samples from it.

They were prepared for the spacecrafts sampling arm to touch down like a pogo stick bouncing off a gravel road, but the experience was more like punching a ball pit, according to a news release from the university.

It turns out that the particles making up Bennus exterior are so loosely packed and lightly bound to each other that they act more like a fluid than a solid, said Dante Lauretta, a UA Regents Professor of planetary sciences and the missions principal investigator, in the release.

The surprise findings about the asteroids composition and how it nearly derailed NASAs historic, $1.1 billion sampling mission are detailed in a pair of papers just published in the journals Science and Science Advances  one lead-authored by Lauretta and the other by Kevin Walsh, a member of the OSIRIS-REx science team with Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

The unmanned spacecraft was only in contact with Bennu for about six seconds, but the surface gave way so easily that the sampling arm quickly sank a foot and a half into it.

Had the thrusters not fired when they did to push away from the asteroid, the whole craft could have disappeared into the loose pile of rubble dating back 4.5 billion years to the formation of the solar system.

OSIRIS-REx was able to back away safely, but it left behind a much larger scar than expected.

Every time we tested the sample pickup procedure in the lab, we barely made a divot, Lauretta said, but close-up images of the real thing showed a huge wall of debris radiating out from the sample site.

Images taken during a subsequent fly-by of Bennu in April 2021 revealed that the spacecrafts gentle tap on the surface had tossed boulders aside and left a crater 26 feet wide.

A precise understanding of Bennus surface composition could help scientists better interpret remote observations of other asteroids, design future asteroid missions and develop better methods to protect Earth from catastrophic collisions with space rocks.

OSIRIS-REx is now on its way home with its precious cargo of dust and pebbles known as regolith.

The probe the size of a passenger van is slated to swoop past Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, and sling its sample return capsule into the atmosphere to land in the Utah Test and Training Range west of Salt Lake City.

The spacecraft will then set out on a $200 million bonus mission, approved by NASA earlier this year, to study a second asteroid called Apophis, which is expected to pass close enough to Earth on April 13, 2029, to be visible with the naked eye from parts of Europe and Africa.

The UAs Lunar and Planetary Laboratory will oversee both the mission to Apophis and the upcoming collection and processing of the samples from Bennu.

OSIRIS is scheduled to spend 18 months studying Apophis in detail, including a maneuver that will steer the spacecraft close enough to stir the asteroids surface with its thrusters, revealing whatever material lies beneath.

Based on what happened on Bennu, a little bit of stirring could go a long way.
Only one primary race in Arizona House legislative districts 19, 21 and 23 is contested, with three Democrats vying for their party's two spots in the District 21 general election in November.

The remaining races in those districts feature candidates who will automatically move on to the November ballot.

The districts represent mostly southern and eastern Arizona, except for LD23, which stretches mostly west of Tucson from the international border north to Yuma and on up to Phoenix.

District 19

Two Republican incumbents and one Democratic candidate are running in this uncontested Aug. 2 primary race and will automatically make it to the Nov. 8 general election ballot. Voters in each party can vote for two nominees. The district includes portions of Pima, Santa Cruz, Graham, Greenlee and Cochise counties, including the city of Douglas.

Incumbent Lupe Diaz of Benson is a conservative representing District 14 after being appointed in November 2021 to replace Rep. Becky Nutt of Clifton. Nutt reportedly resigned for personal reasons. Diaz is pastor of Grace Christian Center and is seeking re-election in District 19.

Gail Griffin of Hereford is the other incumbent, and she has lived in Cochise County for 53 years and in District 19 for 26 years. She is a real estate broker and a former state senator.

Democrat Sanda Clark of Green Valley is a concert pianist who escaped communism in her native Romania. She has lived in Pima County for 18 years and in District 19 four years.

District 21

Two Republican write-in candidates and three Democratic candidates are running in this district that encompasses western Pima County, about half of Santa Cruz County and the city of Bisbee in Cochise County. The two Republican candidates are uncontested and will advance to the November election.

Republican Damien Kennedy of Amado has lived in Pima County for 15 years and in District 21 for one year. He is listed in state documents as an employee of Amado Management. The business is a medical marijuana production complex and Kennedy works to provide genetic acquisitions and analytical analysis to create "medical cannabis strains that will better help patients across Arizona and beyond," states his LinkedIn account.

Republican Deborah McEwen of Rio Rico has lived in both Santa Cruz County and District 21 for five years. The native of Howell, Michigan, is a retired federal and state criminal justice employee.

The Democrats are:

Consuelo Hernandez of Tucson, who is a graduate of Sunnyside High School and now serves as president of the Sunnyside Unified School District Governing Board. She has lived in Pima County for 29 years and in District 21 for one year. Hernandez received a bachelor's in global health from Arizona State University and has provided public health services at free clinics in Panama and Ghana, has hosted free citizenship clinics in Tucson and has raised money for students to pay for their DACA renewals. Her Democrats of Greater Tucson campaign website, tucne.ws/1kw6, says she is "committed to restoring funding for education, rebuilding Arizona's economy, and investing in infrastructure and renewable energy."

Akanni "Oye" Oyegbola of Tucson has lived in Pima County for seven years and in District 21 for one year. He has served as acting mayor of the city of South Tucson, as a council member and also served on several committees for the city, having six years of government experience. Oyegbola is originally from Lagos, Nigeria, and was raised in Washington, D.C. His candidate website, akanniforaz.org, says Arizona has to raise pay for teachers. "We can't develop well-educated children if we don't have well-paid and qualified teachers. Those who educate our next generation shouldn't have to work multiple jobs to care for their own families." He also supports "affordable, quality health care for every Arizonan" and "alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders."

Stephanie Stahl Hamilton of Tucson is an ordained minister and serves as parish associate at St. Mark's Presbyterian Church. She was born in Flagstaff and during her childhood she spent years on the Navajo Nation. She received her master's of divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary. She was elected in 2020 as a state representative, and last October she was appointed to replace District 10 Sen. Kirsten Engel who resigned to run for Congress. As a result of redistricting, she is running in District 21 as a representative instead of the state senate. Her campaign website, stahlhamiltonforaz.com, says children "deserve a fully funded education"; to protect the environment "regulations need to be put into place regarding water use, ranching, farming and mining"; and "access to reproductive health care and contraception should be readily available and legal, regardless of economic status or race."

The top two Democrats will advance to November.

District 23

One Republican write-in candidate and two Democrats are running in this uncontested race. The sprawling district runs mostly west of Tucson from the international border to Yuma and meanders up to Phoenix. It includes the Tohono O'odham Nation, a small section of Tucson's southwest side and portions of Pima, Santa Cruz, Yuma, Pinal and Maricopa counties.

Republican Michele Pena, who was born and raised in Yuma, has lived in District 23 for two years. She works for ALCO Harvesting, an agriculture business that manages farm workers in California and Arizona.

Democrat Jesus Lugo Jr. of Gadsden is a native of Yuma. He is a social worker who has lived in Maricopa County for four years and in District 23 for 24 years. He received a bachelor's from Arizona State University in 2014.

Democrat Mariana Sandoval of Goodyear grew up in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. She is a graduate of Los Angeles Mission College with a degree in interdisciplinary and paralegal studies. She is a former paralegal in the Arizona Attorney General's office and a board member of the Agua Fria Union High School District and the Arizona Latino School Board Association.
Richard Mauntel passed peacefully in his sleep on May 12, 2022 at the age of 95. Three weeks later, his wife Billie followed him to Heaven, passing away with her daughter at her side on June 1, 2022 at the age of 92. Richard Mauntel and Billie Staubus were married in Bloomington, Illinois on June 28, 1952 and moved to their beloved Tucson in July, 1953. They would have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary this year. Richard was a Valentine's baby, born February 14, 1927 in Evansville, Indiana. After graduating from Mendota High School he enlisted in the military, serving in both WWII and Korea. Upon returning to the states, he obtained a degree in Agriculture from the University of Illinois in 1952. Richard had a long career with the Pima County Health Department Environmental Health Division from 1963 - 1989, the last 11 years serving as Deputy Director of Environmental Health until his retirement in 1989. Billie was born in Bloomington, Illinois on May 1, 1930. She graduated from Illinois State University in 1951 with a degree in Home Economics Education. Billie was most proud of her career working with the UofA Cooperative Extension Service from 1969 until her retirement. She served as state EFNEP Coordinator from 1986 until she retired in January, 1994. She was a breast cancer survivor, a battle she won with immense amounts of strength and grace. Billie and Richard together were adventurous travelers, spending much time exploring the Rocky Mountains in their camper with friends and family, and they made multiple trips to Europe. Billie, or as I call her, grandma, had a fiery passion for learning that was always a cornerstone for her trips; she often detoured on road trips to stop at historical sites, whether us younger generation travelers wanted to or not! Grandpa was intelligent and witty, and loved to play practical jokes on his unsuspecting family. He started his jokester days early, hiding in a closet in the hotel on his honeymoon and falling out as stiff as a mummy when his new bride opened the door to search for him, scaring her into hysterics! Richard and Billie, with all their collective humor, knowledge, and strength, will be dearly missed by their three children, Rick, Jan, and Mike, their four grandchildren, Kim, Lauren, Jeff, and Jillian, and their two great-grandsons, Ethan and Asa. Keeping in line with his sense of humor, grandpa "searched" the obituaries daily for his own name, and it was always a happy day when he couldn't find himself. Well, grandpa, I hope you're having a good laugh in Heaven, you get to read yours and grandma's obituary at last, even though we wish it weren't so. We all love you both forever. For anyone wishing to honor the memories of Richard and Billie Mauntel, please consider a donation to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah or the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Biologists studying the behavior of urban bobcats on Tucsons west side have hit the mother lode with Avery.

The large female has spent the past several months raising two kittens in a gated community near Sweetwater Drive and Camino de Oeste, where researchers have been following her every move thanks to the GPS collar around her neck and the army of enthusiastic residents looking out for her.

Avery and her kittens have been lounging in backyards and hiding out on rooftops at about a half-dozen homes in the Rancho Agua Dulce subdivision. Theyre still there now, according to the latest tracking data from the Bobcats in Tucson Research Project.

Its just the sort of thing Cheryl Mollohan was hoping to document when she launched the project in 2020 to study what some experts have called the highest concentration of urban bobcats anywhere in the United States.

This is exactly what I was after, because its so unique that (bobcats) have infiltrated so far into Tucson, Mollohan said. This has been a wild ride.

Avery was trapped by the research team and fitted with a tracking collar on Jan. 14, just across Sweetwater Drive from Rancho Agua Dulce.

The mature female, probably 3 to 5 years old, weighed 23 pounds at the time, a full 6 pounds heavier than any other female in the study. The on-site veterinarian soon discovered why: Avery was pregnant out of season, which Mollohan said usually only happens to bobcats that lose their kittens the previous spring.

Tracking data suggests the cat gave birth about a week after she was captured. Shes been moving around the gated community with her kittens ever since.

She lives there. Thats her home, Mollohan said.

Hairy disclosure

Avery is part of a new round of bobcat captures meant to collect data from animals living closer to the city, without ready access to large areas of natural habitat.

By contrast, the bobcats caught and collared during the first year of the study mostly came from the western fringes of town, where homes are easier to avoid and the Tucson Mountains are never far from reach.

Mollohan said those cats seem to use residential neighborhoods differently than the more urban animals do. Though they will lounge in a backyard or drink from a swimming pool on occasion, when the time comes to have their kittens, they all retreat into the foothills to set up their dens in the steepest, nastiest terrain they can find.

Avery had no such option, so she gave birth in a secluded spot along the natural wash that runs through Rancho Agua Dulce, then moved her newborn kittens from hiding place to hiding place, sometimes carrying them one at a time across distances of up to half a mile.

Once she got them tucked away somewhere safe, she would leave them alone, sometimes for hours at a time, to go looking for food.

She was literally stashing them under a bush or in a pile of palm fronds and other yard debris that had been dumped in the wash, Mollohan said. Its been harrowing to watch, because you cant do anything to help her.

After about two months of this, the bobcat hauled her kittens out of the wash and into the neighborhood, where she briefly settled with them among the gabled-roof tiles of a vacant house on Bear Spring Trail.

Realtor Heather Shallenberger said it was the first time in her 24 years of selling homes in Tucson that a wild animal nearly derailed a sale.

She said the Shallenberger Team at Long Realty was holding an open house at the property when Mollohan showed up to tell them about the bobcat family and ask if she could put up some trail cameras to try to record the cats coming and going.

That decision soon fell to the prospective buyers of the $431,000 home. Shallenberger said the buyers agent was a little bit freaked out at first, because her clients have smaller dogs and didnt want to lose one of them to a predator on their roof.

Everytime you think youve seen it all, and then you find out that a bobcat could be an issue, Shallenberger said.

Mollohan and company eventually calmed the buyers fears and got them to agree to put the cameras up, but Avery had other ideas. A short time later, she gathered her kittens and moved on, possibly spooked by the presence of a crew brought in to install new windows at the house.

Shallenberger said she and her team never laid eyes on the cats outside of pictures captured later by other people in the neighborhood. We were kind of bummed we didnt get to see them, the Tucson native said.

Backyard show

The bobcat familys next stop was a rooftop two houses away, where Mollohan said they stayed for the next six weeks or so.

Homeowner Kom Loh said he never heard them and had no clue they were up there until they climbed down into his backyard in mid-May. He got to watch them in his yard for a few days, before the feline family moved on to another nearby house and then another.

It had been my privilege to be the unwitting host to Bobcat Avery and her kittens, Loh said in an email. Bobcats are magnificent animals, and I am glad to have encountered them.

Chris Wesselman and his wife, Sue Pulk, got their turn with Avery about a month ago.

She and her kittens spent four mornings in the Wesselmans backyard, where Chris, a self-described advanced amateur photographer, took pictures of the cats as they played, drank from water bowls and devoured a dove brought home by mom.

Chris Wesselman said they were a little worried about the cumbersome-looking collar on Avery at first, but they felt better about it after Sue looked up the research projects website and made contact with Mollohan.

It was just exhilarating to see them right there in the backyard, he said. Theyre amazing to watch.

Observing the bobcat family has been educational, too, even for an experienced biologist like Mollohan.

She said Avery maintains the largest home range of any female in the study  hunting across an almost 5-square-mile area  but she has chosen to raise her kittens in one of the most densely populated parts of her territory.

One reason why could be the way Rancho Agua Dulce was built. The subdivision includes numerous desert green spaces developed around the natural wash corridor that runs diagonally through the property.

As for all the houses, Mollohan said Avery seems to treat them no differently than the natural features she might find in the open desert.

She is in the midst of all these rock piles. They just happen to have humans living in them, the researcher said. She uses whats available to her, and in this case its houses.

But while Avery seems to tolerate proximity to people, she certainly doesnt welcome it. She doesnt like disturbances, even though (she and the kittens) are on a roof in the middle of a subdivision, Mollohan said.

People looking at her from inside of a house doesnt seem to bother her. But if you go outside and make eye contact, that seems to unsettle her, Mollohan said. Sometimes thats all it takes to convince Avery its time to move on.

So far, though, she hasnt strayed very far.

Mollohan said the cat has been bouncing around inside the subdivision for so long now that the homeowners association decided to give researchers the gate codes so they could access the community as needed.

People have been so helpful, she said, which doesnt surprise her a bit. She already knew that about the Old Pueblo before the study even started.

I personally believe Tucson is a very tolerant town, and people are remarkably willing to share their environment with bobcats and other wildlife, Mollohan said. I think thats the reason we have what we have here.

More collared cats The Bobcats in Tucson Research Project has captured and released 40 bobcats since the study began in November 2020. At the moment, researchers have active tracking devices on 15 cats  nine females and six males. Biologist and lead investigator Cheryl Mollohan said the Arizona Game and Fish Department has extended its permit for the study for another year and cleared researchers to place GPS collars on up to 10 more bobcats. The collars are programmed to release and fall off on their own just before their batteries die. They can also be triggered to fall off remotely if necessary. In the past six weeks, four of the collars reached the end of their battery life and dropped off their respective cats as designed. They have since been collected by the research team to be refurbished and used again. Private donations now fund the work, which was initially paid for with $33,000 in Arizona Lottery proceeds from the states Heritage Fund grant program. For more on the study  and to report your own bobcat sightings  go to the projects website at https://bobcatsintucson.net/.

Photos: Suburban bobcat sightings around Tucson Suburban bobcat sightings Suburban bobcat sightings Suburban bobcat sightings Watch Now: Collared bobcat raises kittens in Tucson neighborhood Suburban bobcat sightings Suburban bobcat sightings Watch now: Bobcat plays with its kitten in Tucson backyard Suburban bobcat sightings Suburban bobcat sightings Watch now: Bobcat's breakfast near Oro Valley Suburban bobcat sightings Suburban bobcat sightings Watch now: Family of bobcats spotted in Foothills back yard Suburban bobcat sightings Suburban bobcat sightings Suburban bobcat sightings Watch now: A conversation between bobcats in the Tucson area Suburban bobcat sightings Suburban bobcat sightings Suburban bobcat sightings Watch now: Bobcat vs. snake in Tucson yard Suburban bobcat sightings Suburban bobcat sightings Watch now: Bobcat stops by Tucson waterhole for an overnight drink Suburban bobcat sightings
PHOENIX  A federal judge will decide whether a provision in a 2021 law could be used to bring criminal charges against doctors who perform otherwise legal abortions, including those to save the life of the mother.

Arizona has long interpreted its laws against child abuse, child endangerment and assault to not apply to legal abortions, attorney Jessica Sklarsky of the Center for Reproductive Rights told Judge Douglas Rayes on Friday.

Last year, however, lawmakers enacted a bill that all state statutes, without exception, have to be interpreted and construed to acknowledge, on behalf of an unborn child at every stage of development, all rights, privileges and immunities available to other persons.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich contends the June 30 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the Roe v. Wade ruling guaranteeing a federal constitutional right to abortion now frees Arizona to immediately start enforcing a state law against it that dates to territorial days. That law outlaws all abortions except to save the life of the mother.

Skarsky, who represents abortion doctors and the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that could free Brnovich  and any other prosecutor  to now use this personhood language to charge doctors performing any abortion with crimes such as child abuse, child endangerment and assault.

Further complicating the issue, there is a 1973 injunction issued by the Arizona Court of Appeals blocking the attorney general from enforcing what had been the 1901 law outlawing abortion.

Brnovich has said he intends to ask Pima County Superior Court, where that case originally started, to dissolve the injunction based on the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe.

Legal in Pima County?

He has not yet done that. But Assistant Attorney General Kate Sawyer told the judge Brnovich believes that injunction applies only in Pima County, meaning the 1901 statute is in effect in the other 14 counties.

That acknowledgment also means that, at the very least, all pre-viability abortions remain legal in Pima County unless and until a judge lifts that injunction, something that is not a legal certainty.

But Sklarsky said Pima County doctors wont perform abortions because of the fear they could still be prosecuted for other crimes based on the personhood language.

There is also the question of whether there will be other efforts to keep abortion legal in Arizona based on other legal theories, including that there is a specific right to privacy in the state constitution.

This much is certain: Without an injunction or some other court order preventing the interpretation policy from being used to criminalize abortion services, plaintiffs cannot and will not resume providing care in Arizona, Sklarsky told the judge.

AGs Office: No role for federal judge

Sawyer, however, in essence, told Rayes there is nothing for him to decide. She said the personhood language about how other laws have to be interpreted is not, in itself, a criminal law that can be enforced  or that he can enjoin.

So what does it do? the judge asked.

The assistant attorney general said the language acknowledging the personhood of unborn children simply explains how other existing statutes should be interpreted. That left the judge unsatisfied.

I dont understand, Rayes said. How does it help a judge or someone whos in law enforcement interpret the law?

There could be any number of reasons, Sawyer responded, suggesting for example a judge could use it in ruling in a probate case.

She also said if doctors fear being prosecuted for child abuse they are free to ask a state judge to decide the scope of the law and whether the requirement that laws be interpreted to acknowledge the personhood of fertilized cells, an embryo or a fetus  there are legal distinctions  subjects them to possible criminal penalties. That suggestion drew a skeptical response from the judge.

They can eliminate that by hiring a lawyer and going to court and filing a lawsuit for a declaratory judgment as to how that lawsuit might be applied? Rayes asked.

Yes, that would be the function of a state court in this instance, Sawyer responded.

But Sklarsky said it is precisely the role of federal courts to ensure laws are sufficiently clear so that people know what they have to do to avoid violating them. And that is not the case here, she said.

Will new Arizona law supercede?

Sklarsky said there are other issues.

One is the fact that Gov. Doug Ducey has insisted a law approved earlier this year by the Legislature, outlawing abortions after 15 weeks, will supersede any more stringent territorial-era law when it takes effect in late September.

If Ducey is correct  and even he has acknowledged that issue will have to be litigated in state court  that would keep legal the vast majority of abortions that until now have been performed in Arizona.

Sklarsky said that eventuality also would require enjoining the personhood provision to ensure it would not, and could not, be used to make criminals out of the doctors who perform such abortions.

What Rayes decides could plow new legal ground.

The judge noted that at least two other states, Missouri and Kansas, have similar language requiring that all statutes be interpreted to acknowledge the personhood of a child at any stage of development, including in the womb. Sklarsky acknowledged that neither has been challenged.

But she said that was because abortion law until now has been governed by Roe, making it unnecessary for someone to seek judicial intervention. Skarlsky said this will be the first case going to a federal court about the issue since the Supreme Court overturned Roe.

The judge gave no date for when he will rule.
The 1995 murders of Tony Rodriguez and Danielle Wessels were a cold case until a trial and conviction changed that in 2007.

Now theyre a cold case again.

The Pima County Attorneys Office, which won the conviction of Gary Skaggs for the killings, agreed to dismiss that conviction and re-open his case this year, returning it to the Tucson Police Department.

There, the cold case unit is piecing together the remaining evidence against Skaggs, Police Chief Chad Kasmar told me. But now, its almost 27 years after the crime and 15 years after the trial. Once Pima County prosecutors have the evidence in hand, they will decide whether to again try this once-solved case, or dismiss it altogether and free Skaggs.

Its the effect of having a strengthened conviction and sentencing integrity unit that looks back at some old cases and reconsiders whether the outcomes were just. These units are increasingly common in prosecutors offices around the United States, especially in the places where criminal-justice reform candidates, such as Pima County Attorney Laura Conover, have won elections.

The argument for them is straightforward  not every injustice can be cleared up in court, and a prosecutors office should be willing to fix its own mistakes in the service of justice. These may well apply in the Skaggs case.

What worries me is twofold: It takes a lot of time and effort for police and prosecutors to reconsider years-old cases while murders are piling up again at a record pace in Tucson. Also, Im not sure this county attorneys office is adversarial enough in questioning defense claims of injustice.

Kasmar said he supports the idea of conviction integrity units but worries about their impact on his shrinking departments workload.

Its a massive heavy lift for us in a time when every major city in the country, almost without exception, is experiencing record high homicide numbers, Kasmar said. As the chief, protecting my staff, I want to be sure that she (Conover) is recognizing how her units decision-making will impact not just my department but any department.

Charges took 11 years

Somebody beat and slashed Wessels and Rodriguez to death in the early morning hours of Aug. 25, 1995. Their 6-month-old baby, Alexis, was in the house with them at the time and survived. They were in the home they shared, in the 2100 block of North Columbus Boulevard.

Police attention quickly turned to Skaggs, who, though more than a decade older, was in the same circle of neighbors and friends, some of them drug users. But they were unable to gather enough evidence to arrest him.

At the time, Det. Joe Godoy was TPDs lead investigator in the case, which became an issue later, when he was repeatedly charged with perjury and accused of lying during a murder trial. Those charges never stuck, but Godoys work was tainted.

In 2006, Tucsons cold case detectives finally decided they had enough evidence. People he knew said Skaggs had admitted committing the murder, because he was angry that his girlfriend had an affair with Rodriguez. Also, a machete in his house was a possible match to the murder weapon.

But there was no DNA, no clear physical evidence, no eyewitness to the crime.

Jurors deliberated for only 90 minutes before arriving at the verdict, and Skaggs was sentenced to two life sentences. He always denied his guilt, though.

Could have been a hung jury

Ralph Raub was on that jury. He recalled to me Tuesday that he and other jurors were swayed by the testimony of Dr. Cynthia Porterfield, the forensic pathologist from the Pima County Medical Examiners office called by prosecutors to testify.

Porterfield was not the pathologist who had conducted the autopsy, and she testified that the machete was not necessarily the murder weapon but could have been. Raub told me that jurors thought the probability of that was high, although there was no DNA evidence or other direct link between the murders and the blade.

What turned the corner for me was when the defendant presented his witnesses, it made him sound even more guilty, Raub said. If the defendant had not said a thing and had not called any witnesses, it probably would have been a hung jury.

This comment piqued my interest, because the basic reason prosecutors gave for setting aside Skaggs convictions in March was ineffective assistance of counsel. Gabriel Jack Chin, who heads the conviction and sentencing integrity unit, said trial attorney Michael Lange failed to adequately question Porterfields testimony, interview the pathologist who actually conducted the autopsy, and bring up the credibility issues surrounding Godoy, who testified at the trial, though he was no longer with TPD.

It was not presented to the jury as this or millions of other things could be the murder weapon, Chin said during a March 25 court hearing. Instead the deputy county attorney carefully went through each wound on both victims and asked if the wounds were consistent with this weapon. It created the impression that Dr. Porterfield was matching the weapon to the wounds.

If Godoys credibility had been questioned, Chin said, jurors might well have thought that all of the evidence in the case that he had a hand in was suspect, and he had a hand in almost all the evidence in the case.

You cant just accept what a defense attorney tells you

Skaggs attorneys, Amy Armstrong of the Arizona Capital Representation Project and Ralph Ellinwood, have brought up all these arguments in court before. There was a four-day evidentiary hearing in 2016, for example. After that, Pima County Superior Court Judge Javier Chon-Lopez ruled Lange was reasonably competent, which is the legal standard for sufficient representation.

But Armstrong and Ellinwood have not given up. Theyve gone up and down the court system arguing not just that Skaggs was poorly represented but also that he is actually innocent, and another man is guilty. About a year ago, they sent their case to the conviction and sentencing integrity unit.

Chin did not accept their whole argument, saying in March, He might be innocent, but we believe there is some evidence of guilt. Skaggs was released from prison and put in the Pima County jail as investigators dig into the evidence. At first, the prosecution was given 90 days to decide whether to retry Skaggs, but now they have until Aug. 29.

By email I asked the head of Pima Countys first conviction-integrity unit, retired prosecutor Rick Unklesbay, what he thought of the offices logic in its filings and statements in the Skaggs case. Unklesbay, who left the office in early 2021 after a conflict with Conover, was unimpressed.

It is imperative for the prosecutor to have the witness describe the wounds in detail in a murder case, said Unklesbay, who has tried many murder cases. Any connection to the potential murder weapon, even if not known for sure, allows the jury to fully consider the evidence. Ive done the same many times, and it is admissible and relevant.

He went on: We know statistically there are innocent people in prison. A good CIU (conviction integrity unit) should work to resolve those cases. But it takes some prosecutorial experience to do that. You cant just accept what a defense attorney tells you.

A natural focus for Conover

Of course, Chin and his staff arent simply accepting the defenses word, but his office is probably more inclined to consider and accept cases from defendants who say they have been unjustly sentenced or convicted than Unklesbay was.

In a written statement, office spokesman C.T. Revere said under former County Attorney Barbara LaWall, the unit was formed but barely staffed.

This administrations new unit continues to grow what is now the Conviction and Sentencing Integrity Unit from there as a direct result of community demand, with two full-time attorneys and a full-time paralegal with consultation from our Detectives Unit, he said.

Theyve considered and closed more than 20 cases in a year and a half, and have another 50-plus open, Revere said in the statement. This is a natural focus for Conover, a career defense attorney before she became county attorney, and for Chin, a steadfast supporter of criminal-justice reform policies.

The Skaggs case doesnt strike me as a misuse of the office, because his attorneys have made a good argument. But it still brings up the dangers in these offices  reviving closed cases and asking them to be rebuilt demands a lot from investigators and witnesses.

And a prosecutor who is either inexperienced or not adversarial enough may be vulnerable to accepting cases better left resolved.
ANADARKO, Okla. (AP)  Native American tribal elders who were once students at government-backed Indian boarding schools testified Saturday about the hardships they endured, including beatings, whippings, sexual assaults, forced haircuts and painful nicknames.

They came from different states and different tribes, but they shared the common experience of having attended the schools that were designed to strip Indigenous people of their cultural identities.

I still feel that pain," said 84-year-old Donald Neconie, a former U.S. Marine and member of the Kiowa Tribe who once attended the Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) southwest of Oklahoma City. I will never, ever forgive this school for what they did to me.

It may be good now. But it wasn't back then."

As the elders spoke, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, herself a Laguna Pueblo from New Mexico and the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history, listened quietly. The event at the Riverside Indian School, which still operates today but with a vastly different mission, was the first stop on a yearlong nationwide tour to hear about the painful experiences of Native Americans who were sent to the government-backed boarding schools.

Federal Indian boarding school policies have touched every Indigenous person I know," Haaland said at the start of the event, which attracted Native Americans from throughout the region. Some are survivors. Some are descendants. But we all carry the trauma in our hearts.

My ancestors endured the horrors of the Indian boarding school assimilation policies carried out by the same department that I now lead. This is the first time in history that a cabinet secretary comes to the table with this shared trauma."

Haaland's agency recently released a report that identified more than 400 of the schools, which sought to assimilate Native children into white society during a period that stretched from the late 18th century until the late 1960s.

Although most closed their doors long ago and none still exist to strip students of their identities, some still function as schools, albeit with drastically different missions that celebrate the cultural backgrounds of their Native students. Among them is Riverside, which is one of oldest.

Riverside, which opened in 1871, serves students from grades four through 12 these days, offering them specialized academic programs as well as courses on cultural topics such as bead-working, shawl-making and an introduction to tribal art, foods and games. Currently operated by the Bureau of Indian Education, it has nearly 800 students from more than 75 tribes across the country, and the school's administration, staff and faculty are mostly Native American.

It is one of 183 elementary and secondary schools across the country funded by the Bureau of Indian Education that seek to provide education aligned with a tribe's needs for cultural and economic well-being, according to the bureau's website.

But Riverside also has a dark history of mistreating the thousands of Native American students who were forced from their homes to attend it.

Neconie, who still lives in Anadarko, recalled being beaten if he cried or spoke his native Kiowa language when he attended Riverside in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Every time I tried to talk Kiowa, they put lye in my mouth," he said. It was 12 years of hell."

Brought Plenty, a Standing Rock Sioux who lives in Dallas, recalled the years she spent at Indian boarding schools in South Dakota, where she was forced to cut her hair and told not to speak her Native language. She recalled being forced to whip other girls with wet towels and being punished when she didn't.

What they did to us makes you feel so inferior," she said. You never get past this. You never forget it."

Until recently, the federal government hadnt been open to examining its role in the troubled history of Native American boarding schools. But this has changed because people who know about the trauma that was inflicted hold prominent positions in government.

At least 500 children died at such schools, but that number is expected to reach into the thousands or tens of thousands as more research is done.

The Interior Department's report includes a list of the boarding schools in what were states or territories that operated between 1819 and 1969 that had a housing component and received support from the federal government.

Oklahoma had the most, 76, followed by Arizona, which had 47, and New Mexico, which had 43. All three states still have significant Native American populations.

Former students might be hesitant to recount the painful past and trust a government whose policies were to eradicate tribes and, later, assimilate them under the veil of education. But some welcome the opportunity to share their stories for the first time.

Not all the memories from those who attended the schools were painful ones.

Dorothy WhiteHorse, 89, a Kiowa who attended Riverside in the 1940s, said she recalled learning to dance the jitterbug in the school's gymnasium and learning to speak English for the first time. She also recalled older Kiowa women who served as house mothers in the dormitories who let her speak her Native language and treated her with kindness.

I was helped," WhiteHorse said. I'm one of the happy ones."

But WhiteHorse also had some troubling memories, including the time she said three young boys ran away from the home and got caught in a snowstorm. She said all three froze to death.

I think we need a memorial for those boys," she said.

Felicia Fonseca contributed to this report from Flagstaff, Arizona.
A federal appeals court upheld the Arizona prison systems ban on sexually explicit material for inmates, rejecting claims by a censored prison magazine publisher that the policy violates the First Amendment.

The ruling Friday by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the publisher that one part of the prison systems Order 914  banning material that may, could or appears to be intended to cause sexual excitement  was too broad and needed to be dropped.

But it said the rest of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry policy is appropriate to keeping order in the prisons and maintaining a safe workplace for corrections employees, and is thus constitutional, even if it limits some speech.

Judge Eric Miller wrote in the opinion that the order is rational as it allows the administration to mitigate prison violence.

Properly construed, it bans only content that graphically depicts nudity or sex acts, Miller wrote of Order 914. And so interpreted, the order is rationally related to its purposes.

Response to the ruling was not immediately available from either the Arizona Attorney Generals Office nor the Human Rights Defense Center which publishes Prison Legal News, the publication at the center of the case.

But one advocate for prisoners in Arizona said that while maintaining security is important, it needs to be balanced against inmates rights.

There are so many other problems that it seems like whether an inmate should be allowed to look at a Playboy magazine centerfold is rather minor, said Donna Hamm, executive director of Middle Ground Prison Reform.

The prohibition on sexually explicit materials was initiated in 2010, after prison employees, particularly women, said inmates used sexually explicit images to harass them. The court said those materials created unsafe situations for inmates and undermined the prison systems efforts to rehabilitate prisoners.

The ban on explicit materials is part of a larger order that also prohibits inmates from having information on weapons, locks and security systems, gangs, brewing alcohol and ways to escape from prison, among other categories.

The language on sexually explicit material prohibits depictions of nudity of either gender as well as a laundry list of specific sex acts depicted in either visual, audio or written form. Since it was adopted, the department said, staff have reported they feel more comfortable because they are not exposed to unwanted images and text of graphic, explicit sexual content.

The court said Arizona prisons were among more than 3,000 institutions across the country with subscriptions to Prison Legal News. More than 90 issues of the magazine had been distributed in Arizona prisons without incident before 2014, but officials refused to deliver several issues that year that they said contained sexually explicit material in violation of Order 914.

Prison Legal News sued the department in 2015, claiming the ban violated the First Amendment and was not rationally related to (the departments) stated goals of rehabilitation, reduction of sexual harassment and prison security.

A district court judge agreed and issued an injunction against further use of the explicit materials ban until the department could amend it to narrow the scope of the content prohibited. The district judge also ordered the prisons to distribute unredacted versions of Prison Legal News editions that had been censored.

But the circuit court ruling Friday lifted most of the injunction, saying that the policy was constitutional on its face, and as it was applied by prison officials.

It also disagreed with the lower courts ruling on some of the redacted issues: While graphic descriptions of sex acts connected to some crimes were rightly censored, the appeals court said a story about a New Mexico prison riot that talked about guards being beaten and raped was not explicit but more akin to a mere mention of sexual violence, which should not have been censored.

It did uphold the lower courts injunction on section 1.2.17 of the order, the section that bans content that may, could reasonably be anticipated to, could reasonably result in, is or appears to be intended to cause or encourage sexual excitement or arousal or hostile behaviors, or that depicts sexually suggestive settings, poses or attire.

That section had been used to censor medical information as well as mundane images displaying fully clothed women doing nothing that could be considered suggestive, the court said.
The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

Across the country, politicians with more ambition than integrity are trying to explode Americans trust in our elections.

Taken individually, many of these attacks seem harmless, even amusing. Collectively, however, they constitute a concerted effort to undermine the trust that is necessary to the survival of any form of democracy.

We will no longer have a republic built for the people, by the people, if the people have no trust in the system by which we choose those to represent us in government.

Consider the case, for example, of two Republican candidates running for a county council seat in Greenville County, South Carolina. The losing candidate, Joe Dill, cried fraud, and he asked county Republican officials to overturn the primary election results and name him the winner.

And they did.

So then Joey Russo, the real winner, appealed to state Republican officials to overturn the decision of the county Republican officials.

And they did.

Then Dill called the state Republicans decision illegitimate and promised further action, unless his victory was restored, or a new election was held.

Or take the gubernatorial primary in Nevada, where a losing Republican candidate for governor also made unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. He demanded a statewide recount.

He finished 11 percentage points behind the winning candidate. The recount confirmed his loss. Unfazed, the loser continues to yell fraud and threaten lawsuits.

Its not surprising that claiming voter fraud is the go-to reaction of losers because its been adopted by so many Republican leaders and former President Donald Trump.

This political strategy puts us on dangerous ground.

In some circles, its now considered un-American and disloyal to abide by the decisions of voters. Trumps supporters are urged to smear, threaten and bully election workers, and at the same time destroy Americans trust in their elections.

Attempts to overturn elections and sow distrust in Nevada, South Carolina and elsewhere are fueled by the lies and antics of Trump, but the campaign has grown far larger than one election or one man.

More than a years worth of court cases, audits and investigations show plainly and clearly that there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election. The election was fair. Trump lost.

So how has this obviously dishonest campaign survived and spread?

There are lots of theories. Mine is simple: People believe what they want to believe. Emphasis on want.

If the last few years have proved anything, its that lots of Americans will skirt, ignore or flout rules and laws they dont like.

Like wearing masks.

Or paying taxes.

Or complying with basic traffic laws.

Or following rules barring pets from restaurants, stores and other public places.

Or accepting rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court when they disagree with the justices.

Or accepting the results of elections.

Or believing facts they wish werent true.

Instead, they complain about their rights, their freedoms, their victimhood and persecution.

Its not only some Republicans who deny the truth and legitimacy of things they dont like. Some Democrats do it too, as evidenced by 22 years of whining about the 2000 election.

A more recent example are tirades from liberals who proclaim that the Supreme Court is corrupt because they dont like rulings from the conservative majority.

It should be said, however, clearly and without doubt, no one has been more intent  or more effective  at spreading lies and encouraging mistrust of our nations institutions than Trump.

Now that July 4 is past, the literal fireworks are pretty much done. Its time to extinguish the political fireworks as well. Its time for Americans of all political stripes to put the welfare of the nation and its future before the ambitions of politicians who want to blow up the Constitution in a reckless act of self-promotion.
The Zillow listing for 415 N. 65th Ave. West in Sand Springs may conjure up several images in your mind: the Space Needle, the Skypad Apartments from The Jetsons or even a vignette from a space-age film.

The home wasnt built, however, to be a spectacle or attract visitors from afar. Rather, it served as a mans personal residence, a treetop haven above city life, and the reason he built it was simple: because he promised a woman he would.

Sand Springs resident Joe Damer started constructing his modern dream home in the early 2000s, completing the passion project in 2005. Damer, a skilled welder and fabricator, built the property completely by hand with the help of a few trusted friends in the construction business. The death of Damers beloved wife, Trudy, a decade earlier served as the catalyst for the start of the project  it was something Damer knew he needed to complete in order to move on.

He went ahead with the plan because he was finished mourning, and I think he needed (the project) to make him feel complete, said Les Damer, Damers son. He never married again or dated again; all he did was dedicate his time to his work and working on the house. It was one of those therapeutic things that he just had to do, because he said he was going to do it.

Damer was born in Germany in 1941, where he lived with his family on a farm. In the wake of World War II, Damer and his family relocated to the United States on his ninth birthday, settling in New Underwood, South Dakota.

After finishing up his schooling, Damer enlisted in the Army and served in Vietnam for three years. When he returned stateside, he found work as a cowboy on a South Dakota ranch for several years, Les Damer said. Damer hung up his cowboy hat and relocated to Tulsa in the 70s, where he met his wife.

My mom was a waitress and accidentally spilled water on his lap  and thats where it all began! Les Damer said.

A naturally skilled tradesman, Damer started his welding business, Tru-Jo Company, and became a trusted professional in the Sand Springs community.

Damers affinity for all things mechanical extended into his professional life as well. He had a passion for Chevrolet Corvettes and was a dedicated member of the Jokers Car Club in Sand Springs, where many of his closest friendships were formed. Damer was a loyal companion and had a vibrant energy about him, Les Damer said.

He always loved helping other people out, and you either liked him or you didnt, but most people liked him and thought he was an easy guy to get along with, Les Damer said. Hed do anything in the world for you.

On a vacation to California, Damer picked up a postcard of a ultra-modern estate that was built into the side of a mountain. Damer brought the card home with him and always kept it with him, telling his wife and children one day hed create his own interpretation of the home seen in the photograph.

I was a teenager when he came back from California, and I remember him telling me, Im going to build a house just like this postcard, Les Damer said. After that, nothing else was really said about it until 1992, when my mother died. He stayed in the home they shared together for another 10 years, but then he started getting motivated and talking about the house again and buying the land.

Les Damer said he knew that once his father finally decided to start constructing the home, nothing could stop him from realizing that dream.

When he says hes going to do something, hes going to do it, Les Damer said. I thought, OK, well see what happens, but, by golly, he purchased the property, and it just took off from there. He always had everything in his head  no blueprints.

The new project received mixed reviews from neighbors, Les Damer said, but he felt excited to see his father live out his dream  even if it wasnt the type of home he imagined his rustic, hardworking father living in.

I thought the idea for the house was cool, but it was so not him, Les Damer said. I always pictured him living in a log cabin, a country-style house out in nature. But he wanted this futuristic house that looked like a UFO, and I told him, Go for it!

I think what drew him to making this home is the fact he always told my mother hed build a home like it one day, and hes not the type to not follow through or procrastinate, Les Damer said. He had a rough time after my mother passed away, and I think he was ready to do this  it was a challenge for him to do it before he died, and he made it happen.

With the assistance of friends who owned their own construction-related businesses  Dorsey Glass Service, Tiptons Plumbing, Granite Fiberglass Pools & Spas  Damer completed the house in 2005, and lived in it for several years before he died in 2019.

During construction of the home, Damer told a Tulsa World reporter that he couldnt guess at the cost of hiring a contractor for such a project, saying only that it would be astronomical. The concrete alone was $20,000, and the elevator was $23,000, he said.

Damer said he built the living component on the ground and then hired a crane to lift it to the top of the tower. After months of preparation and building, it took only 30 minutes to put the two pieces together.

While Les Damer said his father was a very private person and didnt open the home often for guests, he cherishes the memories he made there with his father.

Every year, Id go out and spend the Fourth of July with him, sitting on that back patio  which scares you half to death!  and watch fireworks all over Tulsa, Les Damer said. The patio is made of aluminum grades, so you can see straight down to the ground. Id go out there, and as soon as I got comfortable, my dad would run out and jump up and down, shaking the whole thing, just to mess with me.

Now that the home is being listed for sale, Les Damer said he hopes the next owners will appreciate the unique nature of the house and try to restore it to its former glory.

I was really worried after he passed that someone would come in and tear it all down, but I dont think that will happen, Les Damer said. Theres some maintenance that needs to be done, but somebody could really do something with that place. Or, they might just love it and want to move in there and hang out.

Les Damer said to this day, hes proud of his father for completing the labor of love he set out to construct over 20 years ago.

I think of him and laugh every time Im driving on the highway to Sand Springs, Damer said. You can see the house from the road, and each time I pass by I go, Oh, my goodness.
Abortion-rights advocates in Tulsa gathered outside Woodland Hills Mall on Friday evening to acknowledge President Joe Bidens executive order to help protect access to abortion and to demand still more federal action.

The protesters said this order is not a long-term solution, especially in Oklahoma, and a spokesperson for the Oklahoma Attorney Generals Office said nothing in the executive order supplants the decision of the Supreme Court or the rights of states to decide this issue for themselves.

(Biden) signed an executive order that protects our rights and access to safe abortions temporarily, Olivia Olds said at the abortion-rights protest at Woodland Hills. Temporarily. This executive order can easily be overturned if another president is voted in. This is only a temporary fix, and this is not a permanent solution.

The only way abortion rights will be protected and reinstated in Oklahoma, Olds said, is if the U.S. Senate does their jobs and codifies the Womens Health Protection Act into law.

The bill, which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2021, says state governments cannot limit providers abilities to prescribe drugs, offer abortion services via telemedicine, or immediately provide abortion services when the provider determines that a delay risks the patients health.

The bill failed in the Senate a second time this May in a 49-51 vote.

Jessica Master drove more than two hours on Friday from her home in McAlester to the south Tulsa mall to raise her voice with other abortion-rights advocates in her first protest.

We shouldnt have to fight for human rights, Master said. As America, were supposed to be this great united nation, but when you target certain rights, you target all of them.

As a resident of southeastern Oklahoma, Master said she feels scared because so few voices are advocating for womens rights. But, as upsetting as the inaction is, she still feels hope that this small step of a presidential executive order is just the first step forward.

Its upsetting enough for so many people to get out in 100-plus degree weather, Master said. But every big change has small steps. Ill stay out here so someones future kids dont have to.

Not all Oklahomans acknowledge Bidens executive order as a success. A man in his car yelled at the protesters to repent and said they were killing kids, and the Oklahoma Attorney Generals Office called it an overreach and said the office will continue to fight for the unborn.

By issuing this executive order, President Biden has doubled down on his commitment to the death of unborn children, said Madelyn Hague, a spokesperson for the Attorney Generals Office. The Supreme Court has spoken on this issue and held that there is no constitutional right to an abortion.
An ongoing dispute between the city and a former homeowner escalated to gunfire earlier this week after police said the woman waved weapons while trespassing at her former, now-condemned residence near the Gathering Place.

After two hours of unsuccessful negotiations Tuesday, a Tulsa police officer shot Michele Burke twice as she stood on a back deck of her former home holding a gun in her hand, according to a Police Department news release issued Friday.

Burke, 55, is expected to recover from the gunshot wounds  one to her elbow and one to her chest, according to the release.

Officers originally responded to the home in the 2800 block of South Cincinnati Avenue about 5:40 p.m. Tuesday after neighbors reported that Burke, who police described in their release as "a known trespasser of the home for quite some time," was waving a sword and threatening to kill them.

Burke retreated into the home before police arrived, and in lieu of forcing the door open, officers opted to "document the issue" and remain in the area in case she came back outside and made further threats, the release states.

Burke has been involved in multiple disturbances at the home, police reported, and she has a history of threatening responding officers.

The officers returned to the house 16 minutes later after another call from neighbors and attempted to talk with Burke. About 40 minutes later, she pointed a revolver at an officer, police reported.

Taking cover, the officers continued to watch Burke and attempted to talk with her over the next hour even though she was "incoherent and screaming" while going in and out of the house, sometimes armed and other times unarmed, the release states.

An officer who was watching from a neighbor's garage saw Burke holding a gun on the second-story back deck of the house about 7:40 p.m. and fired shots, perceiving that Burke's "actions were putting people in grave danger," the release states.

The house backs up to the Midland Valley Trail on the east side of the Gathering Place. Police closed the pedestrian and bicycle trail for a short time during the standoff, although park operations continued as normal.

Officers rendered aid to Burke before paramedics took her in critical condition to a hospital, according to the release.

Signs stating that trespassers would be shot had been placed over the city's posted condemnation notices on the house, police reported.

Records show that Burke filed a lawsuit against the city of Tulsa in 2016 after the basement of her home flooded the prior year.

Burke claimed that the city caused the damage when it removed a retaining wall and improperly graded an adjacent lot that it had condemned as part of the construction of the Gathering Place.

A judge dismissed Burkes Tulsa County District Court lawsuit against the city in 2020.

In June 2017, the city of Tulsa went to district court to condemn Burkes home by eminent domain, citing a need to obtain the property for a drainage project in the area.

Records show that in December 2019 the city of Tulsa was awarded title to the property after paying Burke $340,000.

However, city officials had to go to court again in December after Burke refused to leave the property, records indicate.

A judge issued an eviction order against Burke in April at the request of the city, according to court records.

Prior to being evicted by the court, Burke represented herself in a lawsuit she filed in Tulsa federal court in September in an apparent attempt to stop the city from taking her home.

The lawsuit named as defendants 58 individuals ranging from Mayor G.T. Bynum and various city officials to Gov. Kevin Stitt and all major donors to the Gathering Place park.

In court filings, Burke asked a judge to freeze the assets of all 58 individuals named in the complaint and requested that they be arrested and tried for High Treason and mutiny against descendants of founding fathers of the USA and the Sovereign Native Americans.

Burke sought a permanent injunction to prevent the city from taking the residence in addition to seeking damages.

I would like punitive and compensatory damages paid to me by all the usurpers, sedionists (sic), domestic terrorists involved in the many crimes against me my family and tribes that have tried to take everything from us and take everything from them as allowed by law, she wrote in her complaint.

A judge in April dismissed Burkes federal lawsuit. The dismissal has been appealed.

The city of Tulsa has disputed Burkes claims that she is a member of an American Indian tribe.

The officer who shot Burke has been placed on leave pending an investigation, the Police Department's news release states. The Tulsa County District Attorney's Office will determine whether the shooting was justified.
After renting a storefront near First and Main for several years, Palace Clothiers moved three blocks south to a new building of its own in 1913.

At the time, Fourth Street was still a dirt road, and everything beyond it was considered out in the country. Cows roamed across what is now Bartlett Square.

Other businessmen told the stores owner, Simon Jankowsky, that it was a folly to go so far south. Nobody would want to walk that far just to go shopping.

The Palace Building was, so to speak, Tulsas first case of suburban sprawl. And of course, the doubters were wrong. Jankowskys business thrived so much that he added four stories to the building in 1917. And by then, of course, his store wasnt on the edge of town anymore.

The doubters were wrong again in 1952 when Tulsas first suburban shopping center opened on 21st Street about three miles southeast of downtown. Utica Square was built on a pasture that had once been part of a hog farm.

Fashionable ladies wouldnt want to drive that far, some retailers predicted, according to the archives of the Tulsa World. But by the mid-1960s, even the iconic Miss Jacksons, the citys most fashionable boutique at the time, had moved to Utica Square because it seemed like nobody wanted to come all the way downtown.

In the span of just 20 years, Utica Square went from the edge of town to being described as close to downtown. The new edge of town lay near Memorial Drive and 71st Street, where Woodland Hills Mall erased 152 acres of farmland in 1976. But suburbia still seemed to have limits.

As recently as the mid-1990s, the Tulsa World described 81st Street as the edge of town and quoted a retail manager saying nothing was past 91st Street.

Fast forward another couple of decades and Tulsas first Costco opened at Memorial Drive and 103rd Street. But that was nowhere near the edge of town. Some local officials actually expressed relief  and, frankly, some surprise  that the store didnt go even farther south to be closer to recent developments in Bixby.

New suburban development in Oklahoma covered more than 1,133 square miles between 2002 and 2017, the most recent year with available data, according to a recent national study by NumbersUSA.

More than 67% of all the land that has ever been developed in the state has been developed in just the past 40 years, according to the study. Nearly one-third of all development has occurred in just the past 20 years.

In Tulsa County alone, the population has increased only 30% since 1982 while the developed area has grown nearly 60% bigger. At this pace, where will the edge of town be 40 years from now?

Theres an old joke about south Tulsa and suburban north Dallas eventually meeting somewhere in the middle. Maybe its not really so funny.

Featured video:
The ship was going down.

Nothing could be done to keep that from happening.

However, before the "Sammy B." disappeared for good, surviving sailors would get one last look at her.

One of them, Glenn Huffman, recalled the scene to me years later:

"I heard someone say, 'There she goes,' and we all looked," he said. "And I thought, 'There goes our home.'"

Clinging to a life raft at the time, Huffman eventually was rescued.

It was only then that he found out just how lucky he'd been.

When his ship went under, sunk by the Japanese during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, 90 of Huffman's crew mates had gone down with it. One of them was Paul Henry Carr of Checotah.

I first heard the story of the USS Samuel B. Roberts  or Sammy B. as the World War II destroyer escort was known to her crews  in 2017, when I interviewed Huffman at his home in Tulsa.

The ship was not located after it sank on Oct. 25, 1944, and after more than 75 years, it was considered likely lost forever.

But that all changed a couple of weeks ago with some amazing news out of the Philippines: At 22,600 feet below the surface, an undersea exploration team had found and identified the Sammy B.

That depth, which equates to over four miles, makes it the deepest known shipwreck in the world.

Sadly, the discovery did not come in time for Huffman or the other survivors.

Those 120 men are all gone now, the last one  Adred Lenoir of Clanton, Alabama  having died in March.

But the news still affected many families, not least among them those of the men who died when the ship sank.

'Final resting place'

The discovery of the Sammy B. "definitely has brought a sense of closure," Jeffrey Rush said.

"All we ever had of Paul Carr was a plaque  on a gravestone in the Checotah cemetery."

Rush, an Owasso resident, was born too late to have met his uncle. But he grew up hearing stories about him.

A 20-year-old Checotah native, Carr died aboard the Roberts while leading his gun crew in a valiant last stand against their attackers. He was awarded a Silver Star posthumously, and later a Navy warship was named after him.

Carr, who had nine younger sisters, including Rush's mother, was the family's only son. The loss was devastating, Rush said.

"My grandmother could never really accept the fact that Paul had died," he said. "She'd leave the screen door unlocked on the front porch every night. She hoped that maybe he'd washed ashore somewhere, and this would be the night he would finally get home."

Today, Carr, who is in the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame, is remembered in his hometown in an exhibit at the Checotah Katy Depot Museum and Visitors Center.

Rush, meanwhile, keeps his memory alive through the Paul Henry Carr Memorial Foundation.

He said that when the first images of the shipwreck began to surface online, he couldn't help feeling emotional.

One that especially captured his attention, he added, was of a gun mount. Based on where it's located on the ship, it very likely was his uncle's, Rush said.

Carr's gun has always had special significance in the story.

By the time rescuers reached his gun crew's location before the ship went under, most of them were dead. But not Carr. Although mortally wounded, he was still at the gun, trying to load the last round.

Even when they lay him on the deck, he tried one more time to load the gun before he died.

Seeing the photo of the gun mount, where all of this likely occurred, made for "a somber moment," Rush said.

Along with the other images, "it really struck me that what I'm seeing here is a gravesite  the final resting place of some brave sailors."

The family of Glenn Huffman, who died in 2018, also welcomed the news of the Sammy B.'s discovery.

His son, Mike Huffman, of Tulsa, said, "The best thing for me was just a sense of elation for the families of the 90 who went down with the ship."

If his dad were here, he added, he thinks his reaction would be similar.

Huffman, who together with other survivors was in the water for more than 50 hours before being rescued, was always conscious of how fortunate he was.

He didn't talk about the experience for 50 years, not until he started going to survivor reunions, Mike said.

"But when he did talk about it later, or he did a presentation or anything, he always made a point to talk about the guys that went down with the ship.

"He knew he could've been one of them."

Mike Huffman said he's glad for what the discovery of the ship means for the families of the fallen.

For 78 years, they knew only that their loved ones' gravesite was somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

"Now they can finally say, 'This is where they are,'" he said.
A state trooper, worried about being out-accelerated by a possibly stolen truck, said he wanted to see what his SUV was capable of in a pursuit while thinking the fleeing driver might make a mistake.

The eluders mistake did end the chase on Feb. 25, 2021, when he plowed into a familys Chevrolet Tahoe at highway speeds on a busy street in east Tulsa.

A Tulsa mother, 31, and her 12-year-old daughter were killed instantly. A 7-year-old boy in back cried, trapped in the wreckage with the bodies of his aunt and cousin in front before firefighters could cut him free.

The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety commissioner, appointed about six months after the fatal pursuit, told legislators that state troopers arent supposed to chase until whenever and that doing so often results in bad things. Those descriptors apply to the chase that killed Lanise Dade and her child Camyea  but OHPs case investigation went nowhere with agency officials.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol didnt examine the deadly pursuit via a command staff review nor a Chiefs Review Board. None of the pursuing troopers filled out a pursuit report as required by policy. No troopers were disciplined.

Fourteen months after the Tulsa World filed an open records request, OHP provided records that included the audio from internal interviews with two of the pursuing troopers.

Bad things happen

Lt. Mark Warrens interview raises questions about why no one  including Warren himself  called off the chase despite its extreme hazards to promote the safety of all persons, per agency policy.

With no dashboard camera, Warren chased at speeds surpassing 120 mph on a midday Thursday from Coweta into Tulsa.

In the absence of video, documents and interviews show the perilous path Warrens pursuit took:

through traffic on the Broken Arrow Expressway;

through a construction zone with six workers;

through a gas station with pedestrians.

The fleeing driver clipped two vehicles well before the fatal crash in the 13-minute chase.

I thought he might make a mistake, Warren told his OHP colleague investigators three weeks afterward. Ive seen so many in all these pursuits where they bump a curb and flatten a tire and it has to slow em down, and then I can put him out. I can take a tactical vehicle intervention and stop this pursuit. Hindsight is 20/20.

DPS Commissioner Tim Tipton told a House interim study panel looking at high-speed chases that we dont just chase until whenever  contrary to what Warren six months earlier had described doing.

We do not have a policy of chase until, Tipton said in September 2021. If you imply a policy of chase until, then chances are something bad is gonna happen. At some point, that chase until is gonna result in probably a crash. Every now and then  maybe  the suspect gives up or they run out of gas.

Normally a chase until whenever  thats when we see bad things happen.

Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Tipton to the position in September 2021 when John Scully retired after two years at the helm. The case investigation concluded several months before Stitt promoted Tipton.

The Tulsa Worlds ongoing investigation of the Highway Patrol has uncovered reckless trooper actions, shoddy record-keeping and failure to address alarming concerns expressed by commanders.

In a five-year span, 15 OHP pursuits killed 18 people  and at least eight of those killed werent the eluding drivers. All but one of the deadly pursuits began with stolen property or traffic violations as the basis for the chase.

Tipton didnt respond to requests for an interview from the Tulsa World nor to questions emailed to him.

Think Im doing the right thing

Warren acknowledged, as a reason for continuing, Im not sure whats going on.

So Im gonna try to do everything I can with this Ford Explorer ... never been in a pursuit with this thing, in this Explorer  and try to get into position where I can stop this guy, Warren said.

Warren said he didnt tell dispatchers a motorist had flagged him down and gave him the pickup trucks description. Warren only told them he was chasing a possible stolen vehicle.

He said the fleeing motorist could out-accelerate him and reach top speed a lot faster than he could, at one point noting the OHP vehicle doesnt have the guts that I want it to have. Warren repeatedly described being too far back to TVI or spin out the fleeing Silverado to force the pursuits end.

Warren said he might have made a decision to stop if I didnt have enough help there, but I felt like I had help. He said some troopers were announcing their locations and the Tulsa Police Department had been alerted.

Another troopers attempt to stop the truck with spike strips on the Broken Arrow Expressway had failed.

Were gonna make this as safe as possible. Thats my concern. Were trying to stop this guy, Warren said. I dont know if this guys armed, I dont know if hes done a home invasion, how hes got the stolen truck; Im not sure whats going on.

All this is going through my mind, but I still think Im in policy, still think Im doing the right thing.

In the end, the chase netted the arrest of an unarmed 14-year-old boy who had taken someone elses truck from a car wash. (The boy, Elias Gabriel Gonzales, had his case turned over to federal prosecutors, and there is no public information available on the cases outcome.)

Two people died in making that arrest possible: Lanise Dade and her daughter, Camyea, killed while running errands.

Gas station, construction zone hazards

Theres no OHP video of the pursuit. Neither the primary pursuer nor the secondary pursuer had vehicles outfitted with dashboard cameras.

In his interview, Warren recalled watching the truck cut through a gas station to avoid traffic at the busy intersection of 21st and Sheridan.

When he entered the Kum & Go, of course that was my only option, too, unless I was going to go all the way around traffic, Warren said. So I entered the Kum & Go. Felt like I did it safely to go around the pumps and stay away from pedestrians.

The secondary pursuer, Trooper Ricky Humdy, told OHP investigators he chose to negotiate the intersection rather than cutting through the gas station on its southeast corner.

A witness told an OHP investigator the pursuit endangered his crew when the vehicles zoomed through a construction zone on South 94th East Avenue near 37th Street.

He said the pickup was hauling butt when the driver navigated onto a sidewalk to avoid some torn-up road, with the trooper not too far behind and using the sidewalk as well to make it out the other end.

Three of the six workers had to jump to avoid being struck by the Silverado, the witness told an investigator. Other internal investigators who interviewed Warren didnt ask about the construction zone.

Both Warren and Humdy offered administrative explanations for why their vehicles did not have dash cameras at the time of the fatal pursuit.

Where responsibility lies

During the House interim study, Tipton placed blame squarely on the shoulders of those fleeing law enforcement.

Tipton said criminals make the decisions and troopers react.

It stands with that criminal to comply ... and then all danger ceases at that moment (of compliance), Tipton said.

Attorney Laura Hamilton said she almost feels like OHP is gaslighting the public to remove trooper responsibility from the pursuit equation because troopers can call off a chase at any point if they prioritized protecting the public.

Hamilton, of Smolen Law, which represents the victims family, said she doesnt understand how so many people can die in OHP pursuits in a relatively short time period and not have it trigger retrospection within the agency.

We keep hammering to stop turning property crimes into public risk and fatalities, Hamilton said. And (OHPs) response is, Well, we didnt do that. The criminal who stole the car did that, and we had to escalate in order to protect public safety.

That is not reasonable, doesnt make any sense and it feels like a disregard of their duty to the public  to not take ownership of the role of the pursuing officer in creating a public health risk.

Tredrick Johnson, the father of the young boy in the SUV who survived the crash, described his anger at something that was stupid killing his sister and niece.

It just seemed like (troopers) were on an adrenaline rush; they just wanted the perp, so they didnt care what happened, Johnson previously told the Tulsa World. I feel like if they cared about the safety of the people on the streets they wouldnt have pursued him like that.

Johnson, who now cares for his sisters older child, described a different energy in the household because Lanise and Camyea were the ones that brought happiness and joy everywhere.

Attorney Dan Smolen, who also represents the family, said there isnt accountability within OHP because pursuits like Warrens are an accepted practice.

I dont know if you ever really come to peace with the loss of a loved one that was completely unnecessary, he said. There was no reason that any of this had to happen.
The chairman of the Oklahoma College Republicans and a former campaign manager for a candidate in the GOP state superintendent run-off was arrested in Oklahoma City on Friday on accusations of sex acts with a minor.

Jonathan Alberto Hernandez, 21, is being held in the Oklahoma County jail on charges of sodomy and lewd or indecent proposals or acts to a child. His bail is set at $50,000.

Matt Langston, Ryan Walters campaign spokesman, confirmed that Hernandez worked as campaign manager for two weeks in January.

Walters is Gov. Kevin Stitts secretary of education and is currently running for the office of state superintendent.

This is extremely disappointing and concerning, Langston told the Tulsa World Friday evening. Hernandez worked less than two weeks for the campaign in an outreach role, but he did not adequately meet our needs. His role was terminated swiftly based on lack of performance and the campaigns needs.

A campaign report for the first quarter of 2022 shows that Hernandez was paid $2,200 on March 4 for campaign manager salary.

That was his title that we initially settled on, but there was not a management role, so that was misleading, Langston told the World.

Hernandez posted on June 1 that he was beginning a new job as operations specialist for the Oklahoma Senate. On Friday evening, the chief operating officer of the Senate emailed all state senators and Senate personnel, telling them that Hernandez is no longer an employee of the Oklahoma State Senate.

Hernandez social media accounts show him in photos with all of the states highest office holders and a host of other current GOP lawmakers.

Earlier this week, Hernandez was recognized by state and national Republican party leaders at the grand opening of the new Republican National Committee Hispanic Community Center in south Oklahoma City.

Photos on his social media showed him receiving the Chairmans Champion award from A.J. Ferate, newly elected leader of the Oklahoma Republican Party, as well as a televised message by RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel.

A news report in the Oklahoman showed Hernandez standing between Gov. Kevin Stitt and his campaign manager, Donelle Harder, at the event.

Contacted Friday evening, Harder said Hernandez had previously sought an internship with Stitts campaign but was never hired.

Featured video:
It is easy to be star struck by the paintings. The show Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism is a complex and ravishing exhibit at the Philbrook Museum of Art. We learn about Diego and Fridas tumultuous relationship, their social influence and bonds they formed with other artists and patrons, and the emotional intimacy and political commentary embedded in their art.

Kahlos fame alone will lure many. You will want to experience her work up close, because the paint still appears fresh on the canvas.

The show weaves in other equally serious artists such as Rufino Tamayo, Maria Izquierdo, Carlos Merida, Lola Alvarez Bravo and more. The pieces conjure nostalgic stories and delight the eye. You can come and experience the earthy colors and expressive lines in the paintings or dig deeper into why these works were made. The exhibit flows beautifully in the Helmerich gallery, and there is something interesting at every turn.

Kahlos self-portraits reveal a person way ahead of her time. She doesnt mind outlining her fears or mental states  her vulnerability makes her humanity (and ours) soar, and this is why we are so moved. Look at the way she paints her gaze, and spend time there. There is deep sadness and catharsis in Self-Portrait on Bed from 1937 as she confides in us of her pregnancy loss.

Art collectors Jacques and Natasha Gelman also take center stage. There are many portraits of them in different styles by different artists who received their patronage. Gunther Gerzsos geometric expression is on full display here with a clever way to portray the couple.

Riveras lyrical, romantic depictions of Mexican people as shown in the Calla Lily Vendor or The Healer, both from 1943, invite viewers to experience the purity of an Indigenous country in conflict with its evolving identity and pressure to become a modern, more globalized nation.

I am aware that Mexico is still struggling with this issue. I also hear Rivera clamoring across borders: How can people honor ancestral roots and traditions while forging ahead?

Tucked in between major paintings are a series of gelatin silver photographs by Lola Alvarez Bravo. She was a friend of Kahlos and the first gallerist to show her paintings in Mexico City. You should not miss contemplating Burial in Yalag from 1946, portraying a traditional funeral procession where people wear white to honor their dead. There is serene beauty in this scene of light and shadow.

It is clear Kahlo was never afraid to speak her mind. Viewers might feel uncomfortable with her sketches of Lady Liberty of 1945 and 1949. While these never materialized as a formal painting, she had planned to use the Statue of Liberty as a vessel to voice her political concerns. In her sketches, the statue holds a bag of money and the atomic bomb.

In spite of its complexity, the show is for everyone, and children would find many jolly works. They can go look for a charming portrait of a toddler in Mexican attire (Rivera), a large canvas of cacti dancing figuratively in the desert (Rivera) and an other-worldly personage eating his breakfast with a fork (Tamayo). Embroidered traditional dresses from the region of Tehuantepec complement the multifaceted collection.

Bravo to the Philbrook Museum of Art leaders and curators and all its supporters for producing an exhibit that elevates the cultural profile of our city.

Jose Luis Hernandez is the director of Sistema Tulsa at Boston Avenue United Methodist Church and a member of the Philbrook.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland starts an important journey Saturday to examine the troubling past of federal Indian boarding school policies and practices. This path begins in Oklahoma at the Riverside Indian School, located north of Anadarko on Wichita, Caddo and Delaware land.

While most of the boarding schools have closed, the Riverside Indian School remains the oldest and largest off-reservation school in the U.S., with about 800 students.

We welcome Haaland to our state with the Road to Healing year-long project. This will be a difficult history to hear, but reconciliation efforts are always worth it.

Haaland, the first Indigenous person to serve as Interior secretary, will be taking oral histories at each site to understand what happened and how that had generational effects.

This came after Canada announced last year the horrific discovery of mass graves of children on the grounds of former Indigenous boarding schools there, many operated by the Catholic Church. The children had been forcibly removed from their families and sent to these institutions.

In response, Haaland ordered in June 2021 an investigation  called the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative  into similar schools in the United States. The initiative seeks information such as names and tribal identities of children placed in the schools, the marked and unmarked graves of Indigenous children on those campuses, and first-hand experiences at those schools.

The first volume of findings released in May found that from 1819 to 1969, there were 408 federal Indian boarding schools across 37 states or territories. It identified burial sites at approximately 53 different schools, but that number is expected to grow.

The U.S. government enacted laws started in 1871 compelling Indian children into school, withholding rations and treaty-guaranteed benefits for resisting. Even before then, the federal government supported these schools. Those laws and policies remained in place through the next century.

Oklahoma had the largest number of such schools, with 76.

This is not ancient history. Students who attended some of these schools are living and speak about abusive treatment by caregivers. Their trauma never went away, and that harm extended to their tribes and families.

What those families endured and how those children were treated influence tribal relationships with the U.S. and state governments today.

American Indian history is Oklahomas history. The descendants of one of the nations greatest genocides and swindles of land  the Trail of Tears  live within the states borders, along with 39 tribal nations headquarters.

Its a travesty that the federal government hasnt done more to discover what happened in those schools until now. It has been an ignored part of U.S. history, and it is never too late to make it right.
MANAUS, Brazil -- Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest reached a record high for the first six months of the year, as an area five times the size of New York City was destroyed, preliminary government data showed on Friday.

From January to June, 3,988 square km (1,540 square miles) were cleared in the region, according to national space research agency Inpe.

That's an increase of 10.6% from the same months last year and the highest level for that period since the agency began compiling its current DETER-B data series in mid-2015.

Destruction rose 5.5% in June to 1,120 square km, also a record for that month of the year.

An aerial view shows a deforested plot of the Amazon rainforest in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil July 8, 2022. Photo: Reuters

The Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, contains vast amounts of carbon, which is released as trees are destroyed, warming the atmosphere and driving climate change.

Deforestation is creeping deeper into the forest. In the first six months of the year, Amazonas state in the heart of the rainforest recorded more destruction than any other state for the first time.

A Reuters witness on Friday saw several recently deforested areas near the roadway west of Amazonas state capital Manaus, where lush jungle had been turned into expanses strewn with fallen, dried trees.

An aerial view shows a deforested plot of the Amazon rainforest in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil July 8, 2022. Photo: Reuters

This year's rising deforestation is also feeding unusually high levels of fire, which are likely to worsen in the months ahead, said Manoela Machado, a wildfire and deforestation researcher at Woodwell Climate Research Center and University of Oxford.

Brazil recorded the highest number of fires in the Amazon for the month of June in 15 years, although those blazes are a small fraction of what is usually seen when fires peak in August and September, according to Inpe data.

Generally, after loggers extract valuable wood, ranchers and land grabbers set fires to clear the land for agriculture.

An aerial view shows a deforested plot of the Amazon rainforest in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil July 8, 2022. Photo: Reuters

"If we have high deforestation numbers, it's inevitable that we're going to have high fire numbers as well," Machado said.

"This is extremely bad news."

Experts in Brazil blame right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro for rolling back environmental protections and emboldening loggers, ranchers and land speculators who clear public land for profit.

Bolsonaro's office directed request for comment to the Environment Ministry, which said the government has been "extremely forceful" in fighting environmental crimes.

An aerial view shows a deforested plot of the Amazon rainforest in Rondonia State, Brazil September 28, 2021. Photo: Reuters

The ministry said that considering the 12 months through June, Inpe's data showed deforestation declined 3.8% from the same period a year earlier.

Environmentalists are banking on leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who presided over a steep decline in deforestation during his presidency from 2003 to 2010, winning in October's election for a turnaround in Brazil's environmental policy.

A poll released this week showed Bolsonaro losing to Lula by 19 percentage points in an expected run-off.

An aerial view shows a deforested plot of the Amazon rainforest in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil July 8, 2022. Photo: Reuters

Regardless, this year is likely to have high levels of deforestation and fires as loggers and land grabbers seek to capitalize on the weak enforcement ahead of a potential change in government, experts say.

"It's very difficult to be optimistic for the next few months in the Amazon," said Romulo Batista, a forest campaigner for Greenpeace Brasil.
On behalf of the leaders of the Party, State and people of Vietnam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent a message of condolences to his Japanese counterpart Kishida Fumio over the death of Japans former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday.

In his message, Prime Minister Chinh conveyed his deepest condolences to the Government and people of Japan and Abes family, and expressed his sincere appreciation to Abes special sentiments, support and assistance for Vietnam as well as for the extensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

The same day, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son also cabled a message of condolences to Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa.

Abe, Japans longest-serving Prime Minister, died on Friday at the age of 67.

Abe was shot in an apparent assassination attempt Friday during a stump speech for Sundays Upper House election.

The killing of the former leader shocked the nation and reverberated around the globe.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
If you ever needed a reminder that good actors can still wind up in rubbish then Our House is here for your consideration.

This 4 part UK drama stars Martin Compston (Line of Duty), Tuppence Middleton (Black Mirror, The Defeated) & Rupert Penry-Jones (Spooks) and presents as a gripping story of intrigue, conspiracy and betrayal.

Tuppence Middleton plays young mother Fi Lawson who returns one home to find strangers moving into her stately home. Infuriated and confused she becomes even more speechless to find her possessions gone and replaced by boxes deposited by removalists.

New owner Lucy (Dinita Gohil) insists she has the paperwork and refuses to budge. But while calls from Fi to her husband Bram (Martin Compston) go unanswered, viewers are transported to flashbacks of the happy couple moving in and falling apart.

These scenes constitute around 50% of the story, becoming more and more detailed around a marriage split and an agreement to bird nest their home for the sake of their childen. This sees each agree to rotate parenting in the home and live elsewhere for alternate periods.

Flashback scenes are juxtaposed with the present-day in which Fi is still arguing with Lucy over rightful ownership -the latter scene even extends into the second episode which is a helluva suspension of real time for the viewer.

The various twists and turns ramp up the melodrama but not in a good way. Added to this there are some weak performances from supporting cast and signposted plot moves.

Its a shame because aside from some actors of note the premise itself, adapted from a novel by Louise Candlish, is rather fun. But it feels like it shoul be an episode of a mystery anthology rather than this drawn out dross.

Check your brain at the door and be prepared for a silly melodrama if you take up tenancy on this one.

8:30pm Wednesday on BBC First.
Hes currently starring in Mystery Road: Origin but actor Mark Coles Smith very nearly detoured into a new career, during the pandemic, with a crash course in Security work.

I lost six months worth of work that was scheduled. I pivoted into a Security course that I did online over 18 days. I got my Security certificate so I could keep working.

There were a lot of construction sites around the city that shut down. There was a huge spike in demand for Security Officers. There was a weird window where you could actually get your course online over Zoom.

But once I got that I thought maybe Id just take a moment to not work for a little bit and working on some music, read some books and chill while the world seems to be imploding.

The Melbourne-based actor decided to head west to Broome to see family.

Halfway into the pandemic in the lockdowns on the East Coast, I decided that I wanted to take advantage of that time to spend with my family. It took me three applications before I was able to get back into WA on compassionate grounds to attend funerals, he reveals.

I spent six weeks traveling the southern coastline to get the WA with a campervan on my own. It was a huge journey to get back to WA.

I finally got up to Broome and spent 14 days in quarantine in a donger, where the only piece of artwork was a glass-framed photograph of a mining explosion in a super-pit, hanging above the flywire kitchen sink. So it was a really interesting pilgramage back to the place where I was born, he says.

Once I got to Broome I was there for a week before I was booking work within WA.

As things panned out, he never got to use his new Security certificate -and given his rising star status it probably wont be needed anytime soon.

Ive got a few different options if things dry up!

Mystery Road: Origin airs 8:30pm Sundays on ABC.
Famed comedy actor Larry Storch, best known for F Troop, has died, aged 99.

His family released a statement, saying, It is with the heaviest of hearts that we share with you the news our beloved Larry passed away in his sleep overnight. We are shocked and at a loss for words at the moment. Please remember he loved each and every one of you and wouldnt want you to cry over his passing. He is reunited with his wife Norma and his beloved F Troop cast and so many friends and family.

Storch played Corporal Randolph Agarn on F Troop, for its two seasons from 1965  1967 but it lived on in syndication for decades, including playing look-alike Agarn cousins Lucky Pierre from Canada, Dmitri Agarnoff from Russia and Pancho Agarnado (and even his sister, Carmen) from Mexico. He was nominated for an Emmy for comedy actor in F Troop in 1967, but lost to friend Don Adams.

He featured on The Ghost Busters, The Love Boat, Car 54, Where Are You?, On Married With Children, I Dream of Jeannie, That Girl, Fantasy Island, Columbo, Mannix, Get Smart, Gilligans Island, Love American Style, Laugh-In, Sonny and Cher, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and his own The Larry Storch Show.

Born in New York, Storch went to high school with Get Smart star Don Adams, with whom he remained friends for life. He left high school to work as a stand up comedian, then served in the U.S. Navy where he was shipmates with Tony Curtis.

His film credits included The Great Race, Aiport 1975, The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington and there was also voice work on Merlin the Magic Mouse, Cool Cat, The Brady Kids, Tennessee Tuxedo and The Pink Panther Show.

Source: Variety
Newly-appointed Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has thrown his hat into the ring for Tory leader, joining his predecessor Rishi Sunak, and becoming the second Cabinet minister to declare their ambition in the space of an hour.

The former education secretary is the third serving Government minister to kick off their campaign for the leadership, after Mr Shapps and Attorney General Suella Braverman announced their intentions to run.

Earlier, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that after careful consideration and discussion with colleagues and family, he would not stand to be party leader and the next prime minister.

In addition to Mr Zahawi, Mr Shapps, Mr Sunak, and Ms Braverman, ex-minister Kemi Badenoch and senior Tory Tom Tugendhat have launched their own bids, with further announcements anticipated over the coming days.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is widely expected to stand, with the Mail on Sunday reporting she will seek to advocate classic Conservative principles, and could declare her candidature as soon as Monday.

The newspaper said her plans including reversing the Governments national insurance rise, cutting corporation tax and introducing measures to ease the cost-of-living crisis.

Other potential front-runners include trade minister Penny Mordaunt and former health secretaries Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt.

Launching his campaign, Mr Zahawi pledged to lower taxes for individuals, families and business, boost defence spending, and continue with education reforms that he started in his previous role.

Born in Iraq to a Kurdish family, the new Chancellor came to the UK as a nine-year-old when his parents fled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

He has often said that his own personal backstory has deeply influenced his view of Britain and he recently spoke of the debt he owed poet Philip Larkin as he improved his English as a teenager.

Mr Zahawi has had something of a tumultuous week  first being promoted to Chancellor following Mr Sunaks resignation on Tuesday, then defending Boris Johnson during a gruelling broadcast round on Wednesday, before publicly calling for him to stand down on Thursday morning.

Story continues

After careful consideration and discussing with colleagues and family, I have taken the decision not to enter the contest for leadership of the Conservative Party. I am very grateful to all my parliamentary colleagues and wider members who have pledged support. 1/2  Rt. Hon Ben Wallace MP (@BWallaceMP) July 9, 2022

The Chancellor is backed by Michelle Donelan, who resigned from the role of education secretary on Thursday  less than 36 hours after accepting it  and former Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis.

In his bid for leader, he said: My aim is a simple one: to provide the opportunities that were afforded to my generation, to all Britons, whoever you are and wherever you come from. To steady the ship and to stabilise the economy.

It was reported on Saturday that Mr Johnson intends to stand down as Prime Minister on Monday in order to run again for Tory leader.

But this suggestion was knocked down by a spokesperson for Mr Johnson as completely untrue.

Tory MP Mark Francois has said he believes at least 12 people will put their names forward.

He told GB News: It looks like this is going to be the Grand National but without the fences, so we are probably heading for at least a dozen candidates at the moment.

Launching his campaign in The Sunday Times, Mr Shapps said he wants to rebuild the economy so it is the biggest in Europe by 2050, and address the cost-of-living crisis.

The newspaper said it is anticipated that he will launch his campaign website, as well as list his supporters, in the coming hours.

Ms Badenoch announced her bid in The Times, with a plan for a smaller state and a Government focused on the essentials.

She is backed by Lee Rowley, the MP for North East Derbyshire, and Tom Hunt, the MP for Ipswich.

Former minister Steve Baker has thrown his support behind Ms Bravermans bid, despite previously saying he was seriously considering putting himself forward for the top job.

Those publicly backing Mr Sunak include Commons Leader Mark Spencer, former Tory Party co-chairman Oliver Dowden, former chief whip Mark Harper, ex-ministers Liam Fox and Andrew Murrison, and MPs Sir Bob Neill, Paul Maynard and Louie French.

Other potential contenders have also received endorsements from Tory ranks, despite not yet launching a bid of their own.

MPs Chloe Smith, Julian Knight and Jackie-Doyle Price have backed Ms Truss, while Gosport MP Dame Caroline Dinenage has declared her support for Ms Mordaunt, and former ministers Chris Philp and Rachel Maclean have said Mr Javid would be their choice for Prime Minister.

The leadership bids to date have coincided with some controversy over the appointment of new ministers to Mr Johnsons caretaker Government.

Im very pleased to be supporting Kemi to become the next Prime Minister. She excites me more than anyone else. I genuinely believe she has the ability to inspire and lead. Unashamedly patriotic, brave and authentic. https://t.co/X7WvNLup6U  Tom Hunt MP (@tomhunt1988) July 9, 2022

Labour shadow minister Steve Reed lashed out at the Conservative Party after Sarah Dines, who reportedly asked an alleged victim of Chris Pincher if he was gay, was made parliamentary under-secretary of state jointly at the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice.

Meanwhile, education minister Andrea Jenkyns has admitted she should have shown more composure after making a rude sign to a baying mob outside Downing Street, prior to her new appointment.

Commons Leader Mark Spencer had said it was up to Ms Jenkyns to justify her actions after the gesture was caught on camera.

Ms Dines said she was honoured by her appointment, while Ms Jenkyns said she was looking forward to working with the team at the Department for Education.

Mr Sunak announced his bid for leader on Twitter on Friday afternoon, saying: Lets restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite the country.

Im standing to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and your Prime Minister.



Lets restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite the country. #Ready4Rishi



Sign up  https://t.co/KKucZTV7N1 pic.twitter.com/LldqjLRSgF  Ready For Rishi (@RishiSunak) July 8, 2022

The absence of a clear front-runner in the leadership race has tempted a number of less-fancied contenders to step forward, with backbencher John Baron saying he will be taking soundings over the weekend.

Tory MP and newly-appointed minister Rehman Chishti also confirmed on Saturday he is actively considering running for the post.

As candidates have started to make their move, Tory MP Sir Charles Walker said it is incumbent on those running for leader that they dont knock lumps out of each other.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks to the media from his residence Friday after former premier Shinzo Abe was fatally shot. (Eugene Hoshiko / Associated Press)

Friday's shocking assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in one of the world's safest countries stunned the world and drew condemnation, with Iran calling it an act of terrorism" and Spain slamming the cowardly attack."

Abe, 67, was shot from behind in Nara in western Japan while giving a campaign speech. He was airlifted to a hospital but was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was pronounced dead later at the hospital. Abe was Japans longest-serving leader before stepping down in 2020 for health reasons. Police arrested a suspect at the scene.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events, called the shooting dastardly and barbaric.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, speaking with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers at a trilateral meeting in Bali, said Abe's assassination was profoundly disturbing and a "personal loss for so many people.

For the United States, Prime Minister Abe was an extraordinary partner and someone who clearly was a great leader for Japan and the Japanese people," Blinken said, adding that Abe, during his time in office, "brought the relationship between our countries  the United States and Japan  to new heights.

Leaders from Turkey to Singapore condemned the attack, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the shooting despicable.

Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper printed an extra edition on the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday. (Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press)

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted his deepest condolences to his family and the people of Japan at this difficult time.

This heinous act of violence has no excuse, he added.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's office cited him as saying that the shooting that led to Abes death was an intolerable criminal act.

Iran condemned the shooting as an act of terrorism.

As a country that has been a victim of terrorism and has lost great leaders to terrorists, we are following the news closely and with concern, Irans Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.

Story continues

People in Japan could be seen reading extra editions of newspapers with Abe's picture large on the front page, or stopping to watch the news on TV.

Public broadcaster NHK aired dramatic video of Abe giving a speech outside of a train station in the western city of Nara. He is standing, dressed in a navy blue suit, raising his fist, when a gunshot is heard. Video then shows Abe collapsed on the street.

In a trip to Berlin in 2007, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reviews an honor guard with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a welcoming ceremony. (Markus Schreiber/Associated Press)

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was visiting her Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, on Friday in Sydney when they learned of the shooting. Ardern said she was deeply shocked.

He was one of the first leaders I formally met when I became prime minister. He was deeply committed to his role, and also generous and kind. I recall him asking after the recent loss of our pet when I met him, a small gesture but one that speaks to the kind of person he is," Ardern said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Abe was one of Australia's closest friends and a giant on the world stage," adding that "his legacy was one of global impact, and a profound and positive one for Australia. He will be greatly missed."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Saturday a day of national mourning as a mark of deep respect for Abe.

"Mr. Abe made an immense contribution to elevating India-Japan relations to the level of a special strategic and global partnership. Today, whole India mourns with Japan and we stand in solidarity with our Japanese brothers and sisters in this difficult moment, Modi said.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose time in office from 2005 to 2021 largely overlapped that of Abe, said she was deeply shocked and devastated by the news that he had died of injuries inflicted in a cowardly and vile assassination hours earlier.

My first thoughts are with his wife and family, she said in a statement. I grieve with them. I wish them comfort and support.

Taiwan's government said that Abe spared no effort to push for the progress of Taiwan-Japan relations for many years, noting Abe's push amid the COVID-19 pandemic for the Japanese government to donate vaccines to Taiwan.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Italy was embracing Abes family, the government and the Japanese people.

Italy is distraught over the terrible attack against Japan and its free, democratic debate. Abe was a great protagonist of Japanese and international political life in recent decades, thanks to his innovative spirit and reformist vision, Draghi said in a statement.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said China expressed its sympathies for Abe's family.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
PokerNews Becomes the Official Media Partner of Dusk Till Dawn

July 09 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor

PokerNews and Dusk Till Dawn have entered an exclusive partnership that sees PokerNews become the official media partner and live reporting team for Dusk Till Dawn events. Dusk Till Dawn is affectionately known as the "Home of British Poker" and has a glowing reputation for running some of the most prestigious live events in the industry, while PokerNews is the market leader for poker news content and live reporting services. Some may say this partnership is one made in heaven.

In addition to PokerNews being your first port of call for everything that is happening at Dusk Till Dawn, visitors to the Home of British Poker will see PokerNews branding on the club's poker tables.

Dusk Till Dawn owner Rob Yong is looking forward to promoting poker with PokerNews.

"DTD has had a long-standing relationship with PokerNews for many years, they have always been supportive of our Club, our global events, and the poker community. I am very happy that we have agreed to formalize this going forward and do more together to promote poker, especially in relation to grassroots UK-wide poker in addition to major events such as the Mediterranean Poker Party."

PokerNews Senior Commercial Manager Ben Cundall is excited about what the partnership will bring.

"It was a no-brainer for us to partner up with Dusk Till Dawn and offer live reporting at DTD events. Rob Yong has a proven record of hosting and organizing some of the most prestigious events in the world and we cant wait to be there to share them with you."

PokerNews and Dusk Till Dawn Gear Up For The Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party

Your first chance to see the new partnership is only weeks away at the Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party. Taking place at the luxurious Merit Royal Diamond Hotel in North Cyprus, a brand-new resort complete with a 200-table capacity poker room, between August 19 and September 18, the Mediterranean Poker Party sees several major live poker tours come together in one exciting poker festival, a series that is truly for the players.

The Eurasian Poker Tour (EAPT), iconic Italian live poker brands La Notte Degli Assi and La Casa Delle Carte, Ladies First, the Malta Poker Festival, and theIrish Open complement the Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party's bustling schedule.

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Credit: PA Images

England head coach Eddie Jones was delighted to silence his critics after the tourists saw off Australia 25-17 at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.

The victory to make it 1-1 in the series means next weeks match in Sydney will be a decider. However, England will be without the injured Maro Itoje.

Talismanic lock Itoje was concussed after colliding with Wallabies centre Hunter Paisami in the first period and will now miss the winner-take-all clash.

Discussing their victory on Saturday, head coach Jones could not hide his delight at winning at the Brisbane venue, a stadium that he is a huge fan of.

Needle with the crowd

I love coaching at Suncorp Stadium, its a good experience, said Jones.

You have got 48,000 people all full of drink and all they want to see is their team win. When you turn them away, its a great experience. A great feeling.

I was coming out from the coaches box and they all have their scarves on. When did Australians start wearing scarves? Its all the rage isnt it? They are not so smart now.

Before the game they are coming up saying to me you are going to get belted tonight. Now they are a little bit more quiet. So thats good. I enjoy that.

The win helps silence several of Jones doubters and the England boss was pleased about that, speaking about some interesting phone calls hes been having.

I like it. I think it is fantastic, he said about the pressure he is under. I love my mother ringing me up in the morning saying are you going to get sacked? When do you have to move? Are you going to come back to Australia? Come back and live in Randwick.

I love that. My poor mother. But I dont mind it because I have made the choice to take the job and thats always going to happen because theres infatuation with sacking coaches now isnt there?

Test of depth coming

Meanwhile, Australia head coach Dave Rennie admitted a sluggish start to the fixture cost them dearly in Brisbane and knows the decider will test their depth.

Story continues

We lost the collisions early, they chocked us in our half for the first 30 minutes and we fell 17-0 behind, he said.

When we played territory and got them down the right area of the field we could apply heat.

We got to 22-17 and we had all the momentum, but you have to give them the credit. We have to look at our discipline and start better.

Next Saturday is a decider and guys are playing for their country. Weve got depth and that will be tested.

READ MORE: July internationals: England withstand Australia comeback to level series

The article England: Eddie Jones delighted to silence critics but tourists dealt blow as Maro Itoje out of series decider with Australia appeared first on Planetrugby.com.
Pham Quang Thai, head of the northern regional office of the National Expanded Programme on Immunisation (NEPI). Photo suckhoedoisong.vn

Viet Nam has recorded new cases of mild Omicron BA.5 variant and experts are worried it could become more and more predominant. To better understand the effectiveness of vaccination against COVID-19, Pham Quang Thai, head of the northern regional office of the National Expanded Programme on Immunisation (NEPI) talks to Suc khoe&oi Song (Health and Life) online newspaper about the issue.

How long must one wait to get the third and fourth shots of COVID-19 vaccine after getting the second dose? If the scheduled vaccination date is coming up and you have COVID-19, should you get the vaccine and how should it be given?

To avoid confusion when it comes to booster shots, we separate into basic doses (1, 2 or 3 doses depending on the type of vaccine and subject to injection) and booster doses. The third dose of COVID-19 vaccine is understood as the first booster shot. The fourth dose is the second booster shot.

The first and second booster shots of COVID-19 vaccine (equivalent to the third and fourth injections or fourth and fifth injections depending on the subject) help maintain a high level of immunity for adults who have received the full basic doses.

The first booster shot and second booster shot can be used with the same injectable vaccine as the basic dose, or with mRNA vaccine or AstraZeneca vaccine if given in combination. It should be noted that the interval between this first booster injection and the last basic injection is at least three months. The second booster shot must be four months after the first booster shot. Particularly for the second booster, it should be three months from the point of time that one has COVID-19. This is not the case with the first booster shot.

The booster dose for Moderna vaccine is 0.25ml (half of the basic dose); for other types of vaccines, same as basic doses according to manufacturer's instructions.

For the elderly and people with certain medical conditions, is there anything they should do differently?

With the current situation of COVID-19 pandemic in Viet Nam and the implementation of the third dose injection reaching a rate of over 65 per cent in people aged 18 years and older, facing the risk of a new pandemic wave, it is very necessary to administer second booster injections for at-risk group of people to reduce the risk.

Currently, many people are confused between the additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine and the third dose (first booster). Additional vaccines are recommended for immunocompromised subjects or for those receiving vaccines where evidence suggests that additional vaccination is required to achieve baseline immunity (eg, Vero Cell vaccine, Sputnik V).

Particularly with the second booster injection (shot number four), it will be especially useful for people who are 50 years of age and older, people aged 18 years and older with moderate to severe immunodeficiency, people aged 18 and over are in high-risk groups of exposure to COVID-19 such as health workers, frontline officials (police force, army, teachers, people working in the transportation sector, etc.), people providing essential services, people working at tourist service establishments, trade centres, supermarkets, wet markets, workers, people working in industrial parks.

The guidance in the latest document of the Ministry of Health states that the injection of an additional dose (this dose is not the third dose) is for those of 18 years old or older, and having moderate and severe immunodeficiency such as adults receiving active cancer treatment for tumours or blood cancers; organ transplant recipients who are taking immunosuppressive drugs; people receiving T-cell antibody receptor therapy (a type of treatment that helps the immune system attack and destroy cancer cells) or have a stem cell transplant (within the past two years); people with moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (eg, DiGeorge syndrome, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome); people with advanced or untreated HIV; People who are on active treatment with corticosteroids or high-dose immunosuppressive drugs; and people who have received the full basic dose of Sinopharm vaccine (Vero cell) or Sputnik V vaccine.

Many people think that they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 with the first, second and third doses, plus the fact that they have been infected with COVID-19 recently, so they do not need the fourth dose of the vaccine. What are your thoughts on this?

The COVID-19 treatment management system of the Ministry of Health has recorded more than 40,000 deaths, most of these have not been vaccinated against COVID-19. A small proportion of these deaths are those who had received one or two doses of vaccine but have not received the third dose. This data once again confirms the need for a first booster shot for those who have completed the basic injections.

In theory, after recovering from COVID-19, the body will have antibodies to fight the virus that causes the disease. However, the reality is that not everyone has good enough antibodies because the infection with the virus is different depending on the strain, the infection situation, the degree of infection and the characteristics of the body.

There are quite a few cases of infection and re-infection because the antibodies produced are not good enough or the first infection is only transient and then the infection becomes severe again.

In addition, scientific evidence shows that when one had been infected, then vaccinated, the protective antibodies produced will be much higher and contribute to limiting reinfection as well as limiting post-COVID conditions. This is the reason why even though the patient has recovered, the patient is still advised to continue the vaccination to complete the injection regimen.

The third and fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccine will restore immunity, maintain protection against the risk of SARS-COV-2 virus infection because among people who have received the basic doses and have COVID-19 infection, immunity starts to decrease at 10-19 weeks post-injection, or about three to four months after the injections.

The results of a study in France showed that if given a booster dose, these people were protected from re-infection by up to 81 per cent. Research results in the United States show that among people who have had COVID-19 with only two doses, the effectiveness of preventing re-infection is 34.6 per cent, but if given a booster dose, this effect figure is up to 67 ,6 per cent.

For children over 12 years old, is there any difference when getting the third dose of COVID-19 vaccine?

According to the document by the Minister of Health, the booster dose for children aged 12-17 will be Pfizer shots (Comirnaty), and will be administered five months after the second dose.

The dosage is 0.3ml, the same as the standard dose in the primary course for this age group.

Booster shots can be delayed by three months after a COVID-19 infection. VNS
Waco Independent School District employees looking for mental health support can draw upon an in-district professional counselor this school year thanks to a collaboration between the district and Ascension Medical Group Providence.

The collaboration, funded through federal COVID-19 relief money, will place a licensed professional counselor from Providence at the Greater Waco Advanced Health Care Academy, 7200 Viking Drive, for the next three years. Ascension Providence interviewed and hired Houston counselor Tyler Tomek for the position, and he will start July 25.

Waco ISD Superintendent Susan Kincannon said the idea of an in-district counselor came from discussions between district and Ascension officials about a year ago when the two organizations were looking at responses to COVID-19 and its impact on district employees and students.

The in-house counselor will provide individual and group counseling, behavioral health screenings, expedited referrals, staff training and support in crisis situations. The services will be free for Waco ISD employees.

Details such as how employee visits would be scheduled, given that many in the district are required to be on their campuses for most of the school day, or how an employee could cover multiple visits required for some counseling and therapy are yet to be determined.

We havent figured that out yet.  Its obviously something weve never done, Kincannon said.

She said she is confident the district could find ways to accommodate employees wanting to take advantage of the mental health support services.

Having a licensed counselor as a district resource could provide opportunities for small group or campus workshops in mental health self-care, Kincannon said. The counseling project will report to the districts assistant superintendent for student services and support.

A press release announcing the in-district counselor says Tomek has eight years experience including private practice, intake and outpatient services. He specializes in issues of depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem and major life transitions.

Were excited to be providing this service, Kincannon said.
Brushfire risks persist and a burn ban remains in effect as drought conditions in McLennan County and surrounding areas continue and deepen.

McLennan County Judge Scott Felton signed a fresh burn ban Tuesday, which will remain in effect, unless extended, for 90 days or until the county is no longer in a drought, whichever comes first. A ban on the sale or use of fireworks that went into effect ahead of the July Fourth holiday will run for the same timeframe as the burn ban, County Administrator Dustin Chapman said by email.

The burn ban map from the Texas A&M Forest Service showed 195 out of 254 counties across the state had burn bans in effect as of Friday.

Far western McLennan County has entered exceptional drought, the most severe condition reported on the U. S. Drought Monitor, with most of the county in severe drought and a band of extreme drought, the second most severe condition, in between, said Ryan Dirker, assistant emergency management coordinator for Waco and McLennan County.

Dry conditions of the soil and vegetation yield much dry fuel, Dirker said. Combined with the high temperatures and low humidity, only a spark is needed to start a grass fire, he said.

The public should remain vigilant, Dirker said.

Dirkers recommendation echoes a statement from the Texas A&M Forest Service about a brush fire that forced the evacuation of homes Thursday near Walnut Springs in Bosque County.

Residents should remain alert to fire dangers over the next couple days, forest service spokesperson Kiley Moran said in the statement.

Several local fire departments and the forest service brought the Bosque County fire, named the Hard Castle Fire, to 45% containment, allowing residents of ten homes southeast of Walnut Springs to return to their properties at about 9 p.m. Thursday, Moran said in a statement Friday. Walnut Springs is about 60 miles northwest of Waco.

The order to evacuate those homes came at approximately 4:20 p.m. and was lifted around 9:00 p.m., Moran said by email. Walnut Springs was under pre-evacuation, meaning they shouldve been prepared to leave if the need arose.

As of Friday at about 4:15 p.m. the forest service reported the fire was 50% contained and had burned 600 acres and one structure.

This fire emerged Wednesday as a rekindling of a fire previously contained Tuesday, Moran said.

With the current drought and favorable conditions for fire it did not take long for the spot fire to grow, he said. Aviation assets dropped many loads of water and retardant trying to slow it down but were unsuccessful at directly attacking (the fire).

The firefighting effort involved putting down retardant and making dozer lines ahead of the fire, then burning off the vegetation between the fire and the retardant line, Moran said. This tactic proved to be successful, and the forward progression was stopped, allowing the evacuation order to be lifted.

The Hard Castle Fire, together with a brush fire in Coryell County this week, three dozen small fires in Bell County following July Fourth and a fire in Waco that burned 51 acres June 24, should remind people to be vigilant of the dangers of brushfires and grass fires, Dirker said.
Growing up in the car mecca of Detroit, David Rhoten was raised to build and race cars.

He began building and modifying cars growing up, and started racing when he was 18. Twelve years ago, he built a garage in Hewitt so he could work on personal projects and help out friends with their car modifications. In March, he opened So-Cal Speed Shop, located across from Magnolia Market at the Silos, to create a cashflow and brand to support his efforts building and modifying race cars.

So-Cal has also been hosting car shows. Rhoten said he plans to hold them monthly at the shop in order to bring Wacos car community together, which he said is strong, but currently a little under the radar. Last months show and one Saturday each brought about 30 hot rods and their owners to the shop to compete for trophies built from car parts.

The first So-Cal Speed Shop opened in 1946 in California, and now has four locations: Upland, California; Las Vegas; Surrey, British Columbia, Canada; and Waco. Rhoten said he took a car he built to Las Vegas last year for a car show and to race it and went to the So-Cal in Vegas to buy parts, where he met the stores owners.

Rhoten said he hit it off with the owners, and it appealed to Rhoten that the family who started the shop in Vegas still owned it. Rhoten said opening a shop like So-Cal was never something he had thought about, until meeting the Vegas owners and after his wife suggested bringing So-Cal to Waco.

Rhoten would then turn around and find a location in Waco, opening the shop only a few months after meeting the owners in Vegas.

It was my gut, Rhoten said, explaining what led him to want to open a So-Cal in Waco. Theyre super cool dudes, we all became really close friends. We went to So-Cal to get some parts, and (my wife) was like, You should open one of these. I gave them a call, and theyre like, Cool. Do it.

The shop sells car parts as well as So-Cal merchandise, including hoodies, T-shirts, mugs and stickers. Rhoten said the shops location, on the edge of downtown next to Magnolia Market, is perfect for selling merchandise, which helps him supplement his income to pursue his true passion and part of his work with So-Cal: building and modifying race cars.

Most of the work gets done at Rhotens garage in Hewitt, which often has a few cars sitting in and around it. Outside, there is a shell of an old Ford racing coupe from the 1940s and the frame of the car, each sitting separately. Inside, a couple of cars  ongoing projects  rest on lifts, and car parts line the shelves.

Rhotens specialty is upgrading classic cars to make them race-ready. At his shop, he works on his own personal projects and does modifications for friends, as well as cars with smaller tuning or suspension issues that customers bring to So-Cal.

On the cars he builds for racing, Rhoten said often the only thing that remains when he is finished is the cars exterior, and even that may have been changed as he adds things such as additional exhaust ports. Rhoten installs new motors, new gear shifters and buttons, new seats, roll cages and occasionally even installs hydraulics systems.

All of this ensures the cars have up-to-date technologies, while keeping the vintage exterior maintains the classic look and feel of the cars. Rhoten said he tries to get out to a track in Temple to race his custom cars about once a week.

Racing starts with building the car, Rhoten said. I love to work on them and create them, and then we go to the track and race them and break them and then do it again. At the track, when you get in the car, and you got to do a burnout, you pull up to the line and tip off. As you do the burnout, everything else is gone. Theres one thing you got to do: get to the end.

Racing is just one way Rhoten engages with the local car community in Waco. While Rhoten said the community is strong, it is not as visible as in other places. For Rhoten, the car community itself is just as important to his love of cars as building them.

Theres just a tremendous amount of knowledge and resources here to build race cars and in cars in general, Rhoten said. Texas is a huge melting pot of car culture. We got low riders, drag races and big circle track races. Theres a ton of drag strips here. Street racing is a big thing.

By hosting car shows at So-Cal, he hopes to provide a place for the community he loves to come together.

Id like to try to create a place where everybody kind of can meet up, or if you need some parts, come up here and holler at us, Rhoten said.

Carter Blom is a Baylor sophomore from San Diego who assists Rhoten in modifying cars for So-Cal. He got into building cars with his dad and stepdad and built a 1927 Dodge roadster in high school. Blom met Rhoten while he was trying to register his Dodge in Texas and searching for a spot to park it. Rhoten offered him a spot on the floor in the shop, where the roadster is on display, and offered Blom a job working on cars.

I get to do what I enjoy every day. Its fun, Blom said.

On the car community in Waco, Blom said it is smaller than his home in Southern California, which has a big car culture, but is still full of great people.

Once you kind of establish yourself and you know a few people, everyones super nice and welcoming, Blom said.

Car enthusiasts Raymond Schimschat and Clayton Pruitt brought their white Mustangs, a 1985 and a 2002, respectively, to the show on Saturday. Both did extensive modifications to the cars themselves and bring them around to a number of car shows and meets with their local Mustang club, Wild Side Stangs.

The car community, you got the brotherhood, Pruitt said. Everyone is interested in the same thing. So you got a lot of different stuff.

Schimschat said the shows are also a way to show off the hard work that goes into modifying cars.

A lot of people dont realize how much blood, sweat and tears goes into most of these cars, Schimschat said.

Car enthusiast Johnny Matthews brought the only pickup truck in the show, driving in from China Spring. He said he began building the custom truck as a way to honor his late father, as the truck, a 1971 Chevrolet C-10, was the same model his dad drove while teaching Matthews how to drive as a teenager.

That did something to remind me of my dad. Every time Im driving it, Im thinking about him, Matthews said. Were just now getting (the truck) out and showing it around. Everybody at car shows are very friendly; theyre super nice.

By opening So-Cal, Rhoten said he is now able to have a place to bring car enthusiasts together, do more modifications and have a little revenue stream. But at the end of the day, it is not about money. Building race cars is what he loves, and he would do it for free if he could.

Every day, 10-5, Im at the shop, Rhoten said. I go home, eat, hang out with the kids. Then from 7-10, Im back here in the garage, working on cars.
Spring Valley lane closed

The Texas Department of Transportation will close one lane of Spring Valley Road in Hewitt from Judy Drive to Westhill Drive on Monday and Tuesday to install drainage structures. Flaggers will be in place to direct traffic through the one-lane, two-way configuration. Motorists should expect delays in the area.

The closure and roadwork are part of TxDOTs project that will reconstruct Farm-to-Market Road 2113, of widening the pavement to include 10-foot-wide shoulders and a 14-foot-wide continuous left turn lane.

City cooling center

The city of Waco and WacoMcLennan County Office of Emergency Management are offering a cooling center from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday at the Sul Ross Community Center, 1414 Jefferson Ave.

Cold bottles of water and chairs will be provided.

Stargazing party July 23

Waco Mammoth National Monument, 6220 Steinbeck Bend Drive, will host a stargazing party from 8 to 10 p.m. July 23. The event is free, but space is limited. To reserve space, email waco_info@nps.gov.

Retired park ranger Larry Smith, a dark sky expert, will be the host. Visitors can view stars, planets and much more. Participants should dress appropriately for the weather and wear comfortable shoes. Flashlights are recommended. Lights with a red filter are preferable.

Film festival screening

Deep in the Heart Film Festival will screen the short film A Little Dead at 8 p.m. July 23 at the Waco Hippodrome, 724 Austin Ave., as part of the festivals Saturday Night Fright block of short films. It is a suspense/horror film with strong mental health themes throughout.

General admission tickets are $10, $5 for students and military members.
For David Rabbit Kendrick, the COVID-19 pandemic presented unexpected challenges and setbacks.

I got into in a little bit of trouble and wound up in prison, Kendrick said. I did my time and did my probation.

Fighting back tears as he described a difficult few years Friday at Project Homeless Connect, Kendrick said he was diagnosed with stage two stomach cancer several months ago and also battles with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Kendrick said he has turned to his aunt, a former teacher in Waco, who has helped him through this challenging time.

Shes helping me get my disability and all of that, Kendrick said. That way I can actually get off the streets and get what I got to get done.

He said he is also taking advantage of all of the services offered at Fridays Project Homeless Connect event at the Waco Convention Center. The Heart of Texas Homeless Coalition and several other local entities organize the event twice a year, bringing a range of service providers together in one place.

Kendrick gravitated to the free haircuts offered by Jona Finstad.

Finstad trimmed Kendricks hair down to a small piece in the back, which they called his lucky rabbit foot. Finstad runs Hair to Dye For by Jona, at Hair Fx Studio, 2507 Behrens Circle, in Bellmead. Finstad said she volunteers locally with the Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness program but Friday was her first time at the Project Homeless Connect event. She said this event is beyond important for people battling homelessness and home instability.

The homeless community (doesnt) have money to get haircuts and blankets. They dont have money to get anything, so why not give back? Finstad said. Ive been in their shoes, I was homeless. I went into a shelter and it humbled me. So, thats why I do it.

Finstad was splitting rent with a roommate who left unexpectedly, leaving her with an apartment she could not afford.

So instead of going back to my family and being a burden on them, I stayed in a hotel room for about two weeks, Finstad said. Then I entered Compassion Ministries and I was there for about five months. I was then able to save up my money and get another apartment.

Compassion Ministries is a local nonprofit that offers transitional housing and other services.

McLennan Community College cosmetology student Braydie Barnard said she was previously in the health care field but she decided she wanted to help others in a different capacity.

If you look good, youre going to feel good and youre going to do good, Barnard said. They are going to feel really good and get out there and get jobs and want to do more. I really love that we are doing that and I wish we could do a little bit more.

Heart of Texas Homeless Coalition board Chair Nicole Wiscombe said Little Guys Movers contributed a lot to Fridays event by providing food, drinks and volunteers. Some of the other organizations involved included Family Abuse Center, Salvation Army, Mission Waco and McLennan Community College, in addition to local health care providers and churches.

We have been involved with the Homeless Coalition and Homeless Connect for about six years, maybe more, Woodway First United Methodist Church member Ruth Smith said.

Before the event each year, she and other church members ask the Homeless Coalition what items are needed, and they try their best to provide them, Smith said.

This year, the churchs donations included sunscreen, bicycle locks, hygiene items and handmade mats. The mats were made from plastic bags that were cut up and crocheted together.

Its an effort from the church, Smith said. When we ask for things, its just phenomenal how much people bring and want to help.

Wiscombe said homelessness has become more visible in recent years because of the rising tourism in Waco, not necessarily because of an increase in the number of people facing homelessness.

It has always existed here. We average around 200 people a year that we count when we do our annual census, Wiscombe said. Its stayed pretty stable throughout the last five years.

Listening sessions were added to Project Homeless Connect this year, in hopes of helping organizers get a better understanding of what is lacking in the accessibility of resources for the homeless community in Waco. Organizers hope the listening sessions result in better input than small surveys conducted during previous years events.

This year is the first year weve had a listening session led by a peer support specialist, (who) is someone with lived experience of homelessness that now works in the field of ending homelessness, Wiscombe said.

Wiscombe said it is important people remember that homelessness can happen to anyone and can appear in different forms.

You could have someone who loses a job. You could have someone who has a medical crisis and ends up with a lot of hospital bills and not able to work. You could have somebody and their rent went up $500 because of the cost of rising rents in our community, Wiscombe said. Homelessness can look a lot of different ways. Its not one typical stereotype of a person.
Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has struck down a womans constitutional right to autonomy over her own body, the mighty state of Texas is poised to criminalize all abortions within its borders. So eager are Republican lawmakers in our state to send us hurtling back to the days when women couldnt vote, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declared, following the high court ruling and relying on a century-old state law, that all abortions were illegal effective immediately.

Yes, all abortions.

This governmental overreach was smartly blocked by state District Judge Christine Weems in Harris County on June 28, allowing limited abortions to resume in Texas. But even before her ruling was scrapped days later by the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court (and in deference to a dusty 1925 state abortion ban), this temporary reprieve offered little for most girls and women who want or need abortions: Republican lawmakers in Texas had already put in place a more recent ban on abortions six weeks after conception, one that relies on civil action rather than state or county enforcement. These same legislators passed a trigger law banning all abortions without exceptions for rape or incest; it goes into effect 30 days after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. State Rep. Charles Doc Anderson, Waco; state Sen. Brian Birdwell, Granbury; and state Rep. Hugh Shine, Temple  all men and all Republicans  voted for these 2021 bills.

Following formal issuance of the Supreme Court decision overturning abortion as a federally protected right, Rep. Anderson celebrated at a Pro-Life rally outside a local Planned Parenthood clinic. Its 102 degrees in Waco, he told the ebullient summertime crowd. Who would ever think that today would be the day that Roe would burn to the ground?

Lets hope Doc and his Republican cronies feel the heat for their roles in passing this tyrannical legislation next time they run for reelection. Public opinion is not in their favor. Even as national polls over many years have consistently indicated some two-thirds of Americans support Roe, Republican-appointed justices and Republican-dominated state legislatures have ensured Texas women now have fewer rights than their mothers or grandmothers. And despite denials from Republican politicians over the decades that this would never be the case, the state government can now force a woman in Texas to bear the child of her rapist.

The Texas Taliban has taken over.

As these draconian laws go into effect, irreparable physical, mental and social harm will be inflicted on women and their families in Waco and across the state. Individuals and organizations must act quickly to assist Central Texas girls and women who are in immediate need of reproductive health care and who will not be able to attain it from their health care providers in the state. Lives will be lost or shattered; families will be harmed; incomes lost. Women without sufficient financial means will be especially desperate.

Some help is available. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a statement on the day of the Supreme Court decision reminding us of several important legal rights: The Constitution continues to restrict states authority to ban reproductive services provided outside their borders. This means Texas has no legal jurisdiction over abortion providers in, for example, Illinois or Minnesota.

Women who reside in states that have banned access to comprehensive reproductive care must remain free to seek that care in states where it is legal, Garland said. In short, Texans in coming weeks or months can legally travel to other states such as New Mexico or Colorado where abortions remain legal to terminate a pregnancy under those states laws.

Under fundamental First Amendment principles, individuals must remain free to inform and counsel each other about the reproductive care that is available in other states. In other words, Texans or Texas-based entities are guaranteed the right to give advice and guidance on how a woman can receive an abortion elsewhere.

Beyond acts of emergent care for pregnant women by family, friends and experts, all of us can protest this ruling by making sure were registered to vote, then by voting in the midterm elections come November. Two new polls from CBS News/YouGov and NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist suggest Democrats are far more likely to be energized at the polls following the high courts decision to eliminate a womans autonomy over her own body. The NPR polling suggests volatility in the midterms, citing that 78 percent of Democrats say the courts ruling makes them more likely to vote this fall  24 points higher than Republicans asked the same question.

Whether Republican, Democrat or independent, voters should at least demand answers from our lawmakers who just took Texas women back in time. I challenge Anderson, Birdwell and Shine to respond to the following questions:

Should a girl or woman who terminates her pregnancy due to rape or incest be prosecuted?

Should she be imprisoned?

Should a health care provider who performs an abortion to save the life of a mother be prosecuted and, if found guilty, lose his or her license to practice medicine?

Should the father of a child born out of wedlock be legally required to raise and support the child? If so, what bill will you propose to make this a matter of state law?

Should all babies born out of wedlock be given a DNA test to determine paternity?

If you support life after birth, what is your opinion on Gov. Greg Abbotts refusal to accept federal funding for Texans from the Affordable Care Acts Medicaid expansion? According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 34 percent of the uninsured nonelderly adult population in Texas would be provided insurance. Many recipients would be new mothers currently without insurance.

Are you supporting now or do you plan to support bills that would authorize the Texas Rangers or county sheriffs to investigate pregnant women who travel outside the state? Should these agencies have a hotline so friends and neighbors can report pregnant women who travel outside of Texas?

Do you support judges issuing search warrants for phones of pregnant women or previously pregnant women to determine if they have contacted abortion providers or have terminated their pregnancies? Should their mail be searched to determine if they have received pharmaceuticals that would terminate a pregnancy?

Do you support Justice Clarence Thomas opinion in concurring with Justice Samuel Alitos Supreme Court abortion decision that the high court should revisit all cases built on similar legal footing, including cases that guarantee the right to contraception, same-sex consensual sexual relations and same-sex marriage? If yes, what state legislation are you planning to support to terminate these rights?

Mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, grandparents, granddaughters and grandsons all deserve answers to these questions. Yes, it is hot in Waco right now. Doc Anderson is right  a fire is burning. Roe constituted a compromise that balanced two distinct rights  the right of a woman to privacy and autonomy and the right of an unborn child to life. Burning Roe to the ground means torching the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which reads in part: No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.

If anything is truly momentous about this high court ruling, its that America, land of liberty, has turned a shadowy corner and begun stripping away the rights of citizens rather than expanding them in fits and starts over time. Whos next?
High gas prices arent keeping us from hitting the open road. According to the Vacationer, a trip-planning website, roughly 80% of Americans are vacationing by car this summer, up nearly 20% from last year. But wanderlust and a full tank wont get you everywhere. Thats where three new limited series come in handy.

America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston

For those seeking more practical experiences, try America Outdoors With Baratunde Thurston, airing Tuesdays on PBS through the end of August. The amiable host explores familiar territory  but with an emphasis on his search for diversity.

Thurston harvests wild rice with Native Americans and goes birding with Dudley Edmondson, one of the few Black photographers specializing in capturing nature.

When he hits the beach in Los Angeles, its to catch waves with Color the Water, a group consisting mostly of Black surfers that formed in the wake of George Floyds death.

His trip to Idaho, highlighted by a hike with teenage refugees, will make you want to invest in a new pair of boots and start tooling West.

The Great Muslim American Road Trip

The Great Muslim American Road Trip, airing Tuesdays on PBS, shows you how to tailor a journey to your personal tastes.

During their 2,500-mile drive along Route 66, rapper Mona Haydar and husband Sebastian Robins make their fair share of predictable stops, including the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and Cadillac Ranch in Armarillo, Texas. But the couple are most keen on exploring religious touchstones.

They seem to enjoy the Las Vegas Strip, but theyre ga-ga for the Muslim Village just outside of Sin City, where ex-prisoners help feed the homeless.

Along the way, you often feel like youre in the backseat, eavesdropping while they read aloud from Blue Highways or bicker about their marriage. For the most part, theyre good company.

Almost all the places they visit are accessible to viewers.

America the Beautiful

The same cant be said for America the Beautiful, streaming now on Disney+. Most of the sites in this six-parter are within the continental United States but far off the beaten path. And youd need some pretty high-powered equipment  and a whole lot of luck to capture their footage of an alligator snapping at a white-tailed deer in the Louisiana swamps.

The docuseries, narrated by Michael B. Jordan, is less interested in helping you plan your next trip than it is finding comical moments. In an episode focused on the Heartland, aerial cameras attached to jets literally zip over the Badlands so that viewers can spend quality time with prairie dogs. Its a cute choice, but not particularly helpful.

___
by Bryan R. Swopes of This Day in Aviation

On July 8, 1947, the Boeing Model 377-10-19 Stratocruiser flew for the first time with Project Test Pilot John Bernard Fornasero. at its controls. Fornasero had been the co-pilot on the first flight of the XC-97 Stratofreighter, nearly three years earlier.

The Model 377 was a large, four-engine civil transport that had been developed, along with the military C-97 Stratofreighter, from the World War II B-29 Superfortress long-range heavy bomber. It utilized the wings and engines of the improved B-50 Superfortress. The airplane was operated by a flight crew of four. It was a double-deck aircraft, with the flight deck, passenger cabin, and galley on the upper deck and a lounge and cargo compartments on the lower. The airliner was pressurized and could maintain Sea Level atmospheric pressure while flying at 15,500 feet (4,724 meters). The Model 377 could be configured to carry up to 100 passengers, or 28 in sleeping berths.

The Stratocruiser was 110 feet, 4 inches (33.630 meters) long with a wingspan of 141 feet, 3 inches (43.053 meters), and an overall height of 38 feet, 3 inches (11.659 meters). The airliner had an empty weight of 83,500 pounds (37,875 kilograms) and its maximum takeoff weight was 148,000 pounds (67,132 kilograms).

The 377-10-19 prototype was powered by four 4,362.49-cubic-inch-displacement (71.49 liters) air-cooled, supercharged Pratt & Whitney Wasp Major B5 four-row, 28-cylinder radial engines. This engine had a compression ratio of 6.375:1 and required 100/130 aviation gasoline. It had a Normal and Maximum Continuous Power rating of 2,650 horsepower at 2,550 r.p.m., and Take Off Power rating of 3,250 horsepower at 2,700 r.p.m. with water/alcohol injection. The Wasp Major B5 was 4 feet, 6.00 inches in diameter, and 8 feet, 0.75 inches long. The engine weighed 3,490 pounds (1,583 kilograms).

The following production Stratocruisers were equipped with Pratt & Whitney Wasp Major B6 engines rated at 3,500 horsepower at 2,700 r.p.m. (with water/alcohol injection) for takeoff, and a Normal Power of 2,650 horsepower at 2,550 r.p.m., at 5,500 feet (1,676 meters). The Maximum Continuous Power rating for the B6 was 2,800 horsepower at 2,550 r.p.m. at 3,500 feet (1,067 meters). The Wasp Major B6 was 4 feet, 7.00 inches (1.397 meters) in diameter, and 8 feet, 0.50 inches (2.451 meters) long. It weighed 3,584 pounds (1,626 kilograms), dry.

The engines drove four-bladed Hamilton Standard Hydromatic constant-speed propellers with a diameter of 17 feet (5.182 meters) through a 0.375:1 gear reduction. The propeller assembly weighed 761 pounds (345 kilograms).

The 377 had a cruise speed of 301 miles per hour (484 kilometers per hour) and a maximum speed of 375 miles per hour (604 kilometers per hour). During testing by Boeing, a 377 reached 409 miles per hour (658 kilometers per hour). Its service ceiling was 32,000 feet (9,754 meters) and the range was 4,200 miles (6,759 kilometers).

Boeing built 56 Model 377 Stratocruisers, with Pan American as the primary user, and another 888 military C-97 Stratofreighter and KC-97 Stratotankers. Following the flight testing program, NX90700 was brought up to the 377-10-26 standard and placed in service with Pan American World Airways, on October 24, 1950. It was named Clipper Nightingale and registered N1022V. The airliner remained in Pan Am service until 1960 when it was sold back to Boeing.

N1022V was next sold to Rutas Aereas Nacionales, S.A. (RANSA) and converted to a freighter. The new owners named it Carlos. It was re-registered YV-C-ERI. The Stratocruiser was finally retired in 1969 and scrapped.
WATERLOO  The annual Fiesta! celebration was held Thursday through Saturday in downtown Waterloo featuring a showcase of Latino culture on display at the Riverloop Amphitheatre.

Hundreds gathered to partake in the festivities, presented by the Waterloo Center for the Arts, including live music, traditional dance performances, exhibitors, crafts, pinatas, food and childrens activities. WCA also features many Mexican and other Latino folk artworks within its collection.

On Friday, David Pratt gave a lesson in Capoeria, a Brazilian martial art combining dance, acrobatics and musical elements, which he normally teaches at the Royal Legacy Christian Academy in Waterloo.

After that, kids lined up by age groups to each take a turn whacking the pinata to release the treats stuffed inside.

As the sun began to set, the crowd gathered at the amphitheater for the Cinema on the Cedar featured movie, Disneys animated Encanto, projected onto a large inflatable screen.

The family-friendly festival concluded Saturday with a performance by Tropicante Latin Combo headlining the RiverLoop Rhythms concert, featuring Iowa musicians Ed East of Waterloo and Karin Stein of Grinnell.
SALEM, Ore. (AP)  Backers of a proposed initiative in Oregon that would require people to secure permits to buy firearms say concern about recent mass shootings have buoyed their effort and they have enough signatures to place it on the November ballot.

The Rev. Mark Knutson, a chief petitioner of the initiative, delivered signatures Friday afternoon to the Oregon secretary of state's office in Salem, accompanied by students and other volunteers. Election officials, who work under Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, will verify that the signatures are from registered voters.

Proponents of the measure say theyve seen surging interest in the possible November ballot question following recent mass shootings, and they hope the move to put the gun issue before voters catches fire in other states.

Lets go across the nation, and go from grief and despair and mourning," Knutson said. "We just need to take action. If people are afraid, if neighbors are being shot, if our children are in fear  if we dont take action, what are we doing?

The initiative supporters needed to deliver at least 112,080 registered voters signatures by the Friday deadline to get on the ballot, Knutson said. Proponents say they delivered 161,545 signatures.

It would ban large capacity magazines over 10 rounds  except for current owners, law enforcement and the military  and require a permit to purchase any gun. The state police would create a firearms database.

To qualify for a permit, an applicant must complete an approved firearm safety course, pay a fee, provide personal information, submit to fingerprinting and photographing and pass a criminal background check. The person must apply for the permit from the local police chief, county sheriff or their designees.

Oregon appears to be the only state in America with a gun safety initiative underway for the 2022 election, according to Sean Holihan, state legislative director for Giffords, an organization dedicated to saving lives from gun violence.

The National Rifle Associations Institute for Legislative Action has denounced the initiative, saying on its website that these anti-gun citizens are coming after YOU, the law-abiding firearm owners of Oregon, and YOUR guns. They dont care about the Constitution, your right to keep and bear arms, or your God-given right of self-defense.

Voters in two predominantly Democratic neighboring states have already passed gun safety ballot measures.

In 2018, Washington state voters approved restrictions on the purchase and ownership of firearms, including raising the minimum purchasing age to 21, adding background checks and increasing waiting periods. In 2016, voters there overwhelmingly approved a measure authorizing courts to issue extreme risk protection orders to remove an individuals access to firearms.

California voters in 2016 passed a measure prohibiting the possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines and requiring certain individuals to pass a background check to buy ammunition.

The same year, voters in Maine narrowly defeated a proposal to require background checks before a gun sale.
A Missouri resident has been infected by a microscopic organism that causes a rare, life-threatening brain infection after swimming in late June at Lake of Three Fires State Park in Southwest Iowa.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services has closed the Taylor County lake to swimming as officials test for Naegleria fowleri, a single-cell, parasitic amoeba that can cause primary amebic meningoencephalitis.

The brain infection is rare  only 154 cases in the United States since 1962  but its nearly always fatal.

Naegleria fowleri can be present in warm, freshwater lakes and ponds. Infection occurs when water is forced up a swimmers nose and the organism travels to the brain, where it destroys brain tissue, the Health Department reported. The infection cant be spread from one person to another and cant be contracted by swallowing contaminated water.

Its the worst parasite in the world that we know of because it causes such devastating pathology, said Christopher Rice, a research scientist in the Center for Drug Discovery at the University of Georgia, who studies Naegleria fowleri.

The brain infection is difficult to diagnose because it requires a sample of cerebral spinal fluid, Rice said. He believes some deaths attributed to other diseases causing meningitis may actually be caused by this parasite.

Naegleria fowleri can kill you within three days, so the longer it takes for diagnoses it can be time ticking away, he said. There are some drugs available to treat the infection, but they havent proved very effective in the lab, Rice said.

Lake likely source

Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said Friday the infected person is in intensive care at a Missouri hospital. Officials have not disclosed the persons age or gender.

Naegleria fowleri most often infects children or young adults who are swimming and jumping into lakes and ponds, Rice said. Other cases, many in Pakistan, involved middle-age men who use neti pots to rinse out nasal passages.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention informed Missouri officials Wednesday about the exposure, Cox said. Officials believe the person swam at Lake of Three Fires sometime in the last two weeks of June.

Its strongly believed by public health experts that the lake is a likely source, but we are not limiting the investigation to that source and its not confirmed, Cox wrote in an email. Additional public water sources in Missouri are being tested as well.

Algae and bacteria

Lake of Three Fires, about 25 miles east of Clarinda, is an 85-acre lake popular with boaters and anglers, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources reports. The state park was dedicated in 1935 and is named after a group of Native Americans from the Potawatomi tribe, known as the Fire Nation, who once inhabited the area.

The lake has frequently been closed to swimming in past summers because of harmful algae that create toxic microcystins that can sicken swimmers. Algae are fed by phosphorus that washes from farm fields into streams and lakes.

The Iowa DNR issued swim warnings at Lake of Three Fires for three weekends in 2021, with two for E. coli bacteria and one for E. coli and microcystins. In 2020, the state advised against swimming there three weeks because of microcystins.

Algae and bacteria provide a welcoming environment for Naegleria fowleri, which are common in soil and water, Rice said.

We do know the algal blooms and other bacterium do allow the parasite to survive, because thats generally what it feeds on, he said.

No other testing

The CDC is providing the Iowa DNR with equipment to test water at the Lake of Three Fires next week, state Health Department spokeswoman Sarah Ekstrand said Friday.

The CDC will be doing the analysis. The DNR, Iowa HHS and CDC are working closely to coordinate testing and will provide additional updates as test results become available, Ekstrand said. At this time, there are not plans to test other lakes.

It is unlikely Naegleria fowleri would be carried from one water body to another, Rice said, although there is some research about whether it could be spread by other animals, such as birds.

While the brain infection is rare, it causes the following symptoms:

Severe headache

Fever

Nausea

Vomiting

Stiff neck

Seizures

Altered mental status

Hallucinations

People who experience these symptoms after swimming in any warm body of water should contact their doctor immediately, the state advises.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation in Ukraine.

Up to 290 Ukrainian servicemen and 29 units of armoured vehicles and equipment have been destroyed as a result of shelling of positions of 188th Battalion of 123rd Territorial Defence Brigade near Ochakov, Nikolaev Region.

Russian Aerospace Forces have neutralised temporary deployment point of 241st Territorial Defence Brigade near Nikolaev. The attacks have resulted in the elimination of more than 85 nationalists and up to 15 units of AFU weapons and military equipment.

High-precision sea-based weapons near Liman, Odessa Region have destroyed two Harpoon coastal missile systems delivered from the UK.

Russian Aerospace Forces high-precision strike in Kramatorsk has destroyed 2 Tochka-U missile launchers and over 150 nationalists.

6 Grad multiple rocket launchers and 1 ammunition depot have been destroyed in Mayaki, Donetsk Peoples Republic.

Within counter-battery fighting, 4 MLRS and 4 artillery batteries have been suppressed near Novoluganskoe, Semigore, Pershetravnoe, Zaitsevo and Kodema, Donetsk Peoples Republic.

Operational-tactical and army aviation, and missile troops and artillery have hit 156 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration, as well as 1 fuel depot for Ukrainian armoured vehicles in Annovka, Dnepropetrovsk Region.

Russian Aerospace Forces Su-35s have shot down MiG-29 and Su-25 aircraft of Ukrainian air force near Lazarevka, Nikolaev Region.

In addition, Russian air defence means have shot down 1 MiG-29 aircraft of Ukrainian air force near Golubovka, Donetsk Peoples Republic, and 9 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles near Zhovtnevoe, Boldyrevo, Kovalevka, Petrovka, Dolgenkoe, Kapitolovka in Kharkov Region and Kuibyshevo in Kherson Region.

In total, 237 Ukrainian airplanes and 137 helicopters, 1,488 unmanned aerial vehicles, 353 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,964 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 730 multiple launch rocket systems, 3,112 field artillery and mortars, as well as 4,076 units of special military vehicles were destroyed during the operation.

WtR
Happy holiday, Muslims  all the best

Kadyron talks about Eid al-Ada

Today Muslims celebrate one of the main holidays  Eid al-Adha. In all regions of Russia, believers make sacrifices, distribute the meat of sacrificial animals, and meet with their loved ones and relatives.

Of course, today in our country all conditions have been created for Muslims for the full implementation of religious prescriptions. In cities and villages with a Muslim population, adhans sound from the minarets, collective prayers are performed, children have the opportunity to learn the Koran and Sunnah. Of course, the guarantor of this is the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, who in his speeches regularly notes the high importance of Muslims in the life of our country.

Therefore, not only Russian Muslims, but also the leading politicians of Islamic countries are sincerely grateful to Vladimir Putin for his attitude towards the religion of Allah. I was convinced of this during my visit to Mecca, during which I was personally asked to convey words of gratitude to Vladimir Vladimirovich.

Therefore, on this significant day for us, I would like to sincerely congratulate all Muslims on the radiant holiday of Eid al-Adha, express sincere gratitude to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin for his attention and concern for the needs of believers and wish all citizens of our country unity, well-being and prosperity!

Very interesting and just one more reason that Russia is such a well rounded country for many to live in with comfort of their beliefs

WtR

PS: Eid al-Adha honors the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail as an act of obedience to Allahs command

So exactly the same as in Christianity and Abraham was told by God to sacrifice Isaac in an act of obedience
Not that anyone needs an excuse to take a holiday, but researchers in Australia suggest that a break from the daily routine has mental and physical health benefits, including for adults living with dementia.

Medical experts can recommend dementia treatments such as music therapy, exercise, cognitive stimulation, reminiscence therapy, sensory stimulation and adaptations to a patients mealtimes and environment. These are all also often found when on holidays, lead researcher Jun Wen, a lecturer in tourism and hospitality management in the School of Business and Law at Edith Cowan University, said in a statement.

Wen and fellow researchers suggest in a paper published in Tourism Management that travel therapy, like music and art therapy, should be available to adults living with dementia. This research is among the first to conceptually discuss how these tourism experiences could potentially work as dementia interventions, he said.

Although some research has shown tourisms health benefits for people in general, additional research is needed to demonstrate how it can enhance the lives of people living with diseases like dementia and depression, Wen said.

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Tourism is generally considered a form of leisure that liberates people from the everyday. The emotional states, thoughts, and unique memories evoked by tourism have the potential to positively influence the well-being of individuals with dementia, the researchers wrote.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

An Albuquerque man is accused of raping a 13-year-old and possibly her twin sister for over a year  getting one of them pregnant  after meeting them over social media.

Jeremy Guthrie, 41, is charged with criminal sexual penetration and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in the case.

Guthrie has no criminal history, according to online court records, but is charged with raping one girl and suspected of raping her twin and at least one other girl.

Guthrie was arrested by New Mexico State Police on Tuesday after being caught allegedly driving drunk on Interstate 25, near Comanche, with the twins and four other minors in his car.

He is charged with six counts of child abuse, aggravated DWI and having an open container in that incident, which preceded the rape investigation.

Guthrie has been booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court:

State Police pulled over Guthrie around 1 a.m. on I-25, near Comanche, for swerving, and he had six teens with him in the car. Police said he smelled of alcohol, had slurred speech and told them he had drank three beers.

Guthrie allegedly told police he had no children, and the minors were returned to their individual homes.

Later that day, a woman called 911 to report Guthrie had been raping her granddaughter, who was in the car during his arrest. She told police the abuse had been ongoing for at least a year, and Guthrie impregnated the girl when she was 12 and she miscarried.

The twin sisters legal guardians told police a man had picked the girls up and brought them to his house where he gave them alcohol before being arrested for DWI. One of the twins told police she met Guthrie over Snapchat and he had been raping her regularly over a lengthy time span.

She said he recorded at least one of the instances and told her he loved her and her twin sister and was excited that she was pregnant. The girl told police Guthrie has numerous guns and uses methamphetamine and cocaine.

The grandmother told police she believed the girl was currently pregnant with Guthries child, and she also found sexual messages on the other sisters phone from him. She said the girl told her Guthrie raped her sister and another girl, who tried to kill herself afterward.

Police plan to seize Guthries phone and the phones and social media accounts of the twin girls to gather more evidence.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, some New Mexico state employees who have been allowed to work from home are being told to come back to the office, and remote work is no longer being touted in job postings.

But the push to make state workers return to in-person work has not gone totally smoothly as some employees have gotten used to working from home and others say they have been exposed to COVID-19 after coming back to the office.

Micheal Peterson, an information technology employee for the state Department of Health, said he was recently told to return to work in person, even though hes spent most of his 20-year career working remotely. But there was a hitch when he looked into the instructions.

Since Ive been working remotely so long, the place I work at no longer had office space for me, said Peterson, who lives in Bayard and is the Communications Workers of America vice president for the Department of Health.

Some state employees, such as David Dikitolia with the Department of Information Technology, say they dont mind returning to the office.

Theres certain things I like to do face to face, Dikitolia said while waiting for the Rail Runner commuter train in Santa Fe.

Coming back in person, I feel like it restores your work-life balance, added Dikitolia, who said he sometimes logged up to 20-hour workdays at home during the initial stages of the pandemic.

Overall, about 40% of all state employees reported doing at least some remote work  even if just for a few hours  during the states most recent pay period, a spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said.

While the Governors Office says no specific date has been set for any broad changes to an existing telework policy, a state Department of Health official recently told employees they would be expected to show up for in-person work at least 50% of the time.

In addition, State Personnel Director Ricky Serna told state employees and agency heads in a recent memo that telework and alternate work schedules would no longer be mentioned in postings for open jobs.

While he said remote work would continue to be authorized on a case-by-case basis with a supervisors approval, he added that advertising the use of these reporting options suggest they are guaranteed as a condition of employment, according to a copy of the memo obtained by the Journal.

Its really inconsistent

Dan Secrist, president of the local Communications Workers of America union, said unions negotiated the telework policy with the Lujan Grisham administration in June 2021.

As such, any blanket overhaul of the policy without union approval would be a contract violation, he said.

He also said CWA is preparing a complaint with the states Public Employees Labor Relations Board after some union-affiliated employees were told to return to in-person work.

If youre going to rescind telework, youve got to do it on a case-by-case basis and youve got to show a legitimate business reason, Secrist told the Journal.

Its really frustrating at this point, Secrist added. Its really inconsistent.

The telework policy allows state workers to work remotely from home occasionally or entirely, depending on their job duties. Agency heads can rescind or modify an employees telework agreement with adequate notice.

It also requires that employees allowed to work remotely be able to report to their normal worksite on short notice.

While the telework policy remains in place, Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett said Cabinet secretaries are, in fact, assessing how effective remote work has been and could make changes to maximize their operations.

The governors priority is a state government that does everything in its power to serve the public, Sackett said. We are also committed to creating a supportive work environment  the governor is deeply grateful to the thousands of state employees who work every day to serve New Mexicans.

Hard decisions loom

The push to get New Mexicos roughly 17,000 rank-and-file state employees back to work in person comes as many state government agencies are dealing with high vacancy and turnover rates.

As of March, there was a 22.6% average vacancy rate for job positions across state government for the just-ended fiscal year, according to State Personnel Office data, and only 61% of newly hired employees made it through their probationary period.

It also comes as the latest COVID-19 variant continues to spread rapidly across the state  with the statewide test positivity rate at 16.7% as of last week.

As state officials struggle to find the balance between providing public services and ensuring a flexible workplace for state employees, hard decisions loom on both sides.

For instance, Peterson said some state employees moved to other locations within New Mexico  with their supervisors approval  during the pandemic and are not looking to relocate once again.

While waiting for the Rail Runner train this week, one state worker said many employees want to keep working from home.

But another said he volunteered to go back, saying a year of working remotely was enough.
Curfew imposed in several police divisions in Sri Lanka ahead of protest

Xinhua) 10:37, July 09, 2022

COLOMBO, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's police imposed a curfew in several police divisions in Western Province with effect from 9 p.m. local time Friday until further notice.

The police said the curfew was imposed in the Negombo, Kelaniya, Nugegoda, Mount Lavinia, Colombo North, Colombo South and Colombo Central police divisions.

Strict action will be taken on those violating the curfew, the police said.

Traveling through the areas where police curfew is in effect is completely prohibited and police have advised people to use other alternative routes.

A large protest has been organized for Saturday demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa amid an economic crisis in the country.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Bianji)
BATON ROUGE, La.  After polls closed in New Mexicos primary last month, a worker returning ballots and other election materials to the clerks office in Santa Fe was followed by a partisan election observer driving so closely that mere inches separated their bumpers.

The poll worker was so rattled by the ordeal that she said she may not return for the upcoming November election, according to Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark.

The incident is just one of many in which election officials and workers have felt threatened since the 2020 presidential election and the false claims that it was stolen from former President Donald Trump. A federal effort to investigate these threats has so far yielded three prosecutions since it was launched a year ago.

In the meantime, the harassment and death threats havent stopped against those who have pushed back against the false claims. The threats have contributed to an exodus of election officials across the country, particularly at the local level, and made recruiting poll workers even harder  adding to the challenges of conducting smooth elections in the fall.

Im a Republican recorder living in a Republican county where the candidate that they wanted to win won by 2-to-1 in this county and still getting grief, and so is my staff, said Leslie Hoffman, the top election official in Yavapai County, Arizona.

Hoffman announced last week that she was resigning to take another job, saying her decision was motivated largely by the nastiness that we have dealt with. Hoffman said the county elections director left for the same reasons.

On Friday, an official with the U.S. Department of Justice met with state election officials gathered in Louisiana for their summer conference and updated them on the work of a special task force, which was announced a year ago.

Three men have been charged by federal prosecutors, with one of them pleading guilty last month. In that case, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold was the subject of multiple threatening posts on social media.

Griswold said the threats have not stopped. Just last week, a caller to her offices public phone line said: Hey, Ive got a message for the secretary and I want you to pass it along. The angel of death is coming for her in the name of Jesus Christ.

The fact of the matter is theyve only done three prosecutions when we know there are literally thousands and thousands of violent threats going to election workers and secretaries of state, Griswold said. People are using threats as part of the attack on democracy to try to intimidate election workers, to try to intimidate county clerks and secretaries of state, and they are succeeding in some places.

Robert Heberle, deputy chief of the Justice Departments public integrity section, told state election officials Friday that federal investigators are working through each report to determine which cases can be prosecuted. He noted challenges in attributing threats often made anonymously and meeting a legal standard of proving a serious expression of intent to commit an act of unlawful violence.

Heberle walked through a few examples in which threats were hostile but vague and would need additional evidence to prosecute. He encouraged secretaries of state to continue reporting every threat and said that having law enforcement contact those making threats might deter them from doing so again.

I can assure you we take this set of issues, the threats to election workers, to election officials  whether they are elected, appointed or volunteers  incredibly seriously, Heberle said. We understand the gravity of the issue.

He said dozens of cases were still under investigation and more prosecutions were expected.

A survey released earlier this year by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYUs School of Law found one in three election officials knew someone who had left a job in part because of threats and intimidation, and that one in six had experienced threats personally.

Federal and state election officials and Trumps attorney general have said there is no credible evidence the election was tainted. The former presidents allegations of fraud also have been rejected by courts, including by judges Trump appointed.

Experts said it is critical that those making threats are held accountable to deter others from thinking they can do the same.

The steps that the task force has taken, election officials are appreciative. But absolutely there is more to be done, said Liz Howard, a former state election official in Virginia now at the Brennan Center.

Among the recommendations that the Brennan Center has made is to expand the task force to include state and local law enforcement agencies that are typically the first contact for an election official.

A group of former and current election and law enforcement officials recently formed the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, which plans to provide guidance and training for preventing and responding to threats and violence against election officials.

Last month, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission  which distributes federal grants to election offices  said its funding could be used to protect election officials against threats. Legislation has also been pursued at the state and federal level to increase penalties for those targeting election workers.

In Colorado, lawmakers passed a bill that makes it a misdemeanor to release online the personal information of election officials for the purpose of threatening them or their family.

On Capitol Hill, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, held a hearing last year highlighting the threats and urging federal protections for election workers. Klobuchar and other Senate Democrats have sent a letter asking the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to issue a joint announcement to local law enforcement agencies to ensure that they are aware of both the recent increase in these threats against election officials and federal resources for reporting and countering them.

Back in Santa Fe, County Clerk Clark said anxiety remains high among her staff. Employees have been trained on active shooter situations, they have requested bulletproof glass be installed and GPS tracking is used during the transportation of ballot boxes.

While she is concerned about her safety, she says shes not ready to quit or change careers, noting her responsibility to voters who elected her.

My dad served in the military, my grandfather served in the military, Clark said. I dont feel its bad enough yet to feel that my public service is too much.

___

Associated Press writers Bob Christie in Phoenix and Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
NEW YORK  As Donald Trump considers another White House run, polls show hes the most popular figure in the Republican Party. But it wasnt always that way.

Competing at one point against a dozen rivals for the presidential nomination in 2016, Trump won only about one-third of the vote in key early states. He even lost in Iowa, which kicks off the nomination process.

But he prevailed because those in the party who opposed his brand of divisive politics were never able to coalesce around a single rival. That same dynamic could repeat itself as Trump mulls a new bid for the presidency as soon as this summer.

With a growing list of candidates gearing up to run, even a Trump diminished by two impeachments and mounting legal vulnerabilities could hold a commanding position in a fractured, multi-candidate primary.

I fear it could end up the same way as 2016, which basically was everyone thought everyone else should get out, said Republican strategist Mike DuHaime, who advised former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christies campaign that year. I think every major candidate realized that he or she would have a better shot against Trump one-on-one. But of course each person thought he or she should be the one to get that shot and nobody got out of the way.  And then it was too late.

The anxiety is mounting as a growing list of potential rivals take increasingly brazen steps, delivering high-profile speeches, running ads, courting donors and making repeat visits to early voting states.

That group now includes upward of a dozen could-be-candidates, including Trumps former vice president, Mike Pence; his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo; and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Rick Scott of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina. All could run on the former presidents policies.

In the anti-Trump lane, politicians such as Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan are raising their profiles.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is increasingly seen as Trumps heir apparent, even by Trumps most loyal supporters, and viewed by Trump allies as his most formidable potential challenger.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and others have said they will not challenge Trump if he does go forward. But others, including Christie, seem to be gunning for the fight, even if they seem to be long shots.

Im definitely giving it serious thought. Im not gonna make any decision probably until the end of the year, Christie said in a recent interview. He has urged the party to move on from Trump and his ongoing obsession with the 2020 election.

For me, its about the party needing to go in in a new direction from a personality perspective, and to continue to have someone who can bring strong leadership, tough leadership, that the country needs, but doesnt have all of the other drama that goes along with it, he said. Im hearing the same things from donors that Im hearing from voters  that theyre very concerned that we cant put ourselves in a position to have 2024 be about anything but the good of the country.

Pompeo, who has had a busy travel schedule and plans to return to Iowa this summer, said in a recent interview that he has been spending time reading and listening to President Ronald Reagans speeches as he prepares for a possible run.

Were getting ready to stay in the fight, he said last month as he courted evangelical Christians at a gathering in Nashville, Tennessee.

He said he and his wife would sit down after the November elections and think our way through it, pray our way through it, and decide wheres best to serve. It could be presenting ourselves for elected office again. We may choose a different path. But were not gonna walk away from these things that Ive been working on for 30 years now. They matter too much.

Pompeo sketched out a possible approach in much the same mold as Trump.

He was a disruptor that was most necessary in 2016, theres no doubt about that, Pompeo said. And now the task is to take those set of understandings, those set of principles, and defend them and build upon them. And its gonna take a lot of work to do that, leaders of real fortitude and character to do that.

Such open talk comes as Trump faces a cascade of escalating legal troubles.

The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has revealed increasingly damaging information about Trumps final weeks in office. The Department of Justice has its own investigation. In Georgia, the prosecutor investigating Trumps potentially illegal meddling in the states 2020 election has stepped up her inquiry by subpoenaing members of Trumps inner circle. In New York, Trump, his namesake son and his daughter Ivanka have agreed to answer questions under oath beginning next week in the state attorney generals civil investigation into his business practices.

Mick Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman who served as Trumps acting White House chief of staff, said the moves suggested potential candidates might see an opening where none existed two months ago.

Trump fatigue might be a real thing, he said, with voters asking themselves whether, if they vote for another candidate, they can get the same policies without all the baggage.

At the same time, Trump has seen some of his endorsed primary candidates falter. Those who have won, including Senate hopefuls JD Vance in Ohio and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, have done so with about 30% of the vote, meaning that two-thirds of party voters went against Trumps picks.

I dont think anybody underestimates Trump. Theres a reason hes the most sought-after endorsement in every single Republican primary, said GOP strategist Alex Conant. That said, I think theres a recognition that a lot of Republican voters are looking to the future and ready for whats next.

To what extent remains an open question. During a trip to Iowa this week, Cotton declined to weigh in on Trumps standing. But the senator said he hoped to be an effective national leader, not only for my party but for the American people in my role in the Senate and any other future role I might serve.

Still, Cotton argued, candidates should embrace Trumps legacy.

I know that Donald Trump is very popular among our voters who appreciate the successes he delivered for four years in a very hostile environment. They dont want Republicans who are running against that legacy, because they view that legacy as a great success, he said Thursday in Cambridge, Iowa.

Trump continues to move forward with his own events.

On Friday night, he campaigned in Las Vegas alongside Adam Laxalt, his pick for Nevada Senate. And on Saturday night, he planned a rally in Anchorage, Alaska, to campaign with Kelly Tshibaka, whom he has endorsed in her race against Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and others, including former Gov. Sarah Palin, now running for Congress.

Conant said it made sense for candidates to continue testing the waters for now.

A lot of potential candidates are realizing that 2024 may be their last best chance, regardless of what Trump does, he said. Theres a very vulnerable Democrat in the White House, Republicans seem likely to win, and if its not Trump, theyre basically sidelined for the next 10 years.

Still, Conant, who served as communications director to Florida Sen. Marco Rubios 2016 presidential bid, noted the similarities.

It looks like its increasingly clear theres going to be a lot of people running for president. And while I think theres an appetite for something different, the alternative to Trump needs to coalesce around one candidate, he said. That never happened in 2016. And it might not happen in 2024.

__

Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Steve Peoples contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  It would have been something never quite before seen in America  a defeated president, Donald Trump, standing at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with a mob of supporters, some armed, contesting the election outcome.

Trump intended to go there that day. His allies had been planning for the moment, envisioning the president delivering a speech outside the building or even entering the House chamber amid objections to Congress certifying the 2020 election results for Democrat Joe Biden.

Hes going to look powerful, mused Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to a young White House aide four days earlier.

But White House lawyers thought it was a terrible idea. Counsel Pat Cipollone warned that Trump could be charged with every crime imaginable if he joined mob on Capitol Hill trying to interfere with the certification.

In the end, Trump never made it to the Capitol on Jan. 6. His security refused to take him as rioters, some with weapons, laid siege to the building.

Furious, and stuck at the White House, Trump watched the insurrection on television.

The Jan. 6 hearings are providing dramatic new insight about Trumps intentions as he told loyalists he would join them on a march down Pennsylvania Avenue to fight like hell for his presidency. This account is drawn largely from the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Her recollections from her close proximity to the president and his inner circle suggest Trumps demands were not the brash desires of an impulsive commander in chief but part of his last-ditch plan for stopping Bidens victory.

Trump and his allies quickly disputed Hutchinsons account, and the former president conducted his own interview days later disparaging her with derisive commentary and nicknames.

This coming week, the committee is set to focus on Trumps own actions and those of the extremist Oath Keepers and Proud Boys in allegedly leading the Capitol attack.

A look at whats known about Trumps plans to join the mob on Jan. 6:

___

JAN. 2

It was a Saturday night. Giuliani had been meeting at the White House with Trumps chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and others.

The White House and Meadows had placed some 18 calls that day to Brad Raffensperger, Georgias secretary of state, before Trump finally got the elections official on the phone.

Trump had been disputing the election results in Georgia, which he narrowly lost. He was demanding that Raffensperger find 11,780 votes, exactly enough to tip the balance from Bidens victory. The engineer-turned-civil servant declined.

As Giuliani left the White House that night, he walked out with Meadows young aide, Hutchinson, a senior adviser.

Cass, are you excited for the 6th? Giuliani asked, as Hutchinson recalled in testimony before the Jan. 6 committee. Its going to be a great day.

Hutchinson had heard discussions about Jan. 6 and the rally being planned outside the White House as Congress was set to certify the election results. She also had heard, when Giuliani was around, mentions of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, two extremist groups.

She looked at Giuliani and asked him to explain.

Were going to the Capitol, Giuliani told her. Its going to be great. The presidents going to be there. Hes going to look powerful.

___

JAN. 3

On Sunday, Cipollone privately raised concerns to Hutchinson about the presidents planned trip to the Capitol.

Cipollone told her there were serious legal concerns if Trump went ahead as Congress was certifying the election. He urged her to relay the concerns to her boss, Meadows.

We need to make sure that this doesnt happen, Cipollone said, according to Hutchinsons testimony. This would be a legally a terrible idea for us. Were  we have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol that day.

That Sunday was a busy day at the White House.

The leaders of Trumps Justice Department were threatening to resign if the president replaced the acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, with a lower-ranked civil division head, Jeffrey Clark, to pursue the electoral challenge.

And that same day, the U.S. Capitol Police issued a special event assessment, noting that the Proud Boys and other groups planned to be in Washington on Jan. 6.

The police assessment indicated that unlike previous post-election protests, the targets of the pro-Trump supporters are not necessarily the counter-protesters but rather Congress itself is the target on the 6th.

___

JAN. 5

On Tuesday, the eve of Jan. 6, according to Hutchinson, Trump asked Meadows to be in touch with two of the presidents associates  Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.

Stone attended rallies for Trump in Washington and was photographed with multiple members of the Oath Keepers who were allegedly serving as his security detail, according to the committee. Both Stone and Flynn invoked their Fifth Amendment rights rather than testify before the committee.

The big Stop the Steal rally was planned for the morning of Jan. 6 near the White House. Meadows spoke with both Stone and Flynn that evening, Hutchinson said. Stone has disputed her account.

Meadows also sought to join Giuliani and others who had set up a war room at the Willard Hotel close to the White House, she testified.

I had made it clear to Mr. Meadows that I didnt believe it was a smart idea for him to go to the Willard Hotel that night, she said.

___

JAN. 6: THE RALLY

The morning of the rally on Wednesday, Jan. 6, Cipollone pleaded once again with Hutchinson to ensure Trump did not head to the Capitol.

Please, he said, make sure we dont go up to the Capitol, Cassidy, she recalled. Were going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.

Hutchinsons desk at the White House was just down the hall from the Oval Office, which was in one corner, and her boss Meadows office in the other. But that day she was with the president backstage as he surveyed the crowd of supporters outside the White House.

Trump was furious.

The crowd was not as full as Trump wanted it. Supporters lingered outside the security screening, unwilling to have their weapons confiscated by the Secret Service to join the main rally area.

Trump ordered his security to get rid of the metal detectors, known as magnetometers, insisting the armed supporters were no threat to him.

The police radios crackled with information; a man in the trees with a rifle or another with a handgun at his waist; three men with an AR-15 walking at 14th Street and Independence Avenue.

Trump has disputed Hutchinsons account. I didnt want guns, he said in an interview with Newsmax that aired two days after the hearing.

But Hutchinson had recounted to the committee what she heard.

Theyre not here to hurt me, Trump told his staff, Hutchinson recalled. Let them in. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol after the rallys over. . Take the effing mags away. Then they can march to the Capitol.

___

JAN. 6: THE SPEECH

The president took the stage at the Stop the Steal rally complaining about the election outcome and the need to stop Biden from becoming president.

Were going to walk down, and Ill be there with you, Trump said to the thousand of supporters at the grassy Ellipse.

Were going to walk down to the Capitol, Trump said. Youll never take back our country with weakness; you have to show strength.

Many people had already started peeling off toward the Capitol, and Trump encouraged the crowd to go.

I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard, he said. Lets walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.

A White House security log, revealed by the Jan. 6 committee, shows the scramble that was underway for Trump to go to the Capitol as well.

MilAide has confirmed that he wants to walk, said one entry on the National Security Council chat.

They are begging him to reconsider, reads another.

The next entry was a discussion of the current route for Trumps motorcade to take 15th Street, to F Street, to 6th Street, to Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol.

So this is happening, reads another entry.

Hutchinson was still in the tent behind the rally stage when she got a phone call from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California.

McCarthy sounded rushed, frustrated and angry, she said. You told me this whole week you arent coming up here. Why would you lie to me? he asked Hutchinson, a former House aide.

Im not lying. I wasnt lying to you, sir, she replied. And McCarthy said, Well, he just said it on stage, Cassidy. Figure it out. Dont come up here.

The mob was breaking past the security fencing around the Capitol.

Capitol Police are reporting multiple breaches, the security log reads. Capitol is now calling for all available to respond.



JAN. 6: BEHIND THE WHEEL

Trump climbed into the presidential SUV determined to be taken to the Capitol, Hutchinson recalled.

The Secret Service now disputes her account, as does Trump. But Hutchinson testified under oath that she was told later by Anthony Ornato, the deputy chief of staff for White House operations, that Trump was irate.

The president said something to the effect of, Im the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now,' she recalled.

When the driver, Bobby Engel, responded, Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing Trump grabbed at the steering wheel, and lunged at the drivers clavicles, she said.

Trump never made it to the Capitol. His motorcade headed back to the White House.

In the Newsmax interview, Trump dismissed the idea that he tried to commandeer the car to go to the Capitol as totally false. He marveled at the incredible size of the crowd  one of the biggest, he said, he has ever attracted. But he did not dispute wanting to go to the Capitol that day.

I wanted to go so badly, he said during an April interview with the Washington Post.

At the hearing, the security log made clear just how close Trump came to creating that unseen image  a defeated president standing with the mob as an armed insurrection was laying siege to the Capitol.

Looks like he is coming home for now, the security log stated.
WAUKEGAN, Ill.  Friends, neighbors and dignitaries paid their respects Saturday to the family of Eduardo Uvaldo, one of the seven people who were killed in the attack on a July Fourth parade near Chicago.

Uvaldo, who would have turned 70 on Friday, was a native of Mexico who first moved to the United States when he was 15. In an obituary, he was remembered for his love of his large family  he was survived by his wife, Maria, four daughters, four siblings, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He was funny, charming, handsome, caring, and most importantly loving, his obituary read. His presence brought happiness to each family member.

Outside the visitation at The Memorial Chapel of Waukegan, attendee Lilia Cervantes told reporters that she had known Uvaldo for 20 years and had worked with him for 11 years.

Its a very difficult time for family and co-workers, she said in Spanish. He was very kind.

Uvaldos wife and 13-year-old grandson, Brian Franco Hogan, were wounded in the attack and are still recovering, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Relative Jesse Palacios attended the private service and called Uvaldo a happy man, the newspaper reported.

I dont think Ive ever seen him sad, Palacios said.

Among those who paid their respects Saturday were Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Lieutenant Gov. Juliana Stratton, Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering and Highland Parks police chief, Lou Jogmen.

Uvaldo died Wednesday at an Evanston hospital from wounds suffered during the attack on the parade.

Separate funerals were held Friday for three of the other victims  63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim, 88-year-old Stephen Straus and 78-year-old Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, who, like Uvaldo, was from Waukegan, a city north of Highland Park along the Lake Michigan coast.

Funeral details for the others killed in the attack havent been made public. Authorities have identified them as 64-year-old Katherine Katie Goldstein and a married couple, 35-year-old Irina McCarthy and 37-year-old Kevin McCarthy, who were attending the parade with their 2-year-old son.

Police say the victims were shot at random and that the assailant had no racial or religious motivation.

This is what I cant understand: how this keeps happening, Palacios said, referring to mass shootings in the U.S.

His sister, Ophelia Palacios, said she wonders what was running through the shooters mind.

Why did he do it? she asked.

Robert E. Crimo III has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors expect to bring more charges representing the more than 30 people were wounded in the attack.

Investigators have said Crimo, of neighboring Highwood, legally purchased five weapons and planned the attack for weeks before he climbed onto the roof of a business along the parade route and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle.

Investigators reported that Crimo fled the parade by blending in with the fleeing crowd, then drove to the Madison, Wisconsin, area, where he contemplated a second attack. He returned to the Highland Park area and his car was spotted by police.

Questions remain about whether Crimo should have been able to legally purchase firearms in Illinois. Illinois State Police officials have defended the approval of his gun license in December 2019, months after police received reports that he had made suicidal and violent threats.
The National Endowment for the Arts announced two New Mexico artists have won 2022 National Heritage Fellowships.

Albuquerque flamenco artist Eva Encinias and Shiprock Navajo/Dine weaver TahNibaa Naataanii have each been awarded the nations highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.

In their artistic practices, the NEA National Heritage Fellows tell their own stories on their own terms. They pass their skills and knowledge to others through mentorship and teaching, said Maria Rosario Jackson, National Endowment for the Arts chair. These honorees are not only sustaining the cultural history of their art form and of their community, they are also enriching our nation as a whole.

The two New Mexico recipients were part of a group of 10 artists recognized across the country.

Born into a family of flamenco dancers and artists, Encinias carries out the tradition through her teaching and performing, and through the National Institute of Flamenco, which she founded in 1982. She continues to direct its artistic programming.

A retired University of New Mexico dance professor, Encinias learned to dance within her own family and in her mothers dance academy.

Inspired by her grandmothers wool and carding tools, Naataaniis curiosity inspired a life-long love for weaving. Naataanii is also recognized as a gifted and prolific mentor and teacher of holistic Dine weaving practice  from farming sheep to harvesting and dyeing wool, and through the complex techniques of developing and weaving textiles on a loom.

Naataanii is the 2022 recipient of the Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship, presented in recognition of an individual who has made a significant contribution to the preservation and awareness of cultural heritage.

Her work is an array of intricately woven garments and works of art that vary in color, shape, pattern and design. Some of her weavings follow traditional patterns  shoulder blankets and ponchos  while others include abstract and contemporary designs. Her weavings have won multiple awards in art markets and juried art shows. Naataanii is dedicated to revitalizing traditional Navajo textile weaving with apprentices and students in the Dine community, as well as educating audiences about Navajo weaving culture and traditions.

Each fellowship includes a $25,000 award and all of the recipients will be featured in a film that will premiere in November 2022 on arts.gov. Through the film, viewers will have the opportunity to visit the homes and communities where the fellows live and work, providing a connection to the distinct art forms and traditions these artists practice.
Indias premier D2C fashion, lingerie and personal care brand for the urban millennial woman has recently collaborated with actor, model, dancer, social media influencer- Avneet Kaur for its bralette collection. Avneet has 32.3M followers on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Avneet Kaur Official (@avneetkaur_13) #

In a recent Instagram video, Avneet was seen grooving in Clovia's newly launched bralette collection which made her sway in style and comfort. The video was shared on Avneet's Instagram which has garnered 3.6M views and 397k likes till date. Clovia has also shared the video on its social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and also on Clovias website and app.

Avneet showcased three easy-breezy summer creation looks. While the first look showcases Avneet in a black lacy bralette styled with a neon green skirt, in the second look Avneet is seen flaunting a neon lace bralette styled with a pair of white shorts, and for the third look, shes donning a purple longline lace bralette styled with a pair of black trousers and sleeveless blazer.
People are seen in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Shadati)

ISTANBUL, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Turkish health specialists have warned against an increase in COVID-19 cases across Turkey, urging authorities to take immediate precautions.

The BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of the Omicron strain have quickly increased the number of daily cases, said Mehmet Ceyhan, head of the Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases of the Ankara-based Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine.

Ceyhan called on health authorities to reinstate some of the COVID-19 measures which had been gradually lifted this spring.

A polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 test should be requested again when entering Turkey, he said, adding masks should be worn when taking public transportation and elevators in hotels, and social distancing should be ensured in restaurants.

"Omicron was the Trojan horse of the coronavirus. It entered into society as a harmless mutant. Humans relaxed. Precautions were finished, and vaccination stopped," he explained the latest surge in a tweet. However, he warned that the "mutation machinery" continues its work.

"Let's hope the machine will not produce new mutants that cause severe clinical presentation," Ceyhan added.

Turkey recorded 57,113 cases and 25 fatalities between June 27 and July 3, up from 26,635 cases and 17 deaths the week before, the Turkish Health Ministry reported.

Experts believe that the actual number is much higher than the official figure as rapid antigen tests are not documented.

Esin Davutoglu Senol, a member of the Turkish Medical Association Pandemic Working Group, blamed uncontrolled international mobility and activities for the constantly increasing cases in Turkey as well as across the world.

"We launched a very big international activity together. The wave did not come to us, but we jumped into it," Senol, who is a professor of infectious diseases at the Ankara-based Gazi University, was quoted as saying by the online news platform Diken on Thursday.

"It is important that people do not get sick, and the scientific world is working towards this. Because even if the disease is very mild, it can leave sequelae (long-term effects)," she said.

"We do not know how the virus will behave in whom. We want to protect vulnerable groups against the possibility of serious illness," she added.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the number of cases might increase, but the power of the virus to make people sick has decreased. He advised those in risk groups to follow personal precautions and get their booster shots. 

People walk on a street in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Shadati)

People walk on a street in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Shadati)

People walk on a street in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Shadati)
As a part of the ongoing evolution of the brand, gifting giant Ferns N Petals (FNP) has launched its first ever TVC Emotions Gift Wrapped with leading Bollywood actors Anil Kapoor and Janhvi Kapoor. Taking a step ahead with an improved brand ethos the brand celebrates emotions by being at the heart of everything. As a part of the strategy, the campaign features 2 new brand films which exhibit the emotions and sentiments around gifting, portrayed gracefully by the on-screen uncle and niece duo Anil and Jahnavi. Launched in 21 states across multiple mediums on TV, digital and 1000 Multiplex screens - PVR and Inox, the campaign is supported by a diverse ATL and BTL promotional initiatives. The TVCs which are being amplified digitally across social media have already racked up 65 million views!

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Conceptualized by Mullen Lintas the TVC features the duo bonding over a surprise birthday celebration with Janhvi surprising Anil Kapoor with a bouquet of 66 red roses to commemorate his 66th birthday.

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The second brand film approaches a sensitive yet wide spread issue of cyber trolling and the negative impact it has on ones emotional wellbeing. The commercial symbolically highlights the current times when cyberbullying has regrettably become a part and parcel of everyday life. The frame opens with a dejected Janhvi Kapoor scrolling through her social media feed. The protective chachu Anil Kapoor gets a whiff of her dilemma. New age gifting brand Ferns N Petals comes to the rescue. The worried uncle determined to cheer up the niece avails the personalized gifting service from FNP and gifts pictures of himself during his hay days when he too was subjected to ridicule. As the duo laughed it off, the TVC closes on a happy note putting the spotlight on FNPs personalized gifting services. Anil Kapoor delivers the closing statement in his oh-so familiar dramatic manner by saying Duniya ko karne do bakwaas, you should always be Jhakaas. The TVC not only gives a fresh take on how to deal with trolls but also shares a fresh perspective on handling everyday issues. The 2 TVCs are relatable, creative and expresses individuality, bringing out joy and happiness wrapped in emotions.

Mr.Sai Thota, Head of Digital Marketing Ferns N Petals comments, This is our first brand film initiative with the actor duo showcasing that Ferns N Petals is all about relationships, making sure that we share happiness and joy during all moments of life which goes beyond occasions and festivals. Since we are repositioning the brand from being a flower brand to a bigger gifting brand and are also going through a change in brand identity including the brand logo, we thought of reconnecting with our audiences where gifting is a perfect inclusion to our everyday life. The brand films celebrate the new age vibe and bring to life the fact how we as a brand would be a great inclusion as a gifting partner when people are going through their ups and downs in life

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As part of the growth strategy, the brand has recently revamped its new logo representing the companys growth from just a single flower store to a multi-category gifting giant providing end to end solutions. The new logo signifies the freshness and vibrancy that the brand also represents and signifies. Recently Ferns N Petals has secured its first round funding to the tune of Rs 200 crore from mid-market private equity firm Lighthouse which the brand is utilizing to enhance its gifting services and delivery solutions offering the best presents for all occasional in just few clicks to patrons across the world. The brand is also growing its international footprints and is currently operational in UAE, Qatar and Singapore. The brand aims to expand its footprints abroad in every two months and is also an excellent inclusion to meet for all everyday gifting needs.
Jobsgaar, India's first Indo-Israeli startup, launched its mass digital campaign targeted at job seekers in Uttar Pradesh. The campaign highlights the tedious efforts of jobseekers who spend endless time looking for a job and are left in despair most of the time unable to find a job in their own city. With Jobsgaars proprietory tech, the search and browse model is now getting disrupted and Jobseekers will no longer have to search for a job. They can simply download or register on Jobsgaar, and the tech will enable the process for a perfectly matched job. On average7 out of 10 get an interview.

The campaign is a deep dive into the pain and struggle of job seekers in Bharat's Tier 2/3/4 cities. The campaign titled 'Ab Job Aapko Dhundegi, Aapke Apne Sheher Mein' highlights the exhausting and XX 'search-oriented routine of a young guy who has to search for everything  house, food, marriage et al to get anywhere in life.

The voice of Vijay Raaz, one of the most renowned actors in the Indian film industry with a very distinct voice and delivery has brought soul and energy to the campaign.

In Bharat, we are perpetually stuck in a search conundrum - from a random address to a bride or groom for marriage, from renting a house to buying a home, and even searching for God and most importantly jobs!. However, with our deep tech solutions, the user will not have to search for jobs anymore. The campaign idea is influenced by our tagline 'Don't search, Just find'" says Atul Pratap Singh, Co-Founder & CEO, Jobsgaar.

Poonam Kaul, a seasoned Brand and Communications professional,( former CMO, Apple India), also an Investor & Brand Advisor with Jobsgaar says, "Jobsgaar solution is designed to make it easy for a candidate to find a job in his or her native place, without searching. Job seekers currently spend around 90-120 days in smaller towns to search for a job. By downloading Jobsgaar, they will get job opportunities, and updates without spending any time browsing or searching. With our digital campaign, we intend to build awareness around the tech solution that is today disrupting the HR Tech space and will change the way people find jobs or companies hire the workforce. "

Presently, Jobsgaar is focusing on 15 districts of Uttar Pradesh. They are building a Bharat-First solution with global standards. The company also has plans to take this solution outside India in years to come.
BAFTA has welcomed Ted Sarandos, Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer of Netflix, to its headquarters at 195 Piccadilly to meet with past and present participants of BAFTA Breakthrough: a flagship programme, supported by Netflix, that spotlights and nurtures the next generation of creative talent in film, games and television.

Sarandos took part in a discussion with BAFTA Chair Krishnendu Majumdar and BAFTA Breakthroughs including BAFTA Nominee Tim Renkow and BAFTA Winners Abigail Dankwa and Aisha Bywaters  a full list of attendees can be found below.

The programme, which celebrates its tenth anniversary next year, cements BAFTAs mission to support the growth of creative talent across the film, games and TV industries. The scheme expanded globally in 2020 to the US and India, alongside the UK, after its initial national launch in 2013 as Breakthrough Brits.

BAFTA and Netflix are currently seeking the next US cohort, with applications closing on 5 August. BAFTA Breakthrough offers access to unique career development, networking opportunities and bespoke support at a critical breakthrough career moment, enabling emerging creatives to build on their success and ensure continued development in their chosen field.

Ted Sarandos, Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer for Netflix, said: Its always been really important to us at Netflix to support the next generation of upcoming talent, so its great to be part of the BAFTA Breakthrough initiative. Supporting hundreds of talented creatives, this programme provides unparalleled access to career development, industry experts and networks that serve as a catalyst for them to get to the next level. It was great to hear first-hand today from UK participants on the impact and we look forward to seeing the next cohort come through.

Krishnendu Majumdar, Chair of BAFTA, added: Supporting the next generation of creatives through initiatives such as Breakthrough are essential to BAFTAs mission as an arts charity. Today we had the pleasure of hosting Ted Sarandos and his Netflix team at BAFTA 195 Piccadilly. This was a great opportunity for him to meet UK participants and alumni as part of their programme of bespoke support. We are hugely thankful to Netflix for their generous support and shared values, ensuring that the next generation of talent are inspired, supported, and celebrated in their respective fields and crafts.

Breakthrough US applications close on Tuesday, 5 August. Breakthrough UK applications have now closed. Participant announcements for the BAFTA Breakthrough 2022 will take place in autumn 2022.
Zenith CEO Nickie Scriven has left her position at Publicis Groupe. She stated: "It's time to go on the next step in my career." Her next move is yet unknown. Scriven submitted a letter of resignation, and will leave the organisation in September. A replacement will be revealed soon, Publicis informed Mumbrella. Due to the timing of the relocation and the current vacancy for the CEO position, some industry sources suggest that she will move to Dentsu.

Click here to check the Award Categories



Michael Rebelo, CEO of Publicis Groupe ANZ, said: "Nickie has taken Zenith to new heights in the eight years she has been a part of the Publicis family, playing a crucial role in leading the growth and development of its talented people and best-in-class products while strengthening client relationships and strategic partnerships.TikTok, Subway, Disney, and Kellogg's are just a few of the significant new clients the firm has secured under her leadership. She has established a solid leadership group that will continue to provide clients with business growth through operational excellence, craft and product innovation, and product development. We at Publicis would want to thank Nickie for all of her accomplishments with the Zenith team and wish her well on her upcoming major challenge.

Scriven continued: "I want to thank Publicis Groupe for all the fantastic possibilities they have given me. The opportunity to lead Zenith as CEO has been an utter joy and pleasure, but after over six years in the position, it's time to move on to the next phase of my professional journey. Additionally, I want to thank everyone who has contributed to making these years so fulfilling, including my amazing Executive Team. I have the utmost pride in what we have accomplished together. I take over control of Zenith to my Executive Team, who are able and outstanding, and I wish the next CEO the best of luck in maintaining the Groupe's and Zenith's pace and growth.

In the same manner that Dentsu rejected rumours that Scriven would be joining the Japanese holding company, Publicis declined to comment on Scriven's upcoming move. Since arriving as Melbourne MD in 2014 from Australian Super, Scriven has worked for the agency for eight years. After being given a promotion in early 2017, she has been CEO for five and a half years.

Zenith wrested the lucrative Subway advertising account from AKQA Media/Essence in late 2021, closing off a year of expansion for Publicis Groupe. Sue Squillace, CEO of Dentsu Media, announced her departure and is expected to quit the company this month.
Zindagi ki asli khushi dusro ko khush rakh ke haasil ki jaati hai - This famous dialogue from the timeless Bollywood classic, Pyasa encapsulates legendary director and actor Guru Dutts contribution to Indian Cinema. It was through his cinematic mastery over his films that evoked in his viewers an emotional journey through celluloid. Born Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone, better known as Guru Dutt, he donned many hats during Bollywoods Golden Era as a film director, producer, actor, choreographer, and writer. However, the auteurs life was cut short at 39. But his creations remain evergreen even today. As we celebrate the maestros 96th birthday, Tata Play pays him a special tribute by bringing three of his celebrated creations to screen.



12 O'clock

Directed by Pramod Chakravorty, starring Waheeda Rehman as Bani and Guru Dutt as Ajoy Kumar, 12 O'clock is the story of Bani and solicitor Ajoy, who are madly in love. But their world is turned upside down when Bani's cousin, Maya, is discovered dead in a first-class compartment at a railway station in Bombay. Bani, who had gone to the station to pick up Maya, is charged with murder. The movie has a little romance, thrill, and even courtroom drama that entices and keeps viewers on edge until the very end.



Pyaasa

Guru Dutt directed and produced the 1957 multi-star film, Pyaasa, in which he co-starred with Mala Sinha, Waheeda Rehman, Rehman, and Johnny Walker. The story of Pyaasa revolves around the disillusioned Urdu poet Vijay, whose works are dismissed by publishers and derided for focusing on social issues rather than romantic ones. The film follows his interactions with the golden-hearted prostitute Gulabo and his former girlfriend Meena, including how the former assists him in getting his poetry published, the success of his works, and his romantic relationship with Gulabo. A classic that you shouldn't miss, Pyaasa is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.

Mr & Mrs 55

Guru Dutt directed and produced Mr. & Mrs. '55, a romantic comedy film released in 1955. Madhubala stars as Anita Verma, a naive heiress forced into marriage with an unemployed cartoonist Preetam, to save her millions. The films character-based satires and real-life incidents spiced with humour make it a must-watch.

Tune into Tata Play channel 318 to stream the best of Classic Cinemas across genres like action, drama, romance and others
The combination of Design Bridge and Superunion has resulted in the formation of a new business, Design Bridge & Partners, according to WPP. When it launches in January 2023, the new firm will give clients access to a wide variety of design knowledge that is unmatched in the industry. Through consumer, business, lifestyle, and experience design, the business will help clients grow and evolve.



Jim Prior, the present CEO of Superunion, will serve as Chair of the new international company, with John Morris, the current CEO of Design Bridge, serving as CEO.



Experts in all facets of brand strategy and design, such as graphic, motion, digital, physical, and communication design, will be brought together by Design Bridge and Partners. They will share a common creative ethos of utilising the power of exceptional design to address societal and business problems. Additionally, collaboration and developing talent will be highly valued in the new company's culture. Existing talent will have new chances for growth, including the chance to advance their skills in all facets of design, work with a wider variety of renowned clients, and experience greater mobility within a larger global organisation and the wider WPP network.



The two agencies will continue to function independently through the end of the year. In the months to come, each market will evaluate the new company's structure and market-facing brands depending on client and local needs. Current executives from Design Bridge and Superunion will make up the whole management team and creative leadership, which will be revealed soon.



The ability to combine two design creative powerhouses is really great, according to John Morris, CEO of Design Bridge & Partners. Design Bridge and Partners, which combines the "best of both," will be genuinely formidable, providing greater benefit for our clients through shared expertise and, most significantly, many more possibilities for our employees to thrive.



According to Jim Prior, chair of Design Bridge & Partners, "This is a wonderful marriage of creative excellence that will create amazing results for our clients and our staff." We have the unique chance to lead the way in demonstrating design's genuine potential as a force for good in the world.



According to WPP CEO Mark Read, Design Bridge and Partners will be a leader in design and a crucial component of our client offer that is more straightforward and client-focused in the future. Design Bridge and Superunion, two successful businesses that were combined to form it, will open up new growth prospects for both our employees and our clients.



"It's a delight to work with Greg Quinton and Emma Follett, chief creative officers of Design Bridge and Superunion," they added.



Design Bridge and Partners will be a pioneer in design and a crucial component of our more straightforward, client-focused client service, according to WPP CEO Mark Read. With Design Bridge and Superunion joining forces, it will open up new growth prospects for both our employees and our clients.



Greg Quinton, Chief Creative Officer of Superunion, and Emma Follett, Chief Creative Officer of Design Bridge, jointly stated: "We're thrilled to have the opportunity to work in collaboration with creatives we've long admired and leverage the power of our creativity to make a difference for our clients."
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers' meeting in Bali, Indonesia, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Sun Lei)

BALI, Indonesia, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met here with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and both pledged to push China-Canada relations back on track.

During a meeting with Joly on Friday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers' meeting, Wang said China and Canada have never been rivals but partners. China has never been a threat but an opportunity. A sound and stable China-Canada relationship is the common aspiration of the two peoples and serves the common interests of both sides.

China hopes that Canada will respect facts and be cautious in words and deeds on China-related issues, and work with China to meet each other halfway to build mutual trust so as to bring China-Canada relations back on track, said the Chinese top diplomat.

Both China and Canada advocate multilateralism, support the democratization of international relations and safeguard the trend of globalization, said Wang.

Both sides may jointly promote the success of the second phase of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations (UN) Convention on Biological Diversity, strengthen anti-epidemic cooperation and build a global community of health for all, he noted.

For her part, Joly said Canada attaches great importance to its relations with China and is ready to work with China to strengthen communication and jointly address common concerns in a pragmatic manner so as to bring the bilateral relations back on track.

Both countries have benefited from closer economic and trade ties and have maintained close coordination and cooperation in multilateral affairs such as climate change and biodiversity. 
SHIJIAZHUANG, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Great Wall Motor (GWM), China's largest sport utility vehicle (SUV) and pickup manufacturer, saw vehicle sales increase 26.38 percent month on month to 101,186 units in June, including 13,451 sold in overseas markets.

In the first half of this year, the company sold a total of 518,525 vehicles, 62,823 of which were overseas sales, accounting for 12 percent. The company's total overseas sales exceeded 1 million.

With the improving COVID-19 situation and the resumption of work in the supply chain, Great Wall Motor has launched multiple new electric and intelligent vehicles, which have contributed to the rise in sales in the second quarter, the company noted.

Headquartered in the city of Baoding, north China's Hebei Province, Great Wall Motor owns several vehicle brands, including HAVAL, GWM Pickup, WEY and ORA. 
It was Walter Benjamin who said that you could judge a man by the books he kept. Hitler kept books of Friedrich Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and the German nationalist Fichte. Hitler had used the Nietzschean phrases 'master race' and 'will to power' in the 1934 Nuremberg party rally, famously filmed by Leni Riefenstahl. He also inherited Nietzsches walking stick after a visit to the Nietzsche archive in Weimar. Schopenhauer is quoted in Mein Kampf where he describes Jews as the 'great masters of lies.' However, the links of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer to Nazism are tenuous at best; Nietzsche despised anti-Semitism, for example. More in tone with Hitler's philosophy was Johann Gottlieb Fichte, who, in his 'Speeches to the German Nation' in 1808, called for a 'Volkskrieg', or peoples war. It was Fichte's claim of German exceptionalism, of the superior German language, which promoted a virulent German nationalism and an anti-Semitism which inspired Hitler.

Books are the concrete things, like music, which embody the poetic souls of nations. They paint pictures of a nation's history and culture. The British and French are marked by their post-Enlightenment codifying of 'reason,' of scientific logic, of empiricism. The beliefs of Kant and the concept of individual rights dominates modern European states and institutions. The market, the individual and not tradition or community become the hallmarks of liberal democracy. Nietzsche claimed that with the death of God came the deification of reason but this has proved spiritually fruitless and, according to the New Right of Europe and Russia, modern man stands on an abyss rather than the 'end of history' utopia which liberal democracy had promised.

What Putin's book collection shows is a remarkable similarity in style to Hitlers. This synergy between Hitler and Putinism contradicts the traditional school of thought which sees Bolshevism as the nemesis to Nazism. The reality is that Putinism is far more aligned to a type of Christian authoritarianism, of some tenets of fascism, than any socialist or Bolshevik leanings. Putin is an admirer of the white emigre philosopher Ivan Ilyin, a Russian nationalist who saw the Bolshevik revolution as a tragedy, and held a view of the citizen as holder of rights and responsibilities. The citizen, likewise, does not choose his nationality; Ilyin considered the idea of an independent Ukraine like a wound, a wound to a greater Russia. When Russian troops entered Ukraine in 2014, all of Russia's governors and high-ranking officials were sent a copy of Ilyin's Our Tasks which imagines a prototype legal regime of a post-Bolshevik era. Ilyin speaks of a 'National dictator,' politics is total and embodied in the leader. It is one of the right's enduring themes, as outlined in The View from the Right by Alain de Benoist. In this the liberal democratic world has abandoned 'Politics' and 'Power' and this depoliticization of society means the weakening of the state and the proliferation of a myriad of third-party groups which ultimately weaken the state.

The twentieth century saw Bolshevism and Nazism as opposites. The idea, however, that they could be melded, spurred the thought of Putin's other and greatest influence: Alexander Dugin. For Dugin follows the view of Jean Baudrillard in seeing the poverty of historicism and 'end of history' schema. History didnt end in the 1990s as predicted by the liberal end of history theorists. Baudrillard in The Illusion of the End gives a fascinating account of the debunking of the Marxist view of historical progression; history is ending, but only because it has lost its meaning. In fact, Russia must set itself against the liberal world, rather than be absorbed into it. It is this exceptionalism, a plurality of cultures, rather than a universalist liberal oneness, which illuminates the view from the right. Dugin, in his book The Fourth Political Theory argues that 'There are no stages and epochs, but only pre-concepts and concepts. In modern society time is seen as irreversible, progressive, and unidirectional. But this is not necessarily true inside societies that do not accept modernity. Dugin quotes Berdyaev's concept of the New Middle Ages in which liberalism ends and is replaced by a return to a civilisation based on spirit and mysticism. The Fourth Political Theory is a concept which replaces the three 'ideologies' of the twentieth century; liberalism, communism, and fascism. Dugin's National Bolshevism combines aspects of both communism and fascism. Although liberals, such as Francis Fukuyama, heralded the 'end of ideologies,' the modern world would appear to dispute this. Liberalism, argues the New Right, becomes an ideology itself, as seen in the values and prescriptive policies of globalised markets, woke cultural values, compulsory 'human rights,' and the vaulted position of the 'individual.'

But certainly, the greatest part of Dugin's thought to influence Putin is his geopolitical thinking. Dugin espouses the concept of 'Eurasianism'; a belief in the independent entity separated from both Europe and Asia and encompassing the Russian-speaking and also Slavic countries of the former Soviet Union. In this, the fascist glorification of war is played out in the Ukraine invasion, in the militancy of the expansionist Russian Federation. Therefore, this Eurasian expansion stands alone whilst the 'NATO threat' is used as a 'simulacrum' for justification. It comes as no surprise that Dugin's earlier book The Basics of Geopolitics sits in pride of place on Putin's bookshelf, essential reading also for the Russian military and the FSB (Federal Security Service). In the philosophy of Ilyin and Dugin is the myth of a virtuous Russia under attack from outside, from Jews, and Ukraine as part of an indivisible Greater Russia. They speak of Russia, like Spengler spoke of cultures, as a living organism.

Men like Heidegger in Nazi Germany and Ilyin in Russia saw themselves as surrogate 'Philosopher Kings,' driving history along. These philosophers are flattered by the deference, the flattery of the leader. But for Putin and Hitler the dialectic works the opposite to how the philosopher believes it to be. Rather than the gargantuan state being guided and spiritually enriched by the noble thinker; the Russian kleptocracy uses the philosopher to justify economic crime, to give an image of respectability to the banal and the brutal, often betraying the meanings of their philosophers. The Orthodox Church is also loaded into this usurpation of truth. Hegel, in one of his most famous quotes, said that 'The Owl of Minerva only takes flight in the dusk.' To this he meant that philosophical ideas are only learnt in hindsight, 'after' history has played itself out on the world historical stage. Philosophers are akin to the priests who survive the nuclear apocalypse in A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter Millers post-apocalyptic science fiction novel. Forced to take shelter in a Cistercian monastery, they save the books of the previous civilisation from the chaos surrounding them, hoping that, out of the darkness, their ideas may be used once more in the cyclical ebbing and flowing of civilisations.

Brian Patrick Bolger has taught Political Philosophy and Applied Linguistics in Universities across Europe. His new book, Coronavirus and the Strange Death of Truth'is available now in the UK and US.

Image: Ch. Maderthoner
Military recruitment in the United States is way down at the same time as the Biden administration is driving out so-called "White supremacists" (anybody who voted for Trump or believes in the Constitution), those opposed to taking the COVID vaccine due to religious or health concerns or natural immunity, and people who refuse to use the preferred pronouns of gender activists. The result of all this is a neutered and divided military increasingly unable to fight and win wars.

Recent polling by the University of Chicago found that two thirds of Republican and independent voters and 51 percent of self-described "very liberal" voters agree that the U.S. government is "corrupt and rigged against everyday people like me." Trust in all our institutions is falling, and the military is no exception.

A December 2021 survey by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute determined that Americans' strong confidence and trust in our military had declined from 70 percent to 45 percent over the previous three years, with 11 percent of that collapse happening just since February 2021, a month after President Biden took office. The disastrous pullout of American troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, leaving Americans, allies, and more than $7 billion in weapons and equipment behind, also played a part in the steep decline. Our increasingly "woke" military is losing the hearts and minds of the American people.

Young Americans join the military for a variety of reasons, but patriotism is a common element. Critical Race Theory (CRT) indoctrination is now required throughout our Armed Forces, including at our military academies. CRT teaches that our nation is systemically racist and that all White people are essentially evil. It decries our Founding Fathers, our Constitution, our institutions, our capitalist economy, and our entire way of life as irredeemably bigoted.

The military's brothers and sisters in arms fight for one another more than for any other reason. CRT's denigration of the White race is itself profoundly bigoted; just read some of their literature and substitute "Black" for every mention of "White," and you'll see. There used to be a saying in the Army that the only race and color in the military was olive drab. CRT is highly divisive, pitting the races against one another and undermining the teamwork required for success in battle. It should have no place within our military, yet progressive politicians and bureaucrats at the highest levels are mandating its instruction, and woke generals and admirals are saluting smartly and implementing policies that are damaging unit cohesion and morale.

So, too, are transgenderism and gender-fluidity indoctrination. Free military health care does not provide for breast augmentation and other cosmetic surgeries. Under Biden's direction, the services are now required to accept transgender recruits, and you can bet your bottom dollar  all our dollars, actually  that highly expensive "gender reassignment" surgeries are on the way to a military hospital near you. Not only do these surgeries cost significant amounts of money, but they also are grueling, with long recovery times, making such patients unfit for duty.

Military leaders already are prodding servicemen to utilize the preferred pronouns of non-binary personnel. Rest assured: they will be mandatory soon. A recent news report reveals that the Army already has cautioned soldiers not to complain about having to shower with transgender personnel who have not reconstructed their genitals.

"Respect" officers at our service academies and within the military now conduct indoctrination sessions to pressure troops into embracing and celebrating that which they know to be untrue. These "Respect" officers are the modern American version of Soviet and Nazi political commissars, who could cost uncareful soldiers and commanders their lives. Not only do these policies harm recruitment, but they also promote risk-aversity and command hesitancy, the last things you need in a professional fighting force.

Hand in hand with CRT and transgenderism, so-called "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" initiatives also are weakening our military. Diversity for the sake of diversity is not a sound policy for the military. Unity is. Unity of purpose. Unity of a band of brothers willing to die for one another. DEI foments politically correct groupthink and produces "pajama boy" soldiers as opposed to "toxically masculine" warriors. Which do you trust to win wars? "Equity and inclusion," as interpreted by the Biden regime, means unequal treatment and advancement based on race or sexual orientation as opposed to merit. Under the current regime, America's general officers and admirals are selected for promotion largely on the basis of their wokeness rather than their ability to lead troops, win wars, and protect the homeland.

With global war between the West and a nuclear-armed Russia-China axis a distinct possibility, given the conflict in Ukraine and China's ambitions toward Taiwan, whom do you trust to lead our nation down the difficult path ahead? Woke flag officers with lucrative defense industry positions upon retirement (provided they salute, behave, and proselytize on behalf of policies they know to be counterproductive)? Or straight-talking warriors like Patton and Halsey?



Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley (YouTube screen grab).

As for the troops, ask yourself this: why would anyone put his life on the line to serve a country he's been taught is so fundamentally racist and evil?

Tony Lentini is a 1971 West Point graduate who served five years in the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of captain. After military service, he joined the energy industry, ultimately serving as vice president of public affairs for two independent oil and gas exploration and production companies. His responsibilities included energy policy, investor relations, international relations, crisis management and corporate communications. He's a member of STARRS (Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services), a veterans' group whose mission is to educate the American people on the dangers of a woke military.
Democrats are starting to sound just a little demonic in their fanaticism for abortion, and it's obvious in their cavalier attitude toward the safety of the Supreme Court justices.

Here's the White House setting the tone:

Karine Jean-Pierre on Brett Kavanaugh being forced out of a DC restaurant by protesters over his opinion:



"This is what a democracy is."



pic.twitter.com/A8bsOXNXuc  Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 8, 2022

That's right: they ran circles around the issue of this illegal harassment of a Supreme Court justice, refusing to draw a line anywhere (we already know they aren't bothered by protesters harassing a sitting senator by following her into the bathroom) on what kinds of protests are inappropriate. We also know that they have failed to condemn the fire-bombings, vandalism, and burnings on a huge number of Catholic and other Christian churches and on crisis pregnancy centers, which offer willing patients alternatives to abortion. The pattern is pretty obvious.

But this latest refusal to condemn harassment in public places of a sitting Supreme Court justice was frankly shocking, given that just a month earlier, Kavanaugh had been the target of an actual assassination attempt and had been subject to an unprecedented leak of private Supreme Court deliberations. He also was the target of leftist doxxers who spearheaded unprecedented  and illegal  protests at his private home. That, and the leak, has gone unpunished, and while the assassination attempt could easily be dismissed or given a slap on the wrist by a wokester prosecutor, given the tone set. Now they're offering bounties:

Look at this tweet. Offering BOUNTIES. There was a murder attempt on Kavanaugh just weeks ago



who is this group pic.twitter.com/0AqjrjydxK  ThunderB (@Pimpernell13) July 8, 2022

The message sent was that the White House doesn't care what leftists do to Supreme Court justices despite the cursory claims by Jean-Pierre that the White House is against "violence."

It was a tone set, and it was a bad one.

It prompted charming responses like this from the rabid left ensconced in halls of power, if not completely connected.

Such as the one from this congresswoman:

Poor guy. He left before his souffle because he decided half the country should risk death if they have an ectopic pregnancy within the wrong state lines. Its all very unfair to him.



The least they could do is let him eat cake  https://t.co/5Y3b1TIW1N  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 8, 2022

Not just a slimy absence of empathy and snickering approval of the harassers, but disinformation to boot, given that treatment for an ectopic pregnancy never has been nor will be treated as an abortion.

There also was this, coming frrom the male partner of the sitting Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg:

Sounds like he just wanted some privacy to make his own dining decisions. https://t.co/pAUiYqxIHT  Chasten Buttigieg (@Chasten) July 8, 2022

Eeeew. So he's comfortable living by that standard? What would he say if right-wing protesters chased him out of a restaurant? It's astonishing to see this crap go on. Were it to happen to him, his whimpering would be heard round the globe.

So let's cut to the chase:

Let's be honest. This White House wants some lunatic to kill a supreme court justice.  thebradfordfile (@thebradfordfile) July 9, 2022

That's the only explanation that makes sense based on these insane responses to these increasingly insane events. Note too that congressional Democrats have refused to provide extra security for the justices in a GOP-sponsored bill. The White House is happy to see something "happen" to sitting Supreme Court justices because they have a whole stable full of leftists and a Senate they can replace them with. Like Pablo Escobar, who specialized in killing judges and managed to kill half of Colombia's judges in the 1990s, the choice for justices now is plata o plomo  take the abortion silver just as Joe Biden does, or get the lead.

It's so bad that it makes one wonder if the Supreme Court could go on some kind of strike until November, given that they might not make it out alive before midterms. When the new GOP-led Congress is ushered in, item one should be the safety and security of Supreme Court justices, with the added safety measure that any justice who gets assassinated by anyone has the right to pre-name his own successor upon death. That would kill the incentive to assassinate for political gain.

And right now, that's important. Threats, harassment, and apparently killing seem to be the only game in town for Democrats. They can't sell the public on their ideas, so their rage is getting lethal.

Image: Twitter screen shot.
Back in September 2021, the migrant crisis had turned the Texas borderlands into a flood, with tens of thousands of illegal border crossers flowing into the U.S.

Social media were inundated with images of Haitian migrants wading across the Rio Grande River to enter Texas.

A few independent news outlets filmed scenes of more than fifteen thousand mostly Haitian migrants living in a makeshift migrant camp shantytown under the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas.

Back then, the mainstream media's devotion to Joe Biden was still undivided and absolute. The dedication still prevails, even though Biden has done so poorly that they can no longer defend him unconditionally. It was around this time, just after Biden's disastrous Afghanistan pullout, that Biden's poll numbers began to decisively turn downward, and the media knew it.

Desperate for a distraction, the administration seized a news photograph that went viral on social media appearing to show a Border Patrol agent on horseback whipping a fleeing Haitian non-white immigrant.

Squad members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) were outraged, as they always are. They slammed the actions of the Border Patrol agents as cruel, racist, and a violation of human rights.

ThenWhite House press secretary Jen Psaki jumped in. She claimed Biden found footage of Border Patrol agents on horseback whipping at Haitian migrants at the border "horrific" and "horrible."

Vice President Kamala Harris had the worst overreaction, claiming it reminded her of tactics applied "against African-Americans during times of slavery."

Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas originally defended the agents until the outrage narrative became apparent and he too climbed onboard. The migrant crisis, after all, was a failure at his doorstep, and he was glad to feign outrage because it changed the subject.

Biden personally condemned the U.S. Border Patrol, calling the behavior of agents on horseback "outrageous," and vowed that the agents would "pay" for their actions.

Biden on the lie that border patrol were using whips on illegal immigrants at the border:



"To see people treated like they did? Horses running them over? People being strapped? It's outrageous. I promise you, those people will pay." pic.twitter.com/Jx79KoYTy9  Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 24, 2021

The media were relieved that they no longer had to focus on another of Biden's failures and dedicated all their air time talking about "systemic" racism and "institutionalized" xenophobia.

The Customs and Border Protection announced a "full-scale" investigation into the matter. The agents were suspended, and horse mounted patrols in the dangerous road-free badlands, where only horses can get through, was discontinued.

Finally, the photographer of the image set the record straight. He clarified that what appeared to be the cracker of a whip was actually the long reins used to give directions or cues to horses in rugged terrain. Since the photo was capturing the horse in motion, the rein was aerial, causing it to appear like a whip directed at the fleeing Haitian migrant.

The N.Y. Post reported that the morale of the Border Patrol agents hit an all-time low after the relentless attacks and the media trial that followed. The supposed "swift" investigation that was to follow wasn't so swift, though, and it wasn't until yesterday that Customs and Border Protection revealed the results of its investigation. The Border Patrol agents falsely accused of "whipping" illegal Haitian immigrants were cleared of any wrongdoing.

It is amazing that the agency took over nine months to investigate a matter that was perfectly obvious to a naked human eye.

But the Bidenites were wedded to their phony "narrative" and determined that the agents be punished for something, anything...so the investigation also stated that the agents had used "unnecessary" force against the migrants. One agent was also found to have used "denigrating and inappropriate language and to have maneuvered his horse unsafely" during the incident. Hence, disciplinary action was recommended against the agents.

@CBP says no evidence that any migrants were whipped by BP agents, despite politicians/media rushing to judgment.@CBPChrisMagnus: it was inevitable & certainly not surprising that there was going to be a reaction from the media & elected officials. Not at all surprising pic.twitter.com/TSM3diM3Yd  Mark McDonald (@Mark_D_McDonald) July 8, 2022

As expected, the media did not carry this story of the clearing with the same intensity with which they carried the smear.

Consequently, the perception that Border Patrol agents were whipping helpless Haitian migrants will remain in the minds of many.

NPR carried an article headlined "Border Patrol agents used 'unnecessary' force at Del Rio, report finds," and the details of the agents being cleared of whipping the migrants were buried in the text. USA Today focused on proposed disciplinary action against the agents. The headline of their report read, "Border Patrol proposes disciplinary action for horse-mounted agents who clashed with Haitians."

This is why the late, great Rush Limbaugh referred to them as drive-by media. They arrive to cover major breaking news by stirring up emotions to a fever pitch. They spread falsehoods, ruin reputations, and inflame the situation. By the time real facts emerge, they either have moved on to the next story or selectively present facts to hide their mendacity. They do not have the decency or the concern to issue corrections or retractions to repair damaged reputations.

Beyond the media assassins, the likes of AOC, Ilhan Omar, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden, who viciously smeared and attacked the agents, issued no statement of retraction or apology. What a drastic fall this has been for standards for public officeholders.

Sadly, the lie has already traveled around the world, and the truth doesn't even have a chance.

After the outrage, the Border Patrol agents were no longer permitted to use horses to guard the border in Del Rio. The use of horses was essential because of the roadless, uneven terrain that is impossible to access on foot or even with vehicles.

The impact of the smear and prolonged "investigation" can never be determined or gauged. Perhaps the overworked Border Patrol agents under a cloud of doubt were reluctant to do their job uncompromisingly for the fear of being branded as racist. This concern is likely to remain.

The result is even more illegal and unvetted migrants cross the border. Perhaps that was one of the motives behind the smear.

Image: Screen shot from AJ+ video via shareable YouTube.
Do you recall the expression, "What's good for General Motors is good for the country?" It emerged in 1953, when President Eisenhower nominated GM president Charles Wilson to become his secretary of defense. A senator asked the GM boss whether, should his new role force him to make a choice adverse to GM but good for America, he could, in fact, make that decision. Wilson famously replied, "Yes, sir; I could. I cannot conceive of one because for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa. The difference did not exist. Our company is too big. It goes with the welfare of the country." Eventually, that was boiled down to the more recognizable saying.

I think I can go Charles Wilson one better. As I look back at the America of 1953 and stand in the America of 2022, I am pressed as a pastor and teacher to modify that famous quote. I would say, "What's good for the family is good for America!"

One of the ironies of President Johnson's Great Society programs aimed at ending poverty in America is that they negatively affected the American family. Just as Prohibition was supposed to help families, so was the Great Society. These attempts to help the family were disasters. We had the good sense to repeal Prohibition, but the Great Society, with all its good intentions, is the hurt that keeps hurting.

Johnson and his policy team believed that expanding government funding for broken families would help save them. Instead, it incentivized single mothers to remain unmarried. By expanding welfare state programs to Americans who were already experiencing serious stress and hardship, it deepened the problems of illegitimacy, fatherless homes, and other cultural problems. Millions of Americans soon were engulfed in permanent chaos and dysfunction. A plague of fatherlessness ensued, with nearly 72 percent of all American black children being born to single mothers by 2015.



Image: Divorce by freepik.

Since the sixties, there has been an ongoing battle over the welfare coming from Johnson's Great Society and the dependency it fosters. In a country that gave us air travel, the light bulb, and the Marshall Plan and put men on the moon, surely, we can come up with incentives to strengthen the American family, minimize one-parent households, and wean Americans away from social dependency.

Promoting strong families in 2022 invites a minefield of objections from the wokesters. It will also challenge radical education leaders who see themselves as default parents and cultural gurus. It will also mean re-examining matters that challenge families. For example...

What is a healthy family?

How do we teach sexual education to strengthen the family?

How should we reform divorce to strengthen the family?

How should we treat homewreckers (male or female)?

"Each divorce is the death of a small civilization," wrote Pat Conroy. I went through a divorce in 1990. It is hell for all involved, especially for the children in the family. Abigail Trafford wrote a book, Crazy Time, reflecting on her own divorce and her struggle to emerge from the chaos of divorce. She argues that divorce makes people crazy. She goes on to say that some people survive divorce, but many never recover.

In 2022, the divorce rate for the USA is projected to be nearly 45%. I understand there are times when a divorce is called for, but America's divorce rate is near the top among all nations. We should take no pride in the high incidence of divorce in America but, instead, consider what we can do to help marriages and strengthen American families.

One of the mantras in the self-help world says, "As you get better, everything else gets better." Is it a stretch to say, "As the family gets better in America, everything else will get better"?

Ned Cosby's new novel OUTCRY is a love story exposing the refusal of Christian leaders to discipline clergy who sexually abuse our young people. This work of fiction addresses crimes that are all too real. He has also written RECOLLECTIONS FROM MY FATHER'S HOUSE, tracing his own odyssey from 1954 to the present. For more info, visit www.nedcosby.com.
We call it "messaging perfection" when you can cross an invisible line and make several unassailable points that the anti-liberty left can't touch without resorting to childish insults.

If you haven't seen the ad, here it is in all its glory:

Aside from quibbling over the loading of just 28 rounds into a 30-round magazine and a spotless kitchen that puts us to shame, the advert is perfect in that it takes on the far left's gun confiscation agenda head-on with a bit of history. It's a one-two punch of perfection that inspired YouTuber Johnny B' to say that he laughed until he cried when watching it.

We can only guess the motives of the Chicago chumbucket, but, as seems to be the case with mass-murdering leftists, it had a political component  most likely to "inspire" demands for even more gun confiscation, because that's how they roll.

It should be clear by now that we can't ignore the confiscation threat from the anti-liberty left. That is their ultimate goal, no matter how many times they lie and deny the obvious.

Neither can we "compromise" our way out of this. Anti-liberty leftists seem to have a bizarre idea that innocent people are supposed to lose their rights when someone else does something wrong. Bad people have been doing bad things for millennia, does that mean we should no longer have any rights? This is truly an absurd notion that doesn't stand up to logical scrutiny.

They talked about the recent "historic" capitulation of the traitorous RINO senators as though we were supposed to be giving up our God-given sensible civil rights all along.

No, that's not how it works. We don't lose our rights because someone does something wrong. As we are seeing now, compromise only begets demands for more compromise in a never-ending cycle.

Anti-liberty leftists want to shout us down from defending our reasonable rights and civil liberties. We're supposed to keep quiet when it comes to our basic freedoms and liberties. They're like Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further." If we dare protest their oppression, they'll just decide to take a little more, because they think they get to parcel out our rights.

We're also not supposed to talk about the fact that the KKK was started and supported by the Democratic party and that it still has the same values.

We're supposed to believe that there was some sort of "switch" at some point, involving the "southern strategy" or something or other. We're just supposed to trust the anti-liberty left to tell the truth on this even though they lie on so many other subjects.

Except that there is one glaring area that everyone is staring at right now that hasn't changed. Anti-liberty leftists have always been proponents of gun "control" and then gun confiscation, as we are talking about right now. So what happened to the mythical "switch" in this regard?

So we are back to where we started with perfect messaging. You know that is the case when the anti-liberty left and the nation's socialist media (but that's repetitive and redundant) must resort to outright falsehoods and childish insults that ignore basic history.

The worst came from the Mostly Socialist National Biden Channel with a headline that can't even get the fact straight: "This Black man looking for 'KKK Democrats' has his sights set on the wrong party." Apparently, the author has never heard of President Woodrow Wilson or Sen. Robert C. Byrd, which isn't surprising, since he repeats some well known falsehoods without apology.

But isn't that what we've come to know and loathe about the anti-liberty left  people who are incapable of telling the truth or maintaining a certain level of maturity?
NANNING, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Attendees to the 12th Pan-Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Forum that opened Friday have noted the opportunities brought by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

The forum is held in the city of Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Initiated in 2006, the Pan-Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Forum serves as a platform to discuss cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"Pan-Beibu Gulf cooperation has grown into a significant sub-regional cooperation under the framework of China-ASEAN cooperation," said Jurin Laksanawisit, Thai deputy prime minister and commerce minister, at the forum.

He added that the Pan-Beibu Gulf cooperation has enhanced Thailand-China trade ties, and with the implementation of RCEP, it is more conducive to strengthening the economic and trade cooperation between the ASEAN and its trading partners.

This year's forum highlighted the shared opportunities brought by RCEP, the world's largest free trade deal to date that came into force on the first day of 2022, as well as the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a trade and logistics passage jointly built by western Chinese provincial regions and Singapore.

RCEP provides greater convenience for trade between China and the ASEAN, and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is an important platform for the implementation of RCEP, said Low Yen Ling, minister of state for the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth of Singapore.

"With the implementation of RCEP and booming development of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, we expect the Beibu Gulf Port to embrace a new period of rapid development," said Li Yanqiang, chairman of Beibu Gulf Port Group.

Beibu Gulf Port serves as an important transit point in the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. So far, Beibu Gulf Port has operated 71 container routes, connecting it with more than 200 ports in over 100 countries and regions.

Noting China's achievements in port construction, Malaysian Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong, said Malaysia will continue to deepen cooperation with China and countries in the Pan-Beibu Gulf area in the future and make good use of the mechanism to seize new opportunities after RCEP came into effect.

"With the concerted efforts of China and the ASEAN, the economic cooperation in the Pan-Beibu Gulf region has been deepening and becoming increasingly effective," said Long Guoqiang, deputy head of the Development Research Center of the State Council. "The RCEP is set to bring new opportunities for the region." 
Japan's former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, assassinated this week by a local lunatic in Nara, was a giant on the world stage.

So not surprisingly, world leaders, as well as Japan's ordinary people, poured out their sorrow and tributes on the loss of the great man.

Japan weeps for Shinzo Abe as tearful mourners lay floral tributes to the assassinated prime minister https://t.co/vnFUiZPylD  Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) July 8, 2022

There were a couple of scuzzy outliers, though, who crawled out of the woodwork in order to let us know Who They Are.

Such as this pair:

...which apparently was changed to this after the partially government-funded network was blasted by the public:

Shinzo Abe, the former Japanese prime minister and ultranationalist, was killed at a campaign rally on Friday.



Police tackled and arrested the suspected gunman at the scene of an attack that shocked many in Japan. https://t.co/YpyEIM2Cim  NPR (@NPR) July 8, 2022

...which is hardly better.

The crappy descriptor of Abe, who was Japan's longest-serving and greatest postwar leader, a man who brought Japan prosperity, understood the danger of an expansive China, was the warmest of friends with America, got Japan armed again, and defended the righteous states with few friends such as Israel and Taiwan  reducing him to the label of "divisive arch-conservative" and "ultranationalist"  is disgusting in the extreme.

That's all they can see. And anyone who was a friend of America's, particularly one who got along with President Trump, but actually, all of the U.S. presidents he came in contact with  from George Bush, Sr. to George W. Bush to Barack Obama to Trump, and even to doddering Joe Biden  is no friend of NPR, a network that might as well advertise that it needs public defunding on the double as an America-hating outlet.

For perspective on NPR, here's a comparison:

NPR describing Fidel Castro vs. NPR describing Shinzo Abe posthumously. pic.twitter.com/lP1SatxgkI  Natalie Johnson (@nataliejohnsonn) July 8, 2022

The only people in their tree were the Chicoms, who absolutely hated Abe because he fully recognized the nature of their vile government, which had developed some imperialist ambitions and was menacing the region.

Here is how the shills for the regime, which China fully relies upon, took the assassination:

Users on the Chinese social media platform Weibo are celebrating the assassination of Ex-Japanese PM Shinzo Abe.



They are praising the assassin and sending death wishes to Abe. pic.twitter.com/oQkwO1LrDK  Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 8, 2022

UPDATE: Even more images have emerged of Chinese social media users mocking Shinzos death and ridiculing Japan. pic.twitter.com/rpIqoxnABr  Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 8, 2022

That's about par, because China is up to no good, and Abe had its number. Like Palestinian terrorists, the Chinese dance with glee.

Here's the kind of person Abe really was:

RIP #ShinzoAbe

Hand-written note of Shinzo Abe in Chinese, thanking a cleaner at the hotel he stayed in for the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, 2016. pic.twitter.com/OvbFNT6ZNK  Tong Bingxue  (@tongbingxue) July 8, 2022

I was in Tokyo on New Year's Day in 2017, and bumped into him having photos with anyone who wanted one. As you can see, he was not well-protected, nor did he ever imagine he would need to be. pic.twitter.com/9JKkMhLr01  Look at the Stats on That #NoVaccinePassports (@fight_lies) July 8, 2022

Very gentle and kind to the little guy  yet strong and courageous, too, unafraid to stand up to the big guys mobbed together when they were wrong:

Not a guy who cared which cocktail party he got invited to. That happens when you have principles.

Abe also understood human nature:

R.I.P. Shinzo Abe, longest-serving PM in Japan with conservative "Abenomics" Opposed threats from #China & NK. Favored traditional culture over young avoiding work, playing vid games & dressing like cartoon characters. Foe of the globalists. Assassinated.https://t.co/CdcAdxPrpQ  Perry Fellwock (@FellwockPerry) July 8, 2022

All this tells us quite a bit about NPR and the Chicoms, and none of it looks good. NPR should be amazingly embarrassed at its appalling descriptors, because not only does it reveal their essential hostility to Japan, but it reveals their essential hostility to American values, given the similarity we see to Abe's values. It's also way beyond the international consensus, given that even Ben Rhodes was last seen praising Abe.

It's so fringey that it makes them look as though they may be in the clutches of the Chicoms.

Have the Chicoms infiltrated that network? We know they have done so with Voice of America, so don't be surprised if NPR is a natural extension.

Whatever it was, it makes both of them look like pigs. That's because they are. With this nasty response, both came out and showed us just Who They Are here.

Image: Twitter screen shot.
We have not discussed DACA in a while. I guess that's what happens when the border is out of control and gasoline prices are killing the middle class. Nevertheless, DACA is in the courts and may be on our front page soon.

This is from Politico:

A panel of federal judges in New Orleans on Wednesday appeared unconvinced by the Justice Department's arguments defending the legality of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, with the fate of nearly 600,000 so-called Dreamers hanging in the balance. The three-judge panel is hearing appeals by the Biden administration, liberal states and individual DACA recipients to U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen's decision a year ago that held DACA to be unlawful. Hanen's 2021 ruling ordered the Department of Homeland Security to no longer approve new applicants to the program, which grants work permits and protection from deportation to young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. However, the order allowed DHS to continue to process DACA renewals as the issue moved through the courts.

As we've learned from previous cases, it's hard to tell what the judges will eventually opine.

The DoJ attorney argued that the states do not have standing. On the other hand, Texas and other states are saying that the program is costing them "mucho dinero."

It's interesting that the DACA side is not arguing that the executive order is legal. Instead, they are arguing process or whatever.

My prediction is that this will go to the Supreme Court and get the EPA treatment. In other words, the Court will remind everyone that the Congress never legalized these young people. Maybe Justice Thomas will write the majority opinion.

What about the DREAMers? They were misled by President Obama and immigration activists in the Hispanic media about DACA. Like Roe, DACA created a right that did not exist. Will they be deported? I don't think so, and I hope that a GOP Congress can legislate a limited path to legalization for many of these young people.

PS: Check out my videos and posts.

Image: Rhododendrites.
During the final weeks of the Supreme Court of the United States' 2022 term, it issued some truly historic rulings. In doing so, SCOTUS went a long way to re-establishing itself as a co-equal branch of government designed to uphold individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution against illegal government restrictions, while simultaneously defending separation of powers among the three branches of the federal government and between the federal government and the states.

Anyone who has a problem with SCOTUS's recent rulings, for instance President Joe Biden, simply has a problem with the fact that the United States is neither a dictatorship nor a direct democracy, but rather a constitutional republic.

The cases decided by the Court ranged from the president's power to set immigration policy to state and local government discrimination against religious liberty to limits on gun rights to the federally guaranteed right to an abortion, to limits on the administrative state's powers, among numerous other issues.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of the people to keep and bear arms. The right was demanded by the framers and enshrined in the Constitution so that "we the people" could defend ourselves, our families, and our property against crime  which, at the time, included raids from Native American tribes with whom conflicts were common  and, as part of a state militia, against enemies both foreign and domestic.

The Constitution, as originally designed, protected individuals' rights against incursion by only the federal government.

States were allowed to have established churches, and some did. Limits on states' abilities to take private property or inflict cruel and unusual punishment were nonexistent, unless protected in state constitutions. And yes, states and localities regularly imposed limits on the right to keep and bear arms within their borders.

It was not until after the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was adopted, and the incorporation doctrine applied, that individual rights also began to receive federal protection against violations by state and local governments. Citing the Fourteenth Amendment, SCOTUS determined that the Constitution established procedural protections for persons accused of crimes, limited methods of execution and punishment, determined that various states' "Jim Crow era" voting and property laws violated constitutionally guaranteed rights and that "separate but equal," was unequal and unconstitutional. Over time, the protections afforded "the people" under the First, Fourth, Fifth, and other amendments to the Constitution were routinely applied against state and local governments.

The Second Amendment was a laggard in this. But, beginning with United States v. Emerson and, more importantly, District of Columbia v. Heller, the court began to incorporate the Second Amendment's guarantee of a right to keep and bear arms against the states. Because SCOTUS did not provide clear direction concerning what state laws necessarily violated peoples' gun rights, lower courts continued to treat the Second Amendment as the unwanted stepchild of the Constitution, regularly upholding state schemes that limited individuals' ability to exercise their right to own and carry guns. Finally, SCOTUS had enough of the disassembling. In a majority ruling written by Justice Clarence Thomas in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the court established the Second Amendment as a co-equal individual right with all the others.

"The constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not 'a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees,'" Thomas wrote. "The exercise of other constitutional rights does not require individuals to demonstrate to government officers some special need."

"The Second Amendment right to carry arms in public for self-defense is no different," the Court ruled.

Subsequently, SCOTUS remanded a number of other gun rights cases arising from various other states' firearm restrictions back to lower courts for reconsideration in the light of the ruling. In response, Maryland has already loosened its restriction on concealed carry. By contrast, New Jersey is doubling down on firearm restrictions, seemingly intent on a confrontation with SCOTUS.

Regardless of one's feelings about gun ownership and the decision to carry firearms in public, it is a fundamental right protected by the Constitution. If people and some state lawmakers don't like that fact, rather than ignoring the rule of law, they should try and change it through the constitutional amendment process.

I think such efforts would be doomed to fail and would be bad as a matter of policy. Can anyone look at the state of the world and honestly claim that the threats of crime or tyranny have declined since the Second Amendment was adopted?

H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D. (hburnett@heartland.org) is a senior fellow with The Heartland Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research center headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Image: Alien Gear Holster.
Back in 2019, LG released the creator-focused LG V50 ThinQ. It was the phone that introduced the LG display case and it brought a lot of powerful features. Now, The LG V50 is finally getting the update to Android 12, according to 9To5Google.

The LG V50 was the penultimate V-series phone; the second to last one before LG bid farewell to its mobile division. This phone used a toned-down design, but it packed a lot of power under the hood. It was, sadly, overlooked for the latest Galaxy phones and iPhones of the year. While this phone is the ripe old age of three years old, its OEM is still supporting it with software updates.

The LG V50 ThinQ is finally getting Android 12

With all of the buzz around Android 13, its hard to get excited about a phone getting Android 12. However, this is significant because LG shut down its mobile division last year. Everyone wondered what the company planned to do with software support. The LG Wing and the LG Velvet were released just the year before, so they had a ton of software support due to them.

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Thankfully, LG gave us the good news that it planned on supporting its devices after the shutdown of the mobile division. Already, the Velvet, V60, and Wing have gotten the update to Android 12.

Now, there is some disappointing news, as there arent any visual changes to the software for the LG V50. There werent any with the other LG phones that got the update. It makes sense, as the company is diverting its attention to other projects. It doesnt really need to make big UI changes.

This, unfortunately means that there wont be any Dynamic Color with the update. If anything, most people would have liked to have that. However, its not coming with this update.

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LG is, however, bringing some of the more functional features present in Android 12. For starters, its bringing the privacy indicators for the camera and microphone. Users will get a little dot on the top of the phone when the cameras or microphone are in use.

Also, the software will also give people the choice between giving away their precise location or their approximate location. This update is coming to American units, so look out for the update to reach your phone.
Slovenia: Constitutional Court legalizes same-sex marriage And adoptions

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, JUL 9 - The Slovenian Constitutional Court declared same-sex marriage and adoptions legal on Friday. The decision has immediate effect after ruling that a law requiring only heterosexual partners to marry and same-sex couples to adopt children violated the constitutional ban on discrimination, the Slovenian news agency STA reported. (ANSA).





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Berlin, Kyiv at odds over Russian gas pipeline Ukraine urged the Canadians not to return the turbine

(ANSA-AFP) - BERLIN, JUL 9 - Germany said Friday it hopes to convince Canada to deliver a turbine needed to maintain the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, with Russia waiting on the machine's arrival before increasing supplies. Germany is seeking to bolster waning energy supplies, but Ukraine has accused Berlin of giving in to Russian "blackmail" after Moscow blamed reduced supplies on the need for repairs, not market conditions amid the Ukraine war. The turbine is currently undergoing maintenance at a Canadian site owned by German industrial giant Siemens.



Russian energy behemoth Gazprom last month blamed the issue for a reduction in supplies to Germany via the controversial pipeline, with Berlin facing a serious energy crisis. Berlin says it has been in regular contact with Ottawa in recent weeks in order to ensure the turbine's swift transfer back to Europe without Canada falling foul of Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia. German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said on Friday that Berlin -- already concerned by a wider pipeline maintenance session set to start Monday and for around ten days -- had received "positive signals" from Canada. The German finance ministry indicated that "if it makes taking the decision easier for the Canadians in the legal sense," Germany could propose Ottawa send Berlin the machinery rather than to Gazprom and Russia. While not accepting maintenance issues as the reason for Russia cutting supplies, Germany says the return of the turbine would deprive Moscow of an excuse to keep supplies significantly below normal levels. As the German finance ministry said it was investigating whether return of the apparatus to Russia would constitute sanctions busting by Canada, Ukraine urged the Canadians not to return the turbine.



(ANSA-AFP).





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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers' meeting in Bali, Indonesia, July 8, 2022. (Xinhua/Xu Qin)

BALI, Indonesia, July 9 (Xinhua) -- China and Germany agreed here to take the advantage of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries to deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields.

While meeting with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Friday, Wang said the development of the all-round strategic partnership between the two countries has been fruitful and the development of bilateral ties has reached a mature phase.

China is ready to join hands with Germany to sum up experience and map out the bilateral cooperation for the next 50 years so as to inject a new impetus into the development of bilateral relations, Wang said.

Baerbock said Germany attaches great importance to developing ties with China and expects to take the advantage of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries to deepen bilateral cooperation in all fields.

Germany hopes to have dialogues with China on the rule of law, democracy and human rights, and enhance cooperation and exchanges on climate change, green development and emission reduction, the German foreign minister said.

Wang said it is only natural that China and Germany have different views on the human rights issue, as the two countries differ in social systems, development stage, and historical and cultural backgrounds.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) having led 1.4 billion Chinese people out of extreme poverty to embark on a new journey towards common prosperity is a huge contribution to human civilization, Wang noted.

China will make consistent efforts to promote the development of its human rights cause, and is willing to continue friendly exchanges with other countries on the issue based on mutual respect, he said.

Concerning the Ukraine crisis, Wang stressed that all participants at Friday's G20 foreign ministers' meeting have called for a ceasefire and peace.

China has been working to push for peace and facilitate talks, encouraged relevant parties to negotiate for a solution, and will continue to play a constructive role on the matter, he added. 
Bosnia:Germany participates again in the EU military mission Troop deployment was approved 10 years after withdrawal.

(ANSA) - BRUSSELS, 09 LUG - Germany will participate again in the European military mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eufor/Althea. The Bundestag made this decision, which gave the green light to the deployment of 50 units in the EU mission nearly ten years after their withdrawal in 2012.



However, Eufor/Althea's mandate risks not being renewed next November by the UN Security Council due to possible opposition from Russia.



The vote on the mission's mandate is likely to occur just weeks before the country's general elections. Moreover, it would coincide with the secessionist agenda of Republika Srpska (one of Bosnia-Herzegovina's two Serb-majority entities, ed.), already announced by the Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik.



Finally, the German parliament passed a resolution accusing Dodik and Dragan Covic, leader of the largest Bosnian-Croat political party (Hdz BiH, which is akin to the ruling party in Croatia, ed.), of aiming at the "destruction of Bosnia-Herzegovina." Another critical passage warns Serbia and Croatia to distance themselves from nationalist and separatist forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina. (ANSA).





 Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved
(AP)  Sri Lankan protesters stormed President Gotabaya Rajapaksas residence and nearby office on Saturday as tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Colombo in the biggest demonstration yet to vent their fury against a leader they hold responsible for the island nations worst economic crisis.

It was not clear if Rajapaksa was inside his residence but footage showed hundreds of people inside the well-fortified house and on the grounds outside, some taking a dip in the garden pool and others in a jubilant mood.

A government spokesman, Mohana Samaranayake, said he had no information about Rajapaksa's whereabouts.

Sri Lankas economy is in a state of collapse, muddling through with aid from India and other countries as its leaders try to negotiate a bailout with the International Monetary Fund. The economic meltdown has led to severe shortages of essential items, leaving people struggling to buy food, fuel and other necessities.

The turmoil has led to months of protests, which have nearly dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.

Protesters react as a tear gas shell fired by police lands next to them in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, July 9, 2022. Sri Lankan protesters demanding that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign forced their way into his official residence on Saturday, a local television report said, as thousands of people took to the streets in the capital decrying the island nation's worst economic crisis in recent memory. (AP Photo/Amitha Thennakoon)

The presidents older brother resigned as prime minister in May after violent protests saw him seek safety at a naval base, while three other Rajapaksa relatives had quit their Cabinet posts earlier. Much of the public ire has been pointed at the Rajapaksa family, with protesters blaming them for dragging Sri Lanka into chaos with poor management and allegations of corruption.

A new prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, took over in May to help steer the country out of the crisis. Meanwhile, Rajapaksa has held on to power despite growing calls for him to quit.

On Saturday, as droves of people broke through barriers to occupy the presidents residence, hundreds of protesters, some carrying national flags, also stormed his seaside office in another nearby building. Demonstrators have camped outside the entrance to his office for the past three months.

Videos posted on social media showed protesters storming the residence, chanting Gota go home, calling the president by his nickname. Dozens were seen jumping into the pool, milling about the house and and watching television. Outside the building, barricades were overturned and a black flag was hoisted on a pole.

At the presidents office, security personnel tried to stop demonstrators who pushed through fences to run across the lawns and inside the colonial-era building.

At least 34 people including two police officers were wounded in scuffles as protesters tried to enter the residence. Two of the injured are in critical condition while others sustained minor injuries, said an official at the Colombo National Hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Thousands of protesters entered the capital from the suburbs earlier on Saturday after police lifted an overnight curfew. With fuel supplies scarce, many crowded onto buses and trains to come to the city to protest, while others made their way on bicycles and on foot.

Last month, Wickremesinghe said the countrys economy has collapsed. He said that the negotiations with the IMF have been complex because Sri Lanka was now a bankrupt state.

In April, Sri Lanka announced it is suspending repaying foreign loans due to a foreign currency shortage. Its total foreign debt amounts to $51 billion of which it must repay $28 billion by the end of 2027.

Police had imposed a curfew in Colombo and several other main urban areas on Friday night but withdrew it Saturday morning amid objections by lawyers and opposition politicians who called it illegal.

U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung on Friday asked people to protest peacefully and called for the military and police to grant peaceful protesters the space and security to do so.

Chaos & force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankans need right now, Chung said in a tweet.

___

Associated Press writers Bharatha Mallawarachi in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Krutika Pathi in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Its the middle of summer and that means its about time for a beach trip.

But what about your four-legged friend? You cant just leave your pup behind when you know he or she would love a day by the ocean just as much as you.

South Carolina is loaded with plenty of beach vacation spots, but not all of them are the most dog friendly. And theyre not all created equal, with some having far more amenities and extra nearby shopping options than others.

But luckily for you, many dog owners and their pets have already done the legwork to rank the best dog friendly beaches in the Palmetto State.

Below are the five best-ranked dog friendly beach spots according to Google reviews.

Huntington Beach State Park

Rating: 4.8 out of 5 (6,200 reviews)

Where: 16148 Ocean Hwy, Murrells Inlet

Huntington Beach State Park is a small coastal preserve and state park near Murrells Inlet, in Georgetown County. It has a large sandy beach thats great for walking, nearby sea-breeze camping and surf fishing.

The park is dog friendly all year, but dogs are only allowed on the south end of the beach.

Dogs must remain on a leash no longer than 6 feet at all times. Dogs are also prohibited in buildings.

Coligny Beach Park

Rating: 4.7 out of 5 (8,000 reviews)

Where: 1 Coligny Circle, Hilton Head

This beach isnt just dog friendly, its one of the most popular places on Hilton Head Island. Its an access point to the beach, but theres also a full park with outdoor shower, changing rooms and restrooms, along with swings and wooden chairs under shaded gazebos.

And across the street from the beach, youll find plenty of restaurants and shops. Dont forget to have a leash when youre out and about with your pup.

Kiawah Beachwalker Park

Rating: 4.7 out of 5 (1,200 reviews)

Where: 8 Beachwalker Dr., Kiawah Island

This dog-friendly beach spot on the west end of Kiawah Island offers an ocean front view and a river view. It also has the only public beach access on Kiawah Island.

While dogs are allowed on the beach year-round, there are some seasonal leash restraint rules to keep in mind.

Critical Habitat Area: Dogs are prohibited in the designated critical habitat areas.

Seasonal Dog Leash Area: From the Critical Habitat Area west of Beachwalker County Park to the eastern boundary of the Beach Club.

March 16  October 31: Dogs must be leashed at all times.

November 1  March 15: Dogs are allowed to be off-leash.

Dog Use Area: Dogs are allowed off-leash year-round in the designated dog use area located between the eastern boundary of the Beach Club and the Ocean Course pedestrian access provided they are under control. Off-leash stipulations: The owner must remain with their pet and have in their possession a leash. Pets must be leashed if requested by another beachgoer or by Beach Patrol.

Folly Field Beach Park

Rating: 4.7 out of 5 (1,500 reviews)

Where: 55 Starfish Drive, Hilton Head Island

This dog-friendly site links to a mid-island beach location. A boardwalk winds through a forested area to the beach. Theres beach matting to make the beach wheelchair accessible. Also, metered parking is offered.

Fish Haul Beach Park

Rating: 4.6 out of 5 (1,300 reviews)

Where: 124 Mitchelville Road, Hilton Head Island

This beach spot is a pristine, visual wonderland for dogs and their owners alike. Nestled in Baygall, a historic Gullah neighborhood, Fish Haul overlooks Port Royal Sound. Its a great place for those seeing a quiet place for walking, birdwatching and resting.
Local sheriffs departments say a victims willingness to cooperate would play a key role in how the agencies respond to a provision in South Carolinas new abortion law.

The new law requires that physicians conducting an abortion provide to the local sheriff the name and contact information of any patient who is the victim of rape and incest. The law also requires that physicians inform the patient prior to the procedure that the information will be shared.

The sheriffs departments in Richland and Lexington counties provided different perspectives on how heavily they would weigh the victims wishes.

The Richland County Sheriffs Department said it had no specific policy on reports of rape or incest that lead to abortions.

As with any report we get, we would vet it, then potentially follow up on it if theres information to follow up on, the department said in a statement provided to The State. If the woman doesnt want to follow up or have it investigated, then we would go no further than that.

Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon emphasized his office intended to pursue cases as far as possible within the letter of the law, while acknowledging that the interest and cooperation of the victim involved was a factor.

We fully intend to enforce it as written, said Koon. We will follow up on those notifications just as we would any information received from other mandatory reporters.

The law requires that physicians performing abortions report to the sheriff of the county where it was performed  currently there are only three abortion clinics in South Carolina, including one in Richland County. While Lexington County does not have an abortion clinic, hospitals in South Carolina can still perform abortions when the life of the mother is in danger or in cases of rape or incest, according to the new law.

Richland Countys statement echoed one issued July 1 by Charleston County Sheriff Kristi Graziano, who pledged that her department would respect the wishes of the victim.

While these providers are now mandated by law to send us these reports regardless of the will of their patients, we will not contact the patient if she doesnt want us to, Graziano said. We will offer our support and investigative services only if they request it.

The South Carolina Sheriffs Association has yet to take a position on the new law, said Jarrod Bruder, the associations director. But the issue will be discussed at next weeks annual sheriffs association meeting.

In South Carolina, health care workers are obligated to disclose suspected abuse of a child or vulnerable adult as well as gunshot wounds to law enforcement and social services agencies.

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, which operates two clinics in the state, opposes the new reporting requirement.

We do not believe that this is an appropriate step for physicians to take, Vicki Ringer, the director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said in a statement to The State.

The conditional nature of the reporting is unlike other reporting requirements designed to protect vulnerable people, including children, said Ringer. [It] is instead clearly designed to discourage survivors from having abortions.

South Carolinas six-week abortion ban  referred to as the fetal heartbeat law  was passed by the Legislature last year. It bans abortions around six weeks, with limited exceptions for the life of the mother and in cases of rape or incest. The law went into effect when a lower courts injunction was lifted following the recent Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. However, the General Assembly is expected to further tighten the new abortion law this year.
Oregon officials located the bodies of a missing Idaho woman and her daughter, according to a news release from the Grant County Sheriffs Office.

The bodies of Dawna Roe, 51, and her 16-year-old daughter, Gabby, were found Thursday in Dawnas vehicle near the town of Drewsey, Oregon, about 45 miles east of Burns, Oregon, and a roughly two-and-a-half-hour drive from Boise.

Caldwell Police had issued a missing person alert for the pair Wednesday. According to a Facebook post from the department, Dawna and Gabby may have gone camping, which family and friends said was out of character for Dawna.

Employees of an Oregon ranch were working in a remote area near Drewsey about 1 p.m. Thursday when they reported to local authorities that they had found a vehicle with a deceased individual inside. Upon investigating, Grant County sheriffs deputies found two bodies, later identified as Dawna and Gabby, in the vehicle.

Oregon officials said the cause of death was still under investigation, though Caldwell Police Chief Rex Ingram told KTVB the deaths appeared to be a murder-suicide by gunshot.
Over the past five weeks, Californias COVID-19 positivity rate has doubled to 16.7% from 8.3%, according to figures reported Friday by the California Department of Public Health.

Earlier this year, when cases of COVID-19 soared to record levels, the department reported that the positivity rate peaked near 26% statewide.

The states case rates also are on the rise: For every 100,000 Californians, 41.3 people had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of Friday. The figure stood at 34.6 per 100,000 five weeks ago.

In California, 4,009 people are hospitalized with the disease, 445 of them in intensive care units, the state health department reported.

Thats a 66% increase in hospitalizations from five weeks ago when the agency said 2,415 people were getting hospital care for COVID-19, including 276 in the ICUs. In Fridays update, public health officials noted that 2,112 ICU beds remained available.

The public health department and infectious disease experts worldwide are tracking a number of COVID-19 subvariants that they feel are more contagious, are likely to cause more severe disease, and are better at eluding current vaccines than the original new coronavirus.

In particular, two omicron subvariants  the BA.4 and BA.5 strains originally found in South Africa earlier this year  are increasingly being found in California, with July 2 data showing the number of cases of BA.5 rising by 51.9% and BA.4 by 16.5% over the prior week, the state health department reported.

A new study out of Columbia University, published in the Naturejournal, reported that the BA.5 and BA.4 subvariants are more than four times as resistant to vaccines as omicrons initial descendant, BA.2, meaning break-through cases are on the rise. So far, these subvariants have not shown signs of causing more severe cases of COVID-19 than their predecessors, state health department officials said.

The World Health Organization is also monitoring the BA.2.75 omicron variant, initially detected in India and known as centaurus, to determine whether it could pose trouble. The variant has only recently begun to surface in California.

In the Sacramento area, state records showed that Yolo County reported the lowest COVID-19 positivity rate at 9.5%. It stood at 15.8% in El Dorado County, 16% in Sacramento County and 18.6% in Placer County.

El Dorado County reported 27.1 cases per 100,000; Placer County, 28.3 per 100,000; Sacramento County, 36.6 per 100,000; and Yolo County, 44.6 per 100,000.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention ranks all four counties among areas in the nation where community spread of COVID-19 is at high levels. The two other CDC designations are low and medium. Much of California falls into the CDC high designation while states such as New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania so far remain at low levels of transmission.

Questions about new antiviral drug

The disease is finding many potential hosts in which to reside and potentially mutate, and researchers recently reported that some strains of the SARS-CoV-2 could resist a key antiviral drug called Paxlovid.

One of the scientists, Jun Wang, an associate professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, said this could pose a real setback in treatment.

Our findings show that doctors should reserve Paxlovid for the highest risk patients, the ones who need it most, he said, because if Paxlovid is widely used, it will mostly destroy the variants it can treat, and the variants it cannot treat will become dominant. If that happens, we will be right back where we started, with no treatment for the disease.

Still, on Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized state-licensed pharmacists to prescribe Paxlovid, saying it would ensure equitable access to the drug for the many U.S. residents who might not have access to a primary care physician.

The FDA recognizes the important role pharmacists have played and continue to play in combating this pandemic, said Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director for the FDAs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Since Paxlovid must be taken within five days after symptoms begin, authorizing state-licensed pharmacists to prescribe Paxlovid could expand access to timely treatment for some patients who are eligible to receive this drug for the treatment of COVID-19.

Check with doctors about COVID treatment

Both the American Medical Association and the Infectious Disease Society of America applauded the FDA decision. The FDA recommended that patients seek advice from their physician or go to a site that offers testing-to-treatment options.

Infectious disease experts also recommended patients see their physicians before seeking out a pharmacists but expressed support for the FDA move.

Despite their wide availability, Paxlovid ... and other outpatient COVID-19 therapies have been underutilized in the United States, said Dr. Daniel P. McQuillen, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Moreover, recent data show people who may be most in need of antiviral treatment for COVID-19, including Paxlovid, may not be receiving it because of where they live. Barriers to treatments are particularly steep for many people of color and individuals with lower incomes who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and who live in underserved communities with fewer health care providers.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the CDC recommends getting vaccinated, wearing a mask, covering coughs and sneezes, washing your hands frequently, disinfecting high-touch areas regularly, avoiding poorly ventilated spaces, staying six feet away from others, monitoring your health, and testing if you suspect you or a loved one has the virus.
A Kennewick man said he doesnt remember chasing police cars or trying to run an officer over, but he was willing to face punishment for the crimes.

Richard E. Cook, 33, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree assault and one count each of attempted second-degree assault, attempting to elude police, hit-and run and malicious mischief.

Judge Norma Rodriguez agreed to a joint recommendation from the prosecutors office and Cooks defense attorney, and sentenced Cook to the maximum end of the range  three years and seven months in prison.

Hell also be required to pay at least $26,000 in restitution to the city of Kennewick for a string of wrecked vehicles he left behind.

His attorney, Shelley Ajax, said Cook is normally a caring and loving man, and that night was out of character for the recent transplant from Idaho.

She said he doesnt have any memory of the events that led up to him being shot by Officer Dylan Markley, but is willing to take responsibility for the crimes.

According to blood samples taken shortly after his rampage, Cook had a combination of amphetamine, methamphetamine, norfentanyl and the sedative hydroxymidazolam in his system.

While Cook may not remember the events of Oct. 15 and 16, Deputy Prosecutor Julie Long said they have had left a lasting impact on the officers. Cook allegedly chased down and crashed into police cars, forcing officers to shut off their emergency lights.

They were terrified, she told Rodriguez during Cooks sentencing on Wednesday. They were afraid that they were going to be killed.

Cook was arrested after the Tri-City Regional SWAT team pulled him out of the white Jeep he was driving on 10th Avenue. The Jeep had 18 bullet holes, according to a Washington State Patrol Crime Lab report.

Following the shooting, the Tri-City Regional Special Investigations Unit was brought in to investigate whether the shooting was legal.

The unit is called in to investigate officer-involved shootings in Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla counties. They completed their investigation in February 2022. The report was forwarded to Prosecutor Andy Miller.

Miller wasnt available to say what the status of his review is.

The Tri-City Herald obtained a copy of the finished report through a public records request.

Hit and Run

While Cook had spent the last two or three years in and out of Latah County Jail in Idaho, he had stayed out of trouble with local police after moving to the Tri-Cities in August 2021.

His behavior started to change in the weeks before the Cooks rampage, including appearing to use fentanyl, according to a summary of the units investigation by Pasco Capt. Jeff Harpster.

Then on Oct. 15, 2021, the Kennewick Police Department began to get reports related to a white Jeep, which belonged to Cooks grandmother. He was allowed to use it to go to work.

The first reports started at 2:30 p.m. when people called about it swerving and cutting people off.

Then at 8:30 p.m., a woman called to report that a white Jeep followed her from the area of Costco. He continued to trail her through several parking lots until she confronted him in the parking lot for Ross Dress for Less.

Then just before midnight, officers spotted the white Jeep after they responded to a hit-and-run collision in the area of East Columbia Drive and North Washington Street. The Jeep was trying to leave. Two officers tried to stop it, but it eluded them.

Cooks rampage started after police received another report just after 4 a.m. on Oct. 16 of an intoxicated driver swerving across the road as it headed west on 10th Avenue near Edison Street.

A police officer spotted the Jeep as it pulled into the driveway of Legacy High School and stopped. The officer drove past it and confirmed it was the same Jeep they were looking for.

As he did that, Cook allegedly slammed the car into reverse and aimed at the officers car. Only quick action prevented him from colliding with the Jeep.

Targeting officers

The officer pulled into the parking lot of the Grace Baptist Church and parked. He saw the Jeep pull into the parking lot and it slammed into the back of his patrol vehicle.

The officer turned on his overhead lights, and the Jeep hit the car again.

The force of the impact was enough to move it about 2 feet, according to court documents.

This began a series of events where Cook chased Kennewick police cars, and tried to hit them with his vehicle, according to Harpsters report.

At that point, an officer alerted all responding vehicles to turn off their emergency lights as it appeared (Cook) was targeting them with his vehicle, court documents said.

Markley was parked in the Grace Baptist Church parking lot next to another officer after that officer reported his vehicle was rammed. The officer was working on deploying spike strikes.

Markley got out of his patrol car carrying his rifle and saw the white Jeep heading east on 10th Avenue. It swerved, jumped the curb and drove between a tree and a fence.

Cook steered straight at him and the officer fired his rifle at the driver. He got out of the way of the Jeep before it hit his patrol vehicle.

Cook then backed up, hit a tree and then aimed the Jeep at Markley again. The officer fired a second time.

The Jeep then veered away.

He finally stopped his Jeep on 10th Avenue and stayed inside, ignoring commands from police. He was arrested by Tri-City Regional SWAT team at 5:50 a.m..
BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a message of condolence to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida over the passing of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

On behalf of the Chinese government and people, and in his own name, Xi expressed deep condolences over Abe's sudden and unfortunate passing, and offered sincere sympathies to the family of Abe.

Xi pointed out that Abe made efforts to improve China-Japan relations during his time in office and contributed positively to this endeavor.

Xi said he had reached important consensus with Abe on building a China-Japan relationship that meets the needs of the new era, adding that he deeply regrets the sudden passing of Abe.

The Chinese president said he stands ready to work with Prime Minister Kishida to continue developing a good-neighborly friendship and cooperation between China and Japan in accordance with the principles established in the four political documents between the two countries.

Also on Saturday, Xi and his wife, Professor Peng Liyuan, sent a message of condolence to Abe's wife Akie Abe to express their sympathies. 
The California Highway Patrol has identified two people killed in a July 6 crash on Highway 1 near Nipomo.

Geovany Bazan Rojas, 31, and Julian Hernandez, 35, of Santa Maria, were killed when their 2007 Honda Civic collided with a 2005 Dodge Ram pickup driven by 38-year-old Grover Beach resident Cori Lee Hudson at 4:45 a.m. near Winterhaven Way.

Hudson was traveling southbound on the highway and turned left onto Winterhaven, directly in from of the Honda, which was coming the other direction, the CHP said. The vehicles collided head on, causing fatal injuries to the passengers of the Honda and moderate injuries to Hudson.

CHP said the cause of the crash remains under investigation. Anyone with further information is asked to contact the CHP San Luis Obispo Office at 805-594-8700.
Elon Musk: Was he ever serious about buying Twitter? (Hannibal Hanschke / Pool photo via AP)

Elon Musk late Friday proved that it's a mistake to think of him as unpredictable. In a move that everyone from investors to casual observers has been predicting for many weeks, he formally bailed out of his $44-billion deal to buy Twitter.

Musk's stated rationale for abandoning the deal, as set forth in a letter from his lawyers to Twitter, makes no sense. It's all based on his purported supposition that the condition of Twitter's business is worse than the company has let on, but he presents no evidence to support his claims.

The word "appears" is forced to carry the major burden of his assertions. Twitter, he says in the letter, "appears to have made false and misleading representations" somehow designed to coax him into signing a merger agreement on April 25. The merger agreement, he contends, "appears to contain materially inaccurate representations."

Merger agreements are designed to prevent exactly what Musk is doing now.

Tulane business professor Ann Lipton, in May

On the issue that he began pressing starting in mid-May as grounds to either renegotiate or abandon the deal  the proportion of Twitter accounts that are fake, spam or automated bots  Musk's Friday missive says "it appears that Twitter is dramatically understating the proportion of spam and false accounts" represented in its count of daily active users.

He says Twitter's contention that it stops counting fake or spam users once it determines that the users are fakes "appears to be false."

He also asserts that Twitters process for calculating its user numbers "appears to be arbitrary and ad hoc."

Musk has made an issue of Twitter's disclosures over many years that the proportion of fake accounts included in its user statistics is 5% or less. His letter says he has been caused "to strongly believe that the proportion of false and spam accounts included in the reported ... count is wildly higher than 5%." To back this up, however, he cites no evidence.

Over the last two months, Musk's behavior has made it plain that he would prefer to be out of this deal, even though the merger contract he signed left him only the narrowest options to do so.

He explicitly opted not to perform due diligence on Twitter's books before signing the deal, but subsequently demanded information about Twitter's inner workings  even though the term "due diligence" generally refers to scrutiny a prospective buyer performs before signing a deal, not afterward.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, either party that bails out of the deal would be subject to a $1-billion penalty payment, though Twitter could also demand that Musk complete the deal on the signed terms.

The Twitter board said Friday that it's prepared to sue Musk to complete the deal. "We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery," the board said.

What has happened to sour Musk on buying Twitter? There are several possibilities. One thought is that he was never serious to begin with, but hubris led him to convert a public musing about buying one of the world's leading social media platforms into a real transaction.

Then there's the possibility that he came to realize that managing a platform that attracts obstreperous users and an enormous amount of public attention would be an enormous pain in the backside.

A likely factor, if not the major factor, is that the value of technology companies has plummeted since April. That includes Twitter itself, and Tesla, the electric car company that represents most of Musk's wealth through his ownership of its shares; he initially pledged many of those shares as collateral on financing for the Twitter deal.

Since April 25 through Friday's trading, Twitter shares have lost about 30% of their value. They never came close to the $54.20 per share he agreed to pay (the figure may very well be a marijuana-related joke ... don't ask). Tesla shares fell about 25% in the same time frame, and as of Friday's close were about 38% below their peak price of $1,208.59, reached on Nov. 1.

Amid the stock downturns, Musk announced May 13 that the deal was "temporarily on hold" because of his doubts about fake accounts.

Experts were doubtful from the start of his pettifogging that he had reasonable grounds to bail out. For starters, there's no such thing in mergers as one side placing a deal "temporarily on hold." Twitter, for its part, said then that work on closing the deal was proceeding normally.

"Merger agreements are designed to prevent exactly what Musk is doing now," Tulane business professor Ann M. Lipton wrote on Twitter after Musk's May announcement: "have a buyer get cold feet and then nitpick to find some arguably 'false' rep that they can use as a pretext to avoid their obligations."

A "material adverse change" in a company's business is a common escape clause, but Lipton observed that it's "a very high standard" that has been met once in the history of the Delaware business court with jurisdiction over this deal. "There's no evidence that it exists here due to spam on Twitter's platform." Musk, again, didn't provide any evidence on Friday.

The only question today is whether Musk can extricate himself, or more precisely, at what price. Barring a settlement, this whole deal looks like it's destined to turn into one of the business world's longest-running courtroom dramas.

It may look fascinating at this moment, but be warned: It's almost certain to become very tiresome, very soon. If you haven't already wearied of Musk's clownishness, you will eventually. That's a sure bet.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Gov. Roy Cooper held a press conference Wednesday with Planned Parenthood to announce that he would be taking measures to protect abortion rights in North Carolina in the wake of Roe v. Wades end. While surrounding states have severely restricted and even eliminated abortion access, North Carolina hasnt changed.

For now, its up to the states to determine whether [people] get reproductive health care, and in North Carolina they still can, Cooper said in a press release. The key word there is still  Cooper does not have the power alone to save abortion access in North Carolina.

That didnt stop the Democratic governor from playing up the moment a bit. He tweeted prior to the announcement that he would take executive action to protect [peoples] reproductive health in NC. He had Planned Parenthood representatives with him. It was a lot of pomp, despite the fact that the actual protections are pretty minimal, and mainly apply to folks coming into the state for abortions.

The executive order primarily protects people from out-of-state seeking abortion in North Carolina due to restrictive policies. The governors Cabinet agencies  which include the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Public Safety  are not allowed to cooperate with outside groups (such as other state governments) looking to criminalize people who get abortion services in North Carolina. The order says that the executive branch will not be cooperating with extradition demands from other states. It also implores law enforcement to understand the rights protected by state law, and it says pregnant employees of these Cabinet agencies arent required to travel to other states where abortion is illegal or nearly-eliminated. Though not specified in the order itself, his press release specifically highlights rape and incest victims who are no longer able to access abortion care in their states  even though people get abortions for lots of other reasons.

This effort is important: Planned Parenthood South Atlantic says that one-third of the abortions they performed last week involved out-of state residents, and its expected that that percentage will stay the same or increase over time.

But an equally critical part of Wednesdays press conference was the message the governor is sending. Cooper is ready to fight on abortion, and as his partys leader in North Carolina, hes signaling to everyone, including fellow Democrats and voters, that hes ready to lead.

That message is bolder than whats come from the national Democratic party, which earned ire from progressives for not creating a plan after the initial Dobbs draft leaked, yet used it as an excuse to solicit donations to the party. Aside from platitudes, President Joe Biden has been largely quiet since Roe v. Wade was overturned two weeks ago (he signed an executive order Friday night, two days after Coopers, but it has been criticized for not doing enough). Cooper is trying to do more, and that means something.

To be clear, the governors executive order isnt legislation that will permanently protect the right to abortion in North Carolina. It cant be, and Cooper admitted as much. The governor cant do much thats significant on abortion without the legislature, which has a Republican majority and in all likelihood will try to restrict abortion further after the general election in November. If the GOP wins three new seats in the House and two seats in the Senate then, it will have a supermajority in the legislature. That supermajority will allow Republicans to pass whatever they want without needing to worry about Coopers inevitable veto.

People need to know that their votes in state legislative races this November will determine the fate of [peoples] health and freedom in our state, Cooper continued in his statement. Thats why this move, however limited it may be, matters. It signals to Democratic voters and officials that the battle begins now, and everyone needs to do what they can to fight. The governor wants everyone to follow his lead and do their part. Hes right.
Crowds turned out in downtown Wichita on Saturday for a Vote No protest, a sign that people are angry and that momentum is growing for the movement, event organizers said.

The crowds stretched further than from Third Street to First Street as chanting protesters made a loop by City Hall, then down Main, and finally along Douglas, ending up back to A. Price Woodard Park.

No counter-protesters were visible. There was private security as well as Wichita officers, including a rooftop sniper.

Kansas voters will decide Aug. 2 whether the state constitution should include the right to an abortion. A vote no would continue that right. A vote yes would remove it, and Kansas lawmakers would be free to further restrict abortion, including banning the procedure.

Womens March-Air Capital, which helped organize the event along with League of Women Voters Wichita - Metro, held a Vote No protest in October. The turnout wasnt nearly what it was Saturday.

Brandi Calvert, who co-chairs the Womens March-Air Capital with Faith Martin, said last months historic U.S. Supreme Court decision has rallied people. The nations highest court overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade decision that said women had a constitutional right to an abortion. In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should review other precedents, including the right to same-sex marriage.

The decision now leaves it up to states to decide on abortion laws. Several states, including Missouri, had trigger laws in effect that outlawed abortions when the court made its decision. Missouri did not make exceptions for rape or incest.

Kansas will be the first state in the country to vote on the issue since the high courts ruling. Dollars have been flowing in from out of state to support both sides. Some say what happens in Kansas could shape what happens in other states.

Roe was overturned and that really lit a fire under (people), Calvert said. People, they started paying attention  Most people didnt even know about the August election, had no idea it was on the ballot.

Saturday mornings march was followed by an event at Nortons Brewing Company to get people signed up to vote. The deadline to do so is Tuesday, July 12.

I think people are angry, Calvert said. I think theyre ready to get out and vote, I think theyre paying attention. I think they are ready to put their foot down.

Calvert and Martin said some church groups participated in the rally, and people were there for more reasons than just protecting womens right to an abortion. They said some see this as government overstep.

Delaney Jones, the president of Feminist On Campus Uniting Students at Wichita State University, told the crowd through a microphone that the amendment is about abortion and much more. Kansans, she said, shouldnt hand over these rights to unqualified, radical politicians.

Its about control, its about discrimination, its about suppression and government overreach and its blatant injustice, she said as the crowd cheered.

Video sped up 10x gives a good look at how large the crowd was today at a Vote No protest in downtown Wichita. pic.twitter.com/fBGdnSKVOQ  Michael Stavola (@MichaelStavola1) July 9, 2022

Aaron Free, who attended with two daughters and his girlfriend, said he was there to support women and that he is trying to stay optimistic about the vote in a Republican state.

Unfortunately in Kansas, I think it is going to go the other way, but Im optimistic, he said.

Martin and Calvert both acknowledged the possibility. Martin also raised concern about the language on the ballot, which was written by the Republican-dominated state Legislature. The ballot item is called Value Them Both.

I think in Kansas, Calvert said, a lot of people had the mentality that it cant happen here and people are waking up to the realization that it can happen here and if we dont turn out to vote on August 2, it will happen here.
Forty years ago, 5-year-old Anne Pham of Seaside, California was walking to her Highland Elementary School kindergarten class when she disappeared.

She was never seen alive again after that day, January 23, 1982, according to the Monterey County District Attorney. Her body was found two days later at the former Fort Ord Army base.

The crime went unsolved for decades.

However, new DNA testing led investigators to a Nevada man, Robert John Lanoue, 70, officials said. He was taken into custody Wednesday, July 6, and is charged with one count of first-degree murder, with special circumstance allegations that he murdered Pham while committing kidnapping and a lewd act on a child under the age of 14.

The guy is a complete monster, Seaside Police Chief Nicholas Borges told PEOPLE. Hes every persons nightmare. The world is a safer place with this guy off the streets.

Lanoue was 29 at the time of Annes murder and lived in Seaside, officials said. He was a registered sex offender in Nevada and spent an extensive period of time in jail, according to Monterey County Weekly.

Technological advances aided investigators solve the case, officials said. In 2020, the Monterey County District Attorneys Office Cold Case Task Force worked with the Seaside Police Department to reopen Annes case, officials said. They wanted to submit items of evidence for DNA testing.

In January, the task force received a grant that allowed it to to seek justice in Phams case, the district attorney said.

A new type of DNA testing not previously available to earlier investigators identified Lanoue as the suspect in Phams murder, the district attorneys office said.

Borges said Annes case was one of the departments biggest and most complex cold cases, according to Monterey County Weekly.

This is the greatest day of my professional career, Borges told Monterey County Weekly.

Seaside is 6.4 miles northeast of Monterey.

Decades later, accused killer identified in death of 10-year-old girl, CA cops say

Gang member arrested in 2014 cold case killing in Bradenton, Manatee sheriff says
Former President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he will not endorse U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, delivering a major setback for Hartzler as she attempts to stand out in a crowded field of candidates.

Just before taking the stage for a rally in Las Vegas, Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social that he did not believe Hartzler has what it takes to earn his endorsement.

You can forget about Vicky Hartzler for Senate from the Great State of Missouri, Trump wrote. She called me this morning asking for my Endorsement, much as she has on many other occasions. I was anything but positive in that I dont think she has what it takes to take on the Radical Left Democrats, together with their partner in the destruction of our Country, the Fake News Media and, of course, the deceptive & foolish RINOs.

Asked for comment, Hartzlers campaign pointed to a post on her Facebook page, in which she said the ultimate arbiters of the election are the voters.

The endorsement that counts is the endorsement of the Missouri people who know I am one of them and have been fighting for them, Hartzler wrote.

It is unclear what prompted Trump to come out against Hartzler, but the statement leaves Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and former Gov. Eric Greitens as the two most likely candidates to receive the endorsement in the final month before the Aug. 2 primary.

Polls have generally shown Greitens, Schmitt and Hartzler contending for the top spot in the crowded Republican field.

Trump has previously issued a statement of support  which he specified was not an endorsement  for U.S. Rep. Billy Long, but Long has been been running in fourth place in polling of the race.

The Missouri Republicans have been trying to win Trumps support throughout the campaign. Theyve made pilgrimages to Mar-A-Lago, hired former Trump staffers and espoused his unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

None have gone after the endorsement as publicly as Long and Greitens. Long has shelled out more than $100,000 on campaign consulting from Kellyanne Conway and can often be found handing out fake $45 bills with Trumps face on them in the U.S. Capitol. He has said the Trump endorsement is his best path to winning the senate race.

Meanwhile, Greitens has been actively courting Trumps base, putting out a video saying he was hunting RINOS  Republicans in name only  and is one of few candidates who have said they would not support U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell as majority leader, which Trump has called for candidates to say.

He also hired Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News commentator, who has helped his campaign get support from her fiance, Donald Trump Jr. Greitens and the younger Trump released a video showing them shooting guns at a range and Trump has publicly said he likes Greitens because he believes the former governor has the right people opposing him.

While Hartzler has complimented Trump and his policies throughout the race, her campaign has not emphasized the Trump endorsement as much as some of her opponents. She won the endorsement of U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, who has served as a surrogate for her with the former president.

Hartzler was critical of Trump on January 6, 2021 when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol. While she still objected to the certification of the election, she said Trumps unpresidental speech that day made it hard to object.
Phoenix police officers stand in front of police headquarters on May 30, 2020, waiting for protesters marching after the death of George Floyd. (Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)

Arizona's governor has signed a law that restricts how the public can video police at a time when theres growing pressure across the U.S. for greater law enforcement transparency.

Civil rights and media groups opposed the measure that Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed Thursday. The law makes it illegal in Arizona to knowingly video police officers 8 feet or closer without an officers permission.

Someone on private property with the owners consent can also be ordered to stop recording if a police officer finds they are interfering or the area is not safe. The offense is a misdemeanor that would likely incur a fine without jail time.

There needs to be a law that protects officers from people who either have very poor judgment or sinister motives, said Republican state Rep. John Kavanagh, the bills sponsor.

Im pleased that a very reasonable law that promotes the safety of police officers and those involved in police stops and bystanders has been signed into law, Kavanagh said Friday. It promotes everybodys safety yet still allows people to reasonably videotape police activity as is their right.

The move comes nearly a year after the U.S. Department of Justice launched a widespread probe of allegations that Phoenix police abused and used excessive force against homeless people. Its similar to other investigations opened in recent months in Minneapolis and Louisville, Ky.

The Phoenix Police Department, serving the nations fifth-largest city, has been criticized in recent years for its use of force, which disproportionately affects Black and Native American residents.

The law has left opponents like K.M. Bell, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, incredulous.

Federal appellate courts already have ruled that recording police is a clearly established right," according to Bell.

The law wont work in real-life scenarios.

Were talking about people being in public and a place they have a right to be. Were not talking about, like somebody breaking into the [National Security Agency], Bell said.

Kavanagh, who was a police officer for 20 years, amended the legislation so it applies to certain types of police actions, including questioning of suspects and encounters involving mental or behavioral health issues.

The law also makes exceptions for people who are the direct subject of police interaction. They can film as long as they are not being arrested or searched. Someone who is in a car stopped by police or is being questioned can also record the encounter.

Those exceptions were based upon input from all sorts of people, including the ACLU, he said.

Rumblings two years ago about antipolice groups who would purportedly deliberately approach officers while filming inspired draft legislation. There was a risk of an officer being injured or a suspect escaping or ditching evidence, Kavanagh said.

The Rev. Jarrett Maupin, a Phoenix activist, has represented victims of excessive force by police. Some of the cases received more publicity because video captured by bystanders was posted online.

In one case, police pointed their guns at a Black couple in front of their children in May 2019 after their young daughter took a doll from a store without their knowledge. They received a $475,000 settlement from the city.

Maupin believes the law is a tactic to help police avoid responsibility.

Proximity is not a luxury in terms of documenting the actions of officers who engage in acts of brutality, Maupin said. Sometimes the victims and the bystanders have no choice but to be within the proximity that the bill now prohibits."

Bell said it's unlikely that other states might follow suit to limit police recording directly given questions about constitutionality.

The new law doesn't make exceptions for the press.

Media groups including the Associated Press said the measure raises serious constitutional issues. They signed onto a letter from the National Press Photographers Association, or NPPA, in opposition to the bill.

Setting one-size-fits-all conditions like "arbitrary distances of 8 feet for filming police just doesn't work, said Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the NPPA. It's also unclear if someone is breaking the law if an officer approaches them within a few feet.

What happens when youre in situations like we saw during all of the protests for the past couple of years, where you have multiple people with cameras? Were not just talking about journalists, Osterreicher said. And youve got multiple police officers. Is everybody going to be running around with a ruler?

Cellphone cameras have transformed policing with one of the biggest examples being the 2020 killing of George Floyd, but Kavanagh said a law like Arizona's wouldn't have made an impact since the video that came to light in that case was taken from a greater distance away.

Osterreicher argued a police officer could invoke the law even when a person filming is far enough away.

But that didn't happen in the Floyd case.

Fortunately, those officers out of all the wrong things that they did, the one thing they didnt do was tell her to turn off the camera or try to interfere with her recording, Osterreicher said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Federal agents tracked Brian Adams down using information from a Google email address associated with his Zoom account.

A white Kentucky man who infiltrated a majority-Black online Zoom class of fifth-graders and hurled racist threats at the young children in fall 2020 has been federally charged.

Brian Adams, 22, faces a five-year maximum prison sentence and fines of up to $250,000. He was charged with communicating interstate threats to injure or kidnap the children and staffers of the Harvey, Louisiana-based charter school Laureate Academy, Nola.com reported.

The indictment, filed June 30, comes after a two-year investigation into the Oct. 14, 2020 incident, which allegedly involved Adams using the N-word and telling the minors: I am gonna hang you by the tree, as they shielded their eyes and began crying. He later posted a recording of the Zoombombing online, according to the outlet.

GETTY IMAGES

According to Nola.com, federal agents tracked Adams down using information from a Google email address associated with his Zoom account. The account was allegedly listed under the name alex jones, reportedly in reference to the namesake alt-right conspiracy theorist and radio host.

Federal agents in early November raided the Paintsville, Kentucky residence where Adams reportedly lived with his father. He allegedly confessed to the racist Zoombombing during questioning and admitting to stealing computer equipment to the tune of over $1,000 from Best Buy, per the outlet.

Adams was not immediately charged, according to court records reviewed by the outlet. He was also suspected of wire fraud and interfering with federally protected activities, but was only indicted for the interstate threats following the investigation.

According to Nola.com, Laureate Academy, which cancelled courses for two days following the targeted attack, had an enrollment of 67% African-American students during the 2020-21 school year, per the National Center for Education Statistics. A grand jury cited the schools majority-Black enrollment as Adams motivation for the attack.

A YouTube video of the attack which surfaced the following day allegedly included evidence that Adams had searched for pictures of swastikas using Google.

A federal judge has approved an agreement to settle a long-running desegregation case with a north Alabama school system, prosecutors said Wednesday. (Photo: AdobeStock)

Prosecutors say that despite the maximum five-year prison sentence Adams faces, federal courts are not likely to give maximum sentences to first-time offenders, according to Nola.com.

The racist Zoombombing from Adams was not the only such threat groups meeting online faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Multiple other indicents of racist online hijackings occurred from 2020 and on as virtual meetings increased in use, including during a University of South Carolina online session in April 2020.

In Feb. 2022, during a meeting of elderly residents in North Carolina, a man reportedly exposed himself, repeated the N-word and committed a lewd act, as previously reported by theGrio.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post Feds indict man who allegedly told a 5th grade Zoom class hed hang them by a tree appeared first on TheGrio.
Former Kennewick Mayor Don Britain will pay $5,000 to settle an ethics complaint violation filed against him with the Washington State Executive Ethics Board over his actions in his previous state job.

Britain asked to enter settlement negotiations after the board found reasonable cause nearly a year ago to believe he violated several sections of the state Ethics in Public Service Act.

Britain denies the allegations.

I needed to put this chapter behind me for the good of my health and move forward with my life, he told the Tri-City Herald. He was treated for throat cancer toward the end of his time as mayor.

Britain was Kennewick mayor until he lost the November election for a city council seat to Gretl Crawford, who is now mayor pro tem.

He was fired from his job as a Washington state Department of Social and Health Services in fall 2019 for violating ethical standards after a civil investigation by the Washington State Patrol into a complaint he had an inappropriate relationship with one of his clients.

The $5,000 Britain agreed to pay was half the maximum for which the board could have fined him. The board also could have recovered any damages to state taxpayers and the cost of the investigation, under state law.

In the settlement Britain agrees there is sufficient evidence to determine he violated Washington state law.

They include prohibitions against state employees conducting activities incompatible with their duties; prohibitions against securing special privileges; and prohibitions against using state resources for personal benefit.

Kennewick City Manager Marie Mosley and former Mayor Don Britain are shown in this file photo at a city council workshop.

Julie Eisentrout, Washington assistant attorney general, told the board at a Friday meeting that there were aggravating factors in the case.

The types of violations for which Britain was accused reduce public respect and confidence in state government employees and the violation was continuous, she said.

Allegations against Don Britain

Eisentrout reviewed the WSP investigation report for the board, saying it revealed numerous incidents in which Britain did not follow state policies while working with a client.

He cosigned and renewed an apartment lease with the client, and she lived with him without paying rent in 2019, Eisentrout said. He did not inform his supervisor that they were living together.

Britain has maintained that he was trying to help the client when she needed housing and their relationship was not romantic.

The client also went along when he went on a vacation to Hawaii. She asked to come and he used personal airline miles he had accumulated to buy her a ticket.

But Britain says they did not stay together or spend time together while in Hawaii, Eisentrout said.

The state patrol investigation also found he did not follow state policy when issuing her a gas and other benefit cards and approving vouchers for supplies for a welding class she was taking that the state paid for, Eisentrout said.

The supplies he approved allegedly included 12 sets of welding gloves in various sizes, according to a WSP document.

Ethics board staff also reviewed Britains use of his DSHS computer, which was owned by the state.

On his work computer were documents related to his clients course work, his divorce, employment outside the DSHS, a condominium he owned in Hawaii and a letter to the editor supporting the election of Washington state Sen. Sharon Brown, Eisentrout said.

Britain has said previously that occasional use of a state computer for personal use is allowed and that the files found on his computer were from activity over nearly 10 years.

Past ethics sanction attempts

Pasco activist Roger Lenk filed the complaint against Britain with the State Executive Ethics Board in March 2021, but died in December before it was resolved.

While still the mayor, Britain also faced a complaint filed under the city ethics policy about his conduct at his DSHS job. It was dismissed after a finding that he could not be sanctioned for actions that did not directly relate to his actions as a councilman.

Kennewick Mayor Don Britain talks with his attorneys, Kevin Holt, left, and Bob Thompson, right, in Benton County Superior Court before a recall petition was dismissed in February 2020.

He also faced a recall attempt over his conduct at DSHS, but it was thrown out by a Benton County Superior Court judge before signatures could be gathered.

After the Friday state ethics board meeting Britain said that even though he denies the allegations I agreed to settle with the board because the allegations made pertained to events almost three years old, some over eight years old.

He said he continues to recover from cancer and has returned to work.
Congressman Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho, had better hope that the author F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong when he wrote There are no second acts in American lives.

Because, so far, this Idaho Republicans performance on Jan. 6, 2021, has purchased a sorry legacy. Opportunity after opportunity to redeem himself have been squandered.

On June 13, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection presented former Attorney General Bill Barr, former President Donald Trumps campaign manager Bill Stepien and even first daughter Ivanka Trump, who testified that Trump knew the big lie was a big lie that had been debunked by credible investigators and five dozen court rulings.

But he proceeded to find sycophantic sources  such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and lawyer John Eastman  who would do his bidding.

Fulcher kept quiet.

On June 16, the House panel revealed how Trump pressured his own vice president, Mike Pence, toward an unconstitutional attempt to subvert the election during the ceremonial certification of the Electoral College results. When Pence refused, Trump issued an inflammatory tweet that put the vice presidents life at risk while a deadly mob stormed the Capitol, chanting Hang Mike Pence. That mob came within 40 feet of finding its intended target.

Concluded retired federal Judge J. Michael Luttig, a conservative icon: Trump and his followers pose a clear and present danger to American democracy.

Fulcher was mum about that, too.

On June 21, elected Republicans  Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger  revealed how Trump tried to pressure them into overturning President Joe Bidens victory in their states.

It is a tenet of my faith that the Constitution is divinely inspired, Bowers said. I would not do it.

Still, Fulcher had nothing to say.

On June 23, Trumps acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue and Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Steven Engel outlined how the entire Department of Justice leadership threatened to resign in the face of Trumps plan to install a compliant Jeff Clark as the nations top lawyer because he was willing to help overturn the election.

At one point, Trump told Donoghue: Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.

At the hearings end, the panel disclosed that House Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania sought a pardon from Trump for their role in the scheme.

The only reason I know to ask for a pardon (is) because you think youve committed a crime, said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.

Nothing in any of that compelled Fulcher to issue a comment.

And then came Tuesday, when an eyewitness to Trumps West Wing operation  Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows  revealed an emotionally volatile former president who knew he was egging on an armed insurrection of the Capitol and only Secret Service intervention stopped him from personally leading it.

Back at the White House, Trump did nothing to stop the violence and when told that Pence was in danger, the former president said, Mike deserves it.

As the hearing closed, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., accused Team Trump of witness intimidation.

And what did you hear from Fulcher?

Nothing.

None of which distinguishes Fulcher from his Idaho colleagues, Rep. Mike Simpson and Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch. But they were not complicit in the Jan. 6 attempted coup. Simpson, Crapo and Risch stood by the Constitution that day and voted to certify Biden as the next president of the United States.

Only Fulcher was among the 147 Republicans who did Trumps bidding that day.

Fulcher began his morning with an appearance on Fox and Friends, outlining his intentions.

Later, Fulcher posted on social media a picture of himself signing his objection to Bidens electors.

Nothing deterred him  not even the desecration of the Capitol and the five lives it took.

As soon as order was restored, Fulcher went right back into the House and voted to overturn Bidens victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania.

A string of Republican witnesses courageous enough to speak truth to the American people has brought us to this question:

Was the Idaho congressman one of Trumps useful idiots who was gullible enough to fall for the former presidents deception?

Or did he knowingly play his role in a plot that came within 40 feet of destroying Americas fragile democracy?

At the very least, Fulcher owes the people who sent him to Washington, D.C., an explanation.

We have come to a moment of conscience. Does Fulcher have one?  M.T.

Marty Trillhaase is the opinion page editor of the Lewiston Tribune, where this editorial originally appeared.
by Xinhua writer Guo Yage

BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has on various occasions stressed the importance of human rights protection and development, reiterated China's commitment to unswervingly advancing the development of the human rights cause, and called for concerted efforts of all countries to improve global human rights governance.

Under Xi's leadership, China has put respecting and protecting human rights high on its agenda of state governance and development strategy, and has made remarkable achievements in this regard home and abroad over the years.

PROTECTING BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS

On multiple occasions, Xi has emphasized the importance of protecting primary and basic human rights, such as the rights to subsistence and development.

"China insists on a combination of the principle of human rights' universality and the nation's actual conditions, and insists that the rights to live and to development are primary basic human rights," Xi said in December 2016 in a congratulatory letter sent to an international symposium on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations' "Declaration on the Right to Development."

Just as Xi said, China has long adhered to a people-centered vision of human rights, sparing no efforts in saving lives and improving people's livelihood.

Prioritizing the protection of people's health in its development strategy, China has built the world's largest healthcare system. Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, China has mobilized all resources nationwide, and made unprecedented efforts for medical treatment.

In February 2021, China declared the elimination of absolute poverty, having lifted nearly 100 million rural poor out of poverty over the previous eight years. The country has also made all-out efforts to combat organized crime and clamp down on all illegal activities to safeguard people's rights to live safely.

Surveys by the National Bureau of Statistics detected a continuous rise in Chinese people's sense of security, with 98.4 percent of the population feeling safe in 2020. The figure rose to 98.56 percent in the first half of 2021. China ranked second with 93 points in the 2021 Global Law and Order Report released by Gallup.

The key human rights issues are enough food to eat, adequate housing and the right to education, and "for those three key areas, China has done an amazing job," said President of the New Zealand China Friendship Society Dave Bromwich.

"In my view, China, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, has done very well in terms of securing fundamental human rights," said Kenya-based international relations scholar Cavince Adhere.

Farhad Javanbakht Kheirabadi, a China scholar at Shahid Beheshti University in Iran, said China's achievements of guaranteeing people's basic human rights, such as the right to life and the right to development, and continuously improving people's living standards, "set an example for other countries."

ADVANCING ALL-ROUND DEVELOPMENT

When addressing the general debate of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly via video on Sept. 21, 2021, Xi said that "we should safeguard and improve people's livelihoods and protect and promote human rights through development, and make sure that development is for the people and by the people, and that its fruits are shared among the people."

"We should continue our work so that the people will have a greater sense of happiness, benefit and security, and achieve well-rounded development," he noted.

Under Xi's leadership, China has coordinated the improvement of human rights related to economy, politics, society, culture and environment. Along with the country's economic development, people's quality of life has been greatly improved.

On average, 13 million new urban jobs were created annually in recent years. The per capita disposable income of residents has exceeded 35,000 yuan (about 5,200 U.S. dollars), up by nearly 80 percent from the 2012 level. The urban-rural income gap was closed significantly, and the middle-income group has grown to over 400 million people.

In 2021, China's retention rate of compulsory education reached 95.4 percent, with more equal accessibility. The country now has the largest higher education system globally, with 44.3 million students currently at school.

Development is the foundation and key to solving all problems facing the country, as is reiterated in the Chinese government's major development plans and documents, noted Lin Yifu, dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University.

"No matter how often you've been to China, during every visit you actually discover something new," said Zahari Zahariev, chairman of Bulgaria National Association for the Belt and Road and former member of Bulgarian Parliament.

The Chinese society, based on socialism principles, has a single goal: "the well-being and the most favorable conditions for development both of the individual and of the social organism as a whole," he said.

In social, economic and cultural fields, "China has continuously set and achieved a series of long-run goals to rejuvenate the nation," said former Tunisian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ounaies.

UPHOLDING GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS CAUSE

In his congratulatory letter to the Beijing Forum on Human Rights on Sept. 16, 2015, Xi said China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development and uphold human rights causes of both China and the world at large, calling for closer international exchanges and cooperation in the field of human rights.

Attaining full human rights for people is a shared goal of the humanity, he said.

More than six years later, Xi, in a congratulatory letter to the 2021 South-South Human Rights Forum held in Beijing, noted again that "China is willing to work with all developing countries to carry forward the common values of humanity, practice true multilateralism and contribute wisdom and strength to the sound development of the international human rights cause."

Honoring its commitments, China has made important contributions to the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and has been long dedicated to promoting common development and prosperity.

For example, China has conducted agricultural science and technology exchanges with more than 140 countries and regions. It has provided more than 15,000 tons of emergency humanitarian food aid to developing countries in need since the beginning of this year.

Last year alone, China provided 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations, honoring its commitment to making the vaccine a global public good.

Besides, to achieve a balanced, coordinated and inclusive growth worldwide, the Chinese president proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI) in re-energizing the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and building a global community of development.

Mohammed Saqib, secretary-general of the India China Economic and Cultural Council, said China has immensely contributed to the world, especially poor developing countries, through material aid, technical cooperation, human resource development cooperation, the dispatch of medical teams, emergency humanitarian aid, overseas volunteer programs and debt relief.

China-proposed GDI is a very noble cause, and it is going to contribute to world peace and prosperity, said Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. 
Gov. Gavin Newsoms latest conflict with the policies of the state he runs reveals more about the policies than it does about him.

The governors predilection for secrecy and hypocrisy was well established before he absconded to an undisclosed location that turned out to be Montana, one of more than a score of states to which California prohibits state-funded travel. What we should be questioning anew is why the state decided to revoke public employees passports with respect to nearly half their own country.

The policy in question is a classic example of an extensive legislative genre: a law passed for the sole purpose of allowing lawmakers to take a locally popular stand on an issue even though its beyond their purview or capacity to affect it.

Opinion

Authored by Democratic Bay Area Assemblyman Evan Low, passed along party lines and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016, the travel ban was a response to Republican-run states allowing discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Under a provision empowering the attorney general to extend the ban to reflect new instances of state-sponsored discrimination, such as the more recent laws targeting transgender scholastic athletes, California now prohibits publicly funded travel to a total of 22 states.

These are bigoted, pernicious, indefensible laws. But Californias success in influencing the states enacting them can be measured by the expansion of the ban to cover even more such laws. If were going to restrict Californians movements to virtuous states, the main consequence will be that our movements become very restricted.

Its not as if the Legislature werent warned about the impracticalities. An analysis prepared for the legislations first committee noted, for example, that it might prohibit a CalTrans employee from traveling to an out-of-state plant manufacturing government vehicles even as the states much more lucrative purchase of the vehicles proceeds. If the premise of this bill is that state funds should not be spent in states that deny civil rights, the analysis asked, why would the state ban state-funded travel but still spend a presumably much greater amount ... procuring goods from that same state?

Or it could prevent a University of California professor from traveling to a discriminatory state to present a paper advocating transgender rights. Is preventing travel to other states, and the accompanying interactions with the residents of those states, the best way to encourage those states to change their laws? the analyst asked. Is it possible that creating more opportunities for interaction and the exchange of ideas will be a more effective means of bringing about change than prohibiting those interactions and exchanges?

Such interstate interactions certainly couldnt be less effective than the travel ban given that it has had no discernible effect. And given that some in the targeted states have now threatened to prohibit their residents from traveling to states like California for an abortion, our legislators might have another reason to eschew the whole business of trying to enforce their laws in other states. Its not as if our state doesnt have enough problems to keep them busy.

The trouble with policies designed to pander to a constituency is that no politician interested in keeping that constituency can easily question them. Thats true even if the politician is a governor in need of a vacation.
Kansas City police were asking the public for help on Friday with locating a 31-year-old man after his family reported that he was missing for several days.

Joel I. Chesser was last seen Sunday around 12 p.m. in the area of East 69th Street and Richmond Avenue in the citys East Swope Highlands neighborhood, police said. He has a medical condition that may affect his behavior, police said, and his family is concerned for his well-being.

Chesser was believed to possibly be wearing a white T-shirt and gray jeans, police said. He stands about 5 feet, 7 inches, weighs approximately 155 pounds and has shoulder-length brown hair and green eyes, according to police.

Kansas City police were asking anyone with information concerning Chessers whereabouts to contact the Missing Persons Unit at 816-234-5220 or call 911.

Missing/Endangered



Joel Chesser w/m 31 YOA, 57, 155lbs, Brown Shoulder-Length Hair, Green Eyes was last seen on 7/3 at 12pm in the area of E 69 St/Richmond Ave. He has medical conditions which require attention and can affect his behavior. pic.twitter.com/P8ez5FFdP5  kcpolice (@kcpolice) July 9, 2022
It appears that California Gov. Gavin Newsoms Florida ad buy has struck a nerve.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis devoted several minutes of a Friday press conference to escalating his cross-country rivalry with Newsom, a Democrat and outspoken critic of governance in red states like Florida. Both are considered possible presidential contenders.

I can just tell you this, I was born and raised in this state, and until the last few years I rarely if ever saw a California license plate in the state of Florida. You now see a lot of them. I can tell you if you go to California you aint seeing very many Florida license plates, DeSantis said.

DeSantis remarks come less than a week after Newsom unveiled an ad urging Florida residents and businesses to come to California, where we still believe in freedom.

At his press conference, DeSantis brought up Newsoms infamous unmasked dinner at the French Laundry during the height of the pandemic in November 2020. He said that Californias governor did it to basically rub his citizens noses in the fact that he was treating them like peasants.

From there, he moved on to Californias school performance during the pandemic.

In California, they locked kids out of school, and they had the lowest ... percentage of in-person learning of any state in the country of the 2020-21 school year because the teachers union runs that state, DeSantis said, citing Burbio.com, a site that aggregates school data.

DeSantis described Los Angeles and San Francisco, where voter concern about crime is a top-tier political issue, as places that have been destroyed with drugs and crime and homeless. He said that in Florida, we believe that when people commit crimes they belong behind bars, not released back onto the street.

Floridas governor said that while California saw declining tourism during COVID-19, Florida saw a tourism boom. He added that Californias masking policy and vaccine card requirements drove people away from the state.

Lets just be clear, California is driving people away with their terrible governance, DeSantis said.

He said that California had never lost population until Newsom came to office, and now theyre hemorrhaging population.

Its almost hard to drive people out of a place like California given all their natural advantages, and yet theyre finding a way to do it, DeSantis said.

Californias population has declined slightly, in part due to COVID-19 deaths and federal immigration policy as well as an increase in domestic out-migration, according to the California Department of Finance.

In a statement Nathan Click, Newsoms campaign spokesman, responded:

For Desantis, freedom means government forcing rape victims to bear the child of their attacker. Freedom in Florida means any 18 year old can buy an AR-15 and unlimited ammunition, no questions asked. Governor Desantis idea of freedom is 40,000 Floridians dying because of the policies he put in place during the pandemic. DeSantis take on freedom is simply un-American.
Plastic bags with rice and antisemitic messages were found on Carolina Forest area lawns Thursday and Friday morning.

The Community Association Management, CAMS, of Walkers Woods in Carolina Forest was made aware and filed a police report on Thursday.

The Sun News has reached out to both Horry County and Myrtle Beach police departments and has not received any responses.

This is not the first instance of antisemitic notes being found in Horry County.

On May 5, 2022, Horry County PD wrote in a Facebook post that HCPD is aware of an anti-Jewish note that is being circulated nationwide, which cites conspiracy theories related to Jewish government officials and COVID-19. This note has been found in South Carolina, folded up in plastic zipper bags and weighed down by hard candies.

The community manager, Michelle Blessing, sent a message to residents in the Walkers Woods neighborhood advising them to throw the plastic baggies in the trash and not open them.

Residents that Sun News reporters spoke with wished to not be quoted. Many of them said that they did not have any concern for the baggies while others said they threw them away without examining them.

With the world being the way it is, I advise you not to touch the contents of the bag in the off chance there could be anything more toxic than the horrific messages inside, the Facebook post containing Blessings message stated.

Antisemitic propaganda in a baggie filled with rice found in Carolina Forest neighborhood.

It seems the bags were delivered on Wednesday night according to Blessing who also wrote that she was made aware Thursday that Walkers Woods, along with other neighboring developments, was visited in the middle of the night by some unwelcome individuals.

It is unknown if the rice has any symbolic value. It is possible the rice was put inside to hold the baggies down.

It is unclear how many neighborhoods were affected, but Sun News reporters saw the most baggies around Walkers Woods of Carolina Forest.

One message contained a list of protocols and was titled, The Jews Plan for World Domination. This list of protocols references a 1903 Russian publication that has played a huge key part in popularizing the belief of an international Jewish conspiracy.

One of the said protocols listed stated, Start fights between different races, classes and religions.

Another protocol said, Sacrifice people, including Jews, when necessary.

The Sun News also contacted local synagogues and none of them desired to comment on the situation.

Horry County Councilman for the Carolina Forest area, Dennis DiSabato, said he would contact local police and tell them to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.

There is absolutely no room for that in our county. It shouldnt be tolerated, DiSabato said.

The distributor behind the baggies is unknown and the reason why Carolina Forest neighborhoods were targeted specifically is unknown.
Adair Ford Boroughs on track to be SCs next US attorney after Senate panel OKs nomination

The nomination of Adair Ford Boroughs, President Joe Bidens choice for U.S. attorney of South Carolina, will go before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

The 9 a.m. hearing is a necessary step on Burroughs journey to be confirmed by the full U.S. Senate.

Boroughs, 42, who ran an unsuccessful campaign in 2020 for the U.S. House and whose resume includes work at the Department of Justice, was nominated by Biden in June to become South Carolinas next U.S. attorney.

It wont be a hearing. Its just a discussion and vote, said Carl Tobias, a law professor at University of Richmond law school who specializes in the federal judiciary and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Boroughs likely wont have to appear before the senators, and the vote is expected to be in her favor, Tobias said.

This is a signal that theyve done an investigation on her and theres no controversy, no red flags, Tobias said. Sometimes a couple of the senators vote no, just because they oppose anybody Biden nominates.

Having her nomination come before the committee also likely means that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has signed off on Boroughs favorably, Tobias said. Home state senators have a big say in whether a nominee can get through a committee.

Boroughs has a lengthy academic and legal pedigree, graduating from Furman University in 2002 with honors. She also spent a stint as a public school teacher and graduated from Stanford Law School in 2007.

She also served as a law clerk for approximately three years for U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel. She clerked for Gergel in 2014, when he struck down the states constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

The U.S. attorney for South Carolina is the chief federal law enforcement officer responsible for federal criminal prosecutions and civil litigation involving the United States in the state. Its prosecutors work with agents from the FBI, Secret Service, IRS, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies.

Currently, the office is investigating financial crimes associated with suspended Hampton County lawyer Alex Murdaugh and his relationship with the Palmetto State Bank. And the office is prosecuting a top Westinghouse official alleged to have helped former S.C. utility SCANA engage in a cover-up of work failures and cost overruns at the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project in Fairfield County.

If confirmed, Boroughs will oversee an office of approximately 62 assistant U.S. attorneys, 75 support staff and 18 contract support staff, all of whom are responsible for prosecuting federal crimes in the district.

Those crimes include narcotics and firearms cases, gang violence, human trafficking, white-collar crime, tax fraud, securities fraud, public corruption, terrorism and civil rights violations. The office also defends the U.S. in civil cases and collects debts owed to the United States.

Lawyers for the U.S. Attorneys office are headquartered in Columbia, with satellite offices in Charleston, Greenville and Florence.
Edna Suttles was Greenville Countys first female bail bondsman and once owned a restaurant she burned down when she couldnt get a liquor license. She loved to dance.

Leigh Goodman was a mother to four daughters who, despite three failed marriages, raised them and put herself through college to become an occupational therapist.

Nancy Rego, a call center agent for Eastern Airlines, was meticulous about her appearance and later became a massage therapist. She loved to laugh.

All three were so vivacious, friends and family say everyone looked when they walked into a room.

And all three were murdered by serial killer Daniel Printz, a handyman who charmed his way into their lives, meeting them through dating sites and happenstance. He also killed Nancy Regos 88-year-old mother.

Printz negotiated a plea deal with federal prosecutors and was sentenced to life in prison in Suttles death only, but he admitted to playing a role in the deaths of the other women.

The court hearing last month served as the end of a years-long mystery for the families, who now are left to remember the light they brought and wonder why this happened to them.

Here are their stories.

Dolores Sellers

Sellers was Printzs first murder, as far as police and court officials know, but not his first crime. He had a few petty run-ins; bad check, concealed weapon, false title. Then, in 1996, he picked up a 25-year-old woman walking home in Waterford, Michigan about 35 miles northwest of Detroit.

Printz, then 34, lived farther north in Lake Orion. He knocked her out then bound her wrists with duct tape, her ankles with shackles and got her into his 2-year old Oldsmobile SUV, police records show. At some point, she awoke and moved to pick up a flashlight.

He screamed he would kill her, but she found an Allen wrench and stabbed him repeatedly. Printz threw her out of the car and sped off. He was found, arrested and convicted of kidnapping, sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was released from prison in 2009 and from parole in 2011.

He moved to Gaston County, North Carolina and posted an ad offering handyman services. Nancy Rego, who was married at the time, answered. Sometime later, Rego and Printz, who was also married, began a relationship.

Nancy introduced Printz to her mother Dolores Sellers, who was recovering from an ankle injury. At 88, she was still spry. She had lived through the Great Depression and was considered the matriarch of the family. Well loved, was how people remembered her.

She had a son and a daughter.

Justin Holloway, assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina, said she was beautiful, she loved to sing and reminded family and friends of Elizabeth Taylor.

Nancys long-time friend Rebecca Peeler had met Mrs. Sellers on occasion, but her abiding memory was of just how much Nancy adored her mother.

Sellers had been retired for 30 years by then from a Charlotte property management company, where she was general manager. When she died in November 2017, some thought it odd  she seemed in good health other than her injury  but she was nearly 90. No autopsy was done.

Nancy Rego

Peeler and Rego met when they both went to work for Eastern Airlines and spent six weeks in training in Miami to work in a call center. They became the best of friends some years later after Eastern went out of business and they were working for a computer company in Baltimore.

We gravitated toward each other, Peeler said. She was so funny. She loved life. There was a joy about her.

Nancy Rego, left, and Rebecca Peeler loved going to steeplechase races as young, single women.

They had a group of women, all single, who partied together. They went to the steeplechase races in northern Virginia. Once, they donned expensive-looking clothes, rented a Jaguar and put out quite a spread of food and champagne.

It was a perfectly delightful dress-up day for me, Peeler recalled. Normal dress for her friend.

They went to a friends Kill Devil Hills beach house for girls weekends. Nancy was so proficient as a shag dancer, the others said they needed to give up their Southern girl signs.

Then men and jobs sent them to different places. Rego married. Peeler went to Charlotte to care for her father. Then married and adopted five children.

They drifted apart.

Peeler heard later that after Mrs. Sellers died, Rego, 66, and by then owner of her own successful massage therapist business, told people she decided to go off the grid with this man named Printz. Costa Rica, a ranch in Texas. Somewhere far, somewhere different.

Every now and then, family members got texts from Rego, but something just seemed off. They didnt quite sound like her. One year passed to another and Nancy did not come back.

Leigh Goodman

Michelle Goodman describes her mother as very strong, very smart.

She could juggle a lot of things at once, Michelle said, further describing her mothers life as complex.

Leigh Goodman married as a teenager and was just 19 when Michelle was born. They lived in Sarasota, Florida. Michelle was 4 years old when her parents divorced and she went to live with her soldier father in his new assignment in Germany.

Michelle Goodman and her mother, Leigh, about 2010.

That would continue to be the story of her life with her mother  12 when she went back to live with her mother, back with her dad. Her mother remarried and divorced again. Now she had two toddlers and was on welfare, but she plunged in and earned a degree in occupational therapy from State University of New York at Buffalo.

Leigh moved back to Florida, worked with kids in juvenile detention, married again for a short while and had a fourth daughter.

Mom always believed that human beings were complex and there was no such things as monsters, Michelle said. People are damaged by their circumstances.

They had great talks about philosophy and psychology. What motivated people to do the things they did. Relationships.

They listened to Fleetwood Mac and Michelle believed every Stevie Nix song was about her mom.

Leigh reconnected with Michelles dad, Mike, and they spent a happy five or so years together in Arizona, where Michelle now lives.

Then Leigh was gone.

The cause of her frenetic choices became known. She was diagnosed with two disorders  bipolar (high and low mood swings) and schizoaffective (hallucinations or delusions, and mood disorder symptoms, such as depression or mania.)

She had a breakdown. Shed be homeless for a while, then show up. Or shed call. Leigh always managed to keep her cell phone.

It became commonplace for Michelle to look out her window and there, unexpectedly, stood her mother. The last time was in 2017 when Michelle was living in Sarasota.

I hugged her for a long time and said please be careful, Michelle said.

She was always traveling, her sister Marlene Colbath said. Shed send a text from Cape Cod, Sarasota, places in California. Sometimes, it would be a photo of a road sign to show her location. Leigh was there for her mothers 80th birthday in Sarasota and in Oregon, where Colbath lives, just before her own 60th.

That was the last time Colbath saw her sister.

Leigh was at a rest stop hitchhiking in North Carolina when a handsome man with blue eyes showed up. She wanted to go to Atlanta because she feared hurricanes and Florence was brewing in the Atlantic.

Her cell phone was powered off on Sept. 11, 2018 and on again a few days later. Leigh was seen with Printz in a North Carolina restaurant about that time. Every now and then MIchelle or her sisters would get a text from their moms phone. But she never showed up again.

Edna Suttles

Suttles was known as fun, flamboyant and iron-willed. She was a bail bondsman, restaurateur, sitter to the elderly from the time she was 25 years old. At 80, she was still going to honky tonks and dancing til close.

She met Printz around the same time he was involved with Rego and Goodman, Holloway said.

One day in 2021, the person Edna was sitting with called the Sheriffs Office to say Edna had not shown up. Highly unusual. The beginning of the unraveling of Daniel Printzs secret life.

The Greenville County Sheriffs Office, the FBI, law enforcement in western North Carolina soon were on the case. They were looking for Suttles and in so doing they discovered Sellers, Rego and Goodman. It wasnt until Printz was arrested in 2021 that people learned the truth. Or at least what he wanted them to believe was the truth.

Holloway described Printz as intelligent and confident.

Printz had some of the victims items  debit cards, medications, jewelry  stashed on his property. He had been taking their Social Security payments for years.

He talked in vague terms to agents, saying he wanted to disclose his sins. Helped someone kill a relative. Was around when someone else was killed. Someone tried to rob him and he had to kill them. Hypothetically helped someone kill someone.

As best law enforcement can tell, Printz administered a lethal dose of medication to Sellers in November 2017. He shot Rego in the chest in January 2018. He met Goodman in September 2018 and killed her within days.

Printz kidnapped Suttles from her Travelers Rest home in August 2021, sedated her with prescription medications, suffocated her with a plastic bag at his North Carolina home, and buried her body on a nearby farm, Holloway said.

Her body has been recovered. The bodies of the other two women never will be. Printz erased them with chemicals and a barrel, family members said.

But they are not gone. Their hardy spirits live on. Their joy in life. No one can take that away from their families and friends.

At long last, Rego will be honored in a service at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Matthews, North Carolina, at 3:30 p.m. July 18.

Being a victim is not her legacy, Peeler said.

Colbath hopes her family can get together on Lido Beach in Florida in February for some sort of service.

Goodman said Printz thought her mother was a nobody, but when three of her daughters showed up at Printzs sentencing, they proved otherwise.

She was strong. She didnt compromise, Goodman said. I loved that about her.
Former President Donald Trump did North Carolina Republicans no favor when he barged into a primary race and endorsed U.S. Rep. Ted Budd to be the Senate nominee.

The nod helped Budd handily win the nomination, but now Republicans may be having second thoughts. After mass shootings at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill., the GOP is asking North Carolinians to replace retiring Sen. Richard Burr with the owner of a gun store and shooting range.

Budd, a three-term congressman representing Dist. 13 in central North Carolina, already has low name recognition and far-right views that are drawbacks in a statewide race. Now his ties to gun sales could further hinder his appeal.

A WRAL/USA Survey poll conducted the second week of June found that 62% of North Carolina adults polled think gun laws should become more strict. And that was before the terror of July 4, when a 21-year-old man fired more than 70 rounds from an AR-15-style rifle into the parade crowd, killing seven.

A devotion to gun rights helped Budd in his gerrymandered congressional district, but it will weigh against him in his race against Democratic nominee Cheri Beasley, a former state Supreme Court chief justice who supports stronger background checks for gun sales and a ban on combat-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Budds position on gun rights may ultimately harm him among some unaffiliated and soft Republican voters, particularly suburban women, said David McLennan, who directs the Meredith Poll at Meredith College in Raleigh.

Budd, the owner of a gun store and shooting range in Rural Hall, hasnt helped himself with people worried about the proliferation of guns and the sale of the military-style rifles and high-capacity magazines used in all three recent mass shootings. The Davie County native has appeared in campaign ads with a handgun on his waist and his campaign website features him shooting rifles.

Budd didnt even have the good sense to soften his gun-totin image by voting for the modest gun controls recently passed by Congress with the support of North Carolinas two Republican senators, one of whom, Sen. Thom Tillis, helped craft the bipartisan legislation.

I will not support this legislation because I am concerned that it will have the unintended effect of infringing on the due process rights of law-abiding citizens, said Budd, who was joined in opposing the bill by all of North Carolinas House Republicans.

In standing firm against new gun laws, Budd gets credit for consistency. And, like his fellow GOP House members in North Carolina, he can indulge that rigidity in a red congressional district. But at the state level, more people are fed up with conservatives who will not reconsider their position in the face of the carnage that is entering every corner of U.S. life.

Following the Texas school shooting, Budd expressed his concern by offering the now much-derided thoughts and prayers response. In a Twitter post, he said, Please join me in praying for the children and families involved in this horrific shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Words cannot express our grief over such an unspeakable act of evil.

One Twitter response in particular clearly spelled out Budds political difficulty. It said: You literally own a gun range. Words may not be able to express our grief, but actions sure can. Stop taking money from the NRA, get out of the gun business, and do something to protect your constituents. Or get out of Congress and let someone who will protect us have a chance.

Trump thought championing gun rights was a way to win in 2020. It wasnt. He told North Carolina Republicans to go that way again this year with Ted Budd. But at a time when many voters are saying enough is enough, a candidate who is a gun rights zealot might be too much.
The employee at Springville Building Supply scoffed when I said I was vacationing from San Luis Obispo.

The weather isnt bad there, he said.

Located in Tulare County, Springville is the first community big enough for a hardware store when you drive down from the top of Highway 190, over 6,000 feet in elevation change along the Tule River.

If you get stuck behind a slow-moving truck or stalled by construction, it can take an hour to drive the winding 25-mile grade.

The rolling, oak-covered Sierra foothills around Springville are similar to those around Paso Robles.

I stopped by Springville Building Supply to find a door sweep that critters wouldnt gnaw on. We were vacationing at a rustic location where five generations of my wifes family have stayed.

As I returned to the car, had to mentally brace myself for heartbreak on the trip back up.

Thats because the place I was headed  Ponderosa, population 52  was an island of green surrounded by pines that had been burned to matchsticks.

The lightning-sparked SQF Complex fire burned a total of 174,178 acres in Sequoia National Forest and surrounding areas in 2020.

The 2020 Castle fire (part of SQF Complex) destroyed pine and cedar forest in foreground while Windy Fire in 2021 swept the mountain across the Tule River behind. The trees that have been stumped were a threat to fall on Highway 190 as seen June 28, 2022.

Of the two fires that made up the SQF Complex, the Shotgun and Castle fires, the Castle was by far the biggest and worst. It burned across two national forests, a national monument, private land and property belonging to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, California State Parks and Tulare County.

Firefighters fought hard to save Ponderosa and defend three sides of the rectangular community. Unfortunately, just down the hill, 94 residences were destroyed in the communities of Alpine Village and Sequoia Crest.

The wildfire also caused a stunning ecological disaster. About 10% to 14% of the worlds mature sequoia trees, situated in 20 groves, incinerated in a single blaze.

Some of the epic red sunsets we saw in 2020 were the product of ash from trees burning about 130 miles east of San Luis Obispo.

The sequoia is resistant to low-intensity fire but this fire was hot and at the time the state was under siege with many lightning caused fires. Firefighting resources were called on from as far away as Mexico.

In the past, as I drove up Highway 190 from the San Joaquin Valley, the air would become markedly cooler and moist as pine forest replaced the oaks above 5,000 feet.

The light would get softer as the sun was filtered through the pine needles that whispered in the wind.

That is gone now.

What remains is a sharp black forest of fence posts pointing at the sky.

Two years later, much of the Castle Fire burn zone is still closed to public access because of the danger from falling snags.

It is not uncommon to hear what used to be a majestic ponderosa pine crashing to the ground.

Most of the areas burned in the 2021 Windy Fire along the Western Divide Highway are still closed.

In 2021, another lightning-ignited blaze burned the other side of the Tule River watershed and across to the Kern River watershed.

The Windy Fire consumed 97,528 acres from the Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River Reservation to Sequoia National Forest and Monument.

The loss in sequoias is still being counted, though firefighters were able to battle and save the popular Trail of 100 Giants sequoia grove.

When added up, the acreage devastated by the SQF Complex and Windy fires equals 425 square miles burned in two short years.

Put another way, an area the size of every incorporated city in San Luis Obispo County burned, not once, not twice, but almost 23 times.

Given the length of time it takes to produce a mature pine, the forest will never be the same in my lifetime.

A mature redwood takes about 67 human generations to grow.

This is the most raw example of climate change that I have experienced. And this is only one of many western forests that have experienced major losses due to wildfires.

Critics point fingers at the management of public lands, but the solution isnt as simple as more logging or rake the forest.

In the case of the SQF Complex and Windy fires, flames burned through areas that have been logged, grazed and crossed by roads.

Drought and bark beetle infestations had left many pines dead, with drooping, brown tinder-dry limbs.

Higher temperatures and low humidity levels bedeviled firefighters.

High wind drove embers faster than any human intervention could stop.

In the years before the fires, grants were completed to reduce the number of dead trees near communities, including the land that my wifes family owns.

The firefighters were often able to hold lines there but most of our public budgets go to fire fighting and not forest management.

Fire season is year-round in parts of California as summers grow hotter and drier. Firefighters are under increasing pressure. How much can we ask of them?

Much of the water California relies on originates in the Sierra snowpack. What happens if forests no longer store water?

How long will it be before another generation can again take a walk in this forest?

These were some of the many questions that came to mind as I drove up the hill.

So much changed in just the last few years. It will take action, not games of rhetorical gotcha, to see things change for the better.
A sheriffs office in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina released video on Facebook Thursday of a pilots miraculous emergency landing on a four-lane highway and complimented the pilots skills.

There were so many things that could have been catastrophic but they didnt happen, Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran said in his Facebook post. What an OUTSTANDING job and no injuries.

The pilot landed on U.S. 74 about 11:50 a.m. on what the video showed to be a partly cloudy Sunday, July 3.

The pilot said the engine stalled and he had to set the plane down, the sheriffs office said in a July 3 Facebook post.

AMAZING If you look closely at 0:20 you will see the power lines the pilot was able to avoid, according to the sheriffs Facebook post.

The sheriff posted 1 minute and 15 seconds of footage from the pilots Go Pro camera in the cockpit of the plane.

The plane flies above several cars as the pilot nears the road, the video shows.

After touching down in the middle turn lane as the road curved, the pilot veered into the two opposite lanes of traffic, the video shows. Two drivers pulled to the side of the road to avoid the plane, according to the video.

The pilot returned to the turn lane and, when no cars were around, to the side of the road where it parked.

Social media reacted with wonder.

They drove the plane on the highway better than most drive cars on the highway! a woman posted on Facebook.

And no horn, LOL, a woman replied.

I hear Delta needs pilots  sign this one up now! another woman posted.
The next prime minister must face up to the reality that the Northern Ireland Protocol is here to stay, Michelle ONeill has said.

The Sinn Fein vice president said she has warned newly appointed Secretary of State for the region Shailesh Vara that the Government must stop placating the DUP and start being even-handed with Stormonts political parties.

The republican party has accused the Government of doing the DUPs bidding by introducing domestic legislation at Westminster to empower ministers to unilaterally scrap parts of the contentious post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Newly appointed Northern Ireland Secretary Shailesh Vara (NIO/PA)

The DUP is currently blocking the restoration of a Stormont executive in Belfast as part of its campaign against the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The party claims the trade arrangements have undermined the basis of powersharing by creating barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Mr Vara has replaced Brandon Lewis as Secretary of State after he quit in the turbulent days ahead of Boris Johnsons decision to stand down as prime minister.

Ms ONeill, who attended an Eid celebration in Belfast on Saturday, said Northern Ireland was the collateral damage in the bedlam and chaos at Westminster.

I have spoken with the new Secretary of State and I think even his appointment shows the interest that the British government have in the people here  hes the seventh Secretary of State in the last decade, she said.

They come, they go, they are not even-handed in their approach.

So when I spoke with the new Secretary of State, for however long hes in post, I made it clear to him that I expect him to try to make Stormont work, to stop placating the DUP, that the people here voted to make politics work and their job as a co-guarantor of the (Good Friday) agreement is actually to be even-handed and try to bring that about.

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill (left) attended the Eid festival at Davitt Park GAA grounds in Belfast on Saturday (Mark Marlow/PA)

Ms ONeill added: The protocol is here to stay, so they need to stop the high wire act and playing to the gallery.

Were caught up in this mess in whats happening within the Tory party and thats not good enough for the people here who we represent.

So, the protocol is here to stay, its a necessary mitigation to the hardest Brexit, which the DUP and the Tories delivered.

So, they now need to find ways to make it work.

What we want is political certainty, political stability, thats certainly what the business community want and thats what the public voted for in the recent election.




BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) --BRICS, an emerging-market group, includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

It represents a quarter of the global GDP, 18 percent of global trade and 25 percent of the world's foreign investment.

Trade cooperation in various fields among BRICS countries has seen remarkable progress over the years.



Media veterans from the BRICS countries have hailed the pragmatic cooperation among the countries, and call for stronger and closer ties for the future.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service




The RAF has deployed fighter jets to Finland and Sweden, countries which recently applied to join Nato, for joint training exercises.

It said the deployment was part of an increased presence in the region and were requested by the host nations.

The UK signed mutual security assurance declarations with both countries in May. They are also both members of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a coalition of 10 nations.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: Finland and Sweden are important defence partners and we welcome their applications to join Nato, which will make the alliance stronger as we face a renewed threat in Europe.

These deployments highlight our determination to enhance that partnership and ensure our forces can work together seamlessly.

Two F-35Bs and four Typhoons conducted high-end warfighting training with Finnish F-18 Hornets and Swedish Gripen aircrafts, the RAF said.

Swedish defence minister Peter Hultqvist said the joint exercises strengthen our ability to operate together in response to a crisis in our neighbourhood.

This is particularly important in todays challenging security environment.
Twitter users will benefit from Elon Musks move to pull out of the deal to buy the company, some experts say.

The Tesla and SpaceX bosss 44 billion dollar (36.5 billion) bid to buy the social media platform appeared to be on the verge of collapse on Friday, after he sent a letter saying he is terminating the acquisition.

In the letter, Mr Musks lawyers said the platform has not complied with its contractual obligations surrounding the deal, namely giving him enough information to make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitters platform.

Twitter said in response it is committed to closing the transaction and plans to pursue legal action in order to conclude the deal.

The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.  Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022

Adam Leon Smith, of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and a software testing expert, told the PA news agency: The number of spam accounts on Twitter is hardly a secret, or a surprise.

Twitter is like a town square, open to all to shout abuse and praise as they see fit.

That is its greatest strength and weaknesses at the same time.

Keeping free speech out of the hands of billionaires can only be for the benefit of the general public.

Whoever ends up owning Twitter, the challenges for all social media are how to manage dissent and debate in a way that ends online hate speech and keeps people safe.

These are yet be fully resolved in the UKs Online Safety Bill, which needs to balance technical and regulatory solutions with education.

Perhaps the upcoming global regulatory landscape has played a part in Mr Musks decision, or maybe the whole thing was just another PR stunt.

Musk has voiced his concern over spam counts and bots (Financial Times/PA)

Mr Musks interest in the number of spam accounts on Twitter is believed to be linked to his then proposed plans to further monetise the platforms userbase.

The billionaire has also said he wanted to bolster free speech on the platform and make it more of a digital town square for debate, but has raised concerns after saying he would reverse the permanent ban given to former US president Donald Trump, who was kicked off the site for inciting violence around the US Capitol building riots last year.

Paul Bernal, professor of information technology law at the University of East Anglia, said: The main thing to say is that the current situation is not unexpected: a lot of us have been thinking that Musk was getting cold feet and has been looking for a way out.

Owning Twitter sounds cool but the reality would not be easy, would not be fun, and would not be particularly lucrative.

This is a reflection of how difficult free speech is in general, a lot of people, particularly in the US, seem to imagine that all you do is stop censoring and then everything will be OK, but its really much more nuanced and multifaceted than that.

Whatever you do has implications, and will annoy one group or another.

A Twitter Board statement read: We are committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr Musk and plan to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement.

We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Photo credit: Glacier View River Retreat

Glacier View River Retreat near Anchorage, Alaska, hosts a charming event each July 4: launching cars, trucks, and RVs off a cliff and down 300 feet to their doom.

The tradition started in the early 2000s, when someone hit a moose and needed to dispose of the wrecked vehicle. That someone had imagination, and it was all downhill from there.

They love nature in Alaska, so it goes without saying that when the party's over, what's left of the vehicles is taken to be recycled.

This Fourth of July tradition is a little Evel Knievel, a little Demolition Derby, and 100 percent awesome. Where other towns gather to watch fireworks and chow down on hot dogs to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Alaskans in and around Anchorage travel to Glacier View River Retreat in Glacier View, Alaska, to watch cars get launched off a 300-foot cliff. Don't believe me? See for yourself:

No Alaskans were harmed in the making of this video. In fact, the system for launching the cars is completely hands-off. Car and Driver spoke with Arnie Hrncir, one of the founders of Glacier View River Retreat and the organizer of the event, and he explained that they have two launch tracks: one with a railroad track that attaches to the vehicles' steering arm, and another one where they tie the steering wheel straight with ratchet straps and open the throttle.

As if that wasn't cool enough, the cars are painted with some wacky paint jobs. Many of the 13 vehicles that got launched off the cliff this year featured red, white, and blue alongside patriotic slogans, but others were personalized to represent the community. Above are pictures of a few of the cars courtesy of Ice Monkey Garage, a local customization shop.

Some even came all the way from Reno, Nevada, as part of the Caravan of Carnage. This one below was painted by residents of Maple Springs of Palmer, a nursing and rehabilitation community outside Anchorage.

The Glacier View Fourth of July Car Launch began in 2005, according to Hrncir, and it started in a way that can only happen in Alaska. In 2003, his wife hit a moose in their Volvo, and eventually he got tired of working on the car. What to do with a totaled Volvo? Put a rock in the trunk and run it off a cliff. Obviously.

Now, though, it has evolved over the years to become an Independence Day event dedicated to what Hrncir calls an "F Day."

"F Day means it's freedom, faith, family, food, and fun," he said, "We're having a birthday party [for the U.S.]."

He also highlighted the importance of honoring veterans to the event, noting that they acknowledge veterans' contributions to this country "over and over" throughout the day.



Photo credit: Glacier View River Retreat

After the birthday party is over, the cars are loaded up onto 18-wheelers and taken to be recycled, because the second-best way to celebrate America the Beautifulafter launching cars, of courseis to honor her natural beauty by keeping her clean.

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